Wednesday Afternoon in GuangZhou

In the afternoon after our Dim Sum, we went to see the Chen Family Temple. There are about 100 common names in China. Chen is one of them. It is a lot like Smith or Brown in the US. In China, there are about 130 million people with the surname Chen. Theoretically they are all related. That would be like 60% of the people in the US having the same last name. China has over 1.5 billion people...it makes our population pretty much a rounding error in any calculation.

The temple was built with donations from people with the last name Chen. I'm not sure, but I think the temple was originally built in the early 1800's (but I'm not certain). The detail on the woodwork is breath taking. Much of this was carved from single pieces of wood. The outside detail is all ceramic. The GuangDong province (GuangZhou area) is known for ceramics. The building has courtyards in side that are beautifully planted. There is one day a year (April 11th I believe) where everyone goes to pay respect to their ancestors. Everyone in China is cremated. It is believed that the spirit of your ancestors lives on. On this day, they become visible and you can actually talk and interact with them. There was a part of the temple that was built up with floor to ceiling stepped shelves. This is where portraits and artifacts from ancestors would be kept. In front was a huge table upon which people would leave offerings of a feast for their ancestors (fruit and the like). Simon was showing how all these shelves are bear and they are not in use. During the cultural revolution (which lasted about 10 years), the Red Army came and smashed all of the artifacts and ancestral information in the temple. They destroyed anything that had to do with the old China...it is just devastating. There were no written records so this history is lost forever.

There were many displays of art work in the temple. Of particular note were the bone and ivory carvings. The ship depicted here won awards. The detail is incredible. It is almost impossible to believe that a human being carved such intricate detail into these works of art. This ship, the "dragon ship" has doors and windows that open and close, and there is detailed carvings on each. The people on the ship have unique faces. These are not carved from one piece of bone, however many of the others pieces were.

I had to get in another sign for my translation connection. See the picture. The card describing the art work stated "the Painting of Going to Street on Tomb Sweeping Day." I did not know what to make of this...look at the art work that accompanies it. Ok, first this is not a painting. Maybe they put the wrong card here? Second, what does it mean Going to Street (the Doobie Brother's tune "takin' it to the Streets" immediately popped into my head. Is the street wall street? Any old street? Ok, maybe the crowd of people gather in the street. But what about "Tomb Sweeping Day?" This sounded, well, macabre. So, figured I better go get Simon.

Simon read it, got a puzzled look on his face, then smiled and said this translation is wrong. I don't know what that means in English. Remember I talked about April 11th when everyone goes to visit their ancestors? Well, that's what this carving is about...its all the people going to the street on their way to the temple (tomb) to worship their ancestors. Mystery solved, and one more addition to my sign collection.

The wood carving's were huge and surrounded large open doorways. Simon told us

that they were from one piece of wood...which if so, is absolutely fantastic. It had to have been one massive tree. And speaking of trees, Banyan trees are really popular here. They grow to be hundreds of years old and their roots hang down from the branches (we have had a few pictures throughout the blog...we showed you a really big one on Gu Lan Yu island, and one there was 500 years old). They are very pretty and majestic.

As we were leaving the temple, there was a line of limousines and fancy cars outside. Turns out a US dignitary was there. We think it waThe s the head of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernake. Or, it was the Secretary of the Treasury. I am embarrassed to say, I don't recall who is currently the US Secretary of the Treasury. (So I wouldn't recognize him if I saw him). You'll notice a picture of two Chinese guys, one on the other one's shoulders, hanging some lettuce outside a store front. That was the grand opening of the store that day. Those guys were there to do a dragon dance. But they couldn't, the police said that had to stop because of the dignitary's arrival. So, we didn't get to see the dance. But what they were doing, is hanging lettuce which is a symbol for money (you know, in the US we refer to it as "cabbage, " "the green"). The dragon will dance around and then eat the lettuce for good luck. It means you capture and keep the money... a good fortune for the store owner.

We headed out from the temple to go to what appeared to be a big shopping mall. It was sort of like the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, Jewelers row and Macy's all combined. There were tons of little shops where you could by jewelery, pearls, clothes, jade, you name it. Simon took us around to a few stores where he had relationships and let us shop. In the pictures you can see that Linda was down to some serious business. I won't spoil the surprise on some of the things we bought because I know the girls will want to share them with you. But suffice it to say we looked at some beautiful traditional Chinese clothes, some pearls, jade and DVDs. I'm a little worried about the DVDs, they came in a BlueRay disk box, but they are not BlueRay, and they were really cheap (like $2US a piece). This are recently released movies. The thought of piracy has crossed my mind...I guess we'll find out at US customs.

The girl in the turquoise top, standing next to the girl in the black top behind the counter, is making a pearl neclace. You can't see her hands moving in this still picture, but she is actually make a knot between each pearl. You would not believe how fast they do this. She tranfered each pearl to a new strand and inbetween each she formed a knot doing this at lighening speed. I figured that one strand would have taken me about two and half weeks. She did it in about 3 minutes.

This evening after a long, enjoyable day of sight seeing and shopping in this wonderful city, we are going to order in Papa John's pizza. You have no idea how good that is going to taste.

Tomorrow we have the morning open to explore Shaiman Island (that is the little island district the hotel is on...it is very quaint with older buildings (about 150 years old), beautiful gardens and peaceful streets. In the afternoon, we are going to ride the subway with Simon to see more of the city from a residents perspective. Tonight we are doing a dinner cruise on the Pearl River.

Wednesday Dim Sum in GuangZhou

Simon took for a Dim Sum lunch. Dim Sum is Cantonese. It is essentially like going to a buffet or smorgasbord. There was a long counter behind which cooks were preparing different types of food. One section was where they had noodles and soups, another all kinds of dumplings, another where they made Chinese pancakes. The it worked was you had a ticket. You went up to the counter with your tray and pointed to what you wanted and handed them your ticket. They would stamp it indicating the food you got. It was nice to sample a large variety of various kinds of food.

There is a few more things to keep in mind about China...they don't seem to drink much. And when they do drink, it is pretty much tea. If you are served a refreshing glass of water...it is warm (and sometimes hot). There is NEVER ICE in ANYTHING. However, if you order a Coke or Sprite, it does often come chilled. There are NO DIET SODAS. They even look at you funny if you try to order a diet anything. I'm not sure if it has a negative connotation or that with so many steps and so many bicycles there is much need for diet cola.

We got back to our table with our food, order a large bottle of Coke and dug in. I was proud of the girls for being rather adventurous. We had shrimp dumplings, a Chinese pancake (thin layer of dough, peanut butter and a bunch of sugar...it was delicious), a sticky rice, pork and mushroom wan ton, hand made noodles and wantons, pork wantons and steamed bread with sausage in the middle (aka pig-in-a-blanket). Half the fun was watching the cooks prepare the food and seeing all the exotic varieties.

After we finished lunch we went downstairs to the main floor. There they had their fresh food market...as you can see from the takes, it was so fresh it was still swimming. They had exotic things like fish heads (as you see in the picture), water beatles, eel, squid, crab and ALLIGATOR. It was a very interesting exposure to some pretty wild stuff that people actually eat.

In our discussions we learned some interesting things about Simon. He is married and has 1 child in kindergarten. He owns a travel agency and seems to have been working with Executive MBA groups and tries to focus on business clients. He is still doing a lot of work as a guide for adoptive families. He is an interesting tid-bit. Simon grew up in a 400 SF house...that's right, 400 square feet. I think many people in the States have closets bigger than that. Because of the small space and that they were poor, Simon slept on the floor on a mat. He said he sufferers today from rheumatism as a result. But can you imagine having your whole family live in 400 SF!? To cure this, he explained doctors treat poisons with poisons. So, he has had to drink snake blood before as a remedy. He offered some to Linda to help her knee, but she declined.

Another thing we saw today wer A LOT of weddings. We learned that weddings are chosen on days that are predicted to have good fortune for weddings. Days have fortunes. Some days are good for business ventures, for families staying together, etc. There is apparently a book, Simon referred to it as yellow pages, that indicates/predicates the fortune for future days. It sounds sort-of-like our farmer's almanac. In any case, when planning a wedding you consult the yellow pages to find a fortunate day and book it...and likely will contend with many others who have booked that forecasted fortunate day.

Wednesday Morning in GuangZhou

Well, first let me apologize to anyone who thinks my last posts might be a little too edgy. I found going to museums and learning about China's history fascinating...but also found the different perspectives that I observed and experienced in conversations I have engaged in, equally fascinating. It's not that one perspective is right or wrong...they are just different. Right now, there is a lot going on between China and the west over the situation in Tibet as this country prepares to host 500,000 foreigners and be televised around the globe. A lot is being said about what is being written in the western press which may expresses a different perspective than that being held inside of China. What I learned is that the source of some of our differences runs as deep as each of us holding different personal definitions of important terms and concepts like freedom - and that our difference in definitions and perspectives is deeply rooted in what we have experienced as well as what we have been taught. I am neither qualified nor interested in making philosophical comments about differences in systems of government or world politics...my observations are much more personal...they are about the everyday lives of people who live in an environment that is very different than what I have experienced thus far in my life. For me, it has been captivating.

The picture of me and Maggie in the red chair is sentimental for me. It is the very same chair I came in and sat down on with Maggie strapped to my chest in her baby carrier. The 12 families had just arrived from Xiamen and Melody and Sampson were getting us checked in. We were so tired, I fell asleep in the chair holding Maggie. So here I am, holding her again.

Once again, we had a wonderful day of sightseeing. We started off with what has to be the world's best breakfast buffet here at the White Swan. This hotel is truly a luxury hotel which has now become famous for hosting adoptive families. You cannot walk through the lobby without seeing dozens of families newly united with their adopted children...or as Dwyatt Gantt would put it "forever families." We weaved our way through dozens of tables with little china babies having breakfast. It was very interesting for us. You couldn't help feel a special bond amongst all of us. It is hard to explain...but this process and event is a very emotional one. We understood, as each of these families understood of the others, what they were feeling. It was funny how, now with our china baby almost 13 years old, we could pay attention to all that was going on around us. At the time, we were so myopically focused on the task at hand; taking care of this young life now in our charge, and ensuring that we were following all the instructions to the "T" to secure the finalization of paperwork and the adoption process, so afraid that we didn't know what we were doing that we didn't really notice anything going on around us. So it was somewhat humorous to watch these new families, oblivious to their surrounds as we were, stumbling through the initial steps of becoming a family. It was so nice, to be back and soaking in all the details of our surroundings that we had missed so many years earlier.

At 9:30 sharp we met up with Simon in the lobby, boarded our van and were off on our sightseeing adventure around Guangzhou. Our first stop was the Baiyun Mountain Scenic Center. It was like a state park with a mountain that went up about 300meters (900 feet...OK, it was a really big hill, but it was pretty!). We started out by taking a golf cart up to the peak. This is a hike that takes about 2 hours to walk, typically. Many of the locals hang out here on the weekends to get away from the city, and get back to nature. It is really gorgeous, quiet, serene and a nice relaxing spot to get away.

On the way up we saw some interesting sites. One was a number of local folks doing Tai Chi and dancing. Dancing has become very popular and way of exercising everyday; at least as I understand it. We also saw lots of folks play "hacky Sack." We found out, this is the universal name for this game as the Chinese refer to it as "Hacky Sack" as well.

Once reaching the peak (it is really the 2nd peak, the real pick is a bit higher and can only be reached by hiking), we entered the aviary to see some of the natural wildlife. We got to see the bird show.. it was hauntingly similar to the one on Gu Lan Yu island. The best part was the guy who was the master of ceremonies (aka "the birdman"). The look on this guys face and mannerisms was priceless...you could add all kinds of subtitles..."I live in a place that guarantees for employment and a job for life...look what I end up with; talking to birds" or "I hate my life...I see you people out there...I'm going to get you, all of you...I will have my revenge."

Now I learned something important at the show on Gu Lan Yu...if you want to clear out a Chinese audience, ask them to hold up some cash for the bird to come and take. Once you do that..."shows over" and the audience is on the way out. This guy did the same trick, except this time I gave Becky 5 Yuan to hold up. Darned if that silly bird didn't come and take it. Other members of the audience held up bills, but the bird would have nothing to do with it (turns out, they were holding up 1 Yuan...the bird was no dope).

We walked around the aviary and saw some very cool wildlife. There was a very colorful bird, not sure what he was, but he scooted along the ground and stop to pose for us. There were numerous peacocks and exotic chickens.

At this point, we headed towards the cable cars. I was very apprehensive. Do you remember my comments about the cable cars on Gu Lan Yu...well that went double here. These things were WAY UP in the air and I wasn't the least bit sure about their construction, maintenace or operation and if they got stuck I don't know how long we might be hanging around (if you know what I mean). In any case, and adventure is an adventure and go with it. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the manufacturer was an Austrian company. I figured if they made these things to go up the alps... a Chinese hill should be no problem.

The ride was very pleasant. Unfortunately, it was an overcast morning so you did not get great views of the city. But, it was neat to have the overcast sky as you road through the very lush forested area...it was very peaceful and quiet.

We ended that part of our adventure and headed out to Simon's next idea...let's go boating. There was a moderate size lake as part of this "forest preserve" type area. It had a place where you could rent boats. They had battery powered motor boats...that was my vote. We could rent two and race. I was over ruled and we ended up with a peddle boat for six (a geriatric cruiser if there ever was one). The girls and I took turns and Linda and Simon went for a relaxing ride. We did one big lap out around a little island in the lake. It was a good work out...the girls kept taking turns on the pedals. It was a breezy, cool morning. And despite the sight of tall buildings and the big city off in the distance, it was very quiet and pleasant. The surrounding trees and vegetation were breath taking. There was a large restaurant that was right along the water where people could sit outside and enjoy there meals overlooking the lake. Simon said that when people eat there, they like to try to sit by the windows or on the deck. The waiters charge you by counting the number of plates and utensils you use. He said the reason the Chinese want to sit by the water is so they could throw there plates and utensils in the lake and not have to pay as much (it's funny how the Chinese want to tell jokes that imply they are cheap!) We were teasing Lina when we were buying some souvenirs. We noticed a few things...first, when you give someone in China money when you buy something, they check to see if it is real. They scratch it, look at the watermark and go through every bill. On the buying end, Lina made sure she opened everything we bought and inspected it...and of course, you don't buy anything unless you bargain over price. We were buying one thing in particular, and Lina got in a discussion with the clerk and immediately began opening everything we were buying...she looked at us and laughed saying "sorry, I'm Chinese...that's how we do it." I was glad she did.

Now that our boat trip was over ...it was time for lunch.