China - Day 15

I am sorry I did not write anything yesterday. We left Beijing for Zheng Zhou at around 8:00pm. So, I did not really get a chance to write anything until today. Yesterday night we took the overnight train, and arrived today (the 10 in China). We are staying in town at a hotel, and we will be around in Zheng Zhou for around 3 days. Today we were taken around town by a man named brother Ma. We went to a quite a few places. We went to a school, a sports training center, a little orchard, and the Yellow River for pictures and dinner.

I'm going to start with what we did yesterday. In the late morning, we headed out to get Katherine and the other girls their second dress fitting. The dresses at this point are almost done, but the tailor does one more fitting before finishing them. They should be done sometime next week (Sunday or Monday). We are going to be out of town, but Katherine's will get it when we come back. So, she is pretty happy about that. Katherine was still not feeling well, so she went back with the other girls to the house to rest. My dad, mom, Danny, and myself went out to shop a little. We went to a sort of Chinese department store. This place was more like a mall, or rather something like a career fair, with all the booths set up. There are no "stores" they are all just stalls, and you walk around looking for what you want. My mom wanted to get some scarves, Danny was getting a jacket, and dad and I really had nothing to buy. So, to make a pretty long story short, my mom got her scarves and my brother got a jacket.

We got back around 3:45 and stayed in our house area for the rest of the time. We packed and got ready to go. Our train was leaving at 9:50, so we left our house at 8:00. I was told that Zheng Zhou is prime area for Chinglish signs. So, I've been on the lookout for them. I've actually found some good ones, but I'm not going to post those until I've got a really good collection.

The train ride over to Zheng Zhou was an experience. We got a sleeper car for the overnight journey. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but everyone seems to smoke over here in China, and so it should not have been much of a surprise when we got to the room and found that it was a room that had been smoked in... In addition to the smoke already in the room, the people next to us were smoking, and that came into the room a little bit. It was not as bad as I'm making it out to be though, because there was no way to get any fresh air into the room either :)

Despite that though, we had a good pretty good sleep. Well, I did anyway. Katherine and Danny had to share one of the little beds, and so they were fighting for their space, but oh well, that's how those things work. We arrived in the morning sometime, around 8:50 and started our 15 day in China.

We got picked up from the train station by Brother Ma. He took us to a school for some younger children, and we ate lunch there. We then went in search of a sports center to play ping-pong. My Grandpa took some lessons here last year and wanted me to do the same. I didn't know about any of this until tonight. We didn't find the right center, and could not go in and play ping pong. It was an attempt though, and that's what matters.

We started to go out to the Yellow River, but before that, we saw a roadside orchard selling ju ju bees. I don't know if you have ever had a ju ju bee, but it almost looks like a mini apple, and tastes not like an apple. I don't really know what it tastes like, nothing I've had in the States, but they are good. So, we picked some of those in the orchard.

We then went to the yellow river for the rest of the day. We drove around on road that sort of follows the river's path. We stopped at a few of the vista points. Compared to some ocean views, the view of the river was not amazing, but it was the yellow river, and we had to see it on this trip. Mission accomplished. During this time, Katherine and Danny got to ride a camel for a little bit. At one of the points there was a guy with a camel. So, for ten qui, they got to ride around for a few minutes. They really enjoyed that.

After looking around, we went to have some Yellow River Carp. On the yellow river there are a lot of boats restaurants that serve you on a boat, and then take the boat out on the river. The dinner was good, we had some of the carp, some shredded potatoes, eggs and tomatoes (reminds me of home), some interesting bing (they were not the usual flat pancake, but rather a bread. It was really good.), and some fish soup.

Everything except the bing and fish soup had hot peppers in it. It wasn't unbearably hot, but it was just interesting. Anyway, by the time we went out on the river, it was really dark. The engine was diesel, and was extremely loud. It was the "your ears are almost hurting because it is so loud" type loud. We got taken to a little island or something out there in the river. We stepped off the boat, walked around for a few minutes, and got back on and went back. Nothing really special, but at least we can say that we have eaten Yellow River Carp on the Yellow River.

After dinner we went back to our hotel to plan our next day. I think we ended up deciding to go to an ostrich farm and Zheng Zhou city. The latter being the area where my mom grew up. It was the textile factory area. Tomorrow should be interesting and I'm sure many photos will reveal themselves.
-Aaron

In addtion to the followeing photos, there are a few more on the album for you to look at. You can either click on the link below any of the photos, or if that does not work, try copying and pasting (or just typing) this address into your browser address bar http://picasaweb.google.com/Aznfold2
Click on the photo album that says "China Day - 15"

Half of the sleeper car.

From China Day 15

There is never a need to waste any space. Why not use bike lane and half of the car lane to dry out some corn?

From China Day 15

The Yellow river

From China Day 15

The camel.

From China Day 15

I'm not sure why, but the camel guy also had this turtle. I guess he was teaching it how to hover in mid-air.

From China Day 15

The orchard with ju ju bees.

From China Day 15

The many many boats for dinner goers. You just placed your order, and then went on a boat. They would bring your food and then you could go out on the river.

From China Day 15

Dinner :)

From China Day 15

I supposed this is why it is called the Yellow River. When we were looking at it during the day it just looked brown. But at night, with some light on it, it actually looked yellow.

From China Day 15