Changsha to Guilin to Beijing

I still haven't got caught up on my journal, so I'm giving you Christopher's briefer, more reader-friendly version of the last two weeks.  Right now we are working at an orphanage during the last week of our trip.  We have enjoyed getting to know the staff here and really, really enjoyed meeting and playing with the kids

Christopher, July 24, 2013

I think that this is a good experience for all the children to see what most of the world lives like. They saw lots of poor people who only had a bicycle carrying giant bundles of sticks or bottles or cardboard, grateful for the opportunity to work. Mixed with this were the very rich in BMWs that nearly ran down pedestrians. The rich and the poor are like this through much of the world. They also experienced dirty, rundown buildings, men peeing in the street, people yelling, noisy traffic, and all the rough edges of a big city in China. As well, they experienced squat potties with no toilet paper, hostel potties where you had to put the used toilet paper in the waste basket, crowded rooms to sleep in, not drinking the tap water and dangerous traffic. They were very grateful for home, and yet were great troopers. The complaints were fairly minimal. I think that few of our middle aged friends, or other children, would have enjoyed roughing it the way we did. Hopefully, through enjoying this trip so much, we have become more durable and able to handle anything in the future.

On the other hand, the kids loved discovering new, Chinese treats (Pockies!), really appreciated the art (in small doses), and had great fun watching Chinese TV. It was difficult to be surrounded by a language they didn't understand, but it was a new experience that they appreciated. They were really great about this. The real praise goes to Virginia for blending familiar experiences (like shopping in a mall or going to McDonalds) with learning experiences in just the right amounts.

We took the train the next day to Changsha. Virginia and I stayed up late the previous night, with Virginia second guessing her decisions and almost switched us to the Dolton Hotel. But the Motel 168 turned out fine and much cheaper. We reveled in a shower separate from the rest of the bathroom floor, beds rather than bunks for the girls, and living in a high rise hotel. Maggie kidded me about my fear of heights, which is really silly when you think about it. I've gotten much better. It's just an obsession which I can overcome by the Spirit. The train trip had wonderful scenery including rice paddies and lotus paddies. I really enjoyed it.

Changsha was really hot, 100F in the afternoon. We decided to forgo the outdoor touring we had planned because of the heat and headed instead to an upscale mall in the Bu Xing Jie walking mall.  We were in luck.  The mall had an indoor ice rink!  Steffi, Sophie and Mollie love to skate. The kids enjoyed forgetting money and buying all sorts of neat stuff.    We ate at a nice Chinese restaurant. And the 3 younger girls went ice skating on an indoor rink. After a while, Sophie and Mollie got blisters and stopped, but Steffi skated on and on until her time was finally up, learning how to skate backwards and on one foot and doing loops.  What a great memory for her of Changsha!

July 25, 2013
We ate at the super luxurious Dolton Hotel for breakfast buffet. Steffi felt special to have been at such a nice hotel as a baby with Mom. We ate a ton of food.

We then went to the train station. There was no AC and it was hot and stuffy, but Brendan and I watched the luggage in the large waiting area as the others wholes out at the air conditioned McDonalds. On the train we met two nice Chinese university students, Anabelle and Alan  who wanted to improve their English. Maggie talked with them the whole trip and exchanged Skype addresses. It was an 11 hour train trip.

We were greeted at the station at midnight by Daisy and her driver in a deluxe 15 passenger van. The apartment is on the 11th floor but is a two story one. It is very quirky and arty. There are beautiful polished stones embedded in mortar for the bathroom floors. They are in a Daoist pattern,with recurring 4 stone patterns and a square with 15 stones in any direction, as explained by Daisy. Poor Sophie took a fall down the stairs and hurt her back and arm. We were very concerned but she was pretty much fine by the morning.

July 26, 2013
The next day, Daisy's husband, Song, cooked breakfast for us at 10 am, and most of us were still asleep! He made us fresh mango juice and a local kind of fritter. I talked a long time with his son, Song (they both go by last name). The son really likes Chinese history and literature and we talked a lot about history. I was able to outline how Northern Europeans were violent savages who worshipped river, animal and sky gods, but had their minds cleared by Christianity and went on to develop science and technology.

We went to the mall that day, catching the bus. We went to the fourth floor where the food court is. It was mostly Chinese food, but we found some dumplings and things that the kids liked. I had some delicious soup with kelp in it. It tasted like the sea. We then went through the other levels of the mall. Some sections were under construction and the floor was ripped off and only plywood boards thrown across a steel grid, with dirt underneath, was all you had to walk on. The stores usually had air conditioning, but it was spotty and insufficient. The walkways between the stores were not air conditioned, even though it was an indoor mall. Steffi and I went up and down the clear tubular elevator, decorated with fake turf and flowers. We loved it.

July 27, 2013
The next day we went on two trips. Unfortunately, Brendan wasn't feeling well. He was vomiting every hour or so and had diarrhea. He had a low grade fever, so we diagnosed it as gastroenteritis, viral or bacterial. He seemed stable enough, so he stayed home while we went on the trips. The morning trip was to the rice terraces. It took a very long time to work our way up the mountain because the stunning plants and butterflies truly forced us to stop every 10 meters for pictures or examination. 

Daisy was very amused by this and the children were nicely tolerant, as always. We were walking through nearly tropical forest which was very well watered. I estimated about 15-20 different species of ferns along the limestone rock that was like a wall on one side of the trail (it was a steep mountainside). I also saw gentians, saintjohnswort, a bright orange orchid, and many tropical tree species I couldn't identify. I saw Basalm impatiens everywhere. We saw big black swallowtails, lots of hairstreaks and a gorgeous black moth about 2 inches long with bright colors dappled all over. We also saw white and black flycatchers near the creek with white tail coverts, arguing with each other in typical flycatcher fashion. I so appreciated Virginia's love of Nature; we are equal in our enjoyment of it all. The view of the rice terraces were gorgeous. So green and perfect. It is amazing how they engineered the waterflow from terrace to terrace. We bought the girls silver bracelets from nice native ladies (Yao people) with amazingly long hair.  These ladies never cut their hair after they turn 16.  They even take the hair they comb out and form it into long false hairpieces that they add into their natural hair.  They twist it all together on top of their head. 

After this, we went whitewater rafting. It was the best ride I've ever taken and it lasted 2 hours. We were in big, overinflated yellow rubber rafts, with holes in the bottom panel so that it would fill up with water over the rough parts of the trip. it was a natural small river, but with concrete barriers here and there to make sure the water was deep and flowing and to keep things safe. The guides went over each lock first and camped at the tough spots to help us out. going over Each lock was the funnest part -- very fast. Mollie and I went together. I really enjoyed rafting with Mollie -- we just had silly comments to make and yelled like two little kids when we went over the rough rapids. I pushed off of rocks to keep us in the flowing current. We were racing with Maggie and Sophie and with Virginia and Steffi. The guides told Daisy at the start of the trip that Maggie and Sophie were the most beautiful girls they had ever seen. They also paid special attention to Mollie. Everyone thought the rafting was fabulous.
July 28, 2013
We took the next day off. The kids stayed at home while Virginia, big Song and I went to the Guilin Botanic Gardens. It was fabulous. Established by a Chinese Harvard graduate (1931) in the 1950s, it was laid out in classical botany style, with an extensive gymnosperm section first. The specimens were all fully mature. I had never before seen cycads, ferns and tropical trees so huge. The highlight was a wisteria arbor which the wisteria had used simply as a jumping off point to climb to the tops of a very high canopy of tropical trees. This is probably how this China native grows in the wild. The wisteria vines were so huge that they had trunks 8 inches thick. The vines draping down from the trees were 2-3 inches thick. We also saw several metasequoias; a real treat, since only one living fossil survived, in a monastery in China, since Jurassic times. Little Song was thoroughly bored within 10 minutes of entering the gardens, while big Song gamely hung on, showing us the medicinal plants, especially the different kinds of tea (Camellia) plants. We also saw lots of butterfly friends and balsam impatiens. Beautiful ponds covered with water lilies gave us ideas for our own koi pond in our backyard, including river pebbled embedded in concrete rather than deco tiles, whose color competes with the koi and doesn't hide the dirt like stones do.

July 29, 2013
The next day we went on the Li River cruise. Brendan was feeling better and joined us. The scenery was lovely and spectacular, with limestone pinnacles covered with green tropical vegetation. There were spots with 50-100 ducks paddling around. Each night, the farmer gives his unique call and the ducks waddle back to the farm and into their duck house for the night. We saw lots of these duck flocks, completely free and untended. We also saw lots of water buffalo. Daisy said that they are very calm and you can take rides on them. We saw two kids taking a swim while their buffaloes were tied up at the dock. The kids were probably supposed to deliver them to another field but got distracted. We arrived at YangZhou and it was a disappointment. It was beautiful, but it was just a long street full of upscale vendors booths. Upscale as in "3x as expensive as the rest of China." There were some interesting things, such as an entire shop dedicated to ocarinas and another dedicated to primitive bongo-sized drums. But pretty much touristic.

In the afternoon, we went on the bamboo raft trip. We were sold defective plastic water guns entering the boating area. Daisy had booked a ride on the small bamboo rafts, rather than the large ones that she normally uses. The guides were not nice, steering our rafts to the photographers trying to sell us their photos of us. They were mad that we declined. We stopped using our defective water guns and just waited for the end of the trip. At the end, the boatmen began yelling at us. Daisy was there to meet us and she went after them. They told Daisy that we should have given them a tip, which Chinese customers don't pay, then Daisy told them no, then they told Daisy she would be a dead dog if she returned there again, then Daisy told them to do something that would be difficult to achieve anatomically and they paddled off. Daisy then steered us to the large bamboo boats , which had homemade water guns with massive output volume. Virginia and the kids had a wonderful time in a waterfight with with other boats filled with Chinese. The Chinese really enjoyed soaking the Americans; Virginia was a good sport and laughingly allowed herself to be a major target. This made up for the pugnacious boatmen experience.

In the evening, we went to "Impressions" which is a show done with all the local people of the area on the river with the mountains in the backround.  If you saw the Beijing Olympic opening ceremonies, that will give you some idea of this show, which was actually the basis of the ideas for that extravaganza.  It is hard to describe what we saw, except to say that it involved hundreds of people singing, floating on bamboo rafts with real torches, dancers with costumes that lit up, a floating moon that a dancer went back and forth on, and hundreds of yards of red material that was made to wave in ribbons across the water.

July 30, 2013
The next day we mostly hung around the apartment and went to the mall and hung out at Ren Ren Le (People People Happy), the local WalMart. We have covered ancient China, but now we are learning about how it is to live as the Chinese live, in everyday life. How to shop at Walmart, how to find food we really love, carrying tissue paper with you because the restaurants and toilet stalls often don't have any, how to recognize key symbols and spoken words, how to get around the city on a bus and subway, how to cross a street with scores of cars, bikes and scooters that don't stop for you. We're past squatty potties, and putting the soiled toilet paper in the trash rather than the toilet and the sewage smells in the street; that's just part of the landscape.

We were surprised at how exuberant the Chinese are. Daisy told us that they don't let the Chinese vacationers on the Li river cruise boats with the foreigners. They put them on separate boats. She said that the Chinese are too noisy and poorly behaved; it cuts down on foreign business. The Chinese on the bamboo raft trip really got into the waterfights, loudly and aggressively., but with broad smiles. They were wild! On the street, the Chinese push and cut in front of you. Getting off the plane, one older Chinese lady tried to push ahead of Mollie from the window to the aisle while they were still standing in front of their seats. I gave her a look and waved my hand and she backed off. On the tunnel leading off the plane, she again ran over Mollie and Steffi, but gave me a broad smile and was affectionately holding and patting them as she pushed them aside. She clearly liked the girls and our family, but she had places to go and things to do! Latins (Mexicans, French, Italians, etc.) are noisy people, as are Africans and I consistently got ran over by Israelis and Arabs in Israel. But all these people are very affectionate and touchy/feely. So maybe Americans and other Anglo/Germans are the oddballs. Perhaps we are just unusually quiet and reserved people.

July 31 (Virginia)
We have our last touring day and Daisy packs in a lot of things for us to do.  The crew is tired and grumpy and it is hot.  As we walk to our first stop at West Hill Park they are complaining and not seeming to be very interested in seeing "plants and things."  I'm hearing a lot of, "So, mom, what exactly are we going to see here."  Did I mention it is very hot?  I stop and pray just as we go in.  God really does answer a mother's prayers.  The first thing we see as we enter the park is a huge pond full of Koi.  I spot a stand selling Koi food.  The kids are hooked.  They love watching the fish jump out to eat the food and then follow them along the bridge asking for more.  I get to tell both Mollie and Steffi that they loved seeing Koi ponds just like this when they were babies.  

Next we head to a blissfully cool cavern which has interesting lighting and many different cave paintings and statues.  These are mostly of Buddha and this gives us some interesting conversation with Dasiy and our kids about the history of religion in China.

Afterwards we head over to Mount Yao, the highest mountain in the area.  We take a breathtakingly high  and long cable car ride to the top of the mountain.  At the top, we see people who are bowing in worship to some of the statues and many prayer ribbons and wooden plaques with prayers.  We get more of an opportunity to discuss this with our kids.  Going down, we start on the cablecar but then get a chance to take a toboggan down the final slope.  It was a lot of fun, and more fun for me because I did not know until we got back to the van that Brendan had actually flipped his toboggan and had to jump out! He managed to get back in and finish the run with just a hand burn from trying to stop himself.  He is definitely our boy.

I thought that was the end of our tour, but Daisy gave us two extra trips, one to a silk factory where we saw how they made silk comforters, and the other to a Tea farm, where we got to participate in a tea ceremony.
 
August 1, 2013
An important day--Maggie's 18th birthday!  With Daisy's help, I've ordered a fancy cake from a bakery.  Maggie and I spend the day shopping for antique war metals and other items.  Then she gets a surprise when her Chinese friend from the train comes over to join us for her birthday party.

August 2, 2013
Brendan, Chris, Virginia and little Song go to visit the rivers and pagodas in town and do a little shopping for local crafts.  We manage to find a sit-down restaurant to eat in and order some of the local food.  We head home in time to pack up and clean up the apartment in order to make it to the airport in time for our flight to Beijing.  We get on the flight easily and early.  The flight goes smoothly too.  Our only tricky part is when we try to get a taxi at the airport to our hotel.  We are nervous about taking 2 taxis since this caused us problems before (I ended up at the wrong hotel).  So when a man with a van beckons to us, we decide to go with him.  However, we know we shouldn't take an unofficial taxi.  Christopher talks to an airport official and he seems to say this man is a taxi diver, and he does seem to have a registration card.  However, when we get everyone loaded and in the car and ask the price, he says 800 yuan.  That is way too high.  We decide to get out and quickly unload everything.  The man trys a lower price and finally I do hear "300," which would have been a reasonable amount, but we don't want to deal with someone who doesn't have a metered taxi. 

We get in two other taxi's and Christopher gets his driver to explain to the other one that they are supposed to stay together.  I can tell this irritates my driver, but he does it.  We arrive at the hotel and the meter says 78, but both men ask for 100 yuan.  That is fine with us.  The motel is wonderful.  It is very luxurious and has a trendy boutique feel with lots of chrome, black, white and mirrors.  It is quiet and comfortable and a great way to end the trip.

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