lauralisonash

The bus ride from the airport to the hotel was an hour long, and our guide talked almost the whole time. She warned us not to walk around the streets late at night. Shanghai is safe, but you are not familiar with the area, but it is safe, but you still shouldn't walk around at night, but Shanghai IS safe. She also warned us about men who would try to take us into secret rooms to sell us fake brand name purses and wallets. They won't show you the way out unless you buy something!! And she warned us about Uighurs, a nationality originating in Xinjiang, to the north of Tibet. They are dangerous thieves!! Audrey and I gave each other a look when she said this. And most of us groaned. She also told us ... read more

It is 12:55 am tomorrow morning. I swallowed too many peppers this evening. They are still warming my stomach. My hotpot had pig brain and intestines in it. I'm sorry, but that is too much. This year I will have taken 15 flights. That is a lot. Portland to Phoenix. Phoenix to Portland. Portland to Sacramento. Sacramento to Portland. Sea-Tac to Irvine. Irvine to Sea-Tac. Sea-Tac to Albuquerque. Albuquerque to Sea-Tac. Sea-Tac to Beijing. Beijing to Xi'an. Chengdu to Lhasa. Lhasa to Chengdu. Chengdu to Shanghai. Shanghai to Beijing. Beijing to Sea-Tac. I have also taken a lot of trains, and a lot of buses, and a lot of taxis. This has been a year of transportation. I think that instead of sleeping now, I am going to work on my essay for Sino-American Relations. Then, ... read more

We have each been assigned two chapters in a textbook about Tibet for next year's students. These are the drafts for my two chapters. All of the sources are cited in footnotes in my word documents! They just don't show up when I copy and paste them. Apologies for that. Part V, Chapter 2 “Who Writes History When No One has Won? Serfs and Imperialists: History Education in and About Tibet” Laura Nash (lnash@lclark.edu) Throughout its history, many nations have been involved with Tibet in various capacities, and for many different reasons ranging from trade, exploitation of natural resources, its use as a buffer state, pure land lust, and more. Besides China, Mongolia, Nepal, Britain, and Manchuria (when Manchuria was experiencing one last heave of “statehood” as Manchukuo in the 1930s) have all had their hand ... read more

This weekend, on Saturday at 9:30 in the morning, our usual PLU mishmash group got on a bus to Leshan and E'mei Shan. First we visited the Leshan Buddha. It was a lot more crowded and touristy than I remembered. After we took pictures of Buddha's head, we had to wait in line for a long time. The whole while I kept hearing "laowai, laowai, waiguoren..." and cameras snapping. (foreigner, foreigner) We pushed and shoved our way to the railing to take pictures all the way down. Then, when we got to the bottom, we had to climb back up. But we didn't have to wait in line for that. And it wasn't as tall as I remembered either. We walked around the temple at the top, recently remodeled. The next day they were choosing a ... read more

On Thursday evening, Clare, Audrey, Maria, Scott and I boarded a train to Xi'an. We packed Subway sandwiches, a pimelo, mandarin oranges, and choco pies for the ride. Other than that, we tried to pack as lightly as possible, as we were only planning to be in Xi'an for one night. We traveled hard sleeper. These cars have bunk beds stacked three high, with partitions between every other stack. So there are six beds in each compartment, but they are still open to the hall/aisle that runs through the whole train. Each compartment has a small table and fold out chairs across from it. We had purchased three middle berths and two upper berths, so one person would have to sleep on the other side of a partition, which wasn't such a big deal. Clare volunteered. ... read more