A Day at the Park

Last Saturday we went for an outing to Century Park on the Pudong side of the river that runs through Shanghai (we live on the Puxi side [the u sounds like oo and the x sounds like sh in Chinese]). It was a windy day, so we bought a kite on the way over. The lady sold me the kite and I made the mistake of paying her before we decided what string she was including with the kite :) She tried to hand me a spool of thread, but my driver took it and threw it on the ground. It was very dramatic, and in the end we got a decent 200 yards or so of real kite string on a fishing reel. But I digress...

The park was huge and very cool. It was centered around a large lake and there were all kind of amusements there. We saw a little amusement park, where there was a sign on the bumper cars: "If you are a drunkard, have mental problems or are sick you can't ride the bumper cars." We could have used such a sign at our Gerstner Family Adventure in Florida when my brothers ignored the NO Bumping sign on the go karts ;)

Anyway, we started out by flying the kite - the wind was perfect for it, it took only one failed attempt before I got the kite skyborne, and just as I was letting that sucker pull out as much line as it wanted, Park Security came by and despite speaking no English, made it clear I was breaking some kind of rule.
[aside: I had heard about the kids with the holes in their pants for taking care of business, but hadn't seen it before. This shows very clearly the diaper coming out of the slot that I hear in the summertime is not so obstructed, but is very convenient. Just had to share...]



It took us a while to reel the kite back in and we sadly put away the kite for another windy day in another park and kept walking.

We next came to a booth where they were selling bubble blowers. As anyone who has kids knows, this was a major event. Adam and Jack especially loved running around and popping bubbles with hands, sticks, sandwiches, etc. Rachel was taking photos of Jack in the bubbles and actually caught this photo of Adam in the background... Is he really trying to EAT the bubbles? This candid has made me rethink how much good the old "soap in the mouth when you use potty language" is doing for Adam. He seems to have developed a taste for the stuff...

After getting the kids to move on from the bubbles, we found a prime soccer field. Sort of. At least it was relatively level and but for a few couples hitting the badminton birdie back and forth (yes, this is everywhere and likely the secret to Olympic success), was relatively empty. We settled the stroller, dropped some of our stuff by it, broke out the "soccer" ball and started to play.

It was great to get the kids out and playing soccer. We didn't even need to find anyone to play pickup with. We're a party just waiting to happen :) Before long, we had some other little friends - Chinese kids who are only children: these experiences remind one of what the one child policy has done deprive the children of China from having some built-in playmates at home.

We had a great time playing around with them and of course we drew quite a crowd of people around Grace and the stroller. The photo I included here is not a big crowd, but I love the guy holding up five fingers and the expression on his face. This is completely typical of just about every interaction we have with people when we're out in force. Wu ge. (means 5, as in five kids). Adam knows a few words/phrases in Chinese, and "wu ge xiao hai" (5 children) is definitely one. At one point in the afternoon, he just started chanting it out of the blue.

After a great time playing soccer, we decided it was time to figure out how to rent one of the six-person bikes we kept seeing around the park and go for a spin to see the whole park. It was kind of funny trying to load that thing up with kids and gear. Everything from the stroller went in the front compartment, Rachel held Grace. The six person bike consisted of two three-person benches, with every seat but the middle seat on each row equipped with pedals. We paid the rental, stashed the stroller, and went on our way to explore the park. It was so beautiful with the big lake in the middle of it and with the trees in blossom. We stopped at one point and I made Rachel get out of the bike with Grace and we got some good photos of them with the flowers.

We truly had a blast driving the bike around the lake and the other areas of the park. People would look then point. At one point we had a young couple pass us in a three-seater and the guy gave us that "so long suckers" look, so I got my best pedalers on each of the four stations and we pedaled hard and caught up with them. As soon as they felt the heat of the chase, it was on. They pedaled fast, we pedaled fast and were giving them a run despite the hunk of metal we were pulling along with us, but then we lost a shoe and we had to drop out. Speaking of dropping out, that will do it for this installment, but stay tuned... we have more adventures to share...

sanctity of life

This entry is very close to my heart and so I hope that I can convey my thoughts here.

In February I started doing some volunteer work every Monday in this orphanage. It is the only one that the government will let foreigners in to (so clearly it is the best one) and it was okay. It was clean, but old and so it looked dirty. When I initially began they were not even that happy to see me. The lady in charge was kind of looking at me like I was just more work for her because she'd have to copy my passport and do some paperwork to let me in. When you think they would take all the help they could get. Then I chose the young kids room. It was full of babies just under or around a year. Just like my Gracey. There were probably 20 kids in this room the size of my living room/front entry. All the babies were in bouncers or in walkers. This room had their beds, a small play area with very few toys and that's it. It looked a bit too much like bumper cars with the walkers just continually hitting into each other. Most of these kids had something wrong with them. There were several with hare lips and I was wiping others faces and necks and noticed scars where they had surgery - like heart, lung, etc... The chinese only get one child and so if that child has something wrong (even like a crooked nose or big ears) with them then they want to try for a different one. All of these children had been left somewhere or found and no parents had claimed them.

I went over immediately to the one's in the bouncers. I think I was drawn there because my baby is 8 months and I felt they looked a little more like her size. First off you have no idea if they are boys or girls. They are all dressed the same in several layers and colors does not distinguish the gender. I have had so many people ask me if Grace is a girl or a boy and I feel like saying "seriously you can't tell with her pink striped coat and pink blanket?" But you'll see a boy with a purple helmet and pink bike riding around. You can not tell gender on babies (or adults) by their clothes!! So I really was clueless as to anyone's gender. I went over and started rubbing cheeks and hands and tried to give them as much touch and stimulation as possible. My heart truthfully was breaking and I was really struggling to keep it together. The tears would not stop pouring down my face. It was so hard to see these bright eyes and know that they would never be loved like my baby is loved, and not have the opportunities that we have. I picked up a baby and tried to plow through the tears but I couldn't stop for a long time and my heart was about to burst. Oh, they were so cute!! Many were getting teeth like my baby just got her first two, and still I get choked up just writing about it. There were several with hare lips, but one that kept laughing and laughing and so I could see the roof of her mouth...it broke my heart. She cried when I put her down and it was so hard to put her down...but I wanted to get to all the kids before I left.

There are only certain hours that you can be there and I think it's mostly feeding times. So I was able to feed the babies. They brought out these bowls of rice mush with some green veggie in it, some egg (I'm guessing) and a little meat of some type. They truthfully were the most disgusting looking food I had ever seen. But I'm sure they were nutritious!! They kids were happy to eat and they would hold open their mouth so I could feed them. The people who worked there would lay them on their laps and basically pour the food down their throats. It was basically upside down from how I feed my baby, but it got the job done much faster and there were a lot of mouths to feed. I didn't care what they thought and I fed them the way I would my own kids. The child I was feeding was starting to smile after a while and I would tickle his tummy and he would laugh. Then after each bite he would lift up his sweatshirt and so I would tickle him. He was so cute!!! You could see other ones wanting to get in the action and have fun, and I did for as long as I could, but then we had to leave. The volunteer hours are very short - only two hours. I fed the kids while they were in their walkers. I'm sure they have very little time outside those walkers.

There was no great event that happened while I was there but the feelings I have felt have been so close to me since I've left. I even think about it at times and it makes me cry and I am not a person that cries! It was the first time I had cried since I've been in China. But the value on life is just not that high here. There used to be a sign by this bridge not far from my house that said basically "no girl babies can be thrown over the bridge". People would literally throw their babies over hoping for a boy next time. There has been improvements over the years and now they do more foster care, etc... but still. Coleman was talking with his chinese tutor and she was saying how people will have thier babies put down after they are born if they aren't exactly what they want. Then she added, but it's not that common...maybe 10%!! Ten percent!! That's like the population of the midwest (I really don't know, but it's high). The government turns a blind eye to that and people are not punished. I was talking with a friend of mine and she was talking about how common place it was for women to take a "medical leave" and be gone for a few days and then come back just fine. They go to get an abortion. The sanctity of life is just not high here and it truthfully breaks my heart. You also see it with women and their bodies. It is not uncommon during a business transaction at some establishments for the host to get the visitor a girl, just for a little while. It's just not a big deal for someone to sell their body for money, although divorce is lower than in the U.S. and people are very family centered. Morals are just not high here - but focus on money is.

The buildings in general are very cold. (Especially in Shanghai because it is considered warmer weather and so they don't heat the buildings, but in Beijing they heat the buildings because it is considered colder - whatever.) I went to this indoor market the other day and wore a light jacket and was freezing in the market (this was the first of March). I put Adam back in the car with Hans (my driver) while I grabbed a few things because he was so cold. Now I know why the chinese are always dressed in many layers and very warm. I thought as it got warmer they would do that less, but it's still freeking cold inside even if it's warm outside, and this orphanage was the same. There is no central heating. You don't really understand what that means until you are without it for a significant period of time. Even me here I still forget because I am always warm and I've started wearing short sleeve shirts and very light jackets. I have to remember to dress warmer when I go to the orphanage.

I feel so grateful for the lifestyle that I have always taken for granted. I am warm when I want to be warm and cold when I want to be cold - even here. (It's also nice we are not paying for our utilities, because I keep every room warm. Each room has its own thermostat.) But I have so much to be grateful for. I have started taking Ellie (9 years) and James (7) with me to the orphanage. They are a little young and I kind of sneak them in, but they love it. The food really grossed Ellie out but James is great at feeding the kids and they love to play with them. It really does my heart good to see them with the kids and the orphanage is always one of the highlights of my week.

There is a very weird generation being raised right now. Everyone is an only child and very spoiled by grandparents who move in and basically raise them while their parents are working. Grandparents have always been a very big part of a chinese family but now they only have one grandchild and so they give them everything they want and the kids have no siblings to force them to share or learn, give and take, and no one is raising their own children. There are more boys than girls and they are so used to getting what they want so many don't want to marry until later and are more self centered. 

Chinese children are also pushed so hard because the parents want them to succeed so they will be wealthy and can support them in their old age. (FYI The boy and his wife always takes care of his parents, even if the girls parents are sick or need help - it is a girls responsibility to take care of her husbands parents first and maybe only them.) It is not uncommon for chinese children to go to school 7 days a week. They do their regular schooling Monday-Friday and then have tutors and classes on the weekend to make them exceptional - but everyone does this - so the bar has been raised way too high for very young (grade school) ages. My drivers' son (who is 7) goes to a school on Monday morning and then the parents can't visit him or see him until Friday afternoon. Then he has a tutor Friday night and other lessons in the weekend. This starts when he is 4 or 5 and goes until he is 8 or 9. Then when he's a little older he can come home at night, but the intensity of academics keeps rising. Wow, talk about competition and pressure.

Sorry this post has some random thoughts - I hope it makes sense to someone else besides just me!

The Great Wall

We have officially thrown chronology to the wind for the sake of expediency. We took a great trip to Hong Kong at the end of February, and we'll have to get that post in here sooner than later, but I have been on some business travel and have jotted down some thoughts I'll try to share in quick fashion.

I went to Beijing for some market research on March 3 - 5. While in Beijing, I had a gap of time between the end of market research and an evening business meeting. I arranged with the hotel to find a driver to take me to the Great Wall. I only had my dress shoes, but all of the photos I had seen of people on the wall were more or less on flat ground, so no big deal. I changed into jeans and off I went with my backpack and laptop, knowing that I could get some work done while in the car out and back (it's about an hour drive - 43 miles - and could be longer depending on traffic).

I also had an old frommers guidebook that described in very simplistic fashion each of the sections of the wall one could visit. So I tried to communicate with my non-english speaking driver about what section of the wall would be best to visit, thinking he would a) have an opinion or some advice, and b) that somehow I would understand what he was saying. It was kind of funny, I must say. He finally called someone who gave him the word 'famous' in english so we could tell me that the two we narrowed it down to (the closest ones) were both very famous. We finally decided on the closest, JuYongGuan, that I had read in the guidebook was a wall at least a little less traveled than the touristy BaDaLing.

When we arrived I realized the conundrum I had put myself in by bringing my laptop and computer pack. While I know people here are more trustworthy than many yankees, I also have had a blackberry picked off my belt since our arrival in China, and didn't want to run the risk of losing my laptop to the driver I had only just met, so I decided what the heck, shoulder the load and off you go. This decided, I left the car toward the Great Wall with my laptop on my back. Valerie, valera.

I wasn't quite prepared for the sight that greeted me once I got onto the wall: a seemingly neverending series of steps that went all the way up this mountain and had a few guardhouses or sentry posts or whatever along the way. I now understood the phrase "climbing the great wall." I thought that just meant climbing up some steps to get onto the thing, but it really means climbing a mountain on the top of the wall.

I looked up the seemingly unsurmountable stairs and started plodding up them. Plodding is exactly what I did, my dress shoes clicking on each step as I picked up first one foot and then another and step by step made my way up the mountainside. There's an object lesson here, lots of them that I took away, but one has to do with perspective and setting goals based on what you can see. I could see about six stations, that would take me to the top of the mountain, and it would proffer a great view.

That goal started to get challenged after the first few hundred steps. Some of these steps were at least knee high and others were mid thigh. At this point my backpack felt like it was 50 pounds or so and as I kept huffing and puffing up each new set of stairs, station 3 and station 4 found me feeling like I would either throw up or hyperventilate. Ok, I exaggerate, but only somewhat.

At about station 5 I could see that the one I had set my sights on (6, it turns out) was not indeed the top, but just another station. I thought oh well, six sounds good, I'll be lucky to make it there anyway.

Well, I made it to six, and of course there was more wall to scale, but you can't go that far and not finish it, so at long last I summited the highest of the wall guardposts at station 9. It was an incredible sight from the top, though a little hazy, still the mountains around me and a feeling of accomplishment. One of the major wonders of the world...

Of course I have now spoken to someone who plans on running the Great Wall Marathon, which includes about 6 miles on the wall, up and down mountainsides, so I feel a little sheepish with this confession of how challenging it was, but it was truly one of my "Most Memorable Experiences" you look back on in life. Maybe I can now fill out that Facebook 25 facts list or something. And at least the driver was impressed when I told him I had made it to the 9th station - he went out and bought me a celebratory water. ;)

I made it back for my meeting and then walked over late to see Ti'anamen Square and the gateway to the Forbidden City. Enjoyed Peking Duck as well on my first night to town. Hopefully I'll be back to Beijing on vacation so I can spend some real time there. I didn't even see the Bird's Nest!*

* p.s. the Chinese are very indifferent to the Bird's Nest as you can imagine. They don't know it by that name, and aren't interested in seeing it. Ask about the gymnastics and it's a different story...

Chengdu Biz Trip

[from Coleman] I recently made a business trip to chengdu to do some market research. Chengdu is the capital city of the sichuan province (think sichuan food) and is also close to the earthquake devastation, and close to beautiful mountains and scenery.

Unfortunately I did not see the scenery, only lots of buildings... It looked very similar to any other big city in China.

However, I did get to have some of the legendary food there, including my favorite meal yet in China of Kung Pao chicken and Ma Po Tofu, and also another meal with a new fave: sichuanese hot pot. Hot pot is like fondue where you choose a broth and they bring you raw meat and vegetables to cook in it. However, at the restaurant I ate, it's one big vat of broth for the whole table, which is fine, except that all of your food is cooking in there together and when some of that food includes duck stomach, cow stomach and chicken entrails, it's good not to focus on that part.


The broth itself was red with hot peppers and had a number of other ingredients, one in particular that changed my expectations for sichuan food forever - I'm going to call it the magic seed because I still don't know what it is called in English, but the chinese name is "hua jiao." It makes your mouth go numb - not like the dentist where you have to worry about chewing your cheek instead of your meal, and no hallucinations or any side effects to speak of, but it makes your mouth mildly numb. It's quite a sensation and one I surprisingly like.

In addition to the hot pot, we also went to the hot pot restaurant we went to because of the face changing show it includes with dinner. This you have to see to believe, and I'm afraid my camerawork is not going to help things much, but if you look closely at his face, you'll see he has a total of I think five different masks on during this one-minute clip, including two very quick changes at the end. Even with the cell phone video camera, I think you can see why this local style of entertainment is famous in China.



On the last of my trip, a Friday, the doctors cut out of work early, which allowed for a quick change and a couple of hours at a really cool museum/memorial temple in Chengdu. It pays homage to a number of great Chinese leaders, warriors and strategists who lived during the time that Chengdu was the capital of the Middle Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms era.

This was a period of about 60 years from 220 - 280 AD when these three kingdoms fought against each other to try and take over each others' land. This was a period when great war strategy and technology was developed and has been romanticized and perpetuated in literature and film, solidifying this period in Chinese culture. There were some great Bonzai gardens there, as well as a burial ground for one of the great emporers, Liu Bei, and a museum with artifacts from this time.














And finally, on the street you exit this temple and these great sights, there are all kinds of things you can buy. One of the coolest things I saw there was this man who was blowing sugar, like glass, into little animal sculptures. I continue to be amazed at all of the skills people here have developed.

One of the things I have since learned that I missed was the Panda breeding ground. This is about an hour away from Chengdu, and we may not make it out there as a family either, but I hear it is in a beautiful area. This is the world's only panda breeding facility and they let you hold the baby pandas there, which I'm sure is a very cool experience. Maybe next time...

Hong Kong

Ellie, James, Coleman, Grace and I all flew down to Hong Kong to enjoy warmer weather, a little more western culture and to work on some visa issues. It was a great escape to leave Jack and Adam home with a babysitter.

Flying into Hong Kong you almost can't believe your eyes. It reminds me so much of Hawaii with the lush trees and mountains and then high rise after high rise. Hong Kong is like New York in that they have 7 million people packed into this tiny space. I think it is one of if not the most expensive places to live and has the most expensive home in the world and I could tell why. because of its charm, beauty and action.

It was one of the most amazing citites I have ever seen. You see the pictures in brochures and think that can't really be what it looks like, and then it really is! It is truly a west meets east experience. It was still China and you'd see things that were so Chinese, but then you saw open top double decker buses driving on the "wrong" side of the street. (Obviously, tons of British influence still here.)

On this trip we were on planes, trains, trams, ferries, buses, trolleys, subways, taxi and foot! I don't think there are many more means of transportation. However, to be truly chinese we would have had to ride a bike or scooter and we didn't do that.

Here are Ellie and James on top of a double decker bus!! They loved them and were continually asking for it to be our mode of transportation.

Here we are jammed on a subway. It wasn't always this crowed and usually my kids were jumping up to try to grab onto the hand things that hang down. We love the subway and I think many locals were entertained by the enthusiasm. In Hong Kong there really are not a lot of do's and don'ts but you do not eat on the subway. It is very clean and I think a source of pride for the people in Hong Kong. All of the transportation (besides taxis) are very clean and you just don't get them dirty litter or eat in them, but then there is so much of the city that is dirty - it's a little weird.

This is a not so exciting picture of one of the ferries that go from Hong Kong island to the mainland. I can't find the picture I took of the chinese workers at the ferry. They were dressed in blue sailor suits that look just like the ones you would put on a little boy for Halloween. We thought the ferry was very fun - you can tell we are easily entertained.

There are so many people in Hong Kong. One night we were crossing a big intersection and I said to Coleman just look at all the people. It was just a flood of heads in front of you and walking toward you. We were there over Valentine's Day and so it wasn't even high season I can't imagine it in the May or June!!

We stayed on both Hong Kong Island and the mainland and enjoyed what both had to offer. We ate at Outback Steakhouse, and our hotel was right by IKEA, but then it felt like China - we hit the Temple Street night markets where you barter for everything and you have an assortment of things to buy from bags and watches to palm reading. We would start to barter and they would say to us "this is Hong Kong, not China". Everything was more expensive - but well worth it. Ellie and I were loving it and Coleman was okay, but poor James was going to kill himself. He was a good sport, but I don't think shopping for hours with his mom and sister is ever going to be his thing!!

While we were getting on the ferry we saw what looked like a "pirate ship" and knew we had to get a picture of that for Jack and Adam. There were so many different types of ships in the harbor. We saw everything from true fishing boats with the lines sticking straight out and the nets to huge industrial rigs...I don't know enough about boats to describe this well... James looking out the window of the ferry ride from the mainland to Hong Kong island.

The humidity was high (my hair would not stay straight) and it wasn't even the summer. I can't imagine August! At least the temperature was great!

It was amazing just to even walk down the harbor. It's like walking for a couple of miles with buildings and museums and restaurants going straight up and then you look over the harbor and not far away you see the same type of buildings on the other side. So at night, walking along there with all the lights is amazing!! One night we saw the Symphony of Light. Which is the world's largest permanent light show projected from atop the buildings on both sides of the harbor. There is also a light show at night where there is lights from the building and music and it is really cool. They also have their own version of Hollywood Boulevard with the hand prints of famous chinese actors. We saw plenty of Jackie Chan paraphanalia, and it was really fun.

Here you see some local food fresh from the ocean. This is so chinese to have buckets of live fish swimming in front of a restaurant to show how fresh thier fish is. Here you see crawdads (or something like that) wiggling around on a table in front of a restaurant. Then when you order they take it off the table and cook it so you know it's super fresh. No thanks for me. I personally don't like to see the animal alive just minutes before I eat it - no matter how fresh that makes it!!












While we were there we went to the LDS Temple and it was amazing!! It is a high rise building that includes the temple, a church and the mission office for the Hong Kong Mission. We hung out on the second floor where the "church" is, relaxed and had a good talk with the missionaries. Then we went up to the third floor where the mission office and Temple President and Mission President live. We talked with President Goo (the temple President) for a while and it was great to learn from him. Then the top floors were the actual temple floors and they were amazing. There was such an awesome spirit being there. We loved it!!

We took a tram up the Peak to overlook Victoria Harbor. You go up so high that you are literally in the clouds. It was also pretty cloudy so the pictures aren't great, but we got plenty of great views.

Then it started to rain a little so we went into the 10 floor mall type thing and Coleman talked us into playing some video games at EA Sports (from Coleman: "it's in the game"). The facilities and set up were amazing and we had a really good time. We had to peel ourselves away after a litte while. Here is Grace trying her hand at a little video monopoly with Ellie.






There was a really cute restaurant that was all about the Peanuts gang. The theme was executed very well with everything from the pictures on the walls, floors, food, large stuffed animals in the corners, tables with peanut characters and there was even a Charlie Brown cartoon playing on the TV on the wall. We thought about Miss Hickman (Ellie's 3rd grade teacher) while were were there because she loves Snoopy!!

On the last day we saw the biggest Buddha in the world!!! We took the Gning Ping 360 tram ride (picture) up to the top of the mountain to this cute little village. There we saw a movie about the three monkeys who were supposed to teach us about Buddhaism - it was mostly just entertaining. Here you can see the women offering gifts to the buddha. This gives perspective as to how huge the buddha was. These women were very small compared to the buddha. You couldn't even see them from the tram when you saw the mountain the buddha was on.

We saw the original monastery that was started here. One of the pictures is the inside of the monastary - very ornate and it had lots of flowers and plants. As we were on the steps outside the monastary we saw a large group of monks leaving the sanctuary after a worship service. This man was the last one down the stairs and we named him Uguay from Kung Fu Panda because he seemed the oldest and wisest. But all the monks had shaved heads, and were in those brown robes. On the sanctuary grounds we had a vegetarian lunch of fried noodles and other vegetables wrapped in pastries? That left no one satisfied!

Here we are after climbing up the steps to the big buddha. We are really high up and the clouds would pass over and cover the buddha and so it was hard to get a good picture and no on was in the mood to take a lot! The picture doesn't show how steep and how high up we are. As I was climbing the stairs I thought about Po (from Kung Fu Panda - you can see our cultural training sources) and him climbing the stairs up the the Jade Palace. Wow, it is much harder than it looks!

Here is Ellie holding her chin above the bar at an exhibit at the Science museum. I can't remember how long she did it for, but it was about 10 times longer than I did it. That is sad, because in 6th grade I could hold myself up longer than any other kid in the school. Those days have long past. But the museum was fabulous!! Very interactive and fun. We really enjoyed all the museums and parks for the kids. Hong Kong has so much great stuff...I keep thinking of more, but I must go to bed...

First Weeks...Shanghai and Guilin

Hey there, and welcome to the blog! This is the way we intend to try and keep folks up to date on our adventures in China.

For those of you who don't know Coleman was asked to consult for the oncology marketing group for a six month assignment here in China. He is still with Eli Lilly (the same company he has been with for almost 7 years). They officially asked him the first week in December 2008. Later that week Coleman and I went on a house-hunting/check-it-out trip for about a week. We then came home for a couple of days. The packers came and took our stuff, we flew to Utah on Christmas Eve to be there with family, and then we flew to Shanghai on January 9th 2009. It was a whirlwind but a great blessing. We love our house and American neighborhood here in Shanghai. We love our driver and Ayi (maid/cook/nanny). And we love being here. It has been a great adventure for our family!

Over Chinese New Year our family went to the city of Guilin ("gway-leen"). It is said to be one of the most photographed places on the earth and is very beautiful.

Lunar New Year is China's big holiday like we celebrate Christmas. Coleman got that week off of work and that is the time that everyone goes home to be with their families. All the ayi's and drivers and workers leave Shanghai and go to visit family. Thankfully ours still worked when we needed them. We flew to Guilin, but I can't even imagine what the train stations looked like!! I hear it's beyond nuts. There's even a Discovery Channel show called "Shanghai Bus Terminal" about the madness that happens as people try to cram onto trains and buses to get home for New Years.

In Guilin we went into the Reed Flute Cave (that is where James is standing). It is huge and has more animal/vegetable shaped stalagmites and stalactites than you could ever want to see. Really it was amazing. We saw some of the most unusual and beautiful mountains, hills and caves that I have ever seen in my life.

While in Guilin, we took a trip to Longsheng County, which is about a two hour bus ride from Guilin into these huge mountains. Here were are overlooking the "Dragon's Backbone" which are these rice patties that have been carved into the mountains. They are still harvested every fall and are truly breathtaking. On our way up we would occasionally see little patches of gardens carved out of the steep mountainside. It was amazing and a rugged life for these people.

After we got up as far as a bus could take us we began to walk the winding stairs to the top. There are about 20 different ways to get there, so we were careful to follow our tour guide that we had had the whole week. All the kids were troopers. Grace was in a sling and all the kids did great although it was not uncommon to see Coleman with a child on his shoulders and Grace in the front pack. We saw several things on our way up that were quite entertaining.

Dried rat is a common food specifically in this area, and many men there put dead ants in their wine to give them strength. We also saw more of the snake bile wine that is very common for this area. There are actual dead snakes in the wine bottle.

We had a delicious lunch (sans snakes and rats) half way up the hike at this little town nestled into the mountains. You can see a part of it in the picture. There we ate a rice and meat mixture that is cooked inside a bamboo and you cut open the bamboo and eat right from there. We also had dim sum of some awesome food that tasted like it had been at least partly cooked over an open fire. There are many back-packers in this city and the air smells so good it reminded me of being in a ski resort.

The women of this area are known for their long black hair. They put stinky fermented rice juice on their hair as their shampoo and it keeps it from going gray until they are at least 60 years old. The women's hair is about 2 meters long (that's over 6 feet) and they only cut their hair twice in their life. They wear it up in a bun on their head. Also the women wear a lot of silver, and the bigger and heavier thier earings the more respect they have earned from their families. Many of the women have earlobes with long holes that look like they are about to rip!

The life there in Longsheng County was really amazing and rugged. Healthcare is not exactly how you might picture it, though you figure it they eat rats and drink ants, well...

We had earlier that week seen the type of "doctor/hospital" each little town has. It is nothing more than a medicine man's little store with jars of all sorts of herbs and animals. (I did buy something that you put on your head for headaches. We'll see how it works.) Some of the very wealthy could get on a bus and travel 2 1/2 hours away to a bigger hospital but that was very rare of anyone to do that - especially not for anything like childbirth, yikes!

The fireworks go the whole week of Spring Festival (the week starting with Chinese New Year). The first night at midnight they go off - and we learned an important fact - the big fireworks explode about 8 stories off the ground. How do we know? Our room was on the 8th floor of the hotel and at midnight the fireworks were deafening. Coleman got up to see what all of the noise was about and the fireworks were literally exploding outside the window of our hotel room. Someone had lit off a battery of them from the ground below! Everything goes during Spring Festival! The fireworks start again at 6 and 7 am to get everyone up to show that you are not lazy. That is the day that all the families are together and if you sleep in then your family will think you are lazy and that is not good! Especially if you want a red envelope with lots of money in it.

This is what parents and grandparents give out, and some children/grandchildren really get more than others depending on how they approve of them and everyone knows what the other kids got. When the kids grow up and get a job earning real money then they give to their parents and they may or may not get any more envelopes.

Another important tradition around Chinese New Year is the orange tree. It is like our Christmas tree, and the orange is a symbol of prosperity, so people give and receive a lot of oranges during the New Year celebration.

It is also common for employers to give their driver and ayi's a months worth of salary in a red envelope for chinese new year. Gift giving is interesting - no cut flowers it reminds people of funerals (and they wear white to funerals) no clocks because it sounds too close to something talking about visiting your parents basically at their death beds and no green hats because that's what a man who is avoiding his wife would do...who wants a green hat anyway.

We are getting accustomed to the hard beds in hotels and everywhere in China!! We ate enough chinese food during our stay in Guilin that, toward the end of the trip, we found a "Papa Pizza" "where the people are honest" and we were in heaven. We ordered enough pizza for that night, breakfast the next day and then hit it again the next night. Guilin is not like Shanghai where you can get a lot of western food, but there are a couple of restaurants that were closed for the holiday. There wasn't even cold cereal in the supermarkets - but there are always good chips and candy - and that has saved us!

While in Guilin, we went on a fun cruise down the Li river and our tour guide told us that the people on the different mountains travel to the next one by going down to the river and then taking the river to the mountain they wanted to get to. It was way too rugged to try to navigate by foot and the local buses did not go there. It really hit home when she said that. It is so beautiful because it is untouched, but untouched because it is so dangerous!

After the cruise, they dropped us off in this cool little city called Yangshuo. It reminded me of being in a city in the Alps. On the street there was a man making animal shapes out of syrup that tasted a lot like honey. He would melt down a block of some hard candy in a little pan in front of us and then pour it from his pan into any shape we chose on a on a wax board. He stuck a stick in it so we could hold it and did the whole thing in about a minute. Here is the dragon that he made for us. He had a wheel with about 20 different animals you could pick from. He was go good I'm sure he could have done anything we wanted. Our tour guide said she always used to save her money so she could get one after school when she was a little girl.

On our trip to Guilin, we also saw buddhas (not pictured at left! that's actually Coleman and Grace in front of Elephant Trunk Hill), Ling-Ling and Ping-Ping the pandas, learned to paint at a famous art gallery and bought a beautiful painting of Guilin. We enjoyed the 33 seater bus (because that's all the tour company had left due to the holidays) just for the nine of us (our 7 +tour guide+driver). We went to a place on the river called Elephant Trunk Hill because you guessed it it looks like a huge elephant getting a drink from the water.

Ellie was standing there and a man started to cut out her profile using a regular pair of scissors and thin piece of paper. It was amazing!! It was very accurate and we gave him some money and she kept it.

Later we went to a gallery where everything was cut from paper and bought an intricate dragon "to protect our house". The craftmanship is amazing. They can not make a mistake or the whole thing is ruined.

Our trip to Guilin was very memorable and a great way to start our time in China.

We came back a couple of days before the end of the holiday week and hit the Shanghai Aquarium. The aquarium was very nice and not cheap. (Especially because a family pass was for two parents and one child. Each additional child was just buying more tickets. It is little things like that that keeps reminding me I am not in Indiana anymore.) We saw some of the most amazing things! We started out seeing all the venemous and deadly underwater creatures so it was hit from the start. We saw animals in sizes that I had never even imagined. We had an upclose look at a swordfish. We saw these Japanise Spider Crabs the size of Adam, and big tanks of sting rays and sharks and turtles and fish that were all huge!!!

Whenever we pause for a few minutes while we're out, a group forms around us. We feel like rock stars...This is true for every place we go in Shanghai and elsewhere. People are crazy about the baby, and they want to take our pictures - especially the three younger with their fair skin and blue eyes. They always count the kids and can't believe we have five. Then they inevitably give us the thumbs up. One woman said to me "you must be very happy because you have five children." When we are walking along and I see them counting I just look up and say "wu ge" (pronounced woo ga, it means five, as in five children) so they don't have to ask how many I have. On the airplane I swear people were coming to the back of the plane where we were sitting, pretending to need to use the restroom just so they could talk to us :)

Coleman went to a sales meeting his first week here and they asked him to stand and introduce himself. He stood and said he has five children and there was a noticeable gasp in the crowd, but then people think we are so lucky. The Chinese are very loving and family friendly. I have talked with many women who wish they could have more, but it's only one or you get fined 5 times your annual salary and no one can afford that. The only way to have two is if you and your spouse are only children, then the government will let you have two; or you live in the country and you have a girl first you can have a second child.

The picture of Grace shows the booties made for her by our tour guide's mother while we were in Guilin. The kids are so adored and are often given gifts - mostly candy.

The children in winter all look like the Michelin marshmallow man because they have so many layers on (except for the hole in the clothing for their bum. Diapers here are seasonal - there are more in the colder months than warmer due to the handy hole in their kids clothes:) I realized that it is because most of the people do not have heating in their homes and many even stay outside in the day because it is warmer than in thier homes. My poor ayi the first week was just sweating because she was not used to how warm I keep the house and she had on all of her layers.

If I ever go out to get a massage (cheap!) or something with Grace they will put a blanket or towel on her. I take for granted the fact that I go from a heated car to heated house, and it's not even that cold outside. It's been in the 50's and 60's since we have been here. My kids have ridden their bikes and played on the playground every day we have been here. I have to beg James to put on his coat! So they make me feel like I am the negligent parent because my kids only have on two or three layers.

One thing I have learned here is that people have sure perfected their trade or whatever job they are doing. It's great because they are very accurate and efficient. Its downside is that people don't really have any other options once they start doing something. They don't change careers mid way through like we do in the states. Even our driver told Coleman that he wanted to be a school teacher, but it wasn't paying much when he was young so he became a driver. Now the times have changed and teachers get more money and so Coleman asked if he would ever consider changing his career and he said no as if it wasn't even an option and he's 43.

My ayi rides her bike (and if it's anything like every other bike on the street it is well worn and looks like it came from the 50's) a half hour each way to get to my house in the morning and at night. (She leaves it some assigned area where when she gets in and so I have never seen it.) Sometimes after Coleman is home and she is leaving I will ask her if she wants my driver to drive her home and she always says no, because she has her bike and this is at like 7 pm when it's dark and getting cold. I have definitely learned that the Chinese are seriously hard workers. They amaze me sometimes. I can show my driver a phone number to a friends house that I have been to before and it is 15 minutes away and then I just show him the same number and he takes me right there. He runs errands for me, carries everything in from the car, is so good with the kids, and such a sweet and helpful guy. He works seven days a week and is always grateful for any small kindness I show him. We really love Hans! (His americanized name-most chinese have "american" names that they use when working with the ex-pats.)

My compound is so beautiful. It is so well manicured with beautiful flowers and trees and fountains that my boys play in and ruin. There is a serene fountian to the left of my house and I am continuously reminding my boys not to play in it or throw things off the balcony into it. Here's a not so great picture of my house. It is a good size at over 5,000 sq. feet (which is really big for China). It has all hardwood floors or tile. I have no carpet in my house so it pretty but loud!! I have yet to be in a house in China with carpet - only rugs. Most chinese homes outside of the big cities have dirt floors. We even have a nice fenced in yard and a playground down the street. Most Shanghainese are in apartments. My good friend has five kids and lives on the 6th floor of an apartment and there is no elevator!!

I feel so blessed to be here and am overwhelmed with this wonderful life I lead.

Whew! That will do it for the first post. More to come about our adventures in Shanghai and our recent trip to Hong Kong. Keep in touch!