Back to Beijing

Once again, I'm faced with the fact that I'm just not much of a blogger.  I can't seem to make myself sit down and type a post in one sitting.  Usually when I write, I end up typing a couple of pages, then editing the pages, then thinking about what else to write, resulting in several long not-quite-posts and no actual posts for the blog.  As we say around here, "Zen me ban? (What's to be done?)"  Someday, I'll have a novel out of this.

Since my last post, we've returned safely to Beijing.  The weather is incredibly humid, but we were lucky enough to have a real thunderstorm (just like the Midwest!) last night that cooled things off a little bit.  Before I get too far into our adventures in the city, let me give a quick update on the past few weeks.  Over the last few weeks we...

-Traveled the Silk Road - Urumqi-Kashgar-Hotan-back to Kashgar- back to Urumqi-Turpan (I skipped out on this one to spend a day editing an article in the air-conditioned hotel!)-and back to Urumqi.  Keep in mind Xinjiang is about three times the size of France, and check out the red lines on the map!

-Logged two flights (both delayed at one of the world's most uncomfortable airports), a 26 hour train ride in close quarters with three strangers (I have a separate post about this special circle of hell in the works) and an 8 hour bus ride (after which we turned around and took an 8 hour car ride back the next day)

-Got caught in a dust storm in the desert (that was actually pretty cool)

-Spent the night in a hotel with armed troops in the lobby (that was actually kind of scary)

-Spent about a week in a hotel, whose slogan "Tomorrow, we will do better!" was all too true 

-Did several loads of laundry in a hotel bathtub (keeping in mind I mean a bathtub in western Chinese hotel...add some mold and a leaky faucet to that picture in your head)

-Braved many a Chinese breakfast buffet (I love Chinese food, but I have a Western appetite at breakfast)

-Attended a Uyghur wedding in Urumqi with lots of dancing

-Palled around the desert looking for a sign (a literal sign, not a metaphorical sign) that we never found but we are certain exists

-Ate more lamb than I ever thought possible

-Met up with old friends, made new friends, and felt pretty lucky that I know so many amazing people halfway across the world

-Took a ton of pictures

-Drank a lot of tea

-Discovered Texas Cafe, probably the most awesome restaurant in Urumqi

-Watched my husband be ultra productive and

-Generally, had an awesome time.

Journey to the West

Since I last posted, we've journeyed to the west - and by west, I mean the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China's western most province. From where I'm writing right now in the city of Kashgar, we are actually closer to Iran than Beijing! Bordering Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, the region is home to most of China's Uyghur ethnic minority population. Although we traveled to Xinjiang in 2010 to attend a wedding in Urumqi (the provincial capital) and visit Turpan, a grape producing oasis, this time, we're hitting up some of the major stops along the Silk Road, including Kashgar and Hotan.

While access to internet is limited, hotels are, well, what you'd expect from western China, and the weather is hot and hotter, it's been absolutely amazing. Not only is the physical landscape vastly different from China's eastern coast, but the local Uyghur culture, strongly rooted in Islam, is quite a change from the packed subways of Beijing. As major stops along the Silk Road, to say the cities we're visiting are rich in history is quite an understatement.

Today we spent some time walking around Kashgar's Old Town, a maze of alleyways and mud buildings, some of which are hundreds of years old. At present Old Town is being bulldozed and new housing is being built to replace the ancient buildings, The reconstruction of Old Town is, for some, a contraversial issue, but luckily for all of you, I don't have time to examine all sides of the complex argument right now (remember, limited internet!).  For today I'll just say I'm glad we had the opportunity to visit such a historical place, and I'll leave you with a few pictures.

Stay cool and hug your ac.

Id Kah Mosque, Kashgar (the largest mosque in China)

Fabric at the Sunday market in Kashgar (guess who bought some fabric?)

                                                                Wall in Old Town, Kashgar
 

  

What I've Been Doing

...so posting regularly has been a little more difficult than I anticipated.  In an attempt to pack light, we decided to bring one laptop on the trip, which, at the time, seemed like a great idea.  Since we arrived though, I've been taking two online classes, my husband's been able to get in a few hours of work online, AND he ended up translating two articles within about a week.  In other words, when we're home, someone is ALWAYS on the computer!

While I have a longer post in the works, I thought it might be interesting to let everyone in on what we've been doing over here.

For most of this trip, we are staying with friends in Beijing who have a spare room in their apartment and are generous enough to let us use it.  Our temporary home is on the way, WAY north side of the city.  Find the Olympic Stadium on a map of Beijing.  That's north, right?  Now go further, almost to the end of the subway lines.  That's us! 

As a result of our location, a typical day involves a lot of time devoted solely to travel.  Today, we made an entire 10 hour day out of a lunch date and a short interview.  Yup, that's Beijing.

On a typical day, we wake up, check email, Skype with our parents, and catch up on the news (for one us, this means checking in to see if the NBA's on).  If needed, I do a little work for my classes or my husband does a little work on the computer.  We have breakfast with those little packets of instant Nescafe, as coffee hasn't really caught on in our neighborhood yet (there is a Starbucks and a McDonald's about a 40 minute walk away though, so my addiction is still going strong) and get ready for the day.

Most days center around interviews or meetings with old friends/ professors of my husband's.  Both usually involve lunch...and are held somewhere at least an hour away from us.  The rest of the morning is devoted to walking/riding the subway.  On one hand, it's a bit of a pain in the ass to travel all around the city everyday.  On the other hand, it's awesome because I'm walking about 10 miles a day, and can therefore eat all the rice, noodles, and ice cream I want.  It's not a bad trade. 

Sometime in the afternoon, we usually realize that we need real coffee, and so we'll head off to the nearest coffee shop to get our fix, write up notes (him), and practice language (me).  If we don't have anything scheduled for the day (which has been rare this trip), we go out and do something touristy (we just saw a pretty sweet exhibit at the National Museum) or he works while I go do a little shopping.  We usually have dinner wherever we end up to avoid rush hour, and in the evenings, it's more homework, language study, and tv.  It doesn't sound that exciting when I type it all out, but this is what a research trip is like.  

And now for some pictures:

I swear, we live on the most crowded subway line ever.  This is a slow time of day.

I caught a blue sky over our neighborhood!

 The entrance to our neighborhood (population 300,000 and growing strong) at night, courtesy of the husband.

Field trip day at Tiananmen, also courtesy of the husband

...and now it's time to share the computer again.  ;-)