Jiao Zi Making or, Dumpling Making

My first experience with dumpling making. Let's recount the things I did wrong in this video and in other attempts. 1) supposed to do the first fold from inside to out, 2) always start pinching from the edges first (though I did it right in the video, not later), 3) too much filling, 4) not enough filling, 5) no squeezing the filling out as you are pinching, 6) I had NO idea how to do the final squeeze and shape at the end, 7) no big huge ears allowed (though they come in handy for dipping later I tried to point out), and 8) dumpling must stand up when you set it down, even after watching Shi Fu, "The Master," next to me. It's a wonder the real Master, her mom, let me keep making little "ugly dimplings."

I point out, however, none of them opened up during boiling the next morning, not even mine. Still, as dumpling making is a microcosm of China: There is much to learn.

Now watch Shi Fu.

Harbin is Cold

The piano was functional. Electronic, but otherwise like a regular piano.

Did I mention that Harbin is really really cold? Tenth largest city, but probably the coldest. I just noticed today on the map that Harbin is actually north of Vladivostok, waaaay north. Wei's mom has us dressed up like the Michelin man, or Mĭ-cί-lίn (Mee-chee'-leen') as they say here, but we're still freezing. Actually I feel more like Ralphie's little brother in that movie "A Christmas Story," unable to move my arms and legs except in whole body rotational motions... At least the cold makes for some good ice sculptures. And any coffee tastes great, though it was pretty good regardless.

Cute little foam hearts in the capp. All the usual touches.

The Venus de Milo

Making Monsieur Rodin proud.

Forbidden City

No trip to Beijing, or China for that matter, would be complete without a visit to the Palace Museum, better know as the Forbidden City. So we headed over there on our first day in the city. Naturally the front gate is adorned with a huge picture of "The Beloved," which is replaced with a fresh copy every year. Inside the first gift shop, in the Gate of Supreme Harmony, they had many different likenesses of Mao at various points in his life that you could purchase. In there I couldn't help but notice that his mole had grown from his youth to old age. And the only reason I mention it is that this particular feature is only faintly portrayed in the visage above. You might say Beijing has gone every so slightly Hollywood.

Wei and I outside the gate.

A more full picture of the gate.

One pretty cool thing that we happened upon was the lowering of the flag. The honor guard marches out from pretty far within the Forbidden City, so we followed them with a bunch of other people, but we got to be right behind and next to them. They weren't always perfectly in step, but they did sing some good songs. Then we had to run out around them to be in Tienanmen Square when they came out and the flag was lowered and stuffed into the flag pole.

You can read more about the Forbidden City at this link http://www.beijingtrip.com/attractions/forbidden/ . I've attached a few pictures of our visit below.

I think this is the main throne. Couldn't get a good picture inside the dark hall.

I believe this picture is from the most important gate, or hall. It's importance can be gauged by the number of "beasts" riding the corners of the eves. There are twelve figures in this picture, but I think one of them is the driver.

That's one tough looking turtle.

And of course no important monument, or gate to a residence, or street corner for that matter, would be complete without heavy-duty looking guards. I think these guys are regular army, but in Beijing they mostly all wear the same green heavy over coats and big fuzzy hats this time of the year.

Internet Access Update

I should update my previous entry on internet access.  It's still definitely varied, mostly according to website, but also just according to simple access problems.  Beijing was, understandably, the best so far.  I could access almost all sites we were looking for like weather sites, my.yahoo.com, The New York Times (at least before the 19th), we could even get the All Things Considered web feed from NPR....except, oddly, the Wall Street Journal.  But now I can access that in Dalian.  But the radio feed can be spotty, perhaps just a bandwidth thing.

Time to get out of the hotel.  And it's a light dusting of snow outside so Wei's happy we'll be at an inside (and underground) shopping mall.

Beijing to Dalian

We've been busy. We're in Dalian now, after a very pleasant overnight train ride, morning hotel check-in, tour of Dalian University of Technology (DUT, where Wei did her Chemistry undergrad), then meeting and eating with friends. I'll have to update later about all of our great times in Beijing. We did a lot of the standard stuff there, such as the Forbidden City, a couple Hutongs, and the Qianmin marketplace, but also found a tango class and milonga on one night. Pretty interesting. My hopes of finding authentic Jade, that I could afford, were unfortunately dashed. Maybe next time after I do some proper research on where to go. Might just have to wait until we travel in the South.

Dalian is freakin' cold and dry, but I suppose no more so than State College, PA, in a good winter. To be sure, Dalian is a complex city, hosting a huge expo hall, noted maritime concerns, and several universities and institutes, including a satellite of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. We toured Wei's old campus together, the DUT, starting with the administration building, where Wei, ever the over-achiever, was once the hostess for a big campus-wide DUT 50th anniversary party under the statue of Mao, only to find front doors hanging off their hinges and the inside

pretty much gutted: renovation it seems. As it turned out many buildings are being renovated, or have already been, and many more have simply sprouted up since Wei's time here. Naturally there was then some complaining about being "so old." I've noticed the same sort of thing on the Penn State campus everytime I return to State College, and have probably said pretty much the same thing. But life in Dalian moves on, and so has Wei.

We had lunch with two of her very good friends from back in the day. They both work for the university, as they did when Wei was a student. One woman, Xia Hui, is very much like a big sister to Wei, still seems to be looking out for her today. I ate a big huge snail, or tiny Conch or something, and a big fat sea cucumber, though they weren't on the table yet in the first picture. I expected the snail to be more rubbery, instead, a little chalky. And I had no expectation on the sea cucumber, second picture above, but it was pretty much like eating unflavored gelatin, congealed. The broth it was in, with sweet sticky rice, one piece of broccoli, and a quail egg, contained all the flavor and was quite tasty. Wei tells me that this ensemble is a local delicacy.

Later we got to see Hui's very nice two story unit in university housing, and I was given the honor, I think, of quizing her 12 year old son on one of his English lessons. He's a good kid and, despite deparately and quietly trying to get out of doing his homework so he could go play with friends, mostly gave flawless spellings of the words I read. But I figured by the spelling that they were using British pronunciations, so when we got to "tomato" I threw him a curve ball by pronouncing it the American way. He looked dazed, so we agreed it wasn't fair and gave him the point anyway. :-) I guess he either learned something new, or we completely derailed his lessons from now on.

Continuing our exploration in the arctic North of China, we tried to see Wei's dorm, but, you guessed it, being renovated behind walls of green tarps on scaffolding. So instead we discussed the finer points of dorm food, agreed that it generally sucks both in the East and the West, but were hopeful that the new dining hall pictured above would give new hope to current Dalian students. As we left, we watched a whole park full of crazy kids playing soccer. Four 1/4 court games and one full court game, on artificial turf that Wei said was basically just a dirt field when she was there. They were wearing long-sleeves and leg tights, but did I mention it was about zero Fahrenheit out? Wei's mom would have got the broom out and chased them down to the parka store, that is if my own experience is any guide.

The main event of the evening was pretty standard, and focused, I'm convinced, on making me gain AT LEAST 15 lbs on this trip. But on either side were two firsts on the trip. So the main event was dinner with several old friends in a private room, this time it was Korean BBQ, which was excellent. This came after visiting with Wei's closest roommate from school, which mostly involved letting her 3 year old warm up to us. I think it was three times of burying his face in dad's shirt and starting to cry before he would sit in the same room with us. Of course Wei said he was just scarred by "the big American" but whatever the reason eventually he sat with us for a picture, played race cars with me for a bit, and even let Wei take his hand and walk him down out of the building. I was not so lucky, but I did get a firm hand shake and he said he had fun playing cars with me.

The first new experience was a ride in the illegal cab. We missed out on this in Beijing because they're almost entired of the single-set variety, but here they are three seat and enclosed. Wei's friend insisted we take one of them here because it was just a short drive back to campus and the 8 yuan regular cab (a little over $1) was simply outrageously priced for the distance. And about the three seats, it's not clear the thing would move very far, even downhill, if there were much of a headwind with three people in addition to the driver, especially since the driver seemed to have great difficulty getting into 2nd gear, especially if there was a speed bump thrown into the equation. Anyway from the sound of it the engine was 2-stroke and about 100 CCs, or 100 squirrels, I didn't lift the carriage to check. But I did take care not to let my arm fall behind the seat, since right there was the battery, naturally, corroded and not covered in any way, naturally.

The second new experience was a local coffee shop in China. Wei stopped at a Starbucks in downtown Beijing, but that doesn't really count in my opinion. This place is called the "I-55" after the interstate from Chicago to New Orleans. It seems to be a college-town thing, and is owned by an American who's goal is to introduce the residents of Dalian to coffee culture and variety, as well as any other American culture he could fit on the bookshelves inside the shop. The esspresso was actually quite good, and with the layout, decor, place servings from IKEA, and Christmas music in English, you could really almost forget where you were, if that were your aim...aside from all the signs being written in Chinese. I was happy to read the English version of the China Daily, or People's Daily, which was pretty well written and seemed to have a good mix of simple reporting and critical analysis. Lot's of talk about the 30 year anniversary of the economic reforms.

That pretty much ended the evening, but it's worth noting that her friend who drove us back owns a Ford Mondeo so I asked about it's price and availability. The car seems much better than any Ford I've ever seen in the US. It's the little things (or big picture, depending). Like the window operation buttons. They looked and felt just like you'd find in an Audi or a BMW, slightly rubberized, solid feel, had one-click for manual and "two-clicks for auto" window operations in all four seats. Inside door handles appeared to be metal, or at least were as solid as metal. And the leather and stereo console also seemed of "European car" quality, if that means anything. Every Ford I've ever been in had plastic buttons all around, the same green and orange speedometer, and A/C controls that still look straight out of the 80s. Who knows if it's limitations by contracts with US suppliers for US-made and sold Fords or what, but if it didn't have the Ford name on it, you would never guess. But the price tag was a bit of a surprise also. It was 250,000 yuan, which in today's exchange is about $37,000. It definitely seemed worth it, but Ford may have some work to command that kind of price, even with a car like this, in the US. That or I'm whoefully out of touch with the modern Ford.

Tomorrow it's sleeping in followed by what are said to be real kick-ass foot massages. Then who knows, perhaps the shopping district where Wei spent time as a student, or the gargantuan shell museum that looks like a huge castle on on one of the highest hills. Also wasn't here just 7 or 8 years ago. We did get a great view of the city from it's parking lot this evening.

Business in China

I'm told that I passed the "test" but I gotta say it was not clear to me at the time. We went out for dinner with former colleagues of Wei's dad, all very close to her family and very well respected. Naturally it was expected that I act appropriately. Naturally there was a certain flow to all of the events through the dinner. And naturally they were almost all unknown to me. The thing I did know was that whenever someone raised a glass to me, no matter what I *thought* was coming out of their mouth, I was expected to drink with them, and by that I mean drink whatever was left in my glass. With some nudging from Wei, I picked up quickly that one must also stand up during this exercise. So while I still had some whits about me, I tried to make sure that my glass was rarely full. The others didn't seem to mind, but this worked only to a point. Namely because if they didn't reach over and fill it up for me, out of kindness of course, then the damn waiter would come over and fill it up for me, even though I would clearly do this little hand signal that it was enough. And he was ALWAYS there, because in this restaurant you get your own room to fill with as much smoke as you like, or don't like. Anyway I think he was in on it.

And that was the thing, the smoke. I had no problem with the beer, even though it comes in huge bottles, they brought a whole case in just for us, and most people were drinking Chinese liquor. I am lucky they didn't insist that I drink that. I've had it before. Powerful stuff. The beer was fairly light and tasty. Harbin beer, supposedly the oldest brewed in China, so that was a treat. But the smoke was killing me. Ever since MA and now CA eliminated smoking in bars, I'm a total cigarette smoke wimp, makes my stomach upset and drastically reduces tolerance for alcohol.

Anyway, like I said I survived and the evening was a success. Might write more about that later.

Web Pages

Just a quick note about the internet access here.  Accessibility is an interesting mix.  I can get through to most Google products that I use, such as gmail and blogspot, photos, etc, and the search engine.  But I can't get through to any american weather site I've looked at so far, although some send a passthrough directly at the search page in Google.  I can't get through to Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal, or the New York Times.  Although I swear we were able to get to the New York Times when we first established the DSL connection.

Lots of Good Food, and Donkeys, Seperately.

Last night featured a local favorite, I'm told: the Hot Pot. Ours is pictured above. Basically you have pork boiling pork broth, mild seasonings on one side, and heavily chillied on the other side. I preferred the chillied side. What you do is put the meat, vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, whatever, into the boiling broth, wait just a little bit until they kind of boil up to the surface, them simply pluck 'em out onto your plate, which you've already prepared with a sort of sesame paste, more chilli, some preserved cilantro in this case, and some fermented red tofu sauce. It all mixes together quite well you're full quite quickly, even though you pick just one little bit at a time.

After that, Wei, her mom and I stopped off at the "exhibition center." This is a huge conference center, but also a huge mall. If you didn't know any better going in, you might wonder if you were back in the States, while getting further confused as you walk in and see a Christmas display. It looked a lot like any mall in the US, except that Jacky Chan seems to be everywhere. He has his own clothing store...

and even a ton of food products that we saw in the adjoining supermarket...

Wei tells me that the supermarket is actually a French company, considered to be very high-end here. Regardless of who owns the place, Wei considered this picture to be very typical Chinese supermarket. That's her mom on in the foreground.

A few other take-aways to note: 1) there are MANY kinds of sausage here,

some chickens have black skin under the feathers,

also liquid milk is a new thing and comes in little bags, and gum comes in what look like medicine bottles to Americans.

Today, Monday, I awoke to find a donkey taking a rest on the cold ground behind Wei's parents' complex. These folks make a living sorting the trash into recyclable and non-recyclable, hauling it away to get paid at a transfer station of sorts. I didn't wait long enough to see this particular cart in action, though I was curious whether the donkey helped to pull all the time, or only when the guy on the bike got tired, or whether the donkey just tagged along behind. Wei's parents, and Wei, thought it was funny that I took a picture of him, since of course they see this scene, this particular guy in fact, all the time.

For lunch we visited Wei's Great Aunt and Uncle. To Wei they're more like a Grandmother and Grandfather. We did the usual sitting around and visiting, lots of talking which of course I couldn't understand except for a word or two here and there. And of course every once in a while I'd hear my name and go "What?" like an idiot. At the all the important points, I think, Wei filled me in and sometimes I'd answer in Chinese by first asking Wei to whisper a phrase to me. The were all very kind to say that I speak Chinese very well, and when will I be learning more? As you can imagine, they wanted to be able to just talk directly to me instead of making Wei translate.

We gave them the gifts that we brought, chocolates and make-up mainly, which they liked very much. Anything American seems to be a treat for them, so we didn't tell them that Ferrero Roche isn't made in the US, just sold by the truck load in the US at Costco. They'd probably say "Costco who now?"

They also had some gifts for us, which was unexpected, at least by me. The highlight of which was a Chinese Watercolor painting that her Uncle did himself. He's very good at it, with several examples around the house. That's him and the gift with me in the picture below. I was really quite blown away. They brought out about six different scrolls, from which I got to choose. The one I liked the best was also the one they really wanted me to have because it was chosen to be featured in a little book of war veteran memoirs, for which her Uncle also wrote a short story in which he gave some detailed accounts of fighting in their Revolutionary War just after World War II. He also served in the Korean War, during which he was mostly stationed at Chinese headquarters in North Korea.

After more visiting and me taking pictures of most of their apartment, which they thought was funny, we brough out the dinner table that had been folded up against the wall. The apartment is a two bedroom, plus an office that I suppose could have been a dining room, but it seems that most people in this kind of house in China would have it set up this way, getting the dinner table out for special occasions, though I'll have to check with Wei on that. Anyway, the picture below shows our gracious hosts with the huge amounts of food that Wei's Aunt and Mom prepared. It should suffice to say that I've learned very well how to say "it's very tasty" in Chinese, of "hao che!"

Zero Degrees and I'm Feelin' Fine

That's right, when we arrived at Midnight last night it was just about 0 Fahrenheit. I loved it. Wei's parents whisked us away into a family member's waiting car very quickly. They are very concerned that we're freezing, still, even in the apartment. It's nice of them to worry. If you're wondering why it is so cold, take a look at the map above. It is a map of all the places in China that are serviced by China Eastern Airlines. Now look in the upper right, way up, keep going, see that Northern-most city? The one that's practically Siberia? That might explain the temperature. But like I've told Wei, the temp is really not much different than State College, PA.

It was maybe an hour drive from the airport back to the city, which I'll probably talk more about later. Let's just say that even during the day the traffic lights are generally optional.

We lugged our suitcases, include the 70 lbs of gifts, up 5 flights of stairs to Wei's parents' beautiful little apartment, and we treated to a full meal. I only picked a bit, just because I had generally stayed up for the entire 28 hours of flying and such, making my stomach a little uneasy. So what with all the new smells to get used to, I mostly ate a nice helping of rice porridge and called it a night to get my internal clock set right. Woke up like any other morning, so it seems to have worked.

Anyway just a quick note since we just got the Broadband working. We're headed out for Wei to get a haircut and for me to experience some more local culture. More to say about the flights and such later.

Sweater Vests For Everyone!

Yesterday Wei greeted me after my concert, very excited with some new purchases from the Camarillo outlets. Not 5 minutes into trying on a fine sweater made of a former goat, or parts of him at least, I end up ripping first one, then the other arm. Just can't give me nice things I guess. I don't ever want to see that sad look again. Plus she pretty much pointed at the door, which I optimistically took to mean it was expected that I find a tailor at 11 pm or so. Luckily I do have an excellent tailor and she fixed both holes (little ones under the arm because I still pull off my shirts like I'm 7 years old), and a pair of pants I want to take, plus the nice wool coat from Christmas last year that also had a rip under one arm (refer to previous quote about 7 year old Stevens). Anyway the total price tag was only $35! Good thing, or it would be swetter vests only for me from now on.

The last thing for me to do is get the gifts I've been stressing about for Wei's parents. I've been at a total loss and finally broke down to ask Wei for help, having given up on my plan to surprise everyone including Wei. In the end it seems I wasn't too far off the mark: liquor for Dad and chocolate for Mom. But I may still try to put some of my own little flare in there. Let's hope I don't screw it up too bad....my tailor probably can't fix cultural snags.

For Wei, it's all about the outfits. Naturally nearly each one must be tested in front of me and the mirror before making the cut. I'm not sure why my opinion matters since I have no fashion sense, but I'm doing my best. But I must say I think she might be feeling ill, since she's actually might leave the high-heels at home. Except for one pair of Tango shoes because of course you just never know when you might get to Tango.

Some Final Planning

Wei is putting in lots of overtime getting our plane and train tickets organized for the internal legs of our trip. I'd say it's all Greek to me, but it's actually all in Chinese.

We will start out in Harbin, where today it is a balmy 7 degrees F. I suppose not much worse than back home in PA where it's 18 degrees. The main thrust of our time in Harbin will be to see Wei's family and friends, eat lots and lots of food (probably fish if Wei's previous talk about home is any guide) and to check out the world famous ice sculptures, among other things. Some of the ice sculptures are huge! It is China after all.

Then it's on to Beijing for a few days where I hope to see the Forbidden City and probably the Great Wall. Someday we'll have to come back to travel out to the less touristy parts of the Great Wall, and also to Xian where the Terracotta Warriors live.

After Beijing we go to Dalian, where Wei attended the Dalian University of Technology for undergraduate. It's a little known fact that in addition to majoring in Chemical Engineering, she also played the French Horn in the orchestra!

Next we go to Shanghai for a few days to stay with two of our friends who used to live here in Santa Barbara. They are also the parents of one of our favorite little people, Sandy (below). But we will have seen her in Beijing beforehand. Might get to see a couple other friends as well, but just seeing Shanghai will be pretty cool.


Then we're back to Harbin for the final 10 days, because there's a supersized amount of family to visit with, freinds to see, more fish to eat, plus other stuff, Maotai to drink, if I can handle it this time. Heck, maybe I'll even try to find a little school to learn some Chinese while I'm there!

Hi everyone. I set up this blog to share the trip to China that Wei and I will embark on Friday the 12th. Who knows, I may even continue to opine on things after we return.

We'll update it as much as possible depending on available connections or computer facilities. Check in on us once in a while.