yanpu's Journal

Qinghai is also a land of untouched natural beauty and home to many thriving cultures such as Tibetan and Mongolian. I am excited to explore this cultural diversity and natural richness. Through this trip I hope to paint a more vivid picture of Qinghai.


August 26^th

I forgot to mention that I have a traveling partner. Her name is Julie Len. She is also apart of the project. We are the eyes and ears of the mother organization Stanford Asian Liver Center. The two of us will be ONLY ones on the ground from the US assessing and monitoring the project and then reporting back to the US.

The project has two parts: vaccination and education. The idea is that vaccination protects the body and education protects the mind. Julie and I will be watching over all aspects of the vaccination and education program.

On top of assessing and monitoring the vaccination portion of the project, Julie and I have also developed and will carry out the HBV education portion. Since there is such a large area to cover we are planning to coordinate with the local CDC to have them hold teaching seminars that can be attended by each school's health teacher or principle. This way they can learn the information and teach it to their students in their own manner. To evaluate the success of the education program, Julie and I will conduct pre and post surveys on the childrens' HBV knowledge.

When this project is complete, Qinghai will be the first province in all of China that will have an entire generation of children vaccinated and educated against HBV. We hope that the success of this project will encourage other provinces to also take part in helping to eradicate this deadly disease.

August 27^th

After a month and a half of training at Stanford University, Julie and I took off for China on August 21, 2007. Our first stop was Beijing. The Chinese Foundation for Hepatitis B Prevention and Control is located in Beijing. It is the Chinese counterpart to the Stanford Asian Liver Center. We usually refer to it as the Foundation.

The Foundation is located within the Beijing CDC building. It is a nonprofit run by 6 staff members from two small offices. It is really impressive to think that these few individuals with such meager resources are working to change the course this monstrous epidemic.

Julie and I plan on staying in Beijing for the rest of August. This way we can work with the Foundation to finalize plans for the project and prepare necessary materials to bring to Qinghai. We will also be attending various press conferences so that this project can get much needed publicity.

During one of our first meetings at the Foundation we met with two British film makers, Aaron and Adam. It turns out they will be making a documentary about the HBV situation and this year's project in Qinghai. The documentary will be shown on BBC and cable networks in China. These two film makers both reside in China and mostly cover Chinese healthcare issues.

After the meeting the two film makers and some people from the Foundation took us out to dinner. During dinner, Aaron shared with us stories from all his travels throughout China. In one story he told us about how he filmed in Mongolia in the middle of winter. It was snowing so badly no one would drive him to the place where he needed to film so him and his crew all rode on horseback up the mountain to the filming location. This turned out to be a terrible idea. One false step and Aaron was thrown off his horse. He broke his ribs and was stranded in the middle of nowhere. The nearest hospital was a plane ride away. There were no cars so he had to be dragged by a snowmobile to the nearest town to catch a plan to fly to a major city. During this whole time he had no medical attention, no pain killers, just faith that he would get through it all.

Note to self: do not ride horses!

August 28^th

For the past few days Julie and I have been working at the Foundation and also touring around Beijing. Since both of us have been to the major tourist sites, this time around we wanted to get more of a down home Beijing experience. Here are some stories from our Beijing exploration.

The taxi drivers in Beijing are notorious for their ruthless driving, but never had I encountered a narcoleptic taxi driver. This guy would fall sleep at every stoplight only to be woken by all the beeping from the cars behind him. I'm not talking about light dozing, it was full on snoring! He would literally start snoring in less than 30seconds after he stopped at a red light. It was totally unbelievable.

On one of the days Julie and I went to register at the American Embassy. When we got inside we saw a Starbucks. This was our second day in Beijing and the first Starbucks we had seen since we left the US. We were both really excited and started to walk towards it, but before we could get any closer a Chinese officers spoke to us in a very stern voice and told us we were not allowed to go inside. Apparently it was reserved only for embassy staff members.

September 5^th

Julie and I left Beijing on September 1st to fly to Qinghai. We have been in Qinghai's capital city Xining since then. Before I talk more about Qinghai I want to update everyone on events that have occurred since I last wrote.

To attract more media attention for the project, the Foundation organized three major project kick off press conferences for three major cities: Hong Kong, Beijing, and Xining. Julie and I weren't able to attend the Hong Kong conference, but we were able to attend the ones in Beijing and Xining. Each of these conferences had their own purpose. The press conference in Hong Kong was directed towards current and future donors of the project. The press conference in Beijing served as a national kickoff which was attended by national health department officials. The press conference in Xining served as the kick off for Qinghai province. This press conference was attended by the heads of Qinghai government, health department and education department.

After the Beijing press conference Julie and I flew to Xining, Qinghai. The capital of Qinghai, Xining, is a mid sized city located in a valley surrounded by rolling hills. The city is starting to become more developed. Right now it looks like Beijing in the early 90s, with a much smaller population. The majority of the people are of ethnic minority background such as Tibetan or Mongolian. When roaming the streets of Xining, you can often see a mix of Han (ethnically Chinese), Tibetan, Mongolian and Muslim people. They all intermingle and live relatively peacefully with each other.

The first few days we arrived in Qinghai we went out to see the major tourist sites: Qinghai Lake and Kumlum Tibetan Buddhist Monastery. The scenery changed dramatically as we left Xining. The urban infrastructure gave way to rolling hills and vast grasslands doted with herds of sheep and yak. Along the roads you can see various colored prayer flags strung on strings waving in the air. This is a Tibetan cultural practice. There are five different colored prayer flags representing different elements of the earth, red represents fire, blue represents sky, green represents water, yellow represents earth and white represents clouds. These flags are inscribed with Tibetan Buddhist prayers. The Tibetans believe that as the wind blows through the prayer flags, the prayers are being read and carried through the air.

Qinghai lake is located 2 ½ hours away from Xining. It is considered the largest inland salt water lake in China. Standing at the shore of Qinghai lake you are surrounded by natural beauty. Before you the calm blue water, above you the clear blue sky and behind you the rolling hills in all shades of green. We didn't quite see all that because half the time we were there it was raining. Thus instead of clear blue skies, ours was more on the gray side. The rain also made the weather pretty cold. Qinghai, with its high attitude, is known for cold weather, the rain made it even worse. To combat the cold stores surrounding Qinghai Lake were renting long wool jackets. They weren't the most fashionable jackets, but they sure served their purpose. As soon as I put on the jacket I felt a hundred times better. Since Qinghai Lake is such a major attraction, there were a lot of street vendors selling various Qinghai memorabilia such as combs made out of yak and sheep horns, animal furs (yes, animal furs right out there on the street!) and ethnic jewelry. They also had yaks and horses that tourists could ride and take pictures on. I choose to ride a Yak which was not too friendly. When I tried to take a picture beside it, it hit me with one of its horns. Now I have a sore spot on my head to remind me to think twice next time I consider getting that close to a yak.

The next stop on our tour was the Tibetan Buddhist Monastery. It is located about 30mins away from Xining. It is currently inhabited by the Panchan Lama, which is second in rank after the Dali Lama. The monastery is set up as a complex of temples. Each temple is dedicated to a different Buddha. One main temple, also the largest temple, also serves as the gathering place for all the monks. The day we visited they were at the main temple taking an exam. They sat in rolls on mats and took turns chanting prayers to the main monk. To pass the exam they needed to correctly chant all the required prayers. It was an amazing site to see! The monastery was also filled with racks of hollow barrels that were inscribed with prayers. The barrels have handles at the bottom which can be turned to spin clockwise. The idea is that by turning these barrels the inscribed prayers are being read. Many Tibetans Buddhists come to this monastery each year to pray and pay respect to the Panchan Lama. Tibetan Buddhists have a unique way of praying. It is pretty physically demanding. They start from the standing position with their hands together, palm to palm. They raise their prayer hands to the sky, then to their lips, and then to their chest. They kneel to the ground then spread their hands to their sides and slide onto the ground until they are lying completely flat. Then they slide back up and rise to the standing position. This is one prayer. Traditionally they have to do this prayer for 100,000. We were told we didn't have to do the whole thing, instead we just stayed standing and moved our prayer hands in the three positions and bowed. We were also told to never point at a Buddha, instead to gesture with our palms facing upward. The tour was such an awesome experience!

The last thing I want to mention is the dining experience in Qinghai. The majority of the diet in Qinghai is lamb and yak. While in Xining we are able to eat some vegetables, but we were told that when we go down to the countryside the majority of the diet will be just lamb meat and baked bread. The cuisine can be very spicy! Drinking is a large part of the Qinghai culture. They have this white liquor called bia ju. It is extremely strong. I had a sip of it and it burned my lips and my tongue. Drinking bia ju together builds new friendships, shows respect and trust. It is considered rude if you do not have a drink. The only way you can get out of physically drinking it is to use a hand motion. This hand motion is basically showing that even though you can not physically drink it you are spiritually accepting the drink. This hand motion involves the dipping of the forth finger on the right hand into the cup and then flicking the alcohol towards the sky and the earth. This symbolizes you paying respect to heaven and earth. Then you swipe that same finger across the right side of your forehead. This symbolizes you paying respect to your family and friends. With this sequence of hand motions you are able to not drink but still be respectful.

Sorry this is such a long update. Now that I am starting the settle down in Qinghai, I will update more regularly with smaller chunks of information. I hope you did enjoy learning about Qinghai and its culture. As I spend more time here I am sure I will learn more cultural customs and of course fill you guys in!