Winter Solstice
1y 345d 21h ago | Central China
We?ve finally turned the corner! I hate to admit it but every year the end of the year passes by for me in a kind of black haze. From about the middle of October, I start realizing that the days are getting shorter in a kind of deep, palpable way and then I just do what I can to keep going, marking time, waiting for that darkest moment. Then the 21st of December arrives and I realize that, at last the day has come and the tide is turning.
So, what better way to celebrate than with a Chinese Festival?
Dong Zhi (Winter Solstice, actually celebrated on December 21,22 or 23rd depending on how the traditional lunar calendar for the year matches up with the solar calendar) is not as involved as Chinese New Year nor is it as serious as Tomb Sweeping day. No, Dong Zhi is celebrated by eating jiaozi (Chinese pot stickers or dumplings). The old wives? tale is that, you must make sure you eat jiaozi on this day in order to make sure that your ears don?t freeze and fall off during the coldest bit of winter that is yet to come.
If you haven?t yet been introduced to Chinese dumplings, you haven?t lived. They may be steamed or boiled or pan fried. They may be filled with meat or egg or vegetables. Most often the skins are white but some places create interesting and colorful varieties of skins.
And, if you?re a lover of sauces, then you need the chance to experiment with the condiments that commonly accompany these treats. Do you favor sour flavors? Then dip them in vinegar and see if that suits you. Or do you like your food salty? You should choose soy sauce as your condiment?. maybe with a hint of raw chopped garlic soaking in it to add its pungent flavor. Are you very adventurous? Then maybe you?ll create a sauce adding a variety of stinky tofu that looks about the color of raspberry yogurt or some hot chili flakes??? The variety of combinations is nearly endless so no bite need be the same?..unless you?ve found exactly what you like best and want to stick with it.
So, what better way to celebrate than with a Chinese Festival?
Dong Zhi (Winter Solstice, actually celebrated on December 21,22 or 23rd depending on how the traditional lunar calendar for the year matches up with the solar calendar) is not as involved as Chinese New Year nor is it as serious as Tomb Sweeping day. No, Dong Zhi is celebrated by eating jiaozi (Chinese pot stickers or dumplings). The old wives? tale is that, you must make sure you eat jiaozi on this day in order to make sure that your ears don?t freeze and fall off during the coldest bit of winter that is yet to come.
If you haven?t yet been introduced to Chinese dumplings, you haven?t lived. They may be steamed or boiled or pan fried. They may be filled with meat or egg or vegetables. Most often the skins are white but some places create interesting and colorful varieties of skins.
And, if you?re a lover of sauces, then you need the chance to experiment with the condiments that commonly accompany these treats. Do you favor sour flavors? Then dip them in vinegar and see if that suits you. Or do you like your food salty? You should choose soy sauce as your condiment?. maybe with a hint of raw chopped garlic soaking in it to add its pungent flavor. Are you very adventurous? Then maybe you?ll create a sauce adding a variety of stinky tofu that looks about the color of raspberry yogurt or some hot chili flakes??? The variety of combinations is nearly endless so no bite need be the same?..unless you?ve found exactly what you like best and want to stick with it.
Oops! That was the North Korean border there!!
2y 87d 23h ago | Changbaishan China, North Korea
When we ascended Changbaishan to view the Heavenly Lake, we had our eyes peeled. We had been warned in a travel guide that the approach on the West side came very close to North Korea?s number 5 border marker, and that there was a soldier guarding it. With it being just a few weeks after the American reporters, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, had finally been released, we were on high alert.
To our surprise, we reached the top and there was no guard in sight. (Well, only half- surprise to tell the truth- the guide we were using, though from an online source and therefore supposedly up to the minute- was horribly out of date. From everything we had already seen in the park, the guide seemed to have been written before the Western approach was very developed- certainly before the airport had opened there over a year ago.) At first we wondered if, during more recent development at the Western approach the path had been changed. Our other theory, as there was a roped off area Changbaishan visitors were evidently expected to remain within, was that the border lay at the edge of the marked off area and the marker was no longer extant.
We had been taking in the beauty of the Heavenly Lake and the view out across the other parts of Changbaishan Biosphere Reserve for some time when my eyes rested on an object that they had somehow failed to take in before. The writing on the side I was looking at was in Korean so I couldn?t be sure what it said but the number 5 was also etched in it quite prominently. To confirm my suspicions, I quickly went over to look at the other side of the post. As soon as I saw the Chinese, I knew for certain that, for the last thirty minutes or so, I had been standing in North Korea. Somehow, the absence of the soldier we had been ?warned? by the guide to look for, combined with the presence of other signs near the marker and the boundaries set by rope at the top of the pass, had caused us to overlook a small gray stone nearly immediately to the right of the steps as we completed our ascent!
Recognizing our mistake, we took a couple quick pictures with the stone itself and withdrew as far as we could into the Chinese side of the pass in order to sit down and eat our lunch.
Borders are such strange things. If you have only cleared customs in an airport or crossed from one country to another at a major border post, you could almost have the idea that the lines we see drawn on a map are carved into the earth itself. The reality of borders the world round is far messier. I couldn?t begin to keep track of how many times I passed back and forth between the US and Canada while in the waters of the lakes that form the Boundary Waters (or the Quetico as the natural preserve is known on the Canada) with no one and nothing other than a few ripples to mark my passages.
People groups often spread across a border from one side to another making it harder to mark the transition: in northwestern Thailand, one can encounter many Burmese before one even gets close to the border. Similarly, a significant Chinese population exists as far south as Chiang Mai. So often, individuals do not recognize the borders drawn by political leaders; they go where they please despite efforts to constrain them and draw limits on the realm of their culture. Perhaps even stranger is when artificially drawn boundaries have worked in the reverse, changing the placement of peoples and cultures artificially, as when India was split in three at the end of the British Raj and so many horrors were perpetrated among people that had been largely living at peace together.
I hope that some day, political matters can be settled and it won?t matter if I step across the border into North Korea. I have many altruistic reasons why I hope that may come about but on a purely selfish level, the hike along the top of the pass in that direction looks so inviting?..
To our surprise, we reached the top and there was no guard in sight. (Well, only half- surprise to tell the truth- the guide we were using, though from an online source and therefore supposedly up to the minute- was horribly out of date. From everything we had already seen in the park, the guide seemed to have been written before the Western approach was very developed- certainly before the airport had opened there over a year ago.) At first we wondered if, during more recent development at the Western approach the path had been changed. Our other theory, as there was a roped off area Changbaishan visitors were evidently expected to remain within, was that the border lay at the edge of the marked off area and the marker was no longer extant.
We had been taking in the beauty of the Heavenly Lake and the view out across the other parts of Changbaishan Biosphere Reserve for some time when my eyes rested on an object that they had somehow failed to take in before. The writing on the side I was looking at was in Korean so I couldn?t be sure what it said but the number 5 was also etched in it quite prominently. To confirm my suspicions, I quickly went over to look at the other side of the post. As soon as I saw the Chinese, I knew for certain that, for the last thirty minutes or so, I had been standing in North Korea. Somehow, the absence of the soldier we had been ?warned? by the guide to look for, combined with the presence of other signs near the marker and the boundaries set by rope at the top of the pass, had caused us to overlook a small gray stone nearly immediately to the right of the steps as we completed our ascent!
Recognizing our mistake, we took a couple quick pictures with the stone itself and withdrew as far as we could into the Chinese side of the pass in order to sit down and eat our lunch.
Borders are such strange things. If you have only cleared customs in an airport or crossed from one country to another at a major border post, you could almost have the idea that the lines we see drawn on a map are carved into the earth itself. The reality of borders the world round is far messier. I couldn?t begin to keep track of how many times I passed back and forth between the US and Canada while in the waters of the lakes that form the Boundary Waters (or the Quetico as the natural preserve is known on the Canada) with no one and nothing other than a few ripples to mark my passages.
People groups often spread across a border from one side to another making it harder to mark the transition: in northwestern Thailand, one can encounter many Burmese before one even gets close to the border. Similarly, a significant Chinese population exists as far south as Chiang Mai. So often, individuals do not recognize the borders drawn by political leaders; they go where they please despite efforts to constrain them and draw limits on the realm of their culture. Perhaps even stranger is when artificially drawn boundaries have worked in the reverse, changing the placement of peoples and cultures artificially, as when India was split in three at the end of the British Raj and so many horrors were perpetrated among people that had been largely living at peace together.
I hope that some day, political matters can be settled and it won?t matter if I step across the border into North Korea. I have many altruistic reasons why I hope that may come about but on a purely selfish level, the hike along the top of the pass in that direction looks so inviting?..
Changbaishan's Western Approach
2y 97d 23h ago | Changbaishan, Jilin, China
Standing outside in the evening opposite the gate to Changbaishan?s western approach, I breathe in the scent of autumn leaves, rain, and the crisp freshness of mountain air. If the weather were not so inclement, I would be tempted to just sleep outside tonight in order to more fully take it all in.
The next day, I am eager to climb to the summit and tempted to be impatient with a bus that waits to fill up before it moves. Then, when we stop at another spot before the point from which visitors climb to the summit, I try to find a way to get on the next bus and press along.
Fortunately for me, no bus is going yet; no one is willing to take me. I go reluctantly down the path that leads to the Jinjiang gorge and soon I?m so glad I haven?t missed this. The way the elements have eroded this stone is unlike anything I?ve ever seen elsewhere in the world. That, plus the beautiful colors, sounds, and smells of autumn around me are like a tonic and my city-dwelling self has, for a moment, found communion with nature.
The next day, I am eager to climb to the summit and tempted to be impatient with a bus that waits to fill up before it moves. Then, when we stop at another spot before the point from which visitors climb to the summit, I try to find a way to get on the next bus and press along.
Fortunately for me, no bus is going yet; no one is willing to take me. I go reluctantly down the path that leads to the Jinjiang gorge and soon I?m so glad I haven?t missed this. The way the elements have eroded this stone is unlike anything I?ve ever seen elsewhere in the world. That, plus the beautiful colors, sounds, and smells of autumn around me are like a tonic and my city-dwelling self has, for a moment, found communion with nature.
The most Zen of China travel bloggers
2y 101d 3h ago | Home in Central China
I have entered a competition that is being held by a new web travel agent here in China www.travelzen.com.cn
If you like what I write, please vote for me at:
http://events.travelzen.com.cn/blogComp/blogResult.php?language=en
(Please use the URL above, as the picture does not link to the site)
If you like what I write, please vote for me at:
http://events.travelzen.com.cn/blogComp/blogResult.php?language=en
(Please use the URL above, as the picture does not link to the site)
The North Face of Changbaishan
2y 101d 5h ago | Changbaishan, Jilin, China
It seems to me that one of the keys to enjoying life lies in the words of the poet Robert Frost:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
My friend and I had been feeling like there was no way our trip up the north face of Changbaishan was going to be a real nature experience whatsoever. Even though there were fewer people than if we had gone in the height of summer or National Day holiday, there were still so many people. I was beginning to lose hope that I?d have the mountain get-away experience I had pictured. We got off the park shuttle bus at the highest point below the waterfall, and our fellow travelers all set off up a wide concrete walkway at top speed. We paused for a moment to use the facilities available to travelers there and to try to at least separate ourselves from the group and gain a bit of quiet. Then, as we came back out into the open and looked around we saw it- a wooden bridge crossing a stream to a plank walkway. It seemed obvious that the plank pathway would also lead up to the waterfall if we went to the left and back down the valley if we went to the right. There was no one on the walkway that we could discern. Despite the fact that the bulk of the crowd had gone the other way (Which makes one think, ?Do they know something I don?t? Will I miss something if I don?t follow???), we determined to use the plank walkway to ascend to the falls and descend back into the valley. The walk was challenging but we didn?t regret our decision in the least.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
My friend and I had been feeling like there was no way our trip up the north face of Changbaishan was going to be a real nature experience whatsoever. Even though there were fewer people than if we had gone in the height of summer or National Day holiday, there were still so many people. I was beginning to lose hope that I?d have the mountain get-away experience I had pictured. We got off the park shuttle bus at the highest point below the waterfall, and our fellow travelers all set off up a wide concrete walkway at top speed. We paused for a moment to use the facilities available to travelers there and to try to at least separate ourselves from the group and gain a bit of quiet. Then, as we came back out into the open and looked around we saw it- a wooden bridge crossing a stream to a plank walkway. It seemed obvious that the plank pathway would also lead up to the waterfall if we went to the left and back down the valley if we went to the right. There was no one on the walkway that we could discern. Despite the fact that the bulk of the crowd had gone the other way (Which makes one think, ?Do they know something I don?t? Will I miss something if I don?t follow???), we determined to use the plank walkway to ascend to the falls and descend back into the valley. The walk was challenging but we didn?t regret our decision in the least.
