We are home safe!

Sunday, March 24 -- We made it home safe. We arrived at our house at 12:30 am Sunday morning. We went to bed at 2 am, woke up at noon, picked up Sarah, took a nap at 4:30 pm, woke up at 8 pm ... this must be jet lag. Sarah is doing fine since her return home. She was a good house guest on her vacation and hopefully she is glad to be here in our much-less-exciting condo.

What a great trip! We spent some time today talking about all the incredible things that we experienced. I enjoyed seeing the temples and the mass amounts of incense burning (pictured here). I liked the hutong tour in Beijing. The hutongs are old, old neighborhoods in Beijing. It was interesting to see the culture as we toured in the pedestrian taxis. We laughed about our Peking Duck experience in Beijing--Troy can tell you what happens when you eat too much duck skin. We also laughed at how the tour guides in Beijing and Shanghai called us "big potatoes." (Hoping she meant something like "big cheese" and not "couch potato.") Did you know the slang word in Mandarin for Americans is "big noses?" Apparently they think our noses is big.

And yes, we did buy a knock-off Prada from a vendor in a small hidden room off an alleyway. I didn't want to put that in the blog since blogs are apparently censored in China. After my submission about Mao while we were in Beijing, I could no longer access my blog. Fortunately, I could publish to it but I could not view it. It is working fine here in the US so I think I used the magic combination of words that caught the mechanical censors in China. Fortunately, I made it out of the country.

China is a country that is set to explode on the world scene. I don't have enough knowledge to make any predictions about what their impact will be, but my guess is that my children will be learning Mandarin and English. Learning the language would be the best investment a person could give themselves.

When we toured the Great Wall, we learned that the Wall was constructed as a communications system for the military, and, it was constructed to keep the Mongolians out of the country. If we build a wall at our border, I wonder if people will tour it someday like we tour the Great Wall.

On a sidenote, we also liked the public transportation in all 3 cities--subways, buses and taxis. I wonder how our lives would change if public transportation was the primary vehicle for people.

We are thankful for our week together in Hong Kong and we so enjoyed our time with the SMU group in Beijing and Shanghai.

We don't know how many people read our blog but we are thankful for those who did and kept us in their prayers for safe travel. The prayers worked and we are glad to be home and glad to have had such an amazing opportunity for travel. We will keep publishing photos from the trip on this blog over the next few days.

The End of the Day

Friday evening, March 23 -- I am so sorry to report that it has been an incredible day and I have not taken one picture all day! I have to admit, I felt a little lost after my traveling buddy, Anita, left for an early flight. Troy had class until noon so I did some things around the hotel. I took a short trip to a government-sponsored silk goods store then walked around the mall next to the hotel. Troy and I went with some of the students to the Yu Gardens Bazaar (the picture you see is of a famous teahouse in the center of the Bazaar.) When we returned from the Bazaar, we walked the main promenade by our hotel, did a little more back-alley shopping (which Troy stated that at any moment we have to climb stairs he was out of there) and then we hit the big pearl market in Shanghai. SMU hosted a dinner for the students tonight at the hotel. We sat at the table with Randy and his wife, Mikey, and Lynn and his son who is a college student at my undergrad...MSU. Great conversation, good food and lots of good joke telling. Randy told a story about a custom during a time in China's history when there was a great deal of starvation and hunger. Instead of asking someone, "How are you?" they would ask each other, "Have you eaten?" and even if they haven't eaten, the person would responde, "I will eat soon." I found this to have some theological meaning and will be spending a little time with this slice of Chinese culture. It was a lovely dinner and now we are beginning the end-of-the-trip packing adventure. We will start our journey home tomorrow.

There have been so many things to see, do, taste, hear, smell and touch here in China. I hope that I have given you a glimpse into life here on the other side of the world and I highly recommend you to take a trip to China, even if it costs all the tea in China! :)

Watches, Handbags, Gucci...look

Friday, March 23 -- Just so we could say that we had the experience, we followed a street hawker back to her shop to see her handbag inventory. A little tiny shopfront story with hardly any stock. We stood there for a few minutes, then a man opened a door at the back of the shop. We entered that door (it was locked behind us), and then the man taps on the wall then begins pulling back fake wallpaper exposing a second door. He opened that door and there was a closet-sized shop full of handbags and watches. We entered into that little room, again, the door locked behind us and we got to see all of the "A" quality stock. Did we buy anything? Of course not, knock-offs are illegal in China and people don't break the law here....Obviously, no picture attached to this blog entry.

Shanghai Sites -- At Night

A view from the promenade on the Bundt at night.

More Shanghai Sites

A shop in the French Concession..."Living My Life, My Way"

Shanghai Sites

A small street in the French Concession area...notice the tree...

Walking the French Concession

Friday, March 23 -- It's 9:40 am Shanghai time and the students just got off for their last company tour of the trip. They will tour Citigroup this morning and be home by noon. The students have the afternoon off and then there is a SMU reception this evening for the students and SMU alumni in China.

Yesterday was a great day. Anita and I followed a walking tour of the French Concession. It was a very charming area of Shanghai and for the most part, it was free of sidewalk solicitations for Gucci purses. We ate from a local street vendor (pictured here), toured a "wet market" with snakes, frogs, turtle, live chickens, butchers, vegetables, noodles and tofu. We found a quaint street with artists boutiques before we hit the main upscale shopping street. The gods looking down on us favorably as we both found some beautiful gifts and souvenirs. In the afternoon, I walked down the main promenade from our hotel that eventually leads to the Bundt water walkway. It's hard to describe how many people are here....crossing streets is a dangerous game between the cars, bicycles, mopeds and masses of people. We had a great Thai dinner at the Xin Tiandi (a French-quarter-like area) then we came home and crashed for the night.

Anita went home today so I feel a little lost this morning without my travel pal but I'm sure I will still find something interesting to do....more later!

The Times Square of Shanghai

This is a blurry picture, but outside our hotel is a main promenade in Shanghai,

known as the Times Square of China.

The Best Dumplings

Anita and Kathryn with our wonderful dumpling maker.

Playing Hackey-Sack in a Temple with a Monk

Wed., March 20 -- Choosing today's highlight is very difficult because it was an amazing day in Shanghai. But I have to say my most favorite time was when I played hackey-sack with a Zen Buddhist monk inside a temple. This experience came at the end of a great walking day in Shanghai. Anita, the wife of a classmate, and I set-out for a 90-minute walking tour of the Old City. The walk turned into a 4-hour "cruise." When we completed the walk, we mastered the subway system in China to take the subway to the Jade Buddha Temple, one of the largest temples in Shanghai and it has a giant buddha carved from one block of jade. It was close to closing time at the Temple and we made one final pass through the main Temple area. There was a monk playing with this Chinese hackey-sack like we had seen at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. So I motioned to him to kick it to me. And he did. Of course, my hand-eye and foot-eye coordination is not the best, so it took a few rounds before we could get it going. I overshot one time and sent it over his shoulder and almost straight into an altar area. Another time I almost got it in the chandelier. It was great. All three of us laughed and laughed. (See us in the picture...the hackey-sack has feathers on top weighted down with something close to washers. That golden statue behind us...that's almost what I hit with my toss.)

Another favorite moment of the day...our walking tour took us into "real" neighborhoods where you are not asked by anyone if you want to buy a Gucci bag. Anita saw a woman making dumplings in this tiny stall and suggested we stop and try them. She had a tiny seating area so we got 2 trays of dumplings for 4 yuan (1US=7.7yuan). She had such a sweet spirit and good energy and just kept smiling and every so often, pointing at my eyes. Her grandson was making the dumplings with her. It was such a beautiful moment in the day...and yummy too.

We capped the day off with dinner and then a walk along the Bundt (the promenade overlooking the river) with Anita and her husband, Brian.

Anita and I enjoyed our walking tour so much today that we decided to try another one tomorrow. We are going to get an earlier start so that we can see and experience as much as possible. Troy and Brian enjoyed their tours and they have another full day tomorrow. SMU did not give them much free time in Shanghai.

I'm not sure why, but I cannot view my blog here in China. So I'm hoping these posts are getting to you. I don't know if I wrote something that set-off the China internet sensors, but it's very odd that I can log-in to blogger but cannot view my blog. If you are leaving comments on the blog like "Get me a Gucci bag while you are there," then send me an email.