Subway Stops

Zhujianglu.  Xingjeikou.  Zhangfuyuan.  Xuanwumen.  Xiamafang.

Whew!

When we first arrived in China, these words were quite intimidating.  How do we begin to pronounce them correctly?  Yet, we had to know them, because they were some of the subway stops in the area where we stay or where we travel for school visits and trips around Nanjing.  Most signs are written in Chinese characters, so we were fortunate when we could see words written in Roman letters.  By now, some of these words are rolling right off our tongues!

What’s even more interesting is to learn what the words of our subway stops actually mean in English.  Some of them translate to : “Three Mountain,” “Pearl River,” “Drum Tower,” or “Dismount a Horse.”

Place names are often poetic and reflect nature or events from the past.  Some of us have visited the Yuijiang Tower on the Yangtze River, which translates “Enjoying-the-River” Tower.  While there we were amused by a sign in English that said, “Love-sickness carrying pavilion.”  Say again!?

Today was our last day for classes, and tomorrow we’ll be free for a bus tour to an outlying district.  We hope to see where Hudson Taylor lived and worked, and also where Pearl S. Buck grew up.

We then will reluctantly say good-bye to China, and expectantly say hello to Thailand.

 

Thirteen Things

What do our thirteen Northwestern students like about their China experience?  Here are the results of an informal survey: 

1.       The food

2.       How attentive and adoring parents are of their children

3.        Hospitality and generosity of new Chinese friends

4.       “I can’t stop looking at the adorable kids!”

5.       Being laughed at – not in a mean way - when we can’t speak Chinese (said by one of our four Hmong students, who don’t look “foreign” to the Chinese)

6.       The convenience of life in this city – everything is at our doorstep –without a car, we have bus and subway  transport, food, shopping, laundry, coffee shops  – it’s a system that really works

7.       The history of Nanjing – it’s rich and colorful and so old

8.       The architecture

9.       The humility and gentle spirit of the people

10.   The musical sound of the language

11.   The small shops open to the sidewalk and street vendors

12.   Hospitality

13.   The food

Famous Foreigners

Comp

Compared to Minneapolis, we’ve observed that Nanjing is quite monocultural.  Because of that, as foreigners, we have attracted attention not because of anything we do (hopefully), but just because we look different.  In the classes where our Northwestern students are helping with conversational English, the Chinese students swarm around wanting to be in pictures with them.  The two boys in our group now know what it feels like to be a rock star.  The girls all want their pictures taken with them, giggling and passing around their smart phones.  One of our American hosts mentioned that those pictures would probably be out on their social media by the end of the day!  In our prep course before we left, we talked about this “rock star phenomenon” and the need to keep a balanced perspective of oneself. It’s a challenge to maintain a servant attitude when everyone treats you like a celebrity.

 

Recently, we had a free day for outings in the city to some famous sites.  A number of us had the experience of being asked by random Chinese people to take pictures of themselves with us.  Not once, but maybe a dozen times.  One of the students was stopped by a camera woman for a TV station who filmed an impromptu interview.  Maybe he really will be on TV!  On top of that, we noticed ourselves being photographed on the sly by people off to the side.  These were undoubtedly friendly gestures, but it made us much more aware of how it feels to be “different.”

 

hat Nanjing is quite monocultural.  Because of that, as foreigners, we have attracted attention not because of anything we do (hopefully), but just because we look different.  In the classes where our Northwestern students are helping with conversational English, the Chinese students swarm around wanting to be in pictures with them.  The two boys in our group now know what it feels like to be a rock star.  The girls all want their pictures taken with them, giggling and passing around their smart phones.  One of our American hosts mentioned that those pictures would probably be out on their social media by the end of the day!  In our prep course before we left, we talked about this “rock star phenomenon” and the need to keep a balanced perspective of oneself. It’s a challenge to maintain a servant attitude when everyone treats you like a celebrity.

 

Recently, we had a free day for outings in the city to some famous sites.  A number of us had the experience of being asked by random Chinese people to take pictures of themselves with us.  Not once, but maybe a dozen times.  One of the students was stopped by a camera woman for a TV station who filmed an impromptu interview.  Maybe he really will be on TV!  On top of that, we noticed ourselves being photographed on the sly by people off to the side.  These were undoubtedly friendly gestures, but it made us much more aware of how it feels to be “different.”

 

 

The Worlds of Ancient and Modern

Nanjing has a history that reaches back thousands of years.  It served as the capital of ten dynasties in ancient China.  Some of that history can be seen in the old walls of the city, remnants of a Buddhist temple built 1500 years ago, and impressive relics of ancient civilizations preserved in museums.  It was also scarred by bombs and great loss of life (300,000) from Japanese invasion in the 1930’s.  This history exists side by side with a pulse of modern life that feels more familiar to us “westerners.”  The scale of international commerce and fashion and high standard of living have caught us by surprise. 

Our Northwestern students have been making new young friends who are part of the face of modern China.  These young people devote their lives to study so that they can find good jobs to support themselves and their parents as they get older. They have been eager to show our students around the city and take them out to eat and to see different sites.  With limited English on their parts (and no Chinese on our parts!), there have still been some good conversations taking place. 

By the way, you blog-readers may not hear from us as often as you’d like since we’re dependent on our access to internet.  It’s not an everyday thing!

The Ancient

The Familiar

Nanjing

After four full days in Nanjing, an ancient but modern city of 7 million near the Yangtze River, our students are quite good at getting around.  Thanks to a helpful orientation by our hosts, they can now navigate by subway or bus to get to various universities and colleges where they are plugging in to English classes.  They can eat quite well with chopsticks, which is good,  since there really isn’t an acceptable alternative.  They’re finding all kinds of interesting places to eat meals, and our hosts have noticed how ready they are to dive in and try anything!  We are housed in a tall high rise apartment building near city center; some of the girls are on the 31^st floor.  Down below us, we can watch a busy street filled with all modes of transport.  We’ve had to learn the rules on how to cross the busy intersections.  It’s  almost a like a choreographed dance as buses, scooters, bicycles, and pedestrians all criss- cross at once, but no one bumps into each other.

Our students have already been making friends with Chinese students in the classes they visit, and even though it’s only for a short time, good bridges are built between students of two very different cultures and ways of life.

View from 31st floor

Safe Crossing

 

Shanghai

The intrepid travelers arrived in Shanghai after our 24 hours of travel from Minneapolis.  Those who were new to travel by air are now seasoned to long international flights!  Our stay in Shanghai lasted about 24 hours, as this was just a transit city on our journey.  Because we were on our own and not met by any hosts, we navigated getting to the hotel and around the city on our own.  We owe a huge thanks to one of the students, who has studied Chinese for several years.  He acted as a very competent "on the spot" translator to us in a couple of slightly challenging situations, since there were no personnel at the hotel who spoke English.  A half day of seeing some sights of this very vibrant city  (like Manhattan with an Asian flair) ended with an exciting ride aboard a bullet train, topping 180 miles an hour, to our next destination.

Arrival to First Destination Complete!

Arrived in Shanghai and all are fine!

This message was posted by Mary Hawley  from a message received from Dr. Morgan.

Weighing In

My China Visa is Here!

The last prep workshop on campus required everyone to arrive with bags packed and ready to go for weigh-in - two days before travel begins on the 17th.  We don't want any "oops" surprises at the airport when we arrive for checking in early Thursday morning!  Everyone did great in the packing department.

The week before, we were holding our breaths and praying that the packet of passports sent to the Chinese consulate in Chicago would get back in time.  And yes, they came, complete with fresh visas stamped inside!  We're ready to go!

Queen of Traveling Light