Day 396 In the news

The internet is my main source of news, as all
the newspapers here are in Mandarin. Occasionally
I will see a China Post Daily in English, and I will
savor it beginning to end. I miss turning paper pages :)

President Xi's visit to the US is all over the news, near and far.

I had to go across town Tuesday for a mammogram
(thanks to the very thorough Dr. Bei Dong), and was
so excited to find an English newspaper in the waiting
room :)  This story caught my eye- twelve years in
a Chinese prison for smuggling food in from Vietnam.
Hmmm....that was a little worrisome.  How many
times have I loaded my suitcase with Cuban coffee,
mac n' cheese, black beans and rice, taco and chili
seasoning packets and bottles of Mio water flavors?
I wonder what was coming in from Vietnam that
was a big no-no?  Monkey meat, perhaps?? 

This was an interesting story. Tianjin University is offering
a two credit course on dating. Sixteen class sessions on the
ins and outs of dating how-to's. The Chinese can make
things way too complicated sometimes. Apparently social
media was weighing in on the subject.

This was also interesting, in light of the fact that
this coming week is Golden Week. It follows the
Mid-Autumn festival which is a time that families
come together to feast. This is a culture that demands
that family is the top priority, and there is push back
from the younger generation for all of the sense of
obligation and responsibility to their elders. It seems
adult children have turned to sending gifts in the mail
rather than visiting family in person, and it is not going
over well. Breaking with Chinese tradition never
goes over very well...

I like that the central government has ORDERED
schools to put more resources and class time in
to teaching the arts...unlike in US public education
where the arts are the first programs to get cut :(

In other news, it has been cool and raining the last three days
in a row, ever since I got back from my beautiful weekend on the Wall.
Our school hallways are flooded with umbrellas.
Three days of rain is highly unusual in the 'jing; it is typically bone dry.

BREAKING NEWS JUST IN...

I leave my apartment for PEK in just four hours, and I will be up in the air bound for Florida in T - 7 hours. The countdown is officially ON!  Pray for traveling mercies as always, please. It is always a daunting trip flying half way around the world.

G'bye, y'all!

Day 394 Project Week

Last year at this time, I was one of the newbies, struggling to make sense of this new world on planet China.  I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed those first few weeks in figuring out how to teach Chinese babies about psychology. Then I looked forward in the school calendar to see relief in sight called "Project Week". I thought I had to design some additional project of some sort, that the regular school routine would be suspended for a week.  I was only partly correct.

The good news was I didn't have to plan an additional project for my students.  The even better news was that "Project Week", I discovered that 'Project Week' is code for "study furiously the week before SAT's". I then learned that the kids called it "Shopping Abroad Trip."

At any rate, I have taught just one class a day since last Thursday.  Only the grade 10's are attending classes.  About half of the grade 11 and grade 12 students are home or are already traveling to their test site in Japan, Honk Kong, Singapore, and points beyond.  The other half were still on campus, but were sequestered in the school cafeteria study for their SAT's.  I saw SAT practice test books every where.  Kids sniffling, drinking orange juice, studying vocab cards, or answering hundreds of practice test questions.  There were a few boys i saw watching a movie or playing a video game, but

honestly, the vast majority were quietly studying for four hours at a time. They had a 1.5 hour break for lunch, back to studying for four hours, then a 1.5 hour dinner break, and another four hours of studying.  The five days leading up to traveling were spent in 12 hour SAT study sessions. Unreal. Most of these kids will score higher taking the SAT in English as a second language than the majority of kids who's scores I saw over the years as a guidance counselor. Unreal. It was also not difficult to realize why these Chinese babies score so much higher. They. work. so. much. harder.

Twelve hours a day of concerted effort, 
it's the Chinese way, which sometimes....

...leads to a face plant on your practice exam book :(

And still they kept at it. The last day of preparation is Wednesday,
then school is closed Thursday and Friday. Our kids will fly
to foreign cities to take the most important test of their life
on Saturday, October 3rd, the College Board SAT exam...

affectionately also known as a Shopping Abroad Trip!


As for me, I fly out on Thursday, bound for the good ol' U. S. of A :)



G'nite, y'all!

Day 391-2 Hurry Come Rushing Away

Since I joined Beijing Hikers, I have

wanted to do an overnight camping trip

on the Great Wall.  Like, for real. A bucket

list item for me. Finally, the dates worked out.

We passed by Badaling, a restored section

that is nothing more than a tourist trap. Look

at me sounding all jaded, like BJ is my home, lol.

We made a squatty stop at the base of Badaling.  My buddy
Hank took a pic of this sign that faced him at the urinal.
I must confess, it took me a good 10 minutes to
realize that this Chinglish translation was all too correct!

This was above another urinal, but it's been three days and
I still have not made sense of this one. The closest I can get is
that it has something to do with hurry up and unzip your fly.
If somebody can figure it out, let me know, will ya'?

This was Simon, our guide who is from the UK.
He was giving us a briefing of the two days'
hike as we were traveling NW from the city.

I have not been on this section before, the Middle Switchback Great Wall.

We passed an Army installation on our way toward the
mountain range. They were running some sort of training mission.
I was curious; and then I got told to put my camera away.
Oops.

We got to our drop off point, and they started passing out
the day's snacks, sandwiches, and four liters of water
for each of us to carry. Suddenly my backpack was heavy.
There were nine of us and two guides. A perfectly
manageable number; for a group.

Hank, my fellow Hoosier Hiking buddy :)

We made our way through the meadow and one of the
hikers came across this guy.  He smiled for the camera :)

We passed the mules and porters who were hauling the
camping gear up to the wall for us.  

I was so surprised and happy to see Page and
Andy on the trip.  Page is the dance instructor
at BNDS. Andy teaches math at another school
here in Beijing.  They had friends visiting them
from their hometown in Denver, CO, and they
were on the hike, too.  Suddenly six of the nine
of us were connected- in a town of 23 million.

There were beautiful wildflowers still in
bloom, all over the countryside and mountains.

It was a gorgeous, blue sky, clean air, 80 degree day.
It was a perfect weekend to spend at the Great Wall.
On the wall are the other three hikers in our group; PJ and
Mary Ann from Australia, and Antonia from Germany.
I meet the coolest people from all over the world :)

After a steady uphill climb, we finally made it to the 'saddle'
for a breather.  Up to the left we scrambled to visit a tower
before we headed the other direction to our campsite.

On the way up to the tower, we found this alter. Our
Chinese guide said the elephant was a sign for safety,
and the temple represented building, and the lions
were for protection. She got the interpretation right;
we found out the rest of the story at the restaurant the
following day. This winter this section of the Wall will
be closed for a year for renovations.  The village at the
base of the mountain is going to be turned in to a tourist
destination. In other words, it will become a Badaling. :(

We came down from the tower for another quick rest before
we scaled the tower behind us.  

We had several towers to hike through before
we were to get to our campsite mid-afternoon.

I got up the first one!

The view never gets old :)

I love walking on top of the Great Wall, particularly
where it is in it's 'natural' state. Beautiful:)

Up we go some more- still smiling!

Another absolutely gorgeous view.  It. never. gets. old.

All of the day's hike was wall from the Ming Dynasty,
dating from mid 1300's to the mid 1600's.

I love exploring in the great outdoors <3

We made it! We had the rest of the afternoon to set up
the campsite and go explore the General's Tower behind us.

We decided to hike to the tower first, so that
we weren't coming down at twilight.

I loved capturing the beautiful dancer, who was stretching her
legs like she has probably done thousands of times before today.
The beautiful lines of the mountains, the sun low in the sky,
the line of the Great Wall stretching over the next peak,
 and then there was Page's beautiful lines, too.
I think it was 'a moment' for her, taking it all in; it was for me :)

As our guides started the campfires, we all set up camp. Funny
story about our gear. As we climbed to the highest flat stretch
for our campsite, the porters could be heard yelling through the
mountains.  We discovered later that as they were unloading
the gear from the mules, one of the mules slipped his rope
and took off blazing a trail to only God knows where!

I may have been accused of 'glamping' since a mule carried
up our gear, but I set my tent up my own. big. self.

As the sun began to set, and the sausages,
peppers and mushrooms were on the grill,
Andy and Page brought out 'horse milk
liqueur' from Mongolia. 38% alcohol?!

I'll take the picture, while y'all take a snort!

"Gam bei!" which in Mandarin means "Drink it all!"

The moon began to rise,

as the sun was beginning to set.

Beauty was to my left...

and beauty was to my right.

There was beauty right in front of me, too :)

A setting sun on the mountains, the smell of
wood smoke in my hair, the Great Wall of
China under my feet, and a Chips Ahoy
smore in my hand...that makes me
the Happiest Girl in China !

An hour after the sun went down, the wind
picked up, and I didn't have enough clothes!
I retreated early to the tent to warm up. I woke
up at about 1am looking for an outhouse, (but
didn't find one). Instead, the wind had died and
the limestone in the Great Wall seemed to be positively
glowing across the valleys, by the light of the full moon.
I didn't have the right equipment to capture how
beautiful it was.  It was just me out there, under a
full moon, looking out over endless mountains
and valleys, and then I was joined by a feral kitty.

The next morning, we watched the sunrise,
had breakfast, broke camp, and we were
back to hiking by 7:30am. This was a door
way in the General's Tower that was filled
in with loose bricks and rumble. Our guide
said it wasn't there two weeks previously,
so it was likely a wind break built by
some backpackers who camped in the Tower.

We entered into the last tower from the Ming
Dynasty, to walk down a trail and pick up an
even older section of the Great Wall.

The tower in the center is the General's Tower.
Our campsite was in the saddle behind it, and
the wall for as far as you can see is where
we had hiked from the day before. I love it!

In front of me was much of today's hike.

Then we ventured off the wall to a mid section of
wall that is 1500 years old, dating to the Qi Dynasty.
That is 500 AD, people!  Wow. So incredibly cool.

Before we descended for the day, we linked
up to higher ground from the Ming Dynasty
one more time.  It was a quick trek down
to the 'stone village' below; the same village
that will become a tourist's trap in a year.

The village was quite beautiful; window
flower pots on the hutongs, little vegetable
gardens and free range chickens and geese
wandering around. It made me sad in a way
to think that it's 'quaintness' will soon be lost.
On the other hand, it is likely a great
opportunity for them to earn a living.

There are crab apple and chestnut orchards
 throughout the hillside and in the village gardens.

It was likely some sort of stone grinder.

This old guy's vegetable garden was tended to
by a rusted out child sized spade with a
tree branch for handle. Maybe with the
'tourons' coming to town he can get a new shovel.

Another stone wheel, or grinder...

...and sunflowers drying in the sunshine.

This looked like a beautiful barnyard stall to
put either of my girls in a photo of them
in their flannel, jeans, and cowboy boots :)

The geese were a little disturbed by my presence.

Our traditional Chinese dinner was delicious as always-
they just kept bringing out more dishes of yummy things
 to eat. We all worked up quite the appetite, and then it
 was a very quiet ride back to the city!

So, check that one off the bucket list- camping on the Great Wall of China! The fact that it was also

a full moon this past weekend was an added bonus :)  I loved it so much, I Hurry Come Rushing Away and signed up for another section of the wall that I have yet to climb. The end of October I will hike Nine Towers Great Wall; I can't wait!

G'nite, y'all!