# 53 Today's picture 090323

090322 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Straight down from the mountains to the city. We see the most incredible people on our street. Tibetans from all areas of the country come down to the city to meet with friends and family, "see something", visit doctors, go to school, buy a new Buddha or two, sell or buy jewelry, purchase a blender for their butter tea or a prayer flag or two, sew up fifty colorful cushions for a new dharma centre, consult their guru or spiritual master, go on a pilgrimage to Emei Mountain or just windowshop and rubberneck. You name it, we see it on our street. This woman had one of the many fantastic hats we see every day in the endless hat parade that is Tibetan traditional couture. She also had an MP3 player in her mobile phone which you can see that she is listening to. 

Zhilam Guesthouse Kangding

©Kris and Stephanie Rubesh

This picture shows Kris and Stephanie's Zhilam Guesthouse (the little blue house to the left) mentioned in the China Daily article below. It has a stunning location high above Kangding and is now open for business. Now that the weather isn't freezing cold in Kangding anymore it's high time to pay a visit to the beautiful mountains! Zhilam means "the path of peace" in Tibetan. 

www.zhilamhostel.com

manager@zhilamhostel.com

huidaohostel@mountainmiles.info

Tel: +86 0836 2831100

Kris mobile: 158.8405.9365

Kris, Stephanie and Adalia made it into the China Daily

©Xinhua News Agency

Friends of ours here in Chengdu made it into the China Daily today! Kris and Stephanie (and little Adalia) were the first people we met here in Chengdu and they helped us get our apartment. At that time they lived in the same building as we do but since then they have moved up to Kangding and opened a guesthouse for travellers and backpackers - Zhilam Hostel. They can help with all kinds of tourist information, trekking and travelling in the Kangding area. Please visit them, they have just had their official opening. Website: www.zhilamhostel.com. Email: manager@zhilamhostel.com. Below is the article from the China Daily:

American family runs hostel in Kangding, SW China

(Xinhua) Updated: 2009-03-24 14:30

Kristopher Rubesh, 32, cleans up a room in his newly finished Tibetan-style Zhilam Hostel in Kangding, a small town in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province, southwest China, March 24, 2009. Infatuated by the unique Tibetan culture and beautiful natural landscapes in Kangding, the family from Oregon of the United States chose to open a hostel in late 2007. Their dream came true in early 2009 when they became the first foreigners running a hostel in the beautiful valley town Kangding. [Xinhua]

School offers lessons in the chemistry of love

A special love school is gaining popularity among students in Beihai, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

In addition to outlining the skills needed to communicate, the school teaches students how to appear more attractive to the opposite sex.

And the teachers, most of whom are psychologists, usually focus on helping singles find a good husband or a wife.

Mock love scenes include student participation. Most students are office workers with well paying jobs and education.

(www.chinanews.com.cn) (China Daily) Updated: 2009-03-24 09:34

Police put a stop to naked man running on highway

A drunken bet turned into a police incident after a man was seen chasing a completely naked man on a highway in Fuqing, Fujian province, last Monday evening.

A man who was laughing was seen running after the naked man and was holding some clothes. The police soon forced them to stop and reveal the naked truth.

Later, the naked man, surnamed Xiong, said his friend, surnamed Hu, offered him 500 yuan to run 300 meters on the highway.

The two men both work at a local factory and were drinking heavily before the bet.

(Strait Metropolis Daily) (China Daily) Updated: 2009-03-25 08:58

# 52 Today's picture 090322

Lily pond, Bamboo Park (Wangjiang Lou), Chengdu, Sichuan. Watercolour ©IBM

# 51 Today's picture 090321

Pingle, Sichuan 090317 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

# 50 Today's Post 090320

Migrant workers playing cards while waiting to travel downstream, hopefully to work and a better future. Chaotianmen Docks, Chongqing 2000 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Funky Bean is BORN

Here's a new blogger that I highly recommend: Funky Bean.

Fastlagsbullar at last!

©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

A few days ago I posted receiving marzipan from Susanna in Bangkok. Yesterday we used the marzipan and made Swedish "fastlagsbullar", 16 in all. Hmm-m, they were yummy! We invited a good friend and her children over to share the fun and we polished off the lot of them. First I baked the sweet buns, then Emy and I carved off a little "hat" and placed a square of marzipan inside with a generous dollop of whipped cream on top (generously supplied by Catherine P). The lid was then put back on and powdered sugar sprinkled on top. Baking with Chinese flour is a bit tricky, it's not exactly like Swedish (or American flour), slightly fluffier and airier so the buns were not as dense, chewy and golden brown as Swedish ones. It was also difficult to get the cream to stay "stiff" in the warm air but the taste was perfect.

Attempting to explain the science and cultural history of this baked treat to my British friend I realized I needed to know more, so here is what I found out:

My mother's side of the family is from the province of Skåne in the very south and the buns are called fastlagsbullar there, but in much of the rest of Sweden they are known as semlor (one bun = en semla). They can also be called fettisdagsbullar or hetvägg. Semla comes from the Latin semila, flour of a fine quality. 

In the beginning the bun (known as a lenten bun in English) was eaten only on fettisdagen (Shrove Tuesday) during fastlagen (Lent or Shrovetide). As Swedes gradually became more secular and few people fasted before Easter, it became the tradition to eat the bun every Tuesday during the seven weeks of fasting. These Tuesdays (tisdagar) became known as fettisdagar. Nowadays lenten buns appear around Christmas time and - to the detriment of every Swede's waistline - can be consumed every day of the week. Bakeries and cafés vie to bake the most popular fastlagsbulle, with the different tastes discussed in local newspapers and magazines. 

As mentioned above, Emy and I made 16 buns, all of which got consumed in one way or another by three adults and four children. One of our Swedish kings, Adolf Fredrik (the father of Gustav III) died on Fettisdagen February 12, 1771 by eating too many buns. It must be said however that he had also just digested a large amount of sauerkraut, boiled meat and turnips, lobster, Russian caviar, bloater, warm milk and a bottle of Champagne. He'd just returned from a health spa cure and the shock to his system caused stomach cramps, dizziness and later in the day  a stroke that killed him. Hardly surprising. 

After we ate our buns we went off to our local jumbly restaurant and ate a blow out Sichuan meal consisting of "twice-in-the-pan pork" (huiguo rou), The Palace Guard's Chicken (gongbao jiding), sugared corn, dry-fried potato slices (ganbian tudou si), dry-fried string beans (ganbian siji dou), doufu soup, beer and rice. I slept like a baby last night.