Thanksgiving Turkey in Xinjiang, China: The 3 Year Quest Ends

Thanksgivings abroad have always been a bit tricky.   Just ask Tim over at the China Rises blog who has been celebrating his Thanksgiving abroad since before I knew what a computer was. According to him, however, his most recent celebrations in China have been "super easy".  Guess it must be nice to live in Beijing, Tim.

As always, it's a bit harder out here in Xinjiang, so I'm very proud to say that after two and a half long years of living here, we finally got a turkey - and I'm convinced it was the only one in the province!  The last two Thanksgivings here have been somewhat damped by the absence of a turkey and the embarrassing fact that we actually spent time and money traveling to eat at Pizza Hut in Urumqi.  It's not that I never searched for a turkey to eat on Thanksgiving, only that each of my searches ended in us settling for a not-so-Thanksgiving-like chicken.

It really is a baffling thing if you think about it: of all the interesting meats that we have eaten since being here in China (horse, dog, rabbit, donkey, turtle, and duck to name a few), why wouldn't they have turkey? Surprisingly however, very few of our Chinese friends have ever eaten turkey, much less seen one with their own eyes.  Many of my elementary students were clueless even after the word for 'turkey' was translated into Chinese.  "What is that?" they asked me.

This year was different though!  Believe it or not, I had people searching and asking around in all different cities in Xinjiang trying to find us a turkey.  I was this close to sitting on a bus for 8 hours after work on Wednesday just to pick up a turkey to have for Thanksgiving Day!  Thankfully I was spared this long trip when I walked into my Wednesday morning adult class, a class largely made up of government workers in our small town.  Somehow they had heard about my desperate search for a turkey and had tracked one down  in a small farming community about 15km outside of our city and they wanted to give it to us as a gift! They only had one question for me: "Do you want it dead or alive?"

Well alive, of course!  Turns out I not only taught my entire adult class with a big turkey hanging out in the classroom, I even brought him to the elementary school where I introduced many of my students to the first Thanksgiving turkey they had ever seen.  His heroic performance on stage in front of the kids was then rewarded with an immediate trip to the butcher's after which I prepared him for Thanksgiving.  He barely fit in our tiny oven.
 

Our Thanksgiving was finally complete.  Along with about 13 other people we had the best Thanksgiving celebration we've had since arriving here in China.  My wife prepared - from scratch - apple pie, pumpkin pie, salad and fresh rolls.  We ate turkey, played games, and I even popped in a recorded football game I had from last year.
 

We may not have had cranberry sauce and the whole process was far from "super easy", but we just had a turkey feast in Xinjiang and now that I do know what a computer is I get to tell you all about it.

 

Pirated DVD's Redeeming Quality: The Back Cover

Last month, John over at Sinosplice wrote a great piece about the unnecessary waste that comes with a pirated DVD here in China.  The topic was so relevant to life here in China that I'm surprised it hasn't been written about before (or maybe it has and I haven't noticed).  I suggest you read the article yourself, but if you don't have time here's a simple summation of what was said: out of the $1 spent on a DVD here, probably 70 cents goes to pay for the six layers of wrappers and covers that you throw away the moment you take it home.  It's annoying.

Over the past year or so, though, I've also taken notice of one more trend related to pirated DVD's that I actually enjoy - the back cover.  I personally don't buy movies often, but when I do one of my favorite activities is to turn the case around and laugh at the back cover.  Why?  You have to see for yourself.

I know I'm supposed to be a grown adult, but I admit that I love Pixar and I couldn't wait to get a copy of the new Wall-E movie to watch.  Thankfully the copy we eventually found was good viewing quality, but a close inspection of the back cover revealed that these "DVD pirates" don't really care about the cover's accuracy as long as it looks full.  I've done you the service of highlighting the obvious mistakes:

1. The Quotes:  At the last minute, Martin Lawrence and Raven were added to the Wall-E cast after the film's release and they performed wonderfully.  Apparently the folks at Disney were concerned about the lack of racial diversity within the human characters in the movie and wanted to make sure they were being politically correct.  OR this is a quote for the wrong movie.  Happens all the time.
2. Proof of Purchase:  Although I've never scanned the bar code when buying a Chinese DVD, it's absence would obviously make this copy less authentic.  Then again, I just bought a Wall-E DVD with a National Treasure: Book of Secrets proof-of-purchase, so who really cares.
3. The Description:  Just as I was getting hooked by the description of this lovable robot's story, it suddenly ends with, "Transport yourself into a fascinating new..."...new...new what?  WHERE THE HECK AM I GOING TO BE TRANSPORTED TO!!
4. The Credits:  The credits here confirm the suspicions I've had since I started reading this cover - whoever was designing this either has a secret crush on Raven-Symone or was watching her movie while working.  Every word of the credits is for the movie "College Road Trip".  Bravo, genius.
   

Of course I could go on about the bad spelling, the horrible grammar, or how "G-rated" movies mysteriously become "R-rated" movies,  but it all just blends into one big mess of a cover.

My favorite part of it all?  When I pop in the DVD I'm treated to that now commonly used 30-second infomercial telling me not to do the one thing I just did..."You wouldn't steal a car...you wouldn't steal money...so don't buy pirated DVD's!"  Sorry guys, but I don't have any other options here.

The Kyrgyz Mother from Karakul Lake

The sun patiently rises as it does every morning, painting the sky with varying shades of blue while creating dark silhouettes of the Pamir Mountains reflected on Karakul Lake below.  At the base of the Muztagh Ata, the largest of these Pamir, a small village is already awake and far too accustomed to these dramatic natural scenes to take any special notice today.  Officially this land upon which this breathtaking scene has unfolded belongs to China, a portion on the western tip of Xinjiang, but you'd never know by looking around. Every one of the less than 200 inhabitants of this village claim heritage from Kyrgyzstan, one of the countries on the other side of these tall peaks, and most of them will be herding cattle today just as their ancestors did centuries ago.

Among these people is a young Kyrgyz woman named Cholpon who was born and raised not even five kilometers from this lake.  At the tender age of 25 she has already given birth to three children, the oldest being seven years old, all of whom currently live with their grandmother in a nearby village while Cholpon works hard with her husband to help sustain the family.  Her sharp, blue eyes are the only evidence of youth hidden behind layers of leathery skin, tanned and slightly wrinkled from years of outdoor physical labor.  Her clothes are well-worn and old yet warm enough to endure the cold will soon come over this area during winter.

I watch intently from a distance as she non-chalantly fetches a heavy bucket of fresh water from Karakul Lake in order to make breakfast.  MY breakfast, that is.  It's hard to believe, but I just woke up from a night spent sleeping at the foot of a beautiful mountain in a yurt, a tradiational dwelling not quite as permanent as a home but much more sturdy than a tent.  Made entirely by hand, this yurt took all of three hours for Cholpon's husband to set up and features wool coverings, a lockable wooden door, and a cooking stove fueled by wood and cattle patties.  When completely disassembled this home can be carried by a single donkey or horse, the perfect solution for this once nomadic people.
 

Instead of roaming the countryside like their ancestors, though, these Kyrgyz people now earn part of their living by hosting adventurous foreigners like me and my wife.  During our stay here they have provided us with warm housing and good company topped off by a traditional meal cooked by Cholpon herself.  Breakfast this morning before we leave is just icing on the cake.  Upon entering the comfortably warm yurt I find that she has almost finished preparing our morning snack and my wife has completed her morning routine.  Cholpon has been too shy to look at us much since our arrival and the fact that she doesn't speak English or Mandarin has made communication difficult, but there is a beauty in her eyes and face that draws us to her.  She seems thrilled when we ask her to sit down and eat breakfast with us.  For ten short minutes we converse using the universal language of hand motions, mostly talking about her children, permitting us our only glimpse of her smile as she excitedly shows us a picture.

 

As quickly as the smile came, it vanishes, and she nervously leaves us to finish her chores the moment she hears the footsteps marking the arrival of her husband.  He's a calm man, not abusive by any means, but I'm now learning that this male dominated-culture frowns upon her socializing with other males like me, especially when we're foreigners.  He has been very good to us, taking us on a horseback ride to his village, sharing with us a brief history of the area, and answering all our questions, but interestingly he has made no effort to include his wife in our interactions.

We pack our pack our bags to put in the trunk, but before we leave, our friendly host has one more thing to show us - a small wool carpet hand-woven by his wife.  Cholpon proudly displays her work to us and it's all we can do to keep from buying each piece.  We've spent only 10 meaningful minutes with this woman and yet we desire something to remember her by, a small token of her life's work to be appreciated for years to come.  As we shut the car doors to return to Kashgar, I am able to meet eyes with her one last time knowing that once we drive away we will never see her again, yet she will still continue to work and serve and miss her children.  Oddly, I can see no trace of unhappiness or regret in her eyes.  She works hard and loves her family just like many other mothers do, and she is proud to do so even if it is in a very small village on the edge of Xinjiang. This is her life - the only life she has ever known - and she is content.
 

Why Lie? The Chinese Solution to Rejection

I was reminded yesterday of a small part of Chinese culture that I have had a hard time accepting over the years.  Anybody expat who lives here will probably know what I am talking about and I'm sure there are numerous China blogs that have touched on this subject in the past, but now it's my turn: I'm talking about the art of "Chinese lying".

The Party
 

To give you a small bit of background, Tiff (my wife) had planned a very nice Halloween party for all our friends and co-workers last weekend.  She put no small amount of effort into not only the party, but also the food, the costumes, and even the invitations she handed out.  Based on what people told us the week leading up to the party, turnout was going to be pretty good so Tiff would have to make a lot of food.  Yesterday, the day of the party, we spent most of the latter half of the day working, shopping, and preparing for that afternoon.

But as it happens, some mysterious sickness came over many people (who look perfectly healthy today, by the way), their bedtimes all-of-the-sudden changed (8pm...really?), or they got unusually busy for a Sunday night.  I guess we should be thankful that those people even called us five minutes before the party started like they did, because another handful just didn't show - they all simultaneously "lost" our numbers they told me today.  Let me clarify that neither Tiff and I are bitter about this as we had a grand time with all those who did show up, but I will admit that it was annoying.

Why "Lie"?

These people, most of whom we have been friends with over the last 2 and a half years, decided it would be much better for them "lie" to us by telling us they would come to the party and then "lie" to us again when they called to give their excuse.  I put the word "lie" in quotation marks because I sincerely doubt they think they are lying.  In fact, I have a feeling they think they are doing us a favor. It's wasn't until I was able to come to grips with this idea that my anger over these kinds of situations was able to change into just minor annoyance.

You see, it is my belief that our Chinese friends think rejecting our invitation at the moment we ask would cause us to lose face. The theory behind all this seems to be that if the party flops, we can at least say that we just had a city-wide outbreak of the flu so it's really not our fault. The same thing goes for Chinese weddings, which is why there is no RSVP.  I have never heard of anybody turning down a wedding invitation when passed out, but I have been to a couple weddings where multiple tables sat empty with food on them as if expecting guests who decided they couldn't make it that day.  That's just the way it is, and when you grow up with this way of doing things, it's not seen as wrong, only as the norm.

Turning the Tables

I run into problems, however, trying to figure out how to deal with this art of Chinese lying when I am the one who needs to reject an offer.  A man called us a few weeks ago asking for us to tutor his daughter on the weekends after we had already decided we weren't going to accept any more tutors.  Although in English saying a simple "I'm sorry, we're not accepting any more tutors" is acceptable, directly saying "no" to this man could have been taken as rude here, especially in our small town.  Our options were limited to a couple more acceptable things:

1. Lie to him.  Tell him we'll think about it and call him back later...but never call him. We try to avoid this - it feels so wrong as a westerner to do this.
2. Lightly brush him off.  Tell him we're not sure we have enough time for him, even though he and I both know we do.  We reject his offer without saying "no", but there's still a bit of awkwardness present.  We do this every once in a while but still find it uncomfortable.
3. Redirect him with a counter offer.  This, in my mind, is the best option when available.  In this case we told the man that we had good friends who were looking to tutor and we would give them his number because we are very busy this year.  Here we can tell him "no" without being direct and yet still please him by partially satisfying his request.  This also doesn't force us to lie or tell partial truths that we really don't want to do.

The Pictures

So now that you know the story behind the party, here's a couple of pictures to let you see how a Halloween party in a small town in Xinjiang looks.  It's nothing like what you might find in Shanghai or Beijing, but we had a good time, and there were more people than is evidenced by these pictures.

It was a costume party, and Tiff was a cute mouse.

 

The fun and ever-popular mummy-wrapping game.

Pumpkin bowling with water bottles.

**Pictures of me and my costume have been purposely omitted for the sake of my pride.  If you have some unnecessary  desire to see my "Mr. Incredible" outfit, please contact me with a request so I can laugh at you and save my dignity for another day.

Kashgar, Eid, and the Id Kah Mosque

It's always overwhelming to find yourself surrounded by more than 30,000 people at any point in time...whether at a sporting event, concert, or celebration...but it boggles the mind when such a gathering is performed peacefully, quietly, and quickly.  So it was on this quiet morning of Eid ul-Fitr that we woke up extra early to experience what happens when Muslims from all over Xinjiang converge on a single location to celebrate the end of Ramadan.

Id Kah Mosque

Located in the heart of Kashgar, a city on the westernmost tip of China and populated primarily by Chinese Muslims, is the largest and, according to many, most beautiful mosques in China.  I refer to the Id Kah Mosque as the "8 Car" mosque because when I asked a local say the name, I could have sworn it sounded exactly like he was telling me to go find eight cars somewhere.  For Muslims in this area this place is a holy site - many travel for days to worship here during the big festivals.  For those who have travelled around much of the world, however, its really quite small and somewhat unimpressive.  The building, that is.

The day before Eid we decided to take a look around the mosque to find out what all the buzz was about.  At the cost of a whopping 30 RMB per person (approx. $4) we spent an entire fifteen minutes wandering around a large, open-air courtyard towards a prayer hall that housed nothing but carpets to kneel on and columns to keep the roof from caving in.  We weren't impressed.  We shouldn't have expected much more, I guess, but our understanding of the Muslim culture was practically nil so it was hard not to be disappointed after paying to see it all.  If I had known then how many people were going to be cramming into every available floor space in this enclosed area, I might have viewed things a bit differently.

Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr

For those unaware, Eid ul-Fitr marks the end of the month-long religious fasting called "Ramadan".  For the entire month a fast is supposed to be observed from sun-up to sun-down until the final day when they hold a celebration that seems to me to be as big in their culture as Christmas is in America.  People travel long distances to see family, visit friends, and in many cases to visit an important mosque.

So when we woke up that morning after Ramadan, we knew there would be a lot of people, but that still didn't adequately prepare us for what we saw.  We arrived at 8am to find people from every direction of the city converging on the small yellow mosque which seemed to swallow thousands of them every second.  The only sound we heard were soft footsteps and one small boy trying to sell carpets to those who only brought plastic bags to kneel on.  For one full hour the masses never stopped coming and the mosque never stopped swallowing.  I later found out that the mosque can hold up to 25,000 people at once, but I figure there's got to be some huge fire code violation going on there.

The Gathering and Prayer

Have you ever witnessed this many people performing the same actions and saying the same things all at once?  It's eerie!  Even though I share very little of their beliefs - or perhaps for that very reason - it sent chills down my spine.  They were of course all facing Mecca, one part of this ritual I was already aware of, and the words and prayers being spoken were echoed everywhere and completely incomprehensible to me.  The entire ritual lasted less than 20 minutes, a portion of which you can see in the video below.  Once finished, everybody left in the same manner as they arrived: peacefully, quietly, and quickly.  It's something I'll never forget, and if you ever find yourself near a major mosque during Corban or Eid, the two largest Muslim festivals, get yourself out of bed early and go watch.

If you have seen this in person, what did you think?

Performing at a Wedding

We should get paid, that's what I think.  This being our 6th wedding of the month we're beginning to see patterns in the way a Chinese wedding is run and one of them always has to do with a foreigner performing on stage.  Sometimes, like today, against our will we become the main entertainment of the wedding, forcing me to ask why the host is getting paid while we are handed a big plate of humiliation.

Since I haven't been to a Chinese wedding anywhere other than Xinjiang, I can only guess that this fascination with foreigners is restricted to smaller cities and provinces, but I'd love to know if this happens in Beijing and Shanghai as well.  I can actually see it in the eyes of the host when we, the only white faces around, walk in the door to the wedding.  He's thinking to himself, "Perfect!  This is going to make my job so much easier.  All I have to do is get the foreigners to stand up and perform like a monkey.  The audience will love it."  Like clockwork, about mid-way into the celebration we are asked up to stage with very little option to say "no".  We could make a scene, but that's almost more embarrassing because they just don't stop asking.

Most of the time we can get away with wishing the bride and groom a happy marriage in English, fumbling through a translation in Chinese, and then sitting down.  Other times we don't get it so easy.  Like today, for instance.

Today, the host decided it would be fun for members of the audience to teach the new couple how to dance, and of course who knows how to dance better than two white folk?  We were cajoled into dancing both solo and as a couple, and even though we tried to show off as many of the salsa moves we could remember from our lives in Costa Rica, I can't say my part was pretty.

As icing on the cake, the host had one more game up his sleeve.  Since he had guinea pigs...er, I mean, foreigners, on the stage, why not?  Why not teach the bride and groom how to properly kiss your wife?  Come on...are you serious?  Well, unlike dancing, I can confidently say that I am an expert at kissing my wife, so if it can get me off the stage faster, so be it.  I planted one on Tiff (we were asked to stand on chairs so that everybody could see), took a bow, and we shot out of that wedding before he could ask us to do anything else.

Like I said...we should get paid.

Anatomy of a Modern Chinese Wedding

My dad once told me that in order to fully understand a culture you need to attend a wedding, a funeral, and a baby shower. Unfortunately our Chinese friends never got that memo, so instead of a well-balanced cultural immersion, we've been invited to five (yes, count them...FIVE) weddings this month. We've been to a wedding before and given a brief overview, but we've decided to be a little more detailed this time around. Please keep in mind as you read that we are referring to a modern wedding, not any ancient wedding practices, and we are drawing only from personal experience and what we've asked friends - China is a big country therefore many celebrations and customs differ in different areas, so this might be very specific to Xinjiang.
 

The Beginning of the Marriage

The part of China's marriage process that brought me the most confusion at first was trying to figure out when a marriage begins. The confusion stems from the fact that many times we have learned about a pregnancy before we are even invited to the wedding. In places other than China you might assume that they are getting married because they are pregnant, but in China there is a possibility that they have already been married for quite some time - they just haven't had a wedding.
 

A marriage officially begins in China when a couple apply for and receive what is roughly translated as a "marriage book". It's basically a marriage certificate as we know it, except it looks more like a passport with the couple's picture in it, hence calling it a "book". After a couple fills out a load of paperwork they go to the appropriate government office and apply to be married. Thirty minutes later they are handed their little red book - the beginning of the marriage.
 

Many couples wait months after receiving their marriage book before they actually have a wedding, a period of time which many times is used to decorate their new home. We've seen some couples live together during this time, but we've also seen couples wait until after the wedding to move in together. It seems odd, but this "limbo" period is the reason that often times we hear of a pregnancy before a wedding date is announced.
 

Inviting the Guests

Once they've actually decided to have a wedding they begin to make all the arrangements and invite the guests. We usually receive wedding invitations about a week in advance, but some couples have actually been kind enough to give us a month's warning. The two invitations you see to the left were given to us 4 days before the respective wedding dates. We went to both, which begs the question "Do you have nothing to do in your spare time?!" and, well...we refuse to answer that question. Many invitations we receive are actually "floating invitations", which means that they haven't nailed down the date yet but want us to know they'll be getting married. I'm sure things are different in the bigger cities, but out here in the boondocks they actually have wiggle room on dates.

The Actual Wedding "Ceremony"

Ok, here comes the fun part. There's a lot that goes on before the wedding at the bride's house, but that's a whole different story for a whole different post. Believe it or not, we actually enjoy going to Chinese weddings, eating the food and getting together with our co-workers for the big party. And it is a party. Since they're already married by the time the wedding occurs, the only part of the proceedings which could be considered ceremonious would be the public reading of the marriage book to verify that the couple is, in fact, married.

Sorry, I'm actually getting ahead of myself. First things first. When we arrive at the banquet hall we're usually greeted at the door by the bride, groom, best man, and bridesmaid. Pleasantries and congratulations are exchanged (along with a picture, sometimes), we sign a guest book, and then we just sit at the banquet tables and chat with other guests, eating the customary plate of peanuts and sunflower seeds.

Once most of the guests are seated, the real party begins. It would be pretty boring to give you a play-by-play of the wedding, so instead I'll give you a quick list of things that we've noticed are similar and unique to a Chinese wedding. As you'll see, the modern Chinese wedding has tried its best to imitate foreign weddings and yet twisted those customs to create their own interesting celebration.

1. Similarity: There is big fanfare when the bride enters the room. Difference: In America, we play a song, in China, they light fire crackers. They're done outside the restaurant, but they're usually right outside the window. I've lit them once (see picture to the right), and they are death to the ears at close range. They say it's supposed to drive away evil spirits, but I think they just love the loud sound.
   
2. Similarity: The bride wears a white dress. when you first arrive. This practice is relatively new in China, I believe, because the traditional color for weddings is red. Difference: She seems to want to get out of the white dress as fast as she can! I'd venture to estimate that the first 20 minutes is spent in the white dress while the remaining few hours and after-party are spent in her red dress.
3. Similarity: There is a decorated car that the bride and groom ride in. Difference: They arrive in the decorated car (ALWAYS a black car), and it's usually tastefully done with roses instead of shoe polish and balloons. I honestly don't know if they leave in the car because we've never stayed long enough to figure that out.
   
4. Similarity: There is an emcee. Difference: He is neither a pastor or a judge. He doesn't have to be because by this time they're already married, remember? He's an entertainer and his job is to make the crowd smile and laugh until they are sufficiently drunk to do so on their own. And if you were wondering...no, our camera wasn't malfunctioning. The man pictured here is actually wearing green pants and a purple shirt. I have a feeling he actually thought he looked good wearing them, too.
   
5. Similarity: There is a Best Man and a Bridesmaid. Difference: They're pretty much there to bear the brunt of the emcee's jokes so that the bride and groom don't have to. They eat and drink nasty stuff, endure public humiliation, and at some point in every wedding I've been to, the Best Man ends up face down on the ground. I never quite understand why.
6. Similarity: The music. You'd probably be surprised by how much music you'd recognize at a Chinese wedding. I don't think they understand what words are being sung, but they realize that it's a love song and you're supposed to hear it at a wedding. Difference: The next song is Beijing Opera. Ouch. If you've ever heard Beijing Opera you understand why this is something that would NEVER happen in an American wedding.
7. Similarity: You give a gift to the bride and groom. Difference: You never give anything except money. There is never a gift table, and the term "gift registry" has been difficult for us to translate into Chinese. They usually don't get married as early as we do, so there isn't as much need for housing appliances. The money usually goes to pay for the cost of the wedding, but from what I've heard it never fully covers the cost.

We, of course, weren't married in China, so I concede that these are merely observations from a spectator's point of view. For any readers that have actually been married in China, I'd love to hear what you think of my analysis and what you might add to it. This is by no means a comprehensive overview, but it's the best I can do for now.

Next up? Nine months from now we're preparing for 5 new Chinese babies.

Chinese Massage Therapy Sucks - My Experience with Suction Therapy

I've tried a lot of crazy things in my life, I think. I've eaten things that most people wouldn't dare and tried things that the average person might be scared to do. I've tasted turtle, horse, dog, pig tongue, duck brain, etc; I love to rock climb, rappel, river raft, and gosh-darnit if I go to an amusement park I ride every roller coaster! Ok, so I'm not saying that I'm a daredevil - anybody who knows me could tell you that any risk I take has been meticulously calculated - however I do believe that I do have an above-average control of my fears.

I almost met my match last Wednesday when I faced my fear of the Chinese massage.

I know what some of you are thinking. "Massage!? I sure could use a massage! Why in the world would you be afraid of a massage?" Just wait. You'll be scared, too. This is no ordinary massage. No, sirree. This massage dates back almost 2,000 years and is rumored to be able to cure anything from a sore shoulder to the common cold. This particular type of massage therapy is well-know to most people all over China and can be found in decent massage parlors from Beijing to Karamay.

And it sucks. Literally.

I'll give you a general idea of the process of this therapy, even though its much easier to understand when watching the video below. After properly preparing the back by massaging oil on it for 5 minutes or so, a series of round, glass balls - or "cups" as I will now refer to them - are placed on the back. A moment before placement a small fire is lit inside the cup and soon removed to heat up the air inside. Once the cup makes contact with the skin on your back the hot air creates a vacuum that sucks your skin far into the glass globe. This method, known formally as "flash-fire cupping", feels about as good as it sounds to be honest, but better yet it does a smash-up job of leaving a hickey on your back the size of a small pancake. Once the cups are secure you must allow them to suck at your skin for 10 minutes. As you can tell in the photo below, I got 18 of them (there's one on my right shoulder barely visible if you're counting).
So here's the short story of how and why - questions that I would be asking if I were you right now. The man you see standing next to me in the picture above, Cons, is a friend who has been having some back difficulties. When we talked with a Chinese friend about it, he recommended this therapy which is supposed to (as I mentioned before) ease back pain and cure the common cold. He had back pain, and even though I didn't have a cold to put that crazy notion to the test, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. All three of us agreed to meet on Wednesday and subject ourselves to this "therapy".

I can now tell you that true male bonding only happens when you're half-naked having your back sucked into what feels like a hundred tiny glass balls. You don't get much closer than that.

I was the last person to get the cups, and as I sat there watching the grimaces on the faces of my "cupping" buddies, I can't lie and tell you that I didn't almost back out. You pay for pain with this therapy on the promise that it will make your life better in the days to come - and I don't normally pay for pain! It's too early to tell you how effective this method is physically, but it is already effective in giving my new "conquered fears" list some pizazz:

Fears I have conquered:
1) Eating pig brains
2) Rappelling a high rock face
3) Receiving 18 hickeys by fire-breathing suction cups

Who's a daredevil now?

Numbers CAN Lie

Friday the 13th

666

The 13th floor of any building (if they even label it the 13th floor)

Lucky number 7

Anything sound familiar? Regardless of your personal feelings towards these numbers, most everybody in America is well aware of their significance. Even if we don't really believe that the number 13 is unlucky, it just doesn't feel right working on the 13th floor, does it? If your phone number begins with 666, you'd probably get more than a few comments about it, wouldn't you? Until recently, I had this silly idea that these lucky or unlucky numbers were the same everywhere in the world. They're not.

The two most unlucky numbers here in China are 4 and 7. Why is that, you ask? Unlike in America (does anybody know why 13 is unlucky?), I can actually answer that question: the word for 4, or 四 sounds eerily close to the word 死, the Chinese symbol for "death". Makes sense. Accordingly, the word for 7, or 七 has a sound similar to 欺 which means "fool". Two lucky numbers in China are 6 and 8. People pay thousands of dollars to have a telephone number like or . If there's any doubt as to whether the number 8 is considered to be lucky in China, just look at the Olympics. Have you noticed when the summer Olympics begin this year? August 8, 2008 or 8/8/2008. They even have the opening ceremony beginning at 8pm! People in China went crazy when this was announced. This would for sure bring good luck to the Olympic Games and to China.

Unfortunately, 2008 hasn't turned out to be so lucky. It all began this winter with the terrible ice storm we talked about a bit after our Spring Festival vacation. Thankfully when my parents visited we stayed in the unaffected northern part of China, but everybody was still talking about it. Besides the havoc that was wreaked on the economy, which was enormous, it also highlighted the importance of the rail network here in China. Without trains running due to severe ice, no coal was transported south to keep people warm and no food was transported north to keep people fed. Total cost: over $1billion dollars. Then the earthquake. Cost estimates along with the death toll are rising daily and are just now beginning to show signs of slowing. Minute-by-minute reports of the relief and recovery effort continue to bombard us from every possible media outlet and the government has recently accepted the help offered by the UN. I will also mention the difficulties that have arisen during the Olympic torch relay this year, another subject that we have talked about a bit. It may not seem like much to you, but realize that we're only in the 5th month of the year right now!

So is it possible to change the luckiness of a number? Believe it or not, a small change is happening in the minds of some of the youth, but for now it looks only to be a fad. Once the Olympic games are finished China will probably look back on this year fondly, remembering the lives that were lost while trying to forget all the suffering that occurred. I have posed this question to a few Chinese and they all agree that the number 8 will still retain it's "lucky quality" after all is said and done. The ice storm and earthquake may dampen the mood here, but there's nothing like a good old Olympic games to boost the spirits!

What I find most interesting in all of this is how we as humans search for meaning in anything we can. Whether through relationships, nature, or numbers, we sometimes expect these things to explain our purpose or our lives. But what happens when people come to find out that relationships will let you down, nature produces things like earthquakes, and numbers, as we see here, CAN lie? Hopefully people will begin to look beyond humanity in their search for meaning. We have already seen it in the eyes of many who attended the candlelight vigil last week.

Visiting the Ghost City 魔鬼城

What do you get when you combine two Americans, six Filipinos, a bunch of cameras, camels, dinosaurs, and a big red bus? Answer: quite a party!

Destination: The Ghost City
Location: 100km north of Karamay (about 1 1/2 hours by bus)

This "city", which is more of a geological park, got its name from the sounds that are made when the frequent winds whistle and howl through various rock formations. This location has been made famous by various movies which have shot scenes here, only one of which you might know - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Having personally never seen this movie, I don't know which part was filmed here, but we have now seen where they did it! How exciting.

Ok, first, let me back up a bit so I can share a few stories and pictures. All 8 of us (Tiff, me, and the 6 Filipinos) decided a couple weeks back to take a tour to the Ghost City during the May Holiday. Last year we got a full week off for this holiday - a bit like Spring Break in America - but this year the powers-that-be decided that too much time off at once was bad for business, so they cut it to 3 days. The tour we bought included three places - a river valley, a dinosaur park, and the Ghost City. All of us boarded a bus with about 25 other subdued Chinese people who were just a bit uncomfortable with the loud atmosphere we brought. Example: all of us singing a karaoke song to pass the time on the big red bus. You don't have to be Chinese to understand why that would turn heads.

Our first stop was a river valley that wasn't much to see except for one thing - trees. We actually saw Chinese people taking pictures hugging trees! Why? I mean, we have trees here in the city, but these were old trees, trees with big trunks, and they took pictures because this was the first time they had seen a tree so big that two people together couldn't put their arms around.

Stop number two was a dinosaur park - a park dedicated to the site where dinosaur bones had once been excavated a few decades ago. Were the bones on display? No. Did they show where they were unearthed? No. Was the entire park shaped like a big dinosaur with fake dinosaurs walking around everywhere? Of course! The redeeming part of this park was the many and different places we could take pictures and goof around. Check out the slide show to the right of this entry for examples of these pictures.

Finally, after a short lunch, we made our way to the Ghost City. We made a quick stop to ride some camels and the rest of the time was spent walking around the park and snapping many pictures. There's really no way to try to describe to you the enormity and beauty of what we saw, so I think it's best to let pictures and one video do the trick. If you're receiving this via e-mail and can't see all this, log onto the website for better results.