National Park Tour

On Tuesday, Simon and I left on a 'tour' - a guided trip - of part of Eastern Mongolia. We went with a friend of Simon's named Leslie from Beijing and 2 Dutch girls whom we met at the hostel, Hanneke and Tamara. On the first day, we drove for about 2 hours to get to Terelj National Park. We made frequent stops to look at a ovoo, a sacred pile of stones in shamanism, ride a camel, hold a falcon, and climb inside a cave that sheltered some lamas during Soviet times. We were all very grateful for the stops as most of the roads in Mongolia are more like dirt ruts and the van was very bumpy in the back!

Once in Terelj National Park, we saw the infamous Turtle Rock and hiked up to a monastery that is still active today. The hike was a welcome change from the bumpy ride, and the view from the top was amazing. It was also very interesting to hear about Buddhism from our guide, who was Buddhist, and to see the colorful monastery. There were 108 round turn-y things ringing the monastery; 108 is a lucky number in Mongolia because Genghis Khan had 108 loyal lieutenants. The turn-y things (I don't know the name, sorry) are partly to send good wishes to those you are thinking about and partly as pre-meditation for worship in the temple. The inside of the monastery had pictures of 'arhats' all along the wall, people who had attained perfect renunciation of worldly things and become like Buddha. It was a very peaceful place and made me wish I could just sit and think there.

The second day we did some hiking along a random trail we found near our campsite and I managed to convince the others that bouldering in Mongolia can be fun ;) We also went to a huge statue of Genghis Khan which has just been built. Its possible to go up inside and, strangely enough, you emerge from between his legs to gaze out onto the plain below. All of the signage and the movie onsite made it very plain that Mongolians are very proud of Genghis Khan and the Mongolian empire, and there seems to be a massive re-branding of his image currently ongoing. During Soviet times, it was very uncool to like Genghis Khan and he was viewed as an evil tyrant, but now Mongolians can once again be proud of their national heritage.

Both nights while on tour, we stayed in gers, which are Mongolian felt round dwellings which can be collapsed and rebuilt in around 30 minutes. They are great for the nomadic lifestyle which many Mongolians lead during the warm months to follow their herds. We had meals cooked by the families at each site. Mongolian food is very heavy on lamb meat and fat and dairy products, with assorted noodles and dumplings for carbohydrates with very little vegetables. I can see that such a diet is important for subsisting in a cold and harsh climate. The first evening we learned several traditional Mongolian games involving ankle bones, and the second we were treated to a performance of a Mongolian fiddle by one of the men at the ger where we were staying.

Unfortunately, something I ate the second night did not agree with me and I spent the night very nauseated and vomiting intermittently. It was freezing outside so I was stuck inside with all 4 co-travelers right on the floor next to me, and the Mongolian family on the couch - I felt so bad for my sound effects! The next day, the family insisted that I allow them to wrap my abdomen very tightly for the car journey, and they also suggested that I put a sheep turd in my belly button as a way of pulling out the bad things causing me to be sick. At this suggestion, for a split second I was caught in indecision - were they joshing me, trying to see if the white girl would believe them and do something gross? Or were they serious and I risked offending them by saying no? I decided offending them was worse than a little crap, and for the rest of the day I carried a tiny pellet of shit next in my belly button...the efficacy of which can be argued, but it is true that I did not vomit any more!

On the third day we did some horseback riding and saw another monastery and museum. The day mostly passed in a haze as in addition to feeling nauseated I was coming down with a cold as well, and I was glad to return to Ulaanbaatar and an unmoving hostel bed that night.

As before, click on the last image for a slideshow.

First Days in UB City

After arriving in Ulaanbaatar and discovering our hostel, the Golden Gobi, Simon and I headed out to explore the city.  Our first stop was the State Department store, just a stone's throw away from the hostel and keeper of all sorts of cashmere and souvenirs of which we would later avail ourselves.  For the moment, we were content to gape at various traditional Mongolian hats and capes and get a map and Mongolian Tugriks from the ATM - at a colossal 1 dollar to 1323 Tugriks!  Next we walked through the famous Sukhbaatar Square which was the site of the peaceful demonstrations in 1990 which resulted in the ousting of Communism from Mongolia and the dawn of the current democracy.  The square now has several government buildings and museums as well as a statue of Sukhbaatar and Chingis Khan and tons of kids playing and teenagers hanging out.

The "Government House" in Sukhbaatar Square

After the store, we decided we'd start our relationship with UB City by exploring its parks - namely the National Culture and Recreation Park, just south of downtown.  Passing through the city it seemed like the whole place was under construction, and the open manholes were ubiquitous.  Once we got into the park however, we wanted to rename it to the National Desolation Park, as it was apparent the whole area was under construction and no longer in use as a park.  We actually got trapped in the park for a bit as all the exits marked on the map were blocked!  That evening we tried to find Mongolian food but ended up with Russian instead as neither of us can read Mongolian and restaurants all kind of look the same from the outside.  I actually had Czech moussaka - not as good as Greek!

A particularly poignant picnic bench

The following day, we decided to start with the Museum of Political Persecution - not a good place to start our introduction to Mongolia as it turns out, as the English captions were minimal and the flow of the museum really assumed we knew more about Mongolian Soviet history than we did.  Nevertheless, it gave us something to think about and we put some of the puzzle pieces together later in the trip.  Leaving the museum we realized there was an additional 8000T price tag for picture taking - those 2 pictures the museum guy had seen me take were my most expensive yet!

Unfortunate souls labeled as Japanese spies in the 1930s by the Soviet state

After the museum, we went to the Choyjin Lama Monastery Museum which had an impressive collection of small temples and information about Mongolian Buddhism.  The temples were so colorful as to be almost psychodelic and included frightening imagery such as body parts dripping blood and grotesque dance masks.  There were many images of the Buddha in different positions and each temple was dedicated to a different manifestation.  I had my first introduction to tantric religious statuary as well!    I left the complex wishing I knew more about Buddhism in order to understand the temples better.

The outside of the Choyjin Lama Temple complete with ger art shop

The last thing we did before leaving UB City for our 3-day tour of some Mongolian countryside was attend a Mongolian Song and Dance Ensemble.  It was truly amazing and very impressive.  We saw many different traditional dances, shamanistic rituals expressed through dance, and heard a small band perform several 'short songs' or 'not as long traditional songs'.  There were several performers who did some throat singing which is a very striking method of singing 2 notes at once using vibrations in your throat and glottis.  I have some videos which I am working on compressing and will post soon - definitely worth watching!  The last dance was a Buddhist mask dance involving various evil-faced masks being warded off by gods and an old grandfatherly shaman.  We both left the performance very impressed and thinking about all elements of Mongolian culture we had just been privileged to see.

The closing dance of the evening.

Tomorrow, check back for the story of our tour in eastern Mongolia!  Click on the (random Mongolian grocery store) picture below to see a slide show of more pictures from our first days in Ulaanbaatar.

Trans-Mongolian Railway

I am going to break my Mongolia stories into chunks to make them more manageable, so I will start with the voyage to get there.  Simon and I left early 2 Saturday mornings ago, and it was pouring down rain when we left our apartments to get to the train station (Murphy, thank you very much).  We both managed to stay mostly dry, and had fun investigating our new compartment in the deluxe section of the train.  There were only two ticket options and as I 1) don't speak Chinese and 2) have heard horror stories about long train journeys on hard benches, I had gone for the higher price, only to find that it was deluxe class as opposed to soft sleeper class.  Oh well, I've wasted $100 in worse ways.

Simon in our compartment

 The trip through China was pleasant enough; we started with some spectacular views of mountainous terrain followed by some cornfields, broken up by occasional towns and cities.  I think it was valuable to get an idea of the geography, even if the actual terrain became monotonous after a while.  I did some work and Simon learned some chinese, and we both wondered why it seemed like our toilet was flushing constantly, until we realized the stewardesses were using our bathroom as a changing room/toilet since there was no one in the room next to us.  They cleaned it often as well though so it was ok.  We had dinner in the dining car and Simon and I discussed the possibility that I am allergic to MSG as I always get sick after eating cheap Chinese food -- Simon probably thinks I just stay nauseated all the time, more to come on this later!

 At the Chinese border, we had to stop for several hours while Chinese border police cleared us to leave - the longest time its ever taken a country to let me LEAVE before!  A bunch of people gathered outside the train station, someone had a guitar and people bought beer and nuts in the store and it was a merry enough time.  It began to get colder at the end so I was glad to get back on the train and into my cozy bed...only to be almost immediately aroused 20 minutes later on the Mongolian border to go through the whole thing again.  The Mongolians took less time, soon we were - BANG - not on our way after all, as we had to change the wheels to fit the Mongolian train gauge.  Weird.  We soon fell asleep after resuming our trip.

Mongolian train track

Chinese train track

 In the morning after a surprisingly good night's sleep, I woke up to stare out the window at a changed landscape, and was still foggy headed when we passed a troupe of 2-humped camels!  Throughout the day we watched the arid, yellow plains turn slowly into rolling hills resembling the Badlands, and finally mountains appeared in the distance.  The plains were dotted with 'gers', Mongolian felt houses, and flocks of sheep and shepherds.

First views of Mongolia

 As we pulled into the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, we noticed that there were many gers, each surrounded by their own 5-6 foot wooden fence.  It was a strange mix of nomadic and suburban.  Slowly the gers gave way to small and then bigger and bigger buildings, followed by a strange view of a ferris wheel and aliens at an amusement park, and finally we rolled into the train station to be greeted by enthusiastic people from the Golden Gobi hostel and a pop version of 'The Waters of Bablyon' blasting from the radio.  It was strange to be greeted by something so familiar in such an unfamiliar place, but comforting as well.  Perhaps the world was not so big after all.

Click on any of these photos to see a slideshow of more pics from the Beijing-Ulaanbaatar journey.

Mongolian Impressions

 I am sorry for the long blog silence - I have actually just gotten back from a trip to Mongolia and while the hostel had internet, I did not have my nice computer for proper picture prep and it was not an environment particularly conducive to composing blog entries.  I had grand plans of blog writing today but I've actually been feeling a bit under the weather due to a Mongolian cold I picked up so I will just give a broad overview of my trip and the country in general here tonight, and follow with some pictures this week.

- We (my traveling companion Simon and I) took the Trans-Mongolian railway to get there to Ulaanbaatar, the capitol city of Mongolia, and flew back.  The train ride took 30 hours and was definitely worth it to get a picture of the geography in northern China and in southern Mongolia.  Highlights included mountains, vast rolling plains which resemble the Badlands, and a troupe of 2-humped camels which I saw right after waking up on the train and so entered my consciousness rather hazily, as if in a dream - this was Mongolia!

- We spent 1.5 days in Ulaanbaatar after arriving, and then left for a 'tour' for 3 days with 2 Dutch girls we met at the hostel.  We saw Mongolian scenery and sites during the days and stayed in Mongolian 'gers' (round collapsible felt dwellings) at night with families that specialize in hosting tourists.  It was quite chilly at night but stayed between 40 and 65 F during the days so was not too bad.  I feel like staying with families that constantly have tourists around is not quite the real Mongolian experience, but we still managed to get a flavor for nomadic Mongolian everyday life.

- After returning to Ulaanbaatar, we had another 2 days of sightseeing before returning to China last night by air.  We had quite an adventure getting to the airport as we elected to take the city bus which it turns out does not actually stop at the airport but instead passes it and continues to some apartment complexes.  We had to walk a bit, but we were proud of ourselves that we spent $.25 on the trip!

- Random impressions of the city: much more friendly to tourists than Beijing - smaller, less pollution, cars actually stop for pedestrians.  The city seems determined to break ankles though as there were lots of open manholes and metal poles sticking out of the pavement - a constant falling hazard!  The people in the city seemed to stare at white people much less than in China, which I found very nice.  No pointing and shouting of 'foreigner' like in Beijing.  Mongolian people on the whole were very pleasant and helpful even to complete strangers.

- Random impressions of the countryside: What we saw of Mongolia was wide sweeping yellow grassy plains with some hills to mountains in the distance.  We also saw a more mountainous area with impressive rocky formations.  The clear air was amazing and the skies were very deep blue.  Gers are quite comfortable and can actually become too hot thanks to the stoves inside; however the smell of burning cow patties can become oppressive to those not used to it.  We saw several Buddhist monasteries in the hills and there seems to have been a massive Tibetan influence on Mongolian buddhism at some point.

More to come later, just wanted to give a broad sketch so you would be hanging on tenderhooks waiting for the details ;)

Tea

Yesterday I went to my first event at the China Culture Center, which is an organization for expats that organizes tours around China, but also cultural learning experiences and classes, in things from tai chi to zen meditation to chinese calligraphy.  Part of me feels a bit silly going to an expat organization and spending money to learn about Chinese culture when here I am, living in China, but I have realized that I am far from immersion here in my could-be-anywhere-in-the-world apartment, living by myself, and working in an office from 8-5 every day.  I just don't have the opportunities that I would have living with a Chinese family, in a small town, or not taking a large portion of my time doing very Western scientific research.  So, I've decided that since I stand out as foreign a mile around I might as well act like one and maybe learn something about Chinese culture.

Last night, I went to a lecture about Chinese tea, with associated tasting.  I was late thanks to getting lost when I got off the metro and wandering around for 45 minutes, so I didn't catch the credentials of the teachers, but there was a man talking with many pictures and explanations about different kinds of tea processing, picking, fermenting (I didn't actually know some teas were fermented until yesterday) and then a lady, in more traditional clothing, a 'tea ceremony master' who would sit down very formally at the table and make us each type of tea.

Her movements as she was making the tea were very graceful and purposeful, and there are more steps to making tea in the proper Chinese way than I realized.  You have to warm up the teapot and tea glasses first with hot water, then for each type of tea there is an appropriate number of steeps before it is perfect to drink.  The top of the teapot goes on with a little flourish while the tea is steeping.  We all had these little tiny tea cups for tasting, and we tried green (lu cha), black (hong cha), oolong (oolong cha), and pu'er cha and had descriptions of several more.

Each step of a Chinese tea ceremony has a bit of poetry to describe the actions and the thoughts and feelings of the drinkers.  I thought this was really neat.  For example, as you prepare the utensils you will be using, the Chinese text reads "The peacock opens his tail, symbolizing showing of his exquisite utensils".  As you warm the pot and cups in hot water, "the Black Dragon (tea leaves) goes into his palace."  As you pour the tea, "from high mountains flow waters, long flow of a fine stream."  And my favorite, as you pour the tea evenly into aroma cups and end with a few tea drops falling gently into each cup, "The Dragon is the king of rain, and the phoenix nods her head."

DIC

I have a friend here who is Chinese but has lived in the US for many years, and he has a saying - "Dude, its China!" to explain or exemplify many things about life here.  It fits for weird, funny, frustrating, basically anything that we exclaim about life here!  Here are a few things from the past week which seem to fit this label:

Eating chicken feet at the hotpot restaurant this weekend.  Apparently you spit out the toenails.

Chicken feet.  Me.  Eating. ??! 

I was cleaning my apartment this weekend and closed the sink drain so I could clean it...only to discover there is no lever to open it!  3 hours and 2 people later, after unhooking the drainage pipe and working from below with a knife and chopstick, we finally got the drain back open.

The knife sticking out of the drain from below.  You've no idea
how relieved I was when we finally got it!

They are really into decorating their buildings here...with moving, colorful lights.  Many of them are in geometric patterns; this was the first one I have seen with an actual picture - was a guy jumping rope in multi-color with trees in the background.  I think ;)

An office building at night with a guy jumping rope in neon lights.

And finally, no picture for this one, but Adam and I were asked last week if we would be willing to give 1 lecture a month to the  Chinese medical students here about medical school/healthcare systems in the US.  We could only say yes, so I prepped over the weekend and presented for 30 minutes yesterday on medical school in the US.  I was met by dead silence during the question period (which apparently is normal in China, one does not ask questions) and then afterwards, we found out that it was not all medical students we are lecturing to, but the student members of the Communist Party!  DIC!

Chinese-American Dinner Party

This weekend, I hosted a dinner party for the Chinese students in my office, with Adam and Alison's awesome help cooking due to the mass numbers of people invited.  It turned out I could have fed everyone myself, but it was good to have some variety in cooking and fun to have them around when preparing.  They made spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread, and I made chili with sour cream and real cheddar cheese that I managed to find :)

Trying the chili

We also had feta cheese for an appetizer, which was new for all the Chinese students.  They made the funniest faces when trying it!  It wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but a couple of them really liked it!

Trying out feta cheese for the first time

Speaking of cups of tea, I made sweet iced tea to honor my Southern roots, and we taught how to drink it with lemon, which was also interesting - whyever would you put lemon in your tea??

Sweet tea with lemon.  Who knew?!

Finally, we had miniature banana splits for dessert, and their eyes got so big when presented with them.  They seemed to like them, but it did spark a conversation about obesity in America and someone said they understood why Americans are so fat with desserts like that!  After dinner, we played Spoons, a fun game that is easily translatable and everyone seemed to really have fun, diving across the floor to get a spoon/pen.

Spoons!

Then, to cap off the night, there came a knock on the door...which never happens...I asked one of the Chinese students to come to the door with me, since my Chinese isn't exactly great...and there was my neighbor, angrily gesticulating about something.  Then one of the students goes Oh! and proceeds to step outside and give the man his house shoes back!  Turns out he had assumed that the house shoes across from my door were mine, as every good Chinese hosts provides shoes or socks to be worn indoors.  They were of course not mine, I barely have house shoes for myself at the moment (taken from the hotel!) let alone for 12 dinner guests.  I hadn't even noticed, I just assumed he was still wearing his own shoes.  Haha!  I hope the neighbor doesn't think I told him he could!

Overall it was a great evening, and fun to show off a bit of home, when so much has been learning about Chinese culture.

Changyan and Liangyu checking out the spread

I'm Legal!

Today, Adam and I experienced a minor miracle.  We both set out from our respective apartments to meet at the metro station to go to the Bureau of Entry/Exit to retrieve our residence permits - supposed to be ready today.  After what seemed to be a rocky start to our errand when we got lost in the metro station - we were both waiting by different door 'B's - why are there 2 in the same station!? - we made it to the Bureau...and drum roll please...it took 5 minutes.  Tops.  In, paid for it, and retrieved our passports a la residence permit, and out again lickety-split quick.  Yaay!  We're legal!

In other tourist news, Adam, Alison, and I went to the Great Wall last weekend for a hike.  I haven't had time to write about it yet, but it was pretty impressive!  We went to a more remote section (it took us 3 hours to get there) but then we got to hike along the top of the wall for 4 hours, taking pictures, loitering inside towers, etc.  The views were breathtaking, and it was hard to believe that we were so close to Beijing, no sign of the big city out there, and the air was clean and pure, a welcome change from the exhaust-laden air everywhere here.

 Compared to stories I've heard, there weren't that many hawkers, with only a view determined villagers selling t-shirts and postcards, taking our plastic water bottles when we were done with them, and generally asking for money.  We picked up an interesting pair about halfway through the day who seemed to think if they stayed with us and told us random facts about the wall that we would give them money in the end...it was a bit awkward and heartbreaking to turn them away as they told such sad stories of their children, but at the same time giving them money just perpetuates the annoying behavior towards tourists.  We were more on edge after they latched on to us and I would say that we enjoyed the wall a bit less.  But, on the whole, it was a great trip, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone willing to get a little exercise while seeing the Great Wall of China!

I accidentally put the Great Wall pics in the same album as other pictures from Beijing, so when you click on this, it'll start with other pictures, but just click through about 20 and then you'll be at the Great Wall photos.  Sorry about that!

WanFuJin...

...otherwise known as the street in Beijing with all the really disgusting/interesting food, depending on your point of view.  I paid this street a visit (thankfully after dinner, so I was not expected to buy too much!) this past weekend, and it was certainly entertaining to see all the stuff that can be edible.  And I actually did try some silk worm larvae (ok) and chicken hearts (fairly good) and a sugar-covered fruit on a stick called 'shan-zhe' which was actually quite fantastic.  Its amazing what our Western limitations keep us from appreciating on a regular basis ;)  (although they also perhaps protect from chronic diarrhea and nausea...)  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

 

          

The Miracle of Hierarchy

I have alluded to our troubles getting our residency paperwork submitted in previous posts; let's just suffice it to say that on the last visit to PUMC, Peking Union Medical College, it seemed virtually impossible that we would have our residency permits submitted in time before our visas expired.  I was having visions of paying heaps of fines upon final submission, or even of having to return to the US (horrors!).  It seemed the school had not completed its duties in training its staff correctly at the Beijing Bureau of Entry and Exit, and thus the Bureau was withholding the appropriate forms from us until the school complied.  Kind of a power struggle over us but completely uncaring as to our actual welfare.

But, the poor graduate student who went with us the second time must have told the right people at CICAMS about our predicament, because 2 days later she told us that Teacher Wu was going to take us back to the Bureau.  I had never heard of teacher Wu, and it turns out that she was the lady in the office outside of Dr. Qiao's who I had assumed was his secretary.  On second thought however, I don't think she is anything of the sort, due to the rapidity with which she got our situation sorted.  At first I thought she was angry with Adam and I, as we had to trot to keep us with her across the CICAMS parking lot and she barely said a word to us until we were inside the Bureau.  I think it was mostly her lack of English which kept her from speaking, but still, it came across as quite intimidating!  

She marched right up to the window at the Bureau, the same window we had been rejected from before (but a different officer I think), shoved our paper through the slot, and started speaking in rapid-fire.    She had an extra letter with the official PUMC stamp on it which she added on top, flashed her PUMC teacher ID, and we were out of there with little 'accept' slips of paper in less than 5 minutes!  No questions asked.  It was amazing!  

Now, keep your fingers crossed...we are supposed to return in 1 week to reclaim our passports and residence permits...but I doubt Teacher Wu will be returning with us, so we need all the luck we can get!

Almost Famous

Yesterday, Adam and I were featured on a 1.1 minute news clip about foreign students in Beijing!  We were on CCTV 9, which is the English-speaking news channel in China, and we were on twice, at 2 pm and 10 pm.  It was quite a funny experience actually, as they wanted us to wear our white coats to make us look more doctor-y (which we never wear) and they wanted to shoot in the lab part of our institute which neither of us has actually been in and probably will not ever be.  There's a great 20-second part with me pretending to look in a microscope and discussing it with my mentor; the actual discussion was about the debris that were on the fake slide and the meeting we were scheduling for the next day.  haha.



On another note, I have a small collection of photos of Chinese incongruities, which seem to be everywhere here.  As I said in the first post, the institute has a huge shining new front facade and then a bunch of cracked alleyways and dirty piping.  Beijing seems to be full of old and new, modern and ancient, crammed together as the city rushes to modernize but too quickly or somehow wrongly, so that many people and places get left in the past, perhaps hundreds of years ago.  An example I don't have a picture of is that there are loads of shiny new Buicks and BMWs speeding around, and then you turn around and there will be a horse-drawn cart pulling watermelons to sell.  The span of time and prosperity and concept is just boggling.  Here are a few more examples:

The front of the Institute and Cancer Hospital

The backdoor to the institute where I come in every day

Inside the institute right outside my office, complete with exposed wiring, piping, and something
 dripping.  And a fairly exposed 14-storey drop on some floors

A shiny new sports car on a not-so nice street.  The building immediately to the
 right of the yellow sign is rubble and used as a garbage dump.