Spring 2015

Spring

**Note** I actually wrote this post back in June but never got around to uploading pictures and actually posting it. Then we got sidetracked by our trip to Japan and are getting further behind. Now that this post is actually on the blog, we will start working on the Japan posts.

This spring we finally had a few opportunities to do what we’ve been looking forward to since moving abroad: see more of rural China. At this point I think we’ve visited more Chinese cities than American ones and, while they all have a few of their own unique attractions, they all start to feel about the same after a while.  Getting to the more rural areas is always a challenge though. It’s always some combination of taxi, train, and long distance bus and usually a full day of travel each way, making it too impractical for even three day weekends. Also, once you get out of the city, English speakers become fewer and further in between (not they’re particularly common in the city anyway) and even though my Chinese is getting better, there is always some misunderstanding along the way. The whole process is actually very stressful and we’ve gotten to where we just prefer going to Shanghai for every holiday weekend: it’s a relatively quick and easy trip and we already have all our favorite spots.

Visiting a water town has been high on the list for a while though and we finally decided to make it happen. There are several in the Hangzhou area so the problem isn’t with travel, but crowds. Everyone says that weekends and holidays get so busy that it’s not even worth it to go (the idiom Chinese people like is ‘people mountain, people sea’). Even my students said it would be best to wait until we get a chance in the middle of the week, which we finally got in May when we were given a few days off during the final exam testing weeks. We saw that as the perfect opportunity to go to Wuzhen, one of the more popular water towns in the Hangzhou area. To get there we had to take a long distance bus from Hangzhou, which took about 2 hours. We then transferred to a city bus to get to the Wuzhen scenic area where we were able to check into our hotel and enter the actual park.

The scenic area is basically just a lot of traditional Chinese buildings connected by a network of sidewalks and canals. It’s a bit like a miniature Asian Venice. There are lots of cool shops to visit, snacks to eat, and boats to ride in. We started out by taking a boat from the entrance of the park all the way down to the other end. There were lots of good photo opportunities on the way and when we got there, we were able to walk back the other way and stop at shops. It ended up being an ideal amount of other visitors as there were just enough to keep the shops open but not so many that it was crowded. After a few hours of walking around, we made our way to our hotel room, which was one of many little guesthouses operated by locals. It was right on the water and offered a cool view right from the bedroom. The owners made us dinner as well as breakfast the next morning, and after another few hours of roaming around we checked out and headed back to Hangzhou. It was a short and simple trip, but one of the more unique things we’ve done since being in China.

Another cool opportunity which came a few weeks later was to travel out to a very, very rural farming village called Juyukou, which one of my colleague’s wife grew up in. I had mentioned to him that we wanted to see more of rural China and they were kind enough to invite us for the weekend of the Dragon Boat Festival. Juyukou is about as rural as it gets, and without their hospitality we just wouldn’t have been able to get there on our own. It’s about an hour and a half by fast train to the nearest city, then two hours on two separate busses that wind through the mountains before you get there.  They have a car though and were willing to pick us up at the train station and drive us from there. We drove all the way to the top of one mountain range and down through the valley on the other side. There were a lot of spectacular views along the way and it was amazing how much clearer the air got and how clean the river was as you got out of the city and into the mountains.

After nearly two hours driving through the mountains we finally arrived in Juyukou. The village is home to about 200 residents, but most of the 20/30/40 year olds have moved into the city where there are opportunities for work outside of farming. We were told there are actually less than 100 people still living in the village, most of which are elderly and children. We were greeted by Jess’ (the English name of my coworker’s wife) parents, who own the only guesthouse in town. Jess had brought her 7 month old, which attracted all the old ladies who wanted to take a turn holding her. With a never ending supply of baby sitters, Jess was free to walk us around town and show us her village, which really only took a few minutes. Over the next few days we also had a chance to walk around the outskirts of town and see the farming fields and a little memorial garden for a famous artist who was from the village. All the local residents were very friendly to us and loved to smile and wave at the foreigners wandering around town.

Jess’ parents were also very hospitable. In addition to making all home-cooked, traditional Chinese meals for us, Jess’ mom also made lots of little snacks throughout the day.  The traditional food of Dragon Boat Festival is a kind of sticky rice cake stuffed with beans or meat and wrapped in a leaf to be steamed. They even invited us to help make them, but we soon realized they had to go back and fix the ones we made anyway. This was so conterproductive that we just decided to let the experts handle the rice cake making. That left us with nothing to do but relax! The hustle and bustle and constant chaos of Chinese cities is overwhelming at times so it was nice to just sit and listen to the 'nothing' happening all around us. We were also able to go on a few early morning runs up to the next village. The mist in the mountains was picturesque and quite beautiful. There was also a river that ran through the village and you could hear running water in the distance every morning and evening. It was very calming. After a few days of much needed peace and quiet, we made the long drive back to Hangzhou with my coworker. 

Since then we've been to Japan and back and need to get started on that blog also! At the moment we're looking forward to visits from Chelsea's brother, Chris, as well as my parents. 

Singapore

Singapore

The third and final leg of our trip was Singapore. Because of our preconceived notion that Singapore is 'just another city' and the fact that it's known for being one of the most expensive countries in the world, we decided we would only stay a few days. However, by the time we flew home Wednesday, we had learned that both of these notions were (at least partially) untrue. Although the entire country is essentially one big city, it's a fairly unique one. It's history as both a Malay state and a British colony, as well as interaction with various other Asian and European countries, have created a melting pot of many different cultures. English, Chinese, Malay, and Hindi are all widely spoken languages and art and architecture from many surrounding cultures are noticeable throughout the city. It's also obvious that the government does a great job of preserving old buildings and historic monuments, which make some neighborhoods have a colonial feel.

As far as Singapore's reputation for being very expensive, we found out our first night how true this can be. After spending an exorbitant amount on a mediocre dinner and drinks in a trendy expat area our first night, we decided we had to find cheaper meals somewhere else. We actually went grocery shopping immediately after dinner so we could avoid eating out for breakfast the following few mornings. However, the next day we found out that Singapore is actually a foodie's paradise. In lieu of traditional street food, the city has lots of public, outdoor 'food courts' with literally dozens (if not hundreds) of stalls with different food from all over the world. In total, we ate at three of these markets and had food from India, Spain, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Middle East. There were dozens of other countries represented at these stalls and you would have to try really hard to spend more than $10 USD per plate. The most we ever spent total (for two meals) was about $12. It's also common to see people sitting around drinking beer all afternoon, also at a very cheap price. So while you can definitely rack up hefty bills at trendy western restaurants and nights out in Singapore, it's also very easy to eat and drink like a local and keep it much cheaper. If I were ever to go back, I would just want to binge eat for the entire trip. All the food was amazing.

In between food comas we did manage to see some of the popular sights around town. Chinatown and Little India both have rich history in Singapore and we were able to learn about both on a city tour we took our first full day there. We also saw the oldest hotel in the city, which served as a military HQ during Japans occupation of the island during World War 2. The hotel bar is also the birthplace of the Singapore Sling, which of course we had to try. The famous Singapore 'Merlion' fountain, a museum of traditional Singaporean culture, and the botanical gardens were a few of the other stops we made. We also managed to get in a day of hiking, our favorite vacation pastime, at one of the nature reserves near the center of the island. Although it was fairly flat with few mountain top views, it was still hiking through some pretty cool scenery. And we were able to do a little over 10k, which is impressive considering we were in the middle of a sprawling metropolitan.

Like Bangkok, by the end of our time in Singapore we were wishing we had dedicated more time to this city. It’s hard to know when planning these trips which cities will be the same-ol’, same-ol’ and which are worth staying a little longer in. However at this point we had been gone for quite a while and were both exhausted. We were ready for a night in our own bed and to live out of an actual closet again. One last day of travel and we were back home in Hangzhou, with a few days to spare before school started. It’s been a few weeks back now and it feels like we’re already well into the spring semester.

We had a great time on our Chinese New Year trip this year and are already looking forward to the trips we will get to take in the future. We are thankful that we get to have these experiences and want to let our parents and family know how much we appreciate your support, which our life abroad wouldn’t be possible without. We want you to know how much we miss you all and that we look forward to simple things like Skype sessions, emails, and text messages just as much as we look forward to our travels. As much as we enjoy seeing the world, missing major life events such as births and deaths can be a challenge. We would like to congratulate Daniel and Theresa, Justin and Carrie, and Madsen and Hannah on the births of Ruby, Charlie, and Robert. We also lost Grandpa Minks this past year and deeply regret not being able to be with loved ones for the funeral. He will be greatly missed. We love and miss you all.

Hunter & Chelsea