Things you didn't know about china (Part 2)

• Many things in china speak, even though you wouldn't expect them to. Calculators speak. The buses here talk. They say many interesting things in Chinese, and then they repeat it in English. For example, they say "please keep your balance, the bus is about to move" or "it's prohibited to put explosives inside the bus". I wonder if that would have worked in Israel also.
• In the old town of Dali, which is a very peaceful and pastoralic place, there's a lot of Ganja. In fat, there is so much of it, that the old ladies of the town try to sell it to you in every opportunity they have. You cannot walk the streets without having 3 old ladies, and I mean old, attack you with their discrete whispers: "Do you want to smoki Ganja? Hashish?" and so on and so forth. All this happens, of course, in broad day light in the most crowded streets. The prices are very convenient, by the way. One bag of Ganja, so we've heard, costs around 20 Yuan, which are 10 Israeli Shekels. Someone should alert Gonen Segev.
• The people of the Yunnan province tend to omit the ASAROT when they speak or when they tell you the price for something. For example, if making your laundry costs 60 Yuan, they will tell you 6. This, as one should guess, may lead to many awkward situations, that probably will end in very frustrated Chinese woman who thought really worked hard on the laundry because she actually thought she'd get 60 Yuan for the job, but eventually got only 25. Oh well.
  
• The trash-collecting-cars (that is, OTO ZEVEL) here don't come with smelly dirty workers who make noise early in the morning. Rather they play a very pleasant tune when they pass in the streets. The people hear this tune and rush to the street to throw their garbage. It's really funny, I know, but it's such a bizarre thing to see that I felt the need to share it.
• The employees of any big working place (like a supermarket or a big department store) have a very distinctive work division. Everyone has their uniform according to his job. There are the women who stand along the tea shelves, and there are the women who stand aside the toilet paper shelves. In the entrance to the store there's a big poster with all the employees' pictures, names and positions in the store. They all look pretty unhappy in these pictures. Also, they have to enter the working place, usually early in the morning, organized in two rows, according to their positions in the working place. In fact, all of this is damn creepy. This and the fact that there is someone beside each and every shelf in the supermarket, and they tend to help you with choosing things you don't really need. Actually we almost winded up buying an exercise machine to strech your hands, when all we needed was glue.
  

On a personal note

We thought it would be nice to share with you this mail that Nirit sent to one of her friends that studies with her:

I read your comments at our blog, but I can't answer back through the blog.
first of all, I hope you had fun in Slovenia, and that you finished your exams already.
I just wanted to say about the Chinese thing, I don't want to get your expectations too high.
I manage to talk with them, but most times it's just the basics: where is something, I want to buy a ticket, how much is that and so on.
it happens quite frequently that I try to ask someone something a little more complicated and then he answers a long "bla bla bla" which I absolutely don't understand. So most of the time I back off and say, well, I didn't understand but thanks. Only in a number of times when I feel the other person is more patient, I ask them to say again or try to ask the question differently. It is hard, more than I expected after 3 years of studying. The worst place was at Chengdu, where for some weird reason, they don't pronounce the "H". So they say "si" instead of "shi", "ci "instead of "chi"...etc. It was unbelievable, as if you don't have enough meanings to each word as it is. That way 4 sounds like 10 and you can guess the rest. Horrible!!!
the more south we went, the more they don't understand me well. Although on the smaller places I get along better.
sometimes on the trains people begin talking with me, and if they are really curious we have a very funny, half broken Chinese half broken English, conversations.
yesterday I had an amazing experience. We went to this temple where they teach Kong Fu and Tai Qi by orphan children who live there. We met there an Israeli girl who spent the last two weeks there and she gave the kids some English lessons. When she heard I can speak a little Chinese she asked if I can help her in class. So we gave them the lesson and the kids were really cute and so eager to learn. And I think they were happy to have someone that can speak both Chinese and English so they can communicate better.

wow, that was very long. Sorry about that. Anyway, it's hard but it was worth it all along. So don't give up.

just a small request of our loyal readers

some of you, family and friends have read and commented our blog (mostly thanks to you dad, Tzvika). we are really excited to read your comments and to know you travel with us a little.
it would be great if you wrote your e-mail address so we can write you back, because we can't answer back personally through the blog.

keep reading and have fun,
US

A little sum-up

Almost without noticing the 4th week of our trip is about to end. Times does pass slower around here, since everyday is so full of amazing things, places and people, but apparently it does go by.
We changed plans a little bit, but it's a good thing because we adjust ourselves to this crazy place. We gave up going to Honk-Kong because of technical difficulties regarding our visas (nothing important, just never trust ISSTA Mount-Scopus to arrange things for you...), and decided to dedicate more time to Shanghai and it's surroundings. It's been 4 days since we got to Dali, and we were supposed to go on a 2 days tai-chi course in a temple up the mountains, but when we got there today we found out that you can't stay there less than 4 days. That would have been ok but unfortunately we can't begin the course before Saturday, and that doesn't really fit our plan, so we gave it up. Never the less today's visit to the temple, seeing the amazing orphan children that live there and teach KongFu and Tai Chi, the practice itself and all of the spiritual atmosphere in the place, were worth the climb up the mountain. Nirit even took part in an English lesson the kids had, and they really loved the fact that their teacher finally knows chinese.
Anyway, we have 5 more weeks to go. tomorrow we'll extend our visas, get a full-body massage and then leave to Kunming, the Yunnan province capital city.

Countryside pics

For those of you who asked for it (were there any?), here are some real pics from the real chinese countryside as seen at the southern Yunnan province. Enjoy!

The old city of Lijiang





Villages along Tiger Leaping Gorge






The old town of Dali




Villages around Erhai lake (near Dali)




Zhoucheng Village







Xizhou Village

• A brief comment to God: The world does not seem to fully understand that when a man goes on summer vacation, he does not expect it to rain.

Pictures from the dark side...

Having the bigget lunch ever at ZhongHe Shan (a very high mountain) near Dali

Shaul on the stairway to heaven on the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek

Passage for short chinese people

Nirit is happy that the Tiger trek is finally over...

Great satisfaction after a 2 hour muddy climb on ZhongHe Shan

Riding on a Tuk-Tuk with a crazy chinese woman driver

At our best during the Tiger trek

Nirit doesn't really want to eat corn

Small communists plan to take over the world at ZhouCheng village

Lookout! This woman is about to drive!

Nirit is thinking about finding a new partner for the trip (instead of the current one)

Old people cheating on Ma-Jong remicube (at Dali)

The talles chinese noodels maker alive at Lijiang (he made us some fine spicy noodels...)

Tiger Leaping George

Finally we got out of the city a little bit. After 2 rainy days in Lijiang we drove to a little village named Qiaotou there we began, together with a bunch of other israelies, the tiger Leaping George trek. it's not really a trek, more like a 2 day trip, but who cares. The path went up the mountains, and after a couple of hours of tough climb we reached the summit. from there we could see the amazing view of the Yang Tze river digging it's magnifisant way through the deep canyon. the view was something out of this world, and the walk was worth it all.


along the path there are many tea houses and guesthouses with many chinese villagers who are dying for some westerns to leave their money at their hands. just before it got dark we arrived the "half-way guest house" were we stayed for the night. all we israelies had a very big and nice friday night dinner and chat about how china is a strange place, and how we miss little things back home. at some point, not surprisingly, we started talking about the army and stuff like that, and had a lot of laughs.


Before we went on the trek we spend some time at Lijiang, which is a really small town, in chinese terms. it's very touristic, but just a pleasent and not too agressive as Beijing. We slept in a very very odd guesthouse called Ma-Ma Naxi, after the bossy mama that runs it. she's a bit crazy, and gives everybody bananas and weird chinese masscouts. the food here was great, and that's not so common in china, and it's full of israelies, so all in all we had a good time.



We are already 3 weeks in china, and i think only now we really got used to the idea that we are here. it's a very different place from what we know. the mentality, the people, the toilets... after the initial shock i think we started to understand how things work around here.

And then some pictures!

The chinese really like to take pictures with their cell phones

Nirit and waterfalls at the JiuZhaiGou park

One of the many beautiful lakes at the JiuZhaiGou park

That's us at the JiuZhaiGou park

Nirit in front of one of the 9 Tibetian villages at the JiuZhaiGou park

Prayer flags at the tibetian village

Shaul thinks he's a geografical photografer

An old tibetian man with his Yak (from the crosswords!!!)

A list

This will probably be a little long, so you don't have to read it all.

• China's guide to driving a bus:
  1. Always honk your horn. the more the better. the louder the better. crazy, long, peace-disturbing horns are recommended.
  2. there is no point learning any more rules. there just aren't any. just drive like a madman, and don't forget to horn.
  3. If you won't get there first - you won't get there at all! this is why you have to bypass every single vehicle you see, even if it's in a middle of a totally dark tunnel.
• China's guide to building a Toilet:
  1. Build an avarege size room.
  2. dig a narrow long hole in the ground
  3. congradulations, you're done!!!!
• on the way to JiuZhaiGou park and back, we saw many sights, many people from the kind that we've never seen before. Tiny villages spreaded all over the mountains. Rice terraces and corn fields cover the land. Their lives are so simple, that we can't even understand it from our western point of view. because of this lack of mental capability we sometimes mistake it to be a pittyful life, a life of poverty, despair and want. But it's not necessarily so. from their point of view, maybe, their lives are complete. they have what they wnat. they supply their own needs of food, clothing and shelter. they have their friends. they really don't need much more.
• China's guide for riding a bus:
  1. spit anywhere you want.
  2. you can pee in the trash can.
  3. please vomit all over the place, please. oh, and there's no need to clean up after you.
• The more we go south things are changing. the people become more simple, more rough. the dialect changes, so Nirit says, and the views, too. High mountains with their heads in the sky, vast valleys covered with rice fields. It looks like nothing have changed in the last couple of centuries. The people still wear their straw hats, and carry their straw-baskets filled with corn or rice or whatever it is they grow. They walk miles and miles till the next town to sell their crop. they don't use heavy machinery but rather the same methods their great grand-fathers used. they still wear Mao suits and Mao hats that looks like they were taken out of the seventies. sometimes it looks as if time has forgotten these people, and they don't seem to bother about it.

We arrived to Lijiang, a small town in the southern Yunnan county. the food is still spicy, but good. It's a little bit difficult for our stomachs, but we'll manage. We'll be here for a couple of days and then go on doing the Tiger Leaping Gorge Trek for a little while. We are glad to leave the big filthy cities and move to small villages of colorful people.

Just some pictures!

Terra-Cota Warriors near the city of Xi'an

A giant panda in the special breeding center in Chengdu

The small pigglet in our great hostel in Chengdu

Bell tower at the Wen Shu temple in Chengdu

Nirit at the Summer Palace outside Beijing

An old man drawing Chinese Caligraphy in water at the Tian Tan park in Beijing