After two weeks of unemployment I’m about to embark upon an adventure. My life is China will no longer be sloth-like leisure time.  Hanging around the house (or Momo Bar – a coffee shop) is fine, but a tad boring. I’ll take a page from Paddy’s current travel diary and put on my traveling shoes.

I’m leaving from Shenzhen, China, on an overnight sleeper train to Changsha, Hunan Province. Once there, Mrs. Stevo and I will hang in the provincial capital before heading to Shaoshan, Hunan – The birth place of Chairman Mao.  Next will be Heng Shan, or Mount Shan, one of the five Taoist mountains in China. I’ll climb it, shoot it, and do a little dance at the summit. Then, to Mrs. Stevo’s village we will go, near Guiyang, Hunan Province, China. A few days in the country, minus air conditioning or running water.

Yes, it will be an adventure.

In other news:

My photograph, Walking with Balloons, was featured on A Photo A Day From Planet Earth. Check it out.

I been looking at the work of a great (somewhat local) photographer. Alex Hofford is a Hong Kong-based photographer with a new website. His images have appeared in a little publication called The New York Times. Check out his portfolio.

I’m offering a great deal on Blog Hosting. Want you own domain and blog? Check out my hot summer blog hosting deal.

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photo credit: alancleaver_2000

Shanghai, The Bund.

I’m back from Shanghai. The 2009 Interphoto Shanghai (show) was a great event. I met a great many photographers from around the world, saw some cool gear, played with expensive toys, and ate at many a buffet. No legendary Shanghai escorts or Shanghai massage from the married Stevo.

Drinking Chinese rice wine, bai jiu, with giggling Korean models was probably the highlight of the trip.  Korean women have a reputation in Asia as being the prettiest – the beauties usually being the ones that have benefited from Korea’s top-notch cosmetic surgery. I’ve heard tell that the average Chinese woman is far prettier than the average Korean woman.  Before I further digress I will abandon this debate.

Rain on a hotel window: Shanghai weather during July 2009.

What did I see in Shanghai? The world famous Bund? The Pearl Tower? The French Concession? Old town? The Shanghai World Financial Center?

Nay.

Side trips to beautiful Hangzhou, West Lake,  or Suzhou?

Nay.

What did you see, Stevo?

Mostly? The hotel, the convention center, and the two hundred meters between the two buildings. And, Pudong and Hongqiao Airports (I didn’t actually fly in or out of Hongqiao: It’s a long story).

Am I bitter? No, it was a good time. I’m always up for a bit of China travel, even if my sightseeing in Shanghai possibilities were limited. My brief taste of the city left me with a hunger for more.

The best part of the trip was my return. No, not the turbulence-filled flight or the delays caused by the foul weather over south China. Mrs. Stevo returned during my excursion to Shanghai and we’ve spent the last week trying to get reacquainted after her 10 month adventure in England.

Stay tuned, cool stuff ahead before I head out on my summer trip.

photo credit: simonsmith001

The statue at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial

By: Graham Woodring

Come the day of departure, my alarm didn’t so much wake me up at 5 AM as let me know that it was time to stop lying around.  As I stumbled out into the kitchen to put the kettle on, I noticed an odd sound.  Not paying it much heed, I nearly fell in to the shower and washed myself awake.  After pulling on my clothes and being slightly more awake, I couldn’t help but wonder what the heck was that incessant noise?

When I returned to the kitchen to retrieve my tea, I got my answer: there was a near-torrential downpour.  Well, that’s certainly annoying, especially since I don’t own nor want to use an umbrella.  Needless to say, in the 10 minutes it took us to walk to a taxi I got completely drenched.  That’s the price I pay for refusing to carry an umbrella.  We hopped in the cab and it sped us off to the airport.  We had no further weather-related issues and arrived just a short plane ride later in beautiful, sunny, warm Nanjing.

Have you ever tried navigating a bus route when there is no map and the stop announcements are all in a foreign language?  It’s hard.  Really hard.  On the bus ride from the airport we ended up completely missing our stop and were deposited on the exact opposite end of the city from where we wanted to be.  Andrew left us at this point to catch a cab to meet with his friend, whom he was staying with for the weekend, and we found our own cab to take us to our hostel.

Well wouldn’t you know it?  It seems that petty crime can happen to anyone anywhere.  We dropped our stuff off at the hostel and took a quick 30-minute stroll around the area to get our bearings, after which we retired to have some lunch.  By the time we were done eating I realized that my camera had been stolen.  In the first friggin’ 30 minutes of being in this new city and I already had my camera lifted.  What a pain in the ass.  Fortunately it will be covered; thank you renter’s insurance.

The first day we didn’t do much exploring.  I had to get a police report for my stolen camera and then we stuck around the Fuzi Miao area.  The place seems to be the main tourist place in Nanjing.  There are many, many restaurants and shops and hawkers.  Also, you can find a Confucius temple and a massive golden tree, which I thought was pretty cool.  On the flip side, you can also find what I think is possibly the most annoying and/or inane thing in China.  The clappers.  Lord, the clappers.  I have nightmares about these people.  Sorry, but I couldn’t bring myself to take a picture of them.  It’s just too stupid.  These people are shop employees and their only job is to stand on the street and clap.  That’s it.  They don’t yell or try to rope people into the store or anything.  They just clap.  That’s all they ever do.  Just clap, clap, clap!  My hatred for this job could only be matched by how I imagine these people feel about their dead-end job and dead-end lives.  It gets my blood pumping just thinking about them.  The hate, it’s overwhelming sometimes.

Purple Mountain, near Nanjing China

We spent one day hiking to the top of Purple Mountain.  Now, this mountain is home to both Ming dynasty tombs and Sun Yat-Sen’s mausoleum.  There is some serious sightseeing potential there.  But much to my chagrin, we did neither.  My asthma was seriously acting up that day, so by the time we finally climbed to the top, I thought my head was going to explode or I would pass out.  Fortunately, neither happened.  On the way down we took the chair lift, which I think provided better views than the top of the mountain did.  By the time we were at the bottom I was so exhausted and worn down from my respiratory issues that I didn’t have the energy to protest not going to see the tombs or the mausoleum.  I really regret that, as I am told it is one of the big things to see in Nanjing.  Who knows when I’ll come back?  The dusty trail won’t get any shorter if I am revisiting places.

Zhonghua Gate, Nanjing China

I snuck off on my own at one point to check out the Zhonghua gate.  It was actually a lot more impressive than I imagined.  There are three courtyards; each said to be able to hold 1000 men and walls are all quite high.  You don’t always have high expectations when going to see a wall or a gate (unless it’s the Great Wall, of course) so I was pleasantly surprised.  And best of all, I filled my quota for having my picture taken with some Chinese.  I think Chengdu is the only city I’ve been to that I haven’t had my picture taken.  I guess I’ll have to go back there someday and correct that.

The Nanjing Massacre Memorial was the major thing I had come to the former capital to see.  Having read The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang, I knew much of the story already but I was not prepared for what I was presented with.  The amount of information is staggering and the level of professionalism and respect is unparalleled in China.  Given some of the other places I have been to in China, I was not expecting it to be so well done.  But in fact it was incredible.  The entire timeline of the event is given in encyclopedic detail, starting from the turn of the 20th century all the way up to present times.  The mountain of information reinforces the magnitude of the Japanese occupation of Nanjing and the atrocities they enacted on the population.  It is a moving experience, to say the least.

The Massacre Memorial is the must see site of Nanjing.  Like many similar events that have occurred in the bloody history of our world, we must try to learn from our mistakes through reflection and examination.  Unfortunately, even today there are still places in the world that harbor the hatred and frustration that breeds these evil acts.  Hopefully someday, with memorials like this one, we can come closer to comprehending the horrible toll these acts take on the victims.  History and culture destroyed, lives lost, families scattered to the wind, women subjugated and raped.  I fear that the cycle of death and destruction will never truly end, but I believe that this memorial is a huge step towards brining awareness to such issues and helping us understand the motivations that lead entire armies to truly demonic acts.

A perfect example of the post-industrial Chinese school of architecture can be found at the Martyr’s Memorial.  Everything is huge and made of concrete.  To me it really epitomizes the Chinese desire for everything to be ostentatious and grandiose exemplified in the past 30 years or so.  The sprawling campus is home to many different things, from huge monuments and statues, to a small amusement park, to an area devoted into to stone culture, to–my personal favorite–the kiosk of loyal souls.  I mean c’mon, a kiosk?  Sure it’s probably just a poor translation into English, but that’s still a hilarious name.  Also, you can find the blueprint for pretty much any boy band album cover carved in stone.  How it made its way to China, I have no idea.

Overall, my weekend visiting Nanjing was well spent.  Yes, I did get my camera stolen.  And yes, I did encounter the profession I hate the most in this world.  But I did get to see a lot of great things.  I got the see the Massacre Memorial, which should be seen by anyone traveling in Nanjing, and I got my picture taken with some more random Chinese.  From the people, to the history, to the architecture, to the hustle and bustle of Fuzi Miao, so far on my travels Nanjing is one of my favorite cities in China.

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After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Graham Woodring decided to see a part of the world he’d always dreamed of: Asia. In February 2009, He moved to Xi’an, China to live and work as an English language teacher at one of the top five foreign language universities in the country. Visit Graham’s Blog:  An American in the Far East.

A factory dormitory overlooks the ponds where China’s nineteenth century “Drug Zsar” Lin Zexu destroyed 1.2 million kilos of British opium in 1839. The site, part of the Opium War Museum in Humen, China, is still used to symbolic destroy narcotics during anti-drug campaigns.

Lin wrote to England’s Queen Victoria and asked: By what right do they then in return use the poisonous drug to injure the Chinese people?

Humen, often overlooked by travelers, features two fantastic musuems, and several historic sites including the fortifications used to fight the invading British forces.

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Will you be in Shanghai next week? Why not drop by the Interphoto & Digital Imaging Shanghai (Show) from 2-5 July?

Visit the Shanghai Everbright Convention & Exhibition Center. Stop by the Phottix booth and meet yours truly. See the Phottix line of DSLR accessories, including wireless triggers, battery grips, and the awesome Hero remote live-view system.

For further info see: http://www.interphoto.com.cn

The multitude of small markets in my neighborhood in Shenzhen, China, receive their fresh vegetables and assorted other edibles bright and early each day.  Sometimes a small truck transports the goods, but more often than not a three-wheeled motorcycle, precariously loaded, is the delivery vehicle.

aside: I celebrated the end of the school term a day early. My morning delivery consists of a giant hangover. I may never drink again.

SPAM, Korean-Style

My life, teaching English in China: What do you do on a Saturday night when your friends abandon you?

Eat SPAM. That’s right. Go the Korean grocery store, buy a can of imported Korean SPAM Luncheon Meat, then return home, make some toast, and grab the mustard.

What? You don’t like SPAM? There seems to be bias in North America regarding canned meat products. For me, SPAM falls into the NCF category: Not Chinese Food. I live in China, and the majority of my diet is Chinese food, but sometimes you need a taste of something different. Comfort food, perhaps.

That’s not to say there isn’t SPAM in Chinese food. There’s SPAM in fried rice, SPAM hot dogs, and SPAM fried noodles. I’m being broad in my interpretation of SPAM. In Chinese food it’s not real SPAM, but a Chinese SPAM-like tinned meat. Sometimes said meat isn’t in a can and doesn’t require refrigeration. I find that both amazing and frightening.

Did the Hormel Food Corporation think in 1937, the year they released SPAM, it would one day graces the tables of China, being incorporated in staple Chinese dishes? Probably not. Could they have envisioned the joy of a Canadian expatriate in China, eating a can of Shoulder of Pork and Ham manufactured in Korea? Probably not. If I had a time machine I’d travel back to shake the hands of those wonderful, SPAM-creating men.

Ya Baby, It's Super Light.

To accompany the SPAM sandwich(es) I ate while watch Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry in Magnum Force, I drank a can cans of Kingway Super Light Beer. How could you not drink something called Super Light? Is it so light as to be good for you? Is it the Chinese beer equivalent of ambrosia?

Kingway is a Shenzhen, China, Brewery, and is fighting for market share with the Chinese beer dragon, Tsing Tao, the national brand.  Heineken International owns a 21% stake in Kingway. The company also produces a beer called Kingway Super Fresh. (aside: that would be a great hip-hop name: MC Super Fresh).

Sorry: Is it the Chinese beer equivalent of ambrosia?

In a word: No. But I am trying to eat healthy. Drinking regular non-super-light beer while eating sandwiches made with tinned meat containing dangerous levels of saturated fat and sodium would not have been especially healthy.

I’m giving serious consideration to translating Monty Python’s Spamalot into Chinese and starting a small theatre company to perform the show. I adapt the script to incorporate Kingway Super Light.