In the last year or so, there have been a number of stories about the death of innocent children in China, like the story of Yueyue, which I wrote about here, and several horrific stories of children left to die or women forced to have abortions very late in their pregnancies.

These stories are indeed awful, and they sometimes lead people to believe that the lives of children are not valued in China,  life itself is little valued there.

I want to tell you that this is not true.

Our last night in Sanmenxia, the doors breezed open, cold air rushed in, and two policemen strode into the room, followed by a nurse carrying a small bundle. I have not really ever been able to get my head around what was happening. They were bringing in, right there, before our eyes, an abandoned baby who had just that moment been discovered, who may have had a life-threatening illness or other birth defect.

This wasn’t a TV show with a slow-motion, black and white image and a plea for $25 a month. It was a real, live, crying baby.

And what I think impressed me so much was not only the gravity of the situation — here was a child who had very probably just been saved from an awful fate — but the nonchalance and calm sense of fortitude the women working in the welfare center took this with. Here was a new person they were to be charged with caring for. They filled out some forms, sent the police on their way, and found the child a bed.

These women would be this child’s family from now on. They would feed him, play with him, change him, rock him to sleep if he were inconsolable.

I sometimes feel we can barely do that adequately for one baby, our son, who has the advantage of two parents, and fancy eco-friendly diapers, and educational toys.

But there is one woman, the one I took to be the ‘boss,’ in that room in Sanmenxia, who is called mama by 35 children.

If you consider giving money to this thing we’re doing for International China Concern, you can do it because the thought of disabled, abandoned children tugs at your heartstrings, but I’m asking you to consider doing it for these women, who are devoting their lives to caring for people who have no one else.

This, to me, is the ultimate act of loving, nonviolent resistance. The sociologist Peter Berger writes “By training myself in stoical fortitude, I might accept the prospect of my own death with equanimity. It is the death of my neighbor’s child that I refuse to accept.”

The people who work in these places are engaged daily in this act of holy refusal. Please consider giving to help them to continue their important work.

If you are Canadian, you can donate here.

If you are American, you can donate here.

If you’re neither, you can choose whichever you want!

2. (See above photo) We had perhaps our greatest meal in Sanmenxia: randomly walking past a place one day, we noticed the characters for “duck head hot pot.” Being fans of hot pot due to our recent time in Sichuan, and fans of duck heads thanks to our time in Zhejiang (and our friend Ying who introduced us to them — I know it sounds gross but it’s really not), we walked in and were treated to your basic hot pot meal except that before you put in the broth, followed by the veggies, meats, etc, there are a bunch of delicious duck heads already in the bowl for you to eat, and they are delicious.

I really didn’t know anything about Xi’An other than the fact that it was considered old, which by Chinese standards is really saying something. I had heard that it used to be called Chang’An, and that it was the capital of China at some point. You get used to hearing that whatever city you happen to be in was the capital of some kingdom or other, or was the center of power for some leader or political party for a few years (for example, the city we’re leaving from by train at the moment, Sanmenxia, a tiny, unknown town by any standard, claims on some website or other to be ‘the cradle of Chinese civilization’) but Xi’An was actually the capital of China for two thousand years. I think this was the first time I actually felt I could grasp the frequently repeated fact that China has “five thousand years of history.” That’s a whole lotta history, ladies and gentlemen.

Our hotel was once again very conveniently located right in the middle of the city, which is surrounded by a bazillion (roughly) year old city wall. In fact, it was one of the nicest budget(ish) hotels I’ve stayed at in China — look up the Citadines hotel if you’re ever in Xi’An.

Xi’An is known for several things, but chief amongst them are probably the famous Terra Cotta Warriors (in Chinese, known as the Bing Ma Yong, or the warriors and horses) and the vibrant Muslim culture — in the heyday of Chang’An, the city was the beginning of the Silk Road, so there is a long history of interacting with the outside world, one result of which, I suppose, would be the still active Muslim community…and Xi’An is also the site of the first recorded Christians to come to China, in the 7^th century, apparently from Persia. Yes, that’s right, Christian missionaries to China from what is now basically Iran.

Our first night, we wandered through the area known as the Hui Min Qu (Muslim Minority District, or “Muslim Quarter” in English), which is a very active area mostly filled with restaurants and snack shops. The local fare we sampled included a hot drink made with pear juice, dates, and some other stuff (Sarah will know what it is – ask her), a dish of jellylike rice cubes covered in spicy sauce, something that was either a giant noodle or a sausage, cut into the shape of those “tornado” potato things you can get at the Richmond night market, on a stick, and the famous local soup Yang Rou Pao Mou, aka mutton and bread soup.

This is really fun. You are given a big bowl and a couple of flat, round pieces of bread, sort of like tortillas or naan. Your job is to tear the bread into little pieces by hand, which takes a while if you really do it well. You then hand the bowl, now filled with bread bits, back to the kitchen and take a number. In a few minutes, your number is called, and your bowl has been filled with a delicious soup consisiting mainly of mutton and fen si (aka ‘glass noodles’). Also, and this is a very important also, you get a side dish of whole pickled garlic cloves, which were a delicious addition.

Brief gluten intolerance interlude

Unfortunately, this was the first of several days during which I succumbed to the temptation to eat food made from wheat flour, which I have been consciously avoiding for the last three years due to a gluten intolerance that manifests itself in ways having to do with improper digestion, to put it delicately. After  eating the bread, I was like, “hey, I seem to be OK so far!” and proceeded to eat wheat for the next two days. Nearly a week later, I had just barely recovered from it. Kids, don’t try this at home. Or in China.

 

Our first full day in Xi’An was spent on a tour to the famed Terra Cotta Warriors museum. This really was amazing, but the tour we ended up on was a little weird, mostly because our English speaking tour guide, while she did indeed speak passable English, seemed not be be all that interested in talking to us for most of the tour. We did get some tidbits about the history and significance of the whole thing here and there, though. And it was just a remarkable sight to see these things you always hear about, and see on TV, or at P. F. Chang’s, or what have you. They are well over two thousand years old.

As Sarah remarked to me at another museum housing brilliant artistic artifacts from this period in Chinese history, “What were your people doing then — grunting and trying to figure out how to use stone tools?”

We also did several other interesting things in Xi’An, which include:

- Eeating a ton of dumplings at a fancy restaurant while conversing almost entirely in Chinese with a friend (and Chinese teacher) I’d known from my time at Humboldt State University

- Driving around Xi’An with a Korean-American missionary/businessman

- Enjoying a light/water show at something called the “Big Goose Pagoda”

- Somehow ending up eating at a lot of Sichuan places

- Checking out the local hotspots including the ‘Forest of Stelae’ and the Great Mosque

More on those later — and hopefully, not three months later, this time.

On this short two-day visit, we’re spending most of our time in the Pearl Room, which is where all the 0-2 year old babies are housed and cared for. Today we have a full day of hugging and playing with them. Joel is really great at entertaining them and yesterday had a mound of 5 little ones climbing all over him.

Most (if not all) of the 20+ babies have some sort of special need – from down’s syndrome to internal organ malfunctions, and while we were there yesterday the police and a hospital worker came in with yet another baby. We have huge respect for the people who work here and care for these human beings – who range from newborns to adults. It’s both heart-wrenching and uplifting to see love so tangibly applied to those in dire circumstances.

We arrived at the Tian Chen Lou Hotel (booked for us by Sarah’s Dad Tom, who I must say really has a knack for finding the best hotels) and were taken for dinner at a nearby restaurant by Grace, a friend of Tom’s who is about our age and works as a lawyer in Chengdu. We went with her to a Bible study where we decided to try to follow along in Chinese as best we could. There was enough repetition of some words and phrases that I thought I’d learned some new vocabulary…until I tried to recall it the next day. The only thing I’m confident about at the moment is that “daogao” means prayer. This ended up being the first of several experiences we’ve had with various groups involved with Christianity here. (More on this later, probably.)

We were staying near one of the city’s main tourist attractions, 杜甫草堂, aka “Du Fu’s Thatched Cottage” (or more literally, Du Fu’s Grass House). We’ve started to pick up a few things about Chinese history on this trip, but this was one time where we didn’t really know anything about Du Fu and it probably would have been a lot more significant if we did. Du Fu is apparently known as one of the greatest poets in Chinese history (he was writing around 200 AD, if memory serves). Like a lot of poets, scholars, and literati back in the day, he was also a government official, and from what I gathered after seeing the exhibits, the period when Du Fu lived in Chengdu was both bad for him, since he was driven there while escaping from some kind of uprising or rebellion, and good for him, since he really liked this grass hut, and he wrote some of his most celebrated poetry there. Unfortunately we didn’t leave with any examples of the poetry. (Incidentally, the only book I did leave Chengdu with was a hastily purchased copy of “Impressions of Chengdu,” a book which looked like an interesting travelogue while I was in the gift shop but which, upon further reading, seems to be more of a sycophantic PR piece. I could be wrong, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to read much more of it.)

We also spent time at a number of other tourist spots, including Jinli Street, which is one of China’s many popular “ancient” streets, revamped for tourist purposes. These streets are usually the best place to find all the local snacks in one convenient row, so we indulged in many of Chengdu’s famous (well, not necessarily famous to us, but allegedly famous) snacks, mostly involving the aforementioned ma la flavors. Spicy goodness was enjoyed by all. We ended the evening strolling around the area, using a very forlorn drunk man in a suit as a landmark, and finally finishing up at the Traditional Chinese Dairy Queen.

(side note by Sarah: I have been kind of obsessed with softserve ice cream and have thus far had ice cream at most of the major imported chains including KFC, MacDonald’s, Baskin Robbins, Haagen Dazs, and Dairy Queen. So far in my opinion, Dairy Queen does the best strawberry sundae. Just so you know, I have ONLY gotten ice cream and no other fast food at these establishments.)

(side note by Joel: Sarah has a free pass to eat ice cream since she is pregnant. I only partake occasionally.)

The next day we headed out of town to the Panda Research Base, which in our trip planning was Sarah’s #1 priority. We indeed saw the pandas. We saw many, many pandas. We saw adult pandas, baby pandas, and teenaged (so to speak) pandas. We saw pandas eating bamboo. We saw red pandas rubbing all over things to mark their territory. We saw a panda walk on its hind legs and climb a tree surprisingly quickly in order to get a treat shaped like a mooncake. (Lest you think this is cruel, we were told they do this once in a while to make sure the pandas get some practice working for their food, so they’ll be able to better fend for themselves if they’re released to the wild. I think.) And, in perhaps my favorite bit of trivia about pandas, we learned that these majestic animals eat 40 kilograms of bamboo a day, 32 kilograms of which they poop. We saw some. It was green.

Later that day we ended up at another set of tourist streets, known as the “Wide and Narrow Alleys,” which were also really interesting. They were much more geared, I thought, toward upper middle class tourists, so there was a lot more high end shopping, fancy restaurants, etc. Our only major stop was at the novelty gift shop “Jiong Box,” which I really enjoyed although I felt some embarrassment when I considered whether was basically the Chinese equivalent of something like Spencer Gifts. I’m going to go ahead and say it’s not. I got a couple of kitschy notebooks designed from mid 20^th century Chinese English textbooks.

On Monday and Tuesday we stayed with a PhD classmate of mine, Todd, and his family. They have been in Sichuan province for almost 20 years with Mennonite Partners in China. It was so nice to be in a festive atmosphere complete with Christmas tree, hot chocolate, and
Christmas carols on the stereo. Todd took us to some of Chengdu’s churches including a brand new one and one which is over 100 years old, and the local Christian bookstore. We also had a chance to talk shop, as he’s also doing his dissertation on some aspects of university English education in China. It’s always nice to be able to talk to somebody who knows what you’re talking about. Sarah politely tolerated that bit.

Finally, we ended our time in Sichuan by taking in a very touristy but very fun show based on Sichuan Opera, one of the more famous styles of Chinese opera which is known for its “bian mian” or ‘face changing,’ in which performers change from one mask to another at an astonishingly rapid rate. It’s always a huge crowd pleaser. (I’d seen one similar performance in Ningbo a few months ago.) This was more of a vaudevillian type variety show, with a loose storyline involving a henpecked gambler, a pair of ill fated lovers, a magical mask which may or may not have enabled time travel, and so on. There was also a rap about Chendgu snacks, a scene involving fire breathing which seemed to take place in hell (or at least an anguished mental state), a lot of very skillful dancing, and classic Chinese percussion, the only part of the music that was performed live. (Recreation of the sounds, roughly: “doom clack doom clack dooodoodoodoodoodoodoom claclaclaclaclaclack!)

Earlier this week we flew from Chengdu to Xi’An, a city which also has a lot to offer in terms of history, tourism, and incredibly fast urban development. More on that soon!

32nd floor penthouse view, daytime

32nd floor rooftop view, nighttime

In some ways, Chongqing is like San Francisco, with its steep winding streets and foggy climate. That’s pretty much where all similarity ends – Chongqing’s most famous feature is its 麻辣火锅 (ma la huo guo) – meaning spicy hotpot. This hot pot combines two different kinds of peppers – Sichuan pepper and red peppers – for a unique combination that both numbs your mouth and sets it on fire. In some ways, this “麻辣” flavor represents the character of the city and its residents – fast moving and growing in size and prosperity at a blinding rate – and that’s saying something for China. The complex of high rises where we stayed didn’t exist three years ago.


One of the first things we ate for lunch in Chongqing: 干煸土豆丝 （gan bian tudo si) – basically a type of hash brown that was liberally sprinkled with Sichuan pepper – a total surprise to our unprepared tongues! (We’ve ordered this dish in other provinces where Sichuan pepper wasn’t added)

[Joel's addition]
In addition to the assault on the taste buds which Sichuan food presents, we were also surprised when, during our hotpot dinner with our Couchsurfing hosts (Ben, a native of Humboldt county, where we spent 2005-2007, and Jin, a Chongqing native), the loudest explosion any of us had ever heard rocked the restaurant so hard that the oily hotpot broth was blasted all over Ben’s brand new white-t-shirt. Luckily, this carnage was the only battle damage anyone sustained — as best as we could determine, a huge truck blew a tire right as it was passing the restaurant.
[end Joel's addition]

Our explorations of Chongqing were cursory but fascinating.

We went to visit the old quarter of the city called Ciqikou, where some streets have been preserved and vamped up for tourists. This older area had lots of little streets to poke up and down, and overall the impression was that everything is built vertically along winding alleys to give the perspective of jumbled, angular dwellings built in a sort of pleasantly chaotic manner.

The next day we went on a Chinese tour to the Dazu rock carvings – a wholly new adventure as it was our first Chinese only speaking tour. It was both a great affirmation at how much Chinese we have learned since first coming to China in 2007, and a chilling reminder of just how much we have to go before really understanding things in any great depth. The Dazu caves are set in a very pretty area about 2 hours’ drive from Chongqing, and feature amazing carvings of religious motifs on several cliff faces. These carvings date back at least 1400 years and combine Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian beliefs.

After the Dazu rock carvings, we were sent to see a demonstration at one of the local factories that makes knives (the local manufacturing industry). We saw quite an impressive demonstration which included the presenter banging a cleaver on an aluminum pipe without any damage to the blade, cutting through leather with ease, and an electric razor that was set into a bowl of water and turned on. The price was a steal – 120 CNY for a set of three knives, kitchen shears, and a multifunction vegetable peeler (that’s about $20 USD) – but we decided to forgo the tempting offer.

Later that night, we went with our Couchsurfing hosts to trivia night at a foreign run-bar (“Da Rasta” — reggae-themed, like most bars catering to foreigners, based on some strange supposition that all foreigners love reggae music and idolize Bob Marley). We arrived late and missed the first round out of five, but Joel is convinced that if we had come in time we would have swept the whole thing. As it was, we ended up coming in 3rd place out of 4.

All in all we enjoyed a great visit in Chongqing, but I personally was glad to leave the frenetic pace of this hypercity and come to Chengdu… to be continued…