Worm Mart

Our first full day in Beijing (Sunday), I wanted to find some groceries to put in the fridge. We are staying at the Beijing HWA apartment hotel. It has a kitchenette, living area and separate bedroom, which has beengreat with Audrey. I asked the concierge where a market was. He pointed me in the direction of 'worm mart'. I repeated it to make sure I heard correctly and he said yes. So I headed off, walked for awhile and started to notice people carrying Wal-Mart shopping bags! I realized that Worm Mart (which I thought was a strange name) was actually Wal-Mart. I almost went to WM for the first time in 7 years! I of course turned around and went back emptyhanded. A couple of days later we discovered a great market right next door to the hotel (sort of disguised as a mall)! Why in the world he didn't tell me about it is beyond me. I think he thought that since I was American I would want to go to Worm Mart. Plus we've discovered he's just generally not very helpful.

Buying beer in Xi'an

After much sightseeing and shopping in Xi'an, we all decided it would be nice to have a beer and let the kids run around and play. Katie asked a taxi driver if he knew of such a place, and he said yes. So, we got three "sambars", or little taxis which are basically motorcycles with a two seat cab in the back. What a ride! We arrived at a place where there was a tiny shop, and a door built into the wall. The door led to what looked like a park, so Katie, Irene, and the kiddos went that way while Jon and I tackled the task of getting beer. We went into the little shop and asked for beer - which they had! Twist our arms, all they had were the local equivalent of "forties." We bought four for ten yuan, or about a dollar and thirty cents! Now, to open the beers. This took a little chatting with the two ladies at the shop, but soon they produced an opener, which we begged them to let us photograph to no avail (we think they were embarrassed - while Jon and I thought it was the most creative opener we had seen). The opener was basically a thick, tongue depressor sized piece of wood with a bolt and several nuts do figured at one end to fashion an opener - worked just fine! Chinese ingenuity...

Banned!

Sunday was our first full day in Beijing. We checked out the area by our hotel, went to Tian'enmen Square, checked out this CRAZY street market called Panjiayuan Flea Market (miles of booths with everything under the sun! So cool and worth visiting if you are in Beijing on the weekend!!), had lunch and went to Yashow Market. It's 6 stories of shopping- some negotiable some not. We found this Hello Kitty stall and decided to get Audrey some big girl panties (pack of 6). They started off asking 180rmb, the equivalent of $25+. I think I laughed b/c this is expensive back home. We went back be forth, she said she wouldn't go lower than 50, I wouldn't go higher than 20 ($3). So we walked. We heard her shouting at us, the price going lower and lower. Finally she said "ok! 20!" we stopped turned around and handed her 20. She was mad and actually told me that I wasn't allowed back in her store. That was so cool! The ultimate in bargain pricing!! I'm still laughing about it.

Ultra Advanced Potty Training

Babies wear split pants and no diapers here. When they have to go, they squat down and go. We've observed parents directing the pee into grates in the sidewalk or under trees. I've read parenting blogs in the states about people trying to encourage this back home. But we really don't think that it would fly culturally.
While in the Lohmans' van in Chengdu Audrey announced that she really had to pee and we were far from the apartment. The driver pulled over and A squatted under a tree and relieved herself. We've had to do this a few times and let me say it has taken away the stress of traveling with a potty training toddler. She even requests the squatty toilets!
And just generally speaking, she is doing great, embracing the culture and is trying so many different foods, it's great! Joe and I are looking forward to incorporating her newly expanded diet into our everyday lives. Today she appears to be suffering from the beginnings of a cold- we are certain it is coming from her desire to lick everything over the past few days. Gross.

Things We Like About China

This will be a little list that we will add to...
1. The people! I don't think we've run into any truly mean or rude people. It has been the opposite.
2. The whole 'children can pee anywhere' rule. For now this is serving us very well! Perhaps 10 years from now we'll find it disgusting.
3. Bargaining for purchases. We've only been here 3 weeks and I'm not looking forward to returning to paying what the price tag says or taxes for that matter. It's fun' to ask the price, shake your head when you hear it and say 'too much', then getting it for 30% or less!
4. Driving and passing in the medians.
5. Inexpensive beer.
6. Our expat friends friends who live here.(and yes this may rank after cheap beer) ;)
7. People holding hands- we see a lot of this- the young with the old, girls who are friends, men with their parents and children... It's nice to see.

Xi'an

We went to Xi'an with the Lohmans on Thursday the 22nd. I must say here that Audrey just loved them all but in particular the kiddos Mucah and Evelyn. They are 9 & 8 and were a good distraction from Audrey's desires to go home and see her best friend Eliana, whom she misses GREATLY! We stayed at the Howard Johnson, which is nothing like the Rockford, IL HoJo we've stayed in before. This was Chinese 5 star and considered the best hotel in Xi'an. (Still only about $140 a night) Jon hooked us up with a tour guide Raphael (who will get his own blog entry soon), he picked us up from the airport and brought us to lunch. We ate at a great Chinese Muslim estaursnt in the Muslim Quarter part of town. (xi'an is about 8 million people and has a strong Muslim population.)The food was really yummy! We then went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors (google them for history- no time this morning!;) Audrey is itching to leave the coffeeshop). The warriors were very impressive and we are glad we decided to keep it in the itinerary. Again, the shear volume of people selling stuff outside was amazing. It was like walking down a busy main street in a small midwestern town only it was all geared toward tourists. We were back at the hotel in time for dinner, which we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant. They had an impressive buffet, complete with a large selection of western and local foods. What sold me was that the beer and wine were included in the $15 price- SOLD! ;) we all did our best to live up to the stereotype of 'fat Americans bellying up to the buffet'. We hung out for a couple of hours until the kids had had enough and were starting to roll around on the floor- our que to leave. The next day we intended to see some local sights like the Big Goose Pagoda, City Wall, Drum and Bell Towers. Instead, we spent the day shopping in the Muslim district and just walking around. We all found some fun stuff to haggle stall owners for and got some good deals. Since we were going to a dinner show that evening, we decided to take the kids to a park to let them run around. We flagged down a rickshaw driver and asked him to take us somewhere where adults could get beers and kids could play. So 3 rickshaws drove us to a park that met both requirements and we all had a blast! I'll have to let Joe blog about the beer lady.;) that night we went to a dinner theatre show about the Tang Dynasty. If you could get beyond the extreme touristy feel to the whole thing it was actually entertaining. And we actually stayed out until 10pm!
The next day (our last) we had the morning to sneak in some sights before Raphael picked us up for lunch, Han emperor tomb visit and the airport. We went to the city wall which is impressive in scale alone. I think it's one of the last or best examples of Chinese walled cities, asost have been torn down or destroyed. You can walk on the top which is about 24' wide maybe?? If you walked the whole thing it would take 4 hours. Of course there are rickshaws to drive you or bicycles to rent. We just walked a bit, took photos and went on to see the bell and drum towers. On the way there we saw the most homeless people we have seen in all of our time here in China. I think we saw 4! Either there aren't many homeless or they are hiding. Anyways this one woman caught my attention- she was sitting on the sidewalk with her baby in her lap, who must have been somewhere between 12 and 18 months. The baby was crying as we walked by and looked sick. I looked back and i think i saw her looking at us through strands of disshoveled hair in her face. I suddenly felt awful for everything i am blessed with having in my life. As a mom I could hardly handle thinking of what that woman must feel, being unable to help her child. 1/2 a block later we stopped to get a drink at a corner stall. I bought the woman an orange juice and chocolate ice cream bar. I figured that evenif she had the money, she wouldn't indulge like that. I brought it back to her and gave her some money too. She thanked me and as I walked away I saw that she was immediately giving her baby some juice and eating the ice cream bar. I know how good those taste to me on a hot summer day so I can only imagine how good it was to her. I wanted to find a hospital to take them to to get a checkup and medicine for her baby, but I just couldn't. Something about that woman and child really touched me and I hope to take that feeling home with me.
We managed to take some photos of the towers and went back to the hotel where Raphael picked us up for lunch and the tombs. We really enjoyed Xi'an and spending some extra time with the Lohmans away from the stress of Chengdu. Audrey was very upset that we weren't going back with them. ;)

Away from aftershocks

we've had some friends and family concerned with all of the earthquake activity so I thought I would mention that we are not near it. We left Chengdu on Thursday the 22nd. Even though the Lohmans live 60+ miles from the epicenter we did feel 2 aftershocks in the night. One was enough to rattle the bedhead and the other only enough to make me wonder if I was imagining things swaying. We then went to Xi'an for a couple of days but left for Beijing on the 24th. The Qingchuan aftershock (6.4) on Sunday was felt in Xi'an but we were already gone. Beijing is a safe distance from it all. Thanks for all of your concern!
A note about the press coverage here- if you turn on the tv anytime day or night, you will find some sort of earthquake coverage. Mostly it's a montage of video clips of relief efforts set to music, much like what was played after Kateina. The difference I've noticed is this- at home when disaster news is covered over and over it seems people get desensitized or tired of constantly hearing about 'yesterday's news.' I to not get that feeling here. People seem genuinely concerned about their fellow countrymen. Perhaps it's because I don't understand 99.9% of what people are saying...

Poked by a Posquito

Just something cute... Audrey got a few mosquito bites the other day and while looking at one exclaimed, "I got poked by a posquito."

Curly Hair= Rockstar Status

For some reason (humidity perhaps, or mybe just to attract more attention) Audrey's hair has gotten curlier since we arrived in China. Everywhere we go she attracts crowds, gets people pulling her curls and pinching cheeks, picking her up, taking photos and even wanting to be photographed with her! Her own little paparazzi! And like most stars, she sometimes really hams it up waving, smiling and saying "nihow!", while other times she barely tolerates it, trying to escape and hide. The largest crowd so far was in the park in Guilin, where maybe 40+ people gathered while a man tried to photograph his daughter with Audrey. Other star treatment she is receiving- people are constantly giving her little trinkets and commenting on how lively she is. We can't help but appreciate the fact that folks love on our child everywhere we go.

Chengdu take 2

Joe already blogged some about our toms in Chengdu, but I wanted to add some. It was interesting going somewhere that had just suffered a major disaster. Our friends jon and katie (and most people we ran into) were very apologetic for the earthquake and how out of sorts they were. Obviously it wasn't anyone's fault but was just nice to jug our friends and know they were ok. Due to the 3 day entertainment ban we did not to much, but did go to the Giant Panda Research Center. We originally thought this was at the epicenter but that was another panda place. Audrey was so relieved to know the pandas were ok. Ok the way to the park, Jon drove us past the new building his company was supposed to be miving into that week. It suffered from the earthquake with many visible large cracks! An assessment is being done to see if it is safe.
we oroginally thought we could go to the earthquake zone to help in some way, but the area is closed off to all who are not officially part of relief effort groups. We had brought some crayons, coloring books, diapers and candy to hand out to kiddos, but Katie will take them to an orphanage that suffered damage for us next week. I just wish we could have done more.
Katie, the kids and I went to a street market as well as a street that has had its architecture preserved. We noticed that the parts of Chengdu we were in were more quaint neighborhood streets, similar to Chelsea in NY. Not as cosmopolitan as Shanghai. like everywhere we've been in China, the people were all very friendly.
The Lohmns and Keeleys headed to Xi'an together on Thursday. The Lohmans needed the break from the craziness of living in a disaster zone- it was wearing on the all emotionally and physically, as Katie was experiencing vertigo.

Guilin

on Sunday evening the 18th we officially arrived in Guilin via a bus from longsheng. We stayed at the Park Hotel, which was 4 star Chinese rated and complete with moldy shower walls! We stated there b/c when we landed in Guilin, I went to the tourism counter to ask a question. She started asking if we had hotel reservations and what our plans were. I knew what she was thinking, but we did need hotels for 2 nights. The hotel was fine, but its bed definitely challenged our tolerance for hard beds. We are pretty sure it was just a boxspring. We initially went to the hotel before heading up to Longsheng on Saturday the 17th to drop our bags off and quickly needed to get a cab to the bus station/ tiny little alley where too many buses try to go. We told the cabbie where we needed to go and she (oddly the majority of cabbies we saw here were women) immediately tried to sell us tickets to local tourist attractions. She tried to impress upon her that we were running late and she needed to just drive. She again tried selling us stuff, to which Joe replied and Audrey repeated "bu yong xiexie."(no thank you I do not want any) she then ran out of the car and into the hotel! We assumed she was asking inside where we were trying to go to see if she could drive us instead of taking a bus. I chased her down and joe pretty much yelled at her to drive. She did and we made our bus. We returned to Guilin on Sunday with just enough time to shower and eat dinner at the hotel. We ended up stating most of the day Mondaythe 19th in Guilin due to a delayed flight to Chengdu. We walked around town and found the people to be nice, but didn't really care for the town. It did have a nice walkway along the river and we found a nice park complete with caves, a zoo, wild monkeys wandering around and cool karst rock formations. We figured out that cabbies get some sort of kickback by bringing people to tourist destinations, which explains the cabbie the previous day. Guilin was not really a place we would go back to, but to Li River cruise was nice.

Earthquake and Aftershocks

I have been meaning to post this entry for a couple of days now. (If you can't see the image I've posted you can go to the USGS website and map the location 10-degree Map Centered at 30°N,105°E) It was a 4.6. You'll see a string of earthquakes all in a row and a green valley to the southeast of that. Chengdu is located about 60 miles southeast of the epicenter of the big quake last week. Since we've been here, there have been several aftershocks, but only a few that any of us have felt. As Joe mentioned in the last entry, people here are scared and have been camping out in tents everywhere! And you have to wonder sometimes- we've seen people set up in street medians and a few feet from tall buildings. Can these location choices really be safer than staying inside? You've read our posts about how people drive here- I know I wouldn't feel safer sleeping with my family in a narrow street median! Anyways, I felt my first quake aftershock last night in the middle of the night. The bed shook against the wall and sort of sway for may be 30 seconds, and then it was done. Not enough to wake everyone up, but I felt it.
So even though we have not been in a hazardous zone while in Chengdu (what you are seeing on the news is several miles away), you all will probably be happy to know we are heading out of town today. The Lohmans and Keeleys are going on to Xi'an this morning where we swill spend a couple of days together exploring the city and sights. It is most famous for the Terra Cotta Warriors.

Chengdu - What's entertainment?

We've been in Chengdu for a couple days now, coincident with the three day mourning period for the earthquake that started on Monday, the one-week anniversary of the disaster. The official mourning included a moment of silence observed by the entire country at 2:28pm Monday (Irene, Audrey and I were touring a cave in Guilin trying to bide our time until our delayed flight to Chendgu at that time - the moment was observed by the tour guide and and entire group of people), and three days where places of entertainment were to be closed.

We ate at several fantastic restaurants during our stay here, so restaurants are not entertainment. Highlights were a Tex Mex place (can't remember the name!) with really good salsa; an Italian place called Peterpan with great pizza, lots of attention from the owner, and even a special digestif made with walnuts that was delicious; and last but not least lunch at a place that specializes in vegetarian food, including fake pork, chicken, beef, duck, and even spare ribs! This place was also in Shanghai (where we had our first meal in China), and the food was absolutely amazing. I could not distinguish it from the real thing. The pork was pretty good, the spare ribs had lots of sauce that helped but were surprisingly close, and the duck was a very satisfying imitation. Who says vegetarians have to pass on the meat?

We got to visit a Panda preserve this morning, so apparently that is not entertainment. Audrey was very concerned about the well being of the "little xiongmaos (Pandas)" after the earthquake. The preserve seemed to be undamaged, although there were not many other visitors. The pandas were captivating - relaxed, playful, napping and chewing on bamboo. They can very quickly strip the green bark off a piece of bamboo with their teeth and then eat the insides. It was a beautiful place, with bamboo lined walkways, and the high humidity left a mist everywhere. Audrey thoroughly enjoyed seeing the xiongmaos!

Next up, our friend Jon and I went to "computer city" - a place in Chengdu where several buildings have multiple floors of all the technical gadgetry you could ever want. Again, not entertainment - wide open for business. We saw lots of phones (even cracked and VERY expensive iPhones), mp3 players, hard drives, memory cards for cameras, cameras, printers, computers and screens...most was new, but the higher up we got in the building, the older the equipment got until there were literally old and used parts for sale - piles of items you would expect to be in the recycling in the states. The funny part for me was price shopping for hard drives - they are actually cheaper in the US! Never thought I would find anything in China that was actually more expensive than at home...

Lastly, Jon and I attempted to try out his new golf clubs at a nearby driving range. We loaded up small bags with a couple clubs and a couple beers and biked over there. On the way, we passed a large number of people sitting out in tents in all the grassy and open areas between their apartment and the driving range. Now, night before last the Chinese news predicted another earthquake during the night, and recommended that people stay outside. So, pretty much everybody camped out - there are literally tents covering every open spot of grass in town that we've seen since we've been here. So - the folks in tents were looking at Jon and I like we were nuts riding bicycles with golf clubs at night; while we were looking at them wondering how long they were all planning to stay outside in their tents (many have been outside fearing building collapse since the quake - over a week and a half now). In any case, the driving range was closed - so that is entertainment! But for the folks camping out all over town - definitely NOT entertainment. I hope they feel comfortable enough to go back to their homes soon.

Longsheng & Ping'An

We left Yangshuo on Saturday morning and hopped on a bus to Guilin where we planned to transfer to a bus to Longsheng. We left our big bags in our Sunday night hotel in Guilin and just brought a backpack and Audrey's backpack carrier up to Longsheng. Longsheng is about a 2 hour bus ride from Guilin, up smallish, somewhat windy, rockslide prone (but paved!) roads. The bus was your standard nice coach bus that you would find anywhere, complete with air conditioning and bottled water. On the way up we sat in the front seats so we would have a clear view of our surroundings. That was a mistake. The bus driver did the usual passing on the left side of a double yellow line, up blind curvy mountain roads. But hey, at least he blared his horn the whole time so if anyone was actually coming around the curve, they might figure out that they should be driving in their ditch. Needless to say, on the way back down from Longsheng the next day, we chose to sit in the very back and were happily oblivious to any potential perils. :) We intended to stay Saturday night in Ping'An, the small minority village 1 hour outside of Longsheng, in a hotel recommended by Tim & Laurel. But because one of the potential scams we sort of fell for in Guilin (more on that later), we were told they had no rooms and were rerouted to a 5-star 'resort-y' hotel near Longsheng. We then just planned to head up to the village first thing Sunday morning, spend the day there, then head back down to Guilin. We arrived in the odd little bus 'station' (again, little more than a back alley parking lot), and tried to find someone who could tell us where this hotel was at. We asked some women on the street and gathered that the hotel was not walking distance, but they pointed us in the right direction. We approached a 'taxi' (no taxi cars in Longsheng, just bicycle or motorcycle cabs with a little truck bed on back) and he said it would be 50RMB to get there. We were just coming off of a few cabbie scammers in Guilin (again, more later), so we naturally assumed 50RMB (just over $7) was a rip-off. (While in Shanghai, we took an hour cab ride to the airport for $14) We found the Longsheng Hotel near the bus station, went in there to inquire where this resort-y hotel was and found out it was 30 minutes away. Since we wanted to hop a 7:40 am bus up to Ping'An, we just booked a room at the Longsheng Hotel, not quite realizing exactly what a 2-star rated Chinese hotel was like. It was ok. We chose not the use the moldy shower, and opted out of the basket of condoms and oils they had for sale on the dresser. At least there were no bugs or weird stains to contend with. The bed was basically just a boxspring, but it was only $19. We walked around town looking for a restaurant and ended up back at the hotel restaurant. The food tasted fine, but reared it's ugly head a few hours later. All 3 of us suffered a bit of icky tummy, but Joe's hung on for a few days, while Audrey and I suffered a bit and then were done. At the restaurant, the staff oogled at Audrey and one waitress even came over to us, snatched Audrey out of her chair and literally ran off with her to the back room giggling. Joe about jumped out of his skin and chair, but I reassured him that they meant no hard and that we could hear Audrey laughing. It turns out, they wanted to show her the fish tanks where dinner was swimming and we think were even letting her hold some fish. She was stoked, Joe, not so much.
(The next morning, we are pretty sure we saw/ heard a funeral procession going past our hotel. It was a line of people walking down the street with white head scarves on, with one man letting off fire crackers and a few others carrying a covered stretcher. Later, on our bus, we noticed the same people 30 minutes outside of town with incense burning, candles and flags next to the body, while a mourner squatted next to the deceased. Interesting.)
On Sunday morning, we just made our van up to Ping'An. At the first stop, a man and his 2 bags of live chickens got on. (The chickens went on the roof). A few minutes later, a woman and her large basket full of copies of the daily paper got on. The next stop- a man and his 3-4 large bags of vegetables. Joe and I smiled because this was so classic. And later, someone boarded with his repaired generator. For 7RMB ($1), the 1 hour shuttle is a pretty good deal.
We made it up to a foggy Ping'An (btw, it costs 50RMB to enter the village) with hopes the fog woul soon lift. Quite to opposite happened and it actually got worse throughout the day! We headed up the hill, and started hiking up the path into the rice terraces. A little ways up, 3 Yao women (one of the main minorities there) were standing there waiting to help us. I can only assume they had been watching us the whole time as we made our way toward them. I had read about them and we were prepared to be asked for money for services they would provide, like carry bags/ babies. One fun thing they do for money- they will let down their long hair, wind it back up on their heads and let you take photos with them. Basically, their story is this. When the women hit major milestones in their lives, they cut their hair or alter the shape and location of the bun on their head. We have photos and will post later, but this is getting to be a long entry so I won't go into great detail here. It's 10RMB per lady ($1.30ish) and it's a neat slice of the local culture. One funny thing, as we were standing there in the sprinkling rain watching the letting of the hair ceremony, an elderly woman appeared out of nowhere really from the back of this strategically placed lean-to. She sang a song and the other ladies joined in. It was all very cool, but later when we were paying the Pink Yao Ladies their 30RMB, we were informed that the singer should be paid for her song too. So Joe gave her a 5 and we tried to move on. Now, the Pink ladies wanted to help lead the way, but we couldn't figure out how much this was going to set us back and we really just wanted to walk at our own pace. They do not know how to take no for an answer and insisted on leading us to the next viewpoint. After many attempts to tell them no, we just gave in and let them lead. They brought us to a nice covered sitting area (still sprinkling and getting foggier at this point) where they proceeded to pull out all of their wares to sell us. They had bracelets, bags, embroidery, aprons, wall-hangings, etc... and the funny thing was they knew exactly which one of us to try and sell to- Audrey! They had her covered is stuff and she was flapping her jingle braceleted arms all over the place. It was quite entertaining really and we left with a bracelet and purse for Audrey for about $3. They relentlessly let us walk on by ourselves, for the time being. We walked and it started to rain harder and the visibility dropped to about 20 feet at best! We decided that we should just head back down and catch the 1:00 van down (the next one wasn't until 3). We were following the map they provided with the ticket purchase, but this map differed from the maps they had stamped into stone along the pathways. We had no idea which way to go, plus it was getting muddier and foggier by the minute. And who should we stumble upon, but a group of Pink (they wore pink shirts) Yao ladies talking and sewing! We tried to ask directions, but got mixed answers. We realized that one of the women was trying to get us to stay, eat dinner and have them be our tour guides. One woman though seemed to respect the idea that we really just needed to get Audrey out of the damp, muddy conditions and showed us the way down. We walked through their village, past houses, restaurants and a school. We made our van by about 5 minutes, caught the bus in Longsheng (which is when Audrey and I used the trough toilet) and made it to guilin later that afternoon. Even though our time spent in Ping'An was not what we were planning or hoping for, Joe reminded me that it was quite an adventure and one we likely would not forget.

Yangshuo

On Friday we took a cruise down the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo. The Hotel of Modern Art is located between the two. The cruise was about 4+ hours long and traveled through the karst rock formations that have made this part of China famous. These formations are very tall vertical jagged craggy looking things that line the river. It was very beautiful, but unfortunately it rained and was foggy for most of the ride. This made visibility poor and not a lot of fun to be out on the boat deck, but we took was was handed to us. Our boat (which carried at least 200 people) was one of probably 50 on the river that day. And at $60+ a head... it's a lucrative business.
The boat docked in Yangshuo, where we stayed at the Paradise Hotel for the night. Technically it's a 5 star hotel, but remember this is based on the Chinese rating system. (We have now stayed in 2,4 & 5 star, and apparently moldy bathroom tiles are a must have no matter what the rating!) the only hotel we haven't seen mold in was HOMA. I also must mention that this 5 star hotel set us back $90 for the night. When our river tour guide found out we were statying there he was quick to mention that only rich people could afford to stay there. That made me feel somewhat uncomfortable and sort of... sad or.... just not quite right knowing that to his standards $90 a night was extravagant. It made me think about the extreme overspending and unnecessary consumerism in the US. It also led Jpe and I to a discussion about when the tide was going to turn (or is it tables that turn??) for the Chinese and what this would mean for our own country's future. We've experienced a lot of super friendly, eager, smart people who are hungry for progress. And we've only been here 10 days! Gives one a lot to think about.
back to Yangshuo- we really liked this "village" of 40,000. Joe described it as being cooler that Boulder wishes it was. Like Boulder, it is nestled on the edge of the local rock formations. It has some tourists areas but also some cool little bars and people. However, unlike Boulder, it is not crawling with yuppies, but seems to maintain a working class status. We found a little bar with wireless called Loove where we sat a had 2 gigantic beers and a glass of milk for under $2. Audrey found some folks who were entertained by her curly hair as well as a little dog who she could chase around. We found some dinner at a brick oven pizza place which was about as good as generic cardboard pizza. The beers were cheap, so all was good. Audrey discovered a little boy in the courtyard who had a battery powered motorcycle toy and she hopped right on. He shared with her and even let her drive! Very sweet. We did a little shopping where Audrey drew several crowds, then went back to the hotel. The next day we spent a few hours in the morning wandering around and found a nice park complete with some little kiddy 'amusement parks.' Audrey rode a little roller coaster and spinny carnival ride and loved it! If it were up to her we would still be there. Alas we had to leave, located the bus station and hopped one to Guilin to make our way to Longsheng. We all really liked Yangshuo and wished we had a full 24 hours there.

In Chengdu!

We have a moment to write... wanted to let you all know we arrived in Chengdu last night and are staying with our friends Jon and Katie. We'll write more later tonight, but we are safe and sound!

Upper Level Potty Training Class- Mastered!

After today's events, it is hard to believe that it was just a few short months ago that Audrey wouldn't even go pee in the toilet at Target on Colorado Boulevard. In the last week, she has used the "squat" and "trough" toilets in China without complaint! For those of you who are unfamiliar with these, feel blessed. :) No really, I now personally find the squat toilets to be superior to western toilets, especially in a public bathroom situation. Not so much for the hanging out, sitting for a hour, reading a novel times (you know what I mean, Jesse?), but definitely for public bathroom uses. The squat toilet is like a urinal laying on the ground, where you place one foot on each side, squat over and pee. Much easier than hovering, like we are forced to do in scary public bathrooms at home. The trough toilet, now this is a different story! We just encountered it today at the Longsheng "bus station." (In quotes because as Joe commented today, the Longsheng and Guilin stations are tucked away down a narrow street, no better than an alley really, with tons of huge buses coming in and out, fighting for space and even trying to pass each other. See previous entry, 'rules of the road' for more on passing...) Back to the trough. Imagine if you will. Heading to the restroom, not really sure if you are going in the right one b/c they are labeled in Chinese characters only- no little girl or boy symbol in sight. Gladly, you guess right, only to discover what can best be described as... well... hell, really. 4 'stalls' lined up on the right, with 1/2 walls separating them and no door at all. Then an odd 8" wide, 6" deep trough in the floor running from one stall all the way through the stalls to the front of the bathroom. Yep. You just squat over the trough and pee or poo or whatever you need to do. I made the tactical error of choosing the stall at the front of the bathroom, not thinking that this would mean the waste from the other 3 stalls would be flowing under us on it's way to who-knows-where. Someone or something is responsible for a flush of water every 60 seconds or so at the back of the bathroom, which means everyone else's waste comes flowing by as you relieve yourself. Audrey handled all of this rather well! She was a bit surprised when a terd passed through while she was peeing. I think she sort of assumed it was hers, but couldn't figure out how or why since she was just peeing. Oh the joys of stranger excrament. And with a toddler in potty training, it is VERY important that you don't show any signs of thinking something is gross or scary or odd in any way, or chances are you'll spend the next 3 months gettong over the fear and trying to get them to use a toilet again. So I had to sit there, all happy, like this was a fun little game, as I squatted over the trough and listened to Audrey shout gleefully, "There goes your pee mommy!" We quickly left, trying to wash hands in the communal soapless (practically waterless) sink, then drowning ourselves in antibacterial hand sanitizer (which I don't normally use, but this is not normal people!). Then to the bus Joe, Audrey and I went, a 2 hour ride to Guilin, as I dreamed of dunking myself and our child in a scalding hot vat of hydrogen peroxide.

Yangshuo, Guilin and Longsheng- short version

Hello! We are in Longsheng now and have a moment in an internet cafe, where there are about 50 teenage boys playing internet video games! It loooks like Resident Evil or something. Crazy! (A note here, for some reason, we are unable to read people's commments while on the road but look forward to reading them all when we can!)Yesterday, we arrived in Yangshuo via a boat tour on the Li River. Of course it was the only day that it rained most of the morning! So the karst rock formations were a bit obscured and we got wet, but at least the boat remained afloat, right? We really liked Yangshuo and wish we had more than 1 day there. If you get beyond the pesky folks at the docks trying to talk tourists into doing private tours, it's actually a hip little town. More on Yangshuo later. This morning we headed to Longsheng, but had to take a bus to Guilin first. We dropped our bags off at the hotel where we'll be spending the night tomorrow night (Park Hotel- more on that later), then caught a bus to Longsheng to see the fabled Dragon Backbone Rice Terraces. We spent about... 50 minutes in Guilin and can safely say "We Don't Heart Guilin!" In brief, very annoying tourist scammers and dirty. We barely made the bus to Longsheng and barely survived the bus ride (not that bad really, just lots of double passing on blind mountain curves..). We are staying in Longsheng tonight even though we wanted to stay in Ping'an (this is due to a potential scam we fell for, again, more later). We'll get up bright and early tomorrow and explore the terraces and minority people of the region. We are still hoping to go the Chengdu on Monday, but we don't know the status of the airport still. I hope we don't miss out on seeing the Lohmans, but am eternally grateful that the whole family is safe. :( and :)
I hear Audrey and Joe in the alley below the internet cafe playing- Audrey discovered 5 grade school aged kids playing ball, so she is running around with them having a grand time. It's fun to see how uninhibited she (and all kids are I suppose) is when hanging out with folks she can't understand verbally. Pretty neat.
Just wanted you all to know we are still well and kicking. No tummy virus, EV-71 or otherwise. Just enjoying ourselves immensely and trying to soak it all in! We can probably connect again tomorrow night in our hotel in Guilin, so more then!

Rules of the Road?

Everything we've either learned or taught Audrey about the Rules of the Road is out the window! For instance, the street is for cars and the sidewalk is for people- Eh! Try again! Motorcycles travel freely on the walks as do any cars that will fit. In Guilin/ Yangshuo, cars regularly pass each other in a one lane street as if there were 3 lanes with no regard to the yellow line. It might as well not even exist! For instance, our cab driver was passing a tour bus which was passing a small truck and forcing the oncoming traffic off into the ditch! And I shouldn't even write this, for fear of giving Norma a heart attack- but Audrey isn't strapped into a carseat! Yikes. And i haven't seen one seatbelt being worn. And the only 2 helmets I've seen on the tjousands have been on Tim & Laurel's heads. To make it better, everyone is laying on their horns in an attempt to claim right of way I suppose. On the way to the hotel from the Guilin airport yesterday our cabbie was displaying these amazing driving skills and honking his horn wildly, and Audrey laughed and said, "silly! That's not how you drive. That's how you hit other cars!" thankfully he didn't speak English.

Chengdu

We are currently scheduled to go to Chengdu (where the earthquake was) on Monday, but we are waiting to see if the airport will be open to commercial traffic by then. Right now it is only open for official relief efforts. We talked about it today and decided that if we could go there and help in some way we would like to. We'll keep you posted. It's strange to think that had we planned our trip for a week earlier, we would have been in Chengdu and possibly at the Panda Research Center (the location of the epicenter) on the day of the earthquake. Speaking of the pandas, Audrey has been so excited to see the xiongmaos (pandas), she mentioned them again tonight. I decided she should know there was a very good chance we wouldn't get to see them and tried to explain why. Do you know how hard it is to explain what an earthquake is to a 2 year old? I told her something bad happened where the xiongmaos live- the earth moved and shook, kind of like a very strong wind, and the pandas were in a lot of danger. But we could pray for them. She looked very concerned, hugged me and said, " oh yittle pandas and windys. Oh....." super sweet.

HOMA- Happy Birthday to Me!

the Hotel Of Modern Art outside of Guilin. We stayed there last night and again tonight. I done think we have ever had such amazing service in a hotel! There are 2 hotels on the grounds and we were booked at the less expensive one because I am cheap.;) We got here and they immediately changed us to the nicer hotel. The room is amazing and perfect. The hotels are part of a 150 acre sculpture garden that we have been exploring on foot and bike the past 2 days. All of this is part of Yuzi Paradise, a 1500 acre place owned by a Taiwanese businessman. There's even a playground that we have visited twice. The other cool part- there are resident artists living and working here who are chosen to create the artwork on display, as well as an artist studio where you can go and create your own masterpiece. And we did! The 3 of us painted our own little bear sculpture that we will hopefully be bringing home in one piece. This all has been right up my alley, so Happy Birthday to Me! Plus I get to spend it with my 2 favorite people! ;) And then there's Gery, the world's best VIP concierge. (somehow we became VIPs here, which means we are considering never leaving!) from the moment we walked in the door, Gery had been amazing! He has driven us around in his golf cart, informed us that everything here is "as you wish," helped us in the artist studio, been at the bottom of the stairs to say hello almost every time we come down, arranged my birthday massage (thanks J) and when he found out it was my birthday he drove into town and bought us all gifts!!! I got a woven bag, Joe postcards and Audrey markers. He even came over to the restaurant where we ate dinner tonight and gave us a ride back. So I'm sorry if we decide to stay but I'm sure you all would understand. The entire staff has been very accommodating but Gery takes real pride in his job and it shows. There is so much more to say about HOMA, but it will have to wait for pictures.

Shanghai Taxis

So, catching a taxi in Shanghai has some of the proverbial ins and outs. Our friend Tim warned us that the red cabs don't really have any rules; meaning, they make New York cabbies look like grandmothers AND they might try to scam you on the fare. So at the end of our first solo day out in Shanghai, we decided just to take a cab back rather than try the subway at rush hour. Heeding Tim'e warning we passed on several red cabs and finally hailed a yellow cab. That was easy, we thought, until we showed him the address and he spat back some Chinese at us. We made good use of "wo bu Ming bai" (I don't understand), and finally he said "no go there". So we thought maybe the train might be our only hope - started walking that direction and saw an empty blue cab. Hailed, stopped. Very nicely dressed, literally wearing white gloves! So we asked if he would go to Pudong, and he said yes. We showed him the address and then went back and forth a bit, neither of us understanding the other. It was clear he didn't know the address - so we suggested he take us to the nearest subway station, which we pointed out on the map. Well this confused the driver more - he said "that's not Pudong!" So then the driver just hopped out of the cab and ran off! Turns out he just went onto the hotel we were in front of and found a bellboy who spoke English. We straightened out the whole thing and made it back to our friend's apartment after a forty-five minute ride. Total cost: 40RMB, or about seven dollars. This morning we took another blue cab (love the white gloves) to the airport. It felt like a really long way and took about an hour with traffic; would have been about a hundred dollars in the states but only cost us a hundred RMB or about thirteen dollars. Don't know how they do it!

Have Baby Will Travel Again!

Over the past 2 years and 2 months we have traveled enough with Audrey that we could probably write a book. Nowhere have we been treated better while traveling than in China! Today we flew from Shanghai to Guilin. We walked into the airport and headed toward the somewhat long check-in line. We were immediately approached and told we could check in using the FIRST CLASS line! Having a child makes you special here, not a nuisance. So we got into line behind one other family and headed toward security. And what happened there? You guessed it! Extra special line all to ourselves. I heart traveling in China! ;) the Chinese really do love children and prove that with their actions, smiles, and kind words.

How Much?

We forgot to mention something in yesterday's blog about antique market shopping. The first thing we say to someone when we're interested in buying from them is, "how much?" Well, we were about 30 minutes into shopping when a 'shopkeeper' approached us and Audrey blurts out, "How much?" He didn't speak a lot of English, but that made him laugh!

Learning to Make Wontons

I forgot to mention that the other day Tim & Laurel's ayi (housekeeper) Shuoshu (sp?) taught us how to make wontons! Laurel thought it would be something we would enjoy learning and she was right! Joe's first attempt was met with clapping and praise while mine received a big laugh.;) oh well. I'm looking forward to bringing our new skill home and making some wobtons for dinner. We filmed it too and will be posting a video when we return in June.

Last Day in Shanghai

Joe, Audrey & I ventured out on our own yesterday to wander the streets of Shanghai. We made it onto the bus, then train and found the area of town we hadn't seen yet called Old Town (the bus stops do not have English on the signs, but the subways are pretty clearly marked, as are most street signs). On our way we stopped for lunch at an Italian restaurant called The Gondelier (or something). We were surprised at how yummy it was! We made it to Old Town which is several square blocks of buildings in traditional Chinese architecture. It appeared to be mostly restaurants and shops, selling things from tea to jewelry to artwork and everything in between. Funny story here- in most tourists areas throughout the city people are trying to sell you 'real' designer handbags, watches and clothes. Also, these areas are known for pickpockets. I just take the 'totally ignore them' approach. We must have been approached at least a dozen times to buy watches and handbags before this particular gentleman came up to me and said "watch, handbag?" but I understood it as "watch handbag." and thought, "how nice of him to look out for me." so I nodded my head yes and smiled as he tried to show me his nice selection of watches and handbags.;)
We found our way back to the antique market and finished some shopping then got a cab back to Tim & Laurel's, which was an adventure in itself that I will let Joe blog about later. We had a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant near the apartment and retired for the evening.

8' Tall Blonde Baby Spotted in Shanghai!

Yesterday, Tim took the day off of work and spent it walking around Shanghai with Audrey, Joe and I. We learned the ropes of the buses and subway system so we could go out on our own today and find our way back to their place. Our stops included: The Oriental Pearl Tower, Bund neighborhood, Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, Nanjing Road, People's Square,lunch at Shanghai Godly Vegetarian restaurant (www.shgodly.com),then back to Tim & Laurel's to have some beers while Audrey took the world's longest nap (go figure!).
I must start here by saying that we really like Shanghai! A lot of the tour books don't really give it a lot of credit, but there are interesting neighborhoods, architecture, and good shopping. There's not a lot of famous sightseeing landmarks though. Anyways, the Oriental Pearl Tower is pretty much Shanghai's defining skyline architectural element, much like the Sear's Tower, Empire State Building, St. Louis Arch or the Space Needle. The funny thing about it, there are tons of photographers wanting to take your photo in front of it to sell you the photo. It's one of those buildings that you'll just never get a great shot of it all standing right in front. So the photographers' photos on display are pretty much people with "knobby ball heads" (like when you get your photo taken with a cactus and look like you have a cactus coming out of your head). And the other funny part about the photos, they all have a beautiful blue sky, which apparently is never the case.
The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel must be mentioned here. Technically, it's a way to ferry people under the Huangpu River, which separates the 2 sides of Shanghai, old and new. (Tim and Laurel live on the Pudong side, which is the new side) The ticket costs 40RMB ($5.70) but you can add other things to it, including an arcade located at the other side or a sex museum. The lady tried to upsell the sex museum to us, but Tim assured her that it was ridiculous to assume we would want to do that with a 2 year old girl in-tow. She sort of shrugged her shoulders like we were missing out and the kid would be fine. Odd. Anyways, you get on this little tram that runs on a track and you make your way through this dark tunnel under the river. There are lights, strange music and speaking going on the whole time. (ie, red lights made to look like flowing lava, scary music and someone saying 'Lava!') It was super odd, kitchy and sort of funny, but Audrey loved it of course and wanted to do it again! Sorry kiddo, but 40RMB was about 30 too many. :)
The Bund neighborhood is this section of town hugging the Huangpu River that is a throwback to the 1920s early Art Deco style. Its really pretty and reminds me of the scenery in Ang Lee's movie Lust, Caution.
We then walked along Nanjing Road, which is Shanghai's answer to Chicago's Miracle Mile or NY's 5th Avenue, but not quite as upscale as either of those. Just lots of shopping. Pearl Street Mall in Boulder perhaps... or somewhere in the middle. Anyways, this is where the 8' Tall Blonde Baby was spotted yesterday (were you wondering when that would come into play here?) At one point, Audrey rode around on Joe's shoulders and boy did that draw attention! We had heard that she would be popular here, having blonde, curly hair and blue eyes. Well, sitting up on Joe's shoulders, she was about 3-4' taller than anyone around us. Tim informed us that a lot of people were talking about her as we walked by saying, "Beautiful baby!" and some even snapped photos of her. The child rode her daddy's shoulders like an African princess rides in her thrown, held in the air by her faithful man servants (which Joe realizes, isn't far from the truth!). She had this sweet little outfit on, with ringlets bouncing with each step, and a regal, no nonsense look on her face. She glided through the air smoothly taking in her surroundings. Too too cute really. :)
We ended up at a vegetarian place for lunch that was yummy and inventive. We had a fake ham thing (I'm making this sound delicious I'm sure), eggplant in a yummy sauce, spicy bamboo shoots, chow mien noodles (Audrey loved these) and sesame seed 'soup' for dessert. It wasn't quite as good as the veggie place T&L took us to the day before (JuJu Tree or something?), but still fun for me to be able to order anything on the menu!

Chengdu Earthquake

This is a quick entry to let you all know we are ok here in China. We are still in Shanghai, many miles from the earthquake epicenter. Apparently buildings swayed downtown here, but we felt nothing. Laurel was at work and Joe, Audrey, Tim & I think we were in the subway at the time it happened. The Lohmans, our friends in Chengdu were okay as of late Monday night. Their home is only 35 minutes from the epicenter, but they received only minor damage. We are scheduled to arrive in Chengdu on Monday. We'll keep you posted if this changes. We may just meet the Lohmans on the island of Hainan, rent some surfboards and learn to surf. J/k...

Shanghai's Antique Market

We had heard about the markets in China before coming here and I must say I was intimidated about trying to buy something there. Now, I am ready to go back and try to get some good deals! Yesterday Tim & Laurel took us to the antique market and we got to watch them in action as they haggled and bargained with each vendor, walking away with merchandise for only a fraction of the price. Joe, Audrey and I were thoroughly impressed! It was so much fun listening to them speak the language- they are officially locals in our eyes! Here's a rundown of what the markets are like...
There's rows of booths lining the streets for several blocks. The moment you show interest in someone's stuff, they of course approach you. Tim & Laurel did all of their bargaining in Chinese but filled us in on what was being said. First you ask how much something is. For instance, a dragon statue we bought started at 90 RMB (about $12.85) and of course they say, "Cheapest," in English, and go on to explain in Chinese that so-and-so down the street sells it for 120RMB. You act shocked at this high price,shaking your head. They then say, "You offer." Laurel & Tim explained that this is where different bargaining techniques come into play. Laurel tries the "I'll stand here patiently all day until you come down" approach. We tried offering less than what we were willing to pay to start with- 15RMB (just over $1). They are exasperated! You have offended them and their ancestors! They try to make you feel embarrassed for such a low offer. They go down, you come up, and this goes on for awhile. They say a price that is their final final offer (in the dragon statue's case, 30RMB). So you say no and just walk away. The point here is just to show that you're not willing to pay any more. They most likely will chase you down or shout out, ok! And you pay your final offer, 25RMB, or $3.50 in our case. Once you get the hang of it, it's lots of fun! And for those of us who don't speak Chinese, each vendor has a handheld calculator where they punch in their RMB price, then give it to you and you type in your offer. Fun!

Have baby, will travel

Who knew traveling with a baby would provide so many perks? I have a feeling our experiences in the Shanghai airport the other day will be our first of many positive experiences over the next few weeks. We got off of the plane and headed for the customs line. There were 2 lines open, about 10-15 people deep. They saw us coming and a guard quickly smiled and opened up a line, "For you with baby." Cool! We were in and out in 3-4 minutes, complete with smiles. We even got to skip the extra baggage x-ray line and heading out to meet Tim. BTW, we'll rent out Audrey's services for a nominal fee. :)

Safe & Sound

We arrived safe and sound yesterday, right on time. The flight went smoothly. We were a bit worried when 30 minutes into the flight from San Francisco, Audrey asked if we could go see her friend Ani(Eliana)and then proceeded to ask if we were at the gate yet ever 10 minutes for half an hour. But she settled into the flight and even slept 5+ hours. This may have been a mistake, as last night she was up from about 2-4:30, insisting it was morning and time to get up. Joe and I were exhausted but took turns getting up and trying to convince her it wasn't morning. We are on track today, but still a bit groggy. We will write more tomorrow, but just don't have the energy now.

China, here we come!

This trip has been on our agenda for about a year and we are finally going! For those of you who don't know, one of the driving reasons behind our decision to go to China is that we have 2 sets of friends living and working there. Tim & Laurel Stelzer have been in Shanghai since January of 2006 and will most likely be there through the end of 2008. Our friends Jon & Katie Lohman and 2 wee ones Micah and Evelyn have been in Chengdu for about a year now.

Our basic itinerary is:
May 9: Leave Denver on Friday and arrive in Shanghai at 5:30 in the evening on Saturday May 10.
May 10-14: Shanghai, staying with Tim & Laurel Stelzer. We may do an overnight in there with Tim & Laurel to Moganshan, which is not far from Shanghai.
May 14-16: Guilin, staying at the Hotel of Modern Art, which was recommended to us by our friends Steve and Yvonne.
May 16-17: Yangshuo, but don't know where we'll stay yet
May 17-18: Longsheng & Ping'an, hopefully staying somewhere clean
May 18-19: Guilin, flying out of Guilin to meet up with the Lohmans!
May 19-22: Chengdu, staying with Jon & Katie Lohman.
May 22-24: Xi'an, We are heading here with the Lohmans and staying at the Howard Johnson Ginwa Plaza Hotel.
May 24-29: Beijing, we're staying at Beijing Hua Wei Apartment Hotel.
May 29-30: Shanghai, staying with Tim & Laurel Stelzer.
May 30: Laving Shanghai at 4 pm and arriving in Denver at 7:45 pm the same day!