Hui Garden

May 1, 2007 Tuesday

It is “Golden Week”. The way that everyone was talking, I thought that we would be the only people left on the campus and that all of the little shops would be closed. We are not taking our holiday until almost the end of the week. Then we will return late. That way we will avoid most of the crowds.

When we went out to the gate to get a taxi, there were a lot of people with suitcases and a lot of cars leaving. It was bustling.

We went to Hui Yuan (I was right - Yuan means garden). This is the place where they have representations of the areas of Anhui province. I wrote about it before on Nov. 12 Last Day in Hefei. Now, I know its name. This time there were many more people. Everyone who wasn’t going away decided to go out and picnic and enjoy the pleasant weather.

There were bicycles (both single and tandem) and boats to rent.

Goldfish to catch. This little girl had given up on her fishing pole and was grabbing them with her hand. She caught quite a few – when they wiggled, she squealed and let them go. That’s granny keeping her from falling in.

Lots of opportunity for picture taking. We followed a group of soldiers (I called them baby soldiers, because they looked so young. But then, all soldiers look so young.) This group stopped at every place and each one posed. They tried for a combination of recruiting poster and male model.

We saw a little girl in her princess dress. Chuck said, “Oh, there goes the Chinese Isabel.

Most of the children that we see are dressed in normal play clothes, but they all look really well cared for. The babies are dressed really warmly – I’m sweating in a tee shirt and they are bundled up. (All except for their bottoms of course. I have no trouble telling the boys from the girls.)
This little boy was just learning to walk. We applauded his wobbly steps and then his relatives went through all kinds of contortions to get his picture with us. He kept turning around to look at the strangers and ruining the shot. Finally, the mom got behind us and put him standing in between. We just took the kid and his mom.

This group wanted their pictures with us, too. This seems to be a thing here. Stick your kids in front of the weird looking foreigners for a photo op. Chuck says that it is because we are 1 in a thousand. (I’m figuring that we may be 2 in 4.5 million.)

Before returning to the apartment, we stopped at the store across the store across the street. The foreigner odds just went down. We met 2 couples and 1 of their daughters. The adults teach English at the foreign language institute here on campus. They are living at the “old guest house.” After golden week I will have to visit them. (4 flights)

We went to the restaurant outside of the gate near the physics building. But that gate is closed because of the construction. A gate has been opened on the South side now. This street is closed at both ends but is really good for walking in the middle.

This is another good restaurant for us. You choose from displays of the uncooked food. Of course, we have no idea how it will be prepared, but we do know the ingredients. We had pickled cucumbers, braised celery with mushrooms & peppers, fried shrimp, beef with scallions (5 spices) and frogs legs (spicy with garlic). A change for dessert – pears and a black fruit with an apple texture, along with the watermelon. (2 flights – the tables are up one and the food choices are up another.)

Home (4 flights.) 10 total