Purple Mountain's Blossom Festival

Hello again!

So ever since I got to Nanjing I've been hearing about their blossom festival. Everyone says that if you're here in the spring then you have to go see Purple Mountain and all of the beautiful flowers. The only problem is, it's 90 rmb to get in, which while only being about 12 US is still way too much once you've gotten used to China's pricing system (read: China has made me cheap).

But there is a way around it. On the week days if you hike up the back side of the mountain and back down, you can get in the back gate without paying the ticket fee (read: Maggie is sneaky). So that's what I did on Thursday afternoon when I decided I needed to get outside.

It's been gradually getting sunnier more than overcast/rainy, which I think means (knock on wood) that spring is finally here.

I've started feeling a little down, which I have finally connected with the church season. It seems that big church holidays, Christmas, Easter, etc, make me miss home and miss my community, so I double-y thought that I needed a trip away from the smog and the mass of people and to get back to nature, which is where I think that God is most present.

I spent most of the afternoon taking the least populated (read: least developed) paths up and down the mountain, taking random turns, and following butterflies. There were four different kinds that I saw, but only two and a half (read: a little blurry) that I was able to snap a picture of. The one that got away was a little light purple one that never stopped long enough for me to capture. There were so many of them once I got to the paths leading to Ming tombs, and when the people didn't scare them away they were a treat to watch.

I also saw several different types of bees floating around and pollinating where they would, which was also fun to try and catch.

Overall, looking at the trees and grass and everything in bloom, I really felt that spring, and Easter, had arrived. There were especially some places where the death of part of a tree or old leaves were mingling with new buds, a symbol that I felt was especially poignant.

In honor of the festival, which I don't think officially starts for at least another week, there were carnival tents set up in a clearing near an entrance. I assume that young lovers and families will stop by to try their luck and win a prize in addition to admiring the beauty around them.

Everyone is still hard at work setting up for the festival, especially the garden workers. I snapped a quick shot of some workers taking a break next to their ladders.

People were camping and men were fishing and swimming in the lake that you aren't supposed to swim in, and everything seemed... springy. 

Not to be weird (I felt like such a perv trying to take this photo because her skirt was rather short and I was shooting at an upwards angle, but anyways), but one thing that I just cannot understand is why women go here in heels. It's all stairs, and uneven ones at that, and I can't imagine that walking in 3 inch heels would be comfortable even going a little bit. My feet were killing me by the time I decided to head back, and I was in hiking boots.

WuTong trees are an icon of Nanjing. They were brought here by Sun Yat-sen when he returned from France, and have been planted all over the city. As Nanjing develops its subways it has had to tear out some of the trees, to much Chinese protest (or at least as much protest as you can expect in China). There was enough of an outcry that officials have decided to 'relocate' the trees, and each one that they take out has a tracking number to ensure that it isn't just dumped somewhere (which I think was a problem when they first started 'relocating' them). The two pictures above are a row of mature and a row of baby WuTong trees, to give you an idea of what they look like.

I'm so glad that I went out. I got to connect with God and nature, get away from all of these people, and relax and explore. I hope that you enjoy the pictures, I certainly enjoyed taking them.

Happy Easter and God Bless,
Maggie

清明节 Tomb Sweeping Festival

Hello from China!

Last Wednesday, April 4, was Tomb Sweeping Day. This is an ancient holiday with roots in Chinese ancestral worship. It is believed that Chinese ancestors watch over their kin and guide them, blessing them and, when unhappy, cursing them. So every year the Chinese Tomb Sweeping Day takes place, where every family goes to their ancestral grave yard, cleans the tombs, lays flowers, and burns offerings.











These offerings are most often paper money, both new and old. The bags are old ingots, gold and silver Chinese money from days of old. They also have new paper money, caricatured versions of the renminbi.

I discovered to my dismay that Nanjing, being such a large city, does not have a graveyard in the sense that American cities do. Because the city is so big most families choose to have their family members cremated or taken back to their home town in the country to be buried. Because of this I wasn't able to get any pictures of the kind that I've seen on Tomb Sweeping Day: masses of Chinese families flooding into graveyards.


But I did get the chance to covertly snap some shots of offerings right outside my apartment. I tried not to be seen; I didn't want to seem callous to these families' traditions.

While to me it wasn't an especially meaningful holiday, it was nice to have a few days off (officially only Wednesday is the holiday, but in order to give people enough time to make it back to their hometowns, the government shifts the work week so we worked on the weekend and then had Monday and Tuesday off as well). Now to get back to business! It's also holy week, which is especially strange in China as there is absolutely no mention of it. I guess the commercialization of Easter hasn't quite made it over, although I have yet to make it to the fancy shopping malls, so we'll see! Love,
Maggie

Mrs. Wong Comes to China!

This past Thursday I went on a day trip to Shanghai to visit my high school Chinese teacher, Margaret Wong. Every other year Mrs. Wong takes a group of students and parents from Breck on a tour of China, and this year was her 30th trip! And it just so luckily happens to fall on the year that I am in Nanjing, so of course I had to go and visit!

On Thursday morning I caught the 10 am train to Shanghai, and an hour and a half later arrived. After catching a cab to where they were getting lunch, we met up and ate some Mongolian barbeque.

We did rather fit the 'tourist' profile

 After eating and exploring the Bund (the waterfront area of Shanghai) we took a boat ride on the Huangpu river. I've taken a boat ride on this river before on my first trip to China, but it was amazing to see how much had changed in just 7 years.

A hilarious poster of how to put on a lifevest

The top part of the boat

This really says 'prohibited to jump over', but hey, striding is close enough

 It was a fun boat ride and when I wasn't catching up with Mrs. Wong I was talking to Andrew Upjohn, an alumi of 2006 who also lives and works in Nanjing China. We knew each other in the way that going to a small high school makes you know everyone, but it was the first time really meeting, and I discovered that he's a pretty cool guy. Hopefully I'll get the chance to hang out with him back in Nanjing!

The older English side

And right across the river the new modern side

Mrs. Wong remembers when she first started taking tours here how this was the only building, and the rest of the area was fields. How things have changed!

 I also talked to some of the current students on the trip. Most of them are sophomores, and the girl that I spent the most time talking to was a French exchange student who had been studying Chinese for only a year.

Me and Mrs. Wong. Of course the only picture I have with her has a finger in it. Go finger.

 I also got interviewed by a woman who writes for the Breck newsletter. They're doing a piece on Mrs. Wong's 30th trip, and are interviewing former students who now live in China. I talked to Mrs. Wong about her trips, and found out that the largest trip she's ever organized had 75 people! The logistics alone made me a little flabbergasted, and she agrees that she's much happier with a smaller group (this one only has 20 people).

We had some barge accompaniment

This was just a neat building that we went by

The iconic Pearl Tower

A neat bridge (I'm sure it has a name, but I don't feel like looking it up)

 It was a fun boat ride and afterwards I had just enough time to walk to meet Alex, a classmate of mine who is currently doing her internship in Shanghai, for dinner. We had about an hour to eat and catch up, and then I was off again to the train station to head home!

Just as we got off the boat the sky line started to light up as it turned dark

The ticket

The free pen I got for coming

It was a very long but very fun day in Shanghai! I am so happy that I got to see Mrs. Wong and catch up a bit, and I can't wait to visit again in May when I get home. Yay Chinese! Love,
Maggie