China in June

Day 23 - Saturday June 21, 2008

2008-07-26T09:08:00.014-03:00

On the way home:

Our 28th wedding anniversary is today!! and with the time zone changes in our traveling, we get to celebrate this whole "day and a half" by sitting beside each other - all the way back to Halifax! Little did I know our trip home would stretch to almost 40 hours of actual travel time.

So, we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel. Although expensive for China, we started off with watermelon and pineapple, then moved on to the middle course; I had grilled tomatoes and cabbage and squash with scrambled eggs and Michael had his regular baked beans, hash browns, eggs and bacon. Then for the final course we had coffee and croissants.

The highlight of my breakfast was helping an older British fellow who I noticed was having trouble with the self-serve espresso machine - since I'd already gotten a coffee for Michael I knew how it worked. He had been pressing several buttons and waiting, then I did the same thing - but turns out that the machine was out of water, so, so much for helping. He said he’d never had espresso before and was somewhat impatient - I told him the coffee was worth the wait because it tasted so good - he chuckled.

The two above pics were taken from our hotel window - we were so excited to see a blue sky - it was basically the first "clear" day (the term is relative) we'd had for 3 weeks.

Most of our packing was done the previous night - and miraculously we managed to get our large tea set into my red suitcase (woohoo!); first emptying it completely, and then stuffing a bit of clothing on the sides, in the tea box itself, and on top, with all of my shoes fitting on the inside upper sections. The rest of my few pieces of clothing went into Michael’s bag. (Good thing that clothes in my size were hard to find in China!)

We checked out and took a taxi to the airport (it was 102 rmb - 14 dollars), about a half hour drive.

These aren't great shots from the taxi, but they give some idea of the buildings in Beijing.

Bye-bye Chinese people!

Thanks for letting me visit you!

Hey, that's blue sky!

I got to roll my window down for the above photo - but I had a sense that the driver was not impressed so I rolled it back up.

Very strange building

close up of the same

This building in the centre (with a pole in front of it) is still under construction (it has a huge hole in it) will be the new television station building - CCTV.

Approaching the airport

Shiny and new

A steam fountain. I noticed that it's typical in China for hotels and other buildings to use many little pots for their plants - inside and outside - instead of one big long planter. I think it's another sign that they have a lot of cheap labour available to them.

During our 3 hour wait at the airport we met 4 students from the University of Florida who had been on a month long course in China with a couple of professors - they stayed in Xi’an - the city where the terra cotta warriors are and where Butterfly, one of Michael’s students at Huang Hui University, are from. Some of the students were going home, some were going on to Hong Kong and one, after Hong Kong, was going on to Thailand and Cambodia. Very pleasant students - strangely they had no particular American accent.

So we boarded the airplane on time and without thinking anything of it I ate most of the first meal offered (big mistake). After that my stomach didn't feel too good. I didn't sleep much on the plane (normal for me).

Here's how long it took us to get home:

- arrive 3 hrs early at Beijing airport
- 13 hr flight to New York (I got maybe 1 hour total sleep)
- 5.5 hrs waiting in a freezing airport for our plane to Halifax

- 1 hr wait for the plane to taxi on the runway
- 2 hr flight from New York to Halifax
- 1.5 hr back to Boston (fog)
- 7 hrs in a Boston hotel (no sleep, sick with diarrhea all night)

- 3 hrs wait for our plane to Halifax
- 1.5 hrs to Halifax
- 1 hr to get out of the airport with security
- 3/4 hr to get home by 1 pm on Sunday afternoon

Total travel time: 39.25 hours - but I'm not complaining, because, uh, see the ad below? A pic on the back of the seat of our taxi cab asking for help for the earthquake victims.

So that's it - we had a wonderful time in China and I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to visit such a different land.

lots of love,
Dorothea

Day 22 - Friday June 20, 2008

2008-06-20T04:35:00.013-03:00

We had a great breakfast this morning - I think 95% of the people in the breakfast restaurant (there were others in the hotel) were non- Chinese. I had watermelon and pineapple with grapefruit juice and afterwards went back for roasted tomatoes, sauteed cabbage and onions with a croissant, and decaf cofee. Michael’s second course after his fruit (he calls this his “Chinese” breakfast) - baked beans with bacon, seasonal vegetables, hash browns, rice, scrambled eggs and broccoli - with coffee.

I met and talked with a woman in the lobby - she was from England, teaching in China and she told us about a picture dictionary that was available in the international bookstore. So we went and bought a copy: Michael is going to get a lot of use out of it in his future trips to China.

That's a page I could have used (above) because I wanted to get my hair cut in China - maybe that was not such a good idea anyway.

Then we went bought a lovely tea set that is the same shape/style as the one above, but with a different pattern painted on it. It’s very heavy and we thought about mailing it, but it would have cost 1500 rmb to ship ($200+). We’d have to try to take it with us, but it was really heavy ... so instead of an experience to complain about, we decided to make it an enjoyable experience worth remembering. Michael really wanted to get it and I'm glad he made the decision and he was going to carry it. We took it back to the hotel and then went back out to taxi to the silk market.

Aside: I was walking around the curb-side of a tree because of the construction (there was very little sidewalk), slipped off the curb and fell on the street - flat on the bump on my leg - yeeoweee! After a pause and some loving compassion from my husband, we continued on but it was quite painful to walk.

We felt that the taxi driver "overcharged" us on the way to the silk market because we were told by Steven (who knew) that it would cost around 10 or at the most 15 rmb and we shouldn't pay more. We knew the driver was doddling - our total fare was 18 rmb. That's a little over 2 dollars, but he's the one who has to pay the gas. It's hard to consider an extra 50 cents as a burden.

So, the silk Market is a department store with 3 or 4 floors - with stalls upon stalls of STUFF. Here's a drawing of the building - it used to be a street market but was torn down and reinstated as this modern horror:

(Silk Street (Chinese: 秀水街; pinyin: Xiùshuǐjiē , aka Silk Market, Silk Street Market, Pearl Market) is a shopping center in Beijing that accommodates over 1,700 retail vendors, notorious among international tourists for their wide selection of counterfeit designer brand apparels - wikipedia.)

I hope they don't mind, but someone put up a youtube video from the silk market - here it is, just copy and paste it into your browser. It's just like I experienced:

http://www.virtourist.com/asia/china/beijing/39video.htm

One floor had mostly clothing, another had mostly jewelry, another mostly scarves; there were household goods, there were toys, there were tea sets, etc. But a lot of it looked a bit cheap - especially the jewelery (but what do I know about jewelery, I only wear it) and the tea sets. They didn't seem to have the beautiful sets we had seen near the hotel.

It was very busy, the atmosphere was so "electric", the sales people were so “grabby” that I was stunned - and did not even take one picture. The first stall with scarves that I stopped at sucked me in, it had me in it's claws and would not let me out. I bought two scarves very quickly without having the opportunity to consider if I really liked them or not. The sales girls were in my face and I couldn’t think! They wanted an enormous amount of money, but even so I gave them about 45 dollars for 2 scarves. Way more than I had wanted to spend on scarves and they were not even the kind I was looking for!

After that another saleslady got me in her booth and was pressuring so much I had to just laugh out loud. I couldn’t even look at the scarves without their tentacles latching on to me. They were going to make a sale - no matter what! This one lady wanted to go with me to get my husband (who had gone up the escalator on purpose) because I told her he had the money. I almost got caught, she was going to let me have it without paying, trusting I would come back to pay. Finally I tossed the scarf back on the rack and immediately took the quick escape up the nearby escalator - WHEW!

All in all, it was a fun experience I must admit. I think I would do better next time having already been there once - but for me, it’s not worth going back. It was one of my China experiences for 2008.

Now to Gallery 798.

Then we took a taxi to the 798 art gallery area. We did lots of walking and saw lots of art..

This above is a slightly "larger than life" piece - I thought it was excellent work

What are we saying here - it's ok to pee on the sidewalk? The watermarks are unintentional, they were formed by dripping air conditioners right above the doorway to a gallery.

I thought this might be a sculpture of Mao, but Michael says no, it's not.

It's massive!

They were laying rectangular stones for this sidewalk, then drawing an uneven outline and cutting the shapes out with a rock cutter - very time consuming work, but I figured they'd get it done before the olympics.

There seemed to be a lot of dark work - paintings of greyness and fumes and jumbled chaos. The sculptures were interesting - some depicted multitudes of people, as though they were small anonymous toys; one showed a soldier rising out of thousands of small, deformed little toy people - all the same colour. It seemed to symbolize one person getting to the top at the expense of many others - not an uncommon theme in the west. I mostly took pics outside, many places said “no photos”.

At times I it seemed that the colour schemes were either gray and subdued or overly bright and unrealistic. Very few had, what I would consider, "beautiful colours", nevertheless, it’s always inspiring to see art that other people have made. Art is a universal language.

I used a drill press like this before - many years ago.

Maybe I was not supposed to take this photo (above) but I thought it was amusing.

I don't know if that large thing on the sidewalk was temporary or intentional - I guess it doesn't matter in an art park.

Day 21 - Thursday June 19, 2008

2008-06-20T04:34:00.016-03:00

Farewell to Kaifeng:

One of Michael's great night photos

So still in our hotel in Kaifeng, we got up around 5 am, checked out at 5:40 - but we couldn’t communicate with the staff. The two young girls at the front desk (one was asleep on her arms on her counter when we first got there, the other was on a cot). They were very confused and looked a bit worried that they couldn't handle what they were sent to do. They called someone on the phone who might be able to translate for us, but that person spoke with Michael and still couldn't make us understand. It took until 6 am and a call with Chunhong (our translator back in Zhumadian) before we realized all they wanted was our deposit receipt that they gave us when we first checked in. We had given them 700 rmb at that time as a deposit and after all was said and done; our total for the 3 days, including breakfasts was 714 rmb (around 100 dollars). You get what you pay for.

The trunk of the little taxi couldn’t handle all our bags so my big one had to sit in the front seat. The taxi driver ran a few red lights on the way from Kaifeng to Zhengzhou (it was a one hour drive), and when we finally got to Zhengzhou, he had to ask for directions three times before we got to the crowded train station (and with just enough time). The fare was 180 rmb - about $25. The taxi driver couldn’t get very close to the station it was so crowded on the street, so we had to get out and walk for a bit with all our stuff.

Inside the station there was English on the signs (what a relief!), and there were lots of people in uniforms who stand around waiting to give directions to people like us who don’t know where to go.

But here we were again, needing to go down quite a few stairs with all our luggage to get to our train. There was a ramp at the side of the stairs to allow suitcases to descend more easily, but it was made of marble and a heavy suitcase can become quite unwieldy. My suitcase (actually I was handling Michael's because mine was heavier) turned over a few times while I was descending the stairs and there were so many people that I lost sight of Michael.

I had a few frantic seconds but I showed my ticket to a “helper” and she waved me down to the end of the train. I had to run to catch up with Michael who was waiting for me, and my bag turned over a couple more times, but soon we were in our seats. Unfortunately, our seat numbers put us across the aisle from one another, but an older couple with a grandchild switched seats with us so Michael and I could be together - and then they got to be together as well. How nice.

Our second trip with the bullet train.

So, we cracked open the fruit and the pitas and had a good breakfast on the train. I took lots of pictures and slept a bit - this was our second experience with the bullet train - fast and smooth. However, although we were in a non-smoking car, we were in the last one and the smoke from all the cars in front of us wafted back to our car every time the door was opened - and that was a lot.

Pictures that I took from the train - in my mind, I'm imagining their lifestyle...

If the roofing tiles leak, I guess you replace them with galvanized steel or aluminum and since you have no screws or nowhere to screw the roof to, you use bricks or anything else that will weigh down the "new" improved roof. Where there's a will, there's a way.

There's always someone when you look out the window - there's lots of space but I never saw a place in the countryside where I didn't see one or two or more people .

This could be southern Ontario - where I grew up.

We arrived in the Beijing train station around 1 pm and took a taxi to the hotel.

This was a photo I took from the taxi on the way to the hotel - I think we were passing close to Tiananmen Square. Please go to Youtube and type in Tiananmen Square and see the tragedies from June 1989.

This was the Novotel - very posh - and I saw more westerners in the first 1/2 hour in the lobby than I had seen in 2 and a half weeks!

One view

Another view

Another view

The hotel restaurant - was I still in China?

We got changed and went for a walk down a pedestrian mall. Very tourist and shopping oriented.

Someone was posing for a picture, so I took one.

We went into one jewelry store and on the third floor saw some coral for the first time (I still wanted to get some for Christel). They were having a “sale” and the prices were marked down 90%, hmm... that’s suspicious, isn't it? We were just looking though. Sometimes I couldn't help but feel like I was in a dollar store.

Then we went into a silk fabric store, they make clothes for you there if you want. They also had scarves and some ready made clothes. I tried a jacket on - XXL was too big, XL was too small. I suppose if I really wanted one I’d have to have it made - but that’s ok, I don’t need a jacket and it takes a couple of days.

We walked around the block and stopped in a tea shop on the way - they offered us samples of 3 teas, I liked the Jasmine tea the best and decided to buy some before we left Beijing.

This is a Hat Store - oh ya, you can read the English on the sign ...

I thought these two trucks were so cute! Maybe they're made for use on sidewalks ...

Amy and Steven

Then, in the lobby of the hotel, we met Amy and Steven - friends of Michael - a Chinese couple who live in Vancouver most of the year, but visit and do business for a month or two in Beijing - Steven does work in information technology and is self employed. Michael met Amy through Bonnie who teaches teachers of English (ESL) at Simon Fraser and one of her students was Amy. Amy came to the presentations in Beijing last year where Michael was making presentations and talked to the students about learning English.

The four of us (Steven, Amy, Michael and I) had dinner in a small room in a restaurant (with all smokers right behind us - that empty table in back of us is where they sat).

We saw Amy’s artwork - she’s a VERY talented draftsperson. She’s 28 years old but could pass for 18. Her English is excellent, she was great to chat with and she gave me a few shopping tips: for example if they want 600 for a scarf - offer them 100 or walk away.

By the way, the fingernails I got painted the Friday before in Zhumadian still looked great a week later! I guess the secret is not doing dishes or laundry or cooking or cleaning. Hmm...

More strange things in Beijing.

Does this look like the building has been plastic-wrapped?

Out with the old - in with the new. The story of China I guess.

Great poster!

Day 20 - Wednesday June 18, 2008

2008-06-20T04:33:00.016-03:00

I guess the plastic flower makers got it right ... this is actually from a living lotus pond.

This morning (June 18, my brother's birthday) we decided to do something about our toilet - it had not been working well since we arrived - so Michael used the computer to translate: “plugged toilet”, enlarged the words, then took a photo of the computer screen and went and showed the camera view window to the young ladies at the front desk - wow, they understood - after breakfast all was well. Maybe someone can use that bit of info next time they're in China.

Then at around 9:30 am we took a motorized “rickshaw” to the Iron Pagoda. On our return trip we had a man driver and realized how conscientiously this woman drove.

Goods for sale on the next rickshaw.

Had I mentioned that the speed that people drive their vehicles is quite slow? You never see some young whipper snapper weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds.

Above you see why the speeds are slow.

On the way to the Iron Pagoda ...

Below is what greets you when you get past the entrance of the park:

When we walked in, I was immediately struck by the freshness of the air - I could smell the grass, and the bushes, and the flowers, and the water - it was SO refreshing. I hadn't experienced that much since I'd been spending most of my time in cities. But it didn’t last long, because soon more people started coming in and with them - the lit cigarettes. People smoking everywhere (actually, mostly men).

The lotus leaves were everywhere ... but this doesn't give you an idea of the size of them.

This does.

The flowers; some pink, some darker pink, some white, some yellowish. I assumed there were different varieties of the lotus flower.

Some of the walkways in the park were decorated with pictures made of pebbles - all hand made. It looked like painstaking work. I thought it was odd to see a whale - I mean this is the wheat growing province - hundreds of miles of fields - the thought of a whale was far from my mind.

They had a sizable bonsai garden - very enjoyable to look at, but I wish someone could have told me how old these were and a little info on where these plants have been.

We saw some older people in this area - seemed they lived in the maintenance buildings in the park. I imagined that they were retired gardeners and were provided with room and board in exchange for caring for the bonsai garden. Sounds nice anyway.

I wondered what it really said ...

Here is the Iron Pagoda:

Wikipedia says The Iron Pagoda of Youguo Temple, Kaifeng City, Henan province, is a Buddhist Chinese pagoda built in 1049 AD during the Song Dynasty (960–1279) of China. (The name of the pagoda refers to the color of the building, not the metal.) It was a brick pagoda tower built on the location of a previous wooden pagoda that had been burnt down by lightning fire in 1044 AD. It is seen as a masterpiece of Song Dynasty architecture

This is a picture of the very top (pretty good zoom, eh?)

This is a close-up of the detail of the carvings on the bricks.

This gives you a good idea of the size of this structure.

On the other side of the pagoda was a large lake and a beautiful area for walking with cement bridges that lead to a small island.

This little structure was on the island - meditation area perhaps. Lovely place to sit and pray for a few hours. We stayed for a few minutes.

Another view of the lake - this was all inside the old walls of the city.

Students find a quiet place to study.

Very interesting woman in an intriguing park.

And common to any site: a temple in the middle ...

Then we took the rickshaw back to the hotel: It was about a 10 minute ride and cost 5 rmb (7rmb = 1 dollar).

I guessed this was a school with student bicycles parked outside.

Colourful signs.

Was someone sleeping under there?

I'm almost positive those are apples.

Those are apples.

Traffic ...

These look like something else but they're actually huge "cakes" of dried tea leaves. I should have taken a picture of my foot with these for comparison - the bottom one was probably 25 lbs.

Later in the day, with using the computer to translate “food supermarket near here?”, we were able to find and walk to the local grocery store. We bought bananas, apples, grapes, a papaya and more fruit for today and for tomorrow on the train - a 6 hour bullet ride to Beijing.

In the evening we walked out to the street food market and wandered a bit, bought six baked round and thick pita breads that are so good when crispy and hot, four for the next day.

I decided to add, on today's blog, some of Michael's pics - he does much better at night shots - I like to think it's his camera but honestly, it's his skill. The previous pic and the next three are from when we were in Kaifeng the weekend before.

Chunhong - that's her in the colourful dress - is explaining something to me - it may have been the abc's of "How to Bargain". In short, if you don't like their price, you walk away - but you know, it's not as easy as it looks.

Socks and ties?

More clothes ...

More clothes, but there are actually a lot of jewelry booths too.

Ah, the food wagons! This is how it works: ater you choose from the selection on display, your items are thrown into a pot of boiling broth (called hot pot). I only know that because I watched, then you get a container of some sort and go to a nearby bench to eat. We didn't try this food.

We didn't try this either.

Or this ...

Or this ...

But we did buy some of those bread pita type things - they put them in that hole and when they come out they're really hot - but delicious.

-

We got to bed a bit earlier and set out alarm for 5 am. But I woke up around 12:30 when Michael’s cell phone rang and then couldn’t get back to sleep properly - there was a very heavy smell of cigarette smoke in our room that kept me from sleeping. It's like someone was smoking right beside me. I tossed and turned - I guess I was also a bit concerned that our alarm wouldn’t go off and we’d miss our train to Beijing. At 3 am I got up and opened my computer, then I went back to sleep around 4 am and rested a bit. Oh well.

Day 19 - Tuesday June 17, 2008

2008-06-20T04:31:00.009-03:00

I laughed when I saw this "manikin" in the pic below - it was the first of many more manikins I saw in the shopping malls of China. Michael's students "always" hold up the 2 fingers for peace when taking a photo. It seems like such a 60's thing to do.

Today, it was nicer out and warmer in Kaifeng (the day before it rained a bit). In the morning after breakfast we went for a walk.

We'd walk along the street and every once in a while there'd be a little doorway like this that led into the back of the stores - into the neighbourhoods where people in the city lived.

I thought this was interesting - these guys were sitting on top of this

My whole 3 weeks in China - in cities of China - this is the only instrument I saw being played on the street.

I think this was supposed to be a huge empty square with a sculpture in the middle of it, but looks like it's as good a place as any to store your "stuff".

I bought a really nice tea thermos in one of these shops - it was made of glass and had two layers so it wasn't too hot to the touch when you had hot tea in it. It had a stainless steel lid and I used it a lot in China. Then after I got home, I took it along when I went to the International Tattoo in Halifax - and accidentally dropped it on the cement floor - whaaa.

Walking up to this area I wondered what all that lovely green hanging stuff was - could it be vines?

Yes! Plastic vines.

Then in the afternoon, I went up to the 9th floor of the hotel for a massage (Korean type, it said) and I really enjoyed the overall experience ... but first I had to undress in front of 3 women and then have a shower in front of them (yikes) and they wanted me to wash my face too, so they gave me soap and when my makeup was off they looked shocked and worried as though they had done something wrong to me. I calmed them as best I could - while naked in front of them (that’s a new one for me - at least they were looking at my face now!)
Note: no pics from this event.

The girl who did the massage was pretty rough at times, but gentle too and when I turned onto my front she put many hot towels on my back and then a piece of rubbery material, and then she got on top of me and “walked” around on me on her hands and knees! She also put my feet in hot towels and plastic bags so they were toasty the whole time - nice. (I got to wear my underwear and some pyjamas during the message - but of course took the top off my back before the hot towels).

It’s a real challenge trying to do stuff in China on my own, without knowing the language. They had someone there with me who spoke a few words of English (she was 19) but she was also very shy. I could understand a few of her English words, but I could not make her understand me. So we just made hand motions until enough was understood.

So at least I experienced one full body massage in China.

I thought this was a cute store - I couldn't read the signage, I know they sold cooked duck, but it's so cute, it looks to me like they might sell something like toys for kids, like stuffed ducks.

This was the "Guild Hall" for the rich merchants. We didn't go into it though.

Above and below was a kindergarten type of place that had a gated entrance.

That's grass/weeds growing on the tiled roofs.

I didn't take a good close up pic of these, but below the fans on the second shelf are really old looking remotes - they look like they've survived an earthquake - totally full of dust and dirt. Anyone want to buy one?

New fangled rickshaws.

Another historic temple of sorts that we didn't go into.

This evening Michael and I looked around at places to eat (Kaifeng is famous for it’s food) (see pics in the next posting) but in the end we walked into a MacDonald’s (you've got to be kidding!) because we were too shy to communicate - and Michael was really in the mood for a hamburger, fries and coke. I got some fries and when we went on the street, I gave in and I bought a round piece of roasted bread - a pita sort of thing that they cut open and stuff with all kinds of food type “things”. But I had mine plain - hot and freshly baked in some dark hole of the stainless steel cooking cart (see pic). It was really good - lightly spiced with sesame seeds in it.

Above you see the famous "gathering of the food sellers" that happens every night - everyone (or family) has their own little cooking cart where they make their own specialty foods. Many of them make the same foods, but I guess you develop your favourites - like "MacDonald's". Now, please understand we went to MacDonald's but it's definitely not our favourite, or a common activity for us.

After it got dark, Michael took pictures of the night food market and I'll post some of those next.

Day 18 - Monday June 16, 2008

2008-06-20T04:29:00.000-03:00

Welcome to Kaifeng (again)! Here's a little info from the web about this city:

Located in northeastern Henan Province, the city of Kaifeng has an illustrious and in some ways unique 3000-year history. Many of the city's treasures are enclosed by the Old City Walls. The city was a major center of the development of Chinese civilization and culture. It served for a time as capital of the Wei Dynasty, the Liang, the Han, the Zhou and as a capital during the Five Dynasties period of disunion (907-960 AD, after the collapse of the Tang Dynasty), the Northern Song, and the Jin Dynasty. In all, Kaifeng was the capital of China for parts of seven different dynastic periods. During the 11th Century it was the largest single city in the world.

One of the city's treasures having a nap...

After much deliberation the day before, we decided to take a taxi to Kaifeng. We were prepared for it to be 400 rmb but turns out it was only 150 - just over 20 dollars for almost an hour and a half - much simpler than finding the bus station and finding out which bus to take and getting our bags on and off and then finding the hotel we were going to stay at and then taking a taxi with all our bags there. Yes, much simpler.

One sees the old character of buildings everywhere within the walled city. The hotel we were booked in was also within the wall - great starting place.

We booked the same hotel we were in last weekend with Chunhong but this time we were on the 8th floor. Our main interest was in walking around the city and seeing the life of the people and taking pictures. We walked a lot and saw lots of old and weird and wonderful things.

It would be fun to know what these signs say:

I know a Dr Li ... not this one though.

This pink building was probably influenced and/or built by the Russians around the 1980's ...

And if this grey building didn't have that curled roof, it would look like any building in Canada.

In the evening I went out by myself to the night market ...

Meat on a stick was common ...

As was this: home made - right in front of your eyes - spaghetti for the soup.

Bones for the soup.

I was looking in a jewelry store later in the evening when some girls smiled at me and said “hello”, I said hello back. On my way out of the store, they asked if they could take a picture with me. Of course I said yes and we did and then we began chatting. And I took a picture of them.

They were very friendly: Dawn, Anna, Lucy and Julia; all university students graduating the next day with a degree in Education. Lucy was the gregarious one and took the lead (she’s the shortest one). After some back and forth about our respective countries, she asked if there was anything they could do for me. I asked them to come with me and help me buy something I had seen in a booth at the night market. They did. Then we walked for a bit and I gave them my home and email address and they wrote down their names, and I hope they email me - then we’ll have some fun exchanges. It’s easy to make friends in China!

Day 17 - Sunday June 15, 2008

2008-06-20T04:28:00.000-03:00

We had breakfast and did some stuff in the hotel in the morning.
After lunch we went out for a walk - this was interesting - we walked down a street with many little local shops. Many of the local people were there, it was messy and poor looking, but I loved it and it reminded me of Zhumadian.

Colourful China ...

I think eggs in a basket are pretty common in China. I never found out why they pack them like this and if they're raw or cooked. I suspect they're cooked otherwise they would be pretty fragile.

Those 3-wheeled vehicles - I just loved them!

Lots and lots of fruit wagons (especially watermelon) and shoe stores with shoe parts in them. I suppose you would pick out the pieces you wanted in your shoes and they would put them together while you waited - I don’t know.

Typical stores - just holes in the wall with no doors or windows.

Most of the "booths" aren't very big - maybe the size of a small storage area.

This is a "restaurant" booth.

We continued on our walk and found a place that had a picture of a foot with acupressure points - so we went in. Both Michael and I had a glorious foot and leg massage! It cost us 35 rmb each - that totals $10 for 1.5 hours of massage each. I like that price! We noticed afterwards that our feet had shrunk because our sandals were loose (probably walking puffiness and water retention were relieved by the massage).

This is Michael at the foot massage place

We continued on our walk and saw a shoe store - each of us bought a pair of shoes (this was my fourth pair - Well, why not? - when the shoe fits, buy it!) We paid about 25 dollars for each pair, that was not a bad price, but much more than I had paid for my other pairs.

Kids everywhere ... not so many older people though ... young China.

The escalator ramp (no steps on the escalator) up to the grocery store we went to yesterday.

Oh, I saw dried jujubes in the grocery store so I bought a small package - never had them before but Laura, the translator from yesterday, had said that they were especially good for women. (They’re a little bit like a date but red, similar in texture but with a smaller stone). I’m soaking some with raisins, cashews and walnuts. That’s what I’ll have this evening because we’re not going out for supper. It’ll be a nice change actually.

Just so you don't think it's all rice, vegetables and fruit - there's LOTS of candy around!

Come to think of it, I never saw the women squatting like I saw many men doing - perhaps it's not as physically easy for women, or perhaps it's a social faux pas.

No chairs? No benches? No problem ... for the men.

DVD's for sale ...

There's an idea for the local gym - self powered walking machines.

Before going to bed, we watched Juno and then an episode of Prison Break - PB is a very popular show in China - many of the students watch it. (The student I coached a little in English also watches Prison Break). Strange that I had not heard of it before one of Michael’s Chinese students in Halifax had lent him a DVD with some of the episodes on it.

Day 16 - Saturday June 14, 2008

2008-06-19T22:33:00.002-03:00

I packed most of my stuff last night; this morning after breakfast (they had watermelon for the first time in two weeks - at this hotel!!). We left early with Chunhong for the train station. (As we drove there, I realized I had not really seen the city - it’s way bigger than I thought. Our hotel had been chosen as close as possible to the north campus of the university. Ahh, so that’s why I had not seen much hussle and bussle.) Chunhong helped us find the place where we were to get the bullet train - we had to carry our bags up two flights of stairs and down one flight. But we made it!

There's me with our bags...

There's Michael with our bags...

I didn't mean to take a picture of this guy spitting, but it's really hard to avoid - spitting is a regular activity of the men here, as is smoking ...

On the train to Zhengzhou: as you can see, it was very nice - modern and much more spacious than a plane.

This train's maximum speed was 250 km - if you look, we're going 251.

We saw some very interesting things - countryside and outer city stuff - all the way to Zhengzhou.

One side of the river ...

The other side of the river ...

I don't think they have learned what to do with their garbage. My theory is that they have been too quickly industrialized and so the common people who used to have nothing that didn't decompose are now using new fangled contraptions such as plastic bags - that don't decompose.

I was glad I got this picture of someone working in the fields. We saw it all the time; one or two or three people working with hand tools in the middle of huge fields, that actually looked like they needed machines to be worked on.

Here they are again: traditional farming right beside a super highway.

We arrived late for lunch at the hotel so the buffet was closed and we ordered from an English menu (too bad) - the first non-chinese meal I’ve had since arriving in China. I ordered the steamed veggies and lettuce.

And it's funny; I’ve been so used to eating with chopsticks (because that’s all they had in Zhumadian) that it was an awkward moment picking up a fork and a knife. It felt abnormal and somewhat uncivilized because the utensils were so large and heavy. It’s not that they didn’t have chop sticks at this restaurant, they just assumed because we’re westerners that we wanted cutlery, so that’s what they gave us.

This is what the room looked like after we got our hands on it - actually it was quite beautiful when we first got there...

Here are some photos I took from the taxi on the way to the Sofitel in Zhengzhou, where we'd be staying for two nights.

I think it was sunny out ...

This bicycle driver was putting his hand on his girl's knee and as I took the photo he'd just removed it - and his girl was smiling - oh, so cute!

In the afternoon we went for a walk through a good sized and well groomed city park.

Unfortunately, I managed to get a cold in Zhumadian - all that air conditioning and my tendency to sweat a lot.

That evening we went to dinner in a restaurant attached to our hotel complex, with Jason (from the Educational Agency) and Laura - the young woman who translated for us. They were both Chinese. After dinner we walked around the city block with Laura and chatted a while. We passed a shop where, Laura said, there was a blind masseuse - the signage was all white with some plain red lettering and inside it was all white too. Apparently there are many blind masseuses/masseurs in China.

Day 15 - Friday June 13, 2008

2008-06-19T22:33:00.001-03:00

On the streets of Zhumadian again.

Traveling in style.

Had 2 apples for breakfast, stayed in the hotel until around 9:30, took the bus to school and waited for Michael in Chunhong’s office. There was supposed to be some sort of presentation at 10 - but there was another “meeting”, people couldn't make it and it would be later... I was not surprised and that’s why I’d brought my computer.

I did some more diary entries as I waited and then around 12 noon Chunhong, Frank, Michael Redmond, my Michael and I walked out to go for lunch. On the way we met Mr. Cui in the van and another teacher from the Phillipines - whose name is Jonen. He is from the Philippines and teaches automotive stuff. So we all got in the van and all went to lunch together somewhere in the city.

We had some appetizers, or pre-meal or "while you wait" dishes (as always) including some delicious green vegetable dishes and deep fried giant sprouts. Then as usual, when we were all full, the dumplings came out - 4 HUGE plates of dumplings - pork, lamb, and veggie variety. Mr. Cui took the leftover dumplings home. I was glad to see they would not go to waste.

Jonen asked me where I was from - if I was from another country originally. I said I was from Canada and born in Canada. Then he asked asked if I had any other blood in me ... because he said I looked German. Ohhh ... then I told him yes, that both my parents were German. He had lived in Germany for three years - that explained it I guess, and I was honestly delighted that someone could tell by looking at me that I was of German stock.

Chunghong and I were dropped off at the mall - she needed to get a white pair of shoes because she was making a presentation at the meeting today. She took me to a place where nails were done; I got a manicure. We had to rush because in about 40 minutes we had to be back at the university where there would be an important graduation ceremony with the bigwigs and the chancellor all making speeches to the graduating students of the International College. All of the teachers were there and they all received flowers of thanks (I got flowers too).

Afterwards we all went out into the very hot day and had a large photo taken. I didn't take photos - too bad. It was a bit of a sunnier day than usual - very very bright, especially standing on pavement. The light in China, where we were, is actually more bright than we're used to because the sun is much higher in the sky than it is in NS. Perhaps that's why Chinese eyes have developed to become thinner than western eyes.

Then most of us went back to the foreign experts office. Michael and I were taken aside into a large office and presentations were made to us. Something for the president of NSCAD and some gifts for us. It was all very official and pleasant. Chinese people are so giving and generous. Photos were taken - as always. Chunhong used my camera so I have a copy of them.

Ah, the presentation: Beside me is Baoyu Wang and beside Michael is another professor whose name I will know soon.

A gift for president of NSCAD.

Gifts for us - how lovely! - a little golden rat for Christel and a little golden gourd for Daniel. (They couldn't find an ox for Daniel's year)

After that, Chunhong took us to a private office and figured out what they owed Michael ... counted and recounted and laid the money out on the table - cash! That's something we don't see often anymore. But it sure came in handy for the next week while we traveled to Zhungzhou, Kaifeng (again) and Beijing.

Then I waited while my Michael and Frank did some marking. I had to leave the foreign experts office because it was too cold. All that beautiful warm weather outside and people want to stay in cold air conditioned offices! Today is actually lovely - it was sunnier than usual, cooler than yesterday and pleasantly breezy. Probably around 30C today - while yesterday was around 33C or more.

This evening we all went out to yet another restaurant I had not been to. There were 11 of us at the table - all westerners except Chunhong and Gua Gua (I think Chunhong realized I would enjoy a final visit with her daughter). I sat with Gua Gua on one side and Phil from Coventry University on the other. We had pleasant conversation. He’s more into eating healthy foods than any other person I’ve met here.

At 10 we left - the guys dropped me off at the hotel and then they all went for a drink to their favourite bar - including my Michael (!). Well, this was the last night before many of them would go their own ways. It was a more western type bar that they went to, a bar that western teachers have become friendly and familiar with. They can even store some of their favourite booze there and keep some of their music there. I was surprised that Michael went along and surprised that he didn’t arrive back until 1:45 am. I was up most of the time - I'm just not used to him being out alone - at night - drinking. We had to be up fairly early for the train to Zhungzhou.

Day 14 - Thursday June 12, 2008

2008-06-19T22:32:00.001-03:00

Michael took a photo of this sign in Zhumadian.
If you can't read it, I've copied it correctly below:

The 9 sightseeing busline

Price:1 yuan

Tourist notice:

1. Enters the scenic area,strictly prohibits the smoke and fire
2. Forbids randomly to throw the trash chaotic phelgm.
3. The prohibition pulls and breaks off the flowers and trees,tramples the lawn.
4. The loving care tour facivity,dosenot permit randomly spreads.
5. The attention security,dosenot permit to sermount the protection parapet, dosenot permit to climb up the lift. Zhumadian public tracffic co.,ltd

Chunhong and Professor Tian at their desks on the 4th floor. This is where I met Mary but unfortunately I don't have a picture of her...

Yesterday I got a call from Chunhong to ask me if I was willing to spend an hour with a student to help him with English - he would pay 100 rmb. Sure! I’m always willing to help, so this morning I got ready to go with Michael to the university. We had breakfast together at the hotel and then took the bus in.

I went up to Chunhong’s office and in a while a mother arrived with her son. He looked to me to be very young, like maybe 14. But I found out he was 18 and after we’d spoken for a while I asked him to write down his name for me; his English name was “Mary”. Hmm... I was a bit surprised but another English teacher had mentioned that he had met a girl with a boy’s name - she didn’t know it was a name for a boy, so perhaps the same thing happened here ... I don’t know.

After a while, I pointed to the “Mary” and said, “You know that this is a girl’s name?” The response was “I don’t look like a girl to you?” Oops, so I eased my way gracefully out of that one, and after she told me that she had always played with boys when she was younger and she feels more comfortable in boy’s clothes, I told her I understood and that I had also been a tomboy when I was younger ...

Anyway, as soon as she started speaking, I was impressed. I had not heard one Chinese student speak English this well - not in Halifax, not in China, not ever - so why was I needed? Turns out we had a wonderful few hours and she talked about many things as I corrected some very minor grammar or pronunciation issues. She came to love English when she was twelve and had an extra curricular class with a teacher who made learning Engish fun. She learned to sing children’s songs (and sang one for me), she watched English cartoons and when she was 14 she read The Hunchback of Notre Dam. She had also read A Tale of Two Cities and other Charles Dicken’s novels.

She loves everything about English speaking places - but is a little cynical about them because of the pop culture - it seemed that it was shallow and useless. I agreed with her but explained that there are many people in the West who do not enjoy the pop culture either, they make songs and movies and write books which are not vain and shallow, but they are not popular and therefore not widely heard about.

She also thought that the West only has an army for the purpose of war, but China had shown them that their army is also used for rescue efforts. Seems she was told the West was surprised at this. I told her that in the West, we also use our army for humanitarian purposes, but we were pleased to see how quickly the Chinese army responded in the earthquake relief efforts.

So after I showed her how to get podcasts from CBC (because she speaks not with a British accent but with a very neutral accent - much like many Canadians and broadcasters) her mother was then back to pick her up; it had been three hours. Mary was hoping to spend some more time talking with me again, but since I was leaving early Saturday it didn’t work out. I really enjoyed the time.

This must have been an art studio - in the International Building. Michael said that Chinese students are very skilled in the basics of art - it's hard to teach them much about that.

This is Snow, Bo and Cat.

This is Butterfly, but not at the student cafeteria.

After my "lessons" with Mary, Michael and I went for lunch to the student cafeteria with Bo and Butterfly. Aaah, finally I was with a female who understood that I really do like vegetables. So she ordered bok choy with rice (white as always) for both of us (on plastic-bag-covered plates) and it was delicious. I only ate partially way down and left the rice alone that was sitting in contact with the plastic bag.

This is Bo with other students in his class.

Here's the whole class. They really like to give the "peace" sign.

So, Michael had to go for another class and I went back to the hotel. Out at the gate, I caught a taxi and saw the fruit sellers again. Did I mention that people walk down the streets eating fresh fruit - melons and apples?

At 7:00 pm Chunhong came with the van and it’s driver (Mr. Cui) to take us to the “Delicious Food” restaurant (that was the real name) where we met 4 new teachers from the UK. Phil, an older man who teaches automotive engineering, Amy and Amy and another young guy who all are teaching art design. The chancellor was to come as well, but a meeting held him up for about an hour.

This is Michael and Phil (from England)

This is Ian (I think) and Amy one.

This is Amy two and Chunhong.

This is the beautiful desert brought out while we were waiting for the Chancellor.

Finally everyone arrived ...

This is Chancellor Lou (President of the Universtiy)

And then a major spread was put on the table - one dish after the other. It’s funny how they keep bringing out more new food dishes, even after people have finished eating - even when there’s stll a whack of food left on the table. At the very end when I thought we were ready to go, another large bowl of soup was placed on the table in front of everyone (I had already had two different soups - in smaller bowls - plus a bit of almost everything else on the table!). Oh, and then after that watermelon was brought out (again) for everybody. I ate too much - because I felt obligated to do so; the chancellor, two seats down from me, was reaching over and putting things on my plate (like items of meat) and I ate.

Me, Michael and Chancellor Lou

We listened to the Chancellor for a while before we started eating and by the time we were done, there was hardly any room left on the table. This is almost everybody here at the table - except one of the professors, Baoyu Wang, who was graciously taking pics with my camera.

Day 13 - Wednesday June 11, 2008

2008-06-19T22:31:00.000-03:00

Well, I haven't shown you a toilet from China, so here it is... called a squat toilet. The only place that had a western style toilet was the hotel we were in, but I used the squat toilets quite often. They don't provide toilet paper, so never leave home without a kleenex in your pocket - like your mother taught you.

I decided not to go down for breakfast this morning and ended up spending the entire day in the hotel room... working on my blog, catching up on my forum etc. At first I thought I’d go to the market, but then I decided; well, I don't really need or want to buy anything and it would be worth the time to set up a new blog and attempt to put as much in it as I could. It will be a good reminder of my trip.

I got really antsy around 4 pm because I hadn’t heard from Michael all day. We were supposed to meet and have dinner with the chancellor Mr. Lao this evening. So at 5:00 I called Chunhong’s cell and asked for Michael - he was in a meeting but would be finished in about an hour. She said if I walked to the university, he'd probably be done by then... so I did.

This family passed me and I thought they were cute so I turned around to take a picture and they had stopped to look at me. The young girl even got off the back of her dad's bike!

I've seen this before: morning role call at a restaurant ...

And this group was outside right beside the restaurant ... I didn't know what they were doing there, some sort of drills ... I didn't see any military type buildings.

Oh, maybe they were recruiting! A farming community seems to be good ground for that. The kids have opportunities to get out and see the world.

Interesting and unusual sites ... all dressed up and going somewhere, with a baby on the back of a wagon!

There's good use of a bicycle ...

Finally I was getting close ... these are newer versions of the apartments that the international teachers stay in. In a couple years the university will be finished building a "Friendship House" where foreign teachers will have residences (next to their new International building and library).

Above are water heaters and you find them on the tops of buildings, or down on the street beside the buildings. They take up a lot of sidewalk space, so we walk on the road and get beeped at by the vehicles.

Some of the residents make lovely little gardens - others just plant in any odd little space they can find. Frank told us the people even grow crops on any open patches of university property - everybody has to eat.

Above is just a few feet away from those apartments. I suspect they'll eventually be taken down but believe it or not: right now the residents of these places also offer public eating arrangements inside called an "open kitchen". We didn't go.

Pretty flowers on trees on the highway in front of the University.

The Huanghuai University gate (everyone who enters the university goes through this gate and there are always guards on duty).

One view from the balcony of the International Building.

When I finally got there (it took me probably 50 minutes with photo taking), Michael was in the Foreign Expert’s office waiting. So, we waited in the foreign expert’s office for about an hour and a half while we listened to Dean - a teacher (age 50) from the US, but living in China for 3 years already.

He had just come back from 20 days in the earthquake zone in Sichuan. He had been helping with relief efforts and told us about searching through the very rural mountain areas for survivors - of which he found many.

He spent most of his time delivering supplies: carrying shoes in his back pack up the mountain, taking tents up the mountain with a 3 wheeler, asking people if they knew of others in need, taking notes and taking pictures.

He said the number of casualities is greatly understated - from what he was hearing there have been between 400,000 and 500,000 deaths, and of course 5 million homeless. Very sad.

He didn’t stop talking - I figured he was needing to release, it must have been extremely emotionally traumatic having seen so many dead and needy people - and he would have gone on talking if we didn’t have to leave.

But it turned out that the dinner with the Chancelor had to be moved to the next evening and we didn’t find out until late. Oh well, that’s the way things go at this university, schedules change on a moment’s notice. It’s very hard to plan anything. People who work here at the university seem to give their whole day - there seems to be no such thing as a home life.

So, Michael and I went home and had dinner at out hotel for the second time. We had a lovely room (with it’s own toilet room, which we didn’t see until we were ready to leave). The room was beautiful and the dinner was tasty, as usual.

Yummy mushrooms!

Day 12 - Tuesday June 10, 2008

2008-06-19T22:28:00.000-03:00

I don't know why the date above says June 19th, and I can't seem to fix it ... this post is for June 10th. The date I created is was yesterday, June 25th, so it's some sort of glitch.

The restaurant we went to in Zhumadian (when we got back yesterday) was great, but when we came downstairs, they were pulling the fish out of their restaurant "fish pond". I had thought it was for a pleasant picture - it was pretty... but hey! they cook those fish for dinner!!

Time to say good-bye to Gua Gua ... .

Back behind our hotel room, business continued as usual. This morning, there were people peeling veggies ...

and some were supervising, I guess.

Oh, this fellow saw me taking his pic. I waved afterwards and he smiled and waved back.

This morning I got ready and had breakfast with Michael before I walked him to the bus stop for his full day of school. Michael checked the weather forecast and they said it was going to be rainy and cool (DOWN to 20C!). I just got back from the grocery store and it’s still warm... probably 26C at least, and it has not rained. Perhaps it’s raining somewhere in Henan Province.

Lots of people stare at me wherever I go, and not just when I was taking pictures - especially guys, suppose it’s because I’m cute? ... or could it be my bra size? I’m not even going to look for a bra in China!

A bottle of water at the grocery store is about 1 rmb (1/7 of a dollar) but at the hotel in Beijing, a large bottle of Evian could be 45 rmb if purchased in the room.

Your guess is as good as mine...

... don't know if you can see the prices, but this great stuff is inexpensive for a Canadian.

At the grocery store I took lots of pictures but a man dressed in some guard clothes came and let me know I was not supposed take pictures - it’s not allowed. I think I had been asked that a few times before here and there on the street and elsewhere, but I just always act like a dumb foreigner and keep taking pictures. Besides, that’s one of my main reasons for being here.

That's like, nineteen bananas on a bunch.

Everyone is always super nice to me. First they all stare and then when I smile or try to get help, they’re more than helpful and always smile back. At the grocery store, I didn’t know I was supposed to get the fruit weighed and priced, so when I got to the check-out counter and acted dumb, one of the young cashiers who was free, ran back to the fruit and veggie section and got my things priced. So helpful! Sometimes they giggle. This really must be a "small town" because people like me from other lands are a rare site here.

Before I went into the grocery store they were able to make me understand that I had to leave my purse at a place like a “coat check”. I got a tag with an elastic on it and put it on my wrist while I shopped. My purse looks like a napsack, maybe that’s why... but I took out my wallet and made sure to have my camera when I went in.

I bought 6 bags of that wonder tea that helps me have bms and thought the tea section was worthy of note. It seemed there was a bag of tea for whatever problem one might have. I really wished at that point that I could read Chinese. They had some beautiful dark clay tea cups with lids and I would have loved to buy a couple of them, but if I did stuff like that here, we’d have to buy another suitcase for the trip home and I’d have more to carry next week when we travel with all our stuff. I’ve already bought 3 pairs of shoes.

It seems as though plastic bags are the new fangled contraption here. Everything is wrapped in plastic or put in plastic bags. I’ve got plastic bags everywhere - am trying to at least re-use them... I know they’re working on the problem, they said so on a news report in Kaifeng (they had an English channel there).

Out of the 3 hotels we’ve been in over the last few days, I like the one in Zhumadian the best - maybe because it’s the biggest (twice the size of Kaifeng) and the ceilings are 10 feet high. It also has a huge window with interesting goings on outside the window - which is just as good as a view. But it doesn’t really matter.

Michael has prepared out train schedule for next week and we’ll ask Chunhong to get tickets for us. Here it is:
Train Schedule Zhumadian> Zhengzhou Zhengzhou>Kaifeng --- train 4714 dep. 13:50 arr. 15:10 Kaifeng > Zhengzhou --- train 1540/1537 dep. 08:37 arr. 09:25 Zhengzhou > Beijing train D124 dep. 11:07 arr. 16:11 Soft seat tickets for ordinary trains and first class tickets for D train.

On the way to the university... a wagon of wheat on the street.

You'd be as surprised as I was when I was told these places were stores.

On the university grounds.

Some students have motor bikes ...

One lecture of Michael's ...

I met Michael at school around 4 pm and around 5 he had a lecture - it was on the topic of "Fonts". He spoke for about a 1/2 hour (after teaching all day) and then played the movie “Helvetica”. I was content to see it again - it's a great documentary for designers to see. About 150 students filed into the auditorium before we started. And during the movie about 20 students slowly trickled out - not a bad ratio, I reasoned.

We headed back to the foreign experts office where we met up with the other Michael from Halifax. He was going to show us his apartment - so that my Michael would know what it was like and could choose to live there next time he comes to teach. It was about a 20-30 minute walk from the International building. I’m not sure if I would want to stay there - only the small bedroom has an air conditioner and you’d have to do your own laundry and your own cooking or eat in the student cafeteria (with plastic bags on the plates) (hmm ... does it sound like I’m spoiled?).

We walked there, and at the apartment I had some perrier and the 2 Michael’s had some “real beer” while we sat on the couch and waited for Frank so we could go for supper. I didn’t think it was polite to take pictures of the place, but it wasn’t much to look at; a very tiny kitchen, a small laundry room (with a squat toilet under part of the dryer), a shower room (where the sink gets showered on every time you shower), a toilet room (with another sink and western toilet), a small bedroom (Michael had a mosquito net on the bed - with lilac coloured lace trim), and then there was a small living room. Suitable for bachelor-type living I guess.

We took a taxi to the restaurant - a very unusual place with many huts and the kitchen no where in sight (maybe that was a good thing). The two other Canadians wanted us to experience the chicken... So when we sat down in this mud and bamboo hut, they brought in the chicken - to be approved (yikes!):

Then all the other food was brought out as we waited for the chicken.

Lots of food .. and pijiu (beer).

And, finally, the chicken. It looked better alive actually. "Unfortunately" I was full and the guys only had a smidge of it - what a waste!

Day 11 - Monday June 9, 2008

2008-06-18T07:28:00.000-03:00

We're so thankful we had Chunhong to order food for us - except breakfasts at the hotels - pretty well every day of our two weeks in Zhumadian (and the visits to Kaifeng, LaoYang and ShaoLin)

Gua Gua brought us extra joy and laughter for the weekend.

Michael at the restaurant the night before Shaolin.

Some famous food the restaurant was known for - although it looked pretty, Chunhong was not impressed - the flower on top was made of flour and the meat was balogna-like, didn't see veggies.

Larger than life sculpture at Shaolin Temple.

So our next visit was the Shaolin Temple - an ancient place of worship - now it seems, the highly touristy place where Kung Fu is taught and performed.

There were 1000s of students of different ages, all in the same dress, having lessons outside in in many different open areas as we walked along the designated paths. There were a lot of trees, a lot of steps and a lot of temples and old buildings. It looked like a glorified camp for boys. I was told that the boys come here at a young age and live on the compound as they are being trained. I suppose they go home for breaks now and again - I hope anyway. It would be a good place to send your kid if you want him disciplined and in shape.

We watched a performance - of all ages and it was very impressive, very much like gymnastics. The last 2 performances were: 1. a man in his 20s or 30s took a bar of cast aluminum I think it was, or maybe it was a harder metal, don’t know... but he hit his head with it and it broke into pieces. 2. Another man, perhaps at least in his 30s or maybe 40s spent some time gathering his chee and attempted to throw a needle right through a plate of glass being held by another guy. Yet another fellow was holding a ballon behind the glass so we would know the needle had gotten through. He made 5 or 6 attempts but couldn’t do it --- I noticed he was distracted when he first came out because he glanced up toward the exit where there were a few people standing (including a young woman). He glanced there 2 or 3 times during his performance and that’s why I suspect he was distracted. Anyway a second man came out after him and on his second attempt, he managed to throw the needle through the plate glass and break the balloon. They walked around the arena showing us the glass and yes, it had a small hole in it about 1/8" or so in diameter.

After that performance we came out of the arena and noticed Chunhong was on the phone. She was talking with her husband because she had just lost her camera. (oh no! so sad...)

She bravely continued the journey with us. Next we walked to where the temples and many other buildings were - all on hill sides, all with many steps (what else would I expect from China?)

Walking along the path there were lots of walls - I don't know how old this wall was, but they wanted to allow the tree to do it's thing, so they built around it, or it broke through on it's own.

The major temple complex was built into the mountain side - it was really cool looking because it was surrounded by trees. It's like you were living in the woods - like, camping!

Apparently this mountain across the valley is also part of the whole complex, and there's a chair lift that allows you to go up and experience the view. We didn't go - too much walking for a 3 year old (whew, that was a good excuse!)

Stair - with a very ornately carved centre panel.

Every time you look up, you see how ornately coloured parts of the buildings were.

Then we walked farther up...

Someone told me later that these were tombstones...

A beautiful place to live if it weren't for the smog.

Well, we hurried back to the van because we needed to be at the airport for 2pm to pick up Frank (the Canadian who has lived in Shanghai for 6 years with his Chinese wife and 2 kids now).

On the way to the car, I had to go to the WC and as I came back Gua Gua had her hands on her hips, with a furrowed brow and was talking very loudly to me as though she was scolding me. Her mother translated it for me, “Where were you all this time? Didn’t you know I was looking for you? I was calling you... don’t you have ears on your head?”

So we drove about 1.5 hours to the airport, picked up Frank and drove the 2 hours back to Zhumadian. Dropped Frank off at his apartment and went to yet another restaurant. (Other than the restaurant at the hotel, we haven’t been to the same place twice, to eat.) This place was not expecting anyone because it was late afternoon, so they showed us up to a room and we ate there. Delicious food. Then back to the hotel for a quiet evening. I hadn’t had a bm since Friday morning so I made myself some tea for the evening and hoped for a bm in the morning ... I was not disappointed.

Day 10 - Sunday June 8, 2008

2008-06-18T06:28:00.000-03:00

Here are a couple of the pics from the night market and food bonanza - where we were last night.

We were showered and down in the lobby at 7:30 am. Breakfast was the usual fare - lots of vegetable dishes, lots of dumplings and an item I’ve allowed myself to have lately: deep fried bread. It’s like a donut but with no sugar - very yummy. I better stop it or I’ll gain weight. The people here seem to eat a lot of wheat - it’s the wheat growing centre of China, so they’d have to import rice if they wanted that. They do serve (white only) rice as well. After breakfast we were back in the van to go back to the park (this was beside the one we were at yesterday and was named The Millenium City - we hadn’t see it all apparently. Very beautiful buildings and we got to see a number of performances. The boat performance is on video - hmm... I needed fresh batteries the next day.

(The boat performance)

(Chunhong giving her daughter the apricot soup )

Mr. Cui seemed to know what he was doing and ushered us to places and got us seated before the rest of the crowd got there. One place we sat down, Chunhong ordered us some apricot soup, sprinkled with a few raisins and candied fruit. It was steaming hot, but cooled us down. How different from the N.A. way to eat unhealthy ice cream when it’s hot - I did it for 50 years, and only gained weight and had to fight for my health.

There were a lot of shops, fish in ponds, etc. see pics.

(a monkey on a ram in the park)

(tourists dress up for photos)

In the afternoon, we drove for a couple of hours to Laoyang - the city where the grottoes are. Another tourist destination with lots and lots of walking and lots and lots of stone staircases. Near the entrance we saw a wall of photos and Pierre Trudeau was in one of them, with Margaret... where is she now? We walked along the fairly wide river towards the caves, they were on the opposite side of the monastery. Beside the monastery built into the hill, there was quite a long, large stone wall. I began to see that China had a thing for walls.

Looking at the pictures will tell most of the story, but quite a ways up the hill there was a souvenier shop with cold green tea in bottles, so I bought one - boy was that refreshing on a hot and sticky day where we were climbing stairs for what seemed like hours. I saw they had some fans for sale and since I had lost mine at the park in Kaifeng, I wanted another one. When I picked two up and asked how much, the lady wrote on her keypad: 150 rmb! I was shocked because the fan I bought and lost was about 15 rmb (7rmb = $1). She motioned to me to write what I wanted to pay so I wrote down 15 rmb. I smiled, said thank you and turned to walk out of the shop, fully intending not to buy one - I was not planning to bartar. But a man behind another counter came out and explained with a word or two in English that they were make of silk and much more expensive than other fans. He started to bartar with me. He offered the two fans for 120 rmb. I said no, he walked with me as I was going out, picked up another cheaper fan and wondered if I’d take that for 110. Well ok, I’ll play... so I picked up another silk fan and gave him 100 rmb. He laughed, surprised that I could be so bold, and said ok. I don’t know, I think I could have gotten those fans at the CNE for less, but it turns out they cost me 33 rmb - which is almost 5 dollars a piece.

So we kept walking up and down stone stairs and taking pictures. Michael and I were both pleased and a little surprised that I could climb just as well as the average person.

I have over 1000 pics from this weekend, but I can't put them all up...

Day 9 - Saturday June 7, 2008

2008-06-14T23:29:00.000-03:00

This sculpture was in the part in Kaifeng. Appropriate pic for the year of the "Rat" (Christel's year). Their depictions of rats are usually very cute - almost mouse-like.

We were on a little “holiday” for the long weekend here, traveling to see some other cities with historical sites. It was very interesting, a lot of fun and there were A LOT of stairways! I did very well with hours of walking every day (well, it was more like strolling, because there was a 3 yr old child with us). Michael was impressed with my energy - I would not have been able to do all this walking and climbing of steps if I had not done my 3 levels of HPS over the last 10 months. I can now say that China is made of steps, and that's ok.

This was one thing we could see from our hotel room.

There were 6 of us traveling together this weekend: Chunhong, her 3 year old daughter, Gua Gua, and her mother who is in her 50’s but does not read or write in Chinese. And our driver Mr. Cui - a pleasant older man who sometimes got tired behind the wheel and closed his eyes while driving! Apparently he had driven trucks before driving for the university and was quite experienced - that was some consolation.

Mr. Cui

Chunhong and Gua Gua

Chunhong told me a bit about her mother’s difficult life. Chunhong’s grandmother had some sort of sickness that wouldn’t allow her to be pregnant, but she wanted a child badly and so did - a year later she died. A few years later her father died and she went to live with her grandfather and his four boys.
At 12 she left home - because her grandfather wanted to be his wife... he had not treated her well at all and so leaving was better. (Now she is in a position to help him because he's still alive, but she won't because he had been so mean to her.)
She worked in the fields and during that time in the 1960’s communities worked, lived and ate together, so she had no problem surviving. I’m not sure how old she was when she got married and I didn’t get all the details, but the man she married became a teacher and they had 3 children. They lived and farmed in the country and the rules about having one child were not as strict there.
The oldest and youngest children are the favourites in China, so Chunhong being the middle child was not favoured. She, however, was a very persistent child with her own mind (like her daughter Gua Gua). She was discouraged from attending kindergarten at 6, but insisted that she wanted to go. Her parents thought she wasn’t very smart and wanted her to just work in the fields, but she studied hard and proved to the teachers and her parents that she was smart so they let her go to kindergarten at age 6. She won some sort of city award for mathematics later on and was disappointed that it still did not impress her father.
At some level in grade school her older sister went to the city to live with her father and go to school; so that was her plan too. But her father didn’t think it was right for her (middle child, yadda, yadda, yadda) so she gave her father a long speel, telling him that he didn’t love her because she was the middle child but she was smart and wanted to go to the city. When he asked her why she wanted to go to the city, she said it was because she liked the tall buildings. So, he let her come and live in the city and go to school. She got where she is today because she was stubborn and knew what she wanted - at a very young age.

Gua Gua - like her mother she absolutely knows what she wants!

I asked her how she met her husband and here's the story: In university she had a girlfriend who was not from the city and this friend insisted that Chunhong, because she knew all the guys from Zhumadian, should find her a boyfriend. She’d had a boyfriend of her own and proceeded to introduce a lot of guys to her girlfriend.
One day she introduced a fellow who had been in grade school with her... but he was not interested in her girlfriend. He asked Chunhong if she had a boyfriend, and at that point she did not (her previous boyfriend did not want to continue with his university education and went into the army... she did not like that because she knew it was a hard life for a wife).
Anyway she told this fellow that she did not have a boyfriend and was not interested in having a boyfriend. Well, I guess that interested him... they got married. He’s a heart surgeon and works a lot, but he’s good to their daughter and Chunhong is very happy working at the university.

Right now I want to back track a little to say that when we left Zhumadian, we took Frank and Able with us as well, but just to the airport in Zhengzhou. Frank was going to his home and family in Shanghai - he’s a Canadian, born in BC, has two children (5 and 7 months) and his wife is Chinese. He’s been in China for 6 years.
Able is from Taiwan or the Philippines I think. He is also teaching at the University here and has been in China for 7 years. He’s 40 and has been travelling for many years; he’s lived and worked in Canada, the US, Australia, France and other countries. I think he’s the type who doesn’t like to settle although he’s been in China for 7 years. I think it’s his favourite place - says he wants to see all of China.

Another little digression, so I don’t foget; back outside the hotel in Zhumadian, there was a young man descending on a single rope from the top of the roof of the six-floor building. He was about to paint. And earlier this morning we saw two guys hanging from ropes and scraping the paint off of the windows. I said, “How wonderful!” because I thought the windows looked very bad with all that paint dripped on them. But there’s still dripped paint on the screens - don’t know how they’re going to fix that!

So, back to our weekend: We finally got to the hotel, which was right in the heart of Kaifeng. Two things famous in Kaifeng (other than the historical sites) are the night market and the street food; and we were situated right in the middle of them. But the city is full of old style buildings and everywhere you look there is some fascinating thing to see. It was extremely crowded but come to find out, the daytime is not nearly as crowded as the night time.

First thing we did was go straight to a small restaurant-type place. They don’t seem to care about making their eating establishments clean and tidy. Chunhong ordered for us (thank God we had her as our “guide”). The food is always very delicious wherever we go, whatever the place looks like. The vegetables are always freshly cooked, so that’s my favourite choice, but there's always some sauce or seasonings added. It was VERY LOUD in this restaurant because there was a large group of Chinese men in the partially enclosed area beside us.

Strange - they served the boiled chicken wings in a plastic bag and set that on the table. Then the other food came; there’s always soup and always some vegetables and it seems that this area of China is famous for dumplings because they’ve come with every meal. When we were heading back to the hotel, we happened to meet Greg from Perth (who I had just met two days earlier at the university. He was with a scottish fellow, David, whom he had just met. What are the chances eh? meeting another teacher from Zhumadian in a huge city of many, many people. Could be that he spotted us and then made his way through the crowd to meet us...

Then we took the van to the park - the forbidden city of the Song Dynasty - there was a large area around a lake that represented the emperor’s palace and all it’s paraphenalial buildings. We were told most of the buildings were rebuilt in the fashion of the ancient temples and buildings, but they looked pretty authentic to me. Very beautiful buildings on very beautiful grounds, in very hot weather. I loved it of course. There was lots of climbing to do here because of the many tiered palaces/temples. See pics.

After lunch we went for a shower and a nap and then met our company in the lobby at 7:30pm. Just outside the hotel on the street were dozens, maybe 40 food wagons and a large area with stainless steel tables and chairs. Chunhong found a place for us to sit and she ordered all the food, confering with Mr. Tueh (our driver). The food was different again and all very tastey. It’s an adventure every time we sit down to eat. There was a little bit of a kafufel after we were almost done eating. Chunhong had ordered some soup, but it came too late so we started to walk away. People came running after us and there was a lot of loud talking. Although I was full, we sat down to have some of the lovely soup that we’d been waiting for.

You just can’t say no to the Chinese... they won’t let you. That’s where not speaking the language comes in real handy. If I knew what they were saying, the soft hearted me probably wouldn’t be able to walk away from them. The only way for me to be at ease and safe in China is by not knowing the language...

After eating we began to walk along the road with inumberable make-shift stalls with metal rod frames. Like anyone would do in a market. I learned from Chunhong how to barter; you just walk away when you don’t like the price and they will lower. (ah, note to self). Michael gracefully bowed out of continuing on the interesting market journey and went back to the hotel - which was just around the corner). I bought some jewellery, a small mirror, two hats and a pair of shorts and t-shirt for Michael. By the way, I conclude that the chinese have big heads and big feet but small bodies - surprisingly the hats and shoes fit me! Chunhong and I were back at the hotel at 11 pm. It was a good day.

Day 8 - Friday June 6th, 2008

2008-06-14T08:25:00.000-03:00

Today, since Michael had classes all day, I decided I wanted to stay in the hotel and not meet him for lunch. I wanted to get some work done on the NSCAD student books and also on my diary and then in the afternoon I wanted to go to the mall for some shoes.

I had an apple, bananas, raisins and nuts for lunch. There are six of the nineteen bananas left and they’re getting a little too ripe for my liking.

This is the entrance to the market I went to yesterday.

Whenever I take the taxi, I take pics from the window. This is that kind of photo.

This is also that kind of photo.

This is also a taxi photo - of the restaurant we went to on our first night here.

Michael comes back around 6 pm and then we’ll figure out what to do for supper. Chunhong called and said we’d be leaving for Kaifeng tomorrow morning at 8 am. It takes 3 hours to get there and we’ll stay overnight and then travel to Zhengzhou and Louyang where the famous grottoes are.

We went to the hotel restaurant by ourselves - another private room with a large table and large turnable glass plate in the middle of it. It was a bit of a challenge with no one speaking any English, but we realized that there was some English on the menus - whew!

The girls who worked at the restaurant were beautifully dressed, they giggled when they saw Michael’s signature - I said they were snickering because of his signature scribble, he said that maybe he had signed where it said in Chinese: “I like to wear ladies panties”.

Day 7 - June 5th, 2008

2008-06-13T01:04:00.000-03:00

Here are some pics from Huang Huai University.

Many (maybe most) students have bikes, or electric motorbikes. Some are old, some are brand new. The average new bike costs about 250 - 300 rmb (about $40) but you can get a really good one for 500 rmb ($70) - said Chunhong. And some bike repair shops sell second hand bikes for about 140 rmb ($20). The teachers who stay here for any length of time buy bikes to ride to school with, so they can whip around town.

Snow, Bo and Cat - the more eager students from the international department - were very helpful to us. They showed us around, ordered food for us and ate with us.

These farmers with their carts of fruit and vegetables set up shop just outside the university gates. These people love their fruits and veggies, I often see people walking downtown eating apples.

This is at the front gate of the north campus of Huang Huai University.

We didn’t go for breakfast downstairs in the hotel dining hall this morning because we had forgotten to get our breakfast tickets from the front dest. That was ok because we had apples and bananas enough.

I haven’t mentioned the weather because it’s been lovely and warm the whole time we’ve been here. One night it rained and the streets were a little wet in the morning, but other than that, it’s been hazily sunny and warm about 28-32C and even higher on some days - what could be better?!

Michael went off to school with Cat and Snow and I stayed in the hotel room planning to go to the grocery store to get some water. I did a bit on line and then took a taxi. I have a couple of sheets of paper with the name of the university, the hotel, the mall and the grocery store all in Chinese so I just show the taxi driver the one I want and he takes me there.

The taxis are everywhere, so are the modern day “rickshaws” - which are motorbikes with often rusted metal carts behind them; very abundant. People take their children to school on them or they fill them with garbage or vegetables or car parts...

So, I was let off at the grocery mall and on the way we happened to pass the market that Frank had mentioned the night before. I bought 4 bottles of water, looked around the mall - it was more of a walmart qulaity store; the items were much cheaper than in the first mall I’d been too - and then walked down a couple streets to the market.

I didn’t have the time or energy to see it all, because I was to meet Michael at 12:00. When I got to the university and was waiting for Michael, I met a young man from Perth England; Greg was his name. He was teaching English and was scheduled to be at the University until January - “If he makes it that far” he said. He’s encountered a similar problem to Michael in that the student’s level of learning is a challenge because they are not familiar with the Chinese pinyin form of Roman characters.

So, there was supposed to be a presentation at 12;00 but it didn’t happen so Bo, Cat an Snow took us to the student cafeteria for lunch. It’s quite a dingy looking place, a large room with many stalls along two sides of it, a small student grocery store and a few other services. It’s very rough looking and very dirty. They served our food on plates that were wrapped in plastic bags. I suppose it saves on dishes, but I didn’t relish the thought of eating hot food on thin plastic bags - but I ate it. And they wonder why people die at 60 here...

After that we went back to the hotel and had a rest. I didn’t feel too great upon waking so Michael went back to the school on his own. I would meet him at some point. So it happened that the Chancellor of the university was ready to make a presentation to Michael and did and I missed it. Michael received an invitation to be a part-time teacher at the university - to come and teach whenever it was convenient for him. Cool.

I stayed at the hotel until I got a call from Chunhong to meet Michaael and her in the lobby so to go for supper. I was feeling better. We took a taxi down some small streets to a restaurant and had a pleasant meal. The chairs were made of solid tree trunk and the tables were solid wood about 4 inches thick. I’d forgotten my camera so I missed opportunities for pics of odd vehicles, but got a few of the restaurant with Michael’s camera.

Then we had to rush back to the university for Michael’s presentation at 7:30. It was an excellent presentation and I was impressed with Michael’s teaching skills. It was really the first time I’d ever hear him lecture and he’s very good. I learned a lot. After the lecture, Cat and Bo walked us through the university campus to the front gate where we got a taxi. When we arrived in our room at the hotel, there was a message on Michael’s phone from Cat that we should let the guys know that we were safe in the hotel. So sweet, they're very considerate.

Day 6 - Wednesday June 4, 2008

2008-06-12T20:52:00.000-03:00

This is another favourite pic of mine:

Zhumadian is a city of about 300,000 but it's farming community includes about 6 million people. The map below is of Henan province and the yellow area is Zhumadian Prefecture.

These pics were taken yesterday - it had rained a bit overnight and the streets were wet. But the sun came out later and it was the brightest day of the two weeks here in Zhumadian.

Strangley, because everyone is moving, the people in my pics often end up all one on top of another by the time the camera flashes...

Two modes of transportation: this is farming land and it's all very flat - easy to walk and easy to bike. The motorbikes and motorized tricycles (not like the one above) are all electric so the traffic is relatively very quiet.

This morning at about 10:30 my long lost suitcase arrived!! I was so happy I hugged the woman who brought it up to our room. It was a little worse for wear - dirty and a little frayed in one area. The lock was taken off so it appears they looked inside - I wonder if they thought my supplements were drugs ... oh well everything was still in my bag, nothing lost. So I unpacked and put all my clothes in the chest of drawers under the mirror. Finally I felt like my vacation could begin.

A pic from the lobby.

Not long after that there was a knock on the door, it was Tien (an assistant who works in the International Department) who had brought 17 bananas, 9 huge apples and some special, very bitter, herbal tea. He told me that his mother has the same problem (chuckle) and directed me on how to make the tea. That day I had about 6 cups of the tea and the next am a bm.

Another pic from the lobby.

Michael came home at about 1:30, we had a rest and afterwards I walked down a street I hadn’t been on and took more pictures.

That night we went to a party - 9 people in total, 5 were chinese, 4 were Canadian. We had dinner in a private room at hotel restaurant and there was a LOT of drinking going on. It was quite funny, actually. The food was delicious - again.

On the way home in the taxi, Frank pointed out an open market area that was interesting to go to (I made a mental note). He’d gotten three mosquito tents at this market for himself and two other guys - who all stay in apartments while they teach.

Day 5 - Tuesday June 3, 2008

2008-06-12T06:56:00.000-03:00

I stayed home to work on the Chinese student’s books this morning, but first saw Michael off at the bus stop. Snow and Cat came to show Michael how to use the bus system. We had been using taxis up to now - they cost about 1 dollar per ride to the university. The bus ride is 14 cents per ride.

I’ve been taking a lot of pictures - especially of old vehicles. This morning after I saw Michael to the bus, I stood at the corner of an intersection taking pictures for quite a while.

A man came up to me and chatted in his limited English, he came across to me as a little drunk, and said the word “police” (maybe he worked for the police, but he was normally dressed) and he said this, “My English is very poor.”, I said, “Your English is ok.” just to be polite, he grinned. I have a suspician that he was there to ask me not to take pictures because of other experiences I've had since.. but I found that if I just act like I don't understand Chinese ... which I don't, they walk away - perhaps frustrated, but I smile in order to look innocent.

He asked if I was a teacher, I told him I was an artist but my husband was a teacher - at the university. Who knows if he understood, not long after that, I went back to the hotel.

In the afternoon I walked a bit and then took a taxi to the same mall I had been to before.

The dress I had was a little uncomfortable and my other clothes were in the laundry (it took us a day to find out when they pick up laundry).

So it took me a while, but finally I found a blouse that fit me... I bought 3 of them (I don’t know why - I just wanted some options). I also found some pyjamas (had been wearing a t-shirt of Michael’s). They were men’s, but they were kind of pretty and they fit me!

I didn’t want to buy any clothes in China because I don’t need any clothes. But now that I found out how easy it is to buy a pair of shoes that fit, I’d be foolish not to get a few more pairs (right?).

That evening (Tuesday, June 3rd) Cat and another male student Bo or Beau, took us to a restaurant and we had a more typical Chinese meal. After we chose some dishes from the picture menu, they brought them all out and filled up the table so there was hardly any room for our little plates. I knocked my plate off of the table and messed up my freshly laundered pants. Oh well, I wiped them a bit with some wet kleenex...

The food was great and I found out that Cat’s father is a doctor and is away from home spending time in the earthquake area at a hospital. His mother is anxious about him. Cat asked me if I knew of Mahjong. Yes, I told him I played it on the computer and he told me his Dad is addicted to the game; he often plays until 4 am. I figured he was under a lot of stress as a doctor... but it was sad to hear.

I’m getting better at using chop sticks, but my hand muscles tire somewhat after a half hour of holding the sticks - I started to drop food before it got to my mouth - just can’t hold them tight enough anymore. But I’m having fun learning some new things.

(an aside)

I’ve used a “squat” toilet twice now - just for no. 1. The toilet is inset directly into the floor with places for your feet so you don’t slip. If I have pants on I have to take them off first because I don’t want them sprayed... (Ah, but a few days into it I discovered how to go without taking my pants off!)

Hmm... since my sick morning on Sunday I haven’t had a bm. So this morning I called Chunhong to see if she could take me to a TCM for some herbs or something. Her husband is a doctor, but not a TCM. I might have to end up taking some medication - I hope not!

Day 4 - Monday June 2, 2008

2008-06-12T06:10:00.000-03:00

This morning I went with Michael to his class (with 45 students) and actually learned something about web-design.

But I’m not sure how much the students learned because I was sitting at the back and could see what the 8 students in the last row were doing. One was sleeping with his head on the desk, one was playing solitaire, one was looking at cars, one was looking at seductively dressed girlie pictures, the only girl at the back was looking at purses and clothing, another fellow was watching youtube videos and showing his friends beside him, they were chuckling. I guess what Michael was saying was all Greek to them.

In the afternoon we went to a shopping mall with Chunhong.

She is a very intelligent woman, 30 something, who works in the International Department and who speaks excellent English (she has a 3 yr old child named Gua Gua). Since I only had the clothes I was wearing, I needed to buy something and Chunhong spent a lot of time with me as I tried on a lot of clothing.

Unfortunately this was easier said than done because although I can choose size medium or 10 in Canada, I found myself only fitting in tops that are size XXL. That day all I found was a dress that was a little tight; it was size XL, but I got it for about 10 dollars so it would do for a bit.

The change room was a sheet hung up by a string across the back corner and women just walked in when they wanted to try something on. I was waiting and waiting to get in and other women just kept on going in before me. Finally I got it that they go in 2 or 3 at a time (that’s all there was space for) and they'd just start taking their clothes off and trying on new clothes. Ok, it didn’t take me long to get the hang of it.

What was really surprising though, were the shoes I found. I picked out a pair, asked for size 39, they fit me, I bought them, 2 minutes - no problem! They were a little less than 10 dollars. Not only that, I have been wearing them for the last three days and my feet don’t hurt at all!!

That night Michael and I went out to eat with two students: Snow and Cat. Snow is very tall and thin, plays basketball and he says he eats for two people - true. Cat is short and his face is reminiscent of a cat’s face; he said that’s why he chose the name. Cat says the girls like Snow because he’s tall, but says he thinks the girls don’t like him because he’s short. Both were very friendly and they took us out for dumplings - a very traditional Chinese food they said.

So, we took a taxi to some unfamiliar city street (that's most streets for me) and went into a seemingly run down very small, open stall. They bought two steamed baskets of dumplings, but - walked out of the shop with the pot (what what what?). We walked down the street about 10 stalls farther and went into another small stall that had about 5 tables with benches in it - most tables were filled with people. We found the only free space, sat down and the guys put the dumplings on the table and ordered more food.

Apparently this was another stall-food type shop, which served different food. The guys ordered fruit conge, some pizza crust with pickled vegetable bits and another fruit soup type of food. It was all delicious - I loved the conge, Michael didn’t - sweet stuff is not his thing. When we were done, Cat returned the baskets to the original stall and we took a taxi back to the hotel. They guys went home to their dorm at school.

Day 3 - Sunday morning (June 1st)

2008-06-10T21:35:00.000-03:00

I had a very good deep sleep that first night in China, but when I woke up in the morning I was extremely dizzy; every time I opened my eyes, the room would spin - quite quickly. So after a few attempts with my eyes open, I eventually had to crawl on my hands and knees to the toilet. I can honestly say that I felt like “crap”.

I had never experienced that feeling - EVER, maybe it was like a hangover, I don’t know, but I proceeded to empty out from both ends for about the next 40 minutes with 2 times violent heaving and many bms the consistency of cow pies. (sorry for the details)

I went back to bed while Michael went out for a walk for an hour. When he came back I was still in bed so he went and had breakfast. When he came back again I was feeling a bit better, had a shower and we went downstairs together, sat and had some watermelon. I checked out the clothes shops - 1800 RMB’s for a men’s polo shirt - 2200 RMBs for a woman’s skirt - that’s over 300.00!! - so, no, I wouldn’t be getting another top or pair of pants from that hotel.

(I had still not taken any pictures... but that would change - beware!)

After the watermelon, I was feeling better yet and we packed up and left the luxurious Sofitel with a young man named Tian (Tien?) who had arranged a drive for us to Zhumadian - in a van - 2.5 hour’s drive. Ooh, it was nice and warm outside!

The van's back windows were tinted so all of my pics from road trips are pink unless I took them out the front window (I never sat in the front seat) ... oh well, I think you'll get the idea.

The drive was very interesting - we passed fields and fields of wheat, ripe for harvest. Some was in the process of being harvested, but most fields were untouched. I noticed along the drive that some people were doing this work by hand! - every square meter of land was used, non wasted - even between the highway and fenced in buildings - a 5 meter’s wide stip of land was used for farming and was being harvested.

I also noticed that often the roads between the fields were raised, perhaps 10 or more feet, as though the fields were cut out, but maybe the roads were built up, I don’t know. The farther we got from Zhengzhou, the bigger the fields got and the more machinery we saw - but still, the tractors were few and old looking.

There was a lot of manual labour involved in farming here and I know how hard that is - just with the garden we had when I was a child. It’s back breaking work. I put my hand on the windows of the air conditioned van we were driving in, they were warm - aah, how comforting.

We arrived at the hotel in Zhumadian - dropped our stuff off in a nice room and went to meet with some people from the university.

(sunrise view from our hotel room - we only saw this once - otherwise it was much hazier)

The room had a queen bed, a very large window (looking out from the side of the hotel to apartment buildings and other buildings under construction), a vanity desk, TV, a small table and two chairs. Simple but sufficient. It took me a couple days to realize that the bed was actually not that bad, it was softer than the hard flat chairs I’d been sitting on for sometimes 2 hours.

That evening Lippo, a teacher and Fred, a student who spoke very good English, took us out to a restaurant where I had some difficulty understanding that when I ordered something, it would come in a large quantity, on a very large plate and was meant for sharing. Oh. So I had a lot of fresh vegetables and some steamed cucumber with pieces that looked like gigantic white beans but tasted like water chesnuts (very delicious)...

The “view” from our room was intriguing because what I began to realize, was that I was seeing the life of the people who worked at the hotel. There was a very long tiled sink with 5 taps, outside a building which was attached to, and matching the style of our hotel. This building seemed to be the place of residence of the people who worked in the hotel. But at the floor level I think there was a kitchen.

I saw 2 women walking with a very large pan filled with food from the front of the building back to another entrance (with plastic flaps) nearest the outside sink. The plastic flaps help keep the heat out of the kitchen (hmmm). I saw some flames through the back window of that room.

I saw people with pots and other utensils come out to clean their items in the tiled sink. One day I saw two women at the sink, one in her pyjamas brushing her teeth, the other washing her hair using a large blue plastic bowl. Today I saw how a young woman brushed her teeth - she put the toothpaste in her mouth first, took a sip of water and then put her toothbrush in her mouth and proceeded to brush.

It seems that this was a small community of people travelling back and forth from their homes to their jobs across the yard. People knew each other and worked together. They stopped to talk, maybe to someone who was working outside; there was an older man cutting a piece of wood (a chair leg?) on a table saw. The saw blade must have been a very dull saw because it took a long time to cut that piece of wood - even if it had been hardwood.

At one point about 5 or 6 men gathered and watched a man welding an old wheel barrow. They stopped, chatted and had a smoke together.

Another time I saw a small, maybe 2 yr old child who was playing peek-a-boo at another plastic-flap door to another part of the kitchen. There didn’t seem to be just one person tending to this child - I saw no woman looking after him... everyone seemed to know him and there was an older man who came by and played for a moment with the child.

Another time, I saw a woman stopping to touch an older child, maybe 5 yrs old who was sitting on a motor bike in front of his dad (?). I took some videos.

Just now I saw four men squating down and eating outside - with their bowls of rice on the pavement. By the time I took a pic, one was at the sink washing his bowls. The sink is a busy place... seems these people are enjoying themselves; their work life is basically their life.

One fellow lives on top of the utility building on the left (large black pipes run from the hotel to this smaller building), I saw him doing up his pants beside his clothes line. Their are two huge fans on the roof.

So, the next morning I noticed that the cement “yard” between our hotel and the worker’s residence (and hotel kitchen) had been tidied up. The pipes were in piles and off to the side. I was surprised because all of the large pipes, pieces of metal, wood and what looked like construction garbage was old and rusted... like it had been laying there unattended for years. It was reassuring that yes, this place did get a bit of attention.

Right below our 7th floor window and to left was the “recycling depot” for the hotel. Garbage is dumped in a pile in the middle of the yard and sorted out. The larger of the two makeshift sheds contained cardboard, plastic bags and bottles, tin cans, etc. The other smaller shed was for “compost”.

However, it was not like our Canadian compost - this stuff had plastic bags, bamboo mats, bits of glass and other mysterious material all mixed in with the food waste.

Outside the sheds they piled larger oil cans, glass bottles plus a lot of other unrecognizable stuff. When all the recyclables were taken out of the pile in the centre of the yard, someone with a long-handled metal scrapper pushed the compost into the small shed - the door was an old piece of particle board. Today I saw a man in a motor wagon come and empty out the “compost bin” with a shovel. He also picked up the odd piece of junk with his bare hands. Yuck.

Day 1 & 2 - On the way to China... May 30, 2008

2008-06-10T21:10:00.000-03:00

I think this is going to be my favourite China picture, so I'm using it for an introduction. I love the smile on this woman's face.

We left our house at around 10 am on Friday morning, it was around 15C and cloudy (May 30, 2008). The flight to New York was leaving at 1pm. Our bags were checked to go through to Beijing, so we didn’t have to futz with them in NY (great!). We happened to meet a friend, Cellie, and her husband who were spending the weekend in NY, they were going to go to a ball game and to see Jerry Seinfeld.

Arrived at NY airport a couple hours later (25C) at terminal 8, took the tram to terminal 1 to catch the 4:30 to Beijing. Arrived 13 or so hours later and suddenly it was Saturday evening and 35C (but Friday morning for us).

We arrived at the spanking new terminal 3 - it was beautiful and the floors looked shiny, just like still water; they were so polished. Michael wanted to rush to get our luggage, so there was no time for pics. But by the time we got to the baggage claim area, alas, my luggage was missing (boohoo); we then spent about an hour reporting and giving numbers for where we were going to be the next night and the night after that.

We took a tram to terminal 2 where we had an hour long flight to Zhengzhou. There were some delays, so when we finally got to our hotel, it was around midnight. I’d slept maybe an hour or so on the plane from New York so I was good and tired for the night’s sleep in Zhengzhou. But...

During the flight a piece of my back left tooth had chipped off; it had started to chaff against my tongue and cheek (owee), so when I got to the hotel in Zhengzhou I immediately opened up the nail file package and used the finer harder white side to sand down the roughness of my tooth - ah, that was a relief - but maybe a mistake. Then I carelessly I used some of the tap water to wet my toothbrush for brushing (oops) but after that I remembered to use the bottled water and rinsed with that. In order to get a good night’s sleep and help with the jet lag, I took two melatonin pills; but they were Michael’s and different from the ones I normally take.

people selling herbs at the Shaolin Temple area.