Shanghaied Family

Here and there

2009-07-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

I never tire of the streets of Shanghai.

The girls getting their toes done! What fun pampering!
Our friend Amy Tan and her husband Lou diMatteo were in town for a bit with Lisa See, another wonderful author of things Chinese. We got to have a yummy dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, M on the Bund, where Michelle, the owner, hosted us all. (Amy foreground, Lisa in the back.)
The spectacular dessert that we love that is just a bit of about everything!
Lou with a new friend I made that night, Han Feng, who did the costumes for Amy's opera, Bonesetter's Daughter, that opened in San Francisco. She is a young designer now working on films and operas around the world. Really fun gal who lives right down the street from us. Our neighbor!

(Sorry. I can't find a way to take away the underlining!)

Last day in Shangri-la

2009-07-08T11:46:00.000-07:00

Here we are, our last day of our trip in Yunnan. We were driven over harrowing roads that dropped thousands of feet down the mountain side (while the driver is wildly passing other cars on blind curves!) to a village that produces black pottery. We were taken to this particular home, where the potter is very famous. 90% of the villagers are potters, and as we came into the village, at the top of the hillside, there were stores selling the black pottery. This particular artists work, so we were told!, only goes out to stores and commissions.This is a typical home with the inner courtyard where the animals are kept, grass/hay is dried on the ground level.
I had to use the facilities after our long ride, and this is it! A nice stone hole in the floor. I have to say that is was much cleaner and devoid of stench, unlike most other depositories!
The second floor is the living/working space. The wood carving on the home was beautiful.
We entered into the main room where the potter and his son-in-law (on the right) were busy at work. We watched them for quite a while. They were incredible adept and moved the clay with such incredible facility. The clay is all from the surrounding mountains, which is why the village is famous. It sure didn't appear as though they received many tourists, though. Maybe that is yet to come.
It was the middle of the afternoon and they worked just by the light from this window that faced west. There were no lights on in the room. Not even sure if they had electricity in the room. The pots were spun by their feet. We were very curious about his process and the pots and asked lots of questions. That endeared us to him and he offered to tour us around the house.
The potter's brother is a monk, which is a source of great pride. He happened to be visiting from his monastery while we were there. We kept catching glimpses of him as he would peak his head out of his room. The potter took us into a large, beautiful room - their shrine to Buddha where his brother prays (and the whole family must also) while he is there. The whole room was immaculately kept, large and light. Nicer than any other room in the house. Kept just for prayer. We finally made our way to the attic where there were pots that he was "willing" to sell us! Imagine that! Of course we found some that we couldn't live without!
This is the village and we went walking a bit down the road and villages were walking about, too.

Beautiful, beautiful people.
Looking back down at the village as we were leaving.
After having dinner in the old part of Shangri-la, we passed a frequent site: dancing in the town square. We have seen this everywhere we go. At night people of all ages come out and dance together. It is really wonderful to see, and we have even entered in and participated a couple of times. They always gladly welcome us in to their group. Nothing is private or exclusive in China - at least for the common man. Those things are changing for the new elite.
As we were waiting for our plane to leave for Kunming and then on to Shanghai, these young people were in the airport waiting to greet the next plane load of tourists. They were all dressed in traditional costume and went to the plane playing music and singing. It was lovely. Better late than never for us!

Back in Shanghai at the Hongqiao airport. Storey and France getting a little rest from the long day of flying! We are home!

Lijiang and Shangri-la - HA!

2009-07-02T15:45:00.000-07:00

Ridley working outside of our hotel room in Lijiang, a World Heritage town. A beautiful courtyard hotel, with power!
A little shopping was done after dinner one night. Paige found this patch "cowboy" hat that the hearders wear around here.
One of the courtyards of our hotel.
France and Christophe enjoying breakfast.
Something calming to start your day!
The luscious breakfast buffet.
Storey getting packed up first as we prepare to leave Lijiang. We have really enjoyed our time here, and David our guide is one of the best we have ever had.
Our troupe - ready to roll!
Storey takes the lead.
Following the Yangtze with some beautiful scenery.

A star in the making - with a very serious camera man directing.

We stopped at Stone Drum Town which is at the bend of the Yangtze for a little tour and lunch. The vendor had red pepper cakes which I bought! Yum! Anyone want to come over for dinner??

Our choice of fresh vegetables as we eat with the locals.

There was a great confab over getting to inspect a tuc-tuc up close. Very exciting!

Heading into the mountains.
We have to say good-bye to our lovely guide David as we head into Shangri-la. He is not allowed to guide in this region. We must meet another guide, local to the area. He was fine, but David is a hard act to follow. He was very straight forward and didn't hesitate to answer questions in a somewhat honest fashion. Most guides (they are all employed by the government) really tow the party line. It is interesting how much a guide can effect how you feel about an area.
Our next stop was Tiger Leaping Gorge. We walk for about 2k along this placid river...
go through many tunnels dynamited out of the overhanging rock....
(maybe too many tourists getting taken out by falling rock!)
and slowly we come upon Tiger Leaping Gorge. Gorg - eous!
What do you know? At the end of the walk a nice ice cream treat awaits. More opportunity to buy, buy, buy!

It was stunning and powerful.
Christophe hiding his ice cream treat! No use hiding when I am going to tell, is there?
We made it to Shangri-la and headed right into dinner in a "traditional" restaurant. The guides do all the ordering (to our dismay many times as we like figuring it out) and the food started pouring in. It is always a feast. Shangri-la is very high, over 10,000 feet. Maybe 12,000. It was very cold. France experienced severe altitude sickness later.
We finally made it to our hotel. This is the lobby where we were checking in fairly late at night. We were greeted by lovely women offering warm tea and cookies - of a sort. Knowing that the heat is never turned on until you get there, we had asked for the room heaters to be turned on earlier. They said they were on, but alas, the rooms were freezing when we got there. Another beautiful courtyard hotel - 5 star they say. Well, the night was pretty miserable. Beautiful, but miserable. The bed was situated to that the one air vent blowing out "hot" air, was aimed directly at the bed. It was so cold that by the time the air made it to the bed, it was freezing. There were bed warmer pads we turned on, but for the queen bed, the pad was only in the middle section. I guess we had to cozy up anyway since the duvet on top didn't cover the width of the bed! If someone moved at all, the cover was pulled to them, sending the bed partner into screams of frigid agony! Not a good night. All kinds of complaining went on trying to fix some of these rather large details, but to no avail. Needless to say, we checked out of this quaint, beautiful hotel first thing in the morning and went into town to the standard Chinese huge hotel. It was warm and the beds were softer (oh yes, the other beds were made out of board!) so we were happy. Ahhh. Shangri-la. Not quite living up to its name. And then, of course, we find out why. It has only recently become Shangri-la! Its former name was, and still is known by, Zhongdian. The government decided that this region needed more tourism dollars (or kuai) so they renamed the town to get tourists up there! It is very close to Tibet and is lovely country, but it is certainly no Shangri-la. In fact, lore has it that Lijiang is the town that James Hilton was describing in Lost Horizon. Much more believable!
Off to one of the largest monastery's - off in the distance.
No pictures were allowed inside, but lots of incense, candles, chanting, statues, money offering stations. Very dark with separate rooms for different Buddha statues.
Gold roof shining in the sun. Lots of bells ringing around it to keep the birds away - no defecating here!
A mini city with monks everywhere and the people who service them. Interesting.

Still pretty chilly in our high altitude monastery. The views from this courtyard were astounding, mountains all around.

Time to go!

Back on the China road

2009-06-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

After a long hiatus from the blog (busy with many other travels, which you will see, packing to head home, and then China closed access to the blog for awhile surrounding the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square) I am back, and I will continue where I left off in the middle of our trip to Lijiang with my parents and France and Christophe.We made a nice leg stretcher stop at the first bend of the Yangtze River which begins in Tibet and runs all the way to the ocean by Shanghai. A stunning view.
We were greeted at our hotel in Lijiang by lovely traditional music. The hotel was in the middle of old Lijiang, which required navigating cobbled, windy streets - down hill to get in, which means UP hill to get out. This is a Unesco protected town now. Very picturesque. The picture below shows how we managed to get Storey in and out of town as the wheel chair was impossible to push.
We made quite a little parade as we entered and exited! Some streets were so narrow that Storey's cart was just able to pass.

Of course nothing can stop a young girl from riding a horse, even if it is led the whole way! Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is in the background, and our planned adventure this day was to ride horses to the huge lake that is in the background, then take a traditional canoe out for a spin and come right back in. That was not very appealing to any of us. The poor horses could barely hold the adults, so most of us walked while the girls rode, bored to tears that they couldn't control the horses themselves. When we reached the water's edge, the boat they wanted us to get into was so wet, dirty and small. There was no way Storey could have gotten in without tipping the whole contraption, the wind was roaring creating little white caps, and nothing seemed less appealing than to row out and back. We have all had this experience before, for goodness sake!
The next tourist target was an old monastery in the countryside. One of the largest in the region. It was great fun seeing it and seeing the young monks walk around. As you can see, endless color and endless courtyards. China is filled with a zillion courtyards.

Some of the younger monks playing hackey sack. It is very special for a family to have a son who goes to a monastery.
Storey finding her inner peace.
This gang waited in one of the sunlit courtyards while the rest of us toured through the monastery and got more of the history.

Another lovely town to check out. We love these stops in more locals towns where the tourists hadn't quite gotten to yet.

Setting up shop out front.
Clothes washing done at the town water source.
We were invited into another typical home by a woman on the street. She just grabbed us and had us follow her to her home. This is the kitchen.
My dad looking very busy cooking over the fire!
Grass drying in the courtyard for the animals.
More of the kitchen and their meager supplies.
A bedroom that we snuck a peak into, overflowing with clothes hastily tossed in.
The matron of the house who wouldn't let us leave without stuffing our pockets with peanuts. She was literally throwing them into my purse and the girls bags, making us take something with us. The never ending hospitality of the Chinese continues to amaze us.
This is a covering that the women of this area wear to protect their backs when they are hauling things on their backs. We saw it often, huge loads on these women's backs. Very attractive without the goods, also. Dad and Susie in a familiar pose.
A courtyard where a movie was being filmed. Sandbags piled up on the right and extras milling about in their period costumes.
Dad and Susie exploring the town. The mountains are visible in the background. This was really a stunning village. I don't think the photos have properly captured the historic essence or beauty. Oh well!

Romeo and Juliet

2009-04-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-30T17:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-20T01:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

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.

Dad and Susie are here!

2009-04-11T00:57:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been awhile. Believe it or not Dad and Susie have come and gone and we have had adventures aplenty! What fun we have had.

They joined me their first day here on my Art Class tour. It was down at the Bund which was really fun. We had lunch out on the terrace of New Heights, looking out over the river and the incredible architecture of Pudong.The next adventure was the glasses building - yes, a building with every kind of glasses (eye ware) you could ever desire. Storey was in need of new eye ware, and she had fun getting her eyes "tested"! 30 minutes later she had two new pairs of glasses. Of course, there was lots of agonizing over which frames to choose with so many to decide from.
A shoe salesman going down the street. He went by me too quickly to get a good shot, but I captured his departure. This while we were waiting for a taxi in front of our lane.
Another Shanghai adventure - the north market. This is where we have sheets made, and dad and Susie are having a silk quilt made. Really fun to watch the process as they stretch out the silk, cover it with the cotton cover.....
and then quilt, sew it all together. This is a family run operation, and I have gotten the low down that it is the best value and quality in the building. They are right across from my favorite sheet makers, so it must be!
It is now spring break, and we have flown to Kunming, Storey's birth place. The city of flowers and eternal spring. These flowered pillars greet us. We met France and Christophe in the airport, who had just finished their Beijing and Xi'an tours.
We are so excited to be here after 10 years, and Ridley, Paige, and I head off with Storey to see where she was living before coming home with us. We got the coolest taxi and driver. Ridley had me take pictures of this DVD player in the taxi. It holds two different movies it can switch between, has a TV and a radio. We were just counting on him looking at the road more than the screen!

We met up with the others at Green Lake, and had a great walk around.

A warm beautiful sunny day with musicians out serending the strolling passersby.

Mmmmm. Love that popcorn! Even the semi sweet stuff.
There was even a brass band playing!
As we strolled around to the other side of the lake we saw the hotel where we had stayed 10 years ago! The front part is new. We were in the tall building in the back. Green Lake Hotel.
Our guide then dropped us off in "old town" after we had repeatedly told her we were interested in the older parts of town - older buildings. Well, we got it! It is really hard for the Chinese to understand that we are not interested in all the new stuff.
I will spare you all the photos of us wading through mud holes and construction zones - with a wheel chair! - as we zigzagged through the old section. It was definitely not new!
Some street cooking in beautiful earthen pots, and on the right something that resembled brains. We did not stop here to dine!
I just can't resist these shots of bikes and motorcycles lined up. There were many more behind me that I couldn't get in the picture. Many of the bikes have electric motors on them. It is really the way to travel. I think we will be bike people when we return to the States. Better in all ways.
I loved this shot of the dishwasher of a restaurant. I didn't realize at the time that it would be our restaurant of choice that night! This was the back alley. We walked around front, through old stone arches and a historic plaque, and found this courtyard.
We wanted to eat here because of the beauty and old feel, but the food was, of course, every bit as good as the ambiance.
Keep your eye on the gentleman to the right of France in the back. That is a pipe he is holding! A water pipe.
Duck. I bet you could have guessed!
Puffing away - inbetween France and Christophe.
Being in a courtyard we were not subject to the fumes, but I was fascinated by the device. Does the smoke really taste different??? Better???
Looking a little worn out at the end of the day!

Dad and Susie who didn't seem to suffer any jet lag at all. They got up and kept going every day!

Some shots from Paige capturing the interior courtyard.
The first of many memorable, wonderful meals together. Kunming is in Yunnan Province in the southwest of China. It borders on Vietnam. We are heading to Dali tomorrow, then Lijiang and Shangri-la.
Stay tuned!

BookWorm Literary Festival

2009-03-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

At the Book Festival, Ridley had been assigned to participate in the Literary Death Match, something that "Opium" literary magazine founder Todd Zuniga, chatting below, does across America. It was a crazy American Idol sort of format. Todd is whacky and fun, and humiliated the four writers involved! Behind Todd here were the three judges: content, presentation and intangibles. Interesting judging points. It was all very funny and lively with lots of audience participation.Ridley and the other 2nd round contestant, Zachary Mexico.
Ridley was voted off, which was fortunate! The runners up had to down three shots of tea and find Beijing on a map with a chopstick, blindfolded. The Scottish poet who no one could understand, won - by a chop stick!
Sunday was beautiful and warm, and we surprised our friends from France, Christophe and France, at their hotel just after their arrival from Paris. We took them to the Bell and Drum Tower and hutong area to Shichahai, a small lake with restaurants and small shops all around. We had a great lunch and walked around a bit.
Storey eating rice cooked in bamboo, which we had first tasted in PingAn at the rice paddies.
France and Christophe still in jet lag mode, trying Chinese food for the first time. They were great troopers. They stayed in Beijing and will head to Xi'An before meeting us in Kunming on Saturday. My dad and step-mom arrive tomorrow to have spring break with us. Yippee!!!

Beijing - Summer Palace

2009-03-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

Ridley and Storey flew up to Beijing on Friday for the BookWorm Literary Book Festival that Ridley was participating in. Paige and I arrived Saturday morning. We were picked up by our lovely guide, Juan, who had toured the Walters around when they were here in December. We checked in at the oh so very hip "G" Hotel and picked up Ridley and Storey, then headed for a "traditional" Chinese lunch. We ended up at the same restaurant our guide in October had taken us to! Hmmmm, any one getting any kick backs here? It was yummy, at any rate, and prepared us for our Summer Palace tour. Lots of walking and rolling (the wheel chair), lots of courtyards and ghost doors. And lots of Chinese tourists.
The Summer Palace is built around a man made lake of quite a nice size. The hill that you see is the result of the hand dredging that took place to form the lake. That is the temple that the Dowager Empress (the famed Dragon Lady) would be carried to every morning. It holds the largest - so we were told - wooden female Buddha. Fun Dragon Lady facts: she was fat and ugly and made sure that all the concubines were fatter and uglier!; she would use over 150 silk "towels" every day to dry her off after her bath - they were thrown away, never to be reused (they were wash cloth sized, and silk is really not very absorbant, hence the number required for the rotund figure); she required a banquet table of food, sometimes over 100 dishes, for breakfast every morning. If she liked what was offered, she might share, if she didn't like it the food was all thrown away. Not a nice woman. Was a killer of men and concubine babies, so that she had the only children that might ascend the "throne." Long story on that one.
We found that most tourists thought Storey more interesting than the Palace! They would stop and stare at her being rolled about. She was writing down what the guide was telling us, and people would literally come and look over her shoulder to see what she was doing. It merited a photo!
More steps, more courtyards, more beautiful roof tiles. The girls did think that this was something they had seen before - every where we go! Courtyards, steps, ghost doors, rockery, painting -- I love it all!

Looking back across the water at a temple built on an island for fishing luck. The bridge connecting it has 17 arches so that no matter which side you start on, the middle arch is #9 - the highest, most propitious number belonging to all things emperor.
An incredibly beautifully painted covered walkway a half a mile long from the Dragon Lady's courtyard quarters toward the female wooden Buddha temple.
Each beam painted with a unique scene.

Looking up at the temple.
A marble ship where the Dowager would go to have tea and enjoy the lake.
Leaving the Summer Palace out the back way. The splendor of these buildings, the work involved in every aspect, I find overwhelming and awing.

Birthday boy

2009-03-17T04:34:00.000-07:00

Ridley had his birthday last week, and Grandma Lu and I gave him some truly tailored shirts for the grand occasion. He has had shirts made at the South Bund Soft Spinning Market (aka fabric mart) which are quite lovely, but these boutiques are around the corner from us on one of the men's bespoke streets. I had heard that Mr. Chans is particulary good, so off we went. The measuring surely made us think they were thorough.

Getting everyone involved in this round!
This is the second fitting. We went in on a Tuesday, had the first fitting on Wednesday, (this fitting) and the shirts were done on Thursday. Amazing and perfect fits with the finest fabric.

Just in time to wear the shirts to Beijing for the Beijing literary festival at the BookWorm.

Back with more adventure

2009-03-16T01:42:00.000-07:00

I am going to load you up with a bunch of photos, which I have been neglecting over the past couple of weeks.

First, Storey and Ridley with the Dr. Seuss hat she made in Kindergarten ( teacher switch day on Dr. Seuss day - how convenient!) Pretty cute.I went on a walk in our neighborhood to find a shop that makes all kinds of products covered in silk. I was on a particular search for DVD cases. The address led me to believe it was around Jing'An Temple, about a 15 minute walk from our house. After reaching the Temple, I walked another 15 minutes and finally called the shop. I was going in the right direction - keep going. Another 20 minutes later I found this alley. It was somewhere down here.....
Aahhh. The right number on this building.....
Looking a little industrial to me at the moment. You never know what you find around a corner, up some stairs.......
I was actually directed to this elevator by the guard at the front door.
Now here's a job. She gets lots of reading done. At least she knew where to take me. The moment she saw me, she said fifth floor - not quite like that though. In Chinese. That gave me confidence to continue. I was in the right place.
Bad picture, but I arrived to this room filled to overflowing with all kinds of albums, picture frames, journals, DVD boxes, glasses cases, etc. I found my needs and more, of course, and found that my whole afternoon was gone. It just takes longer to do things around here! One activity a day.
Wednesday is mahjong day at Julie's. She has moved from Puxi and the Xintiandi area to across the river and the Lujiazhui financial center. We decided to meet for lunch in the Shanghai World Financial Center. I grabbed a photo as I was walking up. The JinMao Tower is in the foreground, the SWFC in the back. You have seen this building before when Julie and I went up to the observation deck (highest in the world)which sits right above the can opener hole. That is its nickname around here: the Can Opener.
A little closer shot of where I am heading - into the clouds.

After many security guards and much routing around, I finally was able to enter the Marriot lobby that has the elevator to the restaurant on the 100th floor. Hmmm, pay 150 kuai to go to the observation deck or go to the restaurant for a lovely lunch for about the same price?
With these lovely mahjong ladies waiting, no contest: Aunt Kay (Julie's husband's aunt who was visiting), Julie, Mary and a beautiful view out the windows. I am hooked on mahjong. Hoping to bring that back with me!

Queen for a day!

2009-03-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my friend Julie, I got to be queen for a day - or at least an afternoon! These lovely ladies (in waiting?) took me to a perfect Italian lunch in Taikong Lu, the maze of boutiques and restaurants that I love to meander.
Julie in front next to me, and Kathleen and Mary. Julie is from Minnesota and knows my friend Nancy. Mary is from Twin Falls, Idaho, lived in St. Louis for many years, and I meet them in Shanghai! It is a small world. Kathleen is from New Mexico but has roamed the States, last in Dallas.
After a delightful lunch on another rainy day, we headed to a luxurious facial at Diva Life - a garden house done up in purple. Everything purple. What a treat.
Sweet Julie.
Saturday night we headed out to eat with Julie and Phillip, Phillip's Aunt Kay and Kathleen and her husband Mike (taking the photo). We started out at the Glamour Bar, definitely worthy of its name, on the Bund overlooking the Huangpu and Pudong lights, and then progressed across the street to Jean Georges, a beautiful French restaurant, also overlooking the lights. We had our own room with two semi-circle tables we had them put together to try and assimilate a round table. It was so Chinese!
My darling husband who arranged all these lunches and dinners for me. We had the tasting menu at Jean Georges which was French and oh so Chinese at the same time. (Meaning lots of fish and no meat. Very different from a mid-western French tasting menu!) You see us at the end of the meal, so happlily replete with our final dessert course. We started with:
1. a small compote of almond puree with a shaving of truffle on top
2. a poached egg, in the shell, with vodka cream and caviar on top (oh my!)
3. succulent scallops with a raisin caper emulsified reduction (can that be correct?)
4. delicious soup with frogs legs - BIG frogs legs! could only have been a toad!
5. turbo with a tomato zucchini salsa on top
6. lobster on toast, and more lobster
7. squab with fois gras to the side - oh my, again!
8. dessert, as shown above - a collection of 4 varieties of pear - frozen, pastry encrusted, ice cream, flanish. The other choice was chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. A warm chocolate cake was brought out to me, so I had pears and chocolate!
And AFTER all that, a plate of chocolates and homemade marshmallows that were salted. I just looked at those!
Mmmmm. Being queen is good!

More every day life

2009-02-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

Paige got to Skype with BF Ellie while Ellie was visiting Susu and Poppy. They talked for about an hour and a half - late night for Paige, early morning for Ellie. So much fun to hear them giggling and laughing like they had seen each other yesterday.
Friday night was a fun school event: Bingo. Tons of people showed up and we had many rip-roarin' games of bingo with lottery ticket fun baskets being given away at the same time. Winners of the Bingo games got to choose from a table of yummy baked goods.

One of the breaks was a chicken song. Two middle school teachers leading the charge. YMCA song was another get up and jiggle around song. Lots of fun and laughter, pizza, popcorn and new friends. We met the new family from Australia who live down the street from us. Their children, Hugo and Pearl, are adored by the girls who have taken them under their wings on the school bus.

I had a fun romp through a wet market I found next to Storey's Saturday morning pottery class. This guy was cracking me up. He was running around cutting, weighing, chopping meat up for clients, all the while this cigarette hanging out of his mouth with ashes about 1/2" long precariously dangling on the end. When he saw me laughing and taking a picture, he started laughing and finally removed the cigarette - probably just until I walked away!

A chicken was being removed for a customer while I took this, so I moved quickly so I wasn't there for the rest of the process. They do it all right here for you - the defeathering, etc. Anything you would like.
The Chinese eat a lot of fish, and all kinds of fish. Some of the lovely choices.

Fresh dumplings.
Hand made noodles.
Rice and grain.
Beautiful, fresh veggies. I can't get enough of the vegetables over here. So many different kinds and all so delicious.

Yet more fish.
The choices of tofu here are like the cheese counter at home. Everything from stinky tofu to fried tofu, dried, wet, soft, firm, aged..... Our cook makes the best tofu pudding we have ever had (actually, never had tofu pudding before!). It is creamy and smooth with ever so slight almond and vanilla flavoring.
More grains, nuts, rice, beans, spices.
Storey was taken by friends to a gymnastic class yesterday, after an afternoon Girl Scout outing. We went to pick her up and couldn't find it! The address was correct, we knew we were in the right area, but everyone we asked kept sending us back to the previous place we had been. It was a bit of a circus. I finally called another mother who explained over the phone how to get there. All buildings have guards, and we had asked several guards who had all said it didn't exist. Such is the world in Shanghai. We found Storey who loved her new class. It will be easier next time!

From gymnastics we headed to Otto's, an Italian restaurant around the corner from us. As we were driving by the corner, we saw a huge truck filled top to bottom, front to back with pineapples. The men were throwing the pineapples out onto the corner. There were pineapples under the truck, in the street, and piled high on the sidewalk. We were marveling at the brashness of it all. When we exited from dinner and started walking home, there on the corner was a gal selling the pineapples from a very reduced pile. I went to ask how much and had to ask twice because I couldn't believe the cost. 5 RMB for 3 pineapples. So we paid about .73 cents for three gorgeous, and salivatingly delicous pineapples. That was good as it helped off-set the price of the far too expensive Italian restaurant! Anything western costs 10 x what the Chinese equivalent would be.

It is a rainy Sunday afternoon. Storey has taken to making dinner for us every Sunday. We have had yummy spaghetti, meatloaf, and tonight it is lasagna. We haven't found any lasagna noodles in any of the stores, so Storey and Ridley are down making the noodles. I am sure it will be the best lasagna ever! Happy Sunday.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY and HAPPY BIRTHDAY

2009-02-13T16:16:00.000-08:00

It is Susie's birthday on Valentine's Day. We are loving you, missing you, and can't wait to see you in a little over a month. Here are our Chinese flowers we are sending you on Valentine's Day.

My dad, Susie and sweet Kalea, my niece.
Feast your eyes on the Chinese Valentine's floral arrangements!

Julie surrounded by the advent of spring at the Pudong Flower Market.

Yes, a bouquet of feathers and bunnies!

A little tulle with your blue sparkle roses!

Feathers!
Real roses hidden under a coating of blue sparkle paint.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day.
We are sending our love to our family and friends - and particularly to Grandma Susie on this special day!

Shanghai shopping

2009-02-11T00:17:00.000-08:00

I have had some fun Shanghai shopping adventures lately. My friend Liz found the deal of a century on some copies of the Terra Cotta Warriors, so I met her at Dong Tai Lu to place some orders. My tutor, Dean, came with us as the vendor doesn't speak English very well and we had some high finance to accomplish. We met on the street with all the vendors: Dong Tai Lu is a fabulous outdoor "antiques" market, full of all the Asian trinkets, old and new, you could ever wish for. And those you didn't even know you were wishing for! Liz was placing numerous orders for co-workers, and I was placing orders for friends, as well. After meeting in front of the stall, the vendor took us on this route down several alley's.........A beautiful warm day to be washing clothes - although it is done in the freezing cold as well. Once you get off the main streets into the back lanes, like ours, you can really begin seeing daily life. Behind the green bucket is a corrugated stone that she was scrubbing the clothes on. I would say that the average Chinese person is very "green" in their living. They hand wash their clothes and air dry them; don't turn on lights during the day; don't turn on the heat (even if they happened to have it); hand wash dishes in one bucket of water (as with the clothes - no water waste). Lessons to be learned. And for the most part ride bikes, walk or take public transportation.

Liz with a co-worker, Susan.
We truly felt like we were doing some back lane dealing!
After several lanes and twists and turns we made it to the "warehouse."
This room couldn't be larger than 15 x 15 and stacked to the brim. We had to stand in once place or step outside the door.
Dean making sure the everything is proceeding as it should.
Our lovely vendor with her treasures surrounding her.
The day before I had taken my friend Julie out to a furniture warehouse out west. She is looking for an opium bed to take home and we had fun being educated on the difference between opium beds and wedding beds. Wedding beds envelope you in a canopy-like setting, with different kinds of tops and sides to be had - painted, carved, openings to hang fabric to stay cozy and private. Opium beds are more like large day beds with a portable small table in the middle to put all the opium paraphanalia that might be needed. I think it would be fun to use the small table for gaming, instead! Anyway, another far and away fun hunting adventure.

I strolled around Taikong Lu after dropping Storey and her friend at pottery on Saturday morning, never tiring of the beautiful buildings and every day life going on.
Such beautiful grey brick.
Fresh vegetables for sale, never mind the clothes drying above!

Work has resumed on our lane after the holiday break. The front gates are being repainted, with no attention at all given to dripping the black paint all over the gold portions of the gate. I guess they will go back and repaint the gold! Power washing was done on all the lanes today, maybe helping to sweep away all the fireworks residue. More painting, touching up, is also happening. It never seems to end. It is a beautiful lane!
The girls are home from school. Storey is needing help hanging some magazine pictures from a teen magazine that Marianne sent them! We had a great care package from mom and Marianne with stuffed animals, American Girl dolls, Berenstain Bear books and Valentines goodies. Thank you Mom and Marianne!!!

The End of Hong Kong

2009-02-09T23:39:00.000-08:00

This was our last day in Hong Kong, therefore our last opportunity to head out to what is called the largest sitting buddha in the world. It is on Lantau island. After a 20 minute metro ride (we have ridden the metro everywhere around here. so well laid out and easy to use) we arrived at the famous Ngong Ping Skyrail. The description of the Skyrail: "Embark on the ride of a life-time on this spectacular 5.7 km skyrail with ever-changing picturesque panoramas across the lush terrains of Lantau and South China Sea." After waiting in line about an hour to board this famous ride, here we are, ready to see the sights!Paige and Ridley already enjoying the ride!
Mmmmm...... the spectacular views begin. The South China Sea. Can you see it???
This was the best landscape picture we got over the next 5.7 km! The hiking path below that disappears into the fog. It was the most unbelievably foggy day out. Not one vista to be had. The ride was still fun!
We arrive to the Po Lin Monastery nestled in the "spectacularly scenic mountains" and found this little diversion on the way to the Buddha. Don't know what happened to my camera. Too much fog?
THERE HE IS! THE LARGEST OUTDOOR SEATED BRONZE BUDDHA IN THE WORLD!
Mimicking the giant Buddha. Can't you tell?
The fog was shifting ever so slightly so I kept snapping away hoping to get a glimpse. We decided against mounting the thousand steps to walk into the fog with the Buddha.

We had just missed the bus to Tai O fishing village (which we discovered we were very grateful for since the 20 minute ride down the mountain was narrow and twisting)so grabbed the only available cab. Tai O is a traditional fishing village. We started walking through the stalls of every imaginable sort of fish product and Storey could hardly breath. (A sensitive nose, this one.) We decided to go quickly through the village, but not too quickly that I couldn't grab some wonderful shots.
I won't even begin to make-up what these items could be!
Heading to the live tanks.

The stilt houses.
He was selling fish out of his boat. The buyers were up where we were and kept asking to see different fish that he would then display in his net.
A very windy taxi ride back to the metro line to head home. A fun adventure, though not quite what we had imagined.

We had a leisurely morning the next day and headed to the airport to come home. Shanghai was blue skies greeting us. Always nice to come home!

Hong Kong

2009-02-09T23:03:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve was celebrated on Tuesday night here, instead of Sunday night in Shanghai. We still don't know why the dates were different. We had a window table at the Chinese restaurant in our hotel that was the best front row seats we could have had. You can see the hoards of people on the walk way to view the fireworks. It was chilly out, and we were happy to be inside enjoying a fabulous meal and dinner show.
The boats were being held back by a police line. We heard later that one of the boats launching the fireworks caught fire at the end. It was interesting to see the 30 minutes of fireworks that were half hidden from the smoke that didn't clear. They kept going and going, the smoke getting thicker and thicker. The clouds just lit up with color.
There was a gorgeous breakfast buffet every morning with all the goodies one could ever desire, but I had to get a picture of the fresh honey being offered! Dripping off the comb into a bowl. We decided we are going to be bee farmers when we get back to the States!
The girls and I were swimming in the pool when all of a sudden the clouds started to blow away. Before you knew it we had blue sky! We ran upstairs, got dressed, grabbed Ridley and ran for the Peak, the top of Hong Kong. The taxi driver took us to the top rather than to the tram, which turned out to be a good idea since we later saw the line for the tram circled two blocks.

This is the tram. All the seats are facing uphill since it is too steep to face downhill.

Storey recording our departure from the terminal.
Where did the blue sky go??? As quickly as the clouds blew away they blew back in. Island life.
It is hard to capture how steeply we were tilted. The buildings looked like they were leaning at 45 degree angles.

A fun quick adventure. We were able to grab a little lunch and ice cream at the top. Made it all worth while.

Hong Kong - Ocean Park

2009-02-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

Ocean Park. One of the largest amusement parks I have seen - apart from Disney World, of course. We did go to Disney World Hong Kong our first day here, but I forgot my camera, so you are spared the photos of what you already know! Disney World, or Land, on a smaller, very manageable scale. We had a great day and Paige even went on Space Mountain with me. It was so scaled down, though, that it spun around a little too quickly to make it down the mountain. Prefer the original!

The girls and I took a day to Ocean Park while Ridley stayed back to work. Ocean Park, as you would imagine, is on the ocean, and is on a mountain top as well at the base. You can come and go from either area. We were given the tip by our concierge to begin at the top and make our way down, as most people start at the bottom. We got there right when they opened and did avoid many lines.Flamingoes, not getting enough shrimp! They weren't pink enough!
Dragon dance. Everywhere this time of year.
Some festive merry making.
Even though we started at the top, we had to go up yet further to get to the first rides. Another famous HK escalator up the mountain to save our precious energy for the rides.
The first escalator stop brought us these incredible views. I begged the girls to go on this roller coaster with me, but they did not budge. Not their cup of tea.
Our first ride was a log ride called Raging Rivers. We laughed so hard and got soaked! A silly way to start a cold day! Next we were lucky enough to get into the dolphin show. (I heard so many people say they couldn't make it in because it sold out every show - 40 minutes in advance). It was the first show of the day. We sat there 1/2 hour ahead of the start and got to look at the incredible view and decide which ride would be our next. The girls opted out of the roller coaster, but Storey really wanted to go on the Eagle, which is the tall ride in front of the taller drop. More of that later. As we sat there we were entertained by a Brazilian band dressed in Chinese garb playing English songs. Quite the international spectacle!
Another dragon dance!

The dolphin show was wonderful and full of amazing tricks. I could never capture the height these amazing creatures made it to, but you get the idea.
The Sea Jelly Spectacular was next. Great reviews to see this place, so we waited in an ever growing line for about 1/2 hour to walk through an aquarium space with every kind of imaginable sea jelly under every imaginable kind of light. It was spectacular.
An awful lunch that we couldn't eat, and then down to the real action packed area where we saw hotdogs, hamburgers, KFC available. The lines for the food were unbelievably long, though. It was like a carnival area with all sorts of games to play: toss the ring; throw the bean bag; basketball; toss the coin. I think Storey used up half of her money from Grandma Lu playing every game she could find! They were having a ball. The park was beginning to be intolerable.

Storey really wanted to do this ride. I thought it was something I could handle. Paige backed out and was contented to take photos - about 50 - of me and Storey on the ride. The line was only about 15 minutes long before it was our turn to board the pirate ship.

I was handling the ride pretty well until it kept going! It wouldn't stop. I had to look out to the ocean and the horizon to keep it together, but I kept fantasizing that the ride was broken and they would never be able to stop it!
We made it off and Storey was ready to go back on!
Me, a little less so!
Storey checking out the next ride she wanted to go on. The Eagle.
Small cars spinning on their own arm as the entire arm spins and moves up the pole.
Dismounting.
Storey is now our official advenure/thrill seeker. She was willing to go even on her own. Her eye was on the drop ride, but I was still recovering from the pirate ship, and Paige is not the thrill ride seeker. She did not want to go on this one alone, so we moved on.
Happy thrill seeker.
We made our way through the crowded lanes to find the cable car down. The line was only about 20 minutes long compared to the hour wait at the bottom to go to the top.
It was about a 20 minute ride across hills and down the mountain. It was beautiful.

Madagascar 2 ended up being the hokeyist walk through exhibit. Very funny.
We were nearing the end of the day. Getting late and dark, but the bungee jumping was a must. Both girls got quite a bit of height.

A few more carnival games for Storey, winning some more stuffed animals, and we were off. Another day in HK!

Hong Kong

2009-02-07T16:42:00.000-08:00

Spring Festival, Chinese New Year, in Hong Kong. We were under the impression we were heading south to and some warm weather. Aahh. We arrive to a cloudy and cold Hong Kong. In the 70's the week before, in the 70's the week after, but we got the 50's and 60's! Oh well. A wonderful city nonetheless.

The view across the Bay to Kowloon from our hotel room. The various ferries to many ports were right below us. It was fun watching all the activity coming and going on the water.The cruise ship port is across the way on the right. We saw a constant flow of ships making their way to Kowloon harbor and then taking off again. It didn't seem as though anyone got much time here. A day, maybe two.
Tricky to see, but the boats in the distance were mini cargo ships. They were little and had cranes on them and went back and forth carrying containers - where to we weren't exactly sure. Other ports, other ships?
Storey needed to keep swimming for swim team, so here we are, on our way to the pool, supporting Storey's swimming desires and needs!
An infinity pool heated just enough to be able to get in (for me - the girls didn't notice). The outdoor temperature had me wanting to spend the entire time in the hot pool, but I sacrificed and swam laps with Storey as much as I could. She, of course, would soundly beat me every time. Paige lapped us, however, on the breast stroke. Good swimmers.

My favorite place!
We were usually at the pool for hours while Ridley worked away. We would watch the city lights begin their illumination. It was beautiful.
I think we only missed one day at the pool out of our six days in HK.
Looking for lunch the first day. We were in a wonderful area of town, Central. In order to get to the streets, we crossed all kinds of elevated walkways, went through a mall and would land in these wonderfully small, crowded streets of Lan Kwai Fong.
It was very quiet, comparatively speaking, because of the New Year break, but we found one market still underway. You can't really tell from the photo, but all the streets are fairly well pitched, as HK is built on large hills. The small stair steps are visible in this photo.

Most of this market was closed down. This lone vendor was hoping for some business.
The trams were everywhere. It was so tall and so narrow. Of course we saw the red double decker buses in use all over town as well.
HK has such a different feeling to it, with so much of its English heritage still alive. Almost everyone spoke English, which was a huge change from our daily lives here. Very easy to communicate. The international aspect of the city was overwhelming. Different languages everywhere. A lot of westerners all around, which made us feel so normal!
The concierge told us we would be seeing groups of Phillipinos gathering during the holiday. We were a bit amazed when we saw how many were out. Women were gathered in groups, sitting on cardboard, eating packed picnics, playing card games, giving manicures and pedicures to each other, and just chatting and laughing. They must have been off work because of the holiday, and these covered walkways were their meeting places. Afterwards cleaners would come and pick up all the cardboard and refuse from these get togethers.
We were by the Central - Mid-levels escalators that helped ferry us up the hill to other eating and shopping establishments.
You get to ride up, but have to walk down. Not a problem.
What did we spy as we were heading up the escalator but a sign for our favorite London eatery, Pizza Express! We hopped right off that escalator and headed down the stairs to the street, back up the stairs to the 2nd floor and gorged on our beloved pizza and pasta!
There was an outrageously delicious gelato store across the street that we went to more than once. And on every corner, I am not kidding, every corner, there was a 7-11 to be found. I have never seen so many. They were even installed in some of the amusement parks! They were in the metro tunnels, malls, every imaginable corner held a 7-11! We were grateful to use it for our water supply, paying 3 HK dollars for a bottle of water rather than the 35 HK dollars the hotel wanted to charge us!
We were hoping to find some English movies while in HK, and Bolt in 3-D was there. What a treat. Waiting in the hallway of the theatre while they cleaned it. No need to get there too early as all seats are assigned. Our concierge got them for us the day before and we got about the last 4 seats available! Movie watching is a big New Year's activity, we discovered. The movies the day before had all been sold out.
Everyone feeling a little cool with their 3-D glasses on!
Ridley spelling it out for you!
What is a movie without popcorn? They even had the salted variety! The mainland Chinese love sweet popcorn and it is often impossible to find the salty version.
More to come later!

All things new - in the New Year

2009-02-05T16:56:00.000-08:00

Every new year means every thing new. Here Storey is beginning her new year by directing the application of the glowing night sky above her bed. So wonderful to see the stars as you sleep. No shooting stars yet!
Storey's next "new" addition is a few red streaks in her hair to join her friends and millions of other Chinese! (Red is the lucky color and very propitious for prosperity!) For $10 a pretty new head. (Notice the pink foam from the shampoo? His fingers were bright red.)
The "new" head. It is not this bright at all. The salon lights gave it a little extra umph.
Had to show off this Mandarin project of Paige's on her family. It is all written in Mandarin characters. Who would of thunk 6 months ago that Paige could write complete sentences in Mandarin???
She can even read it and speak it! Sorry, had to show her off a little.

OK. I promise our trip to Hong Kong comes next!

Latern Festival

2009-02-05T01:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year! It is the year of the Ox and we are celebrating - for 15 days!

We headed to YuYuan Gardens Saturday night to see the light fantastic! YuYuan celebrates the Lantern Festival, which falls toward the end of the CNY celebration, or otherwise known as Spring Festival, every year in great display. Come with us as we walk through the maze of lights - and people.
The tea house at the 9 turns bridge. There were all kinds of floats in the water depicting stories we don't know. Lots of ox around.
The place was packed and people were lined up on the bridge, traffic being conducted one way by many guards stationed everywhere, to see the spectacle on the water.

The crowds on the bridge are visible in this shot.

All kinds of extra booths were set up everywhere selling every sort of plastic ox, moving ox, fabric ox, ox horns for your head - just everything imaginable and unimaginable, and of couse, ox head with dumplings!

As they say: Xie Nian Kuai Le
Happy New Year!

Pre Chinese New Year

2009-01-19T18:20:00.000-08:00

This is a great photo, able to show many things at once. First and foremost, cute Storey! On the left of the photo, two items of interest. The first is the fish hanging down to dry with the laundry! This is the time to be drying meats, fish, etc., for the New Year, which begins January 26. This is normally the coldest month, therefore the most "auspicious" time to dry foods for the new year. Pieces of meat and fish are hanging out all around Shanghai. Everyone stocks up on food for the New Year. The stores are brimming with food and people.

Also on the left you can see the new store fronts with marble columns and marble slab lintels containing the store names. These were all just added to our beautified street. Storey is standing on the new pavered sidewalk that went in this past fall, and the road was repaved, also. On that repaved road you can see a wedding limo, all decked out with flowers. Hard to see, but there is a procession of other beflowered cars following.The Pearson's roaming the streets of Shanghai! We are headed to the Nanjing market for shirts, shoes, socks, DS games, Pokeman cards, jeans and DVD's. Great one stop shopping.
I attended a talk hosted by the American Women's Club of Shanghai yesterday that was all about Chinese New Year. This week is particularly busy as many people prepare to leave and go home for the celebration. New Year's Eve dinner together is the big event. That will be next Sunday night, January 25. Non-stop fireworks and firecrackers. The New Year's celebration lasts 15 days. Each day is significant for something. After staying up late to see the countdown and fireworks on New Year's Eve, it is important to greet the New Year, so everyone rises very early in the morning. It is a day to spend just with immediate family. The second day is for visiting and taking gifts to others. The third day, for some reason, is a day full of bickering, so to avoid that everyone stays home! The 4th day is the day of travel, and this is when the more affluent families head out of town or country. Day 5 is the business people's day to pray to the business gods. Great fireworks are on the eve of the 5th to attract the business god's attention, and then the 5th day is filled with prays in the temples and fireworks, crackers. The 7th day is the celebration of everyone's birthday for that year. This is the year of the ox. The zodiac rotation is every 12 years. We were warned that if someone asks you what zodiac sign you were born in, they are really figuring out how old you are! The last day, the 15th day, is the Lantern Festival. You must wear bright clothes - no black or white which denote death. If it happens to be your zodiac year, you should wear everything red - underwear, socks, clothes. The year of the Ox is Paige's year, but so far she is not going along with the idea of all red!

It is also called Spring Festival as this was originally an agrarian festival (weren't they all?) celebrating the coming of spring and good harvests. It is a very important family time and they gather and make jiao zi (dumplings) together. As everything has double meaning here, they eat jiao zi because they look like gold ingots which means prosperity for the new year. The Chinese use the lunar calendar which is 360 days long, 30 days in each month, therefore the New Year changes every year. It will be mid-February next year.

Shanghai is filled with migrant workers, and as there are only so many trains available they will not all be able to make it home. Train tickets can only be purchased so many days in advance and the papers have already mentioned that most all the trains are full. Construction workers live on the job site (as seen in past photos) sleeping on tables or cots, and the laoban, boss, buys their food. They get paid once a year, right now, before the New Year. That is why they go home. To take the money to their family so they can live for the next year. They make about 500 RMB a month - $73.50. Everyone keeps warning of pickpockets this time of year as workers prepare to go home with as much as they can. There is a police officer on each train car, and they come around and chop each train ticket with their name and cell phone number in case they have something stolen and they can contact him immediately. Many of these train rides can last for over 2 days. There are more street hawkers, trying to make last minute money and jammed streets. Impossible to get taxi's. It took us about an hour to get home from picking the girls up at school last night. Next week it will be eerily quiet as everyone will be gone (including us!). We head to Hong Kong on Saturday to experience a little warmth and the New Year there. It should be A LOT quieter from what I have heard. We won't be missing out on it altogether, though, since it lasts 15 days!
More later.

Back in Shanghai

2009-01-17T16:21:00.000-08:00

Back in Shanghai, I got a lunch in with my friend Julie and her daughter Cortney who was making a stop before heading off to Thailand for 4 months on a Colgate college trip. Din Tai Feng, one of our favorite dumpling spots at Xintiandi. It was a beautiful day and I biked over. Julie had brought us goodies back from America: maple syrup - liquid gold around here, Speedo goggles for Storey, tights from Target, all kinds of treats! So good to have her back. Cortney is a beautiful, fun girl like her mom. As Ridley said, "That was a long lunch!" OK. I think this will actually be the last of the lane renovation photos! Here is was before we left for Harbin. Pavers were actually being laid.
Upon our return, the women were dancing in the lane! American 50's music blaring in the lane, these women are practicing line dancing every afternoon while the community room is finishing up its beautification.
There was reason to dance in the street. Here is our new lane. . .
Our front door.
Corrugated formed concrete pavers with concrete and rock drainage areas. It is really lovely.
The potted plants have made their way back out, adding beauty to the rebeautified lane!

The cars will probably arrive soon. Yellow lines indicating parking spaces have been added.
The master planter, our neighbor who does all the potted plants around, had this area made with soil for a lovely corner.
Before heading back to school, the girls and I headed to a club around the corner and paid a very hefty price for an afternoon at the pool. Paige and I did Storey's warm up work out with her. Oh my. It took an hour, and Storey absolutely blew us away on every event. Back in school, she just swam 1850 meters for her Friday swim practice!
The pool was constantly busy with people swimming laps. There were signs all around for no spitting, and buckets were placed at the end of the lanes for spitting, if required! The life guard came and went - mostly gone - into his adjacent room for smoking breaks. The smoke wafted into the pool area. Mmmm. Chlorine, smoke - great pool smells. We took long showers, a sauna, trying to get all we could from our afternoon at the club.
A Changle Lu streeet scene taken from a taxi window. I was taking Paige to an event at school, and this traveling BBQ stand was set up just a block from our house. The raw meat is sitting right next to the BBQ, and the chopping block is next to that - in front of the men enjoying the skewers. A fun sight.
Friday night traffic on Changle Lu is bumper to bumper for blocks. We got to enjoy this scene for awhile! Of course Paige was mortified by my picture taking out the window. The taxi driver got a good laugh out of it.
Paige had her last x-ray for the confirmation that she is perfect, and while waiting for the doctor, we looked out onto stunning Shanghai. We never stop marveling that we are here.
The intersection below. It actually seems tame from up here. Paige and I rode our bikes here. The streets seemed a little trickier to negotiate when we were down there in the midst!
Caught up with vacation! We have one more week of school and then off to Hong Kong on Saturday for Chinese New Year. We are hoping to avoid some of the noise we have heard goes on for the entire week of New Year celebration here. We'll see.

Harbin - Final event

2009-01-17T15:43:00.000-08:00

Our last night in Harbin and we are going into the most spectacular event yet: The10thHarbinIceAndSnowWorld - as the sign over the entry indicates!

It is one of our coldest evenings. We had our wonderful taxi man pick us up at 4:30 at the hotel - you can see that it is full on night by that time. He arrived with his Mei Mei, little sister. She squeezed into the back seat with us. When we arrived we discovered that he brought her along to get us into the park for 10 RMB less per person. She is a tour guide, and was able to get us in with another group. She ended up sitting in the car with the driver while we were in the park just for the 5 minutes it took to get us in for a total of 40 RMB less = $5.88.This is the Ice World. It was like walking into a city.

The almost full moon hovering over an ice castle.
A snow carved sled around which people were "ice skating". Again, it mystifies me how they can spend one moment of extra time outdoors doing this. We walked around the park pretty quickly to avoid total frost. Although we did manage a few slides down one of the ice castles.

This particular building changed colors constantly. Red, blue, green, purple.

The girls on a giant chess board.
It was a little difficult to move the pieces to play!
A snow version on the Olympic Bird's Nest.
The ever elusive Ridley showed his face for a moment.

A most incredible snow Buddha. There were cushions for prayers and incense in front of this lovely - all being used.
The ice temples and incense around the Buddha.
Storey with the real deal. Probably the only truly warm person in the place.
Big Ben.
The exit. I think we did this monstrous park in about an hour. It was great to see, and with Storey having made the excursion in her padded crocs (we didn't notice this before leaving) we decided to leave while she professed her toes to still be warm.
Our taxi driver took us a BBQ place for dinner. While waiting in line to get in, I had my nails filed! A free service for those who chose to indulge.
This was a huge restaurant, a wild west kind of experience. These "cowboys" would come with huge skewers of various meats to your table and carve off a bit onto each plate. They marked off what they brought on a sheet. I think over 16 kinds of meat in all. There were salad, drink, hot dish and dessert buffets stationed around the restaurant. It was non-stop eating for 38 RMB each = $5.50. There were a lot of Russians there and one boy kept coming up to Paige and saying, "Hi, I am from Russia."
A great ending to our time in Harbin. We were back to our hotel to pack for our early morning flight out. Back to balmy Shanghai!

Siberian Tiger Park - Harbin Day 3

2009-01-15T17:08:00.000-08:00

The official logo, located on the back of my bus seat, for the tiger park! Yes, they are cute and cuddly!We saw a lot of tigers roaming in different enclosed areas. The pictures are taken from very fogged up windows with no zoom. Sorry. You can click on any picture in this group to see it on a larger scale.
The tigers are really beautiful and huge. I was really taken by their size.

We were in this lion pen when the feeding truck came. Paige said there were live chickens on top of the car. I didn't see the chickens, only the lions jumping on top of the car. It was a spectacle.
One particular lion was not at all interested in getting off the car. This was his get-away moment. He was there for quite awhile. The driver finally backed up and started roaring off in another direction. The lion finally jumped off.

At the end of the van trip we walked through areas with caged animals. Very sad seeing these large animals in these small pens pacing. White tiger.
Leopard curled up in the corner. So cold.
Some experimental breeding going on. This guy had spots on his head, stripes on his body and a very strange tail.
This goes out to all the Principians. A panther!
King of the Jungle.
The girls and I left Ridley back at the hotel working for this excursion. The front desk of the hotel called a cab to take us, wait and bring us back. He was so wonderful. He dropped us 2 feet from the ticket booth (too cold to walk further!) parked and came running to lead us where we needed to go. It would have been a little tricky to find out on our own. He got us to our bus first so we could choose the best seats. He was lovely. We went back to the hotel, picked up Ridley, and we asked him to take us to a good restaurant. A delicious dumpling joint. We booked him again for the evening to take us to the huge Harbin Ice World.

Harbin Day 2 - Disney Ice Festival

2009-01-14T22:50:00.000-08:00

Here we are freezing our little tushies off to explore and enjoy the evening lights of Harbin's Disney ice festival. We enter the tunnel into wonderland.Familiar faces greeting us.

All the known Disney characters appeared in one form or another.
Lots of big block ice buildings with interior lights bringing the magic alive. Storey was having a bit of trouble staying on her feet! Quite a few tumbles on the slippery ice floor.

Paige braved the sloped ice floor in this fun house.

There were huge blocks of ice lined up in several rows. Most had been carved, some were still waiting to have their inner beauty revealed. It looked like they were all from contestants from different countries. All the ice blocks were the same size. Here are some of the wonders that were revealed inside the ice. It was the detail that was mind boggling in these sculptures. And the twisting and ins and outs.
I had to get a detail of the incredible earrings. How do they do this?

This was a favorite of Paige's from Denmark entitled: "Plugged In"

Can you see the bubbles? These artists are genius.
One of our personal favorites. A father leading his children up the path of books - learning.

This one from China. Most were from Finland, Norway and Russia.
This is really all ice - from one chunk!

An ice castle with an elevator! This is where the big slide is, so we headed up for a fun ride down.

We were in a bit of a line, so Storey and Ridley finally left so Storey could ride a Dumbo-like ride. The girls had ridden a very tame version of a roller coaster earlier. Paige and I braved out the line and had a fun slide.

Our farewell from the princesses. We were done at this point, no matter what we missed! An hour and a half was almost intolerable. The temperatures were hovering around -10 or more. Off to find a warm dinner and home. We are pretty happy about that hot room that awaits us now!

Harbin Ice Festival - Day 2

2009-01-14T20:43:00.000-08:00

Getting up and out on day 2 was a little difficult. The rooms were so hot the girls did not want to put on layers of warm clothes, so there was much protesting to get them out of the room. Also hard to wake up from that hot, heavy kind of sleep. We barely made it to breakfast before it closed at 9. We did pass all the officials on the way. The hotel was bustling. The restaurant was in an older part of the hotel that a bell boy had to guide us to. Down halls, through foyers, out into rock gardens with dried up fountains, more halls and then the dining room. Adventures at every turn!

We walked to the river which was behind our hotel and found we were right at the cable car entrance to cross over to the other side. A gentleman was trying to warn us of the expense of the cable car and kept telling us to walk across. After 15 minutes outside we were already pretty cold, so opted for the ride across. A little scary swaying over a frozen river! The girls in the cable car as we leave the building.Frosty views of the river below. I gave up on picture taking here as the windows were so frosted and the mist really prevented capturing much of anything. There was a lot of activity on the river, though. Right below us we saw men digging through the ice for ice fishing (no warming huts around here) and there were all kinds of ice sports happening further down the river. We saw horse drawn carriages crossing the river. We decided then it would be our transport back.
On the other side there was a beautiful boulevard heading to the snow festival. Couldn't pass us this summer sign.
The Polar Express train was the first thing that greeted us.
I am trying to capture the incredible detail on the sculpture.

I am just going to inundate with photos now. The sculptures were gorgeous, and I tried to take pictures of as many as possible. My iphone needs my bare finger to press the button for the photo, so I had to slow down eventually as my hand was literally freezing being out of my glove.

Paige's year - the year of the Ox, beginning on January 26, Chinese New Year.

The detail on these is outrageous. Hope you can glimpse it.

Massive snow sculpture. They have inner tubes to rent to slide down. We went into a warming hut for tea and hot chocolate and $20 later (outrageous price for China!) we emerged a little warmer and ready for a slide.
You could go in a circle being pulled by dogs for a pretty penny. Declined this one as we have had the experience in Idaho.

Heading up to the tube slide.

The 4 of us went as one, laughing and screaming the whole way!

Lots of sculptures were still in the midst of being carved. Fun to watch - for just a minute!
A real reindeer. He may have been the one who made it to Yangshuo this year!
This worker was sweeping the sculpture, making sure the snow looked good. When we first arrived on the boulevard, the girls were so excited to see all the snow they were walking in it and trying to pick it up. We were immediately yelled at as a worker came running over, sweeping away the "mess" they had made in the snow. Neat and tidy around here.
Here we are, at our carriage for the river crossing. We were being hurded to another sled, but Paige insisted on going in the old fashioned carriage. It was fun.

A peak at the driver in between Storey and Ridley.

Our exit on the other side of the river.
Would have been fun to try on a warmer day - bumper bikes!

Ice skating, ice slides in the background.
In the middle of all the ice festivities and games and man was gutting a pig. I am not sure if these were buyers of meat, but it seemed to garner quite a gathering. A quick shot from me - the others ran quickly in the opposite direction!
A new kind of ice skating for us. Sitting on a chair, on skis, poling yourself along.
Finally a warm restaurant, Bi Feng Tang, a chain we know of from Shanghai. Great food and fun atmosphere.
After getting warmed and fed we headed off to see St. Sophia, the famous, must see Russian Orthodox church of Harbin.

Seems to need a little interior repair.
Hard to see, but straight up next to the chandelier was a Mickey Mouse balloon.
We were unexpectedly treated to a concert in the church.

We headed home to get warm and relax before our evening excursion to Zhaolin Park with the Disney ice festival.

Harbin Ice Festival - Day 1

2009-01-13T01:03:00.000-08:00

We are off to the freezing north. We don't quite comprehend how cold, quite yet, as we wait to board the airplane in Shanghai.We arrived to our hotel, The Friendship Palace Hotel, in record time, we think. The taxi driver was driving like mad, passing everyone in the righthand pullout lane of the highway. Quite a thrill. I planned this trip on my own, we didn't have tour guides, etc., and we get to the hotel and they don't have our reservation! and VERY little English. After lots of phone calls to the reservation service I used, and lots of standing around politely, they found two rooms for us at the price I had been quoted. They were right next to each other so we were very happy. Ridley had eventually given the manager his Fudan business card and it seems things got moving a little quicker after that. It really is important to be associated with something here. As it gets dark around 4:15 up here we headed out to the nearby famous pedestrian street to find some dinner. We passed a WalMart super store on the way and loaded up on some snacks, water and tea making implements for the next morning. It was quite an experience. Huge, crowded and steaming hot after the frigid outdoor temperatures. Unlike hotels and buildings in the south, interiors are quite warm here. A respite is definitely needed from the sub-zero chill. Our hotel room was, in fact, too warm. We had to open the window in order to sleep. Our first close up ice sculpture on Zhongyang pedestrian street. There is a lot of Russian history in Harbin. During the White Russian flight many ended up here and it is still quite a Russian influenced town. Russian architecture is pervasive and many things are written in Chinese and Russian. It is also physically very close to Russia. This pedestrian street has gone through the rebeautification process of renovating the old buildings and then housing shops and restaurants in them.
A pipi boy sculpture. The girls have a couple of these little ceramic goodies that are used in making tea. You know your water is the correct temperature if the boy lets loose. Now immortalized (at least for a winter) in ice.
There are ice and snow sculptures everywhere throughout the city. These just happen to be on Zhongyang. An ice maze the girls easily found their way through.
Zhongyang street where we are hoping to find a restaurant REALLY soon. It is becoming toe numbing quickly. The temperature hovering around -10 F.

An ice piano that the girls played. Real off-key sound emiting from this.
Is this Egyptian sculpture trying to make us feel warmer? Not working.
Zhaolin Park, just a block off the pedestrian street, has a huge ice display.
This year the sponsor is Disney. Can you read - Harbin Disney Ice Festival. This is a ferris wheel that we could never bring ourselves to get on. It moved very slowly so we just didn't think we could last. We did not go into the park this first night. After a delicious meal we were ready to warm up a bit and still had quite a walk back to the hotel.
Our hotel had all kinds of banners, red lanterns and huge blow-up rainbows surrounding it. We found out why the next morning when we saw all kinds of government and police officials coming in to what looked like a huge party meeting. No wonder they were surprised to see us there! The hotel was packed with very important officials - and us.

Last day - Shanghai

2009-01-11T21:12:00.000-08:00

We still had our bikes from our gorgeous Christmas day and thought we would ride through the country, guided by Jessie. It was a grand adventure, but was not quite the glorious weather of the day before. It was chillier and misting quite a bit. We rode on streets, on little dirt paths through fields and gardens and had a delightful and warming lunch stop at an old house owned by Dutch people somewhere in the middle of don't know where! They had several homes they had modernized and were renting out to visitors. The lunch was beside a warm fire at a little table, the locals almost on top of us by the fire trying to keep warm, too. Back onto our adventure on the back roads.
Storey and I started out on a tandem, but she didn't seem to think I was as much fun to ride behind as Ridley, so Tanner graciously offered his bike to Storey and he and I rode the tandem. It was really fun and he took some pictures from behind!
Storey happy to be on her own.
And Storey, always the warm one, disrobing to her short sleeves. She had Chinese people pointing and staring the rest of the way home, because, of course, everyone else is in jackets and rain gear. The mist became a little more liquid as time went on. We decided to take the highway back to save a couple of kilometers and even more time. Loved every minute, though! We headed back to Guilin and the airport early the next morning, back to Shanghai.
Laurel and I went right away to get our hair washed and dried for $3.o0. This is the owner of the shop who rarely does hair. He saw Laurel's curly hair and took on the task of straightening it. I captured the process.

The glamorous end result! We got a few more wonderful days of exploring Shanghai in with the Walter's before they had to leave on New Year's Day. It was cold and wet, so we didn't do some of the outdoor things we had wished for, although the kids were REALLY happy to stay home, play games - particularly charades - and watch movies. Our New Year's Eve was a grand kids vs. parents charades event. Really fun.

Happy New Year, and good bye to the Walter's who made our Christmas so special.

Christmas

2009-01-11T18:24:00.000-08:00

Santa came! These are the gifts under the tree. Special wrapping, special tree! It was really wonderful because it was all about giving and finding fun things for each other. We try to have it be this way every year, but not being at home made it much easier.The girls are stuffed animal enthusiasts, and Storey knew that Paige wanted a big stuffed bear. She found this animal in Chengdu on Tibet street and carried it on the plane and everywhere to "surprise" Paige on Christmas morning. Big hugs all around.

Bejeweled Paige who didn't bother to get out of bed for the Christmas festivities! We had Christmas in their room as it was the largest room and the one with the best view of the river and mountains. By the way, it was the most glorious day we had on the entire trip. Actually warm and blue skies.
Tanner wondering what to do with a gift that had real wrapping paper on it!
Ridley opening a gift from Paige that he had asked her to buy for me! She thought he was the better recipient for this jade carved pen holder.

We had our very own Christmas elves!

A group shot on this gorgeous day.

Merry Christmas from the Pearson's.

Merry Christmas from the Walter's.

Storey and Tanner checking out the latest DS game amidst the ravages of opened gifts.
We took a walk down the road from our hotel and found beautiful vegetable gardens everywhere and
home made charcoal ovens. Pits or little caverns are built into the hillside with ventilation on top and sticks of wood are put in, cooking very, very slowly, we think for days, and they come out as the home made charcoal we saw earlier. There was a gentleman tending his stove and we tried to ask questions but didn't get very far.
The front of the Li River Retreat as we collect to go rent bikes on this perfect day.

We biked down to town and after we parked the bikes we came across this musician sawing on about 3 strings. I couldn't resist.
David and Laurel, Christmas day, 2008, Yangshuo, China.

For those Ketchum-ites out there, Paige is standing next to a Board Bin sticker on the window of a cafe on West Street, downtown Yangshuo. Fun to see a bit of home.
Mmmmmm. Warm chocolate cake on Christmas day. What could be better?
We returned to the hotel for some games up on the rooftop, surrounded by some of the most stunning scenery in the world.
David still working on Christmas day while we played. Ridley was downstairs, also working!

Paige trying to convince the Apples to Apples judge of the moment that hers was definitely the winning choice!
We biked back into town for a Christmas dinner served at a local restaurant, Seventh Heaven. (Is that right, Tanner?) Their sister restaurant of the night before was Cloud Nine. While the kids ordered turkey and potatoes and beans (a rare find in these parts, and still not quite cooked the same) Ridley and David were still on a hot pot roll and had them bring it over from Cloud Nine. It was definitely the dish of choice! Two little girls came by each table with stockings filled with gifts for each person to choose a gift from. One of the sweetest Christmases ever! The Chinese were trying so hard to help us celebrate our holiday.
Back on the bikes and a wild night ride back up the hill to the hotel. No lights anywhere, just Ridley's indispensible flashlights to help guide the way.

Everyone made it back safe and sound and rejoiced in a lovely, never to be forgotten, Christmas in Yangshuo, China. Our friends and families in America were just starting to wake up to their Christmas days.

Xingping

2009-01-11T17:51:00.000-08:00

Here we are having just arrived to the outskirts of Xingping, a wonderful old town, as we are about to see. This view, however, is very important. It is the landscape on the 20 yuan bill. There were several groups of people taking pictures while holding the 20 yuan. Can you see????This is the other half of the note.
Heading into the old town where we are stopping for lunch.

While we indulged in yet another delicious feast of warm food, (maybe you can tell that once again we are inside, yet really outside as there is no wall to separate the out of doors!) Storey played the sugar plum fairy and began giving gifts to everyone. It is December 24, therefore a good time to turn our attentions in that direction! While we ate, Storey kept getting up and going to the "store" across the lane and came back, one at a time, with gifts for everyone at the table. It was really fun. Our Christmas Eve treat.
Tanner and Laurel are looking through paintings by a gentleman who was selling them on the street. Beautiful landscapes of the area.
Tanner with the artist.
We spent another hour after lunch on this street buying gifts secretly for each other for Christmas! The shops are not visible, but there were treasures inside every doorway.

At the end of the street we caught the local bus back to Yangshuo. A shot of Laurel surrounded by locals! Can you find her? As more and more people entered the bus, the ticket gal pulled out little stools for them to sit on.
Back in Yangshuo we stopped the sugar cane vendor and the boys got a bag of sugar cane. You buy the whole stick and he peels it and cuts it and hands over a bag full.
Jessie, our guide, said this was one of her relatives, but he didn't remember her because there are so many in her family. He pedals around town selling his sugar can all day. I didn't try any but I understand there is quite an art to eating it and getting all the sweet goodness to come out.

Yangshuo is a river town, and has become a hikers haven as well as the area is filled with hiking, biking and adventuring areas. West Street is the main tourist street and is quite lively at night. Mickey mouse roaming down the street charging for pictures taken of him. I snuck a shot in from behind.
Christmas Eve dinner of hot pot for the adults and lots of other goodies for the kids before we headed out to more Christmas shopping!
Santa greeting us at the door of another restaurant. The kids had a ball running from store to store and bargaining for their gifts. They are very good about sticking to a low price and being willing to walk away if they can't get the price they want.

Back to the hotel so Santa can find us!

Li River Retreat - Day 1, 2

2009-01-11T00:16:00.000-08:00

OK. We had one more quick stop, worthy of a photo. The teapot with running tea was too great to not capture. A beautiful shop filled with tea to buy. One can never get enough tea!We finally made it to Yangshuo which is on the Li River - Lijiang - and the Li River Retreat which is a hotel overlooking the river and its famous karst mountains. These are all views that have always meant China, to me. Stunning, captivating and magical scenery. Just a warning, photo frenzie from me at this point. Pictures upon pictures, just so I have it all recorded somewhere. This is the scene from the balcony outside our room.
We took off early the next morning with Jessie to hike along the Li, which we found included ferries back and forth across the river. As negotiations for a ferry are underway by Jessie, some ladies were trying to negotiate the sale of some yummies. I believe David may have succumbed to this lovely woman who grabbed all of our attention.
Walking the quai to a ferry.
Baskets of home made charcoal waiting to board a ferry, also.
We forgo the bamboo ferries for. . .
this much warmer version!
Walking along the river we go by vegetable gardens, orchards and villages.
Couldn't resist this face.
These dry stack thatch roofed buildings were lovely.
A Christmas shot, if I could ever send a card. The Pearson's along the banks of the Li River with the karst mountains gloriously splendid behind them.
Storey Ming having one of her best hiking days ever. (She has never really loved walking!)
The kids scrambling up the stairs to see dogs and . . .
this precious site. I got this photograph taken before the man yelling at us caught up. He was intent on charging us for taking a photo of this natural site. As we were standing around this man, he began telling our fortunes. It mostly centered on the Walter's whom he was completely taken with, Laurel in particular. He loved her face and had many good things to say about her. He made us remove our hats to see our forheads - which tells it all! He was a character and it was a treasured stop. He did not allow us to take a picture of him, unfortunately.
Part of the village we were walking through to get to our next ferry to go back across the river. Our path had run out. All cliffs after this.
The unloading and carrying of goods from a boat up to the village.

Our ferry arriving with its load of horses. We had to wait a moment for the mucking of the boat before we got on! Our understanding of the day was that we were going to hike a couple of hours to a town, have lunch and take a local bus back to Yangshuo. All true except for the fact that after hiking for a couple of hours, the point where we are now, Jessie told us we had just made it to the beginning of our hike! Hmmmm. Not too good for the group who needs lunch at 12:00! And then it turns out, the hike was actually about 4 hours from this spot. Plan B.
We took this ferry across and started walking while Jessie called another ferry to come and pick us up and take us to the town, Xingping, for lunch. Here we are on ferry number three - our taxi ferry - giving us the full service.
Jessie, our indispensable, lovely guide.
We followed in the wake of this tour boat for awhile. We were entertained watching the cooks. The back of the boat was the kitchen and we watched them cooking, eating and cleaning off the back of the boat. Water from the river is coming out a pipe that has circulated through the engine to get it warm, right below the person on the right. Dishes were being washed and mouths rinsed out, and I thought water ingested, from this spout. Wow.
A bamboo raft gliding by.
We have arrived!

Yao Minority Village - house

2009-01-10T20:35:00.000-08:00

We took a side trip to the Yao minority village situated at the bottom of the winding road from our hotel. We crossed a river on a very old, crickety bridge that was throwing up wood slabs every now and then when it was stepped on the wrong way. Some nice swinging to it, too! And, of course, a little icy to boot. Here is Laurel navigating the last portion of the bridge.Tanner walking through the village as we make our way to visit a typical home. We saw some Yao women in the other village earlier in the morning. They are famous for their Phoenix hair do's. They only cut their hair once in their life, when they are 18, and are not allowed to show their hair until they have a child. Then the Phoenix hair comes into being. It is piled high on the forhead, and the hair that was cut off when they were 18 is used as a "hair" scrunchy for the rest of their lives.
Their homes are three stories high. The bottom level is reserved for the animals, feed, and outhouse.
Chickens roaming wild in the streets!
Ears of corn drying for . . . not sure. All kinds of possibilities.
We have arrived at the house we are to visit. The ground level has some water buffalo babies and pigs. Chopped wood for the winter was stacked everywhere. We didn't see the outhouse, but know it was there. Another section of the bottom level had farming equipment and the like.
One of the women with her Phoenix hair, and baby - thus we get to see the hair!
Inside the house a group of women with small children were sitting on stools, the furniture of choice in these parts, around a fire in the middle of a large empty space. A chicken was hanging above the fire, being smoked, we imagined. They tried to pull up stools for us to warm ourselves also. I think this is how they spend their day, keeping warm.
One of the adorable children we find everywhere. (see the hair?)

Paige and Jessie, our guide, by the fire.
This is what looked to be the kitchen, although a huge wood burning stove was in another corner where soup is cooked all day. Other things, also, I am sure. This particular area was overflowing in beer bottles, lined up on the floor - all empty. So the main level, which is up some stairs from the animal level, was one big room of living space with no furniture, this kitchen, and a couple of bedrooms off of closed doors. We didn't see into those.
Upstairs, third level, is food storage and an extra, oh so rustic, bedroom. These are potatoes.
Looking down over the 3rd floor balcony this is the wall that greets everyone as they first enter the house. A wall of clocks. These clocks are given as house warming gifts when a family moves into a new house. Above the clocks, incense and red scrolls for praying.
The front door is on the left. This is the space in front of the clocks, which would be on the wall to the right. Nothing there. Just posts holding up the upper level.
Keeping warm.
The beautifully painted front door.
The rice paddy in front of their house.
Looking back across the rice paddy to the house. One would never imagine, looking at this beautiful building, that it is empty inside! Maybe they have lots of gatherings in the big empty spaces of their home.
Heading back across the river on another bridge. Into the bus and off to Guilin for lunch and then Yangshuo.

Long Shan terraced rice fields

2009-01-06T00:44:00.000-08:00

The morning view out my window at the Liqing Hotel in Long Shan. As I mentioned in the last post, we arrived close to midnight in the freezing cold and hiked up about 20 minutes to this village in the dark (with the exception of a few scattered flashlights). The only views we had along the way were the stone steps and the water buffalo dung we were avoiding! We arrived to a rustic hotel, made more rustic by the extreme weather. Our rooms were nice sized, and FREEZING! They turned on their answer to a heater in each room once we arrived. I think I can speak for all parties, (Walter's and Pearson's) when I say the heaters did very little to warm our rooms that night. There were big quilts we snuggled under, but they barely did the trick. As the Pearson rooms were on two separate floors, we split up, Ridley and Paige upstairs and Marcelle and Storey downstairs. Storey, the warm blooded girl, refused to share a bed with me to help keep me warm! She is warm all the time. I slept in my wool socks and finally was able to doze off a bit once I donned my hat. The children slept well, but I am not sure any of the adults had many winks. It was so cold in the morning it was near impossible to get out of bed. The bathroom was one room, toilet, sink, shower combined. I found out at breakfast that I was the only one crazy enough to attempt a shower. When I discovered there was hot water, I went for it.We met downstairs for breakfast, where it was not much warmer. We were able to order an American style breakfast, eggs and such, that warmed us a bit.
Tim is trying to reap the benefits of the heater - coal simmering away in a pot. Laurel, who was across the table, was not able to feel the warmth. You had to be right on top of it.

Our guide, Jessie, was wonderful and when she heard that none of us had fared well during the night, she suggested we leave a day early for Yangshuo. The beauty of where we were staying was the ability to see it, which we couldn't very well, and hike from village to village, which it was just too cold and frosty to do. We did decide, however, to try a small hike to the top to see what we could see. David, hatless and gloveless, borrowed my hat for the journey!
A view of the "town" we were in.
The town was terraced, along with the rice paddies. Really beautiful.

Above Ridley walking through one level of town, below another misty vision of the town as we climb higher on icy slate steps.
This adorable puppy found Paige along the way and followed her for most of the walk.
The bits we could see were breathtaking. I can only imagine the beauty when you can see the terraced fields go on and on as they do.
Jessie told us that two days earlier it was so warm they were wearing t-shirts. A film crew had been out there to film the area, and they had released water into the fields so they could have images of the sunlight reflecting off the water. They have a system that stores water at the top of the mountain, and then they can release it when needed. Smart move as it would be near impossible to try and bring water up the mountain for the fields.

We came south to try and get some warmth for Christmas, but what we are getting is some winter cheer! The only thing about cold in the south of China, south being from Shanghai down, is that the buildings don't have heat or insulation. They are most unprepared for anything really cold. Hotels and such have installed room heaters, but not quite the warmth factor Westerners are used to. You really realize what luxury we live in in the west. The Chinese people really live with the elements, even in cities. They are very hardy people. In Shanghai I see people bundled up on freezing cold days sitting outside on the sidewalk. It is warmer outside than inside their house.
Hard to tell, but the steps are all ice. Paige and the puppy making their way up.
A soy bean milk grinder. The hole in the protruding portion has a long piece that goes into it to turn it, from a fair distance, which makes it easier.
The inside of the grinder.
Going up the stairs was an adventure, but coming down was downright treacherous. We are descending now from our "summit" which actually had someone selling tourist books of the area. Of course I bought one! Had to know what the area really looks like!
One of many dry stack buildings. Gorgeous.
Shafts of bamboo stuffed with sticky rice and pork being grilled. Of course we had to try the local delicacy before leaving. Delicious! The kids devoured it. We could have eaten them all day to keep warm!
We returned from our trip, packed the two items we had taken out for the night, and headed back down the mountain to what we were hoping was a warmer Yangshuo, along the Li River. The porters taking our bags back down the mountain.
A stream we had missed the night before.
The covered bridge leading to the parking lot and the van. Everything was beautiful, magical in the wintry landscape, and we hope to return in better weather to really experience the grandeur of this mountain. It was an exciting adventure that won't soon or easily be forgotten. As unprepared as we were for the cold, it was remarkable to see the people living there. They are unprepared for this kind of cold, also. Jessie told us that each villager has a pig and every Chinese New Year (coming up at the end of January this year) they slaughter the pig and then preserve it in various forms for the year. Vegetables are also grown in the summer and guarded for the winter. I asked Jessie how the villagers navigated the icy steps in conditions like these, and she said they just don't leave their houses. It was true in terms of what we saw. Very few people were out. Tourism has become a part of this village, as it has in many parts of China, and of course people were out along the walk down, particularly as we got nearer the car park, selling the local goods. I did see one elderly woman carrying a bucket of water up the icy steps and marveled at the fortitude needed by all in a place like this. For them it is just life, and they do what they need to do. Don't we all - in our warm cars and houses and down jackets and Uggs!
We got onto our bus for what we thought was a 1 1/2 hour ride to Yangshuo. Ha! It was a long, windy way down the mountain, first on the small road, then on the bigger road, to Guilin where we stopped for a local lunch in a noodle shop. We were all freezing, and seeing the shop, like all the others, open to the outdoors, I asked if we were eating outside. Jessie said, "Oh no. It is inside." Oh good! Well, inside means it is inside the open front! We were, for all intents and purposes, outside. She ordered bowls of noodles for us, and then we went to a counter where we dressed the noodles up with all sorts of goodies, pickled vegetables, spicy sauces (for some of us) and then took the bowl to a large container filled with broth. It was decidedly delicious, and helped warm us. She said it was the best noodle shop in town! Agreed. Then we were off for another 1 1/2 hour ride to Yangshuo. A traveling day. As we were coming off the small mountain road, before we go to Guilin, we made a stop at a minority village where we were able to go into a home. Coming up in the next post!

Shanghai Daily

2009-01-04T17:09:00.000-08:00

Hello Storey here!
Today is the last week of our winter vacation.And next week is school. At 10:00 we were going to go look at the swimming pool near our house. My mom and my sister are going to try and race me there. I don't really know what we are going to do the rest of the day. This week we are leaving to go to Harbean but I'm not sure about Hong Kong. In Harbean we are going to be seeing the ice castles. I hear that it's about -3 degrees there and there's going to be snow! So we are getting heavy winter coats and snow gloves. In Hong Kong I think we are going to be staying at a hotel called the Four Seasons. It's going to be a lot of fun in both places. It's 9:22 and I woke up at 6:30 and went back to sleep then woke up again at 7:15. Paige is the only one sleeping in the house. Shu IE is here and busy working. I had pizza for breakfast (Not the kind of breakfast food, but I like it.) Paige usally wakes up at 10:00 still very tierd. Now it's 9:33 don't have any thing else to to write but bye. And happy new year!

Shanghai Daily

2009-01-03T20:09:00.000-08:00

Hello!
This is Storey again. We are having our winter break and it has been so much fun. My favorite was the Pandas. The baby Pandas were the best of all. We don't have any pictures of them because we were not aloud to. When we went to go see the baby Pandas I could not get away from them. It was very funny because one of the baby Pandas was trying to get out of its pin. He or she clearly didn't like to be in he or she's pin or he or she wanted to play. And there was another one that definity wanted to play. Because it was getting on top of the other baby Pandas saying "Hay you guys it's time to play. Lets go!" And that woke up the other baby Pandas. We have one more week of vacation then go back to school, but then we come home to have more vacation. On that vacation we are going to Harbean and Hong Kong. Well I have to go get dressed. Bye!

Storey's post

2009-01-03T19:59:00.000-08:00

This is Mei, Paige, and me in the kitchen making dumplings. After a while Paige could do it, but it was very hard for me so, I could not do it. When I try making the dumplings Mei always says bu, bu, bu because I always would make them wrong. She would show me I, I would say that I could do it. But again she would say bu, bu, bu! Which meant no, no, no! So after a while I gave up and went to my room.