Sunday, December 01, 1985

Map,world,35.704857,-6.926808,1,S —
35.86166,104.195397,China
38.278603,23.80708,Greece
47.162494,19.503304,Hungary
23.200961,-102.700195,Mexico
I spent three weeks in China in the summer of 1997. Short of a couple of brief trips to Mexico, my next international jaunt brought me to Greece for 9 months in 2000, followed by a month in Hungary. Then after a brief return to the states, I spent three years in China teaching English. I'm back in the states again, and have been for a couple of years now. I will likely be here for a few years more, but I'm already feeling the urge to travel again, which is partly why I decided to go over some of my previous travels here.

I've got quite a few places still to add, so consider this a work in progress.

filed under: ,

Tuesday, October 01, 1985

Wuhan,David Perry English Training Center,30.59248,114.28965,18,S —
30.592595,114.289511,The David Perry English Training Center
Here's where I taught English for three years. I lived upstairs on the fourth floor my first year there, which got to be annoying as students were always coming to my door, sometimes early in the morning, for help with their homework or for English practice. The school was on the second and third floor of a complex most of the rest of which was a clothing factory. Directly below us on the first floor was a restaurant where I had my first dinner with my new colleagues in August 2001. Across the street from us was a good hotpot restaurant (the light blue, backwards L-shaped building) called Fish Head (鱼头)—and they did put a great big tasty fish head in your hotpot. Unfortunately the restaurant closed during my last year in China, and I've heard rumors that this whole area is going to be torn down to make way for the entrance to a tunnel under the Changjiang River. Behind the school is the Trust-Mart supermarket where I did most of my shopping my first year in China.

filed under: ,

Wuhan,Guiyuan Temple,30.547636,114.253231,17,S —
30.547284,114.253285,Statue of Guanyin (观音), Buddhist Goddess of Mercy
Built in the 17th century, Guiyuan Temple (归元寺) is most famous for its hall of 500 Arhats (阿罗汉). Visitors often get their fortunes read by picking any statue as a starting place, and then moving down one statue for each year in their age. They will remember the number of the statue they end up on, and can later purchase a card with some cryptic verses on it (in Chinese). A fortune-teller will then offer to interpret these verses for you.

On Guanyin's birthday (day 19 of the second moon), there is a large celebration here.

filed under: ,

Wuhan,Jianghan Road,30.581923,114.288079,16,S —
#FF0000,10,BBBBBBB,gutyDu~oxTzFgI|DiFhE}FxEiGjFaHjEeG
This is the famous pedestrian street in Wuhan, Jianghan Road. It's in the old European concession area, and lots of old European buildings flank each side of the road

filed under: ,

Lhasa,Potala Palace,29.65716,91.11758,17,S — The treasures housed here are amazing.

filed under: ,

Tibet,Lhasa,29.657249,91.116314,13,S —
29.65716,91.11758,Potala Palace
I spent part of a brief five-day tour in Lhasa in October, 2001.

filed under: ,

China,Great Wall,40.355595,116.009375,17,S — The Great Wall (长城) was started in the 3rd century B.C, and was extended and rebuilt over the next several hundred years. This is the Great Wall at Badaling (八达岭), the most oft-visited, hence the most restored, part of the Wall. Here you can see the huge parking lot for the hundreds of tour buses that come each week.

I came here in 1993 and climbed to the farthest and highest point you can here, and you can see it still snaking over the hills for miles and miles. My friend and I then ran back down, and he tripped and skinned up his knees pretty badly. The Chinese have an expression, "if you've not been to the Great Wall, you're not a real man" (不到长城非好汉). I wonder what they would say in this case?

filed under: ,

China,Tibet,32.10119,86.572266,5,H —
29.657249,91.116314,Lhasa
I spent a brief five days in Tibet during the National Day holiday of 2001. I had some altitude sickness after first arriving, and I was annoyed with the group I was with because they wanted to eat Chinese food and sing karaoke (in other words, do all the stuff they'd normally do back home). I was also dismayed by how much Lhasa was like any other Chinese city. But the trip was still amazing and worth it—you will never feel so close to the sun and sky, or see such massive mountains.

filed under: ,

world,China,35.86166,104.195397,3,H —
39.930011,116.399975,Beijing (北京)
31.229999,121.470001,Shanghai (上海)
30.579997,114.27,Wuhan (武汉)
32.10119,86.572266,Lhasa (拉萨)
22.283378,114.150009,Hong Kong (香港)
23.119996,113.249989,Guangzhou aka Canton (广州)
34.259593,108.941674,Xi'an (西安)
34.68,112.470001,Luoyang (洛阳)
36.719967,119.100037,Weifang (潍坊)
38.04728,114.467926,Shijiazhuang (石家庄)
31.300005,120.620012,Suzhou (苏州)
30.250022,120.170002,Hangzhou (杭州)
My first real international trip—and my first time flying—was when I went to China during the summer of 1993. I had just finished 10th grade, and it was an eye-opening experience. The group I was with spent three weeks going along the eastern coast of China, from Beijing to Hong Kong, which at that time was still a British colony. Though I greatly enjoyed the trip, little did I imagine I would later spend three years of my life there, in Wuhan, Hubei province. I taught English there from 2001 to early 2005, with a four-month hiatus in between.

filed under: ,

Xi'an,Qin Shi Huang's Tomb,34.381864,109.25354,16,S — This mound of earth is believed to cover the actual burial chamber of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇). According to Sima Qian (司马迁), the first great Chinese historian (and considered by some to be China's Shakespeare), the tomb contained a model of China, with flowing mercury representing the rivers, lakes, and seas. A revolving map of the stars and planets was on the ceiling, and countless riches were buried with the emperor. There are also several booby traps to counter would-be grave robbers.

The Terra-Cotta Soldiers are to the west nearby.

filed under: ,

Xi'an,Terra-Cotta Soldiers,34.38476,109.273324,17,S — Pictures do not do them justice. You have to see them in person to be able to truly appreciate the vastness of it all, how many soldiers there are, how long it must have taken to create them all. Despite the impressiveness of it all, I couldn't help but be irreverently reminded of the collection of GI Joe's I had when I was younger.

filed under: ,

Wuhan,Wal-Mart,30.580052,114.285681,17,S —
30.580052,114.285681,Wal-Mart (沃尔玛)
Wal-Mart opened up in Wuhan in 2004, my last year in China. It was actually not too far away from the apartment I lived in that year. I was (and still am) wary of Wal-Mart opening its doors in China, but I was fairly impressed with the store. It is bigger, cleaner, more stylish, and more various than any Wal-Mart I have seen in the U.S.

filed under: ,

China,Wuhan,30.579997,114.269829,12,S —
30.59248,114.28965,The David Perry English Training Center
30.597056,114.3001,My Second Year Apartment
30.583419,114.291056,My Third Year Apartment
30.589035,114.297032,York Bar and Tea Room - (约克英式茶馆)
30.579277,114.290879,Jianghan Road - (江汉路)
30.546767,114.29715,Yellow Crane Tower - 黄鹤楼
30.547742,114.254894,Guiyuan Temple - 归元寺
30.535489,114.352618,Wuhan University - 武汉大学
Wuhan (武汉), capital of Hubei province, is not that well known outside of China, but it's the third or fourth largest city in China, and in many respects is the center of China. It was originally three separate cities—Hankou (汉口), Hanyang (汉阳), and Wuchang (武昌). It grew into one city, and is now the only Chinese city that straddles the Yangzi River (扬子江)—or the Changjiang (长江) as it is normally called in China.

Several books about China, particularly older books, may mention Hankou or Hankow (for instance, a passage in Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer mentions "the dirty yellow mouth of the river, the lights going up at Hankow..."), and indeed, this has been and still is the more commercially important of the three cities. The foreign concessions were all here (including the Russian concession where the 1911 Revolution had its spark), and several of the European buildings are still standing today. Today, it is the most vibrant and beautiful part of the city, with the great pedestrian street Jianghan Lu, and the café-lined avenue and riverside park on Yanjiang Dadao. The name of this part of the city means "mouth of the Han River," and if you look on the map, you can see the thin Han River flowing from the west and emptying into the Changjiang. Hankou is the upper left of the three land-masses.

Hanyang is the lower left land-mass. I've not been able to figure out what its name refers to. According to my dictionary, yang (阳) means, among other things, "north of a river". However, this part of the city is south of the Han River. The name may have originally been applied to another part of the town that was north of the Han River, and later came to mean this area.

On the other side of the Changjiang, on the right side of the map, is Wuchang. Wuchang means "flourishing from the military", as there have been several important arsenals and military garrisons here for several centuries.

filed under: ,

China,Xi'an,34.263317,108.942146,13,S — Xi'an is one of the most historical cities of China. It's one of the few places outside of Beijing where you see a lot of history around as you walk around. Notice the rectangular perimeter of the old city walls.

filed under: ,

Wuhan,Yellow Crane Tower,30.547072,114.296919,18,S — Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼) is Wuhan's most famous landmark. Several classical Chinese poems, for instance this one by Li Bai, aka Li Po (李白), are set in or near the famous tower. Yellow Crane Tower was rebuilt in 1985, after a fire started from a cigarette butt, so I heard.

filed under: ,

Wuhan,York Bar,30.589035,114.297032,18,S —
30.589035,114.297032,York Bar
I spent many a fond hour here drinking beer and cracking jokes with Sugar, the jovial owner.

filed under: ,

Thursday, August 01, 1985

Greece,Andros,37.839987,24.938579,10,H — My Greek teacher was from Andros (Άνδρος), and she invited three of us to stay at her island house during the spring. It was my second excursion by ship on the Aegean, and the timing could not have been better. It was deliciously warm, and the cherry, lemon, and loquat trees were all in bloom. In the morning we got up slightly early so we could pick fruit before the wasps awoke, and we sat on the terrace in the sunlight eating the breakfast we just picked. Then we walked down to the beach and swam for a bit, and headed into Andros town for lunch and a bit of sightseeing.

I remember walking in the town one afternoon, near where some boys were playing street soccer, and one of them kicked the ball pretty far, and it rolled by me. I attempted to kick the ball back to them, but ineptly kicked it down an alley into the sea. I tried to use my poor Greek to explain what happened while they all shouted "malaka!" at me (μαλάκα) and ran after the ball.

filed under: ,

Greece,Patmos,37.323485,26.549835,12,H —
37.307922,26.544943,Monastery of St. John the Theologian
I went to Patmos (Πάτμος) during the Easter 2000 holiday, and it was one of the great experiences of my life.

We had a week off, and it was my first trip to a Greek island. There is nothing quite like traveling by ferry across the Aegean—the unobstructed sky, the fresh air, the steady churn of the turbines, the sea drifting by. It easily puts one in a meditative mood. As night came on, I slept on deck as the ferry plowed through the wine-dark sea. I woke up early in the morning as we passed several mist-shrouded islands, little worlds all to themselves, soon swallowed up by the distance. I don't recall exactly how long the ferry took; online ferry schedules show about 7.5-9 hours, but I recall it taking longer than that.

In Patmos, I stayed in a villa on the outskirts of the port town of Skala. In the days before the Easter celebrations, I rented a scooter and found an small, isolated beach where I took my first swim in the Mediterranean.

On another day I wandered into an icon studio named Parousia. The owner was fully steeped in the Byzantine icon-making tradition, and offered several finely crafted icons for sale. As I was looking around, he asked me what I thought, and I responded, not meaning anything deprecatory, "They are nice." He immediately retorted, "These are not nice! These are genuine religious artworks! Hours of work and meditation have gone into each one." After an hour or so of looking around, I bought a copy of a 12th century icon of St. John that is housed in the Monastery on the island.

I also climbed the hill behind Skala to visit the Cave of the Apocalypse and the Monastery of St. John the Theologian. In the dark, candlelit Cave you can view the very crevices and niches in the rocks where, it is believed, St. John rested his head and put his hand to pull himself up or steady himself while sitting down.

I walked through the library at the Monastery, where several ancient paintings and documents are displayed, and walking around afterwards ran into the Abbot. For some reason he called me Peter, and asked a few questions about where I was from and what I was doing in Greece.

Easter gets the same emphasis in Greece (and other Orthodox countries) as Christmas does in the West. On Easter Friday I went up again to the Monastery to attend the Service of Lamentation. I don't remember much about this service except that a local befriended me and tried to translate and show me what to do. Afterwards, we walked together among the crowd down the hill, in darkness and silence.

This service has been superseded in my mind by the Easter Resurrection Service the next evening. I got there early to make sure I had a good spot, and stood for a few hours as the monks chanted, sprinkled holy water on everyone, and swung the thurible back and forth. Most people at the service stayed in the church for a while, then went out to the courtyard to rest before going back in, and at one point, the Abbot came up to me and urged me to do the same, whispering into my ear, "Go sit down!" But I stayed through the whole thing, till the moment when the lights were turned off, and after a long silence the priest appeared from behind the icon screen with a large candle and proclaimed, "Χριστός ανέστη", to which everyone responded "Αληθώς ανέστη". Fireworks went off, and the bells started ringing like crazy. Each of us had a beeswax candle, and starting with those nearest the priest, everyone lit up until the whole sanctuary was bathed in candlelight. Then there was a procession down to Skala where everyone feasted and celebrated until the wee hours of the morning.

filed under: ,

Greece,Crete,35.310068,24.918764,8,H — I spent approximately a month in Crete (Κριτι) during the summer of 2000. It could be thought of as the "Texas" of Greece, as there is a sort of wild West atmosphere there, especially in the countryside. While visiting one rural taverna, as the traditional band complete with lyra (λύρα) played fast and furious, a man stepped out the door, pulled a pistol from his belt, and fired a few shots into the air. The favored alcoholic beverage of this largest of the Greek islands is raki (ρακί).

filed under: ,

Greece,Athens,37.979928,23.729782,13,H —
37.965313,23.744861,My Apartment
37.971398,23.726606,The Parthenon (Παρθενώνας)
37.983378,23.745446,Lycabettus Hill (Λυκαβηττός)
37.975217,23.736788,Parliament Building in Constitution Square (Πλατεία Συντάγματος)
37.968192,23.741069,1896 Olympic Stadium (Παναθηναϊκό στάδιο)
I spent my last semester of college studying abroad at the Beaver College program in Athens (Αθήνα). (They have since changed their name to Arcadia University, and I'm sure you can guess why.) I ended up spending 5 months in Athens and love the city. Almost everywhere you go, you are reminded of the long history of this country—your eye might take in a modern skyscraper, a 19th century mansion, a Byzantine church, and an ancient marble column, without moving more than a few degrees. It's a bustling city, and probably the largest city in the West where the wonderful tradition of the siesta is still followed. In the late afternoons and evenings, Athenians walk in the park, or congregate at the numerous streetside cafés.

The port of Piraeus (Πειραιάς) is to the southwest.

filed under: ,




Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)