OT:Back from China!

[SusanL]

Hi, we are finally back, spent 17 days in 11 different cities for DH's business trip! China is truly an incredible experience, I am most fortunate that we will be returning next summer, DH has to return in September! If anyone is interested, we got airfare at the most affordable rates, I can give you more info if interested!!
The people were MOST friendly and wanted to practice speaking English with us, I plan to get tapes this weekend to start learning Mandarin. If Susan is still here, you must contact me, is your husband still learning Mandarin?
The food was incredible, same things for breakfast, lunch, and dinner- but I was in heaven!! Tried pidgeon and frog, but don't think I will try them again. I had to eat them out of courtesy to our hosts, we are talking former vegetarian here!! It was tough but I chewed and moved a lot of things around on my plate! The shrimp we had were at least 8" to 10" long, the best we have ever had, except for having to remove the heads- I hate it when your food looks at you!!
I cried when we left The Great Wall, the most cherished moment of our lives, to think that they saw it from the Space Shuttle!
WOW, has this BB changed, I love it, and hope that I can get around as quickly as before!
Sorry for the long post, but talk about BB withdrawal, I will never complain again, as we were in such remote cities that air conditioning was a luxury, don't even think about accessing the internet! DH was incommunicado with his email for work, couldn't even get a telephone line to the States!! He was really in withdrawal!! Talk about being tense!
Great to be back and look forward to downloading and reading what you all have been discussing on this BB!

[kwormann]

Glad to see you back, and I see you are still up during our morning time......

The trip sounds wonderful!

Kim

[valchemist]

Susan,

welcome back early morning buddy!

you were actually gone at a good time bacause the bb was down almost the whole time you were in China. Seems that way anyway.

sounds like you had a wonderful trip.

Val

[daner94]

welcome back!

I would love to hear more details about your trip, as I am sure others would be too. If you have time, please post some more. What took your breath away (other than the Great Wall)? What kind of trinkets did you buy? What was the weather like? Did you see a lot of Americanization, ie, McDonalds everywhere?

I went to S. Korea 2 years ago and it was absolutely amazing, I would love to go back to Asia soon.

Dana

[Mamasue]

Welcome back SusanL! Can I be a store-a-way on the next trip?

[AD]

From what I understand, China is in terrible shape. It's very crowded, and it's under a totalitarian dictatorship. I have a hard time imagining good, safe food. Did they even have any toilet paper or clean restroom? I've heard that can be a real problem, and I've wondered about it for years. Were you able to notice (or affected by) the communist dictatorship or the unfair governing system while there?

[Curleytop]

My son is over there as we speak, on business. He has been there 3 times, a week at a time, and he thinks the people are very nice! The food is great. Different work ethic though, they work 12 hour shifts!

[SusanL]

Curleytop, you are right, they seem to work 24-7. There is no such thing as a weekend for many of the people. I think that there were 67 McDonald's in the city of Beijing!

By the way, GO BEIJING 2008 Olympics! It will be great for the country and they are working very hard to get ready for 2008!!

AD Yes it was crowded and you get used to seeing that many people. Depending where you are, seats in the bathroom with TP can be a problem, yes I carried my own TP with me and it was necessary, but I knew that from our trip last year.

We were stared at in the remote cities, drew a crowd in a store, people wanted to touch us- I am not sure why!! But they were all so friendly and wanted to practice their English-most of the people we encountered spoke some English, many that we met spoke 3-4 different languages!

The only time we were concerned was at a tollbooth, a guard/policeman flagged us over. Our vendor who was accompanying us and the driver got out of the car. The guard looked at us, looked in the trunk at our bags, came back and looked at us again, and then he waved for us to continue. We were told, "No problem!"

Dana Since it was a Business Trip, we didn't get to do much site-seeing but we did get to purchase some jade, dishes, and small items- we didn't have room to carry what we purchased! We did see the Ming Tombs and a jade factory in Beijing. Spent some time in Hong Kong, just missed both typhoons, within two weeks of each other!!

If anyone is interested, we travelled EVA Airways, very inexpensive but most attentive!! Ate very well on the plane, but the times for departure are unusual and you must fly to Taipei first, then to Hong Kong, they don't fly into China.

Mamasue Come along with us next summer!!

Val and Kim Missed you both in the mornings when I couldn't log on... I will never complain again about that :)

If anyone is interested in other info, feel free to email me. Hope I didn't take up too much space...

[kwormann]

It is so nice to hear about you trip!

Have you figured the new boards out yet.....

[SusanL]

Kim, I am trying, thanks to Mamasue, I have a garlic... the things that make us happy :)

[kwormann]

I had garlic yesterday and switched to cheese today...I also had a signature that disappeared....Im not sure where it went!


-Kim-
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with
abandon, or not at all.


Here it is, but I had to enter it manually