Burlington to Wuhan

My recent journey to China was utterly amazing. I'm still finding it difficult to put the experience into words, because the whole journey was a torrent of new experiences, and isn't life more about what you experience on a journey than where it takes you anyway? And I'll be the first to say this was one hell of an interesting journey.

Take for example, the very beginning of the trip. This was the first time I've been on an airplane since I was around 12 years old; My first time ever leaving the US. And I can tell you that planes are much less exciting now than when I was a little kid. And after our, two hour hangout at the Burlington airport, two hour flight to the great state of New Jersey, Four hour layover there, 16 hour flight to Beijing, and another two hour flight to Wuhan, I had had my fill of airplanes and airports for a while and I was ready to explore China.

The Newark Airport

My stay in Wuhan was awesome, the first night we stayed in a hotel downtown and I have to say that Even though that night it was too late to see most of the buildings in their neon-coated glory it was definitely a sight to see. Although after hours on a plane, and a bus, and an hour or so of exploring the city on foot, I can't say my first experience with a Chinese bed was a comforting one; most mattresses in China seem like they're made of bricks.

The lobby of our hotel in Wuhan

The next day we got some awesome food on Breakfast street in Wuhan; Hot-Dry Noodles are pretty good if you like soy sauce and peanuts; On s side note, later in my stay in Wuhan I did eat a fish eyeball it didn't taste foul or anything, just a bit like weirdly hard wet chalk. A quick sketch of some fish eyeball

After our breakfast we went to a beautiful Buddhist temple where we received fortune cards with a specific Buddha on it, mine happened to be strangling a dragon, which is pretty cool.

My interpretation of Buddha Laying the smackdown on a dragon

Giant statue behind the temple

After that I visited a park, and a Museum, which were really cook, the park especially since it was liberally sprinkled with some really epic statues.

A really awesome statue from the park, which I decided to quickly sketch

After that one of our major trip coordinators' Steve Wilmarth Introduced us to some of his students who would be our hosts for the next two nights, Noctis, whose home we would be staying at, and his friend Eric who would be staying too in order to meet my buddy Alex and myself. After settling in at Noctis's home, having a wonderful meal, watching a few minutes of Chinese soap operas on TV and seeing some intense Mahjong being played,

A sketch of one of the numerous crystal chandeliers in Noctis' home

Noctis' Father invited us to tour Wuhan Yiheng Heavy Industries Co. the giant steel factory which he owned the next morning, which was really cool to see, the factory was pretty much like any factory you'd see in the US, except that it had 2000 workers on duty per shift. We were told that the factory operates 24-7 and most of the workers live in dormitories on-site, a bus was required to tour the whole facility. It was really eyeopening to see the the economic powerhouse behind China so up close. In fact I'd have to say the entire journey In Wuhan was eyeopening.

Eric, me, Noctis, Alex, Noctis' Father, and Noctis' Mother in front of a big machine

My Multimedia Blogging Project

Ok, so as part of the China Mojo class we're going to be doing a multimedia project on out personal blogs during, and after our trip to China next week. I was thinking about what I wanted to do for this project, and I decided that I wanted to keep it simple, and the first thought that came to mind was keeping a photographic record of the trip, which is cool and I'll definitely be taking lots of pictures but I didn't just want to do that, I feel like it doesn't suit me that well, especially since I'm no great, spectacular photographer.

Then I realized, that since I wanted to do something like a photo journal, and I was going to be bringing my sketchbook with me like I always do,

Here's an example of one of my sketches

(this, and some of my other work is up here)

that I could still do basically the same thing, but with drawings instead of just pictures. What I'm going to be doing for this project is making a series of sketches in a brand new sketchbook

there is nothing quite like a completely blank sketchbook

(photo by me)

just for this trip, and I'll be uploading them to this blog so everyone can see them. I really want to do a drawing on every sheet in this sketchbook (it has 80 sheets) but doing 80 drawings during my ten days running around China is a little unrealistic, so I'll also be doing some of these drawings from photographs I've taken when I return. I feel like it would be cool to show the photo and the drawing side by side in this case, so that's also something I'll be doing on this blog.

What do I know about China? Honestly, not a whole lot. I don't consistently read or watch the news, so my knowledge of this country is pretty lax. I would guess any knowledge I have about this place is from movies, history channel specials, a few episodes of Bizarre Foods on the travel channel, the very occasional news article, and maybe a little from some video games (Fallout 3 is a reliable source of information right?).

Pictured above: Reliable source of information

(Image from thewebtechreviews.com)

As I've said already, what knowledge I have of China is pretty basic, I can find it on a map, I know Mandarin is the official language there, but there are a bunch of others, Kung Fu originated there, Budhissim is a major religion, and their money looks really weird .

Way too colorful and flowery for my tastes, but the scenery on the backs are really cool

(Image from: me)

I've also heard that Chinese food in china, is much different than Chinese food in America, which is good for when I visit, because while I will eat or drink almost anything once, I can't quite stomach Most Chinese food here.

The one thing that makes all Chinese food tolerable

(Picture from: asianfoodgrocer.com)

Some of my other impressions of China come from conversations. During the Summer I work at Boston University, and many of the Professors and graduate students that I work for are Chinese. They are all really nice people, and talking to them doesn't do anything to disprove the stereotype that Asian people are extremely smart in my opinion.

I really would like to know more about china, their weird mix of being strict, totalitarian communist government while also being a capitalist industrial labor hub baffles me somewhat, and I'd like to know more about how that works (it was cool to read over the summer about Chinese factory workers attempting, and having some small success at unionizing, I don't remember where I read it unfortunately) and I'd also like to know more about their ancient, and modern architecture, I've heard that there are a lot of really cool building projects going on in China now and I would love to learn about that.

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

So This is my blog for Champlain College's 2011 China Mojo course. Here I'll be posting things I learn in class about China, and I'll also be documenting my trip to China in March. This is my take on the course, but the course has it's own blog located here, if you wanted to check that out.
Anyway, for our first assignment we were asked to answer some questions about ourselves:
1. Where are you from? State or province, and town?
2. Describe a fun media experience you had during your holiday vacation.
3. Describe one thing you LIKE about our 21st century media culture, and one thing you DON'T LIKE about our 21st century media culture.
4. What vision do you have for your future, professionally?
5. What is one QUestion you have about China?
And my answers were:
1. Dedham, MA
2. I confused my parents by talking to my friends while playing Xbox.
3. I like the availability of information, but I don't like needing to feel available to everyone all the time.
4. I want to work basically any video game studio.

5. How often, if at all do people in China eat animals we consider pets, like dogs.

Here is a picture of my dog, who I don't plan on eating

As a special treat, here's a video of my favorite band playing at a concert in China: