HK and BBQ

As usual, we are on the go.  This time around we spent last weekend in Hong Kong.  After having two days of parent-teacher conferences, we packed our bags and headed for the border.

Luo Hu Shopping
Since Dom and Dorys' wedding is coming up very soon, we decided to get our outfits tailor made.  Many of our friends here have suggested that we try using tailors, however the idea just never seemed to intrigue us.  That changed for Pazi when she became frantic about what to wear for the wedding in Guadalajara.  She talked Adan into getting a suit made, while she designed her own dress.

The process was rather simple, but time consuming.  We made our way to the 4th floor of the shopping complex that borders with Hong Kong.  Here we located the tailor that our friend Terese had used the year previous.  Ironically, the woman in the tailor shop, Annie, remember Pazi from a visit she made with Terese when she had something made previously.  She was very helpful and got right down to business.

We spent about thirty minutes talking about the designs of the dress and the suit.  We brought in photos of examples from websites.  These people have years of experience so the process was actually pretty smooth.  They looked at the photos, talked to us about our preferences, and then drew quick sketches for us to approve.  Once this was done we decided on fabrics and materials.

Adan started first.  He wanted a suit that would be formal, yet have the ability to be semi-casual so he decided on a linen suit.  The fabric was actually easy to find.  The dilemma was choosing the color and texture.  The seller had two dozen different colors and textures to choose from.  Ultimately, the choice of a beige, stronger linen was made.

For Pazi to get everything she needed, it took a bit more time.  She wanted a cream dress layered with lace and silk lining.  Since several different materials were needed to make the dress, we had to visit several different sellers for each part.  We bargained with lace vendors, silk sellers, and organza stalls until everything was just right.

Finally, we had our measurements taken.  This took no time at all.  As we did this Annie discussed with us the timeline for completing the clothing.  She told us to anticipate a 7 day wait for the materials to be put together.  Next, we would need to return for a fitting, and then 5-7 more days to put the finishing touches on our dress and suit.  She admitted that this was a bit slower than usual due to the winter season being a busy time of year for tailor shops.

Hong Kong Back Streets
With our tailoring finished, we made our way to Hong Kong.  We decided to take it easy this time around and just get lost in hustle and bustle of the side streets of Hong Kong Central.  Adan thought about putting an agenda together, however we needed to be at the Shekou QSI School on Sunday evening and the time needed to really enjoy other parts of HK was not there. 

We stayed at the Empire Hotel Wan Chai.  This is a great hotel with an even better location right in the heart of Hong Kong Island.  Adan looked a couple of weeks back for special prices and was lucky enough to find a great rate with a international buffet breakfast included.  One other draw for this hotel is the great restaurants and pubs that surround it.  Pazi was dying to have something exotic so this was an obvious choice for us.

Our Saturday began at and around the streets of Li Yuen East and West.  This area is well known for having great market and street vendors selling anything and everything at rock bottom prices.  After all our previous visits to Hong Kong, we had never been here before.  We decided it was time to give it a try.

For the next several hours we shopped finding amazing deals on name brand clothing and great souvenirs for family and friends.  The streets flowed from one to the next with dealers displaying goods in small stalls.  Eventually our wandering lead us to the nearby Lan Kwai Fong Street Carnival.  This annual event celebrates food, drinks, and cultures from around the world.  Vendors sell amazing street food aimed at adults while children can play at carnival game booths with clowns and cartoon characters.

As night drew near, we decided to see the Night Temple Market.  We had seen this famous Hong Kong market in portions, but never in its entirety.  This time, using our guide book, we took a route that would allow us to catch it all.  Interestingly enough, the parts we hadn't seen before were nothing special, mainly trinkets and adult toys.  However, the rest of the market exposed us to Indian textiles, Chinese antiques, paintings, and hundreds of bootleg items.  We did our fair share of buying before getting hungry and heading off.

Finally, we made our way back to Wan Chai.  Pazi really wanted to have Lebanese food at a restaurant called Ebeneezer's.  We found this restaurant the last time we came to Hong Kong and just loved it.  We ended up ordering some delicious kebab wraps with chicken and lamb along with a nice salad.  It was definitely a nice change of pace from our meals in Dongguan and capped off a nice day to our short Hong Kong trip.

Mr. and Mrs Sun's BBQ
Upon returning from Hong Kong and professional development days in Shekou, our school's head guard, Mr. Sun (pronounced soon), stopped Adan to talk to him.  In Mandarin, Mr. Sun invited us to a special barbecue meal for the upcoming Saturday.  We were floored at the invitation because we know something like this is a huge sign of respect in China.

Let us give a little background on Mr. and Mrs. Sun.  We first met them over two years ago when we started working at QSI Dongguan.  Mr. Sun loved it when we began greeting him in Chinese and would always ask us to help him with pronunciation of English words.  He enjoyed having us teach him words like "keys" or "haircut."  As we began to learn more Mandarin, his confidence in speaking to us grew.  Mrs. Sun, one of our school's custodians, connected with us as well.  She always looks after us in a motherly kind of way.  Not a day goes by when she doesn't say hello or check to make sure we have eaten lunch.  The two are great people.

When Saturday finally arrived, we were a little bit nervous.  Never had we gone into an environment where we would need to stay for an extended amount of time and have to rely solely on our Chinese.  However, we knew things would be fine.  At 3:05pm, with flowers and a bottle of wine as gifts, we meet Mr. Sun at the school right on time (so we thought).  We greeted him and asked, "We hope you haven't been waiting long?"  With an honest response he said, "I've been here since 2:40."  This was a great cultural lesson for us about "Chinese" time in comparison to our ideology of "Mexican" time.  In case you were wondering, Mr. Sun said to be at the school at 3:00pm!

For the next four hours, we barbecued like there was no tomorrow.  It was nice to see Mrs. Sun's sister and husband, and Mr. and Mrs. Sun's son and girlfriend join us for the meal.  We ate grilled chicken, beef and pork.  Then we had grilled greens, corn on the cob, and pumpkin.  They also gave us this great peanut sauce for marinating our food.  Throughout the meal we talked about Chinese food, Mexican food, school and work, hobbies, etc.  It was a great time!  After eating, we gathered our things and took a few last pictures together before going home.

We are extremely thankful for having such good friends as Mr. and Mrs. Sun.  Without a doubt they will be coming to our house soon for an authentic Mexican meal.  We think we'll wait until we get back from Mexico during winter vacation.  Then we can return with fresh spices and ingredients for them to enjoy.

All Work and No Play?

Things have been hectic around here the last few weeks.  We have been really focused on our classes and other school related activities.  Here is a quick breakdown of what we have been up to: 

Adan has been heavily involved with sports.  Although he did not coach volleyball this year, he played the role of "lead official" for many games during the season (see pic).  The QSI Dongguan Triton teams fared alright competing in their first-ever conference tournament.  The girls finished in fifth place out of eight teams, and the boys ended up seventh.  Considering we earned our first-ever school victories earlier in this same season, we held our own.  Now we move on to basketball.  The first official practice is November 1.  Here we go again!

As for Pazi, she's decided to pursue her Master's degree taking one course per semester online.  Balancing her classroom planning and coursework will be a challenge, but she is excited to take this on.  She's using NNU's virtual program out of Nampa, Idaho, which is designed for both brick and mortar and virtual classes.  Additionally, she is serving on the social committee for our school and her first big task will be planning our school's annual Thanksgiving celebration.  Since our school keeps growing, it will be interesting to see how we can pull off such a large event.

On a different note, this past Friday was our Halloween party for students.  Each year we put together a "Fall Carnival" where the older students and teachers create carnival games for the younger students to play and win prizes.  Pazi's activity was the M&M Challenge.  This game consisted of students needing to transfer M&M candies from one bowl to another, but the trick was to do so using chopsticks.  Adan's activity was Radical Ring Toss.  Students had the opportunity to win prizes of all shapes and sizes depending on the difficulty level of their toss.  If the student got the ring around the prize, they won.

As we said earlier, school has consumed us lately and therefore not a lot to report on.  The next two weeks will be different though.  Be on the look out for a new post in a couple of weeks with a photo slide show and details from our latest weekend getaway.

Travelin' Thailand

For Chinese National Day vacation we received one full week of vacation from school.  We decided to finally visit Thailand, a destination that so many foreigners seem to love visiting.

To save money we ended up having to travel a tricky route that required us to be flexible.  We left Shenzhen at 11:30pm in route for Bangkok.  However, this was not our final destination.  Pazi really wanted to visit an elephant camp in northern Thailand.  This required us to fly to the city of Chiang Mai first before seeing Bangkok.  Unfortunately, because we flew into Bangkok so late, we had to wait until 6:00am to leave for our Chiang Mai flight.  Since it was pushing 2:00am when we arrived from Shenzhen, we roughed it and rested at at the airport until morning. 

The time between flights actually passed rather quickly and after our one hour flight, we landed in Chiang Mai.  Located about 435 km north of Bangkok, Chiang Mai is a very important city in Thai history dating all the way back to 1296.  Due to its location, the city had great importance mainly because of its status of being a one time capital and its trade route location.  Now, many centuries later, Chiang Mai is a tourist hub welcoming over a million visitors yearly to visit temples, shop the hundreds of market stalls, eat at the tens of superb restaurants, and take in the sublime natural scenery of the cities outskirts.

Just A Wandering
Our first day required us to find a place to stay. We found a nice hotel with a prime location that cost us a bit over 800 baht (less than $30 US).  After dropping off our gear, we decided to take it easy and simply wander our first day.  Doing so had as taking in the sights of Wat after Wat (temples), smelling the aromas of food from all over the world, and seeing the beautiful people.

After cruising around town,  we were so hungry after only snacking on little things all day. We decided to have a hearty meal that night.  We ate Middle Eastern cuisine at a wonderful little restaurant called Jerusalem Falafel.  The food definitely had our taste buds going and Pazi devoured an amazing Greek Salad while Adan munched on his lamb pita wrap.  Great stuff!

When we exited the restaurant we noticed a lot of commotion going on just down the street.  In turns out this was the location of the Chiang Mai weekend night market.  Over four hours we browsed endless rows of vendors.  Never in our lives did we see so much for sell.  Adan's father would have been in heaven as the shopping stretched over six full city blocks, and even spilled over into four way intersection crossroads!  We dickered and dealed until we said no more.  We needed to get up to see the elephants the next morning.

Amazing Elephants
During our wandering the day before we ended up meeting a young man no more than 19 years old named "Git."  This guy promised to show us all that Chiang Mai had to offer and for a fraction of the price.  Since we really dislike tour groups we figured why not.  He was a legit driver and we bargained until we reached a compromise.  He promised to pick us up at 8:30 sharp in the morning and he didn't fail.  In fact, he escorted us to a early 2000s BMW that we would be using all day.  Things were off to a good start.

After a 90 minute drive, we arrived in the lush jungles north of Chiang Mai city.  We turned off a main road and before long we began driving on dirt paths.  After another 20 minutes we reached our elephant camp.  We paid our entrance fees and waited with others to see what would happen.  The show began with our group watching the elephants and their caretakers taking baths in the river.  It was pretty neat to see the elephants submerge themselves in the water, then get up and shoot water at us with their trunks.  One lady got drenched.

After that we sat in a bleachered area as the elephants danced, performed with musical instruments, played soccer, and even did painting.  Pazi loved the painting so much that she bought one, and felt good as the money went to improving the living conditions of the elephants.  Lastly, we took a trek in jungle riding on an elephant.  It was awesome.  Our guide was great and let us take lots of pictures and ride right on the neck of our elephant to get a real up close and personal experience.

After we finished this, we had a buffet lunch of several different Thai dishes.  We ate soups, noodles, spring rolls, and various other things.  It was actually pretty good considering it was made for several tourists.

The last activity for the day was a bamboo raft river "cruise."  This seemed pretty boring the first five minutes.  The trip had us seeing lots of green vegetation, but not much else.  Then as the river opened up we began to see other elephant groups and villages.  Within a couple of minutes it began to drizzle and then shower heavy rain.  This continued for another 20 minutes as we got soaked.  Finally we reached the end of our trip and sought shelter.  Git was waiting for us so we jumped in the car to head back to our hotel after a eventful day.  We laughed and laughed as we rode back to our hotel thinking how the river cruise began as such an unmemorable event but finished as something we would never forget.

Wat Doi Suthep and Long Neck Tribe
Since our previous day went well, we hired Git again for another day.  Our two activities included visiting a Karen Tribe Village and seeing Chiang Mai's most famous temple--Wat Doi Suthep.  On this day however, Git was not able to borrow the BMW and we were relegated to using his Tuk Tuk.  It was no problem as riding in the open air is tolerable in Chiang Mai and our distances for the day were rather short.

The village we visited for the Karen Long Neck Tribe was interesting.  This group is a fusion of cultures originating in Burma, but migrating to the Thai border when military unrest broke out during the 1980s.  The brass coils the women wear are first placed on the neck at around the age of 5 years old.  Then as the girl grows and matures, more rings are put on.  As to the reason why the women wear the rings, it is not truly known.  Many hypotheses exist.  However, the women themselves say it is a sense of cultural identity and beauty.

Our visit did not last long.  The village was rather small.  Each female, ranging in ages 5 to 80, had their own small home that doubled as a storefront where they sold hand knitted scarves.  We visited with a few of them and their English was fairly good.  They were very kind, yet reserved group of women. 

Next, we made our way to Wat Doi Suthep.  Git drove us to the bottom of the small mountain this famous temple is on and showed us the buses we would need to take to go up.  Since the trip is about 8km up on a winding round, there are no tuk tuks allowed up.  We parted ways with Git and hopped on the first bus available.  Once we reached the top we needed to climb 309 steps up a dragon lined stairway to reach the main chedi, or stupa, of this temple with a history beginning in the year 1383.

The time we spent at the temple was great.  We enjoyed seeing the ornate halls that filled this temple.  Also, we watched devout Thai Buddhists make their offerings.  Lastly, the views from up above looking down upon Chiang Mai city were wonderful. 

Later, after our temple visit, we went and toured workshops that made Thai silk, handmade paper umbrellas, and local handicrafts.  It was fun, but unfortunately the costs of these items was unreal.  We had no desire to pay double, sometimes triple the price for these goods.  We ended our day with a nice Indian meal at a restaurant called Le Spice, a fusion eatery of Thai, Indian, and other ethnic foods.  It was a nice meal and at a good price of about 120 baht, or $4 dollars.  Wow.

Doi Inthanon National Park
The last day of our Chiang Mai trip was spent visiting the Doi Inthanon National Park.  For this excursion there was no way going around it--we had to join a tour group.  However, when we cut a deal to pay 300 baht below the lowest price that we saw a man the day before haggle for, we were content.  Our journey began at 8:00 am and would last us until 4:00pm that afternoon.  Since our time was limited to just one day, we saw the highlights of this park that opened in 1954.

We ventured to the peak of the mountain top trying to get a glimpse of the incredible views of nature and along the way visited two beautiful waterfalls measuring over a hundred meters each and visiting the King's and Queen's Pagodas.  These two beautiful landmarks were built to commemorate the 60th birthdays of both the King and Queen in the years 1987 and 1992.  Sandwiched in between all this was a set lunch of Thai curry with chicken, salted fish, steamed vegetables, and white rice.

Unbelievable Bangkok
From the title you might wonder what we mean when we use the word "unbelievable," however it is what it is.  Our short time in this city was truly unbelievable.  The amount of people that cram the city sidewalks at night--unbelievable, the amount of traffic and emissions--unbelievable, and the horrible public transportation systems--unbelievable.  But at the same time, the shopping here is equally unbelievable, as is the array of restaurants from all over the world, and the charm of the Chao Phraya River that runs through the heart of the old city--all unbelievable.  Bangkok is definitely hard to describe.  

Our time in this city was short and consisted of visiting temples, taking river boat rides, eating great food from Thailand and abroad, and of course shopping.  Although the Temple of Dawn was very nice, and the famous Reclining Buddha was enormous, the highlight of here for us was the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo.  Its history dates back to the 18th century and since this time has been the home of every royal family.  Each hall and stupa in this complex has been constructed with amazing detail and the finest materials.  Gold, jewels, and sequenced mirrors all ornate the brilliant buildings throughout the palace grounds.

Home Again
After just a few days in Bangkok, it was time to leave.  The travel back to China required us to arrive in Hong Kong.  In doing so we saved a lot of time and money.  It helps when we have Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong airports, all international, to choose from.

Overall, Thailand was a great trip.  We really enjoyed are travels visiting both north and central Thailand.  Both areas had many unique things to offer.  We have a feeling we will be back to Thailand again at some point in time.

School Spirit

Wow!  It's crazy to think that the first three weeks of school have just flown by.  We're still trying to settle back in to our daily work that includes new duties this year.  Pazi is still learning a lot as she transitions to teaching kindergarten.  Adan is trying to keep up with a growing athletic program and the newly created "elective" courses being offered to middle school and secondary students.  Additionally, there are many new faces to our school that add to the dynamics.  In total, we have ten new staff members and over thirty new students. 

Last Thursday our school held its first-ever pep rally.  The event was to build community while showing support for our school's secondary volleyball squads.  They've worked hard to prepare for the season and we decided it was important to get the word out about the first home matches that night.  The kids were a bit confused at first due to never experiencing a pep rally, but once they understood its purpose everything fell into place.  It was a hit with kids and teachers alike!

Check out the pictures that show all of our students outside of our school cheering and holding signs.  The rally even had a cheer squad with pom-poms made up of six and seven year olds.  We pulled all the stops and brought out our school's sound system so that we could have announcers and play music to pump everyone up.  Lastly, we held a banana eating contest at the end of the assembly.  Two teachers were selected, Mr. Morgan and Dr. J, to compete against three volleyball players.  The idea was to see who could eat the most bananas blindfolded in three minutes.  However, it was a setup.  The moment the contest began all three volleyball players took off their blindfolds and the rest of us watched the two teachers gorge themselves in bananas.  It was hysterical!

Later that night, the pep rally worked like a charm.  We experienced our largest crowd in school history to any sporting event.  We had students bring clappers, thunder stixs, and even the infamous vuvuzelas from the World Cup.  It was awesome to see a true "home" court advantage.  And it worked!  Our teams both pulled out victories.  Best of all, the quality of play was outstanding.  The improvement the boys and girls have made from last year to this year is incredible. 

As the saying goes, "It was a good day to be a QSI Triton."         

Goin' Guangxi

Longsheng Town, Yangshuo, and Guilin ~August 2010

Touring Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu- Mountains to Probiscis Monkeys! ~ July 2010

Bali Bums

Everything Bali- beaches, temples, dance and much more! ~ July 2010

Hangzhou Sights

Hangzhou West Lake Area ~ June 2010

Suzhou Sights

Suzhou Temples, Gardens, & Waterways ~ June 2010

Shanghai Sights 5

Tongli Water Village near Shanghai ~ June 2010

Shanghai Sights 4

Shanghai Old City, Pudong, & Museum ~ June 2010

Shanghai Sights 3

Shanghai Neighborhoods ~ June 2010

Shanghai Sights 2

Shanghai Jing An Temple ~ June 2010

Shanghai Sights 1

Shanghai World Expo ~ June 2010

Hangin' in HK

We sure have been busy as the school year begins to wind down.  Only three weeks left until summer vacation.  To reward ourselves for working so hard we made a weekend getaway trip to Hong Kong.  It really was the Grants' idea.  They will be leaving us after this school year and wanted one last Hong Kong excursion.

Friday Hustle
The trip began Friday night.  We got off work and took a taxi directly to the train station.  From Dongguan, we traveled a quick thirty minute ride to Shenzhen.  As we made our way to the border crossing, it became apparent that we were not the only ones with the idea to travel to Hong Kong.  After completing all of the formalities, we hopped on the MTR subway and headed south for Hong Kong Island.  The New Territories of Hong Kong cover a decent area and thus our initial subway ride was thirty minutes.  After transferring lines a couple of times, we finally made it to Causeway Bay and our lodging--Empire Hotel at around 9:00pm.  We happened to stay at another location of the Empire Hotel in the Wan Chai area of Hong Kong and enjoyed it.  We hoped that this location would be just as nice.  It turned out that it is not, but the rooms were adequate.

Since no of us had eaten since lunch, we were starving.  Much to our liking, we located an Indian restaurant right down the road from our hotel.  It was a very small joint, but it had a full house so we knew that the food must have been good.  It did not disappoint.  We ordered great dishes of chick peas, curries, vindaloo, and tandoori.  It was an excellent meal, a bit pricey, but that is how things go in Hong Kong.  They say you pay more for quality on the island.

After dinner we walked around the neighborhood for a few minutes to let our food go down and made our way back to the hotel for bed.  The Grants needed to send a package from the Hong Kong postal service so they had to get up early the next day.  We would lounge for a bit and then meet them for a quick breakfast and then off to hike.

Hiking in HK
This was our second time hiking in Hong Kong.  We made a trip here in November to hike with the Grants as well, however Terese became ill and could not go with us.  She vowed to make up the date and this was our time to do it. 

The location of our hike was the MacLehose Trail at the Saikung National Park.  It is peaceful areas with beautiful scenery--lush mountains, chirping birds, and beaches for walking.  The only problem with this destination is it is a bit of work to reach.  We had to hop back on the subway and transfer a couple of times before taking both a large bus and minibus to the park.  In total it was about an hour's worth of time.  However, after seeing the location it was worth the effort.

The weather called for occasional showers for this Saturday morning/afternoon.  We spent a little over two hours making our way through the main trail.  Two times it began to rain hard and both times we reached shelter as the rain began to fall.  The first time we passed a small village snack shop.  For ten minutes it poured cats and dogs, but we did not have a drop touch us under the awnings of the shop.  We ate an interesting tofu dessert snack while we watched other hikers run to seek shelter with us. Unfortunately, they were not so lucky and were drenched from head to toe.  The other time it began to rain hard just as we finished the descent back to the bus for returning to the main island.

After our hike, we made our way back to Saikung town.  We decided to head down to Nathan Road, one of the busiest areas in Hong Kong, to eat and shop.  When we arrived after taking the subway, it was an intense experience.  It was five o'clock in the afternoon and literally thousands upon thousands of people crammed the area known as the Ladies' Market.  We didn't particularly like this area, but could see how tourists would love the opportunity to buy fake products at discounted prices.  Since we live in China, the markets of Hong Kong do not compare and appealed little to us.  However, we browsed for an hour or so before we grew tired and hungry.

The ladies wanted pizzas, but after looking and coming up empty, we decided to look for another option.  The search lasted a long time and finally we decided on a Pakistani restaurant.  The menu was simple and consisted of nothing but curries.  Pazi ordered a vegetable curry, Terese had a chicken curry, Warren a beef curry, and Adan chowed on a ox tail curry.  The food ended up being so-so, however the ambiance was pretty neat.  Sitting jam packed in a restaurant that should seat twenty five when there are forty is something else.

Shopping and Shangri-La
The next morning we checked out of the hotel and made our way back to the border.  We had two objectives in mind:  shop at Luo Hu Market and eat at the Shangri-La Hotel buffet.

We shopped for a few hours purchasing gifts and essential items to take home this summer.  Then we headed over to the famous Shangri-La Hotel.  Our friends the Porters, who taught with us last year, had recommended for months that we try the brunch buffet here.   We always found an excuse not to go and pushed back a visit to the restaurant for some reason or another.  Well, this weekend the Grants said we needed to do it. 

For two hours we feasted on some of the best quality dishes we have ever had.  The buffet consisted of four main areas: Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese, and Western.  Additionally they had two dessert stations and any kind of drink you could imagine.  Check out the pictures of Pazi getting Jasmine Flower Tea served to her by a skilled waiter at our table.  Talk about service! 

The salmon and tuna at the sushi bar was great.  The grilled beef and eggplant had a flavor that was truly amazing.  The poached eggs and ham was delicious, as was the baked sea bass.  The desserts included cheesecake, creme brulee, chocolate mousse, and much more.  The meal was a bit pricey at 200RMB (just under $30), but it was worth it in the end. 

Wow, looking back it sure was a memorable weekend we shared with good friends.

Fujian Fun

For International Labor Day 2010, we made a trip to three areas of interest in Fujian province.  We chose Fujian for two main reasons: 1) the flight to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian, was only one hour and fifteen minutes from Guangzhou, and 2)this is not a primary Chinese tourist destination.  Since this holiday was only four days long, and millions upon millions of Chinese travel during these days, we liked our choice.

Fuzhou in Five Hours
Leading up to our trip Adan injured his back playing basketball.  It was nothing serious, but it did leave him needing to see a chiropractor and limited in extensive walking or hiking.  Due to this, we slightly rearranged our itinerary to accommodate.  This meant that in Fuzhou, our first stop, we really did not do a whole lot.

We arrived at the Fuzhou airport Saturday morning at 10:30am.  It was a nice, clean facility with almost  no travelers.  It blow our minds to see such little activity for this major holiday.  However, a big downer to this airport is that it's 50 kilometers from the city center.  We took a shuttle bus for about three dollars a person to the shopping district.  It took us about forty minutes and the drive was rather uneventful.

When we finally did arrive downtown we were surprised by the lack of activity.  The truth of the matter is, Fuzhou city is not a tourist hot spot.  The major attraction near this capital city is Wu Yi Shan.   This gorgeous mountain range is nestled near the Jiangxi province border and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Having this title alone says it all.  But with Adan's bad back, this location was not an option and instead we spent about four hours wandering the streets in Fuzhou.  We did happen to visit a few neat little temples and pagodas at Yu Shan Gong Yuan, Jade Hill Park. 

The major highlight was a German-Chinese buffet, Golden Hans, that served decent food.  The meat was beef, pork, and bratwurst.  The rest of the food was fried rice, mixed vegetables and soups.  The price of the meal was an astonishing 38 RMB (about $5.50)!  Oh, did we mention that it was all you could drink dark and blond ales?

One Night in Quanzhou
Since there was not much to do we hopped on a long distance bus to Quanzhou.  This was our best destination to stop and visit before going to Xiamen.  The drive was roughly three hours long.  We arrived in Quanzhou at about 8:00pm.  We had a difficult time locating a hotel but after some searching we found a good place to crash for the evening.  The rest of the night was spent planning out our next day and buying snacks and drinks.

For our one and only day in Quanzhou we happened to see a lot.  From a historical standpoint, Quanzhou played an important role for hundreds of years.  It was considered to be one of the two most important seaports in the world during the Song and Yuan Dynasties (960-1368).  Marco Polo even considered it the starting point of the Silk Road via the sea due to the immense amount of "Eurasian" influence.


We focused on visiting three historical sites during our visit: Kai Yuan Si, Qing Jing Mosque, Guan Di Miao.  In the morning we decided to make our way to Kai Yuan Si since it was the furthest away from the bus station.  This temple was a pleasant place to visit.  Legend has it that it was built in 686 AD by a mulberry grove farmer.  He was asked by a Buddhist monk to build a place of worship and declined saying, "Only if my mulberry trees bear lotus flowers."  Shortly after, the lotus flowers duly appeared. 

The complex has two amazing twin pagodas that go back well over 900 years!  The architecture here was incredible.  Each hall was designed magnificently.  In fact, the main hall of the temple is so well constructed that it has withstood everything from earthquakes to Red Guards.  The artwork in the facility is also done with much detail and features unique Buddhist drawings and carvings.
 
Our second stop was a quick one.  The Qing Jing Mosque is a rather large complex, but during our visit it was mostly closed for repair.  It was not a big deal.  We have seen Chinese mosques before, and the literature says that the most interesting feature of this site is its entrance.  The granite-built gate tower is said to be an exact copy of the Damascus original.  It is a leaf-shaped archway with a strong Arabian feel to it.  This mosque dating back to 1009 is said to be one of the oldest in all of China.

Just a short distance from the mosque is the Guan Di Miao.  This is a splendid temple that was extremely popular with locals during our visit.  The temple is dedicated to a war hero who is believed to have become a god of healing and war--Guan Yu.  The scene here was prayer and offerings of food, money,  and incense in every direction.

From here, we made our way back to the bus station to purchase tickets to Xiamen, the most important city on our trip.  We left QuanzhouXiamen.

Xiamen's Island Experience
Xiamen is a city with a deep European flavor.  This has much do with its status as a thriving port starting in the seventeenth century and continued until the beginning of World War II.  Xiamen is also famous for being ranked time and time again as one of the most suitable cities for living in China.  We found this to be very true as the streets are clean, people friendly, and the airport is very nice.

Our stay in Xiamen began with lunch at Burger King.  We mention this because it was the first time in mainland China that we saw a Burger King restaurant.  In Hong Kong they are very popular, but not so much in China.  It was very intriguing to us and the idea of a Whopper was too hard to pass up.  It had been probably two months since our last hamburger so we splurged. 

After lunch we made our way over to the Nan Pu Tuo Si, a temple with a history of over 1,000 years situated near the Xiamen University.  This temple is very well laid out.  It begins at the base of a small mountain and ascends up all the way to the top hall by hall.  However, due to Adan's injury we only viewed a little more than fifty percent of the whole complex.  This temple is a great example of how unique Fujian's temple roofs are compared to other provinces and dynasties.  Each one is multi-colored with bright reds, blues, and yellows.  Then there are gaudy dragons, flowers, and even human figures lined up at each point.  One thing we learned about Fujianese is that they are devote Buddhists by the number of famous temples we saw!

From here we made our way to the Zhongshan Bu Xing Jie, the famous walking street of Xiamen.  Vendors told us this shopping zone is famous for being the only smoke-free walking street in China.  Whether this is true or not is suspect, but it was nice anyways.  Pazi found great teas for presents.  Fujian is the tea capital of China so she had to buy some.  Adan bought some local candies, which of course had tea in them.  We spent several hours walking the streets and eventually eating a simple dinner here before retiring to the hotel for a long day to come.

Traveling to the Tu Lou
On this day we took a long three hour trip to visit the Hakka minority group of Fujian.  They are a migrating group, given the name "gypsies of China," that had roots in the Yangzi basin but were driven south during the third century due to war and revolution.  Hakkas' most unique characteristic are their round homes, referred to as tu lou.  These mansions still used today can hold sometimes a hundred families and are used to protect against outside forces.  On our trip we visited two small villages where the most famous round homes exist.

In the city of Yong Ding is where we spent our day.  We visited several Hakka round houses, and similar square houses that serve the same purpose as the more famous round ones.  The experience was fun.  We enjoyed visiting the homes of Hakka families.  The one rule when visiting the tu lou is that you cannot go above the first floor.  Adan really wanted to get nice photo shots from up top, but could not.  We understood the reasoning--this was some one's home and we needed to respect their privacy.  The travel to get to the Hakka villages was brutal, but ultimately worth the effort in our minds.   

Upon returning, we washed up and went for dinner at the Guan Hai Can Ting.  In English this is called the View By the Sea Restaurant.  Our guide book recommended it so we gave it a shot.  In all fairness the restaurant did not disappoint.  The views from the rooftop are exceptional.  They overlook the Gu Lang Yu Island, an area that we would soon explore.  We had mixed reviews on the food.  We were adventurous and tried Xiamen's famous seafood cuisine.  The dishes are unique to say the least.  We started out with shrimp and crab cakes.  These were exceptionally good.  Next we had beef and hot peppers, which was just so-so.  Later we had Xiamen Fried Rolls, a roll of vegetables and pork.  It was good but nothing spectacular.  We also ordered Xiamen pan noodles and fish soup.  Both dishes were okay but nothing to brag about.  With this said, we enjoyed our dinner and it did not break the bank costing us about 250RMB ($36.75).

Good Times at Gu Lang Yu
Our last day in Xiamen was spent at the island of foreign concession called Gu Lang Yu.  Although it is very small (only one square mile in size), the atmosphere here is different than most of China.  For starters, no cars are allowed on the island and this makes it very nice for strolling along.  Additionally, the architecture here is of elegant colonial buildings rooted in European styles.  Churches, consulates, and villas neatly decorate the island cobblestoned streets.  It's a real treat to experience.  Check out the slideshow to see just what we are talking about.

The only down side to this island is the costs associated with it.  The ferry ride over from Xiamen is short and cheap, about one dollar.  However, from here things go up.  Probably the best way to put it is that the costs are double due to convenience.  The historical sites with entrance fees are also quite expensive as they range from 60-140 RMB ($8.82 to 20.60).  This is a lot for a basic Chinese entrance fee.

At about 7:30 we made our way to the airport that is located about thirty minutes from down town.  The airport like the the city of Xiamen was neat and convenient.  We even had a light dinner there because the set up was so nice.  Then at 9:00pm, as we took flight for Guangzhou, we congratulated ourselves for successfully escaping the madness usually associated with Chinese holidays.    

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

Recently we went through our photos and realized that when our Internet was "down" we were unable to share pictures from our trip to a Chinese spa.  This was no ordinary spa.  We went to the Interlaken OCT Hotel and Spa, a five star resort nestled in the mountains just a short drive from the South China Sea.  The entire facility grounds are designed in a Bavarian style and give the appearance of a small German town in China!

We spent a Saturday with a group of about 10 other teachers at the resort.  The cost was 150 RMB ($22.00) for us to have unlimited access to about 15 hot baths and 5 saunas.  If we wanted massages or other extras the cost shot up at least double the original price.  Needless to say, we chose to stick to the basics.  We spent several hours exploring the hot baths of chile, eggplant, lavender, tea, and even wine!  Adan really enjoyed the "Fire and Ice" pools, two walking pools set up side by side where you walk with temperatures of 10-15 Celsius and then other of 35-40 Celsius.  It was an invigorating feeling going from one to the other.  Pazi enjoyed the "Acupuncture" shower.  This was a pool with an enormous shower head that would drop heavy amounts of water on a person below.  The water would pour down like rain on the person's back and give a feeling like a massage rub. 

Overall, the event was worthwhile.
It was a nice resort that worked hard to make you feel like you were not in China.  Our friend Warren looked up the hotel rates online when we got back and said that rooms go for $400-$500 a night!  Guess we got pampered more than we realized.

Eat, Sleep, School

The past couple of weeks have been busy. Since school has been very hectic, we have not had much of an opportunity to get out much. Some of the events that have kept us busy include parent-teacher conferences, school literature week, several sporting events, and some tours of our new school for next year.

Adan has stayed very busy with athletics. He has been coordinating all the middle school basketball games both home and away. Additionally, he has done this for the badminton squad and help with assistant coaching. It will be two more weeks before things settle down and all the sport seasons end.

Pazi is working away with her pre-school class. It seems like her class keeps growing! She is up to sixteen students! In addition, she is the after school program's Spanish teacher. This entails teaching Spanish classes to 5-11 year olds. Some of kids are very dedicated and are picking up the language fast.

Both of us have become very involved in the construction process of our school's new facility. Pazi is currently on a committee for designing the building's interior, particularly for the pre-school and lower elementary aged students. Adan's role is to make sure that several of the school's amenities come out as planned. They include: two indoor gymnasiums, two locker rooms with showers, weight/exercise room, track and soccer field, outdoor basketball court, and two tennis courts.

As you can tell these things, as well as our regular teaching duties, have us on the go!

India's Golden Triangle

For Chinese New Year 2010 we made the decision to visit India. Pazi had been wanting this trip for some time after visiting with our Indian friend Anithya. She frequently tells us stories about the great sites, food, and shopping in her home country. When Pazi found out that all this can be done with just a few hundred dollars, she was hooked.

As it turned out, three single ladies that work with us at school were planning basically the same trip and asked if we wanted to join them. The advantage of this was the ability to rent a private vehicle and divide up the cost to make the trip even more affordable. We agreed and so our group had Ms. Penny and Elaine from the U.S., and Dang from the Philippines.

We left on February 10th from Guangzhou at around 6:00pm. After the time change and fairly smooth flight, we landed in New Delhi at 10:00pm. After arriving at the airport, we were met by our hotels shuttle. It was actually a very disorganized man that kept making us wait until finally we separated into two small cars to get to the hotel. The three ladies went in one and we got in the other. It just so happened that our car had another passenger, middle-aged woman from Seattle, riding with us. She told us how she imports Indian goods to her business back home and visits Delhi frequently. She was a pleasant lady and made our ride to the hotel pass quickly.

After arriving at the hotel at closer to 11:00pm, we noticed that north India was a bit colder than we anticipated. Then we said our goodbyes to our new acquaintance and met up with our colleagues to check in. Our plan was to have a short night's rest and be up and out the door by 6:00am to catch a train to Jaipur, the first city on our itinerary.

The next morning we got up and made our way to the nearby train station. Little did we know that the ticket counter would be impossible to locate as foreigners are not allowed to use the same ones as locals. To make matters worse, as we searched several men came up to us and tried to get us to use their travel services. Eventually we found a man that worked at the train station but he informed us that we could not make the train we hoped for and gave us an address to a government-run travel agency to make arrangements with.

At the office of the travel agency it took us nearly an hour but we ended up leaving with a great itinerary and at a reasonable price. We agreed to pay $375 dollars each to have a private SUV and driver take use to six locations over almost seven days. This would mean that our trip would have to be very efficient, but we agreed. The accommodations would be covered and be no worse than a three star hotel. Our travel agent Latif even agreed to give us a free elephant ride at Jaipur's Amber Fort and that was icing on the cake. Finally at almost 10:00am we were off!

Jaipur--A Woman's Delight
The trip from New Delhi to Jaipur is supposed to be about four hours. Well, for us it took more like eight! It seemed that our driver Sonu was able to hit every road block, traffic jam, and sheep crossing that came our way . Adan was not complaining as the scenery was excellent to take snapshots of the towns we passed. India's highway system is just a series of lanes that are sometimes two, sometimes four in number and lacking off ramps. You simply get off the road, and because of this motels and roadside restaurants are sprawled out every which way.

Once in Jaipur, we checked into a nice and cozy hotel. The sun had just set so we decided to drop off our things and go out to dinner. We decided on the Copper Chimney. The restaurant was a pick of the Lonely Planet guide book and it did not disappoint. The prices were a little bit high, but well worth it. This was our first, but nowhere near our last great authentic Indian cuisine. Pazi ordered a great Tandoori Chicken dish. After some debating, Adan decided on a Lal Maas. This traditional northern Indian dish is a red curry with lamb. The red derives from the abundant amount of chile in it. In fact, when Adan ordered it the waiter at first refused to give it to him, but finally gave in. Then after the order came out, all the cooks and waiters came out to watch Adan eat it. Although it was very hot, in a pool of sweat he finished the dish and gained the respect of the restaurant staff.

After dinner we walked the streets a bit and browsed a smaller market area. At the time the ladies thought the items were pretty good, later we would find out this was nothing in comparison to the other market spots. From here Sonu picked us up and drove us to our hotel. With a good meal and a little shopping, we salvaged a rough travel day. Our next day would begin at 7:00am so it was off to bed.

The next morning we had a simple breakfast of toast and Indian Chai tea. Pazi would come to enjoy Chai tea more and more with each passing day in India. We met up with a tour guide who took us to Jaipur's original City Palace, also referred to as Amber Fort that dates to the sixteenth century. The grounds here were phenomenal. We even got to ride an elephant all the way up to the top of the fort since it sits on a small cliff. When we reached the top we were treated to the filming of a "Bollywood" movie.

Following this visit, we made our way to the new City Palace in downtown Jaipur, whereas the original was built some 11 kilometers outside of the city. The newer more modern palace is where the current king resides. Our guide told us that for 2,500 rupees (around $55) we could have Chai tea with the king. Going with the theme of being Jaipur-"the Pink City," the palace is predominantly filled with pink structures. Although we spent a nice afternoon strolling around the facilities here, it was rather uneventful.

After the visit, the group decided to break up. Adan really wanted to take pictures of city life in Jaipur. We took off and mixed this in with shopping since you cannot go five feet without seeing shoes, or saris, or shawls, or something exquisitely handcrafted for sale. We made our way to the Hawa Mahal, also known as the Palace of Winds. This amazing structure built in 1792 appears to be a luxurious palace with depth, but in reality it is a facade made up of 953 small windows made for viewing. The windows down with lattice work were intended to allow royal ladies to view outside without showing their face, since doing so was considered taboo.

Pazi really liked how the sun began to set in the background of this beautiful location. We spent the next four to five hours browsing nearby shops and snapping pictures. In our observation of the street scenes two things stuck out as being very peculiar to us. First, there was an immense amount of trash that covered sidewalks and street corners everywhere, and second was how holy cows are to the Indians. The cows are free to roam where ever they please and no one bothers them. It's a very different culture here.

On Our Way to Udaipur
The next day we hit the road early. Sonu had us on the road by 8:00am. We were in for a long ride since the distance to our next city Udaipur was about 400km. We took one detour about six hours into the road trip and stopped in an area called Chittorgarh where we witnessed seeing the largest fort in all of India. Perched some 600 feet high on a plateau of covering nearly 700 acres, this fort dates back to 1568. We had no idea we were going here but Sonu made it a priority to come visit. The site did not disappoint.

While here we visited palaces, towers and a reservoir. Adan really enjoyed the scenery and took many pictures of the location. Many of the ladies in our group felt like staying outside of the sites and captured a much different experience. Pazi recalled at one spot where a group of school boys gathered up enough courage to talk with the foreign women. Soon after this many locals began to socialize. In total we only spent about four hours here but it was definitely an awesome historical site worth visiting.

It took another five or so hours before we would reach Udaipur. When we arrived things seemed destined for disaster when our hotel canceled our reservation. But give Sonu credit, for he resolved what seemed to be serious problems with our hotel booking. Whatever hotel we were supposed to stay, it was a blessing we did not go there. Our new hotel was fabulous. It had an amazing rooftop restaurant with a view of the Lake Pichola. With the beautiful floating palaces and architecture surrounding the water, it is no wonder this city is dubbed, "Venice of the East."

Since we were in such a romantic area, it was only fitting that Valentine's Day fell on our second day in Udaipur. Adan really wanted to get up for a sunrise at the Monsoon Palace, while the ladies decided to sleep in. Adan got a great treat. After Sonu was able to persuade the guard to let him in early, the two enjoyed the sunrise without any other tourists. In fact, the only other people at the palace were the maintenance man and his son. They were very hospitable and offered morning Chai to Adan and Sonu.

Back in Udaipur, the group had a wonderful rooftop breakfast before going out to shop. The ladies shopped until they dropped. Adan decided to wander about visiting two elaborate temples and the city palace. Everything in this city was so inviting. It's no wonder that Travel and Leisure Magazine named it one of the world's top cities of 2009. Another interesting fact is that the James Bond film Octopussy was also filmed in this neat city.

On the Road Again to Pushkar
Unfortunately our stay in Udaipur ended up being short. Later the same afternoon we headed off for a small town called Pushkar. We really knew nothing about this location and in fact did not choose to travel here. Our travel agent suggested we stop here on our way to Agra to break things up a bit. Little did we know that this town would be a strange place to visit.

As it turns out this area is one of the five sacred sites of Hindu pilgrimages. During our one day here we happened to see several foreign tourists visiting to take part in religious practices. Another interesting note is that Pushkar does not allow any alcohol or meat within the town and all the meals are made from local grown organic goods. Additionally, we noticed that Pushkar had many "Bob Marley" and "yoga spiritual centre" fans. It did not take us long to know whose company we were in.

Nonetheless, Pushkar had a bit of charm. We decided to all get up early and visit the town attractions. We started by making our way to Pushkar Lake. Unfortunately it was still dry, but we did get to see the ghats, bathing areas for pilgrimages, that surround the lake. There are fifty-two in all and each has been given a sacred name. We also visited an extremely rare Brahma Temple from the 14th century, named after the Lord Brahma. Also, the ladies did some more shopping (imagine that!). After this, we made our way back for a late breakfast at the hotel. The food was spectacular. Since it was all fresh from the hotel's garden we ate some type of curry couscous with potatoes, pomegranate grapes, coconut, anise and other spices. It was excellent!

From here we decide to take off for Agra and things really get tricky. It seems that Sonu had no clue that we had intentions to see the Taj Mahal at sunset and during sunrise. Thus, when he learned about our wishes it meant that we were about an hour and a half behind schedule. He quickly rounded us up and we took off practically burning rubber. We traveled the small back roads to get us to the highway since Pushkar was a good hour away. Unfortunately when we approached the highway Sonu was pulled over for speeding. He was fined 1,000 rupees ($20). He would later say that this was about two days worth of money for him. Things were not looking rosy at the time.

Journey to the Taj
It took us over eight hours and Sonu drove like a maniac, but at 5:30 we pulled into parking area of the Taj Mahal in Agra. As it turns out the ticket window closes at exactly 5:37--yes 5:37. We are not sure why, but those seven minutes allowed us just enough time to snag tickets to see sunset at the Taj complex.

Breathtaking, amazing, unreal... the list of adjectives can go on forever to describe what it is like to be in the presence of the Taj. It is one of the major wonders of the world! We spent just one hour there that evening but it was memorable. The colors casted by the sun were magnificent. It was so intimate when maybe a couple hundred other tourists at most were there with us. We stayed until security kicked us out. We were a little disappointed but knew that in the morning we would be back.

We spent the rest of the evening at a restaurant near our hotel. It was nice, however it was a bit pricey. The food was good but nothing stuck out as being incredible. Adan did have one funny moment. A fellow teacher named Luke at our school told us that we had to try Gulab Jamun, a famous Indian dessert of fried milk balls in syrup. He said it was the best thing he had ever tasted. Well, our group ordered some, and the other girls at some point assumed that Adan did not want some. Well, he did and when he realized none was left, he gave our Cynthia a hard time. She felt so guilty. Adan did tell her he was joking. Guess that means we have to go back to India again.

The last day of our trip began with a sunrise at the Taj. Adan wanted rooftop pictures so he went off to a hotel that had good views according to the guidebooks. The rest of the gang went off and took shots within the complex again. Adan was gone for about an hour and a half and got some pretty good photos. He thought it was comical that we go to India for Chinese New Year and when he reaches the top of the hotel roof to take pictures he is in the company of about three Chinese couples. Go figure!

The morning came to a close with everyone snapping pictures inside and out of the stunning grounds. The opportunity to visit the Taj twice was very rewarding. As we look back at the photos we took, the whole experience seems a little surreal actually. Nevertheless, we plan to visit again someday.

With that, we headed back to New Delhi for our flight home. It was a bit disappointing that we were not able to visit much of Delhi. When we reached this city we realized how massive it is. Pazi really saw a lot of similarities with Beijing. Delhi is a city that sprawls out over kilometers and kilometers. The traffic here is horrendous, and pollution is definitely a concern. Even though these were some of our first observations, we also saw some charm in the city. We shopped at the quaint Khan Market in a very attractive neighborhood and passed by several beautiful landmarks. New Delhi is a vacation in its own right, and we will try to get back to this city as well.

Weekend Getaways

We made it a goal this year to take more weekend trips in south China. With places like Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou (just to name a few), we would be fools not to take advantage of their amazing scenery, rich history, and endless shopping. To walk the talk, we spent two recent weekends venturing out to Hong Kong for a one day trip and Guangzhou for an overnighter. Both excursions provided us with great diversions from school.


Hong Kong in a Hurry
Back a few weekends ago we made a quick day trip to Hong Kong to take care of some paperwork. Since that meant we needed to cross the border, Pazi suggested we do a bit of western grocery shopping while we were there. Adan had no problems with this and checked out a couple of guide books to see if there was anything interesting nearby to visit. He stumbled upon Wong Tain Sin, Hong Kong's most frequented religious temple. It happened to be just a couple metro stops beyond the stores Pazi wanted to visit.

That Saturday morning we left our apartment after 9:00am and caught a 9:30 bus to the Luo Hu Border Crossing. It took us just over one hour to reach our destination and another thirty minutes to exit China and cross over into Hong Kong. The first thing we did when we reached Hong Kong was buy dan ta, egg tarts, a Chinese traditional sweet. In Hong Kong or Macau the egg tarts are incredible. The combination of better ovens and use of quality ingredients such as butter, make the dan ta in these locations unbelievable. Some place in China can make good tarts but not many.

After we had our treat we set off on a forty-five minute short rail ride through the New Territories of Hong Kong. Many people forget that Hong Kong is not just "the island," but rather land tied to Guangdong province of mainland China and various other islands. The train ride through much of the New Territories provides a view of Hong Kong that not too many visitors are able to see. Lots of lush green scenery. Some developed with parks and walkways for locals, while others are in a natural state with very small populations by China's standards.

Just before noon we arrived at Wong Tai Sin. The temple is not nearly as big as the ones we have seen in China, but still it was evident that this temple has an important significance to the Hong Kong people. This place of taoist worship was built in the early 20th century and has many features. The areas that impressed us the most were the Nine Dragon Wall and the Good Wish Garden. A few areas were closed for renovation, like the Main Hall, so we did not get the full experience.

Overall, the temple is a nice tranquil place even with several other visitors praying and worshipping. The day we visited was reminiscent of a beautiful spring afternoon (and it's still winter!). Since some of the larger attractions were under refurbishment, we will go back for another visit to this historical site.


Going Guangzhou with the Grants
The last weekend of January, Warren and Terese invited us to Guangzhou. They are big fans of the city and thought it would be fun to visit Shamian Island. In the heart of Guangzhou, this sandbank island is littered with several historical buildings from both the French and British Concessions. Additionally the U.S. Consulate is located here. Needless to say, many foreigners frequent this site.

This trip was short and sweet. It started on Saturday morning when we all met at the bus station. We took a 9:30am bus and within one hour we were in Guangzhou. From the bus terminal, we used the metro line to get us to the island. The subway in Guangzhou is very user friendly and it did not take us long to reach our destination.

Once we reached Shamian Island, we noticed scaffolding covering a huge portion of the architecture. We found out very quickly that a major restoration project is taking place to improve the building fronts. For us this was only a minor setback. We made our way to the Victory Hotel to check into our rooms. This hotel is a mature facility but the rooms are clean and the location is great. After dropping off our things we needed food.

For lunch we decided on eating at Lucy's Bar and Grill. The pub-like atmosphere here was nice, especially when it is situated just meters away from the Pearl River. For lunch we went American and ate grilled pineapple chicken and club sandwiches. The food was alright and we ended up eating here again for dinner. It helped that they had ice at the restaurant, something that you don't see everyday in China.

From Lucy's we let Warren and Terese take us to Xiaozhou Village. Located just outside of Guangzhou, this small town has a nice feel to it. It is protected under state orders, and is considered a "national ecological village." Having a history of over 600 years, this area is a great location to see locals going about their business. The streets are formed of bluestone and neat stone bridges fill the village due to the many streams all around. We took several pictures and just wandered around for several hours. The whole experience was quite relaxing and entertaining at the same time.

From this point on shopping became the focal point. Sunday morning involved a lot of bargaining and negotiating. Pazi bought some great gifts for family and friends. The Grants needed to buy several presents so their bags were pretty full heading back to Dongguan.

Overall, both weekends provided us with some great time to relax and explore new areas in south China. We will continue to share our weekend trips for we expect to take many more this school year.

Back at Last: Part Two

We Finally Reach Dongbei
From Tianjin we planned to travel to Dalian the southernmost city in northeast China. The train trip would be over ten hours so we again opted for the overnight sleepers. The trip is so long due to the location of both cities as they are on opposite ends of the Bohai Gulf. Ferries do cross this sea but it is definitely not worth the time and effort.

We found a nice cheap hotel very close to the train station and stayed here for the next three nights. We did not intend to be here this long but we actually were ahead of schedule and a bit behind on money so it worked out as such. Dalian is very much the most "international" city in northeast China. The Korean and Russian influence is very evident. Although the sites of the city are spread out, the atmosphere here was nice. The one downside is tour guides and bus operators will not leave you alone. They continually hound tourists until no end asking you to buy. It got very annoying.

Our first tourist spot was the Old Russian Quarter. Once the area to house Russian gentry, the mansions here are slowly decaying as several families are cramming into each house. In spite of this, there remains one sole street filled with decent Russian archiceture and dozens of shops and vendors selling Russian everything from vodka to knives. Pazi found some good buys here like Russian chocolate that she bought for half the price as other spots.

Later we browsed the underground market and an upscale shopping mall. Nothing was spectacular but it was warmer inside than out. The temperatures were close to zero so it was getting colder. We found this nice cozy cafe and had chicken curry and vegetables. It was a great price and tasted good.

The next two days that followed included city squares and beaches. It is interesting how many squares there are in north China. The squares here are basically oversized roundabouts that either get so much use that it is impossible to even cross the street, or the squares are so useless that it looks like thousands of dollars have been wasted to have one measly statue. The best one we visited was Zhongshan Square. This roundabout is laid out with nicely kept lawns and encircled by colonial buildings from the Russian and Japanese eras. The buildings are now hotels and banks among other things.

Our other tourist site was Tiger Beach. Looking at the literature, it seemed like a very nice beach to venture out and see. However, when we arrived here it was not that great. Of course it was out of season but besides an overcast day, we only saw the ocean park. It looked like a sad version of Sea World. We wandered a bit, and stumbled upon a massive development project nearby. A shopping complex was being built in what was considered "North American" style. It reminded us of fancy outlet malls.

The next day we decided to check out another beach since Tiger Beach was just so-so. The new one was called Xinghai. We had to take a long bus ride to get out there but it was in a double decker bus. The trip reminded us of Hong Kong and it was nice since there was only six people total including us riding. When we arrived at the beach we could see that it was definitely a major attraction in the summer. Many wrapped up vendor stalls lined a boardwalk above a beach that was decent sized. As we walked around to a cove it was even more developed with monuments and statues. We stopped to watch several old men and woman get in a swim. It looked extremely cold! The end of our journey took us to a neat walking bridge that has great views of a Bavarian-style castle. This structure was massive and it blew our minds to find out it was Dalian's Seashell Museum. Supposedly part of it is a hotel that you can stay at.

Movin' on to Shenyang
On Tuesday, December 22nd we took a short four hour train ride north from Dalian to Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province. This is a rather plain and simple city that serves as a railway junction and banking center. Since it's the northeast's biggest city at over four million, we decided to stop for a bit and see what there was to offer.

Lucky for us we found an excellent accomodation called Ibis Hotels. A French company with hotels in larger urban areas of China, this chain had good service, rooms, and superb rates. We paid only 168 yuan ($24.75) per night. For the clean rooms and nice bathrooms we thought it was a steal. The location was another plus for us as it was located right in the heart of the city. After settling in we decided to grab a quick bite to eat. We walked around the city a bit but really had no time. The sun set at 5p.m. We noticed the days were getting shorter the further north we went.

The next day the cold weather hit us as sub-zero temps became the norm. The only major attraction for Shenyang is China's second Imperial Palace, the first being the Forbidden City. Constructed during the Manchu Empire back in 1626, this structure is basically a replica with few differences to the design in Beijing. Adan really wanted to stop and take photos at this site, while Maria and Bill lacked any serious interest.

Inside complex is 300 rooms, a sizeable difference to the 999 rooms of the Forbiden City. Many of the features of the palace reflect the Manchu and Mongol influence and it is not more evident than in the style of dragons used throughout the complex. The palace is divided into three sections and although the woodwork has been neatly restored throughout the whole site, the Dazheng Hall is one of the premier features of the palace. Adorned with sinuous dragons in Manchu style, this octagonal wooden structure with vivid lacquered paint is not something you can see at the Forbidden City.

It only took Adan about two hours to get through the whole palace. From here the group decided to visit the Liaoning Provincial Museum. Considered the best museum in all of northeast China, it was worth a look. We arrived about two hours before closing and it was not nearly enough time to see everything. The site is large with three levels of exhibits. We looked at various statues, paintings, copperware, pottery, jade, and porcelain.

For Christmas Eve we were unsure of exactly where we would be. Although we were really ready to head north, we decided to stay one more day because of the temperatures that we would soon face in Jilin province. It was to be -25C (-13F). The decision turned out okay. We slept in, got up late to have breakfast, and then visited a few insignificant squares and shopping districts. Bill really wanted to have good Dou Jiang (soy milk) and Dan Ta (egg tarts) later in the day so we found a couple shops with these items. Eventually we ended up in a very plush shopping mall. Here Bill located an incredible hot pot restaurant that charged only 39 yuan ($5.75) for all you can eat. We decided to come back here for our Christmas dinner. The food was superb. Great quality meat, vegetables, and spices. The restaurant really impressed Pazi with its conveyor belts that shifted around dishes of raw ingredients that you could grab and put directly into your own individual hot pot.

White Christmas
Although the weather in Shenyang was cold, we did not see snow until Christmas morning. As we checked out of our hotel we stepped outside to a blanket of white snow as more kept falling. Bill had never seen snow before so he went nuts. He is from Guanxi province (bordering Vietnam). This was fine until it became impossible for us to locate a taxi to take us to the train station. It became such a problem that we panicked because we were running out of time before our train was set to leave.

Lucky for us we did locate a taxi and not a moment to soon. We arrived at the train station and left less than ten minutes after getting there. Talk about cutting it close! The train ride would be just under four hours and not many people were riding with us. It made sense once we arrived in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province. Changchun is cold, very cold and because we needed to by our tickets to Harbin in advance, that meant we needed get them immediately after arriving. Most train stations have a ticket office in a heated building. This is not the case in Changchun. We had to line up and wait outside for over thirty minutes to buy tickets! Immediately after buying them, we ran inside to the nearest store to get warm.

Changchun proved to be a very boring stop for us. We traveled by light rail to our hotel that was some distance away. But the ride showed us the sights of the city and we could tell we were not missing much. It was a factory town. Known for making automobiles and auto parts, the factories reminded us of Dongguan but at artic temperatures. Our time here was set for two days. It would be the slowest two days of the trip. Bill actually never left the hotel because he felt it was too cold. We went out both days but saw a very depressing area of town with weather so darn cold we could barely stand it. It was nice to leave here on Sunday, December 27.

Harbin Heaven
As luck would have it, our train to Harbin was delayed over one hour. From the crowds that were forming, it looked like this would be a packed train and it was. It was obvious that vacationers were ready to have a winter getaway. It took another four hour train ride to reach Harbin. Once we arrived, we were welcomed by ice sculptures being built right outside the train station. In excitement we went to see the artwork. It took us just a few minutes to realize that we were in -20s (-10s) temps and the sun was out! Harbin taxi drivers have a strange agenda. We learned this when we got rejected time and time again asking for a ride to the city center. We ended up walking there! It only took us thirty minutes, but we needed to thaw out. In fact, we went to have dinner right next door and spent that first day acclimating to the weather.

Harbin definitely has a few things to do. We visited St. Sofia's Church. This splendid Byzantine-style church now houses an art and architecture centre. We would visit this magnificent Russian edifice several times during our stay and take both day and night photos to capture its beauty. After this we headed over to the Song Hua River. This massive river becomes completely frozen over with ice during the harsh winters. People are able to ice skate, dogsled, take horse carriage rides, and even drive cars on it. We went down on the ice and took pictures of the other tourists partaking in the above mentioned activities.

The rest of the day was spent wandering in neighborhoods enjoying the Russian architecture and thawing out in shopping malls. For every hour outside, we needed at least twenty minutes inside. We repeated this for several hours until 4:30 when it gets completely dark in Harbin!

Our last day before leaving for home focused on shopping and attending the 11th Annual Harbin International Ice Festival. We chose shopping for the early activity in the day because it would allow us to take it easy before our big night. The ice festival takes place every night with thousands of lights showing off incredible life-size scultpures. Additionally, because the ice needs to be kept at a certain temperature for the two months the festival takes place, temperatures can reach below
-40(C and F) when snow machines are shooting out freezing white clouds!

The ice festival is truly an event. Built around an ice wall, the ice sculptures have themes from various parts of the world. We saw the Great Wall, Roman Coliseum, Ruin of St. Paul's Cathedral (in Macau), Eiffel Tower, Egyptian Pyramid, Terra Cotta Warriors with horses, among other well known landmarks. There were about 50 life size structures in all. We had 70 minutes to venture out and explore these ice sculptures. Adan and Bill thought they might need more time, but after fifteen minutes realized 70 minutes was more than enough time considering how cold it was. All in all, it was a magnificent ice show.

The next morning we packed our bags and headed to the airport, which was about a two hour ride. We were all ready to be 'home' in a warmer climate. As the other teachers arrived to school with tans and layers of clothes, we were just thawing out and thought the January Dongguan weather was just fine.