Author: Kelsey Ryan

My thought as I stepped out of the metro station at Jing’an temple in Shanghai was, “This is not the China that I have come to know in the last four months!” Bright lights sparkled around me and the streets were cleaner then I have seen since my arrival in China. I’m staying at a great little hostel tucked away in ally in the residential district of the French Concession.

This neighbourhood feels very European or like something you would find in New York. It feels a little surreal to see the fusion of styles. I also indulged with a giant, crispy, Belgium waffle covered in whipped cream and berries. I absolutely love Chinese food, and I’ve gotten used to the spicy breakfasts, but it was nice to have a really good western breakfast for a break. I would not have found a waffle like this in Yichang.

I think my favourite part of Shanghai was simple wandering around and getting a feel for the city. But here are some of the things that I saw.

The City God Temple

This is a temple that is dedicated to three city gods of Shanghai: Chen Huacheng, Qin Yubo, and Huo Guang. I’m told it was popular during the Qing dynasty, but closed down during China’s Cultural Revolution and then it was only reopened as a Taoist temple in 1994.

It is a bit of a tourist trap, but some residents still come to offer incenses to the city gods. It was interesting to see it as a piece of historical Shanghai, but a little bit too crowded in tourists.

The Yu Gardens

Right next door are the Yu Gardens, which are beautiful and would probably be a lot more peaceful if I had visited on a week day. I probably would have skipped both of the above attractions, had it not been for the three Bostonians that I met my first day at my hostel, who I tagged along with for the day.

The Bund

This is the water front area were you can see the famous outline of Shanghai’s modern architecture. It is also were the the horrible New Year’s Eve stampede happened, were around 36 people died and many more were injured. Since is just happened a few days ago their were lots of police around and people laying flowers out in memory of the unfortunate victims. I spoke to some locals about what had happened, some said that the stampede had been caused by a mad dash for coupons that looked like cash, while others summed it up to there were simply too many people and not enough policemen present.

The Huangpu River runs along the Bund, and I saw signs advertising river cruise up the river, which seems kind of fun, but they were a little pricy. So I took the city’s ferry across instead. At 2 RMB a ticket, (about 0.30 USD) it was definitely in my budget. On the opposite side I enjoyed a bowel of spicy noodle soup, from a cozy hole-in-the-wall places, while watching the sunset over Shanghai.

Shanghai Propoganda Poster Art Centre

Last but not least, this was by far the highlight of my trip. I studied art in college and this was like seeing an entire segment of Design History in real life. This is a tiny little museum in the basement of an unmarked apartment complex in the French Concession. I read about it online, they said it would be tricky to find and it was. I found the street address which brought me to a huge apartment complex, in a very quiet part of the neighbourhood. I stood at the entrance, rather awkwardly looking for some a sign or something to direct me to the museum. I felt a tap on my shoulder, a little startled I turned and saw a man in a uniform. He asked me something in Chinese, to which I smiled apologetically, for not understanding. He laughed and offered me a card, I smiled in joy and triumph when I realised it was a little map of the complex directing my to the proper building for the museum. It also had directions to enter the elevator at the designated building and to press “B”. I followed the directions, until the elevator doors opened on the basement level, there were no signs or indication that there was a museum there. I felt very smug as I entered the museum.

The collection of original posters that is tiny basement museum hold is quite amazing. There are propaganda posters from the 40’s to the end of the cultural revolution in the 70’s. These posters are rather rare because Mao’s successor ordered the government to have these poster’s recycled or thrown out.

The presentation of the museum was very casual, most of the poster’s where pressed between crookedly cut black paper and clear plastic hung by multi coloured push pins. It was very well laid out though, grouping the posters by years and phases. I loved the colloquial feel of the place. It is a very large part of China’s history, and represents a huge part of Design History. Definitly worthy the time it takes to find. Not to mention that even if you get a little lost, the neighbour hood is lovely and a nice change of pace from the busy tourist cites.

I’ve really enjoyed these three days in Shanghai, the city has a very international feel and the essence reminds me of New York in some ways. I did not really want to stop in Shanghai, and I was kind of dragging my feet about coming here, but I am so glad that I came. I thought it would be similar to Beijing, but it is so very different and unique. I was surprised how much more developed it seems then Beijing. There is also a lot more western influences in this city.
Now my time in Shanghai is nearly done, and early tomorrow morning I will fly north to Harbin, to see the famous Ice Festival, and freeze for three days. Wish me luck!

Happy New Years everyone! I actually wrote this post a few days ago, but since then my internet connection had been too weak to post it, better late then never though, right?

My first New Years abroad, and I was so happy to celebrate with my dear friends in Yichang. It was a lovely evening, we ate some amazing food, drank hot chocolate, rang in the New Year in a warm cozy pub, and then finished the celebrations by setting a floating latter out over the Yangtze River with a wish for a the New Year.

The New Years celebration marked not only the end of 2014, but also the end of my time in Yichang. It was the perfect time to say goodbye, with everyone already gathered for the Holiday. Earlier in the day, my school had a going away celebration for me, I was glad for the chance to say a proper good by to all of my co-workers. I had already said my good byes to my students the week before, which was a lot harder then I thought it would be.

Goodbyes all said and done, I’m now on a bullet train headed for Shanghai. I’m starting out 2015 with 5 weeks of travelling about Asia, and I could not be more excited! When the train pulled away from the Yichang train station, I had a little cry, saying good bye to my home of the last four months, I never expected it to be this hard to leave. Yichang will forever have a little corner of my heart. Now, with goodbyes behind me and looking forward I’m absolutely bursting with excitement. It is the perfect way to start out this year. At the beginning of 2014, I never thought I would be spending the last four months of the year in Yichang, China, a place that I had never even heard of until four months ago. I wonder where 2015 will take me?

My next five weeks will be spent in Shanghai, Harbin, Beijing, Xian, Tibet, Nepal, Singapore and Malaysia. I’m still working out details of the last part of my trip, as far as exactly where I will be staying and what I will be doing. If any one has any tips or suggestions on what to do in Nepal, Singapore and Malaysia I would love to hear them!

So Happy New Year to you all! To my friends and family, I miss you all, and to those in San Diego, I will see you sometime in February!

Last Sunday I was invited to lunch at the home of one of my students. While I was there, his mother told him to show me his calligraphy skills. It was cute to see how excited he was to show off.

The images above are sampler of Chinese Calligraphy that he made as a gift for me. I was so impressed by how quickly he finished the whole thing. I think it really only took about half an hour. They said he has been studying Chinese Calligraphy for four years. He also is learning how to paint with ink on tissue thin paper, in the traditional Chinese style. While he was telling me about this, his mother, Mrs. Feng, called his art teacher, Mr. Yang, and invited him over to meet me. He is an artist that runs an art school where Mrs. Feng teaches traditional Chinese poetry. Mr. Yan came over and demonstrated how to paint in a traditional Chinese way.

He used a large calligraphy brush and worked very quickly, moving with sure and confident brush strokes to create an image of bamboo. He wrote my name in it next to some Chinese Characters and told me that they said that this painting was made for me. Then he signed his name, beneath that he wrote the characters for the season, autumn, and the year.

He used a special red paint to to stamp his seal onto the painting beneath his name and the date.

After he finished my lovely new painting, he invited me to come to his art school and he would show me how to paint in the Chinese style. Mrs. Feng had told him that I studied art in college, and he thought it might be interesting for me. I happily agreed and after lunch we all hoped on a bus to visit the art school. Once we got there he showed me some of the student’s work, and then he showed me some of his paintings, which were so breathtaking, the pictures below do not do them justice.

They are done with ink on paper that is tissue thin. They are so delicate and beautiful, I cannot image working with such delicate materials! Mr. Yang decided that I should be introduced to these mediums, and had me join a beginner’s class for the evening…a beginner’s class for five year olds.

Our subject was a bearded dragon, I think we captured him quite nicely!

These were all of the student’s paintings, pinned up for critique!

My classmates gave me a very positive critique. 😉

All-in-all is was a perfectly lovely day. I met so many lovely people, was given demonstrations of a new, to me, art, and I even got to try my hand at it. They left an open invitation to visit the school as often as I like. I am sure that I will take them up on it.

Tonight marks the end of my first month in China. It has been a beautiful month, challenging sometimes, full of ridiculous situations that I got myself into and a lot of miscommunications. Fortunately for me I have been blessed with patient people. Shop owners and coworkers patiently let me stumble though new words, making a fool out of myself. But over all I am getting on pretty well here. Tonight I had a new sort of experience.

Earlier I went for a walk and went farther then I meant to and also got a bit lost. Getting lost is a common side effect of not being able to read the street signs. While getting lost in a strange city has its charm, tonight it made me late for dinner. It as 8 pm, by the time I was on my way to the restaurant where I eat. Usually I would eat around 5 or 6 on weekends, so I was a little worried that it might be closed. I was very tired and very hungry so I was glad to see the doors open and the light shining bright as I approached the the restaurant.

As soon I walked in I saw the family that ran the place sitting down for their own meal, realising that they might be closed, and I was interrupting dinner, I started to back out the door, my face flushing to a bight crimson. The grandmother smiled and laughed at me, then waved her arm motioning me to stay. She walked over to the door and ushered me over to the family table, where a chair had suddenly appeared and I was being pushed into it. I smiled shyly around the table, everyone was beaming at me and speaking rapidly to each other in Mandarin. Even after a month, I still no very little and no one in the family spoke any English. Their smiles soon put me at ease though.

The children flew to my side instantly, two leaning on the side of chairs, staring at me. The youngest girl, and the princess of the family, clamoured up onto my lap were she perched for the rest of the evening. I think she is about three. Chopsticks are made even more difficult with a three year old clinging to one of your arms. She was darling and chatted away to me, never stopping for a breath. It made me miss my own chatty niece.

When you eat out with a group the food is always served family style. Everyone is given a rice bowl and then you use your chopsticks to eat directly from the serving plate. If something is too hot or the bite is too big, you can place it into your bowl of your rice. I love this style of eating as you get to have a bit of everything, rather then have to pick just one thing off the menu. The downside of eating alone in China, is you miss out on the variety.

Tonight however I was able to sample bit of everything, well actually a lot of everything. When you are a guest in China, the hosts push food on you constantly. I could barely keep up with everything that they put in from of me. Everyone was dishing me up a bit of this and that, everyone ignoring my protests. When I was so full, I could not eat another bite, I remembered to leave a bit of food in my bowl. I was told that this is the polite was to say that you are full, here in China. Maybe I did it wrong, or did not leave enough food, because they kept putting more things on my place and motioning for me to eat them. I really need to learn the Mandarin words for “No thank you, I’m full”. They might have saved me tonight, had I known them!

I walked home, reflecting that this was the first time that I felt a sense of belong in this place, and marvelling that I was actually able to walk out on my own after consuming all that food. It was a lovely evening filled with laughter and amazing food.

I’ve had a bit of a change in plans, I’m still in China, just not in the city I thought I would be living in. I’ve been in China for a little over three weeks now and I started this blog, because my grandma said to, and who can say no to their grandma?

I came to China though a program called Greenheart Travel, along with four other teachers. Greenheart works with a partner company in China called BEIT, who found placements for all of us. About a month before I left for China, I got an email saying that I would be living and working in Jinjiang, a large, costal city in the Fujian Provence. We got to pick our top three choices and this was my second choice. I was stoked that I got one of my picks and I began to get excited about my new home. The proximity to the coast and the warm, San Diego like climate were the biggest attractions.

During the orientation in Beijing, Scarlett, our main contact at BEIT, talked to each of us about where we were going. When she got to me she started talking about Yichang. I looked at her, confused, and asked what had happened to Jinjiang, my warm costal city. Apparently the school in Yichang, which I did not apply to, had requested me to come there. Scarlett went on to say that it was my choice and I could still go to Jinjiang if I wanted to. As you can imagine this took me by surprise, so I said that I would think about it overnight. She smiled and told me that the schools really needed an answer and she needed to arrange my train tickets as soon as possible. While I sat there, trying to decide what to do I was reminded of my time in Germany and my unplanned migration from Berlin to Munich. Nothing went the way I planned but it was a fantastic, adventure filled trip and this new offer was tugging at my sense of adventure. But what if it is cold in Yichang? I was counting on warm…then Scarlett told me that Yichang had nicer accommodations AND to lure me away from Jinjiang, they were offering a small travel stipend to use during national holidays. I took the bribe and accepted the offer in Yichang. Yes, I did it for the money. Later that evening I told my mother, via Skype, that I had a change of plans. She responded with a heavy sigh and a “Well, of course YOU do.”  She knows me so well.

Once again my plans have gone out the window. Two days later, I boarded a train bound for  Yichang, and Lucas, another Greenheart teacher who snatched up my abandoned placement, jetted off to Jinjiang.

So that is how I ended up here in Yichang, curled up on my couch in my very comfortable apartment. I’ve been here just over three weeks and I am very happy with my spontaneous change of plans. the province I am living in is called Hubei, it is known for sub tropical weather and spicy food, what’s not to like?

I have to admit, when Lucas decided to take the Jinjiang placement, I felt a twinge of jealousy. Maybe I could still change my mind? I mean sure I gave it up and tossed it aside after Yichang bribed me away, but it was mine first! I was feeling a bit uneasy with my rash decision, committing to a new school in a city, that up until thirty minutes ago, I had never heard of before.  I soon got over my misgivings, fully embraced my change of fates, and wished the best of luck to Lucas. I’ve learned it is best to embrace changes and to focus on the experiences you have, not on what you might have missed out on had you taken a different route.