The green grass is afraid of your foot!

Hello friends and family,

Once again, my dear friend Abby is posting this for me, as the

Internet here will no let me access the blog or the photo sites :( It

seems it will just have to wait until Vietnam I guess...

Anyway, we are currently in Suzhou,  and today was our last full day

here.  We love it here, the hostel is nice, the street it's on is a

no-cars street lined by canals and teahouses, and there is plenty of

shopping.  The weather has been fabulously warm and sunny (the sky is

almost blue! We can almost see it through the smog!) and hopefully

will continue for a few more days.  Tomorrow we take a short train

ride to Shanghai, where we get to stay in a Real Hotel, oh my gosh.

A few days ago we were in Nanjing, a former capital of China.  It is

the site of the Nanjing massacre of world war ll, which was the reason

we stopped in the city.  The memorial museum was extremely

informative, and stunningly beautiful, in a slightly depressing but

heroically commemorative way.  It was well worth the stop in an

otherwise bland city.

Our days before that were in Xi'an, the famous site of the terra cotta

warriors, another fascinating visit.  We very much enjoyed our tour

guide, who we hired just outside the entrance, as she helped us

understand what we were seeing more fully.

For two of the days we were in Xi'an, I took a mini trip to the Hua

Shan mountain, one of the five sacred mountains of Buddhism in China.

I met a nice couple from Beijing that spoke English and let me hike

with them. We hiked up together, stayed in a hostel on the mountain,

and hiked to each of the four peaks the next day before going back

down.  It was spectaluar.  On our way up, it had started to snow, and

by the time we reached one of the summits we were above the snow

clouds and the whole mountop was coated in a soft white fluffy

blanket, perfect for picture taking.  I was glad I had decided to put

on ALL of my clothing for the trip, it was cold! The scenery was

fantastic, though: it was the perfect type of rugged, steep, sheer

cliffs with twisty trees hanging off the edges, broken and smoothed

over giagantic rocks, and bamboo groves hidden within the interior.  I

was in heaven.  It was a really tough climb, especially with the newly

fallen snow that turned the shallow stairs into slip n' slides, but it

was completely exhilarating and breathtaking the whole time.  I'm very

glad I "conquered" the mountain, as my new friends told me after we'd

finished because now, they said, I could conquer anything.

So, I would like to say few things about the Chinese people after I

spent 36 hours with two very helpful Beijing natives.  The culture

here in China is very different, very ancient, and very set in its

ways.  But it has been fascinating to learn firsthand.  Here are some

interesting tidbits:

1. The Chinese are very excited whenever they see Westerners.  If they

know any English whatsoever, they will say (or shout) it to you. They

are mostly excited because they like to share their culture and their

nation, they are very proud of China, and very proud to have

foreigners come visit.  If they do not know much English, or if they

do, they may want to take a picture with you.  Once one person in the

group starts the trend, it is likely that you will be in pictures with

four or five people successively.  They will be particularly exited if

you make a peace sign for the photo.  All three of us have been in so

many pictures with Chinese people, we have decided we could probably

get away with living off royalties, especially if we start offering

autographs.  For example, just today, all three of us were requested

to pose for a toothless old man, first all together, then two by two

linking arms with him, then finally one by one in a nice hug, with

christa receiving a kiss on the forehead at the end.  It actually

wasn't creepy at all, he  was just very excited to see white girls, he

was very grandfatherly--it was kinda cute.

2. Chinese toddlers are almost as popular as westerners.  Most of the

time they are being watched over by their grandparents during the day,

possibly one, likely all four at once.  This, I believe, is primarily

because the one child policy obviously only gives one child per four

grandparents, and they probably argue over said child incessantly and

always wish to be in the presence of said miracle perfect child.

These toddlers are greatly encouraged to be social and interact with

other humans (particularly foreigners) on their daily outings, as the

grandparents generally feel their grandchild is hopelessly depraved

for companionship if they don't have one sibling, let alone seven, as

they did growing up.

3. Chinese motorists are very skilled at using that thing on their

vehicle that makes a loud noise to alert people and warn them they are

approaching fast and not slowing down at all so you'd better be moving

now and be out of the way very soon and even after they pass they'll

still be making all that noise just so you know they are in charge

here and don't you forget it.  I say that "thing that makes noise"

because it is not always your typical car horn.  It can be a bell, a

whistle, a faded batteries-out honk, an alarm,a pretend siren, a fire

truck siren, an amplified voice, or any other number of loud noises

you can imagine.  Also, these vehicles are not just cars and trucks.

They are motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, electric bicycles, bicycles

with trailers, rickshaws, miniature three-wheeled pickup trucks, and

covered wagon-type motorbikes for carrying people. It's exhausting

constantly hearing the noise and trying to get out of the way for

these people in a hurry.

4. Blowing your nose in public in frowned upon, but hacking up what

should have come out your nose and spitting it out in the middle of a

crowd is absolutely fine.  The noise is horrendous, it often sounds

like the person is literally throwing up, and it happens constantly.

5. Back to the first point, about how fascinating foreigners are, many

Chinese are too shy to come talk to us or ask for a photo with us.  If

this is the case I can expect to have people walk very close to me,

staring the whole time and examining me as if I were a specimen behind

glass.  I've had people circle me, some are bold enough to reach out

as if to see if I'm real, and young children will often stare, point,

giggle to their friends and pssibly shout "hello!" before running away

madly.  The most exciting for them, however, is if we reply.  When one

says "hello" and we reply in English, giggles follow.  If we reply in

Chinese, it is most likely to be followed by applause with fierce

laughter. Either way, it is as if they weren't quite sure we were

real.  This happens most often with school-age children, teenagers,

and the elderly.

6. Chinese women are proud of and admire our curves.  We have all

received compliments by locals, usually shopkeepers, on our lovely

curvy figures.  Unfortunately, the fact that we have curves makes it

very difficult to buy proper-fitting Chinese clothing, but they don't

seem to mind too much.  Although, they are always concerned about how

cold we must be and heartily suggesting we wear more clothing. It's a

catch 22.

7. The English translations on signs are extremely amusing.  I believe

I put a few examples up on the photo site, but I think I will make an

entire scrapbook out of them eventually.  There are young Chinese who

fully support this "language" that is referred to as Chinglish and

wish to see it continued.  Chinglish is a cultural phenomenon because

it allows English-speaking people who do not know Chinese to learn a

bit about the culture.  Chinese does not have verb tenses, all verbs

are in the "present tense" as we would call it. Thus, "to repect grass

and flowers not to tread" makes sense. "The green grass is afraid of

your foot" reminds one of the cryptic governmental policies, as well

as the implied respect for nature as a living entity.  "Slip

carefully" is a way to say step carefully or you may slip, however it

is implied that you are slipping as you step, so just do it with care

and don't blame us!

Okay, I will have to add more later as there are so many wonderful

aspects of the culture here that I need to recuperate before

continuing on. I send my love and thoughts to all, we are having a

great time and i can't wait to share my photos with you!

Love love love,
Maia