Beckie Loewenstein

Article and Photography By BECKIE LOEWENSTEIN The water of the Five Continuous Pools in the Black Dragon Province fizzes like an ice-cold Pelligrino. The mineral springs are found at Wudalianchi, a rural community in the volcanic region of Heilongjiang, China. The water contains more than forty minerals compatible with the needs of the human body. Those who drink and bathe in the water on a regular basis gain the most health benefits. Chinese tourists stay for months on end to cure diseases of the skin, digestive, nervous, and circulatory diseases. Those who cannot stay long enough to soak up the goodness take the water to go. During the summer the locals and tourists arrive in droves to collect the precious water from the taps. They come prepared with empty 10 kg plastic containers, thermoses, and bottles. The cold water gushes out. Some load the backs of trucks with as many containers as can fit. Many drink straight from the tap. The mineral water tastes strange at first. The bubbles

Article and Photography By BECKIE LOEWENSTEIN Chinese massage therapy involves a series of rubs, presses, scrapes, brushes, pulls, pokes, shakes, slaps, and punches. The intensity and duration depends on the health condition and personal preferences of the client. The residents of Harbin turn to massage therapy as a medicinal remedy to aches and pains. I accompany my classmate Christine Trac to the massage therapy clinic in the residential district to the north of Heilongjiang University. The white characters “blind person massage” (盲人按摩) painted on the windows advertise that the therapists are all visually impaired. Before the 1980s blind massage therapists were most common. The elderly even more than the youth in Harbin have the belief that the blind have sharper senses and can give the best massages. Christine chooses the full body massage that protects overall health; it costs 30 元 an hour. Sometimes you can choose your career, and other times that career chooses you. Zhou was bor

Photography and Article by BECKIE LOEWENSTEIN Unidentified gases spew out of smokestacks scratching Harbin's skyline. The seventh and eighth floors of the dormitories of Heilongjiang University have a view of the factories to the south of campus. On the rainy day of July 18, 2008, the gases look particularly black. When rain and wind do not carry the smoke away, the air takes on the taste and smell of the pollutants. A Chinese student at Heigong University describes the "air flavors" (气味 qiwei) as either sour, sweet, spicy, bitter, or fragrant. Each day in early June the air smelled either pungently bitter or sickeningly sweet. However, today the air smells relatively fragrant. Perhaps the wind has changed direction.

Article and Photography By BECKIE LOEWENSTEIN Siberian tigers arouse from their siesta in the shade to snatch a chicken or two at their current residence, the North East Tiger Park (东北虎园) in Harbin. Trying to maintain the health of their tigers, the park employees only feed the tigers live animals and meat that have passed multiple health inspections. The tigers are rapidly losing their native habitats in China due to increasing population growth. These tigers will not be released back to the wild anytime soon. This park is the only breeding center for Siberian tigers in the world. Sightseers can hold one month year old tigers. Although no park or zoo can ever replace the wild, these tigers have more space than most living in captivity. They roam in the shade of trees and snooze in the tawny grass of fields. Sightseers take a Safari bus ride through the tigers' pad, and have the option to purchase live chickens, ducks (40 元 each）, and guinea fowl (100 元 each）. A jeep with its wind

Article and Photography By BECKIE LOEWENSTEIN Chinese citizens expecting to see the morning torch relay from the Flood Control monument at Zhongyang Street in Harbin, China, console themselves with photography. They arrived before 5 a.m. as prepared as could be. With heart stickers of the China flag on their cheeks and flags in hand, they waited patiently. Catching a glimpse of a torch-bearing proudly carrying the Olympic flame would make missing a day of class and/or work worth it. They waited more than three hours at the barricades. The first barricade enclosed the street. A second barricade created empty space of twenty-five meters in width. The pre-approved university student leaders and Chinese elites stood behind this barrier. The general public squeezed into spaces behind. The crisply-dressed police officers, bearing no weapons on-person, faced the public. During the joint police forces warm-up exercises, they jogged together in single-file unison. Hesitation and uncertainty tem

Article and Photography by BECKIE LOEWENSTEIN Descending from the top of the Hat Mountain(帽儿山: Mao Er Shan), a peasant herds two cows. The cows hungrily graze on the lush green undergrowth of the forest. Their four hooves are loosely bound together with rope, slowing them down and making them easier to guard. With an occasional stumble, they lunge forward to the next morsel of grass. Cowbells clanging, the cows sway their heads in between mouthfuls of leaves. The cows are nameless. The herder, their owner, guides them out to feed in the forest and pasture. But he does not want to build an emotional attachment with these animals. They are not pets. They are destined for slaughter. The cows will bring in wealth and financial security to the herder's family. The larger the cows grow, the more flesh there will be to sell in the meat market. The only names the cows ever receive are those of Chinese dishes. The climb up Hat Mountain attracts city folk who want to get a breath of fresh ai

Article and Photography By BECKIE LOEWENSTEIN Rivers do not have to be clean to attract fishers, bathers, and swimmers. The Songhua River of Harbin, China, is no exception. Newspapers and television stations in Harbin warn that the pollutants in the river will bring about illnesses of the skin. Nevertheless, Harbin’s urban dwellers depend on the river for summer leisure activities. Entire families sojourn out to the river to catch fish, wash laundry, scrub clean their pet dogs’ fur, bathe, and swim. Bathers scrub their bodies down with soap. Many do not know how to swim. They sit at the edge of the river to soap their skin, and then rinse off with handfuls of water. The swimmers peel off their clothes down to underpants. After smoking a cigarette or two, they wade into the shallows. They scrub their faces and ears with a bar of soap; the soap bubbles all dissolve during the dive into the murky depths. The Songhua River veteran swimmers notice the difference in water quality. Fifty-two

Yang Wei Ming plays tennis with a friend at Heilongjiang University on an overcast summer day in Harbin, China. Tall grass and flowers grow in the cracks of the cement tennis court.

Sun Wen Si, third year undergraduate law student, at Heilongjiang University in Harbin, China, advocates recycling and reducing litter as the message of the Green Olympics. She hopes to bring yellow canvas bags as an alternative to white plastic bags. Since June 1, 2008, grocery stores and markets in China began to charge customers for plastic bags. “We all know that the plastic bag does not protect the environment and is not biodegradable," says Sun Wen Si. "These yellow bags can be used multiple times." Students can throw the "white rubbish" into the mushroom-shaped litter bins on campus.

  Cormorants, their webbed feet bound with twine rope, go for a boat ride in the Munai wetlands, a nature conservation site in Heilongjiang Province, China. The dense reeds growing in the freshwater, greatest depth of six meters, provide nesting sites for more than two hundred species of birds. This eco-tourist destination includes rafting and dragon boat racing.