China Trip # 4

This is Mom now - and I wanted to be sure and have a picture of our guide, Steven, as we all fell in love with his sweet personality and sincerity.  He shared a lot of heartfelt feelings about his life and the challenges of the youth in today's China. 

On our way down from the mountain village, we stopped for a program where the Yao minority women danced and showcased their hair.  They cut it once in their lifetime - when they are 16 to 18 years old - then never again.   They save the hair they cut and add it to their hair creating a pretty serious up do.  Dad was coerced into going on stage with a couple of other guys to dance with some of the single ladies - and what a racket.  They made the men buy silver bracelets for the girls - then put them back on the "for sale" rack afterwards.

From here we caught our plane to Xi'an.  We arrived at night and checked into our REALLY nice hotel suite.  Our new guide was Grace - a 28 year old woman - who was so OCD that we loved her!! (Sure glad no one in our family is like that, though - ha! ha!)
 
Xi'an was the ancient capital of China (one of three cities designated as ancient) and really beautiful. In the 10th century this city had a population of over one million!  Xi'an is the beginning of the famous "Silk Road" that carried trade to the Mediterranean.  The wall still surrounds the old city, and the newer part of the city is outside the wall and mote.  The wall is approximately 12 miles in circumference.  You can ride bikes on the wall - but it was a cold morning.  Guard towers like the one below are situated around every quarter mile - with bigger soldier quarters in various spots.  It has booby traps to keep the enemy out and was very interesting.  We left our camera in the hotel room the day we first went up on the wall - and this picture was taken the next day as we were leaving the city.

This was also the day we visited the Star Fish orphanage and felt so badly that we couldn't take pictures of the children and our time there.  Others in our party took lots of pictures with promises to get some to us.  The orphanage is run by a woman from South Africa.  She is not there now - as she is being treated for cancer in Memphis.  A young man from Utah (a returned returned missionary that served in Taiwan and then married a Chinese girl from Xi'an) is acting head of the orphanage and it was very impressive to see the wonderful work there.  There are several sweet Chinese women who also help with the children.  
The children come from other orphanages and  places that take abandoned children -  all with special needs  (cleft palates, brain damage, etc.).  We all brought supplies and wrote checks as they are strictly funded by private donations.  We stayed about 2 hours and just held and played with the children - (infants to 6 years).
That night we shopped in the ancient city's Muslim quarter - again no pictures and so interesting. 


Next day was our day at the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses.  This INCREDIBLE archaeological site guarded the tomb of China's first emperor for over 2,200 years.  It was discovered in 1974 by a farmer digging a well.  The excavation is still in progress and has uncovered over 6000 life sized warriors.  Each one is individually sculpted with the unique features and characteristics of the archers, infantrymen, cavalry (and horses), officers, etc, that they were modeled after.  The farmer is still signing memorabilia at the museum. 

Here is one scary, fierce warrior!! (Actually taken at the Terracotta Factory - where we bought a very cool Emperor statue.)

Just a glimpse of the work completed - (there are several massive buildings)

This is kind of hard to decipher - but if you look closely you can see the pieces like a big jigsaw puzzle that they are still putting together.  Some are more intact than others.  Can't appreciate the scope of this.  The site is massive - and who knows how much is yet to be uncovered. 

Considered the 8th Wonder of the World.

From this place we headed back into the Xi'an train station to board our overnight sleeper car to Beijing.  More to come on that!

China Trip - Post #3

OK, I'll do one more post tonight.  Mom mentioned a couple of things I forgot to tell you in the earlier post.  The house we visited was OLD, having been occupied by the same family for 12 generations in essentially the same form.  And the Five Poison jar had those little beasties in there for nearly 50 years!  Think of drinking formaldehyde in your biology class!

Back to the narrative - I told you that we went to a little village high in the mountains where the people over the generations had carved the mountains into terraces to allow rice planting.  Well, we arrived at night and the "'walk" up to the village was more like a rigorous hike in pitch black on wet stones set in a muddy hillside.  We couldn't see anything so had no idea where we were or what the surroundings looked like.  The hotel was a palace for where it was, but no where near what we had experienced - certainly wouldn't rate many stars.  The bathrooms were spare, the bed was nice but the sheets felt damp in the jungle climate.  But we slept great, in spite of the fact that I was concerned for other members of the party and the challenges that some of them faced in surmounting the hill climb.

When we woke in the morning this is what we saw outside our window.  We had arrived in a 3rd world country, definitely!  There were no clocks in the room, but the roosters started crowing about 3 AM.

Mom slept so well that I let her sleep in and a few of the party took a further hike up the mountain to see more.  The terraces in the picture below give you an idea of the magnitude of the task of carving them in the mountainsides.  They go off into the distance for miles.  This way the village would be able to take care of itself without ever coming down off the mountain and exposing themselves to enemies.  Keep in mind that these are hundreds of years old, having been done with shovels and hoes by hand.

 This is the view immediately outside the village.

 This gives an idea of the hike up the hill, about a third the distance of the hike up to the village the night before.  We are climbing up to the three flags you see at top.

 Evidence that I made it to the top!  Note the terraces on all sides.

 This little grandmother was making her way up the trail as we were coming down.  Don't want to even think how many times she has climbed this in her life, carrying heavy loads. 

 We hiked back down the hill in the late morning to catch our bus back to the airport.  You can see from this picture with Mom how the village is cut right into the mountain side.  Very rustic adventure, to say the least.

One more picture near the bottom of the hill.  There are red lanterns all over the place in China like the ones you see in the covered bridge.  They just celebrated their new year of the dragon, plus red is a sign of happiness.  You see red all over the land.

One thing I forgot to mention.  The driving style is not limited to the city.  The bus ride up and down the hill was more exciting than any ride at Lagoon.  The driver had the bus going full speed on corners, barrelling through little villages along the way, shooting for a record on how fast he could get his bus up the hill.  WOW!  Half the group was terrified, half of us were having a ball.

That's it for now.  Next post we go to the ancient city of Xi'an.  You will love what you see!  Dad/Jim

China Trip - Post #2

Here I am again, Mom is sleeping (she needed a nap, jet lag) so I thought I would post a few more tidbits of information.  Don't worry, we are not going to post ALL of our pictures or tell you ALL of the things we did.  Just enough to give you the flavor of the experience.

Traffic in China is unlike anything you have ever experienced in the US.  Traffic rules are simply "guidelines" and are totally unenforced.  Reminded me of Brazil.  Picture huge trucks, buses, automobiles, bicycles, golf carts, motorbikes, and electric bikes on the same roads at the same time - some traveling at 70 mph, some at 30 mph, darting into any opening in the traffic they can find regardless of danger to life or limb and you can get a feel for it.  Expect the unexpected!!  For instance, if our bus driver wanted to turn around on the busy highway, he simply stopped in the fast lane and pulled a U-turn without concern for how it impacted other drivers.  It is just how it works.  I actually think it is a form of population control in their country!

Add to that traffic mix pedestrians, especially tourists.  Traffic does not stop for pedestrians.  I am used to that from Brazil and found that I had not lost any of my street crossing skills from missionary days.  But the others just didn't get it at first.  Standing between lanes while traffic rushes past on either side is somewhat distracting to the uninitiated, but we all made it.

We woke up the second day and got into "golf carts" which seated up to six people and ventured out into the traffic storm.  It was exhilarating and life threatening at the same time - I loved it!  We went into the county to visit a typical native home which we found very interesting and compelling.  Very simple life styles, yet they seem  to be just as happy as we are but without the gadgets.

 Mom and I with the grandmother of the house, taken in front of a family "shrine" in the central part of the home.  Photos of dead ancestors and family memorabilia are very important to maintain a family identity.  People generally stared at my height and Mom's blonde hair, even stopping us to take pictures a couple of times.

 Even Scott and his "sample any food" philosophy might have balked at this.  This is called the "5 Poisons Jar" and it contains bodies of a poisonous snake, a scorpion, a spider, and a couple of other poisonous creatures.  They fill it with liquid (must be some kind of strong alcohol) and everyday the grandfather drinks a shot glass of the stuff.  Helps maintain his virility!  No telling how many years these creatures have been in there.  No thanks!!

This next photo is out of order, but I can't figure out how to move it.  Oh well.  That afternoon we went to a tea plantation.  They made a point of telling us that this part of China plays an important role in US history.  It was from one of these locations that the tea that was thrown into Boston Harbor at the start of the Revolutionary War came from!  Very interesting experience from an historical perspective since this was one of the main links between China and the Western world.  The British influence is still strongly felt - our host spoke with a decidedly British accent.  We sat through a "tea ceremony", learning how to hold the cup properly, what each tea is supposed to taste like, etc.  They only brewed decaffeinated teas for our party since they don't do herbal teas. 

After visiting the native home we went a bit further into the country and stopped at these rape seed fields.  This is the principal ingredient in canola oil and has become a big crop for China.  We hit them at the perfect time since the crops just came into bloom and were a vibrant yellow.  The weather was a bit overcast with rain all around us, but never on us.  Made the surrounding mountains look quite ethereal.

Isn't Mom cute?  This picture gives a good impression of the beauty of the surrounding area.

That's it for now.  Tomorrow I will be going back to work so maybe Mom can pick up where I left off and the narrative will be a bit more descriptive.  See ya. Dad/Jim

Home From China!! Part 1

 Me on the street in front of our hotel in Guilin.

 Mom heading out for lunch in a Chinese restaurant - imagine my surprise!

 Took this out the window of our bus.  Typical landscape.

View from the Li River in our little bamboo rafts.  Kinda fun.  We are about half the size of the boats in this picture.

Hello all!  We are officially back, although I caught some kind of "Asian Flu" the last day that knocked me for a loop on the flight home.  Combined with jet lag, I didn't go to work today.  Went to the doctor and got an Rx for antibiotics today.

This is our first stop of the 13 day journey.  We will post a bit each day to not bore you.  We flew into Shanghai the first night, drove through the heart of the city (very modern, cosmopolitan with lights like Las Vegas) in the rain to our VERY NICE hotel.  Crashed for a few hours, then got back up for another flight to Guilin early the next morning.

Met our tour guide Steven (that is his English name, can't remember his Chinese name).  Very nice, single guy, graduate, about 30.  He gave us some real insights into Chinese culture, pro and con.  You can see the countryside in the photo's above - it was like that everywhere.  Jungle, humid, although not yet hot.  It rained all around us but never on us - very lucky.  The rain around us gave an unique feel to the surroundings, kinda misty.

Got on little bamboo rafts and took off down the river for about an hour, got hijacked by vendors on a little island.  They are EVERYWHERE and hyper-annoying.  Fortunately there is always one member of the group who acts interested and they all flock to him/her like sharks smelling blood in the water.

Ended the day at a big outdoor event that tells a Chinese fable about lost love, etc. all done on the water with amazing lighting.  It was interesting, but so many of us where exhausted that we fell asleep, me included.

Ate very well everyday.  However, I have had a three year supply of Chinese food - after the 13th Chinese lunch they all start to look the same, although when they are in front of me I didn't seem to mind.  All very good. 

For whatever reason, Mom slept like a log in China, for which we are very grateful.  Our group of travelling partners was GREAT.  More on that in future posts.

All for now.  Glad to be home - really.  We thought of you and prayed for you every night.  Dad/Jim