May Day Holiday 4 - Tea Museum, Old Town and Train Ride Home

We were able to sleep in a little this morning, but the guide still wanted to leave by 7 a.m.  After breakfast, we went back to our room to get our luggage, but the key card would not open our door. We tried several times, Eva and Pang tried several times, and then Pang called down to the desk for us.  A maintenance man came up and tried to open it.  Still nothing.  He had to get someone else up there, and they finally got it open.

Meanwhile, I had to use the bathroom in Eva’s room.  There wasn’t any toilet paper.  Each day, they had given us a very small roll of toilet paper in the room, and I wondered why there was so little of it.  It was really only about an inch of paper on the roll (no center tube).  The reason I discovered why the hotel does this is, because the Chinese take whatever is left on the roll with them!  

The whole door business made us about ten minutes late.  Several times during this tour, we had made the group late, and I hadn’t planned on being the late ones that morning, but there was nothing we could do about it.  

The lanterns greet you on the street leading to the old village..

Our first stop was at a Tea Museum.  This area is famous for their tea growing.  Fields were scattered all over the mountain sides.  They told the history and about the process of readying the tea leaves.  Then we were taken to a room with long table and stools to sit on.  They made tea for us.  

The first was a green tea.  We tried the chrysanthemum tea instead.  Eva prefers hers with a little sugar, but I liked it the way it was.  Last, they brought around a red tea.  When I was pretty certain that Eva and Pang weren’t looking, I dumped it into the bowl of left-over tea.  

After the tea was the hype about the great deals you could get on the tea!  When it was finally over (someone bought over 1000 RMB worth!), we got back on the bus, and they took us to a tourist shopping area.  It is in an old part of town that they keep for touristy foods and mementos to be sold.  We had a fun time with Eva and Pang tasting local foods and looking at local crafts.  We spent about 800 RMB in this area for some delicious foods and had a great time with some of the shop people. 

Entering the old village part.

A main street of the old village.

After lunch at a restaurant, we were taken to the train station for the five-hour ride home.  I really do enjoy the high-speed trains.  They are not as noisy as airplanes, and they can get you there fairly fast.  We did some talking, sleeping, and eating of our snacks on the way. 

We got a taxi at the train station, and we were glad to get home.  The Chinese beds are rather hard to sleep on, so our softer mattress was nice.

An old building on the street.

Interesting style to the building.

Some of the details on the old building.

Sunday, we went to church.  We were a little late getting off, so we decided that if a taxi came before the bus 16 did, we would try and get a taxi.  It just so happened that we had barely missed a bus 16, and an empty taxi was coming, so we hailed it down and got a ride to church.  

Most of the other BYU teachers had been traveling also, so we caught up on each other’s adventures after lunch.  Jurgita and Huang Songsong were able to come in from Zouping to be with us, so we had a nice talk also.

May Day Holiday 3 - Yellow Mountain and a Chinese Opera

Our first view of Yellow Mountain.  Rather magnificent!

We had to be on the bus at 5:30 a.m., so the dining room opened early for us to have breakfast.  I have to tell you about the Chinese breakfast.  As we walked in the door, the greeter would hand you a warm hard-boiled egg.  Then, you grab a small 6-inch plate and greet the first dish, fried rice.  The next dish is usually a vegetable, ours was a black fungus.  After that was a noodle soup, then steamed pumpkin slices.  There was also steamed bread and some sponge cake muffins.  Off to the other side was what Eva said were “pickles.”  Since the Chinese pickles are usually of a spicy hot nature, I try to avoid them.  Then there is also the option of tea or warm soy milk, watery soy milk.  I tolerated the breakfasts, but the sponge cake muffins I could have eaten all day!

The bus ride to the Yellow Mountains (Huangshan) took about an hour.  We hurried off the bus to get in line for the cable car ride up to the middle of the mountain. It was a two hour wait in line.  It moved slowly, but there were a LOT of people.  The guide had planned to leave an hour later until he got messages from other friends who were guides that some of the people that arrived later had to wait three hours in line for the cable car.

We are almost to the cable car and this was what the line looked like all the time that we were waiting in line!  And the people just kept coming!

The cable car ride is one of the longest in the world according to Eva.  It was a fun ride and the view was fantastic!  

Views from the cable car.

Another view as we went up.

This view was looking from the other side of the cable car.

I knew the mountain was going to be a lot of hiking, and I knew my knee wouldn’t handle it.  I had told Eva, I would just stay at the hotel or find a shady spot somewhere to read a book.  She talked to the guide, and it turned out that there were several others who were not going to be able to do the full hike, so I decided to go to where those people were going to be and stay with them.  When the guide was organizing who was going to stay, and who was going to go, he indicates that David shouldn’t go either.  David was a little shocked, because he had planned to, but the guide knew the mountain.  We kept looking at where the people were going to be, and it was some really steep stairs going almost straight up, cut into the side of the mountain!  He decided to follow the guide’s advice and stayed with me and the other three women.  

We had been led to believe that there was an area up there that we would be able to walk around on.  It turned out that the area was not all that big.  There was a restaurant that had a buffet dinner for 140 RMB per person!  There was a small cafe that served a lunch for 50 RMB and then several vendors that sold ice cream (yes, ice cream!), baoze, fruits, and veggies and some other traditional Chinese foods.  Then there was an area that you could walk around or sit on several benches.  It was all out in the sun.  If there was a place in the shade, it was already taken, every inch of it! (Maybe I should say centimeters?)  

Stopped for a breather during the climb up.

Almost to the waiting area.  

We found a place to sit that gave us a rock to lean back against, and we sat there for quite some time.  We had old and young people come up and try to talk with us and some to take our pictures with.  One young family with a daughter that was seven and spoke English fairly well talk to us for some time.  While we were talking, two young girls about the same age as her, came to ask for our picture, but didn’t know the English for it, so they were asking in Chinese. The seven-year old girl next to us told us what they were asking, so we all scooted together for a photo.  

David is standing near what they call the "welcoming tree."  They say that the trees branches reach out to welcome you.  It is a lovely looking evergreen.

This rock is know as the "Elephant's trunk."  It looks like the elephant is raising its trunk in the air.

After being in the area for three hours, the guide finally said we could go down.  After climbing over 400 steps to get up there, we now had to take about the same number of steps to get down to the cable car.  

Here is part of the waiting area.  Lots of people!  The display in the background shows the mountain in different seasons.  People will climb this rock all year long.  The guide said that during the winter, the workers will be out early in the morning clearing any snow from the steps of the trail so that it is ready to go at 6 a.m.!

The black sign says, "No climbing on cliff," but everyone has to have their photo taken of themselves on the rock!

I'm not sure how well you can see it, but it was the best shot I could get of him.  The man in the green vest is carry boxes and paper to be recycled back down the mountain.  He has a bamboo stick over his shoulder and balances the two ends with what ever he is carrying.   I saw several men doing this with different goods on the end of the bamboo.

Then we had a two hour wait for all the others in our group who had hiked the mountain to climb down.  Our guide took us to a store where there were several massage chairs, and we sat there and dozed for a little while.  David went out and walked back and forth.  When the group got down off the cable car, our guide took us to the reception center to wait for them to get down by bus to where we were.  I was feeling very sunburned, because I hadn’t thought about sunscreen at all until I was up there on the top with none to use.  I was very sorry for it later.

Starting the hike down the mountain.  It was cool to be able to go though this little tunnel in the rock.

After the bus ride back to Huangshan, we had dinner.  The night before, some of our group had gone to a Chinese opera show, but we didn’t want to go, because of how late it would be and how early we needed to get up the next day.  David still wanted to go see it that evening, so they asked the guide, if there were tickets available for the show on Friday night.  They had three tickets!  I was too exhausted to go and I knew I wouldn’t enjoy it, because of how tired I was, so David, Eva and Pang went.  They really enjoyed it.

Video of the drum song at the opera show.

Video of the rain storm at the opera show.

Meanwhile, I got a shower to cool some of the heat of my sunburn, wrote part of the blog and got everything ready to go to sleep.  David didn’t get home until about 9:30, but before he was totally ready for bed, I was asleep.

May Day Holiday 2 - Qiandao Lake

We left at seven the next morning to drive an hour up the mountains to a reservoir called Qiandao Hu, which translates to Thousand Island Lake.  When they created this reservoir, it left thousands of small islands as the water level rose.  

Cruise boats lined up waiting for passengers.

First view of Thousand Island Lake.

We cruised for about three hours, had lunch, and then the boat stopped at one of the islands where you could take a cable car ride to the top.  The lines were so long because many cruise boats like ours had landed at the same time.  We only had about an hour and a half to spend on the island and the majority of the time was spent standing in line trying to get on the cable car.  Almost as soon as we got to the top, we had to get back on the car for the ride down.  Eva would liked to have hiked it, but I knew my knee wouldn’t have handled it, and she didn’t want to abandon me to try and handle the cable car on my own.  

We noticed this bridge going over the lake and then wondered where the cars went because it seemed that there was no road on the mountain.  Well, that was because the road went into the mountain through a tunnel!

When we got to the part of the lake where there were many islands, I started noticing these directional signs along the way for the boat captain to follow. 

This part was really pretty to go through.

The boat had the option of paying 700 RMB extra to pay for a private room on the top deck.  It included a lunch with it.  A fish head dish and several others.  It is still a little unnerving to have a bowl brought in with the fish’s head gaping out of it at you.  Eva kept trying to feed us the fish.  She even went so far as to carefully pick out the meat for us that has either the largest bones, so we can pick them out, or no bones at all.  

Our special fish dish for lunch because we paid for the special room.

It was really nice being in the room by ourselves.  The main room downstairs was very crowded, and they had us packed in with ten people to a table.  It was hard to get in and out of.  I was sitting on the open end and people were trying to crawl over me all the time, and I had to keep slowly getting up and down.  The private room saved me from all of that.  

Views of the surrounding mountains along the lake.

A village along the shores of the lake.  It stretched for several miles with a few up on the sides of the mountains.

We stopped at a second island called “Lock Island.”  This island has several kinds of rock statues depicting different kinds of locks and keys.  We walked this island and crossed a short bridge to a second island.  There was a third island to cross over to, but I was tired, so I encouraged Eva, Pang and David to go by themselves while I rested in the shade.  

Our view of the many islands from the cable car on the first island.

The people attach the locks to the arches and fence structures to make a pledge of eternal love.  There were a lot of locks, this is only a small part of them.

After we got back on the boat, we spent some time in the open back end of the top floor of the boat.  While we were there, we had a lot of people want to take pictures with us.  It got a little cold after a while, so we went back to the room.  I had stayed with Eva, and Pang had gone back to the room, but David was gone.  He wasn’t in the room, and then Eva came and said that he was in the room next to ours.  A Chinese family with a son and a daughter were in that room, and David was talking with them.  The fifteen year old daughter, Jamie, was trying to practice her English.  She was really nervous, but was doing pretty well, after she got going.  Her twelve year old brother was a lot shyer and didn’t want to join in as much as Jamie did.  

Two of the girls from our tour group wanted a picture with David.

Here we are with Jamie.  She didn't smile her big beautiful smile for the picture.  It really is one of the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen!

After a while, we moved back to our room and then Jamie’s family came in there and brought another young girl with them, a twelve-year old, named Lynn.  She mostly just wanted to meet us as Jamie had told her about us. After a little while, one of Lynn’s friends came looking for her, so she joined us.  Then Jamie’s family all came in again and the mother of one of the girls.  We kept talking and enjoying the time, when all of a sudden, we noticed that we were getting ready to dock back at the port.  We all had to hurry and gather our stuff and get off.  We were the last ones off the boat, except the crew.  

Sitting in our cabin with Lynn, Leah, and Jamie.

Jamie's mom gave us each these book marks.  They are made from leaves that have been bleached out and them painted on.

We drove back to the town, had dinner, and got back to the hotel.  We were in for an even earlier start tomorrow for the hike to Yellow Mountain, so we needed to get to bed.

May Day Holiday 1 - Huangshan and Hong Village

This is a 500 year old Ginko tree in the Hong Village.  When an elderly person would die, his coffin would be taken to circle the tree five times.  This would mean longevity, blessing and prosperity to his posterity.

We had to meet the taxi by 5 a.m., so we could meet with Eva, her husband, Pang, and the rest of our tour group.  Our taxi driver was a little late, and then he didn’t know exactly where to drop us off at.  Pang got the driver to a place where he could let us off and walk us to meet the rest of our group.  This was headed to be an interesting experience, because we were going with an all Chinese group.  Eva being the one who would be our interpreter. 

On the high-speed train to Huangshan, Eva was seated next to a ten-year old girl whose English name is Katie.  Katie and her mother were curious about David and me, so David suggested that he change seats with Eva, so he could talk with Katie.  Katie knows some English, and this gave her some good practice.  Her mother also knows some English. 

 

David sitting next to Katie and her mom on the train.

After a while, I traded seats with David and talked a little with Katie, but I think she was getting restless after just sitting on the train for two hours, so I traded spots back with Eva and Katie got up and wandered our train car.  

We were a curiosity for many people, especially the children.  Several more young kids, ranging in ages from nine to twelve would come by us.  At first there were stares.  Then they might try a “Hello.”  If I caught their eye first, I would say, “Hello,” and that was the opening of the door for them to say a few of the phrases they had memorized and try to talk with us.  It was fun for us, and I think fun for them also.

We arrived on time five hours later where we were met by a new guide and got on the bus.  On a Chinese tour bus, the seats that you first sit in will be your seats for the rest of the tour.  Eva ran ahead of all of us and saved us some seats next to each other, so that it would be easy for her to translate important information from the guide.  

On the bus, we went to a Hui village that was about an hour ride up into the mountains. The village had originally been built high up in the mountains, but after a fire destroyed it, they decided to build a new village lower on the mountain on a lake.  The village was planned in the shape of a cow around the lake.  A special guide took us all through the village, showing us different homes and buildings.  It was rather crowded in most of the rooms and hard to get around.  Several times, I wasn’t able to get my foot set the way I needed it, and I ended up hurting my knee.  I was rather tired by the time the hour- long tour was over, so I sat under a tree until it was time to go.  Once again, we were the object of curiosity and had lots of children and adults trying to talk to us.

 

This bridge divides the lake in half.  You have to cross over it to get to the old part.

The roof style of the Hong Village is rather unique.  The high sides are supposed to help protect the rest of the house from fire.

The lake was so beautiful.

Some of the old buildings inside the tourist area.

Eva, Zina, David, and Pang by the lake.

After the trip to the village, they took us to a restaurant that caters to the tours and had dinner.  After dinner we went to the hotel and checked in.  Had to get to bed early, because we would be up early for the next day’s tour.

Doorway to the old village.  This whole village was planned out by woman leader of the village.

This is a rain hole that some of the houses had.  They said that rain meant money, so they wanted to keep some of the rain in the house, so that the house would have prosperity.  It is a symbol of the value of rain.  There is also a drain in the pool below so that it doesn't over flow to the floor.

The symbol of the fish means prosperity also.  This is the window in the accountant's room in the home of the richest man in the village.  

The rock carving at the top has the meaning of blessing you so that you will have nine generations of family.  Family is important and so you want a large one.

This is the school room of the village.  They had an area where the parents or grandparents could wait for the children to take them home when they were finished.

This was the stone carving over the doorway to the richest man's house in the village.

This is a sign that was above the toilet in the restroom.  I couldn't quite figure out what they meant...

April 28 - English Salon, New Classroom, Happy Anniversary

     

Wisteria growing over the fence.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty usual for us this week.  The cleaning guy came, we went to our massage and shopped for groceries.

Jane joined us with our usual Wednesday lunch with Eva.  We decided to have “hot pot’ for lunch.  They remade part of the teacher canteen to a hot pot area.  Each person at the table has a little convection burner by your place with a little pot of water that you bring to a boil.  At a little buffet area, you can choose the foods that you want to cook in the hot pot.  There are different meats, tofu, noodles, and vegetables available.  They also have different condiments that you use to make your own sauce to dip your cooked foods in.  If you like a hot pot with some spice, you can put some hot sauce in your boiling water, or just in your dipping bowl.  Most of the sauces for dipping start with a peanut sauce.

                                      Eva and Jane with the Hot Pot

It takes a little while to cook the food and eat it.  That makes it a fun way to visit with each other as you are cooking your food and eating it.  I think the Chinese really like it, because you can gather around the cooking pot and just enjoy the time eating and talking.

Wednesday evening we were picked up by Lingling, Dr. Yang’s assistant and brought to Qilu hospital, so we could have the English Salon with them.  They fed us some really good pizza, and after singing with them and talking about restaurants, we did the game where we divide them into two groups and have them guess the name of the fruits or vegetables in English.  It is a very competitive game, and even Dr. Yang joined in to guess some.  He had someone come that needed him to take care of some papers for a little bit, but when he was finished, he was there enjoying the game with the rest.  They sent home two boxes of pizzas, that lasted us for four meals!

Earlier in the week, we had received word that they were going to move us to new classrooms after the Labor Day Holiday.  On Friday afternoon, we decided to go over and see where they were and what they looked like.  The building they are in has been recently refurbished.  Instead of the classrooms with the bolted down to the floor desks, we have movable tables, and chairs!  It also has a smart board, computer monitor screens, all over the room, so you can see it from wherever you are sitting.  

Our new modern classroom.  I'm here on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.  David will be there on Thursdays.  He has a class at 8 a.m. and I have a class at 10 a.m.

Computer command central.

 My problem with the new classroom is that instead of it being just across the street from our apartment building, I now have to walk all the way over to the other side of the campus (almost a half mile).  It has been hard enough lugging my bag in one hand and using my cane with the other, just to get the close classroom.  One day a week, I had to go over to a building on the other side of the campus, and I always had to stop part way over there and change hands carrying the bag and walk with my cane on the wrong side, until my right hand felt like it could carry it the rest of the way.  Now I get to do that four days a week.  I’m thinking of some other way to carry my supplies over, so that I don’t have quite the trial.  I will be putting a LOT more steps on my step monitor!

The smart board.  Hope I know how to use it.

Handy station for the marker and eraser for the smart board.

Saturday was our 43rd wedding anniversary.  We had planned to go to one of the malls in the afternoon to try and find a moisturizer with sunscreen in it for Jurgita, but it was supposed to rain in the afternoon, so we went in the morning.  The store we went to is called, “The Greenland Center,” and it carries a lot of foreign products, so when we need something like this, we go there.  We don’t go very often, just when we can’t find something at the other stores.

As we were about to enter the mall where the Greenland Center is, these kids were having a fun unique ride.

There were also trampolines in this area for kids.  

 On our way back from the Greenland Center, we decided to take the bus and stop at a fruit and vegetable shop that we like for some fruits for lunch on Sunday.  Then we stopped in to get our hair cut.  She did a really good job on David’s hair, but she got mine a little too short.  I had used my translation app to try and explain what I wanted, and she nodded her head.  Then she proceeded to cut off an inch more than I wanted.  Oh well.  It grows back.

We had arranged to meet Jay and Tresa Wilkins at Lydia’s Restaurant for lunch.  We were little late, because of the hair cuts, and we had to drop our stuff off at the apartment.  We had a fine lunch with good food and good company. 

After supper, Daryl Reeve, a guy from England and the Netherlands that works at Shandong University dropped in for a visit.  He is a fun character.  He likes to talk politics, but also just about any subject interests him. 

 About a half hour later, Daniel and Bonita Quillin came by.  She had bought a treat at the store that she knew we liked, well David really likes, and wanted to bring it over. She didn’t know it was our anniversary, so it became an anniversary gift for us.  It was a fun visit, they are such a fun couple.  It made what was going to be a quiet evening, one that was filled with laughter.

This was our gift from Bonita.

The treat looks like this.  It is quite greasy.  We aren't sure what they are made from, but we think it is flour, honey and lard with sesame seeds sprinkled on the top. 

 Sunday was the trip to the Hanlin Hotel for church.  We were just a small group today.  Because of the Labor Day holiday this week, the teachers have to make up classes for the classes that will be missed by the days taken off for the holiday.  The students don’t like it and neither do the teachers.  I think there are other workers that have to make up the holiday also, so it just stinks all the way around that they make it that way.  Anyway… life goes on!