Whaaaat????

Top 10 list of oddities not in any particular order.

1. You get a pot of water to wash your dishes, which have already been set at the table, in restaurants in Nanchang. You just swirl the water around.  Is this effective? Is this necessary?

2.  At the Buddhist temple you could have your fortune read by a turtle. Or something.   A person puts a coin on the turtle's back, then takes your hand and rubs it around the turtle's back and then makes you shake the turtle's hand.  Maybe it is different if you know what they are saying. 

3.  You must pay 25 yuan if your daughter breaks a glass in a restaurant.   12 yuan if you steal the "No Smoking" sign from the hotel.  5000 yuan if you break the tv.  We only had to pay one of these. 

4. You can hear Uptown Funk playing in the Walmart mall in Guilin.  You can also buy sweet potato flavored instant Quaker Oats.  And prophylactics next to the gum at the grocery checkout counter.

5.  Wearing your t-shirt rolled up halfway seems to be an acceptable fashion statement for men.  Maybe just to deal with the heat.   If it won't stay up on it's own, just use paper clips to hold it up. 

6.  If your baby is old enough to stand, they can ride shotgun on your scooter. If not, just bungee a little seat to your bike. 

7.  Never promise a Chinese lady you'll buy water from them after you come down from the mountain.   They'll never let you forget. 

8. It is OK to hang your clean undies out to dry anywhere.   Over the public walk, outside your family restaurant, or in the middle of an open building under active construction. 

9.  If you are American, you must want a fried egg, strip of bacon, one sausage, 2 rolls and excessive amounts of watermelon for breakfast.  (We sat down at our table one morning after filling our plates at the hotel chinese breakfast buffet.  The wait staff continued to bring all of the above and sat it down in front of us.)

10.  Lots of people wear shirts with American words that are "not relavent" (Andrew's assessment).  Like the English teacher at the elementary school we visited whose shirt said "SICK".  

Old school trucks

We saw a few of these trucks where the motor is hanging off the front with no hood or fenders or anything. They have a big flywheel on the one side, which makes me think these could be quite old. Needless to say, they would not pass any emissions testing...

Examples of Chinese ornament - Teng Weng Pavillion in Nanchang

Panorama from our bike ride in Yangshuo

Self Artifact

Well, Dave finally got his selfie stick, which is apparently translated to English from Chinese as "self artifact" or "self time artifact." After Marnie rolled her eyes we began to put it to good use, taking selfies by the dozens all over Yangshou...

Cooling off in the pool

Our favorite thing to do while in Nanchang was to go swimming back at the hotel after being out and about in the hot city. The pool was on the 4th floor of the hotel and had a great view overlooking the river, which was really cool with the night lighting. We were all required to wear swim caps due to hotel policy. I can still hear the family singing "why do you need a swim cap, you don't have any hair!!!" to the tune of The Veggie Tales song.

Exercise time

Took some time at the People's Park in Nanchang to get some exercise. It is very popular with the locals to go to the park early in the morning to get their exercise. There are usually several different classes going on at the same time, each with their own music.

Peak-a-boo

This was my little peak-a-boo buddy on the fast train to Guilin. His favorite thing was to peak around the seat to see what the white people were doing now.

Dave

Hydration Assistant

As we arrived at Moon Hill, we were swarmed by ladies raving about our kids and trying to sell us water. As we walked up the hill, one of the ladies walked with us carrying a cooler of drinks. Apparently she was our unofficial guide for our hike. She would keep telling us how much farther and fan us when we were taking breaks. When we got to the top we bought some cokes and waters from her, and was also quite persistent in trying to sell us postcards. She stayed at the top when we hiked down, and we were again hounded by the drink vendors back at the bottom. They weren't happy we bought all our drinks from the lady who walked with us.

Dave

Bike Ride to Moon Hill and the Banyan Tree

Today we biked through the countryside and several small villages to Moon Hill and the big Banyan tree. After navigating our way through the many winding and often confusing roads, we got to Moon Hill where we were swarmed by a half dozen ladies trying to sell us water, even as we bought tickets. One even followed us all the way up the mountain! Dave said he disliked all the pushy vendors, but I guess it's just the culture here. 

At the top we got some amazing views of the giant moon-shaped hole in the mountain and put Dave's new selfie stick to good use. After hiking all the way back down the hill, we biked to the nearby Luna restaurant, a nice Italian rooftop restaurant. It was great to have some familiar food to eat. 

After lunch we biked to the 1,400 year old Banyan tree, but not until after we accidentally bought tickets for and visited a Buddhist temple! We weren't too disappointed, though, since the tickets were only $2 each and we hadn't been to a Buddhist temple yet. 

After the Banyan tree, we biked back to our hotel/resort and everyone took showers to wash off the sweat. The temperatures here are very high, usually over 90 with the humidity and sun making it feel close to 105! 

- Luke

Me and my sweetie

After seeing the "pander bear" (how our guide pronounced it), we took the fast train to Guilin where our 3 week apartment stay will be. 

New Life as Tea Pickers

Most scenic pee I ever took...

Cooking Class

This morning we took a tour of the farmers market in Yangshao. They showed us the different vegetables they have here.  The meat was in a different room where most animals are brought in live and butchered on site.  There is much more of a culture of buying directly from producers here. After the tour, we had a Chinese cooking class where we learned how to prepare several dishes. It was very hot in the kitchen, but it was very interesting to see how they cook differently. The food was delicious!!!

Dave

Tea Time

Stopped by the Guilin Institute for Tea Research, where they showed us how to pick tea leaves and how the different types of tea are made. They make a variety of tea all from the same plant, but harvest the leaves at different stages or process differently to make the different kinds of tea. We went to a small room to taste some of the different teas the make there, and she showed us the proper way to make them. The steeping time she used was much less than what we normally use, all the teas tasted very good. She explained the reason for all the different rituals which was very interesting. The leaves that aren't good enough for tea they put in bags and sell for fertilizer, so if you want to enjoy good tea you don't use tea put in bags (since it is fertilizer grade tea leaves). The other ritual on these tours is that every education experience is followed by a shopping experience, which is usually a nice opportunity for souvenirs. We dropped a nice chunk of change in the tea shop getting a nice tea set and related items.

Dave

Bamboo rafts

Today we took a trip down the Yulong river on bamboo rafts. We got to sit under the shade of an umbrella and relax while the driver pushed us along using a really long bamboo pole. There were a lot of people squirting others with water guns and splashing each other.

This is the life!

Living in China would be hard - but I could maybe live here!  We arrived at the Yangshao Mountain Retreat this afternoon.  This is a beautiful place!  The hotel is smaller and caters to westerners.  It was originally opened as a place for expats to find a little relief from the crazy cities and to enjoy nature and some clean air - my kind of place!! Tomorrow we will hike to Moon Hill and maybe do a little bike ride.  

This view is from our balcony.  I can even stand the heat outdoors while sitting here : )

Marnie

West Street at night in Yangshuo

West Street is the place to be at night in Yangshao!!

Reed Flute Cave

Yesterday we went to the reed flute cave after lunch.   A cave is a nice place to be on a 95 degree day with maximum humidity!  The colored lighting they use makes it look very surreal inside. Even with regular light it is like being in a magical land inside the mountain. One inch of stalagmite takes 800 years to grow. This cave is VERY old.   It had an underground River flowing through it until the karst mountains pushed up and the water flowed out.  

Marnie

Yao Mountain

We made a quick stop in at our Guilin apartment yesterday after our bullet train ride from Nanchang.  There was a little video on the train about the making of the track.  The Chinese are definitely not afraid of tackling big construction projects - all the way back to the Great Wall.  

We are now in Yangshao for a few days.   This is a view from the top of Yao Mountain in Guilin.   We took a cable car up and the "luge" half way down!  

More later.  Internet is very slow here. 

Marnie

Walking back from the park

a man selling baby chicks

the equivalent of the magic slicer/dicer at the State Fair - she had examples of differently sliced veggies on her little mat

baby seat bungied to a scooter

you can buy the odd little apron with attached mits to wear while you ride your scooter - for sun shade according to our guide?

Went to the People's Park this morning early before the heat ("feels like" rating of 105°F.)  What an interesting place.   Different music coming from every corner.   Waltzing couples, small groups doing tai chi, a woman dancing (sort of) with a sword, elderly people all by themselves doing some exercise to get the chi flowing or hanging from trees (stretching out their bodies I guess).  It is a beautiful garden and a nice reprieve from the city. 

Andrew was kicking a soccer ball around which of course ended up in the lake.   Dave and the kids finally rented a little boat to retrieve it at which point it quickly floated in to shore to me.  

We found some play equipment.  Actually I think it is for adults to do some exercises.   There are some odd ones. The kids like the one where you hang on to a bar and put each foot on a swinging platform and then swing your legs back and forth.  It makes your legs feel funny when you get off. 

After a pizza lunch in a somewhat air conditioned space, the kids and Dave set off to find a ride back (see Dave's post) after pointing me in the right direction.   Actually I think Dave was a little unsure I would make it back without getting lost.   I did take some screen shots of his map on the phone.   

I was on a mission to find the big market I remembered from our last trip.   Walking alone was actually nice - no need to worry about a kid getting run over! The street is a place of sensory overload.   Each little shop is blasting their own music or advertising.   The ground is totally uneven.  There is construction dust everywhere.  There are people everywhere.   Odd smells jump out now and again.   You can cool off  by catching a blast of cool air from the nicer shops - or if you walk under the drip line of the drying laundry above.   

And then it transitioned into this other place which is partially shown by these photos.   No fancy shops or booming music.  Little stands all along the street which eventually become even more dense and form the 3 story market across several buildings, which are connected in an open air sort of way.    There must be hundreds of little shops in there.   It is quite crowded and the shops are arranged in little districts - areas for shoes, umbrellas, kitchen goods, bedding, toys, art supplies, underwear, luggage, makeup, nails, fake eyelashes and hair extensions, and lots of clothing. Families shopping all around, kids darting in and out of little aisles. I find this place fascinating.   But it intimidates me to shop there.  I bought a few party decorations and a little fan.   I used to think those pretty little fans were just cute and for show.   They are actually quite necessary with this incredibly humid heat.   

Back to the pool to cool off again! I hope we find a pool in Guilin!