Visa Renewal Adventure

The time has come for our family's yearly visa renewal here with the local police.

Visa renewal is almost always a hassle in this culture. It seems that you never come to the place where the people know you and you know them and there are no crazy questions or petitions. This year is even worse as a result of the earthquake and other situations that have taken place already this year.

Every year we are required to present (sometimes for the 3rd, 4th, or 5th time) government issued health exams, business licenses, employment permit, tax registration, commercial approval certificates, all up to date and in order, or else you can't apply for your visa renewal.

This may sound reasonable, but you often run into hurdles. For instance, today I called the lady in charge of issuing our visas. Her office is in a city about 40 miles away (1 hr). I wanted to know if she would be in the office today because I had been in there both yesterday and the day before but she wasn't there either day! Our visas expire on July 1st (Tuesday) and today is Friday. They don't work weekends.

So I call her and ask if she will be in the office today. She says yes, and quickly runs through the list of things that we would need to bring, including one document called an "employee permit". I told her that my employee permit also expires on July 1st and it is currently in the process of being renewed. She said, "Well, you've got to have that or we can't give you a visa. Don't come until you have it." I said, "My visa expires really soon. And that document is in the hands of government officials. There is not much I can do." She replied in so many words, "Well, that's too bad. You can't get your visa until you bring me that document."

Thankfully, when I called the guy about my "employee permit" he said that it was done and in the mail. So I should have it by tomorrow (Saturday) or Monday at the latest, just in time to apply for our visa renewal before Tuesday. But under normal (sane) circumstances, we would have applied for the visas on Wednesday (2 days ago).

Education among Amdo Tibetans

Below I have posted the notes that I took this afternoon as a Tibetan friend of mine dictated to me the situation of education among his people, especially those from more rural areas.

This friend and I are planning to do what we can to raise support for numerous Tibetan young people who will not otherwise be able to attend school for more than 2 or 3 years. If you are interested in donating to help send poor, rural Tibetan kids to school, please shoot me an e-mail anytime or look for the Donate link posted on our website or on this blog.

The Education Situation Among Many Tibetans in China

In the past, Tibetans were typically a people who stayed to themselves, and education was traditionally reserved only for religious students and future leaders of society.

Today, in the modern Chinese world, any Tibetan has the right and opportunity to get an education. In regions that are officially self-governed by the Tibetan people, students are allowed to study the Tibetan culture and language, but its general use is fairly small. Tibetan is not used in any official government work.

Tibetan students these days begin to learn both Tibetan and Chinese from a very young age, almost at the same time. However, the level of education and Chinese that these students learn is very poor compared to Han Chinese regions.

Of those students who major in Tibetan studies at university, only about 30% are able to find work as teachers, and even those are only permitted (or have opportunity) to teach Tibetan within their own Tibetan autonomous prefectures. If these students were to try to find work in another Chinese company or in the government, usually their level of Chinese (although possibly good) is not up-to-par with normal Chinese students who vie for the same jobs. And Tibetan is either not permitted, or is not normally used in most Chinese companies and in all government posts.

The Tibetan students described in these past few paragraphs almost always come from the county seats of their region; or, in other words, the areas with more money and influence.
In rural areas, many children only study for a year or two before their parents pull them out of school to go and have them help with work around the family ranch. Usually these kids start going at 9 or 10 years of age, and are primarily sent by their parents to learn a bit of Tibetan so that they can then be able to read and recite some of the basic Tibetan Buddhist scriptures. Kids and teenagers are often punished by their parents and/or neighbors for not being able to read and recite at least basic Tibetan Buddhist scriptures.

After the parents feel that the kids have learned enough, they are taken out of school to go work with their families, mostly tending sheep and yaks up in the mountains. They are often married off as teenagers and begin to have kids and families of their own. The cycle then repeats itself.
The parents are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They need money to send the kids to school, but they need the kids to work on the ranch to make any money.

Although the Chinese government mandates that all students, including Tibetans, complete at least 9 years of studies, 70-80% of rural Tibetan young people never reach that goal, and many do not finish more than just 2-3 years of studies.

So there are many, many Tibetans who can’t read any Chinese whatsoever. In a large Chinese city, they are unable to even find, either by reading the signs or asking directions, a public bathroom. They are completely Chinese illiterate.

I was told the story today of a Tibetan man who, unable to locate a public bathroom in a certain Chinese city, squatted down on the side of the road to do his 'business' just as he would have done up in the mountains. When a police officer approached to ask what he was doing, he covered what he had done with his hat and tried to tell the officer that it was a bird that he had trapped underneath (he did this by waving his arms and making bird noises, because remember, he didn't speak any Chinese). When the officer finally managed to pick up the hat and saw what was really hidden there, the poor Tibetan was promptly arrested.

Langmusi & Xiahe Update (June 25th)

Yesterday (June 25th) I travelled to Langmusi. We are still in the process of getting our cafe there ready to open, so I had a load of stuff to deliver there.

We didn't have any trouble driving into town, because we happened to arrive at about Noon when the police at the checkpoint were eating lunch. We didn't have any trouble in town either, even though we spent about 6 hours there during the afternoon.

However, everything that we heard from locals (and what the police told me when we were there at the end of May) is that foreign tourists are still not being allowed to stay in Langmusi. Even if you were able to get into town, you probably wouldn't be allowed to stay for very long.

If you don't mind spending such a short time in Langmusi (or Xiahe, for that matter) then it is likely that you would be able to get to both places and spend at least a couple of hours and maybe even more.

But it is still officially off-limits until further notice.

(The above picture was taken in the Spring of 2004 looking down the road just before you arrive in Langmusi. The road has since been made into a normal, paved highway.)

Tibetan Sunburn

Today was awesome!

Other than the sunburn I received on my arms and neck by the high-altitude Tibetan sun, it was a perfect day.

Imagine a wild and rushing mountain river, huge boulders lining the banks and sticking up out of the cold, blue water every few dozen feet. Imagine the forested mountainsides and the snow-capped peaks rimming the valley. Imagine deep blue skies, a temperature near 70 degrees, and a cool breeze wafting down the mountain valley.

Now, imagine that you are actually only an hour's hike and an hour's motorcycle ride from the crowded streets, honking horns, and smog-ridden cities of China.

Most people don't think of China as the land of immense natural beauty. Most tourists visit China, not to see the mountains and rivers and forests, but to see the cultural relics and other man-made wonders, like the Great Wall. These people often miss out on the vast array of natural beauty that can be found in China.

This is a land of immense contrast. You have polluted cities planted just on the edge of wilderness. You have unmatched natural beauty mixed with unparalled environmental destruction, all within the same county or prefecture. Fortunately, there are still wild and remote places to visit and enjoy, like the one shown in the picture above.

My Favorite Pastime

Yesterday afternoon was fun. I took an amazing 4 hour motorcycle ride up an absolutely horrible 'sand and rock' road through some of the smallest and most forgotten villages in China.

If it were not for the motorized Chinese tractors, the sporadic passing motorcycle, and the very occasional sight of a Chinese super-mini-minivan taxi, you could pretend that you were still living in the Middle Ages or even at the time of Christ. Badly graded dirt roads, homes crafted of mud, stick, and straw, coal-burning stoves, and farmers weeding and tilling their fields by hand or with oxen; these are just a few things that haven't changed here for centuries.

After arriving in the village of Jinggou, my original destination for the day, I stopped for a bowl of noodles before looking for another way down off the mountain. The road up was such a pain that I was willing to go anywhere on any road just so I didn't have to go down the same way I came up. Luckily, some locals informed me of a second road that headed down the mountain going the other direction.

I finished my noodles and then bought a Sprite (how Sprite gets to Jinggou I am really not sure!) to try and kill the taste of some awful condiment they had placed in my food. China has several of these 'killer condiments'. Its not pepper or salt or anything like that... it actually makes the mouth go numb in a way that is very difficult to describe. Not a fun experience at all. The Sprite helped and I was on my way.

The road down turned out to be about the same quality as the road up, but it was a little closer I think. I had to go up one hill, then down and around a ridge with some houses on top, down another hill towards a huge hilltop mosque, then snake down the final ridge with about a 1,000 ft. drop to the valley floor. All was well until I got about halfway down the final descent. My engine started acting really funny, as only a Chinese motorcycle engine can do. It would act as if it was going to die and I would give it some more gas to try and help her out, only to have the accelerator suddenly 'let loose' and send me careening forward at speeds too fast for comfort.

I have to admit that I like to talk out loud to myself when riding a motorcycle in China. I don't know if I do it for my own comfort or just to pass the time, but I am constantly saying to my motorcycle or to the road,

'Who made this road anyways?'

'Who has laid piles of baseball sized rocks right in the middle of the stupid road?!'

'How come a Chinese highway can NEVER be flat!?'

'Why won't you just be a normal motorcycle?'

Yesterday, as I was riding down the mountain with my motorcycle going back and forth between 'my engine is dying' and 'let's see if we can throw Eugene off the mountain', I decided to give it a name: the 'Schizocycle'. It was a perfect fit, and the bike just kept right on as happily as ever.

So, I finally managed to manhandle the Schizocycle to the bottom of the mountain and to the main highway in this region. As I pull up to stop for a rest at the intersection, the bike does finally 'give up the ghost' and die. I called my wife on my cell phone and told her that I might be a while, then tried kickstarting the bike. Nothing. Not even an acknowledgement that I was there. I walked the bike up the highway to the right about 75 yards to the first motorcycle repair shop I could find, and explained that the 'fadongji' (motor) wouldn't start. He started checking things here and there, changed out a few little gadgets having to do with the fuel injection and starter (i don't know the technical terms), then started the bike once to show me that it was fixed. Great! I thought.

As he put everything back together and went to start it one last time, all of a sudden the Schizocycle was at it again. This time, nothing. Not even a peep. Back into hibernation. The guy went back at it, looking and tweaking and trying to find the problem. Finally, a friend of his turned a switch next the fuel tank that is supposed to drain the gas tank, if there is any gas. Nothing. Dry as the Gobi Desert.

Now, let me explain something to you about Chinese motorcycles and their gas tanks. First, there is no 'gas gauge' as we know it in the West. The best gauge I have discovered is to shake the bike from side to side and listen for the sound of gas swishing around the tank. The louder the sound of swishing, the more gas. Not a bad technique. I had done this just two days earlier and it seemed that there was plenty of gas in the tank. Well, evidently I was wrong, or the steep road up the mountain had drained the Schizocycle dry.

So, we aren't sure if the Schizocycle had other problems or if it was just a lack of gas all along that was causing the bike and me so many problems. At any rate, after walking the bike about a quarter-mile farther up the road to the closest gas station and filling her up, she was back in working condition.

This is, let's see, only the 5th or 6th time I have run out of gas on a Chinese motorcycle. Not bad for not having a gas gauge! If you know them, you can ask Lee, Ishmael, Tauna, or my father Laban about my other running out of gas experiences.