Qianzhou and Zhangzhou

This week we did not have any classes as the university had arranged for us to go for a trip to other cities in the Fujian province. It was also in conjunction of the First Chinese Mushroom Days in Zhangzhou which we were invited to attend. There are 40 of us; 35 participants and 5 university staffs including a doctor who practises chinese medicine and a security guard. As I was informed by my practical teacher who went with us to take videos of our activity, 80% of Fujian province is covered with mountains while the rest is water area and flat land. There are 3 major pieces of flat land which are Fuzhou, Qianzhou and Zhangzhou. Along the highway which we traveled on, there were many tunnels. My friend, Tom, said that the army used to store firearms or explosives in the mountains during the past. Hopefully there are no more explosives in any of the mountains, otherwise China will have a 'timebomb'.

MONDAY: It took us 2 hours to reach the first city, Qianzhou. This city did not look any different from Fuzhou but there wasn't time to stop and explore as it was planned that we visit a mosque in this area only before leaving for Zhangzhou after lunch. This mosque is the first sign that Islam reached China in the past. It is not in use now for prayers but serves as a museum. The two top left corner showed a incense burner. At first I thought "eh, when did Muslims burn incense to pray?" only to find out that the incense was burned to purify the air or something like that. When we were there, we met a Singaporean old man who wanted to take picture with Tom and Herix to show the white, brown and black skin colours. Hahaha ....

After lunch at Qianzhou, we left for Zhangzhou which took another 2 hours to arrive. Once there, we checked into Zhangzhou Guesthouse. Zhangzhou is also known as a City of Flowers. There were really a lot of flowers decorating the streets and at night the city was lighted up like Christmas. I am not sure if the city is usually decorated in this way or was it because there was also an agricultural expo going on in this area.

TUESDAY: We went for an opening ceremony at the agricultural expo and haha ... my friends are the instant celebrities there. Actually everywhere we go, they are looked at and most people would ask to take pictures with them. The expo was beautifully done. In the afternoon, we visited a mushroom farm that mainly sells wood ear fungus or mu er. Some of the other mushrooms they have were grown in climate controlled rooms. I heard that it took about RMB 2 million to build 20 rooms with climate controls in a single building. That is quite cheap if you take into account that most of these machineries needed are also manufactured in China. That day, the fun time I had was when Li Jin, Tom and me went to 'delicacy street' . We had a banquet earlier which I didn't enjoyed but my friends did (I was seated next to a table full of chain smokers). So I was quite hungry. The doctor that was with us, Yan Ling, had her relatives shown us the street. We bought mutton kebabs, cakes, duck wings and sugar cane drinks and ate in my room.

WEDNESDAY: Today we left Zhangzhou for Xiamen. But before that we have to attend the seminar presentations. What I must really complained is that if the presenter is presenting in Mandarin language, the slides should have information in Chinese and English then at least most of us won't sit there like idiots. The afternoon lectures were better because we get to see the mushroom technology that was used in Europe, particularly Holland and oh cos the organisers finally got someone to translate the Chinese presentation to English for us. Unfortunately we have to leave during the DVD presentation. Here is where I did an embarrassing thing. Tom and I did not know that the staff had passed a note telling us to leave one by one. So we thought it wouldn't be nice if all 35 of us leave together. So I stood up and make a speech to absent all of us from the presentation. I felt quite paiseh after that. But hai ... at least I did a polite thing instead of leaving the presenter thinking that we did not enjoyed his presentation which was good by the way. =D

Fuzhou Panda Research Centre

Last Thursday, there was a china-africa union conference in Beijing which my lecturer, Prof. Lin was invited to. Therefore, we have Thursday and Friday off instead of the weekends. So the university organised for us to visit the Fuzhou Panda Research Centre, which is very near to the hotel I am staying now, West Lake Hotel. That day, as there was no translator around, I had to be one. Man, it wasn't easy as I have no idea how to say biology terms in mandarin language among many other things. Anyway, according to our guide, there are 5 pandas in the centre; 3 females and 2 males. This centre has the most pandas among the centres in China. The female pandas are all age above 15 human years old while the male pandas are about 6 or 7 human years old. One human year is equivalent to 4 panda years. The panda in the top left corner is the oldest panda at 27 human years or 108 panda years old. During her earlier days, she was a performer panda. She had traveled to places such as San Diego to perform in public. Since she is considered quite old now, she does not perform anymore.

Other than pandas, there are animals that were called as lesser pandas, which are the same pandas but they share a common ancestor line with the pandas. Like us humans sharing a common ancestor line with the chimpanzees. They are smaller in size and brown in color with a long striped tail of brown and black. I couldn't get a clear picture of them so I did not put the picture up here. These lesser pandas performed a few tricks for us. I didn't get pictures of the performances as my camera was with my friend at that time. The performances was quite cute really.

The pictures which I indicated an arrow is a sequence of pictures that I took as the panda caretaker wanted to lure the female panda from one place to another with a piece of apple. If you can see the large picture, you might see her with her tongue out at the final picture. Maybe she don't enjoy being photographed at ... Hahaha...

Red dates tang yuen

Last Saturday we had a buffet lunch at Peony Restaurant. The package price is RMB38 during lunch hour between 11am till 2pm, and RMB58 during dinner hour between 5pm till 8pm. Anyway the reason I mentioned this is because I found a dessert that is somewhat similar to the tang yuen that I loved. Tang yuen is also known as glutanious rice balls. When I was in Shanghai two years ago, I had tang yuen in rice wine almost everyday. Actually tang yuen is just normal rice balls but i love eating them. This version I found here in Fuzhou have a piece of tang yuen stuffed into red dates. The taste is very red date taste and sweet. Yummy! I actually had two plates of them. HAHAHA ....

Riverside Park, Fuzhou City

Journey Uphill Everyday ... Almost

I decided to show you guys the route that we all have to take everyday when we are in the university. Basically the area is JUNCAO Research Centre. Just that the class where we have our lectures is at the top of the hill. The route starts from the the first pic on the bottom left. In the top right pic, the thing is the purple box is where we grow mushrooms. The air around here is very clean except during the morning tea break where a group of chimneys suddenly start puffing smoke. ;) We have to take this route twice a day; once after breakfast and once after lunch. So it is good exercise isn't it? Hahaha ... By the way those black stones that looks a bit like gravestone are actually commemorative stones to represent the working partnerships between China and different countries. They planted Giant JUNCAO to represent the partnerships.

Fujian Agricultural and Forestry University (FAFU)

FUZHOU Here I am!!!!

Hey my friends!!!! I have safely reached Fuzhou, China yesterday night. The distance from the airport to the hotel we are staying was roughly the same distance from KLIA to Kl. Right now all the participants are staying at Qinghe building, Fujian West Lake Hotel. Haven't been out exploring yet but hope to be able to do so tonight. There are 34 participants from 14 countries. Now I am trying hard to learn their names ... it should be fine after the next day. There are people from Nepal, Iraq, Ghana, Zambia, Vietnam, etc. Rite now I am in one of the computer labs at Fujian Agricultural and Forestry University (FAFU) where the course is conducted. oh ya ... I did not let some of y'all know why am I in China. The Chinese gov is sponsoring people from developing countries to come together and learn a new tech to grow mushrooms, named JUNCAO Technology. It is a way of growing mushrooms from grasses. From what I have briefly glanced at the materials they have given us, I am so glad my boss decided to send me here. This is a very good training ground for a beginner like me. There will be lectures in the morning and practicals in the noon. By the way, FAFU is like a uni within a city or should I say there is a small city in the uni? haha .... frankly I want to take pictures of this uni but I dun know where to start. Oh well .... I will be here for a month and a half, so there'll be plenty of time to take pictures. At first I thought I would have a difficult time here but I have been having fun!!!! Mainly I have been translating english to mandarin and vice versa to my best ability. My colleague from home is Chinese from Sabah but he can speak Malay fluently and bits of English. Luckily I can speak and listen well enough. So Thanks To All My Friends in Perth for the training grounds! Oh yea ... my lecturer can't speak English well so his daughter is the translater. Ok ... till tmr, every noon we have time to surf the net for free. Gotta go now to buy calling cards ... mobile cards for me.... will send some of you my new number soon. So sms me la boleh ..... Muaks!