On Saturday, May 5, David and I had planned to go to the Jinan Botanical Park to see the peonies and what other flowers were there. When we started talking in the morning, it looked like it was going to be a nice day. By the time we got out to the bus stop, it was already starting to sprinkle pretty steadily. We got off at the right bus stop and met Eva at the entrance.
Peonies in the botanical garden.
The rain was continuing and even starting to get worse. At first we could avoid a lot of the rain because the trees were keeping us covered. As we searched for the peony section of the gardens, the rain got even more aggressive. Eva had brought an umbrella, but that wasn't going to take care of all three of us. There are always people that sit at the gates of the parks and tourist areas with things to sell. So Eva and I took the one umbrella, while David tarried under a sheltered area, and made our way to the entrance where we could buy some umbrellas.
The woman standing there was more than happy to see us. She shoved aside the stack of kids character umbrellas (although I was eyeing a princess one for David, he he!), and showed me what I could buy and the prices. I picked out two, and because I was buying two, she gave me 10 Yuan off. I was happy with that. We made our way back to where David was, and he was busy having a conversation with some kids and mothers that were also standing there to get out of the rain.
A class of young saxophonists. Some were still a little squeaky, but that's okay for now.
Close to the end of peony blooming time. Happy we were able to find some still in good shape though.
We stopped at a small arcade/fast food place for some lunch and to get out of the rain for a little bit. It started to clear up some while we were there, so we started out again in search of our peony patch. It didn't take us too long, because we got on a sky walk bridge and found it from there. There were still some good peonies to see, but if we had waited another week, they would have been all gone.
After we found the peonies, we stopped at a pavilion where a bunch of people were trying to wait out the rain. They had some musical instruments with them and had planned on playing and doing some dances, but the rain stopped them. They decided to leave about the same time that we did. I needed to get home and do some things for Sunday, so we left and when home.
Entrance to the botanical garden.
Pretty little pink roses.
The rest of our week was filled up with classes, correcting assignments, David planning for teaching one week of classes to some engineers, and other activities.
On Friday evening, David and I went to see the Hundred Flower Park. It is the closest park to us, but we don't get there as often as we should. It was so much cooler in temperature the minute that we walked through the gates. It was really pleasant. Different musicians were playing, lots of people walking, flowers blooming, and kids playing.
Trees in Hundred Flower Park.
One of the springs in the park.
We think we could take a different path each time we went to the park and not travel the same one twice.
These peonies were in better shape than the ones at the botanical garden, but still close to the end of flower time.
David with his ice cream. The ladies running the little booth that had an ice cream display were thrilled to have him come and stop. There is danger in being able to speak well the little tiny bit of Chinese that we know... they think you know a lot more than you really do...
Pomegranate blossoms. Very pretty!
Part of a rose garden.
No one hardly ever walks on the grass areas. They plant their grass like they do their rice, in clumps.
When we left the park to go to the bus stop, there was a precocious seven-year-old waiting there with his grandmother. He wanted David to "high five" him. Then he kept talking to us - in Chinese. The grandmother offered us seats on the bench next to them. It turns out that they were waiting for the same bus we were. I think at one point, they were asking us what bus we were taking, and when they came back saying that bus 70 (qishi) was coming in two more stops, and they came back to the bench. We tried out David's translation app, but the bus came, and we all got on. It seemed to have made their day meeting us.
One thing that has been taking up a lot of my time has been the discovery of a member of our Church who is living in a smaller city, not far from Jinan. "J" is from Lithuania and married a Chinese man. She had been pregnant with her first baby and had preeclampsia and later HELLP Syndrome. The family had to make the decision to save either her or her baby. They chose to save her. The baby was born by C-section, but because the family is a poor farm family, they didn't have the money to keep the baby on the respirator, so the baby died. This lady was heartbroken and still struggling with the high blood pressure.
"J" reached out to her friends and family in Lithuania and lamented that she didn't have people in the Church here to support her like there was in her old home. It just so happened, that a young man who had lived in China, was a missionary there in Lithuania. When the family told the missionary about J's problems, he told them that there was a Church presence in China with our ex-pat Branch! Our Branch President was contacted, and he contacted me (as Relief Society President, this comes under my responsibilities to help with).
After contacting J through email and by phone (she reads English better than she can talk and understand), I decided that it was going to be best to go out to visit her in her city. The problem was how? J lives about 50 miles away from Jinan. I don't drive in China (if you lived here, you would totally understand why!), and taking the bus would make this an all day long activity, for which I didn't have time to do. One of the Priesthood men and a Chinese friend of ours, Simon, could go on Wednesday, but we couldn't get a car to drive us on that day. We asked Simon to see if it were possible to "rent" a driver and a car for Saturday. Simon was able to put us in contact with a driver who was willing to do it for 600 RMB. I felt like that was worth it. The train doesn't go there and the bus would have been three hours out and three hours back, at a minimum.
Simon couldn't go with us on Saturday, but fortunately Aaron, our Vietnamese member who speaks Chinese, could go. We met the driver and his sister at the South Gate of our campus. I sat in back with the sister of the driver and Aaron. It wasn't a very roomy back seat. The driver had lived four years in New Zealand, so he spoke English quite well. He was able to drive us there in a little less than one and a half hours. He waited for us for the hour that we spend with J and her husband, and then drove us back to Jinan. I was so glad that we could go out and help J for that time. She needed a Priesthood blessing with the oil and also the comfort of a female, mother-type member.
After we had a rest on Saturday afternoon, we waited for a call from Eva. Her parents had come to visit her and we were going to meet at DaMing Lake and walk around. When she finally had time to call us, it was already time for supper, so we decided to go to McDonald's and then just meet them at DaMing Lake.
The bus ride there is always a crowded one, it seems. It is made even worse right now because they are doing construction of a subway system, so several important roads are blocked off, and crowded down to just two lanes each way. If you can imagine the traffic of several thousand people all trying to get to the lake, so they can walk around and get cooler, than you can imagine how bad the traffic was.
DaMing Lake at night.
We finally made it, and then had to wait for Eva and her parents. We found a nice low wall near the entrance where we could sit and wait. While we waited, we were once again, the attention of a lot of people. Two kids were about nine years old and they seemed to keep coming closer and closer. Finally, the parents got involved and wanted them to come have their picture taken with us. We sat the kids between us and got the photo. There was a guard standing around that seemed curious about us also. I think if he had known ANY English, he would have come over and talked with us. One mother sat with her three to four-year old next to us and the little girl was rather shy. David pulled out his phone and started showing her pictures of our grandchildren, and she was interested. The guard was interested too, but he couldn't show too much interest it seemed. Later, David was reading a text message from Eva and the guard came by once more. I really think he wanted to see some pictures.
A lighted pavilion on a romantic island.
The monument tower to a famous Chinese poet who lived there.
The Jade bridge that goes out to the romantic island.
We had a nice time walking around the lake. At one pavilion, there were several saxophone players playing. One of them had some nice track music playing, and he was playing the melody along with it. It turns out that he was the master and all the other saxophonists were just practicing. The master played a good dancing song, so David and I started dancing out on the grassy area behind the pavilion. When that song ended, we had been noticed, so they invited us to come and dance inside the little covered area that the master was playing in. We did one dance, where we were recorded by more than just Eva, and then sat and listened to him play a few more songs.
This is the master that was so good!
Dancing together, making a spectacle of ourselves.
Everyone insisted that we have a picture with the saxophonist master.
We continued our walk along the edge of the lake until it was time to find a bus to take us home. We said good-bye to Eva and her parents. Just as we were about to exit the park, we see Yi Bing (Bob's mom of Bob and Anna fame) and her husband (who we had not met before) walking by. Yi Bing was so excited to see us! After we told them that we were trying to catch a bus home, they insisted on walking us across the busy street and down to the bus stop. Then when the right bus came, Yi Bing jumped in the bus first, paid for our fare, hopped back off the bus, and then waved good-bye as the bus left. She wants to thank us for helping Bob and Anna with their English so that they could be accepted by Duke University in the US and go to school there.
We made it home safely, and today we went to Church. We had to leave early because David is teaching the class for the engineers again and their opening ceremony was today. David has to go introduce himself to this new group of engineers, and then he starts teaching them tomorrow. I stayed here and helped tutor two fourteen-year-olds, William and Helen. I think they will be some fun kids to get to know.
The biggest reason we are glad that I'm out of the hospital is that we had planned to spend the Chinese Labor Day holiday (April 29-May 1) with Gilbert and his family in Tianjin. Tianjin was where we had originally been assigned to go when we signed up with the BYU China Teachers Program. For some reason, the university in Tianjin turned us down, and all BYU teachers that year, so we were then assigned to Shandong University in Jinan. We were excited to see this city, but didn't really know what to expect there that would be different from other Chinese cities. We were in for a pleasant surprise.
Sunday we met for District Conference at the Kinghorn's apartment in the Hanlin Hotel where we hold our church meetings. After a nice lunch with them we took a bus to the train station, and rode a high speed train to Tianjin. We really like the ease of the high speed trains. China runs them efficiently and conveniently. The ride to Tianjin was pleasant.
We got in line for the taxis and there were only three people ahead of us. The guard at the gate looked at the message that Gilbert had sent to David with the information of how to get to our hotel, walked over to the next taxi in line, showed it to him. The taxi driver nodded his head, so we hopped in for the ride. The ride to the hotel was a little less than an hour and the taxi ride cost us 230 RMB!
Lulu, Zina, Marcel and Gilbert. Our first night in Tianjin, China.
David, Zina, Lulu, Marcel, Gilbert.
Gilbert came out to get us when we didn't know where to go after we were dropped off. They had a room reserved for us in a nice place. His wife, Lulu, gets discount prices for travel from her work, so we had some nice accommodations. We had a few minutes to refresh ourselves, and then we were out the door again to go to dinner. Every time we needed to go someplace, a transportation company company they hired, provided us with a nice seven passenger vehicle to get there.
The restaurant was a nice place that specialized in seafood. Tianjin is the coastal seaport to Beijing, so seafood is fresh and plentiful. They ordered lots of food, but we had to be careful to not eat too much and disturb our sleep.
Eels. First time I've ever eaten them. Probably the last time, at least, knowingly...
Very delicious beef and quail's eggs.
Octopus tentacles, with peppers. Chewy.
I guess this fish tasted okay, but I didn't enjoy the fried scales on the outside, nor the bones from the inside.
We went to a park that was close to where out rooms were. Gilbert and Lulu talked me into riding a bike. They have rental bikes all over the place. You scan the QR code, and it unlocks the bike. When you are finished using the bike, you close up the lock, and then the app takes the fee from your account. Pretty handy. The problem for us using them in Jinan, is that most of the seats on the bikes won't go up high enough for us to ride them comfortably. The size is great for most Chinese, not for taller, long-legged Americans.
I was a little wobbly at first, the tires are smaller size and at the chain mechanism is different. All things you have to get used to. After getting used to it, I felt like I was doing okay, not really, totally comfortable, but I felt okay. Gilbert had rented a bike so that he could take their son, Marcel, on a ride, too. We rode around the park and then we headed back to the hotel area, on the bikes. David and Lulu were on foot, so we went rather slow for them to keep up.
One thing that I had said to David a few days earlier, was that I didn't want to ride a bike on the streets in China, it's just too scary! Well, there I was riding a bike on the streets of China! We got back to the hotel and decided that we were going to park the bikes and walk down by the water. Gilbert and I headed to the area where we could park the bikes, and as I was negotiating through two small pillars to get to the area, I didn't steer very well and ended up on the ground as the bike's pedal caught on the pillar.
Gilbert was first to get over to me. I had landed on my right elbow and scraped it up. I was sure that I was going to be bruised on my left leg, and my right hip, where I hit the pedal and the ground. My hand was also hit with the handle bars and I have a large bruise forming on it. It didn't do any wonders for my low back either. I was pretty sore when I went to bed. Gilbert and Lulu felt so bad. We had to not go walk by the water, so that we could go up to their apartment and clean up my boo-boos.
After all of that was taken care of, we sat around in their apartment, exchanged the gifts that we had brought for them, and that they had brought for us, and talked for a long time. Gilbert loves soaking up knowledge. While David went back to our room to get the gifts for them, he was asking me some questions about English, and he wants to know the reasons behind some words and expressions we use. Marcel was happy with the toy truck and 4-wheeler we gave him. After playing happily with it for about 20 minutes, he asked his dad if he could keep them. When Gilbert told him that they were a gift to him, he was so happy! His "xie xie
I rested better than I thought I would that night. Gilbert had gone out and bought "street food," traditional foods that the Chinese like for breakfast, so we went down to their apartment to eat. Frankly, I don't see much difference between some of their breakfast foods and the foods they eat the rest of the day. It was good tasting and we had plenty of it.
Our plan for Monday was to go a theme park that they have built around an old retired Ukrainian aircraft carrier. They employ Russians to come perform and help entertain at the park. One tall, blonde Russian woman was posing with some Chinese in pictures. They had traditional music being played and the buildings were meant to look like old Russian buildings.
Squid on a stick!
Part of our snack before lunch was watermelon and seasoned, fried, fillet of squid. Don't knock it until you've tried it!
Marcel had fallen asleep in the van on the way to the park, so Lulu stayed with him, while Gilbert went with us to tour the ship. It was interesting, but with all the thousands of Chinese in this poorly ventilated and closed in space, it was hot and stuffy. After we had seen our fill, we headed out to meet up with Lulu and Marcel so that we could have a little snack before we went to lunch.
The theme park where the Ukrainian aircraft carrier was. Built to look like a Russian village.
Missiles on the aircraft carrier.
One of the shops in the Russian village of the TEDA theme park.
This aircraft carrier could land a plane or take-off, but it was more for helicopters to land.
Inside it was hot and stuffy. I found if rather endearing that Gilbert would go around to all the things that had a switch or a button to touch and he would try to turn it to see if it would work.
Old aircraft that are parked on the deck of the carrier.
We stopped at the Astor Hotel in Tianjin, where we had hotel rooms for the night. While Lulu was getting us checked in, we were greeted by a hostess who gave us a refreshing drink that tasted almost like ginger ale, without the bubbles. A grandfather that was holding his granddaughter sat near us and we started playing with her.
One of the historic buildings in Tianjin.
This hotel is a historic site. It was built in 1863, and they have kept traditions that they have had for all this time. A lot of the city was build by Europeans ,and a lot of those building still stand. Driving and walking around, you just got a different feeling about the city. In the hotel, you almost feel like you walked into it in the 1890's. Our room was really nice with one of those huge over-sized tubs. Of course we used it! David has missed his bathtub.
The grand staircase in the lobby of the Astor Hotel.
Afternoon tea was held in this beautiful atrium just off the lobby.
They keep this old turn style door in the area where the lobby used to be.
This is the old lobby, now a reading room.
Outside of the hotel from the back.
Our room wasn't quite ready yet, and Gilbert and Lulu had made plans for our meals and to see a Chinese Comedy show. Cross-talk is a traditional Chinese form of entertainment. If you have ever seen the old "Smother's Brother's" routines, it is similar to that, except it is in Chinese, and they wear a traditional Chinese smock. They perform impromptu routines for the audience.
A traditional snack of Tianjin, twisted and then fried bread. They were so excited to give this to us as a gift. Tastes okay.
First, we went to find a restaurant that was recommended to them as being the best baozi (pronounced "bow-tza"). Baozi is a steamed bun that has meat or vegetables cooked inside. We are not sure that any other Americans have ever eaten in the place because they kept looking at us. The woman in charge asked through Gilbert, if we like them. I gave her a thumbs up, and she was very pleased. Yes, they were good baozi, some of the best we've had.
Said to be the best baozi restaurant in Tianjin.
The staff getting baozi ready for the evening dinner crowd.
After eating baozi, we were picked up by another van and driven to a street where we could buy the tickets for the cross talk show. They found out that the show didn't start until 7:30, so Gilbert and Lulu wanted to take us to an old-style street market. They were particularly interested in buying some "snacks" that are available there. They wanted us to go explore the area, but they were starting to close it down and the guard kindly showed us with his hand coming together that they were closing down, so we left. We had to wait for Gilbert to find Lulu and Marcel, and when he did, we got another van to take us back to the Cross Talk Show.
The first performer greeted us in English after bowing to the crowd. Several times after he started his routine, he would turn to us and say something in English. He was funny and amazing that he would have the whole crowd with him and then throw something in there in English. It was fun, but it was getting late and Marcel was tired of trying to be good. Five-year-old boys need to move around. Another van picked us up and took us back to the Astor Hotel. Gilbert and Lulu wanted to walk along the river, but we were tired, so we just went up to our room and enjoyed it.
I kept looking at this sign as we were driving around Tianjin. When I asked Lulu what it said, she said it is, "Don't drink and drive." The cleverest part about it for me was when she said that the characters that are in the driver's seat of the car in the broken wine glass was the character for alcohol. Please, don't drink and drive!
We had to be up and get breakfast before we left, which was served in the hotel dining room. Very good food, attentive servers, and an elegant atmosphere. When we finished, we got our bags and met Gilbert in the lobby to say good-bye. He had ordered a taxi for us that would take us back to the train station. It only took us an hour to get back to Jinan with a high speed train that travels 300 km/h (about 186 mph). We found our bus that would get us to where we could catch the bus that would take us home. We both took naps that afternoon. It was a fun time with Gilbert, Lulu, and Marcel.
A sign inside the stall of the bathroom in the train station. I couldn't resist snapping a picture.
David and I have continued to cough and hack. On Tuesday, I had to let my class out early because I had NO voice left. I was feeling poorly when I left for class, so I sent a WeChat to Dr. Tricia asking if it was possible for me to come in this afternoon.
Dr. Hu listened to my lungs and said that he was hearing crackling sounds, and that I needed to be hospitalized so that it could be taken care of. After checking in and paying 4000 RMB ahead toward my bill, Dr Hu took me down to get a CT scan on my lungs. The good news was that my lungs were clear, but there was inflammation in the bronchial area. No pneumonia!
They started me with antibiotics and antiviral medications, and also started breathing treatments. David came after he had supper to bring me some things that I would need, and stayed until it was time to catch the last bus back to the apartment. He still has a cough and the AHR.
I had to spend the night there. Their beds are more like emergency room gurneys. Hard. Extremely uncomfortable! They don't have any private rooms anymore, so there was another woman in the room. Because you have to have someone to help you in the hospital, her husband was there. Guess where he stayed? Yup! In our room! Then, he fell asleep and commenced snoring! LOUDLY!! With snorts and mumbling in between the snores! At one point I decided to record it to play for David later.
At about 11:30 p.m., the wife got tired of his snoring (or it finally woke her up) and kicked him out of the room. That was a little better, but it didn't do anything for the bed. There was also some sort of alarm that kept going off that was really loud. It was in Chinese, so I didn't understand what it was about, but it seemed like an alarm for the woman to take a medicine or something. When you don't have the ability to do any of your usual bedtime routines, it's pretty hard to fall asleep anyway. I tossed and turned but finally, somewhere around 2 a.m., I did fall asleep.
That lasted until about 4:30 when that alarm sounded and the husband came back in the room. He had come in a couple of times before I fell asleep, would use the toilet, get some hot water in his cup, noisily slurp it up and give a big sigh, then shuffle out of the room back to where he had been sleeping. I decided I was going to give up on sleeping for a while anyway when he came back in, so I sat up. A few minutes before 5 a.m., the phlebotomist came in for my blood. She turned on the lights in the room, so everyone else decided to get up.
Wednesday was more breathing treatments, more antibiotics and more antiviral. Kayce came over to bring me lunch and visit for an hour or so. David was able to get there about 4 p.m. and then they said I could go home for the night, (boy, was I glad!) but I had to come back in the morning for my treatments. Dr. Tricia ordered a taxi for us, and took us to our apartment. We made some quick sandwiches for supper, checked email, and went to bed.
Thursday morning, David headed off to his class, and I slowly packed some things for the day and headed out the door. I was still feeling pretty tired and thinking about the trek to the bus stop, riding the bus (probably having to stand most of the way) to the hospital. I said a quick little prayer that there would be a taxi driving by that I would be able to get to take me to the hospital.
Sure enough, as soon as I got to where I could be seen from the road, there was a taxi slowly going down the street, and he looked right at me! I raised my hand, he stopped and backed up. I showed him the card I have from the hospital because I had no way to tell him where I needed to go otherwise. He nodded his head that he could take me there! You may not understand the significance of it unless you also know that taxi drivers usually don't like to take non-Chinese people because they are afraid they won't be able to tell them where we need to go. I was so thankful for this small, but great, miracle in my life that day!!
Treatments went well, but it was a little boring, just sitting in the hospital after my morning treatments were done. Then Deneice came over before heading to her classes, and we visited for an hour. That was so nice. The doctors came in, listened to my lungs, made me talk to hear how hoarse I still was, and said that they thought I should have a sonogram done of my heart because they thought it looked enlarged. After they had a chance to look at the CT scan closer, they couldn't find anything wrong with the heart, and that is was probably the size it is because of my XL size.
Friday was pretty much the same, except David came with me. He was going to do grocery shopping while I went to the hospital. I read and played on my phone and waited for David to get there to go home with me. I also was able to be a part of Rachel's laboring to bring her first child into the world. It was eventually decided that the baby needed to be born by C-Section, so we had to end the video. I'm glad that the birth of Ahtzera Zumaya went well otherwise.
Saturday, we were hoping that I could be released from the hospital. I had a breathing treatment and then Dr. Tricia and Dr. Hu came in to examine me. My voice was sounding better, not perfect, but better and my right lung sounded clear, however, the left lung still has them concerned a little. They said I could go home, but gave me another six days of an oral antibiotic, a Chinese herbal tea that is supposed to clear the lungs, and lots of cough medicine.
David brought over some sandwiches for supper, we ate at the hospital and then went to the Kinghorn's apartment, so we could listen to the Adult Session of District Conference. I sure hope that is the last time I have to spend time in a Chinese hospital. Not that I wasn't taken care of, but it wasn't what I wanted to be doing.
Weifang International Kite Festival. A day of flying 10,000 kites at the same time!
David and I are still suffering from the cold/illness that sent him to the hospital. Yes, I caught it also. Just not as bad as he did. David has had a problem with his throat closing off and not being able to breath. The first time was April 10. The air pollution was over 500 and we went to KFC for supper. He took a bite of his chicken wrap and between the spice and the pollution, his throat closed off and he couldn't breath. That night, he woke up gasping. Scared us pretty bad. He went back to Dr. Trisha and Dr. Hu, and they checked his lungs and other things. In the end, it was decided that he has AHR (airway hyper responsiveness). The cough has triggered an asthma like response in his throat, and it starts to shut down.
The best way to treat it would have been to go to the hospital two times a day, and get a breathing treatment like when he first went in. That just wasn't going to be possible, so the next best possible treatment was some pills that help to relax the muscles so that he can get his breathing back. We have had some scary times since then, but it seems to be working, slowly. If you have some extra prayers, we could use them.
Monday, David went back after he was done with class because he had another scary episode that night. They checked him over again and basically said to give it more time. He went back again on Friday because they had said for him to take the pills for only one week. but told him to go ahead and take the pills as needed. It is very scary when he is in the middle of an episode of not being able to breath, but it is what we have to deal with now.
Shandong Airlines has decided to start an "English Club." It is a club where the employees of the airline can get together and practice speaking English. They invited David and I, and also Kayce. Lily came with us to show us where to go. Kayce was invited by her student, Sophia, that works at the airline. Her mother is the director of the Institute for the Elderly, where Kayce takes a Tai Chi class, and I have my painting class.
During the first part, they had three people give speeches on the topic of family. David had been asked to prepare a talk a few days ahead, and when Kayce got there, she was found out she would be giving a speech also! One of the Chinese men (Walter) had been an English teacher in the 1980's, but is now the Communist Party official over the airline, also gave a good speech.
The Airline's gift to us, model airplanes.
This is what it looks like.
The second hour of the party, we played a game. We set up in teams of two people, and had to guess the word that our partner was trying to describe. David was teamed up with Walter, Kayce was teamed with a Chinese man, a Chinese girl named Jasmine (she went to college for four years in the US) teamed with a Chinese man, and then Lily and I.
David and Walter scored nine points, Kayce's team scored nine points, Jasmine's team scored eight points and Lily and I scored nine points. We would have scored ten points except Lily did not know the word "vowel." She had no concept of the word. So it came down to a three-way tie. They decided to settle it by playing "Paper, Rock, Scissors." First, Kayce and I beat out David, then I beat out Kayce! Lily and I won!! It was such a fun night. They gave gifts to David, Kayce and I for coming. It was a model of a Shandong Airlines plane, and then they gave us prizes for the game, travel mugs. They ordered a taxi for us to take home.
Our group from the English Corner.
The university gave us an opportunity to go to Weifang, the home of the International Kite Festival. We were pretty excited about it because it was one of the cities on our "China bucket list." We had heard a lot about the festival, so we were pretty excited to be able to go.
We met the other foreign teachers that were going with us at the South Gate of the campus. They had a guide hired, and a coach bus for us to travel in. At first we thought we were going to be able to take the high speed train there, but it ended up being the bus. It was an almost four hour trip to get there with the traffic. The foreign teachers from our university were from Korea, Japan, Scotland, England, and South Aftrica.
We checked in to a nice hotel, and after a few minutes of rest, we went down to a conference room where they had dinner set up for us. This was like a joint university trip with Peking University in Beijing. There were two BYU couples in that group that we had met on our other trips with BYU teachers, so we had some friends in the group. I think the hotel was trying to show us how wonderful of a meal they could feed us because the food just kept on coming!
About halfway through the meal, David had another AHR episode, so he quickly went out of the room. I didn't follow, thinking that he would be able to get it back under control soon and be back in. However, someone from the hotel staff observed him leaving and grew concerned about him. He called over the leader of our group and talked to her. She came over to me and wanted to know if he was okay. I went up to the room to check on him. He had finally gotten his breathing under control, but was almost embarrassed to come back. It turned out okay, but I did explain to our group leader what was happening.
The next day, we left the hotel, and drove for about an hour. We were driven to a place that was described as the Temple of the Dragon God. We were given a tour of the buildings that they had built to house the God of the Dragon and also the Gods of the East, North, West, and South Seas.
At each side of the courtyard area of the Dragon King Temple, there was a tower like the smaller building. Inside one is a huge drum and inside the other is a huge bell. You ring the bell at first light of day and bang the drum at dawn.
Three of the gods of the seas. I was looking for the symbols for north, east, west, and south to see who was who, but didn't get it figured out by the time we had to leave. I do know some of the Chinese Characters.
We were then driven to the place where we had reserved seats for the opening ceremonies of the International Kite Festival. The seats were pretty good, and we were able to see most of the activities well. The forecast had been for rain that day, but there was only a moist breeze and warmth from the sun. It felt good.
The sky was filled with all sorts of kites. I didn't get a picture of it, but one was a long green snake and it was so cool to see it "snaking" around in the sky.
Part of the opening ceremony was a program that included this dragon dance and then dances from four different countries. There was a speech from an official that was also read in English. Nice to be included.
Another cool kite that I saw. They said that for one this big, you would need to have it attached to a bus to keep it from flying away. Some of the smaller ones had to have about eight people to hold them down.
After we left the kite festival we were driven to a hotel in the economic enrichment zone of Binhai. This area of China is being developed as the future economic zone with the salt industry, and the seafood harvesting industry. They have a huge area all planned out that will be the future of the area. A high speed railway is being planned to make it a major hub between Shanghai and Beijing. It all sounds so wonderful to have planned out. It may take away the farming industry that is also big in that area, but the other two industries think they are more important. I wonder if it will work.
I didn't get a picture of this ferris wheel when we saw it, not knowing the significance of it, but it is the largest ferris wheel in the world without a center spoke. It is built in the middle of a bridge, so I wondered if people actually used it.
This cool aquarium was in the lobby of the hotel where we had lunch. Where you see the person standing is actually just a computer screen image. The other is a real aquarium.
They have a large art and culture museum that we toured. Then they took us into the conference room and talked about our great universities and how we could help spread the word about what they are doing and maybe come join them as they help develop and grow this area. David was asked to give a short speech representing Shandong University, and one of the BYU teachers from Peking University gave a speech for their university. We found it rather interesting that of all we had there, they were the two that they wanted to have speak.
David speaking at the end of the tour, thanking them for the opportunity to come.
Our last tour stop of the day was the Kite Museum of Weifang. It was interesting to see all the kites they had there. Kites are an invention of China. Kites have been used in wars as well as in peace. It was a pleasurable pastime that didn't cost much to build, so it could be enjoyed by poor and rich alike.
Kites are a family activity, as this sculpture depicts.
These are dragon kites. They are long with the big head.
Some old traditional kites.
The story here tells of a battle that was going to be fought and the one side didn't think they really had a chance. They put a man on a kite that was a really good singer, and floated him above the camp of the enemy. While he was up there, he sang songs and ballads of home and longing for home. The men in the camp below him became so homesick, that they packed up their things and went home, ending the need for a battle. I liked that story!
Before we headed back to Jinan, they bought some bananas, boxed milk, and a baked fruit bread for our supper to eat on the way back. We arrived in Jinan about 8 p.m. Bucket list item checked!
