Visting China's Sorrow

If you can think back to ninth grade global history, you'll remember learning that rivers acted as a cradle of life--the birthplaces of early civilizations. The Tigris and Euphrates helped build Mesopotamia. The Egyptians owed their success to the Nile. And the Indus River Valley made way for modern day India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. In this list, we also have the Yellow River (黄河 or Huáng Hé) which was the very start of ancient China.

 

The River is such a vital part of Chinese culture that it has even made it's way into it's folklore and legends--especially celestial lore. It is said that the Yellow River flows from heaven continuing on as a part of the Milky Way. Another legend tells the story of Zhang Qian, one of China's first diplomats and how he went on a journey to find the source of the river. After sailing for five days, he met a young girl spinning in the middle of a herd of cattle. When Zhang Qian asked her where he was, she handed him her weaving shuttle. When Zhang returned, the old astrologer, Yen Chün-p'ing, told him that the shuttle belongs to The Weaving Girl, Vega (as in the brightest star in the constellation, Lyra) and at the same time as Zhang's journey, he noticed a wandering star in the sky between the star, Vega, and the cow herd star, Altair (the brightest star in the constellation Aquila), once again, connecting the Yellow River to the heavens.

 

 

 

The Yellow River has been a huge part of the birth and growth of China for thousands of years now. But, much like the Nile River, while it is beautiful and life sustaining, it can also be devastating when floods hit. TheYellow River's floods are the only known natural disasters to kill over a million people at a time. The first recorded disaster hit in 1332-1333 which killed more than 7 million people. The next worst flooding occurred in 1931 that killed almost 4 million people and another flood in 1887 that killed almost 2 million. The reason for the flooding is the same reason behind the color of the water (which lends to it's name)--loess, a silt sized sediment that collects at the bottom of the river, creating natural dams which then lead to flooding. In fact, over the last 2,600 years, it's been recorded that the river has flooded almost 1,600 times, noticeably changed course 26 times, and drastically changed course nine times. Hence the other name the Yellow River is sometimes known as: China's Sorrow.

 

Images from the 1931 flood



From the time of the Warring States Era (starting in 475BCE) into Medieval times, the river
was also used as a form of warfare--both defensive and offensive. By building levees,
warriors and kings could protect their land and by building dams, they could flood enemy
territory.

The river starts in the Bayan Har Mountains in Tibet. Here, it is not known as the Yellow
River because at this point, it is not yellow. In fact, it's crystal clear before it flows through the
Loess Plateau located in Shanxi and Shaanxi (I know, it's confusing) Provinces. Because of
this, it is known by several names. In Tibet, it is called, "River of the Peacock" ( རྨ་ཆུ།=Ma Chu). In
Mongolia, it is known as the "Black River" and here in Inner Mongolia, it is sometimes called,
"Queen River" (Шар мөрөн=Šar Mörön). At the moment, the mouth of the river is located
in Shandong (but that's likely to change... again).



Because of the loess (and in recent years, pollution) there is a stark difference between the
water from the Yellow River and the Ocean when the river empties out at the mouth.

So, with a build up like that, when Adam and I learned that we were just a two hour walk from
the Yellow River, we knew it was time to get our walking shoes on and find China's Sorrow.

Now remember, Bayannur is basically in the middle of the desert. It's different from Buffalo
with the river, canal, and lakes and it's different from Hangzhou with West Lake. The Yellow
River was what kept Chinese life going thousands of years ago and it's what continues to
help irrigate farmland all throughout the Steppe and along it's shores today for 3,400 miles.

You can see Bayannur along the Yellow River's shores as well as Inner Mongolia's capitol of Hohhot.

So, on a Saturday when we had nothing else going on (even though, most days we don't
have a lot going on), we strapped on our walking shoes and began our two hour trek
southeast. Most of the journey took us through our little town by the college and into the
bustling streets of the downtown area but eventually we passed the city's train station and
entereda much smaller residential area.

As we left the big city behind us, we knew we had to be getting closer! 
 

It was a lot bigger than I expected! I think it might be bigger than the airport...

After about two hours of walking, we finally came to a stop on a bridge overlooking the Yellow River.

My first thought was, Yes. It's yellow. I am sure that a big reason behind the color is the loess silt but I couldn't ignore the trash all along the shore (I even spotted a toilet). Sadly, pollution is another factor to the color in today's day and age. Many scientists think the water is unfit for even agricultural use, it's so polluted. However, I am a sucker for natural beauty and (if I ignored the plastic bottles and clothes and other bits of trash) I could take this ancient river as it really is--a magnificent, beautiful thing that demands respect.

Now this area of the river here in Bayannur is a smaller bit of it that breaks off at the city of Dengkou and reconnects near Urad Qianqi so the actual main river is much wider and far grander than this but it was nice to get a taste of it in our first month here.

This area of the city is very quiet (though Bayannur is freakishly quiet for a Chinese city) and the river is surrounded by an ecological park which is trying to build up the beauty around the river. There are pavilions and sitting areas for you to relax and enjoy the view. The Chinese pagodas are bright and colorful but also hold a bit of a Mongolian feel which I loved seeing. Two bridges connect the banks of the river allowing for a nice afternoon stroll through nature (something that's a bit difficult to find in China sometimes).

It's very rare to see China work together with other cultures to make something beautiful. It's nice to see the Chinese and Mongolian influence on this pagoda.

As we crossed the bridge to the other side of the river, we stumbled upon what looked like a Mongolian settlement. Of course, we knew it wasn't legit. 1). It's in the middle of the city and not out in the grasslands and 2). It's clearly made out of concrete and plaster, not wood and sheep wool. Nevertheless, we've been hungry to see Mongolian culture and so we headed right over to explore. Strangely, all the buildings were locked and the only person there was a security guard who almost seemed afraid to see us! We're hoping to go back on one of the Mongolian holidays (sadly we're missing one of the biggest holidays: Naadam Festival but we'll be back for Genghis Khan's birthday on November 14th)... maybe then this place gets to see some action!

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Right now, we're desperate for an adventure! We brought only $500 with us when we arrived in China a month ago and while it's lasted us this long, we're now clinging to the last $20 we have until our first paycheck arrives. Our trip to the Yellow River was short and free and right now that's the only adventure I think we can afford! But hopefully soon we'll have more than $20 to work with and then we'll begin to explore Inner Mongolia properly!

For now, Баяртай!

Until Next Time,
Amanda

PS: I met Baymax on the way to the Yellow River!!

Greetings from the Grassland!

I feel like I should apologize for my lack of posts over the last year... In the last 15 months, I've only posted twice... TWICE!! Of course, I was working hard on my other blog: An Accord of Dreamers which unfortunately has also come to a halt in the hubbub of life.

So Russia did not work out. At. All. Pretty early on, we realized that it just wasn't going to be a right fit for us. It was particularly difficult for me to be so far away from home so close to Jed's passing (I struggled almost every day) and the work load was more than double what we were used to as foreign teachers. It was hard enough being emotionally exhausted each day much less physically tired from working so much. So we decided to do what was right for us and headed back home for Thanksgiving in Minnesota with the Limperts and Christmas in Disney World with the WooGulls.

 

 

Since Russia had been so difficult to try and assimilate into, we decided to return to a place we already knew and loved--China. And many of you asked me if I was going to start this blog back up again once I was back out into the world. And so, without further ado...

 

Hello! Сайн уу! 你好! Greetings from Inner Mongolia!

 

Now when we told people we were  our way to Inner Mongolia, their eyes grew wide as they heard the name Mongolia. Unfortunately, we are not in the country of Mongolia (but it's one of my goals while we're here! I can't be this close and NOT get there!). We are in one of the five autonomous regions in China--Tibet, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Guangxi, and Inner Mongolia.

 

 

 

We are currently living in the city of Bayannur (in Mongolian it looks like: ᠪᠠᠶᠠᠨᠨᠠᠭᠤᠷ ᠬᠣᠲᠠHow cool is that?!?) which is about a four hour train ride away from the region's capitol of Hohhot. Compared to Hangzhou which had a population of 9 million, Bayannur is a very small city with just above 1 million people. Of course, by our standards, that's still huge! Think about it: Buffalo has just over 250,000 people. Because of Bayannur's smaller size, pollution is nowhere near as bad as it would be in Hangzhou some days, and certainly nowhere near as bad as Beijing. We don't have to worry about pollution... but here in Bayannur sand storms are our big problem. The city is nestled in the middle of the Gobi Desert with the grasslands of the Mongolian Steppe surrounding the desert. And of course, it wouldn't be China without on of it's two famous rivers. Here in Bayannur, we have the Yellow River.

 

Bayannur is very different from Hangzhou in more ways than one. For one, Hangzhou is a coastal city so the climate is very hot and very humid. Bayannur is in the middle of the desert so it is much dryer here (my hair does not appreciate that!); it is pretty warm when the sun is out but the temperature drops at night, sometimes to below freezing. Also, the number of foreigners and Western restaurants is vastly different. In Hangzhou there was a nice community of expats and tons of bars, cafés, and restaurants you could visit if you were ever missing America (one time I even saw a Sabres game at one of my favorite restaurants, Vineyard!). Here in Bayannur, Adam and I are literally half of the foreigner population in the city--there is one other teacher from Georgia at our college named John, and a young man from South Africa named David who teaches at a high school on the other side of the city. And since there are hardly any foreigners in the city, clearly there's no need for any western bars or restaurants. There is only one KFC in the entire city--in Hangzhou, there was one on every street corner!

 

This is just how far we are from Hangzhou... if you're curious, it'll take over 400 hours to walk there.

So how did we manage to find our way to a small city in the middle of the Gobi Desert, 1250 miles away from a city we knew and loved? Two full days of travel, of course!

 

We left from Toronto on Tuesday, February 23 (that's right! We've been gone for over a month now... Do you miss us yet?). If anyone is ever looking to fly to Asia--and particularly China--always check flights leaving from Toronto... usually they're much cheaper and you can sometimes get a direct flight! Of course, for us, there was no such thing as a direct flight to Bayannur. We hopped on our plane (after realizing we had arrived five hours too early... oops!) for out 15 hour flight.

 

There's no way around it--flying to China is pretty torturous. If you fly on a Chinese airline, seats are narrower and leg room is even less (and I bet you didn't think that was possible!). There is still no sense of personal space and for some reason, it's always the person behind you that is constantly hocking up loogies and the person in front of you who reclines their seat back all the way the minute you take off. It's about the longest you can fly around the world before you start making your way back home again. But, this was my 7th US-China flight so I guess I could be considered an expert at surviving.

 

We arrived in Shanghai at 7pm the next day... Seriously, flying to and from China is the closest thing we can get to time travel! This part of the trip was particularly painful for us because if we were moving back to Hangzhou, this would be the end of our journey--all we would need to do was hop on a bus for three hours. But sadly, we still had another day to go before we could say we were home. After a two hour layover, we arrived in Beijing (the fact that we couldn't find a direct flight to Beijing--the CAPITOL of the country--still boggles my mind) for our overnight stay. We found some comfy chairs at a Starbucks and settled in for the night.

 

There's Fernando--my travel companion and comfy savior!!

 

Now Bayannur is one of those elusive cities that if you want to fly to it, you have to be at the right place, at the right time, on the right day. There is only one flight that leaves from the Beijing Airport at 7:30 in the morning and they don't fly out every day... so booking these flights was frustrating!! But as we pulled away from the gate and began to fly over the mountains to the north of the city, everything appeared as if it was falling perfectly into place.

 

::Cue ominous music::

 

As we continued to fly, it appeared as if we were leaving civilization behind us. Watching the mountains pass by slowly was relaxing in the beginning, until we started to make our descent into the airport and we still could not see any sign of life except for the few farms dotted among the desert.

 

Behold! The Gobi Desert!

I had been so excited to be in a part of China that I've never seen before... but that excitement slowly began to turn into apprehension as we landed at the airport (with a grand total of two gates) and there was absolutely NOTHING around us. No people. No houses. No city. No campus. There was nothing for as far as the eye could see.

Immediately, Adam and I started to panic. We had felt isolated in Novosibirsk but at least there, we saw signs of life! "What have I done?" Adam muttered to himself, burying his face in his hands, laughing nervously.

Turns out, like most cities, the airport is about a half hour away from the downtown area... But usually there are towns and suburbs and houses surrounding airports to reassure you that you haven't landed in the middle of nowhere. But not in Bayannur!

Despite the long journey and the less than thrilling first impressions, it turns out that we adore the little city of Bayannur. The people are extremely friendly--they don't see too many foreigners in their lives so when we walk by they shout "Hello!" and whisper 老外 (laowai=foreigner). The city is so small--even though we live on the outskirts at the college, we can walk twenty minutes down the road and stand in the downtown area filled with malls, restaurants, and movie theaters. And the Foreign Language Department is so welcoming. In Hangzhou, there was a definite divide between the Chinese English teachers and the foreign English teachers. Here, we work together in classes, we're invited to their homes for dinner, and on my birthday, our boss, Carol, declared that we would all go out to one of the nicest places in town for a birthday dinner.

Tiger Lily, Carol, Dora, Finn, Barbara
Me, Adam, John

And the people living in the town aren't the only ones who are surprised when a foreigner walks by! Our students are just as surprised and awestruck when they see us walking by or standing at the computer in their classrooms. They mutter your name over and over again and shout, "I love you!" as they walk by (I may or may not have taught them that).

At first, it takes you by surprise--what's so special about me? But then you stop and think that you could be the very first non-Chinese person these kids have ever seen and suddenly you're not just a teacher but an ambassador as well! You blow their minds when they learn you do not own a gun, you are not rich, you have never met Taylor Swift, and everyone in America is not completely obsessed with basketball (but you don't dare tell them that you've never even watched a game).

My particular favorite barrier I enjoy breaking down is the stereotype of people with tattoos. In China (and other parts of the world as well), people with tattoos are seen as bad people--gang members, criminals, drug users, etc. As I stand in front of my classes with my tattoos out in the open, the students are seeing that someone like me--goofy, wild, and always smiling--has tattoos and yet, I'm not all that bad! It's fun blowing their minds sometimes.

One of my favorite things to do after my classes is to go to WeChat (China's instant messenger) and see what creeper photos they take of me while I'm trying to teach. Usually they're extremely unflattering photos with a caption like, "The legendary female foreign teacher."

This college is the very definition of why so many young people in America have decided to pack up their lives and move to a foreign country to teach English. We aren't doing it because we love English (on the contrary... if anything I've come to hate it even more than ever before!!), we're doing it because that is the way we can supply our adventure. Instead of working 9-5 for five days a week, I'm currently teaching two Public Speaking classes--one on Tuesday and one on Friday--each for an hour and a half as well as five 45 minute random classes throughout the month. With that I'm making enough to live very comfortably in China as well as save money for when I visit America in the summer (I'm actually making more than I was in Hangzhou) and we have tons of free time to explore the city and surrounding areas, try local food, and get to know the people (This was one of the problems with Russia--we worked so much we never had days off together and we never had time to experience the Russian culture). Top that off with four holidays this semester and the highly prized Spring Festival in the winter and you have possibly one of the nicest countries to live and teach in when you're young, trying to save money, and have an inkling to see the world.

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It's nice to be back in a culture that we know and understand. But it's even nicer that we're in a place that is so different from what we already know. New adventures are on the horizon. I'm sensing a pilgrimage to Genghis Khan's mausoleum, a horseback ride through the grasslands, and maybe even a camel trip through the Gobi Desert.

 

I'm touched that so many of you asked if this blog would make a revival in this new adventure. I never know if anyone actually reads it... but I'm humbled to find that, in fact, you do and that you enjoy reading about my shenanigans! I hope it finds you well and lights that spark in your chest for a bit of adventure.

 

Until Next Time,

Amanda

 

96 days until chicken wings, BBQs, good beer, peanut butter, and cheese!!!!!