The China Adventure...

    We left San Diego on April 25th and flew first to San Francisco and then on to Beijing.  The flight from SF to Beijing is about 11 hours long and it took a route up the west coast of the US and over Alaska, the Bering Strait and then down to Beijing.  The flight home seemed to go straight across the Pacific, so go figure.   We made an effort to not sleep much during the flight so that we could make the transition to the 16 hour time difference easily.  That was the theory, and the planned sleep deprevation  worked pretty well, except that we were pretty exhausted when we arrived in Beijing and it would have been nice to be a bit more awake while negociating our first tasks in China.  We got through customs, changed money and then waited for Bill's mom, Karen, who arrived with driver "Dave" (not his real  name, but what all the teachers at the school call him).  We drove back to Langfang, (about an hour outside of  Beijing) and fell directly to sleep for about 7 hours when we awoke at  3am - but were still so tired that it wasn't hard to get back to sleep.

    In the morning we headed back to the airport and took a flight to Kungming,  in Yunnan.  This is in the far south of  China and is an area that has many different minorities living there.  China is mostly made up of  folks of the Han culture, but also has many other minority people including Bai, Uryger (pronouced Wee-gur), Naxi (pronouced Nah-she)  and others. It seemed to me that these minority people had maintained alot of their culture and that they are valued by the Chinese. Chinese tourists come to see their villages much in the same way that we in the US would go to see native Indian culture.  They also do not have to adhere to the "One Child" policy that discourages large families.

    Flying south from Beijing to Kunming takes about 3 hours and I noticed that it seemed much greener around Kunming than it had around Beijing.  I was actually rather suprised that Beijing seemed rather brown, as well as there was alot of smog/dust in the air so it was hard to see for very long distances.  They are growing lots of trees around the city, in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. 

     Upon arriving in Kunming and collecting our luggage, we headed outside to get the shuttle bus to our hotel.  We never did figure out what it was, so we got a cab instead and after some help translating and pointing at the name in Chinese characters in the guide book , we were on our way and we even made it to the right place.   Checking in involved filling out a form that we were to see many times along the way.  It requested your name, address, passport number and where you had been and where you were going.  I don't think anyone actually ever checked this or used this information - but it was required at most places we stayed.   Waiting for the elevator, we read a sign that listed some of the services that were available in the beauty shop/spa, it included haircuts, manicures, an aromatherapy toxin release massage and a "breast strengthing treatment".  Karen, Bill and I all wondered what that could be - but none of us was brave enough to ask or try.

     Lots of  people ride bicycles and scooters - but not as many as I had expected from pictures I've seen.  I'd say the ratio is about 1/3 bikes to 2/3 cars.  

    Beds in China - almost all the rooms we stayed in had 2 single beds, as this is quite common.  The beds take some getting used to as most were a box spring with a thin mattress pad on them.  They were "very firm", but by the end of the trip I got pretty used to it. 

    The next morning we took a bus from Kunming to a  town called Dali.    This was our first bus ride in China - we actually had 2.  First a minibus from the hotel to the bus station.  We were treated to some of the most creative driving I've ever seen.  First you must know that the lines on the road are mere suggestions, and if the way looks clear it's fair game.  It seems like chaos, but it seems to work most of the time.   We did see some accidents, but none looked very serious.   Our minibus driver chose to drive around a bridge support and into the oncoming traffic lanes to get around someone in front of  him.   I am normally a rather nervous passenger - but for some reason I found peace in China.  I guess I just figured if I was going to die, then that's how it would be and I couldn't really do anything about it. 

    The driver of our bus from Kunming to Dali seemed to have an entire language of  beeps.  He seemed to really enjoy using his horn and they seemed to fall into 4 basic catagories;
    1)  I'm passing you - so stay over there!

    2)  I want to pass you - so get over there!

    3)  Don't get in front of me, I'm not going to stop.  (usually to pedestrians)

    4)  Here I come!  (to other cars - kind of simlar to #1)

    The bus ride was about 5 hours long and we had 1 5 minute pee break and a  30 minute lunch break at a cafeteria of sorts.  We got stainless steel trays and were ushered through the kitchen and pointed at that stuff we wanted.  Didn't know what some of it was, but it tasted pretty good.  We had a movie on the bus,  unfortunately it was in Mandarin with subtitles in Chinese characters - so we had to make up our own story.  It was a combination computer/kungfu movie and it had a recurring theme where they played the song "Close to you".  We amused ourselves by singing along with the song.
The other entertainment was an older man who wanted to take off his shoes and put his feet up and this is evidently not allowed since the conductor and he had a rather heated discussion about it.   Again we had no idea what was really being said, but we tried to make up a good story.  This would be something we'd do over and over again on this trip.

    Upon arriving in Dali (New Dali) we negociated a taxi to the old city and had a really good taxi driver - just a nice guy.  Evidently not every taxi is allowed to drive into the old city and we were prepared to walk part-way.  But our driver took the time to talk to the military guys and somehow get in.  (or at least that's what it seemed like to us)

    We checked in at the Old Dali #5 Guest House and got a room with 3 single beds and a private bath - this cost us $6 (US) per night.  This guest house is a funky place, but it caters to westerners - as it has internet access, and a staff that spoke very good english and could arrange bus reservations, and tours.   After getting settled, we walked around old Dali, sampling street food, looking at Batik, and various things made of silver and marble.   One local guy just really liked Bill's shoes (his Teva sandals).  Ok, we aren't really sure what he was saying, maybe he just thought Bill had cool looking feet!

    The next day we had arranged for a tour of the area.  It went around Erhai Hu (Ear-shaped Lake) and stopped at various places along the way.  River was our guide and did a great job of explaining things along the way.  Our first stop was the Bai Cultural center where we saw some musical and dance performances of  traditional Bai songs and a Bai wedding.  The young performers were really cute, especially the guys who were playing "air guitar".  We were served 3 different types of tea, (green, ginger and yak butter) and at the end of the performance we all got up on stage and danced a sort of Bai Conga-Line type dance with them. 

    Next stop was a Bai house that belonged to a Bai man who was a merchant in the area.  The house was made up of 3 connected houses, all square and each built around a courtyard.  They were connected in a line and each house held one of the wives of this man and her family.  The main house had a "shadow wall" as one of the four interior walls of the courtyard, this wall was painted white and was positioned so that the afternoon sun would shine on it and it would reflect that light into the rest of the house.  Other houses had 5 gardens- one in each of the corners and the middle of it's courtyard.

    Next stop was the Friday market.  It was the place where the local people came to get their food and other items.  There was LOTS of garlic, vegetables, fish, tobacco and pipes, cooking pots and other assorted things.  There were also eyeglasses for sale and even a couple of  "dentists" of sort who had false teeth for sale.  I really wanted to get a picture of that - but the dentist made it very clear to me that  I shouldn't even consider it... Women walked around with big baskets on their backs and little girls looked at us and giggled when we said "Ni How" (Hello) to them.
  
    We then stopped at a batik factory where we got to see how they made the batik goods that we saw for sale almost everywhere.   They first paint a design using wax and then tie up parts of the fabric in certain patterns.  The fabric is then put in the indigo dye and after it is dried, the stitching used in the tie-dye part is ripped out.  It seemed very labor intensive (especially the tieing part)

    Lunch was at a small restaurant next to the lake.  They had a tank where they kept fresh fish in the corner of the room and occasionally a fish would try to escape - and we've save it from immediate death by putting it back in the tank.  We were brought lots of different dishes - mostly vegetables with very little meat and we ate like kings.  One thing I didn't expect were potatoes, but they were, served like very crispy hash browns.  Yumm!

    After lunch we visted the house of an artist-turned-architect.  It was made out of lots of concrete and glass and took advantage of the view of the lake.  Even the toilet had a view of the courtyard.  (if you opened the curtains).  There was other building going on nearby and two women were carrying bricks from where they'd been dumped off to the construction site.  They would make a stack of about 20 bricks and then carry them on their backs using a sling that went around their foreheads and the bricks.  We estimated that they were carrying over 70 pounds at a time!

    I've been asked several times what I found to be the most unexpected things about China.  I don't know if it was unexpected, but I answer by saying that China is many things, all at the same time.  On our tour we saw many examples of what I mean by that.  We drove around in a modern car on paved roads, our driver and guide using cell phones throughout the day.  Looking out the window of our minibus, we saw farmers working their fields by hand, litterally using wooden picks to turn over the soil,  we saw horse or yak-drawn carts and trucks bringing things to market, and we helped in the harvesting process by running over the soy beans or rice that that farmers placed in the road.  They did not have a machine to separate the grain from the plant - so they spread it out on the road and let passing cars do some of the work for them.

    The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting a temple to the goddess of mercy and taking a boat across the lake to a place where we saw cormorant fishing.  Not fishing for the birds, but rather having the birds fish for you.  They tie a string around the bird's neck that constricts the opening of their throat so that they are unable to swallow fish that are over a certain size.   The birds jump in the water and go to work catching fish until their necks bulge with fish.  Then the fisherman scoops them up and "helps" them give up the fish.  The birds grunt like pigs while they are fishing and they don't fly away, even though their wings are not clipped.  They just stay together in a flock.  The fishing was the highlight of the day, and I think it's the part that our guide and driver enjoy the most as they were having a great time with the birds and fish.

    Dinner that night was at a place called "Marley's" which advertised some western food.   Bill and his mom both got "beef burgers" while I opted for the "vegetable/cheese burger".  All of our burgers were identical except that the "beef" burgers contained a silver-doller size hamburger patty on them.   I don't think it was exactly what they had in mind,  but we learned that "burger" usually just means that whatever you are getting comes on a hamburger bun.

    The next day Bill and I hiked up the hill behind town to the Zhonghe Si temple.  There is a  chairlift  and you can rent a horse and handler to ride up there, but we really needed the exercise.  We walked through the market and then up through fields growing corn and garlic, among other vegetables.  After we passed through the fields, we entered a pine forest and passed several gravesites.   The view from the top was great, we could see the entire lake stretched out before us.   On the way back to our guesthouse, we wandered through the market and found ourselves in what we figured must have been the medicinal section.  It had all kinds of herbs and other things like snakes (freshly dead and dried), starfish, horns and feet of various animals.  It was really facinating and it was one of those times that we wished we'd had an interpreter to ask questions to.

    While Bill and I hiked, Karen went shopping on her own and slipped and sprained her ankle.   So this gave us the opportunity to try our non-exsistant language skills while trying to get a bandage for her.  We eventually got some tape and then shopped for a cane that she could use as support.  She said she liked this one she'd seen that had a handle that was made in the shape of some sort of animal head.  We found that one, but then realized that it had the special feature of a 10 inch knife blade concealed in the cane - so we opted for a boring model that wouldn't cause so much excitement while going through airport security. 

    Dinner that night was at the guest house, since it involved the least amount of walking.  We had a pretty good rendition of pizza. (Pizza seems to be something that you can ger in almost any country in the world) and a bottle of Yunnan Red wine.   The menu had many interesting things on it, and I'm sorry that I didn't write any of them down, the most interesting was something called "Dali Special Screw"  (that must have been a STEW-but again no one ventured to order it.)

    We hit the road the next day and took a minibus eastward to Lijiang.  The road there passes through lots of  farmland and climbs through terrain that is much like southern Colorado and New Mexico.  Lijiang is a city that has an older part much like Dali, with cobblestone streets and water running  through canals that run along these streets.  The main minority in this area are the Naxi (Nah-she) people.  We arrived at the downtown bus station and were approached by  a woman who asked us if we wanted to go to her guest house.  She had a small album of pictures and it looked nice and we soon found ourselves in a cab and into the old city.  Tang Jia Ge Guesthouse turned out to be very nice. It is run by a family, a husband and wife with a small boy, and the grandma.   Bill and I had a nice room with a private bath for 200 Yuan.  ($24).  This was during the national holiday so prices were higher than normal.  At the guesthouse we met a French-Canadian woman named Natalie and the four of us headed off to find some lunch.  It started to rain hard and we ducked into the closest place.  They didn't have any english menus, but no problem-come back into the kitchen-show us what you want.  So Natalie went back and pointed to mushrooms, garlic, greens and noodles.  I thought that we were picking out ingredients that would be stir-fried together, but what we got was:  Mushrooms stuffed with pork, Lotus blossoms stuffed with pork, stir-fried greens and a noodle soup with  soybeans in it.  It was all delicious and  the cost for 4 people...44 yuan - about $1.50 each.

  We spent a couple of days walking around, shopping, eating different foods like corn flavored ice cream that is shaped like an ear of corn.  Karen had to fly back to Beijing to go back to work, so Bill and I headed further east to a town called Quotio (pronouced Chow-tow and I very well may have it spelled wrong but I don't have my guidebook with me - so that's how it will stay until I get home and decide to spend the time to correct it!) which is the starting point for the trek of Tiger Leaping Gorge.   The rest of the time we spent people watching - always very interesting.  We  saw  bunches of  little boys whose parents had bought them wooden swords and guns and even one on a horse that had a bow and arrow set.  Of course they were all pretending to slay imaginary foes - kids are alike all over.

    Before heading to Quotio, I decided I had too much stuff and wanted to mail it to Karen's place in Langfang so I wouldn't have to haul it around with me.   Confusion ensued at the postoffice when the China Post folks assumed I was sending it home (to the US)  and packed it in a box for international shipping.  They were very confused when I kept answering "China" to their question of "What country is this going to?"  When they realized their mistake everyone there started to laugh.   The next hurdle became having to write the address of where it was going in Chinese - because of course I was mailing something locally.   Thankfully we had a card with Karen's address printed in Chinese characters and a very helpful employee came to the rescue and wrote them for me.  The package arrived just fine!

    We sent Karen off to the airport in a cab- using the universal sign for airplane, you know the one where you put your arms out and pretend like you're flying...and we headed off to the bus station, completely on our own, a little scared but OK.   We got on the right bus and were underway.  About a mile from the station we stopped and picked up one more passenger and a bunch of sheet metal which was loaded on the roof.  The bus was completely full, so new passenger #1 sat on the floor and smoked.  (The "No Smoking" signs are just a suggestion here...)  A little while later we pick up a couple more - the bus driver is making a little money on the side we think.  Someone on the bus has a cell phone and the ring tone is "Jingle Bells" and we hear laughter from the back of the bus when we sing along with it when it rings - complete with the "Hey" at the end. 

    We arrived in Quotio intending on starting the trek that afternoon and walking to the first guest house along the way.  First we stopped in at "The Gorged Tiger" a small cafe run by an Austrailian woman named Margo.  Margo convinced us that a large group had left before us and the guest house would be full and it would better to wait until morning.  So we got at room at the hotel across the river and  came back to the cafe for dinner since it seemed the best place in town to meet other travelers and get information about the trek.   When we arrived back at the cafe, there was a film crew filming Margo in her cafe.   The reason for this is that they were doing a story about Margo and her husband Sean.  Sean is Tibetan and runs a guest house at the other end of the trek.  Sean had run the guesthouse for many years and Margo did the trek about 8 years ago.  She met Sean, fell in love, and they were married 4 months later.  This documentary about their lives is tenatively called "Endless Love" (We found out later in the trip that Chinese really like romantic stories!)   We had dinner and talked with other trekkers that had just finished or were about to start the trek and met a couple of the local kids that like to hang out in the cafe.  Then it was off to bed so we could get an early start on the trek.

    We awoke the next morning to 2 sounds, squealing pigs and someone hocking a loogie.  Spitting is very common in China - if you have to spit, it doesn't matter where you are, inside or outside just do it.  It is so common that the government is trying to teach the citizens to stop spitting - another pre-Olympic change.  They may have made some progress in the larger cities, but not in the more rural areas.    As for the squealing pigs, we soon found out that Margo's place, just across the river sits above the local slaughterhouse.  Every morning there is fresh pork for sale.

    We met up with a couple of other trekkers at the cafe and we started out.  One, a guy who recently got out of the Navy soon left us in the dust and the other a woman from Israel.  The trek is a pretty steep climb, but quite beautiful.  The Yangtze river is below and there are tall snow covered peaks on the other side of it.  You walk through farmers fields that cling to the steep hillsides.   At the very begining of the trek there are men with horses that offer to take you on the trek by horseback or have the horse carry your packs - for a price.  We weren't interested, but we had a guy we came to call "Steve" trailing us as we hiked along.  Bill and I both had full packs and Susan, the  Israeli woman,  looked as if she hadn't hiked in few years - so I guess he figured the odds were in his favor that someone would break down and pay him some money before the day was done. 

    The first part of the hike is steep, but not too steep, then comes the infamous "28 Bends"  which is a set of 20-something switchbacks.  These are pretty steep.  Steve kept following and Susan kept slowing down.  By her own admission, she was pretty miserable and finally asked him what he wanted to take her to the top of the switchbacks.  He asked 200 Yuan, she offered 50,  and he said something and made a motion with his arms as if to say, "Are you kidding?  You're Huge! "   Bill had been translating the numbers up to this point, but after this exchange, chose to stay out of the bargining process.   Steve and Susan couldn't come to an agreement (She said she wouldn't go above 100) so she kept walking and he kept following. After about 300 more yards (of uphill travel) she decided that she was truely miserable and he'd come down to 120 and she'd take it.   I'd been walking with her and at this point I said that I thought that was a wise choice and I'd start on up the trail because she'd pass me in no time.   After a bit,  she hadn't passed me, and looking back down the trail I see that she's still walking (and Steve is still following her).  Asking some folks who'd passed her and come up on me, I found out that she choose to stick to her price of 100.  So instead of paying $2.40 more, she's stayed miserable.  She walked until Steve got to the point on the trail where he'd take 100 and then she got on the horse.    After he dropped her at the top of  the switchbacks he came back down (telling us we were only halfway) and we paid him 10 Yuan to carry our packs to the top - which turnd out to be about 5 more switchbacks - but it was worth it.   As he passed me on the trail, his horse was well, expelling gas very loudly and I laughed to myself.  He heard me and looked over pointed to his horse and started laughing too.  I guess horse farts are universally funny.

    Once at the top of the 28 Bends section, the trail becomes fairly level and we made good time stopping at one guest house for some food and drink and then going on to the "Halfway" guesthouse where we settled into a dorm room for the night.  We picked this particular place based partly on recommendation and partly because of the advertisement painted on the rocks along the trail for it.  It was advertised as having "24-hour hot water, apple pie and toilets with a scenic view"   All which is true - and the toilets do have a nice view as well as the added bonus of being open-air so they don't smell too bad.

    That night Bill started to feel bad and have a scratchy throat.  In the morning he woke up with a fever, so we stayed for another day, getting a private room where he slept and sweated most of the day.  I socialized and talked politics and conspiriacy theories about 9/11 with a Brit and a couple of Canadians.

    The next day Bill felt good enough to hike out and so we started out with clouds threatening over us.  It soon started to rain, but thankfully, we were much more than halfway along so it only took us a few hours to get to Sean's place.   We stopped there and had some food and got dried off.  The menu at Sean's place includes items with "Happy Sprinkles" which is a plant that is illegal in the US, but not in China.  You can also get the same stuff which is good to smoke, if you are friends of Sean's and you pay for it.  He's evidently got quite a garden growing out back of the guesthouse.    We were able to get a minibus with 3 other travelers to take us back to Quitou.  It's only about a 45 minute ride by car.   Tiger Leaping Gorge is listed as the "Must Do" trek in China and it was nice, but I didn't think it was "spectalcular" - I think I've been spoiled by Yosemite and the Sierra. 

    As you know, we don't ever have a set plan when we travel.  So after Tiger Leaping Gorge we had thought of going to a place called Zhongdian (which is supposed to be "Shangri-la")  We'd heard mixed reviews of it from other travelers and we couldn't seem to find out if there was a flight out of there to Cheng-du or not and if there was, what day of the week did it leave?   So we decided to skip that and head back to Kunming and take the train to Cheng-du.    This involved returning to Lijiang and then flying from there to Kunming.  When we returned to Lijiang, we went back to the same guesthouse that we had previously stayed at.  The first time we were there was during the country's holiday week and our room was $200 Yuan/night ($24).  This second time was no longer in the holiday week, so now the same room was $60 yuan!

    That turned out to be a good call, as when we got to Kunming, it was my turn to get sick and I spent a couple of days with a high fever and developed the same cough that Bill had.   There was a clinic in the hospital for westerners and I thought it might be wise to get some drugs so that I could over this asap.  Ever wonder what it's like to go to the hospital in China?  Well, this is the my story from Kunming...we hailed a taxi to take us to the hospital and he dropped us off right in front.  We entered the lobby, which was filled with lots of people sittting and standing around - It wasn't obvious, so we approached the information desk and we asked where the "Foreigners Clinic" was.  The woman smiled  and shook her head,  indicating she didn't know, but  she went off to ask and soon was leading us out the back of the building and across a parking lot to another building and into an office.  In this office were a couple of desks, a couch, and some cabinets.  A woman sitting at the desk asked what was going on and then proceeded to take a thermometer out of a pan of water on her desk and take my tempurature by putting it in my armpit.   No fever, (no doubt due to the ibuprofen I'd taken an hour earlier)  but she wanted to make sure I did not have pnemonia, so a chest x-ray was indicated.  That will be 16 Yuan - (about $2 US).  We paid and I was led back to the regular hospital, holding a little booklet that now contained my medical history.  They led me into the X-ray room, the walls were painted green and there were "No Smoking" signs both inside the room and out in the hall.  The X-ray technician sat there in the room, having a smoke.  They motioned me to stand on a small platform and they went in the room next door - and then a metal device moved in front of me.  I expected to hear the hum when the x-ray was turned on, but I never did.  This was obviously a different type of machine, since there was no film produced.   The technician made some notes in my medical record book - and I was led back to the foreigners room.   My heart and lungs were normal - so the doctor proclaimed that meant that I had broncaitis, and wrote a prescription in my medical record book for 5 different items.  1) Antibiotics, 2) Chinese cold medicine that came in little vials that you punctured the top of and sucked the medicine out with little straws.  3) Cough medicine. 4) Dristan cold tablets and 5) Vitamin C.   Bill went off to the pharmacy at the hospital and purchased all of these for about $11 US.  I guess they were covering all the bases.   I spent the next day pretty much out of it, but felt good enough to fly to Chengdu the following day.

    Once in Chengdu, we made our way to "Sam's guesthouse" and got a room that had a double bed in it.  Granted, it was still the normal "extra firm"  Chinese bed.  Our room was actually just a flat in an apartment building.  It had one main room and a bathroom that had a sink, toilet (western style) and shower all in the same room with no separation.  So when you took a shower, everything else in the room got wet.  There was a small kitchen toward the back and out on a balcony.  Walking down the hall past some open doors, I realized that whole families lived in these apartments. 

    At this point the Chinese experience was wearing on us.  Alot of it had to do with being sick - because I wasn't very excited about doing much of anything and Bill was bored since he now felt fine.  I noticed that there is alot more stimulus (audio, visual and odors) and every decision takes more consideration.  Although we see things, we don't really understand most of what we see and can't communicate very easily and certainly not at a very deep level with most people.  It feels very isolating.  Maybe I'm just not very good at unstructured travel in a completely unfamiliar place. 

    At this point we decided to head back to Beijing.  We figured a familar face (Karen, Bill's Mom) would do us good.  We arrived at the airport in Beijing and went to catch a taxi out to Langfang.  This should have been an easy matter.  When you arrive at the airport you are approached by many taxi drivers who will offer to take you whereever for some price - but you are not supposed to use these "unofficial" drivers.  The "recommended" procedure is to exit the airport and go wait in the taxi line.  The next taxi that is in line will  take you.  These drivers are supposed to be safe and there is some sort of  record-keeping that is done by some military guys there.  Although I think they only write down the taxi number and where it's supposed to be going.  I'm unclear how that is supposed to be safer, but that's what they say... Anyway,  we rebuffed all offers in the airport and dutifully waited in line outside.  Taxi drives up,  asks where we want to go.  Langfang I say.  Langfang???  It seemes to be a source of confusion - we produce a business card for the college with the name written in Chinese characters - "Oh, Langfang"  Now there is understanding, but some laughter.  We get in and tell the driver we want him to use the meter.  This should cost about 100 Yuan for the ride.  His meter is not visible,  it's on the floor next to the drivers door.  He says something like "Meter too much" , so we say "Ok, how much?"  and he says he'll use the meter... All along the drive he points to other cabs that have a different price written in their window  - some are 2 Yuan/Km others are 1.2 Yuan/Km.  He is jolly and laughing.  We decide that he's telling us that he's very happy and he's going to take his wife out on the town tonight because he's going to make lots of money off of us.   I don't remember how much it came out to be, but I think we ended up paying about twice what we were supposed to.   Oh, well! 

    We happily arrived back at College town and spent a day or so getting organized, doing laundry etc.  Then we headed into Beijing on Sunday with Karen.   We got to Beijing very easily by just going to the main entrance to the college town and taking one of the buses that sits outside the gate.  We thought we would have to wait until the bus was full,  but after waiting just about 10-15 minutes the bus left with just us 3 and one other person on it.   We had a great time shopping around in Beijing, going to the silk street market.  This used to be an actual street with lots of booths and shops on it, but it is now a 4 story building.  Each floor has different stuff on it, DVDs, beads, clothes (lots of knock off North Face stuff), luggage, art etc.  After our shopping extravaganza, we sat down in the Starbucks to plan our next move.  Yes, Starbucks is really everywhere.  There is even one in the Forbidden City. 

    After our rest we decided to head over to Tianamin square via subway.  The subways are pretty easy to negociate, but they are really crowded.   Tianamin square is not much to see, but Mao's body is on display there.  Unfortunately we missed his viewing hours. 

    Getting back to Langfang was another experience.  Karen usually goes on Saturday (and this was Sunday),  and she knows that to get back you take the 938 bus.  However, there are several 938 buses - and they all go to different places.  She says "look for the one that has curtains in the window".  They do have signs in the window - but again, you need to know how to read the Chinese characters.  We waited at the 2nd stop on the line and watched several 938 buses go by until we enlisted the help of a young man who also spoke english.  He found us the right bus and Karen boarded, but got off right away because there were no seats.  It's a 2 hour ride to Langfang, and she didn't want us to have to stand.  We ended up getting a taxi back to Langfang.   After that day, Bill and I were pretty certain that we would have an epic if we went into Beijing on our own.

    The last day we were in China we did 2 things.  One was visiting the Great Wall.  It's pretty amazing to think how much manpower it took to build that thing.   All to keep people in or out.  We humans sure spend our energy on stuff that may or may not actually be helpful in the long run...just a thought.   I thought it was interesting that  even the Great Wall has graffitti on it.
    The other thing we did was visit one of Karen's classes.  They had all written down questions for us to answer.  The questions ranged from "How did you met?  Was it love at first sight?"  (They do have a romantic streak - and it's not just the females...)  to a question wanting an explanation of the US income tax structure.   (This is a business school)  The kids were pretty shy - but they say they are afraid to come to the US because they think they will get shot.  I suppose it's because of the movies and TV shows that we export to them.   But then again, their movies and tv shows can be just as violent too. So, go figure.   I asked them if there was one thing that they would want Americans to know about China, what would it be?  There were only 2 students that wanted to answer, one was Christine, the student body president and the one of the best students, and she said that she wanted Americans to know how developed China was.  The other answer came from Edison, who is the class clown and does a great imitation of Joey from "Friends",  he said we should all learn to speak Chinese.   (To which I agreed...)

  So,  the next day we headed home and it felt great to be back in a country where we understood the rules and the language - not quite as exciting, but secure.   It took us about 3-4 days to fully adjust to the time change - and not feel continually tired or wide awake at 3 am.   The experience has made me so appreciative of what folks from other countries go through when they come here.  And I suspect they are better prepared (language-wise) than we were. 

Now it's on to Alaska - well, we've been in Alaska for some time now, and it's taken me this long to finish this up.   :-)