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Shanghai Journal |
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Shanghai Journal |
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The best fare I could find to Shanghai took me first to Hong Kong and then back up to Shanghai. The flying time was a few hours longer than the flight to Beijing, but it was overnight so I did not notice much of a difference. I arrived in Shanghai around 10:00 AM, breezed through customs and was at the hotel before noon. Cindy had spent the last ten days in Hangzhou with her parents, but had arrived in Shanghai the day before me where she checked into our hotel. We had made arrangements to stay at The Somerset, which is an Ascott brand, but the room was quite small and the hotel was not as up to date as I would like so we looked for another place. After a few days we decided to move over to The New Harbour Apartments in Huangpu District where we had stayed on previous trips to Shanghai. It is much closer to The Bund, and has more convenient subway connections. We took a two-bedroom apartment with a view towards the river. My first priority was to find a good health club where I could look forward to going every day. We looked at Fitness First on Nanjing Road, but it was further than I wanted to walk each day. There was another possibility on Tibet Road, which was closer, but then I found a brand new Yao Ming California Fitness Club only four blocks from our apartment, which we decided would be best. We
quickly settled into a routine of going to the club at least once a day.
There are all kinds of classes that Cindy enjoys, and I spend most of my
time using the cardio equipment. I found a place next door where I can get
a massage for $30, but that is just about the only bargain left here in
China. A US dollar only buys 7 Yuan now, as opposed to 8 when I first
started coming here. Anything imported is extremely expensive. The building next to our hotel is being remodeled and workmen are busy setting up bamboo scaffolding up to ten stories around the building. Bamboo scaffolding is the norm here, but to help hold the scaffolding in place, they have lashed it to the power lines. During
our first month, when we were not at the gym, we tried to be good tourists
and take in as much as
Shanghai
as possible. We took a boat ride on the Huangpu River
Bridge, visited the Botanical Garden, the Urban Planning Exhibition Center, learned the subway system and ate at a couple dozen restaurants. One of my favorite areas is Xintiandi in Luwan, which is a restoration of old Shanghai that now incorporates many excellent restaurants and historical landmarks, including the site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party
Shanghai
is a food-lovers paradise. There are many Shanghai specialties including
drunken shrimp, fried eel, jellyfish, snake and thousand-year egg. But
perhaps the most popular are the many forms of dumplings. Every block has
scores of vendors selling street food, but one in particular caught my eye.
This meat-on-a-stick kiosk serves various kinds of meat cooked on a brazier
and served on a wooden stick. Each stick is 3 Yuan. After you finish
eating, you are suppose to put the stick in a bucket, which the owner cleans
and reuses at the end of each day. This photo of me standing beside the
bucket was taken after the noon rush. On St. Patrick’s Day, we walked over to Xintiandi to watch the parade, which was sponsored by the Irish Consulate. There were a couple hundred people, mostly Irish ex-pats, who attend school here, who put on a show including Irish step dancing and music. Of
greater interest today are the rumors of major rioting in Lhasa, Tibet where
supposedly 100 people have died. The interesting part of the story is the
fact that all news coverage of the events is blacked-out here in Shanghai.
Whenever CNN starts to cover the story, the TV goes black. When I search
for information on the story on-line, all web pages about the violence
cannot be displayed. I spent a week in Lhasa last year and although I don’t
have any personal friends there, I am anxious to know what is happening.
If, in fact, 100 people have died, that is more than any time since the
original uprising of 1959.
Cindy’s sister Nicole who now works in the quality department for a large
clothing manufacturer in
Europe came to Shanghai
on a whirlwind tour of her company’s facilities throughout
Asia. She brought me a couple of very nice shirts
I decided to visit the new Venetian Resort & Casino in Macao. Cindy had already left Shanghai on Thursday, so after a few days on my own, I took the new Maglev train out to the airport for the two-hour flight. The Maglev, short for magnetic levitation, is the world’s fastest train, covering the 30 kilometers from LongYang subway station to Pudong International Airport in eight minutes. Even after taking two subways to get to the Maglev station, I probably got to the airport as fast as I would have if I had taken a taxi from our apartment, at one-third the cost. My Shanghai Airlines flight was leaving from terminal 2, which had just opened. The building is mammoth, and still quite deserted, as only a few flights seemed to be coming and going so far. Entering mid-terminal, I had difficulty seeing either end. Although there were few passengers, the shops were all open, and scores of young salesgirls welcomed me as I passed by. My flight left from gate 243, and arrived in Macao at 11:00 AM. The Venetian has a shuttle bus, which goes back and forth to the resort, which is only about a mile away. The hotel is very similar to the one in Las Vegas, only about twice the size. I got
into my room and spent the next two days exploring, gambling and eating. I
knew that once I discovered a Morton’s of Chicago in the hotel, I would not
be able to stay on my diet. But I justified that I was on vacation so I did
not feel too guilty. I am unfamiliar with most of the Asian games and
decided I would much prefer to be gambling in the USA. I returned to
Shanghai
on Tuesday night, arriving at 10:00 PM, only an hour after Cindy got back
from Hangzhou. I spent the next few weeks going to the gym every day and trying to stick to my diet as much as possible. We visited the Taikang Road area in the French Concession and once a week, went out to one of Shanghai’s five-star hotels where we would indulge ourselves at one of their international restaurants. The Grand Hyatt in Pudong has the best view, the Shangri-la has the greatest variety with ten food preparation stations within one restaurant, but we also liked the J.C. Mandarin in Puxi. I had
entered the
Jinqiao 8-kilometer (5-mile) road race in Pudong, which was held on
Sunday, April 20th. The forecast called for a typhoon to pass
through southern China, but the weather turned out to be perfect. I had
been running indoors every day and hoped to run about 8 minutes per mile,
but biggest hills on the course were the curbs, so I was able to complete
the race with a time of 37:38. In the afternoon we went over to Tao Bao, a
building containing hundreds of shops, which sell knock-off’s, and spent the
afternoon haggling over souvenirs. .
I had read an article about the Shanghai Urban Vegetable Garden so we hired a taxi to drive us an hour south to visit this newly opened private business. The facility covers 5000 acres and includes five huge greenhouses where fruits and vegetables are grown for sale to large restaurants and food stores. We rented a 2-seat peddle-power car to travel throughout the complex and spent several hours roaming through the various crops, many suspended from bamboo scaffolding. In one section, tomato trees produce up to 10,000 tomatoes each year. I got many great ideas to share with my Dad for use in his garden.
Cindy will spend the month of May in Hangzhou while I return to the USA to visit friends and family. California & Connecticut
I took Mom & Dad back to Marin on Wednesday and then at 3:30 AM Thursday, I drove them to the Oakland Airport where they flew off to Montana to see Christina graduate from college. Later in the day, I flew back to New York where I planned to visit friends in Connecticut and gather some documents I need to get Cindy’s visa. I stayed with Trish & Rachel for three days and ran the ‘Dogwood Dash’ with Denny LeClerc on Saturday morning, placing third in the 50-59 age group, to Denny’s second. We both got trophies. Saturday afternoon, Rachel and I planted a vegetable garden in her back yard, and then took her mom out to dinner to celebrate Mother’s Day. On Sunday morning, while Trish & Rachel were at church, I went outside to water the plants and Toby, Rachel’s dog, escaped out the door and got hit by a car. I called Trish who came home immediately and we took him to the emergency vet. Incredibly, although shaken up, he seemed to be OK, and within a day or two was back to his usual self. Monday I went up to Foxwoods for three days. I had hoped to get together with Carl & Sandra, but she was tied up with new owners and couldn’t get away. The new MGM at Foxwoods was about to open, and the construction crews were working around the clock. This was one of the only times I came home with more money than I went with. Thursday I headed back to Fairfield where I would spend the night at Trish’s again before leaving at 4:00 AM to drop off my car and fly back to San Francisco. But first, Denny had convinced me to run in another race, this one in Stamford. He was a sponsor of the race and had two free entries. We drove to downtown, and ran the 5K race at 7:00 PM. I was happy with my time again, but did not come home with a trophy. My flight back to San Francisco was uneventful, but I was exhausted by the time I got to Marin, having been up so early. Nevertheless, we started on a week’s worth of preparations for my parents’ 60 wedding anniversary on Saturday. My dad and I built a garden eight feet high, which will grow hanging vegetables. Cindy gave him a selection of Chinese vegetables including long beans, and squash that can grow to 5 feet long which we hope to grow along with cantaloupes and hanging tomatoes. We are also building planter boxes to match the ones we built last year and have 24 Earth Boxes to set inside. I took a break Sunday morning to run the 97th Annual Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco. I’ve run this before and it is a great race. I took the ferry and joined tens of thousands of other runners, many wearing costumes, who ran the 7-½ mile course from the Embarcadero to the Pacific Ocean at Golden Gate Park. My time was 1:06:55, which placed me 2535th out of about 22,439 finishers. On May
24th, we celebrated my parents’ 60th wedding
anniversary which had actually occurred a month earlier on April 24th.
I spent my final week in California finishing up projects around the house. Most of the garden is planted and on the watering system. We also started to reorganize the garages and Carolyn will continue this effort when she next visits Novato. Back to China I returned to Shanghai on June 1st. Cindy had been in Beijing negotiating the sale of her apartment and then returned to Hangzhou to see her parents before meeting me in Shanghai on the fourth. We spent the first week at the New Harbor Apartment and decided to go to Hangzhou for the second week. On June 9th, we took the high-speed train 90 minutes to Hangzhou. When we were in Hangzhou last year, it poured for most of the time we were here, and true to form it started raining as we approached the station. We had decided to stay at the Mingtown International Youth Hostel where Cindy spent some time last month. The property is directly on West Lake and the best accommodations at the property are only $30/night. Next-door is the King Qian Temple, which is very beautiful from the outside. It continued to rain for a couple days, but on Thursday the weather broke and I was able to go for an early morning run along the lake. The pathway is really beautiful and I passed scores of other people out fishing at 5:00 AM. At breakfast, Cindy had met an Australian woman who claimed to be descended from the Dowager Empress Cixi whom she wanted me to meet. She told us about her heritage and other remarkable stories, which made for an entertaining meal. Later
we rented bicycles
I
started running around the lake each morning. It is often light enough to
run at 4:30 AM and I am amazed at the number of people up at that hour. One
day I saw what I assumed was an army troop jogging towards me carrying a
huge Chinese flag. As they approached I saw they were not in uniform, but
sang out a loud cadence. As they passed me, I was surprised to see that
they were not army at all, but a hundred or so patriotic middle-aged
runners, jogging in formation. We would often rent bikes in the afternoon
or climb up and over some of the surrounding hills. There are scores of
temples and quiet gardens where one can relax.
Monday
we took a one-hour boat ride on the world’s longest and oldest canal. The
Grand Canal once stretched 1770 KM from Beijing to Hangzhou.
Construction started in 495 BC and lasted for several centuries. Although
portions are now silted-in, it is still possible to tour large sections.
The boat we rode on is really a public transportation service so the ride
only cost 10 yuan. Monday night Cindy took me to dinner at The Hyatt to
celebrate the successful sale of her condominium in Beijing. The rain returned Tuesday and we again became shut-ins. On Wednesday, Cindy flew to Beijing to attend to details of the sale of her apartment, which could take as long as two weeks. I will stay in Hangzhou through the weekend, and then take the train back up to Shanghai on Monday. I met a couple, Mike and Louise, on Saturday morning at breakfast who had left the USA to visit China and on their first day in Beijing, were offered jobs teaching English at a local university. So instead of continuing their travels, they decided to accept the offers, which included free housing, and each now works 12-15 hours a week. They are headed back through Shanghai next week so I invited them to visit. There was a very long queue for train tickets when I arrived at the station and I seemed to be the only Westerner in line. After about 20 minutes, someone came up to me and asked if I was going to Shanghai. I followed him to the front of the line where he elbowed everyone else out of the way and I bought my ticket, saving probably about an hour. The trip was pleasant and I arrived back at The New Harbour Apartments around noontime. Cindy
was not due to return until later in the week, but she surprised me by
coming back on Tuesday. I also ran into Mike and Louise on the street,
completely by accident and showed them a few of the places I had become
familiar with in the neighborhood. On Thursday, Cindy and I went to see
Kung Fu Panda, which is a wonderful film, and then Cindy had her nails
painted with the Olympic logo which looks pretty good.
Sunday morning, June 29th, we walked over to The Bund, and then took the Tourist Tunnel under the river to Pudong. We visited the Oriental Pearl Tower, which is the icon of Shanghai’s skyline and rode up to the observation platform where we had a rare, clear view of Shanghai. Afterwards, in the lower level of the same building, we visited The Shanghai Municipal History Museum, depicting life in Shanghai in the early twentieth century. I decided to add a spinning class to my routine at the gym. Although it was initially difficult to keep up, after a few days my thighs had adjusted and I looked forward to the class. Generally the classes are at night so they provide motivation to get back to the gym a second time each day. I have become interested in family genealogy and subscribed to Ancestry.com, which enables me to locate census and other public database records to construct a family tree. With the help of my Aunt Jen, and a couple of cousins, I have located almost 800 relatives going back as far as the early 1700’s, under the heading “Bacon Family Tree”. The project consumes a huge amount of time in researching various leads, but I find it very enjoyable. I hope to be able to collect photographs of as many people as possible and publish the family tree by yearend. In July Cindy and I continued to visit various Shanghai tourist attractions. We spent one day at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. They have two IMAX theaters where we saw shows on dinosaurs and natural disasters, both in Chinese. The facility is huge with dozens of exhibits, which were fascinating until about 2:00 PM when 5,000 school children descended on the place, and we decided to call it a day. Another day we went to Yu Garden, which was a private garden built 500 years ago in what is now the center of Shanghai. The garden was somewhat interesting, but a huge market place has developed around the garden and we spent several hours wandering amongst the shops where I purchased some souvenirs to take back to the USA. We ate lunch in a state owned restaurant overlooking the garden, which has hosted several dignitaries including the Clinton’s when he was president. California On July 21st, we checked out of our apartment. I will spend the next six weeks in California while Cindy will go to Hangzhou to help her mom make the final preparations for Nicole’s wedding in September. I had a direct flight from Shanghai to San Francisco, arriving in the morning and got to Novato before noon.
On
each of the next two weekends I drove up to Carolyn’s house where I stayed
while working at Lauraine’s during the day. Carolyn and I took Ayden to the
California State Fair on Sunday, August 17 where we spent several hours
visiting the prize-winning farm animals. Ayden particularly liked the
little pigs
tearing down her outhouse. Before leaving, Ayden and I picked a bushel of
peaches from Carolyn’s tree, which Dad canned.
On my final weekend in California, I flew down to Las Vegas for a few days at The Venetian and their new sister property, The Palazzo. Back to China I flew back to Shanghai on Wednesday, September 3, arriving at Pudong Airport at 6:30 PM. The taxi ride to our apartment seemed longer than usual, but I arrived to find that Cindy had also just arrived from Fuyang. On Thursday and Friday I dragged myself back to the gym where I paid the price for six weeks of laziness in America. Two days later, we checked out of the apartment and flew south to Guangzhou where Cindy’s appointment at the US Consulate to obtain her US visa is scheduled for Monday, 9/8. It was raining when we arrived, but we took a taxi to the TianLun International Hotel where we checked in for a few days. Cindy had arranged a great deal at this 5-star hotel and even got us upgraded to a top floor room overlooking the park. The US Consulate is 2 blocks away. Guangzhou, also known by the Western name of Canton, is a city of 10 million people on the Pearl River Delta, just up from Hong Kong. Cindy and I visited a bone-carving factory here a few years ago, but I had no memory of the city. Our hotel is just across from the East Train Station Square and overlooks the park built atop the adjoining bus terminal. We relaxed at the pool and spent Sunday reviewing all the information we had collected to obtain Cindy’s visa. Early Monday morning we dressed, collected our data and walked over to the consulate. Although we arrived about 7:00 AM, there were a couple hundred people there ahead of us. As it turns out, the consulate itself does not open until 8:30, but with the security to get into the building, it takes much longer. I could not enter with Cindy, but was able to go to the section for US citizens where I added blank pages to my passport, then returned to the hotel. A few hours later, Cindy returned with the good news that she could pick up the visa on Wednesday. We extended our stay at the TianLun Hotel through Tuesday night and then took a taxi to Sha Mian where we walked around and had dinner at a local Cantonese restaurant. In addition to several dozen tanks of live fish, the restaurant also had a cage with several four-foot snakes, which could be prepared however you wished. We stuck to the fish and tofu. After dinner, we walked through the White Swan Hotel before heading back to our own accommodations. On Tuesday we relaxed at the pool in the morning and then took a taxi to The Guangdong Folk Arts Museum, which is housed in the Chen Ancestral Hall. The building was constructed in the late 1800’s to serve members of the huge Chen Clan for ancestor worship and as a temporary residence when family members came to the provincial capital on business. Used as a printing factory during the Cultural Revolution, the structure was completely restored by the government in 1959 and now houses the museum. We headed back to Sha Mian in the afternoon where we had lunch at The White Swan overlooking the river. We took a disappointing stroll through a crowded pedestrian shopping street later in the day before finally heading back to the river and boarding the “God of South China Sea” for an evening cruise on the Pearl River. Wednesday morning, Cindy picked up her final visa papers and we spent a couple hours at the pool before having lunch and then taking a taxi to the airport. Our flight back to Shanghai landed at 6:00 PM and we joined several hundred people in the taxi queue, but it moved quickly so we were home by 7:30 PM. On Saturday, Cindy’s sister Nicole and her new husband Jerome arrived from Paris and spent the weekend with us before continuing on to Fuyang for their Chinese wedding ceremony next week. We took them to some of our favorite restaurants including The Four Seasons, which everyone enjoyed. I continued to go to the gym every day, and visit my massage club every other day. Before returning to America last month, I had introduced one of the trainers at the gym to my massage therapist and was pleased to see upon my return that they had developed a full-blown marketing partnership between their two organizations. As this is our last week in Shanghai, we went over to Tao Bao Shopping Center one day to buy Christmas presents. Tao Bao is a famous tourist shopping area where the price of everything is negotiable. Most items can be bought for one tenth of the original asking price. We have been there before, but on this visit, we found that many of the shops also have secret rooms where counterfeit high-end designer products are displayed. We entered one room, which had a hidden remote control magnetic locking door leading to a 6 by 8 foot room stocked with designer handbags, none of which we bought. For lunch, we walked across the street to the Shanghai Godly Vegetarian Restaurant. We ordered a chicken dish, beef dish and fish dish, each of which was entirely made of tofu. The texture of the dishes, were remarkably similar to the name, but the taste, while good, could not be compared with chicken, fish or beef. It was, however, the first time I had ever ordered chicken or fish in China that was served without bones. On September 20th, Nicole’s new mother-in-law, Sofie Bigosinski, her son Alex and his friend Even arrived from Paris, en route to the Nicole & Jerome’s wedding. Sofie owns a Bed & Breakfast an hour east of Stroudsburg, France. Alex and Even will spend one day with us in Shanghai and then take the train to Beijing for two days before returning to Fuyang. Sophie will be with us until we all go to Fuyang on Monday. After a walking tour of the neighborhood, we returned to a new Hong Kong style restaurant for lunch. The most interesting aspect of this place is their liberal translations of the menu items. We ordered, “Shrimp sauce exchanges the dish obstruct stir-frying the fat cattle”, “black hot spice plant cowboy bone”, “pond sautéed crab staying away from trouble” and for dessert, we had “multiple disabilities thick honey”. After lunch, we walked over to the cricket market where hundreds of people are involved in the cricket trade. Crickets are kept as pets so you can buy all types of accessories for your pet; cricket houses, cricket furniture, cricket food. But the greatest use of crickets seems to be for cricket fighting, similar to cock fighting. We watched one excited knot of several dozen men, each brandishing fist-fulls of yuan, cheering on their favorite cricket in a fight to the death. Rain shortened our afternoon shopping trip, but we were able to walk through a street of antique vendors, visit Xintiandi, watch the local salsa festival, and stop for ice cream before returning to the hotel. Alex and Even left at 6:00 PM to catch their overnight train to Beijing and the rest of us went to bed early. Sunday
Cindy took Sofie shopping again while I went to the gym one final time. We
met for lunch at our favorite dumpling restaurant before returning home to
pack for our departure on Monday. The train to Hangzhou took about an hour
and a half and we arrived before
11:00 AM. We found a van that could take us the last
50 kilometers to Fuyang where we dropped Sofie off at a small hotel near
Cindy’s parents home and then continued over to the Fuyang International
Trade Center Hotel where the wedding will be held and we will spend the next
week. Nicole, Jerome and Sophie joined us for lunch at the hotel and then Cindy’s parents also came by in the afternoon. This was my first opportunity to meet them and although they speak no English and I speak no Chinese we seemed to get along fine. That night we all went to their home for dumplings, a traditional family meal. Cindy’s father brought out his huge jar of homemade whisky, which awed everyone. Gift
giving seems to be a big deal here in China and we had prepared gifts for
Cindy’s parents as they had prepared for us. Her mom handed me a package,
which had been delivered by post that I opened and found a hair dryer! Much
to her embarrassment she had given me the wrong box, which she quickly
corrected. Equally embarrassing was when Cindy handed me a bag that
contained her mom’s gift from us, but also contained several pair of yellow
underwear, which I ceremoniously presented, to the amusement of all. Tuesday, Cindy and I walked along the riverfront down to Dong Wu Park in the early morning where a portion of the wedding ceremony will be held on Friday. We returned for breakfast, and then I went to the gym while Cindy left to take care of some wedding details. At lunch, we all took a taxi to meet He Peng, a school friend of both Cindy and Nicole, who now has a ceramics studio in a small village just outside Fuyang.
Although He Peng’s studio is small, he has three kilns to fire his
ceramics. To ensure high quality products, he uses a pneumatic hammer, that
used to be driven by water power but is now connected to a motor, to crush
locally mined rock into powder which he then uses to make After
the studio tour, we walked up the road to one of several homes that serve
country-style meals to guests. We sat in an outdoor gazebo, surrounded by
pomegranate trees and were served a wild rabbit, a large steamed fish,
chicken in a clay pot, duck, river oysters and several vegetables. To work
off the meal, we took a walk in the Huang Gong Wang National Park, which
encompasses a large bamboo forest. For dinner we returned to Cindy’s
parents home where wedding plans continued in earnest. Wednesday, Cindy and I went to a local photography studio to have pictures taken for our wedding. We spent ten hours in the studio, including four changes of clothing and a three-hour trip to the ancient town of Longmen with a five-person crew to take photos in Wu-Dynasty costumes. It was very hot, and the day was very long, but the photos came out pretty good so it was worth the trouble. Thursday was an open day but in the evening, all the French guests gathered in the hotel lobby and we walked down the street to a restaurant where Hua’s parents were hosting a welcome dinner. The number of dishes served was endless, and there was much drinking, toasting and singing. Many of the guests went out to a bar afterwards, but I returned to the hotel. Friday, September 26th was the wedding day of Jerome & Hua. They had chosen to have a traditional Chinese wedding, which began with a costumed matchmaker announcing Jerome’s entrance to all the guests who had assembled at his home, which in this case was the hotel lobby. Jerome wore a Chinese wedding costume and hat. After a half hour of the matchmaker extolling Jerome’s virtues, he exited the front of the hotel and mounted a white horse, which would transport him to the home of Hua’s parents where he would pick her up and bring her back to the hotel. Watch the Video Following Jerome was the sedan chair, carried by four bearers, and an eight-man band, that played continuously as we all strolled through the streets of Fuyang. We attracted considerable attention. When we reached Hua’s home, the entire wedding party of about 35 people, squeezed into their living room, where a ceremony symbolizing Hua leaving her parent’s to join with Jerome took place. The matchmaker served a wedding dessert containing sweet and sour ingredients, which symbolized the ups and downs the couple will experience in their lives. Watch the Video Our friend Fei struggled to translate the matchmaker’s stylish Fuyang dialect into French for the benefit of the guests. Hua’s Uncle then carried her down six flights of stairs to her waiting sedan chair, and Jerome remounted the horse. The rest of the wedding party climbed into fifteen rickshaws and we all rode back to the hotel while fireworks exploded all around. All during the procession, the matchmaker continued to announce all of Jerome & Hua’s virtues and what a wonderful married life they will have together. At the hotel, Jerome dismounted and collected Hua from the sedan chair, tied a ceremonial rope around her and led her up to their suite. Here the wedding party sealed them in the room and disbanded.
Saturday, most people slept in, but at 11:00 AM a bus arrived at the hotel,
which Cindy had chartered to take us to Longmen Ancient Town for some local
sightseeing. This was the same place where we had photos taken the other
day, but this time I had the freedom to really explore the town. On the
outskirts of the town, a circus was being set-up, which detracted a bit from
the authentic feeling of the place. Amidst the trucks waiting to be
off-loaded was a flatbed vehicle no more than 20 feet long, which held four
large lions, four tigers, a bear, a horse and a half-dozen monkeys. The
French group really enjoyed the town, as evidenced by the quantity of
souvenirs they purchased from the local craftsmen. I bought a beautiful
hand-carved bamboo scroll, which will make a great gift. We took many photographs in the town
before leaving to head back to the hotel.
I had gotten a cold during the last 24 hours and decided to skip Sunday’s sightseeing excursion to Thousand Island Lake. Cindy still had to pack everything she wanted to take to America so she went home while I rested at the hotel. Monday morning we checked out and took a charter bus one-hour north to Hangzhou. We had arranged eight rooms at the Mingtown Hostel where we have stayed on previous visits. Cindy’s parents came with us to enjoy these last few days together during the Chinese National Week holiday. Hangzhou was absolutely packed with people. We spent three days there and everyone enjoyed their stay. One day we rented bicycles to ride around the lake, but would often have to dismount due to the crowds. On the last night I took Cindy’s parents, Hua & Jerome and Sophie out to dinner at the Hyatt and then we went to the Impressions West Lake show, which was a nice way to conclude our visit. Thursday we said goodbye to Cindy’s parents and boarded our bus for the four-hour ride to Shanghai. We had decided to take the long route, which would take us over the new Hangzhou Bay Bridge, a 36-kilometer span, which is the longest sea crossing in the world. We arrived in Shanghai around noon and took a short tour of the Bund before arriving back at the New Harbour Apartments where we would spend the night. The French group spent the day visiting the antiques street, cricket market and other tourist venues. Cindy and I started organizing all the stuff we will try to bring to America. The French left the next evening for the 11:00 PM flight to Paris. Cindy and I stayed in Shanghai one more night and then left on Saturday for the flight to San Francisco. |
I
flew to San Francisco on May 1st, arriving in the late
afternoon. I spent the first couple days working in my Dad’s garden and
then we all drove up to Alta to help Lauraine move into her new house. Mom
& Dad packed dishes while I ferried loads of boxes from her old house to the
new one. On Tuesday, Carolyn brought her truck and we finished most of the
move. Ayden was supposed to be helping us, but he seemed more interested in
waiting for trains to come by. Lauraine’s new house is about four times the
size of her home in Dutch Flat and is surrounded by huge redwood trees.
and was even given a chance to hold one. On another trip we helped Lauraine
build a compost bin and hooked up some plumbing
clay. He also mixes his own glazes from local materials so the finished
products are exact replicas of what the village produced a thousand years
ago.
