Sonja's TravelBlog

2006-08-02T22:27:00.000-04:00

Sonja's TravelBlog

Friday morning we got up at a reasonable hour, and had breakfast in the Club Lounge again, as we had for quite a few days in the past weeks. The food was the same as before but after being out in Yunnan Province, it seemed much more appetizing! One thing that was new was the addition of sticky rice to the buffet. This was rather what it sounds like from the name - cooked rice that was sticky and stuck together in a ball shape. What the name does not tell you, however, is it is wrapped up in a large piece of banana leaf, cooked inside it and served that way. So it looks rather like a square burrito, only wrapped in leaf instead of tortilla. It proved to be a pretty popular item, as they disappeared quite rapidly when they were brought out. I didn't get any the first round or the second. I was watching, though, and when the third round came out, I snagged one. It was good, but not like any rice I'd ever eaten before. It was kind of sweet, and had a kind of veggie-flavor from being cooked in the leaf.

After breakfast, we headed down to the concierge desk and asked him to again write down directions to WalMart for us, as we had decided we needed a larger suitcase if we were going to get all our purchases home! But we first took a trip to the Xiang Yiang Fashion Mart, as Greg had not seen it yet. We had a few things to look for, such as jade necklaces for Samuel and Sean and a "Rolex" for Greg's brother-in-law. We walked around for awhile without buying anything, and once again were followed around by people trying to sell us belts, cd's, dvd's, video games, and watches. We were mostly trying to find the booths recommended on the list given to us by Greg's co-workers, as being more honest and reasonably priced. I stopped at a booth selling jade necklaces and got both boys Guanyin necklaces. The first price the lady asked was 300RMB each. I really did laugh at that, because these were very cheap jade, almost white with just a few pale green streaks, and she was asking as much for them as we paid for the much better quality jade of our own necklaces. In the end I bought two of them for 100RMB total. She really didn't seem happy to go that low, but I know she was still charging me more than she would a local. Our next purchase was one we hadn't planned on, but seemed useful. A tiny tabletop camera tripod. The vendor first wanted 200RMB, we haggled him down to 75RMB and bought it. We were starting to get better at this haggling thing, finally. But the most fun haggling story was for Chris's "Rolex." I'd seen one Greg's co-worker from Texas had bought for 150RMB or so, so I had an idea of what a Chinese person speaking Mandarin could get them for (the co-worker was Chinese but born in the US). We found the booth recommended and started looking at watches. The guy running the booth at first wanted some really outrageous amount, like 1000RMB or something. I told him no way, shaking my head. We proceeded to haggle for a few minutes, I was trying for 100RMB. After I wouldn't go any higher than 250RMB, he stopped talking to me and looked over at Greg and said "You know this is worth more, how much you give?" I laughed and said to Greg, "He doesn't like talking to me, huh?" The vendor laughed too and said, "No, you mean bargainer!" We all laughed at that, and he tried to talk us up some more, but we ended up getting the watch for 250RMB. I was rather proud of that. :)

By this time it was past lunch, and again we were leery of the food vendors in the market. So we decided to find some lunch somewhere then take a taxi to WalMart. We ended up getting a taxi without finding any food, because all the food places in the area were not very appealing. We thought we'd get food in what I thought I'd seen as a McDonald's in WalMart my first trip. However when we got there we couldn't find it! I know I'd seen signs for one again, as it had been by Carrefours, but we never found it. We decided to do our shopping and go back to the hotel for food as soon as possible. We walked around a bit and Greg got to see the live fish for sale, as well as all the meats out in the open. We looked at the produce and then went upstairs to look for luggage. We ended up back in the New Years decoration section, where we picked out a few more things to bring home. We then picked out four red silk-like pillow/cushion-type things. I'd seen them on my first trip and liked them. We took a while deciding which luggage to get, but finally picked out a large rolling bag that was the same size as the largest bag we'd brought with us. We looked around a bit more, and came to the jackets section. The jacket I'd tried to buy on my first trip was back on the shelf! And not only did it have a price tag this time, it had been marked down from 150RMB to 95RMB! That was a no-brainer, I put it in our cart. We looked at clothes a bit more, and I got a couple more tshirts for the boys that were kind of cute. We found a cape and hat set for Greg's niece, like I'd noticed my first trip, and got it. We knew we couldn't give her an extra gift without getting one for her big brother as well, so we found him a pants and jacket set in red silk. We were trying to spend most of our Chinese money we had left, as we would only be able to exchange half of it for American money on the way home. We got in line to pay for our purchases, with a cart loaded to the top then stacked on top of that some more. When all our purchases were checked out, we had a total of 1100RMB. We had about 1400RMB left on us so that made a nice dent in the cash. There were a little girl and probably her grandma behind us in line, who were watching the checkout process in amazement. When the cashier told us the total, the little girl said "Ooooh." The grandma just watched with her eyes wide. When I pulled out the cash to pay their eyes got even wider. I realized that they were watching me spend the equivalent of a month's salary at a good-paying job in Shanghai in one fell swoop. It felt quite odd.

We took our bags and the suitcase outside, then put as much of what we had bought inside the suitcase. We flagged down a taxi and headed back to the hotel to start the process of packing up for the trip home.

Wow, it's been awhile...

2006-08-02T21:56:00.000-04:00

Wow, I've been really bad about coming back here to finish the stories. There're two more days in Shanghai plus the trip home to Durham to still write about. Most of the interesting stuff on the trip had already happened by then, the rest is mostly anti-climactic (sp?) but I do need to finish it... I shouldn't have waited so long, because now I'm sure there's a lot I've forgotten. I was just now trying to remember what we did on Thursday, the day after returning to Shanghai from Lijiang, and right now I can't remember. I *think* we did pretty much nothing but sleep very late, talk to family online, and maybe play a bit of WoW. We might have started to get our remaining unpacked things somewhat organized as well. I do think we walked over to the Indian restaurant for supper again, Thursday night. And I'm sure I tried to get some pictures out the hotel room window of some of the fireworks set off in the streets that night. If I remember anything else from that day I'll edit this post later and add it in. For now, I'll start another new post and tell about Friday, which was a bit of an adventure.

Last day in Lijiang

2006-03-12T19:06:00.000-05:00

I realize I forgot to tell about our purchases in Old Town Tuesday night. I bought a black cotton jacket with dragons embroidered down the front in gold thread at one shop, for 25rmb. I also got t-shirts for Samuel and Sean, at another shop. The t-shirts for sale there weren't screenprinted, they were hand-painted so each one was slightly different. The ones I chose for the boys were freeform designs loosely based on the Naxi pictograph writing, which the guide had told us was the only remaining pictograph written language still in use in the world today. We bought a few gifts for friends and family back home, and some paintings similar to the one Greg had liked in the restaurant/shop in Dali.

Wednesday morning it was up again early to pack and have one last trip to Old Town. We got packed up and again, the bellboy showed up earlier than scheduled for our bags. We were almost finished when he came though so we finished up and let him take them down to the van. We went again to the first floor restaurant for breakfast, which was much the same as the morning before. I was looking forward to coffee to get woke up and going, but this time it wasn't to be. Once again we ran into the cheap attitude of the hotel, because all the lights were off in the restaurant. And when I went to pour my coffee, a Chinese lady ahead of me started to pour some in her cup and said something and put it down, not sounding happy. I realized the coffee pots were cold, and so was the coffee. She said something to one of the staff nearby, and I put my hand over the burner and it too was cold. I checked that it was plugged in, and it was. I turned the knob up but it didn't warm up. One of the staff turned the lights on then, and the burner started warming up. I took my food to our table, and told Greg what I'd seen. He wasn't surprized. He then happened to see one of the staff go to the coffee pots, pour the contents of one into the other, and take the empty pot away. Silly me thought this meant we'd get some fresh, hot coffee soon. Nope. Not only did no hot coffee arrive, but as soon as she got back from taking the empty pot away, she turned the lights back off so even the coffee that was there had no chance to get warm. Such a cheap, stingy place to be more concerned about the electric bill than the comfort of our guests. Should we ever go back to Lijiang there's no way we'll stay there again, nor recommend it. More like, warn people away from it. No, I'm not going to publish the name of it here, but should anyone be going there, just ask. ;)

By this time we had seen all of Old Time, multiple times, but back we went again. We did make a few more purchases, such as some carved wooden fan-shaped decorations for family and one for us, and some painted Chinese zodiac signs, a rooster for me and a tiger for Greg. Then it was time to head back to the van and go to the airport to return to Shanghai. As we got back in the van, the guide asked if we would mind if another guide rode along with us. She said she needed to meet her guests but the van had already left for the airport. We said sure, we didn't mind. So a young Chinese lady met us at the van and rode along. We got to Lijiang airport in plenty of time to catch our flight. The guide asked us to fill out a questionaire on how well the tour was for us. (Will in Dali had had us do the same). We rated the hotel as low as we could and complained about the lack of heat. The guide got medium rating, the driver got an excellent rating as he was very good, polite, and a safe driver. We also gave the guide and driver 200rmb each as tips. I told the driver in my poor Mandarin "Thank you, you did a good job."

Then we checked our baggage and headed through security. There was no line, and we were through and seated waiting for our plane in ten minutes or less. I walked around looking at some of the things for sale, since I had a better idea than when we came in of what I was looking at. I didn't buy anything though. Our plane ended up being delayed by almost 2 hours so we got a later start than planned. The flights back to Shanghai, with a stop again in Chunming to get off the plane and back in, was pretty much uneventful. The only thing worth mentioning was, once we were in the Chunming airport, I realized I had left my sweatshirt from the circus on the plane. I went to one of the desks to try to ask what to do about it, but neither of the girls there spoke any English. I didn't want the airplane staff to leave my sweater at the Chunming airport lost and found, for me to never see again though. So I went over to one of the security guards who was at the door we'd come in upon arrival. He didn't speak any English either, and I was about ready to go try someone else when a Chinese girl standing at the door waiting said to me in English "What are you looking for?" I don't think I'd been that happy to hear my native tongue our entire trip! I told her I'd left my sweater on the plane and wanted to see if I could get it. She translated to the guard and he waved me to follow him. I was so glad to have the chance to get my sweatshirt back I almost forgot to thank the girl, but as we walked back down the tunnel I glanced back and remembered and waved to her and said "Thank you!" Sure enough, the flight attendants had my sweatshirt at the front of the plane and handed it back to me. The guard walked me back to the door and back inside, and I thanked him as well.

Addendum: I remembered after I posted this, something that may amuse some of the people reading this. On the plane from Chunming to Shanghai, we were given newspapers to read. I was rather amazed at this, because on all the other flights they only had Chinese language newspapers available but this time they had one in English.

Seeing as how this was the week before Chinese New Year and the beginning of Spring Festival, there was a big article in this paper about it. One of the sidebars of this talked about how many couples were planning to get married after Chinese New Year, because the upcoming year, the Year of the Dog, was considered a very lucky one for getting married. There was even the joke that many couples postponed getting married until then because the present year, the Year of the Rooster, was considered bad luck for getting married and said "I guess you could say they chickened out." I commented on the bad joke to Greg, and he read some of the sidebar too. Then he said something about, "It's going to be a lucky year to get married, huh? Maybe you should find some guy to shack up with and get married." :D To which I replied, "Well it *would* be a lucky year for it!" :D

Not long after that we got back on the plane and headed for Shanghai. We actually arrived on time in spite of the delay boarding at Lijiang Airport so they must expect that kind of thing to happen! Once back to Hongqiao, we again had to take a bus from the steps off the airplane to the terminal. Then get our luggage. Then the longest wait of all - to get a taxi from the airport back to the hotel. There was a long winding queue outside for taxi's, with a couple hundred people already waiting. It was very organized though, with airport guards directing people to what taxi to get and taxi's driving in four abreast. We got to the front of the line, asked the driver of the taxi we were directed to if he could take us to the hotel (we had a hotel taxi card with us still for just this reason.) He didn't seem too positive but waved us to get in. Once out of the airport traffic, he pulled off to the side (which was amazing enough, all other taxi drivers had read the directions while still driving full speed through traffic!) He figured it out somewhat and off we went. It took a few times of him doing this along the way but we got there. We checked back in, and this time got a room with one king size bed instead of two double beds. We should have changed it to that the first time around, it was much nicer to have the bigger bed!

Once we had our luggage up to our room, we hooked up the router and got online to let family back home know we'd made it back to Shanghai just fine. Then we had room service for supper, hamburgers and french fries, the closest to real Western food we'd had in five days. Then we were very soon soundly asleep!

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Tuesday Jan 24

2006-03-12T18:01:00.000-05:00

Tuesday morning we were up and about at 7:30. We were heading to the mountain around 9:00. We went down for breakfast in the first floor restaurant to find a completely different scene from our Sunday morning breakfast there. This time they had a buffet set up down the middle of the room. There was a cook at the back of the room frying up eggs to order. The breakfast food included several different kinds of noodles, some sausages, fried rice, and some very spicy potatoes similar to hashbrowns. Unlike the Sunday morning breakfast, there was coffee as well as tea. There was also Tang and hot soy milk. We ate and headed out to the van for the ride to the mountain. Once we got there, our guide went to buy our lift tickets. The mountain has a ski lift to get the first part of the way up because it is very steep. A few minutes later the guide came back with a guy and told us to follow him. She told us this was her friend, who was in charge of the lift. We then went around the side of the building, through a gate in the chain link fence, and to the front of the lift line. We were pretty sure her friend had gotten a bit of extra money for sneaking us to the front of the line. Otherwise we would have been waiting in line for the better part of an hour, so we didn't complain. There was a plaque at the base saying the lift was manufactured in the US and installed by a US company. Riding the lift up quickly took us away from the noise and crowd of the entrance and parking area. It was very quiet and peaceful, with the sound of the cable going through the pulleys at each pole the only real sound. We took a few pictures but most of the view was blocked by pine trees. One car coming down past us had a little boy and probably his dad, when they saw us the little boy yelled "Hello!" to us. I said "Hi! " back and he said "Hi" in return. Then his father asked "Are you American?" and I answered "Yes we are."

Once we got to the top, the hiking began. The walk up had wooden walkways with rails. As we started up we saw ponies with saddles tied to trees, and their handlers asked if we wanted a horse ride up. I was tempted but didn't. We were already pretty high in altitude before we left Lijiang. Then we took the lift. Even in the foothills, the Himalayas are quite tall! Our guide told us we should go slowly to avoid altitude sickness. So we didn't get in any hurry. Every time we came to any open space in the trees, there were vendors set up with computers, printers and digital cameras (yes, there was electricity there for them!) They wanted to put native costumes on you and take your picture, and sell you a laminated print. I didn't take any of them up on it this time. We did take pictures of each other standing on some of the platforms off the walkway with the mountains in the background, though. Even seeing us do that, some of the vendors tried to talk us into buying pictures from them.

When we got to the spruce meadow, there were girls and women in local native costumes dancing around a circle. Some of the women tourists had joined in. Some of the locals waved at me to get to join in but I wasn't interested. Walking in the very thin air was hard enough!

The guide then asked us if we wanted to continue on or head back. She said the climbing got more difficult from there. This ended up in a misunderstanding that put a damper on the rest of the day, because Greg didn't understand that turning back there meant we saw no more of the mountain. I knew it and just assumed he did as well. We elected to go back, to save energy for the rest of the day.

On the way back to town we stopped at one spot to take more pictures of the mountain. We also stopped at a parking area by the river to take pictures. There were yaks wearing saddles you could ride for a fee, but I wasn't interested in smelling like a yak the rest of the day. I took pictures of them out the van window instead.

Once back in Lijiang the guide asked if we wanted to go straight to Old Town or back to our hotel to rest awhile. We decided to go to the hotel. We both took a nap, then headed back downstairs to meet the guide to go back to the Old Town. We did a bit of shopping, took a few more pictures, then it was time to attend the Naxi Ancient Music Festival. This was held in a small music hall in Old Town. The musicians all played traditional Chinese instruments, some percussion, some strings, some wind. There were some seated musicians in front playing what looked like dulcimers, two hammered and two not. 75% of the musicians were ancient themselves, 80+ years old. A few of them even fell asleep between songs a few times. The director was a middle-age man who also played an instrument. He spoke about the history of the music in both Chinese and very good English. We learned more about the history of the Yunnan Province in that 90 minutes than we had the entire time we'd already spent there. At one point while he was talking in English someone's cellphone went off with a musical ring. He paused and said "that wasn't our music, that was from Motorola." He got a big laugh from the people in the audience that understood it, so he repeated it in Chinese and got a much bigger laugh. The music was, of course, very different from anything Western, but interesting and enjoyable nonetheless.

After the concert was over I bought a cd of the music at the souvenir stand in the music hall and we headed back to the hotel for the night. And again, thankfully, the heat was on when we got there and we slept warm and more comfortably than our first night at that hotel.

Back to Lijiang Monday Jan 23

2006-03-12T16:57:00.000-05:00

We arrived back in Lijiang on Monday afternoon, hoping we were going to be able to change to a better hotel. We weren't looking forward to two more nights without heat. But when we got back into Lijiang we were taken back to the same hotel. We had asked our guide in Dali about changing to a better hotel once back in Lijiang, and he had made a call and left a message with his boss about it. This obviously hadn't been relayed to the Lijiang guide, though, as she was surprized when we brought it up. We told her that we wanted to have a room where the heat worked or we wanted to change hotels. She was visibly upset by this and went inside to talk to the hotel staff. A few minutes later she came out and said the heat would be turned on in our room at 10:00 at night and turned back off at 7:00 each morning. This did not make us any happier about the hotel. In fact it only made us furious, because it was apparent they had lied to us about the heat being broken. They just didn't want to turn it on, probably to keep their electricity costs down. We were skeptical it would be turned on and said so to the guide. She then said we would have a heater brought to our room so we would not be without heat. We told her that had been done last time but it hadn't been enough to heat the room. She made a couple more calls as we drove to Lijiang Old Town for dinner, and later told us the heat would be turned on and we would also get a heater to supplement it. We hoped this was the case. We ate dinner in a restaurant in Lijiang Old Town the guide "highly recommended." It was soon apparent that this was a restaurant the guide had a relationship with, as the staff greeted her like they knew her. Probably she got a kickback for bringing us in, but that was not a problem for us. Our only real complaint was that the prices were higher than any other restaurant we ate in in the province. The food was somewhat "westernized" chinese cuisine that was not bad but not as good as the "real" local food. They did, however, have Dali Beer in stock, which somewhat made up for it. After we ate we walked around the Old Town a bit, the lights were being lit and the streets looked quite festive. There were a lot of New Year decorations to be seen, as well as red paper lanterns. We took a few pictures but didn't buy anything at any stores that time around. We went back to the hotel and had the space heater delivered again, and again had to sign for. We decided to see if we could get some more Dali Beer from room service and yes, it was on the room service menu. So I dialed the number, only to be greeted in Chinese. It was apparent the person didn't speak English, but to be sure I asked, "Ni hui shuo Yingyu ma?" (Do you speak English? although it sounds very little like the pinyin spelling. It sounds more like "Nee whey schwah Yingwen ma?") She replied "Bu hui" that she didn't so I said "Xiexie ni, zijian." (Thank you, goodbye.) I decided to go to one of the restaurants to try again. The "western" restaurant on the second floor was deserted, and the doors were shut on the one on the first floor. I went to the front desk and they called someone at the bar across the room, who brought me 2 bottles of it. I paid the front desk for it, but was told someone would come to our room to open them for us as they didn't have any bottle openers. So, back to the room I went, and a few minutes later the doorman rang the room's doorbell. He opened the two bottles and left. Luckily for us (and the guide, and the hotel, and the travel company) the heat did come on and we were much warmer than our first night there.

The next day we were headed to see Jade Dragon Snow Mountain up close.

Setback in picture posting progess

2006-02-18T19:01:00.000-05:00

It's nothing major but very frustrating. My laptop burned out its fan again (this is the second time) so off it goes to the repair depot again. I sent it off yesterday, Feb 17, should have it back Tuesday, Feb 20. I had already moved the pictures off the laptop drive to one of our network drives, and I didn't send the hard drive with the laptop anyway (I don't trust them to not reformat it even when told not to). Just that I had all my preferences set in Photoshop on my laptop, and none on the desktop. But I'm working on it still, and will have more up soon. I am trying to find out if there is a way to rearrange posts in the blog once they are posted, so I can put entries near the photos they pertain too. But for now I am still going to write up posts and work toward getting pictures up.

Second day in Dali

2006-02-16T18:17:00.000-05:00

Monday Jan 23 was our second and last day in Dali. Will had told us the night before we would leave the hotel around 08:00 for a boat tour of Erhai Lake, that it would be cold on the water and to dress warmly. We packed our luggage up to load in the van to take back to Lijiang later in the day. We had asked for a bellboy to come for our luggage at 07:45, after we had eaten breakfast but he showed up at 07:15 instead. We weren't finished packing up and asked him to come back in ten minutes. At 07:30 he wasn't back, and we only had the two rolly-bags and two backpacks so rather than risk missing breakfast, we took our own luggage down. Will had also told us to be sure to eat breakfast because the boat tour was four hours and didn't have food. The deserted restaurant of the night before was transformed into a busy, crowded room! A breakfast buffet was available down the middle of the room, with both Chinese and semi-Western breakfast food. There was a chef cooking eggs to order over a gas burner at the end of the room. We found an empty table and dumped our luggage around it. Will came over and saw we had luggage and asked if the bellboy had not come. We said he was early, before we were ready, and didn't come back. He said he would find someone to take it to the van, and we should get some food. We walked around the buffet and got a few things. Boiled eggs, some noodles, and stuff. Will came back and said he couldn't find a bellboy, we told him not to worry about it. He went to the chef and ordered and brought us back some fried eggs. We ate, Will sat a few tables away and ate, then we took our luggage out to the van. The driver had also eaten in the hotel restaurant, I suppose he got some perks for the job too.

We drove about 20 minutes to get to the boat dock. I tried to download pictures from our camera to have plenty of free space but wasn't quite finished when we got there. Will said he would go buy the tickets and come back for us. By then I had the pictures done, so we were good to go. We walked through a turnstyle and over to one of several large tour boats parked at the dock. As we walked on the ship, a lady handed us small heart-shaped necklaces in red strings with Chinese words embroidered on them. Will explained that these were our identifying badges for this boat, each boat has it's own unique necklace. The heart was made from red felt, stuffed a bit to puff it out. It was a very nice alternative to sticky blue nametags.

We climbed 3 flights of very steep stairs to take seats on the top deck at the back of the boat and were soon underway. Will took a napkin out of his pocket and wiped off two seats for us, which was very nice of him I thought. He told us that we would make two stops off the boat today, one on a tiny island with a small temple and one larger island with a hotel and some other things to see. He said that while on the boat we would take part in the Bai tea ceremony "Three Courses of Tea." He explained this was an ancient custom that was one reserved only for the king of the people, but now was allowed to commoners. The first course was bitter tea with no sweetener. Its symbolism was the harsh lessons early in life, before one gains maturity and wisdom. The second course was very sweet tea, with honey and herbs. Its symbolism was middle age, where you have established yourself and can begin to enjoy the fruits of your labors. The third course was tea with ginger and peppers, to clear the palate and symbolize attaining old age and clearing ones mind to prepare for the next level of existence after death. During this we would watch dancers perform the traditional Bai courtship and wedding ceremonies.

We were soon glad Will had warned us in advance to dress warmly. I had worn the nice long underwear that I got for Christmas, under jeans and a tshirt, with my circus sweatshirt over the tshirt. We had also brought knit hats, scarves and gloves. We ended up bundling up in all of our clothes and it was still chilly. Greg took a picture of me close up bundled in my jacket with the hood tied close under my chin. He seemed to think that was funny! He took a few other pictures out of the boat as well, but for the first hour or so there wasn't much to see except water.

We arrived at our first stop after an hour or so, a very tiny island with barely room for a small temple. What little space there was aside from the temple was crammed full of vendors. Most of them had charcoal grills going and were selling grilled seafood. Some had small fish, anchovy sized, on toothpicks. Some had larger fish on larger sticks, whole fish with heads and tails and all. Many of them had grilled shrimp, and to try to convince you of the freshness, had baskets of live shrimp beside the grill. The shrimp were not in water, and would jump around in the baskets. They cooked them while pouring red pepper sauce over them, so I decided not to try them, suspecting they would be very spicy. Once you got past the gauntlet of food vendors, there were tables set up on the rocks around the temple selling local crafts and jewelry. We glanced at them as we walked past, but didn't see anything we wanted to buy. We didn't get to go inside the temple, just walk on the rocks around it and back to the food vendor side to get back to the boat.

Then it was time for the Three Courses of Tea ceremony. We were ushered inside a room on the bottom deck, with rows of benches with low tables in front of them. The benches were supposed to be for four people, and not long-legged people at that. Luckily there wasn't anyone in the bench with us, because there was barely enough room for us on it even minus those two people. The table was very close to our legs too, making it pretty cramped. We watched the dancers, and I took a few pictures. We were on the end on one side, though, with music stands and microphone stands near us, so I didn't get any very good pictures. The wedding ceremony was amusing, in that the guests took turns pinching the "newlyweds'" cheeks, and shoving them playfully around. The poor groom got shoved pretty hard and nearly fell a few times. Not sure what the significance of that was, as the narration was only in Chinese. We were the only Caucasians on the boat that we saw, and definitely the only ones in the Three Courses of Tea. The first tea was indeed kind of bitter, but not terribly so. The second tea was cloyingly sweet after the bitter first one. It not only had honey in it but bits of walnut as well. The third one was good, not sweet, not bitter, just very clean and brisk-tasting. We were also given packages of some kind of candy or candied fruit, that we didn't eat at the time. The end of the ceremony was the "bride and groom" (it wasn't a real wedding, just a re-enactment for the tourists' sakes) throwing small wrapped candies out into the audience. We didn't catch any but on the way out I saw one on a table and grabbed it. It was ginger-flavored hard candy, not terrible but not this American's usual idea of candy.

Another hour or so and we arrived at the large island. This was more what you think of as an island, with a small stretch of sand beach and some hills. There was a hotel there, behind which was an open space with statues of local gods. There were even a half dozen or so private residences on the water there. The main feature of the island, though, was a 17 meter tall pure white marble statue of Guanyin, that you could see from a long way away across the water. Will told us it was the tallest marble statue in the world. It was quite impressive. When we got to the top of the island, close to the statue, it was very apparent how big it was. Her toenail was the size of my open hand, fingers and all. We took pictures of the various statues, and some of the scenery on the island, then had to head back to the boat. We took a quick detour to take a picture of a bronze statue we'd seen in passing on the way in, then made it to the boat before they pulled the gangway up. It was only another 30-minute boat ride to the shore. We didn't return to the same dock we started from. During that time we acquired an escort of sea gulls, begging for food. The people were only happy to oblige. Some even went below decks to buy bread snacks to feed to them. Needless to say, we were soon mobbed by them. They weren't the same as the seagulls I've seen in the 'States though, they had smaller longer bodies and heads. They also didn't have a cry as harsh as the ones in the 'States. One little boy ran out of bread to feed them and started pullin g pieces of orange rind apart and throwing to them. The birds soon grew wise to that though, and didn't try to eat them. One of them caught a piece of orange rind while hovering right over the boat deck, then decided he didn't want to eat it. He came right over the boat where the boy was standing and very deliberately dropped the piece of rind on the fake grass carpet at the boy's feet! I thought that was hilariously funny, as did everyone else that saw it happen. No other seagulls came right over the boat like that, the rest stayed just off the railings. I told Greg what it had done, he didn't see it happen. He took a picture of the rind there on the deck. So that's the story of the picture of an orange speck on fake grass on the boat. :) Greg took a lot of pictures of the seagulls too as they swooped around trying to get food. It had warmed up enough by then, almost noon, to take jackets off but it still wasn't what you would call warm.

Once back on land, and back in the van, Will asked if we were ready for lunch. We definitely were. He asked if we would like to return to the same restaurant as yesterday's lunch and we agreed. So back we went. We had mushrooms again, and a beef, a pork, and a chicken dish. This time, in spite of the "no seafood" request, they brought out a pot of what looked like fish soup. We didn't try it, and when Will noticed it was there said we wouldn't have to pay for it since we didn't order it. We decided to indulge in more Dali beer with lunch, it was just as good as we remembered.

While we were eating a German family came in the restaurant and were seated at a table behind us. Mother, father and teenage boy. I asked Greg if he thought they would try the Dali beer, and if so what they would think of it. They might think it was water, it was very light, no bitterness and not at all like German beer. I was a little disappointed to hear them order coca-cola to drink, but a little later they did get some Dali beer. No idea if they liked it or not, I didn't presume to ask.

Once we finished eating we wandered over to the souvenir tables to look them over. We hadn't done so before, so we wanted to this time. We had noticed and liked some paintings hanging up, and I wanted a cd of the music we had heard at Butterfly's Dream and at the ceremony on the boat. I got another lesson in haggling, because I liked a display of butterflies preserved in postcard-like displays. She said they were 50rmb, I think, but when I was ready to pay that she said something to Will. He said "you have to tell her you'll pay less." So she made me haggle for them! :) I ended up paying I think 20rmb for it which was probably still too much but in my mind, worth it. Then I picked out a 2 cd set of music, and again it was time to haggle. I got those down to 35 rmb from I think 75 or so. Greg asked about the price of the painting but they wanted 160rmb for it, he didn't want to haggle and decided not to get it. (Which was good because we later found the same ones in Lijiang, larger and cheaper).

So it was back to the van, for another 3 1/2 hour ride back to Lijiang. We thanked Will for his wonderful guide service and gave him a tip of 200rmb. Even though it isn't required, for tours it is not frowned upon and we felt he had more than earned it. A couple of hours into meeting him I started to think of him as a friend, not just a guide. His business card has his email address, and he told us to email him to let us know when we get our marble picture.

I dozed the first hour or so of the ride, until we got back to the same shop we had stopped at on the way 2 days before. This time I got out, since I needed a restroom stop. Too much Dali beer at lunch! When I got inside I discovered it was another jade shop, but didn't look around any this time. I did look at the snacks by the door for myself this time too, but was glad I didn't take Greg up on his bet. I would have lost. I had no idea what ANY of those foods were. We again were given bottles of water by the driver, and back we went on the road to Lijiang.

And this is as good a stopping place as any, I think. More soon! And more pictures!

Jade and marble factory visits

2006-02-16T18:03:00.000-05:00

Between visiting Butterfly Spring and the Three Pagodas, we visited two factories. These are the kind of shopping stops that are typical on tours in China. You visit a store on your route and mostly likely the tour company and/or tour guide get kickbacks. It wasn't so bad though. There was only supposed to be one shopping stop in Dali but we ended up choosing to go on a second one. The first was a jade factory. We walked all around and looked at things as small as pendants and as large as 3 foot tall jade sculptures. There were necklaces and bracelets and earrings and all sorts of things carved from Jade. We were told that the jade is imported from Burma and made into things there in the factory. We ended up each buying a small pendant necklace, Budda for me, Guanyin for Greg. Will explained to us that that was the proper kind to get, guys all get Guanyin, gals all get Buddha. Not sure why that is, suppose I should Google it. We ended up spending 250rmb on mine and about 350rmb on Greg's, which sounds like a lot of money until you convert it to USD. About 79USD total for both, for some nice jade. We looked at some marble things there as well that we liked more than the jade, but Will said that if we wanted marble we should go to a marble factory for better selection. So off we went to the second shopping trip. We saw so many beautiful things at the marble factory it was hard to decide what to get. We finally settled on a framed piece of marble that looked like white snow on a black mountain peak. It was too large to take home in a suitcase so the shop packed it up and arranged for it to be mailed to us. It would take a month or so to get here, we were told, so we don't have it yet. I also bought a small turned marble box for 20rmb, out of red marble with a matching lid. Afterward I wish I'd bought a dozen or so, for 2.50USD each they would have been great gift souvenirs back home.

I have a picture of the piece we bought that Greg took before they packed it up, I'll post it soon. Shipping and all he paid about 3400rmb for it, or about 415.00USD. But it's a large piece, about 2' x 3' and since it is black and white will look absolutely gorgeous over our white with black veins marble fireplace in the living room. We can't wait for it to get here in another week or so!

Butterfly's Dream

2006-02-15T18:29:00.000-05:00

From dinner at the restaurant hotel we drove from Dali to the nearby "new city" (I'll have to look up what city it was, I don't remember the name). We had taken our guide up on his suggestion of seeing the theater production "Butterfly's Dream" there. We had seen posters all over Dali advertising it. The theater was small, probably less than 200 seats if I had to guess. We had "VIP" seats with a program brochure and bottled water included. We were on the second or third row from the stage. The production was about various parts of life in Dali, past and present. There were quite elaborate costumes and props, and at a few points water was dropped over the stage to simulate rain. Pictures were not supposed to be taken, and we respected that. We seemed to be the only ones respecting it, however. Camera flashes went off all through the show. Without pictures, it's hard to describe the show, but it was very interesting and enjoyable. The first "act" was "Overture: Refreshment of the Famous Song." Act Two was "Erhai Lake, the Shining Pearl" about Lake Erhai, with mermaids, fish, seaweed and lobster costumes. There were two guys in lobster costumes that were hilarious, they walked like they were swimming, and even pretended to fight each other with their claws. The third act was "The Three Pagodas in Colorful Clouds" about the Bai culture and their traditions, with male and female dancers in traditional Bai costumes, and Bai songs and dances. I'll leave it to the readers to look up Bai on Google to see what these look like. The third act also had dancing and singing of other cultures such as Tibetan, East Indian, Persian and even Egyptian influenced with bellydancing and Arabian Nights-style costumes. The fourth act was "The Emerald Cangshan Mountain" with more ethnic dances and costumes of other local cultures, the Wa and Yi peoples. And finally was "Beside the Butterfly Fountain" depicting the annual festival at the Butterfly Spring.

When it was over our guide met us at the door to leave, we'd noticed him sitting on the back row also watching the show. He got in free I suppose, to all the events he took us to. He asked us if we had enjoyed the show, and we assured him we very much had. He admitted to being worried that we might be a bit bored with it, but nothing could be farther to the truth.

Back to the van, and we dropped Will off in the new city, as he lived there and not in Dali proper. The driver took us back to our hotel, and we were more than ready to call it a night. It was a long tiring day with a lot of see crammed into a short time frame, and we had several more equally busy days of sightseeing ahead.

2006-02-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

Barn with China Mobile ad painted on the side

2006-02-10T09:28:00.000-05:00

The beginnings of whitewater on the trek to the gorge.

2006-02-10T09:26:00.000-05:00

Mountainside above the walkway to Tiger Leaping Gorge

2006-02-10T09:25:00.000-05:00

And again.

2006-02-10T09:24:00.001-05:00

Rickshaw-view of the walkway and hills of Tiger Leaping Gorge.

2006-02-10T09:24:00.000-05:00

Boulders beside the Yangtze River. The scale is impossible to show, but the larger ones were the size of a mid-size car.

2006-02-10T09:23:00.001-05:00

Entrance to Tiger Leaping Gorge park. Rickshaws waiting for customers.

2006-02-10T09:23:00.000-05:00

More houses on hillsides

2006-02-10T09:21:00.000-05:00

Houses on a hillside. The bright white building in the middle was an unusual building, I'll try to zoom and crop later to try to show more detail.

2006-02-10T09:20:00.000-05:00

View from the road (yes, we took a lot of pictures out of the van windows!)

2006-02-10T09:19:00.001-05:00

Closeup of Fan Peak, the main (and virgin) peak of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. After fourteeen unsuccessful climbing expeditions, the local government forbade any more attempts, citing the peak as holy ground.

2006-02-10T09:19:00.000-05:00

Peaks of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

2006-02-10T09:18:00.000-05:00

Another sandbar

2006-02-10T09:17:00.000-05:00

Terraced fields in foreground

2006-02-10T09:16:00.000-05:00

More river and mountain views from the road

2006-02-10T09:15:00.001-05:00

View from road

2006-02-10T09:15:00.000-05:00

Yangtze River view from the road

2006-02-10T09:14:00.002-05:00

Sandbar in the Yangtze

2006-02-10T09:14:00.001-05:00

Yangtze

2006-02-10T09:14:00.000-05:00

Mountains behind the Yangtze

2006-02-10T09:13:00.001-05:00

buildings on a mountainside on the way to Dali from Lijiang

2006-02-10T09:13:00.000-05:00

Clouds over the mountains

2006-02-10T09:12:00.000-05:00

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain view from the road

Working behind the scenes

2006-02-07T17:20:00.000-05:00

No, I haven't abandoned this blog. I've been sorting through the thousands of pictures we took, resizing, cropping, retouching, etc., in preparation for putting them online. My poor laptop's hard drive is crammed full of pictures, I'm finally putting them onto our network drive to free up the space. 60 gigs sounded like a lot of hard drive space until I started cramming all those pictures on it!

Dali part two

2006-02-03T12:05:00.000-05:00

After the lack of heat in the Lijiang hotel, we were rather pensive over what kind of hotel we would be staying in our one night in Dali. Thankfully, the Regency Hotel in Dali, only about five minutes from the old town section, was much better. The heat worked, the room was larger and brighter, the bathroom had a bathtub as well as a door on the shower, and the beds were, if not soft, at least softer and bigger. We decided to again eat in the hotel restaurant rather than venture out for dinner. We were also relieved to find a safe in the closet of our room, as the Lijiang hotel didn't have room safes. We were carrying our laptops and camera with us whenever we left the room in Lijiang and that gets heavy after awhile.

We went downstairs and found we had the restaurant to ourselves. They did have a somewhat Western menu, so we ordered from that. I ordered beef with mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes, but I can't remember right now what Greg ordered to eat. I do remember very well ordering local Dali beer (http://www.dalibeer.com) with the meal though. We decided to order one beer to try, maybe more later if we liked it. The beer came out in a bottle the size of a small wine bottle. At 12rmb a bottle, this seemed like a bargain. The waitress opened the bottle and we poured some into our glasses for a sip. It was very very very good. Very mild but, as we discovered by reading the bottle, 10 proof as opposed to US beer that is maximum 6 proof. We both agreed it was delicious. We decided to give the dessert menu a try when we had finished our entrees. I ordered flan (which was listed as caramel custard) and Greg ordered bread pudding. After a few minutes, we again got bad news about our choices. They didn't have the flan. So we got what the menu listed as "Apple Turn Oven" instead (meant to say Apple Turnover I'm sure). Half an hour later Greg decided to go up to the room as our dessert still hadn't arrived and we were to meet the guide in just a few minutes for a show we were going to see. Of course, as soon as he left the room, dessert showed up. Apple Turn Oven turned out to be apples sliced into rings, battered in a pastry-type dough, and deep fried. The bread pudding was just not good though. While I was eating my half of the Apple Turn Oven, Will came in and asked if we were about ready to go. I told him Greg would be back any minute and we could go. I flagged down the waitress to get the check, and as soon as Greg had sampled the Apple Turn Oven and bread pudding, we went out to the van.

I'll write about the show later, this draft has been sitting here for a few days waiting to be posted. It's short I know, but it's something!

More Butterfly Spring

2006-01-31T16:17:00.000-05:00

Two things I forgot to write about our visit to the Butterfly Spring (that's what I get for taking so long to write these things down, I'll probably be going back and adding things in for a long time). When we were getting ready to leave, we stopped by the restrooms on the way back to the van. Will had told us there were no butterflies so early in the year, but I saw a blue one fluttering around. I tried to get a picture of it, but I had to pull out the camera, take off the lens cap, then shoot. I'm not sure if I got it or not, will find out when I go back through all the pictures. Just thought it was interesting.

Also while there a Chinese lady asked Will some questions. I didn't understand what she asked, but I understood his answer: "mei guo ren" meaning American. After we had walked away I said "She was curious about where we're from?" and he said "Yes, she asked me if you were Russian." Then he asked how I knew that, and I said I knew "mei guo ren" and guessed what she had asked. He asked if I spoke Chinese and I answered "yi xiar" meaning "a little bit." He said, "What you know, hello, goodbye, that kind of words?" I said yes pretty much.

And that's all the addition to that post for now.

Visiting Dali

2006-01-31T12:07:00.000-05:00

We left Lijiang around 09:00 Sunday morning, Jan 22. We drove through small towns (a couple of which the driver drove through the local market instead of the main road, which we realized he was doing to avoid the toll booths), and a lot of empty countryside. The roads there are only wide enough to accomodate two horses side by side, that's the standard measurement, so taking a small van through was... interesting. Especially since it was obvious there weren't supposed to be any motorized vehicles through there! We saw barber shops, noodle shops, shoe stores, truck and bicycle repair shops, junkyards, etc., all within arms' reach of the van and all in long rows of open-front buildings. I took a few pictures but I don't know if they'll show what we saw, as it was so close and so crowded I couldn't really get a lot in each picture.

We stopped after about 3 hours at a store for a restroom break and so the driver could have a cigarette. He offered cigarettes to Greg and me as well, which we turned down. Greg went in to use the restroom, I stayed outside. I told him if there were anything in there resembling snacks to get me something. When he came back he said there were lots of snacks but he'd give me 100rmb if I could name what a single one was. I didn't take him up on it, as the driver came back then, handed each of us some bottled water, and said the only English I ever heard him use our entire visit, "Let's go!"

Back on the road, we continued going down a mountainside until we arrived in Dali. There is a large lake that the town is situated on, called Erhai Lake. Our Dali guide later told me it was so named because of its shape, erhai means "ear." There are freshwater shrimp as well as 20+ species of fish in the lake, so lots of seafood in their cuisine as well.

We drove a way into town and the driver called the new guide, and after 20 minutes or so he showed up and got in the van. He was a young, early-20's looking Chinese, who introduced himself to us with his English name of Will. He gave me one of his business cards and asked if we were ready to eat lunch. We said we were so he told the driver, and off we went. We stopped at a place that looked more like a souvenir shop than a restaurant from the road. But you walk through the storefront part and came to the typical Chinese open courtyard between three buildings, where tables were set up for dining as well as some more souvenir tables with things for sale. We sat down, after visiting the restroom (99% of the bathrooms on this trip were squat toilets, only in hotels and one tourist attraction did we find Western toilets). We learned very quickly, our first day in Lijiang, to take our own stash of toilet paper around with us everywhere we went, because public toilets never had toilet paper. Some of them had holders for it, most didn't even have that. Most didn't have soap or paper towels to wash up with, and a few didn't even bother to have a sink. The guide asked us what kind of food we liked and if there was anything we definitely did not want. Greg told him no fish or seafood, and not too spicy. He asked if we wanted to drink Coca-cola or beer or what, we said just tea would be fine. The waitress came over just then with a teakettle and set down for us. We turned our teacups over to find them coated inside with dust. Yum. Will took the cups, poured some tea in a soup bowl, and rinsed the teacups in that for us. That's probably about as clean as they'd ever been.

The food started coming out one dish at a time. We had a beef dish, and a pork dish, a soup, some green leafy vegetables, and a plate of steamed mushrooms. The leafy veggies were kind of bitter, so we didn't eat much of those. Everything else was very good.

After the meal we went back to the van and rode to the Butterfly Spring. This was the first sight-seeing spot on our agenda for Dali. It was a mountain spring at the foot of the Cangshan Mountain range. The local legend was that two young lovers met a long time ago at the fountain. The man was a hunter and was hunting deer. The woman was, of course, the loveliest maiden in the village. The man shot a deer with an arrow but only wounded it, not killing it. The deer ran to the spring, and found the girl, begging her to save it. The girl bound its wound and saved its life. When the hunter tracked the deer to the fountain, he saw the beautiful girl and fell in love. They met at the fountain to see each other after that. But one day the emperor heard of this beautiful girl and decided she would be one of his consorts, and sent men to bring her to the palace. The girl didn't want to go, but was forced to. The small deer saw her taken away and ran to tell the man, who went to the palace to get the girl back. He took the girl away but was discovered, and the emperor sent men to kill the hunter and bring back the girl. The two lovers went back to the spring, and when they realized they were being chased, held hands and jumped in the pool and drowned themselves rather than be separated. The small deer also joined them in death. At that moment butterflies flew up out of the spring and landed on a tree overhanging the spring. So the spring is called Butterfly Spring, and every April there is a festival there, where young people go to find a mate and married people renew their vows. The guide said the tree is covered with butterflies that day.

We walked up the road (there were three roads, which Will explained as one for single men to walk up, one for single women to walk up, and the middle one for couples who met at the spring to walk back down together.) There weren't many other people around yet, and the day was getting warmer. When we got to the spring, there was a bit of a crowd. One of the local girls came up and offered to put a costume on me for a picture, the native costume all the women wore. I thought what the heck and said okay. She put it on me, I will post the picture here soon, Greg took a picture and that was that. The guide gave her a 5rmb note for it. Will offered to take a picture of us in front of the spring, so we took him up on that. We didn't give him 5rmb for that though. :)

We walked a little ways back to where the spring ran out through dragon-head shaped fountains. Will told us it was good luck to wash your hands three times in the water coming out of the spring, so we both did so and took pictures of the process. This didn't cost 5rmb either. :)

After that we hiked back down to the parking lot, fended off the souvenir vendors that were selling whistles that sounded amazingly like live bird calls, butterfly hair barrettes, etc. We looked at one booth for hats for Greg and me, but didn't find any in big enough sizes for us! The down side to the cheap shopping in China is, the sizes are much smaller than in the states. That reminds me, I haven't told of the shopping trip yet to get our coats and hiking shoes before we left Shanghai. I'll have to do that.

Addendum, Feb16th: I can't believe I forgot to write about the jade and marble factory visits that we made between the Butterfly Spring and Three Pagodas. I'll write a separate entry for those because it could get kind of long.

Back to the van and we went on to our next site, the Three Pagodas, the icon of Dali. These are three very tall pagodas, two on either side shorter than the middle one. Lots of pictures taken there as well. It was very quiet and peaceful there, as opposed to the crowd that formed at the Butterfly Spring soon after we arrived. The air smelled of spruce trees, and the only sounds were the wind in the trees, the lapping of water later on from the reflecting pool, and the sound of a gong being struck at an altar for the local god. Will offered to take a picture of Greg and me sitting on the edge of the reflecting pool. He was very good about doing that sort of thing. So we sat there, and he readied our camera. There were several other people there, sitting on nearby steps, watching this whole process. All of them were Chinese. When Will was ready to take the picture, he said "Okay ready, one, two..." and one wise guy in the crowd said out loud, "Three!" Everyone around had a good laugh at that. It was kind of surprising because this was a middle-aged guy, most of the people we found to speak English were of a much younger generation.

Behind the viewing tower for the pagodas was a huge, active Buddhist monastery. We wanted to go there but the guide said it was too big to see in less than two hours and there wasn't time. He said to remember it and our next trip to Dali make sure it was on our itinerary. We walked through a museum of relics found when the middle pagoda, the tallest one, was rebuilt after being badly damaged in the 1996 Earthquake. There were many small gold and bronze statues of Buddha and the Buddhist goddess of mercy, Guanyin.

From there we went back to the van and on into the old city section of Dali. We walked through it but by this time I was too tired to notice much. There were lots of shops and restaurants, and people trying to sell us things as we walked by. That's about all I remember of it. We got back to the van and went on to our hotel.

The four-star hotel that wasn't

2006-01-31T11:23:00.000-05:00

After returning to Lijiang from Tiger Leaping Gorge, the driver and guide took us to our hotel for the night. The outside of the place didn't look so bad, so we were hopeful. Our one worry about the trip was what kind of accomodations we'd have. Got checked in, given our key-card, and had our luggage delivered to our room. We were on the fourth floor. The first thing we noticed on entering the room was it was pretty small, but not cramped. The second thing we noticed was that it was freezing cold in the room. As soon as the bellboy left, we turned the heat on. The thermostat was turned off, we figured that was why it was cold. About ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door. A hotel employee was there with a space heater that she brought in the room, plugged in and set, and had Greg sign for. She turned off the thermostat on the wall, too. Then she gave us a remote control for it and left. We looked at each other like, "What the heck was that about?" Another ten minutes later, the phone rang. Greg picked it up and talked a minute, then hung up. He said it was the front desk asking if our heater had been delivered and was it working. The front desk person told him the heat was broken on our floor, thus the space heater being brought to us.

We decided to go eat in one of the hotel restaurants (they had two, a Chinese restaurant, and a Western restaurant, we had been told on check-in). We went to the Western restaurant, only to find out it was Western Chinese cuisine, not Western hemisphere cuisine. That was okay with us, we were hungry and tired and Greg had eaten at a cafeteria with co-workers enough that he could figure out what to order us.

I guess here is a good place to recount the way most Chinese meals are eaten. I mentioned that we ate at the restaurant in Shanghai at a big round table with a revolving glass "lazy susan" in the middle. That's the typical way meals are served. Dishes are brought out one at a time, along with a big bowl of rice. Each place setting has a tea cup, a small plate, a small soup bowl, a soup spoon that looks more like a miniature ladle than a Western spoon, and a set of chopsticks. You get tea in your cup, soup in your bowl, then use your chopsticks to pick up bites of food out of the plates in the middle of the table. You never really serve yourself onto the small plate, you eat out of the serving bowls. You might get some rice on your plate then put a few bites of a dish on that and mix it together, but it seems that generally you eat out of the serving dishes.

That is how the table was set up at the hotel restaurant. We went in and sat down, to the entertainment of the large party of Chinese people who were also eating there. It appeared to be a family group as there were people there of all ages, from toddlers to senior citizens. The first ten minutes we were in the room I don't think any of them took a single bite of food, they were too busy staring at us. They watched as we looked over the menu and told the waitress what we wanted to eat. Finally they went back to their meal and eating and talking as they had before we walked in.

A few minutes later the waitress came back to say that two of the three dishes we ordered were already gone for the day. So we chose two more. Then she came back and said one of those two was out also. So we chose one more. Then she came back and asked if we wanted something different because we had ordered one soup and one dish that was a lot like soup as well. We said okay. We ended up with a braised meat dish that she brought out on a plate with a metal grate, with alcohol under the grate that she lit with a lighter. The meat and veggies were very good but we didn't have rice with them yet. We also got chicken soup, which looked to be nothing more than a whole chicken stewed in a pot, with a few veggies floating in. There was a preserved ham dish with lots of red peppers (not bell peppers, those little dark red Oriental peppers that pack a wallop). The ham was good but we left the peppers alone! All in all it was a decent meal, different but good. I learned a lot more about chopstick skills at that meal too, as there were no forks offered. When we'd finished our meal and paid the check, we got up to leave. Once again the dinner party beside us went silent and everyone stared at us. I was amused at this, and as we walked past them to the exit just smiled and nodded at them in general. I thought later I should have said "Zijian!" to them as I went, too bad I didn' think of it at the time!

Back to the fourth floor, to discover as we stepped out of the elevator, the windows at the ends of the halls were all opened about six inches. We closed the one by the elevator and went to our room. Walking in, it was still freezing cold inside, even though the space heater had been running while we were at dinner. I had a thought and went to look at the window. Sure enough, behind the curtains, the window was open six inches or so. Grrrr! I closed it and pulled the curtains as tight as possible.

The next wonderful discovery was the beds. They were about as soft as plywood covered with thin scratchy linens. Each bed (full size, supposedly, but not fullsize for Americans) had a thick duvet so we ended up taking one duvet to sleep on, on top of the sheet, and covering up with the other for the night. We still never really got warm though.

The bathroom was tiny, and didn't even have a door on the shower. It was just one pane of glass in the floor and a drain, and some non-slip panels on the floor. The shower floor was the same material as the rest of the bathroom floor. There was a sign on the wall behind the toilet - "Caution - wet floor." No kidding! Whenever you used the shower the floor was an inch deep in water for the whole bathroom. There was no bathtub, and only a small sink vanity. There was a sign over the hairdryer that said (I have a picture to post later) "If you use it beyond continous 12 minute you must to pay for your careless."

There was, of course, no internet access available. Which was fine by us as we were exhausted from the plane rides, twisty van ride, and hiking back down the mountain from the gorge. In spite of the small, hard bed we were asleep pretty fast.

Next morning the room was frigid. Greg got up and turned on the shower to try to heat the bathroom up before we took showers. When he was done he dressed in front of the space heater, which had run all night but never really got the room warm. I took a quick shower and did the same, and we went to breakfast.

Breakfast was in the other restaurant, the "non-Western" one. We were brought a plate of watermelon slices (watermelon seemed to be very popular, everywhere we ate had it) a bowl of noodles in liquid with some ground meat on top of it, tea, and a plate of rolls and cakes and cookies. Thus I got to learn how to eat noodles with chopsticks, as there was no fork here either. As I started eating, or rather trying to eat, a middle-aged Chinese man came in to eat and was seated at the same table as us (the tables are set up for 10 or more people so groups of two may end up at the table with one or two other small groups). He had a laugh at me trying to pick up the noodles, and I grinned at him and kept trying. I finally got the hang of it, with some help from Greg. You don't pick them up, you just sort of scoop them sideways to the side of the bowl, and then just slurp them up. You pick the bowl up and bring it to your mouth for almost all foods anyway, rice, noodles, etc. Slurping is not considered bad manners. The liquid the noodles were in was spicy, pepper sauce or something in it, but good. We finished eating and went back to pack our luggage up again.

We were headed out of Lijiang that morning, to make the three and a half or four hour drive to Dali. We would stay two days and a night in Dali then return to Lijiang. Our luggage was taken down to the van by a bellboy, our guide explained we would be meeting a different guide in Dali, then back to her when we returned to Lijiang.

We fervently hoped the Dali hotel at least had working heat!

Continuation: Travelling to the Yunnan Province

2006-01-30T14:11:00.000-05:00

Our flight from Shanghai to Lijiang included a stopover at the airport in Chunming. We didn’t change planes, but we got off the plane and waited in the airport for half an hour or so, then got back on the same plane to continue. The plane was pretty much full both legs of the trip. We had seats fairly near the front of the plane – row 6, the aisle and middle seat in rows of three. We were, I’m pretty sure, the only Caucasians on the plane. The first leg of the flight was a little less than 3 hours long. We were served beverages and snacks, the snacks being completely Chinese food. Most notably, a small sealed package of what on first glance, looked to be labeled as “Squids Lice.” It turned out to be an oddity of spacing (which is not uncommon in Chinese-to-English translations, because Chinese symbols are whole words instead of individual letters combined into words. Figuring out where one word ends and another begins is pretty difficult for that, I suspect.) Upon closer inspection, including reading the back, it was “Squid Slice.” And that is exactly what it was, small slivers of dried squid flavored with salt, sugar and spicy red pepper powder. Seeing as how I love calamari, I gamely gave it a try. Greg had already done so with his while I was reading the packaging. His opinion was, it wasn’t bad but too fishy-tasting for his taste. I took a bite and was undecided at first. The second bite convinced me it was delicious, and could be addictive. After the fifth bite, I didn’t want any more, then or any time soon. Hard to explain, but it was like my body said, “Okay, it’s good but you don’t need any more, stop eating it.” It was very very rich, as in pure protein, so maybe that was it. My diet was pretty protein-poor most of the two preceding weeks. The rest of the snack box was a package with some tofu slices with one tiny shrimp pressed into the top piece, a package of two shortbread-like cookies, and a roll. Not very filling but it *was* presented as a snack and not a meal.

The stopover in Chunming was short, and upon re-boarding the plane looked like almost the same people as had gotten off. The guy that was in the window seat of our row was the same, for sure.

Once we were back on the plane, it was a very short hop to the airport at Lijiang. At most 40 minutes from takeoff to landing. We landed on a very short, but smooth-surfaced runway. We got off the plane and went to get our luggage. There was only one baggage belt, and it was only about ten feet away from the door to the outside. As we were waiting for our luggage, we spotted our local guide waiting outside with a sign with Greg’s name on it. We waved at her and pointed at the luggage beltway. Once we had our luggage, we had a bobble because we didn’t realize the slips we had been given when we checked our luggage were required to leave with it. So we had to dig out our ticket folder and show those to the airport employees at the exit. Once we got outside, the guide introduced herself with her English name of Chelsea. We never called her by name and she never referred to herself that way again after the initial introduction. She referred to herself as “local guide” thereafter. She helped us with our luggage and led us to a mini-van sized Toyota van with three rows of seats. We were to spend quite a few hours in that van over the next five days!

We were the only “guests” this tour so we had the van, driver and guide to ourselves. There was enough room for nine people plus driver and guide, as long as nobody had too much luggage. We had room to spread out though, and move from one side to the other to take pictures out the windows, etc. Our first order of business was not to go check in at our hotel, but to make the two hour drive to visit Tiger Leaping Gorge. We drove there on twisty winding roads that were pretty well maintained and obviously pretty new. The view out the van windows was quite interesting. Traditional Chinese buildings with the pagoda-type roofs, but adapted to the semi-tropical environment of the area. Dirt floors on most of them, and we drove through some villages that didn’t look to have much in the way of electricity or running water, etc. We soon began seeing cows tethered outside homes by rings through their noses, pigs and chickens wandering around loose, small horses that were really ponies I guess tied to trees on short ropes, etc. The main mode of transportation appeared to be small trucks with exposed riding lawnmower motors on the front. Two-cylinder engines putt-putting along.

The road was well-maintained but very twisty, and I soon realized there was one over-the-counter med we hadn't brought along but should have - dramamine. The first hour of the drive I was looking out either side of the van enjoying the scenery, the second hour I was looking straight ahead with only quick glances to the sides at the scenery. We got to the parking area and entrance to the gorge around 4pm, and they closed at 6pm. The guide said it had been a windy day and there were some reports of rockslides, if we wanted to take the 2.5 kilometer trail to the gorge it was recommended we hire a rickshaw. So we did. It was nice to not have to walk up on our own but there were pictures we wanted to take that we couldn't. So we didn't complain about the rickshaw leaving us at the top and having to walk back down later, even though we paid for a round trip. The scenery was just breathtaking, it's too bad the pictures we took just can't show the scale or the real beauty of it. Boulders the size of school busses had fallen off the mountain onto the river banks (the Yangtze starts near the area, and takes the "first bend" which sends it north through China instead of south and avoiding China). The rock that gives the gorge its name is a huge boulder in the middle of a narrow section. Local legend has it that a hunter chased a tiger to the river's edge, and to escape the tiger jumped to the boulder and then to the other side of the river, so the rock is Tiger Leaping Rock and the gorge is Tiger Leaping Gorge.

We took quite a few pictures in spite of the lowering sun's glare, some of them turned out pretty good we think. On the walk back to the van, we took more, including some we wanted to take on the way up but couldn't. I picked up a few small pieces of quartz along the way, with the thoughts of making them into earrings/necklace pendants some day. Or to just keep as souvenirs.

On the way back we also saw the evidence of a few small rockslides that had happened after we'd passed. One spot had park employees deliberately knocking loose rock down onto the walkway, in a controlled slide rather than leave it to chance.

Once back to the van we repeated the two-hour twisty drive, back to the town of Lijiang. On the way out of the gorge area we were flagged down by a guy with a cellphone, drawing our attention to the rockslide that was happening on the road ahead and not one that was man-made. We had to sit and wait for it to subside before we could leave. Greg leaned out the van window and took a picture of it, we'll upload it soon. Two hours or so later, we checked into the hotel and decided to eat dinner in the restaurant there rather than go back out. Thus the adventure of the fake four-star hotel began. That's a good place to start a new entry though, so I'll end this one for now to keep entries at least a little shorter and hopefully more readable.

Home

2006-01-28T23:14:00.000-05:00

Well I'm home and Sonja should be here shortly. She had a later flight for the last leg than I did so she should have just landed. I would have gone to pick her up, but her Mom wanted to go and there isn't room for 4 people and luggage in the car.

Headed home...

2006-01-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

Well we are about done here. Going to pack up the router, get breakfast and head to the airport. We will let you know when we get there (about 28 hours from now)....

Travelling to the "real" China

2006-01-26T00:02:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning, Jan 21 '06, we had an 08:40 flight to the Yunnan province of China. This was a domestic flight as opposed to international flight, so we flew out of Shanghai Hongqiao Airport instead of Pudong Airport. We managed to pack everything the night before, because we knew we wouldn't be awake/energetic enough to do any of it that morning. We had arranged ahead of time to check out of the Renaissance Pudong Hotel Saturday morning, and check back in upon our return to Shanghai on Wednesday the 25th. We packed only what we thought we'd need for the trip, and left all our other belongings checked with the concierge here. We took our two smallest rolly-bags, and two backpacks. We set the alarm clock for 05:30 so we could have breakfast in the Club Lounge and have everything ready to jump in a taxi at 06:45.

When we did go outside to get the taxi, we had to tell the hotel employee who's job it is to get taxis for guests at least three times that no, we didn't need to go to Pudong Airport, we needed to go to Hongqiao Airport. The taxi driver also didn't believe us until Greg showed him our plane ticket. Poor driver was stressed the whole way, thinking he wasn't going to get us there in time to catch our plane. It is a 40-min or so drive from the Pudong area to Hongqiao in normal traffic. The driver at first thought we had an 08:00 flight I think because he kept pointing at the clock on his dash and asking us, "Okay? Okay?" We would reassure him but he was still stressed. He was also the most talkative and outgoing taxi driver we have yet to have here. He pointed out things to us along the route like a stadium and some of the bigger towers. He asked us several things in Chinese but we didn't understand much of it. After about the 10th time he pointed at the clock and asked, "Okay?" Greg showed him the plane tickets again and that the flight left at 08:40 and he was a little less stressed then. He was downright chatty even though we understood very little. Just before we got to the airport traffic, and he'd figured out we were headed for a holiday in Lijiang then coming back to Shanghai, he said, " Shanghai okay (ma)?" (Ma is the question word requring a yes or no response in Mandarin, so even though he was speaking an English-type sentence he still ended with the question word.) I answered first in English, "Yes, Shanghai ok!" then in my piddling Mandarin, "Shanghai hen hao," (Shanghai very good). He had a very big grin at that.

We got to the airport about 07:50 (and paid our largest yet taxi fare, 81rmb. Greg gave him a 100rmb note and told him to keep the change which is all but unheard-of in China. You know those silly signs that some places have in the 'States, "Tipping is not a city in China?" Well I have a response for those signs now: "That's right, there is no tipping in China." Busboys, limo drivers, cab drivers, waitstaff, etc., none of them expect tips). We had some difficulty finding out which gate to check in at at Hongqiao when we got inside though. We went to the first gate we came to, and the employee said, "Gate 32B, that way" and pointed. We went there and our flight wasn't listed anywhere. I kept our place in line just in case and Greg went to the China Eastern ticket counter to ask someone else. He talked to two people at two different places that said go back to A22. So we did, but our flight wasn't on the boards there either. I did notice that the latest flight times were 08:25 though, and said it was possible ours just wasn't up yet. We stayed there and soon enough our flight was posted. We checked the two rolly-bags and carried on the two backpacks. Going through security went quickly even though there was quite a line. It was apparently mandatory to not only walk through the metal detector but also get the wand passed over you. Greg somehow set off the detector with something in his pockets but it was figured out and he went on through. I went through with no incident. We found our gate and sat down to wait. There weren't many seats available, it was quite crowded but we did manage to find two seats together.

Once our flight was called, we were directed down a hallway and out to a transport bus. The bus was already full and still packing more people in. We rode it out to the plane and got on the plane, not on a tunnel but on rolling steps.

And that's the beginning of our trip the the Yunnan province. I'll post more later as it's time to find some lunch and figure out what to do with the day and a half we have left in China.

2006-01-25T23:54:00.000-05:00

Greg wrote:

Now for the scarry thought, If I didn't have an Amex card we would be sleeping on the street tonight without a way to get cash or even call anyone to help.

Actually I brought with me my Smith-Barney FMA account debit card, and my Smith-Barney Platinum MasterCard, so if your cards all were declined we could have checked in with one of those. Even though I don't work for them anymore, my accounts are still open and valid. Still not a happy thought though.

Back in Shanghai

2006-01-25T09:39:00.000-05:00

We are back in Shanghai, back from the towns of Lijiang and Dali in the Yunnan province. We have many many pictures and stories to share but for now are quite exhausted. We're quite happy to luxuriate in our posh hotel room, which has working central heat and a Western style bathroom with an unlimited supply of toilet paper. You quickly learn what is really important when travelling in the hinterlands. Greg is writing up a post now about his adventures with the credit card companies freezing all his accounts because he's used them in a foreign country...

Fun with international credit card use

2006-01-25T09:37:00.000-05:00

Now I know why ALL business travelers have and use only American Express cards. Amex works everywhere, all the time, with no spending limits. Mine works here and now, nothing else does. Well more or less, but that's the rest of the story.

Most of my regular cards have worked some of the the time, but not others... Apparently the connection to some US Banks from some China banks simply quits working periodicly. No reason, just stops.

I suppose the good news here is that Chineese businesses aren't supprised by this and take it in stride, it's apparently common.

Then there are the stupid fraud alert "features" All of my usable card are now fraud blocked because they have been accessed from a foreign country (I've managed to use them all once and only once each, despite the dropped connections). Please note, this doesn't protect me in any way given the current state of credit card law in the US... This well marketed feature only protects banks that have it, not consumers.

I suppose the good news here is that you can't tell this from the connection just breaking so I wasn't so embarrised when they declined... but that also ment I didn't discover they were all slowly being blocked till tonight when I tried to check into the hotel.

So I tried tonight to get one unblocked as I need to pay for the trip we just took (see problem 1 above for how we managed to take a trip without paying for it, after 5 hours of trying to run my card they gave up). I've got cards from 3 institutions (I don't use them normally, but I have them), of those companies only 1 has a non-800 number, and that number no longer works. So I ended up calling a 1-800 number at about 1.5 USD per minute plus hotel terrifs just to get access back to one of my card... one that I didn't use wrong in anyway. Now a $10-15 phone bill to regain access to my card isn't going to kill me, but it sure does &*(^ me off.

Now for the scarry thought, If I didn't have an Amex card we would be sleeping on the street tonight without a way to get cash or even call anyone to help.

Catching my breath, catching up a bit

2006-01-20T01:56:00.000-05:00

The past few days have been mostly slow. It's rained most of every day and night in Shanghai and that makes for difficult transportation. Today I braved the possible lack of transport to make a shopping trip to get things we are going to need for our Lijang trip. This was my second visit to the Shanghai WalMart, I went there Monday as well. Monday I bought a few things we needed and a lot we didn't, typical of WalMart everywhere I guess. My first purchase was a sake set that was double what I thought it was going to cost when I got to the register with it. It looked like the price was 180RMB on the shelf but it rang up 348RMB. Eeeeek! I supposed I should have said no that's too much but, I didn't. :/ I hope that is some very good sake when we get around to opening it! I spent about that much on all the rest of my purchases there.

The WalMart was two stories, but it was no small store like the department store we'd looked around on Nanjing Lu. Big store. Downstairs was groceries, upstairs everything else. I walked through the meat department, and it was very different than meat departments in the states. The meat was not wrapped, it was all out in the open. Piles of chicken wings, fresh and frozen in bins. Beef ribs, pork chops, everything was out in the open air. People grabbed pieces with tongs (or just their bare hands though the employees were actively discouraging this) and dropped them into plastic bags to be weighed and labeled. Piles of pressed duck and ox tails. I have to say though there was no unpleasant odor and no flies or insects around the meat.

The seafood department looked more like a petshop than a grocery store. There were rows of tanks with live fish in them. There were big nets hanging off the tanks people used to scoop the live fish out and dump in bags or buckets to purchase. Catfish, sea bass, crabs, shrimp, eels, and other fish I couldn't identify. Doesn't get any fresher than that I guess!

The produce department wasn't much different though. There were a LOT of oranges, and very few apples. Very few bananas and they were expensive, like 10rmb where the others were 2 or 3 I assume per pound. Pineapple, plums, coconuts. Then I walked around to the dry goods part of the store. The alcohol section was jammed full of people, and had two armed policeman (NOT security guards but China police officers) stationed there. They had open bottles for samples too, Johnny Walker whiskey and a few kinds of wine. I declined to sample any, but did buy the sake set. It had a security tag on the bottle like clothing at WalMart in the states has. When the cashier tried to remove it (the alcohol section had it's own cash register and you paid for all alcohol there) he couldn't get it off! He tried the little tool for it, but it wouldn't go around the thing because the bottle neck was round, not flat. Three different people tried and finally the original guy got it off. Everyone was laughing about it, even customers, it was almost like a clown act, people tugging and saying things I probably was better off not understanding! When it came off several people clapped their hands, too.

I went on around the store and got things like what I thought was kleenex since Greg's had a runny nose and keeps running out the supply the hotel staff puts in our room. It turned out to be a pack of dinner napkins folded up like kleenex though. Greg said people carry those around here because restaurants give you tiny thin napkins, if any napkin at all, so people bring better ones of their own. I got two more wooden combs, for cheap (10rmb and 8rmb) and some petroleum jelly. Then I found the section with the New Years' Decorations. I ended up buying several of those, as we'd talked about taking some home for the house. I got mostly ones with a fish motif, some in knotwork and some just stuffed cloth. I got a few small ones that I thought would be good gifts for the kids too.

One thing that happened to me the first time at the New Year's decorations, that startled me at first but not terribly so, was a woman, a fellow shopper, coming over to my shopping cart and taking one of the bigger decorations out and looking at it. It was quickly apparent she was just admiring it as she put it back and smiled at me and walked away. This happened twice more before I left the store, too, but I was more prepared for it. Someone in the states might have gotten punched for doing that!

When I first got to the second floor I looked at shoes, as I don't have any good walking shoes, my Nikes wore out months ago and I never got around to replacing them. I ran into the same problem as with clothing -- they don't sell size 9 1/2 in China. The largest I found I think was 7 womens. I looked at men's thinking I could get some men's 7 1/2 that might fit but there weren't any that I could find. So I'll make do with the shoes I brought along, I guess!

I went to the electronics section where I looked briefly at a portable dvd player, as we'd talked about buying one for while we're here so as to not have to change over our laptops for local movies. They started at around 1600rmb or 200usd. But we'd watched no movies since we got here anyway so we later decided not to bother with it. Then I went to look at some cheap small headphones, as Greg had been taking my iPod headphones to work so he could listen to music and not be so bored all day once he finished the day's work. While I was looking at the earphones, a young Chinese guy that I'd seen when I was looking at the dvd players came over and asked if I was looking for anything, in pretty good English. I had already picked out the headphones I wanted (for 7rmb, cheap!) and said, no, I just need these. He didn't look like a WalMart employee, he was wearing a nice black sweater and blazer, jeans and black dress shoes. Come to think of it he looked kind of like a gangster from a movie! Anyway he then said "My company has a special promotion, you buy dvd player we give you free headphone. You come with me when you leave here and I'll show you." I just said "No, I don't need that, thanks." So the pushy salespeople were even in WalMart, I knew then he wasn't an employee but someone targetting foreigners. I didn't get the feeling he was trying to kidnap me or anything bad but really was trying to sell me stuff. When I said no thanks he went away and I didn't see him again, so he took no for an answer the first time unlike the people with the booths at Xiangyang Market.

The taxi ride back to the hotel was interesting as well, the driver knew the general area but not the exact location of the hotel. We got close and he started pointing around different buildings. My small bit of Mandarin finally came in handy as I could point and say "Zai nar! Shi zai nar!" (Over there, it's over there). He was, I believe, more relieved than I to get there, as when we pulled up to the entrance he took both hands off the wheel and said something that must have meant "Thank goodness!" This resulted in him running up onto the curb with both passenger side wheels of the cab! He looked at me, I looked at him and we both just broke out laughing. The hotel employees waiting to help me out were laughing, and two other hotel guests outside were laughing. I seem to cause quite the humorous incidents when I venture out around here!

Which reminds me of another funny incident, earlier this week. I had walked to the Carrefour and was walking back to the hotel. It was raining and I had a hotel umbrella, which probably made it hard to distinguish me as any different than anyone else on the sidewalk. One guy riding his bicycle the same way as I was walking passed me and glanced my way as he did. He did the classic double-take and just stared at me for a second, and only narrowly avoided smashing into the back of a car parked on the side of the road because of it. He managed to swerve and miss it but I don't know how. I was biting my lip not to laugh out loud at him but the other pedestrians around had no such qualms. They were all laughing loudly at him. So that's how I found out that Chinese people can blush, because the guy turned as red as the traffic light ahead of us.

And that's all I have time for today, I'm meeting Greg and some of his co-workers at their office for a dinner and shopping outing in an hour or so, and I still need to get some stuff packed before I go or we'll be up all night getting things ready for Lijang tomorrow.

Plans for next week

2006-01-19T22:09:00.000-05:00

Looks like we are headed to Lijang in the Yunnan province of China next week, leave tomorrow, Saturday, and return Wednesday. It's the far southwestern part of the country. Beijing and the Great Wall would be very cold and snowy, Lijang is shirtsleeve weather. We've been advised to bring sunscreen and hats, as well as cold weather clothes for climbing Jade Dragon Snow Mountain! Anyone that wants more info can put Lijang into Google, I found lots of links while researching it.

Here is the itinerary straight from the guide company

上海强生国际旅行社--商务旅游部 Qiangsheng Corporate Travel

上海强生国际旅行社有限责任公司

SHANGHAI QIANGSHENG INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL SERVICE CO., LTD.

出团确认单

Group Memo

团队主题 Group Target:
Lijiang travel (2 persons ),21 Jan-25 Jan 2006
行程安排Routing:
D1: Fly to Lijiang, visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge and check in at Lijiang Hotel. D2: Bus to Dali, Visit the Dali Three Pagodas, Butterfly Spring, the Old City of Dali and western street. Stay at Dali. D3: visit the Erhai Lake and Erhai Park by boat ( Bai people’s a song and dance, tea culture) Return to Lijiang. D4: visit Yulong Snow Mountain, Yunshanping, Ganhai zi and Baishui River. In the evening, enjoy the Naxi Ancient Music Concert. D5: Visit the Lijiang old city, and return to Shanghai.
服务标准 Service:
1、Accommodation: 2、Transportation: travel bus (Jinbei van)；Air-Ticket: Round travel from Shanghai to Lijiang. 3、Sight Tickets: The first toll ticket fee (Including Yunshanping’ ropeway, and the Naxi Ancient Music Concert fee. Non-including Yulong snow mountain telpher) 4、English guide: local English guide 5、Non-including meal(The guide will advise to guest)
报价 Quotation:

总:

确认信息 Conformation News
上海强生国际旅行社有限责任公司 Shanghai Qiangsheng International Travel Service Co.,Ltd 日期 Date:2006年01月19日操作人 Operator:苏文峰 Wilson Su	Customer News (Signature):
航班信息Air Information

导游信息Guide Information：

上海强生国际旅行社--商务旅游部 Qiangsheng Corporate Travel

上海强生国际旅行社有限责任公司

SHANGHAI QIANGSHENG INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL SERVICE CO., LTD.

出团注意事项

The Notice Of Travel

Our Respectful Travelers:

Before our traveling to the Lijiang and Dali, now let us inform you some notes you should pay attention in advance:

1. Detailed information about the Average, Maximum and Minimum Temperatures and the rainfall in Lijiang and Dali. Average Data Jan in Lijiang and Dali.

Average High (F)	59/63	Average High (C)	15/17
Average Low (F)	37/41	Average Low (C)	3/5
Rain (in)	0.2/0.4	Rain (mm)	4/9

The temperature is different a lot when night falls, please attention to keep warm, it is better for you to prepare brumal apparel.

2. It is forbidden to carry the sharp material such as the knife and fork etc, contraband and some food with unusual smell as well as the condiment. Please carry about your valuables such as different kinds of cash, jewellery, camera and watches etc. Keep in remind that don’t put these objects in the luggage for consigning. You will be responsible for it if these objects are lost or damaged in the course of consigning.

3. The guide will welcome to guest at airport with name brand. Please contact with Mr. Tan Rong-13708449145 (谭嵘) if any urgent local questions.

4. Requisite: suntan oil, umbrella, sunglasses. The ultraviolet radiation is heavy.

Sunday Jan 15th

2006-01-19T00:59:00.000-05:00

Falling behind in my blogging here. The past few days have been rainy and gray and very blah. Yesterday I stayed in the room all day with a nasty headache. Slept from 9am to around 1pm then got up and started doing more checking around for trips for us to take next week when Greg is finished working and on vacation. Didn't get very far with that either.

Last Sunday was another "No real plan, let's just go somewhere" day. We did plan far enough in advance to buy circus tickets before leaving the hotel. It was at Circus World in the far north area of Shanghai, farther from "home" than we'd yet ventured. The tickets were not cheap, 580RMB per person for VIP seating. That's about 75USD each. After a walk to the Bank of China ATM (that being the one that doesn't charge a fee to convert money over. You use it just like an ATM in the States, only you get 100RMB notes instead of USD of course) we paid for our tickets at the concierge desk and decided to visit Nanjing Road, which is a shopping district in the middle of Shanghai. We took a taxi there and got out on a promenade beside the river. We were across the river from the Pudong area of Shanghai where our hotel is. Pudong New Area it is called, it's the most modern and Westernized section of the city. The river is called the Huangpu or just Pu for short (and I could make some crude jokes about that and the water quality but I will leave that for the readers' imagination). Dong means east, so Pudong means "east of the river."

From that vantage we took some of the pictures posted here already. The pictures of boats on the river and the Pudong daytime skyline, specifically. Then we walked through a tunnel to get to Nanjing Lu proper. It was about lunchtime on a Sunday and very crowded. From what I gather many Chinese people still work 6 days a week, some even 7 days a week. Saturday is more common for people to work so Sunday seems to be the day for leisure.

We walked the length of Nanjing west to east. We didn't actually buy anything other than ice cream at a McDonalds with a "walk-up" window where pedestrians could order food without going inside. Greg got a chocolate-dipped cone and I got a sundae topped with something that has to be a local thing - small red beans in a very sweet syrup. It wasn't what Americans would think of putting on a sundae but it was actually pretty good. The beans didn't have much flavor of their own, mostly the taste was of the syrup. They did have chocolate and carmel sundaes but I can get those back home, I wanted to try something different.

We went into one department store that wasn't very large front to back but was 7 stories high. It also had at least one basement level below street level. You walked around the area on one floor, then took an escalator up to the next floor and did the same. The lower floors were crowded but the higher you went, the less crowded it was. This was probably because the prices went up as the floors went up. The top floor had a restaurant but we didn't go in, just went back down from there. There were some beautiful silk dresses on the 6th floor that I would have liked to have one (or more!) of but the problem with me buying clothes here is, I'm quite a bit bigger than most of the population. I'm only average height back home, but here 5' 8 1/2" in well above average. And Greg being just a bit less than 6' tall stands out even more. Those dresses were quite expensive as well, I don't remember now exactly what the price tags were, just that it was a lot.

After we left the store we walked farther west, I sort of wanted to look at silk scarves but all the stores were so crowded you couldn't get in them let alone see anything. When we'd walked all the way to People's Avenue, where the People's Monument is, we stopped to pull out our map and guide book to decide what to do. We ended up walking south along People's Ave a block or so looking for somewhere to eat, as it was about 4pm by then and we needed to be at the circus by 7pm, which meant allowing at least half an hour to get a taxi and ride there. We didn't find anywhere we wanted to eat there so we decided to take a taxi to a restaurant listed on our hotel's "Best restaurants in Shanghai" list, one called M on the Bund. The cuisine was listed as "continental." We got there a little before 5pm to find out they didn't begin serving dinner until 6pm. They did, however, serve afternoon tea until 5:30 so we decided to have that. It was admittedly a bit surreal to have my first "afternoon tea" British-style in a restaurant looking out over the Bund with lots of red China flags flying everywhere! The food was good but of course, not more than a light snack. The coffee we opted for over tea was very good, and was served in a French press exactly like the one we have, and rarely use, at home. As we nibbled tiny sandwiches and scones and cookies, and sipped coffee, the sun started going down outside. Greg took several pictures out of the restaurant window, then walked outside to the balcony to take more. I stayed inside and read some articles in "Shanghai Talk," a publication aimed at Westerners in Shanghai, either visiting or living there.

We left the restaurant a little after 6pm. Just before leaving the table I'd taken the card out of my pocket that the concierge had written the address to the circus on for us. When we got downstairs (the restaurant was on the 7th floor of the building, you took an elevator up, which is not unusual here) I couldn't find the card. I figured I'd left it on the table so we went back up for it, but the table was already cleaned and none of the staff remembered seeing it. We had the tickets (actually placeholders we would trade for real tickets at the circus box office) with the address on them but Greg didn't want to show them to a taxi driver as they were worth a lot of money. Luckily I remembered the concierge had also circled the circus location on a tourist map he'd given us, so we used that to show the taxi driver where we needed to go. As Greg has said, most people here speak little or no English but many can read it if not write it. But it's best to have the address in Chinese characters for where you need to go, makes it easier for the taxi driver. The map had that, thankfully.

We got to the venue for the circus about 6:45pm, and the doors were still closed and the lights off. We walked around a bit looking for some more substantial food, but didn't find anything we were interested in. We took a few pictures, the best of which I already posted. Then we just found a spot to sit and wait for the doors to open. Once they did Greg bought the local equivilent of a hot dog from a snack vendor - a small spicy sausage on a stick, no bread. We looked at the souvenirs and bought a program for 15RMB and I decided to get a hooded sweatshirt with the circus logo embroidered on the back for 99RMB. The lady working at the souvenir stand was very anxious to be sure I got the right size and it would fit me. She brought out a large and held it up against my back. She wasn't happy with that so she brought out an XL and held it up (takes some mental adjustment to requiring size XL, I tell you!). She decided that would be good and very carefully folded it back up just as it came out of the plastic packaging before giving it to me. She was all smiles and small bowing and saying "Xiexie, xiexie ni" as we walked away. I remarked to Greg later that nowhere in the states would you get that kind of service, you give them your money and tell them the size you want and they give you that and if you're lucky get a thank you. The sweatshirt is going to have to be washed before I wear it, most likely, as it smells like cigarettes. :/ Not nearly as badly as the jeans I bought at Carrefours last week, but enough that I doubt I'll wear it til we're home and it gets washed.

The circus didn't allow pictures to be taken, which was a shame for us but I understand they want to protect the income and copyright of the performance. It began with the lights coming up on four people curled up together as if sleeping. One girl "woke up" and stretched then proceeded to do some amazing gymnastics while balanced on only one hand on a small disk. When she was finished she was lowered back to the group and went "back to sleep" and the lights went down. Then out came people riding bicycles around the circumference of the ring wearing modern clothes like you'd see on the streets of shanghai. Guys in jeans and leather jackets, etc. Then people filed into the middle of the ring wearing what looked like monk's robes. They started walking opposite the direction the bike riders were going, then running. The imagery was easy to figure out - the ancient past of China at the core, the modern ways on the outside. It was beautiful. The bike riders went away backstage and the "monks" shed their robes to be wearing bright costumes underneath, then they performed gymnastic routines as well. It is impossible to describe in words what they performed, the closest word is "contortionist" but that word sounds forced and painful. This was all very smooth, flowing and graceful but there was no doubt of the strength and control they had.

The show was mostly those kinds of acts, with different people and different themes, all amazing. There was one set with guys in "opposing" teams who jumped through small hoops doing cartwheels and such at high speed. One set of jumping on trampolines, also with two strong guys holding a thick pole between them and acrobats jumping on the pole like a jumprope and doing flips, etc. The "seesaw" act and the chair-balancing act. There was one act with guys on a large spinning wheel like a ferris wheel that they walked on inside and out and jumped rope on it while turning, and even walked on it blindfolded. One guy who was undoubtedly the "class clown" did a balancing act with large urns, throwing them up and catching them on his back between his shoulders and neck, spinning them on edge on his hands and top of his head. And of course the grand finale of the motorcycles inside the sphere. They had at one time 7 cycles in there going very fast.

All in all it was worth the expense, a very enjoyable show. We were glad we got the VIP seats as the regular seats were much more narrow and looked much less comfortable. We were also on the second row from the floor so we had a completely unimpeded view of the show. Once it was over we got a taxi back to our hotel as Greg had to be back at work the next morning.

Creative driving 101 Lesson 2

2006-01-17T20:05:00.000-05:00

When a pedestrian (Breaking the law, the villain) tries to cross in front of the vehicle immediately in front of you (see illustration) swerve around the vehicle and inbetween the pedestrian and the bikes to your left. Someone will move to let you through. And as always, remember the first rule of cab driving: never slow down, only speed up.

[cab] [vehicle] [pedestrian]
[Bikes in bike lane]

Saturday, Jan 14

2006-01-17T08:43:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning we decided, rather spur of the moment, to go to the Shanghai Aquarium. The weather was cloudy and looked to be threatening rain, so we wanted something to do indoors in case it did rain. After having breakfast in the club lounge (pretty much the same food as the week before, it's starting to get a bit old) we got a taxi to take us to the aquarium. This taxi ride wasn't as insane as some of the others, but it still was nothing like riding or driving on the roads back in the states. We snapped a few pictures out of the taxi windows on the way, just for fun. We arrived at the aquarium without incident, and went in to buy tickets. It was 110RMB each to get in, about 14USD. We took pictures and enjoyed the chance to see some specimens of Asian aquatic animals we couldn't see in the states. We ate lunch in the aquarium restaurant, which was your typical tourist attraction restaurant. We had spicy chicken burgers, french fries and Diet Pepsi. After we ate we went through the gift shop, which was again pretty much your typical gift shop. The two differences that stuck out were, there were no "Shanghai Ocean Aquarium" t-shirts, which I'd hoped to get. The only t-shirts for sale were decals you could get an employee to heat-press for you, but none of the designs were for the aquarium. They did, however, have Florida and Myrtle Beach designs among the selections! I was quite amused at that. The other difference was, when you selected something you wanted to buy, an employee took it from you to hold and wrote you a ticket to take to the cashier. Once you brought back a receipt, you got your items back from the employee that wrote the ticket. I bought a keychain with leafy sea dragon artwork on it, and a lot of postcards to start addressing and mailing home to family and friends. Greg picked out a couple of small pins to go on the camera-bag strap, both were fish but again, didn't have any aquarium logos on them. He got a miniature plate that did have aquarium stuff on it, with the intention to turn it into a fridge magnet when we get home. The magnets they had for sale didn't appeal much.

When we left the aquarium we were right next door to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. In spite of the weather being cloudy, we decided to go in and go to the top. It was about 110RMB each. We went up to the various levels, took a few pictures but the weather wasn't very good for that. Bought a t-shirt (there was no dearth of branded merchandise at the tower!), Greg got another miniature plate, and I got a couple of small gifts for people back home. Went back to ground level and found another gift shop, where we finally got watches (we both used our cellphones for watches back home, but didn't bring them here because they probably won't work anyway). we paid I think all of 2RMB for each one, all of 25 cents each. Got another souvenir for someone back home. Bought t-shirts for the boys and a silk scarf for me.

Left there and tried to find the tourist tunnel going under the river to the Bund, walked one way along the river, then back. Walked a long ways into a residential neighborhood that was in pretty poor repair, and tried to talk a security guard into letting us go through a locked gate back to the main street. He wouldn't budge though, so we had to hike all the way back. We took some pictures along the way, but had forgotten to bring the monopod along so not many.

By this time we were hungry and tired, and it was getting cold and felt like it might rain. We'd passed a Spanish restaurant on the way, and decided to eat dinner there since it was close. The name of it was La Verbena, and it turned out to have tapas as well as a la carte. We had garlic potatoes as an appetizer, and filet mignon with asparagus for our main dishes. Very good steak, probably top five filet I've ever had. We ordered flan for dessert, one to split between us and it was absolutely delicious. Far and away the best flan I've ever had.

We have learned that when you are ready to leave a restaurant here, you have to *ask* for the check. Service at restaurants here is very very good, but they don't hover over you or ask you questions while you dine the way American waitstaff do. You don't pull out your own chair, waiters do that for you. You don't put your napkin in your lap, they do that for you. They very discretely take away plates you are finished with and replace them with fresh ones. You don't open the door when you arrive or leave, they rush to do that for you as well. Nor do they seem to push you to leave once you've eaten by bringing and leaving the check as soon as you seem to be finished eating. You could sit and wait an hour after eating and they don't bring the check until you ask. So you say "Maa dahn" (probably not correct spelling) "check please" when you want to go.

We walked out to find it was sprinkling rain. We walked back to the main road and flagged down a taxi to go back to the hotel for the night. We stopped by the concierge desk to try to book a day tour to Suzhou for Sunday but it was too late, the office for it were already closed. Back to our room we went, and not long til we were asleep. A long, tiring but enjoyable day, sightseeing in Shanghai.

Creative driving 101

2006-01-16T20:20:00.000-05:00

When driving a taxi in Shanghai if you are passing in the center turn lane and someone attempts to us it for turning, the following is the proper procedure:
1. Speed up and pull into on-coming traffic lanes
2. Pass offending vehicle
3. Proceed back into center turn lane
4. If another vehicle is in the lane ahead of you weave back into the first of your normal traffic lanes.
5. Return to center turn lane, if there are more vehicles in lane return to step 1 and repeat until clear.

Remember in NO case should you ever slow down.

FWIW, I've been on the road here a lot and only seen one very minor acciedent involving 2 private vehicles, no taxis. Wonder if it is that n-one uses cell phones on the road?

Lunch

2006-01-16T03:08:00.000-05:00

Ever eaten rice, angel hair pasta soup with chop-stix?

Pictures!

2006-01-16T01:52:00.000-05:00

Lots of pictures uploaded today. Blogger + Picasa + Hello = easy uploading, except I haven't yet figured out how to upload as galleries instead of one picture per post. Makes for lots of scrolling, sorry. Once we're home I'll publish all pictures on my website, using web album generator to make galleries which will make it easier to look at them.

More writing soon, for now I need to figure out what to do about getting some lunch!

2006-01-16T01:51:00.000-05:00

Between Circus World and the building next door

2006-01-16T01:47:00.001-05:00

Tickets for the circus

2006-01-16T01:47:00.000-05:00

Waiting for the circus to begin (maglev track in background)

2006-01-16T01:44:00.000-05:00

Circus World

2006-01-16T01:43:00.000-05:00

Building beside Circus World

2006-01-16T01:41:00.000-05:00

Sign outside Circus World

2006-01-16T01:40:00.000-05:00

Pudong from the Bund

2006-01-16T01:38:00.001-05:00

South along the Bund

2006-01-16T01:38:00.000-05:00

Sunset behind Pudong skyline

2006-01-16T01:33:00.002-05:00

Next door to M on the Bund

2006-01-16T01:33:00.001-05:00

Table set at M on the Bund

2006-01-16T01:33:00.000-05:00

Afternoon tea at M on the Bund

2006-01-16T01:32:00.000-05:00

The balcony at M on the Bund

2006-01-16T01:31:00.000-05:00

Afternoon tea

2006-01-16T01:28:00.001-05:00

View out of the window of the restaurant M on the Bund

2006-01-16T01:28:00.000-05:00

Further west down Nanjing Lu

2006-01-16T01:27:00.000-05:00

Looking east on Nanjing Lu from People's Avenue

2006-01-16T01:26:00.000-05:00

Intersection of Nanjing Lu and People's Avenue

2006-01-16T01:25:00.000-05:00

Architecture on Nanjing Lu

2006-01-16T01:24:00.000-05:00

Shopping on Nanjing Lu

2006-01-16T01:23:00.002-05:00

Sightseeing on the river

2006-01-16T01:23:00.001-05:00

The view down Nanjing Lu (looking west)

2006-01-16T01:23:00.000-05:00

Empty cargo boat

2006-01-16T01:20:00.000-05:00

Ocean cargo ship

2006-01-16T01:19:00.000-05:00

Cargo boat loaded up

2006-01-16T01:18:00.001-05:00

Tour boat

2006-01-16T01:18:00.000-05:00

Oriental Pearl TV Tower from the west side of Huangpu River

2006-01-16T01:17:00.000-05:00

More views across Huangpu River

2006-01-16T01:15:00.001-05:00

We thought the kids would like to see smiley-face potato cakes :) From breakfast Saturday morning

2006-01-16T01:15:00.000-05:00

River at night

2006-01-16T01:11:00.002-05:00

And again, farther back

2006-01-16T01:11:00.001-05:00

Skyscraper through tree branches

2006-01-16T01:11:00.000-05:00

View across the river from the east

2006-01-16T01:10:00.000-05:00

Tour boat on the river

2006-01-16T01:09:00.000-05:00

La Verbena, the Spanish restaurant where we had dinner Saturday night, on the banks of the Huangpu

2006-01-16T01:06:00.000-05:00

Space module again

2006-01-16T01:04:00.000-05:00

Space module!

2006-01-16T01:03:00.000-05:00

Sonja on the top observation deck of the tower

2006-01-16T00:59:00.001-05:00

Sonja at entrance to Oriental Pearl TV Tower

2006-01-16T00:59:00.000-05:00

View from middle deck of Oriental Pearl Tower

2006-01-16T00:57:00.000-05:00

Greg's silly picture

2006-01-16T00:52:00.000-05:00

Street outside the aquarium

2006-01-16T00:50:00.001-05:00

Sea turtle

2006-01-16T00:50:00.000-05:00

One cute guy, two ugly fish

2006-01-16T00:46:00.000-05:00

Stingray tank

2006-01-16T00:44:00.000-05:00

Leafy sea dragon

2006-01-16T00:38:00.000-05:00

Penguins

2006-01-16T00:36:00.000-05:00

Sea lions at play