Peonies -- 花王 (The King of Flowers)

So it turns out that Luoyang is known throughout China as cultivating the best Peonies.  On our bus ride to the Longmen Grottoes we passed by a sign for the National Peony Center of China.  So, we checked it out on the way home.

The added bonus?  April is the month in which they bloom and people from all over China come to walk amongst and smell the peonies.

The character for Peony in Chinese is 牡丹 (Mudan). My subway stop on Line 10 is Mudanyuan, and so now I know it means Peony Park.

According to all the locals we talked to, the Peonies bloom around the 10th of April. This year they opened on time.  However, the week before Jeff and I arrived, there was a frost which damaged the peonies.  So, there were many still open, but we saw more that were sadly wilted like these.

Jeff as celebrity!!

At first he liked it, but apparently, it gets old!

Longmen Grottoes

Another five day weekend (have to love these Chinese National Holidays, in this case May Day) and it's time to travel again.  This time, Jeff O, was visiting and so we wanted to go to Xi'an to see the famed Terracotta warriors, where we would meet up with Marlene, Eleni and Kendra.  But I decided that should first head to the city of Luoyang, in western Henan province. The trip started out with a mistake and some torture.  First, the mistake was that I forgot to look at the train tickets and had the cab take us to Beijing Railway Station instead of Beijing West Railway station.  Being the early bird that I am, we were lucky to find a cab to drive us across town to make our train in time. The torture? I had intended to purchase a sleeper ticket, but wasn't able to obtain one. (Train tickets can be purchased 18 days in advance and I got to the ticket office 16 days in advance) Instead, I thought it would be fine to get a seat, thinking it was like a plane seat, for the overnight train ride of eight hours. Jeff and I got to our seats.....and then were subjected to the fact that the train was standing room only. People in the aisles, sitting on the floor by the bathroom. Smoking everywhere, bags in the aisle. It was miserable. I've learned my lesson!! No overnight slow trains without making sure we have an actual bed. Chalk it up to China lessons.  And thanks to Jeff for being a trooper and not making me feel TOO bad about making him suffer.

The Longmen Grottoes span both sides of the Yi River south of the town of Luoyang.  I took all pictures on this trip with my iPhone camera.  We'll see about quality.  And this is my first attempt at using the Panorama function on the camera.

One thing that one notices prominently is the amount of defacing, looting and weathering that has occurred here at the Longmen Grottoes.

The Middle Binyang Cave is known for its Lotus Flower on the Ceiling.

As we move south along the river.....we come to the large Fengshan Grotto.  You can see the scale from across the river.

You walk up and see the Vairocana Buddha.  Known as China's Mona Lisa.  The more natural expression is an artistic development from the Yungang Grottoes seen up in Datong, which were carved about a century earlier.

It's these two guys, however, that are the highlight.  The show movement and naturalistic poses (hello Art History terminology).  These guys are masterpieces of Tang Dynasty art.

This guy is crushing an evil spirit.

On the facing wall, there were two other buddhas (and Jeff in the bottom corner there) but have been defaced and looted.

Datong Middle School, Rant About Students and an AMAZING Final Picture

The end of the Shanxi trip was a visit to the newly founded Datong Middle School attached to Beijing Normal University.  It's the equivalent in Datong of the high school in which SYA is located here in Beijing.  We got a grand welcome.

Welcoming ceremony.  SYA students on the right, the students of Datong Middle School on the left.

At this point, I have to stop and get down some thoughts about my frustrations with our students, and thereby point out the differences (or my perceived differences) in teaching American versus Chinese students.  Students in China wear a school uniform. Therefore, our students are required to wear a school uniform.  You can see from the photo that the American students flaunt that rule and don't follow this rule. Because we don't have any consequences, they simply don't follow our request and the rule that we have. This is something that has become more of an issue for me in my teaching. Everything I ask of students must be come with consequence if there isn't compliance or fulfillment. Was it always this way where American students didn't comply with rules simply because they were rules?  Or was I just always a rule follower and didn't have the "think outside the box mindset" to see that there were alternatives other than doing what I was told?  Students in China simply do what they are told. I'm not saying that they like the rules, but they will follow them.  Another example of this on this trip. We visited the school for the afternoon of three straight days. Our students don't find visit school fun, in fact it is a burden. (I would think that the whole idea of coming to China is to SEE and EXPERIENCE China and that going to a school to see your peers in action and interacting with them is itself why you came....but well, that's beyond the scope of this post) Because students don't want to come, and because there isn't a consequence for absence, we had, on the second of the three days, 14 of 60 students claim they were sick. That's basically 25% of the students sick...on the same day?  8 of the students were from 4 boyfriend/girlfriend couples?  Suspicious in my book, but more importantly, it's an affront to our trip coordinator and his hard work as well as an unwillingness to show up to something that is asked of them. The immediate benefit is nil, it's a pain to go to boring Chinese class and get accosted by Chinese kids at break, but sometimes, you make a connection as many of our students did.  My conclusion is that our students don't want to do things they don't want to do and don't have the discipline to see that they should go, because maybe there will be some benefit in a way that they don't perceive before they go.

So the question I ask myself is would I rather teach these unruly, sometimes ungrateful and unappreciative, but often times funny, creative and independent thinking Americans?  Or would I teach the what I think to be the quieter, obedient and rule following Chinese students. From the tone of my previous paragraph, you would think the latter, but I think I would rather have the pains and frustrations of American students (maybe it's the known "evil" versus the unknown "evil").  The joy and humor that the American students bring can provide great highs and fantastic interactions.  I guess it's taking the lumps of the bad with the really great moments of good. 

However, as I get older and students change as society changes....get back to me.

Afternoon activities

Dinner in the dining hall!

Now THIS was a "I'm in China Experience." One afternoon, we were spectators in the finals of a singing contest.  10 finalists sang songs in English in an "American Idol" competition.

One of the contestants singing "Right Here Waiting For You"  Other selections, "God is a Girl" (sung twice), "Nothing is Going to Change my Love for You", "I Surrender", "Almost Over", "My Heart Will Go On" and the winning girl won by choosing the right song "Wanna Be" by the Spice Girls.  She won because our students danced and sung along in the audience.

Now after the awards ceremony, we were treated to THIS performance by a male student. He is a great dancer and everyone in the room registered that he has gender identity issues, or at least is feminine in his demeanor.  Some of our students got to know him and reported to me that he clearly identifies with being a female, but is also quite popular and one of the smartest kids in the their class.  I asked around to see if kids would make fun of him/her and they reported that just like in the US, they might make fun of him behind his back, but they wouldn't in public.  Mostly because he/she is a well-liked kid.  I think that is the truth about any student/person who is out of the mainstream, as long as they are someone likeable, there isn't a problem. Or I simply might be too optimistic.

I wondered if teacher's would stop any bullying of this kid.  Well, they were here in front filming the student on their phones!

Our travel coordinator and resident hipster, Li Laoshi throwing down with his awesome singing.

On the final day, the school planted a tree in honor of our visit.

Time to say good-bye.

Datong is another Chinese city with a wall, or in this case a partially restored wall.

Looking inside the walls.....

.....and outside the walls.

And yes, this man is dancing with a drill.  Unfortunately, he had not yet pulled up his shirt and set it on top of his Buddha Belly in the half on half off style, Chinese men LOVE to show off when the temperatures rise!

Yungang Grottoes

Around 400AD, Buddhism made its mark on China.  In 453AD, the area that is currently Datong (at the northern tip of Shanxi province right near Inner Mongolia) was the capital of the Northern Wei dynasty.  They showed their devotion to the Buddha by carving out these caves, which from the outside look like a bunch of windows.

Caves 1 and 2, at the eastern end have a central pillar which acts as a stupa.

Along the wall are thousands of smaller buddhas.

And the caves were originally painted bright colors.

Sometimes, one has to climb into a cave....

And you find something like this.

Here's a student standing at the base to provide some perpsective.

As you walk, the upper hole is actually a window to allow light to illuminate the buddha.

In cave 5, one has a monumental buddha with a gold face and blue hair.

I know that each hand position is a different message, but I don't know what they are.  There is some general weathering and deterioration, but these carvings have fared pretty well for 1,500 years.

In cave 20, is the Yungang's most famous Buddha.  Notice the static sitting position which is characteristic of the Northern Wei.