Afternoon in the Park

This afternoon after class Deborah, Matt, Ben, and I went on another adventure. On a tourist map of the city that we acquired there are some interesting tourist sites that are pointed out and we have decided to try to visit all of them, or all the interesting ones anyway. Today we took the bus downtown (Chenren lu kou) to go see a mosque. We got off the bus and wanted to cross the street. Sometimes they have these stairs on the sidewalk that look like subway entrances but really are just a way to cross the street. So we took one underground and instead of a little tunnel and another stairway going up on the other side, there was a whole shopping city underground. It was amazing. It seemed to go on for miles. We would walk a ways and then ask someone else if we were still going in the right direction and they would keep pointing us down this long corridor of stores that seemed to go on for miles. Finally we reached the very end (it was probably a mile long) and came up right near Tianfu Square. Tianfu Square is a famous monument in Chengdu and is right near the mosque, but it was under construction. We walked passed Tianfu and turned onto another street where we started to see signs of XinJiang culture. XinJiang Province is the Northwestern most province in China and is composed mostly of Uygar (pronounced Why-ger) people, which is a completely different culture than the Han Chinese. They look very different also. In almost all ways they are more similar to the Middle Eastern cultures than to China. They are darker and have long noses and speak Uygur, which is similar to Turkish and written in Sanskrit. They are Muslim (obviously, since we were going to the mosque) and were very big in silk trading on the Silk Road and gypsy sort of activity. They were nomadic for a very long time and have traditionally been persecuted by the Han Chinese, so relations are still not very good. Deborah and I split some noodles which are made very differently and still spicy but not as salty. They were very good. Matt and Ben also bought some Yak or sheep on a stick which they season and barbecue over an open flame. There is a XinJiang restaurant by Matt's house that also serves this and it is one of our favorites. There were several carts full of different kinds of dried fruit. We bought some dried apricots as well and they let as try many of the other kinds of fruit we couldn't identify. Most seemed like variants of dried plums and raisins. After that we ventured into the mosque. It was beautiful. It was on the second and third floor of a building had a very nice garden that someone was watering. It had a courtyard in the center, but actually not much of the building was enclosed at all. There were enclosed rooms around the perimeter and the two large prayer halls with individual carpets spread out on the floor, but all the walkways and balconies were open air and it was very pleasant. The architecture was a mix between the Islam dome shape, on many of the doorways and windows, and traditional Chinese style, on the roof tops.

After that we walked a few blocks to Renmin Gongyuan (People's Park). The park was also very pretty and had man-made waterfalls and a river running through it. There are lots of trees and there were people fan dancing, who we stopped to watch for awhile. We went because our politics teacher had mentioned that there was a May 4th Movement memorial there, but we never got around to finding it so we will have to go back. Instead we walked to a tea house in the park on the river where many people were playing MahJong. MahJong is a typical Chinese game with blocks that look like dominoes but are called pie (or cards). The game is very similar to Gin in cards and is VERY popular in Chengdu. Tea houses will fill up with older people playing Mahjong. They will bet on it also. Deborah and Ben both knew (a little) how to play and Matt and I both wanted to learn, so we got a MahJong set from the tea house with our tea and started to play. In the park Ben had been talking about a special he saw on the Travel Channel about Chengdu where the guy came to Remin Park and had his ears cleaned and how Ben wanted to try it. After we were playing for a few minutes, a little old man comes up carrying a bunch of little tools and asks us if we want to have our ears cleaned. We all figured, when else are we going to have this opportunity and decided to do it. Except for Deborah, who knew what it was like because her mom used to clean her ears at home. It is a very common thing in China; no deodorant, but meticulous ear cleaning. The whole process required about 5 different tools, 20 minutes and felt alot like being at the dentist, except you got a little back massage at the end. It felt very weird, but kind of nice. He started out with an ear picking tool then squirted water in your ear and used about 3 or 4 different brushes and a tweezers with little balled up toilet paper. He also vibrated the brush against the tweezers which felt the weirdest, like you had birds in your ears or something. We asked the guy, and apparently this guy was the exact one that had been on TV and cleaned the host's ears on the Travel Channel. He remembered it and said that many foreigners had come to the park to have their ears cleaned after they saw the show. It was definitely a unique experience and I'm glad I did it. I don't know if I can hear better or not, but I like to think it helps me hear Chinese, like babble fish or something.

After Ben, Matt, and I all had our ears cleaned, we went back to playing Mahjong. We played three or four games and by the end had gathered a crowd of about 15 or 20 old ladies that were helping us play. They were so fast it was amazing. We would pick up a block and they would know exactly what move we should make, there was no thinking. It was nice to have their help because Ben had just learned and Deborah had forgotten some of the rules. It was very fun and Deborah and I went out first and second in all the games. You play until one person loses and that is how to decide who pays who if you are betting. But we didn't bet and I still don't understand exactly how that part works. It is a very fun game though and I want to go back and play again.

At 7:30pm Chuan Da has something called English Corner that Chinese students keep asking me if I go to so I decided to check it out tonight. It is a bunch of students and other Chinese people that meet in front of the stadium and just stand around and practice speaking English in little conversation groups. All the people I talked to were all thrilled that I came and I hope to make a language partner or two out of it so I can practice my Chinese as well. What was most interesting to me was the diversity of the group. I expected all students who were studying Chinese at school, but a large part of it was people who had jobs and were learning Chinese on the side. All younger people though, under 35 or so. I only stayed for an hour and a half because I had to do my homework, which was call my teacher on the phone and tell her a story. I might go back to English corner again just because everyone was so happy that I was there and I am happy to help.

The rest of the night I spent lazing around doing pretty much nothing, which was nice after a pretty busy, long week. Happy Friday the 13th everyone! I hope your days went as well as mine!