The End Begins

The days were extremely hot and muggy. I could feel hot waves of air passing through my body that was very dry and humid. This summer was completely different compared to my place. It was even difficult to walk in the evening. However, the cloudy days and the fringe showers were able to make the environment much easier than anticipated. The packing maniac has already been started and the course was the last one. The course was more professional and industrial. It was also exerting constant stress gradually as we move into the core contents.

We visited Nanjing Normal University for the last time. It was afternoon and guys have already finished their exam and some of them were planning to leave to the country for a summer holidays. We were so excited and tempted to eat at one of the local restaurant at Nanshita. However, it was not an easy task without the aid of someone who can speak Chinese. So, we asked one of Nepalese student to accompany us to the local restaurant. We ate “ Suan Caiyu” , The Fish and green vegetables ,”Gongobao Ji Ding”, The chicken and fish, “ Mi Fan”, The rice, “Zhang Dan”, The Omlette, “Ke le”, Coca-Cola with the help of “Kuaizi”, The Chopstick

All of us were taking much about July 17 as it was the day for us to leave the Nanjing. It was emotional moment when I was greeting for the last time as we never know that when we are going to see each other again. I was simply recalling how we met for the first time and the beautiful memories that we spend together. Now the wonderful memories would only be in the tributaries of our mind and has already become the sweet history. I met my last (new) Chinese friend Alice; it was short time knowing each other as all of us in bus-stand when we were wondering about the big centipedes that was passing near us. As both of us were busy and the time was running out for me, we never got an opportunity to meet again. I feel sad when I look at my old friend. But he looks happy and vivid as usual and was busy in his work. I was quite happy that we were good friends and I was successful on teaching him some English sentences for a year. I realized that he learned English better than my Chinese.

Finally, the last day to leave Nanjing was at the doorstep. We were given buffet on the occasion of our graduation ceremony. The banquet was organized at one of the biggest restaurant of Nanjing at Fujimiao. I was so lucky that my best place in Nanjing would be the last place for us to visit. The environment gave flashback of inaugural ceremony of the last year. At the beginning I was quite excited to leave the place but I feel bitter and sad when we were about to leave the Nanjing. I never knew that Nanjing has been deeply stagnated in my mind and in my heart for quite long period of time and I feel Nanjing is my second home. We leave to train station at seven pm. I feel extremely sad and despair although I was going back to my homeland. As we were leaving the perimeter of a school, we said bye-bye to our class and buildings that has the wonderful memories.

Traveling through the train has already been the part of my life. I find it easier to travel through the train although it's hectic if it's too long but the comfort ness and environment is laudable. So we were moving north thousands of miles away from Nanjing towards Beijing. As the train starts to move I feel more emotional. I almost cried and listen the song “Tell me you didn’t say good-bye”. It was tragic moment, I watched through window as the train slides slowly towards north and I realized that everything is becoming history very fast and the end has already begun.

It was very dark and I could see the lights far away from the window. I watched it till mid-night. Unlike previously, this time I was sleeping very well. The next morning at 6:30 am, I looked out through the window, it was raining and we were already at Beijing. The train station was very crowded and everywhere peoples were like bees in bee-hives. It was again terrible experience for me when I had to move towards the bus-stop with my luggage. I realized that I will never travel in my life with so many luggages’. The big mansions, crowded peoples, seamless traffic, the big-sky scrappers were something the Beijing has been known for many years. One of the most hustling and crowded city of the world, the traffic is a serious problem and I started to think about quite and calm Nanjing. Despite of so many sky-scrappers and mansions, I feel that Beijing still needs more than that to manage the serious problem of traffic and crowded peoples. Finally we arrived at our hotel at 2 yumin Lu, Xichengu, Beijing where one of the grand hotels is located.

After eating the lunch, we quickly make our way to see the one of the seventh great wonder of the world, The Great Wall at Badaling. The Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was enlisted in the World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, the Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching approximately 6,700 kilometers (4,163 miles ) from east to west of China. With a history of more than 2000 years, some of the sections of the great wall are now in ruins or even entirely disappeared. However, it is still one of the most appealing attractions all around the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance.

The Great Wall was originally built in the Spring, Autumn, and Warring States Periods as a defensive fortification by the three states: Yan, Zhao and Qin. The Great Wall went through constant extensions and repairs in later dynasties. In fact, it began as independent walls for different states when it was first built, and did not become the "Great" wall until the Qin Dynasty. Emperor Qin Shihuang succeeded in his effort to have the walls joined together to fend off the invasions from the Huns in the north after the unification of China. Since then, the Great Wall has served as a monument of the Chinese nation throughout history. A visit to the Great Wall is like a tour through the history backwards; it brings tourists great excitement in each step of the wall.

The mystery of the construction of the wall is amazing.

The construction of the Great Wall, drew heavily on the local resources for construction materials, was carried out in line with the local conditions under the management of contract and responsibility system. A great army of manpower composed of soldiers, prisoners, and local people, built the wall. The construction result demonstrates the manifestation of the wisdom and tenacity of the Chinese people.

The Great Wall as we see today was mostly built during the Ming Dynasty. It starts from Shanhaiguan Pass in the east to Jiayuguan Pass in the west traversing provinces of Liaoning, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Shaanxi and Gansu.

The Great Wall has long been incorporated into Chinese mythology and popular symbolism. The most beautiful of several legends is about the collapse of a section of the Great Wall caused by Meng Jiangnu, who cried bitterly over the death of her husband in the construction of the Great Wall. This legend has been spread widely through textbooks, folk songs and traditional operas. It is well-known in China.

We feel easier to move around the city in public vehicles as we have already contacted one of our friends from Beijing. First, we took the bus number 305 from Badaling free way to reach the last-stop of the bus from where the bus number 319 to Badaling great wall departs. It took almost one and half hours to reach the place. It was 2:30 when we reach the place. Once I made a glance towards the great wall, I was amazed and spellbound. I feel that I am in the china after eleven months to see this majestic achievement of human civilization. How human can create such a beautiful walls that runs through the hill stations seamlessly for thousands of kilometers, the only human made artifact that can seen from the moon.

As we start to climb the great wall by paying 25 RMB as a discounted rate because of our student card. It was stiff from the base but enjoyment and feeling of ecstasy, a feeling of china, a feeling of greatness. The place seems very crowded and each time I see these crowds I remember myself watching the bees in beehives and ants collecting the food in winter for the rainy season. There were many children and they seem very happy and delighted. It’s the desire of every Chinese to visit The Great Wall in their life, we took many pictures and I feel I was climbing the highest mountain of the world, The Mount Everest. After walking through hundreds of meters, we make our way back as we feel very tired and it's impossible to walk around the seamless man-made artifact. Finally after buying some souvenirs we made our way towards our hotel. We were tired and exhausted.

At 8 pm, we decided that we will go to Tiananmen Square although it was too late. Tiananmen Square is a modern creation, China being a land where large public gathering places were not traditionally built. Its construction broke down walls of the Forbidden City to make way for the large thoroughfare, Chang'an Jie. Previously Tiananmen Square was occupied by imperial offices which were inside the Forbidden City and connected the Temple of Heaven to Qianmen and the palace. Tiananmen (translated from Chinese: The Gate of Heavenly Peace) is the original gate of the Imperial Palace, commonly known as the Forbidden City. It is now one of the entrances for tourists visiting the Forbidden City.

Built and burned down a few times starting in 1417, its recent incarnation dates to 1651. Today it is a world recognized symbol of where Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) declared the foundation the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949.

We rushed towards metro station. As we reached the sub-way, we were so surprised to see the underground two sub-ways and the metro was very crowded. At first, it was so confusing for us to travel through it, however we manage to reach the Tiananmen square west gate after changing another metro. We were able to reach the place at ten. Hurriedly, we manage to take some pictures of this memorable place. When we were coming, we were lost somewhere in the middle; eventually we reached our hotel after taking the taxi. The other day, I realized that I missed one of the precious-thing; my diary in that I used to tabulate information in chronology.

The other day we were pretty sure about the route of underground sub-way, we make our way again towards Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. It was easier than the last night as we were more used to with the system although the place was very crowded no matter train comes after every few minutes. We took some memorable pictures, drank ice-water as it was very hot and has to rush towards hotel very soon as two of our friends were leaving at afternoon.

In the evening we roam around the busy-street of Beijing. Peoples were everywhere and foods in the street was making environment very amusing and alluring although I have seen it before in Nanjing. We were lucky to find cyber cafe that was very cheap and quickly informed our friends and relatives that we were in the lap of the great wall. We could even see one of the Olympic stadiums that's under construction and realized that the tariff of hotel has already escalated for the next year Olympic at Beijing. Everywhere we can see hoarding boards of the Olympics 2008 and realized that Olympic maniac has made the environment more colorful.

The next day I woke up very early as it was the last day in China and we have to reach an airport at 5:00 a.m. We rushed towards airport and there was traffic problem as the highway was under maintenance, however we were able to reach the airport at time. So, we were preparing to travel 1238 miles to Hong Kong and left the Beijing at 7:40. Eventually at the mid-day we reached the Hong Kong airport and were disappointed when we were informed that our plane was delayed for nine hours. So, we were spending more than 15 hours in the Hong Kong Airport. I feel bit exhausted as I couldn't sleep well in transit and was afraid of sleeping disorder although I was using internet and was enjoying the environment. After getting tired of looking at electronic board several times, I realized that at 0400 its time for us to leave for Nepal.

Finally, we landed at Airport at 06:30 in the morning and I was warmly received by family members. I was happy to be at home after a long time but as soon as I see the poor infrastructure, political chaos, economical and social problems I feel sorry for my country and was missing Nanjing more than ever.

After spending my holiday for a week and trying to adapt myself again to the old environment, I realized that I was in the heaven for last eleven months which I will always miss in my life no matter where I go and where I live. Nanjing would always remain in my nutshell forever. Xie Xie Ni ,.Nanjing!

Under Shadow Of a Green Tree

Most of the days were very dry and humid. The mercury goes above what we have anticipated and the shadow of green trees that were abundant around the periphery has been our humble friend for a long time. The days were very muggy and sun seems stronger than ever. As I looked from the window of the terrace of my class-room, every thing seems lousy and looks tired of the long and hot days.

The packing maniac has already been started as it will take couple of weeks to months to send items through postal office and peoples seems crowded to post office. Definitely, it’s a marvellous idea to manage things before getting stressed in the eleventh hour to leave. The counter to go back has already been started as many of us have already got our ticket confirmation for the next month flight. The excitement to leave or stay here was not omnipresent as we were here to leave one day. It was simply a matter of time that will decide the fate of everything. I visited my Chinese friend’s university frequently at the University area of Nanjing where many universities were located into same arena. It was good experience to see big University. I was fascinated to see how big University looks like and how they operate? It was completely a new experience for me. I was so surprised when I know that more than ten thousands students were studying in the same University. Sometimes, we used to play the badminton and enjoy the time to look around the different blocks of the University. It was immortal days.


The Fujimiao trip has always been remarkable and memorable no matter how many times I went there. The long antique homogenous buildings with slanted roofs, the crowded street, the wooing shopkeepers and snaky narrow streets with identical doors would remain in my gray matter for longer period of time when remembering Nanjing. One muggy afternoon, I was so obsessed to talk with one of the Chinese girl when I see her in the streets of Fujimiao. I gather enough guts to talk with her but it went in vain after she didn’t understand little English. But again, that was a fun, trying to talk with someone who doesn’t understand any words of English at all. I feel sorry for myself and her. This is one of the serious problems I have been encountered over here from the beginning. It was more curious when one of the girls gave me her business card and thought that I am from middle-east. So it was very funny when they make you originate from US to middle-east? –although I am from their neighbor country. This is the first girl I met who was not the student and she works full-time although she studies part-time. Eventually, the cell-phone was always acting as the translator better than ever. The following day was very tough when I spend my day with them, walking around the fujimiao again knowing more about Chinese people and their life-style irrespective of their poor English. Also I realize that most of the Chinese who use msn or yahoo messenger are the person who works in the international business environment and use it to talk with their foreign client frequently.

Traveling in the bus and alone has already become the part of my life and I find it very easy, exploring and exotic no matter most of the time peoples were staring at me as I was from alien’s space.

The last course become most productive and I spend substantial amount of time nurturing myself and enhancing my programming skills. I feel I am taking back some skills in my life that could be very helpful to shape my future in computing profession.

Everything was in countdown including 1912 street-The night hub of Nanjing. As usual we have found many of our friends were keener to enjoy this place as they realize that they have to enjoy this place before leaving. It was so fun when I went to podium and many girls including the manager was giving me the hand. It was exceptional moment again dancing and enjoying the night. We met few girls and had a good time chatting with them. I was so surprised when one of them knows so many things about my country from everlasting fragile politics to Gurkhas, The Front Line Warriors. Although the girl sounds honest for me; I feel bad when she bullied her email address as she was drunk. But again I have to admit that she was the most intellectual woman I ever met in China.

The night life became more vivid and frequent as we were counting our days to go back. 1912 street seems place that’s completely isolated from another space with its own identity and environment. As the twilight begins, the colorful light of 1912 starts to attract every street-hawk who is passing through-by. The place was very crowded as usual and we enjoy roaming around the street and seeing the funky young Chinese crippling the night-life ever than before. The girls look soberly beautiful, modern and fashionable, although they lack the natural beauty. The L narrow lane of the 1912 street was always glowing in the night no matter how things are moving on other part of the Nanjing. The girls were seen vomiting and feeling nausea in every corner as they were over drunk. The smoke inside the chambers make you feel that you are inhaling smoke seen in colorful sparkling light and enjoying the taste of music that beats your ear-drums. I danced a lot as usual and I feel I am becoming dance-addict. I was so tired that I just catch the bar at podium and just look at peoples 360 degrees around me. I feel this world is completely different and unique and find peoples were hypnotized in their own fantasy with music and alcohol. The imaginations and experiences looking at all peoples from the podium was fantastic experience. At one time, I was freeze in the podium as my muscles were cramped and I couldn’t move. The following morning the clothes seem they have been soaked in the smoke-chambers and when peoples start to leave in the morning, they look tired and exhausted. The taxis were waiting in the queue to serve these nocturnal inhabitants. Some of the tables were seen occupied even up to early morning and you will find plenty of them who are taking morning nap under the open-sky hypnotized in their own world. Slowly the confetti would be cleaned up and the person starts to move to their place. Thanks to McDonald and Coffee, they make our life easier as they operate round the clock. The morning Coffee was something I will never forget in my life after being nocturnal for whole night. Walking in the quiescent city in the early morning and taking metro was fun and adventure. The cold but soft wind makes the environment more subtle and hypnotize that we are pretty well no matter how tired we were physically.

The environment was muggy; very dry and humid. Sometimes, it was very terrific and most of the time I enjoyed staying inside my room and playing with the small techno-gadget my roommate bought recently. The green trees around us were always giving us accompany and we enjoyed sitting in the shadow of green trees before falling off to go to class every day. I feel these trees were only happy and protecting us in this hot environment. The days were extremely hot and frustrating as we start to sweat in no-time. We used to feel completely tired after hectic day. However, every evening we used to take walk for a while and use to drink soft drinks and ice-creams. It was again fun to talk about this place and thinking about our own country; staying in the stairs and watching the sporty basketball creeks that doesn’t care the hot. On one evening, we went to one of the Muslim restaurant with one of my Muslim friend from Nigeria. I enjoyed a food a lot even though I was bit skeptical about my stomach. Eventually, we were handed the visa of Hong Kong as we have connecting flight of Kathmandu. I feel the time is running out and the shade under green trees will be history.

On another rainy day as I was busy peeping students with umbrella in their hand, the beautiful trees and greenery around us looks glistening and sparkling after being washed by the virgin rain. I look at the cross-section of high-way that I always enjoyed every morning and in break-time for the last ten months, watching and simulating the fast and rushing traffic with cosmopolitan life over here. I even used to have a good time talking with few Chinese students who were majoring on English. I was so shocked when one of the Chinese students has very bad impression with attitudes and behavior of some of our friends; I gave him few reasons behind those behaviors that must have been reflected because of social factors. After all, people from all around the world do have different types of culture on which they were brought up and we have to give space for everyone. However, it should be kept in mind that it shouldn’t hurt others when someone is imposing his culture.

The last week of the month was better as we feel relieved when there was a fringe shower and cloudy day. After the rain, when I look from the same window that I look everyday, it seems that the place is completely washed, fresh and green. Eyes feel good to see these green trees which look more greenish than before and hopefully to sit under the shade of these green trees would be better than ever. On one evening, I realized sitting under the shade of green trees that this must be last time thinking and writing blog from Nanjing before I finished it next month from Nepal after writing for last nine months. Adiue Nanjing…… and Green trees…

Civilization and Superiority

Prologue

The second longest holiday, the may holiday has started in the first week of the month. Everywhere in the town, especially in front of railway station and Bus Park students were moving with their suitcases and luggage’s. It was funny when a Chinese guy and a girl told me that I look like an American, I laughed at myself for a long time. I told them that I am from Nepal and they were happy to say “Niboer” is our neighbor country. In the night, we heard banging’s and firecrackers, the crazy celebration of May holiday again.

The week started with long and lousy hot days as mercury was rising faster than ever. We went to meet our friends at Nanjing Normal University as it was one of the place we used to visit often in the holidays as guys were cool, we find good companionship to laugh and enjoy and talk about our country and experiences in this different but beautiful land.

The same afternoon, we were amazed when two guys from an England and Denmark approached us suddenly and said that they were tourist and wants a company in the night as they were new to the town. We were surprised and confused but we realize that it’s difficult to be a tourist here alone without the aid of someone.

We went to Talking Point, had pizzas and spaghettis. In the evening, we went to corner of Nanjing normal University. It looked like a typical street shop of Kathmandu at night; where dozen of us gathered in wonderful evening in the shade of green trees. I feel we were at the heart of Kathmandu as the surrounding was incredibly Nepali as most of us were Nepalese. I look around the place; it was a beautiful night, the quiescent environment and clear blue sky. We talked about different aspects of life as usual from political environment in Nepal to development beyond the borders. This is the place where the east meets the west as there are influx of foreign students, transnational peoples and completely multicultural environment. This is the place where you see different peoples murmuring different languages and laughing and enjoying in the open sky in gentle wind giving glimpse of the single world under an open umbrella.

Later friends from Estonia, Armenia and Russia joined us. I looked at the blue-sky underneath from the green-trees. There were no stars in the close proximity, it was already 2 in the morning and guys were still busy drinking. I had brief conversation about philosophy of religion with Estonian guy who believed more in Buddhism although he is an atheist. I invited him to visit Nepal. He had been learning traditional martial-art,"tai-chi" for couple of years and hopes to be the instructor in his country after leaving ski-instructing job.

As usual we went to 1912 street to enjoy the night life again to hear the bits and bytes of music and the dancing environment. The night passed very quickly and the morning was placidly quiescent again. As we were used to with public transportation, early in the wee-hours bus looked completely deserted and empty. As the bus stretches inside the city, peoples were busy stretching their bodies in public parks; elder’s peoples were doing “tai-chi”. It was fun just peeping through the windows traveling inner concentric of cities before landing quietly in the school and lying in the bed.

On another hot day, we visited Dr. San Yat-Sen scenery spot. In Chinese history he is known as "The Father of the Revolution" or "The Father of the Republic." In the West he is considered the most important figure of Chinese history in the twentieth century. As a revolutionary, he lived most of his life in disappointment. For over twenty years he struggled to bring a nationalist and democratic revolution to China and when he finally triumphed with the establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1912 with him as president

The beautiful and professional lady chauffer drove us to the front of the Pipa Lake. As we move around the places, it was perfectly a natural, a small lake surrounded by the greeneries and giant wall on the other end. The place is also popular for bride and bride groom to take the pictures as we saw many of them with their beautiful smile on the road to their new life. The park was well maintained and everywhere there were wooden-flooring. As we circle the entire park, hammocks were everywhere, couples and children’s were in utopia. We headed towards the botanical garden. The garden was a big one; there were so many things to look however we feel more attracted by the rose gardens and the rope-bridges. The garden has green house where all the plants species were collected, the botanist and students were busy collecting samples. Finally, the climax of the day arrived as we make our way to the purple mountain through the rope-way. Although, the rope-way was old and rusted but it was very long rope-way. The environment was calm and emotional when the rope-way moves slowly towards the top of Purple Mountain that stretches couple of kilometers from the base. As we view the Nanjing, the city looks elegantly beautiful with lakes and greeneries along with big mansions like a bamboo shoot in springs which make it more alluring. We were greeted by many children’s in the air and were happy to greet them back. The mind became completely vacant and submerged into the relaxation when the rope-way moves higher and higher but slowly and gently towards the top of the hill. Many of the foreigners were visiting the place and we realized that this is one of the best places in Nanjing to move around. From the top, we see the fascinating view of the Nanjing city. We stayed on the rock and inhale the fresh air at the top of the purple mountain with the majestic views. Later, we made our way back as the sun was becoming dim. When we touch the leaves of the trees from ropeway, we feel it more natural and pleasant. At the end of the day, we made our way to the Shinjekou, have pizza and were back to the school.


The short Flight- MU2807 (D+1)

It was not oceanic flight of 815 from Australia to Los Angelos mesmerized in The Lost. Neither we were lost in virtual island somewhere in the pacific rim forever and seamlessly waiting for someone to rescue nor there was a Jack or intrinsically sober Julia nor fat but cunning Harley with us. Nor I am the Kean, a computer-whiz that’s missing in the architect of the Lost if I had ever written the script. We were in holiday trip for five days from 8th may to 12th May from Nanjing to Guanzhou, a southern china flight MU2807 of one hour and forty five minutes. We reached the airport at early in the morning. The traffic was not hustling and bustling, the highway looks placidly quiescent. As usual every Chinese airport is expanding every year so the construction was everywhere and the airport looks sophisticated and fully automated so we don’t have long queue and have hassle less security clearances. We finished the security clearances and were waiting for more than hours in terminal to board the flight. Flying in the sky is lousy and it’s most disgusting part of the journey although I used to love at the beginning to crunch my curiosity that’s in my mind from the time I was a kid. The announcements were continuous in frequent interval and Chinese English seems very funny and dry. We can only sit, eat, sleep or read in the sky inside the slandered hollow chamber. As airplane starts to leave the ground and take altitude we feel current of waves passing through our nerves due to drastic change in altitude. We can see the beautiful Nanjing from the small window of the plane. The city looks very beautiful with enough greenery and beautiful landscape. Eventually we were flying high in the sky to cover the air distance of more than 1200 kilometers. The announcement and safety precautions from the cock-pit were most of the time about altitudes and refreshments. Almost all the seats were filled by foreigners as we were more than hundred students. Noticing it, the air-hostess glanced us and repelled with shyness. It was a little but delicious breakfast, an orange juice, bakery products and some Chinese noodles. I opted for bakery stuffs as noodles sucks for me in China. I finished few short stories by Hemingway; it was nice time reading short stories in the flight when I had nothing to do at all in the early morning. The city looked very big as I peep through the window as we were about to land. Apparently, we landed at the Guanzhou airport. As we were getting outside from the airport, our tour guide, Gabin, A smiling and funny but fat Chinese guy was already waving us to guide through the next five days of exotic trip. The trip became funny when one of our friends was lost in the airport. We were delayed for more than one hour and were able to trace him later in the airport where he was stacked and seemed in despair. Obviously the problem must have been the communication.

The Hustling Canton City (D+1)

Guangzhou was the capital city of Guangdong province with more than twelve millions of population located in south-east part of china. It’s the economic hub of china where international trade and business is growing exponentially every year to generate millions of employment and foreign currency. Guangzhou, also called Canton, Kuang-chou, or Kwangchow or ram city. It is a busy port and a commercial and industrial center on the Zhu Jiang (Pearl River). Manufactures include processed food, textiles, steel, paper, cement, fertilizer, chemicals, motor vehicles, and machinery. The city, which is served by an outer deepwater port at Whampoa (Huangpu), is linked by rail with Hong Kong and Beijing. About 15 percent of China's foreign trade is conducted here. A leading educational center of China, Guangzhou is the site of Zhongshan (Chung-shan or Sun Yat-sen) University (1924), a school of medicine, a technical university, and an agricultural institute. Landmarks in the city include Sha-mien (Shameen) Island, where foreign traders formerly lived; a Ming dynasty (1368-1644) temple, now the Peasant Movement Institute; a pagoda in the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees; a 14th-century watchtower (now Guangzhou Museum) in Yue Xiu (Yue Hsiu) park; the blue-roofed Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall; and a mosque said to be the oldest in China.

As we move towards the city, the city seems very crowded and rusted. Traffic was a serious problem and the roads were snaky running almost at the top of the building. Realizing the serious problem, the city has banned motorbike; nevertheless the problem seems not addressed at all. Eating in Guangzhou is very popular from the ancient time. There is saying that people eat everything except man. The SARS outbreak started from Guangzhou and more than 370 died of this deadly disease.

We were drove to the Ersha Island that’s located in the delta region of the Pearl River outskirt of city. Pearl River or Zhu Jiang is the third largest river of china that stretches from southeast from Guangzhou to the South China Sea. The suburb is the place where foreign diplomats and elites lives where we can see the beautiful houses and international school. The bank has big mansions that look very rigid and straight in the mid hot day. We managed to get outside from the bus and took some snaps at the bank of Pearl River which looks magnificent on the hot day. We were warmly greeted by traditional song and music when we arrive to have a lunch. It was fun to see beautiful Chinese girls singing with warm hospitality. The lunch was excellent. After lunch, we made our way towards the Dr. San Yat Sen Commeration Hall. The Commoration Hall was the first hall developed in western style for the meeting of the top officials of china.

As the coach moves up and down in the busy road of the Guanzhou, I feel like watching the spider man again with tall sky scrappers and layered snaky bridges in different hierarchy that stretches through the top of the building. Sometimes I feel I am playing the Ferrari game in early 90’s in the old computer at my home passing through the different tunnels and surprisingly artificial roads. The greenery of city is maintained cautiously as of Nanjing and it seems that city is pre-planned although it’s very old. We went to see the city’s monument, the monument of five rams, the art of fine sculpture and history. The fairy tale about it was more amazing to hear. Later we went to the Beijing road, the shopping road of Guangzhou. As usual bargaining was always tough and women were wooing hard to sell Rolex watch in every corner that starts with less than 20 RMB. Finally, we were driven back to our hotel. The communications seems easier than before.

Walking at Night (D+1)

We were lucky to meet two Nepali origin girls. It was difficult for us to locate them as we were not able to traverse the huge city that looks severely complicated with so many peoples. However, we ask the chauffer to talk with girls who were studying basic Chinese language for couple of months, a part of their medical study. The girls look happier even though sometimes they talk about home. We went to 1920 street and look at the Pearl River. The river was sparkling and splashing in the night with the cold breeze. We can see the beautiful and elegant mansions alongside the two banks of the river and their images moving in water with splashing sound. The ferry was passing through the beautiful arched-bridges in parallel that connects northern and southern Guangzhou at almost equidistance. The environment was quiet and it seems that the place is for relaxation as we can see young lads having good time in the bank of the river after hectic day. We walk through the long bank of the river and were shocked for a while when the lights were off but later realized that it was the daily schedule. Finally we made a way towards face-off, a disco club. The place looks very crowded and has two chambers playing different genre of songs. There were couple of foreigners and it seems that youngsters are more professional in dancing than in Nanjing. Finally, we made our way to the hotel, surprised to see different English channels including CNN but felt asleep in no-time after hustling day, traveling for more than thousands of kilometers.

The end of Road (D+2)

Early in the morning we headed towards another city of the Province, the Shenzhen city. Located on the border with Hong Kong, Shenzhen and the area around it became China’s first Special Economic Zone in 1980. The city with population of merely eight million. Shenzen is the new city of the china that was developed in 80’s for the sole purpose of international trade and business. The Chinese government established Special Economic Zones when it began to open the economy to foreign investors. These zones offer lower tax rates than the rest of China and other incentives to investment. Before 1980, Shenzhen, then called Bao’an, was an undeveloped town of 20,000 inhabitants. It grew rapidly once it became a Special Economic Zone. Its central location between Hong Kong and Guangzhou also made it an ideal place to locate industry. Light industry, especially the production of arts and crafts, textiles, footwear, clothing, medicines, and building materials, is important to the city’s economy. It is said that for money we have to go to Shenzhen, food for Guanzhou and Zhuhai for living.

It was 10:05 in the morning; we were in the mid-way in-between Shenzhen and Guanzhou. We pass through banana farming, glimpse of agricultural and industrial revolution. The English hoarding boards were more common. The continuous movement of trucks and logistic carrier clearly gives the importance of the city as a transport and logistic hub. Every side along they way, there were many huge industries and mansions.

As I get off from the bus, I was amazed to see the places, tall mansions were leaning towards me shining and sparkling in the beautiful evening. The place seemed little crowded and clean. I feel I was in land of Zion, described in some English songs, people looks beautiful. Everything seems to be in order and was not in chaos. Even the green trees along the roads and the height of the buildings were homogenous. I feel this is the extreme beauty human can endeavor and feel with bare eyes. I never thought that the development roads will end somewhere like this but I believe this might be the end of one facet.


The proto-type (D+2)

After traveling for few hundreds of kilometers from Guangzhou and having a lunch at hot day. We visited splendid china that features seeing round the ancient, civilized country with a history of 5000 years and traveling over a land of charm and beauty only in one day is the masterpiece titled pioneer of Chinese artificial scenery. The small mini china has everything from Forbidden City to Great wall and from potala palace to golden goose temple. The place was developed as a prototype village so that we can see the entire china without visiting the particular place. The folk and cultural shows make the place more interesting and make us feel in splendid china. It’s very weird and interesting to see the diverse china aggregated into the small but beautiful place. We take many snaps as we were able to simulate ourselves that we have traveled so many places in this beautiful country. The management and design of the park was superb. There were so many cultural shows and one of it looks exactly like the cultural show of Nepal, it must have been from south-western part of china. The environment was colorful and I feel sometimes I wonder how human made things looks so beautiful and charming. At last, we saw the cavalry battle show. It was the most fantastic and heart-throbbing show I ever had seen in china. I feel I was watching a sort of Chinese ancient movie as the waves of swords hit my ear-drum as two ancient warriors fight each other and show their skillful fighting skills simulating the historical war. It was the seamless journey of the historic china. The entire field in front of the eyes was battle ground and was filled with ancient soldiers and warriors. The claps were non-stoppable from audiences as it was very skillful and dangerous that ought to look like simulation in front of the eyes. Surprisingly, many of the performers were girls and their skill could be lauded well than of male counterparts.

The view center (D+2)

As I peep from the window of bus I can see twinkling stars far in the sky. The city has colorful lights as sun has already gone down and we were moving towards the Meridian view center, a window of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the 79 storey building, and 384 m tall to see the beautiful Shenzhen city. As I get off from the bus, I was spellbound to see the big buildings leaning towards me. As I move myself into 360 degree, I feel I was lost somewhere in the middle of magnificent city surrounded by glistening and colorful mansions. The city was very clean, very well managed and looks completely fresh and virgin. We have to change the lift several times as the security officer welcomed us with her beautiful smile and escort us to the next lift. The lift moved very fast, the number 69 seems very small compared to the lift. Eventually we were at the top of the human civilization. As I look outside, I feel I was in the land of heaven. I can see beautiful, elegant and colorful city. I can see the enchanting view of beautiful Shenzhen and Hong Kong stretching seamlessly as far as I can see with my bare eyes. From generation to generation, both people natured by the long Shenzhen River, Shenzhen and Hong Kong have grown up together in one continuous line. The cross-sections of roads and traffics makes more alluring. A lot of modern high story mansions sprang up like bamboos shooting after a spring rain. I feel I am at the peak of development, after that there is dead zone. And I questioned myself the superiority of human-kind and Endeavour-The rationality of superpower.

The Russian Ship (D+3)

It was mid-day when we reached the place. The day was muggy; however, the cool breeze that passes through our ear makes us feel better and environment was subtle. The ship was stagnant, stagnant for many years but doesn’t look completely deserted and wasted. It looks very big, sophisticated and implicitly military ship. I have never seen this type of ship in my life except in BBC or some Hollywood movies. Before we went to make observation, there were some formal processions as the soldiers marched through the ground. The male and female soldiers parade like a Russian military and seem from the eastern European countries. It was the first time I was inside the ship (although it was not functional). We observe the ship, it was very big. There were several aircrafts landed on the top of the ship and modern communication equipment at the top of it. The ship looks very strong. I imagined how much iron it would have taken to make this ship and was amazed to see the development that happened many decades back. There were more military and cultural shows on the different parts of the ship. We move around the place and see the most sophisticated weapons and equipment. The cabin of ship looks deserted with wires coming out of the places and things left out in chaos with hole in radars screen. The ship has been laying there for many years and still has the centre of attraction for all the visitors giving glimpse of technological development and military importance that existed several decades back.

The land of paradise and E-friendship (D+3)

We were moving west from Shenzhen towards Zhuhai. Zhuhai is situated in the southwest of the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong Province. It faces Hong Kong on the east across the Lingding Ocean, Macau on the south, Xinhui and Taishan on the west, and Zhongshan on the north. It is 150 kilometers away from Guangzhou. Zhuhai is a garden-like seaside tourist city, where flowers blossom all year round. In 1999, it was granted “International Award for Best Practices in Improving the Living Environment” by United Nations Center for Human Settlement and was the only winner of the award in China. Besides, it won series of titles such as “Top Tourist City of China”, “State Garden Green City”, “State Environmental Protection Model City” and “State Hygienic City”.

We passed through Zhonshan city in the very hot day. As the bus stopped to fuel the gas we were able to buy some fresh fruits directly from the local farmers. The amazing sky-scrappers and bridges with tunnels became the daily bread of life to see. There was something more that was eccentric in my mind for a long time once the trip was fixed. It was all about meeting Melody, one of my best Chinese friends whom I know from the internet. We never know that we were going to meet in this way. The imagination was very vibrant and vivid that evening as I was expecting to see her. It was the place where virtual world was being projected in the reality, the dream came true.

Finally, in the evening we reached the beautiful place after passing through many green hill stations and ridges, seeing so many fishing ponds and banana trees. The terrain looks exactly like Nepal as the city stretches in the bank of the river. We saw different type of ships and boats in the dock.

It was evening in the lobby of year 2000 hotel where I was expecting to meet her. I even don’t know how to recognize her so I asked her to tell me the color of the clothes she was wearing but she told me that it’s not necessary. She was right. I was staying outside and waiting for a long time. Eventually she was in the lobby waiting for me. She looked calm and patient but a bit nervous. She speaks English very well. Her hairs and eyes looks similar to than in internet. She was thin girl and she complained about me for being slim. Her hairs were beautiful and sparkling in the rays of light. She was bit unhappy when I couldn’t speak Chinese with her but was convinced later as I told that I learned Chinese only for 15 days. It’s obvious that any language can’t be learned merely in fifteen days. We made our way towards the Chinese restaurant as she hadn’t had her dinner. I drank a glass of juice; the restaurant was not so crowded. She insists me to eat some soup with her but I refused. As I watch her using the chopsticks and eating, she feel bit embarrassed and shy. After I notice it, I moved my eyes somewhere else. It was a perfect evening after a long time and it was big surprise and it must have been a very good luck for both of us projecting ourselves in the real world. Finally, we made our way towards lover’s street. The city look calm, the bank was not crowded; the soft wind blew through our ears. I can hear the splashing water in the banks of the river, the coconut trees leaves waved too often. We watched the stars and the glowing ship that was parked in the bank. The moment was placidly romantic. It was like a miracle, I never know when I was going to meet her again in my life. Finally, it was too late and we decided that there should be the end of the beautiful evening in the bank of South China Sea leaving back the wonderful memories forever. That’s how life moves on and was an exemplary example of being optimistic about seamless possibilities in life. We moved towards our place, I was so exhausted with physically and emotionally that I fall asleep in no time leaving back the memory for a while.

The first cruise in South China Sea (D+4)

The day was beautiful as I push the curtain and look through the wide windows. The street has already started to show the movement of people and traffic and was wet because of the light shower in the night. The sun was ready for us to guide through the new day. We were expecting to have a cruise in the south-china see at 10 o’ clock. The feelings and emotions were rising high as it was the first time I would be traveling through the ship and see the sea. The cruising has been in my mind for a long time back once I started to know about the ship and watched Hollywood movies. We were at dock where many passenger ships were waiting for us. The internal tourism in the country has been flooded everywhere in China and this place was neither an exception. We were in the small ship that can accommodate more than two hundred peoples. As the ship moves on with its stereo-type sound coming from its engine, the water comes like a wave and splashes in the fringes. Sometimes, the tiny water droplets splash into the edges so hard that it sprinkles inside the ship. I didn’t hesitate to tease a small Chinese kid who was very shy although her mother insists him to say hello to me. As water seems like moving mountains, splashing here and there, the cold wind and the bumpy ship, sliding up and down. The water was sparkling and looks like a snow in a beautiful sunny day. I remember the old man and the sea, by Hemingway and had clearer pictured about the novel again that I had read in my high school. I was also scared that I may have sea sickness as people were hypnotizing the journey. We can see the slender and marvelous building at the bank of south-china sea, Macau- The former colony of Portuguese and the casino world. Casino is legal in only this part of the china. We can even see the symbol of Macau, the lotus flower in the bank. There were three bridges connecting the other two small islands of Macau, Zhuhai with Macau. Earlier, I was bit disappointed as I couldn’t buy the ticket to go at the top of the ship. The problem was communication and later there were no enough spaces. But the cruising in the ship was fantastic as I have realized that my fantasy to cruise and its projection in reality is surprisingly the same. As water and cool air sprinkle the journey, it became much more exotic. I can see the horizon in the first time in my life where the clear blue sky meets the sea. As I see hundreds of Water Mountains moving and splashing in the edge of the ship, I find the journey is never-ending process. I imagined how Columbus might have discovered America, no matter the journey was exotic but never ending process! Luckily, they allowed us to go at the top of the ship later and we were rushing to go there and take some beautiful snaps and it was again pleasant surprise at last. The human civilization sometimes makes me feel that there is nothing beyond human endeavor and superiority.

The glistening city and Pearl River (D+4)

The same evening we reached the Guangzhou as it was the end of our journey. But we were lucky that we were able to meet some of Nepali friends again and it was the second cruise that we take to see city that night in Pearl River. It was almost nine o clock at evening and we were waiting for Nepali friends in the port. I was surprised to see the open sex market in Guangzhou after seeing at Xian last year. It was again a big surprise for me when I met one of my high school friends after ten years. When I pronounced his name he was delighted and surprised and shocked but he couldn’t remember mine. My old friend can speak Chinese very well and as he speaks Chinese very fluently and feel so surprised and curious. It was hard for me to believe that foreigner can speak Chinese so well. It seems that it was an art of speaking and a fun to watch someone speaking it. The guy was doing post graduate degree in medicine. Finally, we were again inside the ship. The ship looks more modern than previous one. It has almost everything inside it and there were not so many peoples. The city was sparkling and glistening along the two banks of the river. As we pass through the bridge we shouted and scream for nothing but for excitement in Nepali language. We were even singing Nepali songs and were trying to create a perfectly Nepali environment. We feel we were somewhere in the beautiful lake of Nepal.

The pleasant breakfast (D+5)

The breakfast was all about eating. Surprisingly, it was something else for me this time. I was simply analyzing the people’s eating behavior and civilization in the early morning with the orange juice in my hand. Straight in front of my table were two beautiful Chinese girls with two kids who were ready for the breakfast with maize in their table. They were using the chopsticks but were eating breads. Far on the eleven o’ clock in the corner was the guy who was enjoying fresh water melon. Behind me at six o’ clock there were four white women who were slicing the bread and drinking a juice. The scrambled egg chef was always busy as the queue seems the most popular one. It must have been the best dish everybody likes from Africa to Asia and from Europe to America. It was difficult to turn but again I tried gently at five o clock to see who was behind me. There was a guy who has big arms with a tattoo. At 2 o clock pointing were the two guys from Seychelles, our course mates and were at the end of their breakfast enjoying some fresh fruits and salads. It seems that western peoples enjoy bread more than ever. Chinese were enjoying noodles with their chopsticks, the rest were enjoying rice. I started with coffee and ended up in orange juice seamlessly watching food choice of diverse peoples from diverse regions. It was the best breakfast I ever enjoyed as the surrounding was rich with diversity and it made the food more delicious and pleasant with the inquisitive and diverse environment. I even watched seriously how people eat the food, use the culinary and order of eating. There were huge gaps between haves and haven’t, still a long way to go to make a beautiful world and ideal world.

Epilogue

After wrapping of the holiday when we were back in our place, we were completely tired but were full of vivid and wonderful memories in our mind that would last for many years. Also we went for boating in one of the hot days. It was wonderful moment again roaming around the big glistening lake surrounded by tall and elegant mansions around us. On one weekend, we were invited by my Chinese friend to her university few kilometers west of my school. We went there and surprised to see how modern university looks like with big mansions, sporting and recreational centers and surprisingly big cafeterias. We visited several places of University and we went to dancing hall in the evening. It was fun seeing cultural program and dance party at the University. The environment was very good and there were different types of programs the student prefer. After my friend insisted too much, I even took the part in one of the caricature program and won the prize. I never did these things and I never feel shy anymore. Later we danced although it was very difficult for me as it was a Chinese dance but I tried to cope very hard. It was wonderful moment in the University and would be in my tributaries forever.
I finished the book Hemingway’s 49 short stories and started the new Chinese literature “The living Stone”. Eventually, the may was saying good bye for us and I had less than 50 days more in Nanjing. On retrospection, it gave me the best moment of the last nine months that will always remain in my tributaries forever.

Placidly Quiescent

When I focus my eye-lens to far edge of the hill-stations, the changes were already been able to moisturize my gray matter. The lovely-hills surrounding us have already been painted by a fresh green layer of virgin leaves. As I focus my eyes near to the surrounding there were no differences either, the skeleton-trees look vividly verve with his new virgin leaves glistening and shining when the morning sun reflects through it every day. There were beautiful flowers everywhere, birds were chirping everywhere with many of them busy feeding their offspring’s. The grounds along with meadow were completely green no matter students were busy playing football everyday. The environment and surroundings were melancholy and dormant as the days become hot and long. The environmental and climatic changes were already there and we were simply waiting for it to happen gently and placidly. The weather has already started to become warmer and the Chinese students have already changed their old but warm uniform with the light ones that looks them smarter like a business professionals. The environment looks lucid, beautiful and clean. Many trees, shrubs and herbs along with birds were showing the rapid changes. The days are hotter as we have already started to wear light shirts but again the climate of the Nanjing sucks sometimes as it’s not predictable no matter I always manage to see the five days weather forecast of BBC.

Fujimiao Trip always remained wonderful trip no matter how many times we went there. The wide giant gates along all the way in every corners of city with long and wide roads, the beautiful temple located at the heart of the city, the man-held and goat carriages, the narrow stream with motor-boats and of course the crowded but seamless peoples. It looks like typical Chinese city in all aspects from peoples to architectural design and from fancy shops to huge artistic gates. Sometimes we stand at the small bridge that’s in the centre of city and watch the motor boats as it pass through the gentle streams in-between the big mansions along sides of it. Walking through the streets of Fujimiao was fun as there were sales and many shops everywhere; sales girls were smiling and clapping to attract attention of new costumers. Fujimiao is one of the best places in Nanjing that looks like perfectly and incredibly china, a place where the history meets with future.

It was a fun in one afternoon as we were roaming around the Fujimiao when we were lost for fifteen minutes as we were not able to trace out the main road as there were many roads that look similar crossing each other. However, it didn’t take a long time to trace our bus stop. The day became more colorful when few sales girls in the shop were crazy to take pictures with us. As usual, the McDonald was always waiting for us.

The following day we went to Shinjekou, the day was hotter but again it seems that I was the only guy to wear the half-t-shirt except few fashionable girls who were giving me accompany. The coffee and pizza after a long time was delicious change for my tongue in the hot afternoon that we were expecting and waiting for a long period of time. We really enjoyed the place as we spend long time to eat and enjoyed peeping busy and populous Ladi at the heart of Shinjekou.

As we were walking in the heart of Shinjekou we were completely amazed when some sales girls approached us. At first, it was confusion as we couldn’t understand the information that they were trying to communicate. Later, a smiling sales girl was persuading us for our photos so that she is going to print it. It was a promotional campaign of portable photo printing device of Canon. Finally we were happy to see our photos printed for absolutely free without a single penny.

There was a mini New Year celebration program in one of our mate’s room. The countdown for this time was Nepali New Year when all of us (Nepalese) were already gathered for the momentum. It was a co-incident that many of the countries in Asia including Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Bangladesh have New Year on the same day. But the amazing and interesting fact was that each countries has different numbers for new year and some were lagging far behind and some were in the mid-way and others were already ahead. It was again complex mathematical and historical artifacts regarding the issue of New Year. But in terms of number Nepal is already 57 years ahead of the English date. We started with soft drinks and few light snacks. As usual, the coke was something I could enjoy with nuts and crackers. Nepali music and English music were already hitting hard so that we can dance in the congested small place inside the room with tiny speakers at the centre of the room. That was enough to light the cigar. Eventually, it was wonderful evening for remembrance without Nepalese food. Later we mixed up with other guys who were also celebrating it and convey the New Year wishes..!!

On one evening we invited our new friends Ruan and her friend Daisy for dinner. Amazingly, the dinner was like a tough expedition without any ambitions for my friend Tony as it was too hot and spicy. The foods were messed up. The girls were confused too as they couldn’t figure out our choices and couldn’t explain ingredients in detail. We were very choosy on eating. We were even awkward and couldn’t say what we want and the girls were completely nervous too as they couldn’t communicate well. It was even the new place for them and place was too crowded and the food was smelling everywhere. Nevertheless, it was again a new experience watching other people eating instead of us eating and enjoying.

Later in the same night, we roamed around the 1912 street and enjoyed colorful night at A8 and Scarlet. The place was too crowded and DJ Jack was playing rap and dance songs. We were simply moving here and there as the environment was pleasant and we don’t have to worry about heart-beating cold. All of us enjoyed whole night dancing and drinking after a long and hectic week-days. The smoke, colorful lights and people all were matching perfectly better than before as the external environment was better than ever and we use to take a periodic break at some intervals and roam around outside to have a fresh air. Earlier in the morning, it was a painful time after being nocturnal despite of beautiful weather and placid morning. The streets were deserted, there were few peoples in the wee-hours in the morning and few shops were open. We pass through Narrow Street walking in a gentle breeze that was refreshing us, surprisingly the girls were greeting but again some of them were staring as usual. Finally, we make our way quietly to the school and took rest whole-day.

I had small misunderstanding with my new-roommate. As we couldn’t settle the issue, so I refused to stay with him and moved to my old-room. No matter, it was a new experience for me and I learned something new from that room but amazingly I can feel happiness in my old-mate face and mind when he saw me back. The old-room was not lavish as the one I was staying on however I could feel something better than that as physical things always doesn’t give happiness. There was a peace, mutual understanding and a sense of open-ness and transparency between us that was more important than any other objects in the vicinity. I find it’s the person that makes the room more beautiful rather than the physical things in the room. The room looks deserted, however it was quite, sober and a simple; identical to my room at my home without many techno, fancy and expensive gizmos.

As the sun was becoming stronger and stronger each day, we used to stay on the shade of green trees that’s everywhere in the vicinity as the environment and landscaping was design with careful planning. Sometimes, we move around basketball court and watch the Chinese students being crazy of basketball in the hot sun. The soft and cold winds make us feel cool in the day. The ice-cream and cola became the bread of life again. The students started to wear half-shirts and it seems that cold frozen days are far behind and is never coming very soon. The tennis mania continues and we were playing with schedule and were enjoying the wonderful time playing in every evening before supper. Finally, the third-last course was finished and I was so crazy that I wrote the C program to count the number of days to go back and all of us laughed but enjoyed program counting for the days to go back.

Spending time with friends from Arab with Arabic-tea was something exciting that used to happen frequently in our Yemen’s friend room. As they start to murmur about their culture and politics. I listen to them very cautiously and inquisitively. Eventually it became a lecture of regional politics, geography and religion. Enjoying the coffee and evening walk in every day became the essential part of the life.

The last week of the month was horrible and stressful as we have a long seven days class consecutively. They were adjusting our holidays for two consecutive weeks so we were busy attending class even on weekends. It was too boring and monotonous. But finally it’s over now and all of us are ready to start a long and exciting holidays from the beginning of the next Month.

Reminiscently the month was placidly quiescent with subtle change and was successful in writing words fewer than ever before.

The Turning Point...!

It was the cold and windy but beautiful evening at Hunan Lu, the food-street of Nanjing. We were roaming around the artificial flowers that were decorated alongside the whole street with our Chinese friends in the last week of spring festival that was wrapping off very soon for a year. We were invited by Li and Lu for the Chinese food on this beautiful evening. It was astonishing moment as the climatic environment were subtle and euphoric as the sun was already down and we could feel cool and soft wind blowing through our ears. The delicious Chinese foods were waiting for us as we marched towards one of the Chinese restaurants where hundreds of peoples were enjoying their food in the beautiful evening. As we were used to with these Chinese foods, our friends were amazed and were staring us as we were using the chopsticks comfortably. The food constitutes few new items that we had never eaten before. As girls were busy cooking food in the master pan that was embedded in the center of table with electric heater and were asking awkwardly and repetitively about food and our choice, however we were nodding happily with pleasant environment rather than eating. We were enjoying the moment in full spheres with fun and lust of excitement. As we were wrapping off our dinner and our friends were dubious about our appetite when we ate too little as compared to what they have anticipated. Nevertheless, it was wonderful hospitality and courtesy. As we were planning to leave, we experience short shower that was predicting that autumn is coming and which was obvious after cold and heart-throbbing winter. Later we enjoyed biting “caomei”- the strawberry and walked in a light frenzy shower with whirlwind that was blowing in the beautiful evening at Hunan Lu.

With the change in climate, temperature in centigrade scale increased drastically to two-digits and the days have already started to become warmer and were stretching for wee hours. The flowers and buds started to blossom, the green leaves popped out from every tree that looked dead and deserted like a cactus plant. The natural environment became greenery and verve as the students started to return and the buildings seems occupied after a long winter break. The small shops started to open at usual hours with its stereotype layout and smiling sales girls. Again, to communicate with these girls to buy something was fun and irritation as we have to use sign language or have to point specific commodity that are in the range of our eyes. Again to know the price, we have to use tiny machine-calculator that always acts as an interface every time we went for shopping inside the premises or to do some bargaining at the town. The monotonous school-siren started to buzz every half an hour. The rooms were filled up and streets along with basketball courts and football grounds were occupied with green uniforms as usual. Hearing of “Er Er Shan Si " ..,1, 2,3,4.., The military drill has started again with girls and boys marching in homogenous pattern. Life started to become colorful after a long break and was moving fast and was more stringent in order. The falling off of students in the early morning became bread of life. I feel how human makes environment perfectly social with these artificial entities. The deserted place started to look lively again and seemed that everything is coming on track again after one month of long break. Students seem to be happy and energetic as smile occupies their tiny face and were busy gossiping their holiday experiences. The environment became perfect and I am enjoying it with new hope and excitement as the new semester begins.

Surprisingly, I received two books from one of my well wisher a day ahead of my birth-day. It must have been the birthday gift I received after a long time in my life. It was apparent that I was also becoming the victim of numerical illusion as my 28th birthday passed very swiftly and cryptically. I believe this month was one of the important months in different perspectives. In diverse views, some people might say I am getting old, some (myself and oldies) are saying I am still very young, I might be saying it’s a numerical illusion again incremented finitely (you don’t know that finite value) till your physical existence. So I am 28! There were neither a cakes nor any celebration as I keep myself mum.

But again something more than this submerged in my mind that has no turning point at all and it’s less likely to be reversible reaction in chemistry. Starting with Dale Carnegie’s positive thinking, I moved to secular humanism of Dr. Paul Kurtz. Finally, I am landed to Infidel- Ayaan Hirsi Ali and I realized myself that its time for me to take a big and bold decision that was resided in my mind for a long time.

Again Traveling from Asia to Africa and finally to secular china has made me think eccentrically that this is right decision for me that I have been waiting for a long although it has invoked my mind for more than a decade. Although I have taken this decision long time back but I believe this is my birthday-present from inside me. It’s again not important to dictate these things again and again as it might hurt somebody who has a deep and a profound faith on it. But I have to confess it, I am an atheist. Finally, I took a bold decision and I have realized that Infidel and Atheism is ruling me forever more strongly more ever than before. I feel more stressed as I was reached the answers of my imagination and weird thought that has been dominating me for more than decades. As I started infidel earlier this month, a book by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, I was inside the concentric and eccentric circles of principles and philosophies of religion that I was trying to free myself out from it. I realized that I was getting closer in a single dimension of secular humanism. It was the week of enlightenment with excitement and joy for me. It was a transition, a revolution that has been sketched in my gray matter for a long time. It was like a maternal pain every woman has to suffer to have a baby as I was crying and surviving desperately to feel the changes that have been accumulated in my mind for a long time. Finally I was emancipating from the close boundaries of religion forever from the secular land of China. It was opening up new horizon but again hard in beginning to distinguish thin lines of ethics, freedom and religion. It was seeing different things in different perspective, the fading religion and stronger infidel. It was a sort of transitional phase for me, still I feel awkward to decide in crossroads as I was brought up in orthodox society where religion has been key and dominating issues for last 28 years of my life. The roads were trembling but again I had strong determination. I was getting more addicted with philosophy as I read some philosophical theories of Kant and Marx. I was looking for unique aspect of human who can produce cognitive theories that can address the aspects of materialism, communism and rationalism in a more stratified manner.

The course was focusing more on microscopic components of operating system and the professor was the most influential one with substantial experiences and knowledge in course matter. Course was the toughest one I have ever read as it was more abstract where cognitive theory rules and the professor was very skillful to address the problem with his full strength to convey the meanings of subject matter with his strong technical skills and visual aids along with superb and satirical examples. Sometimes, I feel it was more like philosophical class (that I had never taken) where there were convergence of mathematics, computer science and philosophy.

Many new students joined us and it was fun again to see the different new faces from different part of the land that I have seen in television and some I have never heard of. As these new students survive hard to acclimatize with new environment for first few weeks and were cunning hard to follow the rules, I was more curious to know about them and their country.

The life became more stressful as the book infidel and the course was exerting constant pressure on the tributaries of mind. However, the colorful night made the feeling of ecstasy and utopia accompanied by our new friends from Nepal. The meeting with Vicky, my first Chinese friend after couple of months was merely a co-incident again at the lift of Nanjing Normal University. She was happy to see me again but I saw shyness along with despair. I realize something was becoming barrier for her to continue our friendship as we used to have before. Later I realized that she has a new boyfriend. But I feel I miss something although I didn’t have serious relationship with her but she was the first Chinese girl I ever met in my life and I was keen to learn so many things about china from her. It would be difficult for me to reach her again and I thanked her from my heart. That night it was one of the most enjoyable night life I ever had in the disco as I was more rigid in my thought as well as my decisions were vivid and fresh although it was in a transition period. It was again the fun, enjoyment and art of dance with colorful light and heart-throbbing music that I had always loved in my life.

The worst part will always be the morning in the 1912 street when we spend whole night in club. In the dawn as we get out from the club, we used to shiver and were tired and hungry after waking up for more than twenty four hour. We look for twilight dumplings that were already available in the narrow street behind the 1912 street. But many of them who came out from the closed chamber never ever feel it disgusting as they still have the level of OH high in their blood. It was not amazing even to see some vomiting in dawn. As we walked with shivering in the morning of 1912 street, we see the natural face of all young Chinese girls and boys who were inside those close chambers and have enjoyed the whole night but despair and lousiness looms the dawn with tiring and exotic night. Many yellow taxis were waiting for the queue.

I met guys from Lebanon and Yemen. I was so inquisitive to know about Israel-Palestine issues that seems as it is from the time I was a kid but was looking for answers that has been not easy for many decades. No matter, he tried to give answers in his perspective but again it sounds it was lacking something from other part of the coin. Had it been so easy, I might have not remember the day I asked my father about this problem and he said that he is even seeing it from the time he was a kid. He is still searching for the answer and so do I. I remembered the BBC program where Simon Perez, deputy premier was interviewed by some of the young Arabs. The program was one of the most influential political debates I have ever seen in BBC. To analyze the problem from the mid-line was not easy and I was just happy to get answers from his side of coin. Nevertheless, it was an experience I would remember always in my life as I have known from the guy who is directly involved in the everlasting conflict.

On one evening, I was delighted when the administration informed us that they are showing us an orchestra. But later we realized that it was simply a cultural and musical program of the institute. Again, the show was very interesting and curious as we had never seen these types of performances before. The performance was all in Chinese and it was obvious and we were simply the spectator to listen Chinese tone and a melodious music that we never had acquainted even though we had spent more than half of year. As thrilling sound and colorful light starts to rotate into the podium, the beautiful girl in the military uniform with her tall and elegant body, murmured in Chinese and all of them clapped. Apparently, we clapped imitating the Chinese students who were there. We were sure that she must be a good anchor and she has a lovely voice despite of us not understanding anything she murmured. There were more than ten performances, half of them were songs and half of them were short-dramas. The show started with a woman singing (probably) a national song followed with hundreds of claps of students each time. However the music and the tone were universal and was a proof of human civilization. Then the other performance was all about the comedy drama that we never understood besides watching gestures of the different actors. The environment for two hours was univocal with constant flow of vibration of music and laughter and claps. Then I managed to ask one of the students about what the woman was saying. She was singing “Woman is a flower”. I find every modern romantic song irrespective of different language conveys almost same meaning, the abstract and enduring romantic feelings, a joy and eudemonia. We were blatantly supporting the zeal and enthusiasm of the actors along with hundreds of Chinese students. The two hours passed swiftly although we felt sometime the time should move fast as we were not catching anything no matter the musical melodies were striking our ear-drums.

The following weekend seems very busy as we roamed the Qin Jiao and Shin-Jekou with our new friends who joined us. Although the road and city seems familiar but again it was unique experience in different perspective as we went to town each time. We were more used to with public bus system as we find it more easy and fun to travel in public bus although it was too crowdy and slow. It was the tradeoff between quality and economy. But I was inquisitive to know more about this place from a wide window, traveling along the bus gave me more time to think about this country and peoples as I get acquainted with different peoples and environment. We were more frequent in McDonald and KFC and it had already become the part of our life. Eating became fun again no matter each time we get inside MCdonald and KFC; we have to struggle hard to get the place to eat. Although it seems that these multinational companies were everywhere in modern china but again the flow of traffic is beyond their capacity and it shows the leaning of the Chinese society towards the western life and their life were becoming more hectic as economy continue to grows in two digit. The tennis phobia continued as the weather became warmer and the days started to became longer. Sportsmanship predominant higher than before and the life was more stratified and hectic.

We went to the Fujiamiao, another city of Nanjing. As we were not sure where we should get off from the bus, we asked a young Chinese girl to help us to track the way to the heart of Fujimiao. She was cute but was blushed and embarrassed at the beginning as the normal Chinese girl. I was amazed when she told me that she loves physics and she is planning to study physics in her University. I have never found in my life woman who loves to study physics. The more important thing was that it was her own decision but not her parents as it happens in most of the developing and least developed countries. The city is decorated in old architecture with many doors but blended with modern styles and shops. The city is also called the light city as it is decorated with colorful light that dominates the entire spectrum. The narrow stream passes through the edges of the city where peoples were boating in the heart of the metro-city. We were also surprised to witness Rick-Shaw or the goat-carriages! The place was wonderful and there were sale everywhere as spring is on the way and beautiful sales girls were attracting every costumer by their gentle claps. The weather of the Nanjing is very weird, the temperatures goes up and down abruptly. But again, no matter how it fluctuates, the days will become warmer and warmer. The turning point for climate and my principle has already started to show delineation and was aiding me towards existentialism and secular humanism. The last day of the month was shabby with gloomy days and light shower in the morning with temperature dipping slightly and I was feeling melancholy using my fingers and brain as fast I can to give the finishing touch of these words. Finally my fingers were tired and ended up with saying adieu March!!! 2007

FADED HOPE AND SILVER LINING

The hopes were shattered inside the womb. Finally, a long month holiday was in the door-step. This long holiday gave me glimpses of schooling days and University life, the perennial beauty of those golden days that would be in tributaries immortally.

I finished the book of Secular Humanism by Dr. Kurtz as I was eagerly waiting it with pertinent lust and desire. Certainly, it gave me a lot of pleasure and helped me to vindicate my principles and attitude of secular life. This book is the best book I have ever read in my life depicting the life and different societies in completely different dimensions.

Again food etiquette was never going to end as this time we were offered a banquet by the University as the semester ended. Enjoying the food with different taste and wearing the plastic glove was again the fun with chopsticks problems as usual. But it was a sheep restaurant everything we ate was entirely sheep.

Feb 14 was definitely a special day for romantic lovers around the world in one or other way. Interestingly, that was one of the worst days of the holiday as we have to desert the plan at eleventh hour because of the weird telephone call. We were called immediately to be present inside the premises. With frustration and despair we were rushing but again the taxi hunting was not easy task. However, when we were back to our apartment we realized that it was nothing serious, was neither a hoax nor it was an April fool. They were distributing us a box of oranges. We were laughing for a long time but couldn’t resume our plan as it was too late. But oranges worked pretty well when we enjoyed it after the lunch in the sun.

As my hope of touching snow feathered away forever and I have realized that I don’t have luck anymore. Surprisingly, there was a miracle in Kathmandu Valley, in Nepal where there was a snowfall after sixty two years although the snowfall is common in northern part of Nepal where Himalayas including Mt. Everest lies. I feel how unlucky I was that I couldn’t enjoy such a beautiful moment in my country and being unlucky again at Nanjing. So the hopes have been permanently faded away.

I was obsessed with serial “The Lost”. It was making my life hell. Never been addicted to movies like this before, watching the movie even at wee hours was a sucking experience but feeling you are inside the movie was charming. But now I am suffering more to see the new episodes as it’s not released yet in the market and I have to download it through internet using P2P networks. Also keeping pace with sports was another achievement as we have nothing to do to kill time.

However, the month holds very special meaning to Chinese people as New Year and autumn festival begins. Most of the schools and universities have a long month holiday and this month is the time where highest number of human migration takes place inside the earth. We could see peoples always in a rush with their luggage in the hand everywhere. It seems that whole city was traveling and we were being deserted. The building premises inside the University looks empty and deserted as we could see hollow building without any human activities. As I pass through it, it means nothing without human, completely deserted without any verve.
Chinese New Year is the first day of the lunar calendar, so it is also called the Lunar New Year. And it is also called Spring Festival since it is the beginning of the spring term, which is the first term of the 24 terms on the lunar calendar. It was recorded that Chinese started to celebrate Chinese New Year from about 2000 BC, though the celebrations were held on different times under different emperors. They started to celebrate Chinese New Year on the first day of the lunar calendar based on Emperor Wu Di's almanac of the Han Dynasty.
Legend says the celebrations of Chinese New Year may be related to a beast known as Nian. The beast Nian came out to eat people on new years until an old man found a way to conquer it. Then people started to observe and celebrate Chinese New Year. The word "Nian" now has the same meaning as Chinese New Year, which is used as commonly as Chinese New Year.
Usually the preparation starts a month before the New Year. The preparation includes thoroughly cleaning and decorating the house, buying new clothes, preparing enough food for at least two weeks. The decorations are highly symbolic with a lot of lucky words, printed paintings and red colors everywhere. Kids are busy in shopping for different kinds of firecrackers. Everyone gets a haircut before the New Year.
Celebrated internationally in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese, Chinese New Year is considered to be the most important holiday for the Chinese as well as ethnic groups such as the Mongolians, Koreans, the Miao and the Vietnamese, who were influenced by Chinese culture in terms of religious and philosophical worldview, language and culture in general. Chinese New Year is also the time when the largest human migration takes place when Chinese all around the world return home on Chinese New Year eve to have reunion dinner with their family.
The New Year's Eve is the time for families. The New Year Eve's dinner is the biggest dinner of the year, much like Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner is full of symbolic meaning, such as Chinese dumplings implying wealth since they have the shape of ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots. Everyone, even kids, drinks a little Jiu (usually hard liquor), which symbolizes longevity since Jiu has the same pronunciation as longevity in Chinese. Then the family chats while watching national TV shows or listening to radio together until the coming of the New Year. In China, the national TV shows have been prepared for a few months by a group of famous entertainers.
Giving Hongbao or red packets during Chinese New Year is another tradition. A Red packet is simply a red envelope with money in it, which symbolizes luck and wealth. Red packets are typically handed out to younger generation by their parents, grand parents, relatives, and even close neighbors and friends.
Chinese New Year's day is celebrated within the family. Usually family members gather on the morning of New Year's Day. At this gathering red packets are given to unmarried members of the family. The second day of the Chinese New Year is usually for visiting the family of the wife if a couple is married. A large feast is also typically held on the second day of the Chinese New Year. The seventh day of the Chinese New Year celebration is traditionally everyone's birthday, the day when everyone grows one year older. It is also the day when tossed fish salad, yusheng, is eaten. People get together to toss the colorful salad and make wishes for continued wealth and prosperity in the New Year. Dragon and Lion dancing is another tradition of Chinese New Year
Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Festival is on the 15th of the first month of Chinese New Year, which marks the end of the New Year celebrations. Chinese celebrate the first full moon of the year on this day. It is the time for family reunion again. Yuanxiao is also a kind of cake, which looks like a table tennis ball (a little smaller) made of sticky rice with sweet stuffing inside. Everyone eats a few on Lantern Festival, which symbolizes family will stick together
2007 is known as the Year of the Pig. There are 12 animal names; so by this system, year names are re-cycled every 12 years. Current year is Year 4704 by the Chinese calendar. Posters with the word ‘luck’ are often seen around the New Year's. Each year is also designated by one of the twelve animals. For instance, 2005 is Year of Rooster; 2006 is Year of Dog; and 2007 is the Year of Pig. This system is extremely practical. A child does not have to learn a new answer to the question, "How old are you?" in each New Year. Old people often lose track of their age, because they are rarely asked about their present age. Every one just have to remember that he or she was born in the "Year of the Dog" or whatever. Since this is the Year of the Pig, any one who was born in the Year of the Pig is now either 0 or 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84 or 96 years old.
The two most popular greetings during the Chiense New Year celebration season are (in Mandarin): “Gong Xi Fa Cai”, and “Xin Nian Kuai Le”. These roughly mean “Congratulations and be prosperous (financially)”, and “Happy New Year”.
Far in the horizon, I was able to see shimmering flashes and silver lining at the horizon in my grey matter after ill-faded hope melted away and we were able to plan to celebrate New Year in the small city Xu Zhou in one our Chinese friend’s home. I was wondering about that beautiful moment after being frustrated for a long time. So we were ready to start our three days trip to the Xu Zhou that was exotic, adventurous and skeptical.

Located in the northwest of Jiangsu Province, Xuzhou is the largest city of northern Jiangsu as well as the most ancient city of the province. Thousands of years' history has blessed the city with profound culture, especially when it was the second political center of the Han Dynasty (260BC-220). Now, Xuzhou is the center of the Huaihai economic development zone of China and also one of the nation's most important agricultural product bases.

The Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Han Dynasty is something very interesting. Unlike Terra Cotta Warriors of Xian, the pit is aquatic and is located in the west side of the Lion Hill, the museum shows thousands of terracotta warriors and horses. The ancient artisans emphasized to show the inner heart world and the characteristics of the warriors through their different gestures and expressions.

Guishan Han Tomb, located in the west side of Guishan Mountain in the Jiuli District, is the most famous Han tomb due to it's large scale, exquisite architecture and mysterious building ways. It is the tomb for the sixth prince and princess of the Western Han Dynasty-Liu Zhu (128BC- 116BC) and his wife. The workmen at that time dug out the mountainside and built this palace like tomb, which is consisted of two corridors, two tomb paths and five halls including bedrooms, parlors, kitchens and stables.

Xuzhou Han City is located in the Jiuli district. As a modern architecture built in the Han Dynasty style, it is one of the television bases of CCTV (China Central Television) where many teleplays and films are made. Also, it is an artistic palace both to enjoy the Han culture and to relax and recreate. The Imperial Palace displays nearly all the artifacts from the ancient palace. The statues of the emperor and other officials give it a realistic atmosphere.

Quanshan National Forest Park is located in the south suburb of the city, is praised as the 'Nature Oxygen Bar' due to its breath- taking natural beauties and rich varieties of plants and birds.

Yunlong Mountain (Dragon in Clouds Mountain), lying in the south of Xuzhou, is a well-known scenic spot of the city. The mountain is divided into nine sections just like nine dragons winding in clouds, hence its name. There are many historical relics hiding among the ever green pines and cypresses and beautiful ravines, including the huge stone sculpture of Buddha of the North Wei Dynasty (386-534), the inscriptions carved on cliff surfaces of the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, the Setting Free Cranes Pavilion of the Song Dynasty and the Xinghua Temple of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Yunlong Lake is to the west of the Yunlong Mountain and is the sister lake of the West Lake in Hangzhou. Encircled in three green mountains, the lake is just like an emerald setting in the city. The most attractive place there is the Above-water World on the central island of the lake. Seen from afar, the park just looks like a huge whale playing with water.

Xuzhou Museum, located on the north side of the Yunlong Mountain, is a comprehensive museum responsible for collecting, restoring and exhibiting the cultural relics discovered in the city. It now shows various cultural relics in the eight exhibition halls, including ancient calligraphic works, furniture, stone tablets and some precious relics once buried with the dead in the ancient tombs. The souvenir center provides you with stone inscription rubbings, calligraphic works and pictures as well as other traditional handicrafts.


The true glamour of any cities cannot be described in words, however you need to explore it and feel it.

We were restless and were very eager to start our short but exciting journey of three days. Nevertheless it was an exotic, adventurous and skeptical as we were traveling alone for the first time. We have confidence and eagerness to start the journey; however the Chinese language was our weakness and were skeptical in one or other way.

The skepticism materialized when I bought the wrong ticket but we were quickly able to figure it out as it was written somewhere in English and the cost price was less than what our friend had told us. Later I showed full address written in English language and the women gave me another ticket with a smile. As we were taking rest in the lobby at train station and were eagerly waiting for our train to arrive. We were waiting in the wrong lobby and it never showed status of our train. We realized it later as I showed ticket to one of the women luckily and she showed us the way and we realized that we almost had missed the train. As nihilism was rising and our heart-beat was rising fast but we were able to feel relaxed when we were inside the train. We were lucky as our destination was the last station of the train. But peoples were staring at us as we have long beards that were grown up after many years in this vacation. Luckily, it was a double-decker train but the day was gray and gloomy. Most of the peoples who are traveling in train are either sleeping or playing cards or sticked with the tiny-box-mobile. We passed through Yangtze River again as we were moving towards north. This was the first time we traveled in the day in the train as we were enjoying every moment of the greeneries and terrains. We pass through ridges, fields and small villages. As we passed through it we can see agricultural and industrial revolutions happening alongside the track. Every house has a New Year stickers printed in the walls and doors. It seems that everything was red. Our friend Qi was bit worried and he was busy on taking status from time to time through our newly bought mobile phone. The message was giving us more companionship and we were feeling more confident and enjoying our journey.

Sometimes I felt disgusted when a person tried to avoid us when you are simply showing your smiling gesture and affections. I was confused, we are scared or they are scared. But I never let my spirit down as inquisitiveness and eagerness was ruling us. Finally almost at the end of our journey, it became more interesting as we were able to break the tip of an ice-berg with some of the people around us and was happy to share our basic information with minimum communication skills.

Finally we arrived at XuZhou, as we came out from the train station, it was 1900. Our friend was waiting for us at the train station and it took no time to locate him as he has already passed the information about his geographical location outside the train station. Once we were out of train stations we heard bursting noises of fire-crackers and we could see fire-crackers everywhere in the sky. Thanks from our heart XuZhou for welcoming us and Qi for inviting us.

We were happy for their warm greetings although it was a new year-eve and it’s common in any part of China. As we were in front of the train station, I couldn’t figure out differences between 6 million inhabited Nanjing and one and half million inhabited XuZhou in terms of physical infrastructure city possesses. The cities architecture looks similar and it didn’t make a lot of differences to me in any way. But we were struggling hard to find a taxi again.

As we reached his home, we were warmly welcomed by his family members including his father, mother and grandmother. Later we shared the eve dinner with his family. The chopstick problem was again there and also there were some gaps because of the language as Qi can only understand English. We enjoyed the delicious dinner with wide varieties of food. More importantly, the compliments, gestures and hospitality were of great concern to us. We were amazed again when grandmother told us that we are the first foreigners she saw after the Japanese invaded China. All of them drink alcohol as it is the culture to drink on that day. We ended up with almond drinks. Family members were busy making foods for the New Year. We could hear the fire-crackers and see colorful lights whole night. The Chinese nation threw itself in a Diwali-like celebration whole night with sound and light ushering in the new year of the pig.

The next day early in the morning after taking noodles as a breakfast we went towards Lion Hill Mausoleum. However, whole-day we could hear the bursting fire-crackers. Even inside the house, it’s a customary tradition that before having breakfast, lunch and dinner. Firecrackers should be ignited inside the house.

Lion Hill Mausoleum is one of the unique mausoleums we visited in China. It has a full of verve. As life and dead holds equals’ importance, so everything you have in your life should be there in mausoleum. It was divided into four parts and took nineteen years to build it. We were surprised to see this unique mausoleum and watched different chambers designed with care and profound skills. People in Han Dynasty believe that Jade could prevent from decaying of physical body so Jade was used everywhere and was a precious element. Most of the precious elements including belt-buckles and gold ornaments were taken to the Museum. Also we visited the aquatic pit of terra cotta warriors. There were cavalry regiment and different warriors. The pit tries to describe how horses and cavalries play a vital role in the military formation in earlier days.

Later we had a delicious lunch at one of the modern Chinese restaurant. The restaurant seems to be fully occupied as peoples were enjoying the New Year day. It was the same old way to eat, you have to become a cook by yourself and have everything in front of you that you need to cook. This time, Qi takes initiatives and he himself established as a professional cook who can make delicious Chinese foods. It was wonderful experience again eating and seeing the charm of the city from the window.

Again we opted to visit Museum. We were lucky as it was open and we were crossing the finger for it from early morning. The museum was very modern and we were able to see so many antiques that have been excavated from the different monuments and historically important places around the periphery. One of the most interesting part of the music was a color, the different colors in a different floor of the museum makes it more allure and attractive and was thus able to attract enough visitors with wide variety of antiques and monuments. Not only that, I find the museum very modern and psychologically designed.

Later we move towards a bank of Yunlong Lake and enjoyed the beautiful evening. As we walk, we inhale fresh air and can see the big and beautiful lake and behind us we can see peoples traveling to Yunlong Mountain through cable-cars.

Finally, we enjoyed a New Year dinner with the family again. It was simply a re-union and it was again the emotional moment rather than something that could be described in words. We enjoyed warm hospitality along with delicious foods deep inside in our heart that would be immortal in our life. We eat dumpling and we realized that there are few foods in the Nepali and Chinese that have identical meanings like Tofu and Mommo. Again the environment was more interesting rather than foods as it was a completely a new and blended experience for us everything amazing and inquisitive.

Later at night, we watched the fire-crackers in the sky for almost an hour and we could hear and see the colorful flashes whole night. There were different types of crackers some were bursting in different types of lights other following a different track and some were bursting with unique sounds. I was amazed how much money that could have been spends on these things although firecrackers were invented on china. I had never seen so many fire-crackers in front of my naked eyes except in the inaugural ceremony of Olympics or any mega events happening in other part of the world in the TV. It seems that whole-china is a bridegroom and covered with bright lights and colors. We really enjoyed watching it as it was completely a new experience for us again and it was making the environment verve again.

The next day after our breakfast and giving tons of thanks for the kind hospitality and care, we had to say good-bye as we have to catch the train early in the morning to Nanjing. But this time we were more confident and were happier as we have gathered enough experiences and we were not novice anymore.

As the train moved on, we can peep the beautiful rural part of china and the sun was rising slowly as we moved towards south. Children have already started to eat the breakfast but we didn’t care for it as we have it already in the Qi home. However, Qi mother have also given us a lunch packet so that we can enjoy in the mid-way. But again peoples were staring to us and we were even more frustrated and embarrassed when a kid spitted us for no reasons but we simply smiled at him again as we have no other options. As usual, mobile warfare, eating and sleeping are the three common activities of peoples I realized in the train. I realized last time that I need a coke desperately so this time I was able to buy it at train station and enjoy the journey with beautiful scenery and a coke. Again we were finally enjoying the trip as we were able to talk with people around us and I was even amazed when the guy told me that I look like Taliban. So, it makes me think seriously that an outer appearance plays a vital role no matter how you feel inside. I smiled at him and said yes, however, I was finally able to convince him about my country by making the map. Finally we arrived at Nanjing very easily and relaxed.

Finally as holiday was going to end very soon, we were able to make get together with some of our Nepali friends at Nanjing Normal University and we make our way towards 1912 street again. The twilight at 1912 street emerged but I see it more differently and weirdly this time.

As we enter the club, the verve of music was again inviting us with colorful lights and heart-throbbing music. This time I was able to meet some of my friends again. I can even see the existence of Pluralism in different forms inside the closed chamber. It was simply a common juncture for peoples to enjoy their feelings and emotions with the aid of music irrespective of different walks of life, regions and cultures. The life at 1912 street was going like before as we have been there after a long duration.

The world is moving towards determinism and relativism that’s what I feel inside this close environment where smoke and music rises higher than any other tangible objects. Feeling transcendental with the art of music and dance makes you feel you are at the utopia. Jugs of ice and alcohol keeps on coming as different light moves in different angles, the music keeps on going, the time ticks on, people moving for a whole night, the security continuously keeps eye wide open every time and DJ jack keeps on playing the same old but verve music, a sort of melagonia existed forever.

Peoples quelling the thirst of their feelings in different ways some are laughing, others are shouting hard, others just move their legs in the beat of music, no restrictions anyone from old to young, from a young girl to a mature woman , from radical Islamic woman to religious Christian , from Jews to radical Hindu, from black to blondes, from Africans to Asians, from Europeans to Americans, everyone meets here, there is no boundaries and an open place where people from different walks of life just mixes up and enjoys the moment in the land of of Zion. I enjoyed it with a full verve after a long break but never took a long time to catch the beat of music to move the pace of my body.

The month was also interesting as we started to use the public vehicles effectively more than ever. We enjoyed traveling through bus and we started to realize that it’s very easy although it’s late and sometimes it’s crowded. But again I realize it has different blends of experience and we need to experience it to know more about this place and a country. Traveling in double-decker was again another fabulous experience that resided inside my gray matter from the time I was a kid.

Finally, the half-year in Nanjing is finished and the holiday is going to end soon. I know I would never have free time like this in my life. The countdown has already been started as faded hope fades forever and silver lining gives more gleaming hopes in the Chinese New Year. Xin Nian Kuai Le…