Taizhou International Wen-Wu School

I thought the best part of our trip was the visit to this martial-arts school, where an army of children pulled out all the stops to give us this amazing, long performance! I couldn't help feeling that with this kind of discipline, the Chinese are going to be formidable. When I noticed that the little kids there were also learning English, my buddy commented, "That's so they'll be able to give you orders in your own language."

China Academy of Art's Infamous Fan Dance While Wearing Wigs at the Zhejiang Provincial International Student Talent Shows (ZPISTS)

Enjoy.

Belly Dancing!

This was probably the most popular performance. I captured the slow part. It might not be chinese dancing, but I think she has been forgiven.

Zhejiang International Student Talent Show Performances

Linhai and the Great Wall of the South

I think I may have earlier referred to our pep-rally like performance of the fan-dance as the culmination of that forsaken activity. However, I was lying, because we have continued secretly practicing. The REAL culmination happened Thursday and Friday, at the Zhejiang Provincial International Student Talent Show. It was a BIG DEAL. By BIG DEAL, I mean that they went all out with decor, we had 15 hours of dress rehearsals the day before, necessitating stay in a hotel, then there were the TV crews, etc etc. Intense. I can happily report that we had one of the best performances, and I will post several videos soon, I just need to get them down to size. This weekend, we were rewarded with a trip for our efforts. On Saturday, we visited an amazing Kung Fu school, where children as young as 4, and up through high school entertained us with absolutely amazing martial arts, dances, and Dragon and Lion performances. It was truly awesome, but at the time I had no batteries, so I am waiting on friends' pics to show you guys. The next day, we visited the Great Wall of the South, which dates to the Ming Dynasty, and served as a model for the Great Wall in the North. You can see pictures of a beautiful historic street below, as well. We each had a personal guide from one of the local high schools, mine was named Lithium (or it sounded like that) and she was very sweet and spoke very good English. She was only 16, and hopes to study in America, please wish her luck. Later Sunday, we visited Shen Xianju, or "Residence of the Immortals," a really cool park with 11 waterfalls, home to giant salamanders which I wish I had seen!

Rock Formations at Shen Xianju

Some artwork from China Academy of Art

http://www.caa.edu.cn/photos/exhibition/show1/
http://www.caa.edu.cn/photos/news/news182/

Drying Clothes Chinese Style

Classmates

We've just lost Shou老师(teacher Shou), since her student teaching is finished., here's my class with her (excuse spelling): [back row] Duan (Vietnam), Dahai (Syria), Megan (Korea/Australia), Katya (Russia), Andre (Russia), Jeff (USA), me (USA), [middle row] Ti (Cambodia), Zidar (Turkmenistan), Eda [in pink] (Croatia), Priscilla (Uganda), Lalei （Iran), Manamee (Japan), Eszter (Hungary), [front row] Sarah (USA), Shou老师 (China), Micky (Japan), [very front] Arianna (Mongolia/Angola)

My Chinese buddy Elephant and I. Many Chinese have crazy names like this, I also know a "Commander" who happens to be a girl! but when you want a more interesting Chinese name, they're always like, Oh no! you can't do that- that's ridiculous! which is pretty funny- they dont even want me to have more than two syllables for a first name or 1 syllable for a family name, yet it is fine for them to be Elephant, or Commander, Dream, or Smacker. The bottom line is that remembering their Chinese names is really really f'ing hard, so Elephant he is!

Folding Bikes

As you probably know, China has a huge population of bike riders, and you should see some of the stuff they ride, as well as carry around. A lot of them now ride mo-peds, but the other new thing is these folding bikes with the smaller wheels. My bike got stolen a while back so I decided to get one that I could keep in my room. It has six gears and moves surprisingly quickly. It also folds/unfolds in seconds! You can buy really good American made ones (that are actually cheaper there than here!) called Dahons starting at around $200 for one with gears. Cant believe more people havent cottoned on yet.

To make up for recent lazy blogging,

I present you with excerpts from the Chinese art students' talent show!

M Art Center

Some traditional Chinese painting, apologies for the glare, but is somewhat unavoidable when there is glass and low light in these quick-shot situations

Around Hangzhou

Amusing I think. There is a lot of this around. Cant help chuckling.