A few videos

One of my purchases before our second trip to China was a Flip DVD recorder.  Here are a few videos that I shot……

The first is a group of retired persons doing a Tai-Chi type of exercise in Green Lake Park.  The interesting thing is that I have always seen pictures of people in China doing these type of exercises and have always thought that the government MADE them do it, but these people were just enjoying the park and each other too…..

 

I dont think that I could do this next one…..could you…..

 

Here is a video of some of the traffic in Kunming.  This was actually at a slow time of day.  It is a wonderful mixture of buses, cars, scooters and bikes…..

 

Finally, on the last afternoon we took a final walk in the park and there were tons of individuals and groups playing, singing and teaching all over the park.  Here is a video of some of the musicians that we watched……

Bits and Pieces

There are a few miscellaneous things that I will remember about this China trip…..

Michael ALWAYS knew where we were and which way we were heading.  This is unusual and we both laughed about it……

The clothing styles of the women were varied and wondrous.  Most were dressed normally, but some of the younger girls were dressed in hot pants, stockings (sometimes fishnet) and TALL shoes.  Many of the shoes had straps galore, with one set even zipping up the back.  Many of the women wore heels and we were amazed to see them navigate the rough streets and sidewalks in them.

One of the other fashions were to wear short (ankle length) stockings with dresses or shorts.  I saw these on women of all ages.

There were umbrella’s everywhere….so that their skin wouldn’t get TOO dark. 

 

Do you see anything wrong with these pictures…..

…….And those are LIVE wires……

Here are a few photos from one of the tea shops that we went to…..

These are individual servings of tea.  I guess it is the Chinese equivalent to the tea bag…… There are teas from every region and area of the country…..

How about a tea tower?????

 

Better than the tea market!!!!

We had one purpose for today….we were going to visit a tea market that was not too far away from our hotel.  The Concierge had written out the information for a taxi and we proceeded to try to find one that would take us.  It took three tries, but we found a nice man who agreed to go that direction.  We think that the reason others were reticent is because there is a new Underground Train being built and this area was one where there was tons of construction.  In some areas, the 6 lane roads were down to three.

He dropped us off and pointed to the opposite side of the street, which we took to mean that the tea market was over there.  We crossed the street and started walking around, but NEVER found the market.  BUT, we found so many other wonderful things that we quickly forgot about our loss.

Firstly, we enjoyed just walking up and down the streets and looking at the shops and people.  Much of this area was filled with Banks and Office Buildings.  We enjoyed seeing what the various small cafe’s were selling and found a WIDE variety of food.

We went into one grocery type store and enjoyed looking around and taking a few photos.  I especially liked the dried mushroom area….there were probably 30 different types of mushrooms in bags.  There was also a largish bag that contained a snake skin, a dried frog or some other type of amphibian, some dried starfish and who knows what else.  We are assuming that these were used for medicinal purposes, but they very well may have been used in food preparation.

Instead of a Doctor visit…..

Many mushrooms……

I bought a box that I THINK is fruit candy, but will wait to open it.  We stayed away from the cookies and baked sweets since we have not been especially fond of the ones that we have tasted.

The next stop was in a tea shop and we purchased a small teapot, much like the one that Jialin had used and also a small pitcher and four small round “cups” (really tiny bowls).

As we walked around one corner, I saw a courtyard that contained hundreds of vases and urns of various sizes.  Some were HUGE…..Michael wouldn’t let me buy one….go figure..

We ended up buying and couple of things there, but our credit card would not work for some reason so the shopkeeper had to point us to a bank so that we could get cash.  When we got back to pay, someone had already wrapped our purchases and he made them un-wrap them so that we could see them before we bought them.  I thought that was nice.  Also, when we walked outside to look at more of the urns, they brought out an umbrella so that we wouldn’t be out in the sun.

As we were walking, I kept seeing people carrying green bags full of vegies and meats, so we figured that there must be a market somewhere close…..and oh boy, was it a market!!!!  Unlike the one in the downtown area of the city, this one obviously catered to the locals that lived in that particular area.  At first I was reticent about taking photos, but soon it became obvious that we were the talk of the town, so I whipped out the camera and started recording the scenes.

There was an area where they were selling live chickens and you could watch while it was killed and cleaned.

There was a meat room that had lots of people selling various forms of meat and fish. 

Intestines and stomach of some unknown animal.

The chicken store…….. HELP……GET US OUT OF HERE……= The butcher room……. 

Eel anyone?…………..

Then there were the prepared foods……

Steamed buns……  this looked GOOD…… Relishes and sauces…… Noodles and mushrooms……..

Various forms of Tofu……..  

And finally a bunch of very interesting (if unknown) vegetables….

Another visit to the local market

 

After lunch Michael and I walked around the local market that I had visited in March.  We had a fun time taking photos of the various stalls.

One of our favorite interactions was with a little girl about 4 years old.  She walked by us originally and then ran over to her Mom and asked her a question.  Then she ran up to us again and said “He-ll-o”.  We waved and said hello as she smiled from ear to ear.  As we walked off, she waved and said “Bye-Bye”.  It was so cute.

Chicken foot anyone……. This woman proudly displayed here wares…… Steamed buns…… Have a Ham Hock…….

Dont know what it is, but it looks cool……

Dried lemon slices…… 

These baked goods look good……

Another unknown root vegetable…….

Fried rice noodles…….

We THINK that this is tofu, but it sure looks different….

A great honor!!!

Tonight we were given the great honor of being invited into a home for dinner.  Jialin and her husband, Shu, and her mother, Xu invited us to spend the evening in their home.  She and Shu picked us up about 6:00 and drove to their apartment.

We were met there by Xu who presented us with special shoes that we could wear while in their home.  We were treated like royalty while there.  They didn’t even complain when we asked if we could be in the kitchen area to watch the preparation of the food and didn’t even blink when I was madly taking photos!!

 

Jialin told us that while we were driving her mother had called and wanted to know why she had only prepared 5 dishes and a soup.  She said that it was not enough food and that she was preparing another dish  (mother’s are the same all over the world).  But, believe me, it was MORE than enough food.

While we were waiting, Jialin made some wonderful black tea for us to drink.  She had taken a University course in the history and preparation of different teas and was a fount of information. 

After dinner she made some green tea and showed us how tell whether or not it is a high quality tea.  The leaves were cut long and thin and It was really beautiful how they stood up at the bottom and floated on the top of the glass.  She likened it to “dancers in the water”.  She showed us examples of various teas that she likes and we laughed at her because one of them was bought at Walmart!!!

The most interesting dish that we had was a salad made from cucumber slivers and Jelly Fish.  The dressing had a slight lemon flavor to it and it was a wonderful combination. 

My favorite one was pork ribs that had been spiced and cooked.  It was served on a bed of steamed asparagus and carrots.  I had TWO of those.

There was also a plate of steamed shrimp, another of steamed pumpkin, a dish of chili chicken wings, and finally, an egg and leek mixture (Xu’s last minute addition).  The soup was made from scrambled eggs and boiled tomatoes. 

This photo has all of the dishes except for the pork ribs…..  Our view of the loaded table…..

We ate until we could eat no more and then out came the fruit.  There was watermelon, grapes and a fruit that seemed to be a mixture between a cherry and a plum.  It was about the size of a cherry but had a bumpy skin.  They were great!!!

We had a wonderful time talking to Jialin and her family, although we felt sorry for Jialin as she had to translate everything that was said……I am not sure how she had time to eat.

As we talked about the food that they had prepared, Jialin told us that they worked hard to prepare dishes that were different shapes, colors, aromas, flavors and textures.  Obviously they put a LOT more thought into their preparation than we do.

The conversation ranged from politics, economy and health to travel, food, music  and cultures with both sides asking lots of questions.  Jialin asked one final question…..”In American culture, who says that it is time to leave a party.”…..she was assuming that the guest was supposed to set the time and we were assuming that the host was going to set the time.  Needless to say, we could have been there all night!!!!  This would have been great for us, but I am sure that they were ready to clean up and return to “American-less” life.

They gave us two wonderful gifts…..the first was a package of tea that came from a very nice tea area.  The second was a gorgeous scarf that Jialin said went well with my skin color.   We had previously given Jialin a pottery plate from a Georgia potter, so we gave a small vase to her Mother…..I think that she was pleased.

They told us that we were the first International guests that they have had in their home, and we hope that we lived up to that great honor!!!!

A fun dinner

On Friday evening we were taken to dinner at a restaurant near the Kunming Institute of Zoology.  We were hosted by the Institute Director, and the party included Jialin, 2 other Chinese researchers, and the Canadian man that we had met on Wednesday.

As we were walking across the road to the restaurant, I heard a little voice yell "Hello, Hello!!!”.  I looked around quickly, and saw two kids riding on a scooter with their father.  I threw up my hand to wave and yelled “Hello, Hello”.  I got two big smiles from the kids and also from everyone around on the sidewalk.   I think that this brief interaction will be one of favorite memories of the trip.

We have had several young children say hello to us and we realized that it is probably the first English word that they learn so they are simply trying it out to see if it works.

In the restaurant we were ushered down a hall and into a separate room with a large table.  As we entered the room the 3 servers chanted a welcome.  At least, we ASSUME that it was a welcome.  They may have been saying “Big nose go home!!”

The menu was a huge book with pictures of all of the items.  Jialin and another of the women ordered the food for us and it probably took them 10 minutes to figure out what to get.

The first thing that we were served was a green tea that was basically water with a small amount of herb in it.  Every time that we would drink a sip or two, the waitresses would run over to refill the cup.  Michael leaned over and whispered….”Just quit drinking it”.

As soon as the tea was served, we “toasted” the meal and everyone tapped glasses with everyone else….quite a feat.

They also asked if we wanted water and when it was brought out, it was a small glass of HOT water. 

As we were waiting for the food they brought out a box of tissues that were passed around to be used as napkins.  They also brought out individual wicker baskets that held a cold wet washrag.  These were very refreshing.

The food was good, but Michael and I did not enjoy it as much because if was fairly bland.  It was basically a vegetarian meal except for one meat dish…..at least I guess you could call it meat.  It was Chili Bullfrog!!!!  The little bits of meat actually had a great flavor but there were so many bones in it that it was difficult to eat. 

We also had a bright green soup and were told that it was “vegetable juice soup”.  It had a wonderful flavor.

My favorite one was an Eggplant dish that had a little bit of spice to it.  There was also a dish that contained Broccoli, peas, corn and shrimp, and another that was a braised lettuce.  There was never any rice served.

These dishes are so completely different to the Chinese food that we buy at home.  They all had light sauces and are very pretty in their presentation.

We ended the meal with three different dessert dishes.  The first one was a steamed bun that had a dough/gelatin texture and had a filling of ground Black Sesame seeds.  The texture was almost more than I could take and I was only able to eat about half of it.  The next one was a fried pastry made of pumpkin.  It had a good flavor, but again the texture was a bit gooey for me.  The final one was a small pancake made from corn flour.  It was very tasty although I would have put some syrup on it.   Interestingly, none of these were very sweet.

Toward the end of the meal, I noticed that Jialin had asked that all of our tea cups be refilled, but I didn’t understand the reason.  After they were filled, there was another toast with much clinking of glasses and everyone drained their glass, thus signaling the end of the meal.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

We have made the decision that we will not make a move to China.  As we started getting answers to our questions, we realized that it simply brought  out more questions and more uncertainty.  It was a hard decision, but the Institute director and others have been extremely gracious and kind.

We have changed our flights home to leave on Tuesday so we are spending a few days relaxing here.