Gaelic Football in China

(It was windy, I couldn't get a good photo. Shut up.)

So it completely slipped my mind on Wednesday that I have photos of China that are appropro for Paddy's Day. Namely, the annual All-China Gaelic Games. So here's a belated Irish in China post.

Go Mikey Go! (Game against Shanghai; Mikey's the one who started the Dalian Wolfhounds)

There's a surprisingly large Irish expatriate population in China, and they've of course brought their national sport, Gaelic football, to the Chinese, English, Americans, Australians, and whatever other nationalities will stand for the rough sport. I played keeper in the Games in Beijing '08 and Shanghai '09, both for the Shenzhen Ladies (though I trained with the Dalian team, we didn't have enough for a full girls' team.) I famously fractured my foot in '08 post-games and my appearance in '09 was completely guilt-tripped by my captain, but the Games were ridiculously fun nonetheless (despite my foot wanting to destroy me for making it suffer through an entire football competition).

Also, for anyone who knows me personally, Gaelic football was basically where my obsession fondness for the Irish took root.

Dalian Wolfhounds men's team, Beijing 2008 (check out the air pollution! healthy sporting conditions to be sure!)

Flashback: New Year Decorations at 城隍庙

Flashback time!

Over the next few days, my posts will be from Shanghai during Chinese New Year 2008, the first and only time I've actually experienced the holiday in China.  

(While the New Year began on Feb 14, the holiday technically lasts 15 days, so I'm still right on time! Technically.)

This photo comes from the famous tourist trap landmark, the Old Temple outside Yuyuan Gardens. 2008 was the Year of the Rat, so those decorations in the water are blowup zodiac animals, surrounded by many friendly-looking, red-wearing, celebratory rats.

Chinese Parking

This specific photo is from my apartment complex in Dalian; this one isn't so bad, but I've seen some ridiculous parking jobs. Chinese people have this knack for squeezing into the tightest spots, whether or not it's really convenient ...or safe...or legal....

Pandora's Chinglish

I can't believe that in over three months of postings, I have yet to publish one on Chinglish. Chinglish is the unfortunate (and by unfortunate I mean awesome) result of Chinese-English translations gone awry. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Chinese are onto us foreigners and actually continue producing Chinglish for the sake of keeping up appearances. [Yes, that was a reference to old BBC shows!]

Shennong Stream

An excursion into a tributary of the Yangtze River, with tour guides and boat rowers who are people of the Tujia minority. The boat rowers are also known as 'trackers' and in older days pulled boats while naked through shallow waters. We glided in small sampans through the waters, surrounded by huge cliffs on either side and remnants of their houses and land that are being overtaken for the Three Gorges Dam project. 

Photo of the Day: The Squat

It's an oft-seen, well-known sight in China: The Squat. Yes, it doesn't matter where you go, someone will be squatting. I have heard a theory that while us Americans squat leaning on our front toes, this squat distributes weight evenly over the entire foot, thus effectively making the person sturdy and near-impervious to being pushed over. Of course, upon hearing this, we foreigners all had to test out this theory. (Admit it, you will too.)

Photo of the Day: Ball Skills

Some Aston English teachers got together for a friendly expats vs. locals football (soccer) game. This was taken at halftime. I forget who won, but the expats all walked over to Noah's bar aftewards for mid-day drinks; was a good day. Taken at Olympic Square, which is also the pitch we used for Gaelic football practices.

Photo of the Day: Street Harvest

In the fall, suddenly there were piles of green vegetables covering the streets. Mostly cabbage, but as you can see here, sometimes onions were collected too. Copious heads of cabbage were still lying about town, drying I assume, when I left in January.

Photo of the Day: Cards

Another sight seen all over China. So much so, that every foreigner with a camera in China attempts this shot at one point or another. This one was taken in Suzhou, outside one of the Gardens.

Of the plethora of cards photos I have, this is one of my favorites. Usually they end up being taken from far away, so as not to intrude on people/let them know I'm stalking their game, and the result is either very blurry or grainy as a result of using too much zoom. But this one I quickly snapped as I was walking past and it turned out crisp and clear, has nice composition, tells a story and all that. (In my opinion, anyway.)

Photo of the Day: Student Lunches

[The girl in the blue is the one I'm currently visiting in South Carolina for Spring Break.]

Eating lunch with my classmates (the two girls and guy in the foreground), all of them American. Class ended at 12 every day and there was an endless amount of choices for food around the Dongcai campus. They were all incredibly cheap too; usually costing 5 rmb for a bowl of noodles (~75 cents) or 7-10 rmb per person to share dishes 'family-style' as we're doing above.

Photo of the Day: Temple in the Mountains

(The woman walking is my aunt)

In Guangyuan, Sichuan Province, with my extended relatives, who were visiting some of their extended relatives in the mountains. We drove further into the mountains after lunch to play in the freshly fallen snow; after they parked the trucks they stopped into this Buddhist temple to offer some prayers since it was around Chinese New Year's. I don't know that it was frequented often but it looked well-maintained enough. I was politely told I couldn't participate because I wasn't a Buddhist, so I just took pictures.

Photo of the Day: Alone

Yeah, I really couldn't come up with a better title than that. (Note: the picture is much more impressive if you click on it for the full-size version)

Man doing some exercises at Xinghai Square's "book" monument. A year ago today I moved to Dalian, so a picture of a person all alone in Dalian seemed appropriate. Much as I grew to love the city, I have to admit that first night was rough.

Photo of the Day: Nightly Exercise

Zhongshan Square, Dalian. However, this is a scene played out every night in all cities throughout China. (Apologies for the quality; it's a night shot and my camera was in its dying stages by September)

Photo of the Day: Dazu Rock Carvings

A UNESCO World Heritage Site in Dazu County, in Chongqing. The carvings were from the 7th century. This photo has no perspective but the giant Buddhas were about six times the height of us- Massive!

Wild Wild West Day ONE: Tombs, Movies Sets, and Helan Mountain

Right so I've been home about a week now. Time is really flying by, somehow I've managed to fall behind yet again.

Our first day in Yinchuan was freezing. The day started off on a great note when our driver, not even two minutes out on the road, accidentally rolled backwards into another car. There was a great deal of arguing between the two drivers over fault, and I got out of the van even to take pictures of the bystanders.

Our first stop was the Xi Xia Mausoleum, which were tombs from the Xi (Western) Xia Dynasty. Honestly, they just looked like giant anthills. The gloomy weather didn't help our lack of excitement either. But because there were four of us camera-happy girls, we took loads of funny pictures.

  Our next stop was a giant movie set where numerous films have been shot. Danny, our director, told us a whole generation of filmmakers who grew up during the Cultural Revolution used this set, because they would make films about the Sent Down Youth or the Re-education movement of the 60s and 70s. One of my favorite movies I recognized as having taken place there! To Live, which is from 1994 and stars Gong Li. Highly recommended. Anyway, we ended up exploring and taking more funny photos. There were also two tied up monkeys in the complex, they looked like they were going to bite my nose when I got close to them. The set is obviously just a tourist attraction now, but we could have spent half the day there if Danny let us, just taking pictures. My favorite part of the whole trip there might've been when a group of tourists kept trying to take photos of Brittney and Leanna just because they were white, and I started making funny faces whilst standing in between them. Imagine looking at a picture of two white girls with me in the middle scrunching my nose and sticking out my tongue...brilliant.

Our last stop of the day was Helan Mountain, which looked to be just giant rock formations but they actually had ancient carvings and drawings. I couldn't see a single one without having to stare at the same boulder for ages, but some of the others could really pick them out. It started to drizzle while we were there, and by the end of our walk through it, we were all just wet and cold. I ended up holding everyone up though because I was bargaining for some souveniers to bring home. I think the matter of contention was five kuai? So less than a dollar...but really, it was a matter of pride.  I ended up winning. Dinner that night was on Danny's contact in Yinchuan, who is the sister of a coworker in Dalian and whom Danny had never actually met. She's a professional singer, or was, and now gives voice lessons while her daughter is a news anchor on the local television station. Her husband turned out to be Shanghai born and raised, so we had a conversation in Shanghai dialect, which made me very happy, as it always does. The dishes at dinner were all fantastic, and kept coming even when we were stuffed. Because we were in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, where a good majority of the people (the Hui minority) are Muslims, lamb is a staple meat. One dish was lamb raised so as not to taste gamey, and it was so tasty, the meat seemed to melt off the bone. Even the tea we had -ba bao, or Eight Treasure tea- was delicious. The dinner was definitely a good experience not just for the culinary satisfaction, but also because through Danny's polite conversation and the way he acted towards these three, it was a perfect demonstration of how Chinese people form and maintain guanxi as well.