Since We've Been Gone from China...

This Thursday there was a ‘new’ Chinese holiday, V-J day, or victory over Japan Day.  Chinese officials geared up for a huge public display/parade in Beijing, which included thousands of troops, and a brand new missile.  I got the day off from school, but not the following day.  Most Chinese companies let their employees have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off, but then people have to ‘make up’ their holidays by working on Sunday.  Not my idea of a real holiday, but it’s what shakes down here.  By far the most amusing preparation for the holiday is one I read somewhere, and have copied for your amusement.

Date/Time: 9/1/2015

China has drafted a team of 5 monkeys to help keep the skies clear for the upcoming Victory Parade in Beijing this Thursday.  Alongside the huge procession planned for the victory parade, about 200 aircraft will also perform fly-bys and maneuvers.  The air force has recruited the monkeys to help protect the state-of-the-art planes from potentially dangerous bird strikes.  The monkeys, all male (apparently easier to train), have been trained to destroy bird nests, avoiding a possible avian assault on jets from the trees.  The monkeys have all received three months of training, resulting in an efficient, low cost, low risk solution to the problem.

One other preparation was the temporary closing of several factories that usually belch pollution into the air, and the resultant sky was dubbed as “anti-fascist blue”.  Gotta love that spin.
There are some changes to the Chinese landscape since we were here in June.  One amusing fad is some plant-like things are all the rage to be clipped on the top of people’s heads.  At first I thought it was an homage to my favorite Japanese animation, Totoro, since one of the characters from his movie has a lotus blossom leaf over his head as he walks around, rather like an umbrella. The lotus blossom does figure large in this fad, but I’ve also seen women and men with mushrooms, assorted leaves and ferns, and, as a colleague put it, “some people have clipped a whole garden in their hair.”  No idea what is up with that.  Check out the selection in a "garden-hair-clip" stand as well as how one woman was sporting her look at the museum.

There is also a new new mall in Suzhou, not to be confused with the new mall that opened down the street from us in June.  This mall is very high-end, and the good news is there is a place that serves a good rotisserie chicken.  However, the best news is that Din Tai Fung, my favorite dim sum place which has chains all over China and specializes in the Shanghai delight known as shao-long-bao, is coming to Suzhou!  I can only hope it opens before we leave Suzhou, as there was no sign that gave a date, or at least not one we could read.  This is going to make Suzhou at least 2% better to live in, and the added bonus is that it’s just down the street one block from our gym. Exercise first, get a tasty treat after, that’s my plan.

Finally, to cool off hot summer days, my favorite spot in town, the Suzhou Museum, has had a temporary exhibit dedicated to ancient paintings of winter scenes in blue and green.  They are gorgeous; here are a few to cool you off. 

Oh, and our white egrets are back in the swamp between our school and our apartment.  I was very glad to see them, as I thought all the building had changed their migration patterns, as in they weren't coming here anymore.  

We still only hear 1 bird cheeping/day, which I call our rental bird, but it does make us want to get out of the city in the future.

We’re in our fourth or fifth week of schools (seems like several months since I started) but the important date is 3 weeks from last Friday, which is the start of our week-long October national holidays vacation.  We’re headed to Guilin and some other beautiful area close by for hiking, viewing of scenery and casual biking.  Before that happens, I’ll be spending 3 days once again at “Cowboy Camp” with the entire 4th grade.  Yippie–i-o-kai-yeh?