Real China

We traveled to China as part of a business delegation from the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, so our day was tightly orchestrated by the Chinese travel group. But, we were allowed opportunity to meet and mix with "real" Chinese folks. These are some pictures from those experiences.

J was definitely our group ambassador and go-to-guy. If we needed a volunteer, he was the guy. He made friends everywhere we went. The picture at the top was the first morning in Beijing, at a park where many retired Chinese would gather for morning exercises. He picked J out of the crowd to play the ring game with- and managed to ask us, without a word of English, to send him a picture of them together once we got home.

One stop was at Buddhist temple in Hangzhou. I missed the shot of a monk talking on his cell phone. Really, why shouldn't a monk talk on his cell phone, and yet it seemed like a strange juxtapostion...

Joe was our tour guide in south China. Great guy! He has seen so much change in China in his lifetime. He tells us that in 5 more years, China will be yet even more different than what we experienced now.

We saw many examples of Chinese culture, arts and crafts. Imagine sitting at a silk carpet loom all day, tying knots. They tell us that a room sized rug can take up to a year to weave. A year! We often heard that women do the detail work in art work, because "they are more patient." Technically, that cross-stitch that I started when I was pregnant in 1993 has taken me 15 years to complete, but not because I am patient...

Nearly every public place we went was exceedingly clean. And rarely a trash can in sight. We theorize that is because there are so many public workers, sweeping up after the masses.

The man "writing" on the sidewalk was doing calligraphy with water. Of course, we had no idea WHAT he was writing. But, we know it didn't last long.

Chinese toddlers! So very cute. Nearly always with their very proud grandparents, always very eager to allow us to dote.

Food! The fruit picture was taken at a street market, where booth after booth offered delicacies, most unrecognizable to our American eyes.

We saw the silk making process from worm to finished comforter. To start to unravel silk thread, they soak the silk cocoon in warm water to find the end of the thread. What an undesirable job that would be, with your hands in warm pupa water all day...

Want fresh chicken? Pick your bird, and the guy will take it to the back, kill it and pluck it for you. Tired of chicken tonight? The outdoor market in Suzhou also offered fresh turtles, frogs, snails, and snakes. And, almost any thing else you can think of- a regular open air WalMart, well, of sorts.

And this doesn't include the sights that break a piece of your heart, moms begging for money with their babies or toddlers in tow. Or the MANY street merchants, referred to as "mosquitos" by the tour guides, because of how they swarm tourists. Or those that stared at us- especially the blond ladies in the group. Real China.