Beijing Opera a class

We had a great intimate Beijing Opera class just recently. A group called SACs (Shenzhen Asian Culture Society) hosted this special event in which several Beijing Opera students (9 to 11 year olds) with their teachers performed snippets of stories for a small group of us. It was really interesting because after a short performance they asked us to join them to learn the movements and explain the story line and purpose of the movement. The students were really talented and so cute! We also had two of China’s top performers who have since retired; a lady named Zhu Jin Ling and a man named Zhang Bao Zhi. They are now hosting their own opera schools. Enjoy the photos!

Fujian Province and the Hakka People

This weekend we took a tour of a minority group in the province north of us. Fujian Province is one of the homelands of the Hakka people. The Hakka are scattered in southern Asia & famous for their three to four story round houses. We took a nice night train to Yongding & arrived at 4:40am, whoa. Well, we are awaken every day at 4am to the sounds of fishing boats leaving Shekou for the ocean. Chug, chug, chug every 4am. We also visited a small city called Xiamen. The Hakka at Yongding built these round houses for protection & also it prevents wives from "cornering" their husbands. They still live in them & they are built from mud, gluten, straw, etc. & rammed into shape. The people are very hospitable. The first floor and court yard is for cooking, eating, storage, threshing, socializing. The younger folks live on the third & fourth floors. The area is mountainous & gorgeous! Sure beats Shenzhen. Xiamen is on the coast & directly across from Taiwan. There are several small islands around it & the tiny relaxing island of Gulangyu. It was a world wind trip but nice.

Construction Everywhere!

China's new national bird is the crane, the construction crane that is! Our part of the city is under massive construction overhaul. Shekou and it's port will be transformed into a fancy neighborhood of high rise buildings and other structures. This will take place over many years but the construction pollution is already getting on everyone's nerves. It seems everywhere you go, you are forced to take to the streets as sidewalks are torn up to update the infrastructure for these new buildings. Our school and surroundings will be replaced by newer bigger buildings. So in a couple of years, school admin hopes, the school will be in Chi Wan, Shenzhen, where the old port is now. The site is an old bicycle factory and all the four campuses will be under one roof. The entire area of Chi Wan will be flatten for this construction boom. So goes the rent! Nationals and expats agree that this is going to be an area out of our price range so those who can will look elsewhere to call home.

Chinese New Year or Xīnnián kuàilè!

This week starting on Thursday, 3 February, we celebrated the Spring Festival. Now the days prior are the busiest travel days in the country. Just about everyone tries to head back to their home province for their one & only annual vacation. Official vacation days here are about 11 a year but most of those days off are made up by forced work days on the weekends leading up to or after the holidays. Worker rights are not strongly adhered to as you can read in the news. The celebrations are fun & full of superstitions. The fun for them is fire off a variety of fireworks at all hours of the day but mostly at night…sometimes until 3am! That is why many expats get out of China during this time period. People with pets are concern as their pets are full of anxiety as it sounds like a war out there. The superstition part is that the firecrackers are supposed to scare away evil spirits. Then there is the burning of religious money for the dead to spend in their world. Yes, Chinese are very superstitious & a good example of it is found in this article in the BBC about China’s aging population:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12334284
Another one is found in The National Geographic magazine, January 2010, Title: “Restless Spirits”
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/chinese-afterlife/hessler-text.html

Nanking Duck

As a gift from someone at our fellowship, we received a tasty treat known as Nanking Duck. You may have heard of Peking Duck but this is a product from Nanking. We had a friend translate the cooking instructions on the packaging & found out it was precooked. Therefore, you can eat it cold. However, we decided to take our toaster oven to the task by cooking the bird & then shared the experience with some friends, who remained friends after the meal. We took the famous cooking utensil to cut the duck, which is a meat cleaver. Every Chinese home has meat cleaver & wouldn't think of living without one. After cutting the duck in half, we quartered it. Then we wrapped it foil & tossed it into the toaster oven. Most homes don't have an oven as Chinese cook using a wok most of the time. In about 40-50 minutes the bird was ready. Yes, the duck does come with neck & head but they are used as a soup base. Besides being rather greasy it was pretty good if you like dark rich meat. All this to help bring in the lunar new year. Hmmm...maybe rabbit next?

The Muslim Noodle House

Around Shekou there are many eateries. Some of the best are the various Chinese ethnic foods. One of my favorite is called by Westerners "The Muslim Noodle House". The people who run it are either from Qinghai or Xinjiang Province. These two provinces are the furthermost west in China and the predominate religion is Islam. There are 52 or so ethnic groups in China & these nice people are called Uighurs or Uyghurs. Their food is very healthy & tasty. No pork here. Hopefully you can see how noodles are hand made from the 2 video clips. Can you smell the broth? It is one of the small joys of living where we do.

The Seaview Metro is Open!

Since we've been here, August 2008, the city of Shenzhen has been working on expanding their metro (subway) system by making a metro station across from where we live, among other places. Periodic blasting would shock us & the bustle of construction would fill the air (cough, cough). Well, it is now open for business, though from the pictures it still looks like it is under constructions. Oh, above ground they are still working on it but below ground is a clean, orderly, & extensive system that models Hong Kong's metro. Now it means getting to different parts of the city will be a little smooth but not necessarily quicker as millions will be taking the system. The cost is subsidized by the gov't as the most expensive one way ride is 7 yuan, rmb, kwai, (what they call their money) or just over 1 USD, not bad.