China
March 18--We left the house after lunch and drove to Corinth where we did some last minute shopping and met Dorothy so that she could drive us to Memphis. We checked in at the Best Western Executive Inn in Mill Banks and then went to eat at Cracker Barrel in Southaven. This is the second time we've eaten there and the service is not great, but the food was pretty good. Dorothy took us back to the motel and then went home.
March 19--We were up at about 5:00 and in the shuttle by 5:45 so that we were in the airport before almost everyone. The shift of TSA people seemed to be arriving as we did. It's about 9:00 pm our time, and 12 hours is a long flight! We still have about five hours to go. I think the worst of the flight was about the last four hours. They seemed endless. However, we did make it to Tokyo finally, and the change of flights was practically seamless so that although we only had about an hour and a half, it was plenty of time. We just had to walk down the corridor a little.
March 20--This day really was lost in the shuffle since we crossed the International Date Line. We were in Tokyo by this day. After waiting between planes for about an hour, we boarded the plane for Peking. This plane was not full--maybe about half full--and I claimed a middle row of seats and actually was able to lie down and sleep for two or three hours of the almost four hour flight. We were met at the Peking (Beijing) airport at about 11:00 pm, by Anthony, who will be our local guide for Peking. Getting our bags went well and customs was practically non-existent so we were out in the city with Anthony in practically no time. The ride to the hotel was 30-40 minutes and we were met at the hotel by Mark, who helped us check in. We were ready to go to bed! The shower is large and very nice. There wasn't much of a view, and Beijing is covered with smog as we'd heard.
March 21--We had breakfast which had both European and Chinese parts in the hotel and then met for a briefing by Mark at 8:45. Mark's first remarks were to establish that we were "Mark's Family" and that there would be rules for all to enable everyone to enjoy the trip as much as possible. At 10:00 we met in the lobby and went to the bus to start our day. We went first to the Temple of Heaven, which was built in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty. This is made up of buildings, gardens and pathways which are supposed to symbolize the relationships between heaven and earth. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest with triple eaves is the main building. The entire building is wooden. There were people playing cards and dancing on the grounds. The dancing looked like Zumba!
We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Afterwards we were told that there are only certain tourist restaurants to which tour guides can take tourists, so we won't see locals eating at any of the restaurants to which we go as part of the tour. After lunch we went to the Summer Palace, which was the former summer retreat for the imperial family during the late Qing Dynasty and is Chana's "largest and best-preserved royal garden." Among other things, we learned that Chinese gardens often display large rocks.
The Summer Palace includes the Golden Hill Palace built 800 years ago, the Garden of Clear Ripples, and the Long Gallery.
All the doorways have high thresholds that were to keep out the bad spirits, but that gave us something to be careful of as we entered.
The Garden of Clear Ripples includes a large lake that was dug out for the garden with the dirt being piled on a hill on which there was a pagoda.
The Long Gallery is 2,300 feet long and past it was the Marble Boat. This is a boat built of marble that even has a steam wheel on the side.
We had a short rest period and then supper at 6:45. This was our introductory supper and was Peking duck. However, it wasn't as good as I remember the Peking duck that Tom and I had 50 years ago in Hong Kong. We've met some nice people so far. We were still tired and left right after supper to go to our room. I did show a few of the people the collages that I had put together of our family and home.
March 22--We met for the day's excursion at 8:30 in the lobby, which seems to be our set meeting place. The day was beautiful although somewhat cold. We were surprised to see a blue sky and sun. Our first visit for the day was Tian'an men Square, which is enormous. They claim it is the world's largest square and I wouldn't doubt it. Our biggest amazement of the day was the size of what we saw. There were crowds of mostly Chinese there. Many were lined up to wait hours to see the remains of Chairman Mao, who seems to be very much revered.
Our group picture was taken there and put into a rather nice book which we, of course, could then buy. After the Square we continued walking to the Forbidden City. Again, size was the biggest impression. The next was age. These building are wooden and were built originally in 1420. I'm not sure how much was original.
Copper and Iron vats were part of the fire fighting system for these buildings.
The largest stone carving in the palaces. it was originally carved in the Ming Dynasty when the main halls were built, but in 1761, the old carvings were removed and new ones carved.
The painting on everything had been restored in 2007 in preparation for the Olympics in 2008 and all traditional coloring agents including gold leaf were used in the restoration. It was beautiful and really impressive. The crowds of people, almost all Chinese, was also impressive.
After walking about four miles from the Square through the Forbidden City from south to north we went to a restaurant for lunch. This was the best meal that we had had so far. Tom, unfortunately, missed some of it because he decided to go to the rest room and some dishes were almost totally gone when he returned. After lunch we were put on a rickshaw for a ride to a private home where the woman described her life, her home, and her niece who happened to be a talented artist of the inside of little snuff/perfume bottles that she was selling.
After most of us bought one of her products we took the rickshaws back to the bus. The area in which this woman lived and through which we rode the rickshaws was call an ootong (or something like that) and was part of what was left from the Mongolian settlements. There are apparently fewer of oolongs each year as the Chinese continue to urbanize. They are a nice change from the high rise condominiums that are everywhere. So far we've seen no freestanding homes such as we have. Our rickshaw driver was very nice and very outgoing. He made an effort to understand my Mandarin. I had an extra page of photographs and gave it to him. We talked about our family and he said we had a very good one. He was Mr. Wang.
We rushed back to the hotel and had only fifteen minutes to get ready to eat and go to the Beijing opera. Supper was decent, but not as good as lunch. The opera was fun. There were two parts. The first was one in which the hero rescued the damsel in distress, and the second was one about the Monkey King who had to fight everyone. Most of us thought we were lucky that the operas were action operas with lots of extremely clever fight choreography and action rather than singing operas. There were English subtitles during the singing. We sat at tables right in front of the stage and had tea and little dishes of eatables--cookies, sugared peanuts, little tomatoes, etc. at the table. The opera lasted only a little over an hour and we immediately went back and to bed.
March 23, Saturday--We met early today--8:00--and started by driving to a cloisonné factory. I wasn't going to buy anything, but found a nice small elephant and some Christmas bells for Christmas decorations that I bought for the daughters-in-law.
After that we ate lunch at a place near the Great Wall and walked to the Great Wall where we were able to walk along the top of it. Tom and I made it to the third tower, which was as far as we could see from the ground, but when we reached it we could see the line extending with more towers going still higher. It was fun partly because the Chinese, especially the young people, seemed as interested in us as we were in them. It was very crowded, but almost totally with Chinese and only a sprinkling of "round eyes."
After we met back at the restaurant, we drove to an area with some Ming tombs where we saw visited one of the tombs and then I joined a group to walk the "Secret Way" which was the way the body was carried to the tomb and was lined on each side with large, rather fantastic animals which were supposed to guard the soul of the departed emperor.
There was a good bit of driving--between 30 minutes and an hour and half between events so we were in the bus a good bit. After the tombs, we went to supper and then returned to our rooms to get ready to fly to Shanghai tomorrow.
March 24, Sunday--The day started with getting our checked bags out in the hall by 7:30 this morning. We then ate breakfast and returned to the room before checking out and meeting the group at 8:30 in the lobby. Our day was to be somewhat short as we were flying to Shanghai at 4:30. First we visited a kung fu school. I expected this to be simply some students showing us a few moves, but it was much more. They put on a fantastic show with costumes. We were told that this is a full time school where the students learn their academic lessons as well as the kung fu. It is also a boarding school, and students remain around ten years.
(Click on the image above for video of kung fu.)
(Click here for more videos of Kung Fu.)
After the kung fu we drove through Beijing traffic with all its condominiums to a jade factory where I bought a very dark green jade elephant.
I'm sure I paid too much although I paid only half of what they were asking, but he's an interesting elephant. When he is held up to the light, you can see that he is green. Otherwise he looks just about black. We then stopped briefly at the Olympic Stadium from the 2008 Olympics. We walked partway down toward the stadium and the blue water (something like that) building. I took pictures and bought kites, which may or may not make it home, for the grandchildren. They are multiple small kites strung together. I bought six for $4. I originally offered him $5, but didn't have but $4 and he took that. We had a delicious lunch near the airport--one of the best meals we've had--at a restaurant that had sit down toilets and toilet paper (a five star "happy room"). It's interesting that so far we've always found at least one sit down toilet in the restrooms. Sometimes there's toilet paper and sometimes not, but I am very glad I brought toilet paper with me. Of all the "extras" I brought, so far that has been the most useful. After lunch we went directly to the airport where Mark did a masterful job of getting us all on the plane. We boarded more or less on time, but it was about 30 minutes before the plane finally took off. We were served a rather good meal of either chicken and rice or beef and noodles. The airplane food on this trip has been better than I expect. Since we aren't going to be fed after we reach Shanghai, we were glad to get a relatively substantial meal on the plane. The plane landed about on time and after about 45 minutes we were at the hotel. We had a little trouble with the elevator that was very funny. We got in the elevator to go up to the 16th floor--an elevator full of us. We went up to the third floor and then went back down. There was a group of Chinese on the third floor waiting for the elevator. We did this three times and each time the expressions on their faces were as funny as ours must have been. Finally a Chinese man in the lobby took pity on us and swiped a card over the reader in the elevator. We learned that we must do this to make the elevator go higher than the third floor. Mark is really exceptional at handling this relatively large group and had us settled very quickly so we were in bed by 10:00.
March 25, Monday--We started late, at 8:45, and went first to the Jade Buddhist Temple where there were three Buddhas in the main room. Our Shanghai guide, John, told us he was Buddhist and told us the story of his conversion to Buddhism, which involved finding a lost wallet. There were people worshiping at the temple, but there were also many tourists. The pride of the temple is a six foot tall statue of Buddha carved out of a single piece of white jade. It is a relatively thin Buddha and looks very much like a person. It was saved during the Cultural Revolution by the monks placing newspapers with pictures of Chow En Lai over it as they were forced out of the temple. The Red Guards supposedly were scared to touch those pictures to damage what might be beneath them. We weren't allowed to take pictures of this Buddha, but I did buy a postcard. There were quite a few large pine and a few other species of bonsai trees within the temple.
After the temple we went to a silk factory where they made beautiful silk rugs and wall hangings as well as did silk embroidery. It's probably good that things were so expensive! We ate lunch in the same building as the silk factory. Lunch was called a Mongolian barbecue. We chose our food by putting it in a dish and then handing it to the men in the kitchen who cooked it (stir fried) and gave it back. There was also a large salad area. It was delicious, although Tom didn't totally agree.
After lunch and after around an hour of driving through hundreds of condominiums--many with laundry hanging out-- we went to the Bund--an area along the river where there is a promenade looking out at the business and financial area across the river. On the side of the promenade are European buildings built in the early 1900's.
Our guide told us that 15 years ago when we was a boy his family lived along the river at this point and there was a pig farm across the river. Now there are many high rise buildings in their financial district. Jessica and I had questions for John when we returned: Were the reddish brown hair colors that we saw natural? Probably not. Chinese women do dye their hair. Was that the only downtown area? Yes. We saw a child whose pants were split down the center seam and who was wearing no underwear. Was that usual? Yes, the split was usual for ease of toilet training, but usually there was a diaper. We were back in the room by 3:00 and had time to rest. I couldn't find my air mattress and asked Mark for help finding it. He brought the maid who had cleaned the room up and she had put it behind the pillows where I just didn't see it. I felt dumb. Our optional tour was Shanghai at Night, which was a boat ride along the river near the Bund to see the lights of Shanghai buildings. They were spectacular and I took quite a few pictures. We had dinner right after the boat ride and the meal was one of the better ones. We've had three, I think, good meals and the rest have been rather mediocre. Most people are getting tired of constant Chinese food, but I'm not really minding it. I hope I'm not gaining back the weight I lost before coming on the trip.
March 26, Tuesday--We had an optional tour of the whole day in Suzhou, a city near Shanghai known for its canals and gardens. We started the day at 7:20 and our first experience was 30 minutes on the high speed train to get there. The fastest the train went was about 160 miles per hour, but it didn't seem all that fast. It was very smooth--none of the bumps we associate with train rides. When we reached the city we had a ride on two small boats on one of the canals where we saw some of the old part of the city. I had a desperate need for a "happy room" as our guide calls it and had to use one that was really for men. It was basically a hole in the wall with a trench along one end. One of the women, I think it was Rosemary, also had to go, and we took turns guarding the walkway before the hole to keep anyone from walking by. On the boat ride we saw scaffolding build of pipes with what looked like bamboo mats for people to walk on all along the canal. They are supposedly renovating the buildings, but we saw only a few workers.
Pictures of the canals in Suzhou.
After the boat trip we visited a silk factory where they made comforters and learned about silk worms as we saw how the workers took the silk from the cocoons and it was transformed into the comforters. Each comforter takes about 80,000 cocoons.
After the silk factory, we had lunch and then went to see a garden made mostly of rocks and trees. The garden and one of the trees were said to be 900 years old. One person asked the guide if there were any flowers, and his answer was that they didn't like flowers because they died too quickly so they liked rocks and trees. We left the garden for the bus ride home. It took 30 minutes to get there on the train and two hours to ride back on the bus. When we came back to the hotel, I wrote and mailed cards to the grandchildren and to Lee and Laura. At 6:30 we had a lecture on the cultural revolution by a man who had been a teacher in a middle school when it started. He told very graphically about what happened to him and to his family. He also explained that although the Chinese in general feel that the cultural revolution was a mistake by Mao, they feel that he did a lot of good in his lifetime and that is why he is revered now. At the end of the talk, we had our Western style dinner, which everyone seemed to appreciate, and were finished for the day.
March 27, Wednesday--Sometime during the night--around four or so--the doorbell to our room rang and a maid was outside trying to deliver soap or something. Neighborhood around our hotel. We went to a neighborhood activity center where the participants gave us a show including a fashion show. After that we went to a market where we saw many different foods displayed for sale. We returned from that to go to lunch with people from the adult activity center. We were divided into four groups for lunch.
Our group went to a home on about the 19th floor of one of the tall condominiums with a man and his wife. She cooked and he served until he had to leave to go to work. He was a gymnastics instructor and spoke a little English. She spoke none, but I tried to speak some of my Mandarin. She didn't understand very much of it. They lived with their son, his wife, and a grandson. They had two bedrooms, a living area, a tiny kitchen, and a bathroom.
(Click on the image to see more pictures of the lunch.)
She took us back to a meeting place. We then went to the Shanghai Museum for about two hours before returning to the hotel for an hour and heading out to supper and the acrobatic show. This show involved some very controlled acrobatics, a little magic, and some comedy. After the show we had to cross a very busy street to return to the bus, and Mark bravely walked out and stopped the cars. Afterwards we returned to the hotel for packing and sleep.
March 28, Thursday--This was a travel day-not much fun. First, we went to the airport for a two hour flight to start our voyage on the Yangtze. Tom and I shared our row with a young man named Dan, who was born in China, but went to New Zealand eleven years ago. He was very nice and very talkative. He could even understand my Mandarin! He was quite interested in one of the stewardesses. At the end of the flight we boarded a bus to find box lunches and ride for another five hours. The excuse given was that the airport at our point of embarkation was too small to be reliable. Our one rest stop was at a Chinese quick stop where the "happy room" was very unhappy. There was only one somewhat Western toilet which had no seat and a lack of toilet paper or other necessities. The shop itself was very dim and the selection of items quite limited. The parking area was very large, but there were only a few cars and maybe a few trucks. We did see a few 18 wheelers on the highway, but we haven't seen any in the towns. The highway is a very nice four lane, but practically deserted. We saw many fields of canola blooming, fish and eel ponds, water buffalo, and winter wheat. Mark shared his experiences during the Cultural Revolution with us.
March 29, Friday--I felt rather weak this morning after my bouts with diarrhea yesterday, but got up and went to tai chi practice at 6:30 am. The ship's doctor led it, but there were only three of us there. He did the same exercise about three times with no explanations--I think because he doesn't speak much English. We ate breakfast at 7:00 and then met at 8:00 for a trip to the dam and the locks. They are very impressive.
(Click on the picture for more images of the dam area.)
This is not the world's largest dam, but it supposedly is the world's largest producer of hydro-electric power. Unfortunately, one of our members had an accident on the escalator going to the vantage point when some people fell on her. Mark, our tour director, went with her to the hospital and we picked them up after the tour of the dam. It turned out that although she is sore, it doesn't appear that she is seriously injured.
We had lunch and picked our a la carte items for supper tonight. It appears that since we are on the Executive Deck, we have four items per day each free laundry, free Internet, a chance to have an a la carte meal and/or eat in the "exclusive" dining room where we would be served at tables rather than have a buffet, and wine with our meal. Someone said also free Diet Coke. I haven't tried for that one yet! After lunch we didn't go on the optional excursion.
Tom took a nap and I went to the acupuncture demonstration and lecture on the river. Afterwards I was able to get on the Internet--finally--and check my email. I then looked for Tom and went back to the cabin. He had left his key card in the slot for electricity and couldn't get back in the room. We didn't have activities until the captain's reception at 6:30 and then supper at 7:00.
After dinner and a really interesting conversation with Larry and Myrna and Luis and Rosemary I went to the crew fashion show for a little while--surprisingly good!--and Tom sat on our balcony as shown on the left and watched the ships go by and the shore. I think my sick episode is over--I hope.
March 30, Saturday--I went to tai chi, but there were only a few women doing it. The ship doctor is the leader. Once again, we didn't go on the ship's optional tour, but stayed back to rest. Mark had told us that these tours weren't really all that good. We had beautiful views from our ship although the air was not clear.
(Click on the picture below for more river views.)
Mark led us on an included tour of the Lesser Gorges. We started out all together and then before the third gorge, we transferred to two smaller boats. The boat men were very good at being sure we had many interesting photo opportunities.
Back on the boat, from our balcony we saw fruit being delivered to some of the crew.
There are steps and mechanical means for transporting cargo between the river to the town.
There was another crew show after supper, It was good, but not as long as the show the night before. At the end of the show they invited us to come on stage and dance. I went up, but Tom went back to the room. After the first dance they did a line dance and then the duck dance. I was sorry I had left the stage before that!
March 31, Sunday--Some of the Texas people organized an Easter service at 6:30, but we didn't make it. I did make it to tai chi at 7:00 before breakfast. Our excursion this morning was to visit a relocated peasant's home. We drove through the city into the countryside to a place where there were three families living in sort of a pod. There were the original house and two others. The woman of the original house was grinding corn outside her house and invited us to try it.
(Click on the image to see someone trying to grind corn.)
Her house had thick stone walls and was quite cool, but it looked as if the roof had holes in it and there was a smell of mildew in one of the rooms. We were told that this family had to share their land when the relocation occurred, but that they were compensated and that they did not resent the new family. The new family that we visited had a very large home. The farmer's family had the husband and wife, five children, and a number of grandchildren. Only a few of them were living in this home now, but they still had a three story home with about six rooms on each floor. They farmed about one-half acre and made about $1700 a year. They had to keep farming to live there if we understood correctly. After the home, we visited an outdoor market where they had not only food, but many medicines and even teeth.
(Click on the picture above for more market scenes.)
There was a celebration--or two celebrations--going on next to the market. One was for a month old baby and the other for a marriage. We didn't go on the ship's optional tour, but stayed on board and took a nap. At 3:30 I went to the meeting area to learn to play mah jong. Supper was at 7:00 and included a farewell visit from the captain. We spent the evening in our cabin getting ready for disembarkation tomorrow.
April 1, Monday--Another day of tai chi, but rather hurried as we needed to eat breakfast at 7:00 in order to be ready to leave by 8:00. We had to climb around 100 steps to reach the bus. Tom and I carried our carry-on bags (he carried mine the last leg), but some people paid 10 yuan to have their bags carried. We rode the bus to the Joe Stilwell Museum and the Flying Tigers Museum--which are across the street from each other.
We then went to eat and had a pretty good meal. We've been spoiled with the a la carte food and service on the boat! After the restaurant we went straight to the airport for a one hour flight to Xian, Mark's home town. He manages to arrange flights and luggage so that we basically arrive at the airport in time to board and never have to worry about our checked luggage. No problems with getting our luggage and getting on the bus. Our guide here in Xi'an is Jenny, the first woman we've had as the main guide. We drove directly to the restaurant in about an hour. Jenny told us that there are only about 8.4 million people here. When we went around a curve, my seat shifted to the left. I was sitting on the aisle on the right hand side of the bus. We experimented and found that all the seats seem to move sideways so that there's more room between seats. We went to the zoo to see the Pandas and they were fun. At first it seemed that we weren't going to see much, but they became for visible and more active as we moved deeper into the Panda area. There were several groups of young people who wanted their picture taken with us as we left.
(Click on the image above to watch the Panda.)
(Click on the picture above for more zoo pictures.)
April 2, Tuesday--We both slept well although these were the hardest beds yet. I've been glad I brought the air mattress! We're still in twin beds, but each one is wider than a regular twin bed, I think. Breakfast was from 6:30 until 10:00, but we were down slightly after 7:00 and ate with Jessica and Bill. We were to meet the group in the lobby at 8:45 so we weren't as rushed as sometimes. Our first and major stop for the day was the terra cotta soldiers, and they were really fantastic.
(Click on the image below for more pictures from the terra cotta soldiers.)
There were three museums built on the site of the discovery. The first museum was built where five farmers had tried to dig a well and discovered the soldiers. I think they said that there were about 1000 soldiers there that have been recovered and put back together. There are many more that they have not uncovered because apparently the color on the soldiers is lost when they are uncovered so they are waiting until they can figure out how to preserve them to uncover all of them. The second museum mostly showed bits and pieces that had not been reconstructed. The third museum was the smallest and showed a grouping that they think represents the command center because it contains a group of officers standing around in sort of a circle. I almost lost my camera in the gift show when I put it down to get a picture of myself with one of the farmers who had discovered the soldiers. Four of them found the soldiers, and he was there signing a book about the discovery. Apparently I put my camera down for the picture and forgot to pick it up. Another tour guide picked it up and returned it to Mark, who returned it to me. There is also a cinema about the soldiers and some history and a building that houses two of the chariots with horses--although these seemed very small and we weren't sure they were full size.
After the soldiers we drove to a village where we split into two groups for lunch. We had one of the best meals that we've had with everything seeming very fresh. The hostess said that she actually made the noodles that were in the soup.
(Click on the image for more pictures of the lunch home.)
After lunch we went to the Grand Circle Foundation primary school where we visited a sixth grade class. The children greeted us outside singing.
(Click on the image to watch the children.)
Frank put up a math problem of 2+2/2=? which the children answered correctly, but most of our group did not. I had three sheets of my pictures with me and gave them to some of the children--a group of boys. They seemed to really enjoy them.
We went back to the hotel by about 4:30 and were to go to the Tang Dynasty Show at 6:00. This hotel also uses the wand cards and we have to place the cards in a slot to have electricity in the room. It also has the lights over the bed that turn on with a dimmer switch. Before leaving the hotel, we met Mark's wife, since they live here in Xian.
We drove to the show and also dinner, but when we arrived we found that the electricity was off. They showed us to the tables with candles and put candles at each table. As has been true at each show, we had excellent seats very near the stage. We had a few appetizers, but they couldn't finish cooking without electricity. They offered us all unlimited beverages--soft drinks and beer. The show was supposed to start at 8:00, but the electricity didn't come on until then so the show was delayed for 30 minutes. The food was good and quite plentiful and the show was excellent with music and dancing and a little singing. The sets and costumes were really outstanding.
(Click on the image for movies of the Tang Dynasty Show.)
April 3, Wednesday--We had a very welcome slow start with our bags ready by 9:00 and meeting the group at 10:00. Tom and I took a short walk as we waited, and then I was able to connect briefly with Dorothy and boys on Facetime. The service was not very good.
Our first stop was a lacquerware factory. They had furniture and small pieces that of course we could buy.
Next we went to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda and then to at a restaurant near the Drum Tower where we ate about 18 courses of dumplings that are a specialty of Xi'an.
After lunch we went to the Muslim street to look at the market. I bought a Mah Jung set that was very much as I'd seen elsewhere. The price started at 480 yuens and he came down to 240 or two 20's. I had to borrow money from Beth until we got back to the bus.
(Click here for Images of the Muslim market.)
When we reached the bus, we drove to the West Gate of the city wall around Xi'an. There we were able to go up around 80 steps to the top of the wall and could walk around on it. We spent about 30 minutes looking around and then I joined the group walking across the street to the Walmart and Tom stayed behind to explore and just rest.
(Click here for Images from the city wall.)
We then went back to the bus and drove about an hour to the airport where Mark had arranged everything as usual. Unfortunately the plane was almost an hour late leaving so it threw us pretty late. It left about 9:00 and was an hour and a half long flight.
April 4, Thursday--Since we were up so late, Mark set the meeting time for the tea tasting trip at 9:30. We had to drive for a long time to reach the tea place because it was the first day of a three day tomb sweeping holiday. The Chinese go to the tombs of their ancestors and light firecrackers to wake up their ancestors. They clear weeds from the tombs which are generally circular, eat, and then light more firecrackers to say goodbye. The streets were really crowded and the bus couldn't go the way the driver wanted to go because it had been made one way, so we had to go around in a very long detour.
(Click here for images of the Drive to the tea tasting with cemetery visitors.)
At the tea tasting, we first learned that all the different kinds of tea come from the same plant. The difference is in the way the leaves are picked. White tea is the most expensive. There are many different grades of green tea. Then there are fermented teas.
We bought some high mountain yellow tea (good for the heart) and some compressed tea (which is good for everything!) , which they consider one of the best teas.
(Click here for Images from the tea tasting)
After the tea tasting we went to lunch at a place that made a point of having a pretty presentation of the food. We then had the afternoon free. Tom and I both have a cough and we decided to spend the afternoon napping.
At 5:30 we met to go to supper. This night was a western supper. Tom had pork--it looked like a butterfly pork chop--and I had the beef. They were pretty good. After supper we went back to the hotel. There was a little confusion about leaving because we saw a woman weaving. She had some scarfs for sale, but we didn't have time to stop and shop. Some people on the trip wanted to go back after we reached the hotel in order to buy scarves, but the taxi fare was more expensive that they thought so they didn't go.
April 5, Friday--We were up early again to be able to leave our bags outside by 7:30 and then meet up at 8:30. Tom and I are both taking Benadryl for our colds so we were very sleepy. We drove to the boat and there was rain as we got on. Tom and I had left our parkas on the bus. The rain stopped and started and finally the sun came out for an hour or so. The boat ride was beautiful with hills and mists just as we would see on the scrolls.
We were treated to snake wine!
(Click here for Pictures from the boat.)
We ate lunch on the boat. After the boat ride we stopped at a big market where we shopped until 1:30, when 14 of us went for a foot massage. Tom stayed at the tea shop with some others, At about 3:00 the bus picked us up and then went to pick up the others.
We had about a two hour drive to the airport. I fell asleep on the bus and it seemed that the time went quickly.
Everything was in order when we reached the airport, but my bag had problems being screened. It seemed I had left a nail file in one of the pockets and didn't even know it was there. No other screener had noticed it. Finally I was able to get through and they didn't even take the file. I bought ice cream at the duty free store and it was delicious. We got on the plane and we then were told we would have to wait an hour because of weather and crowding in Hong Kong. It really was only about 30 minutes before we took off.
April 6, Saturday--Since yesterday was a travel day and we were all tired, we had another rather late start and had the afternoon and evening free.
We ate lunch at a McDonald's near the hotel because Tom was really craving a milk shake. Unfortunately he spilled it. A cleaning woman cleaned it up, but wouldn't let us tip her. After lunch we intended to walk to the harbor, but we discovered after walking for a long time that we had walked north rather than south. We were tired so we took the metro down to the harbor.
(Click here for Other Hong Kong pictures)
We still had a lot of walking from the metro station to the water, but finally made it. We had wanted to have Peking Duck for supper and Rick, the local guide, had told us to go to the Peking Garden, which was near the harbor. We went about 5:30 and found that they already had a long list of reservations, but they did have space for us.
Unfortunately, we found that to have true Peking Duck we had to have at least four people. We ordered the barbecued duck and received the whole duck which they sliced at the table. We ate it on a very thin crepe with barbecue sauce and a little of a vegetable that seemed to be a cross between celery and cucumber. After supper, we went back to the waterfront and watched the laser show.
(Click on the image below to see part of the laser show.)
The best part of the laser show was that it involved the buildings as well as the lasers. Many of the buildings had lights that danced with the lights and music. When that ended we rode the double decker bus back to the hotel. We bought ice cream cones to get change for the bus and still had to ask for coins. A woman helped us with the coins and put the right ones in for us. We recognized the McDonald's and got off at about the right place.
April 7, Sunday--Tom and I went on the optional tour to the New Territories--although it didn't turn out to be just the new territories. We went to a bird and flower "hangout".
Bird owners--all men as far as we saw-brought their birds in cages to a park of sorts where they would hang the cages on trees so the birds could socialize while the men visited each other. In the flower market hundreds of flowers were sold wholesale.
(Click on the image above to watch the woman work.)
There were some bonsai there and some of the statuettes to place in bonsai. I bought a couple of the statuettes. We then went to a Tao temple to watch people pray, burn incense, and toss fortune telling sticks. There were 100 numbered sticks in a can. Each person tossed the sticks until one fell out. They would then take that number to a fortune teller who would relate the historical story for that number and relate that story to try to help answer whatever question the person praying had asked. Our guide demostrated the sticks for us.
We then went to a lovely garden which included bonsai and beautifully trained, but ground planted, trees as well as fish and rocks. Our last stop was Sai Gon village on the Sai Gon peninsula. This was a fishing village and our lunch was a seafood lunch. The groupe was particularly good, I thought. It was very lightly fried.
We went back to the room to rest. Tom was feeling worse today than yesterday, so he went to sleep. I went with Bill Bavinger to Starbucks to see if we could get Internet. We did-with a little help from one of the other customers--I think from maybe Australia. We were only allowed 20 minutes free, and after we returned to the hotel I took Tom's camera to try to get a charger since he had lost his. I went to the street I was told had electronics, but was told that the store I needed was closed for the day. The crowds were enormous with some street entertainment. The people seemed to be taking advantage of the holiday. We had our farewell meal tonight. It's a little sad to leave people you've spent 20 days with. Most of our group was very congenial. I think many of us really felt like "Mark's Family" as he called us.