Wed. Feb. 25 - Day 3 In China

We had a good six or seven hours sleep, with Zhen being up for about one uncomfortable hour during the night. A little later on during the night, Andy suddenly sat upright in bed, and said loudly "SHOPPING", and promptly lay down and went to sleep again. I took a while to get over my chuckles. A portent of the day to come!

I talked to Doris at 7:15 a.m. - I was so glad to hear her voice, and to share some of my experiences with her. She is packed and ready to fly to Halifax for a visit with her friend, Rachel. A suggestion was made for some soaked dried prunes for Zhen (seemed to work). To avoid the "Beijing Belly", we brushed our teeth with bottled water (hard to get over the automatic bush under the tap, especially early in the morning). We also showered with mouths closed, which was also hard to remember, because Andy and I were always chatting, catching up with a review of our lives from an adult perspective.

After breakfast, we jumped on the bus, eager for another day of adventure. An interesting drive through the city. Again we saw the streets that are lined with sycamore trees. At this time of year they are leafless, and without bark they seem starkly beautiful. They grow quickly, and are severely pruned. These trees are a source of pride for the local people. During a recent typhoon, many were uprooted. The population turned out en mass, replanting. Many of the trees seen on our trip had bases wrapped with rope and had bamboo braces from that time. We again passed through the ancient city gates, thick archways lined with ancient brick.

Our main stop of the day was at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum. We arrived on the day that the International Plumb Festival was celebrated - What Luck! As we approached the gardens, a parade arrived - a colorful train, floats, tumblers, and clowns. We saw the colorful limousines that carried Sun Yat-Sen throughout China in the 1920s.

Zhen was handed a Plumb Festival flag, which she clutched in her little hand for much of our visit. We had a ringside seat (standing) at the main performance area. The red carpet was laid out at the entrance to the extensive stairs up the mountain to the mausoleum. Colorful costumes, young performers doing balancing acts, enactments of battles, and lots of Chinese music entertained us for about three quarters of an hour before moving on. All the kids were entranced, watching with stares and open mouths. Zhen smiled and laughed, and frequently drew knots of people, and sometimes crowds around her.

Zhen's ready smile had people laughing and waving. When I showed my laminated card stating in Chinese "We Come To China To Adopt a Little Girl", everyone responded with "Ohhhh -Ahhhh", and lots of smiles and thumbs up. They would turn to others in the crowd to relay the message, resulting in further smiles, and at times, applause. Some said, in English, "Lucky Baby". This was experienced by all the parents and children in our group. We asked Cherry about all the attention and crowds that we drew. She said that as well as being happy for the children, rarely do they see men carrying babies, and never being carried in a sling facing forward. Combined with the fact that we were Caucasian (almost all tourists we ran across at this time of year were Chinese), and that three of the men were a head and more taller than almost everyone around us, the attention was understandable.

We had quite a climb ahead of us. The site was quite intimidating, with 392 wide stairs leading up to the mausoleum, which was perched on a hill at the foot of Mount Zijin. We enjoyed the walk on a cool sunny day, with frequent rests on the way up. Some of the kids were in strollers - Bob and Helen had to carry Fiona in her chair all the way up. Lots of friendly people on the way - one was entranced with Samantha and her new pink hat, and gave her a big hug.

We filed quietly into the Mausoleum itself (no pictures allowed - but you might get to see one if you can find the link on the Home page!). The tomb itself had a white marble stature of Sun Yat-Sen lying on it. The ceiling had a large Republic of China flag on it. We quietly walked around a catwalk, looking down on the tomb. It is rumored that the remains are no longer there, but were taken to Taiwan some time ago.

We took a rest break outside under shade trees. Some of us wandered through the ornamental gardens behind the mausoleum. Some of the cherry trees were in bloom, and I retrieved three blossoms (from the ground), to be dried and pressed for Zhen's journal. As we walked, we saw several people looking at us as we passed, and repeating a certain phrase in Chinese. We later asked Cherry what it meant she said that it translated as "Not theirs". Although this seemed to be said without expression, this was the only time in China that we experienced a neutral, or even negative, reaction.

The view from the top was spectacular, but smoggy. China is industrializing fast, and pollution controls come second to economic development. We strolled back down, meeting many more friendly and happy people. Again it was notable how well dressed most of the Chinese tourists were - men in suits and ties or fashionable leather jackets, women in well cut dresses and high heels. We could tell that some tour groups were from farther out rural areas by their rougher clothing.

On the way back we passed many booths selling tourist wares (again - have you found the Home page link on this topic?). I decided to jump in and get my first bargaining experience. I saw a baseball style hat, blue, with Chinese writing on it. I tried it on, then put it back, feigning disinterest. After looking at a few other things I came back to the hat, and asked the ever-hovering clerk, "how much?" I was prepared to use my calculator to display figures, but she spoke some English. She said "15" (yuan) - about $2.40 CDN. I said no, and looked at a few other things. I asked what the Chinese on the hat said (Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum, Nanjing). She then said something that sounded like "10", so I questioned "10?" and she said, "OK"! - the deal was done! Not exactly the way I had intended it to go - I would have tried 5, then 8, etc., but $1.60 CDN for a hat was fine with me.

On the bus again, back to the hotel, we saw many people, traffic, tree-lined streets, colorful billboards and buses, and constant streams of bicycles. In the afternoon we went across the street to buy groceries. We roamed around the food area - lots of counters, each with clerks behind. We looked at dried meat, packages of pickled vegetables, gummie candies, dried packs of noodle mixes, dried fish, and many other strange and wonderful things. Andy chose out some dried meat sticks, and we wandered along looking at other items. The clerks were keeping an eye on us, and I suddenly realized that each booth was its own entity, even though the area was open to the grocery store in the back half. I hauled Andy back to the counter, and we asked, with gestures, where we paid. We did have to pay the clerk behind the counter. At the next counter we bought sesame snaps, which were a rather neutral semi-sweet gum with sesame seeds stuck to them. A refreshing change to the sugar loaded snacks we usually get. Andy bought what looked like pickled cabbage to add later to his dried noodles.

Each major intersection has bridges or underpasses for pedestrians. As we went over the bridge to the shopping area, we had to step over beggars on the steps, rattling cups for change. On the bridge, several young children, about 4 or 5 years old, descended upon us asking in English for "Change". They would pluck at our clothing to get attention, and then stand in our way. I had learned a technique to ward off vendors - step gently on their toes. I tried this with the kids, and of course they nimbly evaded me. Since I was doing it in a playful way, several took me up on it and made a game of it - coming close, then running away with squeals of laughter. They would start this game each day when they saw me coming. At one point, a child glommed onto my leg, standing on my foot, so I just walked around for a while like that as if I didn't notice, limping and saying I seem to be getting heavy. The kids were having so much fun and not generating any money, that mother suddenly materialized to stop the games, and send the kids to work again. We were told that some of the beggars live well, out in the suburbs, and are seen arriving in taxis each morning to ply their trade. At the other end of the bridge many well-dressed teens hung about, sidling up to us offering shoes, CDs, and computer games.

A few of us got together to go out for lunch on our own, our first food experience without Cherry. We found a modern looking cafeteria. We really didn't know what we were doing. We surveyed the food behind the counter, and decided. One of the dishes was about 6 dumplings in a pot. We pointed, and indicated just one. We got the whole pot. Oh well, something to share. Each of us got a dish, with enough for everyone. Good food, different than we had been having. When it came time for the bill, we got a paper with a lot of numbers on it. It seemed to be impossible to get the waiter to give us any kind of a total, so we just went to the cashier, who rang up the charge. The cost came to $5.00 CDN each.

More shopping after lunch. We went to the large multi-storied department store across the road. Andy bought clothes for all three kids. A great little light green and white outfit for Zhen (later read the label - "Made in Italy"), a black jacket with a dragon on it for Bailey, a Chinese theme dress for Tea, black and white sandals for Zhen, a black winter jacket for Andy ($25 CDN!), Spiderman shoes for Bailey, and more. Some of the English sayings on the shirts were hilarious, poor translations I'm sure. The salespeople were all immaculately groomed, and there were many of them. While Andy bought shoes, I looked around and counted 37 sales clerks within view. Zhen sat in her front row Baby Trekker, taking it all in without a complaint.

Back in the hotel, we played with Zhen for a while. She found it hilarious to lie on her back, while Andy threw clothes up in the air, to land on or near her (see video here). Out for supper again, with Cherry in the lead. We had a long table this time, and again the food was great. Hot and sour soup, a tofu dish, green bean sprouts, beef/pineapple, garlic ribs, steamed broccoli with sauce, spring rolls, sweet and sour chicken, mushroom rice, and lots of beer (a little weak by our standards). Although the names of the food are similar to back home, they did taste different, with a freshness and tang, and flavor we hadn't had before. Andy and I had no more than a taste of the beer, knowing that we have short nights, early mornings, and a full day every day.

The waitresses not only readily took to the kids, but also literally took the kids. They adored them, walking around with them, showing them to the other patrons. We think that one of the attractions to our kids is that there are very few children in urban cities, especially girls. Just after we ordered, we noticed fish in a tank, to the delight of the kids. We had ordered boiled fresh fish, and as it turned out, they got the fish from this tank, telling us that they came fresh from the nearby Yangtze River. This took some time to prepare, and it arrived just as we had finished, and were preparing to leave. We all felt obligated to try a few mouthfuls, and it was soon obvious that the fish had come from one of the most polluted rivers in the world. We left most of it.

We took the long way back to the hotel, just to take in the evening sights and sounds (noisy, but no car horns). We always had to be careful crossing corners, or going across the bike lanes - no one gives way to pedestrians.

Back in the hotel, we did washing, made bottles, changed Zhen, and put her down to sleep. She goes so easily, no crying at all. We wrote e-mails, I did my daily journal, Andy uploaded pictures to the photoalbum, read for a few minutes, and fell asleep, hopefully for a longer sleep tonight.