Our Second Honeymoon

Day 1. Benjamin and I left for the Beijing airport around 10:00 Monday morning. Seth seemed to know that something was up and kept initiating group hugs. Benjamin got a little teary-eyed saying our good-byes, but I'm not really the sentimental type, so I was fine! We took a taxi to the airport and by chance got the country's (perhaps the world's) friendliest taxi driver. Sometime during the course of the 40-minute drive he and Benjamin decided that they would be each others' Chinese and English teachers, respectively, and exchanged cell phone numbers for that purpose.

After a quick lunch of bland, overpriced airport noodles, we boarded our flight according to schedule but sat on the runway for about an hour, so we were late getting into Sanya, around 6:00 in the evening. The sky was a little overcast, and it had rained recently, so it was humid, but it was also nice to shed our winter coats. We checked into our hotel--which was beautiful--ate dinner at a cafe in the hotel, and went to bed.

Day 2. Our first full day in Sanya was so much fun. We awoke (at 9:30!--we left our "alarm clock," a.k.a. Seth, at home) to clear blue skies, comfortably warm weather, and a beautiful view of the ocean from the balcony of our hotel room. We meandered downstairs to the breakfast buffet and then took a walk to the beach, which is just across the street from the hotel. Also in the morning we went swimming in the hotel pool, which is surrounded by landscaping that is simply gorgeous.

After lazing away the morning and early afternoon, we headed to downtown Sanya on the number 8 bus. We had asked the hotel concierge for some advice on what to do while we were in town, but he wasn't especially helpful, so we just decided to take the bus downtown and see what we could find on our own. We hopped off the bus a little too early, though, and had to walk quite a ways, stopping at a Manchurian restaurant for a late lunch en route. When we got to the city center, I was kind of disappointed not to find any quaint artsy shops; everything on main street was computers, cell phones, cameras, and banks--pretty boring stuff. So we took the bus back to the hotel and did some research online to be better prepared for the rest of the week.



Day 3. What a jam-packed day! It's amazing how much you can get done when you leave your alarm clock at home. This morning after breakfast we immediately headed out to see the sights at Yalong Bay. The city of Sanya has three main beaches: Sanya Bay, Dadonghai, and Yalong Bay. Yalong Bay is generally considered the most beautiful of the three, and there are some touristy things to do nearby as well, so we went to the concierge's desk and asked for a cab. When we got in, the driver wanted to charge us a flat rate of 100 kuai rather than using the meter. Well, the first thing you will read about if you do any research before taking a trip to Sanya is that the taxi drivers are considered professional scammers. I didn't know exactly how far Yalong Bay was, but I thought the fare should be less than 50 kuai, so we insisted that the driver use the meter. It turned out to be a longer ride than I had expected and the fare came to 70 kuai, but that's still a 40 percent markup! Benjamin and I are used to getting overcharged for things in Beijing--we refer to it as the dummy tax or the foreigner tax--but it still gets under our skin from time to time. The scenery on the way there was beautiful--lush green vegetation, majestic mountains, rice paddies, and a clear blue sky the likes of which we rarely see in Beijing--but I had a hard time enjoying it.

Our taxi driver did take us directly where we wanted to go, though: the Yalong Bay Butterfly Park. It included both a butterfly house and museum. They had thousands of butterflies in hundreds of colors on display at the museum, as well as quite a few incredibly disgusting-looking insects. After the museum we went to the butterfly house, a very large enclosed outdoor area filled with--you guessed it--butterflies. Unfortunately, we didn't see a lot of variety, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.



After the butterfly park we went to the city square right on the beach. We were surprised when we got there to find that there was an entrance fee for the city square! Well, it's a tourist city after all, we thought, as we paid for our tickets. But then as we entered we realized that we had actually purchased tickets to the seashell museum; simply going to the city square would have been free. Neither of us were really interested in looking at seashells, but we had already bought the tickets, so it seemed a shame to waste them. And when we first entered, the shells were rather humdrum, but as we continued walking through the museum we saw some truly beautiful and odd-looking shells. We even bought a large shell to disply on our bookcase at home. Exiting the seashell museum, we came out directly on the city square, which overlooks the beech and pretty much consists of a large concrete circular area with a stone pillar at its center. The beach at Yalong Bay was nice but more crowded than at Sanya Bay, the beach by our hotel.



On the way home we stopped at a hole-in-the-wall seafood joint and had and excellent meal of fresh shrimp and clams. And by "fresh," I mean, "alive-and-swimming-around-when-we-entered-the-restaurant fresh." This is pretty much the norm for seafood in China; nobody orders a seafood dish without seeing the seafood alive first. Still, it was my first time to go to the tanks and actually pick out exactly what I wanted. Maybe that's why we got shrimp and clams instead of a fish?



When we got back to the hotel we went swimming again, enjoyed the hot tub for a bit, and then laid by the pool reading. This evening we went to "Fat Daddy's," a restaurant we saw on the way back to our hotel last night. We ordered wonderfully Western dishes (quesadillas, a burger, and a pizza) and listened to live covers of James Taylor and some other folksy artists.

After dinner we took a short walk and bought a coconut from a street vendor for 4 kuai (about 60 cents). While we were waiting for our coconut milk, I took a picture of the street vendor's children and showed them the digital image on my camera. They went nuts, flipping back and forth between the photos stored on my camera. The little girl especially kept asking to see her mama (I had taken a picture of her mother preparing our coconut) and then herself again, and at some point they flipped through the pictures and found a picture of our alarm clock. Now, I've gotten so used to people seeing Seth and oohing and aahing over him, but these two kids were not at all impressed; I can't imagine why.



We hired a rickshaw driver to take us back to the hotel, and let me tell you, once was enough. I used to take rickshaws often when I lived in Renqiu, but the streets there were definitely less crowded than they are here. Traffic in China is generally crazy, but in Sanya it seems a little more so, and sitting in that rickshaw while taxis and buses and cars wove around us wasn't my idea of a romantic chariot ride. We'll be taking taxis or buses in the future, thank you very much.

Day 4. On Thursday we ate lunch at good ole Mickey-Ds and then headed to Sanya's Shopping Street. (Yes, our internet research had paid off in that we were able to find those quaint artsy shops I was looking for without too much effort.) While there were plenty of shops, they all offered pretty much the same wares, namely, shells, pearls, jade carvings, and stuff made out of coconuts. I did pick up a pretty necklace of multicolored tourmaline beads. Of course, the seller wanted to tell me all about tourmaline's metaphysical and healing properties, which apparently vary according to the color of the stone. It will never cease to amaze me how much people believe in that kind of stuff here, though maybe people in the States do too, more than I realize.

In the late afternoon we headed off to Tianya Haijia, which loosely translated means "The End of the Earth." It is the southernmost tip of Sanya, which is the southernmost city of Hainan, which is the southernmost province of China. My impression was that Tianya Haijia was just a beach with some pretty rock formations, so we thought we would go there to watch the sunset. The beach is considered a romantic spot because of the famous Chinese poem "I Will Follow You to Tianya Haijia," and apparently there is a group wedding there every year. But when we got in the taxi to go there, the taxi driver told us it would be closed once we got there. We went to talk to the concierge at the hotel (whom we hadn't had a lot of luck with in the past) to try to figure out why a beach--and one with a romantic reputation at that--would be closed at half past five, but all he could do for us was confirm the hours of operation. So we gave up on that plan and went swimming instead.

For dinner we went to the Caribbean Barbeque buffet at our hotel and had crab, clams, oysters, shrimp, grilled pineapple, some typical Chinese dishes, and some fairly decent (for China) desserts. After dinner we moseyed up to the hotel bar and just enjoyed the view. All-in-all a very nice and relaxing day, especially after the busyness of the day before.



Day 5. Our last full day in Sanya and we really seemed to get the hang of this relaxing thing. We spent the whole morning in our hotel, only leaving to have a quick bite for breakfast at the breakfast buffet downstairs. But there's only so much time you can spend in your hotel room, even with 500-thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, your best friend, and the Discovery Channel. So in the afternoon we took our last sightseeing adventure to Liuhuitou Park.

"Liuhuitou" means "a deer's backward glance," which makes perfect sense if you know the story that goes along with it. Long ago, a handsome Li ethnic hunter was tracking a deer from Mount Wuzhi to the shore of the South China Sea. During the hunt the young man crossed ninety-nine mountains and forded ninety-nine rivers, such was his determination to catch his prey. As the deer approached the sea, it realized it could run no further. Facing the sea, the deer glanced backward at the young hunter with a pair of passionate and sorrowful eyes. The hunter, his bow bent, was captivated by the look in the deer's eyes. In that moment the deer turned into a beautiful ethnic Li girl. The hunter and fairy girl fell in love and settled down, thus establishing the city of Sanya.

The park is basically a mountain, and there is a rollercoaster-like contraption that takes you up to see the sights and back down again when you are done. We enjoyed the beautiful panoramic view of Sanya from the top of the mountain, the large statue depicting the scene from the legend, and the many rock carvings, my favorite of which was the loyalty stone, which is, very simply, the Chinese character for love carved into rock. (I like the idea of love and loyalty going hand in hand. The Chinese express this thought by saying their love will endure beyond the time when "seas run dry and rocks turn to dust." It reminds me of the phrase "for better or for worse" in the traditional Western marriage vows, except with the element of perpetuity explicitly stated.)



We also saw a "peace and luck" banyan tree covered with strips of red material on which people had written their wishes and prayers. At the end of the strips of cloth were small brass bells intended to catch the attention of the powers that be. Here again I felt unsettled. What need do people have to hang wishes from trees? And of course there was a woman there trying to sell me a red strip of cloth, and I refused, both on religious principle and pure sensibility. And yet the more I think about that banyan tree, I see that--for those who do or did such a thing with a pure heart and an honest desire to communicate with the Divine--well, wouldn't the Divine honor that? Is writing a prayer any different from saying one? Well, yes, if you think writing a prayer on a red strip of fabric is some kind of magic formula that binds God to your whims and wishes, but not if you are using the ritual to provide the structure you need to focus your mind on what is important: full communion with God. I almost wish I had bought one of those red strips of material and sat down and had a talk with God right there in that beautiful place.



When we got back to the hotel we decided to go swimming again, but this time in the ocean. I had never gone swimming in the ocean before and thought I needed to give it a try. The waves were a lot of fun, but I think I still prefer the sand-free swimming of a pool. We stayed and watched the sunset and then went back to the hotel for dinner.



Day 6. Today doesn't really count as vacation since we had to get up before 6:00 and spent all morning traveling. I didn't really mind that our vacation was over, though, because I was excited to get home to see my Bug-a-boo. We got to Beijing around 12:30 and back to our apartment before 2:00, but Seth isn't here! His babysitter Megan (Seth's Ayi left to return to her hometown on Thursday) took him out to lunch, and I am sitting here typing up this blog entry trying to take my mind off the wait. I can't wait to see him and give him a great big bear hug and all his presents--a cute Hawaiian-print (or should I say "Sanyan-print"?) shirt, a puzzle, and a set of little model buses. Well, I'm sure he'll be home soon, and then my vacation will officially be over. But we still have four more weeks before the spring semester starts, so there's no need to feel sorry for me!

Wangfujing

Today Benjamin and I decided to take advantage of the fact that neither of us has much work left to do in the semester but that Ayi is still here watching Seth to go out and do some sightseeing in Beijing. We went to Wangfujing, a shopping street near the city center. A shopping street by defintion, of course, has a lot of shops, but there are quite a few sights to see as well. Probably the most notable landmark--simply because it is such a rare sight for China--is St. Joseph's Cathedral. It was built in 1655 by the Jesuits on land donated by the Qing Emperor Shunzhi but has been destroyed and reconstructed numerous times. Its last major renovation was in 2000. In general, it is not open to the public, but I have heard of some special holiday services being held there.

Further down the street are several statues representing Old Beijing: street musicians, a man getting his hair cut on the street, and even a rickshaw statue where you can sit in the rickshaw and get your picture taken. Across the street from the statues is the foreign book store, where we spent most of our time. We buy a lot of books in China--the ones sold by street vendors are all illegally printed, full of typos, and insanely cheap--but this bookstore was the real deal. It was fun to browse this store of legitimate books; we felt a little bit like we were in the States again, what with the price tags and all.

Next stop was the Children's Store, which supposedly has every toy imaginable, but I still couldn't find the traditional game of Memory for Seth, so I guess we will have to order it from the States. We looked around in the toy department but didn't buy anything; Seth really has more toys than he plays with anyway.

The Wangfujing Snack Street is actually a side street off the main road. It can get a little crowded, but vendors offer anything and everything: deep-fried scorpions, seahorses, starfish, snakes, fetal chickens, beetles, you name it, all served kebob style. (The Chinese love their meats on a stick!) We weren't feeling that adventurous, so we went with some candied fruit on a stick, which probably would have been tastier (and easier to eat!) if it hadn't been so cold--the fruit was frozen.

Finally we made our way back home via the subway to enjoy the warmth of our apartment. You know, one of my biggest fears about moving to this apartment was that it might never get warm in the winter, but it stays surprisingly toasty in here--at least until they turn off the heat on March 15!

The First Day of Winter

So Benjamin and I were buying lunch in the cafeteria today when we noticed that there was a line for jiaozi (Chinese dumplings). Now, normally in China there isn't a line for anything, let alone in the cafeteria. Everybody just pushes and shoves until they are next to the dish they want, and then they grab it and go shove somebody else. Then we also noticed that they were out of jiaozi--pretty odd for 11:30 in the morning--and all these people were waiting around to get some of the next batch they brought out. So we knew something was up. And as Forrest Gump has advised us, "If you see a line, go stand in it. Probably can't hurt nothin'."

Then one of my former students came up to me and told me that we must eat jiaozi today, it being the first day of winter and all. Of course, I wanted to know why, but all she could manage to say was that eating jiaozi on this day of the year was very important for our ears. She stood there trying to think of how to communicate the specifics of what would happen if we failed to eat jiaozi today, but she was at a loss. "Well, whatever it is, it doesn't seem good," I said to her. And she concurred. I had a feeling that the jiaozi-ear relationship had something to do with the fact that jiaozi kind of look like ears, which just goes to show you how much I have assimilated into this culture to be able to use my imagination this way. (The Chinese are always seeing food for more than it really is.)

Well, by now the line was twice the length of when we got into it, and there were still no jiaozi to be seen. I was hungry and impatient (the story of my life), so I talked Benjamin out of waiting any longer. But as we sat eating our lunch, we both realized that now we were craving jiaozi and that something would have to be done about it. We had some frozen jiaozi at home, but it wasn't enough to feed all three of us for dinner, so I said I would stop at Xiao Chao (our nickname for the little grocery store on campus) to pick some more up on the way home after class.

I also asked some of my students in my afternoon class about the necessity of eating jiaozi today, and they were able to tell me, with slightly better English, that eating jiaozi on the first day of winter will protect your ears from frostbite all year long because--I was right!--jiaozi are shaped like ears. "But if you don't eat jiaozi today," they warned, "your ears may very well fall off before winter is over." Then, concerned that they had frightened me, they quickly told me, "It's just a myth, you know. It won't really happen."

Better safe than sorry, right?

Noodles

I love Chinese noodles, and what I love most about them is the many different varieties and styles you can get. There's thin noodles and fat noodles, round noodles and flat noodles, vegetarian noodles and meat noodles, hand-stretched noodles and pressed noodles, wheat noodles and rice noodles, and on and on. One of our favorite noodle places is just outside the school's west gate, where we can get two giant bowls of noodles for a couple dollars. (Seth goes through phases when he loves noodles and inhales them and other times when he won't touch them, so we usually just order two bowls to begin with.) You can see in the picture below how excited Seth was when we were on the way.

The plastic things that you can see hanging in the doorway are just there to be a nuisance, as far was we can tell. I always feel like I am walking through a car wash when I enter a building. When we ask the Chinese about them, they say things like, "Aren't they convenient?" I'm really not sure what they're comparing them to when they say this--a giant boulder? What they really mean to say is that they would rather swoosh the plastic things away than have to open a door. To each his or her own.

He is risen!

He is risen indeed! Happy Easter to all our friends and family; we hope you have a wonderful holiday and enjoy the time to spend with loved ones while celebrating Jesus' resurrection.

We celebrated our Easter by going to our favorite Chinese restaurant, Xi Pin. It's a restaurant that specialises in dishes from western China, and we have rarely been disappointed by what we get there. Seth's favorite is soybeans with bacon, my favorite is smashed potatoes with pickled veggies, and Benjamin's favorite is--oh, that's right, I forgot I was married to a man who refuses to name favorites. (He just likes everything.) Today we ordered our favorite dishes and tried a new one: deep-fried yogurt. We didn't really know what to expect, but it still wasn't what we had expected!

When we returned to campus we took some photos of our little man. I put the dressiest outfit he has on him, but it still isn't very dressy. I was feeling bad about this and thinking how next year I should make a point to pack some nicer clothes for Seth to wear on holidays and special occassions when I turned around and found him digging in the dirt. So much for my attempt to make him look respectable on this the most important holiday of the year.

Easter is virtually unheard of here in China. It's very much different from Christmas, which is celebrated by everyone and their dog, even if they don't know what it represents. I have to say that I struggled a bit this morning as we read the Easter story and sang some Easter songs--wishing I could be in a church with lilies and trumpets and all that. And of course I want Seth to be able to experience Easter traditions like dyeing and hunting for Easter eggs, but it's not like I can go to Wal-Mart and pick up a Easter egg dyeing kit and chocolate bunnies, so I am going to have to be more intentional about planning in the future. And we're going to have to get more creative as a family and make our own traditions. I read on Wikipedia that in Burmuda it is an Easter tradition to fly kites to symbolise Christ's assent, and that is definitely one tradition that our family can assume. And it will be easier to celebrate holidays once we are in our new apartment with a kitchen--so many holiday traditions revolve around food!