Halloween - Chinese Style

If I could wiggle my nose like Samantha Stevens I would be home for at least 2 American holidays – Halloween and Christmas. They are my FAVORITE! A couple of weeks ago I decided that being in China was not going to stop me from having Trick or Treat. I got a couple of decorations from Metro (China’s version of Sams with lots of international foods) and started to advertise it to my classes. I explained that if you go out Trick or Treating you need a costume and a bag. Maybe about half of the 40 kids that showed up understood that part. I was really pleased that out of the 20 costumed kids some actually made their own. Did you know that Chinese ghosts are not like our American ghosts? Chinese ghosts have pointy hats and really long tongues and hop instead of walk – spooky huh! Besides the authentic Chinese ghosts we also had a cowboy straight from a Village People performance, a mummy, a cat, a soldier, a bunch of Mardi Gras party masks, a Santa Claus, and a baby (easiest costume ever – all he had was a pacifier in his mouth) Another part they didn’t quite ‘get’ was that it wasn’t a party. Trick or Treat to me always meant stopping by a likely ‘good candy house’ grabbing your candy and heading to the next spot to get more candy. But since I was the only house in town they stayed and took lots and lots and lots of pictures. Nathan and Elizabeth came down and helped with the ‘party’. Nathan was a vampire and Elizabeth was a witch with pink hair and funniest striped socks like in the Wizard Of Oz. Australian Ricky put in an appearance dressed as an Australian. The night ended up being a pretty good substitute for an American Halloween and all the kids left with a sugar high.


Side note: I’ve been here for eight (insert cuss word here) months and I still can’t order anything but dan chou fan (fried rice) without help. I just went down stairs to the restaurant to get a take out order of a really good noodle dish made from sweet potatoes. It is called “ro mo fen tiao”. I practiced the correct tones a bunch of times - my students said I was saying it right – but the restaurant help still didn’t or wouldn’t understand me. It must be the post Halloween let downs but this really upset me more than it should have or maybe it’s that time in my emotional cycle. I guess I have to watch the DVD City of Angels again. (insert another cuss word here)

Mischief Night In China

Remember Mischief Night where you would walk around the neighborhood ringing everybody’s doorbell and running away and if you were really bad you might even soap a window or toilet paper a bush? Well Nathan and I decided to do a Xiasha version of Mischief night. We took our shoes off and tip-toed down to Ricky’s door (which is really hard to do in these echo-y halls). Then we very quietly taped toilet paper all over his door figuring that when he got up the next morning to leave he would have to break out. Did you know that tearing masking tape is really noisy when you are trying to be silent? Well it ended up being sort of a bust. Ricky wasn’t even home that night. He knocked on my door at 11 asking what we had done…. (wonder how he figured it was me?) So pictured above is the finished product before Ricky had to tear it down.

Day 11- The Parting Party

Nathan had to help us with this next leg of our sideline tour. I hadn’t been able to buy tickets from Hangzhou to Shanghai prior to my meeting the girls in Beijing (remember the blog about the 3 hour standing in line fiasco) and we needed a place to store our luggage so we could do our little day tour of Hangzhou, so Nathan was kind enough to get up at 7:30 in the morning to help us. Not many friends would ride a bus for 1 hour (really 2 hours back & forth) that early in the morning, to help someone older than his parents (I swear if I ever win the Lotto Jackpot I will pay off their student loans – can you make a contract on a Blog? Well considerate it a binding contract, Nathan and Elisabeth).

With Nathan’s guidance we got our Shanghai soft seat train tickets and stored our luggage. We parted and caught a taxi to West Lake to starte our tour. At West Lake we snacked on green pea ice cream, watched a fountain show, took pictures of cute kids and enjoyed the scenery. Next stop was the LingYin temple, which is one of my favorite spots. It has hundreds of Buddha carved into the side of the mountain and a really old temple with lots of stairs, more Buddha, monks, and incense.

Last stop of the tour was WuShan Square for last minute souvenirs and a noodle bowl. We did ok with the souvenirs but lousy with the meal. I had bragged to Margie who likes noodle bowls (really a noodle soup) about this great mushroom and bamboo shoot noodle bowl I had eaten at this one noodle restaurant. Well it was a bust because I could NOT say mushrooms/bamboo shoots noodle bowl and I hadn’t had enough sense to get someone to write it down for me beforehand. It was very disappointing that no one in the “famous tourist spot” restaurant was willing to come over and help us. I KNOW I said “no meat” (bu rou) in Chinese CORRECTLY but I think they were pissed because we only wanted the cheap noodle bowl and not a variety of more expensive dishes so we got a bunch of noodles with lots of ground meat and gravy on top and no broth. This is also the same area where I got ripped off when buying a rip-off watch- go figure.

We made it to the train on time and caught a taxi to the Hotel to drop our bags off and then back to Lisa Pearls to meet the rest of the GA girls for round two of pearl shopping. After they had spent almost all of their yuan we decided to celebrate our last night with a Sundae from McDonalds. We went back to the hotel and the girls packed all the rest of their bags. It was great that they had overstuffed bags cause they gave me lots of stuff they didn’t need anymore that are hard to get or recognize over here –Tylenol, hairspray, face wipes etc.

Green Pea Popsicle

Margie was brave enough to try the Green Pea Popsicles - but the Red Bean Popsicles are sweeter (red bean paste is put into a lot of pastries here).

Day 10 – West Lake & The Lingyin Temple

Nathan had to help us with this next leg of our sideline tour. I hadn’t been able to buy tickets from Hangzhou to Shanghai prior to my meeting the girls in Beijing (remember the blog about the 3 hour standing in line fiasco) and we needed a place to store our luggage so we could do our little day tour of Hangzhou, so Nathan was kind enough to get up at 7:30 in the morning to help us. Not many friends would ride a bus for 1 hour (really 2 hours back & forth) that early in the morning, to help someone older than his parents (I swear if I ever win the Lotto Jackpot I will pay off their student loans – can you make a contract on a Blog? Well considerate it a binding contract, Nathan and Elisabeth).

With Nathan’s guidance we got our Shanghai soft seat train tickets and stored our luggage. We parted and caught a taxi to West Lake to starte our tour. At West Lake we snacked on green pea ice cream, watched a fountain show, took pictures of cute kids and enjoyed the scenery. Next stop was the LingYin temple, which is one of my favorite spots. It has hundreds of Buddha carved into the side of the mountain and a really old temple with lots of stairs, more Buddha, monks, and incense.

Last stop of the tour was WuShan Square for last minute souvenirs and a noodle bowl. We did ok with the souvenirs but lousy with the meal. I had bragged to Margie who likes noodle bowls (really a noodle soup) about this great mushroom and bamboo shoot noodle bowl I had eaten at this one noodle restaurant. Well it was a bust because I could NOT say mushrooms/bamboo shoots noodle bowl and I hadn’t had enough sense to get someone to write it down for me beforehand. It was very disappointing that no one in the “famous tourist spot” restaurant was willing to come over and help us. I KNOW I said “no meat” (bu rou) in Chinese CORRECTLY but I think they were pissed because we only wanted the cheap noodle bowl and not a variety of more expensive dishes so we got a bunch of noodles with lots of ground meat and gravy on top and no broth. This is also the same area where I got ripped off when buying a rip-off watch- go figure.

We made it to the train on time and caught a taxi to the Hotel to drop our bags off and then back to Lisa Pearls to meet the rest of the GA girls for round two of pearl shopping. After they had spent almost all of their yuan we decided to celebrate our last night with a Sundae from McDonalds. We went back to the hotel and the girls packed all the rest of their bags. It was great that they had overstuffed bags cause they gave me lots of stuff they didn’t need anymore that are hard to get or recognize over here –Tylenol, hairspray, face wipes etc.

Day 9 – Margie - My Show and Tell Item

Boy, talk about an easy lesson! After a Chinese style breakfast, I took Margie to class as my “show and tell”. And it wasn’t like taking in a doll, pet or a toy to show off- this “show and tell” item actually did the showing and telling all for me! These Chinese students seem always interested in meeting new foreigners. Margie did a short “about me” talk and then had the kids ask her questions. They asked some really good questions such as - What was your most memorable experience? What goals do you have for the rest of your life? At the end of the period we spent many minutes doing the predictable picture taking.

Following classes, I gave her a break from Chinese food and fixed her the same lunch I usually eat most days, grilled cheese sandwich, carrots sticks, and Pringles. After a short rest I gave Margie the ‘standard super economy’ Xiasha tour. A ride on the stuff-it bus to buy DVD’s, then to WuMei to see the weird looking food items, then a foot massage and a ride back on the B1 bus.

That evening Margie and I hosted a dinner in our Hotel’s restaurant for all the local foreign teachers. The grand total for the 8 people came to less than 20 US dollars and that included beer and wine.

Day 8 – Shanghai – Silk Rug factory, Museum & YuYuan Garden & the Rip Off Ride

Busy day today…. Jan was feeling better so she rejoined us for travels. First stop was the silk rug factory tour (sound familiar?) Linda would have had to pay for the taxi this time if we weren’t in the van. She bought a beautiful round one that I have heard that her cat loves! Next stop was the Shanghai Museum which is a great museum that should not be missed. Guess what the jug pictured above is for? Betcha you guys didn’t know the Chinese invented this too! We went thru the Jade, Porcelain, furniture, calligraphy rooms and then the museum store.

Lunch was a Mongolian barbeque. You fill your bowl with lots of raw goodies and they cook it all together on a round slab. It was great! The restaurant was conveniently located under a cashmere factory store (are you noticing the pattern yet?). After lunch we went to the YuYuan Garden (another NOT to be missed spots). Supposedly a son built it for his parents about 400 years ago during the Ming Dynasty. Located in downtown Shanghai, it occupies about 5 acres and contains a lot of the traditional Chinese garden components – the zig-zag bridges, water, rock shapes, window framing, and some really cool dragons that are draped across the tops of roofs.

After the garden the most of the GA girls got to shop in the conveniently located souvenir district while Margie and I walked back to our van, got our suitcase and backpacks and dragged them back to where the 900 Yuan Rip-Off Van was going to pick us up for our 2 hour ride to Xiasha. Jan, Linda, and Laura stayed in Shanghai so they could go on the next day’s tour of Suzhou while Margie was willing to come back with me so I could fulfill my one day teaching responsibilities. I was just sitting here trying to type in how ZUFE worked the vacation schedule but it wouldn’t make any sense and it is really boring. Just believe me that I had to teach 2 classes on Sunday (then I had Monday and Tuesday off)

Side Note: When the Rip Off Van got us to my apartment/hotel the driver locked the doors and wouldn’t let us out until he counted our money – we did not tip (which is not expected in China but I usually do anyway)

Empress Linda

And I thought that Laura's and Margie's Chinese Farmer Hats were embarassing........

Lisa Pearls

We caught a taxi from the Jin Mao building and went to Lisa Pearls for our first round of pearl purchasing. Last time I had been there I had informed the shop girls that I was bringing some friends to see them in October and boy were they glad to see us ride up the escalator! We had decided that the one that spent the most at LP that night had to pay for the cab back to our hotel – it was Laura. Laura must have been saving her shopping dollars till the end, because she hadn’t bought much before this part of the trip. The shop girls were even more thrilled when I told them we would have to come back in two nights to bring Jan. They knew that ALL of us would buy more when we got back there and we did!

Shanghai at Night

Better Than the Empire State Building

We went to the observation floor of the Jin Mao Building which has 88 floors and is the 4th tallest in the world. 88 floors because 8 is a lucky number in China. Boy did my ears hurt going up and down the elevators. We took lots of night pictures of Shanghai that sort of look liked we are in Las Vegas with all the lights.

Day 7 – Shanghai & the Jade Buddha Temple

We flew China Air from Xian to Shanghai. Jan was not feeling well so we dropped her and our luggage off at our hotel. This hotel was ok but its location was inconvenient especially to our Lisa Pearls desired destination. Beds were the typical Chinese hard beds and Margie volunteered for the roll-away which was even worse. BUT she only had to sleep on it two of the 4 nights because she spent two nights with me at the Xiasha ZUFE campus hotel. Our Apartment/hotel beds are hard but not as hard as the rollaway.

Back to Shanghai - First tourist spot to visit was the Jade Buddha temple, which has 2 famous jade statues of Buddha in their temple – unfortunately you couldn’t take pictures. Our guide told us that during the Cultural Revolution a lot of religious places and religious artifacts were destroyed, so the monks put the statues in a box and labeled it “Statue of Mao” which helped them survive that anti-religious period. Clever!

Xian & The Terra Cotta Warriors

Pictures just don’t ‘cut it’. Overwhelming. There are 4 pits but only 3 of them with figures. Pit 4 is empty because Emperor Qin died before it was filled. All the pits are huge (think multiple football fields) but Pit 1 is the biggest and the one that makes you just stand there and just go “Wow”. I took a movie of the Pit Number 1 but it still doesn’t help with the description. I still want to go back and see it again –anyone else wanna come to China before I leave? I guess it would be like trying to describe the ocean to someone who has never seen it before – You just gotta be there.

Just in case you can’t get to the Terra Cotta Warriors in your lifetime here are some of Margie’s history notes. We are so lucky that Margie took such good notes cause I had a hard time paying attention when there was so much to see.

Margie’s Notes –
As we approach the Terracotta Warriors our guide, Jeff, fills us in on some history. The Terracotta warriors were made during the Qin Dynasty. He became the emperor at 13 years of age and took over the throne at the age of 22. He ruled for 38 years and was credited for unifying China into one central government. He standardized: measures, weights and writing across the county. Emperor Qin also started the Great Wall and built roads and standardized axle sizes. This emperor was known as a very cruel man. He was famous for killing and persecuting intellectuals and burning books. He had anyone who he thought was smarter than he was executed!

His mausoleum was begun when he was 13 years old and contains over 8,000 life size terracotta warriors. It took over 700,000 laborers to complete the project. In 1974 there was an extreme drought in the area and 5 farmers attempted to dig a new well for water. It was these gentlemen that discovered this 8th wonder of the world. At first this was no big deal – actually the warrior heads were taken and used as scarecrows!

Prior to seeing Pit 1 (the finale of the day) we saw a ‘theater in the round’ movie that depicted the mass production of the warriors. There was one area that made just the feet, another area for the head, hands etc. Looks like Henry Ford was not the first to use idea of an assembly line.

On the way back to Xian we stopped for a tea museum/ tea ceremony and then had a 16 course dumpling dinner. We had planned on going inside the city walls to see the Drum and Bell tower at night but we were too stuffed and sleepy so our bus driver gave us a ride past those sites. At the hotel we packed and attemplted to cram some more stuff into our suitcases for the next leg of our trip. Shanghai!

Weird Trees

There were some weird looking trees on the walkway to the Terra Cotta Warriors’ park. They graft a pomegranate to the top of a Chinese fig tree to make the pomegranate fruit much sweeter. There were many people selling pomegranates all along the sides of the roads and on the way to the TC Warrior park. And naturally all the little roadside stands had their fruit displayed very artistically.

Day 6 Xian

Xian is one of the few cities that still have their city wall intact. It runs 8 miles around the whole Inner city. The early walls were built before cement, so they used sticky rice and lime to hold the bricks together. The Drum and Bell Towers are inside the walls. Here we had opportunities to climb some more steps and to take more photos in the smog/smoke filled city. After the City Wall we had to fulfill the ‘factory tour’ quota of the day so we had a Pottery Factory Tour. The factory tour part wasn’t very informative it was just to lead you to their store.

We passed farmland on our way to the Terra Cotta Warriors which had lots of hand cultivated field corn. They dry the corn by spreading the kernel across the cement sidewalks or by hanging the cobs off the roofs of their houses. I hope Richard the professional photographer in our group took pictures of these scenes they really were very unusual looking but we were going too fast to take a picture

One More 'Jan' Story

I have a video of JAN RIDING THIS! The movie is great but the photo didn’t do her or her riding skills justice so you’ll have to wait till I get back to see the video. 2 thumbs up! And she didn’t have a stunt double. Margie, who ended up taking the best kid photos ever, took this picture of the boy with his weird scooter. To make it move you have to push your legs apart and then pull them back together. I guess because Jan had conquered the great wall she had enough guts to try this potential bone-breaking contraption. Jan definitely got her moneys worth from this trip!

Side Note: All Chinese kids are great at posing for pictures! Trying to catch them without them posing is the hard part. They usually hold up their fingers in the peace sign position – but I have been told it is the victory sign over here.

A Drain......

Yep, it is a picture of a drain. This is typical and not unusual! One of the things you notice in China is that everything is done artistically - even drains. There is art, patterns, and planting in almost all the Chinese public buildings and their grounds. Every sidewalk I have walked is made of some pleasing pattern. Medians on highways are beautifully planted and not just a bunch of oleanders thrown out there to survive on their own, but the type of planting whose beds will be changed each season. There are potted plants on road overpasses and bridges. Last week our school brought in a truckload of really big rocks to place around the campus. Last night around 6 pm we watched 4 - 15ft trees get moved down the road in wheelbarrows to be planted somewhere else on campus. (The campus has a block size area where they grow different trees for later use.) I just wish all this beautiful landscaping would inspire me to try to grow grass one more time in my front yard but unfortunately it would be a futile effort with my dog Sadie.

Day 5- Xian, The Foot Massage

After quick run thru of the Xian Museum we had another one of the standard 20 course meals. I don’t know if it is because we’re loawai and they are just trying to impress, but at every “Chinese” meal I’ve been too, there have been so many choices! You get to choose from at least 10 to 15 plates of different types of food that are placed onto the big lazy susan. If the women do all the cooking here – they need to revolt! I wouldn’t do it! Come on now, girls, isn’t it easier to cook 2 to 4 medium size dishes instead of 10-15 small dishes? I just keep thinking of all the prep work they have to do along with all the pots and pans to clean afterward. UGGH. But I have to confess that being on the receiving end of their cooking is sure nice. You have so many different tastes! You can pick what you want to try and not end up eating something nasty like asparagus that was already put on your plate.

Presentation is another thing in China. The food always looks good. Above is one of the fish dishes that we had before the main course of Beijing Duck.

Day 5 - Wild Goose Pagoda

This Pagoda was built to hold all the religious stuff that Xuanzang a Buddhist priest collected all along the silk road during the Tang dynasty. He brought back lots of Sanskrit sutras, that he brought back from India and other countries, which they translated into Chinese. Xuanzang also wrote a travel book that ended up being very important.
The Pagoda got its name from a strange story of a goose falling out of the sky to feed the starving monks. I have heard the story twice now and I just still don’t totally understand it. In fact, I really don’t ‘get’ a lot of the Chinese legends. Obviously, I have trouble with any story that has symbolism. (for example, I was clueless while reading Life of Pi) Below is a link to a typical Chinese story. This story is about two lovers that lived in Hangzhou. Do me a favor and read it and see if you discover the point. http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/whitesnake.htm

Here is another link – some of these I actually understand (probably because the moral is usually given away for us dummies on the bottom of the page….)
http://www.chinapage.com/story/story.html

Day 5 - Travel, and Xian

Laura and Margie made the mistake of buying the Chinese Farmer hats on the first leg of the trip so they were stuck with carrying the un-packable and un-hideable hats thru all the airports. How Embarrassing! Laura ended up using hers for a face mask so she could sleep (or maybe to just to hide her face).

After a couple of aborted attempts to get to the correct Beijing airport terminal Robert finally got to hand us off to our next destination and guide. Jeff and Mr. Moo picked us up at Xian Airport and took us to our hotel. This hotel had the nicest room of all three cities. The beds were the softest I have had during my 8 months in China. I was ecstatic! On the ride from the airport we saw lots of small hills in the middle of many of the fields. Jeff told us that the mounds were some of the 300+ tombs for the 70+ emperors and their entourage. Most of them have not been disturbed.

Side note: Xian had very smoggy air which got worse during our visit. We are not sure if it is due to the 7 million people living here or the fires in farmers fields or fires from further away.

Day 4-Summer Palace, Pineapple popsicles, Painted Walkway, and Purchasing at the Knock off Market

Day 4- Margie's Notes - Walkway, HD Store, and Silk Market

One fascinating feature is the 780 meter long corridor, or outdoor walkway which has paintings all along the way depicting the Chinese historical events and places. At the end of walkway we took pictures of a huge marble boat that was the empress’s “porch” of sorts to look at the lake. The base was entirely made from marble, but the upper portions were made from wood. It never was intended as a boat to float on the lake, it was only an observation deck for the empress.

The gardens were the private gardens and residence of the emperor of the Ching Dynasty, CiXi. When he died his widow was very powerful and controlled 2 young “puppet’ emperors. She was known as “the control power behind the curtain” for 48 years. She was the dowager empress.

We headed to our bus and “bought’ Gucci purses on the street for 5.00 – what a riot!

Katie’s Note – Notice that Margie didn’t say HOW MANY Gucci purses she bought…

After our buffet Chinese lunch we visited the pearl factory to learn about “seeding” of the fresh water oysters and the cultivation of pearls. It is amazing that 15 – 25 pearls will grow inside of one oyster. We looked at pearls here, but the prices are better a Lisa’s Pearls – so Katie advised us to wait until Shanghai to by pearls.

The afternoon was free for us. Jan, Linda and Laura went to a near-by department store and Katie and I had an adventure taking a taxi to find the new Harley-Davidson store. She bought T-shirts for her sister and friends for Christmas. Thank goodness the cab waited and then took us to the Silk market which is a huge 5 story fake goods market. I had a ball bartering for lots of silk goodies, etc. I found great Christmas presents for Don and Jason!

Katie’s Note – Harley-Davidson has only one store in all of China, and it was located at the FAR edge of town. I was very disappointed to find that even this official HD store had fakes. Only 2 of the 4 shirts I bought had the real HD label in them. Even worse they didn’t take credit cards so it wiped both Margie and I out of the majority of our cash. Guess what the first store I saw after entering the Silk Market building was…. Yep, a fake Harley-Davidson booth!

When we returned to the hotel Katie, Laura and I walked back down to our Internet café to check email. We nearly died from the cigarette smoke, but our mission was accomplished and we made our meager contact with home.

Jan’s friend’s son (Jay Clifton) and his friend Sherry met us in the hotel for drinks. He is working here. They exchanged gifts for and from home, and after a quick drink in our hotel we all headed out walking to find a good restaurant for dinner. Sherry speaks fluent Chinese, Korean and English, so we let her do all the talking for us. We had a private dining room and she ordered for us.

Katie’s Note – We ended up going to the same Sichuan restaurant we had been on the first night but with Sherry’s help we got the hot sauce on the side so that we could regulate the amount of heart burn we wanted that night.

We had a Chinese beer, tea, roasted corn, a pickled salad, pickled mushrooms, a pork dish (not very good – filled with little bones and tough – Katie’s Note – most meat dishes have bones), little spring rolls, potatoes that looked like noodles, the same sweet potato-sesame seed – fig dish, plus rice and fresh watermelon, grapes and bananas for dessert. A very nice dinner and a great visit with these two very nice young people.

Day 4 - Margie's Notes

Margies’ travelogue is much more detailed than mine so I am taking a break and using hers. I may add some comments especially around the Harley-Davidson Store part. But enjoy….

We had an 8 am departure to the Summer Palace and Gardens. This area was built around 1750 during the Ching Dynasty. It was only for the Emperor, his family, and their servants. This means about 2000 people! It was the summer home of the emperor for the 3 hot months of the summer. The entire area covers about 290 hectres and is 4x larger than the Forbidden City. 2/3 of the surface area is covered by a man-made lake (which is a copy of Hangzhou’s West Lake!). From Beijing boats could travel through the canals and bring the family to this palace.

Day 3 - Peking Opera

Need I say more? Costumes were great, acrobatics entertaining, translations confusing and hilarious, but if I didn’t have my iPod blasting in my ears I would have been doing the same thing as the girls.

Georgia Girls' Adventure- Day 3 Continued

Even though we cheated a little bit on the Great Wall experience by riding part way up on the cable car there was still lots of difficult climbing up the stairs and steep walkways. Jan made it even with her bum knee. We were so proud of her! She even purchased one of those touristy certificates that said she made it even though I would have assumed that the thousand of pictures that we all took would have been proof enough. Make sure you ask Jan to see the “Official Great Wall Certificate” she will be ecstatic to have the excuse to show it off!

The Great Wall was one of those sites I wanted to see a second time while I was in China. The second visit did not disappoint - it was still awe-inspiring. If you have the resources, and the ability to survive the 13+ hour flight, this is one of the things that should be seen in person to appreciate.

I Can’t Read Chinese, But I Could Figure This Bathroom Sign Out!

Saturday I had to leave most of the group in Shanghai because I had to teach a couple of classes on Sunday. (It’s too hard to explain the school's vacation system in a blog) Margie volunteered to come with me so we left the rest of them frantically spending the rest of their Yuan in the Yu Garden souvenir district as we hopped on a “Rip-Off the Tourists” Van that would take us to my College. On the two hour ride our driver stopped at a rest area. They had a unique approach in helping foreigners figure out which bathroom to enter. Even one for the guys, look at the photo below.

Male

Star Struck in Xian

No he isn’t a famous sports star, or movie star or singer, but I was still star-struck. He might wanna-be a star but right now Ron is a just another fellow English teacher working in Fuzhou, China but he is also someone with lots of talent. His name is Ron Sims and has a series of video podcasts about living and traveling in China. The weird thing is that I had already recommended his video podcasts on my May 27th blog. I watch Ron faithfully and am grateful every time he puts a new one online. Try them out they are funny and a surprising insight on living in China. You can download them from iTunes the 'illworld: China' or from his web site www.rsims2.com

Anyway back to ME. I saw Ron in line going into the Terra Cotta Warriors, so I excused myself from our travel group and ran over and made a fool of myself gushing compliments and saying little else. You can tell by the idiotic grin on my face that I gave the impression of not being very bright. I did have just enough presence of mind to get my friends to take a picture of us. Meeting him was almost as good as the Terra Cotta Warriors—well maybe not but pretty darn close. Thanks Ron and keep making your video

Georgia Girls' Adventure- Day 3

Margie wins the prize at taking the best children photos. Above is one of them from the Ming Tomb park.

First stop today was the Jade factory Tour. When you come to China using a tour package, I guarantee that you will be taken to at least 1 or 2 factory tours in each city. Since everything is made in China, you might as well see how it is being made, but keep a good grip on your credit cards and wallets cause you will see lots of things that will encourage you to part with your money. This is because factory tours ALWAYS end at the entrance of a large store. I would have thought that after 8 months here I would have become ‘jaded’ to the lure of this style of their Chinese Infomercials but no….. I STILL spend money in their factory shops. Basically my job was to go around with the girls and tell them if they will see that item in another city for a better price and help them bargain. Most people can bargain better than I but the GA girls were stuck with me. Margie and Linda were the winners here of buying the prettiest stuff.

After the jade store we went to the Ming Tombs where the 13 of the 15 or 16 Ming Emporers were buried. The first emperor, Zhu Di, selected the site for the tombs after sending his Feng Shui expert into the country to look for the perfect place for them to spend their afterlife.

After we went down and back up many flights of stairs to visit one of the tombs we needed a stretch. Luckily we had Margie with us. She made us do Yoga stretches to loosen up our tight muscles. I really will have to start taking Yoga when I get back. The hard part will be keeping my mouth shut during the sessions. After our stretches Margie and Laura bought their Chinese farmer hats. How embarrassing! At least they bargained for them and got a reasonable deal.

Cloisonne Factory Tour. Two in one day! Usually they will spread the factory tours out, but the guides must be doubling up before the Olympic crowds. Lunch was conveniently located on the second floor of the Cloisonné factory STORE. So we toured, ate and then shopped. I am sure I won the “purchased the most” award here. Next stop was the Great Wall….. That deserves its’ own blog.

Georgia Girls' Adventure

Next day was Tiananmen Square. It was PACKED even more than the usual Chinese crowds because it was National Day October 1, the 49th anniversary of China’s Communist government. Lots of people, soldiers and police. The crowd felt very strange because it also felt very safe and usually crowds and safety don’t go together. In the 8 months I’ve been here I haven’t encountered a city or gathering where I haven’t felt safe.

Since Margie and I were frantically taking pictures (that we promised to share) of everything from storm drain covers to roof tops, Linda, Laura, and Jan were able to ease back on their camera usage until they got to Suzhou.

Side Note: Margie took enough pictures at the Great Wall to qualify for the “Mimi-SOH-Award” (SOH – stands for Sydney Opera House) – Somebody please present her with the award!

Next stop was the Forbidden City, The main building was covered for renovation for the 2008 Olympics but that didn’t bother the girls much cause they just kept saying “I can’t believe we are in China”! After the Forbidden city we did a vegetable and flea market walk thru. Here I was able to purchase another tea container because I had left mine in Xiasha. I have become addicted to the Chinese Tea as much as Margie and Jan needed their morning coffee. After tea we went for our Hutong visit and meal. Hutong are traditional styled homes that have been preserved. Different generations of a family would live in a small compound that surrounded a small courtyard. We were taken there by rickshaw and fed lunch by the home’s husband and wife. Here we learned that if you finish one of the items placed on the lazy susan, it does NOT tell the host or hostess that it was great. It tells the host and hostess that they didn’t give you enough. So here DO NOT eat everything on the plates cause you will never finish.

Got back to the hotel and walked around the corner for our Beijing Duck dinner which is a big deal here. But before the duck they stuffed you with all sorts of other good things to eat. After dinner Laura, Margie and I walked to the Internet café and registered with our passports (everyone in the huge internet room had to register with their national ID card). We let everyone know that we were alive and well and I completed my registration for an online PBS class.

The Georgia Girls’ Trip – Day 1 - I was the Late One

Supposedly, I was to arrive in Beijing before Margie, Linda, Jan and Laura but my plane was an hour late. My tardiness was probably predicable because I did NOT fly China Air. If you have never flown China Air try it. Just think back in time about 30 years and that approximates their service. They even bow in unison at the end of the flight to thank you. Good full meals (not ‘snacks’) and drinks but still no diet coke.

The minute we got to the gate I turned on my no-frills Motorola Chinese cell phone and immediately got the call asking “Katie, Where are you”? The girls had arrived 30 minutes early (they flew China Air) and got thru Immigration in record time. Robert, our Chinese guide, took us immediately to our Beijing hotel whose lobby and elevators looked like a Las Vegas “wanna be”. After some short instructions from Robert, the five of us took off to explore the streets. After looking at DVD’s, fruit and people we stopped at a crowded restaurant that looked promising. It ended up being Sichuan, which has a red hot, fiery, chili sauce on almost everything and if the food doesn’t have a sauce it had lots of pepper. Margie was in heaven and the food was really good but most of our stomachs could only take half portions. After stocking up on bottled water for the next day we hit the bed (can’t use the idiom “hit the sack”, cause that would mean that the bed would have to semi-resemble the softness of a sack). I don’t know about the other Georgia jet lagged girls, but Margie & I slept hard and thru the night.

Just an Appetizer...

Since I just got back I haven’t had any time to work on my blog- so this blog is just an appetizer with more of our Georgia Girls Adventures coming soon. I promise! Don’t you just love the picture! It makes me smile every time I see it! It was taken close to the Great Wall.

First week of October was one of China’s “Golden Weeks” meaning everybody had a week off. I guess I did a good enough sales pitch because Margie, Linda, Laura, and Jan flew to Beijing where I joined them for a 10 day tour of China. We did the biggest tourist attractions (and factory tours) in 4 of the big tourist cities Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, and Suzhou. We saw the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Silk Market, Summer Palace, Terra Cotta Warriors, the Bund, and much more. We had a great time, great food, and spent a great amount of money in Lisa Pearls and the many factory stores. China Spree has a reasonably priced 12 day Middle Kingdom tour if you want an appetizer size tour of China and it is a great way to see if China is your cup of tea. It will also let you know if you can handle the wicked jet lag. I will be here till January so if you want to do something really adventuresome during your Christmas Holidays I will meet you in Shanghai and add on a side trip to Hangzhou and Xiasha.

Side Note – Thanks to EVERYBODY that contributed to my suitcase of goodies and a huge thanks to Margie, Jan, Linda, and Laura for lugging all of it here. Even though I loved seeing the China sites a second time, my favorite part of the trip was seeing, talking and being with my friends from America. Their visit will keep me going for the rest of my 3.5 months term here.