阿宝和相对论

阿宝我最近很烦恼，小朋友们都长高，阿乐已经能扣篮，我还摸不着木板框。

其实也不是我不长个儿，我也经常喝牛奶，我也经常量身高，每个月我都比上个月高那么一点点。可我就是不如阿乐长得快。就连小麻杆阿森也长得比我高了。我妈安慰我说我是晚熟型的，我蹿个儿的时候还没到呢，他们只是相对我先蹿了而已。可我还是很郁闷，为什么我是那个相对晚蹿的呢？为什么我们就不能同时一起长呢？

不过有时候我也明白我和朋友们是不能永远一样高，一样的聪明的。就比如数学题吧，阿乐就能很快的把题目做出来，整整齐齐的写在纸上。阿森就很困难，他要想好久，然后再慢慢的写好久。我通常是想一会儿，不过我的优点是写的快，写的少，虽然别人看起来有点费劲，不过我还是快呀。然后到了历史课，历史老师要我们总结的时候，阿森就开始滔滔不绝的瓜拉瓜拉的在大家面前说个没完了，我和阿乐是从来不爱说的，要说只有干巴巴的一句话，“尤利烏斯·凱撒很酷”。所以啊，如果我们是如此的不一样，个头上的相对差别也是正常的。至少我们还都在同一个时间和空间里。

但是，我和我的朋友们，真的在同一个时间和空间里吗？按照爱因斯坦的广义相对论，时间会变慢，空间会收缩，那有没有可能是因为我在变慢的时间里，所以我比阿乐和阿森都长得慢？还是因为我身体的空间收缩了，所以我看起来比他们矮？

时间怎样才会变慢？和爱因斯坦沾边的东西就比较需要想象力，需要速度。不是像我这样的健康男生跑步的速度，我跑的再快也不行，穿的跑鞋再帅也不行。需要一个微观世界的光子，想像它是一个乒乓球吧。光子球的速度是每秒30万公里，关键的是，这个速度是不变的，不管我是不动还是跑步，哪怕我是坐在喷气飞机上高速飞行，光子球相对于我的的速度都是这么多。这里为了简单起见，我把光子球的速度简化到了每秒3米。

然后咱们想像一下，我现在坐在一艘以光速三分之二速度，即每秒2米速度飞行的宇宙飞船上，从你面前向东运动。在飞船上，离我面前3米的地方立著一面大鏡子，這个鏡子的目的就是为了让我能够通过鏡子看到自己的脸。

这时你站在地上看着我的飞船，你会看到 ，一个像乒乓球的光子以每秒3米的速度由太陽发出，射到了我的脸上。然后这个光子就以每秒3米的速度向我面前的鏡子出发。然后奇怪的事情就发生了： 你看到这个光子球相对于你来說，是每秒走3米的速度在前进；而同时你也看到，我的飞船相对于你以每秒钟2米的速度在前进。

在你的时间里，你看到这个光子球，从我脸上出发，每秒走3米，因为我的飞船也在走每秒2米，所以光子球一秒钟就只越过了我的脸一米的距离。你会看到， 你的时间过了3秒钟后，这个光子才以我的的脸为起点，相对我的脸走了3米，然后照到了我面前3米地方的鏡子上。

关键的转折点来了： 在你看來， 这个光子球在以每秒钟2米的速度运动的宇宙飞船上，需要3秒钟的时间才能相对于宇宙飛船中我的脸运动3米的距离。而这时，我也看到这个光子在我自己面前运动了3米的距离。就是说， 你的时间 是过了3秒钟后，宇宙飞船上的光子球相对于你运动了9米的距离。而我却看到，这个光子球，在我自己面前只走了3米的距离，而时间却只过了1秒钟。

所以，在你看到这个宇宙飞船中的光子相对于你、在你面前、运动了3秒钟的时间，走了9米的距离，你測量到的光速是“9米÷3秒钟”= 速度是“每秒钟走3米”。 而对我来说， 我却感到只过了一秒钟，光子在飞船上相对于我自己也只走了3米距离。由此我測量到的光速也是每秒钟走3米。

所以到底发生了什么事了呢？很简单也不简单， 你的时间过了3秒钟， 而我只过了一秒钟。我的时间变慢了。在你感觉到 在3秒钟的时间，宇宙飞船以每秒2米的速度一共走了6米。而我感觉只過了一秒钟，而飞船的速度是每秒钟走2米，這样我感到飞船只走了2米。 相对于你来说， 我的空间也縮短了。

所以就是相对论带给我們的，当一个人以一个高速度运动的话，这个人的时间会变慢，而空间会缩短。所以其实不是我不长个，我只是速度快，也不是我个子矮，还是因为我速度快。哈哈哈。

走进大峡谷

爱默生说，“旅游是傻瓜的天堂”，那么天下傻瓜还挺多的。多到很多很多的旅游地点，不光人流滚滚，而且还一票难求。就比如优胜美地半穹顶的攀登许可证，提前一年开放预订，两个小时之内肯定一抢而光。订到了的人们呼朋唤友，早早请假，早早锻炼身体，等着一年后的某一天，驱车几百公里，去爬一块儿光秃秃，圆钝钝的大石头。大峡谷里的幽灵山庄（Phantom Ranch) 也是这么一个地儿，预订一年前就开始，几个小时之内，开放预订的那个月的所有床位和餐位就被抢光。然后一年过去了，有些动手早的傻瓜们发现，计划赶不上变化，订好的旅游去不了了，于是打电话取消。然后还有一些动手晚的傻瓜们等着呢，于是他们再把这些个空出来的床位和餐位订走。这些特别的旅游地点虽然不是天堂，但还是挺供不应求的。

大峡谷的幽灵山庄本来是我们的朋友Ken的旅行。Ken是个看着很一板一眼的硅谷工程师，说话很逻辑，而且就像很多台湾人一样爱咬文嚼字。偏偏人家正统的外表下有一颗驿动的心，热爱说走就走的旅行。Ken熟知这些热门地点的预订程序，所以常常能在说走就走的情况下找到空余的位置。十二月的某一天，他突然想去大峡谷去爬山，于是就打电话预订幽灵山庄，大部分的木屋和床位早早就订满了，结果居然在新年第一天，一月一日的晚上有那么三个床位。估计是有人刚退没多久，于是Ken老兄立刻付钱拿下。然后就开始呼朋唤友, 我们就是那个第一个被呼唤的，一听说那么难定的幽灵山庄有空，时间又正好在假期，我们就心动了。虽然我们家三口人加上Ken，还缺一张床位，那也不管了，先订了机票再说，大不了有一个人去旁边的河边露营去。

幽灵山庄其实没有幽灵。幽灵山庄不过就是大峡谷的谷底科罗拉多河旁盖的几个小木屋而已。幽灵的名字来自旁边的一条幽灵小溪，据说在弯弯绕绕的谷底绕来绕去，有点忽隐忽现的感觉。大峡谷是高原上由科罗拉多河千万年来冲蚀出的一个大深沟，宽29公里，最深有6公里。中间沟沟壑壑，层层叠叠。从大峡谷的南边陡坡，有两条小道可以下到峡谷最低处，然后两条小道合成一条，蜿蜿蜒蜒的再到北边陡坡。幽灵山庄就在这两条小道交汇的地方，下到山庄，一条小道10公里，另一条15公里。这两条小道都很陡，只走徒步的游客和骡子。小木屋是快一百年前建的，一直就那么几间，从没有扩建过。山庄如此热门，就是因为小木屋太少，不够所有向往的人随时入住，但如此热门还是因为小木屋太少，很多人因为没有定位而当天半路折返，峡谷深处的小路上的人少，风景就格外清澈而难忘。有一句话，每年有五百万到大峡谷的游客，这中间百分之九十的人下了车，在陡坡边上的围栏旁扶着栏杆，摆个姿势，照个像，然后就回车里去了。另外百分之十的人走过栏杆，沿着小路，走到了峡谷里面。这五百万人里面只有不到百分之一，走到了幽灵山庄。一同入住的游客们因为这百分之一的自豪感，对一同分享木屋上下铺的陌生人都有了伙伴一样的亲情，连半夜的呼噜声也忍了。

Bright Angle Trail (10 miles) and South Kaibab Trail (7 miles)

Cabin at Phantom Ranch

幽灵山庄的晚餐，山庄女主人一幅大嗓门，一把好身板，瞧瞧这大块的牛肉！充满西部牛仔风格！

晚餐长长的桌子，有肉有菜，饭后还有巧克力蛋糕... 这对于白天走了五六个小时红土路的游客，实在是个奖励

每天只有那么十几个幸运的人可以订到骑骡子到谷底一游，条件很苛刻的，身体要健康，心脏要坚强，而且，坚决不能超重！胖子是没戏地，只能自己走

十二月的大峡谷还是很冷的，峡谷小道里的高处几个公里都是雪和冰，需要穿套在鞋上的带钉子的装置。临走的前一周，我们一直在努力的打电话试图捡到有人退的床位，因为实在不想在冰天雪地的地方去露营，这把年纪了，不能太虐待自己。试了好几天，没有空位。结果突然间，Ken老兄又冒出来一个说走就走的旅行，他要去科罗拉多州的丹佛参加一个活动，正好就是那几天，于是他定的三个位置，我们一家三口，正好！



回到傻瓜还是不傻的问题上，旅游是一件很个人的体验，每个热爱旅游的人目的不同，收获不同。对于那些追求开开眼界，增长见识的人来说，在栏杆旁边随便浏览一下，留个影，看个满是图片的小手册，足以。如果一个人这样的浏览了十个国家，五十个景点，因而觉得自己比从前伟大了，那他就是爱默生说的傻瓜。另有一种时髦的旅游方式，据说叫做回归自我。城市生活纷纷杂杂，琐事多多，暂时的离开，在风景秀丽的地方放松自己，清空哪些烦扰的杂念，于是重要的人生道理浮出水面，终于又找到自我，知道自己要做什么，或是名利，或是情怀。人生又有了目标，可以重回城市，孜孜不倦到下一次回归。用旅游来充电，多么文艺。

还有一种很有点高大上的旅游方式，看在大多数人的眼里绝对是傻瓜的。在峡谷的小路上遇到一个白头发的中年人，背着一个小背包，独自一个人走的飞快。因为请他帮我们拍合影，他停下来和我们聊了一会儿。他也是往幽灵山庄去的，我们以为他也是像我们一样的百分之一，很觉亲切。结果他告诉我们，他不住山庄，他是路过，要往峡谷北边陡坡去的。天，那还要走二三十公里才到啊。那晚上到北边有地方住？人家哪也不住，人家到了北边直接往回折，总共走二十个小时，回到南坡。他带了有头灯的头盔，中间不停的，半夜也走。听的我的下巴都要掉下去了，二十个小时上坡下坡不停的？？？什么，每年来一趟？这是什么人啊？

这个背着蓝包包和头盔的中年人告诉我们，这就是他的旅游方式。一个人走在沟沟壑壑的峡谷深处，周围的一切都静静地，没有人，没有动物，只有山，还有风。这样的时候，人也变成了山的一部分，风的一部分，周围不再有界限，感觉伸到很远很远... 这人不是在寻找自我，他是在寻找无我呀。这也能充电，佩服。

Bridge cross Colorado River

Meadow at Phantom Ranch

Bright Angle Creek at dawn

对我们来说，做傻瓜是没啥的，最重要的是，每次旅游回来，任何一根青菜都变的格外香甜。足以。

阿宝和吃草的羊

我是阿宝。去年我的数学老师叫赫鲁晓夫。按照英文发音，我们都叫他 Hairs Off, 就是拔头发先生。因为，上他的数学课，我们常常拔头发。

拔头发先生是个天才，他的头发很多，但是从来没有梳直过，一半的头发，大部分是白的，就那么立在脑袋上。第一眼看见他，我就想起了电影回到未来里的科学怪人布朗博士。就是布朗博士发明了未来飞行器。拔头发先生虽然什么也没发明过，但在他的眼皮下，我们所有的同学头发都变少了。通常我们上数学课是这样的，拔头发先生拿着在板上写字的笔，在讲台上走来走去，时不时的写一笔。讲到让他激动的地方，他的嗓门就大起来了，拿笔的手也抬起来了，背也不驼了，然后他就那么激动地讲下去了，然后我们就发晕了，这是讲得啥呀，听不懂呀，然后我们就开始拔头发。等到做作业或是考试的时候，我们就拔更多的头发，因为他没讲过呀。我们数学班本来就女生很少，这么拔头发的结果，坐我旁边的阿朱头发越来越少，大脑门越来越亮，越来越像个男生了。

虽然拔头发先生讲课很糟糕，我们还是喜欢他。因为他喜欢我们，当一个老师喜欢学生的时候，我们能感觉到。有时候我们在课堂上做题，他就坐在一边笑眯眯地看着我们，好像是太阳下放羊吃草的羊倌。我们喜欢他还因为他喜欢数学，虽然他的的热情烧得我们拔头发。他从来不罚站，考試考不好还可以去参加外面的数学讲座来补分。我去了好些次那些讲座，虽然内容全都不记得了，但是偶尔还能想起那些做讲座的人。虽然他们大半都很书呆子气，但是书呆子偶尔也能把干巴巴的数学公式讲的很有趣，尤其是讲到这些公式背后活生生的人，还有用这些公式做出有用的东西的活生生的人。讲到这里的时候，就连书呆子都变得生动起来了。

有一次有一个讲座提到一本书，叫做平面国。这个国家的世界是一个巨大的平面，所有的人物都是二維的几何形体。士兵和做工的劳力是锐角三角形，中产阶级是等腰或等边三角形，专业人士和绅士是四边形，贵族们是五边形和六边形，身份越高贵，边就越多。平面世界里边最多的人物是神父，他们最受尊敬，他们的身材也接近圆形。他们的平面世界里，每个人看到对方都是一条或长或短的直线。这样讲等级的世界，两个人相遇，是一定要向高贵的那一方行礼的。为了能看到对方有几条边，就得有一个人站着不动，另一个人绕着他走一圈，一边数数对方的边数，然后交换转圈，两人都数清了之后，边少的再向边多的行礼。这个世界也很有意思，一对父母最重要的工作就是培养他们的儿子学习转圈，然后呢从一条看似直线的形状数出边数来。学得越好的儿子，越有可能比他的父母多长出一条额外的边来，然后这个家族就越来越高贵了。

在这个平面国的世界里，虽然每个人看见的只有直线，但是每个人都很忙碌，需要遵守平面规矩，多长出边来，使自己和后代变得更高贵。故事的主人公是个四方形绅士，因为他有四条边，他很受尊敬。他有四个五条边的儿子，所以他很得意。直到有一天有一个奇怪的陌生人突然出现在他的眼前，陌生人是个奇怪的形状，经过他转圈的观察，陌生人不动的时候是个圆，但是圆的大小会随着陌生人移动而变大变小，他还会消失。他一定是个神。但陌生人说他自己不是神他只是个球，还跟主人公提到了高度这个词，主人公从来没听说过“球 “和“高度“，因为他引以自豪的平面世界里没有高度，只有长度和宽度。为了给他解释，陌生人拉住他，让他跳起来。当主人公跳起来之后，奇怪的事情发生了。首先他发现他的身体消失了，然后他在空中看见了他的平面世界。原来不需要转圈，一眼就能看到他的四个儿子都是五边形。身旁的陌生人，看着是个圆，怎么转圈看，还都是个圆，原来这就是个球。然后，主人公跟着陌生人，接着往上跳，他看到了三维世界，有奇怪的立方体，圆柱还有圆锥......

我觉得拔头发先生就是那个长得像球的陌生人，世界除了平面国，还有三维空间，应该会有更多。

阿宝和狐狸

我是阿宝。最近我老觉得自己很好看。每天洗完澡，不等擦干，我就对着镜子照了又照。脸自然是好看的，鼻子眼睛嘴巴都在完美的位置，皮肤自然的阳光色，而且没有一颗青春痘。肩膀自然也是好看的，宽宽的，胳膊上还有一点肌肉。因为肩膀宽，我爸的衣服我也能撑的起来，不过我爸太胖，他的衣服腰太宽，我穿着还是晃晃荡荡的。其实我最好看的还是肚子上的六块腹肌啦，我使劲的时候，就会有小小的包包出来，虽然第五块和第六块不怎么明显，但是还是比我爸好太多啦。

而且我的力气也很大。现在我妈买东西回家，都让我搬上楼。有一次我捣蛋，我妈举起手来要打我的屁股，我很快的拿胳膊挡了一下她的胳膊，她叫了一声疼，就自己去冰箱里找冰袋去了。冰了十分钟她的胳膊才不疼了。我看着她冰胳膊，觉得自己很有本事。从小到大，我爸我妈大事小事，不管是因为我捣蛋，还是开玩笑，还是因为他们很无聊，动不动就拍我的屁股。这回我可是自卫，我妈被我硌疼了，下回她要再想打我，绝对要思考思考再思考。我觉得她那么怕疼，估计是不会再动手了。

学校的作业还是那么多，不过去上学的好处也是有的。比如说，可以看到阿楠。阿楠的教室就在隔壁，课间的时候她常常和几个女生一起坐在拐角的桌子旁聊天。我有时候也和我的朋友阿森他们坐在树下的草坪上一起抱怨一下化学老师太变态太严厉，历史老师太唠叨等等的问题。有时候我会看到阿楠的眼光向我这里看一眼，她的眼睛真黑。上次开本年极会集合的时候，我终于比较近的看到阿楠的眼睛，她看我的时候，我觉得我向她笑了一下。我也不知道她看到了没有，我只觉得笑了那一下之后，天变得特别的蓝，云变的特别的白。
有时候，我觉得我就是“小王子”故事里的那只狐狸。小王子遇到狐狸的时候，正是他最孤独的时候。然后狐狸出现了。

“来跟我玩吧。”小王子说：“我心里很难过……”

可是狐狸拒绝了小王子。“我不能跟你玩。”狐狸说：“我还没有被驯养。” 小王子不知道什么是驯养，于是狐狸解释说：“驯养，就是把两样东西连起来吧。”

接下来，狐狸又说：

“对我来说，你只不过是个小男孩，跟其它成千上万的小男孩没有两样；对你来说，我也只不过是只狐狸，你既不觉得需要我，我也不觉得我需要你……可是，如果你驯养了我……我就会认得出一个人的脚步声，别人的都不一样。别人的脚步声会让我匆忙躲回地底下，而你的脚步声，却会像音乐一样，把我从洞里唤出来。”

“……我不吃面包，麦子对我没用，麦田跟我也没什么好说。这很教人难过的。可是你有金色的头发，一旦你驯养了我，会是多么美妙，同样是金色的麦穗，就能让我想到你，我也会爱上吹拂过麦田的风声……”

小王子问“我该做什么？”

狐狸回答说：“你需要很有耐心。你先坐得离我远一點，像这样，坐在草地上。我就拿眼角看你，你不要说话。语言是误会的泉源。但是，每天你可以坐近我一点......"， “我们应该有个仪式，比方说，假如你下午四点钟來， 从三点钟开始我就觉得幸福。时间越接近，我越觉得幸福......”

我在很有耐心的等着阿楠驯养我。每天，我们坐近一点点...... 然后，因为她，我也会爱上风吹过麦田的声音，然后，因为麦田，我会爱上朝霞和夕阳，还有路边青草的芳香......

当然小王子最后离开了地球，离开了狐狸，狐狸说，“我得到好处了，因为那些麦田的颜色......” 其实不管在哪个平行宇宙，不管我有没有表白，阿楠有没有拒绝，最后我们有没有幸福的在一起，每一个平行宇宙里，都有大片大片的金色的麦田......

阿宝与猫

我叫阿宝，今年上高中二年级。高中生活很无趣，作业真多，老师真小气，爸妈唠唠叨叨的推学习推得真讨厌。有时候我很希望能还是个小小孩，坐在图书馆儿童园的小板凳上一本一本的看动画书，一直看到永远永远。可是我也很喜欢长高的感觉，可以不用抬头就看见大人的脸，可以自己骑车去上学，可以飞快的踩着脚踏车穿过宽宽的大街。那种速度快得就好象要飞起来一样的感觉，因为我自己能加速，自己能减速，那种因为长得够高大，自己能控制好多事情的感觉，做小小孩是没有的。而且，我越长越大，我的屁股坐图书馆儿童园的小板凳已经有点挤了。所以，我有时候也不知道我到底想要什么。

还有一件很烦恼的事。我觉得我喜欢上了隔壁教室的一个女生。她叫阿楠，她有一双大大的黑黑的眼睛。课间的时候，她常常和其他的几个女生一起在教室旁边角落里坐着说话。当她的眼光落到我这里的时候，我老觉得热乎乎的，有一种头发晕的感觉。如果某个课间她看了我一眼，下面的半节课我就有一种甜蜜蜜的感觉。剩下的后面半节课我就等着下课了。

有时候我晚上睡不着觉，躺在床上回忆阿楠看向我的眼光。我忍不住的想像如果能和她一起去店里吃冰激淋，然后她就那么的静静看着我，看好久好久，那多好啊。她的小手，拉起来会是什么感觉呢？我要不要向她表白，请她去吃冰激淋？

我的朋友们，好些比我个子高的，他们从去年开始，就开始讨论这个问题了。我们课间的时候，如果不讨论打游戏，那就是在说，谁向谁表白了，然后被拒绝了。大家吃吃一笑，接着去上课。表白的结果大半都不怎么好，阿乐甚至买了花去表白，还是被拒了。阿贝脸皮比较厚，隔一阵子换个女生表白，偶尔还有成功，然后过几个星期就被女生甩了。他消停几天，再来过。我觉得像阿楠那样文静的女生，大半是会拒绝我的。不过也有一半的可能她也喜欢我，要不她干嘛老看我？那我到底要不要表白呢？

美剧大爆炸里面谢耳朵把表白这件事比作”薛定谔的猫“，我觉得很有道理。”薛定谔的猫“是这样的：在一个封闭的盒子里，有一只黑猫，和一个装满毒气的装置。装置有50%的概率开启，如果开启的话，装置内的毒气会杀死盒子里的猫。开启毒气的装置，开启和不开启，是完全不可预测的。因为原理就是放射性元素的半衰期是不可预测。一个放射性原子控制机关，如果我们打开盒子的时候原子已经裂变，机关就会被开启。毒气就会杀死猫。如果我们打开盒子的时候原子还没裂变，猫就还活着。如果我们有好多盒子，机关和猫，那就是一半的猫还活着。但是在量子力学里面，只有一只猫，在我们没打开盒子看之前，这只世界闻名的猫处在一种活着和死了的叠加状态，也就是说，猫即是活着的，也是死了的。而我们作为盒子的观察者，我们要打开盒子看猫的状态的好奇心，向不可预测的自然强行的要结果，决定了猫的死活。也就是说，好奇心杀死了猫。

回到我的表白问题来，我其实不能预测阿楠是不是喜欢我，因为我们都没说过话。那么她其实是在喜欢我和不喜欢我的叠加状态。我的表白就是那个打开盒子看猫的行动，向不可预测的事情要结果，这不是强行让叠加状态的自然倒塌到一个现实？这个现实是什么，是阿楠是喜欢我？还是不喜欢我？我能接受表白之后的现实吗？

不过接着”薛定谔的猫“还有个理论，打开盒子看猫的行动，制造了两个平行宇宙，在一个宇宙里，猫活着，在另一个平行宇宙，猫死了。那么我的表白行动，也制造了两个平行宇宙，在一个宇宙里，阿楠喜欢我，在另一个平行宇宙，阿楠不喜欢我。我想象之后我的每一个行动，都在这两个分叉上生出新的分叉来，无数的分叉，分叉又分叉...... 那么在这些数不清的未来平行宇宙中，有一个宇宙，我和阿楠幸福的生活在一起，一直到老...... 哎呦我的天，这个我还真没准备。不过既然好结果总是存在在这些平行宇宙中的，那么我表白不表白，其实也没啥大不了，对不？嗯，我可以睡觉了。

低头便见水中天

我盘腿坐在海湾边，湾里的水正在退潮。水向着东边沙沙的流着，露出高点的河滩上的黑色的淤泥。一片片的淤泥发出嘶嘶的声音，仔细看来还有的小洞顶着小水泡在夕阳下闪闪的发光。

太阳正在我的身后徐徐下降, 因为我们可爱的大气层，太阳光丢掉了蓝色部分，剩下的红色和黄色把东边的云彩染得粉亮粉亮的。映在水里，

水面上没有一圈圈的涟漪，但是退潮的水要往湾里汇集，两边河岸的淤泥拖拽着水，水面上就能看见一种由河中间的流的快的水拖出来的水纹。在有些地方，水纹还带出了小小的漩涡来。水在流，云在动，太阳在落山，整个天边越来越红，映在水漩涡里的彩色越来越深...... 在这夕阳西下的最后几分钟里，水面上的世界变化如此之快，就像梦一样。这灿烂深沉的漩涡甚至让人觉得水下还有另一个奇妙的世界，让人想探头进去看一看。在这个时间，做一个透明的眼球。

水中也许并没有另一个世界，但是我们的心里，自然有另一个世界。我们每每有烦躁、焦虑、嫉妒、自怜、自私，也每每有释然、平安、欣喜、慷慨。这也是每日常新、变幻无穷的风景。不懂得欣赏它们时，自己永远是世界的中心，正义的代表，别人从来是歪理邪恶。懂得之后，自己与别人都是神奇自然脚下渺小却有趣的生灵。低头便见水中天，这，也是要低头才见的。

Travelling is a fool’s paradise

I love travel, no question about it. There is no other activies that can take us to places with exotic cluture, beautiful snenaries, and wonderful nature, all away from our daily routines. For the last couple of years, we used all our vacation time going to places. We hiked on the icefield in Alaska, we swimed in between corals in Hawii, we sweeped through 30 out of 59 national parks of the United States, and also, we spent some time in the remote land of China like Tibet and Uygur province. My favorate part of those trips are not the colorful souvenirs, not the serene views, not even the flavorful food, but the beauty in people, the general benevolence of normal people after you met their wondering eye beams.

Then one day, I read this sentense "Travelling is a fool’s paradise". I was shocked, how can someone who prefers an active life style be refered as a fool? I want to argue and defend travelling, for all the people who enjoys travel. But who do I argue with? Emerson? the man who is considered the father of the American literature? Here is his sentenses in the essay "Self Reliance" published in 1841, about hundred senvety years ago:

“Travelling is a fool’s paradise. Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty, and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. I seek the Vatican, and the palaces. I affect to be intoxicated with sights and suggestions, but I am not intoxicated. My giant goes with me wherever I go.”

That very last sentence has always stuck with  me since the first time I read it. After a while, I have to admit that Emerson is right. Even though there are immense pleasure to see as much of the world as we can, travelling is a poor effort to escape something that one should be dealing with, emotionally or otherwise. If we are sad, we carry that sad self with us, everywhere we go. And when come back home, the problem that haunted us before is still there, as unrelenting, as giant as it used to be.

Yet it is not quite right. Emerson himself traveled a lot before he developed all those famous essay that set up the foundation of modern american philosophy. He went to Europe, he visited Voltaire's home in France, and he met Thomas Carlyle in England, whose work had influenced him greatly. Did he consider the young self as a fool? Definitely not. Actually, every truth has its content, and we can't take a sentense out of the whole theme. This essay "Self Reliance" has one theme, "Trust thyself", never imitate. Those who travels to find new things, things that he does not carry within his heart, travels away from himself, and grows old even in youth. For a person with intellect, he shouldn't be travelling with the hope to find something greater than he knows. Rather, he should be obey his heart, exhibit his inner gift that he has cultivated all through his life and let it shine.

So what Emerson meant is not about traveling, it is about finding one's individualism and going with it, not  just imitating from others. He believes that there is a God, but everything else is also connected to it, therefore everything is divine. And for human, there is divinity in each of us, we just need to find it and let it guide us through the difficulties of life. The truth is not with God, but it could be intuitively experienced from the nature with a independent mind. That is how he transcended external authorities, organized religions, and the conformity to society norms.

It all sound too idealistic and heavy, now I suspect most people, like me, feels that we are fools already, becuase philosophies give us big headaches. But who need philosophy anyways? We all have our character, our own rule of thumbs toward life, and our divinities is with us no matter what. We still like travelling, because we simply enjoy it. We like to be intoxicated with the sights and sounds of new places, and the warm heart of the people, though we know it’s a fleeting enjoyment. I look back fondly on the places I have been, and I look forward to new destinations.

转贴：少去旅游，多去旅行

我们常把旅游与旅行混为一谈，其实两者可谓差之一字，谬之千里啊。

旅游是一种消遣和消费的过程，花钱享受异地的风光、风情、美食和服务。有人说旅游就是从你活腻味的地方到别人活腻味的地方去。讲究走的顺利，住得舒适，玩得开心，食得美味，购得称心如意。讲究这些时，一遇到飞机误点，旅馆脏乱，景区拥挤或者是刮风下雨，购物挨宰等等，便会怒气冲冲，怨天尤人，觉得十分扫兴倒霉。

旅行则是一种体验和感悟的过程。体验自然，感悟人生，不惧怕遭遇雨雪风霜和艰难险阻，把一切都视为人生的一种经历，一种体验，随遇而安，始终保持着平和的心态，沉着应对，这就是旅行。

旅游就像快餐一样，将景区、景点作为集中目标，恨不得省略一切过程快速到达，以了却此生到此一游的心愿。所以我们国家才出现了什么N日N国游。

旅行如品佳饮，要调整心态，放慢脚步，是漫漫旅途中的细细品位和观察，以获取新知。旅行没有终点，行者永远在路上，正因为如此有别于旅游者酷爱的高档、奢华、和世界知名人头攒动的旅游胜地。旅行者钟情于人迹罕至的荒野荒原，深山大川，天涯海角。

旅游之所以是从你自己活腻味的跑到别人活腻味的地方，那是因为心被功利和物欲所束缚，只有当心是自由的，才能走到哪儿都有美的发现，都有行者的快乐。有一个旅行者，写了一本书，书名叫做《中国人你为什么不快乐》，说的是心被欲望禁锢就不会有快乐，心永远在探索新知，生活才会充满奇趣与快乐。

旅行在一个人独行的时候，会有独特的眼光和思索。相伴而行时，可以彼此分享与交流，而令人身心愉悦的自然风光和异域环境，又使行者容易敞开被城市禁闭的心扉，彼此深入沟通了解。因此，伴旅往往能够成为长久的知音、知己。这和旅游中的所谓一夜情和艳遇也是完全不同的。

旅游者选择的旅伴常是昙花一现，游过之后各奔东西，彼此忘却。古有读万卷书，行万里路之说，认为把读书和旅行结合起来可谓理想和完美的人生，实际上旅行如人生，人生也是一次长途旅行，有一位叫马赛•普罗斯特的学者说：真正的发现之旅不在于发现新的领域，而在于拥有新的目光。我们也可以说真正有价值的人生之旅不在于拥有权势或金钱，而在于拥有精神、智慧和道德的力量。

让我们少去旅游，多去旅行。

Oh, the curiosities that we have

I haven't been posting my travel blogs for a while. The reason is quite simple, I didn't travel. For as much as we want to explore the new territories, our physical body chained us down. For me, there are frozen joint, aching back, and even worse, I have discovered a mysterious food allergy to some nasty shell fish. After adding all the other constraints in life, the job, the family ... all of these, made traveling not as attractive as it used to be.

Seeing yourself getting old, sometimes you just don't have the cheer...

But even we don't physically travel to new destinations, our mind can still go to places. Sometime we also call it reading a book. From book, I have discovered various things. And the most interesting things are the curious characters like Richard Feynman.

He is famous, he won Nobel Prize in 1965, he was part of Manhattan project that developed nuclear bombs, and he investigated the Challenger disaster. He was a Cal Tech professor and his books are the favorite souvenir if you go to the college bookstore.  

He is still everywhere even after he died 26 years ago. If you want to learn introductory physics, he authored the best book out there. His words, his stories get to be told over and over again by different people. If you open a book on physics of the future, he is there, talking about theoretical physics. You open a book about inspiration, he is there, talking about metaphysics and nature.You go to Yourtube, he is there, talking about other various subject about science and human in general.

 Feynman's small talk on flowers - http://vimeo.com/55874553

But he is not a typical Nobel Prize winner. Yes he is a genius and he has done a lot of great things for scientific discovery, but his IQ is rather adequate at 125 only (I mean jeez my son has a higher IQ according those online test and that didn't help with not getting a F in his math test). Most people don't understand anything about his work on Quantum physics or electromagnetic theories, yet a lot people came to say "We love you, Dick" after he died. He never really cared or strived to gain popularity yet he is loved so much. Why?

He is a curious character. Feynman's great trait isn't his intelligence; it's his passion to understand, his sheer doggedness. From a boy, he was taught to figure things out. Then one day he saw a dinner plate tossed vertically into the air like a Frisbee and began to wonder about its wobble. After that there was many years of long, slow, hard work, slogging away at a difficult scientific problem with all his strength until it was solved. That ultimately led to a Nobel Prize in physics. In his book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman", he talked about how he enjoyed cracking national security safes, and playing pranks on people, with a marvelous sense of humor. It seems like he treated all sorts of problems as puzzles and got great pleasure for solving them.

People also got to know him through his many faces outside physics because his curiosity moved well beyond things scientific. He is a poet and a musician. He can write in Chinese and he played world level Bongo drum and he sings well. He even sign silly songs like "I want my orange juice", see video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKTSaezB4p8. He did other crazy things, like resiging from the national academy of science, like dating undergraduate students, hanging out with strippers, he even stood in court to support a nude bar he frequented. He was eccentric in all ways but he was always himself. And when he followed his nature, he sees the connection of events. And yet he was a simple man, who could laugh and made other people laugh. His love of life spilled over to all the people he met during his adventure in this planet.

Reading about Richard Feynman, it seems that getting old may not be that bad, as long as you have a curious heart.

Good eats along Chinese Silk Road

Silk Road, the ancient route for silk and spice trading, started from ancient Chang'an (now the city of Xi'an in the middle of China). It traveled west through Wuwei, Yumen, Dunhuang, Turpan, to Kashgar, the city at the west end border of China. It then passed through the Pamirs and ancient Persia, crossed the Mediterranean, and eventually reached the European Inland Rome. 

I was born in the middle of the Silk Road in Yumen, grew up in Xi’an, the starting point of Silk Road. Last summer, we traveled from Kashgar to Yumen and Dunhuang. I finally feel I appreciate the Silk Road a little bit more. Although my understandings are mostly based on trivial details, it was a great time exploring and revisiting the good food along the way.

Map of Silk Road

Artifact from Tang Dynasty, when camels were portrayed  as tall as five humans stacked together. Understandable, who else could get them through the thousand miles of desert land?

1.       XI'AN (西安)

Xi'an is the gourmet capital city of the Silk Road. It flourished during the Tang Dynasty 1300 years ago. During these years, people accumulated all sorts of wisdom to enjoy the food from their field and from the trade. I can sit here counting good eats by going through my finger for many rounds. Stewed pork in a crusty white bread bun, lamb stew with crushed bread, lamb stew with clear soup, hot oil-sprinkled noodles, hot and sour noodle with mixed vegetable sauce, sour soup dumplings, rice or wheat jelly with hot sauce, cold buckwheat noodle in hot and sour sauce, vegetable stew with lamb meatball, lamb oil fried flour porridge, crispy bread baked on hot cobbles, jujube cake, mirror cake, persimmon cake, etc. I am drooling as I count my fingers.

South Gate of Xi'an. this city is still surrounded by its original thick brick wall  for defending enemies.   Now a days, all the traffic still has to go through these narrow gates in order to get to downtown.

Jujube Cake in the night market - one yuan (15 cents) will get you a wedge of these sweet treat

Last spring during the Chinese New Year, we went back to Xi'an to revisit the places and the good food that were dear to our memories, which of course includes the jujube cake and the persimmon cake. 

It was dawn; the sky was still golden behind the tall ancient–style buildings. We strolled along the Muslim street with the rest of the bustling crowd.  There were a wide range of store fronts along the narrow street, selling specialty food, snacks and refreshments. It was very noisy with vendors shouting with all sorts of accents, including Uygurs, to attract customers buy things. The whole street smelled like dry nuts and a mysterious mix of spice. Then at one spot, there was this strong aroma of fried osmanthus flower. That was the place for persimmon cake. When I was a little kid, my favorable thing during the autumn mornings was to go out and get warm persimmon cake. Little red persimmon is one of the  local specialty in the area. These sweet fruits are round and petite; they look like little lanterns when fully ripe. To make the batter for the persimmon cake, the vender grabs the little red lanterns, squeezes out the meat and juice from each of them into the flour. Then he mixes the batter evenly after sprinkle some dried osmanthus flower. Once the batter is ready, he uses a big flat iron spoon to scoop some of those soft batter, scraps the edge of the spoon with a spandrel. The flat spoon is then dipped into a deep pot with hot oil. As the hot oil bubbles with smoke, the fragrance of the flower comes out. Then gently, a red persimmon cake swims to the top from underneath. The vender scoops it up; puts it aside for it to cool down a little before it can be touched. I typically buy half a dozen, and finish each one in two bites. It has a crispy shell after the deep frying, and the inside is as soft as the persimmon  Now a days, those persimmon cakes gets advanced with all sorts of stuffing, like red bean, sesame stuffing, dry rose pedals, and mixed nuts. But the dough wrapping outside is still authentic and tasty.

Muslim selling persimmon cakes

One of the must-eat is stewed pork in a crusty white bread. It is more like a american sandwich. Using a tall big stockpot, the cook stews big chucks of pork belly meat, leg meat with a variety of spices for hours until the sauce gets thick and brown. After you place the order, the cook holds a big scoop, grab one piece of meat and put it on a big round chopping board, which is made from strong tree stub. There are thick gravy dripping on the counter and on the board. The chopping board concave to the center, so the gravy and meat get mixed together during the chopping. From another pot on the stove, he then picks up a flat baked bread, slices it into two half, leaving one side of the two slices attached. Then using a big rectangular kitchen knife, he picks up the minced meat, lays them into the open warm bread. Now it is ready. Of course, the best place for this special sandwich is the Fan's at the Bamboo Fence street. The best spot is outside the store under the eaves of the building (there is no chair to sit down). To eat like a authentic western style person, you hold your sandwich, squat down, open up and bite into the hard shelled bread. As the mixed flavor of delicious stewed meat and sweet wheat texture fills you mouth, you can watch the brown gravy and oil flowing down from the edge of the bread to your fingers and palm, then dropping to the ground. It usually does not take long to finish this meaty sandwich. Then you can lick you finger if you like, or wipe both hands on your jeans. It is now time to continue the stroll to see other special features of this old city. 

The city of Xi'an is a square surrounded by original walls from ancient time. Bell Tower is in the center of the square and four major streets radiate from here toward the four gates in the four directions. The most popular places are definitely East Main Street and South Main Street. But to eat authentic local dishes, you have to go to those no-name alleys to find those small Papa and Mama stores. Last winter, we had a local friend drove us around so we get to eat the best local food in town. Our friend's car was not big but we still had to do some walking because the alleys were so narrow the car could not get in. One of the small place is really well known for its stewed lamb soup. This special dish has another name called lamp in a water basin, because the the soup bowl is as big as a wash basin. The soup is clear, the aroma is fresh with clean meat and green spices, and it taste delicious paired with crusty white bread, hot chili sauce and sugar pickled garlic. The place only opens for breakfast. After 11AM, the family close up the store, go home to live their own private life. The store is usually fully packed with customers burying their heads in the big bowls. In between the big tables, the son and the daughter are busy walking around the big tables serving and cleaning. The dad usually stands in front of the big steaming stove with a pot as big as a truck tire, the mother is in the front, taking orders and collecting money. When I was sitting there, holding up my big bowel, tilted it and swallowing a big gulp of warm soup from the side of the bowel, I felt a great sense of frontier land. This is how people supposed to eat in the old days, when land was dry, meal was sparse and people were heroic.

Lamb in a water basin

Another small eatery I like serves vegetable stew with meatball for breakfast only, of course paired with same type of white bread. The big soup pot/basin is placed in front of the store above a round stove. When you walk into the store, it is always the first thing that catches you eyes. The pot looks dark, burned on the bottom and the side from the flames, the big spoon looks awfully big and worn. It is definitely not the cleanest cooking utensils ever. The content also looks mysterious, some sort of tofu, cabbage, and others  floating in the thick gooey soup base. Looks not appetizing at all.But still, people line up at the register to buy tickets for a bowel of these stew. Some people even bring their own stock pot to carry the soup home. After you get your ticket, there is another line in front of the lady holding the big scoop. She stirs in the pot for several circles and then pour a bunch of bowls that lined up on the counter. It feels like a school cafeteria, but the soup was surprisingly good. The peppery flavor is so unique. After you finish a  bowl in a cold day, a surge of heat seems to spread from you chest all through you body. It must have saves many lives during the harsh winter of the Gobi desert.

Mixed vegetable stew for breakfast

White bread

Hot oil sprinkled noodle  is the most common flavor of Xi'an. It is a simple meal and really easy to make.  First boil the wide noodles, which are usually as wide as a belt. After the cook places the noodle in the bowl, he tops it with some green onion, garlic, salt, and a thick layer of red chilly pepper powder.  For the very last but most essential step, the cook scoops out a spoonful of really hot oil, steadily pour it on the red pepper and the garlic. The whole dish sizzles as loud as a fajita pan. There is also a cloud of smoke rising, along with a fragrance of spices. That is it, the whole meal is done, no meat, no vegetable. Sounds rough, right? But ask any local guy who just finished his noodle with a loud noise; who is probably still sweating from all the hot chilly powder, ask him whether people in Xi'an are truly as rough as this noodle. He would probably say, you think we are rough? So what?

The noodle is about to sizzle with hot oil sprinkled on top 

Yes most of the  food in the western region of China are not cuisines like the nine courses meal served in a French restaurant; they are more like a street food, simple, fast, but full of flavor. Just like the local people in the that part of China, their food are  practical, rough edged and straight forward. One exception is a not-so-fast dish called crushed bread in stewed lamb soup. The bread is only half cooked when presented at the table, and it is the customer's job to break the hard bread into small pieces. The server then collects the big bowl with crushed bread back to the kitchen. Each bowl is tagged with customer's name. The cook stews the bread in clear lamb soup and add other ingredient such as cilantro and rice noodles. Once it is served back to the table, the bread is fully cooked but saturated with the flavors from the lamb soup. There is no chance of encountering soggy bread after this process. Also, the resilient texture of the bread mixed with heavy soup makes every bite taste like 100% meat . I am always amazed how people figured out this is the way to make bread taste like meat.

Of course things has changed a lot from the old times when I was a little kid. One example is the fun sugar characters that is sold by the street artist. Like making glassware, the guy blowed air into the melted sugar balls to form the animal shape. I would eat it happily in the old time since sugar were precious. But now, NAH, how could I ever licked something so gross?

The artist is holding a dragon made from sugar

There was also food that disappointed us. I have always craved for Jia's soup dumpling ever since high school but never had the chance to taste one before last winter. Being a girl that could only do well in the report cards, dump place like the Muslim street was prohibited for me and most of my friends at that time. In the parents' eyes, Muslim people were rude, they carry knifes with them, and they never take showers or wash their hands before they cook food for other people. I still remember one Monday morning during high school recess, my best friend secretly told me that she and her boyfriend went to Muslim street to eat Jia's dumpling. They had to tell their parents that they were doing the school newspaper on the big blackboard to get out of home. They rode their to the Muslim street and spend a whole afternoon there. She had such a great time that she kept on talking about how tasty those dumpling were. The dumplings were small with nice crease in the middle. Inside the almost transparent wrap, there is a big lump of juicy meat. Once you bite into one hot dumpling,  a whole spoonful of broth would flow out of the tiny dumpling. If you want to catch that broth with your lips, it will burn your tongue and throat. The best way to eat it is to bite a small opening on the top, wait a little bit to let the steam out, at the same time, take a long sniffing of the aroma, then you suck the hot juice out from the dumpling before finish it. With this image in my head, I drooled for the food, and envies that my friend had a tall and muscular bodyguard so she could go to slums and come back with good memories.

So last year, as soon as I reached Xi'an, I rushed to Muslim street with my husband, my son and a friend. Muslim street has already been developed into a tourist attraction and the sanitary practice has been improved by hundred folds.  I finally got to eat Jia's lamb dumplings. Outside of the restaurant,  the glazed facade looked so bright and clean. However inside , the young waiter was sleepy, the floor was wet, and most importantly, most of the dumpling had leaked so not much juice has left. The lamb dumpling still taste good but it is a far stretch to reach the expectation that I had built up for decades. Worst yet, after we got back to the hotel, three of us started to fight for bathroom. Something was not right in the food. Watching my Stephen clutching in bed holding his stomach, I couldn't help but thinking, maybe my mom's nagging was right? So this is all I got after so many years of craving?  Or maybe I just craved for the freedom to go to places?

2.   Lan Zhou (兰州）

     Travelling west from Xi'an, Lan Zhou is about 400 miles away. It is important city along the silk road since it is near the yellow river. I lived here for about six month with my family during the early 80s. Food in Lan Zhou share the similar western style as the food in Xi'an. But as the silk road gets closer to the Gobi desert, the food starts to get even more straight forward.  

     Hand pulled noodle in beef broth is the most typical food in Lan Zhou. The noodle dough is made with a special gray powder ingredient, which is the ash of a common desert grass after burning. The plant ash makes the dough very resilient. When stretched in slow motion, the dough can become really thin noodles without breaking. After the noodle is cooked in boiling water, it is added to the beef broth, then sprinkled with cilantro, green garlic leaves, and red chili sauce. The beef broth is cooked overnight by stewing beef and bones, sometime with radish. It is always ready in the kitchen so the noodle can be brought to  the table within couple of minutes. The noodle has a slight tart flavor due to the plant ash, but with the combination of beef, radish and chili, it is perfectly balanced and distinctively remembered.

Now every city in China has several little Lan Zhou noodle shop. For some reason, it always taste good. Just like Campbell's chicken noodle soup never fail to comfort a kid who grew up in America, Lan Zhou noodle is a comforting food for many kids like me. When I was in Lan Zhou, my parents took us to Ma's noodle shop on special occasions such as pay days or family or friends visiting. At that time, the land was barren, it did not produce much for the farmers in the villages; there were famines every year. In the winter and spring, the farmers had to flood into the big city, leaving their wives and kids home with the limited food source. They hangout and sleep near the train station and bus stations where there are roof and sometimes heat. They beg for food during the day, asking for dry bread or left overs from the city folks. And when they were tired, they just sit there, lined up against walls near the side walk, looking straight through the people walking by, into the hollow space. Sometimes the look on their face gave me a sense that there were people among them could not make it back home this year after the land turns green. So when the seven year old me came out of the noodle shop with a full belly, still trying to remember the taste of the chewy noodle and the flavor of the meat, holding my mom and my sister's hand on each side, I thought I was the luckiest kid in my small little world.

Lan Zhou Noodle

3.  Dun Huang （敦煌）

This used to be a oasis town and frontier outpost right in the middle of the desert. In the long history of the silk road, when people were traveling long distance, battling between life or death by trying hard to get water and food, they really cherished their spiritual world. Merchant donated generously to the monks into their effort of building and painting Mogao Caves in the mountains to celebrate Budda and get blessing from him. The city became famous after the British explorer Aurel Stein displayed the art and manuscript he had brought back to England. Nowadays, it is one of the hottest attraction for Chinese tourist. With money in their hand from the recent prosperity,  all Chinese residents want to see the world and take home pictures of themselves standing in front of the attractions. Dunhuang is definitely on the top of the list.

The local people in Dunhuang also benefit greatly from the two million tourists a year. But since tourist industry is relatively new in the area, people are still adjusting to the reality and there is really not much standard. Right after stepping out of the train station, I felt there was great sense of urgency among the local taxi driver and merchants to squeeze whatever money the tourist carries with them. They would really chase you down and squeeze to the bottom. After we negotiated a reasonable price with a cab driver, he told us he had to get some water and walked away. While we were sitting in the car, he came back with two young students passengers and made four of us squeeze in his back seat. Our experience of the drive? Not something he cares. After all, there are still other two million tourist pouring in every year even nobody ever comes back revisit.

We booked a village lodge in the Crescent Spring Village. But because of so many tourists, the lodge was overbooked. So the owner sold us to his not-so-popular neighbor. The host lady is in her early 50's. She host tourist in her own home, which is equipped with traditional ondol bed and shared bathroom. Like most of the local people in the Gobi desert, she is short on words. There was something about her got me into thinking about how the recent prosperity impact the local people, who used to have a simple but rough life. She acted like a capable host and tried to chat with the guests. However, when she talked toward us within three feet, I could easily smell and see that she had not brush her teeth for a long long time. She also despise our complaint about bedbugs and slippery bathrooms. To her, the almost new house and the bathroom with flushing toilet is already far advanced than the typical needs of the area. She refuse to understand city slickers like us.  Apparently she is still struggling between the wave of easy money and the urge to not let the wave change her into someone that she does not want to be.

Sand Dunes near the Crescent Spring Village

Yellow noodle with donkey meat sauce is a specialty here in Dun Huang. There is a night market called Sandyland market in the center of the city, where many small shops claim their authentically crafted noddles with big banners. We ordered a bowl of this authentic noodle, and a plate of another local specialty, fried elm seed. This expensive noodle cost 5 dollars, much more than a typical noodle, which cost about two dollars in a non-touristy location. When the waiter brought the noodle to table, I immediately know it is a mistake to eat at a tourist attraction. The noddle lays sluggishly in the bowl, with some starchy sauce on the top. It taste like overcooked Chow Mein in a Chinese-American take out shop, soggy and dull. The noodle does not have the tart plant ash flavor, it must be from the faster food color and chemical additives. 

Fried elm seed is made with flour and the green elm seed, stir fried with green onions. I had this long time ago during the spring seasons when the elm leaves just sprouted. After a whole winter in the Gobi desert eating mostly bread, cabbage and potato, it was a true delight to pick up the green elm seed in the early spring. It was so fun to climb trees with other kids and see who gets higher. And it was tasty to have some fresh scent after a long winter. However, when we went to Dun Huang this summer,the fresh elm seed was long gone. What got served was frozen elm seed and it was so dry, it tasted like eating dried grass. It seems like the whole touristy business has driven the local flavor into a whole industry level. Everything we see in MacDonald is getting repeated here in a small scale.

There are good things in Dun Huang too. One sweet drink made by boiling dried apricot in water is pretty nice, and it can be enjoyed at all seasons. Another timeless item is the layered shortbread at the bakery in the Sandyland market. The sweet shortbread has sugared rose pedals in between the soft bread layers. The salty version shortbread has crushed specialty herbs in the bread. The herb is called fragrant bean, which grows commonly along the edges of the wheat field. The local families pick up the leaves and the seeds in the fall, bake them dry, and crush them to spice up the boring bread. When we were living in Yumen, my neighbor Ping’s mom cooked great pastries, mostly bread with difference spices. There were many days my sister and I dropped everything we were doing after we smelled the fragrance of the spice and the sweet wheat. We stepped out of our door and just hung out near Ping’s front door steps. When the bread was cooked, Ping’s mom hauled us in, grabbed a bun from the big steamer, broke it in two halves and put them in my and my sister’s hands. We ate it slowly as we walked home, holding our free hands together, wishing that we would catch the warm bun next time again.

4.   Yumen （玉门）

      Yumen is a small town an hour drive northeast of Dunhuang. It was a Silk Road outpost which symbols big remote land of Gobi desert from there on to the west. There used to be no commerce in this area because so few people could bear to live here. The change happened during the Cultural Revolution when young passionate communist workers were sent here to build irrigation and grow crops. My parents were among them. And as a result, I was born here.

     When I was living in Yumen, there was no restaurant because most people could not afford to eat out. Our neighbor’s kitchen was the place to get treats and different flavors. The town had only one street, with two government-run shops, one for farming tools, one for living essentials. On weekends, there were vendors selling tea outside the shop, for the farmers who traveled from villages far away. The tea was sold by big bowls, poured from a big bucket, insulated with green blankets. For one cent, the farmers could drink the warm tea to their heart’s desire. If you don’t want to drink from the bowl, there was another option.  For two cents, you could buy a tall glass or orange flavored water. The vender usually put three or four glass cups filled with colorful waters on his small table to attract kids and customers. Each of the pretty glass was carefully covered with a square shaped glass so no sand or dust got into the drink. In the place with frequent sand storms, everything was dusty and gray. But orange color in crystal clear glass really stands our as the fancy item around town.

The train station in Yumen

 This summer when I visited, I found my old town of Yumen has changed dramatically. There are fresh fruits and vegetables year round in the market and there are all sorts of restaurants in town. The irrigations system that was built by so many hands including my parents has successfully changed this part of the desert into farmland.

     We had lunch at Zhao Huazi, a restaurant serves home kitchen style dishes. Seeing the waiter brought the dishes to the table, I had the sense that I was sitting in my old neighbor’s kitchen. It was like once again I lost my keys to the house, my mom was not coming back from work, and the neighbor just took me in and feed me with everything on their dinner table. Most of the dishes are stir fried vegetable, like bean sprout, cabbage, finely sliced potatoes, tofu, and green chili pepper. The vegetable are then picked up from the plate with chopsticks, put on top of a soft wheat pancake, and then wrapped into a roll. The flavor of the roll comes from the proportion of the vegetable varieties, just like a Chipotles burrito. Different from a burrito, this Chinese wrap has no cheese, no rice, no beans, just the fresh scent and texture from the veggies. It is quite amazing that even China and Mexico are so far apart; their diet shares so much similarities. In between the far west of China and the inland of Mexico, there lays mountains, ocean and a varieties of the human intelligence. But they both choose to fill their flour tortilla with stuffing varieties. Even the Chinese medicine and Mayan medicine are similar. They call this “Transoceanic diffusion”. But there are still differences after all these diffusion  On any typical weekend in any local park, there are always Mexican families celebrating something. They play guitar, they sing songs, they play soccer, and they hit their piñatas. They are loud, energetic, cheerful and proud to be that way. They just seem to be happier than any typical Chinese crowd. Is there something special in their food? Cheese! It must be cheese, the secret ingredient for more happiness.

     Yumen is a small town in a bigger geographic region called “Springs of Wine”. This charming name comes from a historical story in the Tang Dynasty, when Silk Road was in its peak and General Huo Qubing was sent by the emperor to defeat the nomadic invaders. After his army successfully drove the nomadic people away, he poured rice wine in small creek so every solider would be able to drink some of that wine. The name stayed even though the creek dried out long time ago in this Gobi desert. But the people who came there several decades ago with the dream of changing the desert into oasis really made a difference. Not only did they change part of the desert into farmland by building pipes and trenches, but also they made great distilled wine to match the fascinating name “Springs of Wine”. The local white liquor gives a strong fragrance once it is poured into the shot glasses. The scent is mellow and sweet, the taste is silky and long lasting. I still remember the sense of that potent but sweet flavor in my cheek. However, since I ignored the high alcohol content and drank it like sake, I got dizzy quickly and now I just can’t remember the name of that liquor anymore.

5.   Urumqi （乌鲁木齐）

     It is the capital city of the Uyghur Province, the far west province in China. The Silk Road splits into the northern route and the southern route around the Taklamakan Desert. Urumqi is on the north route and Kashigar is on the south route. Since they are close to mid eastern countries, Uyghur people look Turkish and their language is very similar to Arabic symbols. But the city of Urumqi looks and sounds like any other inland city in China. The Uyghur culture has be squeezed and wiped by the influence of Han Business people. The street of Urumqi is as crowded as the street in Beijing, where people drive four cars in parallel on a three lane street. Along both side of the street, there are convenient stores and fashion stores, with big Mandarin signs. The city is so modern that it even has special city transit system with dedicated traffic lanes and express bus. It is called BRT. When we were on a bus, asking our fellow passengers about our transfer, they all refer to BRT in a fluent fashion. When I asked what BRT is and what does it stands for, half of the bus despised us and told us in English, “Bus Rapid Transit”. I was totally impressed.

     Being the transit center of the Uyghur province, Urumqi offers flight, train and also brand new rental cars service. Our experience in this modern city could be described with one word, “Rush”. We rushed through this city three times in order to get to other more interesting destinations. There was no time to find a place to enjoy the specialty food. All we could spare was an hour or so between the important tasks, like lining up with three thousand other people in a big hall just to get a print of our reserved train ticket, or lining up in another big hall with another thousand people to enter the particular train track. In between these two important tasks, there was no time and no mood for flavorful food. The restaurants near the Urumqi airport or train station are to stuff the empty stomachs of us travelers. And all travelers, like us, were so worn down by each other; we just have super low expectation toward food or life in general. We eat to stay alive for now so later on we can enjoy food from other places.

     Sometime, good eats comes really easy, especially when the expectations are low. For us, it was like pizza and meatballs falling from the sky. After we had our train tickets, we had to follow the crowd through a zigzag maze to go through the security check. Just like airports, all the Chinese train stations screen passengers for dangerous items. There is no checked-in bags for trains so water will pass, but nothing else. For example, my Swiss Army knife and my mosquito spray did not pass. The lady in the blue uniform opened my bag, took them out and drop into her box without my consent. I tried to argue to get my mosquito spray back, but it is no use to argue with authorities in China so I gave up quickly. At that time, all our luggage were at the end of the conveyor belt and they were dumped to the floor. We picked them up and counted. Everything was there, even the plastic bag for some snacks. Feeling fortunate that all the large pieces are still OK after all the chaos, we went into the waiting room. After I sit down, I found that the plastic bag was not my plastic bag. There were several bottled water in this bag, but it also has several boxes of Instant Ramen noodle and a couple of instant hotdog, just what a typical Chinese traveler would pack for a train trip. Who lost this bag and maybe took our bag that has mostly cookies and snack bars? There was no way to get this back to him so we carried this bag to our train. After the train left the station, every passenger either got settled to their bunker bed or started making instant noodles using the hot water supplied by the train. Surrounded by warm steams of instant noodles around us, I pulled out the plastic bag, grabbed the instant noodle, and soaked the noodle with hot water. That particular noodle was some new variety that I never had before. And surprisingly, the noodle was resilient, the soup tasted like beef broth, and there were some refreshing pickled vegetable in the soup too. Even though I know it is all MSG, I was still amazed that great taste could come from a highly processed, never perishable box.

Urumqi Train Station

6.    Yining （伊宁）

  

     Yining is a city that borders Kazakhstan on the northern Silk Road.  There is a Yili river circles around the city. The land here is flat and grass is abundant. It used to be the field where the Kazakhs race on their horses. Half a century ago, the communist party shipped a million of the young high school kids who dreamed about changing the world. These kids did mostly hard labors in the field with their hands and shovels. They turn the grassland into big farms. The area near the Yili river is now a highly productive area with all sorts of agriculture product. One of the interesting thing from these fields is the lavender. Lavender is the tiny little purple flower that has the natural fragrance and soothing power. It was originally grown in southern Europe. But somehow the trading brought the seeds over and the seeds settled at here. Now there are acres and acres of lavender filed in the west side of Yining. These flowers bloom every June. I didn't get to see the lavender field but I did visited those little stores that sells all sorts of lavender products. As always, my eyes were at those edible items such as Lavender honey. Later that day I made honey water in the hotel. As I poured hot water into the glass and scoop some lavender honey in, the fragrant lavender scent rise up with the hot steam. All of a sudden, the world seems so peaceful and tranquil. Now I know those kids did change the world.

Uyghur cities in the north and west of the province shares many similar items. The typical food in the restaurant are braised chicken with potato and green pepper, pilaf, noodles, naan, and kebabs. Braised chicken is the boldest and most heroic dish I have ever saw. The typical menu contains about ten items, three of them are braised chicken. Big plate, medium plate, and small plate. We ordered small plate and the waiter put a two feet round steel plate on our table. Inside the plate, there were chicken, potato, onions, tomato and hot green pepper. There were also wide noodles under the meat and vegetables, immersed in the thick juice, which has perfectly mixed the flavor from free-range chicken and all the other fresh veggies. This dish is best when shared with friends, each holding a ice cold beer. Because of the hot pepper, all the other ingredients becomes tasty, but spicy. Several big mouthful of this could get your tongue burning, or at least feels like it. Cold beer is perfect to wash it off and chill you down. Dish like this sure makes every gathering more flavorful.
      

     Uyghur noodle is another popular item. This dish is like a family-friendly version of big-plate braised chicken. The plate is reduced to a individual size, the noodle is thinner, more tomato and other veggies, and less hot peppers. Uyghur noodle are always made by pulling the special dough pieces with hands and then boil it in hot water. The little noodle dough pieces have always been prepared by cutting and rolling them into slender pieces and saturated in the oil for hours. The dough made from Uyghur wheat are so resilient that it can be pulled into long and thin noodles without breaking. This is because the longer maturity cycle of the wheat in the area. They are high in protein so the dough is super flexible and enduring.

Although this dish is called noodle, it actually comes with two bowls, a small bowl of noodle and a larger bowl of sauce with mixed meat and vegetables. The sauce is very healthy by any standard, chicken or lamb with tomato, potato, onion, long string beans, all cooked to the right tenderness. Since the daylight hours are long in Uyghur, all the vegetables really benefit from plentiful (sometimes powerful) sunshine. And more importantly, it seemed that all that high tech GMO seeds hasn't reach here yet, so everything taste original with the sweetness of the sun. Their tomato are just like our traditional Heirloom tomato, which we have to get from specialty stores or farmer market.

      A typical serve of Uyghur noodle cost less than three dollars. Although it only comes with a small amount of white noodle, most of the restaurant offers free refill of the plain noodles. I heard that there were hungry guys abusing this generous policy by saying: "I  will have one Uyghur noodle, add eight serves of plain noodle!" Fortunately, all the  restaurant owners have learned to delay the second serve for at least 10 minutes, and they give you a big pot of free tea while you are waiting for the free noodle. So by the time your free noodle comes, your stomach are either filled with water, or your urge to eat a lot has already been calmed down by time. To really enjoy eight serves of free noodle, you must have really big stomach, and also a lot of patience. 

Pilaf is the typical dish in middle eastern and Muslim regions. It is a staple in Uyghur too. It is made with rice, onion, carrot, fried in lamp oil. Most of the restaurants make the pilaf in a big frying pan and keep it warm in the kitchen. So after the hungry travelers sit down and ordered food, their pilaf will arrive at the table within a minute or two. And better yet, it comes with free refill of fried rice with veges. Traditionally, pilaf was enjoyed with fingers. But nowadays people eat with a spoon. A lot people likes pilaf because of the softness of the rice after saturated in the broth and oil for hours. For us, it is too fulfilling, it occupied our stomach too quickly and leave us too little room to appreciate other food varieties. 

Kebab is our favorite at all times. For us carnivores, lamp is always good, no matter how you barbecues it. Uyghur kebab is even more special, because they add a lot of spices, including finely grounded cumin and chilly peppers during the barbecue process. The spices are typically sprinkled on after the meat starts to sizzle on the grill. When the spices gets fried in the hot oil and  toasted in the fire, smoke comes up with distinct  aroma that can be smelled from several blocks away. Sometimes, it makes people want to just dance with that smoke.

The big black frying pan with warm pilaf inside, and kebabs before it goes to the charcoal grill 

7.    Kashgar (喀什)

      The most memorable things during our stay in Kashgar are the fruits, lot of fruits, as good as heaven. Kashgar has many cherry trees, and the neighboring county Jiashi has really good melon and apricot. These fruits are listed together with grapes in Turpan, pomegranate in Yecheng, jujubes in Hotan, and fragrance pears in Korla as the best fruits all around China. All these yummy fruits are sweet due to good sunshine and dry weather in the Uyghur region. We happened to catch the season of the melon and apricot. The actual Jiashi melon taste much better than its great reputation. Each melon is about 5 pound, looks like a football, with rough green skin and irregularly patterned lines outside. Inside the melon, the orange colored flesh is crisp and juicy. Once the melon is cut, it looks like a sack made with burlap, with a bag of cool and sweet sun inside. 

Cherry juice, tea pot, and yogurt

Melon, apricot, nectarine, watermelon and green figs ... for lunch

The apricot from Jiashi county is also a real delight. The apricots are small with smooth and shiny skin. They are soft after ripe, very sweet with a slight hint of tartness. I found it was hard to stop eating that apricot once I started. In Kashgar, all the fruits are picked a day before from the tree, all of them are ripe and and ready to eat. And the price? It is incredibly affordable. We had lunch in Jiashi, since we really liked the fresh apricot, our friends send us to the car with a whole box of their apricot. They said the whole box only cost about twenty yuan (3 dollars). We finished about half of it in the next two days. It is not that we get tired of it, it is just because these fruits are highly perishable. These home grown stuff were never sprayed with pesticide, never processed in formaldehyde for longer shelf live. They became soft too quickly. And by the third day, they started to smell like fruit wine, which almost made me wanted to stay and wait for the wine.

The figs in Kashgar makes interesting scenes at every corner of the busy street when they are in season. Different from our California figs which turned purple when mature, Kashgar figs remains green inside and out. The first time I saw those fig was on my way toward the mosque. A old man with long beard and a small green cap was squatting on the edge of the sidewalk. There was a round stool on his side, and a flat iron pot on the stool. On top of the iron pot, there were stacks of greenish flat stuff, looks like some pastries, or squash. I asked the old man what is it. After couple of back and forth, he finally came back with something I could understand, it was sugar buns. Each cost one Yuan (15 cents). After he put the money in is pocket, the old man took a green leaf from the side and warped one fig in the leaf. He then passed it to me and signaled me to eat. I took a bit, hmmm... very soft and sweet, and there are tiny little flowers inside it. It is a fig!

      For Uyghur people, their typical meal starts with fruit, all kinds of fruit around season, even in winter. Fruit is their appetizer, after that there are the entrees and naan. The entrees are mostly lamb, cooked in different ways. Even kebab has different styles. Most of the kebabs are made with marbled meat, put through a iron stick or a  tamarix branch and grilled with seasons. There are roasted lamp which are made by put the chucks of marinated meat on a iron rack and then roast them in the oven. The lamb can also be stewed, boiled in a soup base... No matter how they made it, it always taste good. The secret is within the sheep. Those sheep were raised up by grazing off the fresh grass with plenty of walking. So the meat is always tender without that funny lamb smell. One of the good dish is made with a whole or half young lamb, boil it in a big pot of water. Then stew for a hour with just onion and pepper in the soup. The dish is served hot with a bowl of dipping sauce, the meat is so juicy without the feeling of greasy, even the soup is awesome.

    Another Uyghur specialty is also made with the oven where the Naans are toasted. It is called baked bun. Inside the thin flour shell,  they have wrapped chopped pieces of lamb and l sweet onions. The buns then gets roasted tan in the oven and served hot. I really like the crunchy shell outside, and my son liked them so much he ate six buns at dinner. We packed the remaining six buns to go and the next morning, before I even get up, the boy pulled out the box from the night before and finished all the six bus. He claimed that he was too hungry to wait for breakfast. I was totally stunned and slightly grossed out. The hot buns were good because it was crunchy and juicy inside. But after a night in the air conditioned room, all the meat and oil got consolidated into some white stuff,  how can he eat six of it and still looking for more?

Baked buns, with lamp filling, so good...

    After eating so many sugar-rich fruits and greasy lamp, we thought our bellies would be growing into balloons. But the strange thing is, we didn't gain any weight at all. And if we observe those local people in Kashgar, none of them are fat. All the men seem  to be on the slim side while the older women tend to be a bit round. No one weights more than 200 lb. No obesity after all that sugar and animal fat? My theory is that the local diet in Kashgar is rich in fruits and fiber, so the large amount of animal fat is ignored and passed, and not much get to saved on the belly. It feels like a balanced system between the local diet and the local climate. There are a lot of compatibility between the the local habit and the food produced by their land, after hundreds years of development. Such a eating habits is gradually formed by natural evolution, it does not produce obesity. United States, on the other hand, is opposite  There is not much history to evolve the living habit with the land. In addition  people use chemicals and genetic science to change what the land can produce. Obesity is therefore plenty. With the help of automobile, it is hard to not getting fat.

Kashgar has many good eats in the restaurants. And better yet, while eating, we saw many beautiful artworks of art. Uighur people love music and dance, they love sitting in colorful, beautifully decorated restaurant to enjoy food. From those beautiful arches, fancy stigma, as well as the walls of woodwork, I saw their cultural heritage accumulated over thousands of years. Silk road and the trading has given this city its character and charm. Many, many years ago, Chinese merchants brought bundles of silk here after all the hardships through the desert and sold them to Persians  And from here they brought Persian spices and jewelry to bring it back home by camels. Huge profits attracted lots of people who are not afraid of bandit, sandstorm and dehydration. And thanks to the exchange of commodities and the local productive land, people in Kashgar has been enjoying a abundant life. They had the time and resource to study and make art, pass them down from generation to generations. And nowadays, due to the conservative character of Uyghur toward the ethnic majority Han, there are occasional conflicts in the area. Those incident brought SWAP teams to the city but they also saved the city of Kashgar from the annoying bus load of wholesale tourists. We feel fortunate that we had the chance to visit Kashgar in its natural state and with all the good food that comes around.

Naan

artworks in the restaurant