Chinese National Holiday 2007

国庆节 Guó Qìng Jié

Chinese National Day Festival

Well, it definitely feels like I have been in China for over a year now. I've experienced the same chinese holiday twice. And already I'm feeling much more chinese. Last year Joel, Jami, Steven and I fought the crowds of chinese at Shengtang mountain, Longsheng rice terraces and Yongshuo. But this year I knew not to try to be a tourist during the national holiday. I spent most of the week in Liuzhou and then went to visit my little sister's village.

A week or two before the holiday Ken, who used to be Joel's and my driver opened a bar. It is called C-Vista. He says he named it after Microsoft Windows new operating system. Hahaha. Ken credits Joel with giving him the idea to open a bar. Before he left to return to America, Joel said to Ken one night "you should figure out what you want to do with your life Ken". And so he opened a bar. Fish (on the left of the picture) and I went to Ken's bar on the opening night. And Ken (right of the picture) calls me all the time asking me to come visit his bar. Having a foreigner in his bar is apparently good for business. :)

I have some Chinese friends that are English teachers in high schools and they asked me to go to their classes and talk to the students. It is good listening comprehension practice for the students. First I went to Warren's classes - two classes at #3 middle school (really it's a high school). The students were kind of shy but they were very excited to have a foreigner in their classroom. Then I visited Andrew's classes. He teaches at Liuzhou High School, the best high school in the city. It is very modern and looks like a college campus.

Chinese high school life is very different than American high school life. At some schools like Liuzhou High School most of the students live in dormitories at the school. They start class at about 8am and finish at about 10pm. In the afternoon they have a break for a couple of hours to rest or sleep. There are usually about 60 students in a class and they sit in the same classroom all day - the teachers come to them. Since the chinese are only allowed to have one child, the classmates become like a family. I'm amazed at how many people stay in close contact with their classmates from elementary, middle, high school and college or university. They spread out all over the country but whenever they or their friends like myself go to a city, they always know somebody in that city who can help you or show you around. The Chinese guanxi (relationships) network is so fascinating. I will have to write about it sometime in detail.

When Ray came home for the national holiday we went to his former high school too. One of his high school friends is a teacher there now. Ray suggested I bring some American dove chocolate to the class and hand out to the students if they asked questions. Of course this was a very popular suggestion and these students were not so shy. They were very friendly and welcoming.
One day my little brother (Ray) and my little sister (Qiufeng) and I went to Long Tan park. The park is now free as are most parks in Liuzhou. We climbed to the very top of one of the mountains on the sceret path I discovered last year. It was nice to sit on top of the world and talk and enjoy the scenery. Ray got his hair all cut off the day before so he now thinks he is really Michael from Prison Break. :)

We all rode on the pirate's ship. Ray wouldn't take his hands off the bar in front of him. Haha :) I know that's losing face, but come on!!! This one is small compared to the one Qiufeng and I rode on at Merryland (the mini-disney world near Guilin). That one would give Ray a heart attack!!!

We all went to Ray's grandmother's house for lunch and my little sister got to meet my little brother's whole family.

Later that night we all met again for dinner at a new Sichuan hot pot which was just opened by Rays friend or cousin or something - he calls her his little sister. This sister/brother thing really is out of hand. Hot pot is really cool - basically a huge fondu pot full of boiling spicy oil. This place was kind of unique. It's a buffet. All the meat and other foods are out for you to pick what you want. And you can eat and dring as much food and beer and coke and other drinks you want for about $6 per person!!!

So, one more LaoWai (foreigner) bites the dust. Mike Hannigan from EDS went back to Canada/America. He's a great guy and everybody in Liuzhou will miss him. When I landed back in the China in August I asked Mike what was new and he casually said he got married the day before. WOW! His wife is Mindy ( in the right of this picture). So Mindy will go back to Canada soon too. They are working on the paperwork now. She will do great in Canada!

Ray and I went for a bicycle adventure in Liuzhou. We rented bikes and rode to a park south of Liuzhou. It is called a Luowei Sightseeing Agricultural Scenic Spot. I thought it would be a farm. But it was really a big orchard. They were having a Youzi festival. Youzi is a big sweet grapefruit. I like them very much. They are not bitter like an american grapefruit.

You could pick your own youzi and eat as many as you want - just couldn't take them with you.

They also had these walkways covered in vines with all kinds of gourds hanging from them. Very cool. :)

After the park we rode back to Liuzhou to eat Luosifen (local Liuzhou noodles in a soup made from snails). We both love Luosifen. Now we will both really miss it since I too am leaving Liuzhou too.

After lunch we rode our bikes to the Liuzhou zoo. They don't have a lot of animals but they have some shows - lions and tigers riding on horses, monkeys balancing upside down on goats horns while they walk tight ropes, bears riding bicycles and jumping rope, sea lions playing basket ball,... funny stuff. More like a circus than a zoo. And they had holstein cows and ostriches or emus and camels and deer and other animals all in a big pen with a raised walkway above it. Pretty cool. And the FATTEST bear I have ever seen!!! But maybe the most popular attraction at the zoo that day was the lao wai (me). Ray said maybe they had a cage for me. :)

The next day I was even more of a curiosity to the locals. I went with Qiufeng to her home town a small village southeast of Liuzhou about 5 hours by bus. She said that I was the first foreigner ever to go to her village. Of course there was lots of staring and talking in their local language (not mandarin chinese). Her father and mother are farmers. They grow rice (that's rice in the foreground of this picture) and other vegetables and fruits.


Qiufeng's family.

We walked across the rice fields, visited the village elementary school and then climbed a small mountain. Good view from the top but still the haze. Many people say it is smog in Liuzhou but I think there are not many factories around her home town. I think it is very much caused by the weather and humidity too.

We all got a ride on the family motorcycles to back from the mountain.

This is the family in her cousin's small doctor's office which is below his house. He studied medicine from a master. They have a big house in the village. That is where we lived. In the countryside like this, people are allowed to have more than one child to help with the farming. Her cousin has two boys. There are 4 children in Qiufeng's family. She has two sisters and a brother.

We found a Luosifen restaurant in PingNan the nearest big town. It wasn't as good as Liuzhou luosifen but it was fun to find it so far away from Liuzhou.

So, I came back from the holiday and FINALLY I have a new job offer.

I will move to Ningbo a city near the sea south east of Shanghai. Ningbo is a major export city for china and that is why I am going there actually. Through one of my former Ford colleagues I got a contact at a company that is making a new part for Ford. They were interested in hiring somebody with Ford experience. So, I will now work directly for a Chinese company instead of being a contract employee. This is sure to be an interesting experience.

I will miss Liuzhou. I have many great friends here and my Chinese family. Ray's family has kind of adopted me and given me a chinese name. 帅伶俐 (Shuai Ling Li). Shuai is the family name and means handsome. Ling Li is my given name and means smart or clever. I like it much better than my first chinese name because it was given to me by my new adopted family. All of his aunts thought for a week or more what they should name me. It's not just a made up name that sounds good.

So, for now,I must say goodbye to Liuzhou.

I think it is a beautiful city filled with beautiful warm people. It will always be my hometown in China.

I will soon start the next stage of my China adventure. A new city, a new job, probably a new language (or at least a different local dialect).

Stay tuned...