Foreign experts banquet

Every a year a banquet is hosted for all of the foreigners working in Lanzhou. This was a good chance for us delegates to meet other foreigners working in the city. We met some people who are working here with the Peace Corp. It is also at this Banquet that the Gansu Provincial Government grants the "Dunhuang Award" to foreigners in recognition of their contribution to the development of Gansu Province. This award has been granted every year since 1996. Unfortunately, I didn’t win but there is always next year!

Table tennis

A few of us have been making use of the abundant outside table tennis tables and have been playing regularly. Table tennis, along with badminton, is very popular in China. However, judging by the number of courts, number of people playing and the coverage it gets on TV basketball is the game of choice for China’s youth.

'Chinese roulette’

We are starting to settle down in to our routine of classes now. We are also starting to explore Lanzhou more. By touring Lanzhou by ourselves we are starting to realize how hard it can be living in a totally different county with a different culture and language. For example we often play ‘Chinese roulette’ at lunch (order food without knowing what it is); it rarely works out well for us! Yesterday we visited a restaurant for lunch and ordered a few dishes, the laughter of the waitress gave us an earlier indication as to how this was going to turn out.

After waiting for 20 minutes we were presented with a wok filled with a cloudy liquid with celery floating on the top. I made the mistake of saying “This looks okay”. Underneath the wok was a small heater and it was only when the water started to boil that the fun began. Once the water reached boiling point what can only be described as a tentacle reached out of the water! After seeing this I didn’t feel too hungry.

When we first arrived we would always ask “What’s this?” or “Is this chicken?” at dinner and lunch. We have now stopped doing this after getting a number of unfavourable answers. When in China it’s best to eat first and ask what it is second (although this is not recommend for allergy sufferers). If you make your dining decisions based on pre-conceptions it’s likely you will be very hungry. We had eaten 13 different animals before we stopped asking.

Five Springs Mountain

After initially catching the wrong bus a group of us made it to the bottom of Five Springs Mountain by mid-morning. The park on the mountain is the largest in Lanzhou. The Middle Peak of the Five Springs Mountain, the highest point in the park, reaches 1,600 meters (5,294 feet). There is an amusement park, a zoo, and naturally a large number of people milling around. There are also many beautiful temples to explore and the view from the top is well worth the effort.

Lanzhou from the top of Fife Springs mountain

One of the rides in the amusement park

Victory!

Provincial Museum

Today we visited the Gansu Provincial Museum. There are altogether thirteen exhibiting halls in the museum. The most famous relic is the bronze Galloping Horse, a 1,800 year old statue which is now the Chinese tourism symbol. We visited the site in Wuwei where the horse was excavated from in 1969 during our week long tour of Gansu

The famous Galloping Horse

Waiban

Today we visited the Foreign Affairs Office (Waiban) for the first time. We have all been paired with a staff member from the office in order to exchange ideas and information about our respective countries and China. Those delegates whose country did not have a representative in Gansu on last year's programme (including myself) will be giving presentations in the following weeks to the rest of the group and the Waiban staff. This is my opportunity tell the Waiban staff and the other delegates all about Fife.

Class has begun

After a week on the road I think everyone is happy to be back in Lanzhou. It was great to see so many amazing sites however traveling for 4/5 hours everyday took its toll and I don’t think life on the road is for me!

We have now started our classes. We have language classes everyday and a class on Chinese culture once a week. I have never been a great linguist, as my French teacher will tell you. Hopefully I will be able to pick up some mandarin.