Ted’s (Excellent?) Adventures

We were very fortunate to be able to join a great group of college students at East China Normal University for an afternoon of baseball. This enthusiastic initiative is led by Coach Pan Wen (nickname “Goose”) who has more than fifty students playing baseball well and regularly, despite the challenge of not having a field!

There are three men’s teams and one women’s softball team who play regularly at the University, and have occasional games with other teams. We met on a school holiday and there were about forty students there! Our daughter Sterling played catch with some of the women, who were very nice to her.

Gibson played in an intra-squad scrimmage, and got a chance to pitch an inning. It wasn’t an easy challenge, since he was pitching from 60 feet, there was no mound, and the next thing after the catcher was a sidewalk and building (with glass windows!). He really loved the chance to pitch in a game, though, and it was very nice of the team to let him come in and participate at that level. He then played second base, and got a few at bats against some very good pitchers. Their best pitcher has a wind-up like Dice-K’s, which was fun to observe.

We brought Red Sox hats for the players, and they looked great in them. They could also use a bunch of equipment, and we’re going to try to help them out with some balls, bats, catcher’s gear, and bases. They bring such enthusiasm to the sport, and many of the player’s showed lots of talent. Also, baseball seems to be a great match for the Chinese culture, since it’s a very team-oriented sport and requires real focus and thinking. A challenge for any kid or group interested in any field sport in China, though, is the lack of available fields to play on. We’ve had to work like dogs on our China segment just to find somewhere that we can throw a ball, and have had to improvise at many spots.

It was also fun to see a half dozen women on the field practicing. They were clearly excited about baseball, and appear to have a very good softball team. I’m a big fan of sports for women, so seeing talented young Chinese women excited about this great sport was really inspiring.

Our baseball experience in Shanghai was quite different from that in Adelaide or Beijing. The teams in Adelaide and Beijing were quite “professional,” with consistently talented players, great equipment, outstanding facilities, and excellent coaches. The fields in Adelaide and Beijing, for instance, were better than any baseball field (other than Fenway) that we’ve played on in the U.S. In Shanghai, it had much more of the feel of a bunch of young adults just hanging out on a holiday, playing baseball, and having fun — despite lots of challenges from the lack of a facility.

All in all, our time with the team at East China Normal was a real highlight of our time in China, and we wish Coach Goose and his great group of players all the best as they build a fun baseball activity in Shanghai! To see photos of this fun day, go to our photo album at:

http://dintersmith.phanfare.com/album/394279/605954#imageID=28099149

Sept. 27-30:  Imagine a construction project so vast it dwarfs Boston’s ineptly-managed “Big Dig.”  Not only a massive construction project, but one that involves relocating over 1,300,000 million people!  Well, that’s exactly what’s going on along the Yangtze River in China right now with the Three Gorges Dam.

 After Tibet, we  flew to Chongqing, a city of some 7/13/32 million people.  Within the downtown area, the population is 7 million.  Including the near-by surroundings, it’s 13 million.   And most people in China say its population is 32 million, but that covers an area about the size of Massachusetts.  By any measure, it’s an incredibly large city . . . especially for one none of us had heard of before!

We liked Chongqing’s great little museum dedicated to “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, a U.S. Army General stationed in Chongqing in WWII, fun zoo, and overall energy level.  The city is famous for its ”hot pot” restaurants, which we visited briefly — very briefly.  We sat down at a table with a vat of hot oil and hot pot delicacies — eel, cow stomach, and other unidentifiable options.  We immediately bailed, showing just how unadventurous we are on the eating front!  Anyway, despite the not-so-hot hot–pot experience, Chongqing was a treat.

Before getting to the Yangtze, a few words about Stilwell and WWII.  During what the Chinese call the “Anti-Japanese War” (1937-1945), Japan occupied most of northern and western (heavily populated) China, as well as Singapore and Burma.  The Chinese army retreated up the Yangtze to the hilly and protected city of Chingqing.  The U.S. assigned General Stilwell (who had lived earlier in China and spoke fluent Mandarin) to help with operations in the CBI (China, Burma, India) area.  The Allies desperately wanted to prevent Japan from gaining control of China’s many resources.  Together, the Chinese and Americans fought off Japanese attacks, and kept open a crucial supply line running from India through the Himalayas  to central China, allowing the Chinese army to receive vital supplies.  From what we could gather, Stilwell remains a hero in China, and the museum in his honor is full of fabulous photographs from an important time in China’s — and the world’s — history.

After Chongqing, we boarded the East Queen for a three-day cruise down the Yangtze, passing through the incredible Three Gorges area, and ending by passing through the locks of the Three Gorges Dam.   It was our family’s first-ever “cruise,” although low-key by cruise standards. 

The area we covered by boat is noteworthy for its beauty and for its dam.  The Yangtze River, and its gorges, are stunning.  Scenes from these gorges grace the 10 and 20 Yuan bills in China, and it’s the nation’s natural treasure.  And the scale of what the Chinese government is doing with the dam, and how they’re going about it, are remarkable.  So here goes . . .

As we sailed down the Yangtze, we were fortunate to have relatively good weather.  Early on the second day, we sailed through the first, and most spectacular, gorge.  Later in the day, we passed through the second and third gorges.  What unfolded that day was amazing. 

 In many places the banks of the Yangtze rise straight up from the powerful river, and are dotted with caves and lush shrubs and trees.  We passed occasional towns and cities (more later), as well as Chinese working in and along the river in ways quite similar to what they’d been doing for hundreds of years (fishing, farming, barter trading).  We watched with dropped jaws as the Yangtze, and its gorges, unfolded before us.

Our voyage down the Yangtze was timely, since the Chinese government is nearing completion of the Three Gorges Dam.  Begun in 1994, and costing $25 billion, it’s the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.  It will  backflood the Yangtze’s river banks for over 600 kilometers (!!) upstream, and force the displacement of more than 1.3 million people.  The dam is 2.3 kilometers long and towers some 185 meters above the world’s third longest river.  It will generate some 18,200 MW of power, enough for five New York City’s!

The engineering model at right gives a sense of the projects’s scope.  Originally, the lower right of the screen was covered by two large mountains, which were blasted away to make room for the locks, with the rock residue used for the concrete to build the dam.  The Yangtze was diverted to the bottom of the photo, while two retaining dams were built in its normal flow zone.  The dam (upper part) consists of two sections with very large turbine generators for power, and a center section what can be used to release water from the upper reservoir.  A complex bi-directional five-stage lock system is at the bottom of the of the screen, and is operational today (we went through it!).  And there will be a “ship elevator,” scheduled to be operational in 2012, between the dam and the visible lock system that will rapidly transfer (30 minutes) boats of 3 tons or less (floating them in 7 tons of water, which will also be lifted).

At night, we passed through the locks — a really cool experience.  The doors on the locks are each the size of a full basketball court, and weigh considerably more than Shaq O’Neal.  The picture to the left, taken at night, is of one of the gates that opened to let our cluster of ships (some eight per lock) through. 

We were able to pass through the locks in about three hours, and covered a total difference in elevation of over 100 meters.  Its the largest in-land lock system in the world.  The water drained from each lock (estimated to be 100,000 cubic meters of water) in about 7 minutes!!  The dam is becoming a big tourist attraction, and over time the area will include a golf course, top-notch hotels, and other recreation attractions.

What I found more amazing than the gorges or dam, though, was the scope of the relocation required to make this project happen — over 1.3 million people!  In the U.S., this is equivalent to relocating every person in the state of New Hampshire!  Over a fifteen year period, small towns and large cities along the Yangtze’s banks have been completely demolished, brand new cities and towns were built (like the one in photo above — an entirely new city!), and communities were entirely relocated, often on the other side of the river.  Some 50% of this $25 billion project went to relocation and rebuilding costs. 

 We talked to a half dozen people who had been relocated. Either they were Academy Award winning actors, or they really did prefer the new arrangement — at least twice the space, brand new building, working toilets, heat and electricity, and running water, and rent free.  The picture to the right is the the balcony garden of one of the new houses.  We met the matriarch of the family, a 74 year old entrepreneur, who was very happy with her spacious new apartment. 

Anyway, this experience has been an excellent basis for family discussions on comparative governments.  For better or worse, a project of this scope could never be done in the U.S..  But in China, it’s a huge source of national pride.  The project has been completed ahead of schedule and under budget, they have a major source of clean  energy, and by most of the relocated people are happy with the outcome.  But this process clearly runs counter to many of the values so core to our country, and the Three Gorges Dam makes these contrasts very tangible. 

If someone were to ask me how I felt about Tibet, I couldn’t give a quick response.  Formerly independent but absorbed into the People’s Republic in the 1950’s, Tibet lies in southwestern China, abutting Nepal.  Its elevation ranges from 3,500 to 5,000 meters (about 11,000 to 16,000 feet) above sea level, earning it the nickname “Roof of the World.”  The countryside consists of rugged mountains, barren land, and occasional spectacular Buddhist temples, monasteries, or shrines.

I’ll start with the drawbacks of visiting Tibet.  It’s not easy to get there (for us, a two hour flight from Xian, a city in Central China, to Lhasa, the world’s highest airport).  Adjusting to the altitude is no picnic.  We drank water until it came out our ears, the adults took altitude pills, and we moved slowly — very slowly.  Despite that, we slept poorly and suffered from the headaches and sluggishness of altitude sickness.  Also, it’s a very poor region, posing many travel challenges — including primitive bathrooms (see above right for one of the better public bathrooms there, believe it or not,.  And they clean out below once a year — whether it needs it or not — so you can imagine the smell!). 

We were struck by how incredibly nice and happy Tibetans are.  They live simply, and even the smallest things seem to bring joy to them.  They are a very independent people, and the tension between the region and the rest of China (and its government) is apparent.  And the damage done in the period when China invaded the country and took it over (1950’s) to the Buddhist buildings and the community made me wish I could turn back the clock and visit the region before these changes.

Despite the damage done in the 1950’s, there remained many beautiful buildings, statues, and tombs.  I’ve included a few pictures of things we saw in Tsedang and Lhasa.  If you find things like this fascinating (it’s not completely my cup of tea), you’ll love Tibet.  In many cases, they have had to do extensive rebuilding, and one can only imagine what it would have been like in its prior glory.  But even today these Buddhist landmarks are impressive.

The Tibetans take great pride in these buildings, which reflect so much of their interesting history.  But what was far more interesting was observing all that accompanied these buildings — the everyday life of the Buddhist monks, nuns, and the Buddhists who made their pilgrimages (often weeks by bus or even years walking) to such important shrines.

One of our favorite activities was an afternoon spent observing a group of debating monks.  Obviously, we couldn’t understand a word they were saying.  But they would emphasize their points with a loud clapping of the hands, which we immediately copied and now use daily!

While in Tibet, we also visited an amazing non-profit called Braille Without Borders.  The is a high incidence of blindness in Tibet due to  little natural filtering of light, exposure to smoke from cooking inside of the huts, lack of vitamin D, and frequent dust storms.  Based in Lhasa, BWB houses and teaches 40 students, preparing them to function when they leave the school.  In Tibetan culture, blindness is seen as a punishment for bad acts in a former life, so these kids are often ignored or even abused by their parents.  For a total annual budget of just $36,000 (U.S.), BWB is changing the lives of 40 young, blind Tibetans.  It was inspiring!

And while it might not qualify for America’s Funniest Home Videos, we had one hilarious moment when I was attempting to video Gibson throwing a long cloth ribbon anchored by a rock up on a Buddhist monument (something done by most visitors).  Gibson’s usual accuracy failed him, and if you watch the video (http://dintersmith.phanfare.com/album/394279/593270#imageID=27489719), you can see who almost got hit by the rock!!

Other than one attraction, there’s little reason to stop in Xian, a city of seven million in the center of China.  It has the same non-descript architecture that characterizes most of China and, sure, there are some interesting pagodas (see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda on the right) and mosques, but not worth going way out of your way for.  For much of China’s history, though, Xian was its capital, and home of its emperors.  One of its emperors, Qin, orchestrated the creation of the incomprehensible terra-cotta soldiers.  Seeing these soldiers, sometimes called (with justification)  the Eighth Wonder of the World, makes the trek to Xian worthwhile, and then some!

In the years 220 to 209 B.C., China was ruled by the Emperor Qin.  Not a popular emperor (few were), the Emperor took  extraordinary preparatory steps prior to his death.  He had the potters in his empire produce a set of life-size terra-cotta soldiers, which were then buried in his tomb to protect him in the afterlife. 

Each soldier has a unique face presumably matching that of one of the soldiers in Qin’s army.  The faces are incredibly expressive.  There are also horses and the remains of chariots.  Again, all are life-size.   One extraordinary aspect of this is the difficulty of producing such a piece.  Each has to be baked at a kiln at 900 degrees Centigrade, and any significant deviation will result in a failed work.

The other staggering aspect is the sheer number of soldiers prepared for the tomb — estimated to be some 6,000.  And there are foot soldiers, archers, chariot drivers, and officers.  All were placed in “ready positions” along with their weapons, prepared to defend the Emperor.  Then, an underground area some 230 meters long and 62 meters wide was dug out, filled with the soldiers, and covered with a roof supported by wooden beams.  The entire area was then covered with dirt to make it as inconspicuous as possible. 

As extraordinary as the work of the potters was, their treatment hardly matched.  If they made mistakes, they were immediately put to death.  And after the entire project was completed, Emperor Qin ordered all potters put to death, to make sure their creation remained a secret (as I said, Qin wasn’t the nicest of people!). 

Well, not long after Qin died, the farmers in the area ransacked the tomb.  They either wanted the weapons there, or wanted to bollix up Qin’s after-life plans, or quite possibly both.  But they damaged many of the figures, stole most of the weapons, and set the whole thing on fire.  As it burned, the roof collapsed, causing more damage.  And there it sat, for two millenia, until 1974, when a local farmer was digging a well and came across some of the fragments.  He figured out that he had encountered something significant — and boy was he right!  This is arguable the most significant archeological discover of the 20th Century. 

Since their discovery, the government of China and teams of archeologists have been — literally — putting the pieces back together.  So far, they’ve unearthed some 2,000 figures, and using underground imaging techniques they estimate another 4,000 remain to be identified.  So far, only one figure has been found entirely intact. 

The archeologists do their digging at night to avoid interfering with the day-time tourists.   Painstakingly, they reassemble each figure in a challenge that makes Rubik’s Cube look like a snap.  And gradually they are re-creating what Emperor Qin created more than 2,200 years ago.  As we walked the perimeter of the “dig,” I must have said “Wow!” a hundred time.  The pictures here hardly do justice to the impact of seeing so many life-size clay soldiers from so long ago. 

We ended our stay in Xian with a visit to a local school.  They arranged for Gibson and Sterling to meet a bunch of kids their ages, and — after asking each other bunches of questions in one of their classrooms — we went outside and Sterling joined the girls in a game of soccer.  We had brought a frisbee with us and I taught a group of the boys the game Ultimate Frisbee, which we played for close to an hour.  It was great because everyone learned the rules quickly, and none of us were all that experienced at it.  It was a real highlight of our stay there, and the people at the school couldn’t have been nicer!

We are very grateful to have had an opportunity to meet many great people from the Feng Tai Experimental School in Beijing for an afternoon of baseball and a fabulous dinner together. We want to thank their Head Coach Zhang, and assistant coach, Zhang Wei (of the China National Team) for all their efforts to organize this event. The time we spent with them will be one of the true highlights of our trip.

The Feng Tai school has about 3,000 students, and goes from first through twelfth grade. After age eight, most of the students live at the school during the week. Their dorm rooms hold eight students each. From the interactions we observed, there seems to be a lot of closeness among the children there that was very moving. Most of the children at the school don’t have brothers and sisters (true for most children in China), so classmates seem to become a big group of loving brothers and sisters.

We headed over to their baseball field, and I have never seen such a nice field for younger players. It puts the field we played on in Charleston, South Carolina, (and most other U.S. fields) to shame. The stands hold several thousand people, the outfield grass was perfect, and it the dirt in the infield smooth and very playable.

The coaches ran a great practice for the players. They did a good set of warm-up routines, took infield and outfield practice, and then we played an intra-squad game, with everyone batting four or five times against the team’s pitchers. It was nearly dark before practice was over, but everyone played at a high-level throughout the session. I was impressed with all aspects of their team’s skills, but especially with their fielding and knowledge of field position. They are obviously very well coached. And some of the kids had very strong arms. I think we should watch for some of these players on future China National Teams!

We had brought the team hats from the U.S. (Boston Red Sox) and they wore them through practice, and looked terrific in them. I’m hoping they put them to good use during their coming season. In talking to them, it was clear they were not familiar with any of the U.S. teams. They did follow Japanese

baseball, however. I found it interesting that these players were so skilled and committed to the sport without the benefit of famous national players.

After practice, the team organized a big and totally fun dinner at a local restaurant. They included six of the boys from the team, but also figured out a way to include four girls from the school, so that our daughter could interact with them. I was amazed watching the kids play together, despite some language challenges. The players from their school all were studying English, though, and made great efforts to talk to our children. One way or another, they had a fabulous time. At the end of the night’s festivities, they gave us three pictures of the boys from their team, which are fabulous. They also gave our son a team uniform and our daughter a soccer team uniform from their school. I was humbled by the kindness and generosity of this great group of people. I hope each of them has a chance to come to the United States someday (perhaps as Major League Baseball players!!), and we can repay their hospitality!!

To see a slideshow of our great time with this group, complete with captions (!), go to

http://dintersmith.phanfare.com/album/394279/582391

September 16th-19th: During any long trip, it’s inevitable that there will be ugly travel days. We had exactly that as we moved from northeast Australia to Beijing, China Naively, I thought, “Gee, how far apart can Australia and China be??” Well, the answer is “pretty darn far.” When all was said and done, we left our hotel in Cairns at 4:30 a.m., and hit our beds in Beijing a mere 23 hours later! Ugh!!

I came to Beijing with no idea of what to expect. I have never been drawn to this part of the world, but felt it was important for my children to see China, since it will be the most important foreign nation for them in the course of their lifetimes. So we’re spending three weeks in China, and it’s certain to be educational.

There may be people who instantly fall in love with Beijing, but I wasn’t one of them. Not even close. The morning after we arrived, we awoke to dreary haze/fog and a surreal muted sense of colors (photo is view from our hotel room). While Australia had been so vivid, Beijing was a blur of gray and brown. If you make it to the end of this blog, though, you’ll see my views on Beijing shifted considerably during our stay in this important city.

On Sunday morning, we went to the Temple of Heaven, a massive park in the center of Beijing. We were fascinated! There were groups of people everywhere, doing all sorts of fun things — practicing ballroom dancing, tai chi, kicking feathered objects back and forth, playing chess or card games, you name it. The park was alive with community and energy. We all had a try at ribbon twirling, with varying degrees of un-success. And our lesson with a tai chi master must have left him shaking his head!

We spent the afternoon visiting Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square was hopping; I’ve never been approached by so many street venders in my life. The Square itself can hold some 1,000,000 people. It goes on and on, but IMHO lacks architectural beauty (kind of like City Hall Plaza in Boston on a much bigger scale — tons of concrete, but not a lot else, other than the big portrait of Chairman Mao). That said, it was fascinating to be in the site of the 1989 student massacre, and reflect on how rapidly China is changing.

We then went to the Forbidden City, winter home of past emperors. The “City” consists of one large walled-in square after another, and seems to stretch for miles. The palace was built in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty. The buildings were spectacular and the occasional views of artifacts quite interesting. We finished the day with a rick shaw trip through a local neighborhood and met with one of Beijing’s top calligraphers, who gave us lessons on that interesting art form. I’m not sure that counts as a penmanship lesson for our kids’ homeschooling program, but it’s a close as they’ll get.

Our second day was just as foggy/hazy as the first, which seemed to sap energy from everyone. We drove to the Great Wall for the requisite hike. Any given section of the wall is interesting, but it’s really the massive scope of the undertaking that gets your attention. It stretches in total some 4,000 miles. I have to think there must have been a more cost-effective way to keep the Mongolians out! Anyway, we walked about three miles of it, and broke for lunch.

That afternoon we visited someplace that should have been called The Stinky Walkway of Cement Animals. At one point, Elizabeth and I were both looking at our shoes to see if we had stepped in dog poop. Then, we suspected the stone animals were still biologically active, and that was creating the stench. But the culprit was the public bathroom which, sadly, one of us had to use. On the way home, we drove by the still-under-construction Olympic site. In a city with generally dreary architecture, the buildings look phenomenal (see lousy rainy-afternoon picture from our van of the Bird’s Nest) and will be done well ahead of schedule.

Well, by now, I was looking for the fast forward button to get out of Beijing! But Day Three was one of the best of our trip, and showed us some of the great aspects of Beijing.

We started the day with a visit to the Beijing Opera school, and met with many students and teachers, and got a chance to observe several of the classes. I don’t think I’m destined to be a passionate fan of that style of opera (although its influence on Puccini’s Turandot was clear), but it was so interesting to see the intensity of their educational setting. I’ve set up a separate photo album (http://dintersmith.phanfare.com/album/394279/582390) for all my music-oriented friends to look at — be sure to view the videos!

We then went to the impressive Emperor’s Summer Palace. The Emperor spent eight months a year here (and the rest at the Forbidden City) and it was easy to see why. The buildings were spectacular, the setting so tranquil and beautiful, and the view from the top of the pagoda just incredible. This was a real highlight for us, and a great afternoon outing. The view of the Beijing skyline emphasized for us the size of this city. Its population is nearly 14 million, and it’s growing rapidly. There are signs of construction throughout the city and government budget dollars are clearly going into new (not terribly beautiful) buildings (while they are saving on things like garbage collection and good public bathrooms, that’s for sure!).

We ended our stay in Beijing on a spectacular note. Our Baseball Ambassador’s program had its second great outing. We met and practiced with the team from Beijing’s Fung Tai Experimental School. Then, they were incredibly kind and took the four of us and several students (six boys and four girls, all about the ages of Gibson and Sterling) out for one of the most enjoyable dinners of our lives.

The Fung Tai team is excellent (second best in China last year) at baseball, and they are incredibly nice kids. Smart, huge smiles, lots of energy, and clear affection for each other. All of the kids seemed to have a great time, despite little shared vocabulary, and it was terrific for us to understand more about life growing up in China.

We learned that these boys and girls, starting at age eight, spend all weeknights at their school in dorm rooms that hold eight students. Because China has very strict policies on the number of children any family can have, only one of the ten children we had dinner had a sibling. So their classmates serve as their surrogate siblings, and the closeness of these children to each other was very apparent. They were just unbelievably kind and interesting. We hope we stay in contact with them, and their hospitality made our stay in Beijing very, very special. (See my blog “Baseball in Beijing” at http://ted.dintersmith.org/2007/09/20/baseball-in-beijing/). And for photos from this great get together, go to http://dintersmith.phanfare.com/album/394279/582391#imageID=26852440.

To see our photo album of Beijing, go to http://dintersmith.phanfare.com/album/394279/580781.