Snow in Nanjing

It is somewhat colder in Nanjing this winter. Last year it didn't snow when we were there and the temperature did not often go below freezing. This year they had snow in November. One of Bob's students e-mailed him and told him how excited some of the students were because they had never seen snow before. One of my students sent me a picture of the snow.

Compare the snow in Nanjing with the snow in Lethbridge!

Mini Mandarin Oranges

We were excited yesterday because Safeway was selling mini mandarin oranges. We had only seen them in China and they are very good. The picture shows one of them next to a tube of lip balm.

I was also excited because the box the oranges came in had Chinese writing on it and I recognized one of the chinese characters on the box. 小
It is xiao and means small. I have been forgetting the Chinese that I was able to learn when I was there, so it is good to know that I haven't forgotten everything.

A Further Look at Nanjing

Yesterday Bob mentioned that people were still looking at our blog, so I thought I would add a few more posts. This post will be about the Greenland Square Zifeng Tower (or Nanjing Greenland Financial Center). We watched it being built over the ten months that we were in Nanjing.

The Zifeng Tower has 89 stories. It will be the second tallest building in China and will contain office space, retail space, restaurants, and a 500 hundred room hotel.

The following pictures show views over the ten months that we were there. The first was taken in the middle of September and the last towards the end of June.

Home Again

We arrived in Calgary on the 26th June. Edward and Jeremy's families were at the airport to meet us. We got to Lethbridge on Saturday afternoon and were so happy to see Sue-anne and her family. It is good to be back.

Pearl S. Buck

Pearl S. Buck taught English Literature at Nanjing University. She lived in a house located in the North Garden of Nanjing University from 1919 - 1934. In May 2000 a plaque was placed on the house to recognize her, but not many people seem to know about her house. We wondered if she is out of favour with the Chinese government.

We didn't get a picture of the plaque, but this is the house.


Check out the spelling on this sign:

Winding Down

Two more days to go in this oppressive heat. We have had rain a couple of times and it has cooled down to 28 C. for a short time. Mostly it is well above 30 C. When I go out my hair becomes dripping wet and sticks to my head and the sweat drips off my nose.

Bob has his grades turned in and mine are ready to turn in tomorrow. We are spending our time trying to see what we can fit in our suitcases and what we have to jettison.

Today we made a last trip to Fuzi Miao (Confucius Temple) market place. We passed a Muslim Mosque and I remembered that we had tried to visit it, but because I had knee length shorts and bare feet (inside my sandals) I was not allowed in. Well next time we visit Nanjing maybe I will wear long pants (or a dress?) and socks and go to visit the mosque. There are other places in China that we have missed seeing, so if we ever come back we will go to Hongzhuo, Suzhuo, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Jinan, and maybe Chengdu. However, we have already seen more of China than a good many of the Chinese people.

We leave here Friday morning and land in Calgary on Friday afternoon – it will be a long day.

I will be happy to feel the dry Alberta air again. I look forward to drinking tap water and Dr. Pepper. I will be happy to do the laundry in a regular size washer and drier. A dishwasher sounds good as well as a kitchen sink that is higher than thigh height.

There are things I will miss about China: the students at the university, the Nanjing Branch of the church and its members, the good times that we had with the other China teachers, fresh fruit, the Nanjing subway which makes it easy to get around, the tailor who will make anything (although sometimes he puts the buttons on the wrong side of a blouse or the zipper in the wrong side of a skirt) and the markets and the low prices.

I might even miss the traffic and the vehicles driving on the line between lanes or on the wrong side of the road because there are too many cars on the right side, the constant horn honking, and walking down the middle of the street, but probably not.

Unless something momentous happens in the next few days this will be the last post. Thanks to all our readers. We hope to see you soon.

Farewell Banquets

On Tuesday, June 18th there was a banquet for the foreign teachers of Nanjing University. I was still in the hospital but Bob managed to get there. They presented all the foreign teachers with certificates and gifts.

On Thursday, Dr. Wong, the head of the Department for Applied Foreign Studies, held a dinner for Connie Slater and I who both teach in that department. Dr. Wong, our husbands and several of the Chinese teachers in that department were there. Again they presented us with gifts.

Friday evening two of the teachers from the law department took Bob and I out for dinner at a restaurant that serves authentic Nanjing food.

Gulou Hospital

Well, no adventure in China is complete without a four week stay in the hospital and unfortunately I managed this feat.

I had a private, air conditioned room that had wireless internet. The Doctors and nurses were very professional. The Doctor who was head of the department (gerontology) spoke excellent English and the Doctor that looked after me also spoke English although I had a hard time with some of her pronunciation. In China they believe in long hospital stays. They insist that antibiotics have to be given IV. I would still be there if I hadn’t insisted on getting out.

The nurses all wore the cute little caps like my mother wore when she nursed. They wore white or pale blue dresses, but instead of the long white stockings my mother wore they wore pants underneath the dresses. Many of the nurses were young and spent a lot of time giggling when they were in my room. They didn’t speak a lot of English, but had a paper with some English translations on it. They would go down the paper and find something such as, “Are you nervous?” and read it to me. I would say, “Yes” and they would look at their list again and read, “Don’t worry. You are in good hands.” and they would giggle.

The patients in the hospital wore pyjamas (color coded by the department) and not the gowns worn in Canadian hospitals.

Being in the hospital was a good way to get my daughter to come to China and spend 10 days with me. It was certainly good to have her there.

From my hospital window I could see the building that will be the 8^th tallest building in Asia when it is finished.

Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

The Chinese government has not seen fit to unblock blogspot, so I am sending this to my son in the hope that he will post it for me.

On the 19th May we visited the Taiping Museum. Here is a bit of history about the Taipings.

During the Qing Dynasty (1644AD to 1911AD) a Hakka called Hong Xiu Quan (1814AD to 1864AD) founded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851AD to 1864AD). He titled himself Tian Wang (Heavenly King), the Second Son of God and the
Younger Brother of Jesus Christ.

Hong Xiu Quan (1814-1864) was the son of a farmer and an aspiring Chinese bureaucrat. He came under the influence of Christian missionaries, and reached the conclusion that he was the younger son of Jesus sent to found the Heavenly Kingdom on earth. Faced with the collapse of Qing dynasty rule (under Western onslaught), Hong tapped into the deep millenarianism (belief in a coming ideal society and especially one created by revolutionary action) of the Chinese peasantry (previously expressed in Buddhist terms) and began a rebellion - the Taiping Rebellion.

Lasting from 1851 to1864 the rebellion took control of large areas of south and central China, including the southern capital of Nanjing. There a theocratic ¬military government was established.

Although it was millenarian in form, the Taiping leaders adopted many policies which would later become the marks of modernizers in China: prohibition of opium ¬smoking, gambling, the use of tobacco and wine, polygamy, the sale of slaves, and prostitution. They promoted the equality of the sexes: they abolished foot-binding and appointed women as administrators and officers in the Taiping army. They also tried to abolish the private ownership of land and property, and they developed a program for the equal distribution of land.

As the movement developed Hong became more and more an Emperor and less and less a religious leader.

The impetus of the movement suffered greatly as Hong withdrew from active control of policies and administration in 1853. His sanity progressively eroding he devoted himself to meditation and more sensual pursuits, including his private harem. The failure of the movement to secure European support or that of the middle classes was another blow. The Heavenly Kingdom was eventually defeated by the imperial forces who were helped by Europeans. The imperial army consisted of 2 million to 5 million regulars along with hundreds of thousands of regional militias and foreign mercenaries operating in support. Among the imperial forces was the elite “Ever Victorious Army”, consisting of Chinese soldiers led by a European officer corps (Frederick Townsend Ward and Charles Gordon).

The museum did not have much to say about the religion behind the Heavenly Kingdom and emphasized the military conquests.

Welcome Rain

Starting on Thursday the 8th May we had above 30 degree C. weather for four straight days. The following Monday about 9:00 p.m. it started to rain and for the next few days the temperature was down in the 20 degree C. Range. It rained a bit. By Friday again it was getting very hot, but during the night it started to rain and rained all day Saturday and the temperature was much more comfortable.

On the 8th and 9th we heard many firecrackers in the mornings because there were weddings those days. The 8th is considered a good day for a wedding because in Chinese eight sounds like wealth. Nine sounds like long so the 9th is also considered a good day for marriages. A Chinese would not get married on the 4th because it is considered unlucky. Four sounds like death in Chinese. The Friday before was a national holiday so there were also quite a few weddings then.

On the wedding morning the groom goes to the bride’s home and carries her back to his home (actually he piggybacks her out to the car and drives). Her feet aren’t allowed to touch the ground between her home and his. They set off firecrackers when they go to the bride’s home and maybe when they get to the groom’s home. Weddings used to be at the groom’s home and were very small but now often the marriage takes place at the restaurant where they hold the reception.

Red is the colour for marriages. Both families decorate their homes in red and the bride is often married in red. Pictures are taken in the weeks before the wedding and for the pictures the bride often wears the typical white western wedding dress.

A wonderful thing happened this week. We found the foreign bookstore in Nanjing. I bought four paperbacks.

Tuesday we went out for Mexican food and Friday to Poppa John’s Pizza (American ingredients and American prices).

Saturday I was the deputy chairman for a model UN conference. It was interesting. I have never had anything to do with MUN before.

The Chinese government blocked out youtube starting in March and this week they blocked Blogspot, so if this gets posted it will be because of one of my children did the posting for me.

Here are a couple of pictures of the campus that we teach at:

The hill behind the Campus

A square in the middle of the building

The view from the bus stop Rocks with uneven surfaces are considered attractive in China.

Working Methods

Hauling Away Branches Trimmed from Trees

Load of Branches from the Back

Scaffolding

Crane Above the Scaffolding

Tree Support

Take Time to Smell the Roses

In the spring a young man's fancy

In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
Alfred Lord Tennyson