Jiaozuo City

Our first view of Henan Polytechnic at the school's West Gate.

Arriving at our destination, Jiaozuo City, was an eye-opening experience.  The drive from Beijing was about eight hours and the scenery was not much different than Emily and Megan's home state of Ohio.  Corn, corn, a few scarecrows, and more corn.  As we approached JC we noticed some mountains in the hazy distance.  Kam and the roadsigns told us that Yuntaishan Park was somewhere yonder.  On the drive we were all struck by the smog blanketing the skyline.  JC seems particularly smoggy, which makes sense.  The country's oldest coal mine is nearby.  In fact, the university at which we are studying is considered the "Colorado School of Mines of the East."

The Jiaozuo City broadcasting tower is impressive by day...

...and even more so by night.

Our experience in JC has been no less exciting than Beijing.  Kam has continued to demonstrate his generosity and introduced us to his equally magnanimous supervisor, Mr. Han.  The superintendent of Yuntaishan Park, Mr. Han and his son, "Young Han," met us for dinner.  We felt like honored guests, served with what seemed like twenty courses of food.  One food new to all of us was sea cucumber.  It looked like a spiky slug (and had the consistency of one too!), but mostly tasted like the broth in which it was cooked.  

This smiling tater tot belies the goose liver beside it.

In China, even we as visitors are treated as family, so we have eaten our meals family style.  A lazy susan nearly the size of the table holds the food, and when a sea cucumber or whichever other food you desire spins past, you grab it with your chopsticks.  Or, in Emily's case, you drop it from your chopsticks and wait until it spins past a second, third, or fourth time, until you give in and stab it with a fork.

One reason we wanted to visit China was to experience and understand this culture.  So far, the food, meals, and conversations around the table have been the most revealing aspects into the Chinese way of life.  Family is the most important part of Chinese culture, and our hosts have treated us as nothing less than kin.  Sorry, Olive Garden: when "you're here, you're family!" is more apropros in China.

Everything here is always moving- including us!

Roughly 3.5 million people live in this city.  Plop JC in the United States and it would be the country's third largest city, almost as populous as Los Angeles!  Yet Young Han called this a small town and it feels like, as tourists, we are truly off the beaten path here.  And more JC adventures await us!  Watching all the bicycles, pedestrians, and cars battle for right-of-way, listening to the sounds of the city, smelling the food of the street vendors, we can only anticipate our experiences for the next month.  And we can only hope we learn some Chinese along the way!