Tokyo

We went to Tokyo for a long weekend with two couples from our apartment building. We had the good fortune of going with a couple who had lived in Tokyo for 10 months as Canadian Expats prior to moving to Beijing. We even got to travel out of the new Terminal 3 airport building from Beijing (out trips to the US still leave from the old terminal 2).

We left on a Thursday night and got in too late for the Express Bus or trains into Tokyo. Fortunately, Air China had provided buses to everyone free of charge to the center of Tokyo. The ride was over an hour. We then took taxis to our hotel in Roppongi area, near the US Embassy. Below is a view from our hotel which had a couple of elevated highways right outside (a little noisy).

This is a street scene in the Roppongi area which is known for catering to the foreign devils (expats). At night we had to walk by a couple of busy street corner where men would solicit you to visit gentlemen clubs. They did not care that we were with our spouses.

We did a lot of shopping, eating, walking, riding subway and taxis throughout the weekend. The meals were spectacular and just seeing the city was a treat. It was so different than Beijing (clean, people queued in lines, little car horn blowing, good air quality, no spitting, people spoke quietly, little talking on cell phones (lots of text messaging going on)

We happened to walk by this corporate sign. This will be a collector item some day since the branding for J.P. Morgan will be changing this summer back to the old branding and losing the octagon.

We ate at Gordon Ramsay's Restaurant (Hell's Kitchen for you Reality TV watchers).

The ladies were given a complimentary sparkling wine for their meal.

Amazingly Krispy Kreme had a 45 minute queue the first day we went by it. The last day which was very rainy the queue was a manageable 15 minutes.

We did have a couple of good Japanese meals as well.....

Guilin and Yangshuo

A group of us went to visit Guilin and Yanshuo for a long weekend. These cities are located in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is located in the southern part of China and borders on Vietnam. Its landscapes and natural sites are unique and beautiful. Guilin is known for its limestone peaks and beautiful landscape.

When we arrived at Guilin airport we took a bus to The Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces in Longsheng. It was a couple hour ride to the rice paddies with some beautiful scenery. This area is also known for its ethnic minority groups that are allowed to continue to their unique traditions and culture. We met some Yao, Miao, and Zhuang people.

After visiting the Terraces we drove back Yanshuo to stay in a very nice hotel. We did not arrive in town until very late.

The next morning we took a boat cruise up the Li River. Most people take the boat from Guilin to Yanshuo (downstream). We did just the opposite and were the only people on the boat (wow). The scenery was spectacular. We had some intermittent rain but that was a good relief the the hot humid climate.

Here we are posing with the 20 Yuan bill which has the same scenery on the back of the currency.

We took a bus back to Yangshuo and then went to a fantastic outdoor show (Impression show of Liusanjie) that was produced and directed by Zhang Yimou the famous Chinese director who will be doing the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics. The show was about the river people and life along the Li River. It was a great light spectacle in a large amphitheater with over 6,000 local actors.

The next morning we visited moon hill near a local village.

We then headed for the city of Guilin and went to Reed Flute Cave

Good to be Home

It was good to be home to smell fresh air and to see all the greenery.

May Holiday

One of the Golden Weeks was eliminated this year so more traditional holidays could be celebrated such as Tomb Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival, etc.

Tomb Sweeping or Qingming Festival was celebrated on May 2nd this year.

The Qingming (Pure Brightness) Festival is one of the 24 seasonal division points in China, falling on April 4-6 each year. After the festival, the temperature will rise up and rainfall increases. It is the high time for spring plowing and sowing. But the Qingming Festival is not only a seasonal point to guide farm work, it is more a festival of commemoration.

The Qingming Festival sees a combination of sadness and happiness.

This is the most important day of sacrifice. Both the Han and minority ethnic groups at this time offer sacrifices to their ancestors and sweep the tombs of the deceased. Also, they will not cook on this day and only cold food is served.

The Hanshi (Cold Food) Festival was usually one day before the Qingming Festival. As our ancestors often extended the day to the Qingming, they were later combined.

On each Qingming Festival, all cemeteries are crowded with people who came to sweep tombs and offer sacrifices. Traffic on the way to the cemeteries becomes extremely jammed. The customs have been greatly simplified today. After slightly sweeping the tombs, people offer food, flowers and favorites of the dead, then burn incense and paper money and bow before the memorial tablet.

In contrast to the sadness of the tomb sweepers, people also enjoy hope of Spring on this day. The Qingming Festival is a time when the sun shines brightly, the trees and grass become green and nature is again lively. Since ancient times, people have followed the custom of Spring outings. At this time tourists are everywhere.

People love to fly kites during the Qingming Festival. Kite flying is actually not limited to the Qingming Festival. Its uniqueness lies in that people fly kites not during the day, but also at night. A string of little lanterns tied onto the kite or the thread look like shining stars, and therefore, are called "god's lanterns."

The Qingming Festival is also a time to plant trees, for the survival rate of saplings is high and trees grow fast later. In the past, the Qingming Festival was called "Arbor Day". But since 1979, "Arbor Day" was settled as March 12 according to the Gregorian calendar.



From China.org

Spring Break II

AF will enjoy her Spring Break from University of St. Andrews, March 29th to April 13th.

She has decided to come to Beijing for the break and will be bringing a friend from St. Andrews.

Yunnan XiShuangbanna Day 6

We had the morning free and some suggested we visit their exquisite botanical garden. Well that garden was too far away to visit before catching our plane home. This garden was wonderful.

Here is the opening sign. I neglected along the way to say that temperatures here in Xishuangbanna were in the mid 70's. The azaleas were in full bloom. I also must say that we were told that 80% of all plants in China and 60% of all animals originated from Yunnan province.

Tom noticed this beautiful plant with variegated leaves and azalea like blossoms.

Look at the tree at the end of this lane. There is a palm tree right? You are partly correct, there is a palm tree but a banyan tree is growing around it. Eventually the banyan tree will kill the palm tree and there will be a hole in the center of the banyan tree.

This is a close up of the trunk of the tree with the palm tree peeking through.

This awesome tree is about three feet across on the one side and skinny as heck when viewed sideways like this. How cool is that?

Concrete lily pads across the water. See Tom on the far shore?

I am enjoying a wonderful ride over the lake. Actually I got to ride the other way too!

A beautiful archway of flowers.

I miss not seeing the lotus in Beijing. Here they are.

It is time to go home and there is my basket ready to get on the plane. I tied a smaller basket to the top with strong, sturdy sock yarn. That knitting habit comes in handy sometimes. Speaking of knitting yarn. I lost a button right in the middle of my shirt one morning as soon as we took off in the bus. I had nothing with me but my yarn needle and sock yarn. I sewed three places along the front of my shirt to make it look decent. Thanks Mom for teaching me all the tricks.

Yunnan Xishuangbanna Day 5 Bulang Village

The last event of the day was to visit a tea plantation. Bulang Village is at the top of a mountain and many of the people there "own" the land and grow tea. I neglected to mention how fickle tea is to grow. Conditions including altitude must be right.

To reach the village we took tractors. These were amazing machines. I wish I had the vocabulary to describe how ancient the mechanisms were. I can tell you that the engine was a crank start. The ride was 30 minutes.

We passed fields. I love this bamboo fence and notice the plastic covering the soil in the background. Perhaps it is weed control. There is lovely terracing in the background.

The village must be doing well. They are building a better road than the dirt one we used. This is the rock foundation.

We have arrived. I got to ride in the front. Even though I saw how the tractor operated, I still can barely describe it. The shifter was a side ways H and I had to watch my feet. There was a rubber flap where my feet would go. The shifting thing-a-ma-bobby moved around quite a bit on the bumpy road. Maybe the rubber flap is to keep out the splashing in the rainy season. This is a typical bamboo house. Many are being replaced by concrete homes.

At the front of the village is the monastery. We also were greeted by two young girls who were chewing the stuff to turn their teeth purple to attract men. To each his own.

We visited a local home. It was upstairs ( just as the houses were in LiJiang). The sides were vertical planks of wood. In the center of the room was a fire and a hole in the roof above. This woman is visiting her neighbor. She is 77 and her husband is 63. She talked about how they take turns working in the tea field and in the home. The woman who lived in the house had lost her husband. There was a young man holding her baby and her older son.

This woman was smoking a pipe. She was sitting close to the fire and relighting her pipe with a frayed piece of bamboo. She was very animated and told us she was rich as she showed off her silver earrings with red yarn through the bottom for emphasis.

This is the primary school. Way down at the end of the gutter in front of the school you can see a black spot.

This is the black spot. I love the pigs.

This is a picture of one lane in the village. On our walk through and really around the streets of the village we encountered several people taking showers on their "decks". One of our group asked if we should walk down another lane to leave these bathers their privacy. Our guide said they are used to this in the village, there is no need.

Look closely and you can see the water flowing down the middle of the lane. I loved the pigs. There is a "real" runt in this family. He was so cute.

A beautiful picture of a new monk.

Another newbie.


We all visited the 5 star (not!) potty in the woods and then walked a ways to meet our ride back to the bus......the tractors.

Tea plantation

A woman carrying something in her two! baskets. These people are such hard working folks.

We are in our tractors now and headed down. The two giant "trees" in the middle of the picture are actually bamboo. I had been trying to figure out how to take a good picture that shows how tall and sweepy this plant is. I was really trying to take a picture of the two water buffaloes along the side of the road on the right. The tractor driver was honking and they scampered up the road toward us and off to the left of this picture.