sayhitojohn

Our Chinese Adventure has drawn to a close.  We passed through the hostel doors this morning at 9:00 and were met with one last blast of smells, sights and sounds.  Our Shanghai accomdation was right next to a meat and fish market.  With that, the mornings brought among the most powerful odors to assault that unavoidable sense.  Riley gagged and Tara held her breathe until it was safe to draw air again. I peeked out at 6:00 one morning to see garbage strewn all about.  Amongst the garbage were people who appeared to be sorting through it and pulling out food stuffs.  I do not know the final destination of this food but I imagine it may have served to sustain those who had picked it out.   On our way to the station we heard fireworks exploding and saw a limo decorated with flowers and a well dressed man inside.  There were a few other flower clad cars in what we can presume was a wedding procession.  If you listened carefully you often heard fireworks in the areas we visited.  

The streets in China were filled at all hours with all sorts of  mopeds in conditions that seemed to defy not simply road worthiness but the ability to roll under power at all.  Apparently cash for clunkers has not yet hit the mainland.  This is the only new moped I saw on the entire trip, and it was a beauty. Mopeds abound in China in the city and in the country and are used for all sorts of human and goods transportation.  They are the original two wheeled sport utility vehicle, transporting whole families, man drives, wife on the back and baby in front of him.  I have seen a moped carrying a sheet of glass with the driver balancing it under his chin, don't brake/break.  Another time a driver was transporting 2 large tanks that could have been propane. The mopeds are electric.  Which makes them pollution free, ignore the power generation ;-), silent, and all the more deadly.  Because they run on battery power the drivers of these already stealth machines do not use headlights at

The morning of our last full day in China we decided to do one more market visit that included a nice long walk to get there.  On foot is really where you get to see the action in a big city and the mornings always show a different side then the evening.  We spent less then an hour in the market as we really just wanted to see what it was all about in Shanghai. In the afternoon we toured the Yu Yuan Gardens which translates as Gardens of Happiness.  This was a maze of different little sub-gardens and gazebos.  The girls made the most of this by offering us multiple glamor shots. Once again, the weather was our friend as it only rained a little bit, just enough to scare the crowds away for a while.  In China you are never really away from the crowds.  With this many people there are always a few million here and there. Riley loves Tara so much sometimes she just wants to squeeze her. After the gardens we toured the river-front area called the Bund for a look from Old Shanghai across the

One of our guides said that it is safe for westerners to travel in China because the people will not do anything to us in fear that the government will come down severely on them.  Sometimes we hear the word "Laowei" from the Chinese around us, this can be translated 'Barbarian'.  Unlike the American melting pot, for many years the Chinese have been a closed society and trained to look at all non-Chinese as outsiders.  This sentiment still holds with many but, as far as I can tell, cannot be isolated to any particular age group.  I think we are more often than not seen as a curiosity.  This is evidenced in the many dozens of picture requests for the girls and the sheer excitement that seems to overcome some people when they see our kiddos.  Patti and I have had our days in the sun as well with a few solo requests, but only when the kids are not around. Another real ice-breaker is when we speak in Chinese.  It can be phrases as simple as Thank You and Goodbye that brin

We started our first morning in Shanghai with a departure from the group as the Huth family headed down to Zhujiajiao (say that three times as fast as you can).  Zhujiajiao is the Venice of China.  Not quite as grand but a worthwhile visit nonetheless.  It can be rather touristy except on weekday mornings in the rain which happened to be the case when we visited. We arrived in this town just a hair on the clueless side and had all kinds of folks trying to sell us moto-rickshaw rides presumably to the attraction.  We turned them down even though the price dropped to $1.50.  The funny thing about the pricing here, on a rainy weekday morning, is that it drops very far, very fast.  The next character we met was a 10 year old that said that he was an official guide and actually 31 years of age and that he only looks like child.  Strange, but true? This was a neat little town in an officially communistic country that had fully embraced the capitalistic tourism trade, but if you kept your eye

Soycicle, Made With Real Soy. Born Again Date? Umm...which aisle is the toilet paper in? Only for the daring. Flush, flush, flush with reckless abandon. Lunch is served. Caterpillar Chiken anyone?

Our arrival in Shanghai marked the first time in the journey where we would spend 3 nights in the same bed.  This is the first hostel that actually had box springs, unfortunately that is all they had, talk about a hard bed.  The first order of business was to plug the toilet because someone put the toilet paper into it, oops.  That resulted in me resorting to the common toilet down the hall, one my way I had to navigate around a great pool of water in the middle of the passage.  I suspect someone else had localized flooding due too misplaced toilet paper.  Our last hostel gets a few more stars then this one. When we were climbing the stairs to our room, loaded with packs and bags, we noticed the sign indicating that the air conditioning was out.  Not to fear as we would just open our window and cool off a bit that way.  We soon discovered that was not going to help.  It just opened to the adjacent hallway, weird. On the first evening we went for a stroll down a nearby avenue and found

Bushed. Could be longer. Goliath Mattress Co. ...here birdy bird flu...here...

Leaving Beijing we journeyed by van to Moganshan via Hangzhou.  In Hangzhou is the famed West Lake which is said to have inspired writers and others artists from the East and a few from the West.  We abbreviated our tour of the lake and hit one of the coolest coffee shops for a chill as Riley was feeling a bit under the weather.  But not before capturing some views of the lake and a few shots. On the way to the lake the girls discovered a new take on cold sweets, the ice cream burrito.  Don't think that not feeling well would stop Riley from an eating opportunity. We boarded the van once again and continued on to Moganshan.  There we were to go on a hike to a lake that we could take a dip in and also do a hike up a mountain for a view of the bamboo forests.  There is quite a bit of bamboo harvesting that happens near Moganshan and the bamboo is pulled down onto the main road and loaded up on trucks.  These bamboo hauling trucks are parked in the middle of the road as we discovered

That post title may raise some eyebrows, but that is all it should elevate.  We boarded our final overnight transport the night before last.  On this trip we had four overnight trains and one bus that drove us through the night for a total of 78 hours of travel that included some sleep time.  Most of out travel distances were were covered in such a way.  It made sense to move between locations during a time when we were not going to be doing anything else, and it was a lot cheaper to boot.  I will have to get the official stats but we are estimating between at least 2500 and probably 4000 miles traveled.   I have done a few long mountain bike races and those really help put into perspective the shorter rides, the same holds true for our first overnight train of 25 hours. The kids have taken to sleeping on trains quite nicely.  We put them in the top bunks and they have a great time up there reading, joking and even getting some movie and game time in. With your bunk comes a

Today we visited the Summer Palace.  It was built on a high point and was a very nice retreat for the highest ruler of the land. We entered from the North and climbed up through a temple structure and over the top were met with a fantastic lake view. The girls enjoyed their energy drink of preference.  Consuming the bubbly has been a common occurrence in China for the  girls especially now that they do not have to pay for the bathroom, like they did in Europe.  However, you get what you pay for and that is especially noticeable when it come to 'free' toilets.  Along with carbonated syrup we have been eating lots of soft serve ice cream cones, at least one a day. There was a beautiful covered walked that ran half mile around the lake and told a story with the images painted on its beams. The long view. Again, I am a fan of the eaves. And...no day is complete without a few dozen fan shots. We said goodbye to our Beijing guide this evening, Noodles.  Yep, that was what he wanted u