Our third day in the Yongding area was probably the most spectacular, so far, as we drove about two hours to reach one of the most incredible sites… a complex of Tulous (up until now we’ve only seen singular Tulous)… This was a set of four circular ones and one square.. sort of interlinked and on different levels.. It is about 400 years old and functioning today as it probably has for centuries.. This one, perhaps because of the scale, seemed more alive than any of the others we’ve seen — and housed people of all generations..

Population of about 500 or so (numbers are very hard to come by)… We saw grandparents taking care of babies and young children (always smoking as they held the babies); families, people working; construction projects, etc… oh and of course lots and lots and lots of chickens and fowl. The Chinese call this particular tolu…”Four plates, one soup”…  

The drive to this particular complex was even more “death-defying” than the other two days… Now we were on roads that had deep drops on both sides (one into a river; the other a steep ravine) — the road was wide enough for just one normal sized car, but it was two-way… as it wound up and down hills and valleys…Eventually we hit a problem as the road was flooded out.. and had to  back out, turn around, and back track to find another way to the village… which we did.. The road ends at the top of the hill and one must walk into the village..  We then traversed the internal walkways for about three hours.. It was quite a sight. 

Throughout, however, one continues to see the contradictions.. making mats from reeds and bamboo for use in traditional ways, working with antiquated tools and equipment, farming perhaps the way it’s been done for centuries.. and then alas the infamous “dish” to receive television reception…  As I think I mentioned in previous notes, the Chinese seem particularly addicted to television — and they get many soap opera style programs, including several from Korea.. Our guide was always catching glimpses of the TV whenever he could…

Can’t say we were sorry to leave the Zhongtian Hotel in Yongding after 3 nights (the one without any heat)…

Anyway, we drove into another village for lunch. in another one of these tiny roadside makeshift restaurants with about two tables.. and complex cooking arrangements with the sink outside and the stove inside and minimal prep area!.  lots of fatty pork, but a wider range of vegetables than in previous days… still no fruit.. I’m desperate for a banana.

Then it was a long drive (about four hours) back to Xiamen… where I sit at the moment, dreading the thought of unpacking and repacking.. and dealing with all of our clothes that are covered in mud splashes… It’s a very short stopover here in Xiamen.. really only to sleep so that we can catch the flight to Hong Kong early tomorrow.. Our wait list has cleared so we will be arriving in California on New Years Day at 8 a.m. Just realized it’s a holiday and not too many restaurants will be open.. but I’m certain Oakland’s Chinatown restaurants will be in full swing!  Imagine coming back to have Chinese food!  (We’re both actually dreaming of salad.)

Take care — Hope these ramblings have not been too boring..

Look forward to seeing all of you in person (promise we won’t bore you with slides unless you ask)..  Happy New Year…I’m headed to watch CNN — news junkie that I am, it’s been difficult to be so removed from world events.. I’m assuming nothing really major happened in the last few days.. but I’ll know soon enough.

Take care — Fern

Hi All-

Can’t remember where I left off, but this might be it for a while.. We leave for Yongding in the morning.. and doubt we will have any connection at all..   We still can’t even find Yongding on any map, and no one we’ve spoken with has been able to tell us where it is…  So….an adventure!

We’ve been in Xiamen for two days now… Last night we had dinner at one of the many, many rather huge restaurants that abound throughout China… This one was four stories high… From our quick count of seats– we ate on the second floor– (not sure if the other floors are for private parties or what)…  there was room for about 700 diners on this floor… It was Christmas night, and the place was pretty deserted.. or so it seemed given the scale.. And the restaurant, like most others must use 150 watt bulbs placed 12 inches apart… Ordering was again a challenge, except that the menu had a few pictures, so we selected from those…

Today we took a little ferry to Guylanyu..  cost about 30 cents and took about 5 minutes… no cars.. Rather pleasant, hilly, great old trees, and colonial buildings… ferried back to Xiamen and walked through the old neighborhoods again… through streets filled with food vendors (including many chickens and pigeons, along with snakes and an unbelievable array of fish) .. We tried to get to the top of one of the new buildings to get a view (and photos) from up high.. but none of the guards would let us into any of the buildings..

Oh.. on the ferry .. a young man asked us to take his picture with the Xiamen skyline as backdrop.. he said he spoke a little English.. and asked where we were from.. We said USA.. and then he asked if we spoke Russian… Seems he’s at the university in Xiamen majoring in Russian language and somehow felt this might be a common language for us!

Tonight we ate at a local restaurant, specializing in Xiamen food — recommended by the hotel. Well this time the menu was ALL in Chinese and no pictures!  And no one spoke any English… So we drew pictures.. of a crab (since we saw tanks of crabs when we entered the restaurant) and an eggplant(??) and a lamb… We did fine with the crab (hard to screw up that drawing)… and they had us pick one from the tank… The eggplant didn’t seem to get very far, so we drew some other vegetables and did eventually get some greens… But the lamb was challenging.. They brought several staff to our table…(no problem since each restaurant has an overabundance of staff).. to determine what the animal was.. Mike proceeded to say “baa.. baaa” but that didn’t seem to get us anywhere either.. Maybe his “Ba-a-a” had a NY accent. Anyway, we did wind up with some peppered meat dish… but we’re not really certain what it was… Of course, I was convinced it could be dog…  but Mike felt his rendition of “Baaaa” definitely was clear enough…

It’s off to Yongding in the morning…  and then back to Xiamen on Thursday.
Fern

P.S. It’s been really good to have cell phones, since Mike and I have an uncanny way of losing each other on these intricate, winding streets so we often call one another and have been pretty successful in describing our coordinates.. to catch up with each other..

It’s Friday night, December 30… we arrived in Hong Kong this morning.. from Xiamen..  I’ll spare you all the details on Hong Kong, as it’s a return visit for us, so except for the fact that it’s a city that is always changing and growing (in place), I don’t have any really startling information.. It’s as bustling as I remember it to be; as vertical as it looks in pictures; as dense as the reports reveal; and as cosmopolitan and contradictory as one can imagine…  The political turnover to China in 1999 doesn’t seem to have made much difference on the surface of things.. although the local newspapers are abuzz with the fact that China has suggested that Hong Kong focus on the economy (rather than on any efforts toward additional democracy). 

The streets are jammed with people and the city is alive 24 hours a day (or at least during all of my waking hours)… (So I’m in heaven.) The hotel we are at is the lap of luxury compared to where we’ve been for some of this trip.. and we are both taking full advantage of all of the amenities.. Our room has a spectacular view of the harbor; we’re a two-block walk to the metro.

Arriving in Hong Kong from China is still officially like going to another country.. different currency; and about 4 forms that must be filled out prior to departure and entry.  One of the forms asked a lot of questions about whether or not you were in rural areas and had any contact with poultry….  we sort of ignored our Yongding period…  I figure that walking among the chickens is not like touching a chicken. We were unable to convert our RMB (China money) to Hong Kong dollars at the Xiamen hotel, and had to wait until we arrived in Hong Kong…

And despite Shanghai’s acquiescence to (indeed its apparent love of) commercialism, shopping, and “show”, it’s still China.. and Hong Kong remains a totally different and unique city.

We’re getting antsy to return home… already thinking about what awaits us — mostly work-wise.. Our wait list cleared, so we will be back on New Years Day.  Wishing you all a very Happy New Year…

Peace — Fern

Hi-

Arrived in Xiamen early this afternoon..Started out pretty early to get the plane from Xi’an… Funny thing happened at check-in… I decided to check my suitcase (first time in about 15 years…) because it was a small plane and our seats were way in the back… Anyway, when they put the luggage through screening.. I was called over to open my suitcase… The guy showed me that there were two circular objects that he needed to identify… I scratched my head and couldn’t figure out what I had packed that could be that shape and that might trigger the detectors… So he starts undoing my very neatly packed suitcase and I try to help … I finally realize that last night at the market in Xi’an, I bought two little alarm clocks with Mao on the face of the clock.. Mao moving his arm up and down… apparently these clocks set off the detectors… So I now have to take them in my carry bag. (Don’t ask why they don’t trigger any problem in the carry bag..
only in checked luggage.)

Anyway, we arrived in Xiamen at about 11:30 this morning.. and set out to walk until dinner time.. Xiamen (population only 1.2 million… a mere little village) is also buzzing!  It’s a newer city… in very good condition. Lots of new buildings, tree-lined streets, broad parks — with piped in classical music playing throughout —  (we stumbled on some performances in one of the parks — singers, acrobats, and some mime); The city is situated on a river so there’s a wonderful strolling
area that edges the river and appears to go for quite a long distance around the city’s edge… sort of like the Malecon in Havana.. Lots of activity along that river edge…

The people who shine shoes (there are tons of them in every town) all seem to want to polish our shoes… perhaps they look a bit shabby.. and they seem to hang out in clusters.. so about eight shoe shine folks surround us at any one time…

There’s an old section of town that’s pretty interesting — meandering little alleyways.. much like the old parts of the other Chinese cities.. and operating from about 9 a.m. until about midnight… Actually, these cities operate with much longer days than in the U.S…. shops are open 7 days a week for about 16 hours each day. People seem to work all the time (I feel right at home…)  One taxi driver told us his schedule is 12 hour days/ 7 days a week.. And today — Sunday — construction workers were working all day, banks were open, etc.

Overall, people in all of the cities we’ve been to thus far, appear to be in good shape — well fed, well dressed, busy… There’s been minimal begging (some children and old women)..  and we haven’t encountered any real homelessness (even though we’ve been in some pretty seedy parts of each town.)  Not saying there isn’t any, just that we haven’t seen it, and in any American city we’d certainly have seen homelessness by walking through the streets this much.

Part of Xiamen includes an island that was developed during colonial times… We’ll probably ferry over there for part of tomorrow… We’re off to dinner now…
If I have my days and times correct.. It’s Christmas Day in the states…  so merry, merry…

Fern

Hi-

Well it’s Christmas Eve in Xi’An… and it’s a spectacular event… but more on that in a bit…

We left Shanghai yesterday morning.. rather uneventfully, although navigating the airport, figuring out where to get boarding passes, etc. was an experience… The boarding process was a bit chaotic.. with everyone trying to walk up the stairs to the plane at the same time…  Anyway, we arrived in Xi’an about two and a half hours later and then located a taxi to take us to the hotel. It turns out the airport is about one hour from Xi’an… Not exactly sure why they decided to locate the airport in the middle of nowhere…  First impressions of the Xi’an area were pretty bleak… The cold air combined with the moisture creates some kind of inversion so the air is always hazy (sort of like California’s tuili (sp?) fog); roads are broad; buildings shabby and reminiscent of Russia in the 70s.. etc.  But we figured the trip to see the terra cotta warriors the next day would make the stop worthwhile…

Arrived at the hotel (a Hyatt that tries very hard to please) and decided to walk around town… and then it was an eye opener… Firstly the town comes alive at dusk… Second.. this “little village” of 6.5 million people is hopping!  There are two main thoroughfares.. one going east-west; one going north-south… Each has sidewalks the size of boulevards and each has about 4 lanes of traffic in each direction… These main streets go about two or three miles in each direction within the walls of what was the old city…  And the streets are completely lined with shops…On the main boulevards it’s mostly clothing.. with music blasting everywhere…  And the streets are completely filled.. body to body.. mostly with young people strolling, shopping, window shopping, eating… Throughout the stretch are hundreds of little stands with incredible foods… being cooked on the street…

Within the center of this maze  are two towers (pagoda like)… called the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower… At these points the streets become multi-level… about three different levels with shops, restaurants, vendors, etc… on every level…  And then the unbelievable … the street suddenly narrows to the width of an alleyway.. into a huge Muslim neighborhood… and then it’s just vendors and vendors and food stalls for blocks and blocks.. with incredible delicacies being cooked on the street.. some being served indoors if you choose to get out of the cold…

We were in ecstasy!… All this activity.. Exactly what makes a city a city…  We walked for several hours..  We’re a big attraction… at times… especially among young people who are trying to practice their English — which is quite nascent.. mostly “Merry Christmas”… “Where are you from?”.. and then “Thank you”  They are somewhat surprised to learn we are from the U.S…. and very few get beyond that… Only one person seemed to recognize “California”… referring to it as “Chalfora”… and saying “television.” (All in all, we have not run into more than a handful of Americans and have heard almost no English being spoken anywhere, except occasionally in the hotels)

Eventually we meandered to a Muslim restaurant.. where we had some kind of stew…  Navigating this menu was easier than we anticipated, because there wasn’t any menu… They just served this one dish.. and then they come around with some condiments and salad choices…   It was good, but I fear extremely fattening..

Today, Saturday, we set out fairly early to go to see the Terra Cotta Warriors… It’s about a 35 mile journey.. We opted for a taxi rather than the bus (given our aversion to other tourists and the fact that taxis are amazingly cheap)…  The hotel thought we should go in their sleek black car “so that we could be sure of the hygiene,” they explained.. But we thought the taxi (a little banged up) was just fine. The terracotta warriors are worth the visit.. Imagine.. 1,000 (of the total 7,000) full size warriors unearthed about 30 years ago by two farmers who were digging a well… (The farmers have become famous.. and they sit in the bookstore autographing copies of the book about the discovery, while smoking cigars…)…   Anyway, if we got the story straight… the emperor (circa 206 B.C.) had 700,000 workers creating this army over a 37-year period… The warriors were to guard his mausoleum…  In the little shops within the museum and surrounding it, you can purchase replicas of the warriors in any size you want .. from microscopic to larger than life-size (larger than the actual warriors).. and they have signs saying they will ship them for you.. Federal Express!!…

So keep a careful watch on packages coming to Oakland… only kidding..  We did hire an English speaking guide once we got to the warriors because the history is very rich and we thought we might have lots of questions.. Her English was not bad, although most of her explanations were memorized… and she was extremely disappointed when we chose not to purchase a replica, so I assume she gets some kind of kickback from the vendors.

Then back to Xi’an.. where we were in for a surprise…  Christmas Eve! On those people-packed streets!  There were about 1.5 million people on the streets, which were all suddenly void of cars (where earlier traffic was a nightmare)…  And what a sight — A stew of people and the mixing of cultures… and commercialism: masks, Santa hats, Muslim skull caps, sparklers, fire crackers, and lots of food… the whole scene was like a combination Mardi Gras, New Years in Times Square, and a peace march… And all without any fights, violence, public drinking — just lots of people having fun, celebrating… Seems as if they’ve adopted Christmas (the secular commercial iconographic parts) as a reason to celebrate and have fun…

At some point in all of this chaos, we meandered into a restaurant serving dim sum-like buns and vegetables.. .and sort of figured out the system.. or at least we sat down.. pointed to what someone else was having.. and then ordered beer… Other than the confusion that we didn’t initially understand that you need to pay as soon as the food comes, rather than wait for a check, we did fine.

Well — that’s it for me for tonight.. I’m sure I forgot lots of what we did and saw..

We’re off early tomorrow to Xiamen and then Yongding… This should really be an experience.. We haven’t met anyone yet who knows where Yongding is..
Wishing you all a good holiday..
Fern

Hi all-

I think I’ve been off by a day… and things have been so hectic and moving so fast, that I’m just hoping I can remember what we did and what’s been happening the last two days.. since the previous little travelogues..

First the really good news… I got my Fed Ex package released from the “Commodity Investigation Bureau… “The concierge at the hotel had been dealing with this for me… and I decided to take charge myself.. to move beyond the Chinese politeness… I asked to speak with the bureaucrat’s supervisor… who repeated the same story… My toiletries needed to be inspected and “analyzed” by the Commodities Bureau, and I needed to show documentation from the American Fragrance, Cosmetics Institute (????) … Anyway, I was quite polite, but said that since I didn’t understand the issue (given that if I had remembered to put my toiletries in my suitcase, the “Commission” would not have done any inspection.. etc. etc.) I then said that I thought it best that I contact the American ambassador (God only knows what he would be like… a Bush appointee)… Anyway, I sounded official and determined… They then said that they would see if there was any way to expedite the situation.. and that I should wait before contacting the ambassador (who is actually in Beijing.. so I have no idea how I would have this..)… And lo and behold within a few hours, my package arrived…

Ok.. enough about that…

We started out yesterday by walking a complex set of neighborhoods that are fairly close to our hotel… webs of narrow alleys completely lined with tiny dwellings from the 1920s… I was a big hit with some workers and other folks whom I photographed —  when I showed them what the pictures looked like on the digital camera… Others were quite adamant about not having their pictures taken… Following that investigation of these neighborhoods.. we decided to see how the metro worked… It’s a fairly simple and efficient system… extremely well used.. We figured out the purchase system, our route, and even changed trains a few times… We got off and on a few times to look at neighborhoods and walk.. bitterly cold, by the way (and somehow I lost my gloves somewhere, as did Mike, so now we each need to buy another pair for the remainder of the days in cold climate areas, but no problem.. there are about 40 stands on every corner selling whatever you might need… so my glove purchase will be a snap! Over the course of these five days we have rarely seen any Westerners…  and certainly not on the subway…

After our little Metro exploration we went to a few other parts of town rather randomly selected… and eventually went out to a somewhat chi-chi restaurant called “M on the Bund” for Mike’s birthday… Food was fantastic (with prices to match).. but frankly the food has been incredible in little hole-in-the-wall places too… But this restaurant had a great view, unbelievable presentation and service.. and interesting mixtures and textures… We tried the seasonal Shanghai specialty.. “hairy crab”… and some black cod…  For those of you who were involved with helping me put together Mike’s birthday present (a fully loaded iPod), he seems thrilled… but now has his iPod on all the time… creating obvious problems of getting his attention.

Now for today… We got up early to catch the train from Shanghai to Suzhou (a “small city” — of only 8 million people — about one hour from Shanghai…). It’s known as the Venice of China, replete with a complex canal system. One of the guys who works in Mike’s Oakland office arranged for us to visit and to meet with some dignitaries there… But the Director of Foreign Investment (the one we were to meet with) sprained his ankle so we were to be met by a “colleague” and another meeting was set up to replace the meeting with this guy… The Chinese like to have “meetings” with foreigners…  The train ride was uneventful, although getting onto the train was interesting… First the hotel arranged for the tickets. We had planned to take the 9 a.m. train to Suzhou and the 6:30 pm back… but there was some complication because (according to the hotel) it was important for us to be on the “soft seat train” not the “hard seat train” (We took this to mean upholstered versus non-upholstered?)… and the soft seat train was booked, so we shifted the schedule… Once at the station it was quite an experience to merge with tens of thousands of people and to figure out where to go. But we made it…

Anyway, Tang, the Director (who is apparently a close friend of Mike’s staffer’s father) called to say the colleague would meet us at the Sizhou train station.. We were told to “follow the crowds” out of the station  in Suzhou and to look for this guy (we had no name) at the base of the exit ramp…. Naturally there were hundreds of people picking others up, but no one who looked like he was looking for us… We hung around for a while, constantly trying to catch the attention of someone who looked like they were in search of someone they had never met.. but no luck.

Actually we would be easy to spot, since we were the only non-Asians emerging from the train.

Anyway, we phoned Tang who was home with his ankle problem, and he gave us the Big Blue on how to find the guy who would pick us up… “He was short, wore glasses, and had black hair.”.. a description that matched 99% of the men at the station… But Tang said he was calling the guy on his cell phone, so we looked for a short guy with black hair and glasses answering a cell phone call… Another great clue that limited the field to about 90% of all those at the station.. The other 10% were already on their cell phones.. But we did connect.. Naturally he could pick us out in the crowd quite easily..

Suzhou is a nice city with tree lined streets (deciduous trees, so they were all barren at this time of year)… and canals.. and great growth, so there are hundreds of 20-30 story buildings and several industrial parks.  Farrel (the colleague) took us all around town, for lunch, and for several walks.. Then we had to go to our “meeting”… which was with the Director of Garden Development.. Actually she was quite nice and we had a good discussion about urban planning policies.  Suzhou’s sister city is Portland Oregon, and everyone we met with talked about how great Portland was.. At one point I mentioned something about the difference between the two cities with regard to size of population, and Farrel said Portland was a nice small city at 1 million… When I explained that Portland only had 350,000 people he was shocked..

After a full day in Suzhou we took off for the train back to Shanghai.. another sea of humanity pouring in and out of the station.. needed to find our “waiting area”… but we did fine, even though there was virtually no English spoken at the Suzhou station… and no signs in English, as there had been in Shanghai.

When we got back to Shanghai it was a zoo trying to find a taxi… but we eventually succeeded. and then quickly ran out to dinner at a little Hunan place.. more crab.. very spicy this time..  The restaurant was packed with locals..

Now , I’m signing off… It’s getting late..  More tomorrow, assuming Xi’an is set for connecting on the Internet.

Best — Fern

Hi All-
Hope all is well back in the states…
Shanghai is fascinating. You know we love big cities.. so we’re very much in our milieu.. and are well aware that Shanghai is unique for China.. so we expect things to be surprising in a very different way when we hit the rural areas next week. But for now, it’s dealing with the scale of the city, the verticality, the language, etc. For the most part we are doing fine.. language is a real challenge. Almost no one speaks any English. In the hotels the reception people speak, as do the concierges.. but that’s about it. Obviously shop keepers, restaurant staff, taxi drivers, etc. speak no English.. Getting into taxis and trying to explain where we want to go is quite interesting.. Now, if we know exactly where we need to go, we ask the front desk people at the hotel to write it out in Chinese and then just hand it to the driver. Our map is written in English so we cannot show the street on a map since taxi drivers can’t read the street names. And we’ve had some humorous experiences in restaurants.. If you stick with tourist restaurants or very expensive restaurants they will have staff who speak English and menus in English, but if you eat in other venues.. you’re on your own — as we’ve been…

In some local, casual restaurants.. they have sort of “home-style” translations.. which are often about as useful as choosing your meal with blindfolds on… They say things like “green
vegetable” (which is often listed a few times to represent, I assume, different green vegetables.. )

Anyway, I think I wrote about Day One… when I sent the previous email — except to note that when I unpacked on the first day, I realized I left my toiletry bag back in California — you know, favorite shampoo, skin cream, make up, etc. etc…. I phoned my cousin Fanny and asked if she could stop by my house to send it Fed Ex, which she did.. It was supposed to arrive today.. But, alas…  Chinese customs will not release my little package unless I give them a copy of my “Inspection Certificate from the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association of the USA” for clearance with The Chinese Commodity Inspection Bureau.. along with my passport and visa…  If I can get all of this paperwork to them, they believe they will “release” the package in three days!… I’m now just hoping they send the package back to the US.  But enough about that..

First one of many funny translated signs… In the museums and other locations with escalators, and whenever there is a low ceiling.. the signs all read “Be Careful Head” …

So, here’s the summary of Days Two and Three…

Having been museum-ed out from Day One… on Day Two (Monday) we set off for (and spent most of the day in) the old sections of the city.. meandering little narrow streets and markets and areas totally packed with small vendors… These parts of Shanghai were very reminiscent of much of Southeast Asia — Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam,  — and also totally different (and yet a stone’s throw) from the high rises and huge shopping centers of the “new Shanghai”… And while buses serve these areas, the main mode of transportation (and clearly the best way to get around) is by bike and motor scooter. It’s truly amazing that everyone seems to maneuver easily and accident-free (or at least from what we could see)… We eventually stopped at a little second floor tea house for some green tea (quite a ritual, even though we were not going for the ceremony..) Very quaint old tea house, with the usual array of birds in cages (like you see all over Asia)…  including very loud parrots and mynah birds.. They were all squawking loudly, so we’re assuming they are bird flu-free!

Late afternoon we taxied to some really interesting neighborhoods and also checked out some craft centers.  By 6 p.m. we were totally exhausted but decided to keep going — stopped for dinner and then headed to see the Chinese Acrobats… an amazing performance… which builds to an incredible climax with 6 acrobats on 6 motorcycles inside a metal sphere that is about 40′ in diameter… They are riding at top speed criss-crossing each other and jumping over each other in perfectly balanced timing.. moving constantly and driving the entire circumference — upside down, etc….

This obviously made the plate spinners and guy who throws and juggles pottery and the synchronized hula hoops and contortionist seem rather dull!… I was totally exhausted by the time the show was over.  The performers are all about 15-18 years old… maybe even younger. At the end, we caught a glimpse of crowds of teen age girls trying to take pictures with the
motorcyclists.. and screaming for their attention..  Here they were — Chinese motorcycle groupies.

Today, we changed hotels… so we are in another part of town.. (and we have Internet access in the room).  We walked along the Bund (the river edge) and then into different neighborhoods… hopping in and out of taxis (which are very very cheap) so that we could see very different areas of town that are quite far from one another.. Tomorrow we’ll take random Metro stops… As in Singapore, regardless of what floor you live on, everyone uses very long bamboo poles (about 12 -18′ or so) that perch in holders (kind of like flag poles coming off window ledges) that cantilever out and laundry hangs out to dry.. all the time… It’s bizarre to see these poles coming out on the 30th floor with laundry flying around… Mike is worried about liability.. thinking it is pretty dangerous if the pole drops… In the lower residential buildings, laundry is often hanging on the electric lines that zig zag everywhere… into a dense maze…  As a result the city is ablaze in laundry… And as you can see from so many photos, I’m really obsessed with this laundry deal.

Anyway, at about 3:00 we realized we forgot to have lunch, despite the fact that there’s food all around.. little stalls, vendors cooking on the streets, and also restaurants and cafes…  So, we stopped in  a fairly local restaurant.. that was still serving lunch.. We were the only ones eating at that hour… No one spoke any English, but they seated us and then hurriedly found a rather ragged hand made translation of the menu… Took us a while to figure out the deal.. but it was one of those Mongolian style places where there is a big copper pot on the table.. You select from a small range of soup stocks… (we picked the yin and yang  version — 1/2 very spicy (and they mean it) and the other half medium… (The copper pot is actually two parts… so you get the two stocks… then you select from a wide array of vegetables (not really sure what the selections might have been, since we picked green and green– and beef, and noodles, etc.).. It all comes in separate bowls and you cook it in the stock…  They also come over with a cart carrying about 30 bowls of  different spices and sauces…   It was great, huge, and the spicy stock had about 100 red chilies…   The little meal turned into an unexpected gem… The two waitresses who tried desperately to help us fish out all the red chilies so that we wouldn’t accidentally eat them… tried desperately to converse.. but we had no Chinese to offer and they had no English to offer..

Weatherwise — it’s been overcast, but no rain… cold, about 40 degrees… sometimes goes up to about 48 during the day.. and maybe as low as 32 at night..  It’s cold, crisp.. and unfortunately no sun…

The economy is difficult to understand.. supposedly the average annual salary is $5,000… and it’s clear there are some pretty strong differences within the population… and that the Communist effort to even the classes is no longer evident… Everyone works… there are “traffic assistants” at many intersections.. And every restaurant we’ve been in has been over-staffed, by American standards. The young Shanghainese are pretty image-conscious and shops are filled with very fashionable items… both Asian and Western…  A follow up to yesterday’s email about the lighting on all of the buildings (I think I mentioned this… that all the buildings are lit very theatrically in the evenings — ) I read in today’s China Today (an English language newspaper) that there is a power shortage and that the government is trying to convince residents to use energy-efficient light bulbs and to carefully monitor power usage.. and now there are some “counterfeit” energy-efficient light bulbs being sold in the markets… Apparently, the caution about use of electricity does not extend to these buildings.. By the way, they built 5,000 high rises (each greater than 20 stories. ) in 14 years… meaning one a day (7 days a week) for 14 years.. and from the amount of construction we see all around us.. there’s no end in sight.

We then walked  to some other parts of town and  came back to the hotel before dinner.. It’s about 9:15 p.m. now and we’re about to go out to eat dinner.  Will try to send a note tomorrow about Day 4…

Take care —
Fern

Well this little travelogue is probably more for my own recollection of our days here in China than for you… but I hope you’re enjoying our travails, somewhat.  Today’s events along with yesterday and tomorrow will be sent when we return to Xiamen tomorrow night… I think I already described the hotel… Let’s just say, it’s a far cry from a Hilton!

We didn’t sleep much because the building is located on a busy street and the street activities go on all night. Additionally, as I think I mentioned earlier, there’s no heat.. It’s about 40 degrees and it’s been raining… so it’s cold and damp… and dreary.. The Chinese are very addicted to television so we actually have a TV in our room, but it doesn’t get CNN which is really the only English channel anywhere.. So we’re using the TV outlet for the computer and to charge the phone and camera batteries.

Got started early (or maybe just continued from last night, because sleep was hard to come by)… to find that the elevator was broken… so we huffed it down a few flights to breakfast (which looked and tasted much like dinner last night) and then huffed back up to the room to get more layers of clothing for the long drive and touring of the tulous… then huffed it back down the 7 flights to the “lobby”….

The drive to the first tolou was about 2 hours… on the most incredible winding, bumpy, narrow, death-defying roads you can imagine… Mr. Su is a really good driver, so thank goodness for small things.. In the car we asked “Roger” about bird flu, since it’s obvious that we would be walking among hundreds of chickens, geese, and other fowl all day… Roger says “Bird flu is not a problem in China!”  I said that in the U.S. there’s a lot of concern about bird flu in Asia… And he responded… “Yes, I have heard that there is bird flu in America, but not in China!”  The drive was made more difficult by the rain, causing rock and mud slides on the route.. which are becoming fairly routine…  And it seemed as if the potholes got larger overnight… and the roads more steep.

We visited about 7 tolous today.. They are fascinating dwellings, both architecturally and socially, but time has clearly passed them by. Today, only the very very impoverished live  in tolous — mostly elderly, although we visited one large complex of tolous that housed about 1,000 people and it had numerous amenities, including an elementary school (a very rudimentary school.. with only the barest of necessities, if that… I didn’t see any books.. kids sat on long wooden benches, and the teacher used a blackboard…)   If we understand correctly, schooling is mandatory from age 8 until 16, but it is not free. Families must pay about $100 USD per year, which is hard to come by for these rural families..  Prior to age 8 there is a kindergarten that is for children 5-8 (but I don’t think it is mandatory.)  Younger children are cared for by grandparents in the cities and by the entire village in rural areas.  We asked about health care and were told that everyone pays for doctors and hospitals, but the cost is very low (and care in the rural areas appears to be subsidized). The one child per family still seems prevalent in the cities, or at least that is what we’re being told. In the countryside it’s more difficult to enforce.  We do, however, see interesting public health campaigns on posters throughout the cities… Since the drawing
are cartoon-like, it’s pretty obvious what they are pitching… like going to the hospital to have a baby.

In any case, if bird flu will strike us, today and tomorrow are clearly the days!.. Actually, the rain, dampness, mold in the tolous, and really unsanitary conditions in the villages (not to mention the lack of heat in the hotel) have given us both colds… which we are hoping to rid ourselves of in the next 24 hours before we get to Hong Kong.

The tolous are constructed of wood and rammed earth, which combine with the outdoor cooking and the rain to create very misty, moody photos. Interesting as the dwellings are, it’s obvious that most inhabitants are there out of necessity. Oh, we’re told that one tolou got damaged in an earthquake and then when another earthquake came the damage (crack in the middle) was mysteriously gone.  (whooooooo!)

We ate lunch in a “restaurant” within the village complex… a small room sort of outside and inside at the same time.. i.e. no real roof, but some covering along the perimeter.  There were two tables and about 10 chairs.. We started at one table and then they moved us to the other, which I think was considered a “better” table (or perhaps the “best” table, since there were only two tables…

At the new table we could both look outside and also watch the cooking… Like all of the meals we’ve had, there’s an array of dishes… and in this case.. the woman (there were actually about 6 people in the kitchen — not sure what everyone was doing, but it was a family affair, as the family also lives in this room where we ate.. and in another room behind… )..  The woman proceeded to grab a chicken that was walking inside the room… and voila she killed it instantly and cooked it for us…  (more potential bird flu!) along with several vegetables (we said we eat mostly vegetables…)  and some soup… Health standards are not too noticeable.. one of the guys who was cooking was also smoking in the kitchen. Mr. Su suggested  we take tea water and swoosh it around our bowls and then dump the tea water, before using the bowls.. That really made me feel safe and sanitary.  But everyone was very friendly, although noone is overly curious about where we come from or what we are doing here.  Kids are all fascinated with the photography and our ability to show them what the photos look like..  Old people turn their
heads away from the camera.

Drove back to the hotel for another dinner in the freezing cold room on the 4th floor. (Since this is Yongding’s “finest” hotel, I can hardly imagine what the next best is like…

I’m going to try to sleep and rid myself of this cold… and hope for sun (or at least no rain) tomorrow so we can see the remaining two tolous on our list and then head back to Xiamen.. mostly to repack and go to Hong Kong in the morning…

By the way, we are now waitlisted to return on January 1… instead of January 2… I think we’ll know for sure tomorrow when we reach Xiamen.. or at least I hope we have the changed reservation by then.

Take care — See you very soon –
Fern

Hi all-

This will be shorter than I’d like, but it’s nearly midnight and I’m pretty wiped out… I also don’t have any Internet connection in my hotel room and Internet cafes are much harder to find than I thought.. certainly not like Cambodia and Laos where there were Internet cafes on every block.. So I’m here in the hotel’s business center. The computer is slow and I’m the only one here.

We arrived on Saturday night (December 17) at about 8 p.m. — body time — who knows! The Peace Hotel is a bit tired.. probably was a grand place in its time.. but it’s well-situated and just fine, except for the Internet situation and the fact that the beds are like sleeping on a sheet of plywood. We are scheduled to be here 3 days and then on Monday we move to the Four Seasons, which I suppose will be like staying on the moon. Actually, we like it here, but the woman in Hong Kong who helped with the arrangements really pushed for a different hotel. Immediately after unpacking we went up to the rooftop bar for drinks and to get a view of the city at night… which is definitely “something else”… Over the past 14 years, more than 5,000 giant skyscrapers have been constructed in Shanghai, and each is lighted like a stage set.. As you are probably aware.. each is also competing with the other architecturally and height-wise (They definitely have a thing about height.) So the Peace Hotel is dwarfed at a mere 10 stories… with buildings 90 and 100 stories all around.. but it’s in a great location at the river, so the rooftop allows for some nice views.

Oh– It’s pretty cold.. about 40-50 during the days and about 32 at night.

We woke up fairly early on Sunday and began a very long day.. walked several miles from the hotel to Peace Park, along a pedestrian mall absolutely lined with shops.. the place is like consumer heaven. Everyone wants to sell us Rolexes (fakes) and shoes and DVDs and what have you on the street.. Shops are teeming with people as are the streets.. mmm 17 million people in Shanghai??? that’s more than twice NY…

We eventually found our way to the Urban Planning Museum which has an incredible model of the entire city of Shanghai — the model is 5,300 sq. ft… takes up an entire floor of the building.. impressive, and interesting in that it does seem as if there is a lot of thinking going on in terms of what gets built. We did a quick run through the Shanghai Museum and the Shanghai Art Museum, stopping for lunch at a rather unexpectedly sheek little cafe at the museum…  then some strolling in small streets perpendicular to these skyscraper streets, only to find the more usual older Shanghai… complete with stores selling insects! and merchants hawking goods.. and tiny stalls selling anything you could imagine and more. Then hopped a cab and went to the top of the TV tower, which requires three elevators each getting smaller than the other… zipping us up about 95 floors… the elevator moves faster than any I’ve
been on and is absolutely silent… You’re body to body on the elevator, so if there was any bird flu or other germ floating around, be sure I’ve got it.. Anyway, once at the top the views are spectacular.. sort of like what Windows on the World was like in NY before 9/11… but probably more spectacular..

But the city is a real study in contradictions. .. and everywhere you run into some bizarre mix.. As you wait to board these ultra modern elevators to take you to the top of the tower, music is playing everywhere and it’s always things like the theme song from Ponderosa.. or other corny American tunes.  Can’t be for the tourists because there are hardly any Anglos here.. and we haven’t run into a single American.. The few non-Asians we’ve seen have mostly been from Australia.. After the Tower, and a walk back to the hotel we found our way to a little Shanghainese restaurant in the old French section of town — Yang’s Kitchen.. which was a real feat to locate, down some alley.. Food was great. Restaurants all seem over-staffed, but I suppose since the salaries are ridiculously low it’s possible to have lots of help. We ordered a fish.. and in a few minutes the waitress appeared with a plastic bag from some department store.. In it was some water.. and our fish.. for approval before cooking!

We left dinner at about 11 and headed to the top of a 90 story building called Jinmao, where we had drinks at the bar called Cloud 9… advertised as the highest bar in the world.. I think I believe it.. Here too you get the weird mixes… sleek bar in this rather high tech building.. but with a guy who comes around with a parakeet to tell your fortune.. I was told that I would have a long and successful life but that I carried around too much stress which could affect that long life with heart problems.. smart little parakeet.

We taxied back to the hotel at about 2 a.m.

Today was even more complex… Left the hotel for a long walk that took us to the old section of Shanghai.. through markets and meandering through tiny alleys… Gotta sign off.. more on Sunday’s excursions when I tell you about Monday.. I’m fading.. it’s about 1:30 a.m.

Fern