You Heard it from Davis

This past week was Mid-Autumn Festival. That means that we got an entire week off from teaching. Chinese usually go on vacation somewhere or go visit family. For many Chinese, that means coming to Hangzhou to visit West Lake. For us, that means avoiding West Lake and touristy areas as much as possible.

Courtney and I had originally intended to go somewhere for the break, but by the time we decided where, train tickets were already really expensive. This ended up being a good thing, because we were able to relax and enjoy a quieter city. We live in Binjiang district, which is south of the river; West Lake and the tourist places are north of the river, so where we live was pretty quiet and empty (for China).

This has helped us not only have a peaceful break where we can enjoy exploring the district at a leisurely pace, but we can do so while learning how to ride our new bikes. Not that riding bikes is particularly difficult, but doing so in crowded sidewalks with other cyclists, pedestrians, mopeds, and even the occasional car can be daunting. Thankfully there are not as many people as normal, so Courtney and I can learn to navigate tight streets. We’ll see how next week goes.

In addition to the population increase next week holds, Courtney and I will also be starting our full schedule of classes. Freshman in China are required to receive military training; so for the past 3 weeks we have not held our Freshmen classes, because they’ve been marching around campus in blue and green camouflage. Next week though, our full 16 hours of teaching will be in full swing. We’re a little nervous, because those are a lot of classes to keep track of. I still don’t know many students names in the 8 hours of class I’ve had so far; it’d be easier if I saw them more than once a week, but next week will be twice as difficult.

This week, unrelated to school or festivals, we got to see the Tidal Bore. What is a Tidal Bore, you may ask? A tidal bore occurs when the tides come in, but instead of simply raising the water level little by little, they raise it all in one giant wave. This occurs in only a few rivers on earth, and Hangzhou is the biggest of them all. This natural phenomenon has something to do with the bottleneck shape of the bay; it allows the tide water to come in easily, but it can’t leave, so it builds up into a giant wave that rushes upriver up to 25 miles per hour for at least 60 miles. Here’s some pictures.

I think that’s a pretty neat natural phenomenon, and to get to watch the biggest one that exists makes it more special. Also, hearing the Chinese ooh and aah over every little wave was pretty hilarious too.

The waves usually reach over the railing, but this year, either it wasn’t the big tidal bore yet (and this was just a preliminary build up), or this year’s bore was simply not very big compared to others. Either way I’m glad, because I would not want to get splashed by that water. It looks disgusting because it is disgusting. I don’t want to think about what’s in there.