Huangshan, Anhui Province, China - Xidi Village

Huangshan - Yellow Mountain

We have a few trips on our short list and this weekend we experienced one we will never forget. Huangshan - meaning Yellow Mountain - was pure scenery everywhere you looked. Even though we shared the mountain with a thousand other local guests, we still felt we were somewhere special.

Our trip actually started with an overnight stay in a 600 year old Ancient village, a World Heritage UNESCO site -  about an hour away from the base of the mountain in Xidi Village. Xidi is a traditional Chinese village with its own waterways, narrow alleys and ceremonial ancestral halls.

Xidi Village

We stayed in a traditional home called "Pig's Heaven Inn" and were pleasantly surprised to find our accommodations very simple and comfortable. The Inn was someone's home converted in to a small B&B Chinese style!

Entry Hall to Pig's Heaven

Pig's Heaven courtyard

Kitchen where our meals were cooked - delicious!

 We loved having this village to ourselves as we walked around and witnessed everyday life. These two women were getting water to use for the day. The barrels were so heavy and they happily walked down to the not so clean creek, filled up and headed home.

Neighbors chatting

Getting water for household use

We saw women washing clothes and shoes on the rocks of the stream, dipping in for drinking and household water and actually washing dishes and brushing teeth - all in the same water source.

The buildings were mostly cement block with no heat and bare minimum as far as furnishings. It is really hard to believe people still live like this. The carvings in the buildings were beautiful.

Wall carving

 When we asked about the leaf carving, we were told that this village is not a good place to be born in because at age 13 or 14 you are sent out into the world to earn a living. Maybe you follow an older sibling or someone you know, but your are on your own. The leaf is to symbolize the child coming home when they are older and established (can earn money). The leaf falls close to the root - the children returning to their parents.

"The leaf should fall close to the root"

They made their own tofu, dried chilies and soybeans and harvested a lot of leafy, green vegetables. And, of course - raised pigs. The morning we were walking around on our own we came across a small truck with a crowd gathered around. They were slaughtering an animal the size of a pig in the back and everyone was taking their chunk of meat home! Good thing we had already had breakfast!

Chilies drying in the sun

Drying Tofu (lots of flies hanging around)

Little girl coloring

 This was one of the main "streets" in the village. Students arrived daily to draw pictures of the ancient architectural style of the buildings.

Students drawing the Hui architecture of the buildings

We said good bye at the Inn and headed up to the mountain. We really loved seeing the local people  in Xidi and felt a great deal of compassion for the difficult life they live. This will stay with us for a long time.

xoxo, Kathy and Phil

Chongming Island

Buddhist Temple at Chongming Island

Earlier this week I took a "field trip" to Chongming island to visit a Buddhist temple during a fall festival. The day was bright and the scenery beautiful. We toured the temple as the monks were chanting and you actually felt like you had stepped back in time. Chongming is the third largest Island in China where the Yangtze River and the East China sea meet, about an hour outside of Shanghai.

As with most Buddhist temples there is the bell tower, shown above to ring in the new day and a drum tower to announce the end of the day.

 The banners inside the temples were beautiful swaying in the wind!

We interviewed one of the resident monks and found them to be very different from traditional Buddhist monks in that they leave their families for life and believe the temple houses their new family.Very isolating but dedicated nonetheless.

Now on to Yellow Mountain for a weekend of hiking and stunning views!

xoxo, Kathy and Phil

A Celebration & Thousand Island Lake

This week started with a wedding anniversary celebration - our 25th! Phil had flowers delivered and we enjoyed a quiet dinner on the river.

Even the sunset from our balcony was one of the prettiest we have seen.

Later in the week I attended an author's lecture on the book titled, "Stateless in Shanghai" at the Peninsula Hotel on the Bund. The view was spectacular, the English tea a treat, and the lecturer - inspirational. Liliane Willens was a spitfire and definitely set in her ways. Her book is about her life growing up in China from the late 1920's until she left in 1950. A few of us sat up front and were entertained by Liliane, now in her 80's, well after the lecture was over. She was a hoot!

View of Pudong from the Peninsula Hotel- the side of the city where we live

Assortment of tea cakes at Sir Elly's Bar

As we were leaving the hotel, my first Hollywood actor sighting in Shanghai was in the lobby -  Robert De Niro was sitting off to the side of the room where he was inaccessible to the passersby and I did not have the nerve to do anything but stare for a few minutes! My heart beating a mile a minute, but too shy to do anything about it.

Friday had us on the road to Qiandao Lake, called Thousand Island Lake about a 5 hour drive away. The area was once a valley that was flooded in 1959 for a dam project to produce power. The saddest part is at the bottom of the lake there is an ancient city built in 25-200 AD, 26 - 40 meters below the surface. The lake is known for its tasty fish, free of pollution and therefore deemed "organic". Hmmmm.

Islands are actually the mountain tops

We took a boat tour with Phil's work team and hiked on two of the "islands".

Replica of temples at bottom of the lake

Beautiful carvings on the temples

At sunset, our boat captain and his family cooked a traditional Chinese lake meal for us. In the center is fish head soup with bean curd - which I was thankful for because i actually like it and can make a meal out of it.

Sunset on the lake

Dinner being prepped on the back of the boat

Our Captain and Cook

Fish head (and tail) soup with bean curd

There were all kinds of sea creatures including full sized turtles, sea snails, frogs and a variety of fish. Thank goodness for cucumber, tofu and very good sweet potato chips! and Beer!!

We woke the next day and took a 3 hour bike ride around the island through the hectic traffic and onto quieter spots. One was so quiet (on the side of a highway) one of the gardeners decided to curl up on this comfy rock!

Sleeping gardener

At the end of this week we head to Huangshan - Yellow Mountain, for a long weekend. The weather in Shanghai has been relatively clear, less pollution than earlier in the month but it is still nice to get out of the city to breathe clean air and witness blue skies!

Hope you are all enjoying the fall weather, sights, sounds and smells! We truly miss them. As Liliane said, "You don't know what you have until it is taken away from you." Of course, she was talking about freedom and here I am complaining about fresh air!

xoxo

Back in Shanghai

Well, we are back in Shanghai after a long break home with family and friends and are getting into the swing of things.

Not great planning on our parts, but our first week here is a National Holiday in China and businesses are closed so the locals are out in droves. We are attempting day trips and are using the Metro quite a bit but are overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people who are also in this crazy city.

Of course with all holidays in China, there are amazing firework displays. The first night we sat on our balcony and watched as Malaysia and China battled it out to see who has the best fireworks.They were spectacular!

Fireworks for National Day

Next day, several of our Air Products friends invited us to have brunch at the new Hillbilly Cafe. The owner is from Louisville, Kentucky and treated us to a true southern breakfast with cheesy grits, cornbread pancakes with pumpkin syrup, homemade sausage and any type of "hooch" or grain alcohol you could think of to be added to your tea. It was a big hit!

Hooch for your Tea!

To get out of Shanghai for a day, we headed to an ancient water town called Zhujiajiao about an hour away. When we got there, we realized it was not the best time to visit during a Chinese holiday. This was the first bridge of many we ventured over being pushed and moved along like cattle.

Entry to town

The main bridge that connected the canals also had its share of people crossing it!

Even though we shared our experience with plenty of other people, the shot below was what we were looking for and we really enjoyed the people watching.

Zhujiajiao canals 

After several hours of pushing through alleys like this one, we decided to call it a day and head back to the city!

So, this morning we woke to blue skies, which is very rare here in Shanghai,  and decided to head out to Century Park to enjoy an early start to our day. It truly is a beautiful break from the the street scene and a short five minute walk from the apartment.

The bridge leading to the park is lined with beautiful flowers and landscape.



We headed to the "aviary" where the children feed pigeons.

The lotus flowers bloom here occasionally - but there has not been much sun since we arrived. There were a few poking their heads above the huge leaves!

There are all kinds of park vehicles you can rent including boats of various sizes, three person bicycles, and pedal carts. There were families setting up tents to settle in for the day. In the background of the photo below is our apartment complex. You can identify them by the colorful balconies that make them look like Lego blocks!

Never a dull moment in Shanghai!

xoxo, Kathy & Phil

In The Land of Smiles

Bangkok, Thailand

We just returned from an amazing trip to one of our favorite places in the whole world - Bangkok!! We visited many of our Thai friends and were treated like royalty, ate our way through the city, shopped our favorite Jatuchak market, traveled to a remote resort in Khao Yai National Park and ended our trip with a night at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and a celebratory dinner at Lord Jim's.

The Erawan Shrine is in downtown Bangkok and has always been a favorite spot to watch the Thais make  offerings and light incense as they silently pray. It is a familiar landmark to us now and serves as a great meeting place in this crazy city!

Erawan Shrine

The 100 degree heat and intense humidity brought back many memories but did not stop us! Phil and I went to Jatuchak Market on Saturday for 5 hours and I went back with my good friend Neda on Sunday for 5 more! We had to buy extra suitcases to bring our purchases back with us. I wish we had taken pictures but you never think of it while you are lost in the maze of hundreds of stalls selling everything you could think of!

Outside the market, the tuk tuks were lined up to take us home!

Taxi anyone?

We took a dinner taxi from Bangkok on the Sea to a a seafood restaurant built out on the bay with our good Thai friends and their kids. The trip out was at sunset and was beautiful, but the trip back in the dark was a bit scary with all of the kids!

Dinner Taxi

Our hosts took us to Khao Yai National Park to enjoy some fresh air and a gorgeous resort! Everywhere you turned the flowers were beautiful!

Bird of Paradise

Floating Orchids

We enjoyed a lunch of local fruits - 

Fresh Fruit

Hand made glazed baby fruits

Our travels took us back to Bangkok for more Thai food, shopping and a dinner celebration. We headed to the newest night market on the Chao Prya river. It was still 96 degrees so we decided to cool down with a round of Singhas before we shopped.

Asiatiques Night Market

In the market, there were lots of interesting Thai handicrafts and things to buy. One of the first stalls we came across took us by surprise. There were tanks of water filled with hundreds of little fish that nibble at your feet to soften the skin - Fish Pedicures! Very popular in Japan, we were surprised to see it here!

School girl getting Fish Pedicure

Close up!!

The Oriental Hotel was a great place to spend our last days here. An impressive chandelier in the receiving hall was made out of flowers and crystals. Every detail was perfect!

Mandarin Oriental Hotel

The guys treated us to an amazing dinner at Lord Jim's. We toasted to another amazing trip in the Land of Smiles and finished the night at the Bamboo Bar.

So fancy!

Too pretty to eat!

We have been many places in the world, but Bangkok remains to be one of our favorite. The Thai people are the friendliest we have ever met and we already look forward to our next trip in November!

Sawasdee Ka

Suzhou Pearl Market

Earlier this year Phil and I went to Suzhou to see the canals and beautiful gardens. Yesterday, I returned with the Shanghai Expat Association to learn about pearls! There are pearls available in all of the markets wherever you go in China and now I know why!

Once in Suzhou, we stopped at a pearl farm where we met a couple in their shack by the river. They were hauling up baskets with 3,4 or 5 clams (not oysters) to check their progress and safety. One of the baskets was four years old and ready for harvesting.

On the side of the river in a rudimentary shack with a rickety old dock, the man of the house opened one of the clams for our inspection.

Opening the Clam (or cRam as they say here)

Pearls!

The pearls are harvested from the clams and the meat is used to make soup for dinner! The closer the pearls are to the edge of the shell where the Mother of Pearl is present, the more colorful the pearls. They take on the color of the shell where they grow.

The reason there are so many pearls is each mollusk is because they are implanted with flesh from a different clam. The implanted clam then tries to secrete fluid to get rid of the foreign tissue and creates pearls. Kind of sad for the clam that it is abused this way for the sake of jewelry!

Harvesting flesh

This woman was "harvesting" flesh from the outer edge of the shell with surgical precision. The thin pieces of clam were then inserted into another clam that she opened slightly to master the implantation. That clam went back to the farm for a four to ten year dip in the river!

Our tour then took us to a pearl factory where all sorts of jewelry is made for purchase! Not sure how I feel about the mollusks and the treatment of these creatures - they don't have a brain or feelings but they are living things after all.

Sorted pearls ready for making jewelry

Guilty Pleasure

Crazy for Mosaics

Recently I took a class in the art of mosaics and I have to say, I am hooked! From searching local vendors for the perfect tiles to creating patterns and then cracking and gluing them, it has been great to have a new hobby!

Here are some of the bowls I have almost completed (I learn how to grout them this week!):

First attempt at cracking and gluing

Fun Bluesy Bowl

Lotus Flower

Hippie Flowers

Phil has asked me, "What are you going to do with all of these bowls?". He has no sense of humor . . .