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Published: January 3rd 2011
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110101 0984 Tianning Si Changzhou
The belfry, with the 15 tonne bell Photos:
-click on the photos in this blog to enlarge them.
…..Miss Piggy is getting married! I receive an excited phone call from Guiyang to ensure that I really am intending to visit during the Spring Break. I had assumed it would be a few days to meet her new boyfriend & his family but, in typical Chinese style it's becoming bigger than Ben Hur & though ticker tape, marching bands & keys to the city have not been specifically mentioned I have been reading between the lines. I wonder if the (Chinese) New Year wedding is a recent idea, or a deliberate omission from previous correspondence.....
…..Shen Yue is here with her son for an English lesson on Sunday. I enlist her aid in finding some ingredients with the intention of making a cake of some sort in the new oven the teachers gave me to take to the office on Monday morning. I now know that flour is “Mian fen” & self raising flour is “Zi fa mian fen”. My attempt at a banana cake is hampered by lack of practice, forgetting the exact proportions of the ingredients & the flour appearing to be a
110101 0897 Tianning Si Changzhou
The world's tallest pagoda, from across the Red Plum park different consistency to the Australian equivalent. It does however turn out to be serviceable as coarse textured banana slices when cut up. It doesn't taste too bad & they seem happy enough with it.....
…..a combination of colder weather, hanging around or a little below zero every day, the biting north-westerly wind, cutting my fingernails too short & the drying effect of chalk have led to a sore finger, as I find when I try to play the guitar. More care required, some hand cream & lip balm to prevent chapped lips. Never go outside without the beanie, even when it looks so beautifully clear & sunny.....
…..some of the usually good, or at least reasonable, kids in my classes have turned to demons over the past week. As for those with horns already fully formed, they are becoming impossible & a good natured approach, with the occasional, “Stand up”, or “Go to the back”, (until you answer a question in intelligible English & can sit down again), is not working. In a rather unseasonal change of approach I have this week become the Antichrist. I have been dragging kids to the back if they don't move quickly
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Pagoda detailing under (one of!) the roofs enough, & taking a few to the office (they don't like their head teachers to know they're a pain in my class). I have confiscated enough yo-yos & calculators in English classes to start a small store. Other teachers report similar problems this week.....
…..near the end of the week & my approach is showing some signs of success. I am now a split personality. For the first few minutes of the lesson I am, to paraphrase a Californian Hell's Angel's tattoo, “The evilest mutha ever to walk in Valley of the Shadow of Death”. I can then generally revert to being Mr. Nice Guy, leaving a few unfortunates facing the wall for not heeding my first or second warnings. Some are actually paying attention. Some may, just possibly, scrape through the forthcoming oral exam.....
…..Gao Dong, the poor unfortunate assigned to be head teacher for class 3/9, missed the dinner when I treated the teachers in my office. I felt she shouldn't miss out so tonight, (New Year's Eve) I have invited her & her husband to dinner. As usual no idea where yet but in a city with thousands of restaurants it shouldn't be a problem.
We end up with hotpot, a great idea on a freezing winter night....
…..having Monday off next week, in lieu of New Year's Day (the Western New Year that is), I think I should make the effort to get out, maybe visit Nanjing again & see some of the things missed on previous visits, maybe Changzhou, Wuxi.....
….Gao Dong has no way of avoiding participation in a bright idea that someone at the school had. While foreign teachers were invited to take part some of the Chinese teachers have had more pressure applied to get up on the first day off of a welcome three day weekend in the freezing cold & indulge in that greatest of oxymorons, the “Fun Run”. An eight kilometre hike to the East Bus Station & back. Good luck.....
…..Her husband, Zhang Qiao, has kindly offered me a lift to the West Bus Station. I didn't realise my knees, projecting into space on either side of the pillion seat of his scooter, would succumb to wind chill after one kilometre on this bitterly cold morning leaving only another nine or ten to the station.....
…..Changzhou, that dot on the map that
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Apartments in the little town we overlooked on the map we foreign teachers had overlooked last (yes, last) year before we went with the school excursion – well, I can only say look at the photos I'll post on Photobucket taken from the top of the Tianning Si (Tianning Temple) Pagoda, the world's tallest pagoda at 153 metres tall. The city isn't beautiful but the day is clear & it might just give some idea of the colossal size of China's population that this is just another of scores of cities, many much bigger, around this country.....
…..I don't know where it stands in the “tallest wooden structure” list but the pagoda is incredibly impressive, not only for its size (as high as a thirty storey building) but its graceful shape. It looks at the same time very ancient & about to be launched into space. In fact it is neither. It was commenced in 2002 & finished in 2007. I am expecting a climb up endless steps to get to the top but on around the third level I see there's a lift to level twelve.....
…..a helpful cleaning lady shows me the way past the “Staff only” sign to a higher level with balconies outside for
views (& photos) of Changzhou on a beautiful, clear winter's day. I then find yet another level, the belfry, with what is claimed to be the largest hanging bell in the world. At 3.2 metres high & 15 tonnes it's certainly big. I can't imagine the geometry to get those levels, gradually reducing in size, with roofs curving in two directions on an eight sided building, to fit together. The craftsmanship, care & skill & in the building, decoration of the pagoda is another one of those experiences that's almost too much to take in one go. Mental indigestion.....
…..I amuse at least one family. A little girl points at me & excitedly yells out, “Lowai”, (“Foreigner”). Well, I appear to be the only one here. I just wave & smile at her. I make sure I walk behind her &, when she's not expecting it, point at her & call out, “Zhongguoren”, (Chinese person”), repeatedly. It cracks them all up after she is over her surprise.....
…..when I get back we go for dinner at what we foreigners have called the “Duck restaurant” since I've been here. It's actually called Ming Ming. Sunny is not able to
come due to a prior engagement but several foreign teachers turn up & Kevin brings Shen Yue, who lives quite close to him. Shen Yue orders things we either wouldn't have thought of or would have ignored had we been able to read the menu. Believe it or not fried duck's bones are really tasty, the way they do them here. I think there is more to it than just throwing them in the pan though. Seriously. OK, don't believe me then. Teacher's head east in a taxi while Kevin & Shen Yue go west in his car.....
…..by the way the title of this blog is from a list of alternative routes on a map in the Red Plum Park, next to the Tianning Pagoda.....& of course, HAPPY NEW YEAR!.....
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