Travel_With_a_Purpose

Our trip to a province

2010-09-02T22:53:00.000-07:00

During training, we made a trip to Shinjianzhang to visit a former student, Susan. We only had a day and a half, but it was an amazing trip. We were concerned about the living arrangements we might find and whether or not they really had enough room for us to stay, but it turned out fine. They actually had a three bedroom apartment because Susan's father-in-law sometimes stays with them, and the bedrooms were air conditioned, so they were quite comfortable. The city was a two hour bullet train ride from Beijing, and we found out later that it was the capital of Hebei province.

When we arrived at the railroad station, Susan was especially excited because her son had just gotten his senior school exam scores and they were very high. In their city of 5 million people, he scored 4th place of all of the junior high students! This exam is very important in China because it determines where a student will go to high school and eventually what University he will attend. Because he scored so well, it reflects on his school, and more students will want to attend there, and of course, he can choose which high school he wants to attend. We were as excited as Susan was, because we know how hard he studied and how important it was in his life.

After her husband got off of work, we all went to a very nice restaurant for a Peking duck dinner. We were escorted into a semi-private room with a table set for twelve, which was surprising for the four of us. It turned out that some friends and their daughter, as well as Susan's son joined us. Last year, when Susan and her family visited us at our campus, her husband surprised us by sneaking to the cashier and paying the bill. Paul has been waiting all year for the opportunity to do the same, so when Susan was looking at the menu and her husband was out of the room, he was able to give the waiter the money for dinner. When his trick was discovered, everyone had a good laugh because Paul had learned the Chinese way.

The next day, was an opportunity to participate in everyday life in China. While Paul and son David rode bikes to his middle school, the women (neighbors dropped by to help) made zhongzi, or sticky rice dumplings and jiaozi, or boiled dumplings for lunch. They showed me how to wrap the sticky rice in a special kind of leaf to form the little pyramid, while keeping the rice inside. I wasn't very good at it, but it was a lot of fun trying. We then filled and shaped at least two hundred dumplings in preparation for boiling. I learned how to prepare and roll the dough into little circles and then fill them with a bit of stuffing, made with bitter melon, ground pork and lots of garlic, ginger and other seasonings. I also learned how to shape them in little half moons and fancy shapes such as mice. This picture shows Susan putting some of the dumplings into the water to boil.
The neighbors stayed for lunch and we had a great time trying to communicate in Chinese, English and sign language. As you can see, our lunch table was actually the living room coffee table with a variety of stools for sitting.
After lunch it was time to head back to the train station, so Susan's husband went downstairs to get a taxi. When we followed in a few minutes, he had two taxi's because almost everyone was going with us to the train station! When we arrived, there was a long line and only those with tickets were allowed in the station. That didn't seem to be a problem for our little group, because after some animated discussion, a security guard escorted us all around the waiting crowd and through a separate door into a special air conditioned waiting room. Then, when it was time to board the train, our entourage continued to the door of the train to make sure we were safely on board. It was a really fun ending to a wonderful visit!

Christianity in China 2010

2010-08-23T12:24:00.001-07:00

These are pictures of "our" church in Beijing, the Haidian Christian Church. They have four Chinese services and one English service each Sunday. This picture shows some of the English service worshipers crammed into a meeting room, where we met the first two years we attended. This year, they have rearranged the Chinese services schedule and moved the English service into the main sanctuary. The room was still completely full and had "standing room only" outside with televised services. It appears that the service is about 2/3 Chinese and 1/3 foreigners. There are several other churches in Beijing that are specifically for foreigners, requiring a passport to attend, but anyone can attend these English services. We were surprised to hear that Josh McDowell had spoken at Haidian the week before we arrived.

These are pictures of the Fengtai Christian Church, another registered church in Beijing. They have recently begun an English service, with about 100-125 in attendance. The services are at 2PM because the Chinese services take up the rest of Sunday.

These church buildings are all very large, relatively new and in different parts of the city. We were told that because they are registered, the government has financed them, not the members.

The building pictured above is the Chaoyang Christian church, the one we visited on a Saturday afternoon. The first thing we saw when we walked in was the Bible bookstore. You could buy a wide variety of Bibles, both in Chinese and English, as well as both languages, and other Christian study books. As in American Bible stores, you could also buy a variety of Christian "stuff", wall hangings, paperweights, plaques, etc. Each of the other registered churches we attended had a similar bookstore.

Each year, we puzzle over the apparent discrepancy between what we hear about the "persecuted church in China" and what we see in Beijing. This year, we had an opportunity to talk with two seminary students who attended the TIP program. One was from a registered church and had just graduated from his seminary and one was from a home (underground) church. We were most interested in what the home church student had to say, but they both agreed on the basic information. In order to make sure I didn't forget anything important, I recorded our conversation with "Paul" in my journal. Here is that entry:

"Today at breakfast we talked with Paul, a theology student going to seminary in Hong Kong, and got some helpful information about the church in China. He says the estimates of Christians in China are between 40,000,000 and 80,000,000 but it is probably around 60,000,000. 35,000,000 are in home churches and about 25,000,000 are in government approved (registered) churches. Paul said that he was from a home church in his province, although sometimes he works with pastors of government churches when invited. He explained that home churches are more intimate and have a lot of heart, but have poor facilities and organization. The government churches, because they can operate in the open, have much better facilities and organization. Pastors from government sponsored churches are able to get seminary training, but home church pastors are not, so they do not have as much Bible knowledge.

He explained that the local government leaders determine how the church is treated in each community. If the leader is friends with the Christians, they are treated well, but the leaders can be "crazy" if they don't like the people who are Christians. Christians have an easier time in the large cities that have more foreign influence, but in the outer provinces treatment varies a lot. He says that pastors from government sponsored churches must work only in their own congregation (and we have heard from others, only in their own buildings) unless they go through a large amount of red tape. Home church pastors have much more freedom. Paul explained that he is able to go to seminary only because he is going in Hong Kong. He would not be allowed to attend in Mainland China because he is from a home church."

This explanation has helped me to understand the differences in what I see and what we often hear. The bottom line is that China is a large country, with local officials sometimes interpreting the "law" as they choose. These seem to be some of the horror stories we hear. I also have talked to a young Chinese man here in America whose family had been treated brutally for economic reasons as well.

We have also been told that membership in a registered church requires quite a bit of effort. Once someone has accepted Jesus as their Savior, they must participate in the church, take part in Bible classes and become known to the pastor and congregation for six months as a requirement for baptism. Baptism is a requirement for membership, and to partake in communion. During a service with communion, the pastor asks all those who have been baptized to stand, and those standing are the only ones offered the elements.

As China is becoming more and more tied to the West economically, they are becoming more and more influenced by Western culture -- and religion. We heard reports this summer that the Chinese government is beginning to encourage religious beliefs because their research has shown that religion is a common factor in economic growth in the West. This, of course, can lead to the idea that religion is a works based ideology that is beneficial for prosperity.

We spent most of the month of July reading and discussing Bible stories with one of our students and it seemed that her conclusion was that the Bible was a good guide for living. We are praying that the Chinese people will see the need for spiritual as well as economic prosperity.

Classroom Activities - Class F, July Session

2010-08-10T06:49:00.000-07:00

One of the most popular parts of the TIP program is the "Morning Motivational" which are thought provoking lessons about life. Because of changing schedules, classes sometimes miss the "Momo", so we tried to incorporate the lesson into our class time. This lesson was a story about sharing a "blue ribbon" with someone to show that they are valued. Of course, we gave each student a blue ribbon. In addition, we had "stars" for those who worked hard and did something out of the ordinary. By the end of the session, each student had a "star" to take home as well as their "Blue ribbon". Hopefully, these will be reminders of the "once in a lifetime" experience they had at TIP.
Meals are actually considered part of class time because the purpose continues to be the same -- to speak in English in a variety of situations. We used somthing called "Conversation starters" to keep the topics more interesting than "What are you eating?" They would contain questions, such as "What do you value most in life?" along with vocabulary words related to values. These questions were especially helpful for our lower level speakers.
One hour each day was devoted to computer lab, where they would listen to native speakers reading passages for them to repeat. The computer program allowed them to compare their voice patterns with the native speaker to help them improve their pronunciation. Each student was given a copy of the program to take home with them and continue practicing.
One of the week-end activities was an old-fashioned school carnival, and here Peter is trying to create a fishing pole for our class game. He tied a couple of branches together with some leaves to make it long enough. Quite impressive, I thought! The class decided to use a different game, so Peter's innovation ended up in the trash heap -- as many do.
Our Chinese students loved games and puzzles. Fortunately, Paul does too, and has a bag full of tricks to use if the regular class activities end sooner than planned. This game started out with the two strings intertwined and the object was to get free without removing the strings from our arms.
If you notice the classroom, it is set up in a "U" shape. The idea is to allow the class to be student centered, not teacher centered, as the Chinese teachers are use to. In addition to helping them improve their English, we are trying to help them learn new teaching methods. The Chinese education system is set for rote memorization so that the student can answer the exam questions critical to their future lives. If they do well on their exams, they can progress to better schools and universities, but if not, they may not be able to go to a university at all. If they don't do well on their exams, they will probably be relegated to a life of manual labor or street vendor.

The Chinese government is beginning to recognize the need to change their education system and is using TIP to change the way teachers approach their own classrooms as well as improve their English.

Classroom activities - Class A, June Session

2010-08-10T05:53:00.000-07:00

Class time in the TIP program has a wide range of activities. Our purpose is to build a team to work together and improve everyone's spoken English. We begin with 30+ teachers from all over China who don't know each other and in just a few days we are close friends and everyone is doing their best to help everyone else succeed. The first picture is from our Talent Show. Each class has to perform before the entire group of 200 or so students and they can do whatever they would like. The performance must last 7-8 minutes and at some point, everyone in the class must participate. Our Class A (June session) was very creative in their costumes and chose to sing a song called I am a Pizza. In preparation, we showed them what a pizza was and how it was made, including an explanation of the ingredients. As you can see, they had lots of fun!
One of our students, Amy, was great at organizing us all, and she always wanted everything perfect. Here she is arranging the group for our class picture.
We are all ready -- but where's Panda?
Waiting around is a favorite activity in China. It seems like the students are use to it and do it very patiently.
This was a class activity -- sort of. As part of the week-end Photo Scavenger Hunt, they were suppose to take a picture of a bottle of Coke. Did I mention that this was a creative group?

Around Town

2010-08-09T04:15:00.000-07:00

Since we have been to China and Beijing several times, we don't spend a lot of time shopping or visiting tourist attractions any longer. However, this year we had a special treat. Several of our students were from Beijing and Lydia's husband wanted to thank us for being such a help for his wife. He wanted to take a Saturday afternoon and give us a tour of whatever we wanted to see in Beijing! I'll tell you more about Lydia later, but her husband was born and raised in Beijing, and had been a local TV photo-journalist as well, so he really knew the city. His current job was in public relations for one of the districts of Beijing, so he had a special government pass on his car. All that meant that we had a personal driving tour of some of the most intimate parts of the city.

When we travel, we like to see the REAL city, so we were especially thankful for the offer. We told him we would like to see the Bird's Nest and Olympic Park, but then we wanted to see some Hutongs -- the oldest parts of the city which are now designated as national landmarks. They are the old single story neighborhoods that have several homes built around a courtyard, usually for the extended families. Most have been torn down to build high rises, so even though many are dilapidated, they are some of the more expensive properties in the city. Some that have been restored sell for millions of dollars. In any case, our tour included the Hutong where James, our guide was born, as well as several other areas of "real Beijing". We were delighted to have this tour in a comfortable air conditioned car with someone who knew the city well and could tell us about the things we were seeing.

The picture at the beginning is of an old man playing a Chinese string instrument. We were surprised that he wasn't expecting any money. We were told that the people are encouraged to practice their skills in the parks and open areas, so that is what he is doing. Below are some of the shops and a restaurant on the neighborhood streets. Check out the outdoor dining area of the restaurant in the first picture. Hint: look on the roof! My favorite is the one with the bicycles -- it is a second hand store -- just like in American, except with Chinese junk.

These are some doors to actual courtyards, and the third picture is a glimpse into a courtyard. Apparently it was laundry day.

The last three pictures are from a friend, but I think are beautiful depictions of the "real Beijing".

Beginning classes

2010-08-04T17:11:00.000-07:00

We adjusted well to the time difference in China -- actually it only took a couple of days to sleep at night instead of during the day. The food adjustment took bit longer. The most difficult part was all of the oil used in cooking. We learned to make better choices -- like wonton soup instead of some greasy concoction over rice, but the options in the cafeteria were very limiting. My favorite Chinese food turned out to be peanut butter on Ritz. This year, for the first time, we took a large jar of peanut butter with us -- and used most of it. And yes, we were able to buy Ritz crackers at the little campus store.

We stayed for two sessions this year. June was the last of the "year long" sessions, meaning that the facilitators had been there since August. Even though we normally go just for the month of July, there are sessions once a month all year long. Some year long facilitators were on their annual furlough and some were on the admin staff preparing for the summer, so it was especially helpful to have us there early to actually facilitate a class. We had 31 teachers, mostly from the middle of China in the coal mining areas. Many of their lives had been touched by the tragic accidents we have read about in the news, but they are resilient people who choose to move past what has happened and do their best to do their job. "It is my duty" is a phrase I heard many times in a variety of circumstances and I think it says a lot about the Chinese people.

One of the most important things we try to do with our students is have fun so it's easier to relax and not be so self-conscious. The program is called "total immersion" and is based on how children learn a language -- naturally while living their lives. Since most who attend the program are English teachers, they already know the grammar and basic vocabulary, but in many cases, they have had very little opportunity to actually speak English. As a result, they are afraid to even try because they don't want to make a mistake. "Saving face" is very important in China and our first job is to get our students to just talk -- regardless of how poorly. One way we do that is to play games and sing songs. We stand in a circle, toss a ball around the room and they have to say their name or a simple phrase if they get the ball. Or divide into two teams on each side of the room while the teachers hold up a blanket. The teams choose someone to stand in front of the blanket and when the blanket is dropped, the team who identifies the person from the other team first is the winner and gains a new teammate. In addition to relaxing and feeling more comfortable, we are trying to build a team of people who will help each other and work together.

This picture was from a photo scavenger hunt when they were asked to have as many from their team as possible stand on one sheet of newspaper. They weren't completely successful, but had a great time trying!

Arriving on the Yuan Ming Yuan Campus of Peking University

2010-08-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

After one full day in Bejing, it felt like we have never been away. We arrived about 5:30 AM, right on time after leaving Vancouver one hour late. We were greeted at the airport by Alex, a delightful young man who was our lifelong friend after the first hello. Alex worked with us as a facilitator for the June session and we were definitely glad to know him! When we arrived at the campus, right outside the gate was a delightful array of breakfast treats to buy -- freshly cooked on the street. We had eaten on the plane, but that definitely was a stop later in the week.

As we were walking through the campus to our buildings, we were greeted by a number of the workers Paul befriended last year. The maintenance man/cleaning supervisor for our dorm was delighted to see us and we now expect "extra special" service. Of course, that only means vaguely normal cleaning/maintenance help in real life. Things are relative in China.

We were taken directly to our home for the next two months -- right next door to where we stayed last year. As expected, things have changed a lot. First of all, instead of cement, the halls and rooms have beautiful white marble tile floors. Unfortunately that, like many things at this campus, is only a skin deep change. We were delighted to have a private "suite" this year instead of having to share our bathroom with 20-40 others. That was a major improvement and a definite answer to prayer. It also meant our "room" had expanded to the area originally built as an apartment kitchen and we didn't have to stand in line for the bathroom we were assigned. A good thing too, because Paul could not figure out how to get the bathroom door to close. The solution to that problem was to leave it alone. Chances are good that if we could get the latch to close, we could be locked in the bathroom forever. :-(

These pictures show our dorm room and private foyer:

Last year, we were treated to life in a construction zone almost the entire time we were here as they worked frantically to get our dorm ready for western occupants. Basically, they were putting private bathrooms in 17 6-person dorm rooms right next to our "apartments". That meant jack hammers in the room next door as well as all up and down the hall and wheelbarrows of cement rolling by throughout the day. Needless to say, we were very curious about the results of all that work. These sterile dorm rooms have been turned into 2-person rooms with potentially nice private baths. We were told, however, that the Chinese idea of nice isn't quite the same as ours. The bathroom is in two parts -- the toilet on one side in a little room as you walk in the door and the sink/shower on the other side. The shower is not separate from the sink, and when in use, sprays water all over the entire area, including the fiberboard cabinet. We were also told that this is a normal Chinese style shower and that people just wipe down the entire area when finished. The problem, in American minds, is that you can never get things completely dry in this humid climate, and things get ruined very quickly. Also, the water runs under the door and towels to contain the water are lying around wet all of the time. Our bathrooms, by contrast have exposed pipes and drains that don't always work, but have a seal around the door and an indented floor in the shower area to somewhat contain the water. Oh, but did I mention that the door won't close? Shower report: Fortunately Paul tried it first and discovered how to unplug the drain. He then showed me how to adjust the hot water from "boiling" to comfortable and I was good to go.

The new western style dorm rooms are used by the year-round facilitators and many of them will be here during the summer sessions, so most of the summer facilitators will be housed in the Chinese style dorms on the second floor of the building. Their living situation will also be similar to those who were here last summer, so as much as things change, they stay the same.

Safe arrival in China

2010-06-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

We have arrived safely in Beijing and are trying to adjust to the time change. (15 hours ahead of California) We learned just before we left that we would NOT have to do any quarantine, which will make life much easier. We also learned that we have until Wednesday to relax and prepare before classes begin again. We usually come for the July summer session, arriving in time for two weeks of training and team bonding beforehand, but this year we will teach at the June session and then do our usual routine. We have met some of the delightful people we will be working with this month and are looking forward to our first session.

Access to Facebook, Twitter and this blog is blocked, but sometimes I have been able to borrow an internet connection that works around it. Email seem to be fine and available all of the time. I will post again when I have some pictures!

Oh BTW, we will be visiting a new start-up church today. Apparently they have about 100 people plus 20 on the worship team. It should be interesting.

Returning to China

2010-05-29T18:14:00.000-07:00

This will be our third summer in Beijing working with Chinese English teachers to help them improve their verbal skills. Every year is different and the opportunities are always a surprise, so we are looking forward to seeing what this year holds.

There are some things we know: We will leave on June 2nd and arrive in Beijing at 5:30 AM on June 4th. This is a bit earlier in the month than usual and we will be spending almost two full months this year. We normally arrive with the summer team at the end of June and spend two weeks in training before working with the teachers in a classroom setting during July. This year, we expect to spend four days in quarantine (probably reviewing the training) and then begin immediately with the three week June session. There will be a break while the rest of the summer team arrives and is trained, then we will participate in the July session. During that break, we expect to help with training as well as participate with the others.

Sorry, there are no pictures, but I know there will be lots when we get back and I will post when I can.

Even though we always go in the summer, this is a year round program. Because most Chinese teachers have a summer break, and most American students/teachers do too, the July and August sessions are larger and are considered short term. In addition, most months from September to June have the same sessions which are taught by about 15 year round staff.

Christanity in China

2009-08-05T05:04:00.000-07:00

China has changed a great deal in the last 25 years. Our first visit was in 1983, and at that time, China was closed to most things of the Western world. We heard many stories of the "persecuted church" and were amazed that there were so many believers after almost 35 years of atheistic rule. We had the opportunity to take a large suitcase of Bibles to some of the Christians there, which were gratefully received because they had not been available for many years.

Today's China has embraced the Western world, both the good and the bad and the most important thing I've learned after three additional visits is that people are people all over the world. They have the same desires and concerns for their families and the same hunger for God that everyone else has. We have been told that as many as 4% of China's population are Christians -- in a country that has been officially atheistic and with no foreign missionaries for over 60 years. God certainly is at work! However, we struggle to understand the current situation of the Church in China and the amount of freedom that Christians have to practice their faith. It seems that there are credible stories of persecution in recent years, but also there is clearly a strong vibrant Church growing very quickly in this part of the world.

The organization we have worked with the past two years (ESEC -- Educational Services Exchange with China) began working in China about 29 years ago and has been very careful to establish trust with the government by being above board and respectful of China's laws against proselytizing. We are told that today, the Chinese Education Department welcomes our program because they see its value to Chinese people, even though they are aware that all who come are Christians. We are very careful to avoid direct evangelism and will only discuss our faith as a result of direct questions from individuals.

My favorite phrase to describe our work in China is to "spread the love of Jesus everywhere, using words if necessary." We show the love of God to our students as we work with them day by day, and they definitely notice. The two most common questions are "Why are you bowing your head before you eat?" and "Why would you come all the way to China to help us?" Both are wide open doors to share our faith, which we do in a variety of ways.

This year, I had one student ask me some questions about my faith in God and I was able to explain to her that God's love is not something that we have to work for ... that we want to please him because He loves us. She was very interested in the concept that we give gifts to our children because we love them, not because they have done something to deserve it and asked if we could talk about it later. We set a time and then later in the day she asked if she could bring her friend. Of course! As we met the next day, we talked a little further about God's love and then I asked her friend (another of my students) what she thought about it. Her immediate response was "I want that! -- I want to be like you...to have what you have." I was rather startled by her response, since I had not said anything to her about God before. To make sure she understood what we were talking about, I explained God's plan for salvation and after patiently listening, she again said "I want that!" What an honor and blessing to be able to pray with her as she accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord. I was able to give her a Chinese/English Bible (printed in China and purchased at the legal registered church we attended --not smuggled in!) and she explained that a neighbor of hers at home attends a Christian church. Please pray for Sally as she comes to mind, because I have no email for her or way to keep in touch.

Chinglish

2009-08-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

In China it is common to translate English phrases directly from Chinese -- often resulting in nonsensical phrases called Chinglish. For example "We wish you much happy".

Americans consider this hilarious!

In an effort to help, we prepared some lessons to correct Chinglish phrases for our students. It turns out that in my class at least, everyone knew what was wrong with common phrases and how to correct them. Keep in mind that we were working with English teachers, who understood grammar and spelling better than many Americans. After three days of this, I asked them to tell ME some Chinglish phrases -- which was even more hilarious! Here are some samples:

I will give you color see see -- I will fight you

People mountain, people see -- Lots and lots of people

Today no see - tomorrow see -- If I don't see you today, I'll see you tomorrow.

He feels very boring -- He is bored.

Good good study, day day up. -- Study hard and make progress

Little cockroach -- a little stronger

Double face, no face -- If you behave badly, you will lose respect.

White Horse Prince -- Mr. Right

I give a leg to you -- I love you

One stone, two birds -- Kill two birds with one stone

If you want to see more, please go upstairs -- If you go higher, your view will be better

Sunshine boy (girl) -- very active, energetic, loves sports

Not three, not four -- double face, bad guy

7 up, 8 down -- worried about something

3 words, 2 sentences -- uses may words to explain something

Blow cows -- boastful

Don't care 3-7-21 -- It doesn't matter, life is like that. Or, so what, it doesn't make any difference, 3 x 7 will always equal 21.

250 -- stupid, foolish person

colorful wolf -- sexy man, and one who plays around

Don't tiger me, I have twice. If you tiger me, I'll mountain you. -- Don't try to trick me. I'm very smart and if you try, I'll hit you.

And the very best genuine Chinglish: Long time no see

A little about Chinese customs and lifestyle

2009-08-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

Pictures: 1. Some of Susan's class at the Old Summer Palace Park. 2. Class at Mutton Stick restaurant. 3. Mutton Sticks!

Chinese people live and work in community. I think Communism was easily accepted because for centuries the culture had been to work together for the common good rather than individual success. In our program, the first thing we tried to do was to build our class into a team. In just a day or two we were all family -- even if we couldn't remember every one's name. We had 28 students (Paul had 22) and the evening we first met, most of my class decided to go out for Mutton Sticks. The "English only" environment began the next morning and it would be the last time the students could leave the campus for three weeks. Since mutton sticks are a regional minority speciality, most of the students had never heard of them.

Mutton sticks are prepared on a bamboo skewer by threading two thin strips of mutton (mature lamb) with a small chunk of fat between. They are then seasoned with a spicy rub and grilled over charcoal. Bread is seasoned and grilled in the same way and it is very delicious. It would not be unusual to eat 10-12 mutton sticks along with bread, boiled peanuts and edamame (immature soybeans) for a meal.

In addition to a sense of community, there is a very different sense of space in China. Personal space as we know it in America is unknown in China. Instead of about 18 inches, People in China are comfortable as close as 6 inches apart. This means that people feel comfortable squeezing past in very confined spaces. If you want to get off a bus/subway car, pushing is perfectly acceptable -- and sometimes the only way to get off. One time a group of Americans was going to church when three of us got off and waved good-bye to Ray, who didn't make it because he waited for a lady to get out of his way. The Shanghai subway at rush hour is difficult to imagine. The way cars are packed make sardines seem comfortable. It is almost difficult to breathe and more than once we saw a briefcase stuck in the door as one last person tried to get smashed in.

In addition, physical contact between women and sometimes between men is normal. Women walk arm in arm or hold hands regularly. It was amusing to see two younger American team mates walk hand in hand down the street while shopping, which in China, it has no meaning other than a sign of affection. I felt honored when my students took my hand or arm while walking on campus.

What about construction in China?

2009-08-02T04:28:00.000-07:00

Pictures (in reverse order): 1-2-3 Removing windows to be replaced. 4-5-6 show some of the remodel process of adding a bathroom. Notice the scafolding in picture 5!

We had the opportunity to observe China construction techniques up close and personal. It gives new meaning to the term "custom built". Everything is done from scratch - they bring in a load of 16' pipe and create whatever they want in the size they need. They cut it, thread it, weld it and paint it...or whatever else needs to be done for the project.

This would be the work order for replacing windows:

Tools needed: hammer, blowtorch, electric saw (with the tiniest blade I've ever seen, about 3"), electric drill, bicycle cart, broom, newspapers

Manpower: at least 8-10

Task order:

1. Inform residents at noon by placing a sticky on the door that windows will be replaced at 3:30pm.
2. At 3:30, move aside remaining possessions and furniture before covering floor with newspaper.
3. Begin breaking glass of old windows.
4. When all glass is broken, begin tearing apart aluminum frames with hammer and bare hands.
5. Cut phone line which has been threaded through a hole in the aluminum frame.
6. Use blow torch to cut iron frames, pushing aside curtains to reach corners. Use power saw if that is handier.
7. Squat on ledge and use broom to sweep up glass and crud.
8. Replace window with a beautiful vinyl framed dual-paned window & caulk frames.
9. Remove newspaper from floors and pile frame pieces onto a bicycle cart.
10. Move on to the next window.

A week or so after we were finished with our quarantine, we had to move out of all of the rooms on the 1st floor -- except the four apartments the "older folks" called home. That meant we were in the midst of the work for our remaining time there. They were renovating 16 ancient dorm rooms into suites for the TIP staff that will be living there year round. The work needed to be done by August 6th, so they used China's most abundant resource -- workers -- to get the job done. They began jack hammering cement floors promptly at 6:30 each morning and they worked until about 7:30 each night with a two hour break each afternoon. The TIP office and our meeting room was directly above this chaos so we quickly learned to schedule meetings between noon and 2pm! I certainly hope the year-round staff appreciate their beautiful new rooms.

The living situation was a bit of a challenge, but we've lived through remodeling in our own home and realize that it is only temporary. However, it certainly is wonderful to sleep in our own bed in a nice quiet room!

What do we do in China?

2009-08-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

Pictures: 1. A class performance at the Talent Show. 2. A bridge in the Old Summer Palace Park. 3. A classroom activity. 4. The July 2009 Summer Facilitators.

For the last two years we have been in China for about six weeks with an organization called TeachOverseas. We have volunteered with a program called TIP -- Total Immersion Program -- which is designed to help Chinese English teachers improve their spoken English. We have discovered that most English teachers in China have never spoken with a native speaker and have never been taught conversational English. As a result, they lack confidence and are fearful of speaking out and making a mistake. I can identify with that because, even with traveling to many parts of the world, I have never had enough confidence to speak the few phrases I know in a foreign language.

The concept behind TIP is to cloister these Chinese teachers in an English environment for a period of time, currently about three weeks, where they will be constantly exposed to English only, NO Chinese. This year there were about 350 English teachers, along with about 40 American volunteer facilitators. They were broken into 13 classes of 25-30 each with 1 - 2 Americans per class.

The typical student day began with breakfast on their own in the cafeteria at 7 am, then classroom time at 8am for two hours with their small group facilitators. During that time we used discussions, projects, games and other activities to get them to bond as a group and practice their English. They next spent two hours in a large group meeting where they had diction lessons and Morning Motivation time. MoMo time was mentioned frequently as their favorite part of TIP because they were inspired with a moral lesson and challenged to change their thinking about themselves and their lives. Some of the lessons included "Being the right person", "Never give up", "Have a positive attitude" and similar concepts. After large group time, they had lunch as a class with their facilitators and were required to stay for a full 30 minutes of conversation. They were given "conversation starters" with questions and vocabulary words to discuss, but of course they also wanted to know anything and everything about our lives in America. After lunch was a 90 minute break for a nap and personal time, then an hour in the reading room. Each American is encouraged to bring at least 10 magazines to stock the reading room, so there is much to choose from. The students are required to write a summary of an article each day as well as keep a vocabulary notebook of 20 new words they have learned that day. After reading time, they have a one hour large group meeting for "Famous speeches and Fairy Tales". Included are a variety of well known American speakers, such as Martin Luther King, Ronald Regan, Barbara Bush and Bobby Kennedy. The fairy tales are also ones with a good moral lesson. After this large group class, they are divided into different small groups for an hour of "clubs". Clubs are classes with specific topics such as cooking, sports, travel, holidays, drama and music. They changed their club every three days so they had an opportunity to learn about a variety of subjects in English. They had dinner with their club to give them a greater variety of people to talk with.

The last group activity of the day was at 7pm, when they had one hour of game time with their class. This could be physical activity such as basketball, card games, word games, etc. but they especially enjoyed the occasional opportunity to go to the park next to the campus and just walk and talk. The park area was the ancient Summer Palace that had been destroyed in the mid-1800's by European armies and kept as a memorial to the lost culture. Most of the students felt it was a sad place (sort of like a Holocaust memorial) but they loved to visit.

Throughout the day, there was also a rotating schedule for language lab when they used the computers and specialized software to continue practicing their pronunciation. After game time, they had an hour of personal time to write in their required daily journal and take showers before bed at 10pm. As you can see, it was a busy day with both students and facilitators working very hard.

The most rewarding part of TIP was the love and appreciation of the students. They came from all over China and many never imagined ever meeting a foreigner. Many times they had unpleasant ideas of what an American would be like and were amazed that we were loving kind people there to help them. One day a student asked if Americans hated Muslims, and since he was a Muslim from a persecuted area, it wasn't a casual question. I have already received an email from this teacher and I know his idea of Americans has been changed forever. Yes, it was an exciting and rewarding experience!

Living on campus in China

2009-08-01T04:32:00.001-07:00

The first pictures are of the facilitator dorm and bathroom facilities. The beautiful green trees were from last year's campus and the concrete buildings are from this year's campus.

This year, the TIP program was moved to another campus of Peking University. The former campus was about one hour out of Beijing and quite isolated. There was a lot of green space with trees everywhere, but the University decided to use the campus as a research center and there was no room for our program.

The University offered us the Yang Ming Yang campus in the city of Beijing, which had some advantages but several disadvantages. First of all, it was very small and had very little grass or trees. We felt a little like we were in a concrete jungle (last picture). Most important, because it was in the city, an inviting world was right outside the gate and it was very difficult to maintain an English Only environment. The most important element of our Total Immersion Program was NO CHINESE as much as possible for the entire three weeks. Since there were other students on campus, the guards didn't know who was allowed out and who wasn't, so many did leave at various times.

The dorms were better for the students since they had AC if they chose to use it, but many of the women weren't excited about using public showers. At least at the beginning, many took showers in their underwear and my favorite comment was from a student who was afraid others would look at her and think "too many dumplings". Actually, the other campus had similar shower facilities with fewer "hot water" hours, so apparently this is normal for a University campus.

The facilitators shared four western style bathrooms, so showers weren't so much of a problem, but with as many as 40 people sharing four showers, it was a challenge to find one available! (The shower schedule broke down very quickly as more and more people were included)

In general, however the dorms were spartan, but adequate for our short term use.

Actually arriving in China

2009-08-01T03:46:00.000-07:00

Health is a very important topic and concern in China. Because we were working with teachers from all over the country and on a campus with students from all over, everyone was VERY concerned that the "foreigners" not bring in the H1N1 virus (Swine flu). The precautions taken were almost unbelievable!

1st of all, we were not allowed to have any physical contact (handshakes, hugs) with anyone who already was in the country. In addition, a record was kept of the taxis we rode in, any hotels we stayed in, etc. Before we were allowed off the plane, people in white uniforms and hospital masks boarded and took our temperature. One of our teammates (on a different plane) had a temperature and spent the next week in isolation in a hospital. His only other symptom was a runny nose, but he tested positive for H1N1. The three other teammates on his plane were sent to a hotel and isolated in separate rooms for 7 days. They weren't allowed to have the AC on because the ventilation system might spread any germs they were bringing into the country.

After we arrived on campus (at 1 AM), we could do nothing until we took a shower to remove any surface contamination. We then were confined to our building for seven days from when the last person arrived -- that meant eight or nine days for some people. We were completely confined and only allowed to use a covered patio outside one door, We set up tables on the patio and had meals brought in for the whole time. I'm sure the cafeteria workers who delivered the food in masks were very concerned for themselves! They had fenced off any access to our building to make sure we didn't "escape" and no one accidently wandered into our area.

While in quarantine, we had to take our temperature twice a day to begin with, but eventually only once a day. I was in charge of making sure all 35-40 of us got recorded each day, which was quite a challenge. We also had to have our bathrooms "sanitized" twice a day, along with all doorknobs, etc. and for the first day or two we even had to wear hospital masks. For most of the week, we were in good humor and greeted each other with "Dzong" or "unclean", but as you can imagine, we had quite a celebration on "release day"!

This whole thing sounds quite bizarre -- and it was -- however, it provided an amazing bonding experience for the team and several "returnees" recommended a period of isolation be included in future trainings. Since the program is now located in the city, it is very easy -- and fun -- for the facilitators to go off campus regularly. I don't believe we would have developed such a close team without that time spent together. It reminds me of the Bible story of Joseph and his brothers. The brothers meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

Arrival instructions have arrived

2009-06-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

Arriving at an airport in another country -- especially one that speaks a foreign language -- is always an adventure. You just never know what is going to happen! This trip holds special promise because of the concern over the H1N1 virus. I've heard of an entire plane being quarantined because of someone coughing. Maybe a rumor, but you get can an idea of the level of concern. Here are some of our instructions, based on government requests:

For the first 7 days, we will take these measures of precaution by staying together as a team, living and holding training in 2 buildings (attached with interior access) on campus. We will keep ourselves from coming into contact with the other students on campus (these are Peking University students, not our TIP students. Our TIP students will arrive after the 7 day isolation period). We won’t do any site-seeing or city exploration until after these 7 days, as we want to stay away from crowds. If we do need to leave the campus for any special reason, we will go as organized and planned groups, but when we are out of our isolated area, we should keep a distance from others outside our group of about 5 feet.

Also, some specific practices that we will be encouraging each other to do in those 7 days are the following:

get lots of rest after travel
take vitamins and drink lots of fluid
exercise
wash hands at least 6 times a day (2 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, 2 in the evening)
use paper towels on public doors and faucets
bring your own tissue supply
don’t touch your eyes or nose
don’t shake hands
do not sneeze without covering your mouth
wash your hands right away after sneezing
use disposable plates and utensils
keep record of body temperature
report any cough or discomfort immediately, and go to hospital/doctor
wear mask when in doubt
sterilize the dorm twice a day

That is, if we get out of the airport without being quarantined.

We will be leaving home about noon today. Our first stop is in LA to pick up 5 cases of Uno cards, then on to Irvine, where we will be staying tonight. Our flight leaves LAX about 1pm tomorrow. We are flying All Nippon Airpines and will have a very short stop in Tokyo -- just enough time to change planes. I think I can add Japan as a country I've visited, though.

Getting the Uno cards have been quite an adventure, too. I know our students will appreciate the cards, even if they don't realize the effort to get them there.

Next stop -- Beijing!

2009-06-10T00:21:00.000-07:00

We are getting ready to make our next trip to Beijing and will be flying out of LAX on June 21st. We decided to fly Nippon Airlines this year so we will be making a short stop in Tokyo -- just enough time to find our outgoing gate! We will be part of a team of about 50 Americans, Canadians and Dutch who will be working with about 500 Chinese to help them improve their English skills. We did this last year and had an amazing experience, so decided to go back again this summer. The program is called TIP -- Total Immersion Program. This means that for three weeks, our "students" will speak, listen, read and hopefully think in English only.

We will be at a different campus this summer, the Yang Ming Yang campus of the University of Peking and will be in Beijing itself, right next to the Summer Palace. The living facilities will be quite different from last year and most of us will be housed in Chinese-style dorms. We have been told that the dorm rooms are air conditioned, which will be helpful in the heat and humidity, but the bathroom facilities will be typical Chinese dorm. Meaning "squatty potties" and open showers. There are a few apartments with western-style facilities, and rumor has it that they will go the married couples and older teammates. Since that's us, we are hopeful!

One of the things we discovered last year is that Chinese people love to play UNO (one of the TIP activities) but Uno cards aren't available in China. We therefore thought that UNO cards would be a great gift for our students. The only problem is that there will be 20-30 students per class, and the cards cost $5-$6 per deck. After investigating lots of possibilities, we found a guy on Craig's list who had what we needed and was willing to sell 10 cases (12 decks per case) for $100 -- but we had to find a way to get them from Phoenix, without paying postage if possible. After much prayer and many Facebook postings, we found some friends of friends who are make the trip from Phoenix to LA at the end of this week and are willing to bring the Uno cards. The Craig's List guy was even willing to deliver to the people in Phoenix. We delight in a God of creative solutions!

We expect to have internet connection while in China, but there is some question about whether we will have access to Blogspot because of censorship. If possible, I hope to update while we are there. But if not, I will post a report when we return.

2008-08-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

Susan - I've been fascinated with your trip and following it since you first went last summer! I would love to hear MORE! Did you have people who could not overcome their hesitance to speak out? What were the people like? What grade level or age did most of the teachers teach? Is almost everyone learning English there? Or how common is it to learn English in school there? At what age does common education cease? Do the people really eat all those weird things that they've been showing on tv? What did you eat when you were there? Barbara O.

Ohhh, I love questions Barbara!

First of all, everyone in the program had some level of English. Many of the teachers were sent by their district and had no choice, but most of them were delighted to improve their English and become better teachers. We also had teachers that didn't actually teach English, but were just trying to improve themselves. Also in that category were university students, business people and a few even as young as middle school students. Our youngest was a 12 year old girl who came with her mother. She was put into a separate class from her mom and was amazing! I'm not aware of anyone who didn't overcome their initial hesitation -- on the other hand, they had no choice but to speak at least sometimes. It would be pretty hard to keep your mouth shut for the entire time. :-) They were given citations for speaking Chinese, and if they were caught speaking Chinese more than four times, they were sent home! (No one has ever been terminated for that reason.) At the end of the session, everyone had to recite a 15 minute speech they had written and memorized in order to get their University of Peking certificate. As far as I know, no one failed to get a certificate for not doing their speech.

The people were delightful. I absolutely LOVE the Chinese people! This is coming from someone who was interested in "helping people" but with no special interest or concern with China before going. They were very caring, loving, helpful, courteous, giving, and just about any other good thing you want to mention. They were beyond grateful that we left our homes and came to China to help them. In fact, they could hardly believe that we would do such a thing! This was the best testimony we could have to begin with. It opened up dozens of opportunities to discuss WHY we would want to do this. (I've removed additional explanation that might cause a problem.)

As far as grade level, we had all levels from pre-kindergarten to senior school. The methods we used were based on how children learn...by fun, games and natural conversation. Some of the senior school teachers felt it was too simplistic for their classrooms, but they still learned and improved their English. The biggest problem that hinders English learning is the rote memorization that is used in many areas of education. They "teach to the test" -- sound familiar? Students learn the vocabulary and grammar rules, but don't learn how to carry on a real conversation. They were from all over China and many rarely encounter native speakers.

Yes Barbara, I think just about everyone in school studies English. As poorly as some of the teachers speak it though, you can guess how much their students learn. Normal Chinese education lasts until the 12th grade. Then they are under HUGE pressure to pass entrance exams for the best universities (if they take a test for U of Peking and don't get in...they are finished. They can't go anywhere else...at least that year.) Their success in getting into a "good" university affects the rest of their lives.

Finally, YES at least SOME people really eat those weird things you saw on TV. We were at the same street market where you saw the scorpions and EVERY part of an animal's body was available to be cooked before your eyes. I'm not convinced many people beside tourists trying to prove something actually eat those scorpions though -- none of the Chinese I talked to would actually do it. However, I have pictures of some of my team mates and other tourists eating them. At the left is teammate Sarah enjoying her snack. YUCK! On the other hand, I ate the duck feet that came with the Peking duck. The method of service is to present the perfectly roasted duck and have the chef carve the slices to be served. Then the remainder of the duck is sent back to the kitchen and part of it is made into soup, while the rest of it -- the bones, etc is deep fried. I can assure you that deep fried duck feet is crunchy and chewy, but has no taste whatsoever! We didn't do the Hot Pot this year...but the restaurant shown on NBC was in Chang Ping, the section of Beijing where we stayed, and a number of our teammates ate there. I think you order what you want to have cooked in the hot pot...and it doesn't have to be intestines! We had Hot Pot last year, and it was mainly mutton. Speaking of mutton, that is my new favorite Chinese food! Apparently, mutton is a popular Muslim food and BBQ mutton sticks are amazing! The meat is cut into thin strips and skewered like shish kabob, then seasoned and grilled over coals. They do the same thing with thick bread slices and they both are delicious. I wonder if it's possible to get them here? Yummmmm! This picture is of our last meal in the village before coming home. I think we ordered about 100 mutton sticks for about eight people.

Actually, we mostly ate in the school cafeteria -- which every student said was bad. There were a few things that were good, but by the end the things *I* would eat were pretty limited. If I couldn't identify the concoctions in the pans, I would stick with fried rice and hard boiled eggs. Brown chicken eggs...not to be confused with green duck eggs! They also had bags of yogurt and nutrition drinks based on yogurt, which were very good. Red date yogurt and red bean ice cream were wonderful, believe it or not! Bottled green tea and milk tea were my favorite drinks. We drank gallons of bottled water too.

BTW, when I came back last year, I announced that Chinese people don't eat sweets. WRONG! There was an amazing bakery next to the church we attended that did the most exquisite desserts which was very popular. Also, candy and ice cream were in abundance -- even chocolate. It was not served with meals, however.

2008-08-10T11:48:00.000-07:00

Now that we are home, it's time to sort out the events of the past six weeks. We had such an amazing summer that it's difficult to know where to begin. To start with, last year we went to China and saw the country. This year, we met the people -- and they are delightful. It was SO sad to leave.

We went to teach English, and teach we did. The program was called T.I.P. - Total Immersion Program, and the goal was to create a totally English environment for 3 1/2 weeks. There were about 40 of us from America (pictured, below) and about 400 students. We were on the far outskirts of Beijing on a satellite campus of the University of Peking. The campus is perfect for the program because it is quite isolated -- and a little overgrown like the Secret Garden. It is no longer used by the UP for classes, but instead the property is leased to other educational groups. Our students were not allowed to leave campus the entire time except with special permission, and they signed a commitment card to not use any Chinese while they were in the program (day or night, in public or private). TIP is based on the way children learn best...using language in natural everyday situations. For the most part Chinese classes are based on memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules with very little opportunity to actually speak English. Many Chinese people have never met a native speaker and are afraid to speak up for fear of making a mistake. Most of our students were high school English teachers and had many years of book learning but depending on the university the attended, knew very little actual language. In addition to the teachers there were some college professors and university students, as well as a few high school and even middle school students. Their level of oral English varied greatly, so we did an entrance interview and assigned them to classes based on the results -- although some were so nervous that they didn't exhibit their true ability. I was assigned to a class of 17 Low+ (meaning lower verbal skill) students and Paul taught High. One of our first goals was to get them to relax and feel comfortable so they would speak out. We did this by playing games and making the classes as student centered as possible. The first week, we concentrated on getting them to speak...no matter how badly, and to help each other overcome their nervousness. The second week was devoted to listening and helping them to better understand spoken English. The final week focused on activities to get them to think in English. At the end of the program, each student had to recite a 15 minute speech ... no matter how poor their oral English.

In order to build confidence, we worked very hard to get the class to bond and work together toward the common goal. What an experience! Even though they were from all parts of China (one had a 43 hour train ride to get there) we were all best of friends within just a few days. It was a good thing ... in Susan's class, (pictured left) one favorite activity was a "pretend" game. The idea was that they were on a sinking ship and the only thing left for everyone to stand on was a piece of the ship the size of a small square of paper. The men and women played separately, and at the end, 6 adult men managed to stand on a piece of paper about 12"x14". The 11 women were on a piece about 18" x 24". Talk about close fellowship! Paul taught a Science club (below, left) for higher level students, and they also had a lot of fun. One of the projects was for a team of four students to build a bridge that could span a 14" gap – using only 8 chopsticks and 2 plastic chopstick wrappers. The winners were determined by piling journals (college blue books) on top to see which bridge could hold the most. The first week, we were amazed that one bridge could hold 150 books! When he did it the next week with a different group of students, the winning bridge could hold 250 books – a stack about two feet tall!

We were overwhelmed by their love and concern for each other and us as the classes progressed. In addition, we could never have imagined how much their English would improve in such a short time. Even Susan's poorest speaker was able to communicate in understandable English before we left. Obviously, they all had a long way to go to sound like native speakers, but we tried to give them the tools to take home and continue learning on their own. One of my favorite phrases was "You are your own best teacher." As a result, you take your best teacher home with you and continue learning! In addition, since most were English teachers, we offered methods for helping their students improve their English.

I have removed a discussion that may be of concern to certain officials. If you would like further information, please email us when we return.

All in all, the inconveniences of living in a third world country (and there are some) are minor in comparison with the reward of the relationships that we developed. Probably the most significant thing we learned is that people are people no matter where on earth they live. There may be some cultural differences, but their desires, needs and concerns as individuals are the same.

If you are interested in further information about this program look up the websites http://www.esec.org/TIP.htm http://www.teachoverseas.org or contact us.

Thank you for your interest and support as we participated in this amazing adventure.

A fresh start

2008-06-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

We will be leaving tomorrow morning for a new adventure in China. As we explained in our "travel with a Purpose" statement, our goal is to teach English in various parts of the world for short periods of time, and then travel in that area while we are there.

On this trip, we will be in the Beijing area for about six weeks. The first 2 1/2 weeks will be training, and then our team of about 35 will spend 3 1/2 weeks in a total immersion program with about 200-300 students. Most of these students will be English teachers from around China and we will teach classes, but also actually live in the dorms with them and be together 24/7. For the classes, we will work in teams of two with about 20 students and help them to hone their English skills. Many Chinese people have studied English in school and have a lot of "book knowledge" but have little experience speaking the language -- especially with native speakers. Our goal is to help them to gain confidence with practice, practice, practice, using fun learning techniques with someone who knows how to speak English as a first language.

We will be returning to the US when these classes are finished at the end of July, since we have already visited China...and so we can be home for our first grandchild, due on August 25th!

Our schedule as we know it so far:

Monday, drive to Irvine to visit with our kids who are living in that area.

Tuesday evening we will get to the airport in PLENTY of time to catch a 1:30 AM flight on Wednesday, non-stop to Beijing.

Each in our team arranged their own transportation, so our flight will have two others from our group and we will be arriving at 5:20AM Thursday. We will be picked up at the airport and transported to the Chaing Ping campus of the University of Peking, our home away from home for the next six weeks.

I will be keeping a journal as before, and posting as the internet is available, but may not be able to do much until we return.

Final posting

2007-05-02T00:48:00.000-07:00

This blog describes in words and pictures our 21 day tour of China. To begin with day 1, go to the bottom of the page and select "older posts", then do the same on each page until you get to the beginning. It will take a while for each page to load, but you will be able to follow along on the trip day by day.

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me:

psbringard at gmail.com

Thanks for viewing my blog.

Day 21 Flying home

2007-05-02T00:29:00.000-07:00

We arrived at the airport in time to be near the front of the line for check in, which is important when you fly Air China. They don't allow early seat selection and it's first come first served. At least we were able to select seats on our flight from Beijing to San Francisco. NOT!

We were late getting into Beijing, so they had a special bus to take us to the check-in. When we actually got to the gate to check-in, the attendant tried to change our seats, but we told her we wanted it the way we had arranged it. Of course, when we got on the plane, one of our assigned seats were already taken--by someone who was also assigned that seat. It turned out to be great though, because the we ended up with a row all to ourselves -- and we were in front of the wing! As Paul said, this was the best situation we could have had. There was a very long line of planes waiting to take off from the Beijing airport, but we finally got in the air and had an uneventful trip home. Even though it was a 12 hour flight, we were able to relax a little because of the empty seat in our row and it went very quickly.

It was exciting to see the California coast and the Golden Gate bridge as we arrived in San Francisco! The trip was wonderful and we loved just about everything about it, but it was definitely good to get home.

Day 21 Leaving China

2007-05-02T00:21:00.000-07:00

After our final breakfast, we took the bus to the Meglev train for a high-speed ride to the airport. They claimed it would take 8 minutes and that it was about an hour and a half bus ride. We had to wait 15 minutes for the next train, but it got up to 431 Km/hr, which was VERY fast. The biggest surprise came when we passed the train going the other direction. The air currents really rocked us, and it happened so fast, we didn't even see the other train.

It was also a bit strange to see no track, since the train runs on a cushion of air.

Day 20 An evening on the town in Shanghai

2007-05-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

As we were leaving McDonald's, we ran into John from our tour group, who had a subway map. Even though our guide said that the subway was too difficult to navigate and that a taxi was the way to get back to the hotel, John said he had done it and it wasn't difficult at all--that it stopped in sight of our hotel. He gave us the map and we determined to try it at the end of the evening.

We had planned to meet several of our group at the top of the Hyatt Hotel to watch the sunset and the city lights at night. To get there we took a tunnel under the river that was called the Tourist Light Show. It was a little like a Disney ride, but a downgraded quite a bit. The first picture shows some of the lights.

When we got to the other side we had to walk quite a bit to get to the Jin Mao Tower, and when we got there, they told us that the Hyatt didn't have a restaurant on the 88th floor. They sent us up to the Observation Deck, which WAS on the 88th floor. By then we had missed the sunset, but the city lights were breath-taking.

After walking all around the Observation Deck, we left and walked back to the Light Show tunnel, and then to the subway station--at least where we thought it should be. We went back down Nanjing Road, and finally found the station--exactly where the map showed it. Fortunately, everything had English subtitles, so we found the train we needed and the right direction to go. John was right--it was quite easy, and because it was later in the evening, it wasn't even crowded. When we got back to the hotel, we found out that we were suppose to go to the BAR on the 87th floor--not the restaurant on the 88th floor. Oh well, we still had a good time.

The last picture shows the night view out of our hotel room. We were further away from downtown, but there were still pretty lights.

Day 20 The Shanghai Museum and on our own

2007-05-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

The Shanghai museum was an historical museum of clothing, furniture, currency, jewelry, and minority handcrafts. There were many beautiful exhibits, and we could have spent all day there. In fact, some of our tour group chose to stay instead of exploring the town on their own.

After lunch, we chose to go back to Nanjing Road, but explore some of the side streets. It was interesting that the shopping area was very western and upscale, but the side streets immediately off the main road were very Asian and often run down.

As in all areas of the country, the laundry was hanging from poles and people were carrying out their daily activities on the streets.
Apparently the men were unemployed, and some were perhaps even homeless.

We were also on our own for dinner, and I think the entire group went to either McDonald's or Pizza Hut! We got hamburgers and chocolate shakes, and even though the girl at the counter didn't speak English, she pointed to the menu, her way of asking "do you want fries with that?"

Day 19 ends with the Chinese circus

2007-05-01T23:24:00.000-07:00

After our "shoportunity" at the bazaar, we visited the Chinese Acrobatic Show, or Circus. It was interesting that we sat next to another China Focus tour group. They seemed to be on a 10-day tour and had a lot more people.

The performances were traditional Chinese acrobat routines and were a lot of fun to watch.

At dinner, we were treated with a dinner show, with a number of young performers. Unfortunately, they sat us right next to the speakers, and it was VERY loud.

Day 19 More of Shanghai

2007-05-01T23:14:00.000-07:00

After lunch, we visited the Yuyan Garden Bazaar, which was an old style market. The main distinctive of the old city is that the buildings are only two or three stories tall. As in all the other areas of China we visited, there was deconstruction and construction everywhere.

In the bazaar, one of the interesting shops was the dumpling shop. They had windows to watch dozens of employees making dumplings. There was a long line to buy them too.

Day 19 continuing around Shanghai

2007-05-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

After the Bund, we had the opportunity to walk down Nanjing Road, a famous shopping area.

The Peace Hotel was along this road and was getting ready to close for renovation the next day. This hotel was originally known as the Cathay Hotel and opened in 1929. At the time, it was considered the most luxurious hotel in the Far East. It's guests included leaders and celebrities from all over the world.

Several blocks of the road were closed to private vehicle traffic and were a pedestrian mall. There were lots of people shopping, and even more just hanging out.

Day 19 touring Shanghai

2007-05-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

We began our visit with a walk along the Bund, which has been a symbol of Shanghai for hundreds of years. It borders the western waterfront of the Huangpu River and has a beautiful view up and down the river. Most of the buildings along the road are European architecture, giving it a very cosmopolitan feel.

In the first picture, the tall building in the background is shaped like a Lotus blossom. Our guide told us that there are about 3000 high rise buildings in Shanghai. He indicated that the city is growing so quickly that in five years, there will be 5000-6000 high rises.

This area is very popular with both tourists and locals. We found that many Chinese people want their picture taken with foreigners. They don't even seem to care if they get a copy of the picture.

In the picture of the eastern side of the river, you can see the Oriental Pearl TV tower. The next tallest building is the Jin Mao Tower. This building houses the Hyatt Hotel from the 57th to the 87th floor.

The last picture is the view down the atrium from the 88th floor observation deck.

Day 19 a ride to Shanghai, our last stop

2007-05-01T22:07:00.000-07:00

We had a very full day today. We began by driving into Shanghai. The first picture is of the toll area of the freeway. There were flowers everywhere. Of course, statues of Mao are also everywhere.

Our driver was the king of U-turns and he showed us his talents several times as we made our way through city traffic.

Day 18 A final look at Tongli

2007-04-30T22:59:00.000-07:00

Some of the streets were very narrow. Our guide called this first one the "narrowest street in the world", but I would call it a sidewalk.

Since this was a water town, there was a wide variety of seaweed for sale.

We couldn't determine if this old man was just enjoying the sunshine, or if he was a tourist attraction.

The old ladies in the house were definitely just there to enjoy a game of Mahjong.

Day 18 Tongli streets

2007-04-30T22:50:00.000-07:00

There were a wide variety of shops and restaurants in the old town.

The first picture is of a wedding carriage and the others represent some of the shops and streets in the town. The barber shop wasn't busy today, but the seamstress probably always had something to do.

Day 18 Next stop: Tongli, a water town

2007-04-30T22:41:00.000-07:00

In this case, "water town" means that the city was built on a series of islands, connected by bridges. This was an historical city, with many very old buildings. Apparently it once was very prosperous, but now relies on tourism as it's main industry.

Outside of the old part of town, we noticed that there was a new "resort" complex, with many condo apartments for the wealthy of Shanghai to get away from the city. It sounded familiar...

These pictures show some of the canals with bridges between the islands.

Day 18 A visit to the Silk Factory

2007-04-30T22:18:00.000-07:00

Our next stop was the silk factory, where we were able to see up close what was involved in producing silk from silkworms. After boiling the unopened cocoons to kill the pupa and soften the "glue" that holds it together, they begin to unroll the the silk in one long strand of about 3000 feet. If the pupa has begun to eat through the cocoon, it is not good for filament silk, but is used for the filling of silk comforters, or mixed to make inferior quality silk fabric.

The third picture shows the process of stretching the defective cocoon to be used for comforters.

The final picture shows the weaving of silk brocade. These machines use punch cards with the pattern punched out to program the looms for weaving. You can see the stream of cards at the top of the picture.

Day 18 A ride on the Grand Canal

2007-04-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

After breakfast, we went for a boat ride on the Grand Canal. This canal was almost as old as the Great Wall, and was very important to China for bringing goods to and from the outside world.

The first picture is our boat and driver. The last picture is one of many bas relief scenes under the bridges illustrating the history of China.

Day 17 The Master of the Nets garden

2007-04-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

As we learned before, things in China aren't always what their name implies. Suzhou is famous for it's gardens, and this is one of many. However, it was actually a house, with a garden in the center, like a courtyard. The garden was beautiful, and as always, included a small pond in the center. There are always porches and patios in the courtyard for the occupants to enjoy the serene beauty.

Another surprise about this garden is the name. Master of the Nets seems to refer to fisherman, but actually this garden was used by some of the best scholars in China waiting to be called into the court of the Emperor. The Master of the Nets was the top scholar. When they were called by the Emperor, they left their home immediately to go serve him.

Day 17 On our way to Suzhou

2007-04-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

To get from Hangzhou to Suzhou, we basically had to go around Shanghai, about a three hour ride. As you can see, it is still hazy, and the traffic continues to be a mix of all kinds of vehicles. After 17 days in China, McDonald's is beginning to look pretty good.

This city was likened to Silicon Valley in the US. Many computer parts and electronics are made here. Our guide said that 1/4 of all computer monitors and 1/3 of all mice in the world are made in Suzhou.

The grocery store had a variety of things, but I think this is a picture of the wine and liquor section. We also watched a man roasting hazelnuts.

Day 16 Last stop before dinner -- the Tea Plantation

2007-04-29T23:44:00.000-07:00

The Tea Plantation turned out to be a big challenge. The traffic was so bad that it took about 1 1/2 hours to get there. I suspect it should have taken 1/2 hour in normal traffic. When we finally got there, they were still picking the tea on the hillsides, and we were able to pick some ourselves. The guide explained which leaves to pick and how to pick them.

We then watched a man drying the fresh picked tea in a special heated basin that was about 220 degrees. We could see him turning the heat on and off to maintain the temperature. This method was suppose to keep the leaves nice and flat as they dried.

We then went into a special tea room where we were served fresh hot tea. Our guide explained how the tea was made and the different qualities. Then of course, we were given an opportunity to buy tea.

The trip back from the plantation was just as bad for traffic and we realized that we didn't have time to go back to the hotel and then to the restaurant in time for dinner, so we skipped our rest time and went directly to the restaurant. After dinner, we considered going back to the market or the lake since they were nearby, but decided instead to just go back to the hotel.

Day 16 The yellow dragon cave

2007-04-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

We have begun to realize that things in China aren't always what their name implies. The Yellow Dragon Cave is actually a park -- although there is a small cave behind the yellow dragon head.

The second picture is the Chinese character for "destiny". We decided that if you want to change your destiny, you need to change your character.

At the park, we watched a little of the "local opera" as well as some local musicians performing. As with other parks, people were enjoying all kinds of activities on a pleasant Saturday afternoon.

Day 16 A 700 year old pharmacy

2007-04-29T00:42:00.000-07:00

At the market, we visited a 700 year old pharmacy, which sold both traditional and Chinese medicine. It was a very busy pharmacy.

Day 16 More market pictures

2007-04-29T00:39:00.000-07:00

Day 16 continues with a trip to the Ancient Market

2007-04-29T00:09:00.000-07:00

We walked back through the park to the bus and began the trip to the market. The roads were a challenge to get anywhere, but our driver was very skilled in doing whatever it took to get where we needed to go.

The market was an interesting mix of little shops, vendors, artisans demonstrating their crafts, museums with re-creators, food shops, tea shops -- and a Dairy Queen. They also had carnival games --throwing a ball to knock down the pins. My favorite was the guy demonstrating a vegetable slicer. I felt like I was at a home show, except it was all in Chinese.

The little boy seems to be feeding the pigeons -- an unusual sight in this country.

The last picture shows a lady pushing a grandmother in a wheelchair. The grandmother was using a newspaper as a sun visor held on by a headband, and the lady was looking through the trash can. In other cities, we saw people carrying a small mirror to look inside the protected containers to determine if there was anything of value.

Day 16 A boat ride on the West Lake

2007-04-28T23:50:00.000-07:00

We drove through the crazy traffic to the park along the lake first thing in the morning. This was the worst traffic we have seen so far in China, but it was partly because it was a week-end.

We walked part way through the park to get to the boat docks, and saw some beautiful white peacocks -- the first ones I've ever seen. We were told that it is the mating season, so the males are particularly flamboyant right now.

Once we got to the boat, we started out into the lake, along with hundreds of other boats of all sizes and types. The Chinese people drive boats the way they drive cars -- every which way. The second picture is our boat, and the other two show some of the other lake traffic. As you can see, it was VERY smoggy. The trip was enjoyable, but the sightseeing was limited.

Day 15 Next stop -- Hangzhou

2007-04-28T23:31:00.000-07:00

This is a only full travel day we have had on the trip.

Before we could go to Hangzhou, we had to take the bus back to Guilin and fly to Shanghai. It was a two hour bus ride, and then a two hour flight. After that, it was another three hour bus ride before we arrived at our hotel.

Along the road to Hangzhou, we saw much nicer houses than we have seen before. Our new local guide, Philip, explained that these homes belonged to the farmers in the area. Since this part of China was one of the first areas to be developed when the country was opened to the West, they were able to get their produce and crops to a ready market. They then invested their profits in various commercial ventures, especially in Shanghai, and became very wealthy.

We were told that each of these houses is for only one family--they aren't apartment buildings.

Day 14 concludes with a night Water Show

2007-04-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

After dinner, we went to see the evening water show. This is only performed in good weather, so we didn't know until that afternoon whether or not it was being performed. We were SO glad it didn't rain! The program was called Impressions, Sanjie Liu by Zhang Yimou.

Here is a website with more pictures and descriptions:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-09/28/content_481594.htm

There were suppose to be more than 600 performers, all local farmers, fishermen and children, and it was different from anything we've ever seen before. The entire performance was done on boats and barges. Everyone seems quite proud of the producer, who was doing the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. They certainly had good reason for their pride.

The first picture shows the fishermen on their raft-like boats performing with long sheets of red plastic. They pulled themselves back and forth across the water in various rhythms, patterns and with changes in lighting. The second picture was of the beginning of a seemingly endless line of performers in lighted costumes. The lights flashed and blinked to the music and the line went completely across the performance bay. The third picture was of a group of ladies who sang a song related to the story line.

After the performance, we went for a walk along the main market street and found the local bars to be very lively, even out on the street.

Day 14 A final look at the farmhouse

2007-04-27T18:05:00.000-07:00

The first picture is of the "lady of the house". She was just aa delightful as her mother.

Next is the back room, apparently with spinning and weaving equipment.

After that, we went out to the back yard and the barn.

There were several pens with pigs, so it appears that this is a prosperous farm family, who choose to live the way they always have.

Day 14 The farmhouse kitchen

2007-04-27T18:01:00.000-07:00

The kitchen was very dimly lit and had just the bare necessities for preparing meals.

Day 14 continues with a visit to a farmhouse

2007-04-27T17:44:00.000-07:00

Along the way, we stopped at a traditional home. The children are all grown and moved into town, but the wife and grandmother prefer to stay in their family home. At the front door is the grandmother, a delight old lady who only had a few stubby teeth and was very welcoming. She is carrying a charcoal burner to help keep her hands warm. In the living room, she invited me to sit down, and she showed me how to peel and eat a pomello. I was leery of eating from her hand, but decided to do it anyway. The pomello was quite good--much like a grapefruit, and I didn't get sick.

The third picture is a peek into the bedroom, and the last one is of the family casket. Because they are so costly, families buy them when they are able, and keep them on hand until needed. Apparently, an American tourist left his mark in the dust.

There were red tags on many things throughout the house because this was the day of the dead. This is the day to honor ancestors by going to the graves and cleaning them up. They also burn fake money so the ancestors will have enough in the afterlife, and make LOTS of noise to scare away the evil spirits. I'm not sure how the red tags fit in, but they seem to be part of the ceremony.

Day 14 Close encounters with a water buffalo

2007-04-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

We made one stop where the water buffalo was right next to the road. We have since figured out that this countryside tour is a VERY frequent occurrence, and the people make a good living from it. David, our local guide, told us which man we could photograph, (the one he was paying) but there were several other locals too, and they all got into the act. Tourism seems to be good for the farmers too.

Apparently David paid them all, because Paul was invited to ride a different water buffalo. As you can see, they are bigger than they look!

We have no idea what the last man is carrying or what it is used for. He just "happened" by when we stopped.

Day 14 A ride into the countryside

2007-04-27T15:48:00.000-07:00

After we checked into our hotel we piled into 10 passenger "golf carts" for a ride into the countryside to see a little of how the local people lived.

Along the way, we stopped to take pictures of some animals and scenery and were surprised to find vendors surrounding us as we got out. After a couple such stops, we finally realized that they were following us on motor scooters. Finally, we were joined by a larger group of tourists and the vendors followed them.

After a while, we were beginning to feel like friends, so here is a picture of a particularly persistent girl.

Day 14 Embroidery shops

2007-04-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some examples of the beautiful "minority" embroidery we saw in the shops.

The first picture is of a back-pack style baby carrier--completely hand embroidered.

The second picture shows some of the detail on a wall hanging.

The third picture is of our hotel sheets. This is the first time I've seen actual embroidery on hotel linen.

The fourth picture is of some jeans that were machine embroidered. Sorry, we could never find the price.

Day 14 Yangshuo

2007-04-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

The first thing we noticed about Yangshuo was that it was a tourist town. It seems like they are the same around the world. When we got off the boat, we saw this elderly man offering to have your picture taken with him and his birds--the first sign it catered to tourists. There were more vendors than average, and lots of little street-side shops.

It was hard to miss this grandma babysitting her child right in the middle of the street. Neither of them noticed any of the activity going on around them.

Day 14 This is the most beautiful part of China!

2007-04-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

We stood on the top deck of the boat in awe of the mysterious beauty around us.

The last picture shows a still life of many of things we saw in the China countryside. There were carts, old people with children, motorized wagons, water buffalo, ducks, and houses, with the ever present power lines. It seemed that no matter how remote the area, there was electricity.

Day 14 A Boat Ride down the Li Jang River

2007-04-26T22:12:00.000-07:00

The next morning, we boarded a boat for our trip down the LiJang River. It was an unbelievable fairyland, and the morning mist added to the surreal appearance. We were told that this area was "Shangri-la" from the book Lost Horizon by James Hudson. I read the book in high school, and this is just what I pictured at that time.

The area is a National Park, but there were still farmers, rice paddies, ducks and water buffalo along the river. We were also told that the ducks were not wild, but belonged to the farmers along the river. They paddled and fed along the river each day, but came home each night.

The mountain peaks were amazing. Apparently, they are composed of limestone and have been eroded by the water. Most of the peaks have caves because of the water eroding from the inside.

We had lunch on the boat, which had been cooked in the open kitchen in the back of the boat. We had watched the food preparation on the boat ahead of us -- even watched them buy fish from a local fisherman in a boat, so we weren't very excited about lunch. What we ate was good, though (mostly rice!) The waitresses offered to sell us snake wine -- with a large snake in a gallon jug, but we didn't try it. I wonder why?

Day 13 ends with a night tour of the Guilin

2007-04-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

Our night tour took us to some of the same places we went during the day, but the lights on the buildings and water were beautiful.

Day 13 Cormorant Fishing

2007-04-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

We had dinner at the hotel, and then David, our local guide, arranged an evening tour to see the Cormorants fishing. We went out on a boat with a fishing raft on each side. The fisherman had four birds each which caught a number of fish in the half hour we were out. It was very interesting to watch the birds hold the fish in their throats for several minutes, waiting for the farmer retreive it from him.

David explained that the Cormorant eggs were brooded by ducks and that in many cases, the fisherman was the first living thing the baby birds saw after birth. As a result, they bond with the fisherman as a mother figure. It takes about six months to train a bird to fish and the bird develops a complete trust in the fisherman for his care. They are taught to fish for the fisherman by having a string tied around their necks, so that they can catch a fish, but not swallow it. The birds only need one or two fish a day, so the fisherman allows them to eat after the catch is in. They only fish as night, with a light to attract the fish. We were told that fishing in this manner isn't profitable enough for the fishermen to make a living, so there are fewer and fewer doing this work.

Day 13 The Hill of Solitary Beauty

2007-04-25T23:41:00.000-07:00

The Hill of Solitary Beauty was on a University campus--one that specialized in art. The main attraction of the hill was all of the Chinese poems written on the side of the hill. One was a 900 year old military report--so they knew exactly what was going on in the area at that time.

There was also a 1000 year old document. The hill was very interesting, but the university was even more fun. We came upon a demonstration of how exams were carried out in ancient times, and got to "take" the exam.

In addition, there was an art gallery that benefited the school by selling donated art. We were able to purchase four small pictures representing Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

Day 13 The Reed Flute Cave

2007-04-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

After the school, we visited the Reed Flute Cave. Our guide, David, said that most of the hills in the area had caves. They had set up lights in most of the areas to highlight what people thought the formations resembled.

The second picture is of the "city", and was the most amazing formation of all. The water in the cave was so still, that the formations reflected perfectly.

After the cave, we went to a hotel for lunch. David said that the chef was his next door neighbor, and we found the food to be exceptionally good. We especially enjoyed the tomato vegetable soup and candy coated bananas.

Day 13 A visit to a Kindergarten (pre-school)

2007-04-25T23:23:00.000-07:00

We started the day with the usual breakfast, then boarded the bus for the Kindergarten, which was actually a pre-school. The first class we visited was of about 28 four year olds. They were singing nursery rhymes with dance motions when we arrived. After 2-3 songs, they asked us to join them and we had a lot of fun.

We then went to another classroom of 5 year olds, where they were drawing pictures. We watched them draw for a while--except Paul, who knelt beside a little boy and started drawing with him. After we watched a while, they gave us the pictures they had been working on.

The lady in red was the school principle who showed us around.

What a delightful morning!

Day 12 A visit to the Wild Goose Pagoda

2007-04-25T23:09:00.000-07:00

After lunch we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda and enjoyed the people in the park.

Flying kites seems to really be a national pastime.

As always, there was construction going on and this time we were able to watch a bit. The men were moving a very heavy rectangle of concrete up onto a platform and were using pipes to leverage and roll it.

When we got to the airport, we had a big surprise. Waiting to get on our plane was a family that we worked with in the Philippines 23 years ago. They have worked in a variety of places in the Far East and retired two years ago in Salem Oregon. They were going to same place we were, but their schedule was very tight and we didn't get a chance to see them again.

We had an uneventful ride to Guilin, and arrived in a drizzly rain--the first we have had on the trip.

Day 12 A Xi'an city tour

2007-04-25T22:52:00.000-07:00

After putting out our bags and eating breakfast, we began our city tour. We went to the city wall around the old city an climbed up to walk around a bit. The weather continued to be beautiful and we had a fun time.

This young man was recreating the role of a soldier at the time the wall was built.

It looked as if they were preparing to film a movie in one of the buildings.

Later we toured the lacquer factory and saw the silk rugs for sale.

Day 11 A dumpling dinner and the Chinese Opera

2007-04-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

For dinner tonight we went to a dinner theatre for a traditional Tang Dynasty musical and dumpling dinner.

They served several appetizers, and then 19 different dumplings in separate courses. Each dumpling was shaped differently and generally represented what was inside. Some of the shapes were: flower, duck, chicken, pig, pumpkin, walnut, fish, boiled dumpling, mystery dumpling (we couldn't understand what it was suppose to be) and monkey face. We were nervous about "monkey face" since everything else represented what was inside.... There were others that we have forgotten. The final course was tiny dumpling soup. The story was that you could tell your fortune by how many tiny dumplings you got. One was a good journey, two was happiness, etc.

The show was very elegant and elaborately costumed. One musician was very funny and used facial expression to create part of the show. One time he was a duck, another time a tiger, etc.

Day 11 An afternoon on the streets of Xi'an

2007-04-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

After lunch and another drive through the countryside back to the city, we had some free time to explore the area around our hotel.

We walked down to the market. It consisted of small booths in a much larger building, a little like an inside flea market. One section was housewares, another was electronics, another clothing. This area grows a lot of wheat and noodles are popular, so we saw bakeries for the first time. On the street, we saw something called Chinese hamburgers. These "hamburgers" had stir-fried meat and vegetables between two flat fried buns. People were buying them through a "fast food" window on the street.

We also went to an upscale shopping area. As you can see from the bottom picture, shopping can be as popular in China as in the United States.

Day 11 Terra Cotta Warriors

2007-04-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

The green hill is actually an Emperor's tomb. It has not been excavated yet, but will be done after the current digs are completed.

The warrior display was massive and very well done. When the figures were found, they had been smashed and had their weapons removed by a rebellion just a few years after the Emperor died. The figures on display have been reconstructed from the fragments. The most interesting thing was that each Terra Cotta figure represented an actual person in the Emperor's army. Originally they had all been painted to represent people and their clothes.

When an Emperor died, he would be buried with everything he thought he would need to continue his lifestyle in the after-life. This included furniture, clothing, food, household servants, concubines and anything else necessary to make him comfortable. This particular Emperor realized that if his warriors were buried with him, his dynasty would be defenseless, so he chose to be buried with replicas of his army. The soldiers were set up in a standard military formation, so the archaeologists could tell when they had unearted the entire army.

The last picture is one of the four farmers who originally discovered the figures while digging a well. He is retired from farming, but is paid to autograph souvenir books. He doesn't want to be photographed because he believes that flash cameras have ruined his eyesight. Never mind that he is 79 years old! Therefore, he holds the fan in front of his face whenever he thinks someone is taking a picture. Apparently he didn't notice me at the back of the crowd.

Day 10 arrive in Xi'an

2007-04-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

After lunch, we flew to Xi'an, where it was much cooler and we were thankful. We had dinner at the hotel and checked into our room on the 15th floor. I chose not to walk while Paul went out with some of our tour group. They learned it was a challenge to get across the street safely--but they made it. Paul's observation was that everyone understands the flow--between buses, trucks, cars, bicycles and people, they all seem to know when to go and when to stop. The group stopped at KFC for ice cream on the way back to the hotel.

The 1st picture shows assorted people and vehicles waiting to cross the street. The second picture shows rush hour traffic. The third shows the combination of people/cars/trucks/bicycles/motor bikes navigating the intersection. The traffic lights are often ignored. The fourth shows a bike parking lot on the sidewalk. Each bike/motor bike gets a tag and an attendant watches the bikes.

Day 10 People at the zoo

2007-04-23T17:31:00.000-07:00

There were lots of families and children at the zoo. Most of the families had at least three generations together on the outing. Apparently, the grandparents are very frequently the caretakers for the children as the parents work outside the home.

Our guide explained that the one couple/one child policy has now been modified. The original policy was, in the country, if your first child was a girl, you could try for a boy in three years. If at that time you still had a girl, that's all. In the city, there were no exceptions for having a only one child, girl or boy. Currently, the rule is the same except, if an only child marries an only child, they can have two children.

He also explained that because of the one child policy, there is a different dynamic in family relationships. He said that with only one child, s/he has become the central focus of both parents and grandparents and is being spoiled. Also, parents are putting a lot of pressure on their children to succeed, since the couple only has one chance to keep up the family name.

We heard from a number of guides how difficult it is for children in China today because of the pressure to succeed. Their time is filled with school and outside lessons every day, and by the time they complete their homework, there is no time to play or have friends. They recognize the problem, but no one seems to know how to solve it, and they are pressuring their children just as much as everyone else.

As in most other parks and public spaces, we found people practicing their talents and skills. These ladies seems to be sword dancing.

Day 10 More animals at the zoo

2007-04-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

The lesser pandas were really interesting. They looked more like a cross between a raccoon and a fox, with a little panda thrown in. The hippo was looking very suspicious of all the people, and the tiger was pacing back and forth.

The one area that did not have the best facilities was where they kept the birds. They were in fairly small cages and the peacocks barely had enough room to spread their tail feathers. This bird had interesting colors.

Day 10 Visiting the Giant Pandas at the zoo

2007-04-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

When we got to the zoo, we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. All the Internet information I found before the trip indicated that zoo conditions in China were not up to American standards. The panda exhibits were very well done and there was plenty of room for the animals. The pandas seemed to be most interesting in eating, whatever position they happened to find themselves in. Bamboo is almost all they eat, and they eat a lot of it -- 20 - 40 pounds a day! In the wild they must spend 10-16 hours a day foraging for food. We also learned that since Pandas are not bears, they don't hibernate.

In the nursery, there were several babies in little "cribs". Their main activity also seemed to be eating.

Day 10 Arriving in Chongqing

2007-04-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

We had breakfast as usual this morning and got ready to leave the boat. Once in the city, we met our new city guide, Legend. He was really funny and spoke the best English of all the guides, so far. Even though he graduated from University with a degree in English, he said he was taught "Chinglish" because that's what his professors spoke. He indicated he learned correct pronunciation from watching hundreds and hundreds of American movies on DVD.

We enjoyed the bikers with an American spirit, and it seemed they were proud of their bike.
Chongqing was a large city with interesting buildings and the potential to be beautiful, except for the smog. The heat and humidity made it very uncomfortable, even though this was only April 1st. We were glad we would only be here for part of the day.

Day 9 comes to an end

2007-04-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

We returned to the boat just in time for the embroidery demonstration, which of course, was an opportunity to buy embroidery. The scenes were very nice, but most were silk screened prints with just a few actual embroidery stitches. My favorite was a beautiful Chinese vase done completely in French knots. It was very intricate with beautifully shaded colors. We decided to keep on looking before buying as we were going to many more places in China, but unfortunately, I never saw another embroidery like it. After the demonstration, we had lunch and spent the afternoon relaxing on the deck watching the beautiful scenery go by.

Chongqing is a "municipality", which is a city governed directly by the central government. There are four such cities in China, and there is a great deal of competition to become one. This means the city doesn't have to go through the bureaucracy of the province and receives funding directly from Beijing for development. They claim the municipality is the size of Austria, area-wise. It has 10 city centers with 32 million people. That sounds more like a province to me!

That evening, we had the Captain's good-bye dinner, which was again beautifully decorated. After dinner the musical program included several Chinese dances by the crew and a talent show by the passengers. One British lady did a beautiful Scottish love song, and another group did an exuberant pub song.

Day 9 A visit to Fengdu, the Ghost City

2007-04-23T12:50:00.000-07:00

After breakfast today, we left the ship to visit the "Ghost City" up the hill. We had to climb lots of steps to get to the beginning of the actual steps because the tram station was under water. I wonder when they plan to replace the station? They've known for quite a while that this would happen as the river rose. We climbed some more and then took an aerial ride to the top of the hill. There, we found a series of temples.

The guide explained a number of Chinese beliefs and superstitions about ghosts and the after-life to us. He also indicated that most of the younger people don't believe these stories, but are agnostics. There were several temples, both Buddhist and Taoist and they showed ideas of what would happen to "bad" people. There were special sections and statues representing various bad behavior, including prostitution, alcoholism, disobedient children, gambling, philandering husbands and wives, etc. I guess people's behavior has remained the same throughout the ages.

There was also a section representing the Day of Judgement, with the Judge reading from a list of people and their sins. It was almost as if they had been reading the Bible and were trying to illustrate the Book of Revelation. At that point, there was an opportunity to buy candles to burn and ask forgiveness, which is a reminder of how many religions attempt to atone for their sins.

I was quite uncomfortable in this place because of all the evil represented, but it was a lesson on the depravity of man and his attempts to satisfy a Holy God.

Back on the boat, Ryan, an assistant river guide, asked me the difference between the Christian religion and other religions. I was able to explain the main difference was that Jesus, the founder of the Christian faith, had been raised from the dead and was alive, while all other religious founders/leaders were dead. Also that Christianity was based upon faith in a living person, not on doing special works to get into heaven. He seemed to understand the difference, and although we weren't able to continue the conversation, I was glad to help answer some of his questions.

Day 8 Approaching Chongqing at night

2007-04-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

As we approached the Chongqing area at night, it looked like Las Vegas! These pictures were taken about 9:55pm.--fortunately. At 10:00pm. all the lights went out.

We were quite surprised by the warmth and humidity of the area. During the day it had gotten to about 85 degrees. We were told that this area is one of the "furnaces" of China. During the summer it can get to 112 degrees, with 85-90% humidity. We were certainly glad it was the end of March, not the end of July.

Day 8 ends with another show by the crew

2007-04-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

After returning to our ship, the afternoon was again spent sitting on the deck as we travelled further along the Yangtze River toward Chongqing. Later in the afternoon, there was a demonstration of painting inside clear bottles, and the dinner theme was "Minority Night". The crew dressed in various minority costumes, and the show included dances, instruments and singing representative of some of the minority cultures.

The 1st picture is of "Shirley" our waitress for the cruise in her minority costume. The 2nd picture is one of the dances. It looks a little Mexican I think.

The third picture seems to be some kind of western (maybe British?) activity that the crew was very familiar with. They "invited" participation from the passengers, and it seemed to be a lot of fun.

Day 8 The ferry returns to the main ship

2007-04-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

When we returned to the ferry boat, there was a long line of vendors, trying to sell everything from "antique" Chinese books to the ever present Rolex watch. We have concluded that all the vendors buy from the same suppliers, and just try to sell their stuff for as much money as they can get. The same trinket was offered for 25 - 75 Yuan by different vendors. Of course they were always willing to bargain, and we were told to start with about 30% of the original asking price. I found it difficult to remember the exchange rate ( $10 = 130 Yuan) so I let Paul do the bargaining. It is a special talent of his anyway.

These pictures show some of the scenery along the ferry ride. You can certainly see why many people didn't want to leave this beautiful area as the water rose. By the way, the high water mark represents where the water was last spring--about 3 meters above the current level.

Day 8 A ride in a Peapod boat

2007-04-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

After riding for about an hour, we transferred to a little "Peapod" boat for the remainder of the trip upstream. These were small wooden rowboats. I suppose it was called that because we were packed in like peas in a pod. They were so full that they had to add a seat, load it, then add another one until the boat was full. There were six crew--the captain who controlled the rudder and then three rowers in front. In the back, there was another rudder operator and one more rower.

What an exciting trip! As we got further upstream, it got very shallow and rocky -- so the rowing men, called trackers, got out and pulled the boat.

The crew was made up of local farmers who had been rowing since they were children, so they were VERY strong and experienced. Originally when these boats were used for farming, the trackers rowed naked because the fabric of their clothes (linen) was rough on their skin. When they began doing the rides commercially and it became a tourist attraction, they had to put on clothes.

It took about an hour to go upstream and 1/2 hour to come back down.

Day 8 Continuing up the Shennong Stream

2007-04-22T18:06:00.000-07:00

Our trip up the Shennong Stream was a beautiful ride and had fascinating scenery, but the most amazing sight was the elevated coffins.

In Ba culture, it was important to bury the dead up high as a sign of honor, so ancient people would suspend coffins on poles in high crevices. One was so high we couldn't imagine how they got it up there. The 1st picture shows how high up these crevices are (remember, before the Three Gorges Dam, the water level was about 100 meters lower.) In this picture the coffin is in the crevice on the left. Not shown is about the same distance above the crevices to the top of the hill. The second picture shows the poles and the coffin about two thirds up a different long crevice, but about the same height up from the water.

The 3rd and 4th pictures shows more farmers working in their fields. The government allows each person in a family group to have about 1/3 of an acre to farm for commercial use. Therefore, if there are 5 people (two grandparents, two parents and a child) in the family group, they are allowed about 1 - 2/3 acres to do with as they wish. Along this trip we saw many oranges and vegetables along with wheat being grown. There is still a lot of Canola being grown in this area, but we didn't see rice until later in the trip.

Day 8 Travel up the Shennong Stream

2007-04-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

Opps! I missed day 7--which was the day we began with Tai Chi. Sorry.

We woke up very early to have breakfast at 6:45 this morning. We then left the main ship at 7:30 to board a little ferry for travelling up the Shennong Stream. The purpose for the trip was to see a little of life in the country. There are 55 minorities within China and many of them have their own unique cultures. This area was home to the Ba people who are mainly farmers.

The first picture is of our little ferry and the second is of the front of a ship that arrived at the port overnight. The third picture is of our River guides. There were several tour groups on the boat and each had their own guide.

Finally we began travelling up the stream. Quiet and peaceful was the description that came to mind. As we discovered all along the Yangtze River, farmers work incredibly hard farming on the hillsides. Sometimes we couldn't imagine how they managed to prepare the soil and plant on such a steep hill.

Even on this stream, the water level will rise next year, so a lot of the ground being farmed will be under water next year. Apparently, they will just move up the hillside and continue planting. For the most part, people that don't absolutely have to move are staying--at least the older generation. Many of the young people prefer living in the city where they can make more money and life is a lot easier and more fun.

Day 6 ends in port for the night

2007-04-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

Dinner was the Captain's welcome dinner and began with a toast with some very sweet red wine. The servers wore special formal dresses and it was beautiful. The second picture is of some of the carved vegetables on our table.

After dinner, the crew had a special performance with most of them participating.

They also had some silly games and the Captain's Dance, when he chose the prettiest (in his opinion), fanciest dressed passenger to dance. The crew also asked some of the passengers to dance, with our River Guide Sophia asking Paul -- probably because he was sitting next to the dance floor. Since Paul doesn't dance, he said no at first--then realized by the shocked look on her face that "no" wasn't the correct answer. He danced and said he stepped on her toes several times. We had a lot of fun watching the crew and the British passengers dance and play the games. The crew was almost all young and were very good with the American music and western style dancing. It was clear that they had a lot of practice.

Day 6 continues as we start up the Yangtze River

2007-04-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

After a buffet lunch, we set "sail" up the river. We sat in the front and watched the scenery go by for about three hours and loved every minute of it. We were surprised when we docked a little after 4PM at Badong--for the night. We wondered if our 4 day cruise would consist of 6-8 hours on the water!

We were fascinated by the fields on the mountainside and how the farmers work up and down the mountain. The guide explained that the gorge use to be deep and narrow and very dangerous for the people working on the hillside--both mining and farming. The river is rising because it is upstream from the Three Gorges Dam -- which is suppose to help control the annual flooding. Originally it was about 65 meters above sea level and currently it is about 158 meters. Next year it is due to reach it's final level of about 175 meters. There were markers all along the river showing exactly where the water level will be next year, and it is clear that a lot more homes and farm land will be under water at that point. We were given government propaganda, and even then it was clear that this project has been a hardship to many, many people. For further information about the pros and cons of the project itself, Google "Three Gorges Dam". The information and cost to US citizens is interesting.

Some of these pictures look misty, but actually it was smoggy. Even though we had nothing but sunshine since arriving in China, we have not had a clear day. In Beijing, Wuhan and now on the Yangtze river, it was very hazy. We noticed that as we approached Chongqing, it got worse and worse. Because of China's extremely fast industrialization, they have not adequately addressed environmental issues. So far the visible solution is to plant trees, but as long as the main power source is burning coal, it seems that the air quality will continue to worsen.

A big concern is making a good impression for the 2008 Olympics, so it will be interesting to see how they solve this problem. They are already asking the people in and around Beijing to take their cars and visit relatives in other areas. I wonder if they will shut down the factories for July and August next year.

The final picture is of our arrival at Badong. This beautiful ship is not the one we travelled on.

Day 6 Our Yangtze River Cruise begins

2007-04-21T00:50:00.000-07:00

We started the day with Tai Chi at 7:15. It was interesting and I can see how it would be good a good stretching exercise. We then had breakfast which included both American and Chinese choices. Our tour for the day was to the Three Gorges Dam construction site. The Dam was massive.

The Chinese government recognized that Americans would be concerned about the environmental, social and cultural impact such a project would have on the people, so they spend quite a bit of time explaining how the issues were addressed. Millions of people had to be relocated, but they were compensated with free houses and free education for their children. They also relocated the graves of their ancestors to a mass cemetery. The guides also explained that the Chinese Sturgeon was disrupted in it's return for spawning, but that they were trying to work it out for them.

After the tour, we went back to the boat and had demonstrations of acupuncture and Chinese foot massage. They claim that they can determine what ails you by where your feet hurt.

Day 5 Drive to our Yangtze River Cruise

2007-04-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

The next event of the day was a 5 hour bus ride through the countryside to Yi Chang, and then to our ship. Helen was very informative and the road was extremely bumpy as we got closer to construction around the Three Gorges Dam site.

We boarded our ship, had dinner and a mandatory meeting about the life preservers. The emphasis was they were all new because there had never been a need for them before. Our room on the ship was small, but recently refurbished and quite nice. This was to be our home for the next four days.

Day 5 Wuhan

2007-04-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

The flight to Wuhan was about 2 hours and the scenery from the plane was incredible. We later learned that the bright patches were fields of Canola, grown for it's oil. After it was harvested, the stalks would be burned and used for fertilizer.

Dinner was again very nice, but I began to realize that we were being served "American style" Chinese. There were a lot of locals eating dinner and they had some very different things on their tables. Paul stopped to talk to the people at one table, and we were invited to pick some flesh off of their whole fish. We tried it and it was VERY good. The other interesting thing was that they put chair covers over the backs of the chairs when people had their coats behind them. Our local guide explained that it was to prevent the jackets or wallets from being stolen.

After dinner we went to our hotel -- a Holiday Inn with a revolving restaurant on top. We were on the 19th floor with a view of the city, but it was smoggy and we couldn't see much. We again took a walk in the downtown neighborhood, where there were lots of interesting things going on, even though it was between 9-10 pm. We saw a fast food place that had duck necks and whole squabs to buy through the walk up window. As we were walking, we passed an alley-size street that seemed to have a lot of people congregating and making a lot of noise. There were huge paper flower arrangements lining the street and we finally realized that it was a funeral. The next day Helen, our guide explained that when a person died when they were very old -- over 70 -- and well respected, there would be lots of noise and paper flowers as a sign of respect. The second picture was of a street after all the flower vendors had closed. Some were in their pajamas, cleaning up after a hard day of work. As in Beijing, they lived behind their little storefronts.

The next day started in the revolving restaurant on the 27th floor. The third picture shows the some of the view, which was wonderful, except for the smog. The breakfast choices were amazing and varied. They had complete Chinese, American and European meal choices on the buffet going around the entire restaurant.

After breakfast, we went to the Hubei Museum. The big historical thing in the province was an ancient tomb that had been excavated. An important man had been buried with all of the things that would make him comfortable in the next life. A major find was a complete set of musical bells. The forth picture shows a performance of about 12 students playing the bells, zither, musical stones and some kind of flutes. The music was beautiful. They ended by playing Ode to Joy, which illustrated to our Western ear how beautiful the music really was.

The Last Pictures of Beijing

2007-04-19T18:01:00.001-07:00

1) There is construction going on all over China. This construction vehicle consisted of a riding lawn mower engine with a truck bed in back.
2) While we were visiting the Forbidden City, a delegation of Mongolian officials visited the museum. The areas they visited were cleared and officially we weren't allowed to take pictures.

2) At the entrance to the Great Wall, there were Temples and a place to burn paper sacrifices. On each side were various types of weapons.

3) While at the Hutong, we passed a long line of tourists getting their tour in bicycle rickshaws.

More pictures of Beijing

2007-04-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

1) There were a lot of interesting new buildings

2) There were interesting old buildings, too.

3) This little girl was enjoying her ice cream in Tian'amen Square.

4) We also saw a couple of old church buildings in Beijing.

Day 5 Temple of Heaven

2007-04-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

The Temple of Heaven was beautiful and very peaceful. This was the Temple the Emperor visited once a year to show he was next to God. He would climb up to a blue pillar, shown in the third picture, which represented God and he would touch it--this showing he was related to God. Since it was a Tuesday morning, it wasn't very busy, which added to the peaceful feeling.

After visiting the Temple, we took a golf cart (another favorite mode of transportation) to a restaurant on the park grounds. Lunch was our last stop in Beijing before the airport. We accomplished a lot during our three days here, but feel as if there is a lot more to see.

Day 5 We continue through the park

2007-04-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

We also found a large group of people using rubberized paddles and a weighted ball, which was a game of balance and gravity. We never could find out the name, either in Chinese or English, but the leader taught Paul how to play and he found it to be fun and challenging. We often saw people playing card games on the street, and they all seemed to enjoy slapping the cards down hard--as if they were angry. Apparently it's the style. Also, there is always someone doing their morning or evening exercises -- oblivious to those around them.

Day 5 a walk through the park

2007-04-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

At breakfast today, we chose American style again. The best part were the rolls, that had some sort of savory filling and were very good.

Our tour today was to the Temple of Heaven, but we walked through a very busy park to get there. There are both free and admission parks, but sometimes the admission parks are free for a certain period in the morning so people can go do their morning exercises. Apparently, the government encourages people to go to the parks to practice all kinds of skills, either in groups or alone.

In this very large park, we found people practicing ballroom dancing, banner twirling, musical instruments, drawing and painting, and a variety of other things. The bottom picture is a choir practicing.

Day 4 the river and shops near the Hutong

2007-04-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

At the end of the residential portion of the Hutong, it opened up into a very peaceful river with trendy shops and restaurants lining the riverbank. It was a surprise to see new and upscale businesses in such a traditional, historical setting.

At the end of the walk, we found a couple of musicians playing traditional instruments on the street. Apparently, there were just doing it for their own entertainment, and were NOT asking for money. The old man also had a huge mop-like brush and a bucket of water. When he finished playing, he started writing in water on the sidewalk. He saw us and wrote "beautiful America". Eventually he gave Paul the brush to write, which was fun. There were also people sitting around playing Mahjong on the street.

For dinner that night, we had Peking Duck. This consisted of duck sliced into small, thin pieces - about 2"x2" - at the table, then placed in thin crepe-like pancakes and topped with slivers of green onion and sauce before being folded burrito style to eat. The Chinese way was to not touch any of the food, but to do it all with chopsticks --HA! We also had a variety of other dishes -- too many to count. Dessert seems almost non-existent, except for sliced fruit to end the meal.

When we returned to the hotel, several of us decided to go for a walk in the area. Our two single guys had each gone for a walk earlier and thought there was a "strip club" down the street--so we walked that direction. It was interesting to see real life at night, although it was very poor-looking and junky. Most people seemed to live behind their tiny storefronts. It looked like the guys were right about the strip club and some men came out and tried to get us to come in. We had a lot of laughs about it--but a few days later found out that it was actually a Karaoke night spot. We also stopped at a vet's shop and talked to them about a little dog some of us had seen earlier. It was sort of a combination vet office/pet store. Actually, we saw very few pets around Beijing, and almost no birds.

After we got back to the hotel, we wanted to see the aquarium Ken and Mary had seen earlier. It turned out to be the fish tank for the hotel restaurant, with fish for sale for dinner. Not my kind of aquarium! We also had an opportunity to check our e-mail on John's computer. He brought his laptop and finally, after three days, was able to connect to the Internet. It's hard to believe we could be so far from home and still be in touch with such routine things!

Day 4 Some more Hutong pictures

2007-04-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

The first picture is the outside of the "junk" store, and the second shows some of the stuff. I thought it looked pretty much like any other second hand store, except more oriental artifacts.

The next picture shows the ever present temple near the Hutong. I didn't keep track of which temple was used for which religion, but I think most were either Buddhist or Taoist. Apparently traditional Chinese beliefs are a combination of religion and philosophy, with ancestor veneration, astrology, numerology and Emperor worship (although not as Deity ) mixed in. They definitely had a concept of a power outside themselves, but were pursuing a variety of ways to connect. It reminded me of the book of Acts in the Bible when Paul was addressing the Athenians and noted the altar "TO AN UNKNOWN GOD". (Acts 17: 23-31) Allen, our local guide explained that the government doesn't care what religion the people practice, but they can't try to persuade others to follow it too. He indicated that groups of more than three people are looked on with suspicion, so most practice their beliefs individually.

The final picture is a peek inside one of the neighborhood courthyards. There are usually up to nine homes sharing a courtyard -- often with extended family living together. In this case, an elderly lady shooed us away before I could take any more pictures.

Day 4 Back into town to visit a Hutong

2007-04-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

In the afternoon, we went back into the old part of town to visit a Hutong, which means "lane". This area is preserved as it was historically, with no high rises allowed. There were narrow streets with lots of little shops and restaurants -- and a lot of fun. If you look at the third picture, you will see a restaurant with an outdoor balcony on the roof. That probably wouldn't be a good place to eat in the rain! We found a second hand junk store that was especially interesting. Some people tried to buy some stuff, but we didn't get anything except pictures.

Because the area is preserved, the property values are VERY high --even though it looks poor and run down. Allen, our city guide, says that a courtyard "house" could sell for $1,000,000. I actually saw an article in the paper before we left telling of a Hutong house selling for a record price of about $1,300,000. Talk about sky-rocketing property values! Allen explained that in China there is a HUGE poor class, a large wealthy class and a very small middle class. The wealthy take advantage of the quiet, calm atmosphere of the Hutongs and enjoy living there even though they are old.

Day 4 continuing to the Great Wall

2007-04-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

As you can see, the Great Wall is a popular tourist attraction. It was quite different from what we expected. We thought you would walk up a flight of stairs, then stroll along the top of the wall, like in many other cities. However, "climbing" was more like climbing steps up a mountain--and many of the steps were knee high. It was very difficult climbing and Paul and I only went up a little way. He found looking down from the heights difficult and I found the steps to be too high to be comfortable. After a quick climb, we wandered around the buildings and enjoyed a leisurely visit.

We have especially appreciated the pace of the trip--not rushed, but a good opportunity to enjoy the sites. On the wall, we had two casualities: John, our single guy, tripped and fell, hitting his forehead. It looked scraped and he said his manly pride was hurt, but otherwise, it was just embarrasing. Gayle also tripped and fell, but she twisted and broke her ankle -- while she was up near the top of the wall. She, her husband and several others actually made it to the top. Unfortunately, she then had to walk back down--on the broken ankle. The others helped her because it was VERY painful.

At this point, Mark, our national guide, was amazing. He took charge of the situation and found a cab to take Gayle and her husband to the hospital, helped them through the medical red tape of getting x-rays and a splint, got her a wheelchair and crutches, AND got them back before we finished lunch. The doctor said she needed surgery, but it was too swollen at this point. They decided to wait several days until we got to Chongqing (Chong-ching -- actually it use to be Chung King) and have it evaluated again. Then they would decide if they should go home or continue the trip.

BTW, after leaving the Great Wall, we went to a VERY nice restaurant for lunch. We counted 14 plates of food--each with something different. This was definitely the best meal yet. We were sorry Gayle and David missed it.

We have been delighted with the weather so far on the trip. It has been sunny and in the upper 60's each day -- perfect for travelling, or just about anything else.

Day 4 -- Our Jade Experience

2007-04-17T23:45:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of a man carving jade. The men do the initial carving and then women take over for the detail work.

This morning was getting better time-wise. I woke up at 2:30 and then tried to get back to sleep until about about 6:30. We had the same breakfast choices as yesterday and Paul chose the American Breakfast again. I decided to try the Businessman's Breakfast. It started with beef porridge, which was very thin oatmeal in broth with ginger slivers and green onion slices. Delicious! Then came pork-fried noodles with a hard boiled egg and hot soy milk to drink along with tea. Definitely a winner for breakfast.

Since we were visiting so many sites, we were on the road a lot--which meant "happy room" stops. Let me explain that there are very few really "happy rooms" in China. There is a very different concept of sanitation and the facilities offer a wide variety of ways for women to squat. Occasionally there is toilet paper, but generally you are on your own. Most of Beijing was a definitely "high tech", however. They had automatic flushing "squatty potties". I have a picture, but think adding it here is definitely "TMI" (too much information).

We got on the road at 8AM today, heading out to climb the Great Wall. It was Monday morning and the traffic was very congested. The freeways are laid out in rings, and the traffic gets a little better farther out. Even on the 5th ring this morning it was still bad, but that was as far out as we could go to get where we needed to be. We saw a lot of interesting things along the road as we drove. My favorite was people doing Tai Chi in the grassy area between the trees in the freeway interchange--in business suits.

On the way out to the Great Wall, we stopped at the Jade Factory and got the "Jade Talk". Each tourist group (and there were many) was taken into a separate room and given the talk, then taken to a showroom with a line-up of salesgirls standing behind the counter -- one for each woman in the group. They each grabbed an arm and began fitting a jade bangle bracelet by covering our hand with a plastic bag. As they were rooting around for a bracelet of the correct size, each girl was explaining (in Chinglish) the classes of jade, how to fit the bracelet and how beautiful the color was on our skin. Supposedly, they had selected the best color for each of us. It felt like being attacked by a row of ducks, but was an interesting experience. BTW, a class A bracelet was about $500-$700. After we were released from our sales person, we roamed the
store and saw some beautiful carved jade statues. A number were cut to take advantage of unique coloration in the stone and were amazingly intricate. Again Paul tried to find the most expensive piece, which turned out to be one about 4 feet tall and 6 feet wide, for $110,000. The piece we liked best was $15,904.

After this "shopportunity" we continued on to the Great Wall.

Day 3 finishes with a drive back to the hotel

2007-04-16T23:58:00.000-07:00

The first picture is the Bird's Nest Stadium where the Opening Ceremonies will be held. The second picture is of two buildings under construction that seem to be vying for the "Leaning Tower of Pisa" award. We were wondering if they are going to be connected in some way.

Driving through the city was interesting--there was a mix of old and new, elegant and shabby, high tech and low. We saw some of the buildings being constructed for the 2008 Olympics next to dilapidated old apartment buildings. The guide said that the area was less then 20 years old, so it was surprising how rundown everything appeared.

Actually, the lack of attention to detail with every day things was evident everywhere. Even though our hotel was new as of March 1st, there were unfinished sections of the room and paint was splattered on the carpet and curtains. Compared to ancient artistic details, it was unexpected. The guide explained that with so much construction going on, unskilled workers are coming in from the countryside in great numbers, and they don't have time to be properly trained. I hope the underlying superstructure is better constructed! We keep reminding ourselves of how much development has taken place in the last 25 years, and are amazed at how how much actually has been accomplished.

Before returning to the hotel, we stopped for dinner at a very nice family style restaurant. The menu included: appetizer plate, rice, sweet & sour pork, cauliflower, spicy chicken, pork & green peppers, egg & onions, and fried cabbage. Finally came sweet & sour soup and sliced apples for dessert. The meal was served with Chinese beer and tea to drink, and was very good.

When we returned to the hotel it was 7 pm and we were VERY tired. I watched TV for a while because I found an interesting discussion of the Chinese economy in English. They said that 80% of the GNP was exported which was unprecedented in world history--and wasn't sustainable in the world economy. The American economist explained that the Chinese aren't spending enough. They are saving too much of their income as a protective saving. He thought China needed a social security and health program to protect the people. Then they could spend more and better balance the economy. It seemed to make sense from the American point of view: spend and spend; depend on credit; don't worry about tomorrow; but looking at where it has gotten us, I'm not sure if it's best.

Day 3 continues at the Forbidden City

2007-04-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

After walking around the Square for a while, we entered the "Forbidden City" through the gate under Mao's picture. This area originally was the Emperor's Palace, but now is a museum. Some of the buildings are used for government meeting places, but most are empty or being restored. It was amazing to see how it went on and on.

We saw one exhibit of bronze artifacts that were dated as old as 1600 BC. Paul pointed out that that was the time of Moses. While we wondered how they produced items with so much detail, Paul noted that the Israelites also had the capability of making a golden calf. Apparently people are people, no matter what the age or place.

The final picture in this group shows the Emperor's Throne. He was worshipped as god, and this was the most important site in the complex. We were told that gold represented the Emperor, so that all the building roofs were gold ceramic tile. Many of the buildings had already been restored, and they were very beautiful and colorful.

Day 3 still continuing Tian'anmen Square

2007-04-16T23:16:00.000-07:00

The afternoon begun with Tian'anmen Square, reported to be the largest square in the world. It is said to hold 1,000,000 people. I thought it was pretty big, but Paul didn't think it was as big as he expected. The Chinese soldiers guarding the various monuments were interesting, but quite undisciplined. While they were "guarding" one was talking on his cell phone while another was watching his comrades train behind a fence and another one was yawning. Thinking of the Buckingham Palace guards and those guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, these guards seemed to have a very different view of their job.

As before, there were tons of people -- all mostly young, meaning teens and early twenties. The surprise to me was very few small children, even on a Sunday afternoon, when I expected families to be out together. The style of clothing for toddlers is a snow-suit type garment that is split up the back for pottying. As we travelled around the country, we discovered that this was to make job convenient WHEREVER the need arose.

There were tons of street vendors trying to sell postcards, etc., but there was also a young man that didn't seem to fit the pattern. He started giving things away to Steve, one of our group--and wouldn't take any money. He gave a deck of cards and a necklace. We tried to pay him with money and food, but he wouldn't take anything. Our guides said that apparently he was a street orphan and that the police watch out for him and make sure he's ok. Except for this young man, we found that just about everyone wanted to sell us something. We began to call them "one dollar people", because about all the English they knew was "one dollar, one dollar". You could get postcards, kites or Rolex watches for "one dollar". Well, maybe two dollars for the Rolex.

2007-04-16T23:04:00.000-07:00

This first picture is of a pagoda and temple on the Palace grounds, and the second is the entrance to the covered walkway.

After the palace, we went to a fresh water pearl "factory" where we learned all about how fresh water pearls are created. The most surprising thing was that there could be 25-30 pearls in each oyster. The pearl jewelry was beautiful and relatively inexpensive. Paul looked all over for the most expensive thing he could find, which turned out to be $11,000. I don't think he looked hard enough.

After the pearl factory, we had a buffet lunch, which had the potential to be good, if it was hot. Unfortunately, everything was lukewarm, including the tea, so it was pretty much of a disappointment. However, since this was our first meal as a group our expectations were still low.

Day 3 More about the Summer Palace

2007-04-16T05:20:00.000-07:00

Her son built this magnificent summer home for her as a birthday gift, and he also built the longest covered walkway in the world for her when she was old. She use to travel with him, and when she was too old to go with him, he took artists, who painted pictures of where he had been. These pictures were then painted on the ceiling of the walkway.

The reason the mountains are rarely seen was because of the smog. All of China seems to have a serious air quality problem, because of the rapid growth in industry. The largest cities seem to be the worst, but even most of the rural areas are hazy. The entire country is gearing up for the 2008 Olympics, with construction everywhere and smog is one issue they are trying to deal with. They even are working on the street signs and directions to correct the English before the visitors arrive. They are planting a huge number of trees to help clean up the air, but it will require a lot more than that to control the smog. My guess is that they will shut down all the factories for a month or so before the games!

Day 3 Beijing continued

2007-04-16T04:58:00.000-07:00

We learned a lot about the "Dragon Lady" Empress and the things she did to promote herself. For example, she was actually a concubine, but when the Emperor died, she worked it out for her son (3-4 years old) to become Emperor. As his mother, she became Empress and very powerful. She used the Navy budget to build a beautiful island pavilion and bridge. The flowers were just getting ready to bloom and the weather for the day was perfect -- about 65 and sunny. The local guide, Allen, said he rarely saw the mountains beyond the palace, but we could see them today.

Day 3 Beijing

2007-04-16T04:47:00.000-07:00

This is a view from our hotel window at daybreak. Our bodies are still on California time, and we had been awake for hours! I thought I had a good night's sleep, but it was only 1 AM. After sleeping on and off the rest of the night, we got up about 5:30 and leisurely got ready for the day. Breakfast was at 7AM and we had "American Breakfast" of eggs, sausage, ham, bacon and very nice rolls. The juice was Tang and the water was warm with lemon squeezed into it. Actually warm water was good -- it meant that it had been boiled. Our first lesson in China was DON'T DRINK THE WATER.

We got ready to go and boarded the bus about 8AM for the Summer Palace. This was actually a very large garden and quite beautiful. It was Sunday morning so there were lots of people there, but we were told the afternoon would have LOTS more.