Beijing and finishing up China

We expected Beijing to be crowded and polluted, but surprisingly we found neither to be entirely true.  Perhaps the rain we received cleared the air, but throughout the week we also got some beautiful blue skies, and apart from the tourist spots, Beijing was not as crowded as we had feared and was well laid out for such a large city.

Our hotel room was facing in-ward towards the atrium so unfortunately we didn’t know the sky was falling until we got outside on our first day and we hadn’t dressed for it. We first visited Tiananmen Square, which was pretty much just a big rectangle and unfortunately the rain and thousands of tourists with umbrellas didn’t really do it for us. We headed into the Forbidden City Palace, which was certainly larger than we expected and in amazing condition after the renovations for the Olympics. It is called the Forbidden City because no common people were allowed inside during the emperors rule.  We’d like to tell you more of the Palace, but to be honest, there was so much and the rain really took way from it. Nonetheless, it certainly was impressive.

The next morning we drove about an hour and a half to visit a section of the Great Wall!  It was built by the first emperor of China who also built the terracotta warriors.  We marveled again at his amazing vision and ambitions.  We were overwhelmed by the number of tourists visiting, but we took the route with less people, even though it was very steep. There were mountains all around, and even though the day was hazy, it was beautiful and much cooler than it would have been with the sun blazing.  The wall was remarkable and unbelievably steep at times. We both really enjoyed the hour or so that we walked along the way and it was probably the highlight of Beijing.

Around the corner from our hotel was a snack market and a bizarre that lived up to all our expectations of Chinese markets!   We saw snakes and starfish on sticks as well as LIVE scorpions on sticks as well as many other things that scared the shit out of us.  We were not brave enough to try the more shocking items, but we did sample a few tamer snacks like pot stickers and balls of fried banana.  We also put our crazy bargaining skills to use in the market and picked up some gifts. Our bags are getting really heavy now!  I think it’s time to throw out some clothes to make room for souvenirs!

Other tourist attractions we visited were the Tombs of the Emperors and the Summer Palace. The 14 tombs were built very deep underground with Feng Shui in mind.  It was an impressive engineering project especially considering when they were built.  Only one has been open to the public and the others are still closed.  The Summer Palace was built on a lake and “palace” does not really describe it accurately; as with most Chinese architecture, it was more about the grounds than the buildings.  There were some pretty elements to it, but once again, the overwhelming number of tourists really just left me wanting to run away.

One of our favorite things about China was all the public Parks.  In every city there were beautiful parks and the people certainly take advantage of them, retired people in particular.  All throughout the day people come together in big and small groups to dance, practice Tai Chi, sing, play cards and Chinese chess, fly kites, dance with ribbons and more.  We also saw a lot of very talented Calligraphers writing and drawing on the pavement with large water brushes.  As we were walking by, one artist looked up at Raj and decided to draw him!  In about 90 seconds, he drew a fantastic image of Raj (see video).  Overall, walking through the parks was a great way to see how the people relax and enjoy life, how artistic and vibrate they are. and how content, and social Chinese people are. What we saw in the parks/public areas seemed unique to China and not something we would expect to see anywhere else in the world.

For about a month we have been discussing the last few weeks of our trip which originally included a week in Japan and a week in Thailand before finishing up in London.  Between the riots in Thailand and the feeling that a week was not sufficient for Japan, we decided to change up our trip a bit.   After considering spending the two weeks in only Japan or going to Cambodia, Vietnam, Egypt, Mongolia South Africa or Morocco, we finally decided on skipping Japan for this trip and instead going to Vietnam  and Cambodia with only 2 days in Bangkok (which we had to keep in order to get our international flight to London because our OneWorld pass didn’t fly to London from many of the places were considering.  After some research into visas for Vietnam and Cambodia we found we could get our Vietnam visa in Beijing and our Cambodian visa upon arrival.  However, in Beijing we were confronted with some ridiculous complications.  First of all, if we were going to be flying to Vietnam from any other country, we could have just applied for a visa upon arrival, but China does not allow passengers to board a flight without a visa in hand.  So, we had to surrender our passports to the Vietnam embassy for them to process our visas, but doing that meant that we couldn’t travel or check in to new hotels because they are very strict in China about having a passport at check-in and a photocopy would not suffice.  So, we not only had to pay extra for rush delivery for our visas, but we had to cancel our overnight trip from Beijing to Datong which included seeing a hanging monastery and an overnight train journey back to Beijing.  Despite our frustration, our travel agency was super nice and took on the expense of re-booking our Beijing hotel at no additional cost to us, and in the end we left China with our Vietnam visas and great anticipation for visiting Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and a four night stay at the beach in Mui Ne, Vietnam!.

Xi’an and Warriors

We had a very short trip in Xian – only 2 nights.  Again, we noticed immediately how much easier breathing was at a normal altitude.  The city of Xi’an was very nice and pretty.  The downtown area is protected by a huge wall which used to be the palace’s borders.  Today, the wall is used for marathons and the entire wall has parks on the outside which the people use well.

The main attraction in Xi’an is the Terracotta Warriors and they are absolutely fascinating. There are an estimated 8,000+ life-size and extremely detailed warriors and another 130 chariots and 700 horses.  Their faces have intricate expressions and the army is situated according to rank, just as it would have been in 246 BCE.   They were built by the first emperor of China – the one that unified all the different dynasties and also built the Great Wall. According to our guide, the emperor built the warriors to protect him in the afterlife. Amazingly, he ordered construction of the army when he was only 13 years old and before he was actually emperor.  After being discovered by a farmer trying to build a well in 1973, hundreds of archaeologists have worked on excavating the army and putting the pieces back together (most were destroyed in a fire and the original weapons were robbed shortly after completion).  They found that the vibrant colors faded completely within 6 months so they halted further excavation.  As of today, they still don’t have the technology to properly preserve the pieces (although we heard on the news a few hours ago they are going to give it a try).

We also visited a Feng shui museum, yet another buddhist temple and one of the four most famous mosques in China. Also, we went to a Tang Dynasty Cultural show.  We have enjoyed all the shows in China and this one was no exception.  The music was nice, costumes were beautiful and there was dancing as well as kung fu elements. It was very entertaining!

The first night at the Hyatt we discovered they had a pub with Pizza so of course we decided to take advantage of the opportunity for a pizza and beer night.  But, we also had the benefit of a live Philippino cover band. As we had more beers the band sounded better. Anyway because we were 2 of 6 people in the bar, the band came over to say hi and chat a little. They were actually really nice and took some requests.  The next and final night we decided to pay them a visit again, however we felt we needed to step it with Martini’s so Raj taught the bartender how to make a dirty martini and we even ended up on stage with the band. We bought the band a few rounds of beer, again because we were 2 of 4 people in the bar and chatted with them during their break. Some of the band members had these really cool cigarette holders with a built in lighter. Anyway we thought they’d be great gifts and when we asked them were to buy them the band members gave us two as a gift. Very sweet of them! Unfortunately at the airport the next day, the airport told us we could not fly with them, even if they were in checked in baggage, so we had to leave them with our guide as gift for her. Very sad... (sorry Fred).

Xi’an was surprisingly fun, and truly a beautiful city in the middle of China with a rich and loooong history like no other – 5000 years.   As we’ve heard from just about every guide, “if you want 50 years of China’s history, go to Shanghai; if you want 500 years of China’s history, go to Beijing; and if you want 5000 years of history, go to Xi’an!”

7 days in Tibet!

(By Tovah)
When we got off the plane in Lhasa, after the most turbulent flight I can remember having, we noticed right away that the air was thin and breathing was more difficult.  Since we had an entire week in Tibet, our tour took us in a large loop beginning and ending in Lhasa, but we stayed the first 2 nights in a town called Tsedang, about 2 hours from Lhasa, and the former capital of Tibet.  The drive to Tsedang was pretty, but not as magnificent as we expected.  Instead of snow-capped mountains, we found that the terrain was more desert and the main vegetation were juniper berry bushes (purple berries with few leaves).  By the time we made it to the hotel, the altitude was getting to us and we both had headaches and felt very tired. Luckily, our guide had planned for this and we had nothing planned except resting in the hotel all afternoon and evening, which we promptly did after taking a couple Tylenol. 

The next morning we felt much better and were eager to visit our first Tibetan monastery and to get a better feel for how the Tibetan culture differs from the Chinese. Our first monastery was a bit of a disappointment, yet it represented one of the very first in the country.  Currently, two hundred monks live at this particular monastery, though we only saw about 10 of them.  Surprisingly, what stood out the most was the awful smell from inside the temple!  It was mainly from the oil they use for the candles, which is more of a buttery-wax than oil, but there was also a blend of dust, mildew and body odor that permeated the stale air.  Not exactly the impression we had in our heads going in! Regardless, we learned about the history of Tibet starting with their story of how the Tibetan people began as monkeys, and continuing through the 42 kings, as well as the what the different buddhas represent.  Our guide told us that 100% of the population is Buddhist, and there was a history of Bundism (not sure about spelling) that perished some time around the revolution. We also found some interesting details about the way monks live (for instance, what and how they eat) and their complicated beliefs in reincarnation both for the general population and the Dalai Lamas.

The following days included several long drives and we finally experienced the beautiful scenery we had expected of Tibet.  We saw lovely rivers, not so impressive, but very high glaciers, snow-capped mountains.  We also visited the world’s highest saltwater lake, which is at 4700 meters.   Simply strolling around the lake was all it took to wear us out!  I guess that is why they have yaks and horses there to walk you around, but we preferred to suffer through rather than get on a tiny horse or a smelly yak.  It was also great to drive through villages and see the way different peoples live, including nomad people that still live on the mountains during the warmer seasons.  It was all very picturesque.

As the days carried on, we visited several more monasteries and temples.  We found the other monasteries smelled better but not great. One day we were incredibly lucky to be finishing up touring a large monastery of 800 monks when they were gathering for a chanting session.  We were allowed watch as all of them gathered first in a courtyard and then in the temple.   We were shocked to see boys as young as 9 years old as monks!  They acted just like boys would expect to act at that age, except they wore robes and had shaved heads! (Su, can you imagine Corey going off to a monastery???)

We found many differences between Tibet and mainland China.   For one, Tibet is much poorer; it is evident in the housing, facilities and general upkeep of the city, The people stand out from the Chinese people – they are incredibly devout, and pray all the time including walking pilgrimages for up to 7 years and they hang prayer flags in many places they consider holy; the flags are a sign of devotion but actually looked trashy.  The people are quick to smile with faces that draw you in.  Also, Tibetans are much more conservative in the way they dress.  We saw many dogs and according to our guide, they do not eat them (nor do they seem to take incredibly good care of them).    The menus we saw were still very scary and they eat a lot of yak, which we didn’t particularly like the taste of.  Instead of dog and turtle on menus, we saw “sheep’s head” and yak testicle… hungry?  We had the opportunity to walk through a part of a city where farmers live with their “farm” animals tied up outside – very sad living conditions.  The air is clean and thin which means the sky is the bluest blue we have ever seen!

Our guide and driver were from Tibet, as is usual for foreign tourists, but when Chinese people visit Tibet, they have to have Chinese guides.  We had heard from a couple of American travelers that had already visited Tibet that their guide was afraid to talk about the political tensions between China and Tibet so waited for the right opportunity to broach the subject with our own guide.  When he pointed out some “relics” of destroyed Tibetan monasteries from the cultural revolution, we delicately brought it up.   Our guide was only mildly reluctant to discuss the issue and opened up a bit more when he realized we weren’t interested in starting a protest riot  and were genuinely curious as to how the Tibetan people feel about it at this point.  According to him, there are mixed feelings;  people who have government jobs that pay very well are obviously quite pleased with the arrangement.  Additionally, the Chinese government does a great deal to help farmers in various ways, so they seem generally satisfied as well. On the other hand, there are many who continue to resent the situation and we found out that there are still uprisings quite often, usually based in Lhasa.  Our guides personal opinion was that he didn’t care who was in control as long as whichever government it was was taking care of the people and most importantly, allowing the Tibetan culture and religion to prosper without interference.  However, he did express confusion of Tibet’s history and told us what Tibetans are taught in school, which is quite different from the Westerners understanding of what happened between mainland China and Tibet.

Yangtse River Cruise

We arrived in Yichang in the afternoon, and met our new guide and driver who told us about the city and took us to a government run museum that was dedicated to artifacts from the three gorges project excavation. Although this museum seemed a little run down and was by no means as big as the Shanghai museum we’d been to, our museum guide did a great job explaining how they’d found artifacts dating back 6000 years. He told us that thousands of archeologists excavated for over two years before the whole area was flooded and the three gorges dam project was complete (2009). Later he took us to another room that had jade, ceramic pottery and bronze artifacts they’d found that were relatively young (100 to 150 years old). The museum was selling a few of these items in order to raise money for renovations. Although we are not antique collectors, a number of items caught our eye and we unexpectedly bought a beautiful red jade incense holder dating back 125 years. Hopefully it makes it back to the USA (China shipping).

Later we had a yummy and spicy dinner and then our guide took us to our river boat, which is really a big cruise ship (not Royal Caribbean size, but larger than expected). When we got to our room we were surprised by the size of it and gladly unpacked for the next 4 nights (we hadn’t stayed anywhere long enough to bother unpacking since Auckland). The rest of the ship didn’t offer much entertainment so we were thrilled to have a large room with a balcony.  We spent a lot of time playing cards and enjoying the scenery from the privacy of our own space.  

The Yangtse River Cruise took us through gorges, the now famous dam, stepped farmland, new towns and absolutely beautiful scenery.  It was hard to imagine how the river must have looked before it was filled because it is still dramatic after rising an average of 155 meters.   The river is much safer now for boats to travel, but the downside of this is that there are now many more boats and barges.  It is difficult to imagine how the water will not end up incredibly polluted with the extra traffic and changes to the natural purification process of before (the air is already rather polluted).  We were especially curious to hear the local people’s opinion of the project since so many people’s villages were flooded (over 900,000 people were displaced by the project).  Generally, their impression seemed mixed, with the younger generations having more favorable opinions because they ended up with larger homes and more space, and the older populations being less thrilled because they watched an entire lifetime of memories be flooded and have a harder time adapting to the many changes.

The day we went to the dam and passed through the 5 lock system was very interesting. The dam is enormous,  but not at all attractive.  The power the station generates is now critical for Shanghai and many other cities on the east coast.  Another day, we went on a smaller boat through the lesser (a.k.a. smaller) gorges which are too narrow for the big ship we were on.  This was some of the most spectacular scenery with many waterfalls, caves and tombs in the mountain.  We also had the pleasure of hearing a local boat man singing, as well as our day guide and both of them had lovely voices and sang beautifully.

The cruise ended in the incredibly large, yet virtually unknown city of Chongqing (pronounced chong-ching).   Though we only had one full day there, we saw so much and had a couple of adventures.  Our guide, Tina, first took us to their zoo where we saw many pandas.  These pandas actually have very nice habitats in the zoo and we were able to get incredible close!   Unfortunately, many of the other animals we saw were not quite as lucky; the elephant and giraffe habitats especially were a bit sad.  We also visited the General Stillwell residence and museum, which is the only museum in China that is dedicated to a foreigner. We realized how incredibly ignorant we were of the alliance between the US and China during WWII in fighting the Japanese.  US General Stillwell is still very highly regarded here in China for the help he supplied during the war (and resentment towards Japan still runs deep).  The museum, also government run, provided us an opportunity to see a local painter paint a beautiful watercolor in less than 10 minutes.  Here, we finally found traditional paintings of the 4 seasons that we had been searching for as souvenirs.  We are quite proud of how effective our negotiating has become and can’t wait to enjoy the 4 paintings in our home – again, assuming China mail gets them to us!  We are definitely done buying souvenirs for ourselves!

After our incredibly spicy yet delicious lunch, Tina walked us through a more local food market that in almost any country other than China would have been where we’d want to eat, except we suspect the menus included mostly things we would prefer not to eat.  Still, seeing and smelling it firsthand was worth it.  Tina recommended that we plan on going to a “hot pot” restaurant for dinner near our hotel as hot pots are very traditional for the area.  Basically, a large steel pan is build right into the table and filled with oil, and then you order skewers of different meats and vegetables to cook in the oil.  On the surface, the experience is not so different from fondue, right?  Except in China, the skewers that are most popular are ox stomach, duck throat and chicken feet. While we thought we could be brave at the time she said to go and we really planned on it, when we walked up to the restaurant later that evening, it all felt a little “too” local for us and without our guide with us to make sure we didn’t order something we didn’t want to eat, we essentially chickened out (no pun intended).

One of the problems with travelling so long is that certain comforts are unattainable. In Chongqing, I finally gave into my need for a haircut.  Tina had pointed out where she goes to get her haircut and it was practically across the street from our hotel, so Raj and I took a walk to check it out.  In much the same way as shop workers usher you into their stores if you show any interest, a young man encouraged me to enter when I looked in.  With a deep breath, I went in and with some sign language indicated I wanted a trim.  The guy took me into the back to wash my hair and it all seemed relatively similar to how it would be in the US.  Then he transferred me to a chair and the man who was actually cutting my hair came over. I tried to indicate that I just wanted a little bit cut off and he went to work.  The first bit seemed fine, but as time went on, it seemed like he was cutting more and more. With the language barrier, I had no way to make sure it was okay, and Raj had decided to go for a walk rather than sit and watch.  So, in the end, I have a new hair style with lots of short layers – not the best look for me :(  Oh well, I’ve learned my lesson – next time, I’ll just buy barrettes and tie it all back :)  In the end, it cost me 45 RmB (less that $7), and I’m pretty sure they upped the price for me!  In any case, don’t be surprised if you don’t see me in too many pictures for the next few weeks!

Shanghai and Suzhou

We arrived in Shanghai pretty late and our guide, Tina (English name), picked us up from the airport and took us to the hotel. The city was was lit up and modern like Hong Kong, but was a lot bigger (over 20 million) and more spread out. We were amazed by how many high-end stores there were – seriously, there seemed to be a Louis Vitton or Gucci on every block!   In the morning our guide and driver took us to a garden in the middle of the city. “Gardens” in China are more like peaceful retreats that have more to do with the buildings, landscaping, and yin-yang harmony. We had a great time walking through the garden and learning about Chinese culture. Later that night we went to see an Acrobatic show. Tovah and I were somewhat reluctant to get our hopes up after our NZ shows. Luckily the show was amazing, and we were treated to 13 different acts, each unique and unbelievable. For about $40 we saw a show that would easily rival any Cirque de Soleil production!  No doubt, this was the highlight of Shanghai – unfortunately, we were too busy trying to pick our jaws up off the floor to get any good pictures or videos for you.  One other high point was when we broke down and had our very first meal from an American chain since leaving Atlanta;  our last night in Shanghai we treated ourselves to a break from Chinese food and instead enjoyed California Pizza Kitchen!  The only downer about Shanghai was our guide – she clearly wasn’t feeling well but continually cleared her throat and nose and generally lacked energy and enthusiasm in every way.

Next we took a train to Suzhou (pronounced sue-joe), which is known for its many gardens.  Our guide was really great (reminded Raj of his mum); she told us many stories, taught us Chinese words, and talked openly about her own experiences with the cultural revolution. We explored many residences, a leaning Pagoda, and two large gardens, as well as took another river boat cruise through canals.   These gardens were much larger than the one in the middle of Shanghai, and one of them took 16 years to build.  Since Suzhou is known for its arts and crafts, we also went to an embroidery museum and a silk painting gallery, both of which absolutely blew us away!  When we walked into the embroidery museum, the first thing they showed us was a picture of Princess Diana, and our initial (internal) reaction was “oh jeez, do we have to hear about how she visited 20 years ago?”  However, when the guide asked us to look closer, we found that the “picture” was actually an embroidered image that was incredibly realistic! We really enjoyed perusing the gallery and seeing amazing landscape, animal, and human pictures that were so incredible that we desperately wanted to buy a large one. However, it turns out we had found the one thing that is actually quite expensive in China. Who would have though we could be so impressed by embroidery?

The next day we drove to a smaller town called Zhouzhuang that’s known for its rivers and is called the Venice of Asia. We saw a few residential buildings that dated back to the 12th century. Unfortunately the weather that day was not great and after lunch we did a bit of souvenir shopping and then drove back to Shanghai where we picked up some laundry and said goodbye to our Suzhou guide and driver.

As many of you may know, Tovah was a bit reluctant to come to China because of some the government’s policies and human/animal rights violations.  While we have certainly noticed their tendency to shelter the citizens through blocking internet sites to editing TV shows, we do want to note a couple of positive things we’ve learned about China’s government.  To begin with, the infrastructure of this country is much better than we expected and certainly eases transportation both locally and long distances.  Also, since we expected to find many homeless and poor people as in India, we have learned that the government does an amazing job keeping people off the streets and providing assistance.  There have also been many positive changes toward education and helping farmers subsidize housing and build irrigation systems.  From what we gather, there have been many changes in the past decade that the people here are quite pleased with.

WHOA – We’re in China: Guilin and Yangzhou

We arrived in Guilin and our guide (English name Angela) and driver for the region met us at the airport.  We were struck by the incredible humidity which felt like July in Atlanta. The hour or so drive from the airport to downtown Guilin reminded us a bit of India but on a less terrifying level.  Nonetheless, there were vans, buses, bicycles, scooters, pedestrians and more engaged in some kind of organized chaos on the roads.  Though we were supposed to go to the hotel and relax for the night, Angela recommended we go to a river cruise around downtown Guilin.  We arrived a bit early and enjoyed a beer by the water overlooking the Sun and Moon Pagodas.  While there, a girl came up to our guide and asked if she could take a picture with us!  We had heard about this happening sometimes in China when someone has never seen a Westerner before.  She was very cute and of course we complied.  The river cruise took us through the new Guilin town, which they rebuilt in 2002 using the ancient motes and was very beautiful and colorful.  They modeled their bridges after such international places as the Oxford bridge, Golden Gate Bridge and the Arc de Triumph.  After the cruise we gathered outside the nearby Waterfall Hotel to witness their nightly 30 minute waterfall which is in the Guinness book of World Records as the highest and widest manmade waterfall!  After checking into our hotel, we had a late Chinese dinner in the hotel (ordered a much more appropriate amount of food) and were offered tea, which we accepted.  When the man went to pour water into our cups of leaves mixed with red dates, we were surprised that the water pot was more like an oil canister with a 2 foot spout!  He stood way back from the table with the end of the spout at least a foot or so away when he poured and we still can’t believe he managed to get the water into the cups!

The next morning we checked out of the hotel and met our guide and driver for a short drive to the Li River for a 4 hour cruise to Yangzhou. The cruise was amazing- we went down stream through endless spectacular scenery that’s difficult to describe. In short, we were treated to hundreds of limestone mountains that rose up from the ground like nothing I’ve ever seen. With every turn in the river it only got better. As we cruised down the river we passed a number of villages as well as the bravest (or reckless) fisherman on tiny bamboo boats that would approach the large river cruiser we were on in order to hook on and try and sell some jade (or likely fake jade) to the tourists.

We really enjoyed the town of Yangzhou, which is a tourist destination but more so for Chinese tourists than Westerners destination . While there, we strolled through the market, saw an absolutely fantastic outdoor cultural show (same director as the 2008 opening games in Beijing), had our first foot reflexology, went on a bamboo river boat, and took a long bicycle ride through villages  The Chinese tourists were hilarious on the river boats because they all bring preparations to have water fights with other boats, whether they know them or not.  For some reason, we seemed to be off limits and were spared numerous times from being sprayed. The bike ride was great because it gave us better insight into some cultural ways and how the more remote people live.  We had the opportunity to meet a old man who allowed us to see his house without warning… he had a mirror above the door, as almost all the homes did, which is there to ward off evil.  His home was incredibly simple and bare, and yet he had a TV!  We also encountered village women who carried their babies in baskets for the purpose of finding tourists (like us) to take pictures for money.  BTW, the majority group (92% of the population), or Han, are only allowed one child while the many minority groups are allowed two children. The exception to this rule is if a Han farmer has a child and it is a girl; in that case, they can wait two years and try again to have a boy.

Back in Guilin we saw the Reed Flute Cave, Elephant Hill, a Tea Ceremony, Silk Factory, and Pandas at the zoo.  The cave was interesting not only for the natural wonder but because there were clear differences between the limestone caves in NZ and the limestone caves in China that illustrate some of the cultural  values of different societies.  For example, in NZ, the emphasis on the caves was on conservation of the environmentally fragile aspects of the cave and was presented in a such a way as to allow the cave to speak for itself.  Alternatively, the cave in China, which was equally as impressive, was lighted with many colors and all around were signs pointing out naturally occurring shapes that invited the viewer to use their imagination to see animals, people, and other scenes.  We found this tendency in many places (the hills along the Li River all had names based what “might” be seen in them, etc. camels, apple, horses…) and realized that the Chinese culture emphasizes amazing imagination and interpretation of scenery.

So far, the people are great, the scenery is beautiful and the food is, well, interesting. After such a good start, we are looking forward to seeing what else China has to offer. The only negatives so far is the pollution, humidity and mosquitoes.  In 2 days, Tovah received 28 mosquito bites 9 including one on her eyelid!) despite using bug spray. Apparently Asian bugs prefer Western blood, as our driver joked about, but unfortunately, Tovah seems to have a mild allergy to them and they swell up like hives on her.  It is giving her the opportunity to sample Chinese medicines.

At the time we originally went to publish this blog we realized that access to the blogger site we use is blocked by the gov’t here.  So, sorry this is late but better late than never. Now that we have figured out a hack and a way to proxy, we will post more soon.

Blog site blocked in China...

So we have a slight problem accessing our blog site in China. Apparently the Chinese Government has blocked all Blogger and Wordpress sites. I'm using a hack right now to get access to the blog site and to post this basic post. I'll try and figure out a way in the next few days to access all the functions of Blogger so we can post pictures and videos with the blog site and update the photo albums, etc.

Bear with us as we figure out a way, may remote access into my US computer.