Photos of Nanjing

Greetings Everyone,

Happy New Year!!!
新年愉快，万事如意！！！

My semester at Nanjing University finally came to an end a little over three weeks ago. Final examinations included two weeks of writing essays and giving presentations about Geography, Media, and Life all in Chinese. I was very happy when it was all over. I spent my vacation back in Taibei, Taiwan hanging out with all my old class mates from the summer semester as well as the Taibei bike polo squad GloryC. I'll write more about Taiwan in a post later this week.  I spent the last few weeks before winter vacation taking lots of photos around town to give folks an idea of what the city is like. Here they are;


                                                            THE CITY

A view out of my back window. On the roof tops are
solar powered water heaters. Lots of cold showers
 on those days without sun.

Everyone makes home-made sausage in the winter. This is my neighbor's hanging out side my front door.

Nanjing City Wall (Ming Dynasty 1368a.d.) Bricks were
provided by citizens as a tax. Each brick had the name and
address of the person that donated it just incase the brick did not
meet the standards that person could be found and punished.

Nanjing City Wall

 Xuanhu Men. Eastern gate into Nnajing.

Xuanhu Lake, directly outside of the Eastern gate.

Bike Polo at Nanjing University.

Fruit shop behind Nanjing University.

Outside an old Hotel.

Metro  地铁

Shanghai street.

Small pavilion on Nanjing University Campus.

Big cauldron on Nanjing University campus.

Community bulletin board behind campus.

Each morning all over the city old men would line up
cage after cage of birds for sale.

PEOPLE

My roommate Jude on the Right, then three
teachers Dong Laoshi, Zhang Laoshi, and
Jin Laoshi (Ivy). On Nanjing University campus.

Zhang Wenbo on the Left, he was student aid in the office.
My friend Brandon Yeh on the Right will be moving with
me to Yunnan in February.

Road side bike repaire shop. Next door is a road side plant shop.

Nathan, Zhang Wenbo, Me at the bowling alley.

Me, Darius, Viv, Vera, Amy. All of the students from
San Francisco State University studying at Nanjing University
this semester. This is at our Thanksgiving dinner.

Viv and Jude


   

ZIFENG TOWER. Zifeng Tower is the 7th tallest building in the World and the second tallest in mainland China. It was a great landmark while exploring the city.

Looking West out my back window.

Looking South over Xuanhu Lake.

Looking North from Nanjing University.

Looking West down my street.

Bike Trip To Jiangxin Zhou

Greeting Everybody!!!

So I spent most of Saturday afternoon biking around an island on the Yangze River called Jiangxin Zhou 江心洲， it literally means the island in the heart of the river.  Going to Jiangxin Zhou is a great way to separate oneself from the noise and commotion of Nanjing City. The first time I visited was about 5 weeks ago, some classmates and I visited a local art student friend of ours. She told us she moved to the island to set herself in a very calm atmosphere so she could complete her art works in peace.

I was surprised to find exactly how big the Jiangxin Zhou is. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to bike around the entire island, I did top a few times to take photos and patch flat tires. For the most part it was uninterrupted biking, something that is very uncommon in this hectic concrete jungle called Nanjing.

The island its self is very beautiful. All the streets are lined with trees and the scenery is made up of colorful farmlands and fishing boats on the coast. In the center of the island are the small city centers. Below are all the wonderful pictures and a great map.

I think in the back of my head the main reason for taking this small biking adventure was just to make a map of it  :)  Black dotted line was the route I rode, red number correspond to the photo!

1.    On the bridge heading to Jiangxin Zhou 江心洲。

2.    Trees line all the streets.

3.    Small crops dot the landscape.

4.    Over looking a small orchard. In the back round is a reminder how close to the City these islanders are.

5.    Heading south along the western coast.

6.    An abandoned tree-fort looking house.

7.

8.    The main dock on the western coast of the island.

9.    I'm not sure what the are harvesting in this aquatic farm, but those are all Sprite bottles floating in the water.

10.    Shipyard, or a ship graveyard. These two behemoths were being taken apart.

11.    Over looking more crops.

12.    A lovely little beach on the south end of the island.

13.    A temple on the southern tip of the island

14.    The Southern tip of Jiangxin Zhou.

15.    Looking east, in the back round is the mainland. This looks like a floating dock for a small fishing operation.

Running, Halloween and No More Soccer :(

Hey everybody!

So the last few weeks have been filled up with Mid-terms and field trips. Two weekends ago all the flagship students took a trip to a local farming community named Changshu. We were there to do research on a variety of topics, Agriculture, Industry, Manufacturing... My group did our presentation on Agriculture and I got to use my knowledge to compare farming practices within China and the United States. The top two groups got a 50 dollar gift certificate to a local book store, and our group was one of the winners, HOORAY!

Last weekend I decided to join an 8 kilometer (5 mile) running race around Xuanwu Lake. The lake is beautiful, it is just outside of the city walls which you can sort of see in the back round of the pictures. The walls were build during the Ming Dynasty, about 600 years ago, but it is still in great condition. A class mate told me that at that time the Emperor didn't have much money, so as a "tax" each citizen had to submit a single brick to be added to the wall. The brick had to have your name and where you were from written on it so if it wasn't up to standard with the other bricks they would be fined. I'm not sure how true that is, but it sounds interesting. Anyway, I finished the race in just over 40 minutes, 8 minute-miles or 5 minute kilometers. Finished about 18th out of 100, not too shabby.

That night after the race I went to Shanghai for the first time! Some friend and I went out there for Halloween. I got to ride on Chinas High Speed Train! We made to Shanghai in about an hour and a half. We were only in Shanghai one day, which was much too short of a time. but we got to stay at our friend house in the Frech Concession, it is very beautiful out there, little rivers and canals everywhere, the architecture is very European. I can't wait to go back.

Finally on Wednesday we made it to the last Soccer match of the season. Out favorite team, Jiangsu Shuntian versus a city called Nanchang. It was a great match. Jiangsu won 1-0. We were very surprised because the match was on a wednesday afternoon, so we thought that very little people would be at the stadium, but it might as well have been a Saturday Night match, because the Stadium was jam-packed with fans going crazy for the last time. Jiangsu ended up finishing 4th place overall in the the league.

Other than that, students are starting to search for Spring internships. I pretty sure that one class-mate Brandon and myself will be going to Yunnan province together in February and working for an Environmental Education Program. We haven't worked out all the details yet, so I am not positive what our job will be, but they did mention the need for some of their hiking trails to be mapped, so it looks like I get to use my Cartography skills in China!!!

Thats all for now. Hope all is well. Talk to y'all later.

Halloween in Shanghai. My friend Erin decided to go as Me. Her costume included stealing one of my hats behind my back, buying a blue jacket to match mine, dumping flour in her hair to match my gray hairs, then using a sharpie to draw my tattoos and her body. Way To Go Erin!

At the farming village in Changshu. Dennis and I are sitting on the bench feeding fake chickens while Jonathan has a conversation with a fake old woman.

Just after finishing the race. My class-mate Nathan is holding his cute baby Jane, standing beside them is his wife Emily, then two more class-mates Jason and Josef.

In the back round you can just make out the three arches of the Eastern Gate of Nanjing's city wall

The last Jiangsu Shuntian soccer match.

Chess, Soccer and Cycling in Nanjing

I know I start most of my emails and blogs with this, But Oh Geez have I been flippin busy!!!!!

Each week I have 14 hours of class, 5 hours of tutoring, plenty of homework, and this week I will also start volunteering in the community (I must log 15 hours community service by the end of the semester) In the past one student volunteered at a bike shop by campus, so I will be going there tomorrow and inquiring about some work opportunities.

In my spare time my friend Brandon and I have picked up playing Chinese Chess called Xiangqi 象棋. It is a lot like International Chess, but at the same time very different. The strategy involved is very different because the pieces in Chinese and International Chess behave in different ways and have different abilities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangqi

You will see small crowds of old men on a street corner all arguing and debating over the match being played out in front of them. It is standard for a spectator to shout out, or make a motion on the game board about the move they think the player should make, some spectators go as far as to move the chess piece himself. Once I was also standing around watching a game, and the men started talking to me and I mentioned that since arriving I had started to study xiangqi, and so they insisted that I played a match with one of them. It was sort of awkward as I had one man standing behind me making just about every move for me, or at least giving me plenty of advice once I seemed lost about what to do next. BUT, toward the end of the match, like a ray of sunshine through the clouds I spotted check-mate in three moves. I started ignoring all the advice that was coming from all directions (a foreigner play chess with the old men on the street is unheard of so by the end of the match a rather large crowd gathered to watch)
Many started cursing my for ignoring their advice but they soon found out why, and I think most everyone was dumb founded that I had ended winning my first real game of chess, although I did have a great deal of assistance for most of the match. I went on to play two more games, with a lot less help from the crowd, and getting my butt whipped both times. Well it was still fun, and great practice for when I return to play next week.

Nanjing is the capital city of Jiangsu Province. And luckily for me Jiangsu has a Provincial Soccer Team located in Nanjing called Jiangsu Sainty. Me and a bunch of other exchange students have joined Sainty's largest Supporter Club. And we have been to all of the Home games, sitting with the Chinese fans, learning all of the songs and chants in Chinese, and just having a great time in general. Unfortunetly there are only two more games for this season, and we have to miss the match on Oct. 22nd because we will be on a field trip to the agricultural villages of Jiangsu to do research and reports about China's Agricultural Community.

A few weeks ago I sent out an email telling about my plan to spend the Chinese National Independence Day (week) biking to a neighboring city and going to the Strawberry Music Festival. Well I did just that, and it was an amazingly good time. Biking to Zhenjiang was a 75mile ordeal in which I got about 10 miles worth of lost, and two flat tires and strained muscle in my shin, making it very painful to walk around for the past week and a half. But their is something oddly satisfying about biking 80 miles just because you have the whole day waste doing it. But in Zhenjiang I also got incrdibly lost, and could not find where the Music Fest was happening. Ends up it was happening on an Island on the Yangze River, and so I could bike there and had to take a taxi there instead. It was a 20$ cab ride, but after wandering around Zhenjiang for 4-5 hours trying to find a way to the island, I thought it was well worth it.
At the music fest was four stages of great music. I got to the The Go! Team, The Whip, great Chinese and Mongolian Traditional music, and there was an Electric Music stage that we ended up at each night to dance the night away before retiring to the Tent City that had manifested in the back corner of the Festival grounds. There we gathered with other music fans, and talked and had some beers (I was unknowingly challenged to a drinking contest by a Chinese soldier on vacation. I think it was a tie, but it was fun) So after four days of camping and listening to music, we all went home. I decided to break my bike down and take the bus back to Nanjing, as my leg was still on a lot of pain and biking 80 miles home would have been suicide.

Lastly, I happy to say that I have found a roommate named Ji Jiangdong (or Jude) and that he will be officially moving in sometime next week, but until then we are still doing hours of tutoring.

I know this was an awful to throw into one blog post, but I will do my best in the future to post more often with less content.

Chinese Chess

Wednesday Night is Family Style Cooking Night.  I'm Making Curry.  My friends Brandon is there watching me cook.

The foreigner section of the Sainty Supporters Club

Starting Classes

Greetings Everybody!!!

Like usual I have been incredibly busy over the past few weeks. Mainly because most our of courses have begun, and trust me, our schedule is full.

Two weeks ago our Chinese classes had already started. Each class is two hours long. Monday and Friday I have advanced writing, and on Wednesday I have two sessions on the study of Chinese Media, the first session focusing on the history of Media in China, and the second session on modern interpretations of Chinese media within China and abroad. Also, Tuesday nights we have a course to prepare students for the HSK exam (its the SAT equivalent for Chinese Language) And once I find a roommate, which will hopefully be soon, he and I will have to complete 5 hours of one on one tutoring each week.

Apart from the Chinese courses, each student has direct enrollment classes for their major. So far I have sat in on three university classes, 'Permi-Glacial Landforms' I prob won't take that one again, it was taught in English and too advanced for the credits to transfer back to SF State, The other two are 'Geomorphology' 地貌学 and 'Remote Sensing' 遥感地学。 These two classes are taught in Chinese, and I am the only foreigner in either class. It will be very difficult, but both instructors luckily relay on Power-Point Presentations to give lectures and so I can get a copy of the lesson after each class and review it at my own pace so I don;t miss out on important details.

That's school so far.

 I must admit, although Nanjing is a great city, I think most of my sense of wondering and culture shock was spent while in Taiwan. Nanjing seems like 'just another city.' I feel also because I am here for a much longing time, I'll have more opportunities to explore, but I feel a lot more grounded, and so more intent on studying then going out. I suppose in stead of guessing how I will spend my time here, I should let it play out and then reflect on it after the fact... Then I can tell you lovely people all about it.

Hope all is well. If anyone is doing any traveling remember to make pit stop in Nanjing and say hello.