Student visitors to our apartment and student gifts

During April, we had 2 visits from students to our apartment. The first was Violet, Amaya and Kobiashi. Violet was the student that lives in ChenLu and gave us a tour of the town last winter. She wanted to visit to bring us a gift, a teapot. So they came and visited for a while. Nadia, the student from one of my classes could not come, she was busy with TEM-4 preparation. TEM-4 is the Test for English Majors, 4th semester. All students majoring in English in China are required to take this test the spring of sophomore year. Others can elect to take it, in hope of a good score for their school record. All my students are sophomores and were very stressed out over this test.

Here are the visitors with us: Me, Rosie, Violet, Amaya and Kobiashi

This is the teapot they brought.

This is a hada from a student who is from Inner Mongolia. The Tibetans give it to honored guests. The Mongolians give it to respected persons such as a teacher(Me!) If you look close, you can see the characters and symbols designed into it. It is made of silk. If around my neck and hanging in front of me the two ends go to my waist.

On student did her oral report on her grandfathers hobbies which are drawings and calligraphy.
She showed a video of him doing the above calligraphy. She had him do it for me. It is to a respected teacher. The small characters are the artists' name and the date.

I decided I needed a QQ account. QQ is the facebook/gmail/picasa/news website in China. All my students use QQ. I found an international version and got part of it setup. Unfortunately all is not available in English. These students volunteered to come and help me finish the setup. Summer, the one in the front on the left sat with me at my laptop and we finished the setup. Rosie had the others in the kitchen and had them make chocolate chip cookies. Most have never cooked before let alone made cookies. They were so proud of their cookies! While they were here, they asked why I don't have a Chinese name, I did not have a good answer, so they picked one for me:
陶去病
or in pinyin:
Táo qù bìng
it is from two famous Chinese men with the same year of the ox as me: Huò qù bìng and táo yuān míng a general and a poet.
Rosie made the hat you see on April (the front right one) and promised hats for the other 3. We will give them their hats this Thursday. The names of the two in the back is Dorothy and Clare.(left to right).
 As you can see I now can type Chinese characters and pinyin with tone marks on my laptop!

Three Gorges River Cruise - Day 3

I forgot to finish the river cruise. Here are pictures from day 3. We woke up docked at the end of the cruise. After breakfast, we took a bus to the dam and had a tour of the dam. After returning to the boat, we had lunch and boarded a bus for a 4 hour bus ride to the closest airport and the flight home.
Where we boarded busses there were vendors trying to sell many things. I was able to get 2 t-shirts with dragons on them that actually fit. The first I paid 200 yuan and the second only 50. I did not dicker good enough with the first one.

 These are the tram cars to ride from the dock to 'ground' level. The river is 30 meters low to be ready for spring flooding. One car going up and one coming down.

 This is one of the lock areas for ships to go up to the level behind the dam. a tanker can fit in here.

We were let off at the base of the dam. We took an escalator to the top.

 Looking down at part of the escalator.

 This was built on top as a 'lookout' area.

 Looking Down the dam. it is over 1 mile long.

 Looking down into the locks. there are a number of cargo ships in the same lock area.

 On the bus ride to the airport. That is a gravesite. Public cemeteries are not common, people are buried on their land with a tomb marker for those whose kids can afford it.

 Typical farmhouse. could almost be in America.

Another farm area. Reminded us of home.

Three Gorges River Cruise - Day 2

It rained most of the second day on the trip. This day we entered the gorges. Here are a few pictures from in the gorges.

 5 cruise ships in a row packed together at the doc. Those on the boat on the outside have to cross all the other boats to get to the dock.

 This is the escalator for the dock. Notice it has 3 parts with a spare. As the water level changes, they add or subtract parts to match the level of the water. The level varies by 30 meters. It lowers at this time of the year in preparation for the rains. by August it will be up to the max.

 Tombs that were lucky to be just above water level.

 Everyone all excited about entering the first gorge.

 Entrance to the first gorge.

 A hydrofoil cruising past us. going 3 or 4 times as fast as we are.

 The fuzzy looking stuff is a strain of bamboo. It is what pandas like the best.

 Another tomb near the river.

 A guy on the way to work.

 That is a casket up there. Estimated of being there over 1000 years. No one knows who, why or how it got there.

 A new hiway crossing the minigorge we are in.

 The mini gorge got so narrow we got on boats that hold 12 of us, a guide 4 rowers and a steersman. Our guide had very good English and was self taught. Did not test high enough for a university.

 Other of the cruise passengers. Many of the men rowing the boats live over the mountain, a 2-3 hike to home up and over a mountain.

 

There was another show this evening, but I was not feeling well. Rosie talked about it in her email.

Three Gorges River Cruise Day 1

On April 3rd we flew to Chongqing and boarded the Victoria cruise ship for a 3 day excursion on the Yangtse River. We boarded about 8:00 pm. There were about 200 guests on the ship with 30 of them BYU China Teachers. The next morning we woke up at Feng Du. Feng Du is the "Ghost City" and is a collection of Buddhist and Taoist temples set atop Ming Mountain(a hill by Utah standards). It got the name from two officials were bored with life in court and became the "King of Hell". Similar to Hades in Greek mythology. Much of the area was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution but has been restored in the last few years. Below are a few pictures of the area. I have more on Picasa for those interested. To get to all the temples and statues we had to go up 400 steps. I think they meant 4000. My knees were not happy by the time we were ready to go down. The weather was dreary with a light rain most the day. Pictures on the river were not very good because of the fog.

 The iron half-ball weighs about 200kg. The goal is to get it on the top of the mound and balanced. 3 of the BYU teachers tried and could hardly move it.

 This fellow could do it! He was a farmer, but the reservoir covered his farm. Most his income is from demonstrating this feat.

 Rosie is standing on a smooth rock about the size of a large softball. It is one of 3 tests to see if you are good or evil.

You could purchase a 'book' for your ancestors and have it burned here for them to have good time in the hereafter.

 

That evening there was a show on the ship about the costumes of the different dynasties. Here are a few pictures of the show: