We go home tomorrow morning very early and I am about a half a day behind on my blog entries. Sorry, time and internet access have been in short supply – let me tell you. If I do not get it all in tonight, I will do it when I get back to the states. That is just the reality of how frenzied and fun this trip has been.
Thanks for reading… and don’t stop! There is more to come soon!
-Jason
After our trip down the Li river, we got to do something amazing. We took some open-air mini-buses (they were described as golf carts, but were more than that) out into the Chinese countryside. This was our first experience away from the Chinese cities and it was a real eye-opener. We were told that despite the wealth of the big cities, 60% of China’s population still lives in these rural areas, generally under developing world conditions.
We ventured into the rice fields, though we noticed there was not as much rice growing as usual. We were told that the farmers used to use every inch of land to plant rice, but now they use much of their ground to plant mandarin oranges, corn, and melons – which are less labor intensive than rice. That’s because there are not enough laborers to work the fields any more. Here is a beautiful shot Gary took of rice plants. Those little seed-like things coming off the plants are pods containing grains of rice.
The reason there is not enough labor for the farmers is that the young adults of the villages are fleeing to the cities where they get higher paying jobs. We saw a sign in a village advertising jobs in a factory for anyone aged 18 – 54. The rate was about $150-$250 dollars per month, an absurdly low salary to us in the West but way more than the $1000 or so dollars per year that a farmer makes. The result of all this is that we only saw two types of people in the village – the very young and the very old.
Speaking of the very young, Kathy took out some of her Twizzlers to share with the children of the village. She and I are known as the Candy Couple because we have been giving Twizzlers, M&Ms, and Sweet Tarts to everyone to keep spirits up. Anyway, the problem with our American candy is that Chinese kids don’t like it. Sweet Tarts and Twizzlers are an acquired taste, I guess. So, the kids flocked around Kathy to get a Twizzler and then some of them spit the candy out because the licorice tasted bad.
I have spoken several times about the wonderful camera being used by and photos being taken by Gary Weiner. I used my flash drive to get some of his best stuff over to my computer this evening and wanted to post a few of them for all of you to see. Some of these date back to our first day in China and some are from just yesterday.
Enjoy!
Jason with a common household pet in Beijing, a cricket.
Jason posing with one of the many watches he traded for on day one in Beijing.
Susan sits down with her new best friend, a Panda bear!!
The group listens intently as Xiao Fei tells us about the Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an
There are a LOT of Terra Cota Warriors!
The beauty that is the Li River cruise.
In some ways, much of China remains unchanged from what it was centuries ago.
I have looked at my pictures from today. I took more than 50. None of them… not a single one… do justice to the majesty of the limestone formations on the Li River. Art of the problem is that I am a very mediocre photographer using a decidedly basic camera. But most of the problem is that it is just really tough for a digital image to capture the awe-inspiring scope of these inexplicable outcroppings from the Earth. They are like Mother Nature’s fingers extending from the river banks into the sky.
We all gathered on top of the boat to get the best view we could and to snap as many photos as possible. I am hoping that Gary Weiner, who has a camera to die for, got some pictures that really do it justice. Of course, part of the problem was getting a good angle for a shot. There were other tourists on the boat and only so much room at the very front where the best views could be found. There was a German guy who staked out a position against the rail with a video camera who refused to move for hours on end. It was a bright beautiful day… I hope he got sunburned.
Here is a shot of Kathy, Ann, Art, and Skip along the side of the boat, probably waiting their turn to get up front and get a better view of the upcoming mountains. As you can tell, the side views weren’t too bad either ;)
In addition to the limestone outcroppings, the Li river cruise was fabulous because it gave us a peek at real life along the riverbanks in China. We saw plenty of what can only be described as Chinese peasants working in and around the river, in much the same way they have for generations.
We also saw their livestock, just cooling off in the river because it was a warm day (sunny with temps in the low-80s).
The Li River cruise takes about 4 hours and we probably could have done without the last hour or so of it. There is only so many times you can ooh and aaah at limestone outcroppings, you know?
Many of us eventually left the observation deck to hang out inside. It was another chance to relax and play a little bit of cards. Several folks on the trip play bridge – all of them are waay better than Kathy and I – and we have had a few fun games. Art, Pam, and Carol play most of the time. I think Elizabeth and Betty play a bit too. Kathy and I have been mediocre at best… I think we get a tad intimidated when playing with these life master folks ;)
Two quick notes…
First of all, it has not been easy keeping up with everyone’s names on this trip. The problem for me was not so much learning all the names as it was the fact that the names listed on passports and in our information sheets didn’t actually match the people all the time.
For example – we have 2 Garys on this trip… although one of them is actually named Skip.
We also have an Elizabeth who goes by Betty and a Mary who goes by Elizabeth (her middle name).
It does not help that we have 2 people named Lori and 2 named Anne. There are a couple unusual names too – Ildy and Samia are certainly not names you hear every day in America.
But, I’ve had it all figured out for the past several days, I think. Either that or I keep calling people by the wrong name and they are too nice to correct me.
Ok, second note… which has nothing to do with the first ;)
When we were on the Li river cruise, they had a bottle of what looked like a bunch of dead snakes preserved in formaldehyde. Wrong! It was snake wine. I am totally serious about this! Wine with snakes inside it! Who do you think was brave enough to take a taste?
Betty!!
Just kidding, she pretended to take a sip but did not actually do the deed. Samia actually took a glass of beer, that looked a bit like the snake wine, and pretended to drink it too, which prompted some German tourists to snap dozens of pictures of her thinking she was drinking the snake wine. Pretty funny!
Xiao Fei says snake wine is good for your liver.
But, my liver is just fine without drinking any of that stuff, thank you very much.
Xiao Fei is very proud of his home city. It is a beautiful place and we very much enjoyed learning about tit from him. Here is a pic of him passionately describing the city’s history to us atop the city wall.
He told us Xi’an was a city of about 50,000 people as recently as 50 years ago. Today is has more than 8-million. It is basically the size of Chicago. WOW!
And it ain’t done growing yet! As we drove around the city, from the airport to the Terra Cotta Warriors everywhere we went, we saw scaffolding and new buildings being built. Virtaully every one of them were new apartment buildings or condos. They are all cookie cutter identical to each other, mostly 20 or 30 stories high with dozens of units on each floor. Look at this picture the Susan Weiner took for a bit of an idea what I am talking about.
Can you even count all the apartment buildings in that pic? Can you imagine what that will do to traffic and infrastructure when thousands of people fill those apartments? The above picture was repeated time after time as we drove around the city. It is terrifying!
It is also a pity. Xi’an seemed like a wonderful place and we all really enjoyed it. I fear what it will become in a few years though.
Xi’an, the city we were just in, is surrounded by a wall. Without seeing it, you really can’t imagine how big this thing is. It extends around the city center for 17 km. It would have made for a really cool bike ride around the entire city, but we just did not have time for it. It looks a bit like the Atlantic City boardwalk when you are up on top of it, except it is a ton longer and it is raised about 30 or 40 feet in the air above the city. Here is a pic that may give you a bit of an idea what I am talking about.
We got to get a great view of it from the West Gate into the city, which remains 100% in tact the way it has been for centuries. The gate was actually the official start of the Silk Road from China through India and eventually into Europe centuries ago, which is very cool. Here is a pic of Kathy and I in front of the guard building on the West Gate.
Inside the guard building today is a gift shop that had some very nice art work in it. In a corner of the room, we saw a ping pong table amid all the fabulous works of art. I made the tremendous mistake of playing a bit with Xiao Fei. Ping Pong is the national sport of China and Xaio Fei had already told us he was really good at it. He’s a fabulous athlete, a championship runner and soccer player when he was in college. He just killed me at ping pong. I know I am not very good at it anyway, but he basically slammed back every ball I hit while laughing hysterically. It was fun and funny.
When w got done, I promptly challenged him to a game of basketball. He laughed and declined ;)
