We left Utah on May 15 directly after Quinn's baptism and mother's day to fly to China. Originally we were scheduled to tend the kids while Jen and Taylor went to Spain for Jen's Ironman competition. Things changed and as we were boarding our flight in LA, we received a WeChat message that their Spain trip was cancelled. We continued on our trip and had a delightful spring visit. It was our first time to visit China in the month of May. The flowers and vegetation were beautiful and the weather was quite pleasant so it is a nice time to visit.
Jen and Taylor had moved to a new complex that allows the kids to play outside in a large fenced courtyard which is really quite nice.
Their unit is on the main floor just inside this building. They store the kids' bikes and scooters on the front porch along with other children's toys.
We saw this door in a nearby shopping mall and thought it was pretty funny. Their apartment is very convenient to stores, nearby friends and the school that the kids will attend next year is next door to their complex. Very convenient location!
The boys all went together for a haircut. This was Steve's first professional haircut in years.
June tried on this traditional Chinese dress that I purchased for a friend's daughter. So cute.
June's ready for school. This year Jen takes them mostly on the scooter or drives the car if the weather is bad. Taylor and Jen both have Chinese drivers' licenses now so they no longer employ a driver.
We were impressed with how well Jen drives in the crazy traffic. She managed to get us where we needed to go, including several lunch appointments with Taylor throughout our visit. Parking was very challenging.
She dropped us off at the market a couple of times so Steve could order a couple of suits and we could do some shopping for folks back home.
We love the beautiful flowers!
The displays look nice but I don't care for most of their baked goods. They look better than they taste.
Below are some photos of their current apartment. The kitchen is small but I think that the tradeoff to have the secure courtyard, large basement and secure underground parking are probably worth it. The location is fantastic!
Saturday morning Jen and the kids walked around the corner to watch runners in a big race. Taylor was out riding bikes with his team.
We did a little shopping at the nearby Carefour market. Mostly we just like to check things out, but is very handy and just fun to look at.
Below is the kids' bedroom and reading/music room.
This is the view of their building, complex and entry gate which has guards around the clock.
We saw several projects like this on our walks around the area. They dig up the bricks or patio blocks, remove the mortar and then put them back down and put down new mortar. It looked like busy work to us. I guess they need to keep their government workers busy doing something.
These two old buildings below are across the street from the brand new Natural History Museum in Puxi that we visited on Saturday afternoon. I wanted to take photos of them because they probably will be gone by the next time we visit Puxi. Everything old is being torn down and replaced in Shanghai.
The Natural History Museum had very nice displays and I think the kids really enjoyed it. It was a nice family outing. We tried not to be too annoyed by the demonization of mankind and the man made climate change myth.
This wall of animal antlers reminded us of our friend Seth. He is working on building his own collection.
Recent developments on the Shanghai transportation situation are these bikes for rent. One pays about $1.50 on their credit card and then they pickup a bike wherever they are and ride it to wherever they want and just drop it off anyplace. I guess you get a code when you pay that unlocks the bike or something like that. They were all over the place.
I always love the contrasts in China-cars next to carts.
After we finished at the museum, Taylor put a message out for a car and driver, kind of like Uber. The driver took us to the European section of Puxi where we planned to eat dinner at a particular restaurant. We never did find that restaurant but we walked around until we found another one that was acceptable. It featured pizza. It was a "sweetheart day kind of like Valentine's Day and they had a special deal." We easily spent a certain amount of money because there were six of us so we were supposed to get a free bottle of wine. Taylor managed to trade it for ice cream cones for the kids.
Got to love that bamboo scaffolding. We don't see it nearly as often as we used to.
Now we are in the restaurant getting the "sweetheart deal."
Another street vendor. We were never hungry enough to be tempted.
Sunday, Taylor drove us to church. He parks in a lot behind the church. The drivers all drop people off in the front. We love going to church with them in China. Their branch has many amazing people with strong testimonies of Jesus Christ and His gospel.
On Monday, we decided to sign up to join a tour group going to Suzhou, a city about 62 miles northwest of Shanghai known for it's canals, gardens, and history in the silk trade. This allowed Jen and Taylor to take care of their normal commitments and not worry about entertaining or transporting us. We met our driver at about 7:30 in the morning at a hotel about 10 minutes away. There was a little misunderstanding, but we finally connected and then went to 4 or 5 other hotels throughout Puxi to pick up 7 other tourists--mostly from the U.S. but one was from Europe. The tour was in English.
One lady, from California, who was the historian for Levi Strauss, was in Shanghai for a big 100 year celebration of Levi Strauss. It turned out she is LDS. What were the chances of that?
Below is the skyline for Suzhou. It is the 2nd largest city in Jiangsu Province after the capital, Nanjing. With 10.58 million people in the geographic area, it is the largest non-capital city in the world and growing at a rapid rate because of it's economic development. They manufacture cars, textiles and have a large tech industry. It was founded in 514 BC due to it's geographic location. It is sometimes called the Venice of the East.
Our first stop was to one of the many Chinese classical gardens--Master of the Nets Garden, Wang Shi Yuan, built in 1140 and restored in 1785. It is the smallest of the famous gardens but was designed in a way to feel larger and more spacious. It was inspired by the simple life of a Chinese fisherman. There were some pine trees and a cypress tree that are centuries old.
The residences were designed for artistic and philosophical and religious expression. Everything has a special meaning. The woodwork was intricate and beautiful.
Little workers kept dumping dirt into the ponds. We didn't know the purpose.
There were many students and artists painting and drawing. This is a favorite place to contemplate the beauty of nature. We purchased a scroll painting in the museum.
This bridge is a famous, very small arched bridge called the "Leading to Quietude Bridge."
I loved these intricate frame of woodwork and made Steve climb up on the rocks behind it so I could take this picture.
We enjoyed the garden very much. Hopefully we will have another opportunity to visit other ancient gardens in Suzhou.
This picture shows the LDS Levi Strauss lady and our tour guide whose English was excellent.
Next we went to the Grand Canal and below is the bridge we hiked up to cross the canal.
The Grand Canal is the longest artificial canal in the world running north/south from Beijing to Hangzhou, 1100 miles. It connects two major rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. It was completed in 609 AD for the purpose of shipping grain and supplies from southern China to Beijing for the northern army to defend from the Mongols. The oldest section was built in the 6th century BC. It took 6 years to connect and expand existing canals. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, was a tyrant who forced millions of farmers to labor there. Many died during the process. It was rebuilt during the Ming Dynasty in the 1400s. It even used locks to equalize water levels.
The residence behind Steve is the longest continuously occupied residence in the city of Suzhou. It is hundreds, maybe thousands, of years old. See the laundry hanging out to dry.
This is the ancient residence.
Next stop was a restaurant across the street from the Silk Museum and Factory for a traditional Chinese lunch.
About 8 to 10 different foods were placed on a big lazy susan which was spun around so each guest could serve themselves. You could eat as much as you wanted. We tasted most dishes. They kept it pretty basic to give foreigners a Chinese experience without anything too exotic.
Next we went to the silk factory where they explained the entire ancient process of getting the silk spun by the silkworms that fed on mulberry leaves and eventually ended up made into beautiful silk clothing and items sold in a store at the end of the tour. This factory actually produces silk in limited amounts the old fashioned way so tourists can view each step. Other factories are modernized and much more productive I'm sure.
A typical cocoon is comprised of a single silk thread that is a kilometer long.
Some cocoons contain two worms and need to be sorted from the others. Their thread is used differently.
Here the workers are stretching the spun silk out layer upon layer to create silk comforters. We got to take a turn doing that and I helped while Steve took a video. Then of course, we purchased a very lightweight comforter for our soon to be purchased king-sized bed.
We really love our silk comforter. You never wash or dry clean your comforter so it is important to place a cover over it.
From the silk factory, we drove through the countryside about 30 miles to a nearby ancient water town named Zhouzhuang, originally built in 770 BC. They used the natural canals of the area and added some of their own to transport goods to other markets.
We saw many greenhouses along the way but we didn't know what they were growing there.
I loved the contrast of this very old building with its wifi sign.
This water town is described as more commercial. We guessed that many tour groups come here during peak season as the parking lot was huge. This watertown charges an entrance fee of 100 yuan.
This is part of the famous Twin Bridge--where two rivers, Yinzi Creek and Nabeiski River criss cross. The E/W bridge has a round arch and the N/S has a square arch.
A 20-30 minute boat ride was included for our tour group. This was our first boat ride in an ancient water town. Many of the boat operators sang Chinese songs to their group. We heard others as they passed by but our operator rushed along and did not sing. He didn't seem to enjoy his work much.
We enjoyed our tour day to the Suzhou area very much. I feel confident there would be a lot to see if we are ever able to return to that province.
The next day was rainy and we stayed around Shanghai. We did meet with Clayton and his wife, Taylor's former Icon associate who was in Shanghai for business, and had lunch all together. We have met them before and loaned them one of our cars when they came to Utah for a family ski trip.
On Wednesday, Taylor drove us to Hangzhou. He arranged to work that day with his dealer there in Hangzhou. I have always wanted to see this area that is very popular with tourists so Taylor was gracious enough to arrange it.
It is a very prosperous city with over 21 million in the overall geographic area. The charge a fee for drivers who drive during certain hours of the day so Taylor was very careful when he drove his car.
It took us about 3 hours to drive there and Taylor took us directly to our hotel, The Shangri-La which was built directly across the street from West Lake. The location was superb.
Taylor's dealer picked us up at the hotel and drove us part way around the beautiful lake to have lunch at Jacob's Creek. It was a very nice mini-van.
The dealer and Taylor ordered us a very nice traditional Chinese dinner which included local specialties. It was served on a lazy susan as his typical in China. This flower arrangement was made of fresh flowers and was gorgeous.
After our lunch, he drove us to the Liuhe Pagoda, a multi-story pagoda built in southern Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province in 970. It was destroyed in 1121 by warfare. It was reconstructed in 1165 during the Song Dynasty. It served for a time as a lighthouse on the Qiantang River.
Steve and Taylor pose with our dealer host in the area reconstructed and reinforced under the pagoda.
There were gorgeous carvings, paintings, etc on each level of the pagoda. Each level was totally different and they were amazing.
Of course there was a place to worship the symbols of their religion.
Here is another pagoda across the lake.
Here is Steve in front of the hotel. It was older but well-maintained and quite elegant.
Across the street is the West Lake. The dealer dropped us off for the afternoon while he and Taylor worked. We had a delightful walk around our section of the lake. It was lush and well-manicured. We really thought we were in heaven.
Below some young military people were running and doing their drills.
I am standing on an ancient bridge built in 1783 in West Lake, Hangzhou, China.
Below is the beautiful Jade Belt Bridge seen from across the water.
The West Lake area was crowded with tourists but they 99% Chinese. We saw very few non-Chinese people
It was interesting to observe some of the local cooks making their specialties.
We ended up grabbing dinner at a Chinese KFC. The food was terrible but by the time we ate, we needed to hurry because we had tickets to a performance on the lake that evening just after sunset. The show was produced by the same man who put together the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Winter Olympics. We were not disappointed. The show was spectacular. Hundreds of dancers danced on platforms just below the water so it appeared that they were walking on the water. Other musicians were brought in on floating islands to perform. Ballerinas were duplicated by holograms into multiple identical dancers and the lighting was fantastic! Put this show on your bucket list if you ever get to China.
Steve and I got up early the next morning to walk the other direction around the lake. We were hoping to see people doing their traditional tai chi exercises but we didn't see any. We saw plenty of runners, cyclists, etc. Many carried their own music but no one used headphones for privacy. Chinese are a noisy culture.
This was some sort of a large group wearing matching shirts. We couldn't get close enough to figure out how many there were or if they were exercising or protesting or what. They were cheering or singing and they were loud.
We passed boatmen getting ready to take tourists on rides on the lake, museums, tombs, temples, etc. People were cleaning and preparing for their day so they allowed us to just walk through and pretty much ignored us.
Of course, there were street sweepers with their bamboo brooms, and statues of famous citizens.
The garden areas were so lush and beautiful. If I could imagine the Garden of Eden, West Lake would be it.
We joined Taylor for a buffet breakfast back at the hotel. They served traditional Chinese dishes as well as international fare. There was plenty of food that's for sure.
Taylor said that Hangzhou is very famous for a particular tea. This many ws working with the tea leaves.
Hangzhou is a typical Chinese city with many, many apartment buildings and as usual, their laundry was hung out the window to dry in the sun.
One thing that we noticed right away was that each intersection had a covered area for the cyclists and those on scooters to wait in the shade for the lights to change. It was really quite a nice feature.
I guess the little smart cars get to drive in the scooter lane too.
As we were driving out of town and back to Shangai, we noticed a very common style of architecture on the buildings. Taylor says that it is common in Zheigiang Province to buildings to have little elevated, pointed roof tops similar to turrets. You can see three of them in this photo below.
Another site that was amazing to us was to see these twin nuclear power plants next to the freeway just a few miles outside of Shanghai. I guess we expected them to be more isolated.
When we arrived in Shanghai, we had just enough time to pick up Steve's suits at the market and get the kids from school so we could say goodbye before heading to the airport. The kids were excited with their new spinners, and June had on her birthday dress. She turned 6 on June 20th.
We loved our visit to China in May 2017. We especially loved hanging out with Taylor, Jen, Will and June. They make the long trip all worthwhile.
No comments:
Post a Comment