On October 1, 1949, The People's Republic of China was founded and October 1 was established as National Day within China. The holiday is celebrated with fireworks and other festivities and the streets here in Ningbo have been decorated with Chinese flags, not unlike how we celebrate the Fourth of July at home. 

Flags decorating the bus stop on Tiantong Rd

Unlike the celebrations that surround the Fourth, however, National Day begins a Golden Week. A Golden Week, which is celebrated twice a year, is 7 continuous days off of work. The way these 7 days off work are achieved is a bit odd as your weekends are rearranged to help create it, but nonetheless it is nice to have 7 continuous days off. Many people travel during the Golden week, but Jon and I elected to stay here in Ningbo since we are still experiencing all that this city has to offer. In addition, since everyone travels during the week, I have heard that a lot of places become very, very, very busy at this time of the year. 

That being said, Jon and I have had fun the past two days continuing to explore Ningbo. Today our plans were changed a bit because the bus we needed to go to Dongqian Lake was extremely full as was the second one that we waited for. As we didn't want to be stuck on a bus like that for close to an hour or more, we instead went and explored the area around my school. 

Century Oriental Plaza -- the shopping center where I work

There wasn't too much of interest near my work, but Jon and I found a Korean Barbecue restaurant that my co-worker told me was authentic and good and Jon was able to see the area where I worked. Not too interesting of a day, but as we did a lot of walking yesterday, it was rather relaxing.

Yesterday was by far more exciting as Jon and I discovered more of Ningbo, including Tian Yi Ge, an old private library [the oldest library in China] and residence that was built in 1561. 

  The east entrance of Tian Yi Ge 

Tian Yi Ge was built by Fan Qin, an Imperial minister during the Ming Dynasty era. It was his personal residence, but it grew to become a library as Fan Qin was a bibliophile. At one point in the library's history, it contained a collection of 70,000 volumes. As you can imagine, I am quite envious of Fan Qin as I can only imagine being able to acquire so many books. 

Fan Qin was meticulous in caring for his books and devised a system that his descendants continued. Not only were the books regularly ventilated, but Qin also placed bags of herbs and special stones in the bookcases that absorbed the moisture and kept bookworms away. These measures preserved them through the centuries while many other famous libraries from the Ming period faded away. In fact, these measures were so effective at preserving the books that Tian Yi Ge served as a prototype to many imperial libraries during the Qing Dynasty. 

There is a mini-museum within Tian Yi Ge that explains its history. The library has survived a lot since the 16th century including the First Opium War, the Taiping Rebellion and multiple thefts. The museum also displayed some of the books, some of which date to Fan Qin himself. To me this is remarkable because they do not appear to date from the 16th century as seen in the pictures below. 

A poetry book of Fan Qin's

Fan Qin's Long Poetry in his handwriting 

As I mentioned, Tian Yi Ge is not only a preserved library, but was also the Qin residence and is full of beautiful buildings and gardens. 

They were all pretty impressive, but nothing beat the Qin Ancestral Hall and the Bridal Sedan Hall. There was not much information on either of these two locations, at least in English, but they were pretty impressive to look at even without knowing the basics about them.

Qin Ancestral Hall

Bridal Sedan Hall

In all, yesterday was an amazing day. The weather was gorgeous and we were able to see and do so much, including Tian Yi Ge. Hopefully we will have a few more days like yesterday in the next couple of days!

The last few days have been rainy, so there was not much for Jon and I to do on our days off. 

We eventually decided to find a store that we  received gift cards to from our schools [we received them as a Mid-Autumn Festival present]. The store had a mishmash of everything, so Jon and I used the cards to buy ourselves some pretty bowels and spoons and I decided to try some Chinese wine. 

I have been pretty dubious about trying Chinese wine because I have heard from a few foreigners that it is not very good. A teacher that Jon worked with, however, advised him that most wine that costs over $12 is usually good, so that is what I gravitated towards. 

While I am glad that I decided to try a local wine, I probably won't buy Chinese wine again. It was alright, but it didn't hold up well over night and tasted pretty sour today. Since foreign wine is available here, I am able to buy wine that I know I like and it is only a couple dollars more.  

Speaking of local foods, Jon and I are having fun getting to know Ningbo, and China, through their food. Jon is particularly enjoying trying everything and is super excited at how cheap seafood is here. 

Shrimp, really all seafood, is kept whole here, eyes and all. It fascinates Jon and encourages him to play with his food before he ears it, as evidenced by the above picture. ;) While I am enjoying trying new food [the mall I work in has some great local restaurants], I miss being able to eat different regional food. I really like the food I have tried, but I get tired of noodles and rice variations pretty quick. In addition, I am limited sometimes since I don't like seafood. Ningbo, being a coastal city, is huge on seafood, which isn't always the best for me. It's even hard to cook some of the foods I like because I can't find the necessary ingredients in the stores. Luckily, I have found chickpeas and other staples, but I have yet to find things like couscous. There are still some supermarkets I have to scout out though, so I am hoping to still find some more international foods that I use to cook.

In spite of this, Ningbo is still a city and has a ton of foreign sweets and food chains. Sweet wise, I am happy to say that I am able to find every chocolate bar that I love, including Reese's and German/European candy, like Kinder Bueno. If you have not had a Kinder Bueno, go to either the West Point Market or the Mediterranean store on Graham and buy one [if you go to the Mediterranean store, buy their hummus as well! It is some of the best hummus I have had and it is homemade.]. Kinder Bueno is a wafer that is filled with hazelnut cream and then covered in chocolate and it is absolutely delicious. I have loved them since I studied in France. 

The other nice thing food wise, as I mentioned, is that Ningbo is filled with foreign chains. Of course this means that there are tons of McDonald's and Burger Kings and KFC's, but they also have pizza chains. As pizza is one of my favorite dishes, this is exciting. Normally, I would prefer to make my pizza, but I don't have an oven or my dad here, so Papa John's and Pizza Hut work just as well in this situation. 

I haven't tried Pizza Hut yet [sorry dad!], but I can say that it is quite popular here in China. The location in the mall that I work is always busy and I frequently see a line to sit down there. Papa John's doesn't seem to be as popular, but that could be because Jon and I have visited in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. Their pizza tastes like home though and they have a Thailand Chicken pizza that is absolutely fantastic. I don't know if it is available at home, but if it is try it. It is not a red sauce pizza, but instead uses a sweet red pepper sauce and is topped with red peppers, chicken and cheese.    

All in all, Ningbo has a lot to try in terms of food. There are a few restaurants that Jon and I have lined to try up in the next month, both for his birthday and for our anniversary, and we run across more every time we go out to explore. Ningbo is turning out to be a nice city and I love it more the longer I am here. It will never compare to home, but it is definitely a nice place to experience!

  

Jon and I have had an enjoyable last two days, which is always nice after spending the week teaching toddlers. Yesterday, we explored the area between Jon's work and our apartment. 

This area is newly constructed and was nicely planned. As a result, this portion of the city has a good amount of greenery. 

There is also a park next to Jon's work area (he works in one of the buildings in the background). Ningbo has a lot of parks, which are really nice to walk in versus the street. They certainly have much better views!

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We stopped at a restaurant called Sunparty Coffee as we walked home. One of Jon's students recommended it to him during class, so he wanted to try it. His student told him to try spicy Korean noodles, but unfortunately our waitress was not sure which dish that was. The dish we did try was quite delicious though, so all was good!

Today, we had to go to the Old Bund to meet our HR representative. We were early, so we walked around as we waited. The Old Bund was constructed in the 1840's after Ningbo was forcibly opened to trade in the Treaty of Nanking. The Bund was, and still is, a confluence of foreign offices, churches, and buildings. It also has a variety of foreign themed restaurants. 

The area is pretty niffy and we came across an old, unknown building that had bamboo growing around it.

The sign in front of the building didn't make much sense, but it was really cool to see. I am looking forward to further exploring this area; the Jiangbei District has historical buildings that date to the 7th century. We didn't have time to find these buildings today as I tutor a little girl in French on Tuesdays in the late afternoon, but we plan on going back to find the area another time. All in all, these past two days have been successful and productive exploration days!

By the way, I took some pictures yesterday of our building and the mall next door, which is called Wanda Plaza. Our building is the tallest building in the first picture. Have a good week everyone!

As Mondays and Tuesdays are our days off, Jon and I have been up to a lot these past few days. Since we are pretty much settled in and know where to shop, we used Monday to explore more of the city. While Ningbo is not much different than other big and modern cities, it still has touches here and there that make it special (at least to me; as I have not visited other Chinese cities yet, I cannot comment on whether or not these touches are special in regards to China). 

As most cities are, Ningbo is separated into districts. Only two of the districts, Jiangbei and Haishu, are considered to be part of the city proper. The other districts are either considered to be suburban, like the district we live in, rural, or a satellite city. The city and suburban districts together make up the Ningbo metropolitan area, whereas Ningbo has jurisdiction over the rural districts and satellite cities. Yesterday, Jon and I explored the Haishu district, which borders Jiangbei.

Districts of Ningbo, courtesy of Wikipedia. District 1 is Haishi, district 2 is Jiangdong, and district 6 is Yinzhou. 

Tianyi Square was one of the main places that we explored. Tianyi Square is a commercial area filled with retail stores and restaurants. Jon and I just walked around the square for a little while before we walked to another area called Moon Lake.

Portion of Tianyi Square

Moon Lake is a park within Ningbo that has lakes, surprisingly enough, and the Tianyi Pavilion, which is the oldest surviving library in China. The library was constructed in 1561 during the Ming Dynasty and once housed 70,000 volumes. While we were unable to find Tianyi Pavilion this time around, probably because we were not searching hard enough, we did walk through the park. 

Today was less interesting, but we did have fun doing laundry for the first time and cooking udon noodles for dinner. 

Above is Jon's and mine small washing machine, which is located in our small bathroom. On the positive side though, it is the first time I have had a washing machine in my apartment since I lived in Alliance. As expected, there is no dryer to accompany the washer, but that is fine as Jon and I have the handy clothesline that his mom gave us as well as our new clothes drying rack, as seen below. We did have some issues with the washer on our first go around though as the drain was not connected to the actual drain. As a result, the bathroom floor was flooded for a little while.... now it is quite clean though, so I am not upset about it.

Finally, I made this amazing (in my opinion) dish to finish out our day. It is called Simple Udon Noodles and if anyone wants to try it, the recipe can be found here: http://emilylevenson.com/recipe-simple-udon-noodles/. Luckily, it was a dish that I could practice using chopsticks with as my skills in that area are lacking... as a result, I look somewhat comical when I eat out.

Anyways, tonight is the equivalent of Sunday for us as we start our workweek tomorrow. Hope everyone at home has a good rest of the work week!

It has been two weeks now that Jonathan and I have been in Ningbo and we are finally beginning to get settled in. At least, I am finally getting settled in. Jon was less overwhelmed than I was, so he settled in faster than I did. For me, there was just a lot to get used to between getting used to living in Ningbo and learning how to best teach toddlers and young kids. Thankfully, I am becoming acclimated to both now and am becoming quite anxious to begin exploring Ningbo.

The Seven Temples -- view from the Sheraton 

We found our apartment the day after we arrived in Ningbo, thanks to the school's HR representative. While it is smaller than expected (I was unaware that the HR representative thought that a studio apartment was a one bedroom apartment), I am happy with it now that it is clean. I was shocked with how dirty the apartment was, but I learned that apartments are not typically cleaned before you move in here. Not something that I am use to, but the apartment is clean now and my only worry now is how to best arrange the furniture in the main room. It has too much furniture for its size, but Jon and I are unsure of how to get rid of furniture we don't want, so for now we will just deal.

Once I finally have it set up the way I like, I will post an actual picture. For now though, that is our incredibly hard and uncomfortable bed. Before we added the pads, you could actually hear a thud when something was thrown down on it. Once we are paid for the first time, Jon and I plan on adding more padding since it is still pretty uncomfortable.... for now though, it is manageable!

The kitchen was another disappointment, but not only is it clean now,  it kind of makes me happy. It may not have a stove, but I like my hot plate and rice cooker. The hot plate cooks food quite fast and the rice cooker not only makes perfect rice, but it has other uses. For example, you can make soup in it, steam your vegetables, and re-heat food in it. Quite remarkable actually.

I am probably also happy with our kitchen because I am starting to acquire food that I normally cook with to put in it. I have been unable to find some food, such as couscous or turmeric, but since finding an international supermarket that is not Wal-Mart, I was able to find most of the food and spices that I use. Once I am able to explore more, I am hopeful that I will even be able to find my missing foods as well. Ningbo has both Mediterranean and Indian restaurants though, so I am pretty certain that these foods are available somewhere in this very large city. In spite of this, I am excited to try Chinese food as well; it's just harder to order since I do not know enough Chinese to tell them what I want yet... I am looking up Chinese dishes though and will try them! Tonight I am making a mung bean dish. While I am not sure what a mung bean is, they seem pretty popular here, so it should be interesting.

My favorite part of our apartment, and I liked this from day one, is the location. We are located in the Yinzhou district of Ningbo and it is very accessible to both of our job locations and the rest of the city. This district was originally a county called Yin County. In 2002, it was renamed Yinzhou district, but it is one of the few counties to have kept the same name since its establishment in 220 B.C. Based on my research, it appears as if though this district is huge. Therefore, I am not sure if there are two Yinzhou districts or if we happen to live at the very edge of the district. Either way, this area has a lot going on and it is relatively new with a lot of shopping areas including a Wal-Mart.

The view from our room

While there is a lot that I could talk about, I don't want to ramble. Therefore, I will keep this post about our apartment. I will try to update the blog more frequently now that I am settled... If there is anything in particular that anyone would like to hear about, let me know and I will write a post on it!

Dürnstein has been one of the highlights of our trip. About an hour outside of Vienna by train, Dürnstein is a small town in the Wachau Valley that is known for producing wine.

While that alone would have convinced me to visit, that is not what drew me to Dürnstein. What actually drew me to Dürnstein are the castle ruins overlooking the town that date to the medieval period. 

Normally an Austrian castle would not interest me (at least on paper - one Google image search had me convinced that I was going to Dürnstein), but my interest was piqued because this particular castle rang some bells. 

Right before I began researching places to visit, I finished a historical fiction novel by Sharon Kay Penman (The King's Ransom if anyone would like to check it out. It's the concluding novel of a fabulous series about the early Plantagenets). In the novel, she mentioned Dürnstein quite a few times as Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) was held here after being captured by Duke Leopold of Austria as he was travelling back to the Angevin lands from the Holy Land.

Effigy of Richard I 

While I had come across Dürnstein in other books that I have read, it was fresh in my mind thanks to having finished this novel. After realizing the connection, I knew that I had to visit the ruins and I am so glad that I did. 

As can be seen in the above photograph, the ruins sit on a cliff above Dürnstein and it creates quite a picturesque scene. In addition, there are great views to be had from the ruins itself.

After exploring the ruins, we decided to take a different trail back, which was totally worth it. The trail took us above the ruins, so we were able to see them, and the surrounding landscape, from above. The view was stunning and I am so glad that we took the time to hike up the rocks. 

 Aside from my excitement over the historical significance (at least to me) of Dürnstein, I was also excited to be in a wine valley, so we definitely had some local wine before we boarded the train back to Vienna. 

We decided to go to the Klosterkell which, according to their website, is located in an old monastery cellar. I didn't know that at the time, but it makes sense and makes the place better than it already was. In addition to the great environment, the wine was fabulous! Richard and I even tried a G'Spritzer, which is wine and sparkling water. It is a popular summer drink in Austria and it was pretty refreshing, especially after our hike. 

  

The Klosterkell was a perfect way to end our day in Dürnstein and I am glad that we had the opportunity to visit this area while we were in Vienna. 

During the 1920's and 1930's, Munich served as a background to events that surrounded the rise of the National Socialists.

The courtyard of the Alter Hof. While it does not have any connections to National Socialism, it was painted by Hitler (according to our tour guide). 

Hitler had moved to Munich in 1913 before the outbreak of the First World War. Being that he was in Munich when the war started, he fought in the German army as an Austrian citizen. Following the end of the First World War, Hitler returned to Munich where he involved himself in politics. By the early 1920's, he was the chairperson of the National Socialists and he staged the Beer Hall Putsch. 

While this is not the Beer Hall where the National Socialists began their coup, it is another famous beer hall in Munich. 

The Beer Hall Putsch was a National Socialist coup against the Weimar Republic. The National Socialists, who were agitated with the Treaty of Versailles and the government that upheld it's terms, wanted to march through Germany to Berlin to overthrow the Weimar Republic and begin their own regime that would restore Germany to it's glory. 

Area that use to have a memorial to fallen National Socialists 

This coup failed and led to the deaths of some National Socialists. Hitler himself was sentenced to prison for 5 years, although he only served 9 months of his term. It was during this time period that Hitler wrote Mein Kampf which restructured National Socialist tactics. Following his release, Hitler decided to take political power legitimately instead of attempting another government coup. This avenue took more time, but it worked since the National Socialists took power in 1933. 

Feldherrnhalle, which sits in Odeonsplatz and is where many parades where held. Hitler used this area for this function. 

After the National Socialists took power in 1933, Munich became an important city for them since it was basically their birthplace. Hitler erected a memorial to the east of Feldherrnhalle (both the site and the building are shown above) that memorialized National Socialists who fell during the Beer Hall Putsch. Munichers had to salute the memorial as they passed it, so Munichers used this memorial to form their own type of passive resistance to the new regime. The Munichers who wanted to resist would re-route their tour down an alley before coming to Odeonsplatz. Hitler somehow learned that Munichers were doing this and punished the ones that he found.

The golden trail is a memorial to the Munichers who resisted 

Hitler also opened the first concentration camp outside of Munich, in a town called Dachau, in 1933. This was the second concentration camp that Jon and I have visited and I was surprised by the differences between Dachau and Buchenwald. 

The entrance to Dachau 

Dachau was much closer to the town than Buchenwald was, which was the main surprise for me. It seemed as though Buchenwald was meant to be kept out of the way whereas Dachau was a short bus ride from the train station. In addition, Dachau touched me differently then Buchenwald did, which I did not expect. 

Memorial within Dachau 

While I have made it a point to not dwell on National Socialist history while in Germany, it was hard to avoid it while in Munich. Being that it was where National Socialism got going, there are many places that are associated with that time period and it was enlightening to see them first hand. While they are a small part of German history, they are still part of it and it is important to remember that time period, especially since it is recent history. However, it is also important to not let that time period define a country whose history is varied and rich. National Socialism was a blight on German history and should be remembered, but so should the rest of German history.