Five Feet Off The Ground

Dangers of being a taxi driver

2011-11-12T16:39:00.001-08:00

I was on my way with a few colleagues to North Market yesterday morning travelling in a van on Renmin Nanlu. In front of us was a taxi and the morning traffic all around was brisk and heavy. Suddenly the passenger side door of the taxi in front flew open and a man threw himself out of the moving taxi, crashing and rolling onto the pavement and then leaping to his feet. We slowed down and drove carefully around him, avoiding hitting him. He didn't have any shoes on and had a switchblade in his right hand. He was in his 20s and stared wildly around, brandishing the knife in the air. As we drove by we could see the astonished face of the taxi driver staring at him. The last thing we can see through the rear view mirror is the crazy man jumping onto the roof of the cab as all the other cars try to drive around the stopped cab....

Kommentar till avslutad kurs - Malmfälten

2011-05-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

Tack Nina (och Per) och alla medkursarna för en fantastiskt tid och mycket god support och värme. Det har varit oerhört lärorikt, roligt och spännande. Ni har alla varit mycket generösa och stödjande med era kommentarer, alltid i positiv, konstruktiv anda. Det har också varit mycket intressant att få se era bilder och hur ni har löst samma uppgifter. Man lär sig så mycket av varandras skapande och fantasi.

Jag rekommenderar alla som funderar på att gå kursen att absolut göra det. Trevlig sommar allihopa!

Polis polis potatis gris

2011-05-14T23:34:00.001-07:00

©Paddy Booz

I love this sign, Paddy took a picture of it in Danba, Western Sichuan. Poor Police, I hope they won't be arrested by the Ice Pol for bad spelling...or global warming....or going out stenciling after a night on the town.

Assignment 15 Malmfälten: Konst på distans: Landscape

2011-05-09T05:54:00.001-07:00

Li River at Xingping, Guangxi

Detail, abstraction of nature, bamboo

Assignment 14 Malmfälten: Konst på distans: Portrait

2011-05-09T05:52:00.001-07:00

Burton, 14, tired, teenager.

Assignment 13 Malmfälten: Flower

2011-05-09T05:40:00.000-07:00

Geraniums, another "typical" flower. This was painted after hunting for inspiration in watercolor books, so in no way is this picture "mine". I will post the book I got it out of tomorrow. I have found it very challenging learning how to use watercolors. So darned difficult. You have to mobilize all of your brain cells at once and then pounce! before the paper dries, the colors disappear and everything dies. Very difficult but wonderfully delightful when it works.

Assignment 10 Malmfälten: Konst på distans: Washes and wet on wet

2011-05-09T05:21:00.000-07:00

Chinese kites

Yak skull

Hibiscus

Carp in lilly pond, Bamboo Park, Chengdu.

The top two pictures were painted specifically for this lesson. I had a huge amount of problems because of the almost total lack of light in wintertime Chengdu. The kites were painted from a photograph I took in summertime. The teacher commented that I should add more washes to create more shadows and depth. The yak skull is from a skull I have in my workroom, but I would have loved more light to create more interesting shadows. Both were done with Van Gogh watercolors in a tube.

The carp in the lilly pond was my probably my first attempt at watercolors. Painted a few years ago on very poor paper lacking both weight and structure. The hibiscus is my second watercolor, a hibiscus outside our bungalow in Thailand, three Christmases ago. Made on proper cold-pressed watercolor paper, Cotman paints, nothing special. Boring subject (HOW MANY hibiscuses have been painted in this world??) but an easy flower to paint. It's important to feel good about your paintings!

Assignment 9 Malmfälten: Konst på distans: Seasons

2011-05-09T05:14:00.000-07:00

Winter

Summer

Spring

Autumn

Watercolor - color! Express the Four Seasons in watercolor. Color interpretation and seasons are very personal. The teacher thought my autumn was aggressive, threatening, meat-eating flowers! I only thought of the colors of autumn and depressing winter around the corner.

Assignment 6 Malmfälten: Konst på distans: 2-point Perspective

2011-05-09T05:02:00.001-07:00

Burton and I spent a wonderful day at Wenshu Temple drawing and painting. The goal was trying to figure out perspective (hmmmm). The best place to sit and draw was in a corner of the teahouse. Here we had an excellent of a tea pavilion which we both drew. I thought I might dive in and try a little watercolor too. At top you can see Burton with a few young admirers. Not too nosy, just quietly curious. My goodness, Chengdu can be lovely when the sun shines!

Assignment 5 Malmfälten: Konst på distans: ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE

2011-05-09T04:58:00.000-07:00

This was supposed to be one-point perspective, but midstream I realized that there are several vanishing points. Good exercise in practicing those nasty ellipses though, darned difficult!

Assignment 4 Malmfälten: Konst på distans COMPOSITION

2011-05-09T04:56:00.001-07:00

Ammonites, Chinese ink and pencil

Tools, with background, pencil, graphite stick.

Tools without background, pencil.

COMPOSITION

Ammoniter

Nu var det komposition vi skulle träna så jag valde en lite snabbare metod att få fram en bild - tusch. Visserligen har jag inte bemödat mig med att i detalj gå in och jobba med skuggorna men jag tycker att jag har fått fram form och struktur någorlunda tillfredsställande. Jag tecknade först i blyerts och hade enormt svårt att få till ellipserna. I första vändan låg alla "toppar" felskruvade! Genom att titta och måtta och titta och titta och titta blev det äntligen klart. Det är två olika ammonitfossiler jag tecknar, varav den första avviker från de följande fyra. Kanske avviker den lite väl mycket. Jag tycker om svärtan och snabbheten i tusch. Men det sitter där den sitter och det finns inte mycket man kan göra åt det när den väl sitter där.

Verktyg

Två versioner, en innan jag lade in bakgrunden och en efteråt. Jag föredrar den häftigare bakgrunden för den förankrar föremålen bättre och förstärker formerna tycker jag. Jag tycker också den får verktygen att vibrera lite som om de jobbade, åtminstone hamrarna. Jag tycker jag kunde vågat mera och tecknat verktygen från en lägre vinkel med enpunktsperspektiv men jag fegade. Läraren tyckte bäst om bilden utan bakgrund.

Assignment 3 Malmfälten: Konst på distans SHADOWS

2011-05-09T04:52:00.000-07:00

Head of a Terracotta Warrior statue. Black gel pen, Chinese ink.

Aralia

Pencil and charcoal.

Pencil, Chinese ink.

SHADOWS

Här skulle vi lära oss att lägga skuggor på rätt ställe och på ett realistiskt sätt. I Chengdu vintertid finns knappast skuggor då det finns nästan inget ljus! Hela belysningen i Chengdu under vintern är grått, grått, grått. Överhuvudtaget finns det ont om starkt ljus i denna sänka som vi bor i, hela året om finns ett gråvitt distäcke över himlavalvet. Enbart mjuka skuggor blir det om ens det. Det finns ett talesätt här som säger att när solen äntligen skiner och bryter igenom molntäcket och diset då skäller hundarna då dem blir rädda för sin egen skugga, för den har de aldrig sett och tror att det är en annan mycket större hund.

Jag kämpade så att hitta skuggor. Terrakottasoldaten fick bli med stark konstgjord sidobelysning. Läraren tyckte jag kunnat öka med ännu mer svärta på högersidan. Håller med. Jag ville koncentrera mig på ansiktet med de stela ögonen och kraftiga dragen (det är en staty). Det var roligt att förstärka ljuset med det kraftiga tusch som är så härligt svart.

Paraplyaralian står ett fönster och när jag tecknade bilden spelade ett fint skuggparti över golvet. Den ville jag fånga. Även bladens skuggor. Nu blev kanske inte skuggan vad jag velat och läraren Nina har berättat så trevligt hur jag kan mörka lite här och var så blir bilden lite bättre men jag är faktiskt ganska nöjd med den. Det är första gången jag har tecknat en växt utan att förhäxas av alla löv och pinnar och grenar som "står i vägen" och rör till det för mig. Jag var helt slut efteråt men glad!

I samma veva gjorde jag den tredje bilden där fönsterräckenas skugga spelade över golven. Samma paraplyaralia från sidan. Nina lade märke till att jag har vänt den ena skuggan, tänkte inte alls på det själv! Det fanns en stolpe bakom skuggan som jag inte ville ha med och då ritade jag tydligen utan att tänka hur arabesken var vänd. Roligt!

Assignment 2 Malmfälten: Konst på distans BASIC SHAPES

2011-05-09T04:39:00.001-07:00

Dried lotus pod, charcoal

Sichuan bamboo chair, pencil

Turritella shell found in Thailand at Christmas, pencil

My course was all in Swedish but I write my blog in English so I will alternative between the two to keep everyone happy. If anyone has any objections please let me know! I will concentrate on the most interesting assignments (Assignment 1 was learning how to resize digital images, scanning etc). Assignment 2 is "Drawing basic shapes and finding them in common everyday objects": sphere, cone and cube.

I början satt jag helt låst inför den nya kursen, hur skulle jag börja? Jag är omringad av duktiga konstnärer i den förlängda familjen så jag har alltid koncentrerat mig på den fotografiska bilden då den egna tecknarförmågan inte höll måttet. När jag väl lugnat ner mig och lyssnat på lärarens goda råd lossnade det lite. Varje uppgift tog lång tid. Jag var helt slut efteråt. Men upptäckte att det går faktiskt att lära sig att avbilda saker om man bara lär sig att SE. Nåväl, det är i alla fall ett första steg framåt på en lång resa.....himla roligt i alla fall!

Malmfälten folkhögskola Konst på distans/Internet art course

2011-05-09T03:30:00.000-07:00

For the past 16 weeks I have participated in an art course at Malmfälten Folkhögskola in Kiruna, Northern Sweden. Since you know that I live in Southwestern China you might wonder how on earth this could be?? The Internet of course! It has been absolutely wonderful - the entire course is online. Every week we are given an assignment, reference material (books that we have bought at the beginning of the course) and a due date. We complete the work, scan it and then send it in. We have wonderful teachers who then send us back personalized comments and encouragement. We can also share our work with our "course mates" via the school's internal blog forum. One of the last assignments is putting your work "online" for all to see and comment. So here goes!

LINKS

Malmfältens folkhögskola:

http://www.kiruna.fhsk.se/

Art courses/Konstskola på distans

http://www.kiruna.fhsk.se/kurser/konstskola-pa-natet/

18 weeks/study rate: part time (50% of full normal schedule).

Definition of Folkhögskola:

"Folkhögskola" is a Scandinavian form of adult education. The first school was founded in 1844 in Rødding, Denmark.

Bloggar på nytt/Back on the BLOG!

2011-05-09T03:13:00.000-07:00

Hej! Det var ett tag sedan jag bloggade. När blogspot blev spärrat i Kina för mer än ett år sedan tappade jag farten. Nu har jag skaffat möjlighet att blogga igen och ska försöka bli lite bättre.

Hello everyone, after a LONG hiatus I will start blogging again. We'll see if I can keep up the pace of previous years. I will begin with this shot from a winter holiday in Thailand. Khao Sok National Park.

Emei Facts

2010-09-18T03:53:00.001-07:00

Map of Emei from 1938

Unesco World Heritage site since 1996.

9.519722° N, 103.3325° E

Highest summit: Wanfo Ding (10,000 Buddha Summit) 3099 m.

Middle summit: Qianfo Ding (1,000 Buddha Summit) 3085 m?

Tourist/traditional summit: Jinding (Golden Summit) 3077 m.

Some sources claim Jinding and Qianfoding to be the same summit, others that there are three separate summits. In actuality there seems to be two main summits with a small outcropping between them. But is this Qianfoding or something unnamed? Please enlighten me anyone who knows!

Emei Moutain is one of the Four Buddhist Holy Mountains of China (The other three being Wutaishan, Putuoshan and Jiuhua Shan).

The patron saint or house boddhisattva of Emei is Samantabhadra (Puxian 普贤菩萨 in Chinese). Puxian is the Boddhisattva of Action and the Protector of the Lotus Sutra.

The meaning of the name Emei 峨嵋山 is subject to much speculation. Emei is said to mean "high" or "lofty" but has traditionally been translated as "silkworm-moth eyebrows". According to James M. Hargett in his excellent definitive book on Emei Mountain "Stairway to Heaven" , State University of New York Press, SUNY, the earliest reference to this name is Li Daoyuan (d. 527) "Although Mount Emei is 1,000 li south of Chengdu, on clear, autumn days if you gaze at the mountain from afar, its two peaks seem to face one another like moth eyebrows." Hargett: In other words, the mountain's twin peaks resemble the arched, antennae of a silkworm moth (e 蛾) and so the name was adopted as the name for the mountain.

Emei Mountain Conquered!

2010-09-18T03:42:00.000-07:00

Naughty macaque that stole a milk package from Chinese tourists.

Macaques patrolling their turf between Leidong Ping and Jieyin Tai.

Following the abandoned monorail. Not for the faint hearted at 6 meter drops.

Paddy, Minna, Jari and one of our faithful construction workers engulfed in the bush.

Golden Summit with statue of Puxian (Samantabhadra) on his elephant.

Golden Summit from Wanfo Ding

Wando Ding summit (3099 m) with swirling clouds

Flat summit of Dawashan from Golden Summit

Clouds over the plains of Sichuan from Golden Summit

View from Wanfo Ding (10,000 Buddha Peak) past Qianfo Ding (1,000 Buddha Peak) over to Jinding (The Golden Summit). All images above ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

After 25 years and several trips to this mountain I finally "conquered" the highest peak of Emei: 3099 m Wanfo Ding! :-) A small triumph but great fun nonetheless, as the weather is usually so very fickle on the top. My last three trips were socked in with fog and even snow and ice! When we got to the top and found a couple of construction workers who knew the way we couldn't resist bushwhacking over to the far highest peak of Emei, something I have been wanting to do for years. Paddy and I and two Finnish friends Minna and Jari headed off along the path beside the abandoned Monorail. 22 meters of elevation (the difference between the Golden Summit and Wanfo Ding) made a difference and the view back onto Jinding was breathtaking. So now I have been on both "moth eyebrows"! What a day!

Posting again!

2010-09-18T03:39:00.000-07:00

After a long hiatus I have decided to brave the cyber police and begin posting again (it's called a VPN, Blogspot is still blocked in China). I have soooo much to tell you and so many new photos to post. Please be patient, months have gone by since my last posting and I have BEEN PLACES!

Blogspot still blocked in China

2010-02-15T08:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry to say that Blogspot is still blocked in China, thus no new postings from me since August! Today I am in Bangkok where I - for the moment - have a temporary cyberwindow. But tomorrow I will be back in China. It is a very sad scenario indeed.....

Listening to the sound of rain

2009-08-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

Most Chinese would say that the social atmosphere they most enjoy is rènao 热闹, "bustling with noise and excitement, lively". The first character, rè, can also mean "hot", "feverish" and "restless".

Rènao is the kind of atmosphere you find in a Chinese restaurant when the establishment is fully packed: Every table is seated with ten chattering people, each one happily eating and socializing; waitresses and waiters scurry about, the hostess shouting into a walkie-talkie that "table 9 is ready!" and the loud speakers pumping out shrill pop music. Only then can a Chinese feel relaxed, surrounded by food, people and noise, a comforting mayhem that seemingly creates a sensation of much-needed security and inclusiveness.

But if you look closely you might see that actually not every guest is talking; some people are sitting quietly, letting others do the talking. Amidst the tumultuous hubbub of everyday Chinese life there are actually people who seek quiet and solace, seemingly not needing to constantly fill their existence with noise.

Chán fáng tīng yǔ 禅房听雨, "meditation/zen", "chamber", "listen", "rain" is an expression that epitomizes the ideal of quiet and solitude. The quiet that is found when listening to the sound of rain drops falling on the roof of a temple when meditating in a separate space. A Zen monk, of course, should be able to find his or her own "inner chamber", even amidst the nosiest, maddening crowd.

På kinesiskt vis har blivit talbok

2009-08-18T14:15:00.001-07:00

Min bok På kinesiskt vis har blivit talbok. Det är min andra bok som har spelats in (Resa till Kina blev också talbok) så nu kan ni låna ut "boken" på biblioteket och lyssna på den i din MP3 eller CD-spelare. Himla roligt tycker jag!

Kinafestivalen på Sigtunahöjden

2009-08-18T12:24:00.000-07:00

Kanske dags för en sammanfattning av årets Kinafestival på Sigtunahöjden. Jag har haft så mycket på gång sedan festivalen slutade att jag inte hunnit riktigt landa än. Och bäst jag skyndar mig innan jag åker in i den kinesiska cyberdimman igen när jag flyger hem till Kina på fredag.

Festivalen som pågick 29 juli till 2 augusti blev hellyckad må jag tycka själv. 2500 besökare, återseende av gamla vänner och tidigare resenärer, intressanta föreläsare, sagolika omgivningar, god mat, underbar personal på Sigtunahöjden Hotell och Konferens och för min egen del 80 sålda böcker! Jag var inbjuden som gästföreläsare och kände själv att mitt föredrag gick bra. Jag erkänner nu att det var första gången jag pratade om mina nyaste böcker!

Övriga tiden stod jag i "Lotusrummet" hos Lotus Travel i egenskap av reseledare och berättade om resor och specialerbjudande. Det fanns knapp någon tid då det inte fanns besökare, från det att dörrarna öppnades strömmade folk in under hela dagen i dagarna fem. Jag ser redan fram emot nästa år Kinafestival, jag kanske blir inbjudan igen!

Pablo, Françoise, Ingrid and Bengt...and Robert C

2009-08-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

Above: ©Robert Capa, Magnum Photos/France. Golfe-Juan. 1951. Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot. In the background is Picasso's nephew, Javier Vilato.

Below: Ingrid, Bengt and Göran, Österlen, Sweden 2009. Photographer ©Julia Nilsson

The picture above is a famous image of Picasso and his wife Françoise Gilot joking on the beach. Ingrid W, a picture researcher colleague of mine had some fun this summer and recreated the scene with friends (with all due respect to the legendary R Capa). Great success I think!

Tagong and Western Sichuan July 2009 Part 3: Prayer flags

2009-08-13T04:48:00.001-07:00

All photos July, 2009 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

It has been my dream for many years now to find and lie underneath large prayer flag formations. Until our recent trip in July I hadn't found any that were big enough and in the good condition that I wanted but this trip was an incredible bonanza!

I'll post more in a few minutes!

Tagong and Western Sichuan July 2009 Part 2

2009-08-13T04:46:00.000-07:00

Tagong and Western Sichuan July 2009 Part 1

2009-08-13T04:30:00.001-07:00

All photos July, 2009 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

I'm taking advantage of being able to upload new photographs from recent trip we made up to Tagong area of Western Sichuan to view the total solar eclipse. The weather was incredible and the sights and experiences as precious as ever. Every time we go up this area there is something and different to explore.

Soluxe Courtyard: Fantastic hotel in Beijing

2009-08-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Here are some images of the courtyard of a hotel I stayed at recently in Beijing. An oasis of peace, quiet and beauty. It's built on the grounds of an old temple (two actually Guangji and Jiaci), thus the inscribed Ming and Qing Dynasty inscribed shibei and 500 year old trees. Birdcages are hung out in the corridor each day to the guest's delight (and the birds entertainment) and each room has a door out onto a lovely courtyard. Heaven in the middle of Beijing!

Soluxe Courtyard, Beijing, conveniently located by the subway station Gulou. Address: No 2 Xitao Hutong, JiuGulou Street, Xicheng District, Beijing

Yunfeng Temple, Western Sichuan

2009-08-11T09:21:00.001-07:00

All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Yunfeng Si (Cloud Peak Monastery) is a Zen monastery tucked into the mountains of SW Sichuan. The monastery is rebuilt but the temple gardens have trees that are 1,200 years old, monks that are almost as ancient, bamboo groves, medicinal kitchen gardens and supreme tranquility. We visited at the end of June when the weather was lovely and the light absolutely magical.

Lika som bär/Two peas in a pod

2009-08-11T02:29:00.000-07:00

Bodhidharma meditating for nine years, staring into a blank cave wall. (Artist? Can anyone enlighten me?)

Winston Churchill with his dog, Rufus, in the gardens of his Chartwell Estate, 1951. ©Philippe Halsman/Magnum Photos

Two of the most interesting people who have ever lived.

Niǎo yǔ huā xiāng: The intoxication of a beautiful spring day

2009-08-10T04:36:00.000-07:00

Vikingsberg Park, Helsingborg, Sweden ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Niǎo yǔ huā xiāng 鸟语花香 (鳥語花香)

Literally: Birdsong and fragrant flowers (idiom). Figuratively the intoxication of a beautiful spring day. A Chinese phrase to describe the beauty of the garden, the birds are chirping and the flowers are fragrant.

I have not abandoned you!

2009-08-10T02:17:00.000-07:00

Sailing across the reservoir at Simatai after hiking 12 km on the Great Wall from Jinshanling. You can have this much fun in China! Photo © Michael Hansson

I'm sure that it seems like I have abandoned this blog but it's not true! It is only China that has abandoned us innocent bloggers. Blogspot (and Facebook) has been blocked now for some time and I can only post this because for a short time I am outside of the Bamboo Iron Curtain and able to access my site without any obstructions.

When we/I will be able to able to post again is anyone's guess (posting through a backdoor is like eating candy with the wrapper on, just NOT the same sensation). Not being able to blog is actually painful, I miss it and feel like an important part of my life is missing.

So come on China - grow up and realize that this is not where the battle should be fought!

Cloud Peak Temple, Yingjing County part 1

2009-06-28T20:14:00.001-07:00

Yunfengsi, originally uploaded by Ingrid Booz Morejohn.

Yunfeng Si (Cloud Peak Temple) is a Zen monastery tucked into the mountains of SW Sichuan, in Yingjing County. The monastery is rebuilt but the temple gardens have trees that are 1,200 years old, monks that are almost as ancient, bamboo groves, medicinal kitchen gardens and supreme tranquility. Yunfeng is locally known as Taihu Si because of a large stone garden sculpture that looks like a taihu stone (more like Mt Meru actually). We tried to stay over night in the spartan temple accomodations but this proved a bit too much for the monks who came up with every excuse possible to not find the key to the rooms. Maybe next time...

Tea Horse Trail along the Daxiang Ling

2009-06-28T19:21:00.001-07:00

Tea Horse Trail along the Daxiang Ling, originally uploaded by ingrid booz morejohn.

This last weekend we hiked a small part of the ancient Tea Horse Trail
(Chama Gudao) that connected Sichuan to Tibet. The section we walked on was
a stretch between Yingjing and Kangding up the Daxiang Ling. Absolutely
beautiful with lush forests, butterflies of every shape and color, flowers,
waterfalls, chattering birds and icy cold rushing water in the rivers that
we so gratefully swan in.

Poverty and life of a humble wanderer

2009-06-16T02:10:00.000-07:00

I am so longing to post wonderful pictures from my latest trip but CAN'T for the moment. Instead a quote:

Reginald Johnston (of Puyi, Last Emperor, English (Scottish) tutor fame) wrote in 1908 in "From Peking to Mandalay":

There was a Chinese scholar who, like scholars of most lands, was blest with few of this world's goods, and, unlike a great many of them, was noted for his zealous devotion to the service of his country's gods.

One night he heard the voice of an invisible being that spoke to him thus: "Your piety has found favour in the sight of heaven, ask now for what you most long to possess, for I am the messenger of the gods, and they have sworn to grant your heart's desire". "I ask", said the poor scholar, "for the coarsest clothes and food, just enough for my daily wants, and I beg that I may have freedom to wander at my will over the mountains and fell and woodland stream, free from all worldly cares, till my life's end. That is all I ask." Hardly had he spoken when the sky seemed to fill with the laughter of myriads of unearthly voices.

"All you ask?! cried the messenger of the gods. "Know you not that what you demand is the highest happiness of the beings that dwell in heaven? Ask for wealth or rank, or what earthly happiness you will, but not for you are the holiest joys of the gods".

Blog discombobulation

2009-06-16T02:00:00.000-07:00

I am missing my blog. Because Blogpost is blocked and I am unable to have "direct" contact with whatever I post AND my followers I have become all discombobulated and lost my blogging mojo! Humph. Not happy at all. Going through a "sneaky" backdoor is not the same as being able to post pictures, comment on comments, see my followers, check my blog traffic, COMMUNICATE! I feel like I'm at a party but all the fun is going on in another room from which I am barred entry because "SOMEONE" can't take a joke. Come on China, GROW UP. Double humph-humph!

Red guards in Chengdu and Red Detachment of Women

2009-06-07T05:46:00.000-07:00

Emy and I chanced upon a dance school performance in Zijing Park yesterday. Groups of little girls (and a few serious kungfu boys) dressed in all manner of costumes and colours scurried about, got shouted at by their dance instructors, scolded by their mothers (who primped and bettered make-up, tweeked costumes and acted general maternal fuss-buckets), jumped up on stage, twirled around (pink butterflies), flapped their long sleeves (Tibetans) and brandished large red stars (red guards), all with enormous dedication, enthusiasm, flashing of blinding white teeth, boldly made-up eyes and tightly pinned and coifed hair. Seldom have I seen so many ponytails in one go.

It was the last group of red star carrying girls that caught my attention though. Their faces were heavily painted, they wore braids and grey Mao caps each with a red star in front, had militant little shorts-pants on and bold red leggings. Their faces were frozen in dedication, perfect miniature Red Guards (紅衛兵 Hóng Wèi Bīng) about to perform a dance from the model opera Red Detachment of Women (红色娘子军 Hóngsè Niángzǐjūn). Emy who is 10 years old didn't give it a thought and most likely not the little girls themselves who all seemed to be the same age and probably had no understanding of late 1960s China and its politics. But I wondered what the people in the audience felt when seeing these girls dress as they were and dance as they did.

But how wrong I was. According to Wikipedia this Chinese ballet premiered as early as 1964, two years before the start of the Cultural Revolution. It was adapted from an earlier film that was in turn adapted from a novel which was based on a true story that happened on the island of Hainan in the 1930s. During the Cultural Revolution however it was selected as one of the "eight model operas" (八个样板戏 bā gè yàng bǎn xì) permitted. It was this opera that Richard Nixon saw when he visited China in 1972, seven years before the normalization of the Sino-US relationship. It remains a very popular ballet today and is still performed, both in China and around the world.

Wikipedia:
Despite its political overtone and historical background when it was created, it remains a favorite of music and ballet lovers nearly 30 years after the Cultural Revolution in China. Many numbers were based on the folk songs of Hainan Island, a place that, with its coconut trees rustling in tropical wind, evokes much romantic ethos. Though there are unmistakable elements of Chinese music, the music of this ballet was performed with basically a Western symphony orchestra.

A photograph will be posted sometime in the future...

Blogspot and comments

2009-06-07T05:42:00.000-07:00

Since Blogspot is still blocked in China I am not able to comment on comments that are made beneath my postings. Please do keep posting comments, I receive them via email where I read them and plan to answer in the future when Blogspot hopefully is accessible again. Thanks for all the support!

Penises and breasts

2009-06-04T18:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a day of Chinese studies at Chinese Corner, art class at QSI finishing up the mosaic project we've been working on with the 11-12-13 year olds and also...penises and breasts. I'm not trying to capture your attention in the most spectacular way because I can't post any pictures for the moment - believe me when it's possible again I'll post the evidence to prove to you that yesterday was just another typical day in China, i.e. a series of both mundane and bizarre experiences.

I had to go up to Jinli Street yesterday to buy a birthday present and was wandering around the back alleys when I heard the magnetic pulse of salsa music. I could hardly contain myself and had to immediately figure out where this music was coming from. Salsa is not the usual Jinli fare which usually specializes in classical and vernacular Chinese culture and rarely anything Western. But lo and behold salsa it was and I finally found where: The back of Jinli is now connected with the Wuhou Gongyuan and they were participating in the ongoing "Intangible Culture Festival". A group of scantily clad Australian dancers were doing a ripping salsa with all body parts jiggling and wiggling to the beat. How certain parts of the ladies anatomies stayed inside their dresses I think it was not only me wondering but all the mesmerized old Chinese men and women who made up the greater part of the audience at this time of day. The rhythm and enthusiasm of the dance troup was great though and I couldn't help jiggling along with them.

After the Australians bounced off the stage there followed a group of Chinese men balancing a large bamboo pole on their foreheads, juggling with it etc. On the sidelines I noticed other Chinese acts, most unusual being a group of very serious looking men dressed entirely in straw: straw hats, straw skirts, straw leggings and strangely each one had a substantial-looking straw "attachment" dangling between their legs. I didn't pay it much notice until they started dancing. Whoops! That dangling straw thing sure caught the audience's attention now as it turned out to be the focal point of the dance, help up high in the sky with a eye-riveting red-painted tip, jerked about and held with firm determination by the wildly dancing men.

The old ladies in the audience were giggling now and I asked the young man beside me where these dancers came from: "Hunan" he answered, as he distanced himself from me and my questions. When I later showed Burton the pictures he said "Must of been some kind of fertility dance". What a way to be distracted on this certain day.

Kinafestival Sigtunahöjden

2009-06-04T17:48:00.000-07:00

Forgot to say...I have been invited to be a guest author at the China Festival (Kinafestivalen) at Sigtunahöjden north of Stockholm this summer so I will be back in Sweden for a few weeks, yippee! I will be holding a presentation centered around one of my two books that came out in 2008: Kinesiska symboler. Do please visit anyone that happens to be in the area at the end of July or beginning of August (July 29 - Aug 2), 2009.

Look here for more event info:

Website:
www.kinafestival.se

Sigtunahöjden:
www.sigtunahojden.se

I will also be working with Lotus Travel at the festival. Other authors, photographers, instructors, lecturers will be there as well to make it an exciting event: Marcus Haraldson (En linje över Kina), photographer Li Yanan, Cecilia Lindqvist, Champagne expert Richard Juhlin (Paddy and I happen to have translated a few of his books into English) etc.

Taijiquan instructor Marianne Telford - who just led the taijiquan lessons on the "Hälsoresa" I led - will be giving lessons as well. A good opportunity to come and see what a fantastic instructor she is and think about signing up for next year's 2010 taijiquan tour that we are already planning now!

There will also be numerous shopping opportunities, tea and food presentations, music events, exhibitions etc etc.

And by the way....Sigtunahöjden is a lovely hotel and conference centre situated in beautiful surroundings and now completely remodeled with a uniquely Chinese flavor so pay a visit and come away inspired!

Update about Blogspot

2009-06-04T17:44:00.000-07:00

Hello again and thanks for support about Blogspot being blocked. I still can't post pictures (so you can't see the great image of me flying across a reservoir by the Simatai Great Wall attached only by a hook on a cable) but I'll try and start posting text and later when Blogspot hopefully surfaces again I will be able to post pictures to the postings. It will be a new challenge to hold your interest in this blog without any images! See you soon...

Blogspot blocked in China

2009-06-04T01:13:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

I'm back from my trip and am dying to post pictures and text but Blogspot has been blocked in China for a couple of weeks now so it is going to be hit and miss to get anything out to all of you around the world. Followers in China: don't give up hope! You can still read this blog through a proxy server but hopefully things will get back to normal shortly (a country this size should be mature enough to take criticism and negative commments, COME ON!). I am posting this through a backdoor and hope that I will be able to continue posting text, although pictures seem to be another matter all together.

Please be patient and thanks again all you faithful followers...I miss you!

Off to Beijing and beyond

2009-05-14T05:10:00.000-07:00

Indian Museum, Calcutta ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

I'm off on a job for the next two weeks so blogging will be sporadic. But I'm sure that I will have lot's of adventures to report about so do please look in from time to time.

Emperor Qianlong as a blogger

2009-05-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

Qianlong in his study, possibly by Giuseppe Castiglione

I'm off to Beijing on Friday so I've got emperors on the brain. It is said that the Qianlong Emperor (Qing Dynasty 1711 - 1799) composed over 40,000 poems and 1,300 prose texts during his lifetime. Quite a remarkable feat. He would have made a pretty serious blogger as 40,000 poems means making at least 1-2 postings a day, every day for his entire lifetime, if he started writing at say the age of ten. He was a busy beaver in more ways than this, he also had 17 wives, 17 sons and 10 daughters (his grandfather Kangxi had 56 children) and travelled extensively.

Remembering the earthquake

2009-05-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a brief description about what happened to us in Chengdu one year ago, something I wrote to tell friends and family. Our experience of course was nothing compared to what the people (who lost so many loved ones) up in the quake epicenter area experienced, something a hundred thousand times worse:

As you all know the earthquake happened on Monday May 12th, 2008 at 2.28 pm in the afternoon. This was our daughter Emy's birthday and luckily, because of this we were all in Chengdu city and not up in the mountains where I had planned to take visiting friends.

The day before the earthquake Paddy had just come home from Yunnan in time to celebrate Emy's big day. On the morning of the 12th we got Emy out of bed and celebrated her birthday in the Swedish way with presents and treats. She and Burton went off to school and I and Paddy spent a leisurely day catching up on talk and work. Just the week before I had been away in other parts of China working for 34 days straight. The day after I arrived back our guests from Sweden arrived and Paddy left for Yunnan. The 12th was a fantastically lovely day, sunny and warm and wonderful. I had sent our guests off to visit a temple in another part of town. I was feeling exhausted and loving the peace and quiet at home. For the evening we had planned to take Emy swimming, then all join up for a dinner at her favorite restaurant.

At 2.28 pm I was sending off some pictures on the computer when the house started to rumble. It was like the whole building was in spin-cycle in the washing machine and something had gone terrible wrong. I knew immediately that it was an earthquake and shouted to Paddy in the next room. We both ran to our front door which is made of metal and thought we would be safe there. But the rumbling had turned into a roaring boil and it was like being inside of a popcorn maker. The noise was deafening. We live on the 13th floor and the house was being shook back and forth and everything was bouncing up and down and crashing on to the floor. All the other earthquakes I have been in (in California) lasted only 10-20-30 seconds. This one didn't want to stop. Paddy shouted that we should try and get out of the house. We were convinced the house was going to come down - working in China for so many years has made us all too sceptical and cynical about how houses are constructed and if the proper methods and materials were used. We both flew down the 13 flights of stairs in our bare feet (there was no time to take anything with us). I was still in my pyjamas. Bits and pieces of cement were falling around us and on every floor we met more people trying to get out. The earthquake finished just after we got out the front door where we met hundreds of other people streaming out of all the buildings around us. It had lasted for a full three minutes. All we could think of after this was to find our kids, our friends and get away from any building as soon as possible. Paddy braved running up 13 flights of stairs again to quickly get our passports, money, shoes, computers and to lock our door which we had left wide open. We had no idea if any large aftershocks would bring the whole house done. All the time he was up there I could see the windows quietly vibrating. It felt like the earth was a living, breathy animal, panting after an enormous exertion. He was gone for about five minutes, when he came down again a large aftershock hit and we all ran out into the streets.

We quickly bought water and then two bicycles, shops were closing up and people were trying to contact friends and relatives by cellphone. Mobile connections weren't working and the streets were clogged with vehicles and people trying to find each other. Luckily no one was showing panic, even though we have heard that a small number of people in Chengdu leap out ofbuildings in fear and died that way. We made our way to where we could find our friends and children. Luckily everyone was safe and sound. Only then did we learn where the epicenter was -- just outside of the city in the mountains to the NW and that it had been enormous (7.9 magnitude). We also learnt name of towns and cities that I had never heard of: Beichuan, Hanwang, Yingxiu. Quickly we heard that two large schools had collapsed on top of 900 students.

As time went on the numbers of casualities increased and unspeakable horrors were revealed about what had actually happened. It is incomprehensible how entire cities can be crushed to rubble within a few seconds.

After the earthquake we have experienced fantastic warmth and generosity from all people around us (thank-you Kim, Johnny, Barry and Carin!) and we have all, Chinese and foreigners alike, gotten to know each a little better and been pulled closer together. I love Sichuan even more today than before and don't want to leave the area. Fun-loving Chengdu isn't the happy-go-lucky city it once was and everyone seems to be suffering from a collective depression, but day by day things get a little better. The Chinese people are incredibly resilient and tough and outside the city everyone is concentrating on getting through each day, minute by minute. It is too painful otherwise.

The kids have also been fantastic and seem to be doing all right after a few ups and downs. At the moment they are concentrating on getting through their last two weeks of school. During the actual earthquake they were thankfully outside of their school building doing sports. They felt the earth rumble and shake (it sounded strange they've said) and watched the school clocktower sway back and forth in an odd way, the lightning rod a top whipping frenetically back and forth. They didn't feel scared at that time and their teachers were very calm and responsible. Only afterwards when they joined up with their parents and witnessed all the adults acting scared and weird did they feel fear. Something for me to think about in the next disaster. Up on the 13th floor when the earthquake hit and I could hear the buildings crashing together and our terrace ripping apart, I experienced true, primitive anxiety. I wasn't at all brave, I was terribly scared and realized that I very much like being alive. I was no hero during this time and it taught me a lot about myself and my weaknesses.

When Emy realized there would be no birthday celebration this day she said "This is the worst birthday of my entire life". In the evening, when we and a hundred plus other people had all gathered together in a garden to spend the night outdoors out of range of potentially falling buildings, Barry Jones got everyone to sing Happy Birthday to her in English and Chinese. It was very moving when we all knew that not so far from the city there were thousands of children lying dead, their parents distraught, searching for them. When Emy and Burton were allowed to drink a lot more soda pop than usual during the first earthquake week Emy said: "This is the best earthquake I've ever had".

Written June 2008

Anniversary of May 12th, 2008 Earthquake

2009-05-12T16:32:00.000-07:00

Empty house, near Yingxiu May 2009 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Yesterday (blogspot runs on American time I think) was the first anniversary of the Sichuan Earthquake. It was an emotional day for me: For one, my daughter turned double-digit and I felt that time was slipping away and that she was getting too big too soon. (I've hopefully got another 9 years with her before she moves away from home so some comfort there). Secondly, the memories from the earthquake last year are still all too fresh and recently accentuated by our visit through the epicenter at Yingxiu.

Paddy and I (tearfully) watched the documentaries and commemoration on Chinese TV and saw how the government eulogized both the victims and their families but also glorified the party and the government's efforts to save lives and make everything right again. Better to concentrate on the positive and not all there still has to be done. Or all of the people that have fallen between the cracks and aren't reached by the enormous state reconstruction apparatus. Every other picture was one of the flag of the Communist Party and or the seal of the PRC. I suppose no different than the number of American flags that were shown after Katrina or 9-11 (Wenchuan and Katrina however were natural disasters with no political agenda). In Sweden we are more discreet in showing our flag and equating disasters and tragedies too closely or patriotically with our government (even after the 1994 MS Estonia tragedy or the 2004 tsunami).

Driving through the quake area the other day I sometimes felt like one of those "morbid tourists" that I wrote about on Feb 2. The TV showed them yesterday too, how Chinese busloads and caravans of cars and motorcycles visit Yingxiu and are guided around amongst the still highly visible ruins by the teenagers and young people that survived the earthquake. In the beginning their guides are cheery and strong and tell how boulders the size of small houses rained down upon their heads and how entire mountains slid into and over the city, crushing and smothering everything in its wake. After a while, when things get more personal and they relate what happened to them and their families and the people around them they break down crying and can hardly continue. It is all still too horrible to think about and I wonder how long these young people - just at the beginning of their lives - will have the energy and emotional balance to keep on talking about something so close to the bone. I hope that they will be able to move on eventually to a life that doesn't revolve around the earthquake everyday. But like victims of any huge disaster or tragedy loosing a large portion of your family is something that will alter your life forever.

As 14.28 crept up on the clock yesterday (the time of the earthquake) I began to feel a little anxious and wanted to have everything in order. I made sure that this year I had already showered and dressed and that I had my shoes on (last year I was still in my pyjamas, lazing about, and that's how I ran out of the house). When 14.28 arrived the commentary on the TV stopped completely and the cameras panned slowing around the epicenter in total silence for one minute. Complete quiet in China is always something particularly peculiar and the effect was very unsettling and moving. It even seemed that the city around me here in Chengdu was quieter than usual, but a look out the window showed me that no, most people were actually going about things as usual, loading cars with goods, bicycling, chatting, talking on their cell phones.

We spent the evening at the Bookworm participating in the earthquake anniversary benefit. As ever my extreme admiration for Peter Goff, the Bookworm staff and ALL people, too numerous to mention, Chinese and foreign, that have helped out at Sichuan Quake Relief over the past 12 months, finding earthquake victims who have "fallen between the cracks" and helping them in ways both big and small. Within just a day of the earthquake their relief efforts began and they are still going on, with numerous short and long term projects that really make a difference in people's lives. All profits from last night went directly to quake relief projects. (Burton and his band Ze Puppies played too and everyone sang Happy Birthday to Emy, thanks for the yummy cake Kim Dallas!). Last night was also the release of Abigail Washburn's (of Sparrow Quartet fame) and David Liang's CD Afterquake. The CD mixes the actual sounds of the rebuilding with the voices of relocated school children, talking and singing. Truly moving. More here.

The Sichuan government, sister provinces and cities all over China, and the enormous efforts of all people in the quake areas have also accomplished a truly heroic amount of reconstruction this past year. There is so much to do it just seems so overwhelming...you are all TRULY AMAZING.

Lest we forget: The Wenchuan Earthquake killed up to 90,000 people, injured 400,000 and made 5 million people homeless (5 million is the entire population of Denmark). A tragedy of this proportion can't be put to right over night, work will go on for many, many years so please remember how people still need our help and support.

Emy turns 10!

2009-05-12T02:48:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Emy! Grattis på födelsedagen!

Emy turned 10 today and is over the moon with fun on her birthday: apple pie, lot's of new clothing, a new bicycle, a cool Swiss Army knife and a new Cd of this year's Swedish Melodifestival. She also just beat me and Paddy in a game of Round-the-World Basketball. We're off to the Bookworm now for a barbecue dinner and cake but also to listen to Burton sing again with Ze Puppies for the Earthquake Anniversary Benefit. That bad old earthquake really ruined Emy's special day last year but she was very good about it when she learned how it had affected other people''s lives and families in much, much worse ways.

Emy you are the best daughter I could ever imagine having, everyday you make our lives so much more fun and interesting and your character, cool sense, quirky humor, generosity and general all round goodness makes me puff up with pride and love everyday. We also think you're darned cute. We love you! Congratulations! Kram Mamma, Pappa, Burton och Mormor

High altitude free form ballet

2009-05-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

©Heidi Wasch

This is a new art form created by Bob Leversee and Paddy Booz, two distinguished members of our recent pony trek to high altitudes. Mr Booz has incorporated elements of Tibetan ritualistic/tantric tongue-protrusion into the elegant ballet and Mr Leversee seems to be looking towards the sky for divine inspiration. Such grace, such style, such dedication to their inner selves...Or maybe they're just about to collide in a seismic game of jianzi.

Huanglong 黄龙 and Xuebaoding

2009-05-11T04:09:00.000-07:00

Charles, Isaac and Burton having a snowball fight at the pass overlooking Xuebaoding in the far distance.

Lungta, "wind horses": small paper offerings that Tibetans through into the winds whenever crossing a pass.

5588 m high Xuebaoding seen from the 4007 m high pass overlooking Huanglong Valley.

Xuebaoding in the background and the roof of the highest temple (Huanglong Si), a Daoist temple, silhouetted in the foreground. The original temple was built in the Ming Dynasty. It is heavily reconstructed today and was not open to visitors. It is also here that the annual festival Huanglong festival is held in spring.

Incredibly hardworking "beifus" carrying up to 100 kilos of wooden planks to the upper reaches of Huanglong Park to construct new walkways for park visitors. They make on an average 40 yuan a day. If they start very early in the morning and carry two loads a day they can make double. It is extremely hard work at this altitude (many of the tourists were sucking on oxygen bottles and all they had to carry was one small bottle of water). Many of them come from the earthquake areas and are desperate to find work anywhere they can. Every one of them met us with a smile as they were walking up and some of them asked for water to drink. Everytime I visit a scenic area or famous mountain in China I think of the enormous amount of work put into constructing the thousands and thousands of stone and wood steps and walkways. Truly coolie labor at its worst in my opinion, I think these workers deserve much better.

The stone pagodas in the foreground are said to be the tomb of a Tang Dynasty general and his wife. At this time of year the pools were the most beautiful powdery blue.

The classic postcard view of the upper pools of Huanglong.

All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

HUANGLONG

After we left Songpan we headed back to Chengdu via Huánglóng and Píngwǔ. Huanglong is only 90 minutes by car from Songpan and one of the world's most stunning nature areas. Over 3,000 pools of incredible shades of powdery turquoise blue cascade down the mountain side beneath Xuebaoding Mountain (5588 m). Xuebaoding is the highest mountain in the Minshan Mountain Range, located only 300 km north-northwest of Chengdu as the crows flies. The pools are made from calcite deposits and have taken thousands and thousands of years to create. We visited Huanglong on May 5th, an absolutely brilliant day but still quite early in the season. The surrounding vegetation was brown and the rhododendrons were still only fat buds, almost ready to unfurl their beauty. At this time of year there is only water in the uppermost pools behind the highest temple. End of summer (lush green vegetation) and autumn (yellow, red and green leaves) are the very best times to visit Huanglong with all the pools and waterfalls bursting with water. If you are lucky to visit just after a heavy snowfall in winter everything will be blanketed in white snow, only the turquoise water of the upper pools showing. In winter the park can however sometimes be closed.

There is a cable car at Huanglong that I highly recommend all to take. The entrance is located down the road from the main entrance. The Swiss made cable car takes you up to a high altitude viewing platform with views over the entire valley. From here it is a one hour walk on a basically level walkway straight to where the path connects with the main gate path just beneath the upper temple. From this point it is a short walk up to the upper pools. Down again to the main gate is an almost 5 km walk over planked paths and steps. Believe me, it is much easier going down than up and if you want to fully enjoy all the areas of Huanglong with ample time to truly enjoy the scenery - spend the money on the cable car.

Huanglong means "Yellow Dragon" and takes its name from how the pools ripple down the mountain side, just like the scales of an enormous dragon. No other place in the world has such a large collection of pools as here, it is truly unique.

Entrance fee:

200 y full adult price/150 y for children over 1.30 m (under 1.30 free) and anyone over 65 yrs old. Cable car up is 80 y and down 40 y.

Swine flu and Jiuzhaigou

2009-05-11T03:47:00.000-07:00

I have just noted two things: we now have our first case of swine flu in Chengdu and the National Geographic published a photographic article on Jiuzhaigou (photographer Mike Yamashita) in the March issue of the magazine. No one that I know in Chengdu has commented on the swine flu or the Jiuzhaigou article that is now two months old. Are we that blaisé?

By the way, nice pictures Mike!

Songpan Horse Trek part 14 Last post...

2009-05-11T02:12:00.001-07:00

©Catherine Platt

Catherine Platt was kind to send me these pictures of me and my family (Paddy, Burton and Emy). They are really nice, thanks so much! We had such a good time :-)

It's funny, I seldom see myself because I am always behind the camera (even the picture here is of me taking a picture). Maybe I should take a closer look at myself every now and then, I look hilarious! Like a housewife from the burbs heading off from a dude ranch dresses as a red tomato....LOL. But I do ride a mean saddle however frumpy I look....

By the way, fellow Songpan Horse Trekker Cheng"dude"lians: Thanks for the great cowboy hat and envelope of Peter Pan treats, I was really touched by your generosity.

What will our next adventure be???

Songpan Horse Trek part 13 Songpan Town 松潘

2009-05-11T00:40:00.000-07:00

Central covered Bridge on Main Street, looking south.

South Gate, looking south from central covered bridge.

Tibetan shopkeeper with amber hair decorations and turquoise and coral silver jewelry.

Red coral and amber hair decorations and a traditional friendly greeting - sticking your tongue out.

Even monks like a little walkabout to check out the action and shop a little.

Sonpgan is about 20-30% muslim.

Teahouses along the Min River are as much for drinking tea as for playing mahjong.

Bread! A delicacy in China.

On the way to school - a baozi a day keeps the doctor away.

Yinyue Bridge, renovated with kind donations from local Songpaners in 1986.

The Chinese princess Wencheng (Wénchéng Gōngzhǔ 文成公主, Tib. Mung-chang Kungco) passed through Songpan during the Tang Dynasty (ca year 640 or 641) when she was travelling to Lhasa to wed the Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo in a peace agreement between the two nations. She was a niece of Emperor Taizong and died in 680. I must admit I am not sure who is the man beside her, surely not Songtsen Gampo as Wencheng was transported to Lhasa by a high official and was rumored to actually be pregnant with his child by the time she arrived in Lhasa almost a year later.

Songpan Horse Trek part 12 Travel tips

2009-05-10T23:30:00.000-07:00

"Songzhou", the old name for Songpan on the north gate ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Most people visit Songpan only as a springboard for a horse trek or a drive-by on the way to Huanglong and Jiuzhaigou. Little Songpan doesn't deserve quite such a cold shoulder. This town of about 70,000 people has a unique history that deserves closer scrutiny. Indeed places like this in China are rapidly disappearing so if you want to catch a last whiff of a town with a "frontier" feeling please spend at least one day exploring its back alleys.

When I first visited Songpan over 20 years ago it was half the size it is today, there were only a few remnants of the city wall left, the bus station and its attached "hotel" rooms were some of the filthiest, grottiest in China. The bus ride from Chengdu took two 11 hr days and it was the only journey in China where I actually hit my head on the ceiling of the bus, the roads were so bumpy, bad and dangerous. Whenever I was in Songpan I was either exhausted and dirty myself from a recent trek or horseride and usually also just "passing through" to other areas. But I did spend time there and truly enjoyed the rough-and-tumble Wild West feel of the town. It was a great place to see Tibetans dressed up in their "city" finery: leopard-skin trimmed long coats, amber, coral and turquoise decorated hair, gold teeth and brilliant smiles. People rode horses up and down the streets and the shops were all wooden two-stories with oxblood red trimmings and warm yellow facades. Just as today there was a strong muslim influence with a lovely neat and tidy mosque, ladies with their hair covered and halal butchers. It was a touch of the Silk Road, Lhasa and frontier trading-post-China-of-the-past all thrown into the same mix, ready to be savored along with some dried yak beef and a loaf of bread.

Songpan has existed since the Tang Dynasty and has seen numerous battles and wars in its role as an important and strategic military post. Situated at a crossroads between Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan it has also served as a vital trading center for tea and horses. Songpan suffered heavy damage during the Ming Dynasty and it was from the Ming that the remaining city walls date. Volatile relations between local Tibetans and Muslims have also witnessed numerous tragedies in the past but today one could say that relations are quite stable and peaceful.

Transportation

There are numerous daily flights from Chengdu to Jiuhuang Airport that is about 1/1.5 hour from Songpan. Buses leave daily from Chengdu and normally take 8-10 hours to arrive. Since the May 12, 2008 earthquake the road via Wenchuan-Maoxian has been in serious disrepair so the road can not be guaranteed. The road via Mianyang/Pingwu/Huanglong however is in perfect condition and takes about 9 hrs by private car or rented bus. Songpan is easily accessible from Huanglong (1.5 hr) and Jiuzhaigou (ca 2-3 hr). There are no buses from the airport to Songpan, quickly grab a taxi from the airport, hopefully you will find other people to share the cost. We rented our bus from Sam's Travel (2nd fl Holly's Hostel) in Chengdu, very economic, great driver. 800 y a day plus a sum for the driver's lodging and meals. You can seat 14 people in the bus including one row reserved for luggage. A bargain if you have enough friends to split the cost.

Shunjiang Nianqing Kezhan, a regular "motel" that you can drive your car into at night.

Accommodation

We stayed in spotless double-rooms with attached WC/hot shower at the Shunjiang Nianqing Kezhan right behind the horse trekking company and Emma's Kitchen in the northern section of town, not far from the North Bus Station. 120 y a night. Hot water all the time if there is electricity in Songpan (!). There are of course both cheaper and more expensive hotels in and around town.

Massage

There is a great massage centre (Snowland Tibetan Medical Massage Centre) located right beside Emma's run by Henanese Dong Li Xia (Lisa) and her Tibetan husband Hago Tenzin Wangyal. They also employ a local blind man (Mr Mi You Jun). High quality massage and nice, cosy atmosphere. Tel 13678372990. Email: tibetanmassage@163.com/tdgonkatsang©hotmail.com.

Teahouses

Best teahouses and cosiest atmosphere on a sunny day is along the Min River near the south end of town, the old wooden Yinyue Bridge and the Guanyin Fort (Guangyin Ge).

Sightseeing

There are two mosques and a muslim center in town, the finest is located behind Emma's in the northern end of town. Don't miss the two beautiful old wooden covered bridges. The Guanyin Ge on a SW hillside, the old city gates and reconstructed city wall, the kitschy historic-romantic statue of Princess Wencheng outside the north gate. The main street has lots of shops and good people-watching. Around the mosques you can buy the best China-famous dried yak and beef meat (great for treks). Local honey, mushrooms and medicinal herbs are also a very good buy. Outside Songpan on the way to Huanglong is a quite grotesque, over-the-top monument to the Long March, that supposedly passed this way (debatable as to whether they actually went this way) in the 1930s. You can't miss the huge statue of a soldier holding a rifle surrounded by some very clunky statues at his feet.

Horse trekking

The two former horse trekking companies are now combined as one: Shunjiang Horse Treks (Shunjiang Luyou Madui), office on Shunjiang Beilu beside Emma's in N Songpan (tel 723 1201) just south of the bus station, east side of the road.

Problems

Songpan often suffers from lack of electricity (= no hot water), bring a flashlight. Be prepared with patience when this happens - think of the people who have to live with this every week of the year. Altitude: 2835 m, which can cause headaches for those having just arrived by air.

Songpan Horse Trek part 11 Emma's Kitchen

2009-05-10T22:47:00.000-07:00

Emma (Li Guirong) at her café, May 2008 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

A large part of any successful travel experience is meeting and connecting with interesting people along the trail, fellow travellers of course but most important in my opinion are the local people that actually live in the places you visit. They are not just props that colour your travel experience more vividly but people with real lives that if you can communicate in a mutual language (or are clever with body language and show them genuine empathy) often make your experience one of great warmth and depth.

As you can see from the posting below we really had a great time with our horsemen but let me tell you a little about a person that most people probably remember best from a visit to Songpan: Emma of Emma's Kitchen. I have to admit that I actually knew Emma before this visit to Songpan (she is the sister/sister-in-law to friends in Chengdu) but she is such a special person that I want to give her a "promotional plug" all on her own. Emma was born in Songpan and has lived there her entire life. She is one-quarter Tibetan/three-quarter Han Chinese (her Chinese name is Li Guirong), speaks fantastic English, knows every single person in Songpan and the surrounding valleys and has since the early 2000's welcomed foreigners into her café with one of the warmest smiles in China. She has energy and gusto like few others and during peak season works 20 hours out of a 24 day. She barely stands "five feet off the ground" but is a powerhouse of organisation and positive energy. Her entire family is like this: her little brother David helps out in the kitchen with her, her mother is often seen behind the counter, there is another sister somewhere and her brother Mike Li used to run one of the horse trekking companies in Songpan (before Emma opened her café she worked in the horse trek company).

During last year's earthquake Emma generously took care of all the foreigners stranded in Songpan and she will gladly help you in any way she can. She has very interesting ideas on how tourism can expand and benefit the Songpan area and helped very importantly when I put this family horse trek together. If she has the time she will gladly tell many interesting things about life in this very unique part of China.

Emma's Kitchen (Xiao Ouzhou Xicanting/trans. Little Europe Western Café) is the only really authentic backpacker's café in Songpan and she serves both Western and Chinese food. She also gives all sorts of advice and travel information for free. You can contact her via her email and she will gladly help you: emmachina@hotmail.com. The café is located in the northern end of town (Shunjiang Beilu), next to the horse trekking office (Ma Dui) and the horse trekking motel (Shunjiang Nianqing Kezhan). Give her a hug from me when you meet her in Songpan!

Spider in my bra

2009-05-10T05:19:00.000-07:00

Sign at Indian Museum, Calcutta, India ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Finished dinner a few minutes ago and picked up a basket of fruit, the homemade basket we bought a few days ago from an old man on the street in Pingwu. Hugging the basket I felt something large fall into my cleavage, DAMN, a jumping spider was lodged in my bra. Lickety-split off came the shirt and the bra, to the hilarious laughter of my children.

That reminded me of a scene from my childhood when my family lived on a sailboat in Central America, my mother suddenly thrashed out in a hysterical dance and ripped her clothes off in front of us: a cockroach had crawled into her shirt.

Which made me think of a friend whose mother had put on her underwear one day in Arizona only to be bitten in the worst place by a scorpion having a cosy nap in her knickers.

Burton then related the story how he the other day took a deep drink from his water bottle only to find that he had a large (drowned) cockroach in his mouth.

Which reminded me of a story my Cuban grandmother told me when I was little. She shared a bedroom with her sister in Havanna and one morning she woke up to shrieks: her sister, who like Emy had extremely long hair that had never been cut, slept with it tied up in a braid. During the night a python had snuck into the room and proceeded to eat up her braid, centimeter by centimeter, until the greedy snake finally choked himself to death. The sister woke up with the dead snake stuck to the back of her head, thus the shrieks.....

Songpan Horse Trek part 10 Our horsemen

2009-05-07T08:25:00.001-07:00

The horsemen that lead your trek are as important as safe, strong, stable and reliable horses. They know the personalities of their horses inside and out, they stay close to you if you are insecure, let you be independent if you prove yourself to be a good rider, set up camp for you, make your bedding, cook your food, sing you mountain songs, boil water for your coffee and tea, drink moonshine with you if you like and generally are salt of the earth, rough and ready guys that live very hard lives but are full of laughs and smiles if you give then half a chance. A horseman/groom/stable lad is called a mǎ fū 马夫 in Chinese, (the name also means pimp or procurer!) and we had 11 along on this trip. They were great guys and kept us safe and happy the entire time. They were especially attentive to the needs and safety of the children.

The youngest one (not this guy, who said hardly a word the entire trek!) was teased and taunted by the other younger horsemen, one of the mafu looked just like David Niven with a thin moustache (sv. "tangorabatt"), one of them suffered from terrible asthma and weezed up and down the mountains, but also smoked cigarettes. The two oldest men - 59 and 60+ - were quiet and sage about everything; the muslims mock chided the Tibetans often about how quarrelsome and problematic they were as an ethnic group, but reassured us that in the Songpan area the different peoples just tried to get along without too much trouble. Songpan has a very strong muslim presence and in the past centuries horrible, murderous fighting has gone on between the two dominant groups. The muslims in our group gladly drank wine and spirits but were very firm (all the horsemen actually) that we absolutely not let any of our pork sausages come near their cooking pots or into the cookhouse.

The oldest horseman, 60 something.

Break in the sunshine while the tea water is boiling. The horseman to the right took every breaktime to catch a lie-down.

Most Tibetan men in the countryside carry knifes. In the larger cities this is usually not allowed although many still do. Since the troubles last year all knifes in the Tibetan shops in our street in Chengdu have been taken away and are not allowed to be sold (even small pocket knifes). This horseman is carrying a beautiful knife, probably a family heirloom, handcrafted in silver.

Our horsemen all live in villages around Songpan. The horses we were riding were their own horses and the mafu's ages ranged from around 19 to somewhere just over 60 yrs old. Most of them were Tibetans, the rest Hui Muslim and even a few Han Chinese. When they are not working for the horse trekking company they are farmers or herdsmen. They split the horsetrekking fee about 50/50 with the trekking company and when there are lots of tourists (i.e. no earthquakes or political problems that close off the Songpan area to travelers, particularly foreigners), they can make a fairly decent wage if they work many treks a season. None of them wore proper footwear (in our eyes) usually only simple sneaker boots or leather shoes. They had on thin jackets and coats, easily ran up and down the mountains if needed, slept around the mess campfire at night and were up early in the morning, cooking, gathering firewood, getting drinking water and calling down the horses from the mountains.

This horseman (the same guy as the first shot above), 59 years old, was severely kicked in the foot by his horse on day 2. Bob L is a doctor and is inspecting his swollen foot for any serious damage. All the other horsemen were very curious and as soon as they knew there was a doctor in the group they gathered around, helped interpret (from Chinese into Tibetan) and one even showed a cut finger and shyly asked for a band-aid.

My horseman Meng Jun and me upon arriving back in Songpan. His name means "Mongolian Soldier" and he is a Hui muslim. He has been riding horses since he was four years old, now he is 24, married and has a 4 month old little girl. He's a great guy and was sort of the leader of the mafu, probably because of both his leadership ability and that he could speak both standard Chinese (some of the Tibetans only spoke rudimentary putonghua), a little English and could communicate well with all the ethnic groups among the horseman. An all-round great guy.

At the end of the second day he and I raced our horses back to camp at breakneck speed. I won but I have an inkling that Meng Jun just might have let me win on his lead horse Blackie. When the others got back to camp all the horsemen and my kids gave me the "ultimate awesomeness" riding award. I felt elated afterwards but also glad I didn't fall and break every bone in my body. Not to be recommended!

All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Songpan Horse Trek part 9 Return to Songpan

2009-05-07T08:17:00.001-07:00

One of the three largish Tibetan villages (Shang Zhai, Zhong Zhai and Sanlian) in the Munigou Valley. In the foreground a pile of mani stones and prayer flags.

Six year old Tuva Appelquist riding all by herself with her ever attentive horseman.

Heading home on Day 3. The first hour was spent riding for a little over an hour on the main, paved road from Erdaohai past Shangzhai village. We then headed up into the mountains, following paths past fields and farm houses. The weather was brilliant with clear blue skies and views of distant villages and snow-clad mountains. The distance between our camp just below Erdaohai back to Songpan was covered in about 3 1/2 hours.

Burton Booz.

"Sleepy" taking his usual lie-down.

View from the pass over the city of Songpan with a distant Xuebaoding (5583 m) (the highest peak of the Minshan Range) in the middle of the picture. Spring has arrived and the mountainsides are quickly turning green in this first week of May.

At the pass.

It is in villages like this that some of the horsemen live.

Walking down from the pass (too steep to ride), Songpan in the far distance.

Just above Songpan walking the horses down the last part of the mountain path. In the background a part of the ancient Ming Dynasty city wall and the reconstructed city wall and main south gate can be seen.

Our triumphant return to civilization was straight through the main streets of Songpan. We all rode with straight backs and happy smiles on our faces, the kids were particularly proud of themselves (rightly so!). My horse Blackie, of course, could hardly contain himself and I had to fight hard to keep him from galloping all the way back to the trekking company. I shouted back to Meng Jun behind me: "Which way? Which way?" and he shouted back "Don't worry, the horse knows the way!" All around us were cars, trucks, bicycles, tourists, vendors, music, tooting and noise, noise, noise. What's good about cities: hot showers and good food. Bad? Crowded spaces and.....NOISE!

Another group photo of the Songpan Wild Bunch on the last day before we ride back to Songpan, see how happy we look!!! L to R, front row - Ingrid Booz Morejohn, Su Wen Bo (our great driver from Sam's Travel, Chengdu), Zoe D, Isaac G, Burton Booz, Charles D, Maya L, Heidi W, Emy Booz, Sam G with mum Catherine P, Tuva A with two horsemen. Back row: interspersed among the mafu: Isabelle D, Meng Jun, Bob L, Arnaud D, Paddy Booz, Ethan G, Kattis and Nicklas A. (Missing the four Belliers, Staci and DJ Latoison who returned to Chengdu earlier and Ingrid Sr who stayed in Songpan during the horsetrek).

All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Songpan Horse Trek part 8 Wuzuogou

2009-05-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

In the early mornings the horses were called down from their morning grass munch on the surrounding mountains for a breakfast of last night's vegetable leftovers and broad (fava) beans which are also called horse beans in English (hú dòu or cán dòu in Chinese). The horsemen had special high-pitched calls to bring the horses in, most came willingly but a few had to be chased on foot.

Beautiful muted Tibetan colors of a saddle pad.

Day 2 was a ride up a side valley slightly south of Erdaohai that was a geological extension of Erdaohai called Wuzuogou (Five Lakes Valley). We reached this from our camp just below Erdaohai by riding for a short distance on the paved road then taking a path heading east. There was a small tractor path up into this side valley which local villagers used to collect rocks for building material, firewood and get access to camps where they herded yak. We rode the horses through the water to cross.

Wuzuogou has many strange geological formations where you can literally witness how the surface skin of the earth has been pushed, twisted and shaped into the landscape we see today. Cars can't come this way, only those on foot, horseback or small tractor or motorcycle. At the very end of this valley are five small interconnecting lakes and a rock formation called Kuashi (Collapsed) Cliff. Unfortunately we never made it that far because of an incident with one of the horses.

Logs were laid across the river for those crossing on foot. Some of the horses could walk over this way but one of the horses fell through the logs and almost broke its leg. It had to be lifted out by its tail. Luckily it wasn't injured and no one was hurt. Later another horse kicked its horseman badly in the foot and tried to bite and kick another horseman.

Folded over and over again, you can literally see the formation of the topography here (click to enlarge).

Tibetan camp with yak hybrids out to pasture. The camp was guarded by tied up dogs, best not to get too close.

Because of the seeming irritability of the horses today and the various mishaps we experience getting this far (and lot's of small children) we decide to give everyone a rest and a wonderful laze about in the sun. We break for coffee, tea, chocolate and gorp (or "CRAP" as Ethan G called it: cranberry, raisins, apples and peanuts). The horses calm down after this and we still have a wonderful day out in beautiful nature, sunshine, perfect quiet and pristine air.

Tea time!

All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Songpan Horse Trek part 7 Food

2009-05-07T08:08:00.001-07:00

Inside the cookhouse all hands pitch in frying up a batch of morning yóu tiáo 油条 (deep-fried dough/breadstick, a kind of Chinese dounut that you can dip in sugar or just eat the way it is). The food is included in the cost of the trek. It is tasty, abundant but very simple and can be perceived as quite monotonous by some picky foreigners: potatoes, pumpkin, rice, tomatoes in sugar, cucumber and squash, dry tofu (dòufu gan) in a tasty broth (yum!), breadsticks, horse tea (see below), Songpan bread etc is pretty much it. There is no meat included in the price. You can order a goat to roast but this costs about 600 yuan per goat.

I did this trek the first time a little over 20 years ago and the food hasn't changed or improved one iota since then - this is one of the things that most foreigners complain about during the trek. So if you are a stickler for meat or good munchies and are heading out for several days (like up to the Ice Mountain Lake) bring extra delicacies from Songpan or Chengdu (where you can buy just about any delicacy under the sun). Songpan is famous for its various dried and cured meats, these can be easily transported in plastic bags and eaten with bread.

Boiling up water for tea, hot chocolate and coffee on Day 1.

Mr Booz has to have his morning tea, horse tea isn't good enough, has to be Lipton's!

Day 2 Burton spent too much time close to the fire last night roasting marshmallows and has swollen eyes (or maybe he just woke up on the wrong side of the sleeping bag this morning). He's hugging our huge box of trail mix/gorp.

Maya L warming her hands with a mug of hot chocolate.

Potato and pumpkin stew, yummy but not to the taste of the kids unfortunately. They preferred dough sticks dipped in sugar or whatever goodies their parents had stashed away for them from Chengdu.

Even horses have to eat! Mush is served out of cut off basketballs that can be tied to their bridles. Whatever we and the horsemen hadn't finished for our meals they ate mixed with chewy broadbeans.

Songpan Horse Trek part 6 Camp life

2009-05-07T08:02:00.001-07:00

Day 1...DJ Latoison just as the rain turns into snow. DJ road his horse all the first day up over the ridge and down to camp but unfortunately got altitude sickness later that evening and had to return to Songpan with a car that we called up to camp. Our camp was at about 3300 m and we had ridden over a pass that was around 3800 m. Songpan is a little lower at just over 2800 m. DJ returned to Chengdu the next day by car and is feeling just fine now. You never know who will have a problem with altitude sickness, it can hit anyone. It felt good with so many children along that we had easy access to the main road and a quick escape back to Songpan in case of an accident.

Emy uses her mother (me) as a big, comfortable camp cushion.

Life at camp was - I suspect - a large part of the fun for the kids - not just the awesome horseback riding. We spent three days on the trek, riding for an average of 4 hours a day, just enough to keep everyone excited, have their fill of riding but also not get too bored for the youngest children. Or too tired for the horses. The rest of the time was spent poking about at Erdaohai (Day 1), lazing about in the sun at Wuzuogou (Day 2), making bows and arrows, whittling sticks to roast marshmallows on, exploring the surrounding woods, playing cards, playing Chinese shuttlecock (jianzi), joking about etc etc. Time flies when you're having fun!

Burton, Emy and Charles hanging out with the horsemen (conversing in Chinese!).

Quote of the day: "We are going to go hunt horse chickens!" Isaac and Burton with their homemade weapons. Horse chicken, maji in Chinese, Capercaillie in English, tjäder in Swedish, Lat. Tetrao urogallus are protected in China. We saw them in the woods and crossing the paths. We saw quite a number of beautiful birds: common pheasant, dove, quail, common kingfisher, ruddy shelducks (Tadorna ferruginea), Lammergeier, eagles, blue-eared pheasant, river chats (Chaimarrornis leucocephalus), blackbirds and crows. As for mammals we only saw pikas, small chincilla/mouse-like mammals with very short tails. Not a panda in sight of course, hihi!

Paddy, the tea expert himself with a handful of macha, "horse tea" (and of course his preferred drink a bottle of beer in his left hand). We were served horse tea ( a very poor quality tea that is almost tasteless and upon which the Chinese have since the Song Dynasty built an entire trading economy with the Tibetans) until the horsemen realized we actually preferred boiled water which we could use to make coffee or chocolate or whatever we liked.

Maya, Emy, Isaac and Zoe playing a fierce game of WAR! All the while shouting expletives like "camel puke!", "horse turds!", "goat farts!" and so on.....

Everyone shouted Hurrah! when rice was served on day 2. Emy's rice-eating record is seven bowls in one go in Chengdu.

Mifan laile!

Charles and Burton chow down. Later in the evenings we roasted hotdogs and wonderful sausages we had brought up from Chengdu. Fantastic!

Sausage time, big interest on the part of the kids. Meat and marshmallows seems to be what kids prefer most.

Evidence of adults having fun too, we preferred wine, whiskey, coffee, crackers and sausages over the marschmallows ;-)

Mesmerizing heat from the campfire kept us warm in the evenings before we had to crawl into our cold tents. It also thawed us out in the morning and coaxed the reluctant kids out of their sleeping bags.

Emy Booz tucked into her sleeping bag for the night. She is sleeping in full clothing because of the cold in early May (0°+). The trekking company provides very basic sleeping bags, pads, blankets and tents for all trekkers but the sleeping bags are: 1) very thin 2) very dirty 3) possibly full of ticks (Paddy killed one) 4) very smelly. The tents are small and short (ok for me!) but keep the rain out. Because it was still early in the season and we had a transport vehicle that could drop off stuff at camp most of us brought our own sleeping bags and extra pads. In summertime the equipment provided by the trekking company should be enough for those staying in the Munigou area (most going to the Ice Mountain complain bitterly about the cold, even in summer, if you're planning on heading that way bring a bag, the trekkers provide Tibetan coats). Those who are picky about hygiene would do well bringing a sleeping bag liner. You can make a pillow out of your clothes and stuff them in a t-shirt. (22 years ago they didn't have tents. I slept out in the open and in my own sleeping bag and woke up covered in snow. Little did I know then that one day I would have a great daughter like Emy and that she would sleep in the very same sleeping bag that I had used all that time ago!)

Maya L playing with her DS by the fireside. Remember to keep those camera batteries warm or the cold will quickly zap all the umph out of them!

Songpan Horse Trek part 5 Zhuzhuhai Wenquan (Hot Springs)

2009-05-07T07:56:00.001-07:00

Burton and Charles had the crazy idea that they would take a dip in the "hot" springs at the top of Erdaohai. The spring (also known as Zhuzhuhai or "boiling pearl lake") is heavily sulphuric (smells like rotten eggs), said to be good for curing all kinds of skin diseases and is not all that hot (only about 20°+, the surrounding air was under 10°+), but in they went....

...Burton a little earlier than he expected, ladi-ladi-dah and then he slipped on the top step and in he went!

Then you couldn't stop him...

....Paddy couldn't resist either.....

....neither could Charles Dupont. They look like too little cold macaques in a Japanese onsen.

Songpan Horse Trek part 4 Erdaohai

2009-05-07T06:07:00.000-07:00

Like one of the websites say, Erdaohai is a place of "small miracles". Here the surrounding forest is mirrored in the turquoise waters of Erdao Lake. Few tourists come here and compared to the absolutely stunning, almost overwhelming beauty of Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong which consequently attracts thousands of tourists each day, Erdaohai is intimate, cosy, magical and wonderously quiet. Truly a small gem in itself.

The entire Munigou Valley is about 160 square km large and has two major scenic areas: Erdao Lake (Erdaohai) and Zhaga Waterfall (Zhaga Pubu) situated in two small parallel valleys. The waters of these two areas gather together and drain into the Min River (Minjiang). It is now listed as a World Biosphere Reserve, World Natural Heritage as well as Green Globe 21 by the United Nations. We made camp about 1 km below the entrance to Erdaohai Scenic Area which is a 3-4 km long chain of beautiful seasonal lakes with wondrous turquoise waters and marshland located at the top of Munigou Valley. The lake in this picture (Lover's Emerald Pool, elev. 3404 m) at the beginning of May still doesn't have much water. It is made up of nine dissolved, fallen lakes and is a typical seasonal lake. Even though this was the May 1st holiday we only met one small party of four Chinese tourists leaving the park as we were going in. It was completely quiet and pristine, utterly perfect and magical.

Spanish Moss dripping with moisture from the recent snowfall.

Erdao Lake (Erdaohai) is a "fallen lake", one of over 400 mineral lakes in this area. It is surrounded by sunken pits, deep cravasses, hidden caves and the largest outdoor stalactites in China. Luckily these dangerous holes are surrounded by wooden railings so you don't inadvertently fall in.

Lhatses, large wooden arrows collected into clusters and tied together by white silk khatas and prayer flags, evidence of the Tibetan and Bön religion that is predominant in the Munigou Valley. Erdaohai is sacred to local Tibetans and they come here twice annually to put up new flags, arrows and khatas, paying tribute to the lake.

Light bottle green. Gradually, as the weather warms up and the lakes slowly fill with water the colours will shift in shade and hue. The colours are very different than at Huanglong or Jiuzhaigou.

Wooden walkways (about 2.5 - 3 km up and same down again) connect the lakes in a loop.

Roots calcified in the mineral rich water.

Marshland.

Erdao Lake (Erdaohai) with large cave and overhang. Erdao means "two eyes" and the color of this lake is the strangest green-blue. It is around this lake that you see most of the sink-holes, caves and crevasses. In the autumn this lake will have filled almost to the top of the cavern.

Info:

Entrance fee to Erdaohai is 50 yuan or 70 yuan for Erdaohai and Zhaga Pubu together. Children over 130 cm are half-price. Foreign pensioners over 65 half-price. Children under 130 cm free. You can visit both areas easily in one day by car or bus but the horse trekking company no longer has horse treks to both areas due to disputes between villagers in the Zhaga Pubu area and the horse trekking company in Songpan (it all boils down to a question of money and who isn't getting a piece of the tourist pie). 20 years ago I rode to Erdaohai, camped by the lake itself and then rode over the mountain between Zhaga Pubu and Erdaohai, trekked down to the waterfall, then continued by horse back to Songpan in the same day. No longer.

Songpan Horse Trek part 3 Arrival at Camp

2009-05-07T05:25:00.000-07:00

We left Songpan at 9.45 and arrived in camp at precisely 1 pm. Our camp is about 1 km down the road from Erdaohai Park in a little grassy area beside a river. There is a camp house which will be used as a cook hut. Meng Jun quickly instructs us: drinking water upstream (which they boil for our tea), toilet area downwind of camp in the bushes.

Itchy, itchy! As soon as the saddles are off (and that is quick) the horses all roll on their backs.

Got to get things settled as quick as possible, there's lot's to do, we are a large group and the weather might turn bad at any moment. The men do it efficiently, quickly, quietly and with lot's of laughs. They work very well together.

The horsemen go quickly up into the forest and find (or chop down although we didn't hear anything) a nice tree to use as a tent ridge pole. It is quickly sheared of its branches using a huandao (lit. "bend knife") that serves as a sort of gigantic Swiss Army knife/sword/hachette/adze for the mafu and almost anything they need to fix.

The ridge pole is hoisted into place and "simsalabim" we quickly have a tent. They know what they're doing - it's going to rain soon and the tent is important. They also quickly pitch all of our sleeping tents and lay out our bedding.

Wooden saddle and Tibetan saddlebag.

Our small bus arrives with Catherine P and Sam G (3 yrs old, a little too young to ride), all our equipment from Chengdu and all of our extra food goodies. We are 24 people in total, all living and working in Chengdu. This is a family trek with small children along so we are quite content to camp near the road, with easy access back to Songpan in case something happens (which does, altitude sickness). We have all brought sleeping bags with us and could have hauled all this extra "junk" with us on more horses but no need when we already have a vehicle that can just drop it off. Mr Su then drove back to Songpan and stayed there in a hotel for 3 days, playing mahjong with other drivers! Even though we were not far away from a major thoroughfare we only saw 3-4 cars a day pass by. If we had wanted to we could have camped in other areas away from all roads, the campsite varies with the trek and customer.

Meng Jun gets the fire going, we are all breathless with anticipation. Soon we'll be breathless with asphyxiation and smoke inhalation!

Air hole-cum-window.

Maya getting warmed up in her Tibetan chuba (zang zhuan). Warm but stinky....

Something wrong with the fire! Wood too damp or what? We all the flee the tent as the smoke pours out. After a while though all problems are solved and we spend a cosy evening propped up against makeshift, very comfy bolsters made out of thin branches draped with saddle blankets.

Tuva and Thilien enjoy the snow, something we see only about once a winter in Chengdu.

Rain turned into SNOW! Much nicer and more romantic, the wooded mountains of Sichuan quickly faded away into the mist. Luckily both the rain and the snow only lasted a short while so after a quick "fika" (coffee and tea break) we could all happily walk off to visit Erdaohai Park about 1 km up the road from our camp. We didn't see ONE drop of rain again until we got back into Songpan again. Perfect.

Philippe B out in the snow taking a picture of me taking a picture of him...

Roasted marshmallows! Some of the kids had never eaten these before, but if I'm not mistaken, everyone of them quickly became converts to this very American tradition.

Songpan Horse Trek part 2 Ride over mountains to Erdaohai

2009-05-07T00:26:00.000-07:00

The Songpan Wild Bunch! Left to right: Staci Latoison, Bob L, DJ Latoison (10 yr), Heidi W, Ingrid Morejohn Sr (75 yr), Tuva A (6 yr), Emy Booz (10 on May 12th!), Paddy Booz, Thilien B (8), Emma (Li Guirong), Philippe B, Emma's mother, Burton Booz (12), Arnaud D, David Li, Maya L (10), Isabelle D, Zoe D (9 on May 9th!), Charles D (11), Ethan G and Sam G (3 yr). Missing: Juline B (6), Benedicte B, Isaac G (8), Catherine P, Kattis and Nicklas A and Ingrid Booz Morejohn. We don't have any proper riding helmets for the children, so they are wearing their bicycle helmets.

Our horses arrive at 8.00, loaded up with our tents, sleeping gear and food. They aren't particularly big horses but not small ponies either. Saddles (wooden or leather) are underneath all the packing, making it both comfortable but also a bit of a high seat. The tack varies in quality from very simple leather straps and ropes to finely braided ones in Tibetan colors.

Emy Booz gets her stirrups adjusted by our "mafu", horseman Meng Jun. Meng Jun is the leader of the horsemen. He is Hui Muslim and has been riding horses by himself since he was 4 years old. Emy is riding one of his horses, Niu de hua, "Fast and slippery". I ride his other horse, Hei Ma, "Blackie". Blackie is the lead horse, very aggressive and strong and I have a fun three days holding him back and sometimes letting him go too, in a full gallop. We couldn't be happier! It's been Emy's dream for a long time to go on a really long horse trek.

We leave Songpan at 9.45 and quickly make our ascent of the mountain range just to the west of the Songpan Valley. Emma's Kitchen and the horse trekking office (Ma Dui) are only about 100 feet from the path that leads up the steep mountain. We all ride. But some of the mafu walk, others ride their horses. The sky is heavy with grey clouds and rain is an ever present threat. We pass wooden houses with flowering crabapple trees in their gardens and everyone's spirits are high. In the beginning the children's horses are led by the mafu. Some of the children ride the horses on their own, others like Emy here share the horse with the mafu. Eventually when the mafu see which children are capable of handling the horses on their own the children are allowed to hold the reins themselves. In the picture here: Ethan G, followed by Emy and Meng Jun on Niu de Hua.

Up, up, up we go!

The pass on the mountain ridge above Songpan, about 3800 m above sea level, slightly higher than Lhasa in Tibet. Below us is the city of Songpan and the Min River. In the distance are the high mountains that surround Xuebaoding (hidden in clouds), the mountain that towers over Huanglong.

The rain that poured down on us in Songpan last night became snow up here on top of the mountains. We are a regular wagon train, with 21 foreigners from Chengdu riding and 11 mafu.

Nicklas A in the foreground with the valley of Munigou in the background. We still have a few hours to go. After riding along the ridge of the mountain for an hour or so we begin our descent. Because of the rain and slippery, muddy paths we stay on the horses. The descent is quite arduous for the horses. We ride through brambles and thorny bushes. All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Songpan Horse Trek part 1 Chengdu to Songpan via Yingxiu and Wenchuan

2009-05-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

Who came along on this trip? 24 family and friends and 3 drivers all living in Chengdu. Nationalities? Chinese, American, Swedish, British and French. Languages spoken, heard or passed by on this trip? English, Swedish, French, Chinese, Aba Tibetan, Baima and Qiang. All of our kids go to school together, the age range was: 3 year Sam Goldings to 75 year old Ingrid Morejohn Senior.

After several weeks of planning and organizing (thank-you Ethan G, Catherine P, Mike and Laura Li and of course Emma (Guirong) Li in Songpan for advice, help and support) we finally left Chengdu on May 1st at 6.00 am. We had rented a small bus in Chengdu and despite advice to the contrary our driver Mr Su Wenbo thought that taking the Chengdu - Pixian - Dujiangyan - Yingxiu - Wenchuan - Maoxian route would be the quickest way to reach Songpan. This proved to be a big mistake: May 1st was the beginning of a national holiday and although we made very good time out of Chengdu and past Dujiangyan once we got up into the mountains we quickly got bogged down in the pile-ups that were caused by the one-way traffic that was the only direction allowed because of the extensive road work going on due to the massive devastation caused by 8.0 magnitude May 12th, 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. (Odd days up and even days down). The two private drivers had their driver's licenses confiscated by the local traffic police (a story in itself) but were lucky enough to get them back a few hours later after much hassle, teeth-grinding, threats and diplomacy.

Quickly on from Dujiangyan we began to notice earthquake damage. When we reached the epicenter (1 pm) at Yìngxiù 映秀 it was heartbreaking to see how almost the entire city had been destroyed. It was literally just a gigantic heap of rubble with countless dead most likely still trapped beneath the ruins. Before the earthquake the population was 6906 people, 80% of the town was destroyed, supposedly only one-fifth survived. As the crow flies the epicenter was only 80 km from Chengdu where all of us on this trip had been when the earthquake hit a year ago. Because of the damage and winding roads it had taken us 7 hours to drive here.

For the rest of the day we witnessed the enormous effort that the local people, government and army had put into repairing the roads, villages, towns and cities. They have quickly pulled their lives back together and everywhere we saw bustling activity, roadwork, temporary housing, new shops and houses built, markets and caravans of trucks delivering food, livestock, tractors, motorcycles, appliances and building material. This work will go on for a very long time, and of course, the greatest benefit is for the people who actually live along the main transport arteries. How the people that live in the high mountain villages above and beyond the Min River are getting along can easily be imagined: very difficult.

We continued on our way and at 2.50 pm reached Wènchuān 汶川 and came to Mào Xiàn 茂县 at 4.00 pm. We were deep into Qiang territory now and the hillsides were green and full of spring blossoms. The Qiang are a separate ethnic group with a population of about 200,000 lively mainly in NW Sichuan. Traditionally they have built beautiful stone houses but these were few in number along the main road. Most were newly painted cement houses but nicely done with pebble mosaic facades, shale siding, trapezoid shaped windows and lovely potted plants. In the late 1980s when I first travelled this road I remember numerous stone houses and even a fair number of stone watchtowers that can be seen all the way across western Sichuan far into eastern Tibet. It began to rain, Mr Su had been driving for almost 12 hours when we reached Diexi Lake, sight of major quake destruction in 1933 (see below). In the late 1980s this lake was full of massive log jams, the Min not being dammed until 2006. Fortunately logging was forbidden in Western Sichuan in the early 1990s.

Finally at 7.35 pm, with the rain pouring down all around, we pulled into Songpan and the welcome embrace of Emma's Kitchen! Pizza and cold beer all around, nice clean double rooms at the Shunjiang Nianqing Kezhan directly behind and just before midnight the two other cars finally arrive. What a day!!!

Min River:

We followed the Min River (Mín Jiāng 岷江) the entire journey and as every minute passed we went up up up. Chéngdū 成都 is at the bottom (500 m) of the Chengdu Basin. Our destination was Songpan at over 2800 m. The Minjiang is 735 km long and gets it water from the snows of the Minshan Range. The Min is a tributary of the Yangtse which it later joins at Yibin (after passing the world's largest buddha at Lèshān 乐山). The Min is dammed at Zipingpu 紫坪铺水利枢纽 near Dūjiāngyàn 都江堰.

Earthquake notes along our route:

On August 16, 1976 a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Songpan-Pingwu (casualities 41). Two large (6.7 and 7.2) aftershocks hit again a few days later. On August 25, 1933 an approximately 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit Diexi in near Maoxian. This earthquake destroyed the town and surrounding villages of Diexi and caused about 9,000 deaths. Diexi itself sank into the landslide dam-created Diexi Lake 叠溪海子 which can today be viewed as the beautiful and placid deep-jade green Diexi Lake close to Songpan.

Songpan Horse Trek big success!

2009-05-06T19:16:00.000-07:00

We got back yesterday evening from horse trekking in Songpan area and I am still flying high on clear blue skies, crystal clear fresh mountain air, wonderful company, magical mountains and nature's wonders. Despite earthquake damaged roads, May 1st traffic, confiscated driver's licenses, altitude sickness, one horse that almost broke its leg and very sore thigh muscles I think we all had a wonderful adventure! Several entries will now follow about the entire trip 6-day trip that included not only the trek but also the earthquake area between Chengdu - Yinxiu - Wenchuan - Maoxian; Songpan, Huanglong and Pingwu. Stay posted!

Songpan pony trek May 1-6

2009-04-29T23:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry no blogging until I'm back from our pony trek in Songpan. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't rain all the time! We're planning on camping out for three days then heading up to Huanglong before we return back to Chengdu. Hopefully I will have lot's of nice pictures and info to post next week. For those of you in Sweden: Glad Valborg! China: Happy First of May to you!

Incense burner and huā 花 niǎo 鸟 chóng 虫 yú 鱼

2009-04-28T21:40:00.001-07:00

Hua niao yu chong ("flower, bird, fish and insect") is a common expression for a special kind of Chinese culture where the practitioner indulges in raising and growing small plants and animals, recreating a simile of nature in an urban environment. Crickets, birds, turtle, goldfish and ornamental carp are the typical animals and the flowers, of course, are endless, although leaning towards ones that have symbolic meaning like peonies, orchids, narcissus etc. Without knowing it I have been trying to create my own little hua niao yu chong world on our apartment terrace. I have a pond for my eight koi carp, flowers and plants galore and numerous trinkets to play with when drinking tea (usually coffee for me). I perfectly understand the need to retreat from the maddening crowd and spend time surrounded by beautiful things. This ideal life was of course reserved only for the rich in the China of the past, but today anyone with a few yuan can put a goldfish in a bowl of water and watch it swim around in circles.

As I mentioned yesterday I have found a wonderful shop in one of Jinli Street's newly opened back alleys where I can buy all sorts of delightful ceramics from Jǐng dé zhèn in Jiāngxī Province. The name of the shop is appropriately called Niao Hua Chong Yu and they have created a wonderful logo from the characters, painting them to look like what they represent (bird, flower and fish are originally pictographic representations. I don't know about worm/chong though, here is how it is written in traditional chinese 蟲). There is a very Japanese feel to this little shop, and I have to force myself to stay away. Latest purchase (actually my mother bought it for me as an early birthday present) is the incense burner above (xiāng lú 香炉). On the way home it only took a second to buy sandalwood incense (tán xiā ng 檀香) in one of the many Tibetan stores on Wuhou Hengjie.

huà niǎo chóng yú 花鸟虫鱼.

Check out their website: hcny.blogbus.com

Lumpy laile!

2009-04-28T00:35:00.000-07:00

090428 ©IBM

Our neighbors left for the states this morning and yesterday we inherited a bunch of down and out plants and a goldfish named Lumpy. Lumpy came in a glass bowl in as bad a state as the plants so to make "her" feel better I moved her into a new home and blinged it with a few trinkets I bought on Jinli Street. Jinli has recently expanded and there is a new shop that I am absolutely crazy about selling artisan ceramics of all kinds from China's porcelain capital Jǐngdézhèn 景德镇. So Lumpy has a ceramic lotus seed pod, blue and white floating balls and a ceramic fish in whose mouth you can anchor the plant roots. She's got so much furniture now that she can hardly swim around, tomorrow she will be upgraded to a larger bowl. But for now, like it or lump it, Lumpy!

Hemorrhoid cushion anyone?

2009-04-26T23:24:00.000-07:00

You know you are near a Chinese hospital when you notice the sidewalks full of people walking outside in the open-air in their pyjamas with movable IV-drips or catheter bags in tow. Chinese hospital patient-garb is striped jammies for men and pink floral for women. Women are not so often seen outside but men are because they’re trying to catch a smoke before the nurses shoo them back in again.

I went to our local Huaxi Hospital (Huaxi: West China) yesterday to have a check-up and waded through the usual mix of hundreds of people, cars, taxis and rickshaws before entering the hospital grounds. (How an ambulance can get through this mess is beyond me.) All around the main gates are numerous small businesses that cater to staff, patients and their families. Thus the apothecaries selling medicine and vitamins, the small shops vending scores of donut shaped hemorrhoid rings (labeled “anti-decubitas cushions”, tiffen carriers, spoons, bed pans, and wash basins; florists with their huge floral arrangements; candy, drink and cigarettes kiosks and small restaurants serving food to the hundreds and hundreds of relatives that seem to accompany every patient to the hospital, be it just a regular check-up or a near-death recovery. The hospital itself is massive with numerous floors, departments (with odd English monikers like the “Nuclear Dept”, which I assume is radiology) and even a special Gold Card VIP building for well-to-do Chinese and foreigners who want to fast-track their health-care and avoid the plebes (me included).

I have an acquaintance who works at this hospital and she explained that Chinese hospitals appear extremely crowded but that for every patient there are at least 5-6 relatives in tow. You notice them all jammed up in the elevators, transporting bedding, equipment, extra food, basins and vitamins back and forth, tagging along to examinations, keeping granny company, interpreting a doctor’s advice, listening in for an elderly deaf ear, pushing wheelchairs, giving emotional support or just doing their filial duty.

She feels that Chinese hospitals and hospital care, although appearing chaotic and inefficient on the surface, is much cosier and more personal than Western hospitals. There’s always someone to keep you company, run after a prescription for you or wait in line when you yourself, the sick person, clearly isn’t quite up to it. She related how patients who shared the same diagnosis grouped together and willingly gave each other advice, went off to examinations together and comforted each other, sharing the misery and trying to make it a little less.

Herself a smoker she enjoyed visiting the area where the surgeons hung out to smoke, their ashtrays overflowing with piled up butts. She related how doctors’ in general are very abrupt, curt and matter-of-fact, totally lacking bedside manner and how they could easily tell a patient in front of an entire room of other patients that their diagnosis was cancer. Sometimes the sheer immensity of human beings in China deadens one's sensitivities.

Jiàn zi 毽子 Chinese shuttlecock

2009-04-25T00:10:00.000-07:00

Right after I made the posting below with a picture of a man playing Chinese featherball in Beijing I met this sweet old lady on the street here in Chengdu. She makes handmade featherballs at home and sold me two for 4 yuan a piece.

Only in China...

2009-04-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

Met a friend of mine today and we started talking about our mothers and their ages. He asked how old my mother was and he said his own mother was a "dog". I answered "Wow, my mother's a dog too!"

Took my mother to the doctor yesterday to examine her knee that is giving her lot's of pain. She thought that she might have strained the knee-joint on the flight over from Europe. The doctor looked at her knee X-rays and burst out happily: "Good news! No problem! Your knee is so bad because you're so old! Nothing to do!"

Seen embroidered in big letters on a girl's pants bottom today: Teenie Weenie.

Learnt a new expression which means "being cold and hungry":

"Drink the Northwest Wind". hē xī běi fēng 喝西北風

My friend from the first entry above said his mother used to always yell at him when he was young:

"You're so lazy you'll end up drinking the Northwest Wind!"

Another telling expression about bad times and starvation is "painting a cake to allay one's hunger": huà bǐng chōng jī 画饼充饥.

Ze Puppies Rocked the Worm!

2009-04-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

ZePuppies blew away the crowd yesterday at the Chengdu Bookworm, even the old neighborhood ladies, passersbys, rickshaw drivers and parking attendants were packed in the doorway hoping to catch a glimpse of Chengdu's latest music phenomenon! Playing everything from The Ramones to AC/DC they totally bombarded the Du with their ultimate SWEETNESS! Those who want to see Harley Fagan, Charles Dupont, Romain Rabany and Burton Booz perform again will hopefully catch them next time at the Bookworm's May 12th earthquake commemorative benefit event organized by Sichuan Quake Relief. Huanying guanglin!

©Fagan

Temple of Heaven Park 3

2009-04-24T16:57:00.000-07:00

Old folks "baby gym"

Jiàn zi 毽子 - Chinese featherball or shuttlecock

We've recently been discussing "health issues", so here are more images from the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Exercise machines like those featured above are soon going to be introduced outdoors in at least one Swedish city to encourage adults (not just children) to exercise. The featherball game pictured above is called jiàn zi 毽子 and is one of the most common exercise games in China. (It is also called jiànqiú (毽球) among many other names). It is common in other parts of Asia as well (seems its the national sport in Vietnam, da cau) and is a cheap sport - you only need enthusiasm and the featherball which costs 3-4 yuan. The feathercock is heavily weighted on the bottom with a small number of metal or plastic discs. The point is to keep it up in the air for as long as possible, either passing it back and forth to fellow players or by yourself - all the while never using the hands. The more elegant and tricky the better! Jianzi has existed in some form in China for at least 2,000 years and is now played competitively in many countries around the world.

Viagra in China

2009-04-23T22:50:00.000-07:00

Many Westerner's believe that China and the Chinese are shy and squeamish about sex. Not so I think, they have a much more healthy attitude towards sex and the body than say that prudish and many times hypocritical of all nations the United States. Sex shops can be found all over China, staffed by matter-of-fact grannies in drab-gray doctor's coats willing to explain every sex aid in excrutiating detail, never blinking an eyelash. The body and its natural functions and ailments are treated quite matter-of-factly and a good example is this quite large advertisement for Viagra at the front of a drugstore on the First Ring Road in Chengdu. (The young man in the picture is selling cosmetics and has nothing to do with this story ;-).

Viagra is well-known all over China and can even be bought over the counter in bus stations and airports. Fake Viagra exists of course and a Chinese equivalent is also produced (much cheaper but clinical tests...who knows? ). On tours some of my Swedish travelers ask for it, thinking it would perhaps be much cheaper to buy in China than in Sweden, but the cost is about the same and I would be very careful about recommending anyone to use the fake pills, who knows what the Chinese put into those! Even though millions and millions of Chinese men supposedly use Viagra today (Pfizer must be raking in the dough) since it is still so expensive most men here can't afford it. Traditional medicines exist aplenty but seemingly don't do the trick like Viagra - Chinese scientists even feed it to pandas (they also let them watch x-rated movies). Besides putting the tickle back in your pickle it can also be used to prevent flowers from wilting and a more recent discovery is that it works well combating high altitude pulmonary edema associated with altitude sickness. Hey, if that's true I'm on!

The ad above offers a 145 yuan reduction/savings on the standard price and the three large characters are its official Chinese name (chosen I guess because it sounds roughly like "Viagra"): Wàn ài kě 万艾可 roughly translates as "10,000 - beautiful (or more commonly - mugwort (Artemisia vulgris) - possibilities", Below this in red is its more popular colloquial name wěi gē 伟哥 ("great elder brother", or even better "Mighty Brother"), Supposedly in Taiwan Viagra is known as wei er gang, "fierce and strong". All right already, strong is fine, drop the fierce!

In traditional Chinese thinking "like is cured with like", thus you can find snake skin in Chinese apothecaries used for curing skin conditions and unfortunately all those rhino horns, dried penises and tiger bones, causing the eminent extinction of many animal species. The poor little seahorse is racing on its way to complete elimination because of the belief that eating it in a wine or rice porridge can cure impotency. In Beijing there is even a restaurant that serves penis of all shapes and sizes from almost any animal (with a penis) you can imagine. (Paddy's comment: "Did you know that there's a worm whose reproductive organ is half his body length?")

Sad that all this isn't as easily fixed as flicking a light switch!

At anytime of the day or night this lamp will "rise to the occasion" and wake you. "Viagra" blue lampshade included!

Cornflowers

2009-04-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

Today's flower purchase, five bunches of cornflowers for 20 yuan (22 SEK) from a farmer lady walking the streets with a basket backpack. The color combination is incredibly beautiful with different shades of blue, pink, purple and vermillion. They are just too beautiful!

Cool girls

2009-04-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

Met these wild girls on the way to dinner today. They were just too irresistible to not photograph. Reconfirms what I have said so many times before: I live on the cooooooolest street in Chengdu!