New CNN travel website, CNNGo, has finally launched!

While I was in China, I did a bit of writing for the site including a story about living with a Tibetan family in Jiuzhaigou located in Sichuan province. Read the article by clicking here.

View my photo album by clicking here.

And here are two videos…

Enjoy!

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Jiuzhaigou National Park - Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan Province, China - July 2009

My year as a visiting scholar at Fudan University in China came to a somber end on July 24th 2009. The skies of Shanghai were gray and the humidity was being a champ by enhancing the smoldering summer temperature. The heat made lugging my three massive suitcases and three carry-on bags to the taxi that much more challenging. Thankfully, Jue and Alejandra were able to escort me to the car where I gave them both one heck of a final hug.

Just as it’s played out in a movie, rain began to fall as the taxi sped its way to the airport, and with those raindrops came my tears. Why is it that the cab ride to an airport after saying good-bye seems like an eternity?

So I’ve been procrastinating posting my final thoughts on my “scholarly” year in China, mainly because I just don’t want it to be over! But now that I’ve had two months to gather my thoughts, I must now reflect on the life changing journey that made me open my eyes a bit wider, test my patience to the extreme, partake in social activities never considered (who knew the first time I’d ever play beer pong would be in Shanghai?), recognize language as a tool of survival rather than a form of communication, and ultimately, engage with people from every corner of the globe.

Adjusting back to Western living in California has been… interesting… to say the least. Numerous people have shared how much they’ve enjoyed following my stories of adventure here on Ambassador Doodle. I can’t even being to express how much this means to me because much time was spent writing, uploading, editing, hyper linking, video inserting and updating with an attempt to give you, the reader, a glimpse at China.

Access to Ambassador Doodle was done with the help of a friendly Virtual Private Network (VPN) thanks to government censorship of the internet in China that does not allow access to WordPress blogs (of which this site is hosted) causing the blogging process to be 10 times slower than normal. Hearing that I was able to put a little pep in your step or ray of sunshine in your day makes all of the time I spent on this blog worthwhile.

Preparation Is For Suckers

In late August 2008, just before I set off for Shanghai, I was given a kind memo from an American friend who had been working in China for three years… “There’s nothing that can prepare you for living in China.” And this was probably the best pre-China piece of advice that I had been given.

The Red Pill or the Blue Pill?

There are two routes that one can take when venturing to China for an extended period of time….

You can submerse yourself in Chinese culture; surround yourself with Chinese friends, try to speak as much Chinese as possible, eat Chinese dinners. Basically avoid everything you know and love from your homeland to get the full China experience.

Or, you can live the expat life; make friends from all over the world where English is the common spoken language (most of the time), scour the city for the best Western food and entertainment, do hobbies that you’ve always wanted to do back home but never had the time (like swing dancing, stand-up comedy, band member, film extra, etc.). Heck, you can even start-up events and organizations that you enjoy in your home country that is lacking in China.

Academics SMACKademics

I feel as though my year in China did not enhance or improve my skills as a journalist, but more so as a sociologist. Trying to understand why people from other countries interact the way they do, eat the way they do, communicate the way they do, get on the metro the way they do. It’s hard as a journalist to write about someone or something if you have no clue about their daily habits or lifestyle. I can honestly say that I didn’t really have a clue as to what was going on in China until about six months in. The logic of queuing for a train even though everyone boarding has a ticket, the validity of an official signed document being worthless without a red star stamp, the pushing and shoving to the vegetable scale at the grocery store, or better yet, having to bring one’s own grocery bags to the store for check-out yet unlimited free plastic bags available for use in the produce section. In the beginning, this sort of behavior and way of thinking was perplexing and often frustrating. After a while, I began to, more or less, adapt to these types of cultural differences.

If I Knew Then What I Know Now…

Being thrown into a journalism school at one of the “top” university’s in China only to discover that the staff doesn’t have a clue as to what to do with you… wasn’t exactly the best introduction to academia in China.

As it turns out, there were quite a few people like me at Fudan University (the only difference being that I wasn’t paying for my tuition). You turn up excited to follow through with tasks and goals that you’ve set for yourself only to learn that what you thought would be available to you (i.e.; Chinese language classes, courses taught in English, proper equipment necessary for producing news packages, etc.) doesn’t actually exist. Then every time you walk into “your” department’s office, a look of sheer burden crosses the person’s face sitting behind the desk. Basically, what I learned as an “academic scholar” at Fudan is that no one cares what you do while you’re at the university, as long as you don’t ask anyone for help. If you stick to those rules, you’ll fit in just fine.

The best professors at the School of Journalism at Fudan University are (hands down!) Hong Bing and Lu Ye. Both of these professors are proficient in English and provide a wealth of knowledge about the history and development of media in China. Both have strong connections to media outlets in Shanghai, which contributed to a revolving door of esteemed guest lecturers. Without these two classes (taught via the LSE Global Media and Communications double masters program), I would have been much better off as a Chinese Language student.

On the other hand, I have to mention the outstanding hospitality that I received from other schools within Fudan University such as the Department of Sociology and the School of Economics. Before the spring semester began, I collected course schedules from all of my friends in English taught programs. I was adopted by Chinese Economy masters program and welcomed in their Thursday afternoon language class. Leslie 老师, 谢谢！

Revelation

A lot of native English speakers in the world (Americans in particular) don’t realize how common it is for people of other nationalities to speak more than two languages. For example, in my student housing building, most people spoke English, their mother tongue and Chinese. I wish that I had been more serious about learning a foreign language in high school or my early college years. Surely, if I knew I’d end up in China, I would have started studying Mandarin a long time ago.

The Adventure Continues

There are so many stories and photos that I’ve yet to post on Ambassador Doodle.  I am extremely happy to announce that some of my stories have been published on the newly launched CNN travel website, CNNGo.com. Type my first and last name, “Dara DiGerolamo,” in the search box and you’ll see my stuff.

I was fortunate to take a three-week trip around China before heading back to the U.S. and I’m in the process of pitching some of those stories to publications and blogs. Depending on how that goes, you might see some of those stories up here sooner than later. I’ve also gone on a California Coast adventure since returning to the U.S., so look for a post about that as well.

As for my next step… stay tuned!

Keep your feedback coming and thanks again for all the support!

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Slinging solar eclipse glasses at Raffles in People's Square

There was quite a bit of hype leading up to the solar eclipse that was to be the first of its kind in this part of the world in 500 years. I even bought an eclipse T-shirt from eno! But unfortunately, Shanghai got the worst of the weather on Wednesday, July 22nd and we didn’t see much of anything. Thanks though to my buddy Kemi for inviting me to the 2010 World Expo site of the Austrian pavilion. Nothing like eating massive sausages and sipping on Chinese beers at 9:30AM on a weekday. Check out these videos and photos that captured the moment…

During…

After…

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Gay Pride is a new concept for many in China

Out and proud was the sentiment at 294 Xinhua Lu in Shanghai, China on Saturday afternoon. Outdoor lounge and restaurant, Cotton’s, played host to Mainland China’s first ever gay pride celebration.

Although no parade with men in tighty whities or ladies shaking what their momma gave them took place on streets of Shanghai, there were enough fabulous drag shows and hot body contests to make up for it.

Local neighborhood folk looked on through the rainbow banners draped around the outer fence of Cotton’s while boys and girls with rainbows painted on their faces danced with each other and same sex couples participated in a marriage ceremony.

Pride activities took place everyday last week leading up to the big bash at Cotton’s. The events were going smoothly until mid-week when police told venue owners that the appropriate permits had not been obtained to house film screenings and theatrical performances. The cameo appearance by government officials was a bit puzzling and frustrating for event organizers, but the minor set back just made the gay community more eager to throw a successful event on Saturday.

Over 15,000 RMB raised by raffle ticket sales went to the Chi Heng Foundation based in cities throughout China. The non-profit organization promotes safe sex awareness while also helping children living with AIDS and HIV.

Exploding Pandas Productions filmmakers, Xing Zhao and Dara DiGerolamo, spent the week profiling figures within China’s gay community for a documentary. When available, premiere and screening information will be posted on Ambassador Doodle.

Shanghai’s first Gay Pride showed to be a success without major interruption from local authorities or cranky neighbors. Until next year, keep those rainbow flags waving, China!

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F1 fans in Shanghai

When I open up a newspaper, the last section I glance over is the sports. I didn’t know much about the popularity of sports in China until I got here. More specifically, when an editor from the Shanghai Daily dropped by one of my classes last semester and was asked by a student to list the top sports in China. She said…

1. Ping Pong

2. Basketball

3. F1

F1? “What the heck is F1,” I asked myself? In a whisper to the person next to me, I inquired about this mystery letter/number code. I was told that F1 is short for Formula One. OK, great… I still have no idea what that means. Then I discovered they’re super turbo race cars. All I could think about was the hilarious Will Ferrell film “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” where mockery of the race car industry could not have been portrayed better. The bash factor is taken to such a level that any fan of this sport (NASCAR in particular) would be slightly ashamed.

Shortly after I learned about the popularity of these speed of light cars, I started noticing F1 advertisements in magazines and on ICS (the TV station that I worked at briefly last year). One night, I had the TV on as background noise when a program came on that profiled F1 drivers. I distinctly remember the story of a young guy named Lewis Hamilton who had shattered world records. This F1 thing sounded kind of cool after all.

F1 is popular in Shanghai mainly because in Jiading, a district in Shanghai county located an hour from the city center, a Shanghai leg of the F1 season takes place. During the Chinese Grand Prix Shanghai, thousands of people flock to the racetrack with their picnic baskets, professional cameras and earplugs.

The Fudan International Student Association organized a group trip to the April race and my friend Alejandra and I both bought student discounted tickets for RMB 200 a pop, which allowed entrance to the races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The ticket put us in the ‘J’ section of the course that did not provide a seat, but a spot of your choice on a grassy hill. The student organization arranged for a bus to take us from Fudan to the venue on Sunday for RMB 35. However, a free shuttle was also available for ticket holders from the Shanghai Stadium, just south of the city center, each day of the event. Since Alejandra and I both had work to do, we opted to go with the students on Sunday.

When we stepped off the bus, we were welcome with strong gusts of wind and gray skies. A mob of people slinging ear plugs surrounded us. Ben, president of FISA, suggested that we buy the RMB 3 earplugs from the slingers because the price inside of the venue goes up to about RMB 20. My friend and classmate Francios (guess which country he’s from) who is a massive F1 fan had warned me the night before about the loud screeching sound of the race cars. He said that the sound level is so loud at times that if your ear drums are not protected, they could possibly be damaged. When he bought his RMB 600 ticket to the Sunday race, he scored a pair of heavy duty looking headphones with the purchase. Aside from having a sound minimizing function on them, they also had a radio dial that would transmit the race commentators discussion. AND they had the Shanghai Circuit logo on them, which makes for a good souvenir. I had to have a pair.

A few of us bought these headphones for RMB 100 and were bummed out when we learned that the radio reception was terrible. Ehhh… at least they came with an adapter so they’re useable with any audio player.

Before the races began, some of the drivers made an appearance on a stage near the venue’s main entrance to greet fans and sign autographs. I managed to shoot a little video without getting crushed by the super excited crowd.

Shortly after the meet and greet, the races began and everything was going great until it started to rain. By the end of the day, equipped with umbrellas and plastic ponchos, we were completely soaked. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was well worth it though. Here are few more videos and some photos from the day.

Porsche Carrera Cup Asia

First Lap of the Formula 1 Grand Prix Final

Formula 1 Grand Prix Final

A car that didn’t quite make it to the finish line

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Roxana Saberi (courtesy of Reuters), Euna Lee & Laura Ling (courtesy of Getty Images) and Esha Momeni (courtesy of Sanam Dolatshahi)

Think about all of the information that you never would’ve known had someone not put their safety or life at risk. Think about how many scandals have been uncovered by investigative reporters and how the truth obtained changed the world. Heck, a U.S. president resigned due to the investigative work of reporters at The Washington Post.

There’s no doubt that journalists play a major role in the way the world is viewed and shaped. Many of these media professionals are thanked. However, some might consider their work tactics a nuisance, which is where the level of appreciation could fall by the wayside.

Bracing the headlines over the past few weeks has been the unfortunate news of Roxana Saberi, Euna Lee, Laura Ling and Esha Momeni who were jailed in Iran and North Korea while collecting data for news stories, or academic research.

Roxana Saberi, who has been jailed in Iran since January, was recently convicted of espionage by an Iranian court and sentenced to eight years in prison. On Tuesday, she began a hunger strike (today is Sunday) and sources say that she has (obviously) become very weak. I’m not in the U.S., so I can’t watch the coverage of her status, but based on what I’m finding online, this looks like big news back home.

Then last month, Euna Lee and Laura Ling from Current TV were arrested on the China/North Korea boarder while working on a story about women seeking refuge in China from North Korea’s communist rule. One witness says that the reporters were on the China side of the boarder when the arrest occurred, but there hasn’t been much development on this situation due to the lack of communication that the U.S. has with North Korea. A Swedish Ambassador is doing the mediating and sadly, it doesn’t sound like Lee and Ling are heading home anytime soon. Candlelight vigils for these two women will be held in both Sacramento and San Francisco, California early next week.

On October 15, 2008, Esha Momeni, a Iranian-American graduate student from my alma mater, California State University, Northridge, was working on her thesis in Iran when she was stopped by police for allegedly passing a vehicle illegally. Her case is confusing because technically, she’s not a journalist. Her study at CSUN is in Mass Communications within the School of Journalism and the focus of her research is on Iranian feminism.

Esha was finally released from jail in November on $200,000 bail, but since, her passport has been denied, so she’s unable to leave the country. The Bull Magazine, a publication by students at Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley, interviewed CSUN faculty and others for a video about Esha’s situation. Click here to watch. And to sign a petition for her immediate release, click here.

China doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to tolerance toward media professionals, so my friends often question some of the ideas that I have for stories. What has happened to these ladies could happen to anyone. Just yesterday, I read an article by Gotham Chopra where he talks about his cross with avoiding arrest in a “rouge nation.” Some journalists aren’t always so lucky.

Keep these women in your thoughts and don’t ever take your freedom of speech (if you’re reading this in a country that allows freedom of speech) for granted.

***********UPDATED  5/16/09***********

Great news for Roxana Saberi last week. She was released from an Iranian prison with a suspended two-year term and a five-year ban on practicing journalism in Iran. Fair enough! Her two-week hunger strike might have had something to do with this, but in any case, it’s great to see that she’s alive and “free.”

I’m sure that she has book deals and Lifetime made for TV movie pitches flying at her left and right. She says that she needs time before speaking about the whirl wind she experienced over the past months. Read the full report here.

In North Korea, Laura Ling and Euna Lee will be put on trial on June 4th. If convicted on charges of espionage, they could be looking at up to 10 years in prison.

Al Gore has taken a step forward in speaking out for the release of the two women. This isn’t the first time that North Korea has used the capture of U.S. citizens as possible bargaining tools. Read the full report here.

***********UPDATED  8/4/09***********

After a visit from former U.S. President Bill Clinton earlier today, North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Ill, has pardoned Laura Ling and Euna Lee for illegally entering the country back in March. In June, the two Current TV journalists were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for entering North Korea illegally. A few days ago, Lisa Ling, Laura Ling’s older sister who is also a journalist, made a statement that during a recent phone conversation her younger sister admitted that they had broke law. Laura Ling said that the only way they would ever be released by N. Korea was if amnesty was sought and that’s exactly what was accomplished by President Clinton today.

***********UPDATED  8/17/09***********

After nearly a year, the Iranian government has finally allowed Esha Momeni to leave the country and return to the United States. A student from California State University, Northridge interviewed Momeni about her experience and the four part video can be viewed on YouTube. For more updates, visit the blog set-up for Momeni, For Esha’s Return.

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Roommate, Take 2

Remember back in January when I mentioned awaiting the arrival of my new roommate for the spring term? Not knowing exactly when this mystery person was going to show up, I made sure that the room was spotless everyday before I left in the event that she showed up when I wasn’t around. Sure enough, I came home one afternoon to find luggage on the side of the room that was once occupied by Jenn. Later that night, I met my South Korean roommate Senng Hua… also known in Chinese as Cheng He… or in English as (and I refuse to call her this) Bambi.

Things started out great between Cheng He and I. She doesn’t speak much English, which is OK, because speaking a combo of English and Chinese forces me to speak Chinese on a regular basis. My friends who left Fudan after the fall semester gave me their belongings that they didn’t want to take home with them, so I hooked up Cheng He with most of the necessities that newbies to the dorm need. I think I made her feel at home and I believe she felt the same, but not long after we were acquainted… things started to get weird.

You see, Cheng He wears these little red rubber shoesies when she takes a shower. At hostels in China, you’ll often find that rubber shoesies are provided to use in the bathroom. But that’s in a hostel, and who knows what’s been trekking through those bathrooms. But our bathroom is clean! There’s nothing funky about the tub or the floor… until Cheng He has been in there with her little red rubber shoesies.

Every time the gal uses the bathroom, it’s as if someone took a hose and doused the whole place. Water… on the floor, on the counter top, even on the toilet seat! It looks like swamp thing threw a hissy fit by the time she’s done in there. I’ve told her time and time again to please simmer down on the water explosions, but it’s in one ear and out the other with this girl. Earlier this week, she rinsed out a coffee pot and splashed coffee-water all over the side of the counter with my toiletries. Somehow after the flood gates rush in, her side of the sink manages to stay relatively dry. As annoying as the water problem might sound, there are other qualities to love about Cheng He.

I’ll get straight to it… Cheng He likes to hit the bottle, or as we say in China 喝啤酒 (he pijiu), or drink beer. Who doesn’t love beer? I drink beer. But the girl will go out drinking in the middle of the week, come back to the room after 3 AM and knock over (or in to) just about everything that can be knocked over (or in to) in the room. Then she’ll set her alarm for 7 AM and who do you think the alarm wakes up? That’s right, me! I a volcano could erupt, a rocket could launch or a tornado could blow through, and Cheng He’s not going to flinch. Just this morning, she had the most obnoxious ring blasting on her cell phone’s alarm clock. I let this sound blare for about 30 seconds while she slept like a baby. I finally woke her up by shouting her name.

The best memory though was the night that I spent two hours mopping the floor and cleaning the bathroom because the whole room was a disaster. I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed when I heard the front door open and people talking. I opened the bathroom door to find two of Cheng He’s Korean friends frantically removing themselves from the room. I turn the corner to discover Cheng He sprawled out on her bed appearing to be half dead. I walked over to a corpse that smelled like hell. I stood over her wondering if I should wake her up and make her drink water when all of a sudden, the creature started showing signs of life. She began to make noises, the noises one makes when something is about to project from the body after a long night of drinking. I quickly grabbed a trashcan and told her, “if you’re going to spew, spew in this” (name the movie that this quote comes from and you get 20 points for the day). All of a sudden I’m having flashbacks to my freshman year in high school when my friends and I would sneak mysterious bottles of booze from our parents liquor cabinets. As I’m holding the grocery bag lined waste basket, I’m thinking, jezzzz, I’m getting way too old for this. Next thing I know, good ole Cheng He is spewing in my freshly scrubbed toilet. So much for keeping the room tidy.

It’s hard to dislike the girl because she’s cute, friendly and quite the character when you get her chatting. However, I’m not ready to be a mother yet and at this point, I feel like I have to discipline this girl on a daily basis to get a good night sleep or keep my feet and toiletries dry.

Here’s just a tinge of what she’s like on a regular basis…

Cheng He before the metamorphosis

"Culturally exchanging" at a Korean dinner with Cheng He (center) and our Japanese buddy, Meigumi.

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Sun sets on Nanjing

After spending two amazing weeks in Taiwan, my batteries were recharged and I was ready to get back to Shanghai. The Chinese New Year was quickly approaching and based on what I learned during the National Holiday, traveling in China is extremely hectic when the whole country is on vacation. Having just finished reading the book Chinese Lessons by John Pomfret, a reporter at The Washington Post who spent some of his college years in Nanjing, I was inspired to travel to the former capital of China. As one of the first Americans to live and study in China after the revolution, he used the lives of his classmates at NANDA (Nanjing University) in the early 80s to shape a tale of the history and evolution of China. I eagerly anticipated going to Nanjing, a city oozing with ancient history and only two and a half hours via train from Shanghai. I decided to go this trip alone.

Just as I located my aisle seat on the train, the young lady sitting in the window seat asked if I wouldn’t mind switching seats with her. I always prefer the window seat, so I was happy to make the change. Almost immediately after sitting down, the man occupying the middle seat asked me (in English) where I was going. That question spiraled into an hour and a half long conversation about the real estate business in China, the television business in Hollywood, and which tourist attractions I should check out in Nanjing. He had traveled from Beijing to Shanghai for business and decided to pay his in-laws in Nanjing a visit, as is customary to do during the Chinese New Year.

The train arrived in Nanjing and I said good-bye to the friendly fella. I bought my return ticket to Shanghai then located the Nanjing Metro. I got off at the SanShen Lu stop to find not one, not two, but three people from the Sunflower International Youth Hostel waiting to escort me. They even had a piece of paper with my name on it, very cute. However, there was no need for the sign because they spotted the foreigner a mile away.

As we began making our way down the street, I asked the young man in the welcoming committee if he had any plans for the Chinese New Year. He told me that this would be the first year he wasn’t traveling home to Sichuan province because all of the train tickets were sold out. I had recently heard on the news that mobs of people were turning up to train stations and tickets were not available. Unfortunately, YuanHao Zhang (English name, Shayne) fell into this category. The alternative was to take a job at the Sunflower Hostel until his university resumed classes after the holiday. Since his school is on the outskirts of Nanjing, he hadn’t seen much of the city, so I told him where I planned on going and invited him to come along. He gladly accepted the offer.

Less than two hours after I arrived in Nanjing, Shayne felt compelled to bring me around the hostel’s surrounding area. A few blocks away is a maze of pedestrian walks with intertwining shops, restaurants, temples, canals and arched bridges. There was an amazing neon light display of dragons on one side of a building. Shayne offered to buy me a snack called xiangjiaozhu (香蕉竹). Rice and something that tastes like orange (very well could’ve been orange) is stuffed into a piece of bamboo then steamed. The person serving up the snack takes a butcher knife and hacks off the sides on the bamboo leaving a paper-thin layer on the sides. Peel back the excess bamboo and you’ve got yourself a tubular rice snack. Take a look.

Shayne with his xiangjiaozhu (香蕉竹)

That night, I shacked up in one the hostel’s six-person dorm rooms that provided a shared bathroom down the hall, and a cheerful gal from Japan as my roomie. We did the name exchange thing then I headed upstairs to the common area to check my email. A group of hostel patrons were watching the Leonardo DiCaprio film “Blood Diamond” projected on a wall. I was getting sleepy so I headed back downstairs to get cleaned up for bed. When I got to the bathroom, I learned that everyone who works at the hostel also lives at the hostel because they were getting ready for bed too. This was a bit awkward because there were two sinks and both were taken by the employees, so I was lingering around waiting for a sink to free-up. I didn’t know what the appropriate protocol should have been in this situation because I was the guest… but they lived there. Weird. Anyway, I waited for them to finish then did my thing.

Something to note about this hostel is that there are no “Western” toilets. If you’ve traveled to remote places in the world, you know what I’m talking about. I usually refer to this type of toilet as a “hole in the ground.” I’m proud to report that I recently stopped having issues with the “hole in the ground.” If you’re staying overnight in Nanjing, seeking a dorm-style accommodation and have issues with the “hole in the ground,” the Sunflower Hostel is not the place for you .

I woke up super early the next morning and realized that I had another roommate. Maria from Costa Rica was traveling from Beijing where she’s studying Chinese. She didn’t have any plans for the day, so I invited her to join myself and my new buddy from Sichuan province. She accepted and we set off for Purple Mountain.

One of the most popular tourist sites in Nanjing is Zhongshan Mountain National Park (钟山风景名胜区), which is where the “father of modern China,” Dr. Sun Yat-sen, was laid to rest… allegedly. His mausoleum is located at the top of Zijin Mountain (资金山), however, Shayne told Maria and I that there’s speculation that his body wasn’t in the coffin that was sent over from Taiwan. In any event, an award winning mausoleum was designed and intricately constructed less than a year after his death. To reach the mausoleum, you only have to climb 392 stairs.

Dr. Sun Yatsen Mausoleum

392 steps later...

The most peaceful location in the park is the Linggu Temple (灵谷寺). Incense were burning, like they do at temples, “Buddha music,” as Shayne called it, was playing, and colorful flags draped above the worship area waved as the wind blew. Shanye showed Maria and I how to pray to Buddha by kneeling on the square cushions in front of the statues. When we had our fill of zen, we walked over to the adjacent Linggu Pagoda (灵谷塔). Good thing we had a moment to relax beforehand because the pagoda’s unique spiraling stone staircase winding up to the ninth-storey was quite the workout.

Linggu Pagoda (灵谷塔)

Spiral stone stairs inside the pagoda

Hence the "Purple" in Purple Mountain

View from the top of the pagoda

Me & a bixi (赑屃), one of nine children of the dragon

Linggu Temple (灵谷寺)

We ate lunch at an overpriced vegetarian restaurant behind the pagoda then walked away from the park’s major landmarks to a remote area where we found “The Collective Burial Place for Compatriots Killed During the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Aggression.” The memorial… I guess you could call it, was weak, and you could tell by the old flowers and decrepit stand that the shrine hadn’t received any visitors lately.

We took the Disneylandish shuttle to the opposite side of the park to checkout the Ming Xiaolong Tomb (明孝陵). It wasn’t till after we had already paid the admission, walked a good 10 minutes, made a cameo appearance on a TV show (see photo below) that we discovered the Tomb was under construction. Big time bummer. We kept on moving and made our way up a beautiful sidewalk called the Sacred Avenue (神道) that’s lined with larger than life stone statues of animals. This landmark has been recognized as a World Cultural Heritage property and deservingly so.

Ming Xiaolong Tomb (明孝陵) entrance

Under Construction... booooo

Maria & I ended up on the China Educational Channel's special on plum blossoms

Sweet smelling plum blossoms

Sacred Avenue (神道)

Me, Maria & Shayne at the end of the day

A piece of ancient architecture surrounding (literally) Nanjing is the Ming City Walls. Standing 12 meters high, 7 meters wide and stretching over 33 kilometers, this is the longest city wall ever built in the world. Between 1366 and 1386, the emperor during this time (Ming Dynasty) had the wall constructed to keep invaders out. Today, only two-thirds of the wall remain along with 13 of the original Ming City gates. On the bus ride to the Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre, we drove through one of the gates.

Ming City Wall gate

Ming City Wall

Saddly, the Nanjing Massacre Museum has become a key stop for tourists visiting Nanjing. I was very naive as to what this museum was about before my visit. In 1937, Japan occupied Nanjing killing between 300,000 and 400,000 Chinese civilians. The curators did an exceptional job with the layout and design of the museum. The heart wrenching stories told by survivors on videotape (now elderly), are haunting and devastating. To understand why the older generation of Chinese might have a negative sentiment toward Japan, this museum explains a lot.

Nanjing Massacre Museum

Feeling a bit somber after viewing the images at the museum, Shayne, Maria and I headed back to the hostel so I could grab my belongings and head to the train station. We exchanged information and said good-bye. I was ahead of schedule and had just enough time to stop by Pomfret’s NANDA. I was working with a terrible map of the city and couldn’t seem to find the street that I needed to turn down. A young gal saw me looking at a map and pointed me in the direction of the university… then proceeded to escort me there… then walked around with me… for a second I thought she was going to come to the train station with me, but she stayed behind. Sometimes I break down and let people practice their spoken English on me, even if that means walking around with a stranger for 30 minutes or so.

Nanjing was a good time. Met some new people. Saw some historical sights. Oh yeah, I also ate a Hot Pot dinner that was a bit… under cooked. Take a look.

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Tower of Terror has a whole new meaning

Many college students from all over the world venture to China to study abroad. Sometimes I hear kids from the U.S. (usually California) talk about how Shanghai isn’t much different from back home. Weird concept, but at times, this idea works because Shanghai is one of the more Westernized cities (if not the most Westernized city) in China. However, there are still wacky things seen on the streets, or heard on TV, that make you stop and think, no WAY would this ever happen in the U.S. and be considered OK. Well, two weeks ago I had my first real deal taste of the awkward weirdness that is China in a place that should be less apt to have awkward weirdness… the Fudan University Foreign Student Dormitory.

During my Chinese Broadcasting class on Wednesday afternoon (3/18/09), I was talking to my friends Alejandra from Chile and Malik from France/Canada when a classmate asked us if we had heard that someone died in our building the previous night. In complete disbelief, we began interrogating this person, who doesn’t even live in the Foreign Student dorm, for answers. Who? When? How? She was told by another member of our class that her female neighbor from France had died in her room. We couldn’t believe that we hadn’t heard one word about this from anyone! In the U.S., a statement would have been released to media outlets, a vigil would have been held, counselors would be positioned for emotional support, or, at the very least, an announcement would have been made to prevent rumors from spreading. We left class baffled that out of the hundreds of students living in our building, no one had uttered a word about this incident.

At dinner that night, Alejandra telephoned our friend who is a student, but also works for Fudan University’s Foreign Student Office to see if he had heard anything. He hadn’t heard anything and was shocked because he’s always the first to know anything that happens in the dorm and he’s usually the one asked to diffuse the situation.

After dinner, we were walking back to the dorm when Malik ran into his Chinese/French friend who told him (in French) that a girl from France was indeed found dead in her room from an apparent suicide. In an instant, Alejandra remembered that she had seen police cars parked in front of the dorm around 12:30 AM Wednesday morning (3/18/09) when she left the building to get a late night snack. Shortly before at 11:30 PM Tuesday night (3/17/09), I arrived at the dorm and was greeted, oddly, by five of the building staff (usually there’s one person, sometimes two, sitting at the front door after 10 PM to make sure that you to sign your name in a book) and scattered about the lobby were beer bottles, plastic cups and paper plates, residuals from the spring semester welcoming party for foreign students hosted by the Fudan Foreign Student Office. After hearing about the death, me being my Sherlock Holmes self, immediately wanted to know what time the death occurred because perhaps, alcohol had something something to do with the suicide. Hence, a cover up of sorts.

Then the next evening, more information emerged. I was told by a reliable source that the girl had been dead in her room on the 3rd floor for three days before being found. Now, I’m a bit disturbed because you see, I live on the 4th floor. Which means that there was a dead body underneath me for three days. This is also frightening because I’m studying at Fudan University on my own. There are no other students from my university in my non-existent program and since I’m here as a research scholar, I’m not required to be in class everyday. If something happened to me and my death was dealt with the way this French girl’s was handled, no one would ever know what happened to me! I’d be here one day and gone the next.

My frustrations prompted me to contact the president of the Fudan International Student Association (FISA) because at this point, I don’t even think he knows what happened. Sure enough, he didn’t! He gets my email at 1:30 AM on Friday morning (3/20/09) and comes over to the dorm 30 minutes later to talk to Alejandra and I.

I rehash my theory that if a person were to commit suicide on a college/university campus in the United States, not only would the student body be addressed about the incident, but support would be on site to assist those who were affected by the loss. This being the first time that I’ve encountered the “brush it under the rug” since being in China, I really don’t know what to make of it.

The FISA president says that suicides happen frequently on Fudan’s campus. Not necessarily with foreign students, but with the Chinese students. Sometimes it’s like a domino effect where one person kills them self and others follow. Maybe this is why the staff is silent.

He says that he’ll go to the Foreign Student Office in the morning to explain to staff that when they handle matters this way, it only makes them look bad. And it did. An emergency meeting was called that afternoon for officers of foreign student organizations.

Turns out, the suicide occurred about four hours before she was found by the police in her room. Not three days later (so much for reliable sources). She was born in 1989, so at most, she was 20 years old, which is really sad. According to the university staff, her parents “didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.” Whether that’s true or not, who knows. But what I do know is that a student died on a university campus… excuse me, the campus of the one of the “best” universities in China (as I’m frequently reminded), and no one uttered a single word to the student body. I don’t even think a prevention hotline is set up in Shanghai for students (foreign or Chinese) to call if they’re on the brink. Something just seems very strange about the way this was handled and I hope that the university faculty and staff think up a more humanistic approach to dealing with the death of a student next time rather than keeping quite so no one asks questions.

Entrance to the Fudan Foreign Student Dormitory

Third Floor

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And we’re back!

As soon as we arrived at the Tainan (台南) train station, we hopped in a cab to our accommodation. With a name like Hotel Dynasty, how could it not be promising?

The brownie points were indeed scored when learning about the free laundry machines and soap powder on the roof of the building. This was excellent since we’d been in Taiwan for a week and the dirty clothes were piling up. There was also a workout room that we didn’t use because let’s face it, we were on vacation. One breakfast per day came with the room, so we paid the difference to add another meal.

We spent our first night walking around the city and sampling some of the local food. Each city in Taiwan is known for their special xiao chi (小吃), or small eats. Guan cai ban (馆材板), or coffin bead, is a popular xiao chi in Tainan and one of my favorites. A piece of toast is deep fried on both sides then a little door is cut out of one side and a stew of peas, carrots, chicken and seafood is poured into the center. It’s extremely tasty! We liked guan cai ban so much that we ate this both nights we were in Tainan at this location —->>> #218 Minzu Lu, Section 2

guan cai ban (馆材扳) aka coffin bread

Boys dancing in front of a mall

bao bing (刨冰) in Tainan

Hotel Dy-NASTY

Another perk about Hotel Dynasty was that, once again, the staff was extremely helpful. They not only provided us with train and bus schedules, but they also booked us the tickets. With their help, we plotted out how to get to popular hot spring destination, Guanziling, in Tainan County. We had to take a train (walking distance from the hotel) to Shinying then grab a bus directly across the street from the train station. We were in transit for just over two hours, but had two wait two hours in Shinying for the next bus.

We hopped off the bus at the bottom of the mountain in Guanziling then trekked it up a steep incline to find many hot spring resorts and restaurants along the main road. We were using The Rough Guide to Taiwan on this trip and the book recommended Mutsun Spring, a Japanese style hotel and hot spring retreat. We paid NT$1350 to soak for 35 minutes, which was plenty of time, in a private room that included a small outdoor patio, shower, toilet, vanity area and a nice size tub. The natural spring water was hot (as expected) and cold water was on tap to cool down the temperature if needed. Bliss!

Mutsun Spring

Private room

Mineral rich hot spring water is good for the skin

Courtyard

We sipped complimentary tea in the courtyard before setting off to find the Fire Water Cave, or Shui Huo Dong (水火洞), where methane seeping from the side of a mountain continuously burns on top of a pool of water. I asked the receptionist at Mutsun Spring how long it would take for us to walk to this natural phenomenon and she said 30 minutes. What she didn’t mention was that it was uphill the whole way at a 90 degree incline! It took us nearly an hour to get there, but Nate found a cobra skin on the side of the road, so that made the rigorous journey worth it. Here’s a video of the Fire Water Cave.

We made our way back down the hill in 30 minutes and grabbed a drink from an outside cafe before returning to Tainan. We were wiped out from all the hiking, so the evening consisted of packing bags and getting shut eye.

After breakfast the next morning, we walked back to the train station to venture to our next destination, Hualien (花莲), which is located on the northeast coast of Taiwan. I had learned through the receptionist at Dy-NASTY that there were no trains that traveled straight across the island from Tainan to Hualien. We would have to go either all the way down south then up the east coast, or back up north through Taipei, the way we had already come, down the east coast. Since we didn’t have time to stop off at any southern points, I really wanted to take the southern route… and I thought that was communicated to the receptionist. Welllll, I was wrong. We got to the train station and realized that we were standing on the same platform that we had stood on the previous day when going Guanziling, which is just north of Tainan. I’ll admit, I was a bit bummed out that I wouldn’t get to see the southern region, but the train ride to Hualien would have been six hours either way. As the train chugged along the northern coastline of the island, despite the rain and clouds, the view of cliffs and crashing waves was magnificent.

Other than the little mishap with the booking of the train tickets, up until this point, I had experienced the best and most consistent customer out of any trip I’d ever been on. And that didn’t change once we arrived in Hualien.

Conveniently located next to the Hualien train station is a Visitor Center. I asked the woman at the desk how far our accommodation, the C’est Jeune Hotel, was from the station and she said that it wasn’t walking distance and that she’d phone them because she knew they had a shuttle. Excellent! The guy from the hotel picked us up within 15 minutes and moments later we were in the lobby of what could have been a contemporary art museum. Art is a big deal at this hotel with featured artists’ work frequently rotated out. Each room is also decorated with at least one piece of the guest artist’s work.

C'est Jeune Hotel lobby

That night we ate an interesting… Western… I guess you could say, dinner at a place called Truck Road. I can’t find a website or any information about this restaurant online, but I’ll tell you that the decor made me feel like I was in a Joe’s Crab Shack in the southern States, or my favorite mac n’ cheese spot in NYC, Chat n’ Chew. Basically, a very kitsch American vibe with the whole Coca Cola sign, old gas pump, Superman figurine, thing going on. I was hoping to score a cheese burger, but we ended with something that was similar to a meatloaf… but it had a cheesy center. The whole meal was a bit odd, but it didn’t taste bad, so we left satisfied.

Before walking back to the hotel we dipped into a dive bar where there was only one other patron, a young woman sitting by herself. All of a sudden the music changed, the fog machine turned on and the gal walked up to a small stage in the middle of the room and began singing karaoke. It was bit awkward because it was only us… and her. I felt inspired after listening to her sing two songs and knew that the night wouldn’t be complete without a tune from MADONNA! That’s right. I sang “Crazy For You” like no one had ever sang in Hualien, or at least I’d like to think so. The night was complete.

The hotel breakfast (included with the room rate) the next morning, I’ve gotta be honest, wasn’t one of my favorites. The drink selection was strange (soup?) and the food was under room temp. We didn’t dilly dally over the meal though because we had a full day ahead of us. With the Downtown Hualien bus stop only a 15 minute walk away, we powered there to catch a bus to Taroko Gorge. After nearly two hours on board, we were dropped off at Tiansiang (天祥) the last stop inside of the National Park, where we found ourselves surrounded by mountains and raging water. Submerged in some of nature’s finest creations, we stumbled upon waterfalls and marble formations throughout the day.

The best part of the day was seeing what I like to call a Free Range Monkey! No kidding! We were walking down the road and in mid-conversation Nate stopped and said, “That is a monkey!” We stood still facing the woods for a few minutes and sure enough, I saw the monkey too! I pulled out the guide book and indeed there was a little blurb that mentioned sightings of the rock monkey being common in Taroko National Park. Unfortunately, the monkey was camouflaged up against the trees, so I couldn’t score a good photo. He was monkeying around :::bad ump bumb:::

And the worst part of the day was when Nate almost fell off a cliff. We were walking down the main road and although there was a guard rail, edges of the asphalt were missing due to erosion. All of a sudden Nate was down and one of his legs was hanging over the side. Needless to say, after that I made him walk on the other side of the road.

We hiked a total of about six hours by the time we reached the middle of the park. The last shuttle was scheduled to stop off at this point at 6:30 pm. By 5 PM, it was pitch black. Our only source of light came from the gleam of a traffic tunnel. At 6:45 I started getting nervous because we were literally out in the middle of nowhere. But once again, the nerves got the best of me because a few minutes later, our amazing bus driver pulled up and welcomed us with at big “Hello!”

We picked up some Hualien xiao chi (小吃) of soup and xiao long bao (小笼包) before heading back to the hotel.

A local Hualien soup & xiao long bao (小笼包)

The next day was New Years Eve Eve, which meant it was time to head back to Taipei to ring in the New Year. This time we stayed at the Holiday Inn East Taipei, located in the Shenkeng suburb of Taipei, a hop skip and a tunnel away from the Taipei 101.

I can’t remember the last time I stayed at a Holiday Inn and I was really impressed by the place. The room had a living area with a flat screen TV separate from the bed area that also had a flat screen. A free shuttle on site brings guests to the Taipei 101 a few times a day during the week and more frequently on the weekend. Reservations must be made in advance with the concierge, but when the shuttle is full, it’s no big deal because there’s a convenient city bus stop in front of the hotel.

We found a few awesome western style restaurants around the city including G’day Cafe that offers a bottomless cup of coffee and Grandma Nitti’s Kitchen in the Shida part of town. We meet up with my buddy ole pal, Paul from Scotland, who had also flown over from the Mainland to spend the holidays with his girlfriend and buddies from the University of Edinburgh. Some of the Edinburgh gals had a New Years Eve house party, so after we checked out the Taipei 101 scene downtown, we swung by to be a part of the festivities.

A massive New Year televised production in front of the Taipei 101

A male pop-singer performs

Happy New Year!

The last few weeks I was in the U.S. before coming to China, I worked on a game show for ABC and the director told me about the time he was in Taipei for New Years Eve and watched the 101 building explode. I didn’t know what he was talking about so I went on Youtube to educate myself. Now it’s your turn to educate yourself by watching this video. You can hear in my voice that I was just a wee-bit excited by the spectacle.

2009 <3

The last few days in Taipei were spent checking out tourist attractions such as the legendary National Palace Museum. Originally located in Beijing at the Forbidden City, the National Palace was founded in 1925. Pieces of the collection were moved to Taiwan first in 1931 during the Sino-Japanese War and again in 1949 during the Cultural Revolution. The government shipped about 600,000 works to Taiwan to preserve history. The museum is comprised of three floors displaying rare books, religious sculptures, furniture, antiques, paintings and calligraphy, and my favorite, emperor’s curio boxes.

After the museum, we popped over to Miramar Entertainment Park to take a ride a Ferris wheel that’s 100 meters high. We made the mistake of getting in the shorter line for the “translucent bottom” cars because there’s only four of these on the darn thing! Since the wheel takes 17 minutes to do a full rotation and there were already a few people ahead of us, we were waiting for quite a while. However, due to the wait, we made it to the top of the Ferris wheel just as the sun began to set.

That night I saw my first movie in a theater since being in Asia, which was Changeling starring Angelia Jolie. A great film based on a true story about a missing child and a corrupt Los Angeles Police Department in the 1920s. There’s a shocking twist to the story not mentioned in the trailer that left me disturbed for a few days. If you didn’t catch the film on the big screen, make sure to pick up a copy at Blockbuster or your local DVD shop.

The amazing trip came to an end early on a Monday morning and I had my teary eyed good-bye with Nate. The vacation was chock-full of excellent food, excellent customer service, excellent accomodations and most importaly, excellent hospitatlity.

I left Taiwan feeling rejuvinated and suprisingly more conifdent about my Mandarin speaking skills than when I arrived. I felt that the people of Taiwan really gave me a chance to speak to them, even if I didn’t use the correct tones. They tried to understand what I was saying and didn’t blow me off immediatly because of the way I look (like a foreigner). I returned to Shanghai with a new sense of confidence for living in Asia. I started the next portion of my year in China with more knowledge and a fresh slate.

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