May I have your picture?

Often when we travel people who don't encounter westerners very often like to have their picture taken with us. Hannah is especially in demand since she has light hair and fair skin. On this day at the Temple of Heaven I was taking a picture of Hannah when a Chinese girl moved in very close to her and Hannah looked over to see what was going on. Either they just happened to be in the same place at the same time or the Chinese girl may have wanted a picture with her and stepped in close to get it. Anyway, we laughed about it and ended up sharing some nice pictures with her!

BLCU Classes

We took an intensive class in Chinese language. Hannah was a beginner in Level A3. I started in a "C" level class but dropped to "B4" level the first day because it was too difficult for me. Two days later I dropped from B4 and ended up in B3 level which was just right. Class levels range from A-F and there are intermediate and advanced classes within those levels. We spent 30 hours a week in class and probably another 4-5 hours a day studying and preparing for the next day. We both learned more than 300 new words in Chinese (Average 25 new words a day. Many days we had to learn much more).

This was my second time at BLCU. Almost ten years to the day I was in the beginning level class there. It was fun to go back and see how the University has grown.

Top: Hannah at the entrance to our building, The College of Intensive Chinese Studies. (Making a "V" sign is very popular there when taking pictures. We have fun adopting that pose.)

Top left: My class. Zhao Laoshi (teacher) (blue shirt) is just right of me and Jiang Laoshi (teacher) (white & blue dress), our grammar instructor, is next to her. Both were excellent teachers. We also had two other teachers for listening and conversation classes. Students came from many countries including Sweden, England, Iran, Russia, Japan, Spain, South Korea, and Malaysia to mention a few.

Bottom: Speaking teacher Zhao Laoshi and student. She was very nice and very patient with us as we stumbled over the words and pronunciation in text we had to read outloud. The blackboard in the background is typical of our class work. Zhao Laoshi never spoke English and it was very rare for the other teachers to speak in English also.

Shanghai

We took the fastboat back to the mainland, followed by a two hour drive to Shanghai. Once in Shanghai we met up with some other friends at dinner, Susan Zhang and her husband David. I met Susan in the summer of 2007 when she taught an immersion class in Chinese language in Redding. Afterwards we took a stroll on the Bund and also in a shopping area.

Shanghai's crowds, traffic and lights were the total opposite of what we had experienced during the two weeks in remote mountainous areas of China but we enjoyed it just the same and it was nice to be able to finish the trip just the way we started - with friends.

Top Right: Right to Left: Hannah and Michel Czehatowski, Susan Zhang and her husband David.

Top Left: View across the river from the Bund.

Bottom Right: On the Bund. The skyscraper on the opposite side is like a huge television screen with commercials played out on the building.

Bottom Left: Mark Van Loan in a Shanghai shopping district.

More Putuo Shan Sights

Top Right: A 1,000 year old camphor tree that is 20 meters in height and two meters in diameter. Trees of this size are rare.
Top Left: (Lt to Rt) Mark Van Loan, Hannah Czehatowski and Michel Czehatowski in front of the character "xin" or "heart" carved in a large rock.
Center: The characters for Buddha (top of picture) blending into the character for "heart" bottom of picture. This was carved in stone.
Bottom: A balanced stone.

Jiuhua Shan Temples

Once off the cable car there was plenty of more stairs. Supplies for the temples is carried up by laborers.

The other amazing thing about the temple, stairs, and walkways is that everything was carried up on the backs of men.

Top Right: Wu Han (left), Hannah Czehatowski (right) and Mark Van Loan in front of Hannah, ascending stairs on Jiuhua Shan.

Top Left: View of a mountain temple.

Center: Porter carrying up a heavy load of food up the stairs.

Bottom Right: The same porter going up another set of stair.

Bottom Left: Two laborers with a granite suspended between them carrying it up stairs. These granite blocks are used to make the walkway.

Hanging Monastery at Mt. Heng

After Yungang Grottoes we went off to lunch at a nice new restaurant and had an excellent meal. Then we were off to the Hanging Monastery at Mt. Heng (Heng Shan) which is one of the five sacred mountains of Taoism. The Hanging Monastery stands at the foot of Mt. Heng. The view from below is extraordinary and awe inspiring and on it is breathtaking and wonderful. My picture on the blog shows me clinging to the building for the photo. The walkways are narrow and we all had the impression that the railings came up to our knees though the photo's tell a different story.

Pictures:

Top right: Mt. Heng from the valley floor.

Top left: a view of the posts supporting the outer building.

Middle right: Mark Van Loan on the stairway with a good grip on the rail. It's a long way down!

Middle left: Hannah Czehatowski with guide Guo Bao carefully watching their steps!

Bottom photo: Posts supporting the structure along the walkway.

For more information on the Hanging Monastery see this Wikipedia article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Heng_%28Shanxi%29

Yungang Grottoes

Yungang grottoes (Cloud Ridge Caves) is one of the four major treasure troves of Buddhist art. There are 53 caves containing over 50,000 statues. The caves stretch for about one Kilometer from east to west.

The statues range in size from huge (7 meters) to only a few centimers in height and are over 1,000 years old.

Pictures:

Top right: Buddha in a cave.

Top Middle: Buddha seen through a hole in the cave wall.

Top Left: Detail of Buddha carvings.

Bottom Right: Hannah Czehatowski, Mark Van Loan, and me in front of one of the statues which gives perspective on the size of these fantastic sculptures.