back in chengdu.

Hi, so this is Ben's friend Kyle, continuing in the theme of not-Ben posting to Ben's blog. Ben is back in Chengdu, and safe there, but a strange thing happened when he tried to post about his experience of the protests in Lhasa: Blogger shut down and wouldn't let him post anything at all. Then, he tried to send the post to me through four different email accounts, and each time the account would freeze when he tried to send it. Finally, he was able to send it through facebook, which turns out to have a valid use after all. Crazy as it sounds, Ben's account of events is being censored by the Chinese government, so I'm posting it here for him. On that note, here it is:

hi everyone, thank you all for your messages and emails. i returned to chengdu a few hours ago after a 48 hour train ride from lhasa. i originally had planned on keeping this post short, but i've decided that for the sake of dispersing information, i'm going to put what i saw and did so everyone knows what's going on. it's long, so get ready.

i arrived in lhasa on march 13th by plane and spent the first day walking around the jokhang temple, the spiritual center of tibet. i circumambulated the temple on the barkhor circuit with thousands of other pilgrims, watching hundreds prostrating themselves outside. the situation was generally quite normal in the city, although i had been informed that i would not be able to visit most of the monasteries surrounding lhasa (drepung, sera, ganden) as there had been protests by local monks.

the morning of the 14th, i woke early (thanks 3700m) and visited the potala palace, again joining thousands of pilgrims to wander through one of the more beautiful and emotionally overpowering buildings i have ever visited. early that afternoon i went out to the train station to buy my ticket home for march 22nd. on the way back my taxi got a little lost, and dropped me off about ten minutes east of my hostel.

walking down the main road to my hostel, i encountered a huge crowd of people yelling and throwing rocks. to avoid the crowd, i moved south, cutting through the barkhor alleys to try to return to my hostel. the barkhor square was even worse, as tibetans were destroying chinese businesses, and throwing all chinese owned merchandise onto huge fires in the alleys. i cut through the crowd towards my hostel, watching people destroy building after building. after meeting an english speaking thai woman south of the jokhang temple, we pulled a young chinese police woman (19 years old, still in police academy) away from a group of tibetans that were beating her, and ran down an alley. we hid under some burlap sacks for a while, before the door across the alley opened, and we took refuge with a tibetan family.

after providing impromptu first aid to the badly injured chinese police woman, the two women left to go to the hospital, and i spent the night with the tibetan family. by the evening of the 14th, tanks were driving through the city, and i could hear the sound of gun shots and the explosion of tear gas canisters. i tried to return to my hostel a few times, but as i approached the chinese police surrounding the tibetan quarter, they only waved their guns and yelled in chinese to step back.

on march 15th, i woke early again. around 10am, two other americans (one of whom was james miles, the only foreign press correspondent in tibet) miraculously took refuge with the same tibetan family as they dodged the tanks rolling through barkhor square. he was with another young woman who had been in tibet for a while and spoke very good tibetan. the three of us left the tibetan family around 11 (they were so wonderful, their son who lives in la called my dad in minneapolis), and walked through the alleys around barkhor square. the alleys were filled with the remains of chinese businesses, and the fires still raged. a few tibetan men egged on the riot police, banging on pans and screaming for a free tibet.

we proceeded to james' hotel which was located east of the barkhor, still about 15 minutes walk from my hostel. as the protests had started in this area, the whole area was blocked off by riot police, and we couldn't move. for the rest of the 15th, we stayed in the hotel, as we frequently heard gun shots and tear gas burned our eyes. we could see groups of tibetans in the alleys throwing rocks at riot police, as the police shot off warning shots above the tibetans' heads.

that evening, the police started conducting house to house searches, entering our hotel from the roof. we were told that we couldn't leave, as anyone found on the streets would either be arrested or shot. we saw groups of tibetans being escorted by chinese police throughout the day and evening. when i left on the 18th, estimates (not supported) were that thousands of tibetans had been imprisoned in chinese jails.

from the 15th to the 17th we stayed in the hotel, under a form of house arrest, as leaving the hotel was too dangerous. the 15th and 16th were very noisy, as we heard loud explosions and gun shots intermittently. on the 17th, we were informed that tibetans could move with identity cards, and foreigners could move with passports. i left the hotel, trying to return to my hostel (i hadn't had my bag now for 72 hours) but the police would not let me leave the tibetan quarter. the police were all mostly younger than me, and some even smiled as i approached. disturbing.

on the 16th, my tour agency had been trying to contact me, but as i couldn't move, and wasn't anxious to leave, i hadn't encouraged them to come get me. on the 17th, when i couldn't get to my hostel, i asked if they could somehow get my bag. instead of getting my bag, they came to get me. four tibetans showed up in an suv to pick me up, and since they had possession of my tibetan permit, i had no choice but to go with them.

i never felt that i was in danger, as i had nothing to do with the conflict. the chinese government had required the removal of all foreigners because they were scared of the photos and videos the foreigners could (and did) collect. the chinese media has blamed this on the dalai lama. the dalai lama has nothing to do with it, and has released international statements asking for a peaceful resolution. this was a large group of tibetans (both students and otherwise) upset with the chinese because of their violent forced occupation.

the chinese news i watched on the 16th blamed the riots on the 'dalai group,' which, as far i know, does not exist. or if it does, it's not supported directly by the dalai lama. the news reported that the group of rioters was small and that by the 16th the situation had returned to normal. it showed tibetans delivering presents to the chinese to thank them for bringing safety. the same broadcast was repeated over and over again, as if hearing it twenty times would somehow make it true. in the remainder of mainland china, the tibetans are depicted (and it's largely believed to be true) as ungrateful terrorists. the protests of the last week are considered to be the biggest uprising in tibet since 1959.

i’m no longer aware of the exact situation in tibet. i left the morning of the 18th, a few hours after an ultimatum was given by the chinese to stop all rioting. i have no idea whether the ultimatum was met. there was still unrest between tibetans and muslims when i left, as the mosque (or the area around it) near the hotel i was stuck at was apparently (again not supported) lit on fire.

i'm going to keep my emotional response out of this for now, as i'm still working through what all of this means. i wanted to make sure everyone understood the situation as i saw it. i've tried to keep it as objective as possible. if anyone has any further questions, please contact me. i hope you are all well.

Benjamin is safe

This is Benjamin's dad. I've been in contact with Benjamin and he is safely in a hotel waiting out the protests. As soon as he gets internet access, he'll post an update here and answer his emails.

Scott Jenson

sino the times...

the last few weeks have been very busy.  emilio has been back in town for the past two weeks, which has been great.  a friend from kunming was also in town this week, so we had an unusually full house.

it's always great to have guests, because it brings back the excitement of the first few months in a new place.  i still feel very mixed about hong kong (and have resigned myself to feeling this way for the next four months), but have loved exploring new restaurants, hiking trails and other more touristy spots with a new group.

i've recently gotten back into climbing which has also been really great.  climbing gyms are very strange here, and very difficult to find.  there are only a few bouldering gyms, and most of them are hidden in the upper floors of scary warehouses.  luckily, though, i managed to meet a banker (surprise) named nick at one of them who happens to be developing some new outdoor sport routes in kowloon.  since meeting a few weeks ago, i've climbed with him a few times.  it's pretty surreal to finish a climb and turn around to find hong kong at your feet.  the quality of the climbs is surprisingly good as well.

we stayed at the venetian in macau last weekend on a 'spring break 08 woooo' package, which was certainly interesting.  macau hotels are weird.  especially when they're modeled after a rich couple's honeymoon in venice.

i'm flying to chengdu tomorrow to visit a friend from senegal, and then heading to tibet for just under two weeks on the 13th.  not quite sure of the itinerary yet, but i'm starting to get very excited.  

that's all i have to report for now.  i hope everyone has a lovely march, and i'll be sure to post photos when i return!

why i want to marry daniel rossen.

chinese new year

we had this week off for chinese new year (or lunar new year as it's known outside of china) and rather than stay in hong kong, dhwani, sarah, sarah's friend jeffrey and i went to shenzhen to spend the holiday with a friend from the university and her family. shenzhen is the same city i visited early during my time in hong kong, as well as the city i must pass through to visit most anywhere else in china. tourists rarely stop there, and up to now, i'd had no real reason to. after spending a few days there with lusi and her family, though, i have a much more positive outlook on the city.

chinese new year is sort of like a mix between thanksgiving and christmas. most of the holiday is spent with family, watching festivities on television and eating ridiculous amounts of food. gifts are given in the form of red envelopes filled with money. anyone who is unmarried can expect to receive a red envelope from those that are married. lusi's family was incredibly accommodating, and although they spoke very little english, lusi's fantastic translating allowed us to have some pretty involved conversations. it was also a great opportunity for me to practice my chinese. i seem to be a pretty absurd spectacle to most chinese people, though. not only am i tall beyond comprehension, but i speak poor mandarin with a midwestern accent. in general, since the majority of older chinese people speak little to no english, i'm still encouraged to try to speak, since it's the only way we can really communicate anything.

a few highlights from the trip included eating some fantastic chinese food (much better than anything i've had in hong kong), making pork dumplings with lusi's family, a trip to the "countryside" with lusi's extended family (including a trip to the driving range!), lighting fireworks along an abandoned highway and getting kicked out of a 7-11 by chinese gangsters. it was so fantastic to be taken in by lusi's whole family, who were so warm and friendly despite the language barrier and our joining what is usually a pretty strictly family gathering. all in all, a great few days.

in other news:

- in the chinese calendar, each year is named after a different animal. last year was the year of the pig. this year is the year of the rat. i'm a rat. this should be a good year?
- i'm going to tibet in march! i'll be visiting friends in chengdu and kunming on either end.
- it's freezing in hong kong. the weather is colder than it's been in ten years. this is made even more complicated by the fact that no one in hong kong or china has heat. we've spent the last two weeks huddled around our space heater.
- almost recovered from the wild boar/monkey/chupacabra/badger ferret bite. last rabies shot is next saturday.

and some photos from china:

the first of many meals with lusi and her family.

the crew hard at work on their dumplings.

all alone at my station.

sarah and her sparklers.

dhwani and lusi in a strawberry patch.

at the driving range. i think i'm reacting to jeffrey hitting his ball backwards. (btw, we're all wearing the same clothes in all these photos, not because it all happened on the same day, but because it was too cold to change. never having heat changes the way you view things like showers or clean clothes)

maybe the most awkward photo of all time?

all of us together in the 'countryside'

a case for public health

a true story in four acts
'acts' used here in more of an ira glass kind of way

act 1

sarah and i had planned to complete the maclehose trail over the long weekend. the 100 km trail, hong kong's oldest, stretches from east to west new territories, starting in the stunning sai kung country park and ending in tuen mun. saturday began with a comparably light 16 km hike through some really fantastic scenery. the weather was perfect, the skies were clear, and sarah and i were making great time despite our predictably late start.

after an afternoon on the idyllic long ke beach, we hiked a few more kilometers and by 6 pm arrived in the small village of sai wan. less than 30 people live here, and as i learned at 4:30 am the next morning, it only really survives because of the traffic coming through on the maclehose trail. a few cafes and a small hostel were placed on either side of the trail, before it continued on to the nearby sai wan beach. we hadn't planned on hosteling and so we set up camp on the beach as the sun set.

sarah and i made a delicious pasta dinner on our brand new camping stove and with a little help from our excellent mutual friend melatonin, settled in at about 8:30.

act 2

at 3:30, having slept fitfully since the winds had picked up around midnight, i was awakened by a painful bite on my calf. i sat up yelling, expecting to find an animal sitting in my lap. i found nothing, although within minutes, my leg had swollen around a large bite across my left calf. in shock, i lay down, unsure of what to do next. sarah and i spent five minutes catching our breath, trying to figure out what the hell had happened, before i walked outside to look around. my hiking shoes were about fifteen feet from the tent, but with the clouds blocking out the moon and the wind whipping around the tent, i couldn't see or hear anything. it seemed that some animal, presumably large enough to get its mouth around my calf, had bitten my leg completely unprovoked while i was still inside the tent. at this point, the bite on my leg had swelled to the size of a baseball and i was having trouble walking.

sarah and i packed up our site as quickly as possible, and by 4 we were limping our way to the village of sai wan. neither of us had any idea of what to do, as we were easily 10 km from any major road. after arriving in the village, i asked sarah to start banging on doors, which she thankfully did. the first door she tried opened to reveal eight women sleeping on four bunk beds. the women were understandably shocked, but with limited english and chinese, we managed to track down another hiker staying in the nearby hostel who spoke excellent english.

by 4:30, jonathan had called 999, and after discovering that they had never heard of sai wan (keep in mind we're still in hong kong) he managed to describe to the fire department where we were. we learned that the nearest service road was about three km uphill from the village, and i was told that an ambulance was being sent with a few people who would help me hike out. having later seen who they sent, i have to wonder what jonathan told them.

act 3

at about 6 am, five fire fighters walked into sai wan with a stretcher. soon, two doctors followed, and after them came five more fire fighters, with a wheel chair and two more stretchers. i was very surprised, because while i was unable to walk, i certainly didn't need 12 people to carry me out. while most of the firefighters just walked alongside, a few of them were particularly helpful. through a combination of hopping on one leg, awkward wheel chair-ing, and intense stretcher work, we were able to climb the mountain out of sai wan and up to the service road in about an hour. for the first time since moving to hong kong, i was actually thankful that the parks and services department has put so much money into paving hong kong's hiking trails. getting wheeled out of the valley was a welcome improvement over the first 500m of hopping.

by 7 am, i was in an ambulance with sarah, driving to the nearest hospital. i naturally didn't have any form of identification, so used my student octopus card instead. after an hour of driving on windy roads, we made it to the tseung kwan o hospital in the southeast new territories.

act 4

having been checked in at the hospital, i quickly had some blood tests taken, and was given some antibiotics and antihistamines. at this point, my leg was huge, and i still had no idea what was going on. over the course of the next few hours, we weeded out spider, snake, stork (jonathan's proposal), lizard and most other venomous animals. other likely candidates were dog or wild boar. i had to tell my story to many doctors, all of whom had trouble comprehending why i had been bitten in my sleep through a tent. i still don't really understand how it happened. the most compelling case has been made for the wild boar. i also think it makes the best story. whatever it was, though, it had some nasty teeth, because my leg was pretty infected.

throughout the rest of the day, i was given a variety of drugs, and i slept for a long time. by about ten pm, over 16 hours after i had been bitten, the swelling had dramatically decreased, and the doctors had gotten back my blood tests, which came up negative across the board. exhausted, confused and mentally drafting this blog post, i limped to the desk to pay my bill.

epilogue
the reason for my title? grand total for two fire trucks, an ambulance, 12 rescue workers, a blood test, a weeks course of antibiotics and a day in a hospital bed : 12 US dollars.

PS. i still don't know what bit me. i'm taking suggestions, though.

china!

i just returned to hong kong yesterday evening after two weeks in mainland china. the first week was with the other etas, teaching (sort of) in a middle school just outside of guangzhou. it was really great to experience guangzhou from such a different side. the first time i visited (2 1/2 months ago) i saw the city as a tourist. this time, i got to see it as a teacher (sort of), spending a lot of time in primary schools and secondary schools. we didn't teach as much as i would have liked, but we did get a chance to teach a middle school class, and we did a few other presentations for larger groups on the united states (woooo). our group caused quite a stir at the school, but i think our impact was ultimately positive. after every class, we'd get mobbed by middle schoolers asking for our contact info, and occasionally our signature. it felt really great to be back in guangzhou, and the group did remarkably well together (although it felt more like study abroad than a work trip).

after the other etas headed back to hong kong, i took an overnight train to hainan, and spent a week in the town of sanya. sanya exists solely for tourism, which unsurprisingly, gives it a very strange vibe. the weather was beautiful while i was there, although sitting on the beach on december 21st is certainly a strange experience. i met another fulbrighter (john) randomly while there, who is living in the city of kunming, in yunnan province. he and i got along really well, and i think i'm going to visit him sometime in february or march. i didn't do a whole lot in sanya, which was great. highlights included a visit to hilton's beautiful private beach, eating lots of seafood (which is sadly all imported since china overfished the waters around hainan [sidenote: this blog could be much more cynical than it is]), and an adventure into the central mountains of hainan. john's mandarin was excellent which allowed us to meet many more local hainanese than i would have been able to on my own. it also was an inspiration to keep working on my mandarin.

dadonghai beach

the only photo i have of me from the trip. i hope my three faithful readers aren't offended by the topless shot...

speaking of mandarin, i'm still working on it, although it's slow going. i made the big decision yesterday to stop trying to learn traditional characters, and switch to simplified. in mainland china, a majority of chinese characters were simplified during the 50s and 60s to help improve literacy. the only places in which traditional chinese characters remain are hong kong and taiwan. i had hoped to make traditional characters happen, but it's just proving too difficult. hopefully this switch will help my writing. at this point, i know about 150 characters, but those are mostly simpler ones. as they get more difficult, the difference between traditional characters and simplified ones gets more pronounced.

my parents arrive in a few hours! it's been almost five months since i've seen them, the longest time we've been apart since i studied abroad in senegal. we'll be in hong kong together until the 30th, and then we're going to the philippines (cebu) for five days to relax on the beach.

it was really nice while in china to find that i missed hong kong, and was anxious to return. it made me realize how much hong kong feels like home, and how comfortable i have become here. it's still a pretty crazy, difficult, exhausting place, but my living situation is really comfortable, and i'm starting to feel like i have a really good feel for the city.

i hope everyone has a lovely holiday wherever you are in the world! to celebrate, here's a present from me to you, with a little help from yousendit:

um tom - caetano veloso

island hopping.

i hope the infrequency of my posting hasn't scared any of you off. i'm always shocked when i return to the blog to realize so much time has gone by. as i write this entry, i'm rapidly approaching the end of the first third of my time in hong kong. even in almost four months, i still have not resolved my mixed feelings for hong kong. i visited hong kong park today, although a park is hardly what i would call it. because there are so many people in this city, parks here are designed to move the maximum amount of people through them as possible. you can't bring dogs, there are few benches, and don't even think about sitting on the grass. everything is designed to be looked at while on the move. add to that the fact that every time you look up, you can see at least 50 buildings over 30 stories high, and you end up with a pretty un-park-like feel.

as i discussed in my last post, i enjoy hong kong most when i'm not in hong kong. hong kong is made up of 260 islands, many of which are largely undeveloped. 40% of hong kong's 460 square miles has been reserved for country parks, and only 25% of this area has actually been developed. this weekend i took advantage of these country parks, and spent one day on the island of cheung chau, and the next hiking through lantau island. this combined with a visit to lamma island last weekend has given me a pretty good sense for some of the more popular islands in hong kong. here's a map of hong kong (as a side note, all of these pictures are much bigger than they appear on the blog, so click for more detail):


i've circled the three islands, as well as mong kok and tai po (where the university is). one note is that the red dot for mong kok should be to the right of the k, not to the left of the m. i'm not sure why they placed it all the way out there. i wish it was that close to the water... (also, i just realized that the whole map is tilted a little bit. you get the general idea, though.)

lamma is a beautiful island about 30 minutes from central hong kong by ferry. there are two major towns connected by a concrete foot path. the island has a number of beaches, and many of the inhabitants are expats. lamma is definitely one of the more expensive places to live in hong kong, and as a result, a number of boutiquey stores have popped up in the main town of sok kwu wan. lamma is another reminder, though, that you're never as far as you'd like to be from hong kong development. the main beach is called 'power station beach' because if you happen to look right, you'll notice an enormous electrical power plant. as long as you angle your towel to the left and ignore the shadow it casts, the beach is really beautiful.

hi.

cheung chau is much more densely populated, with 30,000 people living in just 2.5 square km. the island feels much more chinese than lamma, and many of the small winding alleys in the town of cheung chau sell traditional herbal medicines and paper hell money (to be burned in memory of the dead) over organic quinoa. i wasn't crazy about cheung chau at first (still so many people), but heading south i soon found myself on an abandoned trail that hugged the rocky coastline. the trail was really rugged in spots, and even involved some spelunking through a cave the notorious pirate cheung po tsai once hid in.

first look at cheung chau.

trail in southern cheung chau.

i'm really obsessed with lantau. yesterday, i went on a 15 km hike that took me over two peaks (sunset peak at 870 m and lantau peak at 980 m). lantau peak is the second highest in hong kong, and afforded some phenomenal views of the penninsula as well as the not so beautiful hong kong airport. one interesting note on the airport. like much of hong kong, the airport is built completely on reclaimed land located (as you can see from the map) off the north coast of lantau island. reclamation projects in hong kong are a huge source of tension, as developers are running out of flat space, while others wonder whether victoria harbor (the body of water between hong kong island and kowloon) will even be here in ten years.

pretty normal photo for hong kong: huge area of reclaimed land, city area with a lot of skyscrapers, plenty of smog and lots of green.

anyway, the hike on lantau was definitely the best i've been on in hong kong, and maybe one of the better day hikes i've ever been on. the sky was unusually clear, and descending lantau peak with a view of po lin monastery (and the tian tan buddha) was really stunning. the 'big buddha' as it's more commonly called is apparently the largest, outdoor, seated, bronze buddha in the world. wooo. it was nice to arrive after a day of hiking, though, and sit down to a huge veggie lunch at the monastery.

looking back from sunset peak. all of these houses are rented by the monastery.

looking back at sunset peak from lantau peak (you can see the trail we hiked at the bottom of the photo).

approaching the big buddha from lantau peak.

as i'm still a little overwhelmed by the intense development/consumption/excess/insanity of downtown hong kong, it's been nice to find things to do with my time off work that get me away from the malls. i think i'll close by sharing a song i've had on repeat for the past two weeks. hope everyone is well.

little brother (electric) by grizzly bear.

and for no reason, me in a pumpkin: