Day 5 - Fri. Feb. 27

Zhen had a hard night (so to speak). She was up for 2 hours from 12 a.m. to 2 a.m., crying and screaming. She was really uncomfortable, and nothing Andy could do would help. She finally went to sleep, but was awake at 5 a.m. I gave her a bottle, rocked her, tried to get her to sleep, but no dice. We read and played until Andy woke up (good thing we were both there to spell each other), then watched another smoggy sunrise. All the tired parents and babies gathered again for breakfast, then waited for each other in the lobby.

We were off to get passport photos for the little ones. A nice walk from the hotel. We passed many cyclists on their way to work, some taking time to wave and smile. To get to the photo shop we went through a parking garage - a garage for bicycles! Row upon row of bicycles and motorbikes were parked there, on two stories. To get to the upper story, there was a long ramp, and the patrons would push their bikes up. Samantha had lots of fun running up and down the ramp, and Andy went up to get some pictures.

At the front of the garage there was a guard. He was shy, and did not want his picture taken, but Andy soon engaged him in conversation. He spoke reasonably good English, and was eager to learn new words and idioms, and wanted us to help polish his pronunciation. He was attending night school to get his business degree. He proudly informed us that all his spare time was spent watching English lessons on the T.V. ("Not like others, who waste their time playing Ma Jong", he told us). He had grand ambitions to have his own business conglomerate.

In China we did find a lot of ambition. All the young people we spoke to were attending part time classes while they worked, and all were studying English. For Example, the bellboy on the door at our hotel was studying tourism and Hotel Science at Nanjing University, and would go into the hotel business. We saw the 24-hour English lessons on the hotel T.V. Not only is English taught, but at the same time the culture of the English world is taught. Lessons that we saw included western line dancing, and a baseball game, with all the terminology, rules, and jargon. Many approached us when we were out, wanting to practice their English. The Chinese government has mandated that all Beijing residents have to learn 100 words of English by the time the 2008 Olympics rolls around.

Overall, there is a sense of optimism in China - economic development is happening, the entrepreneurial sprit is encouraged, and the young have hope for a better life. Indeed, television and the Internet are opening eyes to the possibilities of the Western style of life. We were often asked about conditions in Canada, and often cards were handed over, hoping for Western business connections. We had some good conversations with Nina's Chinese business partner Ivan, who joined us for several meals in Beijing. He spends part of the time in Shanghai, part in Canada with the company Nina works for.

After the photos were taken, we went on an adventure on our own, without Cherry for a change. Our guide was Andrea, who had been to the Confucius Temple recently. We were warned that it was tacky, and we were not disappointed. The whole area around was set up for tourists, with stores, booths, and restaurants lining the streets. I bargained for some mask bookmarks. I brought the price down to $3.00 CDN, probably too much, but he did start at $8.00. We collected great crowds wherever we went - I counted more than thirty crowded around Andrea at one point. It is getting to be a nuisance. I'm glad I brought my explanatory card, which seemed to satisfy the curiosity. I had to hold onto it tightly when several tried to pull it out of my hand.

The main attraction, the Confucius Temple was quite hard to find amongst all the shops and tourist glitter. We finally found our way, and as we entered, we were confronted by an enormous neon inflated archway covering the view of the interior entrance to the temple. There were toy monkeys perched on it, and we had no idea what the celebration or festival was. We enjoyed seeing some of the exhibits (such as ancient instruments), but the crude figures of the history of China left a lot to be desired.

On the way back, we entered a cafeteria for lunch. We figured out that we had to buy tickets first, then hand them over at each counter where we wanted food. At some counters they would give us "change", different colored tickets presumably worth less. We chose noodles, dumplings, jell cake, soup, and tea. Andrea knew that the counter just outside the door had great dumplings, so we asked the manager, who was leading us to each kind of food, about getting some. He led us out the door to get some, and it was only when we had to hand over cash that we discovered that the stand wasn't part of the cafeteria, but the manager had kindly helped us get what we wanted. I had a handful of tickets left, and I decided to approach the cashier with them. She cashed them in without a glance.

After the long walk, and sorting through many stores of clothing, cheap watches, and low priced computer games and movie DVDs, we jumped into a taxi at the edge of the area. It was quite a harrowing ride back, narrowly missing a pedestrian, and driving within inches of other cars. When we were stuck in traffic, I had the driver laughing by wiggling my hands as if to indicate that he should drive in and out of the cars lined up before us. At one junction, we were trying to get through, a car was turning left in front of us, and another was forcing its way in from a side street on the right. After we were through, the driver again laughed as I held up my hands with interlaced fingers. The others in our party arrived well before us - their driver had taken all back streets, which were very narrow, and at times difficult to scrape through. The cost for our 20-minute drive was only the equivalent of $1.20 CDN!

Cherry led us to another fine supper. An interesting dish was the soft dough shell circles filled with broth. We were supposed to bring the bowl up, take a nip from the side, and sip out the broth. Not many of us managed this feat. We celebrated Emily's birthday a day early, because we knew we would be on the road travelling to Beijing tomorrow. A cake was arranged, and it arrived after our food, with Happy Birthday on a little heart, in Chinese. We sang a loud Happy Birthday, much to the amusement of the other guests. The restaurant had no Western cutlery available, but they did bring us some little tiny plastic cocktail forks, which readily broke. We did our best with chopsticks. Emily didn't know quite what was going on, and was not too sure about all the noise and attention. Randy and Linda opened presents for her, mostly bought in China, and I am sure she will value these in the future.

Back in the room, we celebrated that Zhen had solved her constipation problem. Zhen is much happier, but very tired - she is so curious about everything and fights sleep all day. We are hoping for a better night's sleep, because we are up early to pack, and to head off to the airport for the flight to Beijing. We found that Zhen enjoyed sitting in the bamboo laundry basket and spent time looking around. This gave us a little down time, and some hands free time to prepare for tomorrow. When Zhen was put down in her crib, she fell asleep right away, no complaints. Andy uploaded the last batch of Nanjing pictures, and we packed a little. We hope we have a good Internet connection in the next hotel to continue to send pictures for viewing.

(Remember - There are lots of "Easter Eggs" to be found on the Home Page.)