DPP 6 or 340/365

wearing shoes and socks-
must mean travel north.

Interfere?

from CNN.com, on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent trip to China-

The headline: "Chinese human rights can't interfere with other crises"

"The United States will continue to press China on issues such as Tibet, Taiwan and human rights, she told reporters accompanying her.

"Successive administrations and Chinese governments have been poised back and forth on these issues, and we have to continue to press them. But our pressing on those issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis," she told reporters in Seoul, South Korea."

Chinese Christians continue to be jailed and are subject to human rights abuses while imprisoned.

China remains near the top of the Open Doors World Watch list in regards to the world wide persecuted church.

No. We wouldn't want protecting human rights to interfere...

(photo credit: me! taken at the Temple of Heaven in early March 2008)

Friday Five- The Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony

Five reasons I'm excited about the Olympics starting today:

1. No one does fireworks like China.

2. Watching sports we play in the backyard, like badminton and table tennis, only completely different.

Quote:
"I've got respect for the game."-- Basketball player Michael Redd, on why he doesn't call table tennis, "ping pong."

3. Stories of courage, like this one.

4. The National Anthem, and the medals.

5. I've BEEN TO CHINA!!! Seeing all these places that I've been to- very very neat!

Signs (& wonders?) :-)

The funniest thing for us about China was the signs. Talk about "lost in translation"! Some made us giggle, some caused us to scratch our head and ask, "what does that MEAN?" So, it became a great amusement to find good signs to take pictures of...

China sites and sights- Shanghai

We spent two days and nights in Shanghai, a city even bigger in population that Beijing, though smaller in area. Shanghai is in the midst of change, new buildings, skyscrapers!, are changing the horizon. The first photo shows the Shanghai skyline as seen from the Bund, across the water. We were in awe of those massive buildings, up to 88 stories tall.

In contrast, on the other side is "Old Shanghai," the area formerely known as the British Concession area, with old style brick buildings. See K & J under a Shanghai street sign.

We toured a silk carpet factory, tedious work for the craftswomen. The picture is of a bin of silk thread that will be used to weave the rugs. The rugs are beautiful works of art. Their color seems to change depending on the angle and light- as the tour guide told us, "So magic!"

In the "Chinatown" area of Shanghai (I am not making that up- they really call this area of the city Chinatown- all the others since are "knock off's" said our guide...), we found a Starbucks. Yes to a latte! See also a photo of the Chinatown area at dusk- too bad it took me all week to find that "night" setting on the camera! :-)

On our last night in Shanghai we went to a Cirque d'Solei style show- ERA. The feats were amazing and left us gasping. Chinese acrobatics, a man who could spin a huge ceramic pot on his head, eight (8!) motorcycle riders in a caged ball at a time!

Sites and sights of Shanghai.

China sites and sights- Suzhou and Hangzhou

After leaving Beijing, we traveled by air, south, landing in Shanghai, and then by bus to Suzhou and Hangzhou, "small towns" by Chinese standards, "only" 6-7 million people in each.

The temple at Tiger Hill is famous for being the "leaning tower of China," though you can hardly discern that in the photo. It lilts 7 inches on one side, stopped now by shoring the foundation. The guide told us about building on sandy ground. That made us smile. The kids and I learned that lesson long ago... (Matthew 7:25-27)

The Lingering Gardens in Suzhou is among the top 4 gardens in China. Planned to the smallest detail, it wanders and intrigues. K admired the carefully manicured bonsai trees.

Canals run through Suzhou, and such, it is known as "Venice of the East." As we traveled by boat through the canal, we saw a woman dying her hair, laundry being dryed, residents walking along the way.

In Hangzhou we visited a tea plantation, and sampled the finest of green tea. Tea grows, terraced along the side of the mountain. It was a rainy day, and the mist lay heavy over the landscape.

We also visited a Buddhist temple in Hangzhou, where the smoke of incense offerings hung in the air.

A few more sights and sites of China.

China sites and sights- Beijing

So much to see.

We were out of the hotel before 8am most days, and did not return until after dinner, well into the evening. Full days! And even so, that does not even scratch the surface of all to see in China. But here's a try...


The Temple of Heaven in Beijing- constructed in the 1400's, during the Ming dynasty, without nails! Beautiful in intricacy, detailed and ornate.








A drive-by of the "Bird's Nest" Olympic Stadium, still under construction, and next to it, the "Water Cube," the National Aquatics Stadium. Very cool modern architecture. It will be fun to see them on tv this summer!

The Great Wall! Whoa! Just a small section of the 6000 miles, but still- wow! J and Papa climbed up to that highest house you can see in the photo. Steep!
















The Forbidden City. HUGE! 9999 rooms. We saw about 1%.

Tian'anmen Square. It was crowded, even at dusk, because the Chinese Parliament (hmmm... Parliament? I'm not sure that's correct, but anyway, some sort of national government meeting...) was taking place that day. While we were standing there, the lights went on, all around.

(grrr... photos and text placement aren't exactly working the way I would like, but alas, time to move on to other things, like getting dressed, and school, and....)

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.

China notes

We're back. LOOONNNNGGGG trip home. Monday, March 10, 2008 lasted about 32 hours, Shanghai to Omaha. So thankful to travel. So thankful to be home. That is always me.

In our 10 days of travel, we visited 4 cities. We ate A LOT of rice! Drank a lot of tea! We saw temples and Ming architecture and modern skyscrapers still in progress. We saw street musicians, Chinese acrobatics and a Cirque d'Solei like show. We traveled by airplane, bus, boat, and MagLev train.

So much to tell.
In a few posts, hopefully, I can share some of it all.
With pictures.

stay tuned...

Beijing

Chinese saying: It is destiny for everyone to be together.

And so, here we are in China!

We have been busy, from sunrise to sunset. The last couple of days have been spent in Beijing. We have seen all the highlights of Beijing:
--the Temple of Heaven, where the emperor would pray for the harvest (hmm... we call that "church," right Joetta? :-) )
-- the Ming Tombs, where we saw amazing examples of artifacts from the Ming dynasty
-- The Great Wall, STEEP, LONG, one of those "I really can hardly believe that I'm standing here right now" moments
-- the Summer Palace (seen in the photo above), where the emperors would vacation
-- the Forbidden City- though only a small fraction of the 9999 rooms...
--Tian'anmen Square- with no absolutely no comment from our guide on the scene that enters all of our minds when thinking of the site

We've shopped at:
-- a Jade Factory
-- a Cloisonne Factory
-- a Pearl Market
-- street vendors (though only a couple of the many that have approached us!)

We've eaten:
--Chinese food and more Chinese food, including Peking roast duck

We've been diagnosed by:
-- TCM- a professor of Traditional Chinese Medicine (my kidney is not in yinyang and taking two herbal supplements for $163 American dollars would have helped...)

Highlights:
--surviving trip over! so very long!
--meeting the Chinese folks
--James playing with older man at park outside Temple of Heaven
--Keilah and James interacting with others, both the Chinese we meet and others on the tour
--driving by Olympic venues, still under construction
--walking the Wall
--lunch in family home

The internet connection here is iffy, at best. I can receive email but not send it. grrrr. Right now I can't download any other photos. I'll figure out some sort of slide show when we are back home.

Tomorrow we are off to Shanghai and surrounding areas, including Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Blessings!