Liz's 13th birthday party

Of course, we are not nearly old enough to have a thirteen year old daughter, so I don't know how this happened...believe what you will. Liz and some of her school friends gathered on a Friday night in mid-November to celebrate her birthday. Here are AJ, Liz, Justine, Sherou and Silke waiting for our ride. We were not happy that the night turned out to be rainy since we had planned to walk to the restaurant for dinner, but this turned out to be an advantage in the end. (you'll have to keep reading to find out why) Two of the moms offered to have their drivers run us over to Me & You 2--the outdoor restaurant/pub with a boardwalk and ocean view where we planned to eat. Good thing we had two vans offered to us since we had 10 people. The original plan was to eat pizza and then come back to our place to play games, etc...
We brought along the cake we had purchased earlier in the day, figuring it was easier to eat around a large table than to try to all fit around our small one.
Thankfully the cake ended up tasting pretty good. We were a little leery but decided that it was a must-have item, even if it didn't taste good! Notice the "happy birthday" in English and the pile of fruit--they insist on putting fruit on all cakes, sometimes even cherry tomatoes! We fought over the chocolate and white chocolate discs...they were yummy!
We also brought this bouquet of daisy-type flowers we had purchased from a little shop in our neighborhood. I was a bit nervous to try to negotiate ordering a bouquet with extremely limited language skills, but, once again, my pointing and nodding skills came in handy and we ended up with this nice arrangement for about $5! They have an ingenious way of wrapping the stems in a big sheet of thick plastic and securing it all with tape (and covering it with decorative paper) that precludes the need for a vase. The lady was an artist, I tell you.

Little did we know that Olf, the Swedish owner of the pub, and his wife had ordered TWO DOZEN roses for Liz! When we dropped in to tell him that we'd be coming with a party, just to make sure we had a table reserved, we did not have this in mind! He got on the mic (one of his favorite things to do) and announced that there was a new teenager in the house...don't remind us! It was very sweet. Then he told us that the band was going to be starting soon and that they would sing a birthday song for Liz. So we had to stick around for that and the girls were having fun so we didn't mind changing our plans a little. By the time the band came out and sang to her, it was past 7pm and other patrons were showing up but, since it was bad weather, the crowd was pretty sparse. Lucky for us because it meant more special attention for our group.

The band members came over, one by one, and stood on this little area, right by our table, and sang songs from the huge list the girls had made for them! Cordless mics helped make this work, even though I think they had a bit of a hard time timing their words to the music because of the distance. The girls were a little embarrassed at first but they warmed up quickly by singing along, loudly! Of course, the natural progression was for them to be invited onto the stage to sing with the band!
Wow! We never expected this kind of treatment...but they had a ball! We thanked the band and Olf profusely and his response was, "Hey, you want a party, I'll make you a party!" Not sure how we're going to top this in four years when Amanda turns 13!

Tulou/Hakka houses

Well, I thought I had posted pictures of this trip a long time ago...guess I just thought about it, but never really did it! One day on our October break we took a bus tour to see the famous Hakka houses of Fujian province. After much debate (nothing seems to be easy here, or maybe we're just too indecisive at times) we decided to tag along with one of Gene's coworkers and her visiting-for-the-holidays sister on a Chinese tour. Yes, we were the only foreigners on the packed bus. We secured seats in the back row, a slightly elevated view of the rest of the bus, but no more leg room. Thus, we sat sort of sideways so that our long, Western legs had a bit of space. Pretty funny that my 5'4" frame is on the "tall" side! The ride was quite uncomfortable which was too bad for us since it was 3 hours long! The first two hours were unremarkable except for the miles and miles of banana farms (orchards? groves?) that we passed. We enjoyed some nice samples when we stopped for a quick break and I was feeling pretty good about eating local, until I realized that bananas seem to be a mono-crop in this area. Just can't win sometimes! The last hour of the ride offered some great views along very winding and increasingly high mountain roads. Our driver was not exactly steady and was very heavy on the horn-blowing...we were glad we didn't eat large breakfasts that morning.
Our first views of the houses. Here's a bit of info, lifted from a local travel site since we couldn't understand our tour guide and we didn't expect our friend to translate every word. The earthen buildings (tulou in Chinese) were mostly built between the 12th to 20th centuries (very precise!). They can be round, square or half-moon in shape, with an open courtyard in the center. They are built with up to 6 foot wide walls, made up of "earth" packed onto a wooden skeleton, three to five stories high. Depending on the size, they can house up to 80 families. The structures have just one main entrance, a heavily guarded gate. Apparently they were built this way as a means of defense against attacks. There is some evidence that the US authorities thought these round structures were missile silos and saw them as a threat. Some people think this is funny, but I'm sure they look quite curious from the sky/satellite!
After the very long bus ride, we stopped at a large, rectangular Tulou that is a restaurant and hotel/guest house. We were placed at an outdoor table while the rest of the group went into private rooms. We were fine with this since our table was in the shade and we wanted some fresh air after being in the bus for so long. Our sweet guide, Jenny, and her identical twin sister, Jenny, were kind enough to secure a vegetarian lunch for our table. We had a vast bowl of rice, some "green vegetable" (we call it bokchoi), tofu and some other vegetable dishes, all arrayed on the handy-dandy lazy susan in the middle of our round table. Gene and I also shared a nice, tall, cold beer.
Our girls finished lunch first and then wandered around the Tulou, taking pictures from the upper floors, while we finished our food. Notice the cobble stone floor--looks cool but made scooting the chairs in and out a bit difficult!
Liz and Amanda posing for pictures for the two Jennys in the courtyard. Notice the well to the far left side--we also saw laundry hanging around the top levels, so we think the people who run the restaurant and guest house also live here.
The inner corridors, complete with good-luck Chinese New Year lanterns and freshly washed laundry.
Next we walked about 3/4 of a mile down the road to the entrance of the giant, tourist Tulous. Amanda made friends with the only other child on the tour. This little girl ran right up to her and held her hand as we walked! Very sweet. We did a lot of smiling and nodding as we had no language skills whatsoever at that point (and can't do a whole lot better now--okay, maybe a little better, but we still do a lot of smiling, nodding and pointing, along with gesturing wildly now and then).
We spotted this interesting truck along our walk...the Jennys thought it was funny that we don't tend to have exposed-engine trucks in the US! I thought it was pretty bad of this guy to just dump the truckload of who-knows-what over the edge of the hill, but this is not uncommon here, even in places that are crawling with tourists! We shudder to think of what must go on in more private areas.
This round Tulou seems to be more modern and sleek. Don't have much information about it, but I liked the look of it.
After our tour guide paid the entrance fee for our busload, we entered into a wide yard with this giant Tulou. Since the tour was conducted in Mandarin and all the signs and brochures were also Chinese, we don't have much historical information to pass along. Good thing a picture is worth a thousand words. (feel free to google Hakka houses, the Hakka people built the tulou) We did manage to learn that this big house and some others like it are now under protection by UNESCO (I think that's the name of the organization, anyway!).

We went inside this big Tulou, but I much prefer the exterior pictures. The insides were, regrettably, filled to the hilt with crippity-crap for sale. I realize that is not a proper word, but it's the only one that fits here. We were terribly disappointed to see every square inch covered with stands selling the same junk as all the other stands lining the narrow hallways.
I believe this is a type of altar for making burnt offerings. It was not being used when we were there.
Drying fruit the old-fashioned way. We had no info about the extent to which these Tulou were inhabited, but we surmised that the people selling plastic replicas, etc are the residents. I couldn't figure out what type of fruit this was, though.
Liz checked out the goods at one of the fancier stalls, but we did not buy anything. Notice the website posted above the bracelets--you can order yourself some genuine Hakka memorabilia!
Some of the houses were double-packed, with smaller structures inside the courtyards of a bigger, outer house. They felt very close and crowded and I don't think they would be very pleasant in the rain, what with all those roof-lines to drip on the people below.
A warn stone path along the outside of one house. The trough to the left is for drainage, we think. Or sewage...thankfully it was dry!
We continued to snap photos through the bus windows on the long ride home...still like the outside views better than the inside and the homes look so beautiful in their natural surroundings (as opposed to the tourist surroundings that we left behind). We also saw rows and rows of tea bushes, planted on narrow terraces along the mountainsides. The guide said something about which type of tea it was, but we are not tea connoisseurs so we did not ask for a translation.
We stopped at another banana stand on the way home--nice specimens!
The lovely ladies--the middle Jenny is Gene's coworker . It is hard to tell in this picture, but both the twins are wearing 3-inch wedge heels! As is common with most tours of historical places, we walked many miles, mostly in the beating sun. I guess they are accustomed to it because they never complained. A side note about the Jennys: the visiting twin had chosen the English name Jenny when she was in high school, our Jenny was assigned the name by one of her college teachers! Must be a twin thing. Overall, we had an enjoyable day but we were glad to be off the bus and thankful to have made it home in one piece. The bus driver's mad technique defies description so I won't even try, just know that we were very glad to be back on solid ground (and away from the woman whose stomach was a bit weaker than ours on the winding ride home...)

12 Vauclusian Springs/12 Dragon Falls, Tong'an

Impressive name, right? Even the native-English-speaking writer of our guide book had to look up "vauclusian." (though I cannot find it in any dictionary, bound or online!) It supposedly means "a spring rising up a deep, steeply-inclined, water-filled passage into a small surface pool" (quoted from Magic Xiamen, William Brown, also quoted from an unnamed source in the book!). So, this sounded interesting and was said to be located "near Film City," see previous post. We hoped the driver would be able to find this place since we wanted to see some more sites while we had the chance and also were ready for something natural after all the Chinese replicas. Well, apparently, "near" is a relative term since we got a bit lost and had to ask directions three times before we finally arrived at the waterfall park. As in many locations around the world, the powers that be were not content to just let nature be the main attraction. Hence, the first photo of a huge, stone gate that is being erected, replacing the smaller, painted gate where we entered and paid our buck or two entrance fee.
This appears to be a new path, nice and wide, and all to ourselves! Amanda and Gene forged ahead to get a closer look at the new statue that is over-looking the new gate. A bit of culture that we did not expect to see at a waterfall site. Notice the long shadows of late afternoon. Still quite warm but not so crazy-hot like the summer months. This early October day felt like a middle-of-the-summer Michigan day!
We made it to the giant statue and I wish I could tell you something about it. Alas, I cannot read Chinese characteres, so the pictures will have to suffice. This guy (I don't think it's a Buddah, but may be Confusious?) must've been pretty great because the statue was immense!
Here's the perspective shot--Gene is 6'2", to give you an idea of the size. Kind of puts Albertus Van Raalte's statue in Centennial Park to shame...but that's a free park, so we won't complain.
On with the hike. Another wide path and view of the top of the mountain. Looked pretty daunting to me but none of us knew what to expect or when we'd reach the waterfall, so we just ambled along. By the way, the driver, Mr. Chen, joined us on our trek. This was pretty exciting because he usually just stays with the van and reads or naps or something. We feel a bit guilty about that and were glad that he seemed to be enjoying this outing, though we had to judge by his body language since at this point we still only knew about 3 words of Chinese, none of them terribly useful.
We came upon the first of the shallow pools after climbing some steep, uneven, concrete stairs and promptly took a rest. We inadvertently shooed away a young couple from the area. It was pretty, but we thought this couldn't be all there was to see since the guide book said the falls were 1 km long (along with not speaking or reading Chinese, I also do not speak or understand kilometers, kilograms or celcius!!).
So we climbed more stairs. Liz did not enjoy this very much but she was a trooper and mostly kept up with the group.
Aha! More falls and more pools and tons of rock. I did not get a good picture of it, but there was also a small temple on a rock outcrop overlook, along with a metal basket contraption along the handrail. We watched as people placed lit ropes of firecrackers of the loud-noise-making variety into the basket. Then we retreated as the smoke choked us and the firecrackers deafened us! The noise echoed across the rocks and down the mountain and hopefully pleased the gods because it did not please us! Sort of ruined the peaceful scene, actually. There was also a hut of sorts for burning pretend money, sending the smoke upward towards the gods (obviously I don't know much about these traditions and I mean no disrespect, I just didn't like all that noise and smoke!)
More beautiful rocks and falls. We came across a few more groups of people and, as is typical here, observed the women teetering up the stairs in 3-inch heels. I was getting pretty woozy in my walking shoes so I don't know how they did it, but it explains the nicely shaped calves they all seem to have.
A bit closer to the peak...this was about as far as we went. We surmised from the map that there was quite a bit more trail up ahead and Gene said he would've liked to go all the way, but the rest of us were not game for that and we knew it was going to be getting dark before too long. I found out later that some teachers from the international school had gone camping up there and shared a camping area of sorts with some local campers, snakes and rats. No, thank you! (I'm sure the people were fine, but not the creatures.)

One last view down the mountain. I wish the pictures had captured the beauty better. It was a worthwhile trip, though tiring, and we're glad we were able to visit some nice local places during our mid-Autumn vacation.

Film City, Tong 'an

This is dated material, but thought I'd share a little more about our October "staycation." One day we took the company up on their offer of a driver (we usually just have him take Gene to and from work and other special occasions like airport runs). We also asked a young co-worker, Wendy, to join us both for fun and to help us with the language! We first went to a place called Film City in the village of Tong'an which is about a half hour drive from here. We were able to get discounted tickets since there was a promotion for "golden week." They didn't cost much to begin with (about $4 per adult) but we always like discounts anyway. Here we are at the main gate of the park, dwarfed by the massive traditional structure. We had a lovely, summer-like day and were glad to see that there were very few other people--we don't enjoy crowds and they can be very hard to avoid in this densely populated country!
Long-distance view of the replica of the Imperial Palace (Forbidden City) in Beijing. It was massive, though still a scale-model of the original. Supposedly many Chinese movies are filmed here when it's either inconvenient or undesired to go to the actual historical locations. No films were being shot on this day, though.
We had to cross over a large pedestrian bridge to get to the site of the palaces, complete with long rows of the red Chinese flag. This was early in the day, so Amanda was still up for some running!
We took turns with the other tourists posing in the pedicab. We have yet to see any of these here, but saw plenty in Hawaii! Maybe other cities in China still use these, too.
Right next to this huge outdoor film studio, we saw men fishing in a very tradtional way. Not sure what they're catching in their baskets and nets, could be frogs or turtles or fish or who-knows-what (I've seen lots of "interesting" seafood in the outdoor markets, so I try not to assume too much. Just yesterday, I saw cages with pigeons in them and they were not meant to be used for carrying messages! I tried to explane to my Chinese companion that those birds are considered rats with wings in the US and she thought it was pretty gross too.) Notice the triangular straw hats...they're not just from the movies, people actually still use them.
Burning in the hot sun on the replica Great Wall. I'm pretty sure the real wall is a bit wider than this one...but it was still fun to try it out.
This is one of the guard towers at the far end of the "Great Wall." There were quite a few brass (?) statues of ancient-looking soldiers, cannons and huge horses that didn't photograph well. They were also hot to the touch and we couldn't spend too much time up there as we were getting too warm.
This is a very long path, a replica of the Summer Palace path and garden. The ceiling was very ornate and we liked the benches all along the sides for resting. We, however, declined to take naps as some locals did. Sleeping in public is fairly common here, and not just for those who have nowhere else to go. We've seen a number of park-sleepers, most notably the guy who was using an empty water bottle as a pillow! We've discovered that there is a bit of a "siesta" culture here in which the lunch hour is also used as a resting time. Gene's co-workers all use the first half hour to eat and the second half hour to sleep at their desks! I'm pretty sure I'd sleep for two hours, drool all over the desk and end up fired if I were to ever try this!
The front of the Forbidden City, complete with huge Mao poster. Now we've sort of "been there," with the photo to prove it, just in case we never get to the real place! Haha, there would be at least 20,000 others in the photo if this was the real place!
Snow? In southern China? No, just a really odd and sort of creepy indoor winter replication. This is actually white sand and they keep the place very dark. It was like a huge warehouse with a few fake trees and white walls and white sand on the floor.
The girls pretending to be cold in front of the not-very-convincing ice cave. Notice the large seam/crack...I can't imagine that filming in here would look at all real, but maybe they have talented camera operators and finishing crew who know how to make it work.
Since we were a bit off the beaten path, we were more of an anomaly than usual, being a white family and all. We got even more stares than we typically do (our theory is that foreign business men have become pretty common, but families are still out of the norm). Our girls were asked repeatedly to pose for pictures--so we turned the tables and took pictures of the photographers. Some people are offended by repeated requests for pictures but we were in no hurry and the girls are still flattered to be asked, so we didn't mind. Thankfully no one was aggressive and our kids are old enough to not be freaked out by it all. I talked to an Australian woman recently whose darling, two year old white-blond daughter is approached many times each day and was reminded that it is not always a great experience to look so different from everyone else.
After our several-hour tour of ancient Beijing, we set off for a mountain/waterfall park that was listed in our Xiamen tour book...more on that coming soon.