Report from Shanghai #4

Hello from Shanghai,
Time for our October report from China. October 1 is a big National Holiday here—kind of like our 4th of July. Sharon had long planned to go to the famous HuangShan (Yellow Mountain) with good friends Barbara King and Jeanette Gorman (former Boiseans) during this week, while I was teaching. Barbara and Jeanette were completing a 17-day cycling trip through western China. However, this year the government decided to make it a week-long holiday, and since my classes were cancelled, I accepted their invitation to go along.
Many books on China have described HuangShan as a magical, mystical place. A mountain with 75 peaks and steep valleys, often shrouded in clouds. One book said “if you only climb one mountain in China, it should be this one.” So off we went—3 American ladies and one old guy—no guides, no tour bus, traveling on our own across China, without much Chinese language—and it was quite an adventure. We headed to the huge Bus Station way across Shanghai, found the right gate, along with thousands of other Chinese travelers—this was a big holiday. We took the public bus to Tunxi, a city about 5 ½ hours from Shanghai, with a driver who thought he was driving in a Formula 1 race—passing everyone on the road (often using the “parking” lane on the right side), cutting people off, and honking his horn constantly. He actually was stopped at one toll gate and held there, we think, because another motorist reported him for reckless driving. After talking to the police he started driving again, in the same manner as before. We were glad to reach Tunxi safely.
Checking in at our hotel was interesting. We had a reservation, but the staff at the desk seemed all confused by something, so the 4 or us sat there for about 45 minutes while they talked (in Chinese only), shuffled papers and made phone calls. We didn’t know what was happening. Finally another guest translated that they couldn’t give us the rate we had been quoted—but would we pay the regular rate? We said fine and Presto—we got our rooms, after we paid a 2000 yuan deposit (about $300). Tunxi has preserved Ming dynasty homes downtown for a market area so the ladies enjoyed some shopping. I found a bar and enjoyed a pi jiu, (beer).
The next day before we headed for Tangkou, the town near the mountain, we wanted to buy our bus tickets back to Shanghai, for several days later. In China, there are surprises every step of the way. A college student who was kindly helping us in English, stood in line with us to buy tickets. Just as we got to the front of the line, she insisted that it was Saturday, not Friday, (we have a different calendar, she said, which they do) and therefore was suggesting we buy tickets on a day different than what we had planned. It was very confusing but in the end, we got the correct tickets and it turned out later that her cell phone was registering the wrong day. Who could have predicted that?
In Tangkou, Sharon and I met a very nice Chinese family at our hotel (with a 16 yr. old daughter, Yao Yao, who spoke great English) and went with them on a tour of an ancient restored village a few miles away (HongCun, where they filmed “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) and a beautiful mountain river valley on the other side of town, where the water was as clear as the Payette in Idaho.
The next morning (Saturday), we headed up Huangshan (“Huang” means Yellow and “Shan” means mountain) and unfortunately it was raining pretty hard. We decided to take the cable car up, rather than hike 6 miles up the mountain in the rain. We rode up and when we got off, we couldn’t see much—just clouds and rain. We started walking, following signs in Chinese and English. There were a 3 or 4 hotels in different places up on the mountain, scattered maybe a mile or two apart, and we had reservations at one. There were many trails going in different directions. We thought we would be let off “at the top” but there wasn’t really a “top.” HuangShan is a big mountain with some 75 rocky peaks sticking up here and there, with deep drop offs and valleys in between, so none of the trails are flat—they go up and down constantly. The trails are paved and everywhere they go up or down, steps have been built, no gradual slopes. There are thousands of steps—not the best thing for my bad knees.
We eventually did find our hotel—there are no roads up on the mountain, only walking paths. Everything has to be carried up the mountain by hand—we constantly passed porters on the trails who carried huge loads of food, linens, bedding, and other supplies on two bamboo sticks across their backs. We were glad to find the hotel, they did have rooms ready for us, and we spent the afternoon trying to dry out all our soaked clothes—even the backpacks we were carrying and many of the clothes inside were wet.
We listened to the rain during the night and wondered about our next two days, but when we awoke it was quite cloudy, but not raining so Sharon and I headed out. We climbed the first 232 steps from the hotel up to the main trail. We were right in the clouds, and as they moved, all of a sudden it cleared, and we could see way down in a deep valley with mountain peaks appearing on all sides! Wow! We followed the trail along the edge of the cliff passing many other people as we went. The clouds kept moving, and every few minutes a great view would open up, but then the clouds would come back soon. You could hear people shouting with excitement in the distance when a great view opened up. You had to have your camera ready when things opened up and we did!
Anyway, we hiked with Barbara and Jeanette that whole day, back and forth, exploring HuangShan and its many peaks, valleys, unusual pine trees growing out of rocks on the edge of a precipice. I bought a walking stick for 10 Yuan (about $1.50) and it saved me—I used it to push down every time I planted my right leg on a step up or down—and there were thousands. We took in the views from gorgeous spots like “Beginning to Believe” peak, “Monkey Watching the North Sea” (of clouds) and many more, for the next day and a half, without any rain.
On Monday we walked to the cable car along a trail with spectacular views, took the gondola down, caught a taxi to Tangkou, had banana pancakes at “Mr. Cheng’s” little restaurant we had visited earlier and bought several of his uncle’s paintings, and headed back to Shanghai. On one leg of the journey, the bus stopped and a man put a huge bucket of water on our bus right next to Sharon’s backpack. What? After a few miles, they stopped the bus and dropped off the water to a car which had apparently broken down. What a trip! During the whole five days, we saw no (zero) Americans, and only a very few French and German travelers—the rest of the thousands of people we saw were Chinese (and some Koreans). Sharon has been studying Chinese and she used it—and it helped.
During the next week, I taught my classes on Cross Cultural Ethics in Business and International Business law, and Sharon went to Chinese class and did some touring and shopping trips around town with Barbara and Jeanette. We both go to Tai Chi class once a week, too. I came down with a bad cold and You Sha (USAC program director) took me to a hospital where the doctor said my blood count was a bit high and prescribed some antibiotics and other medicine—and I started to feel better. I prepared and gave my mid-term exam in the Ethics class, and then had to grade all those essays! The students did pretty well—it is a good class and we have had some very good discussions of ethical and cultural issues.
We have a good broadband connection for our computer in the apartment, which has enabled us to keep up with friends and family and check out the news regularly—it seems like the U.S. is having quite a severe financial crisis, which is spreading worldwide—and you are also having an election there I hear. We care who wins and have sent in our ballots, but we don’t mind missing all the negative ads and commercials. We also have a Yahoo messenger account, so can make telephone calls from our computer, which had enabled us to talk directly to our sons, sisters and Sharon’s mom on occasion.
Last weekend we went on another interesting program trip with the students organized by You Sha—an overnight to the city of Hangzhou. This city is about 2 ½ hours from Shanghai and sits on the large and lovely West Lake. We rode on several boats around the lake, stopped at and walked around on several islands in the lake and visited one of the largest Buddhist temples in China, featuring 5 levels and a 70 ft. tall sitting Buddha. Opposite the temple, some 345 sculptures of various Buddhist figures were carved into the limestone hillside about 1,000 years ago. We also visited a beautiful restored pagoda more than 185 feet tall, and had several great meals, with You Sha choosing all the items for us to share. The family we met at HuangShan lives in Hangzhou, and in our only free time, after dinner on Saturday, they picked us up at our hotel and took us to West Lake for a lovely walk across the causeway under the moon. It was great to see them again. We returned to Shanghai on Sunday evening.
There is more to tell, but this report is too long already, so I will stop here. We are having a most interesting time, and are learning much about China every day.
Best wishes, Michael

Shanghai Report #3—September 28, 2008

Hello Friends and Family,
We have now been in Shanghai for 5 weeks, so time for another report—ready or not! Life has continued to be very busy for my wife and me since we last reported. Nearly every day brings new adventures and excitement, and new challenges, in language or culture or food.
About two weeks ago our whole group (program director You Sha, 35 students and Sharon and I) went on a tour of Wuzhen, a very old town built along a series of canals. The people are still living in old wooden houses along the canals as they have for centuries. We visited a museum, saw some beautiful blue and white cloth being made, and rode along the canal in old wooden boats propelled by a man manually using a paddle/rudder. Later that night, there was a program for international students at Shanghai University celebrating the Moon Festival (the day of the year when the full moon is the largest all year—a very important day in Asia). Several of our students performed musical and dance acts—a good time.
The next day Sharon and I went to see a large Buddhist temple in Shanghai, where people were praying and burning incense to celebrate their deceased ancestors, so I burned some sticks myself and thought about my dad, who would have loved to be here experiencing China—hopefully he’s watching. The next night we had a delightful dinner with Cao Guoli, a very sharp and nice Chinese man who works here representing the State of Idaho Department of Commerce. He helps Idaho companies do business in China. We had taken Guoli to dinner when he was in Boise in the spring and he returned the favor most generously, and we got to meet his friendly wife and four year old daughter as well—it was an enjoyable evening.
Then the very next night we went to the famous Puccini opera “Tosca” in the beautiful new Grand Theater in downtown Shanghai. One of the Chinese professors had some extra tickets so we attended, along with a few of our USAC students. Sharon knows opera and said the singers and orchestra were top notch—it was a great performance. The singing was in Italian (as is customary) and they flashed sub-titles up on the wall, as they do at operas in the USA, but of course the subtitles here were Chinese characters! Oh well, we were able to figure out most of the plot. The rest of the week I spent preparing for and teaching my two classes. It still takes me more than one whole day to get ready for each three-hour class, but that’s my job, and things seem to be going well. We have had some particularly good and lively discussions of case studies in the Cross Cultural Ethics class.
On the next weekend we visited another large famous Buddhist temple in Shanghai, where we viewed many large gold statues of Buddha and other idols. This temple is highlighted by a beautiful 6 ft. sitting jade Buddha carved from a single piece of solid white jade and brought here from Burma by a monk more than 100 years ago. At one point in our visit, about 60-70 monks came into the main hall and chanted together with a drum and bells for more than 40 minutes—a pretty neat sight. We also had a delicious lunch in the vegetarian restaurant inside the temple. The next day we took the subway (which we do nearly every day—there is a 9-line system which moves millions of people around Shanghai very quickly) across town to the Shanghai Aquarium. In addition to the many window displays of fish typical of good aquariums elsewhere, there are two long tunnels (200-300 feet long at least) where the glass goes all around you and over your head—sharks, manta rays and other huge fish swimming right over your head—amazing!
This past week we continued with our regular schedule—my classes, Sharon’s Chinese I and calligraphy classes, and exploring various little restaurants in our neighborhood where the menus often have no English—only Chinese characters and pictures. Interesting! We are learning enough Chinese to be able to say words like pork (zhu rou), or rice (fan) or noodles (mian) or mushrooms, and quite a few more, so we are getting along reasonably well, but we are often a bit surprised by some items that arrive on our plates or in our bowls, which we aren’t sure what they are. Sharon is trying to speak a little Chinese and learn basic characters. Also, we both go to a Tai Chi class on Thursday mornings. That is real good exercise—it is surprising to me that moving slowly but holding and changing positions can be so tough on the muscles!
This past week we also hosted a party—an “open house” for the students in my two classes and You Sha. We expected about 20 students and 22 showed up (a few extra students attended—they don’t want to miss out on a party). Sharon put out an assortment of snacks bought from street vendors (sesame cake) and fruit and we offered beer and soft drinks and juice. Our small apartment was filled, but many of the students brought some food (ba mi hua, we think, which is popcorn, also made by a street vendor) and we all had a nice time.
Our apartment looks out over a lovely park—Zhabei Park, and we often sit on our balcony and have a cup of coffee or tea in the morning. Yesterday we went down and walked in the park and came upon a group of women doing a movement/sport with a racket and a ball which Sharon had seen and was interested in learning to do. The idea is for each person to keep the ball on their racket while moving your arms and body around in big sweeping motions and turning the racquet, even upside down—something like Tai Chi—without dropping the ball (apparently it is called Tai Ji Bo). After we watched for a few minutes a couple of women came over and gestured for Sharon to join in—and she did! The women gave her a racket and ball and started teaching her (all in Chinese of course) how to hold the racket and move the arms back and forth without dropping the ball. Later they got me to join in, and while a crowd formed, we had a lot of fun trying out this new sport. One man nearby did some translating, and the women invited us to come back any morning and join them, and Sharon definitely plans to do so—she really enjoyed it.
Well, there’s always more to tell, but enough for now.
Best wishes, Michael

Week One Photo

Shanghai Report #2

Ni hao from Shanghai,

My wife Sharon and I have been here about two weeks now, and overall we are doing well and adjusting a bit more every day, but it still feels like we’ve gone halfway around the world, and are immersed in a totally different language and culture (hmm, that could be true!). I am teaching in the USAC (University Studies Abroad Consortium) a program operated by some 30 U.S. universities (Boise State is a founding member) with headquarters at U-Nevada-Reno, which has many international educational sites. I teach 2 classes: (1) International Business Law and (2) “Cross Cultural Ethical Issues in Business,” to a group of mostly American undergraduate students from all over the country, and a few international students. It takes me more than a full day to prepare for each 3 hour class, since they are new classes, not ones I teach at BSU. We are renting a small apartment only a 10 minute walk from the USAC office and my classroom on the campus of Shanghai University. Since I have no desk or office at the university, I prepare for my classes in our apartment.

We have been eating breakfast and lunch more or less American-style so far, but have gone out to dinner in our neighborhood almost every night, and eaten totally Chinese food. There are a large number of little restaurants on our street which we have sampled, one serving baozi (dumplings) of many types, and another the students call the “Muslim noodle” place are both really good and very inexpensive, so it just makes more sense to go out than try to cook in our tiny kitchen. There are often no English titles on the menu, just pictures, so it’s not always clear what we have ordered—and there are definitely only chopsticks to use. Although the food has been good, I am craving a hamburger or some pasta. (We actually went out and had some very nice pasta last night—a splurge.) Sharon is enjoying the Chinese food, does not miss burgers, and has been exploring the open markets near our apartment for fresh food and local delicacies.
Every day we learn new things and have new experiences. Shanghai is a huge, dynamic, rapidly growing metropolis with about 20 million people. The downtown area is split by the HuangPu River, with the older, European style buildings on one side (the Bund) and ultra-modern skyscrapers being built at a rapid rate on the other side (Pudong). The program organized a tour for the students of some highlights of the city. We went first to the YuYuan Garden, a huge, beautiful Chinese garden built during the Ming Dynasty. It’s like a maze inside with many twists and turns, much water—both waterfalls and ponds—special types of rocks (look like sculptures), tea rooms and more. After an hour there we got on our bus and went to Pudong, and to the top of the JinMao Tower, the tallest building in China—at least that day it was—the next day a building opened about two blocks away that was taller. Both buildings are taller than the Empire State Building, and ranked #3 and #4 in the world. The observation deck looks down on all of Shanghai—see photo.

You Sha (program director) took all 35 of us to a delicious lunch spot, where all the dishes were put on a “lazy Susan” at each table, and we slowly spun it around and grabbed (with chopsticks of course) items that came by. Then we all went to the waterfront, where we took a boat cruise up and down the river, with great views of both the Bund and Pudong. One interesting sidelight to this trip was that we got to the dock about 20 minutes late, and the boat had left and was nearly out in the middle of the river. Somehow You Sha convinced the managers on shore to call the boat back to the dock, and we all got on. I have never seen that happen before.
We have had an old friend visiting us for about a week—Yung Harbison, a long-time Boise resident who now lives in Richland, Washington. Yung is Chinese by birth and speaks Chinese and she has helped us understand many of the signs on the street, and explain the food that we are seeing and eating, and talking to taxi drivers and shopkeepers.
Monday Sharon and I went down to central Shanghai. We walked along the famous “shopping street” of Nanjing Road, while constantly being hassled by guys trying to sell us a variety of things—watches, t-shirts, etc.—very aggressively. Finally we ended up in People’s Square, a big park in the middle of town, kind of like Central Park in New York, with tall buildings all around. We visited a lovely lotus pond and had a drink in a restaurant on a pond while watching people fishing. Later heading out of the park for dinner, we began searching for a restaurant we knew about. Crossing busy streets is a challenge (the motorcycles and power bikes and some cars don’t obey stoplights so you need to be careful).
Immediately we were out of the “tourist” area—every sign was totally in Chinese characters. We couldn’t identify the restaurant we wanted—the name was spelled out in Pinyin (sort of phonetic Chinese spelled in English letters) in the guidebook, but no such signs were on any of the restaurants. Finally at one place, when we showed the owner? the writing in the book, there was some excited nodding of the head, so we figured this was it and went in. We were given a big 7 page menu. Fortunately, there were some English words under the Chinese characters, but still it was difficult to order. What do you think “upper part of pig’s leg with oil” would be like? We ended up having a great meal. It has beef with mushrooms in oyster sauce. Sharon said her fish, which was sort of butterfly carved with orange sauce, was one of the best meals she has ever had.

Well there’s lots more to tell, but this is more than enough for today.
Best wishes, Michael Bixby

First picture from Shanghai

Professor Michael Bixby and Shanghai program director You Sha

Hello from China

Hi gang,

We have now been here for 3 or 4 days, so time for a quick update. We are settled in our apartment, which is part of a complex of several buildings, between 8 and 16 stories tall. Our apartment building is #8 and we are on the 8th floor (elevator goes to 7). As you know from the Olympics, the Chinese believe 8 is a very lucky number (the Olympics started exactly at 8:00 on 8/8/08) so we're feeling lucky. We watched the closing ceremonies on our TV, in Chinese of course. No sign of NBC or Bob Costas, and we didn't see any shots of the American team--but it was spectacular. We have two tvs, but no English speaking channels and I can't get one of them to turn on, but the landlord has said he'll come soon and fix it.
Our apartment looks out over a lovely park (Zhabei park). We hear birds in the morning--early, it gets light about 5:30! We can look down and see lots of people walking, jogging, doing Tai chi and other exercises very early when we awake. Today Sharon and I went for a walk in the park, and saw lots of different activities going on, including couples doing ballroom dancing. Another group of women were doing a variety of moves with a sort of badminton/paddle racket and a ball where they would move their arms and bodies, twirl around and make various moves, but the ball would stay right on the racket, although it was not attached. Our first couple of days were pretty smoggy, but today the sky was clear and a beautiful blue color, probably because of a huge storm we had yesterday--lots of thunder and heavy rain. We could see the Pearl Tower very well from our balcony today--it was perfect weather.
When we walk out of our complex in another direction away from the park we go out on to a busy commercial street (Yanchang Road), and the University is just across the street. It is not a fancy street, just a series of small shops, stores, restaurants, people cooking things and selling stuff from their shops. There is an outdoor market and a few "convenience store" type places where you can buy basic supplies and one medium-size older grocery store down about two blocks. There is little or no English on the signs or from the people in the stores. We are really in a regular street in a normal part of Shanghai, not the ritzy upscale part where American businesspeople might go when they come here.
Today Sharon and I went to Beginning Chinese class in the morning. The teacher worked on teaching us sounds of various letters, combinations, and characters, and the tones that are so important for nearly 3 hours. The class was packed with students, mostly Americans, and we all had to speak up at various times--some of the Chinese sounds are difficult to say, very "foreign" to our American tongues.

Later the program director, You Sha (pronounced "yo sha") took Sharon and I to the local police station where we had to register and obtain a Temporary Residence Permit. It took nearly an hour to get there and fill out many papers, and finally get the important red stamp on our final papers, so I guess we can stay. I thought about making some jokes about my "checkered past" while we were standing for a long time at the window of the Shanghai police station, with this officer looking very seriously at the papers and passport information You Sha was giving them, but decided against it. Then we hailed a taxi in the middle of a very busy street, with cars, buses and motos and bikes going all around us--for the trip back to our neighborhood. Many people ride bikes and motos and there are regular width lanes on big streets just for them.
You Sha has been a great help on everything. She's sharp, fun, very organized and has lots of high energy. She arranged for a van to pick us up at the airport--way on the other side of Shanghai, met us at the apartment when we arrived and helped us get set up, took Sharon and I to lunch the next day at a very nice Sichuan restaurant, then led an orientation session for all (about 35) of the students and helped them deal with various issues, then took the whole group to another restaurant for a Chinese "banquet". She just stopped by the apartment to help us get our washer and DSL internet hookup going, and stayed to visit a bit. By the way, it has all been chopsticks when we go out--no sign of any knives or forks, so we've had to use the sticks! I seem to be getting most of the food to my mouth.

Sharon has cooked dinners here in the apartment the last couple of nights, so we decided to go out tonight. We went to a small "hole in the wall" place on our street that several people had told us had great dumplings. This small place had a few tables inside, and was maybe 10 ft. wide and 20 feet long--with the kitchen at the far end. We pushed our way in the door, got lucky when two guys got up and had great "window" seats. There were a few words of English on the back of the menu but none spoken. The dumplings were delicious and the whole experience was definitely "real." Cost of the dinner was about $2.00 total. There's more to tell, but it's late and I have my first 3 hour class tomorrow, so good night from Shanghai.
All best wishes,
Mike (with help from Sharon)

Michael B. Bixby
Professor, Legal Studies in Business
College of Business & Economics
Boise State University
Boise, ID 83725
(208) 426-3675