Day 2 in Cuzco!

Last night the paramount goal was to find the Llama Path office, pay the final balance for our Inca Trail hike and confirm everything, and then to find another yummy dinner.  We definitely succeeded...and in the process enjoyed the views of the Plaza de Armas at night, the Blanco Christo glowing on the hilltop overlooking the city, and enjoyed one of the churches mid-mass.  We also managed to find another yummy dinner and were oh so excited to finally crash. 

Day 2 in Cusco:  19 November 2011
Goals?  Acclimate and Explore while not pushing too hard...

We finally, finally, FINALLY (after nights of working really late to finish my grad project, wrap up things at my job, and pack...and then barely sleep before our early flight out of Miami and then getting only a teensy bit more sleep before flying to Cuzco)...we got sleep last night.  Daniel and I slept later than anyone else and actually slept right up until it was time to meet everyone for breakfast (at which point we were supposed to actually be showered and everything..oops). 

Regardless - the rest of the gang headed out down to the Plaza de Armas to catch the miliatry parade while the Hals got their act together.  We met up within an hour and set out along the square and headed out to see some different churches and sites...

*****pause for pre-Inca Trail meeting with our guide Alex*****

and this whole story is going to be summed up with as many pictures as this bandwidth can handle as I pack...we just had our pre-Inca Trail briefing and we are heading out at THREE FIFTY AM tomorrow!!!  ...something about road repair work and having extra time to get to our train. 

To recap - we all had a great day - with only minor hiccups.  The sad moral of the story for Cusco is that it was a city rich with Inca tradition and amazing temples until the Conquistadors raised everything to the ground and built churches on top of the temple ruins.  :-/  (Some of the churches are very pretty though and I saw a pulpit today that absolutely epitomizes the Catholic Counter-Reformation and would be a perfect photograph to start that lecture in my AP Euro or World History classes!)

We are PSYCHED about tomorrow - Machu Picchu - HERE WE COME!!! :)

The gang outside La Catedral on the edge of the Plaza de Armas

Along the Plaza de Armas

I paid the equivalent of 35 cents to pet an alpaca!  :-)

Nestled in the Andes - Enjoying our Views in Cusco!

We are now safely in Cusco, Peru enduring the dramatic effects of jumping from sea level to 3,400 meter (11,200 feet)!  We are definitely feeling it...hence the fact that after a late lunch we deemed it crash time before we set out again.  So far the biggest complaints have been feeling really out of breath (after climbing up...oh...six stairs), slight headaches, etc.  We are determined to take it slow and kick this properly though...so for now, we are enjoying this view from our room!  :-)

Cuzco, Peru - the view from our room at Casa Andina Classic San Blass

So to recap...

Thursday night we drove down to Miami and Friday morning we woke up and flew from Miami to San Jose, Costa Rica to Caracas, Venezuela to Lima, Peru.  We spent the night in the Miraflores section of the city in Lima and headed back to the airport this morning for one final flight to Cusco.  The flight was just over an hour - but had a crazy ending.  I woke up from my cat nap to discover that the plane was flying parallel to a snow capped mountain peak!  Then we starting coasting down towards Cuzco - which had about a ten foot runway and involved one of the craziest landings I have ever experienced as we were landing in a valley.

We have since settled in at our hotel and enjoyed our first real meal of Peruvian cuisine -and it was absolutely amazing!  Everyone's meals were very different and awesome.  I had a clay pot stew chicken with a creamy yellow chili sauce over rice and potatoes.  Yum.  Daniel had marinated alpaca and various kinds of baked potatoes and yucca plants.  Really great stuff. 

We are in the process of acclimating and are trying not to become overconfident and push ourselves too far too quickly. 

So far we are all loving Cusco - it has a very fun feel to it and we are looking forward to having a few days here to check it out! 

More later!  Finger crossed for a smooth acclimatization for all of us! 

July 23, 2011 - Taipei, Taiwan!

 We were right!  We landed in Taiwan and after we passed the thermal fever scan (seriously...it was pretty cool) we had reached what is officially known as the Republic of China.

To crash course you...Taiwan has been occupied by the Spanish, Dutch, Qing Dynasty China, Japanese, and then became the Republic of China under the KMT (Guomindang…or nationalist) Party in 1949.  Today there is an ongoing debate as to whether Taiwan is independent from mainland China…and really it is a complex issue that currently does not have an answer.  In 1949 mainland China became the People’s Republic of China and created a communist government led by Mao Zedong.  The Guomindang/Nationalist Party (KMT) fled to the island of Taiwan and set up the Republic of China.  Now the tricky thing is that from 1949 until the early 1970s, the USA and the UN recognized Taiwan as the “real China.”  After that, the USA and the UN recognized mainland China as “the real China.” 

The One China Policy
Mainland China actually sees Taiwan as being part of it, that there is only, “One China”…Taiwan believes in the One China Policy but in a different way – in their minds they have just continued the republic that was founded on the mainland in 1911 and carried it over to Taiwan…and they are thus, the true “one China.” 

It’s tricky and confusing, but at the moment, so that they both benefit economically, both China and Taiwan are agreeing to disagree so that trade and greater business ventures can blossom.  Then everyone wins, right? 

So we arrived in Taiwan and were greeted by a different atmosphere – they are an autonomous, self-governing country after all and they have been growing economically for decades.  They are a very different country than mainland China.  We found ourselves in a land of far less pollution…aka blue skies!, uncensored internet, and a much more free spirited country. 

We spent our first afternoon out and about, visiting Chiang Kai-Shek’s Memorial, watching the changing of the guard, seeing the Presidential Palace, and going to 228 Park – a park that commemorates the victims of a brutal demonstration-gone-wrong event in 1947 in which the KMT (who had occupied Taiwan when the Japanese surrendered in 1945) harshly and violently reacted to a civilian protest on the government monopoly on tobacco and liquor (see the album for more details). 
In the park I was incredibly relieved and excited to finally confirm that absolutely nothing is wrong with my camera…the lack of crisp and vibrant pictures and the almost over-exposed look really just was all of the pollution!  (It also makes me pretty freaked out that the pollution really is that intense in China)

We enjoyed a great first meal at a Mongolian BBQ restaurant where I got to fill my bowl with delicious protein!  We were off to a great start! 

That evening a few of the teachers and myself ventured out to check out the neighborhood and stumbled across a really "happening hang out" of sorts…it was a very serendipitous find…we found it tucked back in the corner of a city block and the figured out that the noice was coming from a very simple, absolutely huge garage shaped building that was piled full of picnic tables that could seat several hundred people.  Everyone seemed college age or in their twenties and there were young performers singing various pop songs.  So we grabbed a seat and tried to figure out what was customary.  This was honestly one of the most amazing nights of my trip – we soon found ourselves in the middle of an amazingly fun music performance…and really an interactive show where they played various games with the crowd – we saw a marriage proposal and observed a Taiwanese kissing game in which they would challenge a couple to make out for ten seconds while the entire crowd counted down (which we could do!  we were counting down in Chinese right along with the crowd!)  Then, as the night wore on, the table next to us started up a conversation – and their English was amazing – we got to ask them all kinds of questions about their occupations or fields of study, their opinion on Taiwan’s foreign policy, all kinds of stuff – it was an absolutely amazing night and we were really excited to have many more days to explore Taiwan!

Click on the image below to view the album:

July 23, 2011 - Taipei

July 22, 2011 - Shanghai with our Future Mandarin Teachers!

This was one of my favorite days!  We have been in the "third week hump"...some people are sick, some are tired, some are sick of their roommates, and some are super stressed about their lesson plans (I would say I am not quite any of those...although I am probably more tired than I realize)...but today people finally calmed down a lot and morale did a 180*...today was a lot of fun!!  And we are all getting pretty excited about heading to Taipei in the morning!

Today we left Suzhou at 7:15 and hit the road for a university on the outskirts of Shanghai and met up with a group of 15 teachers, also sponsored by the China Institute who are "future teachers of Mandarin" - they are taking classes on Mandarin and how to teach it.  They were SUPER excited to see us - they have evidently been in class 7 hours a day (with three hours of character practice) and a great deal of evening homework, so most nights they don’t have time for anything else.  They have been going for three weeks and have three more weeks coming up - they are all US citizens but were almost all originally born in China or Taiwan...

They had us break into groups with them and have the "Teach China" teachers (that's me) share with the Future Mandarin teachers...and as we shared our lesson plan ideas they really had A LOT of interesting stories and factoids and insights for us and were really excited that we actually knew what we were talking about too!  :)  So we did that for a while, ate lunch on campus at a restaurant, and then went to the Urban Planning Museum.  We were each paired with another Future Mandarin Teacher...mine was named Li Li and our assignment was to spend an hour and a half looking through the museum and creating a lesson that could be used in a Mandarin class and in one of our classes, write our description on the sheet they gave us, and turn it into our program directors at the end of the 1.5 hour time. 

The museum was pretty cool - very new and futuristic and we had a great time looking through - Li Li is from Sichuan province (where the pandas are) and has never been to Shanghai and hasn't really had time to explore yet, so I was able to teach her a good bit about the Bund from what we had learned a few days ago - she also would see something and plunge into a story about her childhood...so it was really cool!  She told me some stories about things that I will really just have to tell you when I get back in the states -my email won't go through if I type about it right now. 

Overall we had a great time - their enthusiasm was infectious and really picked all of us up.  After that we had time to walk and shop along Nanjing street and then we did a dinner cruise together along the Bund at night, all lit up and glistening - it was gorgeous - and the skies were clear.  So far every day I have been in Shanghai I have seen blue sky...I don't know if it is a fluke, or if they just have a more progressive pollution control system...but it has been really nice. 

Please click on the image below to view the whole album:

July 22, 2011 - Shanghai - A day with our future Mandarin Teachers!

And now we are off for Taiwan!  We have been telling ourselves the sky is going to turn blue and birds are going to sing and internet will be readily accessible in Taipei...  :)  we will see, right? 

July 21, 2011 - Silk!

Silk!  We visited a silk factory in Suzhou and got to observe the fine art of silk making!  It is amazing and so much fun to think about how many centuries it has been practiced...and how long ago they had such sophisticated techniques!  It is also a woman's art...the women were the silk makers throughout China's history.

I think I got these all in order...if they are not I am very sorry...I was trying to capture the process of silk making - it is quite complex!

July 21, 2011 - Silk Factory Visit, Suzhou

July 19 and 20, 2011 - Suzhou

Suzhou was a very neat place!  The old section of town was very pretty - one of our favorite afternoons, but in this case, pictures really do speak louder than words - enjoy!


Click on the images below to view the albums:

July 19, 2011 - Suzhou

and a day with Suzhou High School and Suzhou International High School - one of the finest and most gracious in China!  It was a neat day!

July 20, 2011 - Exploring Education in Suzhou

July 18, 2011 - Shanghai: Musings about a truly commercial city

I was secretly hoping that the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai would be a breath of home…and it was…with a Starbucks on the corner and a restroom with free toilet paper AND non-squattie toilets it was a perfect oasis.  

Our speaker, Oliver, was fantastic…here are some of the highlights I gleaned out as I am still trying to wrap my brain around China and put it all into perspective:

-18 cities in China have populations over 8 million

-China has the third largest economy in the world with a GDP of 4.9 trillion USD

-Foreign investments employ 8.2% of Chinese

-Shanghai is a city of 24+ million people with a per capita of 11, 563

-Shanghai’s economy grew 9% in 2010

-Shanhai’s import/export volume exceeded $684.7 billion US in 2010.

-there is a tremendous disparity between the rich and poor.  Yesterday we saw 2 bed, 1 bath apartments in the central Shanghai area are selling for 10,000,000 RMB (~1.5 million USD)while 60% of the population earns less than 3,000 RMB per month (~500 USD)…

Real estate has also sky-rocketed at a rate we can’t really fathom …in the past 10 years real estate in Shanghai has increased by 400-500%. 

-HSBC actually stands for Hong Kong Shanghai Bank Corporation

-The US, Kong Kong, and South Korea are the top investors in Shanghai, the US has about5,500 projects currently and the trade between the US and Shanghai exceeded $53 billion in 2008

-And then there is the reality check – China has become a market economy…no doubt.  However…can they sustain it?  Will there be a sustain snap in government policy that reverses much of what is going on?  Will there be a social or environmental crisis that causes such economic growth to grind to a screeching halt?  Some of the most pressing issues are: 

                -social instability

                -corruption

                -rural/urban wealth gap

-migrant worker issues – these are people who head to the cities to find grueling factory work…that is significantly more lucrative than the rural farming situation they are in.  It is usually temporary.  Int the countryside they may earn about $100 USD per year…if they move to the coast and find work in a factorythey can find a job where accommodations and food are provided and earn 200-300 USD per month working 14 hour days 7 days a week.  It is temporary…but is a true chance to break their cycle of absolute poverty. 

                -social welfare

                -collapse of state-owned sector

                -“lost generation” of laid off workers

                -privatization, shedding of responsibilities

                -environmental degradation

                -pollution and resource scarcity

                -a rapidly rising middle class

Some of these are very real threat and the combination of some of these issues could be a huge blow to economic growth, so it will be interesting to see if the rapid growth pace can be maintained. 

-The AmCham also emphasized that China has a goal of becoming more well known for producting quality products and replacing its current image on chintzy stuff.  China also wants to head into the more lucrative area of production as well – into more high tech industries and even better, into research and development.  

-Some companies have been leaving Chinese factories, because they are too expensive and then heading to SE or S Asia…but then the quality is poorer and they often return to China

-The provincial EPA does not actually report to the National EPA…so there are many issues that are overlooked or not addressed appropriately.

-Because of the pressure to produce at a low cost (and keep business in China) and the lack of agencies to ensure quality control…there are still issues with quality and purity of products.

-the people responsible for the poisoned baby formula were actually executed. 

-and the American Chamber of Commerce outright admitted “ultimately everything is manufactured in China” 

After our enlightening visit with the AmCham we visited Branson factory, which is a high tech factory that is really an example fo where China is hoping to head.  Most of the employees had technical skills or were university educated engineers.

We also visited an art district that had some intriguing pieces including one with two girls in dolled-up peasant like clothing that was meant to symbolize cute communist ideology following girls, who were standing with Shanghai in the background…with one of their hands pushing/suppressing/constraining the global financial building and other sky-scrapers of the city.  The art district was fun…although despite the picture I describe it was far more commercially geared than the politically driven district of 798 in Beijing. 

Overall it was an intriguing day!

Not labeled yet...but feel free to enjoy the album below when you click on the link:

July 18, 2011 - Shanghai - AmCham, Branson, and the Art District