Hong Kong

Hello from Hong Kong, everyone!
 
Our trip to China is almost over and I can finally access my blog!  Turns out that China blocks blogs and Facebook from inside the country; I probably should have anticipated that, but I didn't.  So, these entries will be a bit of catch up!

We have had a wonderful trip!  There are many details that I will fill in after we are home, but here are some thoughts for now.

China has massive potential but is still a third world country.  The contradictions in what we saw - more cranes and construction sites than we could count in most cities and farmers hoeing or using water buffaloes to till their soil for example - make that obvious.  Her people are industrious, brave, intelligent, friendly and charming.  There were many times when we were asked to pose for photos with children and adults, mostly because they had never seen a Caucasian person in real life before!
 
We had wonderful local guides in each city or area that we visited.  In Lhasa, Beijing, Xian, Guilin, Chongqing, Yichang and Shanghai they were wonderful ambassadors for their cities and it's citizens - articulate and knowledgeable.

We saw the fantastic historical sites that we had only read about - Tianammen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, the terra cotta soldiers, tombs of various Emperors.  We cruised the Li River and the Yangtse river.  We saw pandas.

We ate fantastic foods in the northern wheat growing areas and in the southern rice areas.  We ate spicy and more mild preparations.  We tried many new dishes and declined only a few.  Unfortunately, I know now that I love dumplings and steamed buns!  We've drunk a lot of tea and Jon's drunk a lot of Chinese beer.

Of course, we've done a bit of shopping and have some new treasures to add to our home decor.  We've been at jade shops, pearl shops, cloisonné factories, silk factories, museum shops and many local markets.  Lots of learning went on in each place!

I will add pictures for this entry when I add the other posts.  For now, just know that there is more coming soon and that we will be home with stories to tell before too long!  Another adventure.....