The First Circle, The Yellow River

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Today we took a trip to visit the First Circle in the Huang He (Yellow River). It's a breathtaking sight -- an incredible rocklike islandin the middleof the Yellow River. The River makes a circle around this island and it's huge...We traveled up to another peak to get the full panoramic view. Last night it rained (second time since we've been here) so the road was still too wet to drive the last part of the way so we trekked up the path to the lookout point. There was a small shrine there (apparently new -- Judy said she didn't see it there last year) and there are a couple of different lookout points. It's not a highly frequented tourist attraction -- at least not too many weigoren get there -- but there were surprisingly several cars of Chinese tourists coming up the mountain and going back...the road is paved most of the way but it's quite narrow and there's not much of a shoulder..it's tight when two cars have to pass...we met 3 cars and 2 trucks on the way up and it was a squeeze...I was also nervous because I was wondering how solid the shoulder was after the rain..and the drop was straight down. We made it to the dirt road and then parked and walked to the lookout...we stayed at the rock lookout for quite a while...Liulei, our liaison, followed one of the volunteers down the mountain towards the river to make sure Constance was ok...and they wound up going all the way dwn to the river and then climbing back up...I think it was a long trip and maybe constance didn't anticipate the challenge of the climb back up in the humidity and heat after the rain so they took a long time...I wish I hadn't been so nervous ...I've developed this fear of heights since last summer coming down ElCebreiro and I can't seem to shakeit..

We waited at a little stand that the family who lives at the top has set up for tourists. They had a watermelon that we cut and all shared and some drinks ... we waited and waited...someone finally called Liulei and he said they were approaching the lookout and they would be joining us soon...we waited a bit longer..finally we spotted them coming over the horizon..up the hill...he sat down, shouting out that they were just resting a bit.....it must have been quite an experience to make it all the way down to the river....

We then started the trek back to the vehicles and that was challenging. It was midday and by that time the sun had come out in full force. With the humidity and the climb we struggled but made it to the top and back to the car...

The trip was a challenge butwell worth it. To see the magnificence of the River, the Splendour of this great river is an experience that I'm sure is like beholding any of the natural phenomena on the earth..the Grand Canyon, the desert, waterfalls...we feel so small, so in awe, so insignificant beside the majesty of nature, the enormity of the force of nature...

The circle looms up like a huge rock from the river, the yellow river circles all around...the water seems yellow and muddy but curiously alive at the same time...the mist hangs all around the mountain and sets just above the water so that there is a slight clearing above the water that somehow highlights the geological formation...there is no one on the river, no boats, no people...just a lone circle in the middle of China...

Going back we tried to visit the primary school of the Headmaster who was driving one of the cars that went to the Circle. We stopped at his school but it's under construction and after the rain there was too much mud for us to be able to see it. I didn't understand until this evening that he was the headmaster....I was wondering about his car...beautiful new car...and wondering why a taxi driver would want to take his new car up to the mountains like that. So much we miss when we can't speak the language.

I am however, still practicing the characters. I have been trying to write out some characters and learn some of the basic ones. I'm beginning to make short sentences orally...not able to write out the characters or even recognize characters when I see them...I can remember a couple...ba for eight, yue for moon or month, wu for five, and most of the other single-digit numbers, I could recognize. I know a very limited number of words...but not until yesterday was I able to put the words together to form sentences...Today at the circle I was standing alone with this family who lives there and I began to ask them questions -- ni jiao shenme ming zi? What's your name? Ta jiao shenme ming zi? What's his/her name? Zhe shi shenme? What's that? (Trying to ask about a house -- whether it was a school or not) Zhe she xue xiao ma? Is that a school? Wo jiao Xin Xi Ya (my name is Xin Xi Ya -- Cynthia) and when they ask me my age I said wu shi jiu, ne? Iam 57 and you? So that's about all right now...but in the car Liulei was helping me with some of the characters and I was forming some sentences with his help..using the new vocabulary in sentences.

I bought some children's books and I'm trying to go over some of the vocabulary...little by little.

I am reading "River Town Two years on the Yangtze" by Peter Hessler, who was a Peace Corps volunteer in China in the late 1990s. He writes about learning Chinese and the experience of working with 2 Chinese teachers in Fuling. They spoke no English so he had a decided advantage. But he speaks of sitting for hours and writing out the characters hundreds of times...that's what I'm doing...maybe not hundreds of times for 50 at least...saying the n ame of the character to myself and trying to make an association between the pinyin, the character and then meaning of the word eitherin English or with a picture). It's a lot of connections to make...and the link between any two of those parts can break the ultimate association with meaning. It's a much different process than learning Spanish or French. I have not thought about the similarities or differences in trying to learn Greek during those two summers...Somehow however Chinese does seem easier -- at least grammatically -- than Greek. Once I get the vocabulary, I think it's possible to string words together...and even if the syntax is not that of a native speaker, people will still understand.

The tones are still another dimension that one must keep in mind and I still haven't put that in place yet in the scheme of how to memorize and categorize the words. I am trying to learn the word with the correct tone as just another phoneme in the word as I pick it up...but not sure if that is the right strategy...

I still can't u nderstand how to get all the strokes of some characters in one of these little boxes allotted for each stroke. And it's also necessary to remember the order of the different strokes. There are rules but it's not so obvious which rule applies where in the more complex characters.

Yesterday we went to Qikou and passed through Liuling, coalmining country. We took an expressway that has been contructed and is used by many coal trucks...one tunnel was very long and there are coal trucks bumper to bumper..I wonder about the ventilation in those tunnels. I know that in NYC there are generators to pump out gases and pump in fresh air...but in these there was nothing like that...and the exhaust from the trucks reduced the visibility considerably. I began to wonder what would happen to people stuck i the tunnel should the trucks break down...

There's tremendous devleopment in China...in that town the expressway and bridges extend far over the city facilitating the trucking of goods and coal to other parts of China. There skyscrapers going up in this city...they may be apartment buildings for the workers but there is tremendous growth and a brilliant new hotel and a boulevard that runs through part of the town leading to the expressway...on the expressway as you enter there are toll booths and on the ramp going up there is a sign that says "buckle up." Not many people wear seat belts in China...maybe this wiill catch on eventually.

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