Trip to Gansu Part 4- Langmu Monastery 浪木寺

Langmu Monastery is not just a temple, but an entire village area. It's politically a Tibetan Autonomous Region, where the Tibetan have semi-autonomous political rule over the area. It is located on the borders of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces, the autonomous region actually straddles these 3 separate provincial governments. It was absolutely beautiful and we got to see monks doing many of their daily rituals, including prayer, chanting, exercises and making mandalas.

Trip to Gansu Part 3- Lanzhou 兰州

After riding camels in Dunhuang, we took a 12-hour overnight train together to Lanzhou 兰州, the capital of Gansu. In Lanzhou, we ate Lanzhou Noodles, which are a famous specialty from the region. That day we went to a lecture about minorities in China, specifically the minorities found in the Northwest of China and in the Gansu region (including, for example, you may have heard of Tibetans and Uyghurs, just two of the 56 minorities that live in China).

The next day my friends Sean, Vince, Eitan, Josh, Nate and Chris hiked to a temple at a pagoda on the top of a mountain. I don't know how I always end up in situations where I'm the only girl. It was an awesome view and we could see the whole city. We joked that the river looked like chocolate milk. At 5:00 pm, we heard the Islamic call to prayer coming from a mosque in the city. We climbed back down the mountain and went to a bustling street market, sampling as many snacks as we could, especially the Islamic food. At night we went to a bar across the street from our hotel and chatted together for a few hours over a couple beers.

This was one of my favorite days in China.

Trip to Gansu Part 2- Dunhuang

These pictures are from Dunhuang 敦煌, a city in Gansu 甘肃, where we rode camels. I also went there last semester (October 2009) for my Fall Break trip and it's one of my favorite cities in China. The largest sand dunes in Asia are located there, as well as the world's largest collection of Buddhist art (which we obviously were not allowed to take pictures of).

End of the Semester Trip to Gansu Part 1- Jiayuguan 嘉峪关

I haven't posted in so long! I have been crazy busy. Hopefully you guys are still checking up on my blog; I will post more in the next 3 weeks before I leave China on Monday, August 9th. Since the last post, I've gone on a couple trips so I'm going to post the pictures now. Today I will post some pictures from my trip to Gansu 甘肃, which is a province in China partially located in the Gobi Desert. I went on a trip to Gansu from June 4 to June 12th. The pictures shown on this post are from Jiayuguan 嘉峪关, an ancient city in the Gobi Desert, where we climbed the Great Wall. The picture of me is me on the Great Wall.

My Thesis

I just officially finished writing a 11-page thesis in Chinese. I wrote around 8,300 characters, equivalent to about 15-16 pages written in English. I am quite proud of it and want to post all of it on here, but it's all in Chinese and I think a majority of my readers don't speak Chinese, nor have that deep an interest in Deng Xiaoping's Foreign Policy. But I will put the Abstract on here, which I had to translate into English, as all the Chinese students have to do as well. But you know what the said part is? When I was translating my abstract into English, I had to use the Chinese-English dictionary to help me more than 15 or so times. Oh dear, what am I going to do when I get back to GW and have to write in English again? Actually it is kind of funny, my friends and I that have been in China for a year now both agree that we're at this point where we're not really good at either language, our Chinese and our English sucks at the same time. oh dear.

 

摘 要

 

邓小平的外交政策对每个中国人的生活都产生了有意义的影响。他的思想和指导主要包括三个方面：和平的国际环境是发展的前提，独立自主是每个国家的权利，以及对外开放政策与结盟无关。邓小平所倡导的对外思想和政策有三个具体特点：判断的科学性、坚定的牢固性、实行的灵活性。最后，为了有效地评价邓小平的外交思想，笔者亲自采访了部分中国老百姓，以获得他们对邓的普遍看法，并且分析了美国外交专家的观点。

 

关键词：独立自主；对外开放；牢固性；灵活性；主权；人权

 

 

 

Abstract

 

Deng Xiaoping's foreign policy has influenced every Chinese person's life in a significant way. His thinking and guidance have three main foundational aspects: that a peaceful international environment is a pre-requisite for development, self-determination is every country's right and privilege, and that an open-door policy does not mean creating alliances with other countries. Deng Xiaoping's advocated using three specific stratagems when determining foreign policy: use scientific judgments, remain firm on your position, and practice flexibility. Finally, in order to evaluate Deng Xiaoping's thinking, I personally investigated the average Chinese person's opinion, and analyzed American diplomatic experts' point of view.

 

Keywords: self-determination; open-door policy;firmness; flexibility; sovereignty; human rights

The End of the Second Semester

I just finished my last final exam and tonight is CIEE's farewell banquet. Tomorrow morning my classmates and I will head off to Gansu together to visit monasteries, the Great Wall, the Silk Road, and Buddhist art sites. We are actually going to the same place I went with my friends last semester, if you remember the city called Dunhuang where I rode camels. We were originally going to go to Qinghai, but if you saw on the news, Qinghai experienced a major earthquake in April and so we had to cancel our trip. Next Friday, June 11th I will return to Nanjing and hopefully post about my travels then.

I am giving a speech tonight at the farewell banquet, and so I have posted the translation below. Because Chinese and English is so different, some of the words might sounds weird. Just go with it.


Hello, teachers, classmates, friends, everyone!

Even though my Chinese is horrible, I still am going to try to talk about tonight's feelings. All of you have influenced my life in a huge way, and my study abroad experience this past year in Nanjing can never be erased from my heart. Before I came to China, I didn't have any dreams for my future, I didn't understand the world, and I didn't know China was like. In China, I learned what flexibility, independence, trying hard, success, hard-work, enthusiasm, hospitality, and friendship really means. This experience can never be forgotten my entire life, these past 9 months have really changed my life, my hopes, and my future.

Ms. Zhu- I really liked your class. You once spend a long time in Germany teaching Chinese as a Second Language, and I really admire your courage. You made me also plan to come back to China and become an English teacher. I will remember the funny stories you told us in class, like the one about the leather bag... and... I don't dare to say.

Mr. Cao- I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to be your student. Everyday you cracked us up, especially when teaching us new vocabulary, you would make up examples by improvising that really made a deep impression on us, for example, Zhaofu is a player, Sean abuses his wife and then they get divorced, John is a homeless person, Nate is troubled by the problems of love, Andrew has an alcohol addiciton, and Marisa is a criminal drug dealer.

Ms. Tang- I really appreciate your support towards CIEE. CIEE is a fantastic program because you are its director. Thank you for your patience, diligence and caring about us.

Pingping- You are the world's best study abroad program assistant. Celebrating the New Year and Labor Day at your house are memories I will always remember, especially playing mahjong, going to your wedding, riding horses on the beach, watching the hot volleyball players, and taking pictures of hot boys. I wish you well in soon becoming a mother. I think you will definitely be an excellent mother.

Hewei- I remember chatting with you last semester in Yixing, I thought you were the friendliest person. You did everything you could to help Kira and me find a good place to travel. From that day on, I thought you were so awesome.

Hongmin- You were one of the first Chinese people I talked to, and I remember even though my Chinese was super bad, you still encouraged me to use Chinese to talk with you. You are one of the coolest Chinese students.

Gaomin- You are awesome! You always teach me slang, this is one of the most valuable things I have learned in China. That one day after we went to the soccer game was so fun, the next day Nate said to me, "I love Gaomin." and I replied with "Me too, me too." I'm really looking forward to spending the summer with you.

Xiaohu- Everytime I see you, you always smile and say Hello! Going to Karoake, eating barbeque, chatting together, these are great memories. I definitely will always remember our friendship. You are awesome!

Chinese roommates- I really appreciate your patience, your enthusiasm, your kindness, your sense of humor, you really showed me what it means to be an awesome Chinese person. Going to Karoake, outdoor training, eating Hot Pot, and chatting with you are some of the best memories I have of China.

John, Vince and Sean- You guys are like family to me. We have a lot of shared memories, especially cracking up in class, playing drinking games, chatting and drinking outside of Mazzo, and going to McDonald's or dumplings afterward, and climbing the fence back to the dorm.
Vince- You are like my brother. Going to Beijing with you was so fun, and so was traveling in Guilin, even riding the train for 27 hours back to Nanjing.
Sean- Your birthday party, going to Dunhuang and Xi'an, "roast duck", and watching Sponge Bob Squarepants have all been so fun.

Advance class classmates: I love you guys, you guys are the awesomest.

CIEE classmates: I'm really looking forward to going to Gansu with you guys, the best is still yet to come.

To everyone, I'm so lucky to have gotten to know you, your trying hard, your working hard, your hospitality and your friendship, I can never forget for as long as I live.


海内存知己，天涯若比邻

(It comes from a poem written by Wang Bo during the Tang Dynasty. It literally means

"if in this world an understanding friend survives, then the ends of the earth seem like next door." but the best translation for it is A true friend is close even when far away.)

Yangshuo pictures

This is the view from the top of the mountain we climbed in Yangshuo.