Posts Tagged ‘weather’

Just to keep you all in the loop with my bloging habits, I have set up the following schedule for the topics of my blogs (at least for the time being). On Monday – Friday I will blog about wushu, specifically about the training I have on each day, posting up any photos or videos that I might take. On Saturday I will blog a week-in-review of my non-wushu related activities (i.e. the other 22 hours of my day), and then on Sunday I will post up another chapter of my ongoing Wushu Retrospective.

On any days that I don’t have wushu, like this past Thursday, I will either blog something random and interesting, or I will take a day off from the blogosphere and perhaps focus on less important things — like earning a living.

So, in keeping with this brand new tradition, I will bring you up to date with the last week of my non-wushu life here in China.

I actually blogged a bit about this on Tuesday so there isn’t really too much to talk about. But here are the updates:

Travel Plans

Ruhi suggested looking in to getting a plane ticket down to Guangzhou instead of taking the train and, after looking at the ticket prices, I realized that it would only be another 50 RMB to take a plane instead of the train. On Friday I called up CTrip and booked a ticket leaving next Thursday afternoon.

Unfortunately Ruhi had to go to Beijing first, so I bid her farewell after we grabbed something to eat at Subway Sandwiches on Ke Ji Lu. Here are a few pictures I took of her before saying goodbye.

I just spoke with her a few minutes ago and she is safe and sound in Beijing as of Saturday evening.  She will be train-ing down to Guangzhou on Sunday/Monday and then take a quick trip to Zhuhai and Macau.

Meanwhile, I will spend the week working and wushu-ing until Thursday afternoon when I will fly to Guangzhou and spend the night in Hong Kong with Jack.  Then right back to Guangzhou the next morning to catch the train to Xi’an with Ruhi.  Probably the quickest trip to Hong Kong I’ve ever taken.  I will be in Southern China a total of 20 hours before heading back, and in Hong Kong for only 10 or so.

I feel like such a globetrotter!

Chinese Studies

I wanted to write a little bit about my Chinese studies too, since that is one of the things besides work and wushu that I have been focusing on these days.

I have both of my Tutors (Grace and Ada) on a rotating 2-week schedule.  So I meet with each one on alternating Saturdays.  Unfortunately due to a miscommication I wasn’t able to meet with Grace today so this is my first week off of Chinese tutoring since starting.

With my tutors I generally focus on three things:

First, we go over a specific topic that I want to learn vocabulary for.

For example, last time I met with Ada I asked her to teach me vocabulary related to learning Chinese.  Words such as “noun” (名词), “verb” (动词) and the like, as well as a couple phrases related to learning language like 废寝忘食 (Lit. “Less Sleep, Forget Eat” meaning you are so busy studying you don’t have time to sleep or eat) and 临急抱佛脚 (Lit. “Grabbing Buddha’s Feet” meaning a last ditch effort to ask for divine assistance with a test).

Last time I met with Grace I asked her to teach me words related to religion and philosophy such as 精神 (Spirit), 灵魂 (Soul) and 人类 (humanity).  Also how to express some of my own thoughts in to Chinese such as 我觉得所有的宗教同宗同源一位神. (“I think that the purpose of religion is to unify people”).

Second, we review my study of flash cards and I have them test me on how well I’ve learned them.

And Third, I ask them to recite a page from a book or some passage for me so that I can listen and practice speaking in the right way.  Basically providing me with a pronounciation guide.

On thing I’ve learned is that I have to limit the amount of time we talk about new vocabulary.  With Grace we ended up doing a whole hour on new vocabulary, but since I listen to the lessons after we meet during the week (while walking, working, etc.) an hour of new words is a bit too much to absorb.  20 – 30 minutes is just about perfect so I will try to limit the time spent on that area in the future. Also, I need to ask them for more examples of useage so that I get a better idea of how to use the new words.

Besides meeting with Tutors I also am working on learning all the radicals (all 214 of them) through my flash-card study.  This week I am going to start incorporating some actual characters/words in to my flash card study too, since learning radicals doesn’t actually help improve my useable vocabulary very much and I really need to start learning words.

I found a list of the Chinese words based on frequency of use, so I’m going to use that as my base for learning.  I just have to learn 1,000 to have an 89% comprehension of most written texts. Thats not too bad and I think that is certainly do-able over the next year.  So far since starting this just under 2 months ago, I’ve memorized arond 70 radicals.  Based on that rate I should have them all memorized by the time Spring Festival rolls around.  And by the end of 2010 I hope to have all 1,000 of the most frequent characters memorized (fortunately I already know at least 100 or 200 of them so that gives me a head-start).

A few other things I do when learning Chinese (or am going to start doing shortly) are …

1. Learn Chinese Songs: There are several sites that list out the characters, pinyin and translation for popular, folk and patriotic Chinese songs.  I’m going to try to pick up a few so that I can sing along at KTV or just belt out the Chinese National Anthem while walking through U.S. Customs and Immigration.

2. Watch Chinese TV shows: I got Doreamon, one of my all-time favorite Japanese animation shows, on DVD.  They speak Chinese which is going to be helpful with my listening practice.  I don’t have to memorize all the words, but I want to get used to listening to simple (i.e. animation-style) Chinese expressions and vocabulary on a regular basis.  I just wish that the subtitles weren’t in traditional characters …

3. Read Chinese Children’s Books: I’ve picked up a couple simple texts to practice reading and understanding.  The best books have just Chinese with supporting pinyin and no English so that I have to figure out the meaning of what I’m reading.  Just like a Chinese kid would have to do when they were learning to read for themselves.  I figure the best way to learn a language is organically, just like a child does.  So thats what I’m trying to do.

4. Writing a Chinese Journal: I won’t be starting this one until I’ve learned more characters, but I plan (probably around Spring Festival or maybe a bit earlier) to write a small journal in Chinese and have my tutors read it over and correct my grammar and word-useage.  I think that besides reading Chinese, writing Chinese is probably one of the best ways to get a grasp of the written language.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll even start blogging in only Chinese next year.  Anything is possible!

In case you haven’t seen it, here are a couple pictures of me with Grace, one of my tutors.  Just to prove that I’m actually making an attempt to learn some Chinese while living in China.

Besides Work, Wushu, Chinese and upcoming Travel there isn’t a ton of other things to blog about.  I have started up on my novel again.  I got really far behind in November with my illness and Anhui adventures so I decided to do my nanowrimo in December instead.  I finished another chapter earlier today and hope to get more out the door in the near future.

Its also been nice slowly getting to meet Ruhi’s Friends, and even making a few of my own through Wushu or learning Chinese.  I hope to get that English class with the wushu athletes going soon so that I can get some wushu socializing on the calendar.

By the way, after blogging about the smoggy weather, EVERY day since then has been sunny, warm and pleasant.  Its hard to believe it is December in China, but go figure.  Maybe I need to complain about the weather more often in my blog.

Until next time ….

As I saw some wushu folks leave the wushu hall building I showed one of them the schedule I had on my camera and asked them what the slot for this afternoon said.  My inclination that it was running outside, just like last Wednesday, turned out to be true.  So I headed over to the track to wait for my comrades in arms.

Perhaps because the weather was so nice (blue skies and lots of sun!) or maybe it was already on the schedule, but there were quite a few groups out on the field today.  One large Sanda group was playing soccer and another smaller group was doing 800 meter sprints around the track (ugh!)  There were a few rhythmic gymnastics girls doing a few laps and about groups of wushu children playing tag and getting some exercise.

When my group got there some of them looked surprised to see me.  I think it was because they were impressed that I would show up for what was supposed to be a very hellacious workout.  After we warmed up our joints together they started off on their jog around the track.

For the first 600 meters (lap and a half), I stayed with them, but then I walked a bit and started my own progression of jogs and walks.  This was the final tally for myself:

Run 600 / Walk 200
Run 200 / Walk 200
Run 200 / Walk 200
Run 400 / Walk 200
Run 200 / Walk 200
Run 200 / Walk 200
Run 400 / Walk 200
Run 200 / Walk 200
Run 200 / Walk 200
Run 200 / Walk 400

So, the total for me was 2.8 KM running and  2.2 KM walking.  5.0 KM total.  Each of my 400’s I did with the rest of the group, as it took them exactly two of my 200/200 rotations to catch back up with me.

Yue Xiao Yu was having knee issues so she stopped around the same time I did. We used the opportunity to practice some English.  It turns out she has an English test on the 19th of the month.  What I’ll usually do is say something in English and give her a moment to process it.  Then I’ll say it again in Chinese and then again in English to reinforce the sentence.  She seemed to be enjoying the opportunity to speak some English.

I found out from her that the other athletes were running much more than last time.  Before they ran 16 times around the track.  This time it was 25 times!  10,000 meters.  A 10K.

They weren’t running super fast (as you can see from the video down below) but they kept up a good clip the whole time.  It is impressive to me that they can just go off and run a 10K in the afternoon, but then I’m not much of a runner so my standards are lower.

After they finished they did some stretching on the side along the fence and then it was time to go.  Unlike last time there was no stretching in the wushu guan.  Class was finished and so I said goodbye and caught the bus home.

Coach Zhang wasn’t there again.  I heard from Xiao Yu that he was taking a class with another coach.  She wasn’t sure what they were learning, and wasn’t sure what his schedule was.  I guess athletes really don’t ask for information from their coach unless it is absolutely necessary.  Gotta keep those boundaries intact.

Tomorrow, according to the schedule, there is no training in the afternoon.  So that means I will have a day of rest before heading back to the Sports Center on Friday for some more strength training work with weights and conditioning.  Most likely I will be sore all weekend again.  Fortunately Ruhi found a back massager that is working wonders for me so I’m using that while I work and it has been helping immensely.  Thanks Ruhi!

Here is the video I took today.  As you can see, the weather was beautiful.  Hard to believe all that smog and fog from the day before.  But weather in Xi’an is nothing if not unpredictable (except perhaps to someone who looks up the weather reports online).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNdoXHYhNMI

Before I blog, I wanted to share something that I saw today.  You may recall that I mentioned that the winter smog from the coal burning and polution gets pretty bad here in Xi’an.  But we also get a bit of fog from time to time.  And when you combine the two things together, like we had today, it turns in to a pea soup the likes of which I never saw in my 14 years in the Bay Area.

Here are a few comparative shots from the morning and the afternoon so that you can get an idea of what it looked like from our living room window:

And just so you don’t think it looks like this all the time, here is a picture from just a month or so ago:

See?  Blue skies!

Anyway, back to the blog …

Three main things happened today in the World of Mark.  Well, okay … more than three things.  But three things that I’m going to blog about.

First, was figuring out what to do about our visa renewal.

We spent most of the early hours of the day (i.e. before lunch) going to the visa office and trying to get an extension on our tourist visas.  As we are in the process of closing down Ruhi’s company (after which we will probably start up a new one in 2010) we are technically in China as tourists.  As a result, I either have to leave the country every 30 days (60 for Ruhi) or get an extension.

As you will recall, last month I left the country and went to Hong Kong, only to end up spending a week in Anhui with the flu.  This time we decided to get a 30 day extension instead.

That is, until we found out that the cost of a 30 day extension for U.S. Citizens is 940 RMB ($140 USD), which is also the price of a full one-year multiple entry visa.  But only for 30 days!  Well, for less than 940 RMB we can just take the train down to Guangdong and hop across the border, so why spend all that extra money?

So, on Friday Ruhi will be traveling to Beijing for some meetings.  To save some money I will be going directly to Guangdong from Xi’an.  Sorry to Wu Di, Jenn, Chris, et al. for not being able to make it over to the capital this time around.  But Ruhi will be there in my stead for 2 days.

On Wednesday I’m going to catch a train down to Guangzhou and then hop across the border.  Ruhi will have already been staying in Guangzhou for a couple days and on Friday afternoon we will catch a train back up and get home on Saturday morning.  This time around I opted for the faster train, as the slower one is obviously not an option.  Who wants to go all the way to Anhui anyway?

Here is a map of Ruhi’s journey.  As I said, my route is just a straight back and forth from Xi’an to Guangzhou.

The second thing that happened today was a revamping of our home.

Yue A-yi was here to clean today so we took the opportunity to swap our bedroom and the second room around.  After several hours we have set up the place so that we’re both working in our “spare” room with all the natural light, and our sleeping room is the darker, more comfortable one that gets much warmer.  Plus we moved some furniture around in the main room.  I love optomizing my living space.  According to Ruhi I get a twinkle in my eye when I am in that mode.

And the third thing is (hopefully) a change to my training routine.

I called Yuan Ming earlier in the day and asked him for Coach Zhang’s phone number.  He didn’t have it, so I had to relay the message through him.  I told him that (1) I would not be able to make it today and that (2) I wanted to switch my workouts from the afternoon at 3:00 to the morning at 9:00.  He said he would talk to Coach Zhang for me.

In the evening I gave him a call but it turned out that Coach Zhang wasn’t there today.  Tomorrow morning they also don’t have training because there is a meeting, so I will just go in the afternoon as usual.  Then, assuming Coach Zhang is there, I can ask him about switching to the morning session.

Why switch to mornings?  Well, for one, it will make me more productive with my work.  I will have a bigger chunk of time to get things done during the afternoon and evening.  Also, I think it is better, physically, to exercise during the earlier hours of the day as it sets up your body’s metabolism and function better for the rest of your waking hours.

Plus, I just feel better when I train in the morning vs. the afternoon.

So, that is what happened today.  Tomorrow it is back to the wushu grind stone.  Today they had strength training, so tomorrow, I”m not really sure what is happening.  I’m hoping it is wushu, but it might be running too.  I’ll just play it by ear and make sure I am prepared for any contingency.

Until tomorrow …. here is a bonus picture that I swiped from Wu Di’s camera in Binzhou.  Enjoy!

NOTE: I got a few photos off my film camera so I’m posting them up with this entry, even though they are from the entire 10 day trip.

I had jokingly said to Ruhi that with my luck I would probably get to Hefei (合肥) just to find myself delayed overnight by the weather again.  Ironically it almost came true.

Workers at a Xi'an Airport cafe waiting for customers

My plan was to take a morning train from Fuyang to Hefei (3 hours), get my plane ticket at the e-Long office, and then catch my 5:20 flight at the airport, arriving in Xi’an around 7:00, and hopefully home in time to get some dinner and enjoy a bit of rest at home.

And it started out okay too.  I woke up around 7:00, cleaned up, packed my things (yay for being a light packer!), and then got a quick bite at the hotel’s free breakfast buffet (nothing to write home about) before checking out and catching a cab to the train station.

It looked like there had been a fresh coat of snow on the ground from the night before.  But the snow wasn’t falling very heavy, even though it was overcast.  And the snow was pretty minimal so I didn’t think too much of it.

At the train station I waited a few minutes before they let us on.  (I don’t really understand the huge rushing of people to get on the train, considering that all the seats are pre-assigned.  It isn’t like someone will swipe your seat, right?  Maybe it is for the overhead packing space …)

I know why they call them hard seats (硬座) now.  They are no gift to the lower back, that is for sure.  I spent a fair amount of time playing my Nintendo DS and thanked my lucky stars that I brought it along with me for some entertainment.  Thank you Mario Brothers!

Sidewalk eating in Shenzhen

I noticed as we were traveling that the snow level outside was getting  a bit deeper.  ”How come the farther south we travel, the thicker the snow?” I asked Ruhi rhetorically through SMS.  By the time we arrived in Hefei around 1:00 PM it was snowing pretty steadily.

I grabbed a taxi and gave them the address (intersection) of the ticket office where e-Long has their pick-ups.  It actually took me a lot of walking around to find the place.  If you didn’t know where it was, you wouldn’t know where it was.  And that was the case for me.  It was purely by accident when I got there and they handed me my ticket.  I had actually asked the person at the counter what their address was (bad labeling on the buildings) and the lady next to her handed me my ticket.

Getting a taxi from there to the airport took another 30 minutes, but I still managed to arrived about an hour before the scheduled check-in time for my flight.  The guy told me to come back at 3:50.  So I had a sandwich and drink at the airport restaurant.

3:50 rolls around and the ticket counter has plenty of customers but nothing is happening.  4:00 .. 4:20 … By 4:30 we’ve been told that the flight hasn’t left the city of origin on its way to Hefei due to weather conditions.  Once they know if there is going to be a plane or not, we will know if we are flying out or not.

I got on the phone and ASKED Ruhi to  help me book a hotel in Hefei for the night. Just in case.

Bill sticks his tongue out at the horrible tang su li ji

But as soon as I hung up the phone with her there was a flurry of activity and it turned out the plane was cleared to come to Hefei.  I stood in line and got my boarding pass.  Seat 20A on Tianjin Airlines.  My first time to fly with them.

Now, getting your boarding pass just means you have a seat assignment.  But until the plane actually shows up, who knows if you will actually get to where you are going.  We sat in the gate area for a long time waiting.

5:30 … 6:00 … 7:00 … 8:00 … 9:00 … And the same announcement over the intercom.  ”Your flight has been delayed due to weather conditions.  Thank you for your patience”.

And all the while other flights were dropping like flies.  ”Flight MU3948 to Beijing has been cancelled .. Flight CZ2349 to Tianjin has been cancelled … ” It was like waiting for the worst lottery ever …

At 9:45 we were suddenly told that we could board the plane.  We could board?  I didn’t even know it had arrived!

We scrambled to the bus which took us out to the tarmac and on to the plane.  It turned out there were only about 30 passengers on the flight, which means everyone had some nice room to relax.  I spent the time studying my Chinese flash cards and playing my Nintendo DS.  Oh .. and a bit of sudoku during take-off and landing …

My hotel room in Fuyang, Anhui

Now, this whole time I hadn’t told Ruhi that I had gotten on the plane.  Part of me, I admit, was scared that as soon as I said “I”m coming!” they would announce that the plane had a case of the measels, or it had colided with Santa Claus, or that gnomes had hijacked the airport and we were all going to be auctioned off as slaves in an underworld blackmarket operation.

The other part of me wanted to surprise her.  She was expecting me to possibly not be showing up at all that night. Especially considering how late it was.  Before we got on the plane I said that I was turning my phone off to conserve battery and that I would call her back when I got more information.

Then, after we landed in Xi’an, I called her again and told her that the airline was going to put us up in a hotel for the night and asked her to cancel the other reservation she had made for me.  (That could have been a signal right there, since airlines in China don’t really do that unless you are flying international and missing a conneciton, especially not Tianjin Airline on a 2 hour domestic route.)

I walked pretty much straight from the airplane, through the airport, and in to a taxi which drove me the 150 RMB (about $22) trip home (!!!!).  That might be cheap in the U.S. for 45 minutes in a cab, but here it feels pretty pricey.  As I was entering our building and going up the elevator I tried to call her but didn’t get through.  But she called me back and as I got off the elevator I said “Oh, hold on … I need to use the restroom.  I’ll call you back.”

Then I came in the front door and said “Excuse me.  I’m looking for a restroom?”

She was pretty surprised. ;-P

Train-side snow on the way from Fuyang to Hefei

And I was pretty tired.  Still a tickle in my throat, but for the most part none too worse for wear.  What was originally supposed to be a 2 day trip to Hong Kong ended up including a week in Anhui, a brush with the swine flu and the storm of the century.

The best part of the trip was that I pack well so I was prepared for what happened.  I had warm enough clothes, I had the ability to get food and lodging, and I even had flu medicine in my emergency travel kit (never leave home without it!).

Of course, the worst part of the trip was missing a week of wushu, being stuck in the middle of no-where (no offense Fuyang fans), and being the sickest I’ve been in a few years.  But these things happen and it isn’t anything that you can control.  Sometimes you just have to take things as they come and make the best of the situation.

Especially living in China.  Where you never know what is going to happen.

Hong Kong will always have a special place in my heart.

Not for the friendships I made there, which were quite wonderful and heartfelt.

Nor for the experience it provided me with social networking and alivenotdead.com.

Not even for being the place where I picked up my limited Cantonese, learned how to jog, began to appreciate traditional kung fu, or discovered an affinity for herbal tinctures and naturopathic medicine.

Hong Kong has a special place in my heart for one major reason: The HEAT.

Before living in Hong Kong, I had never been around so much heat and humidity for longer than a summer at a time, maybe 5 months, max while in Shanghai.  But in Hong Kong?  Even the winters are warm and the summers are downright ridiculous.

It wasn’t until my second year in Hong Kong that I began to acclimate to the heat (even given my increased natural insulation), and when I visited Beijing the summer after leaving Hong Kong I was amazed at how much less “muggy” and “hot” northern China felt to me than in previous years.

However, all that seems to have changed, and my exposure to the winters of Eastern Idaho and the initial cold fronts (albeit rather tame ones) in Xi’an have made my body forget exactly what it means to be truly, uncomfortably hot and sweaty.

So, when I came to Hong Kong to get my visa renewed, I was struck at just how hot and muggy it still was, in November, of all months.  Beijing had already received a light snow a week or two before, but here in Hong Kong people were walking around with flip flops and shorts.

The plan, however was pretty simple.  Stay 2 days in Hong Kong, grab the last suitcase of things from Jack’s place, and take a train back to Xi’an, arriving in time to get to Friday’s wushu class with the Shaanxi Wushu Team.

And as much as I enjoyed my time in Hong Kong, seeing good friends, including the boys at alivenotdead, I wasn’t terribly sad to be heading back up north.  If for no other reason than to be heading to cooler climes and lower temperatures.

Now this starts to fall in to the “be careful what you wish for” category of stories, because it went from hot to freezing (Not to mention feverish), literally over night.

From Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, I grabbed a train that would take me the 34 hours up to Xi’an.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but this particular train took the Looooooong way up and we actually would go through Anhui province, which is closer to the ocean than it is to Xi’an.  Here is a map of the train route, to give you an idea …

Not exactly a direct route.  It looks more like the number 7 had a stroke.  Which would actually be accurate if it had gone through the same climate shift that I experienced during my travel.

As we left Shenzhen on the train I was lamenting that there was no a/c on the train and the staff had all of the windows on the train open.  But pretty soon it started to cool off.  In the morning I woke up and it was downright chilly on the train.  I could even see my breath when going to the dining car.  And not a small wisp of steam either.  I looked like a chain smoker with an invisible cigarette.

At around 10:00 or so we stopped at a station.  Wasn’t sure where it was.  The stations in China have very poor sinage, (unless you are standing across the street from the main entrance, which is kind of silly since most people entering a station from the front door probably know where they are) but my random guess was Wuhan (since I inaccurately assumed that we were taking a more direct route).

Practically Shandong Province!

I went to eat lunch in the dining car around 11:30 and the man who was sitting at my table said that we were in Anhui province in a town called Fuyang, and that we were stuck here because of the snow.

The snow?  What snow?  Wasn’t I just sweating to death the day before?  And what were we doing in northern Anhui?  That was practically Shandong Province!

It turns out that one of the biggest snow storms of the last 60 years happened during the night while I was sleeping and our train was stuck at the station until the tracks ahead of us could be cleared out.  Over the next 10 hours I would learn that, not only were we stuck, but our train, being a slower one, had a lower priority so we would have to wait until around 300 other trains had moved first.  (I was told that number by one of the people on the train, but I have a feeling it might have been an exageration.  Still … even 10% of that is 30 trains …)

By the time evening came around I realized that we would be stuck for quite a while. One of my cabin-mates (a nice young man from Qinghai) decided to disembark and try our luck in the city.  Actually, for him it was a matter of necessity.  He belongs to an ethnic minority in China that makes it so that can’t eat the food on the train.  He had brought enough food for the trip, but not if you factor in a day or two of waiting around in Anhui.

And you thought driving in China was dangerous in the summer??

We got out of the station, and froze our way in to a taxi.  He accompanied me to a hotel that Ruhi had been kind enough to reserve for me online.  For some reason, though, he didn’t join me in staying there.  Perhaps he just wanted to make sure I was safe? In any case, I checked in to the hotel, marveled that my room had a bathtub and soaked for about 30 minutes in a porcelain bucket of piping hot water.

All was going well so far.  I would check with the front desk on ways to go to Xi’an the next day and after a day or two in Fuyang I could be on my way back to Xi’an, hardly missing a beat.

That is, until I got a visit from one incredibly nasty case of the flu …

To Be Continued …