New Year's Eve

December 31 was the day of a school choir competition in Ankang. The Peixin choir practiced for several weeks, but really got serious in the days just prior to the match. We only had classes the morning of the 29th/Friday so the choir could practice that afternoon. We only had morning classes and two afternoon classes on the 30th/Saturday so that they could practice. And we had no classes on the 31st/Sunday because that was the day of the match. (We were having weekend classes to balance having off January second and third in addition to January first...I think.)

The very first time Nick and I heard the choir practicing we were awed and each started telling everyone we wanted to see the performance. Neither of us had ever seen or heard anything like this.

The competition was held at Hanbin High School. The Peixin competitors walked the two blocks from our school to Hanbin. We made quite a "parade" with our teachers, students and Peixin Shao Xue banner.

At the competition Nick and I, wanting to be near the stage and in the middle of the action, sat with the student cheer section while the choir sat somewhere near the back. Our cheer section was Peixin's fourth grade students wearing school uniforms and carrying green and red paper stick "boas" that they waved in unison as they chanted. They were quite impressive too.


The competition was held outside in 40 some degree weather. A male and a female hosted the event, the female in a sleeveless gown. Watching her I decided my nose wasn't as cold as I had thought. A twelve piece band accompanied each choir. And the choirs performed for a panel of thirty judges as well as the cheer sections and a few onlookers.


The program began with an entertaining dance but I must admit my Western way of thinking wasn't sure how it complemented the competition. The dancers may have been students from the high school but I'm guessing not. They seemed a bit older. They performed to a traditional song and each choir performed at least one traditional song. Perhaps that was the tie in.




After the dance the school choirs each took their turn on the stage. Some choirs were all teachers. Some, like Peixin's choir, were a combination of teachers and students. Some were from primary schools and some were from high schools. At least one song each choir performed was well-known and
often a favorite. The students around me more than once joined in the singing.

I'm not biased when I say Peixin choir looked the best and sounded the best. The choir of teachers and grade five and six students along with Mr. Jiang, the conductor, were outfitted smartly and beautifully. They dressed uniformly and wore makeup. Both are common for any bit of performance. The school song and a traditional song were sung with great expression, tone and rhythm. When the prizes were awarded at the end, I was not surprised to see the Peixin choir and cheer section walk away with all the honors for the primary schools.

After the performance the teachers gathered to celebrate their victory with dinner and a riotous time. Baijiu, a Chinese white liquor, was the favored drink but there was milk and tea for those less inclined to indulge. Toasts were abundant. Kidding and joking ran rampant and at times stepped beyond exuberant. A triumphant mood carried the evening as this is the school's second year to take the contest. And besides...it was New Year's Eve!

Foggy and Sunny Days

The past few weeks the days have been foggy in the mornings but clear and sunny later in the day. That weather pattern also symbolizes the nature of life here during those days. Plans were foggy or disappearing daily. First there was the assistants' school Christmas Eve party/program that we had to attend. But then it never happened. The girls said the school leaders cancelled it and they started talking about the Chinese test they had on Sunday. One of their teachers now tells me among other things the hall they needed was being redecorated. Then there was the request from our school that we not take the 25th and 26th off. We were asked to take the 28th and 29th as our Christmas holidays. Why? Because the school was too busy. Fine. So imagine our surprise when on the 25th we were told we had the 25th and 26th off! And so it went.

Inspite of the fog, Christmas was much more than I ever expected. For starters about mid- December decorations appeared in some restaurants and stores. Many more Santa cutouts were added to the few that remained in windows from last year. No, the level of adornment never reached what happens in the States....what could? But I did see Santas and Santa hats working in many establishments. Garlands and trees decorated stores and restaurants. One supermarket even played Christmas music...all varieties!


Christmas Eve, Ulla, Nick and I had planned on going to dinner together. During the afternoon, Ulla and I had a great gabfest and much to my surprise, Mrs. Li and then the headmaster stopped by with gifts. Then the Lis called to ask us to join them for dinner and of course we went. Here we are at the restaurant: Jerry, a friend of Mr. Li, Ulla, Nick, Zhang Ming, Lele, myself and Ruben. We had a lovely dinner. The food here continues to amaze me with it's variety and gourmet quality. Many of our dinners are in private dining rooms. There is a large lazy Susan in the middle of the table where the dishes are placed. We take bite-sized portions from the dishes we choose to sample. There is always ample food!

Christmas morning Nick and I went over to the school at 8 to hear more about a party.... only to learn the party was just for Grade 1 class 1 and we were not teaching that day or the next. So we donned our Santa hats and delivered our chocolate coins to our English students. All 850 of them. We spent at least an hour saying Merry Christmas to each student and receiving their Merry Christmas wishes, thanks and delight..... and then we took the next 2 days off while the school continued to have classes.

Christmas Day held more events though......

Grade 1-Class 1 is one of my classes. Miss Jiang is the head teacher. She is full of surprises and sunshine. Christmas was no exception. Her students, lined up for the Monday morning opening exercises, really stood out Christmas morning. There they were, sixty little Santas!

After the lunch break the class gathered in the area between buildings 1 and 2 for a Talent Show. During the first period the students carried their own heavy chairs down the stairs from their classroom while the teacher prepared the sound system, stage, etc. During the second period we were entertained with recitations, gongfu/kung fu, dance and music. Each number was introduced by the two emcees. There were many glitches, but no one minded and everyone had a great time.

To end the day the administrative team took us to dinner. And then a foot massage! After those festivities I returned to the office in my apartment, the room that is easiest to heat, to a desk covered with flowers, cards, and other gifts from students, daughter and friends. I was feeling quite sunny, nevermind the earlier fog. And still not sure how Christmas found me in China.

PEI XIN JIE

Pei Xin Jie/Peixin Street, my street, is narrow and only two blocks long. But it is a busy street. Within those two blocks you can find made-for-you shoes, clothes, movies to rent, two laundries, books, a dentist, coffee, a hotel, a bakery, hair accessories, water, a podiatrist, telephones, popcorn, baked sweet potatoes, roasted chestnuts, fried bread, fruit and on and on.

The east end of Pei Xin Jie is the shoeshine corner. Outdoor restaurants and snack carts are always at this corner. You can catch the #2 bus at this corner.

This is also where my hair dresser is. His shop is long and narrow. The first time he cut my hair back in May he said he was very nervous. My hair was different. At that time his wife was pregnant and due any day. Now their son is 6 months old.
There must be a dozen hair salons on this street. Sometimes stylists are outside the shops practicing their styling skills on mannequin heads. Practicing? Maybe showing. At one of the shops the stylists gather in front for a morning update, reminiscent of their school days, and then a jog through town chanting.

Traveling west on Peixin you pass a restaurant that makes very good chaomian/chow mein. Usually the man on the left is standing over the large pot, holding a brick of dough in his right hand, his left hand rhythmically slicing fresh noodles into the boiling water.

A few doors down from that restaurant is another restaurant with decent fried rice. To the right of it is a comic and video game store. And to the right of it, behind the wood framed opaque glass doors, is a b-r-o-t-h-e-l. Yes, that's right a brothel. My school is in one of the red light districts of Ankang. Most of the brothels are on the next block but there are two on our block. There must be a dozen in total. The story is that when the school was built 70-80 years ago the market was on this street. The government asked the market to move because it interfered with the school traffic. And then the brothels moved in. Guess the traffic to the ladies of the evening doesn't interfere with the school traffic. You do rarely see the girls. The block where most of the brothels are located is predominately tea stores. There must be a dozen. I can just hear a husband saying to his wife, "Honey, I'm going out to buy some tea. Be back in 5 minutes."

Several doors down from the noodle restaurant is a milk outlet. This is where I buy my milk. There is a cooler at the door but it is filled with soft drinks. The milk is on the store shelves. It is ultra heat treated and need not be refrigerated until opened. You can also buy ice cream bars here. They are in deep chest freezers.

Across the street are some jiaozi/dumpling restaurants. I've eaten at the one in the middle. Their jiaozi are almost as good as the Zhang's. Next to them is a tailor. The bright silk rolls are very appealing but this tailor only makes burial clothing. These shops are all what I call "garage stores" because they are about the size of a single car garage. And at night the metal doors, like garage doors, are pulled down and locked before the proprietors go home.

About now we are at the gates to PeiXin Xiao Xue/Peixin Primary School. You know you are near a school by all the student centered shops. They sell paper, pencils, snacks and toys, the kind students can't walk by. To the left of our gate is a Chinese doctor/pharmacist. That seems very handy for a school, too.

The cross street is about 5 doors to the west of the school gate. That is where the market truly begins but it always spills over onto this section of Pei Xin Jie.

And beyond this corner are some houseware shops, toilet paper shops, and the other b-r-o-t-h-e-l-s. Oh, yes, and the tea shops.

The Muslim Quarter

It can be difficult to know if you are amongst the Muslim. The Hui, the Chinese term for the Muslims, often look like the Han. The two groups intermingle in much of Ankang life. Some staff and students at Peixin are Hui. The Hui at school go undetected unless they tell me or I eat with them. One Internet source says the Hui are 1.5% of the Shaanxi population. (The first Muslim visited China in the 600s but the population truly grew in the 1300s.)



There is a section of Ankang that we refer to as the Muslim quarter. Several "gates" mark edges of the quarter. This one is the most distinctive. Through this gate you notice more differences in lifestyles.

Most assuredly there are more mosques in this part of town. I have found six. Their towers rise above the roofline. At certain times of the day, if you are in this part of town, you will hear the call to prayer. Behind the walls surrounding the mosques you generally discover a tower just inside the wall, a peaceful courtyard and the ablution and prayer rooms beyond.






Walking through the Muslim quarter I also see more of the caged birds. Their songs fill the air. The cages hang under eaves, in trees, from door frames, from wires...just about anywhere you can think of. This business owner has two cages hanging at the front of his establishment.

This is the part of town where you will see herds of goats being led down the street. And it's where you will see them being butchered beside the street outside small slaughterhouses. It's where this young one was munching on radish tops.


Muslims do not eat pork. Mutton is the favored meat. It's in large supply in this part of town. Yang rou pao is a delicious brothy soup made from mutton. You eat it with chunks of Muslim bread, as many cloves of garlic as you want to add and salt to taste. It's very good on a cold day for breakfast, lunch or dinner.




You can sometimes spot Hui by their dress. The white hat that two of these women are wearing is not uncommon on men or women. I've seen a few colorful variations also. Once in awhile you see women wearing scarves over their heads. Abbi Satar's wife wore a scarf.

This picture also shows the warm smile of the Hui.

This part of town is one area with an overall lower skyline. The buildings are often from an older era. The bare mud bricks were never covered as they usually are today. The roofs are of an older style tile or covered with tarp weighed down with bricks. You may see sinks outside the residences. And through open doors you catch glimpses of narrow passageways and dark rooms, but every so often a sunlit courtyard .

An Ankang Wedding
The invitation was delivered orally Monday afternoon by Mr. Wang, the groom, and Mr. Zha, his translator. Nick and I were each given a sealed red paper bag filled with candies, peanuts, and seeds. Red is the color of weddings and the treats inside symbolized the wish for sweetness and a child. The verse on the outside said, "Tell me, do you love me? Whisper softly, sweetly, as of old! Tell me that you love me, Tor that's the sweetest story ever told." The mistakes in English always amuse me.

Saturday at 11 we met Mr. Li, his wife and son at the front of the school and walked two blocks to a new restaurant. This was the location of the wedding. Along the way Mr. Li asked me if this was my first Chinese wedding. On hearing, "Yes," he informed us this was "only an Ankang wedding." We met Mr. Jiang at the door and Mr. Zha and his son. Mr. Li's wife and son disappeared.

Entering the restaurant, we saw the bride and groom to the left on a small stage and guests seated at a dozen or so tables which filled the rest of the room.
We were asked to present our gift. So we did, telling them it was something ever American and Australian household has and is given at all weddings....sometimes by more than one guest.

I took some pictures of the couple as they paid homage to their parents and then to the guests. Apparently that ended the 30 minute ceremony so we had missed the main part. A bit disappointed I went upstairs to the private dining room where my group was seated.

We had a 20-25 dish meal with the usual amount of toasting and cheers. Eleven appetizers started us off which is not unusual either. What was unusual was the addition of several dessert dishes.
Nick and I sat between Mr. Li and Mr. Jiang. Which was appropriate as we seem to be a part of a tension between them. That tension was evident as the meal began. Mr. Li was not translating for Mr. Jiang and though smiling had some stern words.

Mr. Wang, the groom, was a head teacher for one of the first grtade classes I taught last year. He is now a Chinese teacher. He started teaching when he was 19 and has been teaching for 6 years. A few of his students, and mine, attended the festivities. They were ready and waiting for the time when silly string is sprayed at the couple. I was too... but missed that part. I'm hoping the students didn't!

Sometime during the meal the couple came to greet their guests. All of us at the two tables in our dining room rose to toast them. The bride had changed from the white Western style gown she wore for the beginning ceremony into the more traditional red dress for this part of the celebration. After we all toasted their happiness, they moved on to another private dining room. And soon after we left.


As we left I asked Mr. Li where his wife and son were. They hadn't gone to the wedding, they had gone to her father's. We dropped in to meet him. They were eating hot pot when we arrived. We visited while they finished up. Mr. Zhang is 83 years old. His wife died of cancer this past summer. We sampled his medicinal spirits which take two years to make and warm your insides quickly. I asked to see his medal. He received it for 60 years (1945 to 2005) of fighting the Japanese. He came from Shandong province in 1949, the year of the Long March but was not a part of the march. He asked how we like Ankang and we said we like it, the people are so friendly. He said it's not a rich place.
His daughters, Mrs. Li and Mrs. Zhang, decided to make jiaozi/dumplings. We snacked on three different types of oranges and sunflower seeds while we played Chinese marbles and visited. Mrs. Zhang, their father and the housekeeper prepared the stuffing, hand chopping everything, and dough for the dumplings.

Then Nick had his chance to learn the art of forming dumplings. Until you've had that experience and seen the materials assemled, you don't appreciate the work involved. We had a dinner of the best jiaozi in town. Finished off with some pomelo, a grapefruit type fruit that is not tart. Then said our farewells.

As Nick said...you never know what a day will bring.

Music on the Street

Look carefully and you will see speakers in the entrances to these shops. Although not all stores call to customers with abandoned refrains, the practice is not uncommon on the main shopping streets. Our small street, Pei Xin Jie, has only one shop that occasionally plays tunes. The shops that harmonize are generally on larger streets. Like the street around our corner where these two shops are. Mostly you hear pop melodies. Played loudly. Often foreign pop, or melodies that sound foreign. Kenny G is popular. I've heard the Eagles. And others. Yes, the strains do compete. These two shops are across the street from each other. Their pieces could be heard on either side. You sometimes swing quickly from one song to another as you pass stores. And you catch yourself walking with a beat. It can't be helped.

Finding Mother Nature in the City

In a city that is covered almost entirely with cement or tile, where does one find Mother Nature? Houses with grassy yards do not exist. Grass itself is a rarity. Block after block the ground is covered with buildings, sidewalk and streets. I am constantly on the lookout for green oases.

I have found pieces of nature on rooftops. This penthouse garden was especially nice in the spring when the pictures was taken.

There is also a lovely hideway behind the hospital. In spring the blooming trees and the quiet atmosphere were very enjoyable.

A nice green corner greets us on the way to Ulla and Debra's school. On warm days people crowd the benches. It was 1C/34F the day I took this photo.

Courtyards in apartment complexes often sport nooks of greenery. I have a new appreciation for potted flowerbeds. Amazing things are accomplished without actually putting the plants in the ground.

And I have learned to scan window ledges. One can often spot plants there.

Thankfully trees are plentiful in Ankang. These finally gave witness to autumn, never mind it is now December. Soon their branches will be bare. New foliage is a thing to look forward to. For as ZiChao says, "Winter is coming.....means spring is on the way!"

And there is always the lovely walk along the river. A great place to enjoy green scenery.

So even in a city where the land is mostly covered with man-made construction, one can find patches of green.

Shaanxi Dong
Shaanxi Dong is a Daoist park just minutes outside of Ankang. This past Saturday we five foreign teachers (In the picture: me, Ulla, Debra, Nick and Justin ) squeezed into a taxi and headed out for an afternoon of explorating. I had been to Shaanxi Dong 2-3 times last spring term but not yet this fall term. And even after this visit there are still paths I have not hiked.



We had barely set foot in the park, had just looked into two small shrines, when we met some students from Ankang Technology School. They were friendly and curious to spend some time with us. Meetings like this are always an occasion for photos.




A visit to Shaanxi Dong must include a climb to the top of the highest hill to see the large, newly constructed, main temple. Three large ornately painted statues adorn the center of the one inside room. Fruit and other offerings are placed at their bases. Cushions on the cement floor protect the knees of the devout as they pay homage. And homage is expected. The students with us were chastised for not clasping folded hands and bowing. But still they didn't. We foreigners were left alone this time...lost causes, I guess. The walls are covered with beautiful murals of LaoZi's life. Yin-yang circles decorate the ceiling. Recorded temple music fills the air. Various sizes of incense sticks are for sell at the entrance. (No photos are allowed inside.)


After the students left, we took a few minutes to rest in front of the smaller temple, the one built in a more ancient time but renovated since then. The woman working there had a coal burning heater and a cat. Both attracted our attention. A pleasant ambiance filled the courtyard. I especially enjoyed the feeling of fall.. ...something I've been waiting for and just last week spotted in Ankang. Fall was in the fog, in the trees and in the crisp chill at Shaanxi Dong.







Coming down from the two temples required descending these 137 steps. Of course these weren't the only steps we climbed that afternoon. The park is in the hills and full of steps. No, nothing like HuaShan but still there were plenty to keep us warm on our brisk December day.



Once again we all enjoyed and commented on the quiet and the peacefulness of being out of the city. It was nice to be able to stare into the distance and see only mountains and trees. And to shuffle our feet through the fallen leaves beneath a canopy of tree branches. I spotted a pair of birds with foot-long tail feathers that I would swear, except this was December, were building a nest. After hiking out to a small dam blocking the flow of a stream to build this body of water and enjoying the scenery there, we headed into town for some dinner. I'm guessing we all rested well that night. Nothing like traipsing for several hours through forest covering hill and dale to induce a good sleep.