Shanghai Times (Days 12-14)



The longest leg of our trip, a 12-day stop in Shanghai, began with our late Wednesday-night arrival at the Marriott Executive Apartments near People's Square in the heart of the city. Our suite had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen and, to our surprise and great delight, a washing machine/dryer! 

We immediately lit some incense and said a prayer of thanks.
Although we were completely unable to decipher the settings and dials, I secured a manual in English (regrettably, no Chinglish) and proceeded to plow through two or three small loads a day for the next week.

Shanghai, the largest city proper by population in the world with over 24 million inhabitants, is known as the Pearl of China. It is a modern metropolis serving as China’s commercial and financial center and a symbol of the country's economic success, but also has its own deep history and long standing traditions. To me, if Beijing is your grandparent's house with old books and heirlooms on dusty shelves providing constant reminders of generations past, then Shanghai is your rich uncle's modern pad with both a shiny new sports car in the driveway and several cherished family mementos carefully displayed.
Our hotel in the background. Vaughn had to ditch the souvenir Mao cadet hat because placing it atop
his juan tou fa (curly hair) proved too irresistible to the citizenry of Shanghai.   
On Thursday, July 10 - a workday for Betsy - the kids and I started off in the heat and humidity for a walk through People's Park located adjacent to our hotel. The beautiful park was developed beginning in 1952 and currently features a waterfall, a lotus pond, fitness areas and a small amusement park.

One of the "fitness areas." We wondered if their wives know about their daily gambling exercise.  
Our plans to meet up with our friends from Guilin came to fruition as we miraculously rendezvoused with Danne, Layla and Ahmad Johnson on Nanjing Road, a nearby pedestrian shopping plaza. After bathing in the air-conditioned comfort of a three-story M&M shopping emporium we made our way back to People's Park. All five kids screamed and hollered their way through a thrilling swing ride before we wandered toward the exit through the beautiful park grounds.

NOT a busker; only in the parks do people seem to play for pleasure instead of pocket change.
Danne had a lunch place in mind in the French Concession, an area once designated for, go figure, the French that still retains a unique charm with its tree-lined avenues, small cafés and many fine old houses. The Johnsons had experience riding the subway and were happy to guide us on our initial plunge. Having navigated the much older subways in London, Paris and Brussels two summers ago, I can say that the 11-year old Shanghai subway is far cleaner, a bit cheaper (kids ride free!) and has an easier payment system. 

I'll never forget spontaneously belting out the Laverne and Shirley theme song with Danne and sharing obscure childhood memories as we walked past the Shanghai Museum on our way to the subway station. We also got a laugh out of being the ONLY non-Chinese riders on the train (which pretty much always seemed to be the case) and we wondered what the locals must have made of this crazy Brady Bunch of smiling American faces. Danne's choice of eateries did not disappoint as we all devoured the fried rice, sautéed sword (green) beans with minced shrimp, braised pork (amazingly fresh and deliciously fatty) and mixed pan-fried mushrooms. We said goodbye to our friends as we separated before boarding different subway lines with plans to meet up later at the Bund. 

Tragically, that meeting was not to be as our good luck ran out and we failed to find each other that night. We have little doubt that the Hughes and Johnson families will ride again and can't wait for our next adventure together. 


On that foggy night, we did make it to The Bund (more on that area later) to pose for some photos - some with just us in them! - before we strolled back to our hotel along the brightly-lit Nanjing shopping plaza.

Everyone say "qie zi!"
The word for eggplant is the Chinese equivalent of "cheeeese!"
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Day 13 was a quiet one as the kids and I beat the heat by exploring the businesses adjoining our hotel; we flipped through the menus of ultra-fancy restaurants, peeked into the Ferrari and Maserati dealerships and found the best places to pick up snacks and drinks. After an afternoon swim and a dinner cooked in our very own kitchen that satisfied our cravings for good old pasta with tomato sauce and steamed broccoli, we settled in for a movie and a good night's rest.

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Betsy had organized a tour of the towns of Suzhou and Zhouzhaung on Saturday, July 12 and we were up bright and early to meet our guide in the lobby. Joined in the van by a family of three from Panama and a lady from New Zealand, we were whisked 75 miles west to Suzhou, the “Hometown of Silk.” Our first tour stop was the Master-of-the-Nets Garden, a World Heritage Site that contains a series of halls skillfully sculpted since 1140 to synthesize art, nature and architecture into one grand masterpiece.

One of our favorite photos so far. Hooray for Pano. 
Each of the rooms blends elements of feng shui to create the most ideal arrangements. The windows and doorways - all of which have a raised trestle to ward off evil spirits (bad form to tread on them, by the way) - are all carefully oriented with the surrounding water, rocks and vegetation to create inspiring views at every turn.


We were then transported to the "Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory Co. Ltd." The factory, built in 1926, now combines fascinating elements of the ancient practice of silk production with the obnoxious heavy-handed salesmanship of a Chinese tourist trap. Still, it was worth it to see the complete process of sericulture (silk farming) including mulberry cultivation, the silkworm life cycle, silk reeling, silk weaving and silk quilt making. Our first sight was a mat of wriggling worms munching on mulberry leaves. 


After one month, the larvae stop eating and spin the cocoons that are sorted and harvested. A quick steam bath loosens the silk and kills the pupae inside. Workers then brush each cocoon to find one end of the single, mile-long filament and thread eight ends at once into this reeling machine that winds them together.   

The reel deal.
Those thicker threads are then fed into automated looms that use programmed punch cards to create the intricate patterns seen in silk clothing and blankets. Other cocoons are treated and stretched into sheets for quilts. 

Several child labor laws were broken at No. 1 Silk Factory Co. Ltd. that day.
The end of the tour is a typical Chinese sales assault where purchase is highly encouraged. (Anywhere there are shops, the proprietors will holler at and motion to foreign passers-by in broken English to spark interest in their wares. A bargaining process usually ensues unless the prices are clearly marked. Buyers should rarely pay more than ⅓ to ½ of the original asking price.) At this silk factory, the prices were clearly marked and we purchased one of the king-sized, medium-thickness quilts for a reasonable US$130. 

The next stop was a really tasty lunch that featured yu xiang you si, a new favorite. Yu xiang literally translates to the unappetizing "fish aroma" but it is a flavorful sauce that is incorporated into many meat and vegetable dishes. This one had thinly sliced pork and vegetables and was so good we didn't even stop eating to get a photo. Sorry, foodies!

The final tour stop was a visit to the “Venice of the East.” Zhouzhaung, the most popular ancient water village in China, has preserved a direct link to the past for more than 900 years. Classic courtyards, carved-brick archways and Chinese-style gondola rides offer a unique perspective of life in this fascinating town surrounded and divided by lakes, rivers and canals.

Over 800 households still call Zhouzhaung home so one gets a glimpse of the ancient way of life while still having the opportunity to explore the many shops, food stalls, temples, famous houses and historic bridges. The Twin Bridges, comprised of Shide Bridge and Yongan Bridge, are the most famous and considered the symbol of Zhouzhaung. Together the two bridges resemble an old-style Chinese key and brought notoriety to the region when painter Chen Yifei's depiction, Memory of Hometown, gained international attention upon being displayed in New York in the mid-1980's. 

  
We visited a beautiful open-air opera house where we saw a brief musical performance before we boarded a gondola for a pleasant and scenic 20-minute canal cruise through the town.
An even briefer performance.
Our request for 'O Solo Mio' went unfulfilled. 
A short rainstorm brought a bit of relief from the relentless heat and drove us into the shopping area where we were accosted from all sides. We ended up getting this artisan down to 100 yuan from over 300 for a trio of intricate glass orbs that are painted from the inside. Each of the kids got their Chinese names inscribed in these treasured mementos.
It takes a steady hand!
We were all happy to get back to the hotel at the end of a long and interesting tour, eager for a few days with very little planned except for wandering around Shanghai, doing some knock-off shopping and meeting some of Betsy's friends and colleagues for dinner.    

We Kowtow in Lantau (Days 10 and 11)

On Tuesday, July 8, fully intending to get caught up on our hotel-sink laundry effort, I signed the kids up for a two-hour Chinese Art class in the Kids At Art studio in our hotel. (That effort would be thwarted as I spent most of that time trying to contact Wells Fargo in an effort to allow us withdraw even more funds even more frequently.) However, with a promise to return with full payment, I left the kids to enjoy the full focus of the attentive staff. 


I asked the teachers to use Mandarin as much as possible as they guided Xander, Vaughn and Quinn through new techniques with ink and paint. The kids created several paintings each with the intent of presenting their favorites to Betsy for her upcoming birthday.


That afternoon I continued to shirk my laundry duties, opting instead to sit and write by the pool as the kids frolicked in the cool water. When Betsy joined us after work, I commented on how very friendly the pool service staff was as they brought us our sandwiches, lemonade and beer. When we got the bill for HK$1,457 (US$188), we realized why. Holy hot pot, there went our dinner plans!

Pictured: $57 worth of beverages
Still the pool was the most beautiful one we’ve seen so far; overlooking the harbor and with a waterfall at one end. Plus we were treated like kings so we decided it was worth it and retired to the hotel room for the evening and curled up with some ramen and Chinese television.
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July 9 was busy and memorable Wednesday as we left the hotel early for a day-long tour of Lantau Island before departing for Shanghai that night.

Lantau Island is twice the size of Hong Kong Island and the largest among the approximately 256 outlying islands within the territory. The tour began with a 40-minute ferry ride from Hong Kong to Lantau through the busy harbor filled with cargo ships heading off to or returning from long voyages. Luckily for us on a day where temperatures climbed over 100 degrees, we hopped from the air-conditioned boat to an air-conditioned bus that offered salvation after each broiling tour stop on the island. A sign posted at the front of the bus offered this sobering advice:
I've always been suspicious of my right thumb and now I'm on high alert. 
Many of the 120,000 inhabitants of Lantau have jobs in Hong Kong (2 million total) and must make the daily ferry trip to work. They ride their bicycles from home and leave them parked together on the dock. 

But not a bike lock in sight.
Our guide says there is very little crime on Lantau because most people can trace their family lineage back for centuries and very few people migrate to the island so basically no one can get away with anything. There are, however, several prisons (apparently for criminals from elsewhere) including a juvenile detention center that offered a nice incentive for good behavior for the day.

The first stop on the tour was a refreshing visit to the pristine Cheung Sha beach. We were pleased to see a barrier ringing the shore after hearing about the six fatal shark attacks around the island over the last 15 years and happily waded into to the warm surf.


The bus then took us to the unique Tai O fishing village, a former haven for smugglers and pirates that is now a popular tourist destination. We enjoyed a short boat ride that gave us a close-up look at some the remarkable, yet dilapidated, pang uks; fisherman's homes that are built on stilts to better endure flooding. 


Fishing long provided the primary means of income in the village but overfishing has forced the inhabitants to rely on tourist spending. We passed stall after stall of very ripe, sun-dried, salted  examples of meager fish, shrimp and mollusks that neither we nor anyone else on our tour dared to bring back on the bus.

There's something fishy going on around here.
We visited a temple where we had our first experience burning incense as a symbolic offering. In Chinese Taoist and Buddhist temples, worshippers light and burn incense which they wave our raise above the head as they bow to the statues or plaques of a deity or ancestor. One makes says a prayer of hope or thanks and then places the stick or sticks in a receptacle in front of the idol.


Next, our bus climbed the winding road up the mountain to the Ngong Ping plateau for a visit to the majestic Tain Tian Buddha Statue and the nearby Po Lin Monastery, where we were served a delicious vegetarian meal.


 The monastery was built in 1907 and plans for the Big Buddha were made over sixty years ago with the project finally coming to fruition in 1990. The 202 separate pieces of bronze were gradually shipped to the island and then trucked up the hill before they were assembled in 1993 to form the 112-foot, 250-ton statue. The serene and dignified Buddha rests on a bed of lotus flowers with his left hand in his lap, signifying the giving of the moral treasures known as dhana, and his right hand is raised, representing the removal of affliction.

The structure beneath houses three separate exhibition halls of worship and six smaller bronze statues surround the Buddha praising and making the various symbolic offerings required to enter into nirvana. 

Our tour of Lantau ended with a ride aboard the Ngong Ping Skyrail, a 25-minute cable car that offered stunning views as we descended from Hgong Ping plateau to Tung Chung New Town near the airport, from which we would depart a few hours later. 

We shared our ride with a South African/Australian expat and her daughters, aged 10 and 8, who gained our admiration as they described their earlier four-hour ascent by foot to the Big Buddha in the day's intense heat and humidity.

Our flight that evening from Hong Kong to Shanghai took just over two hours, transporting five sleepy travelers to the third stop on our journey for new round of adventures, cuisine, friends and hilarious mis-translations.

We Visit Heaven (Day 2)

With more humidity and a high approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, we set out early by foot for the Temple of Heaven via Wangfujing Plaza, making sure to note the various shops and eateries we might visit later.  
Very promising bizarre foods just around the corner. We'll be back.
The Temple of Heaven, or Altar of Heaven (Tiāntán), is a complex of religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. 



The temple was visited by the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer and fasting for good harvest. It was built in the early 1400s under the rule of the Yongle Emperor, the same one responsible for the Forbidden City. The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is described as "a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design” that laid the groundwork for centuries of Far East architecture and planning. 

 Much like Jingshan park, the beautifully maintained Temple of Heaven gardens are a popular place for locals to exercise and relax or participate in ethnic singing and dancing. 
Betsy found her "dream pergola."

Tourists and locals alike visit the temple halls which still house sacred altars or new displays about the history of the grounds. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the most prominent of these. The magnificent triple-gabled, completely wooden and nail-free circular building (in panoramic shot, above) was exactingly rebuilt in 1889 after a fire caused by lightning destroyed it.

Detail of rainwater spouts on the terraced steps of the Hall of Prayer.  
Once again we enjoyed meeting people who were excited to see us. One funny moment came when we sat down for a rest in one of the display halls and found ourselves drawing as much attention as the exhibits in the room. Families would mosey by, pause to consider and discuss us, then move on.
The line marking the 2008 Olympic marathon
route through the temple remains.
We were happy to get a taxi back to the hotel and made a beeline for the pool to cool off before jet lag got the better of us and we crashed. We were out for eleven hours but of course up again at 3 a.m. We are fortunate the World Cup games start here in the middle of the night because the games are a nice early-morning diversion.

Some travel notes:

 In an effort to avoid unwanted microbes, we not only purchase bottled water constantly but we then drink that through bottles we brought with us that have filters inside. We’re even brushing our teeth with it...so far, so good.

We are doing almost daily bathtub laundry and hanging our clothes all over our hotel room to dry. With the heat, we’re going through it about as fast as we can clean it. Not only haven’t we seen a laundromat but our confidence in successfully utilizing a washer and dryer with Chinese instructions is very low. It was hard enough in Europe!

We are able to communicate quite effectively with people we meet. The kids understand much of what they hear but find that the people speak very fast. Xander, having completed 4th grade, is our go-to translator. All the kids have been congratulated for their excellent pronunciation and all have been able to ask and answer questions to help us out or make new friends. On occasions when we are unable to connect because our Chinese or our conversant’s English is too weak, someone is usually close by to help out.

Compared to our experience in Europe, the streets are actually a little cleaner, there is slightly less smoking, people are generally more friendly and everything is so much cheaper. One has to bargain just about everywhere, especially in tourist areas but the price always comes down and things are quite cheap. Breakfast of wonton-noodle soup and dumplings for five, for example, at one local eatery cost us only the equivalent of US$5. We may never leave!

Finally, the winner for best Chinglish of the day goes to this sign a few blocks away from the temple:  
For modest people with aches and pains, this is the way to go.

MOVIE, BACK IN TIME & LAUNDRY (DAYS 9,10,11)

Perhaps our stomachs were feeling a bit homesick on Wednesday as we looked for a place to grab lunch before heading to the cinema. It was between a Pizza Hut lunch buffet (can't seem to find one near us in Minnesota) and a burger joint.


Despite the brown mustard and white cheese on the burgers (we wanted American cheese, damnit!) it hit the spot. Afterwards we opted for Madagascar 3 in French with no subtitles. Apparently they show movies here in English with subtitles for the first week or so until no one comes to those, then they only show the French versions. It was still funny but we definitely missed a few laughs. Figuring out the movie routine and purchasing the tickets, like every transaction I attempt to make here, was an ordeal. At home when I see someone who doesn't speak English struggling through such things they seem, well, stupid. Now that's me! Every day!

Case in point; our adventure on Thursday began at the train station with grand plans to rendezvous with our friend Frank in Tongeren, the "oldest city in Belgium." Betsy used her limited French to secure our tickets and escort us to the appropriate track at the appropriate time before bidding us farewell and heading to work. We boarded the train and sped off, waving and laughing as our journey got underway.


As Betsy started up the stairs, she saw another train pull in on the same track with its sign flashing TONGEREN. The train we were on had been late, messing up the schedule. Uh oh! She contacted a worker for help, who radioed the crew on our train. The kids and I were taking in the passing countryside when a conductor walked up to tell me to get my shoes off the seat (being comfortable is apparently another nasty American habit) and that I was on the wrong train. I'm not sure how long it would've taken me to figure out that we were speeding toward Luxembourg. A couple of stations later, we were finally on the right train and, about ninety minutes later, we were strolling through Tongeren with Frank.


Tongeren was wonderful. The city was founded in 15 B.C. as a base and supply station for Roman troops in the region. The statue above is of local legend and town symbol Ambiorix, an ancient Gallic chieftain and Hulk Hogan-lookalike who led the fight against Julius Ceasar's invading troops around 52 B.C. before fleeing across the Rhine as the Romans took power.

What is bound to be one of the highlights of our entire trip was our visit to the Gallo-Roman museum located in the heart of the city at the exact spot where a large, luxurious Roman villa once stood. The underground of Tongeren is one large archeological archive dating back 500,000 years and the museum sweeps visitors from Neolithic times through the stone and copper ages and up to Roman life 2,000 years ago.   

There were several great activities for the kids, beginning with a pretend archaeological dig site where we learned the proper techniques of unearthing, protecting and cataloging items. They also got to make Neanderthal-style amulet necklaces, paper Ambiorix and Roman soldier figures and replicas of Roman belt clasps.


We also enjoyed making friends with the realistic figures throughout the galleries.



Seeing the Roman artifacts was a dream come true. There were some amazing pieces that brought to life so many details about Roman artistry, technology, innovation and daily life that I'd only previously read about. We walked over an actual mosaic floor that once lay in a covered gallery of a luxury townhouse and saw remnants of a hypocaustum, an underfloor and inner-wall heating system.


Intricate items like hair pins, mirrors, cloak pins, jewelry, toiletry items and these delicate glass vials reveal the artistry and attention to detail of their makers.



The gallery is filled with fascinating items like statue and pillar fragments with images of gods and goddesses, often with inscriptions such as "To Vulcan. The Roman citizens of the centuria of Valentinus of the unit of the Gaesatae placed this stone."


We saw pipes for plumbing and lead bars for their manufacture such as this rare piece with the abbreviated inscription "Property of Emperor Tiberius Caesar Augustus, lead from Germania." Of all the objects ever found in Tongeren, this bar is the only object that is marked with the name of an emperor. 


A highlight for Frank was a display of the items found in nearby Heers just a few hundred meters from his childhood home. He was present as archaeologists unearthed items such as a bottle that still contained wine from the treasure-laden burial mounds of wealthy Roman families.


To see all of that in person served to reinforce the mystery of the middle ages, when all of these incredible advancements were swept aside by the conquering invaders at the fall of the Roman Empire. That we can so closely identify with these items and have seen the redevelopment of most of the technology is the theme of the museum, embodied by a quote that appears in a variety of languages in the entryway:
"What follows is always organically related to what went before..." 
- Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor, 121-180 A.D.

The visit was capped off by the one thing I had to see before the end of our European travels; outdoor remnants of a Roman wall. A first wall was built around Tongeren to protect it from the Germanic tribes beyond the Rhine. A second wall was built in the 4th century, parts of which have still survived to this day. This section included the addition of turrets during medieval times for added protection, but the base of the wall and most of the bricks and mortar in it were about 1,700 years old.


We enjoyed giant sundaes on the idyllic town square as church bells rang every fifteen minutes to remind us to soak in the scene and appreciate how fortunate we are to be here.


On the way back to Brussels, we made a stop at Frank's house to meet his parents and his two dogs. The Schoofs tend a beautiful garden and enjoy the protection of Juanita, a behemoth great Dane who was thrilled to see the kids.



As I write this on Friday afternoon, we are about to pack up for a weekend sojourn to Brugge. We're excited to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city and into an air-conditioned hotel with a pool.

We woke up this morning with the one goal of finally getting our laundry clean before moving on to something fun. Unfortunately, the effort to get the wash done monopolized our day, knocking me off my Roman pedestal and back down to the level of befuddled foreigner. When we arrived last week and inquired about the facilities, we were told to look in the unit's parking garage around the corner but found all the doors locked. A few days later we finally got a key (they said they had forgotten they recently installed a lock on the door) and found out that we needed to get some proper change together. So today, with a deadline looming, we all got up early to walk down with Betsy and get the first load in. When the washer swallowed our Euros and failed to start, we removed all the soapy clothes and headed back up to the flat to wait for our contact to advise us. He then informed us that he forgot that the washer was broken and directed me to a laundromat about five blocks away. So the kids and I marched through the streets dragging a suitcase full of dirty clothes only to find a sign in French on the door telling us that the laundromat was closed each year from July 16-28. Lovely. A few texts and a map search revealed another possibility five blocks in the other direction. It was on a street we had started to go down several days earlier but turned around because we didn't feel too safe! Fortunately, it felt safer during daylight and my three patient helpers and I eventually returned "home" with a suitcase full of clean laundry six hours after our initial attempt.