Photo of the Week: Chinese Dragon

Organic Produce in Shanghai!

My lifestyle has changed quite a bit since I left the US almost two years ago. When I lived in Arizona, I was pretty active. I used to go hiking, camping & rock climbing on a regular basis. I went to yoga classes three times a week & stopped at Whole Foods for my daily dose of organic goodness. I grew my own vegetables in my backyard & I rode my bicycle everywhere. I even recycled.

But my life here in China looks nothing like that. I do walk around the city a lot, but I don't get nearly as much exercise as I used to. Rock climbing & yoga are figments of a distant memory. & I have dramatically lowered my standards for what I will eat - these days I'm just happy if I can get something that resembles a vegetarian meal. I just don't know how to be healthy in Shanghai.

But I'm making headway. One of my little successes came last week when I discovered an organic grocery delivery service here in Shanghai. I was so excited! I clicked through the offerings on their website, trying to choose what to order - I wanted one of everything. I finally decided to order their Seasonal Veggie Pack, which included 2.5 kilograms of mixed organic produce for 150 RMB (about US $23).

The delivery came this evening after work. I rushed home to see what the Organics Fairy had brought me.

The box was huge - 2.5 kilograms is a lot of veggies. I got a massive daikon radish, the biggest bunch of celery I've ever seen, a buldging bag of string beans, a head of cauliflower, a head of cabbage, & five or six bags of various other leafy greens - all organic! All for me to eat!

Monastic Weekend

This past weekend, I had four days off in honor of Qing Ming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, so I decided to take a trip out to the countryside to relax at a Buddhist monastery. I was looking forward to escaping the city & doing a whole bunch of nothing for a few days.

The monastery is about four hours by bus to the west of Shanghai, near the small town of Zaoxi. A representative from the monastery picked me up at the bus station & took me through the town & up the hill, where the complex sits among clusters of bamboo.

An Australian man who was volunteering there gave me a tour of the complex, which included three temples, the monks' quarters and a dining hall, as well as guest housing. The room I stayed in was not heated, but the blankets on the bed were nice & cozy warm, making it all too easy to spend the day in bed reading.

Upon arrival, I was informed of the daily schedule - each activity was to be announced with the sounding of a huge gong in the temple.

04:30   Morning chanting

06:00   Breakfast

08:00   Morning meditation

10:30   Lunch

16:30   Dinner

19:00   Evening meditaion

Initially I thought that maybe I'd make it in time for lunch. But I soon realized that nothing happens at the monastery after 8:00pm so you just wind up going to bed, which makes it quite easy to get up for breakfast the next morning. I even made it to the 4:30am chanting session one day.

There were other guests there at the monastery as well - a Canadian author who was at the end of a three-month tour of Asia; a British kindergarten teacher living in Shanghai; an Italian film producer between projects; the Australian volunteer, a psychologist interested in following the Buddhist life. We all shared our life stories around the dinner table - each one of us having taken a different path to wind up in the same place.

In the afternoons, I took walks among the bamboo or down the road past the local farms. I saw a man bent over nearly in half beneath heavy bags of grain as he trudged to town to sell his goods. I saw a woman beating laundry against a rock as children in split pants chased after chickens in the yard. I saw a group of men tirelessly carrying stone after heavy stone to build a retaining wall at the edge of a stream.

On one of my walks, I came across a make-shift shrine - just incense stuck in the dirt, really - evidence that our ancestors are watching over us.

It was a nice, relaxing weekend - I did absolutely nothing for three days & had a great time doing it. I got a small glimpse of monastic life in the Chinese countryside, & met some pretty amazing people while I was there. It was just what I needed to recharge my inner battery.

Tomb Sweeping Day

Last year, I got all excited about Tomb Sweeping Day, a holiday that is similar in essence to the Latin American Day of the Dead. I wanted to visit a cemetery to see people sprucing up the tombs in anticipation of a visit from their ancestors, to smell the incense & paper money burning, to hear the quiet prayers of the devoted.

But my students looked at me like I was nuts. I soon realized that, at least in Shanghai, the most popular way to spend a holiday - any holiday - is shopping at the mall. To heck with all that traditional old-school stuff. China is modern! Shopping & movies & karaoke!

So this year I've got another plan. Since it's a four-day weekend, I'm going to spend the holiday at a monastery a couple of hours from Shanghai. I'm looking forward to relaxing in a peaceful place, away from the bustle & hustle of the city, eating lots of good vegetarian food, & watching butterflies flutter by. It'll be nice to see nature again, & I may even see a tomb or two swept.

Band Concert Do-Over

I may have been denied the pure awesomeness of Hanggai last Saturday, but this band did a pretty good job of being second best.

Last weekend, I went to Yuyintang, one of my favorite music venues here in Shanghai, to see a band called The Black Atlantic, a foursome from The Netherlands. Their music is mesmerizing, their harmonies are tight, & their hair is unruly. Quite frankly, any band that uses an accordion & a ukulele in the same song successfully demands applause.

For your listening pleasure, the band plays their song Ella on the Great Wall of China. Notice that there is no one - NO ONE - on the wall that day. Utterly astounding.

All this great music is part of the Jue Music + Art Festival, which continues through April 3rd.