Maoming - Ruthie's Birth City

This morning we got up early and drove from Hanchuan to Wuhan.  From Wuhan we took a flight to Guangzhou.  In Guangzhou we were met by our guide, Philip, (or as he said, Old Mr. Wong) and our driver, young Mr. Wong.  Next up was a 4 hour drive to Maoming from Guangzhou.  Since our flight was delayed, we didn't arrive in Maoming until 10pm.

 

Much like the drive from Wuhan to Hanchuan - the drive from Guangzhou to Maoming was fiiled with farming of all kinds of fruits, vegetables and rice fields - but unlike the Hanchuan countryside the Maoming country side was several weeks ahead!  The rice was already growing, bananas were ripening on the trees, and there were a lot more water buffalo to see.

 

Maoming city proper is about 600,000 people strong.  But Maoming also includes 5 surrounding counties - which then boosts the population to 6 million.

 

We stayed at the Maoming International Hotel, a 5 star hotel, right in the center city - where the beds were NOT like sleeping on a slab of slate!  Maoming is much more like a big city...we did not see any pony carts ;-) 

 

Tomorrow we visit Ruthie's finding site and in the afternoon we visit Ruthie's orphanage.
 

Joyce

Observation - Modesty

Modesty in China is different than in the USA.  Disclaimer - these are my observations about China and the USA and this is not a scientific survey...

In China both men and women are more to wear more clothes.  When we might wear shorts and short sleeved shirts - the Chinese are wearing long sleeve shirts and coats and certainly not shorts.....

 

Another modesty observation is that in a women's locker room - American women dress (or undress quickly) shielding their bodies with towels or behind curtains or simply turned into the locker.  On the other hand Chinese women - young or old,  nice body or not  - do not shield their body or turn towards the locker.  They simply undress and walk around nude without vanity, embarrassment or shame.

 

Joyce

Hanchuan - The Orphanage Visit

Grace's orphange (or SWI) is located on a small narrow unpaved lane just off a major thoroughfare.  Along one side of the lane are small stone dwellings - some might call them shacks....the other side are cement construction materials and a small river.

 

After the SWI gate was opened, our van drove into the court yard, where we were greeting with a banner (red with old letters) that said "Welcome Lin Li Tan, Go Home!"   This was a literal tranlsation from Chinese to English and what the banner meant to say was "Welcome Home, Lin Li Tan"  Grace was fine with this and we had a good laugh about it.  I think if she didn't know Mandarin, perhaps her reaction to the sign might have been different.

 

The SWI also houses the elderly who have no other place.  Many of them were in the courtyard enjoing the nice day.  We were defientlyh an attraction and aroused their curiousity.  We were met by the Director and another women, whose role I am unsure of...  We were shown to a conference room and given fruit and water, while Grace file was retrieved.  I am not sure if we saw the whole file since rather than a file folder or envelope being brough out, just a  sheaf of papers paperclipped together was brought to me. 

 

I asked if I could take pictures and was given the "okay", but shortly after taking a picture of the first 2 documents, I was told that maybe it was better not to take any pictures.  Our guide, Rosalind, told me that she thought I had gotten a picture of the two most important documents in what they brought us....at the time we did not think to ask if there were pictures.  It was confirmed that no note was with Grace at the time she was found.  The paperwork did have one inconsistency in it.  One document said "found in the afternoon" andother said "morning".  I asked my guide that she had read the "afternoon" document correctly, and she confirmed yes.  We both noted the inconsistency, but did not ask the SWI personnel to clarify which was correct.  Morning was what the official abandonement certificate documented.

 

The director was very pleased that Grace knew Mandarin and that usually for returning adoptees that is not the case. They enjoyed the pictures that we had brought of Grace.  In the midst of all of this, Grace's Foster mother (NaiNai) came into the room.  The SWI personnel had gone to bring her to the SWI.

 

Meeting Grace's foster mother was GREAT. She was soooo pleased to see Grace.  She couldn't take her eyes and hands off of Grace and Grace couldn't stop smiling.  Rosalind had a hard time keeping up with translating - everyone was talking so fast and all at once!  We got lot's of pictures, we learned a little about her family, we gave her pictures of Grace to her; she remembered the items that we had sent through China Born Kids several years earlier; and we heard a few stories about Grace when she was younger than 1 year. 

 

The foster mother wanted to show Grace (and us) her house, but the director would not allow it, since at some time at the SWI (?) or in Hubei (?) some one had had a bad experience.  We asked again later and denied again and they wouldn't even let the foster mother ride in our van with us (not enough room for a SWI staff person to ride in our van, too - so she would be unsupervised with us - I guess).  In any case I had slipped in a post card with our email and home address into the envelope of pictures.  Later our guide would "secretly" tell Grace's foster mother to look for the postcard.

 

We got a tour of the children's section of the SWI - we saw the playroom (dusty) and where the babies slept.  The SWI is small and has only ever had a handful of babies.  Our adoption agency, the biggest China adoption agency has only ever placed ~30 babies from Hanchuan.  Since Grace's time most of the babies are placed in foster homes, rather than kept at the SWI.  We also learned that the SWI is moving to a new building and that many of the things were already at the new place.  On our way out we did get to see a 4-5 mos old baby, who had some kind of issue with one of her eyes.  An older blind man was "in charge" of this baby and after a few minutes of our admiring the baby he demanded his baby back ;-)

 

Before heading to lunch, we went shopping at the local store (We bought 10 boxes of baby milk powder as a donation to the SWI).  The foster mother, SWI staff, our guide, driver all joined us in a private room at a local resturant.

 

After an emotional goodbye at the restuarant, we headed back to our hotel to rest, and the SWI staff and Grace's foster mother headed back to the orphanage and her home.

 

All in all a very good visit!

 

Joyce

Hanchuan - Grace's Birth City

Today we flew from Chengdu to Wuhan (capital city if Hubei province) and then drove ~ 2 hours to Hanchuan.  As we drove from WUahm to Hanchuan the scenary was definitely of farmland.  We saw lots of fields being prepared for rice planting, other vegetables were growing and fish farming.  It wasn't unusual to see water buffalo plowing the fields.

 

Hanchuan itself is a small city of about 300,000 people.  So a small city compared to the other cities we had been in to date in China.  The city has cars, motorbikes, bicycles - both motorized and regular as well as small ponies pulling long narrow wooden carts!  Hanchuan is a poor city.  It's not clear if this is a city that is up and coming or a city that once was more prosperous but is having hard times now.   To the best of our knowlesdge there are no tourist attractions. 

 

Up unitl Hanchuan we had been staying in 4 or 5 star hotels with sumptous western/eastern buffet breakfasts, fast food options for lunch or dinner, and plenty of shopping opportunities.  Hanchuan has no fast food options.  All our meals were Chinese fare, so after 2 days we were dying for anything western!  Our hotel, Green Sea, Blue Sky (also known as Blue See, Blue Sky) was a no start hotel.  The beds were HARD - like sleeping on a rock.  No complimentary bottled water, which means you have to go buy some because the tap water is not potable.

 

We were in Hanchuan 2 days, 2 nights - other than going to Grace's SWI - we really didn't leave our hotel room.  When it was time to leave, we were ready to move on.

 

Joyce

Michael

Michael

Philip

Rosalind

Chengdu

Our second day in Chengdu found us going to Jiangli Street - this time during the day.  I was glad we were able to see it both in day time and night time.  We spent more time finding souvenirs to bring home!  We could have easily spent 2 hours here, but only spent about an hour and a half.

 

After Jiangli Street we went to The People's Park.  Here there are lots of green spaces, a small creek, areas for bands and dancing, and tea houses.  The dancing area may have 4-5 bands all next to each other playing their music as loudly as possible - the retired folks are dancing - some are in costume, some just enjoying the music.

 

Retirement ages are a good bit younger in CHina than USA.  Women retire at age 50, if they've had a physically hard job, otherwise it's age 55.  Men at ages 60 and 65.  So there are many more people just out and about and not working.

 

Gotta run we are off to the airport!
 

Joyce

Funny faces

Funny faces

2011 Asia Badminton Games

Okay - as soon as I hit send on that last post I remembered what we did for dinner!  Our hotel is the hotel for all the players, coaches, trainers, and officials for the 2011 Asia Badminton Games. So there are about 20 countries here with their best Badminton players.  So thought it would be a fun (and very cultural experience) to go watch the games and we figured we would be able to get our dinner at the stadium.

 

Our guide Michael and checked into where the games were being held and said that the cab ride should be about 15 yuan and tickets no more than 100 yuan. We also found out that China's premier men's player would be playing tonight. 

 

We neeed to cabs to take us to the stadium.  Diane, Mom, Grace and Maggie went in one cab and paid 29 yuan cab ride (more traffic) and Dad, Ruthie and I went in the second cab.  Our cab driver wnated to charge us 69 yuan.  All Dad had was a 100 yuan bill and I had no money, so we ended up in a minor argument...eventually he called the other cab driver and he gave dad the rest of the chnage from the 100 yuan bill.  At the stadium it was clear that some folks were scalping tickets, but for some unknown reason we were allowed into the stadium without purchasing a ticket! 

 

The game - at any one time there may be four matches going on.  Might be a singles match or it might be a doubles match...it might be men or it might be women. A match is won by winning two out of three games, and each game is played to 21 points or the player must win by 2 points.  We saw several games go over 21 points.

 

None of had ever seen competitive badminton game before, so we had no idea what to expect.  It was exciting, fast paced, and it was easy to follow what was happening.  We quickly became fans and were cheering with the rest of the Chinese - call and response - "Wei da", "Jia you."  A Chinese woman in front of us was enamored with the girls and kept smiling at them whenever they cheered the Chinese players.  Later she offered us all Dove chocolate ;-)

 

We saw Lin Dan the top Chinese men's player win a tight match against a player from Thailand.  We also saw a single women's match - two Chinese play each other (Liu and Wang ??) and two Chinese doubles teams play each other.  Another Chinese woman beat her Thailand opponent in just 2 games.  Another Chinese men's player was winning his singles match against a player from Thailand when we left.

 

The cab ride back to the hotel was much quicker than the ride over and cheaper, 12 yuan.

 

Everyone enjoyed our evening of badminton!  I recommend seeing a competitve game if you ever get the chance.
 

Joyce

Day 8 - Chengdu and Pandas!

This morning we head off to the Chengdu Panda Research Base.  It is about a 20-30 min drive out of the center of the city.  Today we will pay $150-160 US for the girls to hold baby pandas.  For those of you planning a trip - you'll need the cash, Yuan or US, no cards taken.  While a $150 is a lot of money for 1 min of holding a baby panda, I keep telling myself that I'm not paying for the panda holding, instead, I am supporting the reaserch that is being done to help the survival of this species where only ~1000 pandas live in the wild and ~ 500 in captivity.

 

The Panda holding was scheduled for about 9:40am, so we had about 45 min to see the nursery and the kindergarten.  Then we lined up with the girls.  Only those who make a donation are allowed inside, so we were relying on the girls and the staff to take the pictures.  The adults stood outside watching as others came back out from their panda holding experience.  People were aglow from the experience.  It made me want to scrounge up another 1000 yuan and hold a panda myself!  The girls were no different and they got GREAT pictures.

 

After that we walked around and saw more pandas - both giant and red - most of the pandas were failry active - eating bamboo, scratching their backs against trees and wrestling with each other.  Then we watched a short film on the Panda's lifecycle and current research.  The Panda research park is the nicest green park we've been to - bamboo everywhere, pheasants walk the grounds, and flower beds everywhere.

 

We had a another delicious Chinese lunch somewhere.... ;-) and then it was back to the hotel for some down time...not sure where we ate dinner!
 

Joyce

Day 7 - Yuzhen's Visit with Us

Yuzhen was our exchange student from Chongqing who lived with us last school year.  We were able to make arrangements for her and some of her family to meet us in Chengdu for part of the day.

 

After fnally reaching Yuzhen, she, her parents, and her aunt and uncle arrived at our hotel.  They had come by train from Chingqing earlier in the day.  Yuzhen's father has a friend who does business in Chendgu and had a van and driver that they borrowed for the evening. Yuchen looked great.  Her hair was cut, the mole near her eye had been removed, her skin was clearer and she had lost some weight.  Her parents looked very good, too.  Her father had had a serious illness the eyar prior and recovery had taken several months.  There was little to notice now that he had been ill....a scar on his neck, two scars on his head and a very slight limp. 

 

We all piled in the van (all 13 of us!) and headed to a hotpot restaurant owned by either the same friend of a different friend of Yuzhen's father.  Hotpot is a traditional spicy meal favored in Sichuan province and espcially in Chongqing.  Last year Yuzhen had tried to explain hotpot to us, but to fully appreciate hotpot you must experience it.  After a short drive, we arrived at the restaurant (Yuzhen will have to email me the name), we were shown to a private dining room.  Almost immediately the food began to arrive.  In the center of the table was a large hole with a burner at the bottom.  One of the watiresses brought in a large pot that fit neatly into the center hole.  That pot had a smaller pot inside of it.  The outside pot already had dark liquid broth with numerous peppercorns floating around in it.  The small center pot also had broth, but it was lighter in color and like the outside pot it already had seasonings in it.  Yuxhen told us that the outside one was very hot and the inside one not so hot.

 

All kinds of uncooked meats and vegetables (and other unidentifiable foods ;-) are brought in around the two pots.  Depending on what you want to eat and how spicy you want it - you add uncooked foods to the pot, wait for them to cook and then fish them out - it was delicious and a real treat!  There was so many of us that we needed to swap out some chairs for stools - even at that Yuzhen's mom and aunt didn't eat until everyone else was done...and then they dove in.

 

After dinner we went to JingLi Park.  It was packed with people - mostly Chinese - and all lit up with red lanterns - absolutely magical.  JingLi Park is a narrow walking street with stores, bars, restaurants, and small vendor carts selling snacks and small trinkets.  Yuzhen's mom immediately began buying the girls trinkets and snacks - first up was small jumping monkey's with swords or a twisty sheep (mei yang yang) that makes a clicking noise.  After that it was watching a man blow a sugar taffy candy into zodiac animals that he then put onto wooden sticks.  Grace and Maggie got dragons and Ruthie got a sheep.  Yuzhen's mom then bought my parents a fan.  Ruthie got a panda holding a baby panda with bamboo.  After that it was cotton candy for all the girls and after that, it was another candy that is made of carmel flavored sugar that is drizzled into various shapes - birds, dragons, monkeys.  For this you spin a dial and the arrow points at the animal or bird you get.  All this sugar in less than an hour - good thing the girls had really eaten well at dinner!

 

Back to the hotel with lots of hugs and kisses all around.  It was a very special evening spent with Yuzhen and her family.  We can't wait to see Yuzhen before she returns to USA for university.  She's been accepted at several places, but she is waiting to hear from Boston University.  If she is accepted by BU, then she will attend!  Since I am an alumni, I will send along a letter of reference ASAP.  Attending BU will also put her on the East coast - much easier for visits to NC and CT!

 

Joyce

Day 7 - Chengdu

After an uneventlfut 1.5 hour flight from Xian to Chengsu we were met by a young man named Alex - our guide for the day.  Right from the airport we went for a Chinese lunch.  Every lunch has been delicious and more food than we can eat.  Everyone - kids included - is trying new foods - most we like, just a few we don't.

 

From there we went to learn about silk.  We saw the silk worms, the pupa, the cocoons and then finally the silk before it is wovenin to thread or fabric.  We watched a team work an intirciate loom.  The woman worked the strings - there were at least 6-7 sets of strings.  SHe would put one set in and then she would pull on that set of strings, while the man actually worked the shuttle on the loom.  In one day (about 8 hours) together they can weave about 15 centimeters!  We learned to tell the difference between a machine made silk and a handmade silk fabric.  Handmade has the same pattern on both sides.

 

We learned that women (and sometimes men) eat the silkworm pupas for a snack.  It's supposed to be good for your skin and eye sight.  They also drink worm poop tea or put the silk worm poop into a pillow to sleep on - again to improve their eyesight.  Then we saw some women embroidering - their embroidery needle is sooo small - which explains the worm poop tea....I guess!  Their handiwork was impreesive - both sides were perfect and displayed the design without flaw, loose threads or knots visible.

 

From there we helped to stretch some a silk square of about 1 by 3 feet into a queen size blanket.  Layer after layer of stretching the smaller squares eventually makes the insides of the silk blankets.  Depending on how many squares you stretch will determine the weight of the blanket - summer weight (1500 grams)  or all season weight (2000 grams) or a winter weight (2500 grams).  After that we had fun buying our silk blankets, silk duvet covers, silk scarves and silk pillows that unzip and turn into a small blanket.

 

From there we headed to our hotel, YinHe Dynasty Hotel.  This time our rooms are 3 in a row.  In Xian they had been spread far apart - same floor but at complete opposite ends of the hallway.  At that point we were desparate to get internet access (after 2 days in Xian with none), so I could retrieve Yuzhen's mobile phone number.  After a little delay I was able to get Yuzhen's number and then call her. 

 

Joyce

For my Springs Co-Workers

Hi guys!

 

Having a great time.  Hope everything is going okay....hard to say if I am losding wweight (as I predicted) or not.  The scales all vary too much to have any faith in the numbers.

 

Beijing health club scale (new and modern) says I lost 5 pounds (yeah!)

Xian scale (older than mine at home ;-)  ) says I GAINED 10 pounds from where I started in USA

Chengdu scale (old) says I lost another 5 lbs from Beijing.

 

I like the Beijing and Chengdu scales best.
 

Joyce

Day 6 - Xian

Today we went to the see the Terra Cotta warriors.  First we went to a workshop to see how the different artifacts are made - felt the clay, saw the molds, saw the workers mashing the clay into the molds, saw the kilns etc.  This particular place also made the lacquer furniture and had other artists who painted.  While we were there our guide Michael, wrote the girls name in Chinese on rice paper in the calligraphy style. 

 

After the work shop we had a short drive to the Terra Cotta museum.  We met the man who discovered the Terra Cotta soldiers and he signed our books.  There are three or four main buildings that were built over the excavated areas.  None of it is fully excavated or fully restored.  One soldier may take up to a year to rebuild and repair.  Since the warriors actually have color - they don't want to dig them up until they figure out to preserve the color.  Now, when a piece is dug up the color oxidizes and is mostly lost. It's pretty amazing - the detail, the scale, the expense both then and now to create and preserve!

 

After the Terra Cotta soldiers we had a Chinese lunch and later that evening we went to the Tang Dynasty show.  That was fun and dinner was included.  Mostly it was foreigners, but there were a few Chinese here and there.  Dinner consisted of dumpling after dumpling after dumpling...they came in the shape of what was inside the dumpling.  So we had chicken, pig, duck, scallop, fish - just to name a few.  The show was a series of traditional performances rather than a show that told a story.  It was impressive in costume and set design and even included some humor!

 

Xian is a city to 8 million people - compared to Beijing it has a very different feel.  The city felt more accessible, more city neighborhoods, more walkable.  Beijing felt like just a giant sprawling city where you might not know or see your neighbor.

 

Next stop Chengdu and the Giant Pandas!
 

Joyce

Day 5 - Xian

Day 5 and 6 find us in Xian.  Parting from our guide Sunny this morning was difficult for the girls (and I think Sunny, too).  She was great with the girls - speaking Mandarin with them, buying DVDs in Chinese for them, holding their hands - she was just wonderful!

 

Our plane ride to Xian was uneventful - thankfully.  The girls were a little worried they would get sick again!

 

We were met by Michael and a new driver - from the airport we went to lunch, then to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and then rode bicycles on the old city wall.  Grace and Diane rode single bikes, while Michael rode with Maggie on a tandem bike.  Ruthie and I also rode on a tandem bike.  We didn't have much time maybe 30 minutes - but we had fun.  Anyone planning their own trip be sure to leave more time for this activity!  Ann and Tom relaxed on top of the old wall, did some people watching and took pictures of us riding the bikes.  Granpa scored a deal on a flying bird toy.  On the way in a woman was selling the flying bird toy for 10 yuan.  Ruthie decided she wanted one and then Grace and Maggie decided they wnated one too.  So we sent Granpa armed with 30 yuan to buy 3 flying bird toys...he came back with 10!

 

One of the things Diane and I decided to do was give the girls their own money ($100) that they could spend however they wanted, no questions asked.  It saves everyone time and arguments. 

 

Both in Beijing and in Xian - all the sights are full of people - Chinese on their own spring break tour....don't ask me why but it never occurred to me that there would be hordes of Chinese wanting to see their own national sights - dumb huh?

 

The Mosque is in the heart of a Muslim hutong like marketplace, so after visting the mosque the moms and kids continued walking through the market, while Michael walked the grandparents back to the hotel.  Grace ended up buying a pair of sunglasses - th eother two could not find sunglasses that fit - they were all too big.  I bought a cashmere (I hope!) shawl for about $43 US.  All three girls purchased colorful bracelets made out of string.  We tried a small round bread which had some kind of sweet filling.  After walking a little further we came out by the Drum tower which bounds one end of a very large square in front of our hotel.  The Bell Tower is at the opposite end closer to our hotel.  We stopped at the McDonald's for a snack and later tried to surreptitiously get a picture of a child in split pants!

 

Later we went to another McDonald's for dinner, which was next to an 8 floor department store.  The girls scored some very cute sandals.

 

Since all three girls speak Mandarin - all the locals we end up interacting with are pleasantly suprised and glad that the girls speak Mandarin adn always comment on that their pronunciation is very good, and how much Mandarin they know. - way to go Smith Academy and all the Laoshi at Smith who teach our kids.

 

Joyce

Day 4 - Beijing

Today we went to an outdoor market place that our driver suggested to Sunny.  We were gald he made the suggestion - since this market had lots of animals that the girls enjoyed.

 

We saw LOTS and LOTS of stores selling fish (not the kind you eat - the "pet" kind) and fish tanks, fish food.  Keeping fish in your house is considered good luck.  We also saw a whole store that only sold Chinchillas.  They were very cute.  Young or adult Chinchillas are about the size of a rabbit.  We also saw two baby Chinchillas with their mom.  Also in the market were small song birds, chicks and ducklings as well as what we though were baby mice.

 

Grace and Maggie were intrigued with walnuts (not the edible kind) that you take two and massage and exercise your hand by mnoving two of the walnuts in your hand.  With the help of our guide, Sunny and our driver (ShiFu) we were able to buy small enough size walnuts and of decent quality.  The driver had a set that if he were to sell he could get 1000 yuan (exchange rate is about 8.5 yuan to the dollar).  We did not pay nearly anything close to that!  Overtime the oil in the users hands will turn the walnuts a rich red color.

 

The girls also bought some ox bone combs for gifts.  Our guide, Sunny, was very good at picking out the real bone versus the jiade (fakes).  Sunny had never been to this market before and liked it enough to buy herself a belt and new pocket book.  Our driver also bought some things for his fish...so it was a good trip for everyone ;-)

 

After the market we had Peking Duck for lunch.  We learned that for a duck to be a "Peking Duck" it must be certified as a Peking Duck, which means its been raised and prepared in a particular way.  It was delicious!  We haven't had a bad meal yet.....

 

After our lunch of Peking Duck we went to the offices of CCAA and BLAS.  Eric who works for BLAS showed us CCAA.  We stood in the hallway of CCAA and saw the 3 areas (medium to large office space - maybe 10-20 cubicles in each area) that make up CCAA.  So we saw the "Log in room," the "review room" and the "matching room."  Eric explained that the first room was where the adoptive familiers paperwork comes in and is "logged in."  Dossiers are then sent down to Eric (and co-workers?) at BLAS for translation or verifiying that a good translation has been made.  After translation the dossier comes up to the "review room."  This is where questions get asked and answered or if everything is already in good order - paper work is then passed to the all mysterious "matching room."

 

We asked Eric two questions - first question - can we see the girls records?...No (politely, no). We had asked this prior to the trip and even suggested a donation or fee to cover the cost of a worker's time to retrieve the records. So the answer was not unexpected, but you never know in China so we thought it was worth asking. Second question - how did the matching room workers make the matches...answer, that the Chinese beleive in fate - so we got a typical Chinese answer - rather than our USA sought after fact based answer ;-)  Another question we didn't really think we'd get a true/real answer to, but again felt we should try anyway.

 

After our CCAA tour - we went up a floor (or maybe down a floor) and met Nancy from BLAS who had worked with Diane and myself to arrange the tour for us.  We were given water and the girls were given very cute pandas as well as a book of papercuts each and puzzle maps of China.  Sweet.  We took pictures,  thanked everybody, etc., and then we were on our way.

 

After that we came back to the hotel to rest, swim in the pool, and pack. Later we went to Pizza Hut for dinner.  Pizza Hut in Beijing is more like a full service restaurant with plenty of options besides pizza and pasta.  Our waiter spoke very good English and is headed to George Washington University to study later this year.

 

My parents are managing the trip quite well.  Although the pace is a bit tiring for them - for example, they chose not to climb the Great Wall - which was a good choice! It was strenous even for those who are younger - fit or not.

 

Joyce

 

Trip Update

We have been in such a whirlwind of activities with no time to blog....we arrived and have left Xian having spent 2 days there without access to the internet.  We are now in our second day in Chengdu!

 

I am going to try and remember what we have done wach day since my last post....we don't always follow our itenarary exactly each day...

 

Joyce

Day 3 - Beijing Countryside

Sunday we drove out of Beijing proper and into the suburbs/countryside.  We stopped in a city called, Yanqing, for our picnic lunch from KFC.  Then we drove out to a resort park area whose name I do not know (we keep forgetting to ask our guide, Sunny).  They had a hotel inside the park and other shops.  There was also a large outdoor covered stage with small fountains built into the ground....

 

Since we drove north of Beijing the temperature dropped 10-15 degrees and it was quite windy...we even saw a wind storm, a few flurries and some hail!  We weren't exactly dressed for the weather.... 

 

In the park itself we rode up a series of elevators that were built inside a large dragon.  You entered through the dragon's mouth and then exited at the tail, at which point you are high up in the mountain.  From there we took a ride on a boat through the gorge.  The mountains rising on either side of us for several thousand feet.  The water was cold enough to still have ice flows several feet thick!

 

At one point we saw a man on a bicycle traveling on a wire carrying a man across in a chair hanging below him across the gorge from once side to the other.  After we got out we walked up to a temple where the girls got to ring a very large bell.  Also here was the opportunity to bungee jump - but we didn't see anyone doing this - too cold.

 

The girls got to sit in the wheel house of the boat coming and going so they did not have to endure the cold wind.  That made them happy!

 

Later we walked inside the mountain through a tacky tunnel - they were trying to show the culture of the area through dioramas...the kids loved.  Diane and I got a good laugh....at the end of the tunnel you can either walk down or ride down on "sleds".  We all chose the sleds.  The kids wanted to go again, so Sunny took them up to slide down again.

 

However, for the girls, the hit of the day was two small puppies who were living at the exit gate!
 

Joyce

Having fun

Having fun

Having fun

Having fun

Peking acrobats

It was so cool!

More dinner

Dinner

Beijing - Day 1 & 2

Wow - what a whirlwind 2 days in Beijing!  We have seen The Temple of Heaven, Tianamen Square, The Forbidden City, rode in a rickshaw through a Hutong, eaten at a "local person's" house in the Hutong, visited a porcelain making facility (Diane bought a small plate), climbed the Bell Tower (rung one time per year) learned about Chinese Tea (we tasted too), watched the Peking acrobat show, ate hotpot at a local restaurant, and swam in the hotel pool...that was day 1 ;-)

 

Today we went to the Great Wall and Summer Palace.  On the way we stopped at a Jade factory - I bought myself a very nice jade bracelet and Grace and Ruthie each got a Jade pendant carved in their Chinese Zodiac animal.  Expensive, but nice.  We also made a quick stop to see the Olympic venue - the bird's nest and the cube.

 

Impressions - Beijing is a big sprawling city with - as you might expect - lots of cars (Fords, Hondas, Buicks, VW Bugs), buses and trucks, but also lots of bicycles - motorized and regular as well as small scooters, one person cabs, and itsy trucks.

 

Beijing has impressive, interesting architecture and lots of contruction, but often the new sits right next to the downright ugly & dirty neighborhood.  First look may you think no one lives here - sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.

 

You might see huge outdoor video/TV screen and 1 block away a family are drying their clothes from a tree on the street. 

 

We've also encountered squat toilets and discovered that the practice is not to flush to toilet paper after use, but to deposit it in the small trash can in your stall - no wonder those places stiiiiink!

 

Weather so far: We've had WONDERFUL weather.  It has been warm, very low humidity, and usually a nice breeze.  We are dressing in t-shirts and shorts.  The adults usually are wearing t-shirts and capri pants.  We carry a light weight fleece jacket, but need it only here and there.  The locals might be wearing ankle length parkas (some of the attendants were wearing these and had the hood up), long sleeve shirts and light weigh coats....crazy!

 

That's it for now - I'm tired and need to go to bed...it's 9:30pm on Sat eve. 

 

Joyce

long plane ride

 

Grace

 

The plane was very big and had a small TV ,I was not expecting that! At the end of the ride we hit air bumps (a lot of them )and of corse I threw up two times.After we got out of the airport we went to the hotel and had dinner. After we had dinner Maggie and I went down to see the pool it was giant.