The end

June 5, 6 & 7, 2007 Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday

At 7 am a university car and student came to take us to the airport. There was the same shit in the trunk, because they had asked for a large car, but neglected to add that the trunk had to be empty. 2 suitcases had to be in the front seat. The driver said that we had too much stuff. The student came to the airport with us and made sure that we got checked in. (They do worry about us. Feng had bought the tickets and he thought we might have to exchange them for something else before the check in. We didn’t and it was very fast.) The student said that perhaps we would have to pay for excess baggage, but surprise, surprise, we didn’t.

The plane boarded early, pulled away from the gate early and was in the air at the time that they said it would take off.

Back at the Holiday Inn Express. We are really getting familiar with this place. Went to Yu Yuan for the famous dumplings: (2 flights)

Went to the tea house to buy the tea to fill all of my orders. And then walked a bit and back to the room.

For dinner we went back to the Hunan restaurant that Chuck had found in the fall. (1 flight) The book that I had bought him (50 Best restaurants in Shanghai) has been very good.

Love the beds in this hotel – the only ones that don’t make my back spasm when I move.

Only 3 flights today

Met Douglas to exchange our stuff. He has things for Heidi and Thomas, I had his sim card. He took us to Julie’s pearls. She has moved yet again – but this time to the Hong Qiao International Pearl City. There were 3 floors of stuff to look at and be tempted by. I chose 2 things and they strung them to order while we waited. We had to pick the pearl strands. Luckily Douglas is good at this – it took about 15 minutes, examining each strand to pick the best ones. Chuck found a comfy chair out in the aisle and rested.

We went to a dim sum restaurant nearby for lunch. (1 flight) After lunch we found an ATM because we needed more money. Always cautious, remembering the horrible story of the machine that ate the card, we found a bank with international symbols.

Walked along Nanjing road. That is the famous pedestrian shopping street and went home for a rest before dinner.

Chuck had chosen another from his book. I actually made reservations! We walked out to a main street to catch a cab. This hotel is off the beaten path for taxis. The book said that the restaurant was hard to find and it wasn’t just whistling Dixie – the cab turned off his meter, because he had to go back to find it.

Fabulous dinner. The book gives the specialties and they do chose good ones.

When we asked for the bill, the waiter asked if we needed a taxi, they called one for us and told us when it came.

1 flight – I will be out of shape by the time I get home.

Today we go home. Douglas’ wife’s brother-in-law is picking us up. Unless the trip is even more exciting than the trip here (half naked seat partner), you won’t be hearing from me again until we go to Slovakia in 2 weeks.

The answer to the things that I will be happiest to see when I get home. (not counting the grandchildren)

It is a tie between: My bed which doesn’t make my back spasm, and drinkable water out of the tap. Having to boil or buy all water means that you are always planning to make sure that you are going to have enough. The luxury of clean water has really been brought home to me.

I managed not to have to use the Chinese toilets too many times. So toilets weren’t as high on my list. I was careful about my fluid intake during the day, so I was probably a little dehydrated all the time.

I think that this is the first time that I have completed the blog of a trip.

China has been wonderful. The people have been friendly and helpful. The children are adorable.

Last day in Wuhan

June 4, 2007 Monday

Our last day in Wuhan. In the morning we went to the Yellow Crane Temple. This was in a very large park with many buildings. After climbing the requisite 10 flights, we arrived at the main pagoda. It had a lovely tile painting with the yellow crane:

How did they get the old guy in the wheelchair up to this? Chuck wasn’t going to climb any higher! THEY HAD AN ELEVATOR!!! We took it to the top and had this lovely view:

Went back to the department store near the campus (I was very proud of myself. I gave the driver the card to get back to the campus and then managed to get him to stop and let us out when we got to this store.) We had dumplings for lunch at the food court and then went back to the shoe store so that I could get another pair of sandals.

Walked over to the Physics building to say goodbye to Xiaoyan. We wanted to visit the zoo. (Our first choice had been Mao’s villa, but no one seemed to know what to write for the taxi driver.) Luckily Xiaoyan was with us when we flagged down the first taxi, because we would never have known what was going on. He was an odd number license plate. Because it was the 4^th, only even numbers could go across the bridge. Spotted an even and were on our way.

This was a terribly sad zoo. It had a lovely location on a big lake. It had several small lakes within the grounds. The animals were in teeny tiny cages with so many bars that you could barely see them.


They had no space and nothing to do. The panda was sick. Its keeper came out to look at it while we were there and then came to talk to us. He said, “She is ill.”

She was laying there making ou, ou sounds.

They did have two cute baby camels. But they didn't have much space either, so they only ate and didn't run around like the one in Hefei.

We went for dinner to a place that has special crab dumplings. (2 flights) Xiaoyan had written down the crab dumplings for us. We managed to order fish and vegetable from a menu with only words.

Tired out we found an even number cab to go back to our room. On the way we saw a police car with a bust of Mao on the dashboard. Both Xiaoyan and Feng had gone to Beijing. They needed to get their visas for Slovakia and the only consulate was in Beijing and only open 2 days a week. We will see them there.

12 flights

Yangtze 3 Gorges trip

June 1-3, 2007 Friday - Sunday

Met Hongfeng at breakfast. She translated the schedule for our boat trip. She and I went to the little store for snacks for the bus ride. (1 flight) On our way we spotted some students in their graduation robes taking each other’s pictures. It is the same scene which is found in every American university at this time of the year.

At 10:20 a university car came to pick us up. We had 3 people with 1 large suitcase (ours) and 2 small backpacks (ours and Hongfeng’s). The driver had his 7 year old son and a full trunk of his stuff. Chuck sat in the front with a very large gift box of sesame oil on his lap. This was dropped off at the university parking lot.

We went to a central meeting point to get the tour’s bus to YiCheng. This bus was filled to the gills with people. We think that the tour company figures out how many people are going for the boat, and then sells the extra seats to people who want to go to YiCheng or someplace on the way. A few people were dropped off. When the bus came, there was a stampede for the seats. Hongfeng was expecting this and scurried to get us some. The bus left at 11:30 and got to YiCheng at about 4:30. We were met by the rep. from our tour who told us that we should get some dinner before boarding the boat. He actually took the 3 of us to a nearby place. (1 flight) We had 2 mushroom dishes, a soup with a potato like vegetable and some rice. At 6:00 we boarded the boat.

This consisted of hauling our stuff down these steps, across several boarding ramps and up a flight of stairs.

The important thing about these steps is that at the end of the trip, we will need to go back up them.

These boats have a star system just like hotels in China. 5 is the best. Our boat was a 2. We did have a “first class cabin”. That entitled us to a 2 person room with our own bathroom. We also could go onto the special front deck with small plastic stools and the enclosed front room with chairs. (We had cards that we gave the guard at the door when we entered this privileged area and then the cards were returned when we went out. The girl also had a large tea brewer and we could get cups of tea.) We were the only westerners on the boat.

It did not include meals. Some of the other tour groups on the boat had meals included – but ours did not. We could buy breakfast for 5¥ and lunch and dinner for 10¥. But we didn’t have a place in the eating room, so we were given take out. Breakfast consisted of a bowl of rice gruel, some legumes, a spicy vegetable, a steamed bun with meat filling and steamed bread. Lunch and dinner was rice and a variety of veggie dishes and meat/fish with vegetables. We picnicked in our rooms, because during meal time the viewing rooms were locked. This is an example of lunch and dinner.

Some of the lower class passengers had cup noodle which they reconstituted with the hot water from the boiler. There was a mahjong room which immediately had games started. I think that these people played night and day for the whole trip. The lower class rooms had 4 people (2 bunk beds), no bathroom and no TV. Lots of them set up card games between the bunks.

We had 2 very narrow twin beds with a reading lamp. Chuck kept banging his shoulder on the lamp.

A TV:

We also had an air conditioner. It is the metal box over the desk.

Our own bathroom (with western toilet) and a shower that used the whole bathroom as a stall. We were told that the water is only hot when the motors are running – so not to take a shower when the boat was stopped.

Hongfeng had mentioned that the boat didn’t provide toothbrushes and toothpaste like the hotels do. She didn’t include that they didn’t provide soap, towels or TOILET PAPER, so we hadn’t brought those things. I did have some little tubes of shampoo that we used as soap. I had lots of tissues for toilet paper and we used Chuck’s tee shirts as towels. For two nights, we could deal. Now, I basically find boat rides boring. In a funny way, the funkiness of this trip made it better.

We had a door that opened onto our own fenced in balcony.

We were next door to Hongfeng. She was sharing with a young man.

About ½ hour after the boat sailed, we went through the lock of a small dam. 2 hours after that we got to the big 3 Gorges Dam. It is a damn big dam. There are 5 locks in a row to get the boat to the level after the dam. They also will have an elevator for smaller boats so that they won’t have to wait as long. They put the boats into the lock 3 across and 5 deep. It takes quite awhile to load up all the boats in the lock. Our tour guide was out on the deck giving lots of info in Chinese. Hongfeng translated the salient points. We all watched the process for the 1^st lock and the transfer to the 2^nd lock. At that point it was getting late. The guide said, “You see one lock, you see them all.” And we all went to bed. I thought that perhaps the noises of the transferring from lock to lock (whistles and horns blow) would keep me awake. Nope, slept like a baby. This is what the lock looked like from our room.

Breakfast was from 5 -7. You want to be up early to see all of the scenery. The Chinese people all posed for pictures at every new rock. I think they want to show that they have been there. We had our pictures taken too.

By this time people were getting used to us and began to be quite friendly. Everyone who spoke any English at all, came up to talk with us. They asked us questions about what we were doing and were quite forthcoming about their own lives. One young woman was a teacher. She noticed that Hongfeng and the people next to her were discussing education and I explained that Hongfeng was a professor. She felt that Hongfeng was very lucky. Many people (especially women) of her generation were not educated. She said that her mother and her uncle could barely write their names.

We had an early lunch at 10:30 because at 11:00 we transferred to a small tour boat to go up the mini 3 gorges. We scurried and got seats on the 2^nd level, but then discovered that there was a top deck. We paid the surcharge to go up there. It was a little hot, so we ended up in the air conditioned driver’s cabin in very comfy seats and were served tea for the whole trip. The weather was fabulous and clear and a very good day for this. The pilot offered to let us steer, but we passed on the opportunity. We just took turns sitting next to him. Being in this cabin made the trip much better. In the regular seats, the young woman commentator talked non-stop for 4 hours. Hongfeng would have had a hard time sorting out what to point out to us. Instead we had the pilot pointing out the good stuff and Hongfeng could just tell us what he was saying.

There had been a storm so a lot of debris had washed down the river and all collected at one point. Small boats were picking up the stuff and carrying it away. Among the trash and wood debris there were 2 dead pigs. (Quite bloated)

Back to our home away from home for more steaming upstream and dinner.

At 6:00 we transferred to another small boat to visit the temple of the White Emperor. This was a real scene. We had to walk through 4 boats to get to the dock. All of the people on these boats were going to get on 2 small boats to go to the temple’s dock. Our guide had a system. He would tell us when we should be ready to leave the boat and depend on us to get to the dock on our own. Then he would meet us and give us our tickets for the next step and point us on our way. (Some of the other guides led their troops the whole way.) We were in a line that was moving through a 1 person doorway when suddenly there was a pushing, screaming phalanx shoving from the right. It was quite scary, because at the doorway there was a lip that you had to step over. If anyone had fallen they would have been crushed. Two women in front of us were screaming at each other, but nothing seemed to get settled. The Chinese are very good at moving groups of people from one place to another very quickly – no one dawdles, but they do like to push and shove.

The Temple of the White Emperor had 425 steps. They had guys with chairs that offered to carry you up or down. I think I saw a look of relief when Chuck said no thanks.

This was the view from ¾ way up.

These two cuties had their hair pulled into side pony tails which were wrapped with bands. I wanted them to turn around so that I could get a close up of how their hair was done, but they kept turning to face me.

It was a good thing that this excursion was in the early evening. It was really hot climbing all of the stairs and then climbing down again. There was the usual gauntlet of vendors on the way in and out. They all sing out “Just looking.”

It felt good to get back to our air conditioned cabin and another good night’s sleep.

24 flights today 1 flight each for breakfast, lunch & dinner, 1 flight each time we returned to the boat, 2 flights on the Mini 3 gorges boat, and 17 at the White Emperor temple.

The last day we got up at 5:30, had breakfast at 6 and left the boat at 6:30. The boat was going through the locks again and we were going to each and every overlook spot so that we would be able to see the damn dam in all of its glory from every angle. The real reason that they do this is because the locks are pretty boring and we have to be kept busy for 4 or 5 hours. Every time we stopped, the bus guide would say what time we had to be back on the bus. We all had to get back on the same bus each time so were given the license number to memorize. (There were a lot of buses all doing the same thing – because all of the boats in the locks were sending their passengers off.) The amazing thing was that no one was more than 2 minutes late. The latest person had been in the bathroom. (2 flights at highest overlook)

Then we moved on to a temple that had kept a record of the water levels through the years. 1830 was the high mark, ¾ of the way up the temple’s pillars. All temples have 4 levels (that means 4 flights of stairs – minimum, some have more than one flight between levels) It was possible to be blessed by a monk, but that was a treat we could forgo to. This gauntlet was really aggressive. We were all glad when our boat pulled up to the dock. To get to it, we had to pass through a 1^st class boat – it had a giant fish head and tail and lots of carvings and Chinese furniture. Also the entire boat was air conditioned. They made us (the hoi polloi) use the crew stairway.

Back on the boat (2 flights), lunch (1 flight) and then a small relaxing time through the last lock at the small dam and time to get off the boat. The guide said that he would carry our big suitcase. (What a relief!) (4 flights)

The bus back to Wuhan was even more crowded than the one going. We picked up a guy in a service area parking lot and he sat on an upturned bucket in the middle of the aisle for the whole trip. There was absolutely no leg room at all.

We had a late dinner at the guest house. Feng Liu came and had a beer with us so that he could hear about the trip. His department paid for our trip and he wouldn’t let us reimburse him for either it or the hotel room. We have been really treated well on this trip. Everyone has been tremendously helpful and have gone out of their way to make sure that we are OK.

Said goodbye to Hongfeng. She was going back to Hefei (by bus) in the morning.

10 flights

May 31, Thursday

Xioayan did her thesis defense this morning. It was pouring so I stayed in the room to blog and get ready for the trip tomorrow. Chuck said that she did a “Superior” job. He gave her a UCLA hooded sweatshirt as a little congratulation present.

We all went for lunch at the guest house. (Wood ears mushrooms, shrimp, both boiled and fried, spicy tofu, meatballs with rice on the outside, dumplings, beef tendons, fish, long skinny mushrooms, soft spicy tofu, mushroom soup and sesame balls. Noodle soup was the main food.) This was a lot of food, but there were a lot of people.

In the Chinese system, there are several visitors from other universities who sit in judgment. At UCLA, it is normally just people from the university, but there is always someone from outside the physics department.

After lunch, Chuck and I went to explore some more department stores. (4 flights) The first one was sort of a bust, but the second one was more interesting. Then we stopped at the “Good Wood Coffee shop” (1 flight – we went up the wrong staircase) for a drink. It struck me that Good Wood didn’t make much sense, but if M and W were thought to be interchangeable – then Good Mood made much more sense. I will have to find out how Chinese letters work.

Everyone met again for a gala dinner. (1 flight) Nu Xu is the Chinese guy from Berkeley who is a tremendous foodie. He loves having large groups to order for. He keeps trying to find something that Chuck and I won’t eat. We have said that there are things that we personally wouldn’t order again, but we pretty much will try anything. Tonight’s challenge was deep fried snake. He also wants us to guess what it is we are eating. Snake was easy. Deep fried anything tastes good. It came with shredded carrots mixed with snake skin. We also had snake and turtle soup. This was box turtle – not soft shelled. It was very good. The snake is just mostly bones. This soup cost 400¥. I don’t think that we will bother ordering it ourselves.

Another challenge was duck’s tongues with sugar snap peas. Nu forgot that we had already had them at another dinner with him in Hefei. So he was a little surprised that we guessed right away.

Back to our room to pack for the big adventure.

6 flights

Hello Wuhan

May 30, 2007 Wednesday

After breakfast, Chuck and Xiaoyan wanted to work on her thesis defense. I said that I would walk with them to the office so that I’d know where it was. She said that there was a big store about 2 blocks from campus and I decided to go there. They were really worried and wanted to send a student with me. The student was going to be a guy. Both he and I were relieved when I finally settled on a map of the campus with the hotel, their building and the main gate marked.

The store was having some sort of event outside. It looked like girls were going to dance, but instead they just went up on the stage and filled out papers. All of the girls in gray are clerks at the store.

The music that was playing was American nursery school songs like “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.” A little boy was bouncy to the music and I said Nihao and bounced a little with him. His granny pulled up his shorts because they were sliding down a little – so then I was sure that it was a boy.

On the toy and children’s clothing floor, they had a play area:

There was a supermarket in the basement. The first thing that I saw was a display that included French’s mustard, both the jar and a squeeze bottle. Now! When I don’t need it.

On the way back, I stopped at a shoe store and bought 2 pairs of sandals for a total of 99¥.

This campus is very hilly, so they have trams (like the ones at Disneyland) to take people around. Xiaoyan had explained that there are 2 lines, so I’d have to show the driver the hotel card. She also said that I might have to wait awhile till one arrived at the gate. She neglected to mention that they cost 1¥. There were 2 waiting when I arrived, the 1^st one was the correct one, and I had seen someone giving money as I walked up. Just happened to have the change from my shoes in my pocket, so I was all set.

I met Chuck and Xiaoyan and we walked to an on campus restaurant. (In my new blue sandals. I am happy to report that they are very comfortable.) This was the rose garden out side of the restaurant:

All of the campuses that we have seen have been really lovely. I think that because everyone lives on campus, including faculty, it is more like a little self-contained village. Went to the supermarket next door for water before going back to the hotel. Chuck had a small rest before going back to give his talk. (2 flights)

He likes to be early – so we started out with lots of time. Just as we hit the street, there was a rumble of thunder. “You go on,” I said. “I’ll go back and get the umbrellas.” By the time I got back outside, it was teaming. I saw Chuck taking shelter on the porch of the next building. He had been caught in it and was soaked. I sent him back to change and went on with the computer so that we could set up for his talk. This was upsetting for him, because he didn’t get back until the exact time that the talk was supposed to start.

I am really happy with the blue sandals – they got really wet and were still comfortable. I may go back and buy another pair.

I had to sit through this talk too. I think that this group understood better what he was talking about.

We had dinner in a room at the guest house. There were several visitors who are here for the thesis defenses. There are 4 of them in 2 days. Xiaoyan didn’t come – she was working on the suggestions that Chuck had given her.

Good Bye Hefei

May 29, 2007 Tuesday

While checking all of the drawers and closets, I found the source of the mosquitos. I hit the head of the bed and a whole bunch of them came out from behind the bed. I would have been out buying bug spray if we weren’t leaving.

Miss Hua, the cleaning lady came early to help carry the suitcases down. Chuck was told that he shouldn’t carry heavy things and our suitcases are definitely heavy. I think that we must be a source of gossip among the Chinese – we have SO MUCH STUFF.

I took one wheeled case down myself. Chuck took his briefcase and the computer case. Miss Hua and I took a none wheeled one. Then Xiaolian came, so she and Miss Hua took another none wheeled one and I took the last wheeled. So I had done 8 flights. Chuck went back for the water and a last check around.

The car came just before 8:00 and we loaded up and said our goodbyes. Hongfang got the keys and my Hefei calling card with the remaining minutes. Miss Hua got towels, table cloth, leftover food, sodas and beers.

It was a pretty uneventful trip. We left at 8 and arrived in Wuhan at 12:30. Along the way, we saw a truck backing up on the highway (I guess he had missed his exit). This could be what contributes to the rear end accidents. We are supposing that they have a lot of them, because there are a lot of signs warning about it. We also used the shoulder to pass two trucks that were occupying the 2 main lanes. I tried to sleep a little, but because the driver speeds up and then has to slow down for trucks passing, police warning zones, etc. it was a little hard. The driver had a GPS so we could see what to look for out the windows.

Xiaoyen met us at the Wuhan guest house. This one really looks like a hotel. It has 12 floors and several dining rooms. It still doesn’t provide bottles of water and still is very chintzy with the toilet paper. The air-conditioning is great though, which is agood thing. Wuhan is known as the furnace of China.

After lunch we went to the provincial museum. We drove around a lake to get to it. Wuhan’s traffic is hard, because they have a lot of water (lakes and rivers) in the city. We were really lucky. The bell concert was just about to start when we got there. It lasted about 15 minutes, which was just the right amount of time. Chuck really likes the Chinese bronzes. There were some really good ones here. (1 flight)

Getting a cab at 5:00 was difficult. This is the shift changing time in Wuhan. Got back to the hotel at 5:20 and took a quick shower before dinner. If it continues like this, I will be taking showers all the time.

The whole group went for dinner. (1 flight) We fell into bed at 9:00 unable to keep our eyes open another second.

10 total today

Last day in Hefei

May 28, 2007, Monday

This is our last day in Hefei. Tomorrow we are being driven to Wuhan. I hope to continue having internet access – but don’t know.

Spent the morning organizing all of our stuff and packing. Some stuff I am giving to the English teaching group. Some more books, lots of Dayquil and nightquil, food that the cleaning lady would not want, like peanut butter, etc.

After lunch delivered it to Sherri. Chatted for awhile. She showed me their library – I can see why they were sooooooo excited with my books. They don’t have much, but if I return here, I will have borrowing privileges. (4 flights to Sherri and 4 home.)

Chuck took the women’s presents to them today. We are all going out to dinner this evening. Someone is here for a thesis defense, and Fan Wang finally showed up.

I walked across campus to meet the group for dinner, along the way came across this hedge of gardenias. The smell was intense. Some little boys were using the blossoms as badminton birdies.

Another bride.




We had a room on the 5^th floor of the restaurant, so didn’t have to walk up the stairs. After dinner we walked down. I realized that I have never included a picture of the food choosing room.
The center island had shrimp and meat dishes. Behind it on the left were the total vegetable dishes, in the middle were veggies mixed with meats and tofus, to the right (out of the picture were the cold dishes. Turning 180 degrees:

Here were the octopus, frogs’ legs, casseroles and on the right out of the picture were the fish tanks.

On the stair landing was a guy making a very thin bread. This one was going to have bananas in it. Some were savory and some were sweet. I think the choices were: banana, butter, peanut, spring onion, & tuna fish

(4 flights at home)

It is a good thing that we are leaving. We spent a horrible night being eaten alive. We never see bugs during the daytime, but tonight they all came out. Starting at the 1^st joint of my little finger on my left hand, I have 15 bites in an almost straight line going to my upper arm, and that is just one arm!

Dinner with all of the students

May 27, 2007 Sunday

Chuck went to work and I checked my email. Suddenly an ENORMOUS BUG landed on my shirt pocket. I tried shaking the shirt – still there. I’m going “eh, eh, eh” in a panic. Walked to the living room, still eh, ehing, bug still there. Brushed it off with the fly swatter and smacked it good.

Learned later that the children like to play with these bugs and that they have hooks on their feet, so it was unable to get loose from my shirt. It was awhile before my heart started beating normally again.

Chuck and I went to Carrefour for lunch and some last minute shopping. The food court has an interesting system. There is a central cashier. You buy a smart card. This took awhile for us to understand. A young guy showed us his and took us to the place to get the card. One problem – we didn’t know how much our food was going to cost. We guessed, went back with our card and ordered some dumplings. Then we had 8¥ left. Chuck went and bought a large beer. We now have a card with 2¥. I will give it to the cleaning lady.

I had collected all the Carrefour slips I could find, so after buying, tried my luck with the game again. I won a face cloth! The young guys who hadn’t been able to get any baskets were quite surprised. (4 flights)

Picked up Chuck’s shirts and found some paper to wrap gifts. We are giving Jian, Hongfang and Xiaolian UCLA shirts. (4 flights)

We took the group out to the hot pot restaurant for a last good bye. I think that they are all getting A’s. They came to the lectures, did the problems and had dinner with us. Sounds fair to me.

These are the future physicists of China. Many of them will be coming to the US for grad school.

(4 flights) 12 flights.

3 bride night

May 26, 2007 Saturday

The fireworks started at 6:15 this morning. Some bride must be getting an early start.

I was invited to Sherri’s apartment for coffee. She is from Seattle – and knows strong coffee. It was delicious. Allison joined us. I took two bags of books. We had a lovely time sitting and chatting. They all live in what is called the old guest house. The rooms are much smaller than our place. Sherri has a living room, bedroom, bath, kitchen and dining room. She lives on the 4^th floor also. Allison lives on the 5^th. (4 flights there and 4 home)

When they heard that I hadn’t yet been to the Temple market, Sherri said that she was planning on going and why didn’t we make it that afternoon. I had heard about the City Gods’ Temple market, but Hongfang and her husband decided that I shouldn’t go there. (The Chinese are always worried that something might happen. China seems quite safe to me. I do realize that in crowded places, a purse might be stolen or a pocket picked, but that doesn’t seem to be a reason not to go.)

The temple market is a warren of shops. One reason not to go might be that you would get totally lost and not be able to find your way out to a street. Sherri wanted to buy some fabric to get some dresses and pants made. There is a 2 story fabric building with lots of different shop areas, very crowded. She found some fabric that she liked for a dress and some other fabric for pants. How much did she need? They called the tailor over from his booth for a consultation. She had dealt with him before, so was quite comfortable with the process. After much consultation, the fabric was cut. Oh, oh, the pants fabric was not big enough. (He was right there!) After somemore consultation, the tailor said that with another piece the same size, he could make 2 pairs of pants – one for me, too. Was I interested? OK. The deal was made. I paid my share for the fabric - 49¥

The tailor was busy with another customer (having a gorgeous brocade jacket made). We went off to look at other stuff. Found the little Chinese stuff area and made some purchases. Then made our way back. Much measuring and discussing style. Not tight fitting!! I told Sherri to tell him that my hips and thighs were as small as they would ever be. I gave Sherri money to pay him when she picks everything up in a week. She is going to mail them to me when she is home in Seattle in a month. The pants are costing 30¥. So for $10, I am having custom made pants. (2 flights)

The heat was getting to us, so bought a water and found a cab for home. (4 flights)

We wanted to go to Meng Cheng for our last dinner. This was our favorite place. BUT, it was a three bride night and they were totally full.

We walked over to the Holiday Inn. They have a Chinese buffet in a revolving restaurant on the 29^th floor. Had a good dinner with a lot of tastes, so weren’t too disappointed.

Just as we were finishing, this little guy and his grandmother came by.

He is 8 months old. I got out my pictures of Branwen and Calder and suddenly we had a mob at our table. People were coming over from picking food and from other tables. I showed the picture that has their Chinese middle names on the back and there was much excitement. Grandma took some of the pictures back to her table to show more people. We could hear her saying the names. What fun.

Back home. (4 flights) 24 isn’t on on the weekends, so we went to bed a little earlier.

18 flights.

Lots of pictures

May 25, 2007 Friday

Leaving the campus is always an experience. This is what greeted me as I exited the East gate. I actually usually come out of the gate exactly where the truck is. The little castle roof in the background is the Kindergarten.

Since I have been going to Carrefour so regularly, I thought that you would like to see some of it. (They don’t really like you to take pictures – so I was holding off till near the end of the trip.

When you enter the store, there is always a long line of tables with the weekly sale items – known as PROMOTION or PROMO. These signs are always bright yellow with red writing. This week’s promo is fans. (It is getting beastly hot.)

There are always girls handing out tastes. Usually there is one with the tray and one with a microphone. This was for a Nestle’s coffee. They are always dressed in a company costume.

After buying and paying, there has been a game. Today since there was only one other person there, I decided to see what it is about. You give them your store receipt, and depending upon how much you have bought, you get tennis balls. I only got one. Then you try to make a basket. The different baskets are worth different points and get smaller as the points get higher. If you make a basket, you get a prize. It looked like 1 point was worth a washcloth and 5 a can of soda. I didn’t make a basket.

The guy behind me gave me 2 thumbs up because I was joining in the fun. (4 flights)

In the afternoon, I went to find an exhibit that I had been told was on the 5^th floor of the Delicious plaza. When I exited the elevator there was a guide who pointed me in the direction of a – meeting. No, No, wrong place. But there was a lovely roof garden with paths, streams, gold fish, and places to sit.

The next floor had the exhibit. It was about the changes in things – farm equipment, planes, and record players (from cylinder to portable DVD player). Then there was a section about the research that USTC has done in Antarctica with pictures of everything.

Since Delicious Plaza also has a China Unicom booth, I decided to drop in and find out how much money was left on my sim card before I left Hefei. I know that the people at the place in Nanjing weren’t able to put more money on, but they were able to tell me how much I had on the card.

There were 2 young girls. They both insisted that they couldn’t help. I pointed & said Computer? No, no, their computer wouldn’t do it. The one on some other street could. I pantomimed using my phone to find out – I know that this must be possible. Oh, what a novel concept – yes that would work. I almost was ready to say, “What the &*%&%* good are you? Are you just here to sell phone chatchkes?” (However you spell that word – you know, the crap that you can buy for your phone to make it more special.)

On the way back to the apartment, I saw the garbage collection “truck”.

And the street sweeper:

(4 flights)

At dinner time, I walked across campus to meet Chuck in his office. We then could leave by the gate close by and walk to Mao Jia the Hunan restaurant. There was a stroke victim being helped to exercise by his wife. He had a cane in one hand and his wife’s hand in the other. She had a loop on a leash around his bad foot. When he lifted it a little, she gave a tug to bring it forward.

At Mao Jia we had the spicy octopus. I should say the incredibly spicy octopus!!! Some black fermented tofu squares, also spicy, the broccoli rabe that the dim sum restaurants serve and the crudités. You really need the crudités to ease the spiciness.

That’s the octopus on the right. Each and every red thing is a tiny chili pepper.

Home to 24 (4 flights)

12 flights