Days 319-325 - Lighting up the sky

As we count down the weeks to the end of our contract, we spend the weeks organising and getting supplies for our up-and-coming 11 month trip. But by the weekend we're ready to chill our and have some fun!

This Saturday in addition to our normal activities of Chinese Lessons and Kung fu, the foreign delegates of the Shandong University Software Campus (us) threw a good ol' kiwi bbq with a bit of Chinese bang to top it off! On Wednesday the coal for the bbq was provided free by Wei Wei who's exact words were "you can't pay for the coal, or we can't have fun next week". After picking up the necessary supplies of meat and some veges for vege kebabs, we set about the major task of acquiring a keg. With the motorbike temporarily out of action, Matt and Adam taxied down the road expecting to travel some distance to make the purchase, but a couple of minutes down the road, out the corner out of their eyes they spotted some kegs, stopped the taxi and had luck on their side because 5 minutes later they were carrying a keg of Laoshan Beer back to campus.

As night fell, out friends began to arrive and so we fired up the bbq, which resulted in Matt almost losing all the hair on his head, as the 'lighter fluid' was actually full of gasoline! The bbq burned all night, and was constantly graced by a stack of kebabs while we sat around tables lit up with flashing Christmas lights! Music was a mix of tunes from the computer and a mix of the parties musicians busting out on their guitars. In between emptying the keg, shots of baijiu were passed around, contributing to the Chinese/Western theme.

Big boxes of fireworks provided extra excitement for the night, and probably contributed to our regular visits from the campus security guards, who were probably more curious about the laowai and our happenings, than the fireworks themselves!

Adlibing it bbq style!

Days 312-318 - A meeting with Confucius

Taking advantage of our 3-day weekend we ventured off on Friday to the hometown of the Great Chinese Sage Confucius, along with Matt. We ended up getting to Qufu in the late afternoon, and by the time we found and checked into our hostel all the temples were closed. So we spent the evening strolling around inside the walled town (we even strayed outside the wall for a bit!), checking out the locals doing their stuff. Inside the wall the streets and buildings have mostly been redone for the benefit of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to Qufu every year, but outside the walls there still remains plenty of dirt roads and sellers selling their local wares (as opposed to the tourist junk inside) - the boys favourite being the cheap Chinese fireworks that were a must on the list of things to buy in Qufu!

After a typical Chinese meal we settled ourselves in the middle of the night markets to drink, chat, and people-watch the night away. It's actually quite interesting watching the goings-on of the markets and observing the sellers try to lure passer-bys to eat at their stall - the food on offer ranges from a variety of greens and other veges, as well as the usual frogs, eels, fish and other creatures which flop around in their cramped little bowls.

In the morning we went out to explore the sights around town. Our first stop was the Confucius Mansions, where Confucius' ancestors lived since around the 16th Century - after Confucius thought became really popular. Confucius himself was born in the 5th Century BC, into a poor family and his teachings didn't become well-known until after his death. The Mansions were big, elaborate, and beautiful but the whole experience was dampened due to the fact that the rest of China came to visit Qufu on the same day as us!! Well, not quite, but it sure felt that way.

From the Mansions we headed to the Temple of Confucius where we continued the battle of trying to see through and over the masses.That aside, the temple complex is very impressive and consists of rebuilt temples and pathways, and also numerous temples and other historical remnants that retain their old character (by this we mean they are in a somewhat original state and haven't been done up yet).

After wandering through the temples we passed through all the touts trying to sell us things including horse carriage rides where one poor horse is at times made to pull the carriage with more than 10 passengers inside. We did however stop to buy a Chop (Chinese carved stamp) to commemorate the Adlibing Asia Tour, and then moved on past the pedicab drivers and made our way to the Confucius Forest. Once we followed the tour groups to Confucius' tomb we managed to veer off the concrete path and actually go into the forest, which is covered with blooming flowers as far as the eyes could see, and for once China smelt like flowers instead of pollution.

On our way to the bus station we stopped off for snacks and fireworks and began the typical bus-bus-bus-bus journey back to our apartment in Jinan.

Adlibing it with Confucius.

Days 305-311 - Ambling around Shandong

On Tuesday night we were treated to a delicious home-cooked meal of spaghetti and meatballs by Matt's mum, Debbie - the best meal we've had in months and topped of with a great night of good company and conversation and cookies for dessert.

On Friday we (Matt, Debbie, and us) ventured off to the night markets near town, where we spent the night wandering the footpaths that had been taken over by numerous different stalls though they mainly consisted of shoes, clothes, and food. We left with a couple of new bags and T-shirts for Liv (ecstatic that something fitted for once!).

Saturday started with an early morning wake up and journey to the new campus where we joined in on a university excursion out to Lingyan Si (Lingyan Temple). This is the first free trip school has offered us, and we weren't about to turn that down! The trip began with an hour and a half drive that dropped us off at the entrance of the temple, where we were met by a guide and we commenced our first 'follow the group' tour around the temple grounds. Adam even got told off for wandering off for a few photos behind the group!! On the tour we saw the main temples of the complex, walked past an amazing stone pagoda and a stupa forest before being given 'free-time' to walk up the mountain. At the top of the mountain we got pretty nice views over the valley and visited a little temple that had been built around a big Buddha carved out of the mountain face.
On our way home we were taken out for lunch - well, more like a banquet there was so much food!! Most of our lunch was picked fresh from the mountain, such as wild spinach, dandelions and free range chicken!

While Liv tried her best to improve her Chinese with her weekly lesson on Sunday Adam ventured out far and beyond with Dovid on the motorbike. They set off at 12.30pm and got back after 10pm - Liv was starting to get very worried ...

Here is Adam's account of the mammoth adventure:

"First of all we cruised through 3 or 4 small villages nestled in a valley and followed a small road until its end, where we ditched the bike and spent the next few hours hiking up some very steep mountains! Here we were treated with wicked panoramic views over lakes and Buddhist statues. The mountainside was covered in forest, with little pagodas dotting the landscape. Eventually we went back down to the bike and bought some wild walnuts who had been kindly watching over our bike and gear.

From here we took some random roads that weaved their way through the mountains, up over passes and eventually we found ourselves driving along a dirt path through small towns and villages where we stopped for our third tank refuel of the day. We continued the mission circumnavigating multiple lakes and eventually the road we were on took us to the base of the mighty Tai Shan mountain, which is when we realised just how far we were from Jinan, and how late it already was. Not that this stopped us from taking another dirt path, further into the mountains! Our journey was momentarily halted when pieces of the bike started falling off, so we stopped to chill under a blossoming tree next to a small pond. After so many hours on the bike, it was a welcome relief to stretch out, but the light was fading and we knew we needed to make it home.

Our journey back commenced with coming across a number of dead end roads and a few hours of being semi-sure of where we were going (or completely utterly lost - depending on which way you look at it)! We spent a solid half hour in first gear going up a steep mountain, almost flipped the bike, but eventually we found ourselves on the outskirts of Jinan, back on real roads, and managed to find a restaurant to eat our first meal since 12pm. An hour later we were home, utterly exhausted!"

Adlibing more mountains.

Days 298-304 - Getting locked in, denied access, and chucked out.

The only change to our normal working week was the small obstacle we had getting to class at 8am on Wednesday morning. Lately our lock on our door has been getting more and more difficult to open, but on Wednesday it decided not to open at all - so we were in fact locked in our apartment! After getting a message to our boss that we couldn't get out, she helpfully arrived at our door and proceeded to inform us that we had class - ah, duh! We did manage to get out eventually and made it to class only half an hour late. Amazingly about half of Liv's students sat around patiently waiting (as did a few of Adam's) but most of the class drifted back in once hearing we had finally arrived. Needless to say they found it very amusing that we had been locked in!

On Friday the rest of China joined us for a 3 day weekend due to Tomb Sweeping Day. This is a traditional Chinese celebration where families visit their ancestors graves to pay their respects. This resulted in the area around us being as hectic as shops at Christmas time back home, as we live nearby a cemetery. Liv had her lesson a day early and Adam headed to another nearby construction site to observe some more workers working. So while the rest of China has a holiday the construction workers don't, in fact construction sites never close even at night and in the middle of winter.

Saturday was a day of ups and downs. We set off with high hopes of visiting Long Dun (Dragon Caves) but after our taxi ride there we were informed by a soldier that foreigners are not allowed in because it is a military zone. Carol seemed to think that they didn't really do any work there, but just choose all the pretty places to hang out in. Plus, we figured it can't really be that dangerous as there were countless Chinese people wandering in and out.

This put us in one of our rare 'China Sucks' moods, but with Carol happy and willing to take us somewhere else we soon had to snap ourselves out of it! So we headed off to the Yellow River which starts its 5,464-kilometre journey in Qinghai and ends right here in Shandong. To be honest, the river itself is more brown than yellow, and there wasn't much to see - we actually felt a little resentful of having to pay to see a dirty river. This is why Carol tried to sneak us in through a hole in the fence, but unfortunately us Laowai are pretty noticeable and we got caught about 5 minutes after we got in and had to pay the $1 entrance fee - perhaps you're wondering why we didn't just pay the $1 to get in in the first place. The answer to that is that after 9 months here we're getting slightly annoyed at having to pay to see everything.

After leaving the river we headed to nearby Yao Shan (Medicine Mountain), which is really just a big hill of rocks, but we got a cool view and got to walk back through a small village. We wonder how long these little villages will remain as the city becomes more and more cosmopolitan with high rise apartment buildings taking over the landscape.

Sunday was spent like every Sunday should be - sleeping in, chilling out, and going to bed.

Campus (and the rest of Jinan actually) is looking really pretty at the moment as all the trees are blossoming, which makes a nice change from the constant grey and brown of the buildings and tree-less mountains.

Adlibing the sites of Jinan (well, the ones we're allowed to).