Hangzhou, Suzhou & Zhouzhuang

Beautiful West Lake in Hangzhou

The Chinese are all about posing....the girls taught me this...means I'm cute.....hahaha.

We fit right in.

Spring has arrived and the gardens are gorgeous!

Grand Canal in Suzhou....homes along the canal......

I've got to bring one of these little guys home. Stone pugs!

Hmmmmm......I guess when you gotta go--you gotta go!

Venice of the East.

Lovin' the waterways!

Kept looking for my frogs, but I think they're in Hawaii.

Now we're in Pisa--just kidding, but it is a leaning tower too.

Tiger Hill--3 Tigers together!

The Humble Administrator's Gardens (is that an oxymoron?)

You can hardly imagine the flowering trees and gardens.

So peaceful.

Terry said, "them ain't painted on!"

We had a four day holiday the first of May and took a trip to see what some say is the most beautiful part of China. It didn't disappoint. Hangzhou is so green and lush. We visited the Lingyin Monastery and Hupao Spring Park. Thursday night we walked about seven miles around the famous West Lake or Pearl Lake and enjoyed the afternoon and early evening. It was literally spectacular.....gardens, bridges, quaint pathways, fountains, small cafes, wooden boats.... The next morning we took a boat trip on the same lake. Relaxing and perfect weather.

About an hour bus ride away is Suzhou, home of canals and classic Chinese style gardens sometimes referred to as the "Venice of the East." We took a boat tour on the Grand Canal, visited the largest traditional garden in Suzhou, the 10th century, Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden, Museum of Embroidery and finally Tiger Hill, Suzhou's best park. Tiger Hill still contains its remarkable leaning pagoda, a seven story structure dating from 961 AD. We saw Venice and Pisa, both, here in Suzhou.

Finally, we ended the tour in Zhouzhuang a small East China ancient town. We took a boat trip on the canals and visited the old street, the Zhang and Shen Family Mansion. We had the famous, local sweet pig's elbow for lunch and bused back to Shanghai for a flight to Qingdao Sunday evening. Our guide was telling us some stories and mentioned waking up to the "Gooster." (goose--rooster????) Did you know China has such an unusual bird......seriously.....he couldn't say "rooster" even with coaching.

Weifang International Kite Festival

Kite factory and museum

Precious cargo.....

I'm going to help make a picture.

Lovely gardens. Me & Jane B.

Now I'm helping with the picture. I'm going to be famous.

Rows and rows of newly made kites.

Whittling the bamboo for the kite frame.

Ironing the freshly painted silk.

Painting the kites......

Kites in action.....enough people???

Off to market we go.

Zibo guards--big and small.

Buddies!

Coming mom. We're just taking photos on the porch!

Hey, no! pet me....pet me.....!

Streets of Zibo.

Sisterhood.....gotta smile!

This little lady had her feet bound as a child. I wanted to put my foot up as a comparison.......

She was adorable!

The University took us on an overnight tour to Weifang and the International Kite Festival. We walked the streets of Zibo first (ancient commercial center) and the next day visited the kite festival and a kite making factory/museum. It was incredible to see them paint and then iron each piece of material or silk for the kite. There were some pretty spectacular kites--real works of art. Of course, I was more than delighted to play with the pug I found in Zibo! I went to the restroom at the kite festival which consisted of 4 makeshift walls around a trench where 4 ladies could squat side by side (no stalls). I can live without that experience again and I'm actually surprised I haven't seen it before now.

April in China

My first hair cut in China....7 yuan or $1!

Lovely cherry blossoms. Come on Spring! I loved it and Lucky cried the whole time. When she got of she said, "I'M SO GLAD TO BE ALIVE" and she wasn't kidding or faking.....heehee.......

Not a great photo, but mama isn't happy baby is wandering.....

Not many zoo regulations. I could have touched the grizz. He looks so sad. Needs to be out of the cage!

Tourism Competition. Rita is in the middle--black jacket & white scarf.

Post-graduates having fun at the beach.

Unbelievable.....we are already hitting the first week of May. So much to do, see.....so little time. April was an eventful month filled with my first haircut in China, classes, students, classes, students and so on. We were able to have a BBQ with Terry's students at Old Man Stone Beach. They had prepared so many skewers of meat, vegetables and Tofu we thought we would pop, but they kept feeding us.....I think some chicken hearts....fortunately we didn't get sick. They are so happy to work together and have their foreign teacher join them. They treated us like a king and queen--always polite, respectful and giving.

Later in the month we joined in a competition with my students. My students have a "tourism" major and there was a "tour guide" competition. One of my students (Rita) made it to the finals and asked that Terry and I be her "tourists." She had to lead us on a tour of the Olympic Sailing Center. Each finalist had to lead a tour, answer test questions and then perform a talent. Rita was the only finalist to do her tour in English. Five of the nine finalists were my Freshman students. They were awesome. It was a fun evening as all of my students were there to see the competition. Rita took second place--unheard of for an undergraduate.

The cherry blossoms were out at Zhouzhong Park and all over town. They were spectacular. We had a nice afternoon at the park (which is huge) and ended up riding a carnival ride (well, I did) and going to the small zoo. The zoo was hilarious--one side was small animals--rabbits, monkeys, goats and DOGS. Yes, there were pet dogs in the zoo. The other side housed a couple tigers, lions, grizzly bears, wolves and a beautiful spotted leopard. The leopard had new cubs (3) and she was nervous. The babies would wander out by the fence and she would pick them up by the head and take them back in the cave. The little ones were darling and couldn't have been more than a week old--they could barely walk. I could have watched them all day.

We had to say goodbye to two beautiful girls in our Branch. Young Mei and Stella are both headed back to Korea. Stella is one of my young women and was just baptized in December. It will be wonderful for her to be back with her family in Korea, but we will miss her so much. She is such a light and so sweet. We took her and Christina to lunch after they finished their intensive Chinese language testing. They had lasagna for the first time and loved it. They are so talented and we adore them. We also had two eight year old children baptized at the Branch. What a spirit there. We have a new family from Brazil so our little branch has Chinese, Korean, English and now Portuguese to deal with.

Yangtze River Cruise Day 3

Leaving the gorges......

Ship loaded with coal next to us in the locks.

Three Gorges Dam (in the fog).

You have to love Chinese signs. "No turning over please."

In other words, don't climb over the fence and fall off the cliff.

Out the bus window--Decorated graves for the Chingming Festival.

This morning we finished going through the locks and disembarked from a delightful cruise. We had a tour of the Three Gorges Dam--the world's largest dam site (haha) and hydroelectric power project. Our bus ride to the airport in Wuhan was about 4.5 hours, but the countryside was lovely. Spring has sprung and the farms and villages along the way were quaint. The Chinese are buried in their fields and all along the road, in the fields and on the terraced mountainside were graves. The reason we had a long weekend was because of Chingming Festival or "Grave Sweeping" holiday (the equivalent of our Memorial Day), so all the graves were decorated with paper flowers, fireworks, etc. It was quite lovely.

Yangtze River Cruise Day 2

Just entering the ship locks. First of five.

Traditional rain gear. I'm such a good boat driver!

Medium boat that took us from our ship to the small boat.

Look at the small cave in the face of the cliff. There is a small wooden coffin inside.

Entering the first Gorge. Kinda like Lake Powell, but a little different.

We entered passed through the gorges today and the sights were breathtaking. We could see monkeys on the mountain and goats, terraced rice fields and villages. It was interesting to see where the villages had been relocated because of the rise in water due to the building of the dam. The other interesting thing was the "hanging coffins." In ancient times the people would carve a cave out of the sheer cliff wall and put the coffin in it or suspend them down the cliffs. Many are still there and you could see them. It was rainy today, but everything was still beautiful. We took and excursion in a sampan to the mini three gorges. Really fun. Our guide let me try on his rain gear and he even sang to us. Tonight we entered the ship locks and it took about 4.5 hours to get through all of them. Really amazing.

Yangtze River Cruise Day 1

Ghost City

Captain's Dinner

They had many "tests" to pass in the Ghost City. I made it!

Oops I think he got me......

The cruise ship was really nice. The food and service was great. You couldn't beat the scenery. Fantastic. The first day we visited Fengdu, the Ghost City. Hiked a mountain to get there, but it was incredibly interesting and a little creepy. Supposedly, Ghost City is where all the evil spirits reside and they are supposed to remain there eternally. Included in the city - which sits on top of a mountain - is a replica depicting the awful ways the Chinese tortured those among them who sinned. For example, they cut a person's tongue out if he was a liar; a thief had his fingers cut off, etc. Ghost City is also supposedly the pathway to the "underworld." It is the Chinese way of expressing the atrocities of Hell. Lots of frightening statues in such a beautiful setting. Tonight was dinner with the captain. Always fun visiting and enjoying the company of our dear BYU friends.