Author: Fred Hoyt

Jetlagged in Cairns

May 10, 2007

Hello from Cairns, which according to my GPS (yes, Sondra, I did bring it!) is at 16 South and 145 East. That means it’s a long way from home–8811 miles as the GPS flies.

It seems longer after the plane ride. I used to think Chicago-LA was a long ride.
That was leg one of our trip, a 3 1/2 hour ride on a cramped domestic plane. We were supposed to leave at 5:20, but got to the airport and discovered we’d missed the 12 o’clock plane they had put us on. Fortunately, we had room on the 420 to LA, which left us with about 4 hours at LAX for the 14 1/2 hour ride to Sydney and the 2-hour layover there, then the 3-hour ride to Cairns. The Pacific is a big place, and so is Australia. Australia fits roughly into the US, but has the population of Shanghai (21 million), which is to say there is room for lots of kangaroos.

Cairns is as far north as we are going–as I mentioned 16 degrees from the Equator. It is tropical forest, or would be if we could see the forest for the construction. We are booked pretty solid here–today at the Great Barrier Reef (a prelude to the Keys?), the only natural object visible from the moon (I’m gonna have to check that out sometime). We are going on a catamaran, which means possibly some sailing. I guess the one thing I keep being reminded of the few times I’ve been in the tropics is that the days are only 12 hours long of daylight anyway) at most. And since it’s fall here, the daylight is even shorter. It is hot and humid though!

Well, we are about to depart. Hope you have a great weekend, and a great mother’s day to all the mothers reading this.

Hello from Cairns

May 10, 2007

Hello from Cairns, which according to my GPS (yes, Sondra, I did bring it!) is at 16 South and 145 East. That means it’s a long way from home–8811 miles as the GPS flies.

It seems longer after the plane ride. I used to think Chicago-LA was a long ride.
That was leg one of our trip, a 3 1/2 hour ride on a cramped domestic plane. We were supposed to leave at 5:20, but got to the airport and discovered we’d missed the 12 o’clock plane they had put us on. Fortunately, we had room on the 420 to LA, which left us with about 4 hours at LAX for the 14 1/2 hour ride to Sydney and the 2-hour layover there, then the 3-hour ride to Cairns. The Pacific is a big place, and
so is Australia. Australia fits roughly into the US, but has the population of Shanghai (21 million), which is to say there’s room for lots of kangaroos.

Cairns is as far north as we’re going–as I mentioned 16 degrees from the Equator. It’s tropical forest, or would be if we could see the forest for the construction. We’re booked pretty solid here–today at the Great
Barrier Reef (a prelude to the Keys?), the only natural object visible from the moon (I’m gonna have to check that out sometime). We’re going on a catamaran which means possibly some sailing. I guess the one thing I keep being reminded of the few times I’ve been in the tropics is that the days are only 12 hours long of daylight anyway) at most. And since it’s fall here, the daylight is even shorter. It is hot and humid though!

Well, we’re about to depart. Hope you have a great weekend, and a great mother’s day to all the mothers reading this.

Norway II

Its 130 in the afternoon, but it might as well be 130 in the morning, because, north of the Arctic Circle, it might just as well be morning as evening. It’s not just a midnight sun–it’s an all-night sun. We went to a midnight concert at a church, which probably does not have to do a lot of fundraising and bake sales!) I wanted to take a picture of the clock at a jewelry store which said one o’clock, but since it was not military time, you’d never know.

The scenery is beautify, boat smooth, full of Europeans. That had one benefit. I watched the last 30 minutes of the world cup with people who were passionate about football, but not the American game. Probably as many folks watching in the conference room aboard this big ship as in all of the USA. As one of the ship officers said, it’s our super bowl.

Lapland

This trip, on a coastal ferry, is not as scripted as the last trip, and it’s not as full of academics or Americans. That is good and bad. Scenery is northern with some nice historical touches. Reminds me of Canada-Northwoods. Fish are cod and salmon.

And we had the chance to eat reindeer.  Sorry, Rudolph!

Had a great flight. Got to the airport in Chicago and discovered that we had no seats. Be patient said the attendant. We were, and got to fly business class. Nice upgrade.

Norway

July 10, 2006 Norway
Reminds me of the north woods, with lots of sunlight in summer (all night here north of the Arctic Circle). 500 passengers on the boat, mostly Europeans. Watched the World Cup last night with people who knew and cared. Probably more interested on the boat than in the US.

July 12, 2006 Norway

We are south of the Arctic Circle, which means we get some darkness during the night, but not a whole lot.

Norway is a long country, with a lot of coastline. Most of the north reminds me of Canada-Wisconsin (where the North Woods folks are probably Norwegians and Swedes anyway). There were few trees way up north, but as we have worked our way south, there is more and more, and, as I said, it looks like Trees. Unlike many other countries, the Norwegians settled on farms (rather than villages) and so there are settlements almost everywhere along the coast. The coast has been blessed with the Gulf Current (I understand, however, that is changing) and lots of fish. Norway exports about 4 million tons of cod, which is about 1000 pounds per person.

The North Country has many newer buildings, a product of the scorched earth policy the Nazis pursued as they left the country in 1944 and 1945. In addition, the Norwegians now own many summer and second homes up north, so there may be only 4.5 million people, but there seems to be almost nine million homes.

Trondheim
Trondenes

We have seen some really neat churches, especially Trondenes (farthest north medieval church) and Trondheim, which resembles Westminster Abbey.

 

 

Kaifeng and Zhengzhou

May 29, 2006

David and I are about to embark on the long journey home–36 hours to Beijing, then 15 or so hours in the air, a four hour bus ride to Bloomington–then a campout this coming weekend.

We have been trying to figure out what is special about this trip.

Here are some thoughts about Henan, China’s most populous province (with 100 m people!)

1) Unlike our trips with students, this was not prepackaged to visit with other tour groups at restaurants, or even to visit factories (followed by a factory outlet store to give you the opportunity–in case you missed it–to purchase the tchotchkes that everyone purchases their first time in China. Indeed, our guide has picked restaurants for us where we have gone in as the only ones from out of town–and had little children point to us and describe us to their parents as foreigners (they may be from out of town, too). We have not been to a factory–perhaps because Zhengzhou’s largest factory sells buses, and they are difficult to get back home.

2) There are not large crowds in this area of China–not of tourists, anyway. We had dinner with our guide’s boss, the number one English- speaking guide in China, and he told us that he has been to SE Asia to promote Henan tourism to overseas Chinese. “Why would people come here,” I asked. His reply, “it’s the birthplace of Chinese history.” Here, near the Yellow River, were located five of the ancient dynasties, and 12 of the 27 modern ones (aren’t you glad you have to memorize only 40 presidents!).

He’s right–we’ve seen lots of history, beginning here in Zhengzhou with the remains of the Shang dynasty town wall–about 1700 BC. We’ve been in the museum here and in Luoyang, and I’ think I’d be afraid to dig anywhere around the province because we’d probably dig up some priceless tomb with priceless artifacts.

On the way here from Luoyang, we visited the Shaolin monastery, home of the Kung Fu monks. In the Sung dynasty, they saved the emperor, and thus the monastery—one of the sacred hills in China–has the rank of number one monastery. We saw a wonderful exhibition of kung fu by some of the 16,000 students enrolled there. Unfortunately, the monks could not save the monastery in 1928, when one of the warlords, suspecting his enemies were hiding in it, burned it down. There is one original building, and a whole lot of others that have been rebuilt to specifications and pictures, so you would never know they were replacements.

Kaifeng used to be the big city of the province. It was the capital of the Northern Sung, around 900 years ago. War and revolution–and the love hate relationship the Chinese have with the Yellow River (in the 1930s, to block the advance of the Japanese, Chiang Kai-shek opened the dikes near here and flooded much of the countryside, killing almost a million Chinese) leveled the city over the centuries. There’s one pagoda left from ancient days, and an interesting section of the city called “Torah reading street,” a testimony to the trade that brought Jews from Persia to China. Our guide of the area was a descendant of the Jewish converts, who showed us a picture of the synagogue (long since destroyed) that for all the world looks like the mosque in Xian. Which looks for all the world like a Chinese pagoda!

3) We went to a Cultural Revolution themed restaurant the other night, where my 1960s Mao came in handy. I think it is a measure of how far China has come that they can poke fun at a terrible time in their history. Last night, to bring closure, on a walk through a Shang dynasty remains park a block from the Holiday inn where we’re staying, we had an ex-English
teacher talk with us and wound up at a jam session with an accordion, singing Chinese and American folk songs. Neat evening.

Into Central China with David

Another add-on trip with David went in 2006 to another of the ancient capitals of China—Kaifeng. That trip was enlightening, too. As I looked at what was happening in China, I realized that China was improving infrastructure and rebuilding historical sites. Unlike the Cultural Revolution, when an impassioned intervention from Zhou En-lai saved the Forbidden City, the Chinese were burnishing places like the palace at Kaifeng. In Kaifeng, for example, David and I went to the sites commemorating the Jewish Community in Kaifeng—yes, along the Silk Road, Jewish and Muslim merchants plied their trade. The site of the old synagogue had been replaced by a church; that church, in turn, was the early 20th century home of a Canadian Bishop, who was also a collector. Remnants of the Muslim/Jewish period are in the Royal Ontario Museum.

Hello from Luoyang
May 25. 2006
The last 24 hours were frantic, but as JR can tell you, traveling with two people is a lot different than with 29!

The flight to Beijing was uneventful, but I think I told you we were being transferred to a train for an overnight ride into central China, to the city of Luoyang.

We arrived in Beijing around 3 pm, and had until 10:30 to wander—with a guide who was quite agreeable. She took us to Tiananmen Square (largest public place in the world–no one was watching us, Kevin Eack, except some of your CIA types!), and to my great surprise few people
were there. When I have been there in the past, it’s been mobbed. I also learned that there’s a flag ceremony in the evening, when they take down the flag—and I’ve been getting folks up at sunrise (4:30 here) when we could be going to the square at 7 at night…..Glad no one found out!

The guide asked about a meal, and took us to a Shanxi restaurant, where we ate cat ears. Before you think this is standard fare in China, let me tell you that it is not “cat ears,” but a pasta dish shaped like cat ears (least I hope it was!). Dinner for four cost $15, which told me
we were no longer in Hong Kong.

We still had some time, so the guide took us to a Beijing Opera performance. If you have never seen “Farewell my Concubine,” the film is a great introduction to Chinese opera. It is a combination of acrobatics and high-pitched singing, banging gongs, and a whole
lot more fun than it sounds.

Then to the train station, where 9 million people gather. Fortunately, there is a separate waiting room for the “soft sleeper” passengers, and I have learned that is the best way to travel in China on an overnight train–it’s only 4 to a compartment. We settled in at 11;30 for the ride, which got us to Luoyang at 9:30 this morning.

David likes North China–he says it is more like Illinois in food, and looking out the window, he remarked, “We’re in Indiana.” They grow some corn, but lots of wheat that is featured in noodle dishes (and cat ears!).

Luoyang is a “small city” of 2 million, with around 6 million total in the suburbs. It’s a grey city, but like most Chinese cities, has increased splashes of color recently. It was prominent in the past, one of 8 cities (can you name the others) that served as capital of China. It accommodated 12 dynasties, most recently the northern Sung in the 10th century; which was way before my time.

Yes, before MY time.

The Longmen grottoes–Buddhist caves with statues carved by emperors, their concubines currying favor, empresses, and officials–are world class, and dominate two sides of the Yi River. I shot about 50 digital shots, and probably will keep 49. The Tang statues are plump, the Northern Wei slender, so I will be able to tell them apart. Maybe.

There were two other major sights on the itinerary. In talking with the guide, I learned the Guang Gong is buried here–at least his head is. He is the statue I collect since I think he is fiercer than Tommy Titan, and I’d like to use the GG as the IWU mascot. He was a general in the period of the Three Kingdoms, and he was slain. His head was sent to the emperor at Luoyang, who attached a wooden body (!) and buried him with honors. There is now a temple on the spot that dates (in its present form) from the Ming dynasty (1500s), that is a quiet spot in a noisy world. The Guang Gong is a symbol of loyalty (a scout is loyal!). I’ll show you the statue I bought here.

The other place dates from around 65 BC, when the first Indian monks brought Buddhism to China, to the White Horse Temple. After getting through the hawkers who wanted to sell us things we did not want, including pictures on a white horse that they told us (at least I think that was their Chinese) had brought the sutras back from India to Luoyang, the temple was one of the best preserved I’ve seen in China.

In other words, though Luoyang is only #9 on the list of places to visit in China, it is really a pretty neat place.

The sun finally peaked out this afternoon for the first time in a week. Hope it stays!

Reflections about China 2006

May 21, 2006

It is 7:30 am and I am in Hong Kong, ready for another day in one of my favorite cities (and certainly one of my favorite locations for a city) in the world.

Hong Kong, which means–ironically–fragrant harbor, is part of China, but a special area. Mainlanders need a visa to enter the city, which was part of the British Empire until ten years ago. With 7 million people, it is one of the densest populated cities in the world.

We got in Saturday afternoon, and so Sunday at 6am, I was on the Star Ferry, riding across the bay from Kowloon (9 dragons–sounds like a patrol) to the island, and back. Yesterday we had the sightseeing tour, though in the fog and rain (the aftermath of the typhoon), it was hard to
see anything. It is a city where everyone is out and up and hustling, nearly 24 hours a day.

David joined me at 1 am, which made for a rather long day yesterday, but it is good to see him and spend some time.

As for China, a few comments:

1) There is censorship, but I don’t think that was the reason my last email ended so abruptly. I hit the wrong key, the instructions came up in Chinese, and it locked, so I sent the message and quit. Still, when I was watching CNN, they were interviewing someone and when they asked him a question about China, the screen went blank. Kevin Eack says they read every email, but I think they just have the capability to do so. Reading about the Olympics, they already have 260,000 surveillance cameras in Beijing and plan to add more….I think he’s envious

Their effort to control information and the “wrong” kind of information has been one of the most intriguing things to follow as the electronic revolution flattens the world. As I told our guide, you look foolish when you say something that is easily verified to be not true. Coming to Hong Kong, which has a free press, stories which we read on the mainland have a totally different slant here. For example, on Saturday, the Chinese poured the last concrete for the “new great wall,” the three gorges dam. In the China Daily, the verbiage was about the great accomplishment, the flood control, electricity, etc. The HK South China Morning Post article was about displacement and environmental damage.

2) I left off talking (I think) about the 1930s Bund, which has the same foreign-built buildings it had on the eve of World War II. Shanghai as I think I wrote, is coming to grips with the fact that it owes much of its greatness to the fact that for a century it had foreign domination–an international settlement that because of its semi-independent status allowed refugees from Europe to settle there without a passport. Hence, at one time there were 30,000 stateless Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, and probably an equal number of Russians fleeing the evolution. Today, it is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in China.

3) Two quick metaphors on where China has been (I have that perspective from the 1990s–my first trip here was 1990) and where I think it might be going.

a) Mayor Daley was in Beijing last week. David said the Trib featured him on page one, with a dust storm that has been bedeviling the capital city. Pollution and environmental damage–and the challenges of feeding, clothing, and housing a population on an economic binge (Beijing has 2.6 million cars, with 1,000 new ones added each day) highlight some of the negatives.

The report noted that Chicago added Chinese to the school curriculum in 1999, and now has the largest public school system Chinese instruction in the US, but Daley’s visit was not just about tribute, but trade–he was seeking investment in the Chicago area (and seeking tips on how to bid for the Olympic games in 2016).

Flash back to Fred’s visit in 1993, when he went to the new area in Shanghai (Pudong). At the time, it was rice fields. The folks building the new area were seeking US investment. A little over a decade later, we are seeking Chinese investors.

Again, regarding Pudong, when we were there in 93, there was absolutely nothing there, except plans. The planners showed us what the city would look like. I was skeptical. There was incredible chaos in China. Today, Pudong looks like the plans, with about 4 million people, the tallest building in China, and it is the financial capital for the PRC. As I told my students, never say China’ cannot do…they can and they will. So learn Chinese, and be prepared to work as hard as they seem willing to….

4) Along the same lines, we were guests of a Japanese company in Shanghai (the president was an IWU alum). As is often the case with manufacturing, they had moved the factory to China, and were keeping the value-added parts in Japan. However, they did have research and
development in China–and we read about Hewlett Packard, which has laid off 14,000 people worldwide, hiring 1000 Chinese engineers. Learn Chinese and be prepared to work as hard as they seem willing to….

As you can tell, it’s fun coming back and seeing the changes, but I think China will have to address its rural issues, because unrest on the farms has begun to be mentioned even in the controlled press.

We are off to Chinese university for a full day of talks with and by visiting Fulbright scholars, and then an evening with a dinner set up by a friend of mine whom I met originally in Viet Nam.

Hope you all had a great weekend and are looking forward to the end of the semester and a summer full of Troop 19 experiences. I am!

SHANGHAIED ON THE YANGTZE

May 18, 2006
I’ve been Shanghaied

That’s better than I was earlier, when we were on the Yangtze.
There, I went to hell. Many have told me that’s where I should go, but the boat stopped at Fengdu, which has a “ghost city,” that includes hell. There were all sorts of Taoist spirits–including one that deals with wine–I pictured some of the fraternity boys there! I stopped there 8 years ago, when I took my first Yangtze trip, and there was still a city there. Since then, the river has risen due to the impoundment created by the three gorges dam, and the 150,000 people have been relocated to the south bank, the old city destroyed and removed.

That is kind of a metaphor for what has happened with the three gorges project, a massive 22 billion dollar project that will flood about 300 miles of river valley and make it possible for ocean transports to reach from Shanghai to Chongqing. One thing it has already done is cause the city of Ichang (where we disgorged, so to speak) to increase tenfold—from 400,000 to a “small” Chinese city of 4 million.

The Chinese sometimes remind me of teen-aged boys. If you tell them no, or you cannot do it, they will. That is certainly the case with the dam and the massive resettlement it has caused. About a third of the population of China lives along the Yangtze, most of them downriver from the dam. The dam will provide electricity (5-10 per cent of China’s needs), flood control (a major problem in the past), a transportation artery into the interior, and–this was new to me–a potential source of water for the parched north (including Beijing, which has major shortfalls in water supply). The world said, it is environmentally unsound to build the dam, and you lack the technology, etc. 12 years later, the dam is in place, and it will be fully functional in two years.

SHANGHAIED IN SHANGHAI

May 17, 2006 Now I’ve been Shanghaied

We’re in Shanghai, now, awaiting the arrival of the remnants of the typhoon–the first one they say ever in May.

Shanghai means above the sea, and this city of 19 million is as much fun for me as any city in China. It is very Western, a product of its history–if you have seen Empire of the Sun, you may recall the opening scene with the Japanese marching into the Bund. When Americans and Europeans crossed the ocean their first view of China was the Bund, a series of buildings European style that reflected the fact that Shanghai was an international settlement, controlled until 1943 (legally anyway) by the foreign governments, who used their own stamps (till 1921), their own laws, and their own policy, etc.

We are in a new section for me, west of the downtown area I usually stay at. That meant a morning of exploration of new territory, down what was once the French concession–narrow streets with old villas and leafy sycamore trees the French planted to make the city less hot during the summer. The trees are still known as the “French” trees. Many of the old villas are still here, including one used by the Belgian consul, and an old Russian Orthodox church that now serves as a theater. One of the things I have noticed different this trip is that for one reason or another, the Chinese are acknowledging their western-imposed history. Many of the houses have plaques explaining the architectural history and sometimes the ownership. That is new—since 2005.

XIAN-CHONGQING

May 13, 2006

I am on a slow boat down the Yangtze, with even slower email.

Xian was, as it always is, wonderful. It has a past, as I mentioned, a long and glorious one. I am in awe of the first emperor, who died in 209 BC, after ensuring his immorality with the 7000 man army. They have opened three of the tombs, which the emperor started even before he became the emperor, and in which employed over 350,000 people.

Here’s some interesting things we did:

1) Xi’an is a walled city, with the existing wall first built in the late14th century. The Communists finally completed rebuilding it, which led to a 14k Bike ride one cool morning. The wall was not finished last time I was there.

2) We went (a few students and I) to a church service. I was curious about the church, which was built in the 1920s by one of the missionaries for a (then) famous warlord, who baptized his troops with a fire hose and marched his troops to “Onward Christian soldiers”. I had never found that building before.

3) One of my favorite places (not usually on the itinerary for Westerners) is the Great Mosque. As the capital of China and the beginning/end of the Silk Road, Xi’an attracted many foreigners. The Muslims came and stayed. There are about 10.000 in the city today (out of 7 million), most in the quarter around the mosque. We went first thing in the morning (17 of the 27 came voluntarily). Built first in 742, the mosque looks like a typical Chinese building, the minaret looks like a pagoda. Amazingly serene.

4) We visited two Buddhist pagodas, including one where Xuan Zang brought the original books from the Buddha in the 8th century.
5) Dumplings are one of the specialties of Xi’an, so of course when we had a free mealtime; we went there for the 18 varieties…quite a meal.

6) And the underground army

From Xi’an, we flew an hour south to the largest city in the world (partly because of the size of its “territory”) Chongqing. A sleepy city until the Second World War, it grew enormously when the Nationalist government fled there in 1937. There are now 30 million people in the municipality, but about 70% are in the surrounding counties.
There is not much to see in the city itself, which has been rebuilt considerably since the first time I came to it about a decade ago. One highlight is the only museum in China to honor an American, General Stillwell, who commanded American and Chinese troops in World War II, but clashed with Chiang Kai-shek and eventually was fired.
We spent the day traveling to a Buddhist grotto where a serious monk had carved statues in in the late Sung dynasty period–our guide gave a great explanation of how Buddhism embraced both existing Chinese religions–Confucianism and Taoism.

Sichuan is also one of the main cuisines of China, so we went to a local restaurant for a hot pot. I bought some spices and if they make it home, we will try one on a campout. You chop everything and put it in boiling soup with spices, and take it out a few minutes later.

We got on the boat last night and sailed down the Yangtze. They gave all the women flowers for Mothers’ Day, so let me close by saying happy Mothers’ Day to you all.