To Laoshan We Go

Before I left for China I was told by my mother that "I had to find a church to go to." After I had been in Qingdao for a few weeks and ask around I discovered that there are only two Christian Churches in the entire city of seven million residents. Both were built by the Germans around the turn of the twentieth century. One is a Lutheran Church, which would be the best option for me considering I was raised Lutheran. The other is a very beautiful Catholic Church. I discovered that the Lutheran Church does not have regular services and essentially functions more as a museum than a place of worship. The Catholic Church, however, does have regular services but they are only bi-weekly. This last weekend I had some time off from teaching but it fell on the off week of the Catholic Church services. With no other options a fellow teacher and I decide to head for Mount Laoshan, which is known as the cradle of Taoism, and is also home to many Buddhist temples. I realize that wasn't quite what my mother had in mind but I figured it would be extremely interesting to check out none-the-less.

Greame, the other teacher, and I figured out what busses would take us to the base of Laoshan. We know that it is along ways away, but are unsure exactly how far. We are riding on the bus for about thirty minutes until we see a Mountain. It was not a very large mountain but we didn't know how big Laoshan is, we just figured that it was it. We get off the bus and find someone to give us some information, which leads us to the discovery that this was not Laoshan but a smaller mountain. At this point we had to decide whether we should just settle for this one or if we should press on and attempt to find Laoshan. We decide to continue towards our original destination. We walk to a bus stop and get on another bus. After about twenty more minutes we try to combine our limited Chinese and ask the bus driver how far it was to Laoshan. The bus driver stops at the next stop and rambles something in Chinese and points here. We are confused but assume that this must be Laoshan. We got off of the bus, after which quickly drives away, and we look around and there is not a mountain within ten miles. Confused and frustrated, we just start to walk towards the mountains that were the largest. I finely made the decision that we should take a taxi, then we could simply say Laoshan and he would take us right to where we needed to go. The problem with that is that by now we are a distance away from Qingdao, and in the country. Granted we were on a major road but it took about thirty minutes before a taxi finely drove by.

The taxi turned out to be a great idea. The ride with the taxi driver was an experience in its self. He was about forty five years old, had on a ripped T-shirt, and stopped about half way to take a leak. The entire time we were driving he was pointing at stuff and explaining it in rapid Chinese, both of us couldn't catch a word. It turns out we were still about thirty miles from the base of Laoshan. Not only does he drive us there but he takes us to a few stops along the way. First we stopped at this very large Buddhist temple, where I took a picture with him. I was not allowed to take actual pictures of the temple itself. I considered sneaking a few, but thought it was probably best not to affend anybody. At the temple the driver turned from taxi driver to tour guide. He walked us around and showed us everything along the way. Next he took us to this little village where old men and women were carving pieces of Jade as large as I am. They were making huge statues, as well as little figurines. This was awesome because it was something that I would not have had the opportunity to see if I was on a tour bus. Here I was also ask not to take any pictures. It is my guess that he took us there because he figured we had money and would buy some of the stuff. I defiantly would have, but I wasn't carrying very much cash with me, and with a thirty mile cab ride to pay for I had to watch my cash flow.

Our last stop was Mount Laoshan. It was a "fei chang piao liang," or very beautiful. There was a giant resivour, that supplies the water for Tsingtao beer, as well as Laoshan drinking water. There was also little shops all the way up, but again I was a little short on doe so I did not buy anything.

If you would like to see more pictures that I have taken go to my photobucket site. The link for it is on the right hand side of my blog. I have also put up some other good sights. I recommend checking out Couchsurfing.com. Everything has been great so far. I have been working a lot more. The next six weeks is the schools busiest time of the year. The regular school sessions are out for summer and now students are taking private classes. I have discovered one major difference between students in China and the students in America. I spent most of my summers in my youth either playing baseball at Jackson Street park, or sitting on the couch watching TV. During the same time of year Chinese students sign up for classes. For example, one of my students that was in one of my English classes from 2-5 everyday, told me that she has a physics tutor from 8:00-1:00 everyday before the English class, and then three days a week she has Korean classes at night. Her case is not unusual, most of my students have a similar schedule. I tell them what it is like for students back in the states and the get incredibly jealous, and I can't blame them. But anyway, I just thought that was kind of interesting.

I will put a picture of my Chinese teacher on my Photobucket. She has been great. I am glad I got a good teacher while I am starting out, because it makes learning it so much easier. I also am going to start to take lessons to learn how to play the Erhu. It is a traditional Chinese instrument. I told my students that I wanted to learn how to play, and one of them had a brother who is a level ten Erhu player, I guess that's good but I do not have any idea, but he is going to teach me for free in exchange for some English conversation. Anyway, I will put up a picture of my Erhu on photobucket. I always appreciate you putting up comments on here. I like to feedback because it reminds me that people actually read this thing.

Quote of the Week:

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. -Mark Twain