Steven's China blog

Another quake

2008-05-26T10:13:00.002+08:00

There was another earthquake in Sezhuan yesterday, 6 on the Richter scale. I was outside, sitting on a stone platform, which I could feel moving beneath me. This one wasn't as strong as two weeks ago, but seemed to last longer. Soon after the streets were once again full of wary people. Some probably camped out overnight again. One earthquake is one thing, but when you get half a dozen of magnitude 6 or more, you start to wonder what's going on and where it will end.

I have two 'early warning systems' in my apartment: a bottle standing upside down on the floor and a weight hanging from a thread on a door jamb. Anyway, the building we are in is pretty stable. I reckon we'd have to have a big quake right in Xi'an for much to happen here. The last big earthquake here was in 1556, and current events still seem to be centered on Sezhuan.

Buddhist ceremony

2008-05-20T13:12:00.003+08:00

The other day we went to a Buddhist temple. There are several in the city. Some ask for an entrance fee, while others don’t. The Wo Longse temple is near the city centre. As with other temples in Xi’an (and China in general), this one has several buildings with statues of various deities. The individual prayer houses are separated by courtyards. The monks chant incantations every morning at 4.30 am and every afternoon at 2.30 pm. There are special ceremonies on certain days, according to the lunar calendar. This was one such day.

A monk walked around the compound, ringing a brass bell – the call to prayer. One by one, the monks assembled in the dimly-lit prayer room, which featured a large Buddha in the centre and walls ringed with statues of minor deities, some fierce, some more pious. The central figure was on a raised platform. In front, on a table covered in a saffron-coloured cloth, were offerings of fruit and flowers, candles made of ghee (butter fat) and burning incense.

It took the monks a little while to assemble. Most of them were dressed in plain, dark brown robes. The head monk, an older fellow, wore the same dark brown robes, but had a saffron-coloured cloth slung over the right shoulder, as did another monk, who turned out to be a ‘master of ceremonies’ of sorts, i.e. he saw to ‘organisational’ matters.

Most of the monks’ heads were shaven, but some had a short crop of hair (called a ‘no. 1’ in hairdresser parlance) with two rows of three fully shaven dots, which stand out. The dots are made by burning some small incense cones on the head, an initiation ceremony for newly ordained monks.

The ceremony started slowly with the high-pitched ringing of a bell and the slow, dull thud of a rather large drum. There was one large skin drum and another equally large one, which looked like some kind of over-sized seed pod with a slit in it. Both drums were tended to by individual monks handling drum sticks with felt-covered heads the size of apples. At times they were banged to keep the rhythm, at others to indicate the end of a section of prayer or chanting, often accompanied by everyone changing the direction they were facing (either to the front or the middle of the hall) and kneeling on ready-laid mats to bow the head to the ground in reverent prayer.

The room was wafting with the fragrance of sandalwood incense. A Buddhist song was begun by a single monk, whose drone-like baritone voice filled the air. The other monks took up the tune, which was interspersed with the periodic ringing of the bell and a single drum beat here and there. Eyes were closed and hands held palms together in prayer position in front of the chest (or heart chakra, if you so wish). The song then stopped and after several gongs, the lone monk sang again, leading the congregation on in a chant to Amitabha. The monks followed suit with the slow, monotonous chant. Slowly, barely perceptibly, over a period of about 15 minutes, the chant, interspersed here and there by a gong sounding or bell ringing, gathered pace, culminating in an exhilarating, hypnotic and uplifting crescendo. The text of the chant wasn’t simplistic, it changed over time, as did the pace of the chant, which wasn’t linear. The monks knew exactly when to slow down, speed up or move on to another section of the ceremony. It was a well-orchestrated, but this was not a show for anyone’s benefit – there were no tourists present – but rather a regular spiritual routine.

In fact, when I visited this temple, or others for that matter, I was the only Westerner present. These places are ‘off the beaten track’, but for that, the experience is all the richer. It makes a big difference when you’re travelling in a country or actually living there. Despite Xi’an being a big city, there aren’t that many Westerners present. Weeks go by without me seeing another Westerner. And to be honest, I don’t crave contact with them. However, if I really did want contact with Westerners, all I’d have to do is go to Starbucks in the city centre. It seems to be a place of congregation, a place where Westerners can get a decent cup of coffee. (Actually KFC isn’t that bad either and a lot cheaper.)

After about 45 minutes the head monk led the others from the hall in a procession which wound its way in a geometric pattern around the courtyard, with the head monk finally re-entering the prayer hall. All the while, the chant continued, if in a more subdued fashion, each one to him and herself. (There were a few female monks there too, but the majority was male.)

Another time, some incense was lit, and one of the senior monks, leading the procession, wafted smoke in a particular direction, his fingers forming a mudra. (Index and middle fingers outstretched, the others bent, the thumb resting on the ring finger.)

The ceremony lasted for about an hour. When it had finished, the monks quietly returned to their quarters in single file.

Earthquake Update, Tuesday, 20 May 2008

2008-05-20T09:54:00.005+08:00

Last night, the Chinese government, probably on the Shaanxi and Sezhuan provincial level, sent out several messages text messages to millions of residents warning of an imminent quake. The first was about 11.30 pm. They continued throughout the night. We went out around midnight and found many people camped outside. A few had pitched tents in our small playground/park area, others were just sitting around or sleeping on the ground. Old people sat and chatted, despite their obvious tension. Not understanding what was going on, kids played with each other, enjoying the excitement.

We went back inside and I set up two impromptu quake alarms - a bottle perched on the edge of a chair and an ash-try perched on the top of a door. If the building shook, they would fall down and wake us up. Besides that we prepared a bag with some food and water and collected important documents and put them in our coat pockets, all in readiness to leave the building in a hurry. In the end nothing happened, but the warnings haven't been retracted and people are still edgy. Many are wandering the streets, unsure as to what to do or where to go.

The dilemma I see is that a quake is difficult, if not impossible to predict. If one was coming, it could be in a day, a week or several months. You can't stay out in open ground all the time expecting it to happen. (According to the USGS website, quakes cannot be predicted.)

In any case, school and university classes, including my own, have been cancelled for the day. (I got a SMS about this from the Dean of the English department at 4.30 am!) We are also going to go out now, to see if department stores and the like are open, although it's probqably not a good idea to go inside. It would take a while to get out of the building if there really was a quake in the area. More later!

Sezhuan Earthquake update, one week later

2008-05-19T20:59:00.000+08:00

There have been several strong aftershocks, the latest, about 6 on the Richter scale, yesterday afternoon, 200 kms north of Chengdu (capital of Sezhuan province). Not sure if related or not, but 200 relief workers have been buried in a mudslide. (It has been raining in the area.) People are still scared and skittish, one week later.

Today China began 3 days of national mourning. Flags are at half mast. All entertainment has been cancelled, bars closed and online games and the like banned. At 2.28 o'clock 1.3 billion people observed 3 minutes of silence. Sirens wailed across the country (including at a neighbouring school where I live). Cars stopped in the streets and drivers either honked their horns or got out and stood next to their vehicles in silence. There was blanket news coverage of the event, as there has been of the aftermath of the quake.

At Tianamen Square, a small contingent of soldiers was there to observe the silence. Afterwards, the square filled with people, who apparently spontaneously began shouting "Zhongguo jiayou, Sichuan jiayou" (China, be strong, be brave, Sezhuan, be strong, be brave). You might think this was an orchestrated event, but I think that would be far from the truth. Patriotic feelings are running high here, and in the face of a catastrophic event like this, any country will pull together and show solidarity. China is no different. The outpourings of grief shown on television are real. Even news readers could barely compose themselves in the face of events. (For example, apparently around 7,000 schools collapsed, killing a lot of children.)

To put this into perspective (without wanting to belitle this event), 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attack. 10 times as many are already known to have died in this quake. That number will probably double.

Here are some photos of the quake: http://tinyurl.com/6poy4c (There's plenty more out there...)

Sezhuan quake (as experienced in Xi'an)

2008-05-13T19:54:00.001+08:00

Monday, ca. 2.30 pm, Pin and I were having an afternoon nap, after lunch. I was only dozing, when I noticed some movement in the bed. I thought Pin was having a dream and jerking in her sleep, but then I noticed the bed itself was shaking from side to side. I realised it was an earthquake, immediately woke Pin and (in a slight panic) told her we had to get out of the building quickly. I could feel the floor moving beneath my feet. It's not a comforting sensation when the ground beneath your feet is moving from side to side... We put on a minimum of clothes, grabbed phones and keys and went out. It all happened in a hurry. Pin wound up with her t-shirt on inside out and I was barefoot. I've experienced a couple of minor quakes in Australia, but nothing big enough to make pretty solid apartment blocks sway.

Xi'an is only 640 km from the epicenter of the quake. That's not far at all. It's the next big city in the vicinity of the epicenter after Chengdu, Sezhuan's capital. The governemnt has sent relief supplies from here. Communications and transport networks are interrupted in the affected area. It has been difficult to use the phones and internet, even here. Apparently it has been raining in the area, making roads already ruined by rockslides (rocks as big as cars blocking the way) even more inaccessible, so soldiers sent in to help have had to parachute into the effected area, even climb over mountains.

Other residents of our block were gathered outside. We went to a small park area, trying to get into a more open space, just in case things got worse and buildings were going tom topple. But nothing of the sort happened, at least not here in Xi'an (that I know of). We saw a 30 story crane at a nearby building site slowly swaying from side to side, probably 2 metres in either direction, but it didn't topple and came to a standstill after about 5 minutes. We went back inside after about 45 minutes. Later on we went out shopping, but most shops were closed, even, or especially big department stores.

Later we heard about the extent of the devastation. Apparently about 10,000 people have died. I wonder how they can tell so quickly. I guess it must be an estimate. It's a sobering thought to think that as we were jumping out of bed to get dressed, thousands of people in a nearby province were being buried beneath rubble. Pictures of landslides, mountain rubble, broken roads and injured people are coming through.

Tuesday update

Latest figures: more than 12,000 dead. Apparently there were two aftershocks around 4 am this morning. They were about half the strength of the original quake. We slept through them, but most of my students didn't. Somehow they had been forewarned by school authorities (??) and were up most of the night. when the quakes finally hit at 4 am, there was some panic. One student (not mine) jumped from the 1st floor. One of my own students didn't turn up at all - his family's village is not far from the epicentre and he hasn't heard any news... On my way to class I pass by a new freeway construction site. everything was still standing, but there were gaps of 20-30 cm between some of the co-joining slabs. It looked deserted. I guess the workers had been given the day off.

But all in all, you couldn't blame the government, neither main, nor provincial, for not doing everything necessary to help its people. despite anything you might hear about them, or the Chinese people for that matter, in a time of crisis, they rally together.

Chinese New Year's Eve 6/02/08

2008-02-06T18:39:00.001+08:00

It's Chinese New Year's Eve in Xi'an and you could be forgiven for thinking it was WW3 - and it's only 6.30 pm! The sound of firecrackers is a constant cacaphony reminiscent of gunfire. (Not that I've ever really heard gunfire...) The sounds are coming from near and far, creating a surreal, multi-layered aural environment. More later...

Handmade dumplings - a traditional New year's food (but also loved any other time too!)

Typical New Year's festival dragon dance...

Delicious! (Xi'an 6 February 2008)

2008-02-06T15:35:00.000+08:00

Yesterday (my birthday...) Pin and I were going to try out another vegetarian restaurant nearby the Dayan (Wild Goose) pagoga, only to find that it had closed or moved. Hmm, disapointing. We walked down the street, checking what else was around when I noticed a sign saying zhēn gū yuán (珍菇源 - more or less 'precious mushroom root' or 'source of precious mushroom'). Pin said that this was a restaurant specialising in mushroom dishes - promising. We also noticed three Buddhist monks going in - even more promising.

It was still a bit early and not that many people were there yet, so we were shown into a small, private room. The table had a 20 cm gas stove top let into it for boiling 'hotpot'. Pin ordered mushroom hotpot and an earthenware pot with hot steaming mushroom broth was put onto the stove in front of us. Various fresh mushrooms, vegetables, noodles and tofu appeared and were cooked on the spot for us as we sat there, then served in small parcels onto our plates and bowls. The sevice was immaculate, with the waitresses (yes, several of them taking turns) deftly and delicately passing food from the pot to out plates. They really took care of us, which meant that someone came into the room every 30-60 seconds or so to top up the small plates with more of the same or to cook the next vegetable. This type of service might be a bit unusual for a Westerner, but I just went along with it. You could get used to it pretty fast.

My favourite was a small 'vegetable' from the south of China, which looked a bit like small-leafed sage, but was really slimy (see photo below). It was delicious! Pin ordered two different types of mushroom, which were both delicious and had differing flavours. The tofu was also unusual, for me at least - after the intial process it is frozen, then thawed again, giving it a texture full of little holes and a slightly smokey flavour.

The noodles were made from potato starch. Did I mention that this is noodle country? In contrast to the south, where people eat lots of rice, here a meal is not considered a meal unless there are noodles or at least 'mántou' (馒头 - steamed bun). There are countless varieties of noodle, ranging from rice noodles to egg or buckwheat noodles. The best are handmade, which you more often than not get in a restaurant.

Serving from the hotpot

Various vegetables

Boiling hotpot

Green vegetables

Mushrooms

freshly cooked mushrooms

Tofu

Happy customer

Xi’an, 20 January 2008

2008-01-26T15:03:00.000+08:00

It has been snowing virtually non-stop since I arrived in Xi’an last Monday. Everything is white. Well everything that is if you discount the brown slush on the roads. But hey, that’s no different than in any other country where you get snow. Pin tells me it has been about five years since there has been snow like this in Xi’an. I am really enjoying it. For me it has been longer than that since I have been in this type of environment, lived in this type of environment. The footpaths are quite slippery, giving the song ‘Dancing in the Street’ new meaning. (Visualise people slipping, then regaining balance with flailing arms...)

I am enjoying being here. I am really enjoying being with Pin. We have a lot to say to each other. A lot to talk about. We have been out to a different restaurant every day, including a ‘fancy’ Buddhist vegetarian place opposite the Dayen Pagoda. That was really expensive, with a feast consisting of 5 or 6 great dishes costing 85 Yuan – about $12.50. The cheapest we have eaten was a home cooking style lunch consisting of a bowl of soft, broad noodles in a delicious soup at a cost of about 50 cents each. The food is fantastic and I intend to document it in more detail later. [Pin told me that the Chinese have a saying – “Eat in China” (Chī zài Zhōngguò.), sort of like ‘See Paris and die”.]

The university I am now becoming a part of has supplied us with an apartment. It’s off-campus in an apartment block reserved for teachers and retired teachers. We were a little disappointed at first, as I was promised a two bedroom apartment and what we got is a one bedroom apartment. It has other shortcomings, but we are giving it our personal touch and are getting to like it, starting to feel comfortable in it. The location is good, it’s in a fairly secure area, the heating is really good and stuff like hot water and such are all working.

We have been out every day. There has been plenty to do – buying things like bedding, food and other daily necessities. Today we did something special – we had tea in a Chinese Buddhist tea house. Pin has walked past it, not noticing it numerous times (the apartment is close to her undergraduate college, so she knows the area well), but recently stumbled across some reference to it when she was researching vegetarian restaurants on the internet. It is easy to miss. A simple wooden door frame hides some stairs which lead to a whole floor which is dedicated to drinking tea. Everything is laid out with wood, bamboo and stone. Patrons’ compartments are designated by wood and bamboo thatched dividers. The ‘menu’ was written in the Han Dynasty style in brushed ink on pieces of bamboo wood, a bit like a xylophone. Pin happened to know how it’s all done and we wound up getting a rather large Yunnan ‘tea cake’ – the type where you break off a piece from a compressed wheel about 20 cm in diameter. Of course you can’t drink so much tea at once, so what they do is keep the rest of your cake in a box with your name on it and when you come back, you continue drinking the same tea and only pay a nominal fee for seating. The tea was thick and dark, a consistency and flavour not dissimilar to coffee. I presume the caffeine content was also similar... It is made in a tiny Yixing tea bowl and served in even tinier drinking bowls, with a diameter of about the size of a 20 cent piece. We stayed there for about an hour and a half. It turned out that they have free Buddhist scripture readings twice a month. I intend to check them out.

Prayer scrolls at nearby Buddhist temple

Tea menu and utensils

Serving tea

The tiniest tea cup

Chinese Chess (at the Tea House)

Snow in Xi'an (view from the tea house)

Guangzhou, 14 January 2008

2008-01-26T14:59:00.000+08:00

I’m in Guangzhou, on the way to Xi’an and totally exhausted, but strangely enough, after heaps of anxiety on leaving Australia (to do with visa issues), I am beginning to feel good. I guess once again I was worrying for nothing. It really doesn’t pay. Que sera sera. Visa issues – would they let me into the country with a tourist visa and a one-way ticket? In the end it wasn’t an issue at all. Try that getting into Australia! But I guess there aren’t that many foreigners trying to get into China and stay there illegally. ;-)

The flight with China Southern Airlines was OK, but nothing to write home about. (Pun intended.) When the meals came, my booked vegetarian one wasn't amongst them. The stewardess came back with a list, which had my name crossed out on it. It turned out that with this airline you have to confirm your special meal at the time of check-in. I guess there are heaps of vegetarians that convert back to being a carnivore on the way to the airport, so this measure is entirely justified... In that case, just don’t mention anything and your meal will automatically revert to the default meat option. Go figure!

Anyway, now I am at the airport in Guangzhou, after having enjoyed a bowl of soup – no animal stock, they assure me – and a banana milkshake. These are giving me a bit of energy, although I’m going to need a good night night’s sleep or two.
Tonight I will spend the night with Pin, after a four month wait. It feels good to be getting close and it will be good to have company at night again, after a long wait, although I’m sure tonight I’ll sleep like a log.

PS You know you’re in China, when you’re surrounded by smokers in a restaurant. In Australia, this would be a triple whammy – it’s indoors, a public place (airport!) and it’s in a restaurant. (I got a table at the wrong end of ‘prevailing winds’, ha ha.)

Departure Immanent

2008-01-04T08:14:00.000+08:00

I decided to pack up my bags and head to China. Not for a week, not for a month, but for a year or longer. In fact the term is probably ‘indefinitely’, although that could mean anything from 6 months to 6 years.

China is a land of contrast – great wealth and great poverty, an abundance of natural resources and encroaching deserts, great dams and water shortages, a land of immeasurable beauty as well as polluted rivers and skies.

I have decided to give up blue skies and clean air and everything known to me to take a plunge into the unknown.

Some people think I must be crazy.

Some people have been very encouraging. (Thanks Damon, thanks Bridget.)

Who can understand that at my age I could give up a comfortable life, a secure position with a government agency, a beautiful house in a nice location (albeit rented), good friends (some very close) and all those things we get so used to and eventually take for granted? A good bottle of wine, uncrowded public spaces & transport, relatively empty roads and beaches, green leafy suburbs with birds and possums in the trees. You can imagine the rest.

China is crowded. It’s dirty. It’s loud. There’s much less privacy. I’m going to teach English at a top provincial university (I must be crazy). I have never taught English before, let alone to a bunch of young, probably mostly recalcitrant and disinterested Chinese students.

So why take such a radical step? There are many reasons. Of course first and foremost there is Li Pin. I already had some vague ideas of adventure in China before I went there in May ’07, but Pin has been a catalyst. Without her I would have had the opportunity to procrastinate and would probably still not have any concrete plans to make the move.

It’s not the first time I’ve made a big move, although the others all involved Europe. I feel like I’ve been in Australia long enough – this last stretch 16 years now. My life seems to be going through cycles – the first 13 years in Australia, another 13 in Germany, an interim period of 6 years in Asia and Europe and 16 years in Australia. And now?

How long will I last in China? I know some friends have grave doubts but I’ve always considered myself a world citizen, i.e. the world is my home and I can make myself comfortable just about anywhere. This doesn’t mean transporting my current way of life to China and making the ‘best of it’ over there. No, it means becoming fluent in the language, learning China’s history and culture, understanding the Chinese psyche - essentially becoming an ‘honorary Chinese’. You are right, this is a very ambitious goal and will take quite some time. Maybe I’ll only be able to realise one or two aspects of these dreams, like learn the language. But that would at least be something.

Leaving on a jet plane

2007-12-12T06:38:00.000+08:00

Dear Friends,

you know that old song?

I'm leaving, on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go...

Yes, I'm packing my bags for an 'extended trip' to China. Some people have been really encouraging about this, others more or less wanted to put me in a mental asylum. Those of you who are the more adventurous type will understand that sometimes a time comes when you just feel like taking a radical step. Yes, I admit, I am a closet adventurer and radical. I will be leaving around the 15th January 2008. I hope you can all make it to my going away party on Saturday 12th January. Please email me or send an SMS if you don't have the details yet!

I hope to stay in touch! You can check back here later in January. I hope I will be able to post regular blogs here on this spot.

I hope to see you all at the party. In the meantime, I hope you all have a great holiday and wish you the very best for the New Year!