Last day in Lijiang

It's about time to round up the Lewkowitz visit in preparation for Friday and [Adam's friend from Amherst who is awesome] Janice's visit! So we left off returning to Lijiang for our last night and day of the trip...

That night in Lijiang was spent finding gifts throughout Old Town. While walking in the main square, we happened upon a dance party that was kind of like the Bai (minority group in Yunnan) Horah. While we were all dying to join in, we didn't want to intimidate them with our expert Jewish moves; instead, we walked into a tea shop and ended up having an impromptu tasting!

The tea was delicious, and Cathy ended up buying some to bring back to her friends.

On Sunday, we decided to walk to the other side of Old Town and explore the Black Dragon Pool (which Cathy kept referring to as the Blue Lagoon. hahaha). It is a scenic area at the base of the Jade Snow Mountain; the melting snow from the mountain is the source of the running water here and throughout Lijiang's canals.

 There were several pagodas and a few temples and gardens.

 It was a very peaceful morning, away from the hectic shops and ever-present smell of yak meat, and the perfect way to end our vacation down south.

We left the Black Dragon Pool for a yummy western lunch at Prague Cafe (the only thing Czech about it were the pictures on the walls, but the American food was delicious!) and then packed up, used the western toilet one last time, and headed to the airport...passing our "friend" from Dali (awesome, OH YEAH!) along the way. It was a fantastic trip, away from cold and smoggy Beijing, and all of us had a great time traveling together. It was sad to return home and help Cathy and Herman pack up; their time here FLEW by. Luckily, we'll be home and see them (and everyone else!) in 3 short months!!

Xizhou/Dali

**I was on the treadmill yesterday, spotted the hairdressers, and almost fell down. They looked like they were doing a mix between the Macarena and Dovid Melech Yisrael. Then they proceeded to chant, military style, and march in place in a square formation. Only in China!

Anyway, back to Dali! We woke up leisurely, had a leisurely breakfast (including a dense mini pancake), and began a leisurely bike ride to the morning market. And that's where the craziness began. We rode past the town square,

entered a narrow street appropriately named "Walking Street" (we followed those directions and hopped off the bikes), full of shops and tons of people with basket/backpacks, bought freshly ground spicy chillies from one of the street stalls,

This contraption ground the whole chillies (left) into the flakes we bought.

and then hit the jackpot: the morning market.

Herman and Adam watched the bikes while Cathy and I walked around the vegetables, carefully avoiding the meat section. Of course, when we switched, Adam and Herman took my camera directly there (and to the fish section...ew) and took some pretty gruesome pictures. (please skip the next section if you have a heart. I obviously don't).

WARNING: disgusting pigs ahead.

They also passed a store that used a machine to squeeze vegetables and catch the oil in big pans. A much better find than the meat market!

After they returned to us satisfied with pictures and a video of the fish market we were able to resume the leisurely pace of the morning. We rode along fields of tea (we think),

and after stopping for a "western toilet" break at the hotel, continued on to Er Hai Lake.

The lake is massive and is known for cormorant fishing (fishermen tie something around a cormorant bird's neck so it cannot swallow large fish and then train the birds to spit out the fish that they catch), though it was quiet and deserted when we got there.

Along our ride, we passed women picking crops (the men were MIA),

and a randomly located and slightly hidden pagoda.

Of course, I also took several of my favorite type--reflection--pictures:

We then dropped off the bikes and returned to the village to find a place for lunch and buy fruit at the market. Strangely enough, it was almost empty, only a few hours later! We did happen upon some kids playing the carnival game where you throw a ring around a cup and win a fish. Have I mentioned that Adam is actually a little kid (mostly when it comes to candy!)? He played and won a fish!

If we were in Beijing, it would undoubtedly be on display in our apartment, but [un]fortunately, China has the same liquid-on-planes law that the U.S. has, and 3oz is just not enough water for a goldfish. Thus, he was forced to relinquish his prize to a kid. He chose the fat one :)

We suddenly heard drums beating and looked up to a parade! Men were carrying massive wreaths,

women had blankets and sheets, all wearing the same head wrapping,

and others were making music.

We were so excited! Was it a parade? A festival? A ceremony? Nope! As the procession continued, we realized that we had been excitedly photographing...

...a funeral. Awkward.

Cue embarrassed foreigners putting cameras away and returning to the hotel to gather our belongings and head to the train station.

Adam and I tried to exchange the tickets for actual seats, to no avail. We did, however, figure out that there were apparently no seats on the train, so we wouldn't be alone. After waiting in line a la Black Friday at Walmart with some very determined Chinese (future post: dealing with transportation in this country), we basically ran to our car to try and grab the first available seats. Turned out that it was exactly the same as the way TO Dali--sitting on beds in sleeper cars! We sat with a nice lady who then excused herself to sit elsewhere, so we ended up having the whole place to ourselves! A few train adventures worthy of note:

1. A woman passed by our open door several times before stopping and chatting it up. I managed to understand every 10th word or so (and knew contextually, she was interested in knowing more about us), so we managed to have a whole conversation, completely in Chinese!! She then proceeded to explain our presence to a group of people right outside our door. Hilarious.

2. 1.5 hours into the 3 hour ride, we stopped and everyone started pushing their way out of the train. We barely looked up, as we just knew we hadn't arrived...until I asked and apparently we were already in Lijiang! Surprise!

3. We found a cab in the madness at the train station, and the driver was downright jolly to be taking us. He walked taller with a noticeable spring in his step as he led us to his...truck. He went to open the back (as in we'd be sitting in the covered flatbed), and all 4 of us immediately said "oh no, no thanks, sorry." Haha poor thing had no idea what hit him!

and that, my friends, is what we call an adventure!

1/2 time break!

We interrupt this Yunnan blogging to tell you guys that there is a new hairdressing salon on our street, and every day at 5:00 pm, all 20 workers come out to the sidewalk, blast music, and do coordinated dances and chants for 15 minutes.

It's only been a week of doing this, but it's already the highlight of my commute.

The Clampets go to Yunnan!

Did I say Clampets? I meant Lewkowitzes :)

After cold Beijing, Adam and I thought his parents might appreciate weather that is a little closer to home, so we planned a short tour of Yunnan Province, in southern China. We took a late flight on Wednesday, spent the night in the capitol (Cathy was such a trooper at the gross "Home Inn"), and took the first flight to Lijiang on Thursday morning. Upon arrival at our beautiful hotel, Adam coordinated a trip to Tiger Leaping Gorge for the morning.

The ride was about 2 hours (after sitting at a mechanic's for 30 min and switching cars/drivers) through spectacular scenery: plenty of rice paddies, small villages, mountains, and the rushing Yangtze River kept us entertained between the snoozing :) Instead of hiking the 18 miles, we opted to walk a gazillion steps, take a lot of pictures, and enjoy the views.

The tiger for whom the gorge is named is on the right.

(Side note: Herman took off his hat for this picture and forgot that his sunglasses were on it. We satisfied ourselves with the notion that they must have followed the tiger and leapt into the gorge...or into the pocket of one of the "guides" begging to carry tired tourists back up the stairs).

The funniest thing is that this was also our driver's first trip to the gorge...

...as evidenced by his traipsing down the steps and taking tons of pictures with us!

It was around this time that Cathy and I realized you can't go to Tiger Leaping Gorge without leaping:

(3rd time's a charm!)

We returned to Old Town Lijiang, wandered around, and then relaxed and recuperated at the hotel. What a change for me and Adam, to be at a nice hotel in China!!

Thursday night also happened to be Lantern Festival, which is held on the 1st full moon of the 1st month of the Lunar Calendar. It's basically the last chance for people to set off fireworks legally, and there were plenty! We weren't sure if the craziness of Old Town at night was due to the festival or tourist season, but it was definitely insane--restaurants noisily competing with their neighbors' music (Lady Gaga remix anyone?), throngs of people on crowded sidewalks and bridges, lots of shopping, and the "delightful" odor of Yak meat around every bend. Red lanterns lit up the town, which was actually a beautiful sight:

Small canals wind through old town.

We escaped the madness by souvenir shopping and laughing at many of the crazy clothes and tschotchkes (sp?) on display. After a not-so-great Chinese lunch, we decided to do western food for dinner; look at that smile on Cathy's face!

(This was obviously before they were out of mango ice cream and brought strawberry fluoride flavor).

It was a lot of fun to travel and sightsee together; Cathy and Herman got a glimpse of what Adam and I have been talking about all these months, and we laughed a lot about the craziness of the day. We went to bed early in preparation for a morning train to Dali...

Rest of Beijing: Temple of Heaven, Great Wall, etc

Since snow adds even more beauty to the surroundings, I am making y'all suffer through your 3rd rendition of Adam at the Temple of Heaven and on the Great Wall ;)

As you remember from my amazing post yesterday, it snowed all day we were at the Summer Palace (Sunday). My parents and I were very nervous about going to the Wall and postponed our hike until Tuesday, when the trip organizers said it would not be icy. So, Monday, we went to the Temple of Heaven.
Luckily, my dad listened to my advice and decide that flying an American flag kite during time of worldwide revolution against dictatorships/strong governments in the place where the Chinese army fired on its citizens was a bad idea...and so we flew the kite here. Well, he TRIED to fly the kite, but it didn't quite work. As funny as watching him run through trees dragging a kite on the ground was, it was actually a very sweet moment for all of us as the kite belonged to his mother, who passed away when I was a freshman in high school.

We then went to the Pearl Market, where my mom and I proceeded to buy out a friend of a friend's store. And then we went to CICAMS to hand out candy and cookies to my colleaguesbefore heading to dinner at DaDong for a double date on Valentine's Day. On the way back, we had a classic Chinese subway experience, crammed against each other and the doors the whole time.
Mom couldn't stop cracking up at the situation, and all of the Chinese people around us were smiling--I think having Mom's laughter point out the ridiculousness of their daily commute made everyone happier, as it's not like they WANT to be on a subway that crowded either!

Then, we went to sleep early to rest up for our 6km hike on the Great Wall. We were PROMISED by the tour company that the Wall was not icy.

Yet, this is what the first staircase on the Wall looked like:
Liars ;) My dad and I weren't so happy, but my mom took about 5 seconds to metamorphosize into this crazy, gung-ho workout lady (thanks, Lisa!), and she basically ran the whole way, leading our group of people my age. (We slowed her down big time, but we still finished the hike almost an hour before we were supposed to, despite treading carefully over ice patches.)

The wall was beautiful as ever:
And I've learned from Alison the magic of doorway/window pictures, without peopleand with them:
We also reenacted my favorite pic with Alison, when she walked down the stairs and all you saw was her head.
As icy as it was, for the most part, it wasn't so dangerous as they had a man with a stick whose job was to whack out a path. Here he is mid whack:
My mom the hiking Nazi also allowed us to snack near the end. First, we enjoyed Uncle Joe's coffee cake on the wall!Notice how full my cheeks were? I ate 1/2 of the cake in one bite and was like a chipmunk during the picture.

Then we took a picture to put on the hall of fame of our favorite local restaurant,Teepee's: The caption will read: Great wall? Great salsa!

After we returned to the city, Alison joined us for happy hour, where my mom made the mistake of ordering a "frozen magartia" (margarita) in China...This is what she got:
Then we had a really fun dinner with Sarah, who just returned from India, and our language teacher, Olive.

Our final day in Beijing, we went to Alison's school. It was the most well-decorated school I've ever seen--the pictures don't do the tropical, race-car, and alphabet motifs justice! We watched the cutiepatooties do a choreographied dance to the song that has taken China by storm, which my dad recorded as video but hasn't sent it to us to upload on youtube for your enjoyment (hint hint). (side note, when I went to add a link to the song, called Nobody But You, I saw the video for the first time. Watch it here and imagine 2 year olds doing the choreography in the chorus!!!). And seeing Alison in action teaching is also an incredible experience--so much energy and control of the class! Very impressive.

After we left, we took a taxi to the pearl market to pick up the loot and headed to Carrefour to buy snacks for our trip to Yunnan. My parents walked wide-eyed through the store in what they said was a mass of people but was actually not so crowded (amateurs). They even got to see someone scoop out a fish and whack it on the floor to kill it before buying it! It took me months of shopping there to see that: some people have all the luck!

We then met Alison on the airport shuttle en route to our next adventure!

My parents arrive! First full day in China

Before we discuss my parents' first full day in China, we have to mention a few significant things:
1) they brought us 57 pounds (an entire suitcase plus 50% of a carry-on) of cookies, candy, and food, including the legendary Segal Coffee Cake, courtesy of Cousin Joe. See pic below.

2) In the 2 hours since their arrival, we had been ripped off by a taxi driver, harassed in the subway by a drunk man (weeeeellcome 2 chiiiiiiiiina), and been forced to lie to the police to get their passes. We recovered from this less than stellar first impression by walking around WangFuJing street (with the scorpions on the stick) and sleeping.

On their first full day, we went to the Summer Palace. After 4 months of no precipitation--causing a severe drought in northeastern China that will result in skyrocketing grain prices around the world next year (according to the news here)--the Chinese government took matters into its own hands and launched 68,000 rockets filled with chemicals that pull moisture from clouds. In other words, the government made it snow. No joke.

The result was a winter wonderland, with snow-covered lanternsas well as snow-covered boats frozen in a little river area.
We climbed up this enormous hill, which was pretty treacherous as it was snowing and covered in ice. To lighten the mood, I decided I wasn't too old to pull the classic pull-down-a-tree-branch-so-it-dumps-snow-on-the-person-behind-you trick, and my poor dad suffered the brunt of the joke. But I'm so nice, I got the snow out of his jacket for him:
Look at that s%&t-eating grin on my face ;) When we finally got to the top, it was so worth it: look at how beautiful the temple is with the snow-covered trees!

On the way down, I made my mom and dad take a picture near a stairwell...
...and my dad said something snarky about me taking pictures in weird places. Well, karma's a bitch, my friends, and within 5 minutes the "weird staircase" had its revenge, and he wiped out right at this very spot:
He actually looked like the red figure on the cone! Fortunately, there were no broken hips.

When we got to the bottom, the view was spectacular of the temple where we had just been:

Here's the obligatory group picture--I love it because we all look so great!! The background may be white, but it's from snow and NOT pollution, which was also a special treat. (Foreshadowing: that red cylinder in my dad's backpack is in fact a kite he brought to fly in Tiananmen Square in homage to his mother. The kite was an American flag...and that's all I will say about it right now.)

There is a huge lake in the Summer Palace where people go boating and fishing in the summer, and apparently walk on in winter. On one corner is the famous marble boat.
The Empress Dowager Cixi received a vast sum of money to strengthen the Chinese navy against the constant threat of Japanese invasion by sea. After receiving the moolah, she instead commissioned this boat for her palace in homage to the navy...which was promptly and soundly defeated in battle. Whoopsie.

By now, you're thinking, wow what a normal day and place, right? Well, we're still in China, so there's still some funky stuff going on...like, questionably fashionable winter gear,
or how they get rid of snow by putting it into bamboo buckets and dragging it to the lakewhere they use a tarp to hurl it over the edge:

We also had a DIC (Dude, It's China!) moment while we were walking down the Long Corridor near the lake. After trying to figure out how people got on the ice, we stumbled upon this man looking like he was about to plunge to his death via slushy water.Miraculously, his foot didn't go through the ice, and he quickly had his friend throw him his child from the ledge.Crazy. By this time we were getting cold and wanted to leave the hilly, icy, but beautiful palace. We took a long subway ride from there to a walk through of the Olympic stadium, etc, before going to dinner with Dr. Qiao, Dr. Zhao, Shangying, Hao, and Wangshaoming at the acrobat show. It was really fun! My mom was selected to go on stage and dance the Chinese horah...(look how excited she is! hahaha. Side note, my mom has the most expressive face ever that basically writes out her thoughts, which was so entertaining all trip to watch her reactions to things)...and I played a dice game that won us two bottles of nice beer. But after dinner, we had to stop at Dairy Queen by our apartment because the food was so spicy our mouths were somehow still on fire/numb an hour after we left.

What a great first day!

PS I added the pic below of my parents just because I thought they look great and would be happy we included it ;)