Yurts, lamb and bonfire dancing

Cowboys in Inner Mongolia
Originally uploaded by michellechang

I'm off for a run now, but new photos are now posted from my past weekend in Inner Mongolia. It was quite the unexpected adventure; I'll write more about sand creatures and grassland life in a bit.

You're gonna go far, kid

Curious boy
Originally uploaded by michellechang

In between studying for midterms, running 10 miles in 90% humidity while getting asked if I was training for the Olympics and bargain shopping, I haven't had much time to update my blog. In response to the fervid demands from all two of my readers, I've finally uploaded my latest photos.

In the meantime, a few updates:

1). Upon my return to CA, I will soon don a new t-shirt that reads: 'East Bay Pride.' This is due to the fact that I will now be a resident of Berkeley. I was very close to being able to legitimately wear a 'I Heart Oakland' tee. Alas, Berkeley it will be, and boy am I excited!

2). Olympics security is in effect.
a). Subway passengers are now welcomed with security checkpoints. You might walk across one or two guards who may be sleeping though. Just continue walking - it's too humid for them to care.

b). About half of Beida's school entrance gates are now closed and upon entry, students must show their student ID cards.

c). Vehicles are assigned days to drive based on even / odd license plate numbers. Surveillance cameras have been installed to ensure people follow the city's policy. If they do not abide by the laws, then they are fined 100 yuan (about $15 USD) and must pay three months' worth of taxes. Not something you want to do.

d). Dog meat is being removed from designated Olympics restaurants. Yep, that's considered Olympics security, safety - call it what you will. Let's just say not everyone has an appetite to consume dog meat or read about it. I know that I am not jumping for that.

3). This weekend I am headed to Inner Mongolia for a long weekend. I am extremely stoked about it; it will be three days of all things yurts, horses, bonfires and sunrises. Now that's an endless summer I can't turn down.

4). I saw a few familiar faces this past weekend, including Ben, whom I had the lovely chance to have dinner with twice. I also met up with some old Stanford FACES friends, all of whom make my Mandarin look terrible since they are not even Asian nor raised in China.

5). My popsicle count has surpassed 30. I mean, they're 14 cents each - who wouldn't get one everyday? And in this weather, you'd have to try hard not to get one per meal. Trust me.

Aht uh mi hed

I can think of one person who can name the artist and album title of this entry's heading above. And that person is also the one to have introduced me to the earthy funk and rhythmic bass grooves of Shuggie Otis. Though I have a mid-term test tomorrow, Otis' free flowing jazz vibes make me drift in and out of consciousness without a care on this hot, Beijing night.

'Inspiration Information' is Otis' second album from the early 1970s - during a time of controversies over Vietnam. Yet, in between the airwaves of war and peace talks came the tunes of 21-year old Californian, Shuggie Otis.

Tunes to check out are 'Inspiration Information,' 'Ahut uh mi hed,' 'Ice Cold Daydream,' 'Happy House,' and of course, 'Strawberry Letter 23.'

A call from a familiar face

The other day, I discovered that the former President of my alma mater was in Beijing. Yes, that's right; the 11th President of the entire school - Cornell University. It turns out that Jeffrey S. Lehman has developed the first school of its kind here at Peking University: The School of Transnational Law. The first class of students arrive this September and will graduate with the initials "J.D." printed on their ivory diploma parchment. I decided to send him an email to see if he'd meet with me. In a quick ten minutes or so, I got an enthusiastic response and tea time appointment for today!

Jeffrey S. Lehman was a popular President at Cornell. He advocated for an initiative - Call to Engagement - whose aim was to address the 21st century global challenges. These included: life in the age of the genome, wisdom in the age of digital information and sustainability in the age of global development. Lehman had also expanded Cornell's transnational reach to Qatar, China and India.

Alas, he had to tend to some last-minute matters so instead of green tea, he gave me a ring. We ended up having a pleasant conversation on his role as Dean of the school and my future endeavors.

Despite not having met him in-person, I thought it was a very kind gesture on his part to take time to chat with one of the thousands of former graduates of his school. I didn't quite get around to asking him for a free law degree, but turns out his daughter will be attending graduate school at Cal this fall. So, I still may have another chance to meet him, but perhaps it'll be on a school campus on the other side of the Pacific.

Nothing but sunshine

I'm off to dinner with Mr. Ben Lee Tan now, but I thought I'd just upload some of today's photos. I'm pretty pleased with how some turned out; it was day two of gorgeous blue sky, too! The rest are here.

John Woo's New Film, "Red Cliff"

If you're a fan of war battles, Chinese history lessons, romance - oozing of love, jealousy and redemption, Takeshi Kaneshiro and/or Tony Leung and pretty Chinese actresses, then you'll get all that and more from John Woo's new movie, 'Red Cliff.'

John Woo and his team have been said to have spent $80 million USD on this two-part Han-dynasty period Chinese historical movie. Similar to "Hero" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," 'Red Cliff' also brings to the big screen a well-known cast with equal degrees of fame and teenage heartthrob factors (see: Takeshi Kaneshiro). Fortunately for me, there were English subtitles that accompanied the Mandarin, spoken by mainland Chinese actors, Hong Kong and Taiwanese superstars and even Japanese stars.

'Red Cliff' depicts battle scenes, love affairs and political turmoil during the end of the Han Dynasty - around the year 200. Epic battles entwined with strategy, fancy footwork and sword-fighting and sensational cinematography keep you at the edge of your seat. Of course, it's not flawless; some say the action scenes were anticlimactic while others say the dialogue was a bit too sparse. Impatient others say that splitting the story into a two-part movie is unnecessary. Regardless, I was still thoroughly awed and entertained.

But the exact date when 'Red Cliff' is coming to the international market is still to be determined. Woo has definitely mentioned an international version is in-the-works; the Chinese version is a two-part, of which the second premiers this December. In any case, I am almost certain that it will join the U.S. markets just as 'Hero' and 'Crouching Tiger' did. And it will likely be just as - if not more - successful.

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

View from Fragrant Mountain
Originally uploaded by michellechang

As you all are probably aware, the much-anticipated "Batman: The Dark Knight" is coming to a theater near you on July 18. Of course, I am thoroughly stoked since my favorite, Christine Bale, will be appearing before me in larger-than-life form. But as you also may be familiar with is the character of Poison Ivy. She managed to use a chemical called silver iodide to make it rain in Gotham City, thereby allowing her new breed of plants to help her take over the city.

Now, this fiction contains truth in that silver iodide is used in that exact fashion: to produce rain clouds, and thus, rain. Silver iodide is a crystalline chemical compound that is highly soluble in water.

You may be asking, "What is all this boring chemistry talk all about?" Well, for one, it's not so boring. And secondly, it's part of life here in Beijing and China. For the past decade, China's government has been researching and perfecting this cloud seeding process. Most frequently used in China's drought-plagued north, the Beijing Weather Modification Office has now been tinkering with the weather gods to help clear the city's polluted air.

Since my time here, it's rained pretty much 40% of the time. During those days, I can't quite put my hands around how often it has rained artificially. Apparently, the government fires rocket shells full of cigarette-sized sticks of silver iodide over the city skies. Lovely. I'm sure that's adding a fine coat of moisturizer on my own skin. Of course, the effectiveness (and safety, perhaps?) of cloud seeding is still a controversial topic among many scientists. Though I'm not a scientist or meteorologist, I have my doubts as well. However, after Saturday's "rain," Sunday delivered a sky full of azure.

Aside from the cloud seeding, the city has been keeping on task with clearing the air. Quite admirable are the efforts on Beijing's part to do the most to cut pollutants in the given time frame. Already, I have heard of many factories, stores and clubs closing in order to restrict the number of excessive emissions. In addition, private cars are assigned certain days they can drive on the roads based on odd and even license plate numbers. But whether or not all of these efforts can do the job by August 8th is still up for debate.

It's no surprise that I've been maintaining a consistent running regime while here at Beijing. But it hasn't been an easy one. I must say that it took a week to acclimatize to the heavier, damper and humid air. I know that if I were an Olympic track and field athlete, I'd spend as much time in advance as I could to train in this air. My only question now is: Can they make chocolate rain?

Calligraphy, anyone?

Calligraphy, anyone?
Originally uploaded by michellechang

Every Monday and Wednesday, I spend two hours in the afternoon attending Chinese calligraphy class. I'm not one who strikes many as extraordinarily artistic, so I guess that's why I'm in this class. But it's also because I did take English calligraphy in junior high, and wanted to absorb as much language and history culture as possible while here.

During the first few lessons, we started with single strokes, mainly consisting of horizontal and vertical lines, boxes, slanted and angular lines and groups of dots. This past week, we graduated from boring tic-tac-toe scratches to writing full, comprehensible characters (see one of my written examples in the photo above).

Like English calligraphy, Chinese calligraphy has different forms. It also requires a steady hand and perfect posture. Today, we wrote to the tunes of a Chinese violin, erhu. If only I had my Chinese robe and hairpiece in place, I think my characters would have turned out even more graceful.

Anyway, I'm enjoying the class and by the end, I hope to complete a poem written on one of those long, fancy scrolls. And we're told we get to make fans too; I could use one in this weather, that's for sure.

Another Brick in the (Great) Wall

Mutianyu
Originally uploaded by michellechang

Despite having already visited The Great Wall back in January 2007, I still needed some more education on this 6th century-built stone fortification. This time, I visited the Mutianyu (慕田峪) section of the wall, which is 70km northeast of Beijing.

慕田峪 is the most well-preserved section and boasts more scenic views than Badaling and some other sections of the Wall. During its heyday, it served as the main northern barrier. It helped shield China's tombs and its capital from the Xiongnu people in the north and later, the Manchurians.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it rained while we were climbing this section. The rain made the stones slippery to walk on, but it made the weather much cooler for the hike. And some fascinating clouds surfaced and maneuvered their way into nearby mini-valleys.

The climb was much more difficult than I had expected; we first hiked up about a thousand or so steps. Each step seemed to be about a foot high, and quite steep. After reaching the top, the hike towards the west was comparable to the angular trails in Marin County. However, watchtowers and barracks instead of park benches served as resting spots.

The last bit to the highest section of 慕田峪 was the most challenging; another daunting four hundred or so steps laid out before me at what seemed to be a 45 degree incline. And I decided to run up them without stopping or looking back. About 40 steps in, I decided to conveniently forget that idea and proceeded to walk. At the top, I felt like I had just run a 5k at full throttle. Anyhow, the view was quite rewarding and the photos quite satisfying.

Lauren Fleshman

Lauren Fleshman
Originally uploaded by michellechang

I decided to write a brief entry on someone who inspires me to keep running: Lauren Fleshman. This post is not entirely China-related - but it completely is. That's because Lauren is currently in Eugene, Oregon, competing for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team for Beijing '08. And she's not doing too shabby at all; she just finished third in her heat in the 5,000m this past Monday during the Olympic Track and Field semi-finals. That means she advances to Friday's Finals. And I'm rooting her on.

I first met Lauren over a year ago at a New Year's Eve celebration. And last September, I was lucky enough to attend her and Jesse's wedding in Bend. Lauren is an amazing woman who not only is genuinely gracious, distinctly down-to-earth and tremendously talented, but she is also FAST - at running. Just watch her and you'll understand.

Make it happen on Friday, Lauren!

A Taste of Xinjiang

Xinjiang belly dancer
Originally uploaded by michellechang

This past Saturday night, all of us went to eat dinner at a Xinjiang restaurant called A Fun Ti. I've been wanting to travel to Xinjiang; this is a region in the northwest of China, situated next to all the '-stan' countries like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and the Pakistan- and India-controlled parts of Kashmir to the west. Since I don't know the entire geography and provincial facts for the region, I'm drawing a bit from my most trusted CIA World Factbook and BBC Country Profile webpages.

Xinjiang Uyghur is one of China's five autonomous regions, which also include: Guangxi, Nei Mongol, Ningxia and Xizang (Tibet). To the north is Mongolia and to its east is Russia. "Xinjiang" or "New Frontier", is a name that was given during the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China. It's home to a number of different ethnic groups, many of them Turkic - the largest of which are the Uyghurs. Xinjiang is known for its fruit, cotton, sheep, minerals and oil. During the various rules under Han and Western Jin Dynasties, this area of northwestern China belonged to a variety of different rulers. Later, the Tang and Qing dynasties would also control this land that was mainly made up of Muslims. In the present, Uyghurs are still fighting for their freedom from Han repression of their culture. And, similar to other ARs like Tibet, they are still trying to win independence from China. However, the PRC denies that it is breaking international human rights laws.

Check out some of the photos I took from the dinner, of which included some cultural dance performances from Xinjiang dancers and musicians. Earlier in the day, we also visited the Temple of Heaven to snap some touristy photos.