Only in China.  On Sunday evening, our very cute Chinese friend Sherry invited us to dinner and then to attend a Chinese Idol-style singing competition at the Sichuan Normal University put on by New Channel English Language training school where she also works.  After a wonderful dinner with 6 dishes for only $5 (and it was delicious) we wandered along the street.  Sherry also likes to look at shoes and so we stopped at a little shop by the restaurant.  We each found a beautiful pair for less than $10.    

Then we headed over to the auditorium at the university  for the English song contest.  Unfortunately a few of the other judges failed to arrive and as native English speakers we were asked by Sherry's boss Mr. Melody Yan to be judges too.  He asked us to focus on their use of the English language and to be positive.  It was alot of fun. We had a chuckle when Sherry told us his name and she said "it's a girl's name isn't it".  He said he was given this name because his Chinese name means "melody" so people thought it would be appropriate to call him the same name to simplify things, not realizing it was really a western girls name that gets lots of giggles.  We had a great suggestion for him--shorten his name to "Mel" and then it would be a guys name.  I think that he liked this.

After some final instructions the contest began.  It was quite fun and we could actually understand most of the words.  There were clearly some wonderful singers.  One gal was so unassuming and then she got up and belted out her amazing song--wow I think this is another Susan Boyle.  Where are you Simon Cowell?  This gal has incredible singing talent with a very beautiful and strong voice doing some very very fancy musical twists and turns,--even her English was excellent.  She was the clear cut winner--and I think that she would win even on American Idol.  When she stood on stage to sing and opened her mouth singing we truly were all flabbergasted because she was so good!!!!  I wish I could be her agent as she should be recorded she is so good and everyone in China has to learn english now.

There were also some other great singers-- so good it was hard picking our 2nd and 3rd place runner ups.  For 2nd place we finally agreed on a lovely folk singer with a very sweet presence, rather like Nana Mousskouri.

In 3rd place we picked the most charming and adorable gal from Tibet although Kelsey was pushing hard for another great gal and a different solo fellow was wonderful too--such difficult choices!

 I suggested to Sherry that she speak with the school's head to see if he can arrange to have a record company producer attend the final contest.  Or maybe their school could make their own album used to promote English language learning. On April 23rd  all of the previous 4 weeks winners compete for the final big prize of 10,000 yuan which is over $1,000.

Another Strong Competitor

Angie and Kelsey with Professor Tommy Wu and wife Tina at the Blue Roof Gallery near Chengdu, China.

What a special treat.  Today we were to meet Tommy's cousin's granddaughter Li Ping and she was to take us to the Floral Agricultural area.  She also took us to the Blue Roof gallery in the area to see the exhibit of works by Women Artists of China, many of whom are her and Tommy's friends.  She was a wonderful hostess and guide.

After our gallery visit she arranged for us to visit a friend of hers, renouned contemporary Chinese artist Luo Fahui.  The Blue Roof Gallery area is being developed as an artists' community where artists have their homes and studios.  We enjoyed seeing Mr. Luo's studio which was attached to his lovely home.  The studio was a huge space of over 2000 square feet with a huge 25 foot ceiling and lofts.  It was a perfect space for executing his large modern paintings.  Li Ping's husband is also an artist and she informed us that they have purchased a lot and will be moving into a home in the artists' community at the end of the year. 

As Li Ping was showing us around the property we found a patch of clover and Kelsey started to tell Ping about the good luck that finding a 4 leafed clover is supposed to bring.  She was very excited to hear this as Chinese people are always interested in symbols of good fortune and luck.  Happily within a few minutes we all found our own 4 leaf clover.  Ping was beside herself with joy over finding her 4 leafed clover, hugging us and holding our arm as we walked.  She will certainly treasure her clover and we all stuck our precious finds into a book to dry.

After our busy morning of seeing the artist community Li Ping took us to a wonderful teahouse and restaurant in the floral agricultural area.  It was right beside a pretty little lake where people were enjoying a pleasant afternoon out in paddle boats and others rode past us on beautiful white horses. Before and after lunch we enjoyed a long session of tea drinking as we tried to teach Ping more English. Unfortunately our communications were very limited and we were sad as Ping was so sweet we really wanted to talk with her.

Ping and Tommy tried to help Kelsey and I on the impossible task of trying to differentiate the 4 different tones of the same words--each one with a totally different meaning.  If you say MAH (for horse) wrong you're saying a swear word!!!  Oh dear!  Kelsey and Tommy had a laugh over this.

Today we walked over to colourful Jinli St.  It is renouned for its lovely restaurants, bars, food vendors, gardens and shops.   During the day the gardens  are beautiful but after dark the lights are really lovely. 

After a really nice dinner we wandered through the shops and Kelsey found some cute chopsticks.  I found some nice ones that have vegetables as their little ceramic stand.  Fitting to take home for our vegetarian family to use back in Canada.  We wandered around and saw a fellow blow up sculptures from some warm sugar candy of

Colourful good luck ornaments.

Shayla and some of the other girls at the Traffic Inn decided to take some time off and to take a few of us guests at the Traffic Inn to the peach festival south of Chengdu into the hills near Longquan.  We caught the bus at the tourist bus depot at Zinnan Rd. right next to the hotel.  We changed buses and after about an hour we were delighted to see the beautiful peach blossoms.  What a sight!  All over the hills were the most beautiful pink trees and all of the orchards had tables set up for tea and lunch. 

Most interestingly though were all of the people in the orchards enjoying their afternoon playing mahjong!  The girls even taught Brendan, Ching and myself to play. 

There were enterprising women making head wreaths out of the spring flowers and fruit blossoms and girls, women, and even some guys were wearing them.  They cost 5 yuan which is less than a dollar.

I will be working on an acrylic canvas of pink peach blossoms and then when I return home I will paint a large painting of 5 foot wide blossoms!

Today was the first day of daughter Kelsey's education practicum at the Chengdu Longjiang Road Primary School.  Kelsey and I have journeyed to China together so that I may paint and she can do her practicum although she is a painter and will also be painting with me in her spare time.  You may follow along on her teaching and traveling experiences in China at her blog at  www.educationpracticums.weebly.com.  Kelsey had an exciting time getting introduced to the school at the Monday morning weekly flag-raising assembly.  The children were adorable.  All day they were running up to her and wanting to greet her.  After a week of observation and lesson planning she will begin classroom instruction with the students who are all taking English classes each week.  There are over 1200 students in the school.

Dinner at the Wenshu Monastary was so good last week that we had to return for another feast.  We ordered what we thought was a nice tofu dish along with some vegetable pancakes and a mushroom stirfry.  We were shocked when this immense bowl of red hot peppers arrived at our table. 

With incredible bravery Kelsey dug in.  So did I.  Wow, our lips and tongues tingled with the burn of the Sichuan pepper and amazingly I think that the tongue numbing effect actually allowed us to tolerate more of the heat of the dish.  You have not tried Sichuan food until you have experienced the tingling sensation of their special pepper!

We are off to the mountains to visit the origin of the Taoist religion up on Mount Qingcheng. After an hour and a half drive we arrive at the mountain. 

We hike up and then catch a boat across the lake and hike some more.

And we finally arrive at the top.  We were lucky to be able to go and see as much as we did as the area was greatly destroyed a few years ago during the Sichuan earthquake and is still in the process of being rebuilt.

We took the gondola back to the bottom and felt like movie stars when we kept getting requests from Chinese tourists to have our picture taken.  They all wanted to know where we were from.  When we got back to the bottom we went and had a nice lunch at the teahouse and then settled in for an afternoon of painting.

Painting the gate to the teahouse.

Even our guide Sherry got enthused and joined us in a session of painting. 

Sherry's first painting.

After finishing our first day of painting at the Green Ram Temple we wandered over to cute Quintai Street which is relatively newly built in traditional styled Chinese architecture.  We had worked up quite an appetite and wandered into a popular and busy looking restaurant.  It turned out that it was a very popular hotpot restaurant so this would be a new experience for Kelsey and me. 

You sit at the table that has a large hole in the middle into which they insert a large double pot of broths.  The one on the right contained a very strongly spiced oil in which to cook the food and on the left we were lucky that they offered a totally vegetarian seasoned broth.  You then order all of the different vegetables which include greens, roots and tofu and other protein foods that you wish to eat.  Wait for the broth to boil.  Drop in your vegetables and tofu and once it is cooked in about 3 minutes you fish it out, season it with some sauces that you made out of spices, soy sauce, cilantro, sesame oil, and garlic and voila--your own hot pot.  A word of warning--the seasoned oil, here in Sichuan province, is very very spicy and hot!!  So beware.  I mostly ate my food cooked in the light broth.  Kelsey was more daring and ate more of the spicy food. 

Down the street we saw that there is another Sichuan Opera Tea House.  We might visit this one for a show later in our  trip.

Driving home in the taxi, Kelsey and I had to laugh about our many new experiences today.  We knew we were definitely not in Canada, when after spending a lovely late afternoon sipping tea (i.e. drinking gallons) in the Green Ram Teahouse,  we had to use the washroom.  Luckily I was able to warn her about the very primative state of  the Temple's washroom facilities.  The ladies room had a long row of stalls, while they had slight side walls, they were without doors and therefore lacking in privacy.  Luckily when I went in I was the only one in there.  The toilet facilities were just a long trough that ran through all of the stalls under the separating walls.  You have to bring your own tissue paper and there was no visible means of flushing the trough, nor were there any garbage cans and the tissues are not to get thrown in the trough.  I felt wierd walking out without flushing but as I neared the outer open door to the whole length of stalls, I saw a large tank mounted near the ceiling and suddenly there was a huge rush of noise as a column of water, the size of a mini tsunami, rushed down the 50 foot length of trough.  Thank goodness I was out of the stall or had I been doing my business while the wave passed through I might have been startled and fallen in.  As you leave the facilities there is a common semi outdoor sink with a very scary bar of communal soap to wash your hands.  Luckily I brought along hand sanitizer.  Fortunately for Kelsey I was able to warn her about the state of the washroom and the process.  Unfortunately for Kelsey she could not hold it until we got home.  More unfortunate for Kelsey, the cleaning lady decided she needed to mop around the open door frame of her stall just as she was trying to do her business.  Well, atleast there was a washroom??!!??

On another cheerier note-- after our dinner we tried to leave a tip for our waitress.  After she would not accept the money from our hand we tried to hide it on the table.  When she spotted the tip she came running after us as we were leaving the restaurant to return the money.  We were definitely NOT in Canada.  Here  in China they will not take a tip for a restaurant meal.  Wow, I guess we'll save some money!

Finally we are able to go painting.  It is Friday, April 8th.  My sister will be celebrating her birthday when she gets up in Canada 15 hours after we do in China.  We head out for the Green Ram or Goat Taoist temple.  Tao (or Dao) means "the Way".  The Toaists have taken elements from the Buddism, Confucianism, and the Hinduism to create their religious philosophy.

Taoist wisdom is acquired by observing the flow of natural events. Their religion seeks immortality and  emphasizes compassion, moderation, and humility.  They focus on nature, and a strong relationship to the cosmos.  They seek harmony with the natural world and are credited with the practise of Feng Shui, and tai chi, and the adoption of the Buddists animal zodiac.

Kelsey found a monkey for her brother who was born the Year of the Monkey.

I found a monkey too.  We did get more serious and found a quiet corner with a bench sheltered from the rain and so we painted.

Kelsey decides to be as ferocious as the dragon she sees. 

Kelsey gets quite into the dragon theme so she paints a Chinese dragon.

Here is the scene I would paint.  It is a grey rainy day so unfortunately the conditions are not the greatest to capture in paint but we need to get the old brush back in action and so will get to work.

At work.

Almost done.

Finished painting.  You can tell it has been a long winter and I definitely need to get back into the grove.  But it is good to get out and make a start of it in watercolour.  Looking forward to getting out with the acrylic paints.

Kelsey and I had exciting plans.  We would visit the Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center.  We got to see many wonderful panda adults, babies, and teenagers.  Kelsey even got to hold a baby panda bear.  It was a over so fast but she will never forget the experience--and talk about cute!

Here is Kelsey holding the panda baby.  They gave it a piece of bamboo covered in honey to lick while she held it.

In the evening we went to a traditional Sichuan Opera.  There were beautiful dances, little operatic plays, shadow puppets, large marionettes, and wonderful traditonal instruments.

I even got to hear my favorite traditonal Chinese song on the Erhu, two stringed instrument.

Well, after months of preparation we finally arrived in Chengdu China on Tuesday April 5th, 2011.  Construction of the Dujiangyan irrigation project on the Minjiang River by Li Bing, remarkably over 2200 years ago, has led the region to become one of the most fertile lands in China known as "heaven on earth".  The first morning we left our hotel and walked to Tianfu Square in the centre of town. Tianfu means abundance.   The climate is relatively mild and lush with greenery.  There are palm trees growing around town. 

Here Kelsey is standing in front of the Mao Statue.  We saw the huge central square and the many large fountains which are lit up to music in the evening.  They are quite the site. Kelsey and I loved to see the adorable little children.

Awfully cute heh?

We crossed the river and found the cheaper hotel we'll be moving to at the end of the week.  We also found the school Kelsey will be teaching in while I paint.

We went to the Wenshu Buddhist Temple for dinner on our first night.  The food was great, especially when the meal for two with two glasses of fresh vegetable  and fruit juice was just a little over $10.

They even had cute little vegetable shaped cakes for dessert. 

The street outside the temple was nicely lit up.

The end to a fantastic first day in China!