The Cave Homes of Gansu

One of the things that I was looking forward to the most on my trip to Gansu in June was the prospect of going to a remote mountain village and staying in a cave.

Yeah, a freaking cave. People do actually live in caves in China - it's not just those stereotypes in the Middle East.

That's it there on the left - it's not just a giant hole in the side of a cliff. They've made it into a home, believe it or not.

They cut out a door-sized hole and a window-sized hole into the side of the mountain, and just burrow out a decent-sized hole, round it out and make it work, and then - BAM - time to move in!

For some reason, I didn't take a picture of the inside - but I do have a video clip of it included in the video below, if you are so inclined to watch it.

The cave itself was pretty nice - it was cool although the weather outside was nice. There was a big bed, wallpaper, a dresser, a TV, and all the other "fixings" for a home. It wasn't this big scary unlivable place - it was rather nice.

Where is this place, you might ask?

It is called 赵台 (Zhao Tai). It's in the  countryside.

I just know that we drove from Huan County (环县) for about 5 hours to get there.

5 hours of the craziest, bumpiest, and scariest roads through some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen.

This is the stuff that I had only read about in books and seen in National Geographic.

Terraced mountains literally surround the caves that me, Elena, and Ben are staying in.

The signs of the harvest are everywhere.

The few people that have chainsaws or weed-eaters are letting them loose in the fields, but the rest of the people have their scythes and are at work under the bright glare of the noon sun.

Wheat and apricots are what's being harvested now - the potatoes, corn, and other foods still need some time.

Life here is fundamentally different from life as I know it.

There are no shops nearby, no paved roads, no sound of car horns, no street vendors, no........well, anything.

It's just quiet, clean mountain air and the sound of the goats, donkeys, and other animals that Ben's family raises. Life revolves around the land, and there is little money to be had, and little to spend it on.

It's so different from the money-driven, ambition-fueled society that I have spent my entire life in.

Life here is hard, but I feel like although these people are poor in material ways, they are rich in family and rich in life.

They were so caring and hospitable to me, and it was easy to see that they cared deeply for one another.

I just wish I had been able to better enjoy the moment. I was pretty sick at the time, and I couldn't do a lot of stuff. But I did what I could, and I cherished the time that I spent in this place.

How often do you get to lose yourself in the mountains, be moved by spectacular scenery, stay the night in a cave home, witness (and participate a little bit in) the harvest, be surrounded by new people who nonetheless care about you, and also become buddies with a donkey?

I don't know about you, but that's not something that happens very often to me.

As I said in one of my videos, I'm very grateful to know Ben. He's let me see a side of China that I wouldn't have otherwise been able to see, at least not easily.

I want to take this chance to thank him for that, even though he will probably never read this post, if any posts that I put up on here.


Thanks, Ben.

-------------------------------------

Feel free to comment or to subscribe to my blog - it's totally free and no sign-up and I would love to hear from you!

Blog Tweaks, The General's Belly, and More!

Maybe you've noticed, or you haven't, but I've tweaked the page a little bit - I've moved around my Twitter feed, added some links to related posts, added a mobile version and a visitor map, and tweaked a few colors and stuff like that. Anyway, that's not terribly important, but anyway, just thought I'd let you know that I'm keeping up with maintenance.

Any suggestions for how I should change the page? Make it somehow more interactive or media friendly? Leave in comments!

Also, I finished "Fried Eggs With Chopsticks," and my verdict is that if you've never lived in China and are planning to undertake a tour kind of like hers, then this is a good book for you.

It's clever, funny, and really easy to read. Although, I have to admit, I was kind of annoyed at her during a lot of the book because it seems like she didn't prepare her language skills at all for the trip she was going to take in the interior of China by herself. You don't do that in China. It gives everybody a headache. I met a lot of people when I was in Lanzhou and in other places in China, and it annoyed me because they didn't know how things worked and weren't really bothering to try very hard to adapt to the culture and language. They were just trying to push their American ways onto the Chinese and expecting them to understand and deal with it, and getting pissed off when the Chinese people didn't understand. I was working my butt off to not do that, so it was pretty annoying to see her to that whenever she did. Anyway, rant done.

Anyway, on to the matter at hand, which is some interesting stuff I learned in the past couple of day, which include, but not limited to, the following stuff.

So, sometimes when you're walking along the street, particularly in the Northwest, I've noticed, you'll see dudes standing on the streets with their no shirts on or with shirts pulled up to just above their pudgy stomachs.


Yeah, not the prettiest picture, but I guarantee you that you will see it if you do any extensive traveling in China.


This is called The General's Belly. As you know, China has a history of famine and people going hungry, so a fat guy was pretty rare and was considered a symbol of wealth, just like in many other countries. It was a rarity in those times, but today they can be seen everywhere! Hooray!.........wait, no. It's great that fewer people are going hungry, but I don't know if I really want to be confronted with the naked pudgy truth just yet.

Another thing that I read about was that, according to the China Daily and Chinese National Bureau of Statistics, by 2006, the average person in Shanghai owned two mobile phones, 1.7 air conditioners, 1.7 color TVs, more than one fridge, and had a bigger carbon footprint than the entire UK. - from When a Billion Chinese Jump 

Talk about freaking development - if that's right, it seems like those Shanghai people are living it up more than Americans!

Next up, the world's oldest trees!

That's right, the oldest species of tree, if I am correct, is the Ginkgo, which comes from, you guessed it, China! Here's a couple of links to it: here and here.

Apparently the species has survived for something around 200 freaking million years!!! That's pretty bad*ss, if I do say so myself.

And lastly, the town of Dingxi (pron. "Deeng Shee")looks like a person!

I dunno.....I was talking to a friend of mine about her hometown of Dingxi, which is a city in central Gansu Province, and I looked it up on Wikipedia while I was chatting with her, and... 

BAM! 

Looks like a freaking person doing some stretch or Olympic pose or something like that.

There's nothing really deep there, I just thought I'd point it out to you.

Okay, so that's the end of the post!


...........................................


- "Wait, what? That's it? A couple of freaking facts and that's it?! What a jip!! Freaking cheat!!"

 - "Okay, hold on, I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation of why.....go ahead, what's up with that? Is that really the end of the post?"

...Yeah, sorry about that. Be back soon with something better, hopefully!

"Yeah, it'd better be good! Or we're leaving!"

Geez, okay.

Beautiful China, Part 1

Today, I just wanted to share some pictures of the natural beauty I experienced in China. As I'm thinking about it in my head, I don't think there'll be a lot number-wise, but the things I did see were beautiful. Most of you will have seen these pictures before, but I wanted to put them all in one series of post that would make it easier for you guys to find them.



Mountains. China is full of them. It would be impossible to do a blog post about China's beauty and not talk about mountains. There's just something about them that stirs something deep within us.

(Mountains surrounding the Great Wall at Mutianyu)

The Great Wall was one of my favorite places not only for the history of it, but for the natural beauty that surrounds it on literally every side. It's just beyond words. 

Even though this was intended as a military location to protect from enemy invasion, it can't be denied that it's seriously beautiful. 

This is probably one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

I'd take mountains over the beach any day. You?





Yes....you would.

Now for a drastic change in environments. 

 We are now entering the mountainous deserts of the Northwest - specifically Gansu Province and Ningxia. Map here.

Just imagine nothing for as far as you can see......

             Nothing..........

Just mountains covered with desert scrub for miles and miles.....



but

somehow, people manage to do some kind of farming.And now - another change!

Now we've arrived at the Temple of Heaven Park. It's not exactly in the mountains or plains of China....it's in downtown Beijing. But if you go on a day without a lot of tourists, it's a nice place.

The trees are green and lush,

the walkways are empty and beautiful in their loneliness, and they are good places to sit and think about what you've seen and done and how that's brought you here.

Like I said, beautiful in its loneliness.


A beautifully lonely place is a hard place to find in China - so much of it is crowded and characterized by the go-go-go attitude of city life.


But once in a while, you can find find that solitude and wrap yourself in it.

But we can't forget the beauty of people and the innocence of childhood. Although solitude is sometimes desirable, you cannot forget the beauty of humanity. Like that billboard I saw, "The earth is surrounded by your beauty."

A Lanzhou sunset on the Yellow River. What a way to end a day, isn't it? 

That's the end of Part 1 - be back with Part 2 as soon as possible!

A Lack of Greenery (2)

If you missed it, Click here to read Part 1 of this series.


Because Chinese city-dwellers grow up and live their lives in these surroundings, they hold very different ideas about the environment. For example, because all cities have street sweepers who clean up the city litter, when people buy something in a shop, they unwrap it on their way out and toss the wrapping on the street without hesitation. When they are done smoking a cigarette or eating a banana, they toss the leftovers aside, no hesitation. Because someone will clean it up for them, they simply do not care. Let me be clear - this isn't everybody. But it's a sizable amount of people. 

The same, unfortunately, can be true in parks, tourist sites, and what would otherwise be very nice, clean, green environments. Generally speaking, parks and tourist sites are kept pretty clean, but litter can sometimes be seen. 

When you travel to lakes or see rivers or just look out the window of your train compartment, you will see many places on the edge of town where, just behind people’s houses, they will throw their trash on the ground. 

Outside of Shanghai

Outside of Guiyin

This trash builds and builds and isn’t destined for anywhere. It is their personal garbage dump. Also, on long train trips, people will eat a lot of instant noodles, and upon finishing them, will open the train window and throw out what they didn’t eat. However, a lot of China's poor people take advantage of their recycling policy and pick up the plastics to get some money back.

This is one of the most sad parts about being in China. From my experience, the average Chinese city-dweller has little awareness of being green and environmentally friendly because of the environment they grow up in. Many children in the cities would rather just sit and watch TV than go outside to see the green of a park or visit scenic places. When they get to these places, they say “Oh, that’s cool. Can we leave?” The lack of appreciation of natural beauty is a reality among more than a few Chinese young city people. The older generation, being more traditional and more likely to come from a rural village or suburb, know how to appreciate nature’s beauty and appreciate when people do not waste food, waste water, and litter the streets. 

The people who live in the rural areas also have a better appreciation of the environment, not because of environmental education classes, but because it is where they live. They treasure the environment they live in. 

Grass Rubbing Amongst a Lack of Greenery

(Part 1 of a 2 or 3 part series)


Because you are a foreigner, while you are staying in China, you will likely be staying in the midst of a large or mid-sized city in one of the many, many high-rise hotels or apartment buildings.

Every person in the city lives in one of these apartment buildings. 

This is super, super nice. Don't expect to see many (if any) this clean. 

Chinese cities are very different from American cities and the environment leads to different attitudes among the Chinese people about the environment and green places. 

Chinese cities all have parks, which are usually pretty green and pretty awesome places, but outside these parks, there is a conspicuous lack of color throughout the cities. 

at Beijing's Beihai Park

The buildings are usually all the same shade of gray or off-white, and the streets are the usual black and the sidewalks are grey or have red and yellow tiling. 

This is a pic I took in Guangzhou. See? There's just not much color

Just not real green...

These colors are absolutely everywhere and rarely, if ever, vary throughout the city. Psychologically, it's pretty depressing on an unconscious level. Streets sometimes have a line of trees on the side walk New York City style, but those are the only sign of plant life in the heart of the city. But because everything's so compact, it's rare.

------------------------------------

Story Time!

When I was in Lanzhou, I was sitting outside with my friend, Xia Fei, outside of the Lanzhou University of Technology library. This was mid-July, and I had been in China for about 5 months or so. 

(about where the grass is on the mid-left of this picture)

Anyway, we were sitting and just chatting about life and girls and all kinds of stuff, when I started rubbing my hand on the grass - kind of tussling it, and pulling out a couple of blades.....that's a weird way to describe it, but you know what I mean. I just couldn't stop. Over the course of the entire afternoon (literally - we chatted probably 3 or 4 hours total), I kept rubbing that grass. I couldn't figure out why until a LOOONG time later. 

I hadn't touched grass in 5 months. That's why I couldn't stop doing it. I had been so engulfed by city life in a desert environment that I hadn't touched grass in almost half a year. 

It doesn't sound like much, but it's really something that should be thought about. How would your life, your attitudes, your mindset, be affected by an environment so urbanized that the touch of grass evokes such a response?

After telling this story, I said to my friend Monica, "I know this sounds stupid, but..." and then she immediately says, "Oh no, that's not stupid at all! There's just something built into human nature that needs trees, needs grass, needs fresh air and water....it's not stupid, I totally understand."

And I realized that she was right. There is something within us that is awakened when we are in the presence of nature and natural beauty - even a city park. It's an indescribable feeling of basic connectedness and peace - a yearning for our ancestral roots. If a person goes their whole life without having these soulful moments, something beautiful has been lost. 

We can't live a life of credit cards, iPhones, and a job,

and forget the sound of the wind as it blows through the mountain's trees.

If we reach that point as a species, then we will have lost a crucial part of our humanity. 

(Part 1 of 2 or 3 - Stay Tuned!)

Tianshui and Maiji Mountain

Tianshui is the second largest city in Gansu Province, but you'd never know it - I spent almost a week there and I thought it was only about 400,000 people! I thought it was a small city until I looked it up on Wikipedia after my trip! It has a real small-town feel to it; people are happy and seem to know each other, life is super-relaxed, and the natural beauty surrounding the city makes you forget that you're in a big city. Crazy!


Overall, I think Tianshui is my favorite city (or possibly Huan Xian, but we'll get there later). I had a wonderful time meeting lots of great people and eating some good food - especially the mutton. It was a really enjoyable experience. 

Benjamin Xi, a Chinese friend of mine who studied a year at ETBU, has an uncle who lives there and own the 黄河原 water company, a prominent bottled water/office water cooler supply company. Here's a picture of them:

He knows pretty much everyone in the city, but he's way down to earth. He was so nice and so gracious. One day he took us to Maiji Mountain, a very famous mountain in China.





When we got there, he called the Tianshui tourism bureau or whatever it is, and the head of the bureau let us in for free because he's a friend. Holy crap! The entrance fee was like 80元 or something, and we had 8 of us! Well done, sir!


We climbed the mountain and took a lot of pictures and really enjoyed the scenery. After that, we went to a really cool restaurant over a little pond and had some great food and great conversation. 

He wants me to come back and visit him when I return to China and come into his business and help maybe branch out to other places! We'll see what happens :)


Tianshui was a great place and Maiji Shan was truly majestic, but the treasure of Tianshui lies in its people. They're so loving, giving, open and hospitable, so it was tough to leave there, but I have fond memories of the times I had.

The mountain is immediately visible from a distance due to what I call its "straight-down-ness".

Not natural.

Wow, there's a lot of empty space here with this picture haha...


Anyway, I had only heard of the place and hadn't seen any pictures or anything, so I didn't know what to expect...needless to say, I was struck by the scale of it -- it's a freaking mountain full of Buddhist carvings!! A MOUNTAIN!!!

Dude.

If you click on the picture, you can see how tiny the people are in comparison to the stature. It's insane.

All of those little windows are grottoes with statues/paintings inside.

There's 194 of them.

That doesn't sound like a lot, but trust me, 194 grottoes handcarved into the side of a freaking mountain is a big deal. 

Normally, I hate having pictures taken of me, but this time I had to do it --- the scenery was just to beautiful and the place was just too unique to do without it.

Some of the Buddhas like this one date back almost 1,000 years. Dude, look at that. Looks pretty good for 1,000 years unrestored! Carving grottoes was a good idea -- keeps the paint out of the sunlight!