Now I know that you are convinced of your own delusions but for a moment try to put yourself in the mind of this Minnesotan mother.  I challenge you to come up with something better more erudite or insightful into the present dilemma facing this country. I am not talking about some crap about how we work for a living and give it all away to those who just want to scab it off the rich.  Be real now, this is GREAT singing and from the heartland!  Does this challenge your assumptions about what it is to be genuine or what Middle America is about?

Listen to this video a couple of times and you will come away with me rejoicing in the wonder of what it is to be an American.  This has made my week!  Why is this mother from Minnesota, most likely a Republican, so adamant in her support for Barrack Obama?

In this time, a week before the national elections when we will choose the President of the United States, arguably the most powerful man in the World, listen and learn from America’s heartland.  America we hear you!

So If you don’t think that was simply incredible maybe you should go soak your head in a bucket of old rotten sour crout.  That was f#$king awesome! I think I will listen again.  I am still laughing.

One of the features with this new look is the rotating pictures in the headers which is really nice.  Every picture here at ‘The Average Man’ is from my camera.  Most of the stuff that you will see is from our recent trip to China and our travels around the Yellow Mountain district.

The addition of video capability is really slick.  It will have to be used judiciously but I am just loving it right now.  There are a lot of Pod Casts that are really cool and I would like to keep them on file.

In the process of upgrading the foundation of the web site here, I found several new features that will be evident in the coming posts.  I installed the plug-in Smart Youtube that will allow the easy addition of Youtube videos to the posts.  That is really SWEET!  Lets check it out, OK?  Also, the upgrade should add a measure of additional security to the web site and cut down on the spam.

So how did that go, did it work and were you as impressed as I was with the statements of Collin Powell.  I am floored by the wisdom of the statements that this REPUBLICAN PARTY member made. The Republican Party, of which it is a ashame to admit I am a member, is now in total disarray.  I switched political parties back when we had the recall election of then Governor Gray Davis here in 2003.  California was a total mess and it was expedient to be a Republican Party member so that I could vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger a Republican.

The two major factions of the GOP, the religious right and the fiscal conservative business types, have hit a dividing wall.  The policy makers within the upper ranks of the Republican Party are at odds with one another and the road forward for the conservative movement is not clear.  I just subscribed to the periodical, The Atlantic, which describes these in-fighting’s in detail.  Great Rag with lots of good WORDS, highly recommended.

So if you have not seen these gentlemen, Mr’s Obama and McKane, discussing their campaigns and policies I strongly advise you do so before election day. Make up your own mind. I have based on what I see.

These political debates are vitally important and this third and final debate between these two candidates illustrate the statesmanship of Mr. Obama and the wonderful president he will be!

The campaign headquarters for Barack Obama needs your support and your VOTE.

So I will leave you with this latest Pod-Cast from The Atlantic which is wonderfully hilarious:

Since I have been in China for the past month traveling to exotic as well as modern port’s-O-Call, language has been in the forefront of my daily interactions.  Mostly for us simpletons, it is never even considered difficult getting around or making simple transactions at home like getting directions or ordering dinner.  But, travel to China, or to virtually any weird foreign place, and the world is another universe with different sensibilities and LANGUAGE.  Its a real bitch not being able to ask where the bathroom is when you just sucked down a pitcher of beer “Gam Bei” style.

With these difficulties facing me on a daily basis I decided to do something about it.  You have to realize that my wife is Chinese and getting around for me is a breeze so long as I am a prisoner.  If I want any freedom at all, drastic action has to take place.  My first step was to drop by the local book store at the swanky upscale market in down town Shanghai.  This place has every thing from Mont Blanc Pens to asparagus.  I found the Lonely Planet section and looked up the Mandarin Phrasebook and I was off – literally.  The police were called and several hours later I was found safely enough wandering around the fruit isle.  Well my adventure did not get very far so it was back to the drawing board.

My second thought was to do a search on the Internet for an easy way to communicate with the natives here in China.  What I can up with was the term Chinglish.  Really, what is Chinglish?  Could this be the answer to all of my delemna?  With great hope I did a few more looks and found that no Chinglish would not solve my problem but it was good for a laugh anyway.  So have a look, do a couple of searches yourself with google for Chinglish and enjoy.

The web site of the day is a British one that posted an article that I wanted to share..  A wonderful rag full of signage that somehow missed the translation.  I have my own version of a sign that missed it somehow – I picked up in our Yellow Mountain trek which I will share with you here.  When I took the picture laughing out loud the rest of the company was taken back a bit but got over it.  Enjoy!

Today introduces the Web page of the Week Review.  Todays find is The Art Of Manliness.  I recommend that you check this hilarious web page out.  There are currently 20418 subscribers to the page with email updates on the latest is what is Manly and what is not.  My favorite section discusses “Is It Manly”.  Todays topic is whether a Stay-At-Home Dad is manly.  Its up to you to decide.  In making up the decision be sure to check out the web site, The Art Of Manliness.

Over the three days that we were in the Yellow Mountain district a total of 550 pictures were taken, a few of them really nice.  All of them can be viewed at flickr but sift through quickly to find the good ones.

After all of the climbing my calves were feeling it while others in our party were really laid up lame for days afterward.  Our little “Goat” was the realy climber of the group scampering up the climbs waiting for us at the top.

You can follow several pictures below

Today, the Collecting urge still raises its head and my shelves are filled with old telegraph keys, books and tea wear, notably Yixing clay pots.  If you have followed along with me there have been previous posts on these little wonders of the craftsman that hold wonderful utility in the making of tea.  Recently I have expanded my collecting of tea things to include Gaiwan’s which are porcelain cups designed perfectly for the brewing of tea.

My passion for collecting the little Yixing clay pots is driving the rest of the family a little nuts.  You can always tell when collecting goes far when the family comments on it with statements like, “Oh no not another one of those things.  Don’t you have enough of them already?”  This is the delema of a “collector”.  When is too much enough?  In my mind there is always another rarer more collectable out there and the search is on!

But today’s post is not about me.  I met today one of the most remarkable men in Shanghai.  Luo Ming is a business man and manufacturer of fine Red Wood furniture with a factory in the Fujian Provence.  Mr. Luo is not just a collector but an avid collector of all things Chinese Art.  His interests include the Yixing Clay and Giawans from the Ming and Song dynaties including all kinds of carved wood and sculpted works and pottery.  His home in one of the most presigious areas of Shanghai was literally filled with antiques from the Ming and Song Dynasties.  His home was simply amazing!  I have included a few of the pictures of the wonderful home which was more like a fabulous museum for me.  Mr. Luo was a childhood friend of my wife’s “Baba” and served us wonderful Fujian oolong tea from one of his Yixing pots.  I was staggered by his collection which he began when he was a small school boy.

Visiting Mr. Luo’s home and meeting his lovely wife and family, looking over his artwork briefly, is one of the highlights of my visit to China this year.

You can see pictures of the artwork that I was privaledged to view at flickr.  This is only a very small sample of the collection.

The Yellow Mountain district was made famous during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) by a poet-traveler, Xu Xiake who once commented on Yellow Mountain in one of his poems:

“You will find viewing another mountain no longer worthy after you visit the Five Sacred Mountains. Nor will you find viewing the Five Sacred Mountains worthy after you visit Yellow Mountain.”

The Five Sacred Mountains include the Taishan Mountain, Hengshan Mountain in Henan Province, Huashan Mountain, Hengshan Mountain in Shanxi and Songshan Mountain.  Non of these compare, according to the poem, with the Yellow Mountain.  This mountain district of legend is located in the south of Anhui Province, covering an area of roughly 250 square kilometers.  These mountains are a geological wonder of the earths crust movement thrusting upwards some 100 million years ago.  The mountains are primarily granite which has gone through glacier erosion creating steep peaks and deep gorges of fantastical proportions.  Much of the 72 or so peaks are reported to be above 1,800 meters or about something over 6,000 feet – not a terribly high elevation but the climb is very steep and from see level a bit strenuous.  The highest peaks are above the cloud cover creating the Cloud of Seas.

The Yellow Mountain was first known as the Yi Shan Mountain in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) and changed to its current name in the Tang Dynasty (608-917 AD).  Ancient Chinese legend has said that the mythical Yellow Emperor who is regarded in legend as the foremost ancestor of the Chinese people, was a seeker of herbs on the Yi Shan Mountain and sought to make an immortality potion.  The origin of the Mountain’s name comes from this illustrious mythical ancestor who succeeded in finding the immortality he was seeking and became a god ascending into heaven.  Our trip has no such aspirations.

Searching through the web another report is given as to the origin of the name for the Yellow Mountains.  According to the ChinaVista report the poet Li Bai (701-762), the great Tang poet, wrote these lines naming the district:

Thousands of feet high towers the Yellow Mountains
With its thirty-two magnificent peaks,
Blooming like golden lotus flowers,
Amidst red crags and rock columns.

For pictures and more information about the Yellow Mountain you can check ChinaVist.com and do a search for Yellow Mountain in Google.  Its an interesting voyage.  Be sure to check out the images of the Yellow Mountain district.  Mine will be coming soon.

“October 1st in the year 1949 Chairman Mao declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China and waved the first five-star PRC flag. The PRC’s National Day was declared at three o’clock on October 1, 1949, in front of 300,000 people during a ceremony in Tian’anmen Square” according to an About.com news story.

Traveling to Hangzhou from shanghai a day before the National Day was pleasant with relatively light traffic and overcast sky’s.  Arriving in Hangzhou the weather in the West Lake district was decidedly cooler than Shanghai which was a treat.  The following day, Monday, was the beginning of the National Day week holiday season and travel within the city slowed appreciably.  The grid lock in the intersections between the buses and cabs with the pedestrians that are constantly criss-crossing the streets was chaos for drivers.  Fortunately, traveling up Longjing Road to the hillside above Hangzhou was less of a mess than the traffic jams down by the lake proper.  We were able to visit a local tea farm for lunch and enjoy a lazy cup of Longjing tea at 50 RMB a cup!  The exchange rate is for the yen is 6.75 RMB to a U.S. dollar currently so figure that at about 7 bucks a cup twice the expense of a Starbucks coffee.

As I mentioned in a previous post, West Lake Dragon Well tea, grown on the hills surrounding the city, is Hangzhou’s specialty. From growing it to writing poetry about it, Hangzhou green tea is consumed almost everywhere throughout China and abroad being highly prized where ever tea effectionados gather. Longjing can be ordered on-line from a very good tea shop in Arizona called Seven Cups.

High grade Dragon Well is expensive often displayed in luxury shops like jewelry. Yet many of the poorest local people consider drinking green tea a necessity.  Hangzhou’s Longjing display’s its brilliant emerald green spears like leaves, especially in the Spring, boasting about three quarter inch long spikes.  These treasured leaves are renowned throughout China for their beauty.  Just recently I discovered that Longjing tea has 7 grades, really!  So even the poorest can afford a lower grade of green tea.  Tea made into tea bags is the leavings and sweeping of the sticks off of the floor, junk really for the uninitiated.  There is a very good description of Longjing Dragon Well tea found at TeaGenius.com

Some of the data I gathered about the very long history of tea culture in Hangzhou was highlighted when Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty 1127 – 1279. The Teahouses of Hangzhou are reported to have been decorated with fresh flowers and famous paintings to create a place of relaxation and pleasure for the guests at the tea house. Besides rare varieties of green teas, plum wine was served in the winter.  What raised the Longjing Dragon Well green tea to be the most famous of Chinese green teas was the esteem of an eighteenth century emperor who visited Hangzhou and appointed a small patch of 18 tea trees to be his special tea garden.  See the Teagenous for more infomation on Hangzhou green tea.

Hángzhōu, capital of Zhèjiāng, is one of China’s most famous tourist sites. Located at the southern end of the Grand Canal and surrounded by fertile farmlands, the city has been a significant cultural centre for hundreds of years. Modern-day Hángzhōu, with its characterless architecture, has little to differentiate it from other Chinese cities. The main reason for coming here is to visit the legendary West Lake (Xī Hú), a true beauty in the midst of a concrete jungle.

For Me the main reason to visit Hangzhou is for the tea.  The Dragon Well or Longjing tea which is grown and roasted in Hangzhou is popular everywhere in China where tea is treasured.  There are few places in the world that enjoy Hangzhou’s reputation for tea.  Think Napa Valley for wine and Hangzhou for tea.

Tea is used for daily drinking and for special occasions here in China.  As an example, on the first day of the Chinese lunar new year a cup of spring tea is offered to the Goddess of Mercy in wish of yearlong well-being; another old custom is the gift of tea to the parents of a bride to confirm marital relations.

The tea houses that line West Lake and huddle in the valleys of surrounding hills of Hangzhou offer tea that has to be experienced. Every trip we make to China always includes a trip to the Hangzhou valley and a visit to the tea houses that are up country in the hills surrounding the valley.  Brews of tea are not cheap, but the price of a pot buys hours of lazing around, a favorite activity of locals and visitors as well.  We will be having lunch up-country and I will post some pictures.  We are late in the tea season but its still worth the trip to Hangzhou.

Green Tea is harvested in two main seasons according to my father-in-law a tea connoisseur.  The first and best tea is harvested “before the rains” in Spring time up until April the second week of May (referenced by The Leaf article Mary Lou Heiss) which starts the Monsoon Season.  The second tier harvest is “after the rain” from June till about now in late September.  So the tea that is available now is of lesser quality than the fresh Spring “before the rain” tea but its what we got so it will be enjoyed very much.  Over the past seven years drinking real tea and listening to the experts like my “Baba” Jennifer’s dad, I have developed a real discrimination for good tea.  There is nothing worse than a wine snob unless its a tea boor.  I try to stay away from snobbery but definitely stay away from ignorance first.

So its off to the car and a 2 1/2 hour drive to Tea Heaven.

Our trip to Hangzhou will include a visit to the hospital for Jennifer’s Uncle who has been ill for the past two years with prostate cancer.  Jo is now every bit of 90 years old and doesn’t get around much.  After we pay our respects and spend some time catching up with the family in Hangzhou we will hit the road for the hills.