Money Matters

Thank you all for your wishes of speedy recovery. I guess they worked since Matt is now out of the hospital and back at his own house, which is a relief for all of us. He was supposed to get out yesterday afternoon, but there were more money problems and he ended up having to stay another night until it was all worked out. The problem was, his insurance company faxed over the guarantee of payment and it asked if the hospital wanted a check or money order for payment and the hospital is only equipped to handle cash transactions. China seems so developed sometimes and then you run into problems like this and you remember what shambles their financial system is in right now and that they still have a ways to go. This is one of the best hospitals in Sichuan and our bill was upwards of 40,000 yuan and it still can only take cash. Luckily, the school was able to authorize payment (in cash) to the hospital, Matt's family will wire money to reimburse the school and then hopefully file a claim to get reimbursed from the insurance company. But at least he's out and on the way to recovery. However, unfortunately he will not be able to accompany Laura, Carly and I to Xinjiang this break. His doctors think it would be a bad idea because if it got infected there is nothing he could do in Xinjiang. He is inclined to listen to them and will be giving his ticket to Ben, another classmate who wanted to go but didn't know if the money would work out.
Yesterday my bike was stolen as well from outside the soccer field where we play rugby. There have been alot of bikes stolen recently because it is spring and I guess I just wasn't careful enough. Now I will always keep it where someone is watching it. Anyways, Laura and I went back to the stolen bike market today and bought a bike. It was, if possible, even more sketchy this time. We were approached right away by a guy who asked if we wanted to buy bicycles. After we said yes he lead us behind a building and through multiple back alleys and finally though a locked door where there were 5 or 6 nicer bikes set up. I told him that these bikes were too expensive and I just wanted to spend 100 kuai. So then another guy went out to find me a 100 kuai bicycle. It looked a little bit like my old bike, but is orange and has the word "GBBDP" - Laura and I think it stands for "Got Bike at Back Door Place". I still haven't thought of a name though. We got them to throw in a lock as well and then they convinced me to by another lock to put on the front wheel as well because that would make it harder to steal. I thought, they would know, and it was only 8 kuai so now I have two locks as well.
Other than that, it has been raining alot here. On Tuesday we went to quiz night again and Matt played from the hospital. We got 3rd place, which was pretty exciting.
But mostly I'm just excited to go to Xinjiang on Sunday!

The Broken Arm

So this blog has a crazy title, but a lot has happened so let's start at the beginning. Saturday Huangjie and I went to a new museum that just opened up in Chengdu called JinSha. It is in northwest Chengdu and is the second archaeological site of an ancient civilization that has just been discovered on the banks of the Yangtze called the “SanXinDui” culture that is supposedly related to the Shu. The new culture is named after the first site that was discovered a few years ago not far from Chengdu. It is well known for large bronze and gold masks that are distinct to the culture. The museum was set in a little park and was very well done, and very Chinese. It had one building that was like a lot of the museums in Xian, where you could see the excavation site. The other museum was of all the things that had been dug out of the holes. One of the most amazing things was a solid gold disks that had four cut out birds around and sun in the middle. It is called "Sun Immortal Bird" and is representative of the importance of the sun in their culture. Some other really amazing artifacts were a beautiful gold crown , lots of carved jade and bronze things, some pretty rocks, and pottery. My favorite was elephant tusks that they found at the site as well which were huge and very impressive. I just love elephants and it makes you think about how much larger of a spread animals used to have in this world since there are definitely not elephants in Sichuan anymore and have not been for a very long time. They also found preserved wood in the ground that was 3000-10000 years old. It had all these little holes in it, but other than that just looked like really dense drift wood. They dug up some of the pieces and made this little "forest" thing that was really cool. After touring the museums we walked through the garden and I found another 4 leaf clover! I guess I just wasn't looking hard enough before. Then Huangjie took me out to lunch at a "bone soup" place that was actually really good. We got one that was like tomato soup with some little veggies in it and big shoulder socket bones. We also ordered this corn and egg thing that is fried and really crispy and light and looks like a wreath that I thought was really interesting. After that we went swimming then I went home. On Saturday night I met up with Mike and Dave again at the Sultan, which is this Middle Eastern restaurant a Pakistani guy I know named Jimmy owns to see a Turkish DJ and belly dancers. There weren’t really belly dancers, but another of my friends taught me how a little and it was really fun. Mike and Dave were leaving the next day for the next leg of their journey to Hong Kong and then back to the States. Sunday I went to play rugby as always. We got to the field at 1pm and after some drills split into guys and girls so we could practice playing as individual teams. At about 2pm we see a few of the guys run across our field back to where everyone's stuff is and we look over the field the men were playing on and everyone has stopped and gathered in a circle. I hear someone say "someone's hurt" and I look over and it's Matt. A minute later two guys are helping Matt walk back over to the bench and it is obvious Matt has broken both the bones in his right forearm (his arm is bent in a way that bones don't typically bend and it has broken the skin). Garth, who has a car, drives Matt, Eoin (an Irish guy that was the guy tackling Matt when it happened) and Xiao Mei (a Chinese girl going to translate) to Huaxi hospital and we all don't really know what to do, so we keep playing. After another hour we finish practice and I hop in the first car going back. On the way back we stopped at this guy Mike's factory. He is in China helping set up a factory to make MRI machines so we saw them making and testing the first MRI machine ever made in China and I learned how MRI's really work, which was very interesting. However, I was really worried about Matt this whole time and I just wanted to get to the hospital and make sure he was going to be OK. I finally got there and Matt was in a room on a bed and X-Rays had been taken (which they had to wait an hour for to be developed), but nothing besides that had happened. The arm was still in a cardboard sling that a guy on our team had put on when it first happened. By this time it was probably about 4:30 already. In the next hour three different doctors came by to look at it. The first doctor took off the sling and looked at the arm and the X-Rays then put it back on and went away. Then the next one came and took off the sling and looked at it with some nurses and then without putting anything back on just walked away. So I am standing there holding Matt because it really hurts and I don't want him to look down at his arm which has the forearm part hanging alot lower than the hand which he is holding with his other hand. It feels like we are waiting forever like this (maybe a few minutes in reality, but WAY TOO LONG) until someone finally comes back and they wrap it up again. Then the last doctor comes and says that he is just going to set it in a cast for now and then Matt will need surgery to re-set the bones in about a week. By this time many more people have arrived, one of them being a Western doctor who a guy from the rugby team brought over to help out. The Western doctor says "no, this surgery should happen now" and goes to talk to the doctors. We find out the whole reason they want to wait is so they can make sure that we pay before they perform the surgery, they essentially won't do anything until we pay them upfront. So I call Matt's mom (in the middle of the night in Seattle) and get Matt's insurance information and we try to get that rolling and decided we will do whatever it takes to have the surgery happen now. In the end it turns out the Western doctor convinced them that money would not be a problem and by calling the insurance company we were able to open a case as well, so at 7pm Matt finally went into surgery. It took 3 hours to finish and they screwed a metal plate to each of his bones to stabilize them. After the surgery I felt alot better, but it was just a very scary, stressful experience because you felt like you couldn't trust anything the doctors were telling you. Thank god the Western doctor came to help, but he left again after like an hour so we were on our own again (Andrea being the next most qualified person to make decisions). The level of care was just so much lower than anything you would ever receive in the States and whenever you tried to ask anyone a question they would never give you an answer. Like when we tried to ask how long Matt's surgery would take, they just said when it's done you'll know, which was the kind of responses we were getting all night. But after the surgery was done and we were back upstairs in a recovery room (with a few other patients too of course) I felt alot better because at least the break was secured now and I felt like the hard part was over. Andrea stayed the night with Matt and I got home at like 12:45am or so. The next day, Monday, after class I went right back to the hospital with some things for Matt, like movies, his computer, etc. Surgery in China is not like in the States and we had no idea how long he would have to stay there, so we were preparing for the long haul. When I got there that afternoon Matt was looking alot better, but very uncomfortable because his arm hurt alot and was swelling like MAD and they also had to put in a catheter. I stayed with Matt all afternoon. We had to have someone with him all the time because, aside from the fact that he doesn't speak Chinese and it's good to have moral support, in China it is BYO nurse. So while I was there I was in charge of alerting the nurse attending to our room when his IV was getting low and emptying the catheter every two hours. I also keep asking every doctor that came around (all two of them) if the swelling was normal because the wrapping seemed really tight and when we could take out the catheter and of course getting no answers. Matt asked me to take that picture of his arm, he has wanted me to document this for some reason. That evening I was relived and left for our customary UW meeting and to get dinner and then went back to stay the night. By the time I got back we had gotten the catheter out and the bandages changed (and loosened) so Matt was in much higher spirits. Plus he was finally sleeping, which was really good. He slept alot of the night, but unfortunately I did not. That's OK though, I didn't really expect to. I did homework and read and we watched a movie, "Time Bandits". Andrea came to relieve me at 7:30 so I could go to class. I just got home and ate lunch and now, although I am exhausted, I can't sleep. But I am laying in my bed as I write this and will hopefully try to get some rest, or at least go to sleep early tonight. I know I will crash at some point. We also just found out the Matt will be getting out of the hospital tomorrow, which is great. He has been so brave and great through this whole thing, I am so proud of him. It's scary enough to have this happen to you in the states and I remember how much it sucks. Having it happen in China I can't even imagine. Anyways, it has been an intense few days but it seems as though we are out of the woods. That's all for now, I'm going to try and get some sleep and I'll talk to you later. Bye .

......craziness........

Summer has arrived in Chengdu and it is hot! On the plus side it has been clear and sunny as well, which more than makes up for the 27 (80) degree days and humidity. I'm just worried about it getting worse (i.e. hotter), but hopefully that won't happen for a while. And I went swimming on Wednesday which felt wonderful. People are already starting to talk about my dark skin because pale skin is the fashion here and my skin tans so fast. All the girls walk around with these weird visors and sun umbrellas, plus they are still wearing long sleeves. It's crazy!
I've been really busy since I got back from Xi'an too, compounded by the fact that Huangjie keeps inviting me to do all this stuff and I've started to feel bad about refusing all the time (the Minnesotan in me, or maybe just the people-pleaser). I made it through the week though (YAY!) and today i just got back from teaching again in Deyang. I decided that because last time's lesson went so well, I didn't have that much time to prepare, and they told me I would be teaching all new students I would just teach pretty much the same class. With the exception of singing "Old McDonald had a farm" because it uses our animal vocabulary. It was going really well until I get to the last class of the day and I realize that I have already taught this class, last time. I think the school just told me I would be teaching all new classes every time because that was the easiest answer and now I know not to trust a word they say. I tried to bide time while in my head scrambling for what I was going to teach them and in the end just decided to alter the lesson with as much new material as possible and say we were "reviewing". So we reviewed animals, sang Old McDonald, and then played animal BINGO (again), but all told I think it went OK. The students all seemed to have fun.
Another highlight of the week was going to buy tickets for the May holiday to Xinjiang. Laura, Matt, a girl from my Chinese class named Carly, and I, and possibly Ben are all going to Xinjiang for the "Labor Day" holiday coming up the first week of May (soon!). They ended up being a little more expensive than we expected, but I am so excited to have them and I have heard Xinjiang is such an amazing, different place I am sure it will be worth it in the end. For those of you who are not familiar with Xinjiang, it is the often down-played Northwestern-most Province in China that is inhabited in large part by the Uighur nationality. The Uighur's are a Muslim people who in actuality are more like Middle Easterners than the Han Chinese, they speak their own language, which is most similar to Turkish, and they have tall noses and generally more Western-looking features. Xinjiang , literally translated as "New Frontier", is also known in China for having the same separatist tendencies as Tibet and Xinjiang-Beijing/Uighur-Han ties are very tenuous. Uighur people living in Xinjiang often refuse to learn or speak Mandarin as a symbol against Han Chinese oppression. Xinjiang, geographically, is a large desert with small oasis towns scattered throughout, congregating mostly along the former "Silk Road" that runs through the Southern part.
That's all I can think of to write about for now. I am going to a museum that just opened with Huangjie tomorrow, but we are going to be back in the afternoon to go swimming and then I should get to go home pretty early, so hopefully I will get some things done tomorrow evening. Tonight didn't work out because after dinner of HotPot (why people eat this on a hot day I will never figure out) Huangjie and her friend wanted to take me to this coffee shop that their friend opened last year. I had some things I wanted to get done tonight and I was kind of tired so I tried my best to say "I'm really tired," "We have to get up early tomorrow," "I still have some things to do tonight," and anything else I could think of to politely excuse myself. Huangjie's response was "We'll just go for a little bit" and "you can rest there." I stopped short of straight up saying "I don't want to go, I want to go home" because I just felt like it was too impolite, but maybe it's not because she definitely didn't take the hint. But, as usual, although I didn't really want to go I ended up having a great time and am glad that I went in the end. The friend wasn't there, but her husband was. The friend went to Italy to be a tour guide for 10 years after graduating from college and then came back to China a few years ago. Last year she and her husband opened this little coffee shop which was really cute and the coffee was imported from Italy, so of course it was delicious. He also gave us popcorn (which is common at coffee shops and they are actually starting to go together in my head, which I thought would never happen) and a homemade Italian-style lemon alcohol, which was sweet but also pretty good. If you are wondering, my Chinese friends didn't like coffee. Huangjie gave me hers and the other friend drank hers with lots of sugar to be polite.

Living it up in Xi'an

It's late Tuesday night and I just got back from an exciting trip to Xi'an with my Archeology class. Two of our teachers, one of their wives, 4 SU students, and 6 of us UW students all departed on Thursday afternoon for China's ancient capitol, the center of all things archaeological in China. The trip started out well when we received English "China Daily" newspapers on the plane. I hadn't realized how much I missed reading the newspaper, but I got so excited to read one again. We landed that night and were off exploring right away. We took the bus to the center of town where the ancient city wall still surrounds the Bell and Drum Towers. Enclosed within the city wall is also a Mosque, "Muslim" tourist street, and countless malls, restaurants, etc. We first went the Muslim street to try some of Xi'an's specialty foods. We got a special kind of noodles that are really more like little cubes of bread in broth that were delicious. They also had a wide array of all sorts of different dried fruits for sale in the outdoor market that we could not resist. Then we wanted to go and walk on the city wall, but it had just closed, so we walked home and vowed to come back the next day.
We were not too disappointed to return to the hotel because our hotel TV's got National Geographic Channel, the first American television any of us had watched in 7 months and we were addicted for the rest of the trip.
The next day we went to the History Museum of Shaanxi Province in the morning, which had a really nice collection of artifacts from all different time periods in China's history. My favorite things on display were these "Tri-color" glazed pottery and statues from the Tang dynasty. You can tell this statue is Tang dynasty because in the Tang dynasty it was attractive to be fat, so all the statues of people and horses are pudgy. I especially like this one, I think she looks very graceful and content. After lunch we continued on to the Banpo Museum. The Banpo culture is one of the earliest cultures ever discovered in China (4500-3500BC) and is thought to be matriarchal. The museum is built on top of the archaeological site and many of the dig sites are on display in the museum, which was very interesting. The clan was very advanced for the time and were already using tools such as fishing hooks with barbs. This is a pottery bowl they found at the site with the Banpo "symbol" on it, which reminds me alot of Navajo symbolism.
That night, as planned we returned to the city wall and got to go on top this time. On the wall you can also rent bikes, so we all rented bikes to ride around the whole wall (about 20km or so). Laura and I rented and tandem bike, which made it that much more fun. One of our Chinese friends who is from Xi'an had told us not to rent the bikes because it was "the most ridiculous bit he has ever seen" but we decided it was ridiculous in a good, hilarious way and had a great time. Then we returned to the Muslim street to try every snack the street had to offer. With all 10 of us, one of us would buy each snack and we would all get to try it. With the bikes and delicious food combined, it was undoubtedly one of the best nights I've had in China so far.
The next day we visited the famed Terracotta Soldiers of Emperor Qin (China's first emperor), which were absolutely amazing. There are literally rows upon rows of life-sized stone soldiers and horses. Before touring the museum, we were "received" by the people at the museum, as we would be "received" at every place we went to, because we were with the Archeology professors. The up-side of this is that we never had to pay for admission. The down-side was that at each place we went we would have to sit quietly in a room and look attentive while the professors and our host would go through the customary "you're the best," "No you're the best," "No you're the best," routine, always finished off with "well you simply must come to Chengdu and we will go to dinner." Another undeniable plus to being "received" is they often treated us to lunch or dinner as well, as was the case after we finished touring the Terracotta Soldier museum. That evening we went to the Yang Mausoleum. A mausoleum is a huge burial site for emperors and other important royalty that consists of a huge (usually man-made) hill with the tomb and other treasures buried underneath. The Yang Mausoleum Museum was the coolest museum yet. It was underground and was designed like an "underwater world" where you walked on glass and got to see all the excavation sites under your feet.
The next day we toured several more mausoleums, each one being different. The first one we went to didn't really seem open to the public but I think we got to go, again, because of our professors. It was a little out in the boonies, but beautiful and SOOOOO windy. Ben and I climbed the to the top of the mountain that was used to house this tomb. We went to the Tomb of Princess Yongtai that you could walk into and had beautiful Tang Dynasty paintings on the walls (if you haven't figured it out already, the Tang dynasty was a very arty dynasty). Then we went to possibly the most famous mausoleum of Emperor Gao Zong and his Empress Wu Zetian, who is the only woman to have ruled China. The most memorable feature of this mausoleum is the long paved road that leads from miles away to the mountain where they and their treasure are buried. The stone walkway is lined on either side by statues of people and horses.
The next day we visited the Archeology Institute and Northwest University and were able to see their personal collections, as well as some things that had just recently been discovered and archaeologists at work. It was really fortunate that we got to go with the professors because we got to see alot of things that we usually wouldn't have been able to and see how archeology really happens in China. It was very interesting, although I realized I am happy I am not an archaeologist. That evening we walked to the Little and Big Goose Pagodas; large multi-layered towers that are holy places for people of Buddhist faith. The large Goose Pagoda also has a large fountain park (100 meters by 20 meters) in front of it that does a water show to music every evening. We stayed to watch the water show, which was worth it. You can stand in the middle of the fountain while all the fountains are going off around you and it is really cool, and wet. There were hundreds of spouts of water all choreographed to the music, as well as lots of neon lights because nothing in China is complete without neon lights. The more the better.
Today we didn't have any archaeological excursions planned so we walked to a park near our hotel. The park had a beautiful tulip garden and pond, as well as an amusement park. I couldn't resist (sorry mom) and Deborah, Matt, Ben, and I risked our lives to try out a few of the Chinese rides. It was definitely scarier than rides in the States, but we luckily made it through unscathed and I have a new appreciation for life now as well. Then we made our way back to the Muslim street (undoubtedly the best part of Xi'an) for lunch and do to some souvenir shopping.
It was a really fun trip, definitely one of the best. I even found a four leaf clover!! but I am glad to be back in Chengdu. Now I am just trying to get caught up.

Off to Xi'an

Just for a quick update on a crazy week:
My friend who took Chinese class with me at Seattle Language Academy arrived in Chengdu on Monday with his two roommates. He had been working in Beijing for like a week (he works for Microsoft) and now they are traveling around the country. We went to hot pot and had tea and I've been sending them around places since I am really busy right now and cannot accompany them. Tuesday night Laura, Andrea, Matthew and I hosted quiz night. We had written the questions before (we each picked a category or two and did 10 questions for each - I did a food category and a science category) and Matt emceed while Andrea, Laura, and I collected, passed out, and scored the answer sheets.
My bike has also started to make horrible noises when I ride it, like it's about to fall apart. The weird thing is it still rides fine, it just makes this rally loud, constant clacking noise that sounds like popcorn being popped, but more metal on metal. I am going to try and get it fixed again, but I haven't had time yet so for now it just makes me and Laura laugh. For some reason it is so funny and we will ride down the street cracking up, drawing even more attention to ourselves than usual. Laura says that I should keep it because it acts like a constant bell (my real bell broke awhile ago) and people always know I'm coming. And I probably would keep it if the noise wasn't so disconcerting, and annoying.
I have been trying since Monday to get in the lab and finish my calibration to no avail. Monday the grad student who is helping me had something come up, Tuesday we went but then they didn't have what I needed in the lab and they said they would find one and I could come back tomorrow. So I showed up this afternoon after History and Culture class at 5pm and they had found me the thing I needed. However, the problems had only just began. After struggling with this supposedly simple test for hours I finally finished well enough to use the data and decided to call it a night (as they were locking all the doors and I did not want to be locked in).
I had also told a Chinese friend who will be going to UW next year that I would go participate in her English corner on the new campus tonight, but I had to end up cancelling because I really needed to get my research done this time. It was actually kind of a blessing in disguise because I didn't want to go, I was just doing it to be nice, and I still have a lot of stuff to do tonight and the new campus is a LONG way away.
So tomorrow we are leaving for Xi'an for an archeology field trip for 5 days. We is Laura, Deb, Matthew, Ben, Tabitha, our two archeology teachers, and 4 Chuan Da students. I am really excited about the trip, it should be really interesting and really fun.

Easter Greetings

Hello everyone! Happy Easter! The festivities were not too exciting here, but that's OK. I get twice the holidays anyways. And I got to celebrate with the kids on Friday too. Saturday morning Laura, Deborah, and I went to Grandma's Kitchen to get brunch. We had heard the breakfast there was pretty good and thought it would be fun. It was fun to get breakfast, but as usual the food left something to be desired. I had blueberry pancakes, hash browns, sausage, and coffee. I would describe the quality as hotel Continental breakfast quality, but not free. It has just renewed my resolve to stay away from Western places and enjoy the Chinese food while I can. The coffee was good though. After breakfast we went to Trustmart to buy vinegar and eggs to dye eggs. Outside of Trustmart was this weird game that you paid a few mao (cents) to throw Snickers bars into the mouth of this big cardboard head. I didn't understand it really because it didn't seem like you got to keep the candy or anything, you just paid to throw them in with no prize. After we bought supplies, we over to Deborah's house and died Easter eggs with dye my mom sent me. Deborah also had some chocolate that her mom had left her when she came to visit during the New Years break. So we even got to have some Easter candy. Laura and I were amazed she still had so much left, the candy fiends that we are, but were happy to partake. The eggs turned out beautifully as well, most of them anyways. I had one color combination that ended up being a green-brown color but they can't all be perfect.
That afternoon I went running and then was going to go swimming, but my swimming friends said that I shouldn't swim until my leg scabbed over. I decided to listen to them and so just went home. When I was at the pool Huangjie had more things to give me. The first was a fan that her father had written the characters I picked before on, strength 力量. She also gave me this tracing paper book to practice writing my characters because she was criticizing my characters last weekend. I thought it was a funny present, but if I have time I might try it and see how it goes. Everything is good practice.
Today, on real Easter, it is sunny and cool and I am going to play rugby. Slated for today are also homework and possibly scrabble.
Well, I hope you all have good Easters and eat a chocolate bunny for me!

Time flies when you are having fun, and even when you're not

Another week has flown by. I can't believe how fast it is going. It has gotten alot cooler again (50's) and started raining, but after that hot spell I am welcoming it. I am really worried about when it is going to get hot, I hate hot. We are learning about the origin of Chinese names and the naming system in one of my classes and I was talking to Huangjie about it and her family still goes by the ancient system that not alot of people use anymore. It is where your middle name is your "generation name" or bei, so everyone that is in the same generation will have the same name. In order to tell when you meet someone if they are in a higher bei than you (and thus you need to show them due respect) the bei's follow a poem or story that is different for each family. Huangjie's dad wrote the family history down in a book a few years ago (all by hand with a brush, old style) to revive it because people stopped keeping records during the Cultural Revolution in case you had bad blood in your family. Huangjie gave me the book her dad wrote to look at and she told me that he would also write me a character of my choosing if I want (as a sort of wall hanging). I thought about it for awhile and when I went out to hot pot again with Huangjie and two other students we swim with on Wednesday I told her that I had chosen 力量 li liang, which means strength. Huangjie thought this was a good choice. Her dad will even teach me how to write calligraphy if we can find time.
I played rugby again on Tuesday and Thursday. On the Thursday the pitch was slippery because of the rain and I got a big, ugly Astroturf burn. And this Astroturf is the dirtiest yucky Astroturf you could ever imagine, so even though I tried to clean it out as best I could and have been trying to take care of it, it is still really yucky.
Today, Friday, I also went out to teach again. I thought I was having 1st graders because that is what they told me last time, but I got there and it turns out I had 5th and 6th graders again (all new classes though). But I adapted and it was a lot of fun. I decided to do an Easter class so we reviewed animals and colors that have to do with spring time and then we played "springtime Bingo." I had made all the Bingo cards by hand with the help of my wonderful roommate Laura (who is a saint for helping me and I need to buy her a present). I took us all the way through "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "The Brain that Wouldn't Die" (a horribly funny sci-fi flick) to finish them. But it was worth it. The game worked really well and it was alot of fun.

QingMing Festival

QingMing Festival (or the Festival of Pure Brightness) is one of the 24 seasonal division points of the Chinese calendar. The Festival usually falls on the 4-6 of April and marks the time when weather starts to get warmer and rainier and thus is the best time for spring plowing and sowing. But this Festival is not only to commemorate the coming of spring, it is also a time to honor passed ancestors and is also known as "the grave sweeping festival". On this day families will gather together and go to the grave sites of their ancestors, sweep the grave, put flowers and food offerings in front of the grave, light fire crackers, and burn paper money for the deceased to use in the after life. The fire crackers are to scare away the evil spirits, who are scared of loud noises and bright lights. Nowadays, people also buy paper cars and houses to give to their relatives in the afterlife. Traditionally, only cold food is eaten on this day as well. This is because a long time ago there was a king who accidentally killed one of his most loyal servants in a fire while he was trying to find him on a mountain, so in order to honor this servants loyalty he made this day for him where no one could use fire. However, cold food day is not always followed anymore. Today, QingMing Jie is also not always celebrated on the actual day and can be celebrated anytime the family can all get together around that day, usually before.
This weekend I had the opportunity to go with Huangjie back to her home town in a place called Rong Chang, near Chongqing, to celebrate this holiday with her family. Rong Chang is about 3 and a half hours east of Chengdu. We took a bus there on Friday afternoon where her "younger brother," but actually her younger cousin, met us at the bus station. We found a hotel and then went to meet with her other cousin and his wife for dinner. We had Chongqing Hotpot, which sadly I could not enjoy because I had a really bad stomach ache. I am not sure where it came from, but I had to ask to go back to the hotel after dinner because it hurt so bad. Luckily, her younger brother/cousin is a Chinese doctor and went to the pharmacy to get me some medicine. A half an hour after I took the medicine, I felt much better.
The next day we got up and went to her father's family's house which was out in the country on a farm right next to the railroad tracks. We walked along the railroad tracks to get there because there are no roads. The family grew all sorts of different vegetables and had a lovely house right next to the river. They also had pigs which lived in the bathroom (in between the pig stalls). We waited for everyone to arrive, maybe 50 people, and then made our way across the tracks to another house (though still in Huangjie's family) where the graves were located. The graves were above ground, Han style graves with stone embankments in the front (although Huangjie's family is of the Kejia, or Hakka, ethnic minority group). In front on the graves themselves were plaques with family trees written on them. The largest grave had three people buried in it. The plaques were all carved by Huangjie's father. The ceremony consisted of lighting fires with the paper money, lighting candles, incense, and fireworks, and praying in front of the graves by bowing three times. Some people participated while others just watched.
After that we all went back to the first house and ate a huge lunch, which was delicious. It amazed me that they could prepare that much delicious food without any modern convenience.
That afternoon Huangjie taught me how to play Chongqing Majhong (a different version than Chengdu Mahjong) and we played with her family until dinner time. After dinner we drove back to the hotel. We ate light because the night before her older cousin had given us goose feet to eat, but I couldn't because my stomach hurt, so he insisted we take them back to the hotel for later and we decided to eat those for dinner instead. The goose feet are prepared with a special sauce and smoked and are a Rong Chang specialty. So we ate goose feet and watched the swimming world championships on CCTV5 (the sports channel) and talked. I had never thought that I would enjoy eating goose feet, but they actually weren't that bad, much better than chicken feet.
The next day we went to her mother's side of the family's house which is also around Rong Chang and did pretty much the same thing. In the morning we first walked around and looked at her younger brother/cousin's new house that he had just built. It was three floors and although it was built out of concrete, had alot of big windows, was very clean, and had good lighting. I liked it. Then we looked at her uncle's new house he was building, which was HUGE. It was only half done though. After our stroll we had another ceremony of firecrackers and paper burning. This time food was also put before the grave, which was then taken away again after the ceremony was finished presumably to be eaten or at least fed to the pigs.
Then we went back to her younger brother/cousin's new house to have lunch. There was a much more manageable number of people this time, maybe 20 or so at the ceremony and only 10 or so (including the inhabitants of the house) stayed for lunch. Everyone in her family was really nice and I had a really good time. Aside from the honoring of the ancestors, there were also alot of older grandmas and grandpas around who were treated with alot of respect and graciousness that sometimes I think our culture is lacking. Not always, but it was just nice to be part of a big family. It made me miss my extended family and our big gatherings alot, especially my grandma.
After lunch I sat out on the porch and looked out at the surrounding fields and rice paddies while we waited for the car that would take us to the bus station. It was very peaceful and quiet.
We got back to Chengdu this evening and I had homework and things to do before starting another busy week. But I was very happy to have the opportunity to experience this part of Chinese culture and be accepted so warmly into her family. It was very inspiring towards how grateful we should be for the family we have and the support they give us. Someday I am going to have to figure out a way to repay Huangjie for all the wonderful things she does for me.