Floating Snack Shops Too

There were also floating fast food rafts. You could buy beer, soda, fried fish and water-pipe guns. We got our guides some fried fish and beer but we figured we were too old to have water gun fights – it got so hot later we were sorry we didn’t get them. I wish I had worn my bathing suit. The water looked very clean, cool and inviting.

Side Note: Travel Plans Changed

It has taken me a long time to adjust to traveling in China. It’s the polar opposite when comparing it to travel planning in the US – you save more money the closer to the date you book your flight ticket. Round Trip is not cheaper than one way. The way there by plane might be cheaper than the way back or vice-versa. People accept reservations on cell phones, just text your name and date to them. You cannot buy a train ticket more than 10 days in advance (unless you use a travel agent). CTrip (the most popular internet/travel agency) takes only domestic credit cards. (And a large majority of most Chinese do not have a credit card) They hand deliver the tickets to you and you pay cash. Soft seat or soft bed on the train really does not mean soft seat/bed – it is just a little more leg room and less people.

Back to the main subject....We were planning to go to Qingdao but they have had an algae bloom in the last couple of weeks.
(read about it here http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-07/03/content_6817647.htm )

So it was good that we are traveling Chinese style and hadn’t made any reservations. New plans were made last night for our Monday departure. We are now going to Fujian Province south of Zhejiang. We are spending a couple of days each in Xiamen, Quanzhou and Yongling. The hotel in Yongling is really a earthen roundhouse known as a tulou. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujian_Tulou Staying in one of these places will be quite an adventure.

I will be back in the ZUFE apartment for a few days then will leave for Changsha (Cynthia’s hometown for another week of traveling – no plans as to what we are going to see- just relax and enjoy what comes.) I will return to ZUFE the 25th to pack again for my most anticipated trip – HOME - for a whole month on July 28th.

Side Note – The picture above was taken by Kris while on our raft tour. Great huh...

Computer Setup On a Raft

After being here for a year I have become jaded to some of the strange things I see here but seeing a desktop computer, printer, and laminator floating on a bamboo raft in the middle of a YuLong River shocked me. China is a country full of contrasts such as a modern computer on pole-powered raft.

Rafting on YuLong River

Some of the best scenery was on the raft ride. If you ever make it to Yangshuo make sure you do the raft ride the pictures alone are worth it. For a private van for half the day, raft rides and a tour of Silver Cave it only cost about 30 dollars per person.

Li River

4 hour cruise from Guilin up river to Yangshuo. You are provided with a lunch and plenty of deck area to take pictures. The scenery is indescribable. It is so much more than a frame in a camera can collect. I just hope that when I get senile I can still remember some of the beautiful hills and lush greenery. You just have to be there….

Bitter Melon

Only in China would people eat something that tastes so bad because it is supposed to be good for you. Think of eating a vegetable made of Alum. Bitter Melon is supposed to cool you off especially for women. I have to admit that the taste did give me the chills but it didn’t last longer than the taste. We had a little gathering and ended up having a Bitter Melon eating contest between Jake and Penny. I think Jake cheated cause he had his wife, Shelly, finish off his last 2 pieces – I am not sure that was included in the marriage vows.

Split Pants

Many pre - potty trained children in China do not wear diapers, They have split pants and just squat when they need to do their business. One American heard a mother whistling to help her daughter relax and pee in the bathroom. Sounds like a little Pavlov training there. Anyway it is common to see children walking around with their little bottoms and equipment hanging out. I mention this because the monkey pictured above also has split pants.

Shopper Gnats

The kid that stopped us in Guilin almost had us. We believed he was a student at the local university studying calligraphy just wanting to practice his English. His English was good and his story was believable until he started talking about tea from his village and the teahouse his sister ran. We escaped him but picked up another one later that night but this guy was older so he said that he was a teacher at the university and he taught calligraphy. In Shanghai their line is “I am a art student from Beijing….” Their ultimate goal is to get you to follow them around to different stores. They are super human in figuring out what you are interested in. They watch our eyes, our smiles and listen for telltale words like DVDs, watches, tea, etc….. Their presence tends to befuddle me a little - making it harder to choose items wisely and bargain well. They are like gnats – they won’t go away. I am sure there is some psychological term for how I and other shoppers react to this herding but they are good – really good. I betcha used car salesman could learn a thing or two from these experts.

In Yangshuo they didn’t have the shopper gnats they will just show up at your breakfast table with briefcases full of Rolex watches for you to choose from or bags full of DVD’s or chase you thru the streets. One mother even had her cutely dressed less than 2 year old daughter chasing after us with postcards.

Red Hair in China

Some things can be a disadvantage in China. My Rubenesque shape being one of them and red hair being another. Kris has naturally red hair and in Guilin it became one of the popular tourist attractions for two of the large Chinese tour groups. I betcha from that one stifling hot afternoon she was put on more than 100 cell phones and 60 cameras. Everyone wanted their picture taken with her. Jim was an afterthought. I just stood back (in the shade) and took pictures of them getting their pictures made. They finally managed to escape and we headed around to the other side of Elephant Trunk Hill to cool off in the shade. Our respite didn’t last long though, we were found and the pictures with the redhead began again.

Very Hot Guilin

We had an uneventful plane trip and checked into our surprisingly nice hotel. Cynthia and I stayed in the Universal Hotel on our last trip to Guilin so I decided to make reservations there again. Great low price and remodeled rooms that were even nicer than I remembered! Their staff even helped us make reservations for the next days Li River Cruise and it was within walking distance of the Elephant Trunk Hill Park and the center of town.

We dumped our bags and walked to Elephant Trunk Hill Park. We took lots of photos and had lots of photos taken. The heat that day just seemed to wilt us. Even though we walked very little and drank plenty of water, when we got back to our beautiful river view rooms we just crashed. We managed to go across the street for a nice Italian meal and then get a massage but that was it for our day in Guilin.

Side Note – the Chinese language tour of the Li River cruise is half the price of the English version. Not sure that you needed a specific language to enjoy the breath taking scenery and we had an extra 200 yuan a piece to spend of food, souvenirs, and massages. So go native and save some money – plenty of people are willing to help if you need it.

Help! I’ve been stolen!

I got pick pocketed. But I omitted calling the police because I didn’t want to admit to my stupidity. I had become too complacent. I have always felt very safe in China, actually I feel safer here than I do in Brunswick Georgia. Anyway, Kris, Jim and I were shopping in the Yangshuo night market when I noticed that my pocket had been picked. I had just bargained for a small souvenir, using my side pocket money and was taking a couple of pictures and not paying attention when it probably happened.

I usually keep small bills and coins in my side pocket so that I don’t have to open my purse for small purchases. Kris and Jim had just recently paid me their part of the hotel bill and I failed to put the large bills into my wallet, as I should have. Fortunately, the money (less than 70$) was all they got. Passport, wallet, credit cards etc were all tucked safely away in my over the shoulder bag with lots of zipped-up zippers and folded-over flaps. Sort of put a depressing end to a great day. Even with the bad Pizza and my "Artful Dodger" encounter I would still go back to Yangshuo if I had the time. But there are just too many other places to see….

Flower Children

Ahhh remember the 70’s but I guess we would be called Flower Seniors now….

Yangshuo T-Shirts

You can tell YangShuo is full of ExPats because this is one of the few places that sell T-Shirts. At most of China’s tourist attractions one thing lacking in the souvenir department is the destination T-Shirt. The merchants in YangShou have learned to profit from the Westerners urge to advertise where they have been. I bought two. A Mickey Mao’s T-Shirt and a Chinese Character T-shirt that says my favorite and most frequently used phase “I don’t understand”

Side Note: YangShuo appeals to the 20-30 age group that like the adventures of biking, hiking, climbing, and sleeping in hostels. Therefore there are lots of bars and many restaurants that make an attempt at serving western style food. We had a horrible pizza at a Climbers hangout named Karsts but a great burrito across the street at Mickeys Place. We had heard that YangShuo was famous for banana pancakes. We tried them and they were good but they were really banana crepes and no maple syrup. I guess that is one of the biggest differences between China and the US. In almost any American town you can easily find good Chinese, Italian and Mexican restaurants. But here it’s mostly Chinese. I love Chinese food but I also love Italian, Tex-Mex and Western. I am definitely ready for some Mateo’s Calzone, Moondoggie’s Pizza, Crab Trap’s fried shrimp, El Potro’s burrito, and of course Willie’s Weenee Wagon!

Another Side Note: Even the universities around here do not have sweatshirts or t-shirts advertising their alma mater. And No School Mascots…… Such a wasted potential market…

MeiYou

MeiYou – when you hear that word it means “don’t have”. Sounds like "May Yo". We used to eat lunch at our conveniently located 2nd floor restaurant in our building but they took so long and we heard MeiYou so many times that we have stopped going there. The last lunch we ate there, we ordered 8 dishes (for 7 people) and ended up with only 1 dish being served an hour later. Hopefully next semester they will have more cooks and/or better service. Maybe they should change their name to the one pictured above. This cafe was located in Yangshuo.

This Is Ben

See why he was able to talk us girls into trying the duck tongue ….it was his dimples…. Also he and Aime have done so many favors for us. A Big Thanks to all our ZUFE Foreign Affairs Office.

We Really Did Eat Duck Tongue!

The foreign affairs office had a going away dinner for Kris and Jim. We had variety of dishes which included a great mushroom and eel soup (I didn’t eat the eel though), a delicious spicy cabbage dish, a fish dish, shrimp, the best qing cai (a green veg) I have ever eaten and duck tongue. Ben talked Kris and I into trying it (“just forget what it is and take a bite”). We did. It was chewy with an ok flavor but the crunchy things inside gave us the creeps.

Tiny Ads

At the top of the escalator, under the trees at West Lake, the Hangzhou Tower Overpass and Yanan Street are some of their favorite haunts. The hawkers (mostly young guys) are force/giving out business size cards for the local travel agents. It got to be a joke between Ricky the Australian that worked with me here at ZUFE in 2006. He would collect them and when he had a sufficiently obnoxious number of them he would slide 100's under my door late at night. And of course I would return the 'favor'. I told Kris and Jim about it and they attempted to do the same thing but with only a pitiful number of them.

To make sure I was one practical joke ahead of them before they left, Penny (ZUFE student and friend) and I barricaded their door late at night with the taped cards. Gotcha .....Snicker…

Student T-Shirt Contest

Kris, Jim and I decided to have a Chinglish T-Shirt contest. A lot of their signs and clothing have misspelled, miss-printed and completely unrecognizable words. So we decided to have a contest for our Freshman English Majors. To enter they had to have a T-Shirt that had Chinglish on it. Best/worse Chinglish won!

Attendance was really low but it was probably too close to finals and unknown to us we had to compete with a Zhou Enlai film the students were encouraged to watch. (How many US students would give up their Sunday evening to watch a historical movie- these students are so dedicated) But enough showed up that we were able to have a winner and give away our T-Shirts we had brought from the US. The winner’s shirt is pictured above…..Can you figure it out?

For some laughs go to these sites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinglish
http://www.chinglish.de/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/chinglish/pool/

Shopping in Shanghai

After class last Friday Kris, Jim and I ran to the ZUFE foreign affairs office and collected out monthly pay and then rushed to the bus and train station so we could rush to Shanghai and spend it all. They are sadly leaving after this term and this was one of the last chances Kris and Jim could shop for souvenirs for their friends and relatives back home. But before shopping we needed to eat. We had planned on eating western meals all weekend. We love Chinese food but sometimes you need a change. So after checking into our really nice apartment/hotel we caught a taxi to Peter’s Tex-Mex restaurant (same chain as the one in Chengdu). After filling up with chips, salsa, quesadillas, margaritas, and burritos we hopped in another taxi and started our shopping at Lisa’s pearls, which is located on Nanjing Dong Lu. While Jim was outside, innocently eating his McDonalds’ ice cream cone, and Kris was inside picking out pretty baubles, two girls came up to Jim and asked him what he was doing. He dutifully replied “waiting for my wife”. “Where is she?” “She is shopping”. Girls replied “wife shop shop we work work”. He declined their offer but we are still teasing him about it.

Next morning we went to a recommended underground metro station that has many stores that stock many “famous brands” (knock-offs). We immediately picked up a “guide” that we couldn’t get rid of and we were steered into many many shops. Almost all of these very small shops had secret rooms with more “famous brands” hidden away. We quickly figured out that the back secret rooms had a lot of crap and if you wanted real leather you needed to stay out of the secret room. Kris was looking for something with real leather I was looking for the “name” but I also wanted nice quality. Jim quickly did some great bargaining and bought two heavy chess sets which gave him the perfect excuse to abandon us so that he could take them back to the hotel. We tried to lose our guide by ducking into the nearest KFC for lunch but no luck he found us and handed us off to his wife who actually found and saved a table at KFC for us (tables are hard to find in fast food restaurants and you generally have to share). I guess she realized that her husband had got us to spend all the money we were going to at that group of stores so with the promise of Merrill shoes (that Kris was looking for) she coaxed us back on the metro and she took us to another group of “famous brand” stores. Surprisingly there were no shoes and after about 4 or 5 hours we were sort of in a daze, which I am sure they like to see cause both our bargaining skills and resistance were beginning to fail. We escaped, met up with Jim, had dinner at a Burger King and resumed shopping at YuYuan Garden. Great place for traditional small souveniers

Sunday we loaded up our purchases and began the adventure of getting back to Xiasha