The Snowy Day

Well we've finally gotten snow here in China. It snowed for the second time two days ago, and we got almost two inches. Even though am in north central China it seems that China south of here is being pummeled with much more snow. As of now I have Kaifeng all to myself (in terms of Westerners and Chinese students too). There is a beauty school something or other being hosted at the campus and once the students left they were replaced with a couple hundred young Chinese women wearing way too much makeup. I'm not sure where they are coming from but not from Kaifeng anyway. Now when I go to the restaurants outside the campus gate I am the only regular.

Here is one of the nearby market streets where I get fruits and vegetables. On my way to Zhengzhou to visit the western import supermarket I saw that the farmers outside town had erected shelters for the winter crops. Since at least 90% of our food comes from just outside the city and is brought in fresh by farmers every morning I was wondering how they managed it.

This is the empty building at the end of the market street. I have no idea what it is or what it was supposed to be. The place is made entirely out of poured concrete (very classy) it looks to me like a fancy parking garage.

Chinese Lessons

Today in class we learned the word 草包 (Cao3Bao1) or wicker basket. Cao (草) means grass and bao (包) means a bag or bag-like container. (Baozi is a sort of dumpling for instance) Our teacher also told us that the word had a double meaning and also mean a person who was dumb or who was empty headed; basically a person with a wicker-basket for a head.

Then he mentioned that Li Peng for instance was a caobao and that people referred to him as such. Li Peng for those of you who don't know was basically the trigger-man for the Tiananmen Square massacre. As the Premier at the time he backed Deng Xiaoping's decision to send in the troops to clear the square.

Most interesting to me was that despite the authoritarian tendencies of the Communist Party here in China. People here do think what they want. If it seems that a previous Premier of the nation was a caobao then he was a caobao.

上海圣诞节 Christmas in Shanghai

I went to Shanghai to visit my friend Scott (宝盖头) who I went College with for Christmas. HE is currently living and working in Shanghai as a web developer, I only sort of know what that means. It means he makes web based applications, but really it means he does lots of hard things with computers that I can only begin to understand. Well I dont have too many picutres of me or Scott though there are alot of the French Quarter or Old French Concession, where Scott lives, lucky guy. It is a nice part of Shanghai right downtown but is full of many old Art-Deco buildings from the 1930s and lots of trees lining the streets. It was warmer than Kaifeng, though it was also much wetter. Kaifeng is pretty dry during the winter, but Shanghai being coastal and much further south isnt. It misted the whole time I was there, but really that wasnt so bad.

上海法国租界和宝盖头房间畫報

use this link to see the pictures.

Pictures of Me

Ok Mark, I hope this is what you are looking for. If not let me know and I will send you even more. ;-)

I live here.

Mark has requested pictures of me,

so here I am pretending to be an old Chinese man.

And here I am outside the front gate of our University. Everyone, and I mean everyone who goes here takes pictures in this spot. That peace-sign thing is what u have to do if you are in Asia and having your picture taken.

開封 (Kaifeng) from the back of the 三轮车 (SanLunChe)

三轮车 (SanLunChe) means three wheeled vehicle, or tricycle if you will. 開封 (Kaifeng) is where I live and here are some of the sights. I'm posting these first and then I'll add some captions and more pictures as I go.

開封畫報

if this link doesn't work let me know

(for those of you not learning Chinese those characters mean: Kaifeng Pictorial)

The Barbarian Invasions

It seems that the Great Fire-Wall which has separated me from you dear reader, has been breached. I have added a program to my computer to allow me to go up and over China's defensive bulwarks much more easily than before. Now I can actually read your comments and access my blog much quicker. The program is called Great Ladder, (when faced with a Great Wall, what do you need? but a Great Ladder), China may have some 30,000 persons charged with manning its internet defenses but that might not be enough. If I may be so bold as to compare China's Great Fire-Wall of today to its much touted Great (stone) Wall of the past. Both are/ were ineffective at protecting China's interests.