Back in the USA

 

This was our seat screen as we began the final leg of our flight home. We were hoping the 12 hours and 14 minutes would pass reasonably quickly, and they did. We landed, went through customs, picked up our luggage, talked to both Jordan and Hillary on the phone, and were in  our house by 7:30 p.m. It feels good to be home. Our trip was wonderful!  I can't say enough about how friendly and welcoming the Chinese people we met were to us. For a country that has never been on my "must see" list it surprised me in the best way. I loved it, and hope to go again. It was so interesting to learn about the history and culture of China, and to see some of the beauty of the country. It also made me appreciate our life here. Thank you for sharing our adventure. We loved your e-mails and comments. Please prepare yourselves for our four hour China slide show which is in the works!!     Lori 

Our Final Days

 

On Friday we left the Li River area to fly back to Beijing. The road to the hotel where we were staying is blocked each day from noon until 3:00 p.m. by a street market. Because of this, our taxi picked us up at 11:30 a.m. for a 5:30 flight. We had a long afternoon sitting at the airport, and were feeling a little frustrated that we weren't able to spend our last full day sight seeing. Jack wanted to sit in these chairs because he was feeling both old and weak.

 

Our luggage was heavier than the maximum allowed weight when we checked in. Jack quickly took out my folded clothing cube and yes, our luggage was successfully checked  without a charge. Lucky me...I was able to carry my luggage cube for the rest of the day like a briefcase. It gave me a professional appearance unless someone looked closely. By the time we flew into Beijing it was raining, and we didn't reach our hotel until after 10:00 p.m. Our hopes for going to the Olympic site flew out the window. Actually, I was still up for going but note Jack's description above.

 

Saturday morning we decided to go for a walk before leaving for the airport. It was a beautiful day, and yes, Jack was waving again. 

 

We also walked through a hutong just north of our hotel. A hutong is a traditional Beijing neighborhood consisting of narrow alleys with small attached buildings facing a courtyard. People live in the interior area, and often times the outside walls are lined with shops. This is a picture of a courtyard area. 

Bamboo Raft Trip

 

Today we went on a bamboo raft trip on the Li River. This is our boat man with his raft. It actually should be called a bamboo/PVC raft. We were on the river for two hours.

 

The scenery was beautiful. Jack and I tried to compare it to places we have been and came up with a combination of Hawaii, the Bahamas, Seattle, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

 

Jack is at the front of the raft in this picture. We probably passed 50 rafts just like ours, and I think he waved at every one. I'm just not that friendly.

 

This karst is called "the man on a horse." Jack and I couldn't make out a man or a horse, but we politely nodded to our boatman. It was difficult enough for him to give us the name in english. It was a nice afternoon. Tonight we went back into town, roamed the streets, and had a delicious $10 dinner of beef stir fried rice, noodles and pork in broth, and stir fried vegetables. An older man who does paper cuts made one of Jack and followed us for quite a while trying to sell it to us. I thought it did hold some resemblance, but Jack thought it looked like Dick Cheney. He refused to buy. Tonight we are packing for our flight back to Beijing tomorrow. We would like to get an earlier flight so we can make a trip out to the Olympic sites tomorrow night. If we make it, we'll post some pictures!

Visit To Conehead Land

 

Jack here. I am giving Lori a Blog rest.  Which means you'll get very little history or valuable content from my entries.  We flew out of Xi'an today amidst their normal heavy polution and said bye bye to this small city of 8 million people.  It reminded Lori and I of Bladerunner.  After paying too much for a taxi to Scooter (all taxi drivers from here on out will be known as Scooter when I blog), we got to Xi'an airport, and jumped on Southern China Air for a 2 hours flight to Guilin (pronounced "gweelan").  Very tropical and HUMID.  We had a driver scheduled to pick us up to drive 90 minutes to our destination city, Yangshou.  More on that later.  Upon getting in the cab, Scooter handed me the note you see above.  Read it carefully, slowly and out loud if you like.  If you can tell us what it means, I'll pay your 3000 Yuan.  Because we had no idea.  Eventually, and once we disregarded the title that must have had something to do with Lori's perfume, we figured out that he was offering to take us on a much less scenic path to our hotel for 30 more Yuan.  Less views of beauty for more money?  Of course we chose that option.  

 

This is literally the view from our room, a floor to ceiling window vista.  And naturally the pic doesn't do justice to its magnificence.  We are outside of a town named Yangshou, which is located on the Li River.  The area is completely surrounded by these odd shaped mountains, called Karst...Limestone covered with tropical vegetation.  They look like the Coneheads from Saturday Night Live. And there are a gillion of them.  This area is a hotbed for tourists, esp rock climbers.  Obviously the reason Lori and I chose Yangshou.  The area is filled with bike paths, the Li River, which we'll be on tomorrow on a bamboo raft, and of course, hiking.  So you want to know a little about our hotel?  Well....its called the Li River Retreat.  "Li" in Chinese stands for "Red Roof Inn".  Scooter drove down this very narrow and dark path, stopped and put the car in reverse.  And he was backing up a very steep mountain.  In reverse.  He eventually stopped, we got out, turned around and were standing face to face with the Li River Retreat.  All the windows were open, the front door was open (+80 and heavy humidity) and I am thinking, "Well, I guess I could always sleep on the flight home, because it's not going to happen in this hotel."  But as always, the front desk person was terrific, friendly, offered us a cold coke and introduced herself as "Bunny".  We checked in, and Bunny who was all of 85 lbs, carried our overweight suitcase up a flight of stairs (wouldn't let me).  We opened the door and it was very nice.  And then the view above.  Bunny did hand me a remote with white band-aid tape on it. The tape covered up the Chinese writing with words like, "Fan", "High", "AC On".  How many places do you get to control your ac from bed?  My wife knows how to pick em.

 

This is a much more comfortable view of Lori after we had been in town for 2-3 hours.  After we arrived at the hotel and room, she kept smiling, but continued to mutter something like, "I am out of my comfort zone, but I'll be fine. I am out of my comfort zone, by I'll be fine".  Kind of like a chant. But once she got over the fact that there was no elevator in the place, she was just fine.  As shown above.  A bit on Yangshou.  The word, loosely translated means "Gatlinburg",  "Estes Park" or "Branson".  I don't know what the Chinese version of Funnel cakes would be, but I am sure they are serving them somewhere on this street.  Funky and fun restaurants, lots of stores where people, once again, are clamoring to sell stuff, and some seriously great people watching, which brings me to my last photo.  

 

The white haired guy to the left might as well have a sign that says, "I am really stupid.  I am a lonely American and just want to talk English with someone".  This is one of the great street schemes.  The girls in the picture come up to American looking people, and say they are working to improve their English. They would like to try it out on you.  Provided you say yes, they walk with you, eventually to a booth where they try to sell you Chinese Funnel cakes.  You can sense the con a mile away.  Unless you are this guy who's wearing that sign I just wrote about.  When I walked by him, I heard him say something like, "Well, missy, I think your english is great.  Better than many in my own country.  I would be glad to help you...."  I quickly spun around to shoot this picture and the flash must have pulled him out of his "trance".  Lori will probably be back at her Blog Desk tomorrow. Stay tuned for more whacky adventures.  Especially the Bamboo River Boat Ride....can't wait.

Hi all. Lori has been dutifully keeping the blog alive. We are completely absorbing it all. For me? I am interested in the smells, the views, the daily life of those we connect with and whether there's a coffee shop within 40 ft of my every move. I am also compiling a list of observations of the Chinese culture and what I'll call habits. Here are some early thoughts:
1. There are no nicer people on the planet than the Chinese. They smile at you, even if you are driving them crazy....as I have done.
2. There are no kids cuter on earth. I started to build a small library of photos of them, but stopped as to not be arrested for creating exactly that.
3. You can buy anything you need in China. Anything. But...
4. Chinese local merchants are relentless but decent in the lengths they will go to sell you stuff. Here are the "hooks" they might use on the street to get eye contact: "Hey, welcome back!" Hey, I remember you!" "Hey you need to replace those pants". "Hey, do you love your wife?"
5. They have the strongest legs. You would too if you road a bike that was 10 years old every day with at least 1-2 people on it.
6. They work hard and never complain. I was talking to a person we bought some items from and asked her if she every "rested"? She said yes, because she gets 2 days off per month. And she works weekends.
7. They will push you down to get a close up picture of Mao.
8. They get pleasure out of us trying to act "local". Earlier in the blog, Lori posted pic of me eating a kabob type of fruit with sugar. I asked my P&G Chinese colleague if she had ever eaten one and she said no. I asked her why and she said, "Because I am Chinese."
9. Chinese watch their pennies. First example: A bell hop at our hotel gave us a reco for dinner but warned us it could be expensive. He said he couldn't afford it. Lori and I went and spent $11 for 2 people. Number 2: I see old men on bikes riding throughout town and always with old construction materials strapped on. I asked what they were doing with those materials and our guide said they'll build something. Out of 1' pvc pipe, old 2x4's and cardboard boxes?

More on this later. It's late and we are off to Li River tomorrow. I can confirm there will be no Starbucks in this town.

Terracotta Warrior-Two

 

If you look closely at this picture you can see a water bottle on the ground by these soldiers. Someone accidentally dropped it into the pit. We all heard it fall and it was amazing that it did not hit any of the figures. I think in the United States the whole area would be protected by plexiglass. Our tour guide told us that in the first few years the museum was open, visitors could actually go into the pits and stand by the figures. 

 

Here I am with our very informative tour guide, Elsie. 

 

This warrior is an archer. It is the only figure that has been excavated intact.

 

Here is Jack with another warrior and a life size horse. Tonight we ate at another dumpling restaurant and then walked through "Muslim Street." This is a three block area filled with Muslim street food, restaurants and shops. Very lively and interesting, but it was recommended we not eat the food for safety reason. Tomorrow we fly to Guilin and then will be picked up and driven to Yangshuo by the Li River. This area is described as very scenic and relaxing....a nice way to end our trip. We will report again tomorrow.

Terracotta Warriors-One

Today we went to the Terracotta Warrior Museum outside of Xi'an. We were able to visit three pits which are still being excavated. Another amazing experience, and another history lesson. The first emperor of China started the construction of his mausoleum in 247 BC. The soldiers were commissioned to protect the emperor at his burial site and also to guarantee his prestige and power in the afterlife. In the three pits 8,000 soldiers are expected to be excavated.

The warriors have different facial features, hairstyles, clothing, and shoes making each unique. Some of the figures were signed by the artist who sculpted them. The emperor did not want any ruler following him to have the secret of how these were made, so he had all the workers from the project put to death and buried in his tomb.

These warriors were called vanguards. They were considered the bravest because they were at the front of the tomb and had no weapons. Other soldiers were found to have bronze weapons in their hands.

The yellow paint found on this soldier is very rare. When the soldiers were unearthed they had colored faces and uniforms but soon after being exposed to the air the colors faded.