Romeo and Juliet

Another beautiful Shanghai night. Paige's friend Astrid came over for the night while Storey was camping out with Girl Scouts. We hopped on our bikes and rode down a very busy Changle Lu to Cafe Montmartre and some yummy French cuisine.After dinner we hopped back on the bikes and went around the corner to Anfu Lu and a British production of Romeo and Juliet. It was a fabulous production and we had a perfect night.

Spring

I went out last Wednesday to Fudan to meet Ridley and another woman who works at Fudan for dim sum. The bottom picture shows the food arriving, the top picture shows the food when we were done eating! Absolutely amazing amounts of food for $3 a piece. Where are we going to eat in the States for that????

Well, it is spring, and we are crazy busy here as the rest of the world is at this time of year - end of school, with the addition of the end of our time in Shanghai. It is so hard for us to fathom that we will be leaving in 6 weeks.

I still have a lot of our last vacation to post, and I will get to it at some point. We leave in about an hour for a 4 day Yangtze River Cruise. We are trying to fit it all in before we leave!

It is spring here - has been for a good month - and more glorious than we could imagine. The trees have leafed out, the skies are blue, the days are warm with cool breezes and everyone is out and about. It got warm enough one day that I even saw a man cooling himself in the way we became accustomed last summer and fall - pulling his shirt up to cool his tummy. It was a great reminder of what warmth is around the corner.

We walk out the lane in the morning to the school bus and pass our lovely neighbor, who we call the plant guy, who shaves his head while watching the morning activity. Paige couldn't cross the street the other morning, at 7:15, as there was so much traffic - cars, bikes, motos, people. It took about 5 minutes! We will miss all these sites.

We get back from the cruise Monday night and Wednesday night we are hosting Ridley's boss from Fudan and about 8 others for a Mei dinner. We are trying to be very strict about what she makes! Paige is hosting a party with another friend on Saturday night with about 25 kids. We talked to the neighborhood lane committee and we have the community room for the night. It should be fun. It is a pink party! Lucky boys. My friend Timi arrives from the States the same day. It is a crazy week.

There seem to be so many things that I see every day that I want to record, but I sit down here and forget them all! Funny little things that we have come to take for granted, but which are really so China.

More, so much more, later.

Baisha

We are on our way to Lijiang, a UNESCO preserved village, but have some wonderful sights and stops along the way. This is a roadside market - note the "fresh" chickens in hand - that I shot out the window.We were not sure what these rolled greens are. A beautiful arrangement, though.
Baisha, a wonderful village we stopped by that retains much of its original charm, without the added tourist factor.
The old cobblestone streets made havoc with the wheels of Storey's transportation. We had a little pit-stop for pumping the tire, and some picture taking.
The town was like this woman: beautiful, old and original.
Our guide, David, had arranged for us to go into a local home. Through the arch, over the ghost door and
down a narrow passageway showing the mud brick of the homes in this village and in the area.
When we arrived to the courtyard of the home - where now several families live - we saw this funny cage. It turns out that this home is part of a film being shot in the village and through China. We met the American editor later who was working on the film in an open doorway of a wonderful old hotel. We also ran into the film crew, which you will see in a bit.
The door into the kitchen area had a big chain and lock on it. The woman unlocked it for us to go in and see this kitchen courtyard.
The open space of the kitchen held this still used well.
This is the view from the upper story of the house. Stunning.
Looking from the second floor down to the kitchen area. The stairs up were extremely steep and narrow. All steps in China are far too narrow for my big American foot! I usually have to go down sideways. Grandma Susie and Storey waited below - wisely.
We bought books about the house and the generations of this man's family who had lived here. He took the books from us and signed them - wrote long paragraphs of we are not sure what!
The sweet woman with keys to the kingdom! They just wanted to talk and talk and talk. They were wonderful and genuine. We felt so privileged to have visited them.
After we left to explore more of the village, we came upon the old market place. Still stunning. They were filming right around the corner and some of the extras were awaiting their turn.
Filming - hurry up and wait!
Locals hanging around and chatting. They are so colorful.
This room was filled with men smoking and chatting. I grabbed a quick photo before they turned away.
Making our way down the back alleys of town - Grandma Susie in the lead, Christophe and Dad and Paige.
Buildings were a bit run down but gorgeous. Hopefully they will keep them up for future generations. The town is certainly getting more attention with film crews discovering it.
Corn drying.
We walked around the outside of the village and found the gardens next to the mud walls of town. A river was just behind us.
Havesting, drying basket and a beautiful building.
Our driver buying fish for dinner tonight! He threw it in the back with all our luggage!
This was one of our favorite stops as it really hasn't been touristed yet. The stores were all local and people took us by the hand to find things. Perfect day.

Dali

We got up early to fly to Dali. There is a huge lake that the town sits on - as well as many other towns!
This is Dali "New City". We were happy to not be staying here. We made our way around the bottom of the lake and then up north about 30 minutes.
A wonderful shot of a plastic bottle recycler.
One of many 3 wheeled vehicles that we saw everywhere.
Making our way to the lake for a boat ride to an island fishing village.
The lovely boat.
The first mate!
Michael, our first guide.
Clear skies and clean air was a very nice change.


The village.
Another temple! This, of course, to pray for good fishing.

A beautiful, colorful town.
Dried fish that tour boats with Asian tourists who came after us, swamped.

Paige and Storey each found a shell mobile that they had to take home!

The vendor who laughed at their tough bargaining.
Our Naxi courtyard hotel in the old town of Dali.


We took a lift up the mountain for a view of the area and yet another temple. All along the mountain were tombstones. They face east, the rising sun, and there were guards along the way standing watch over them. QingMing, tomb sweeping day is coming up, and people were already cleaning out some areas around the tombs. We saw these on all the hillsides as we drove north the next day.

A little hazy in the afternoon. The lake is in the background with old town Dali and some other small villages around.
Ridley and Paige sitting out the temple viewing. Actually, France, Christophe and I were the only ones heading up those stairs!

In the street behind our hotel, these restaurants were everywhere displaying their fresh produce. Pick what you want to eat and they cook it up! The little bridge in the foreground goes over the water that runs through town and is used for washing clothes, drinking, and animal watering. They have different times for different acitivities!

A better shot of the irrigation system.
A sneak peak at a local barber.
Another lovely park in the middle of town. It was a charming village.