Dagoda and Spring Festival Dinner
On Sunday our group got up and went to Mt. Zinjin in the east part of Nanjing. At Zinjin there is the tomb of the first Ming emporer and the mausaleum of Sun Yat-sen. However, we are going to see those sites on some class field trips so went to see a nine story Pagoda. On the way to see the Pagoda we saw two traditional looking buildings that were all very cool. There were also several decorative gates along the way very artistically done. Inside the first they had a little museum on the history since the fall of the last Dynasy in 1912. Of course it was all in Chinese so I couldn't do much more than look at the statues. Then we walk out of this building and continue down the path and come to the second building which had some souvenior type stuff and some food. After going through this building we continued down the path and finally came to the Pagoda. The pagoda was very cool. On the inside there was a spiral staircase that went up to the top. From there, you could see Nanjing, and Sun Yat-sen's masaleum and the path we had just come from. The whole experience was very serene. The only disappointing part about the Pagoda is it was built in 1933. So it isn't exactly a historical landmark, especially by Chinese standards. Here is a picture of the Pagoda.
On Monday we had our first day of language class. The class was very easy because we have two total beginners in the class. I also recieved my Chinese name which is Ai Lun. Ai Lun is just a Chinese attempt to pronounce Aaron with characters they already have. I was displease later to find out Ai means "disgruntled." Not exactly the great name I was hoping for. After class I spent several hours walking through one of the local markets trying to find a nice Chinese Chess set. Unfortunately, I was unable to find one. So I went home a relaxed for the rest of the night.
Tuesday night we celebrated the Spring Festival because tomorrow is the last day. Spring Festival is basically a fifteen day celebration of the Chinese New Year. To celebrate we went to a nice restaraunt where we had a sixteen course meal. Some of the more interesting food was the duck tongue, duck gizzard, lamb, crap, bao zi which is a dumpling, some sort of egg made of soy, bean curd and several differant soups. We also had some Chinese beer which I like much more than American beer and coke. Also during the meal we had some entertainment. Twice a dancer came in to dance for us. Also, someone came and played an instrument that I think is called a Pa Pi. A Pa Pi is a tradiontal string instrument with differant chords than western music. After dinner we went for a boat ride down the river and saw the lights and sounds of downtown. Here is a picture of the Pa Pi player.
Frequently in China you see these giant lion/dog statues. They always come in pairs with one lion having a cub under it's paw and the other having a sphere. For some reason these statues really intrigue me. There is much more to their legend than I want to put here but the following link has a more detailed history:http://www.foo-dogs.com/newfoo/eLions/fd1.htm. Here is picture of these "Fu Dogs"
Overall this has been a very good couple of days.
On Monday we had our first day of language class. The class was very easy because we have two total beginners in the class. I also recieved my Chinese name which is Ai Lun. Ai Lun is just a Chinese attempt to pronounce Aaron with characters they already have. I was displease later to find out Ai means "disgruntled." Not exactly the great name I was hoping for. After class I spent several hours walking through one of the local markets trying to find a nice Chinese Chess set. Unfortunately, I was unable to find one. So I went home a relaxed for the rest of the night.
Tuesday night we celebrated the Spring Festival because tomorrow is the last day. Spring Festival is basically a fifteen day celebration of the Chinese New Year. To celebrate we went to a nice restaraunt where we had a sixteen course meal. Some of the more interesting food was the duck tongue, duck gizzard, lamb, crap, bao zi which is a dumpling, some sort of egg made of soy, bean curd and several differant soups. We also had some Chinese beer which I like much more than American beer and coke. Also during the meal we had some entertainment. Twice a dancer came in to dance for us. Also, someone came and played an instrument that I think is called a Pa Pi. A Pa Pi is a tradiontal string instrument with differant chords than western music. After dinner we went for a boat ride down the river and saw the lights and sounds of downtown. Here is a picture of the Pa Pi player.
Frequently in China you see these giant lion/dog statues. They always come in pairs with one lion having a cub under it's paw and the other having a sphere. For some reason these statues really intrigue me. There is much more to their legend than I want to put here but the following link has a more detailed history:http://www.foo-dogs.com/newfoo/eLions/fd1.htm. Here is picture of these "Fu Dogs"
Overall this has been a very good couple of days.
posted by Aaron at 11:00 PM
3 Comments:
A pagoda built in 1933? Interesting. Have the Chinese started to experience the same decline of mass religion that we've been seeing in the Western world. New religious shrines seem to be rare, at least outside of the US.
Regarding the good Chinese beer, why is it that America seems to have the worst beer of any country in the world?
Ai Lun. I still like it. Good to hear that you made it safely to China. I don't have any intelligent comments. Just wanted to say hi. Cool pictures, (I’d like to see more if possible :-)
Are the Chinese friendly when it comes to foreigners? I don’t have a clue how it works in your town but one of my fiends from China told me that in Shanghai life is not really pretty if you are an American (I guess foreigner in general). Well, I really hope people are nice. But I suppose it always makes a difference when it comes to the people you hang out with (e.g. mostly Americans or Chinese). I just remember a couple Germans/ French here at Truman last semester or so. It always ticks me off (I know it shouldn’t but it does) when they hang out in their little “Nation Groups.” Anyway, it is awesome to be able to see how things are going over "there" (I still have to find the city on the map though). All right, that’s all. I have a lot of work to do. …til next posting.
Ian, I saw the Sagrada Familia when I was in Spain in tenth grade. Don't worry. I'm going back if I can. I loved it the first time!
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