It's June............

Greetings Everyone !!! I promised you that I would post a couple of photos from the China trip, that my daughter took me on in April. Well... at long last, here they are !!!!
Here we are standing on the great wall of China........... absolutely incredible!! I mean, we have all seen it in National Geographic or on Discovery Channel..... but here we were, standing and looking out at the Wall... as far as your eyes can see, the wall snakes its way up over the mountains, down into the valleys and up again. And you must Climb it.... it is steep and up up up. Now something you may not know.... the wall is lined with Vendors, yep, there are villages at the base of the wall where the vendor families live, and each day they carry their loads of stuff up the wall to their spot, where they sell to the tourists and then carry their loads back down at sundown. You can buy t-shirts, photos, coffee cups, small pieces of the wall with the Wall engraved on it, musical instruments, lovely paintings, postcards... you can even dress up in chinese costumes and have your photo taken. And you can meet people from all over the world coming and going on the Wall. It is an experience of a lifetime.... and You Were There !!!

This is the oldest Buddhist Temple in China (so we were told, anyway) this is in the city of Xi'an, which is located on the legendary Silk Trail... where caravans trekked across China to Turkey, taking silk and spices to Europe. It was very different from Thailand, where there is a buddhist temple just about on every corner! In China, the influence of communism is very prevalent, and the absence of religion is everywhere. we were told "people come here to make a wish".

Also located just outside of the city of Xi'an are the terracotta warriors. WOW, another incredible site to see. We learned that only ONE figure was found IN ONE COMPLETE ORIGINAL PIECE, all the others that you see in the pits have been carefully and painstakingly put together from the jigsaw puzzle mess of pieces !!! quite a job!! Many of the pits have NOT been opened yet, because they are waiting for better technology to use. the terracotta figures were all painted, but as soon as the air reaches them, the color disappers... so they wait for the future when they can open and preserve them better.

Here we are in the largest city in China, Shanghai. It is truly an old ancient meets new modern city. We are standing along the famous Bund.... the international banking district is in front of us, then the lovely river and all the modern skyscrapper/businesses behind us. We walked through lovely quiet ancient chinese gardens, shopped in an old Muslim market and emerged out into modern city. As a side note, my daughter Stacey will be going to school for her MBA for one term here in Shanghai next May 2009. she is excited to return to this interesting city.

My daughter and I were surprised by some very basic everyday differences from our life here in Thailand.

In China, everyone wears shoes, lots of different shoes, (in thailand... everyone wears flip flops and they are removed when you enter homes, temples and even many businesses)

the people do NOT smile when you meet them on the street, (in thailand people always give you a smile)

there are NO ATMS, (everywhere you go in thailand there are ATMS and money Exchange booths

the hotels had HEAT, (the hotels in thailand do NOT have heaters)

the bathrooms on the street were clean with flushing squatty potties and hot water to wash your hands and vending machines to buy toilet tissue, (in thailand the squatty potties have a tub of water beside them with a little platic bowl floating in the water, after using the squatty potty, you dip water from the tub with the plastic bowl and flush the squatty potty by pouring water into it. there is NO tissue, but if you bring some with you, you put it in the small garbage can by the door- never flush it. and never hot water in a facett anywhere but in hotels)

there is NO visible evidence of religion or faith anywhere, people are NOT allowed to speak of politics or religion, (in thailand most every home and business has a small or Large Shrine next to it for the house spirits to live in, and just about every neighborhood has a buddhist temple or two. even the grocery stores have a place to "make merit" offerings at. the people of thailand would never ever say a bad word about the King and his family or the government)

Well there you have it.... a little trip to China and some cultural lessons thrown in for FREE !!

blessings

Pam