All About China > Your trip to China
My visit to China
shaun:
Everything sounds great so far. More.. More... More...
Willy The Londoner:
--- Quote from: mpo4747 on July 30, 2013, 07:50:00 am ---
--- Quote from: Willy The Londoner on July 30, 2013, 06:29:15 am ---Great pictures. And what a smile. Change you avatar.
Willy
--- End quote ---
I agree, want to see a smiling guy!
;D
--- End quote ---
I was talking about Lisa's smile. Ha ha
Willy
IrishGuy65:
OK, I've changed the avatar. I need to get her daughter Amy to send me her pics from the trip. She has the best ones of us.
The afternoon we walked around Shunde. We saw a Buddhist monastery in town. Nice. Then she took me back to the hotel, where I got a shower after being drenched in sweat, and they went back home and napped. They came back a few hours later, after the nap and showers, and we waited for the guests to arrive. We are having dinner with her brother and his family, and her friend Xiao Ru. Instead of meeting at the restaurant, they all come to the hotel. So they arrive, we chat a bit, and go to dinner. Now, Lisa speaks English well, as she is an English teacher. Her daughter, Amy, and her niece, Lily, speak English, but not well. They are still learning. So, between the 3 of them, I am able to keep up conversations with everyone. They are all surprised at the fact that I can use chopsticks, and that seems to be the big compliment for me. I have been using chopsticks for years in Asian restaurants, so it's not a big deal to me. I guess they assume foreigners can't use chopsticks, LOL. Her brother is interested in basketball, and, although I'm not, I have a passing literacy in the NBA, so I talk a little with him about it. Fortunately, I don't turn off ESPN when they are talking basketball. Xiao Ru is very interested in the USA. I'll talk about her more, later. She is a very interesting story and I really think she should consider finding her way to the West. She'd do really well. So I answer many, many questions about the USA. Her big thing is, why are my clothes so bright? You saw my green shirt in the last picture. She says all her clothes dull quickly here, and wants to know how I wash my clothes. I said, I use Tide and cold water in a washing machine. That's my big secret. Anyone remember the old Tide commercial... 'Ancient Chinese Secret'. I guess Tide is a secret to the Chinese :) So we have a lot of fun, and Xiao Ru invites us to morning tea the following day.
We go back to the hotel, and the three of us (Amy, Lisa, and myself) have a very good talk together. I really enjoy their company. So, Lisa loves swimming, so we go to the hotel pool and swim a bit. She doesn't know how to swim freestyle, so I teach her. She swims the breaststroke. She says freestyle is too tiring. We have a lot of fun.
Day 2 Lisa and Amy come get me, and take me to morning tea with Xiao Ru. She lives with her 4 year old daughter, Qiqi. Sweet girl, who is at morning tea with us. She is married, but her husband is never there, won't support her or the child, and won't divorce her. So, she had to start her own business to be able to pay the bills. As Qiqi is the 2nd child, she has to pay the fine since the husband won't. The husband, by the way, is the brother of Lisa's ex, Amy's father. That's how they know each other and are friends. I told her more than once she is a smart, pretty lady who would do great in the USA. She should divorce the husband and find a Western man. At least she'll have bright clothing!! :) I forgot to bring the camera, both to dinner last night, and morning tea today, so I have no pictures. Until I get the pictures Amy and Lisa may have taken. Xiao Ru is a really nice lady. I'd really like to see her do more for herself. She built a business up from scratch, and takes care of herself, her family, and his parents... like many Chinese ladies, she deserves much better. Qiqi, the 4 year old, is afraid of me when we meet, but she is playing games and singing with me by the end of morning tea. Precious little girl.
After morning tea, I pack my stuff, leave it with the concierge, and head to Dinghu Mountain. I forgot to mention, I was going to use the laundry service, but Lisa looked at the prices and announced she would do my laundry for me. We go back and forth and I relent. I told her, I don't want a maid, you don't have to do this. But she insists. So, before leaving for the mountain, she does the laundry and takes a nap. Yes, daily naps. So anyway we leave for Dinghu Mtn. She's worried, again, about getting lost. It's raining, and a long drive. We don't get lost, and get there in about 2 hours. Amy sleeps in the back seat, and Lisa and I have very good conversation. Beautiful weather there... cool, not cold, and clear skies. We get the rooms, and I get a really nice one, and they get a basic room. I offer to switch, but they both say no. We go off to dinner in the hotel restaurant, then we go for a walk outside. Amy says she has to talk to a friend, leaving us to walk alone around the hotel grounds. She's a great kid! It's very nice and romantic walk, and we have our first kiss. Very romantic, and no pictures! Sorry guys :) Still no jet lag, and Lisa keeps telling me how surprised she is. Frankly, I'm surprised also.
Next morning, breakfast, pack up our stuff, then sightseeing. Beautiful and scenic. Very nice place. The three of us really enjoy ourselves here. It's a lot of walking, and a lot of fun. We head home, and have no problems getting lost. Tonight we are having dinner with her friend Stacy and her family. Stacy went to England as a student with Lisa many years ago, and she is also an English teacher. Her husband, Jack, is a Chinese teacher (He's Chinese and he teaches Chinese). Their daughter, Jenny, is a typical Chinese 8 year old. Very busy schedule, and they have to take her to some activity every day. Today is dance class. Two hours of dancing. Once again, my big compliment is my chopsticks skill, LOL. This is a great couple, very friendly and fun. We enjoy dinner very much. Jack decides, since I'm using chopsticks, he should use fork and knife. He doesn't have the same success as I'm having with the chopsticks, but it was a very nice thought. He has a brother that lives in the USA with his family, so we talk a lot about the USA.
Next day we get up early, drop Amy off at her father's, and go to the airport shuttle station to wait for the bus to take us to the airport. Lisa's brother picks up the car from us to hold for the week while we are gone. I usually don't like buses or flying, but I enjoyed both with Lisa with me. We waited an hour in Guangzhou to take off, so we were late getting to Lijiang. The hotel had a driver for us, but we were so late that he was gone when we got there, so we had to get a shared cab. The couple we were sharing with asked Lisa if we were newly wed. I think that's hysterical. But nice to hear. LOL. The hotel, called Fu Guo, is a very nice place. Right next to the entrance to the Old City in Lijiang.
We spend 6 days there, and learn a lot about each other. It rains for the whole time. We are told by locals that it never rains so much. Lucky us. We still do a lot of walking and sightseeing in the city, and sample many restaurants. On Saturday, the 20th, we go on our fateful tour, when I posted earlier that she fell and hurt herself.
The pictures are:
Monastery in Shunde:
Entrance to the Monastery in Shunde
The temple bell in the monastery
They have many fish in the monastery, I told Amy to pet a fish and I will take a picture, but she was afraid they would bite her.
At Dinghu Mountain:
This is Amy taking a picture of all of us together. She is the artist in the family. I wish I had her pictures to share, much better than mine!
Amy brainwashed me to give the peace sign.
Lisa and Amy, with the big Lady of the Lake statue in the background. There is a whole story about the lady that I don't remember. Sorry.
IrishGuy65:
We had a great time in Lijiang, even with her knee issue (she got an x ray today, will find out results tomorrow.. may need an MRI). The hospital at Lijiang, we went in, the doctor looked at it, applied some disinfectant, and said put heat on it twice a day. When we left, I told Lisa NOT to do that. When you have swelling, you use the RICE method. Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. So I put her leg up on a pillow, got some ice from the hotel, and had her rest. I didn't have a method of compression, so 3 out of 4 was best we could do. I think, from this experience and the many I've heard about from Lisa, that the medical profession, as a whole in China, is TERRIBLE. I'm afraid now every time she has to see a doctor for something. She swims every day, and had some problems with her ear.. Took FIVE doctors to tell her she had swimmer's ear. FIVE DOCTORS!! There are other examples, but it's ridiculous in my opinion how bad these doctors are. It's like a conveyor belt... get the patients in and out as quickly as possible.
By the way, I highly recommend all 3 hotels I stayed at in China.
The Conifer in Shunde (http://www.jiaxinconiferhotel.com/en/)
The Phoenix at Dinghu Mountain (http://gaomingphoenix.chinahotel.com.cn/en/room.html)
Fu Guo in Lijiang (http://www.fuguohotel.com/en/index)
All were great.
So, here are some pics from Lijiang.
First one is at the bus station. I brought this hat to keep myself from getting sunburned on my head, but there wasn't much sun the whole trip. The shirt she is wearing I brought from the USA as a present. Got her friend Stacy the same one. But it was supposed to be for Amy, as a gift they could wear together, LOL.
Second is the entrance to the hotel (Fu Guo, AKA Chateau L'Act) we stayed at. Very beautiful.
Third is me trying to take a picture of us in front of the entrance to Old City Lijiang.
Next is our 1st stop of our tour. The mountain lake in the background, Lisa is the foreground. She isn't holding two bottles of water, she is holding a bottle of water and a bottle of oxygen. They give you oxygen to breath when in the higher altitudes. We go up to 5300 meters, I think, at the highest point of the tour. We walked around the whole lake, and almost missed the bus.
Fifth is Lisa in the village in the Yak scenery area. This is right before her fall. You can see the boardwalks are uneven, and with the rain they are slippery. They are also steep in some places without steps.
6th is the lift we were on coming back from the Yak area. Breathtaking views, even with the rain and fog.
7th is the mountain itself. Lisa's knee was stiff and sore, so we didn't climb up to get a better look. I was pretty tired and out of breath at this point, so I'm sorta happy, but she was very disappointed. She an explorer, and not being able to explore wasn't good for her.
The last is the marker telling how high we were (4506 meters). We were told, at the top of the steps is over 5300 meters high. We obviously didn't climb. We saw the glacier there, which was nice. It was raining very hard, so I didn't get a picture.
IrishGuy65:
More pics!
Our room in Fu Guo Hotel.
Lijiang Airport. Lisa is such a happy, adventurous, free spirit. I never would have thought of a Chinese woman in that way before actually meeting one. It is a very pleasant surprise.
A view from the airport of the surrounding valley.
OK, so after the trip to Lijiang. We had several days with just the 3 of us. One night, we had dinner at her friend Stacy's house. They asked me to cook some Western dishes, and had an assortment of stuff for me to use. I made hamburgers (I normally don't eat hamburgers, but they wanted me to make them so I did, LOL), some beef ribs and chicken breast. Here is a picture of Lisa and Amy over the food. Amy cooked the soup.
Also, a picture of our hosts, Stacy and Jack. It is a bad picture of the poor fella, but he's a really nice guy.
We went to the mall, saw a movie there (White House Down... very good!), went to the administration building to get Lisa's visa to Macau (we didn't go, no time) ,the library, and to the silk museum there. This picture is outside the administration building, where I try to get a picture of all 3 of us in the glass of the building.
On the last full day there, we went to Hong Kong. You know the story. We went to Victoria Bay (picture of Lisa at Victoria Bay), I bought her a ring, asked her to marry me, she said yes. We've since talked and it seems there was a misunderstanding there somewhere. She will be wearing the ring, as soon as it is resized for her tiny little fingers, and we are, in fact, engaged. The hardest part is going to be where we are going to live. It's going to be so hard for her to move out of China, but she will be better off in the USA, I believe.
The last picture is of her with the ring. She is happy and crying.
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