Saturday morning dawned cloudy and rainy, with occasional thunder!! We decided to worry about the weather later and instead headed down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Just as a side note, we are both getting VERY tired of eating buffet breakfasts…..six weeks of them in one summer is just too much!!!

At breakfast I started watching a little girl with her Parents and Grandparents. As most of you know, our beautiful Daughter-In-Law is Asian and this little girl reminded me so much of the photos that I had seen of Amber as a child. As I watched her interact with the others, I became more and more convinced that she was a “little Amber”.  I am sure that her parent’s were wondering why these “round-eyes” were staring at her!!

When it was time to leave, the rain had not stopped, so we grabbed our umbrellas and caught a taxi to the Shanghai Museum, a beautiful building…

We got in one line, although we weren’t sure that we didn’t need to buy tickets somewhere else first, but since no one in the line were holding tickets, we decided to try it anyway. After a short wait, we walked thru the metal detector, past the entryway guard and we were in the museum, still not having paid!!! We are not sure why there was no charge, but we did not complain.

The interior of the building is as nice as the outside, with an open atrium and galleries all around the outside edges….

Most of the visitors were heading to the left and up the escalator so we went the other direction….right and into the Bronze gallery.

Many of the pieces in this gallery were very old and intricate, but I was once again drawn to the shapes of the objects…..

There were MANY objects that were fashioned into animals of some sort….

This water basin had various animals in the bottom of it, but I was more interested in the little girl telling her Mother what animals she saw…..

This Yak piece was interesting, especially with the Tigers climbing up the sides of the pot…..

….and I thought of our son, Brian, when we came across these bronze drums….

The next gallery was calligraphy.  The introduction to the gallery gave the following explanation…. “Chinese written characters are pictographic symbols of spoken words.  Calligraphy is the art of writing characters in an expressive manner employing the use of a brush.” 

The pieces were beautiful, although completely lost on us…..

The next gallery took us to Chinese painting.  Most of it was done on silk and many pieces had Calligraphy incorporated as well.   I really liked this large painting of bamboo….

There were a couple of interesting things about this gallery.  The first was that the display cases were all darkened and would light up as you approached the painting.  It was a bit disconcerting at first, but we soon learned to look for the sensor and to be sure to stand there.

The second was that I realized that people around us knew who these artists were, much as we would say “Oh look…there’s a Monet”.

Most of the pieces were done in one color of ink, mostly black and many carried the seal of the painter (see the red stamps)……

However, there were several gorgeous pieces that had additional colors added….

Next was the Jade gallery and once again there was room after room of jade pieces.  The most amazing ones to me were the pieces that displayed fine and delicate carvings.

The woodcarving room was Michael’s favorite and many exquisite carved and Lacquered pieces were shown.  This pieced was a mirror stand and we would have loved to put it into our suitcase!!!

When I looked at this next room, my eye immediately went to the stand at the back.  Cant you see quilt’s hanging there…..

Michael is desperate for one of these “brobdingnagian” chairs but I cant see him sitting in them to watch TV at night.  The chair in the middle is actually a folding chair…..

This red lacquered table and chairs was intricately carved.  Michael’s comment was that you wouldn’t want to sit for long on those chairs as the carvings would “etch” into your skin!!!

OK, enough wood work. Let’s get to something important….like textiles!!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed the Ethnic Costume and Textile gallery, starting with the dragon that welcomed us in…..

….these wonderful “tie-dye batik”pieces…..

…..this funky hat with a “fishing pole” attached……

….and this example of “extreme” beading…..

I loved the colors in this dress…….

…and was very glad that I couldn’t smell this outfit since it was made of Salmon Skin!!!!

On to the ceramics gallery but by this time we were officially “museumed-out”.  A quick run thru gave a few more images…..

Most of the pieces were traditional blue and white,so we found this brown and white painted piece to be very attractive…..

We left the museum and caught a taxi to the place that I was dying to go…..Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant.  The only problem was that, when we arrived, the line looked like this…..

There were several hundred people in line so we reluctantly decided to give it a miss.

Just down the street was the City God Temple so we followed the signs and walked there in the rain.  We stopped at one booth and asked where to buy tickets.  The person pointed down a corridor so we started walking that way.  The guard at the end of the walkway said that we needed tickets and pointed back up the corridor…..but where?????

Then we saw this tiny window and sure enough, that was the ticket counter….

Even though it was pouingr rain, the central courtyard was crowded with worshipers……

Around this center courtyard were buildings that each contained a Buddha of some sort and a shrine……

The worshipers go into each of the halls and bow and pray to each of the gods….

 

There was a lot of construction going on so you couldn’t really see the main Buddha, however here is one of his attendants.  I swear that he is holding a fire extinguisher!!!….

I have always loved the architecture of the temple buildings, especially the roof lines…..

Leaving the temple, we caught a taxi to the Dongtai Road Antique Market.  In this photo, Michael is showing his approval, Chinese style….

Now we had been warned that the definition of “antique” was flexible and could mean something was one year old or 100 years old.  The market was composed  of several long streets with small “junk” shops out on the street…

…and more serious shops in the buildings.  They were very interesting and you could buy lots of fun things.  This store had old typewriters, cameras and movie cameras…..

We walked down one long hall and found the most interesting things…..

In some places it was so dark that we couldn’t really see what was there until the camera flashed…….

We had, once again, managed to arrive just after lunch and many of the shopkeepers were taking their afternoon rest……

….and yes, this man is working in his underwear only……

We ended up purchasing one small item and then headed back to the hotel to ask them for another place to get steamed buns (we knew them as Soup Dumplings).  The concierge told us that Nanxiang was the best and when we told him that the line length had deterred us the first time, he said “oh no.  Don’t stand in the line.  Go upstairs and there is no waiting”!!!

So we hopped back into a taxi and returned to the Restaurant with the long line.  We climbed the stairs and found that there were still a lot of people waiting but the hostess came up to me and asked if we would be happy with a “Set Menu” rather than ordering for ourselves.  Since we wouldn’t have known what to order anyway, we said yes and she immediately sat us at a table.

The steamed buns are an interesting phenomenon.  A mixture of meat and aspic is wrapped in a dumpling skin.  When the buns are steamed, the aspic dissolves, with the resulting soup being trapped inside the bun.  Here is a video of some of the buns being made.

On Friday morning, we woke up VERY early (at 4:00am) and started getting ready to leave. Michael called the concierge and requested a taxi to take us to the airport. The concierge called back and told us that it would be 180Y!! We knew that this was WAY too much because the meter only shows about 90Y but the taxi driver argued that it was too far and that he wouldn’t be able to get a fare back. Michael finally agreed to pay 120Y (about $US20).

This episode highlighted another of Kunming’s bad decisions. They have just built a gorgeous new International Airport, but it is so far out of town that taxi drivers do not want to go there. There is not much parking so you cant leave a car and the “Airport Express” train only travels at 15 kilometers per hour (about 10 mph) so it takes several hours to get there. We were told that some families pack a picnic and make a day trip out of it!!

We saw one accident on the highway which was surprising given the small amount of traffic on the road at that hour. We did see several motorcycles and scooters that did not have lights and were driven by people wearing dark, dark clothes. I guess that we should be surprised that there were not MORE accidents!!!

We made it thru all of the security checks and the suitcase did not require additional screening this time!!! We started trying to find somewhere to eat breakfast but nothing was open at that hour. We did see numerous people eating Noodle bowls which could be purchased at one of the airport shops and then filled with boiling water at one of these water stations…..

The girl in the foreground is carrying her bowl back to her seat to enjoy.

I did see one man eating one of these and drinking a PBR (for you non-Texan’s, that is a Pabst Blue Ribbon)…..a horrible beer at the best of times but unthinkable at this hour of the morning!!!!

Michael was “jonesing” for Espresso and we finally found a shop that opened at 6:30. He was first in line and ended up paying $22 for three single Espresso’s. Expensive yes, but worth every drop.

We arrived in Shanghai airport and caught a taxi to the hotel. As we drove, we got a view of the incredible architecture of this city…..

We arrived at “Sunrise on the Bund” which is a four star hotel on the “Bund” side of Shanghai…..

This hotel is normally $250 per night, but we got a deal on Agoda.com for $225 for three nights!!! The room is gorgeous…..

Although there is a clear view into the bathtub and bathroom area…..

….and the toilet and shower are both glass and face each other. There are the painted lines at discrete levels, but it is still a bit freaky!!!

You certainly wouldn’t want to come here with someone that you weren’t REALLY close to…..

This arrangement does cause a bit of problem…. when we ordered room service, the food was delivered just as Michael was getting into the shower. He had to cower in the only enclosed corner, with a towel wrapped around him until the waiter left!!!

By this time it was lunch time and we were both STARVED!!!! We decided to go to one of the hotel restaurants and couldn’t resist the opportunity to have something other than Chinese cuisine, so we both ordered pasta…..

It was a fantastic change of pace and we enjoyed every bite. To top it off, we had Apple Pie alamode!!!!

The first order of the day was to get a feel for the layout of the city and the best place to do that was at the Jin Mao Observation Deck, which is on top of the second tallest building in Shanghai and one of the tallest in China.

The only problem was that the taxi pulled up at the door of the Grand Hyatt Hotel. OK, what do we do now!!! We walked in, acting like we knew what we were doing and headed for the elevators. Unfortunately this particular elevator only went to the 54th floor and we were heading to the 88th!! We took the car back down to the first floor and started over, this time following a crowd of people out of the lobby and into another area with several sets of escalators. A few questions later, and we had purchased our tickets, climbed into the elevator that took 45 seconds to rise 88 floors and were looking out over the city of Shanghai……

It was very interesting to watch the construction crews lowering beams and welding them together. They walked along the beams as if they were 10 inches off of the ground……

The tallest building, located just next door, is the Shanghai World Financial Center. It is a seriously cool building……

We had a great time wandering around the observation deck and seeing this beautiful city……

It is a little hard to see in this photo, but there were groups of red roofed and blue roofed houses….

The view out one window provided a normal Shanghai event…..a traffic jam…..

Later in the day, while we were stuck in this same traffic jam, we realized that all of these people were jockeying to get into the tunnel that travels under the Yangtze River which runs down the middle of Shanghai.

If it was weird to look out of the tower, it was even stranger to look INTO the tower. This view looks down 32 floors and onto the 56th floor lobby of the Hyatt (billed as the highest hotel in the world)……

It seems like something out of Star Wars!!!!

I loved watching this little boy look longingly at the Yao Ming display…..

After returning “to earth”, we went back up the escalator’s to the biggest Starbuck’s that I have ever seen, and this photo only shows about 1/2 of it……

I particularly loved the architecture of this building and was interested in the escalators…..this open design allowed you to see the underside as well.

Back outside again, we took a little walk around the business district (known as the Pudong District). Once again, I REALLY like the architecture….

This is the building that we had just come out of. The design was based on young bamboo shoots……

Another taxi ride back across the river and we were back at our hotel. We took a little walk around the neighborhood and I loved this photo of clothes being hung out to dry on the street corner……

We relaxed at the hotel in the evening and enjoyed talking to a young man from California who was living in Shanghai and working at the hotel. He obviously was in need of some “American” talk time and we enjoyed learning more about Shanghai from him.

We declared Day One in Shanghai to be a success!!!

On Monday, Michael spent the morning at the Guangzhou Botanic Garden speaking to a group of scientists. While he was there, I stayed at the hotel and got organized for our return trip to Kunming. Xue-jun picked me up at Noon and we returned to the garden for a lunch with some of their colleagues. It was a typical banquet lunch with WAY too many dishes. Afterward there was the traditional picture…..

I love how this photo turned out with all of the looks on their faces and their poses!!!

One thing that I have learned from each of our banquet dinners is that there is always one person who is the designated “table turner”….. this person is constantly slowly turning the table so that everyone can fill their plates with the dishes going around. I don’t think that this designation is officially given to any one person, but there always seems to be someone who steps into the role.

The return trip to Kunming was uneventful…always a good thing for a plane flight and we easily caught a taxi back to the Grand Park Hotel, where we were given the exact same room that we had left!!!

On Tuesday, we went shopping!!! We started at the Antique market that we had visited last week and the first purchase was a wooden box that Michael had liked. It is was fairly large and we were impressed that the shopkeeper wrapped it in a foam layer and then used tape to create a handle so that we could carry it.

The next purchase was an Inkstone!! We had really loved the ones that we had seen in the museum and decided to shop for one ourselves. Many of them are fairly plain and the carved designs are subdued and not easily seen, but then we found this one…..

……and we KNEW that it had to come home with us. Since it weighs about 5 pounds, I am fairly sure that there is a suitcase purchase in our future!!!!

After Michael caught a taxi back to the hotel, I wandered down to Carrefour to do a bit of exploring (and price new suitcases). I passed a case of “ready to prepare” food……want to come to my house for Black Chicken Soup???

I also found one more sculpture that I had to take a photo of……

…although I had to wait for quite a while until everyone had moved out of the way.

I returned to the hotel and Michael told me that he had seen an interesting wood shop while in the taxi and that he “thought” he could get back to it. So, rather than work any more, we hit the streets again. Michael’s nose proved to be true and we found the wood shop without much trouble at all. We only missed one turn and ended up walking down the median of a VERY busy street, but everyone here is used to that so it wasn’t that big of a deal!!!

OK….since Michael’s box was too big for the suitcase, we needed to get it shipped….so, we called Colin and he got us together with “his guy”!! We both expected that he would pick up the box and then take it somewhere to pack but we were completely wrong. We met “the guy” at Salvador’s and he proceeded to find a box there that it would fit in, wrap it a bit better, shove it into the box and tape it up. He then pulled out the hand-held scale to weigh it, we filled out some papers and our box was winging it’s way to Watkinsville, Georgia!!!…..

…and the entire transaction took place at the front counter of Salvador’s!!!!

On one of our walking trips, we came across this mob scene…..

…..and wondered if there was riot about to start. No, this was just the “car-rider” line waiting for the elementary school to let out. Soon each scooter or motorcycle was populated by an adult and one or two children!!!

On Thursday we made yet another trip to the Kunming Institute of Zoology for Michael to meet with a colleague and then to have lunch with members of his lab group. There were 10 people at the table, and FOURTEEN dishes were ordered. There were three different types of corn…..sweet corn pancakes….. warm corn juice (like a cream corn soup)…..

…..and sweet and salty fried corn, completely with candy sprinkles……

We had eaten at this restaurant many times and had enjoyed most of these dishes before, but did have a new one. They called these Chinese hamburgers, with the filling being made of beef and bamboo shoots.

To eat them, you would open up the bread “bun”, dip some meat onto them and then enjoy……

We reminisced with Wen (our host) about the last trip when he fed us insects, and not to be outdone, the group ordered them again. These are Bamboo worm larvae that have been deep fried and then sautéed with a spicy chili sauce…..

Now I know what you are all thinking, but they were really good, especially when eaten in concert with the fried corn!!!!

The lunch was a fun time and much science was discussed…..

We decided to try to walk back to the hotel and this time just followed everybody else and walked THRU the construction rather than detouring around it…..

The havoc being wreaked is astounding…..I just hope that it will all be worth it!!!

Returning to the hotel meant that it was time to pack for our weekend away in Shanghai. This is a side-trip that we decided to add onto this empty weekend and we are really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, there are THREE Typhoons (hurricanes) headed toward the city, but we are hoping that they will zig and zag around and miss us completely. As of Thursday night it is looking promising!!!

On Sunday, we started our morning with breakfast at the hotel and had “Cowboy Intestine (Beef)” ….yes that was the name for our breakfast sausage and no, it was NOT the best Chinese meal….that comes later!!

We were met at the hotel by Xue-Jun and his wife (whose name I never did know) and we headed out of town and into the mountains. After driving for about 30 minutes, we stopped for a rest…..

….and yes, the “rest stop” was just to pull off on the side of the road and step out for a look at the vegetation. This was actually better than most of the cars who just stopped in the right hand lane…..at least we were off of the road.

The next stop was in a small town to purchase some Longan fruit. This was our first vendor, but Xue-jun’s wife declared that they were not sweet enough….

So we moved down to the next vendor and bought two bags of the fruit. Here he is using a hand-held scale to weigh the fruit…..

You have to peel the hard case off of the fruit to eat it. The texture is much like grape but it had a large seed, similar to a cherry pit. Once again, the taste was similar to a grape but a bit sweeter.

The vendor was also selling cactus fruit….more about that in a minute.

As we drove further along, Xue-jun stopped at this tree so that we could see how the Longan fruit looks on the tree. It is interesting to me that it grows on a tree. I would have expected a vine.…..

The next stop was at the “village tree”. Xue-jun told us that when a small village was settled, the first thing that they did was plant a tree that would become the gathering place for the villagers. This specimen was magnificent…..

And just next to it was the local village gym, complete with all sorts of equipment….

I will admit that I had no idea how most of it was used, but Xue-jun’s wife happily demonstrated.

While she was mastering this equipment, Xue-jun was quietly intoning “please be careful!!!”

The wheels help with shoulder rotation but I think that it must also be where they practice their driving!!!!

Now back to the cacti fruit. We passed a Cactus plantation…..

…where each plant was happily attached to a concrete support. I bet that this place is gorgeous when all of the cacti are blooming.

The next stop offered some beautiful views out over the mountains……

As we walked past this motorcycle filled with bamboo stems and leaves, we asked what she used them for. She said that these materials are used to make the brooms that she then uses to sweep the roads and parking lots. Such a hard life…..

Along the road, Xue-jun pointed out a Wild Banana plant which is one of his research projects. You can see the flower in the middle of the photo. He told us that these bananas are completely inedible…..

As we climbed further into the mountains, the roads became more and more twisty and the speed slowed down to 15km per hour (about 10 mph)

Each turn had a convex mirror that allowed you to see around the bend to see if other cars were approaching. Even that detail didn’t help much as we came very close to having 2 wrecks on various corners.

We then stopped at a park area fairly high up in the mountains. There was a manmade lake and huge fields filled with perennial plants and filled in with gorgeous Cleome plants……

We were originally told that these workers were “weeding” but we soon realized that they were removing all of the Cleome plants. We were then told that they were getting the area ready for replanting so that it would look nice for “National Day” which is on October 1st. It seemed to me that they were removing the plants just when they looked the nicest!!!

Further down the lake, we hiked onto “Jiantang Ding” (White Cloud Mountain). The boardwalk was well tended and the walk was wonderful…..

We were astounded by the huge stands of bamboo that covered the mountain….

Apparently, much of the “Primary Forest” (first growth) was cut down in logging operations and now the Bamboo has taken over. Xue-jun also told us that most logging has been banned now in China unless it is from a cultivated forest. The problem is that, with so much building going on, there is a huge market for wood and most of it is now imported from other countries. He also said that he felt that the government had gone too far with the bans and that maybe a compromise could have been found.

I thought that this tree was interesting as it clung to this huge rock…..

At the end of the Boardwalk tour, there was a new conference center being built. It will be gorgeous, but I wonder exactly who will use it since this is so far away from anything.

There was an interesting sign at the edge of the boardwalk that described the area as an “International Bathing Area”……

“The trees in the Forest Breathing Place can emit a kind of volatile substance, which can clean up and sterilize the air. Moreover the trees here can eliminate the noises and have a regulation function to your body’s nervous system. In this forest bathing area, the oxygen content can reach 12 billion per cetraire, making it surely a “natural oxygen bar”. When it is sunny, walking in the forest and taking the deepest breath will have some therapeutic effect on a lot of respiratory system illnesses.”

….and I thought that I was just taking a walk!!!!

We climbed back in the car and drove down the mountain to stop at a roadside restaurant for lunch. As we were getting out of the car we could see a man to one side, killing a chicken….remember this as the story progresses…..

The roof of the building was metal and had water pouring over it to help cool off the room. I also saw a number of people use this water stream to wash their hands during the meal……

The other part to the air-conditioning system was a bank of oscillating fans that cooled the entire building…..

Now before we go further, this is STILL not the best ever meal…it comes later!!

As we sat down our dishes were presented to us in plastic wrap…..

When the tea came, we first used it to rinse out all of the bowls and utensils that we would be eating with. That tea was discarded but we used more tea out of the same pot to drink with our meal.

This insect repellent coil was lit and placed under the table…..

…..and we were ready to eat.

More Longan fruit was brought out but was quickly sent away as ours was once again declared to be tastier.

First out were fern fronds which were very tasty but a little hard to eat with chopsticks…..

Next came tofu….a bit better consistency than yesterday, but still not very tasty…..

Next was a “weggie-table”(vegetable), steamed pumpkin, which was very nice and then….drum roll…. the piece de resistance……

Fresh chicken (remember the man out front) that had been roughly chopped into pieces, bones and all and then quickly cooked in this metal pot. It was not particularly tasty as it was fairly tough and I was a bit taken aback by this sight….

…..yes, that is a rooster head!!!! The feet were also present in the pot and Xue-jun’s wife quickly grabbed one and gnawed away!!! There was a lot left at the end of the meal so a “chicken bag” was brought out…….

As we were preparing to walk out, there were two young boys and it looked as if one had dared the other to say hello to us. He kept walking by us and trying to gain courage. I finally just smiled and said “hello”. He replied and smiled and there was much giggling as we left!!!

The drive back to Guangzhou was a lot of fun and came with even more experiences. We came to one new road that Xue-jun “thought” he knew where it went to. So, he paid the toll and off we went. A few miles later we exited the toll booth with no true idea of where we were. One of the toll gate keepers came over and gave directions so we were off again. Xue-jun laughed that “every road leads to Rome” …..Michael and I quietly hooted as we remembered our experience in Italy when every rode did NOT lead to Rome. (you can read about that adventure here)

Also, before I go any further, I have to tell you about the Coke episodes!!! On Saturday, as we were walking into the Botanic Garden, we passed a small store and I asked Michael if they might have a Coke Zero. We went in and finally found a Coke which was fine for me. Before we knew what they were doing, they had bought TWO cokes…one for me and one for Michael (who doesn’t really like Coke). On the way out of the garden, they ran back into the shop and came out with two MORE cokes. Then, this morning, when we got into the car, we were handed a bag that contained….you guessed it….. FOUR bottles of coke!!!! We were greatly reminded of the incident early in our marriage when Michael offhandedly mentioned to his Mama that he liked tomato juice. After we had accumulated over a dozen HUGE cans of tomato juice, he had to advise her that he liked a glass every so often and that we had plenty!!!!

Anyway, on with the trip…. while on the trip back, we did note a couple of interesting things…..firstly, the car tags all have Roman letters on them rather than Chinese characters…..have no idea why!!! Secondly, the city keeps adding more and more roads with many of them being overpasses so that two roads can run simultaneously. The amazing thing is that many of these elevated roads come within a few feet of apartment houses. I would think that it would be supremely uncomfortable to live there.

After arriving at the hotel, Xui-jun’s wife returned home and we hopped in a taxi to go to one more museum that he wanted to show us. This was the Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King. It was close to closing time so we had to hurry but it was a fascinating place.

The tomb was discovered in 1983 while excavating on a construction site for a hotel. The museum opened in 1988 and contains well organized and displayed artifacts from the tomb which was from the Han Dynasty. The tomb itself had seven chambers and you could wander into most of them….however, you had to mind your head…….

This is a reconstruction of the jade burial garment. They found the jade pieces, but obviously the silk ribbon had degraded so it was re-done.

This is the beautiful lacquered box that he was found in…….

They found over 10,000 historical relics in the tomb and we particularly enjoyed see the many jade pieces.

We also noted that there were 15 sacrificial victims that were also laid to rest in the tomb, including concubines. These people were sacrificed so that they would be there to serve the King in eternity….now that’s loyalty!!

The museum also housed a collection of pillows. I found this one to be interesting….

but wondered just how comfortable these ceramic pillows would be (however they are cute)……

And I finally found a quilt pattern…..wouldn’t this be fun as a whole-cloth quilted piece…..

As we left, there was a woman making “pancakes” outside the museum. I would have loved to try one but would have needed butter and syrup!!!

And now, without further ado….here is our favorite meal. It was at a little “hole-in-the wall” place that specialized in the Hunan cuisine. The reason that we loved it was because it was SPICY!!!!

We had beef and peppers……

Green beans and peppers……

…..and grilled shrimp and (you guessed it) peppers…….

It was all wonderful and the shrimp were excellent….once you got them peeled of course……

At the end of the meal, only the peppers were left!!!!!!

We waddled our way across the street to our hotel, being happily filled with the fun of the day and the peppers of the evening!!!!!

To start this post, check out these beautiful flowers in our hotel lobby.  Xiu-Jun commented that the probably came from Kunming which is known as the flower city of China…..

This morning (Saturday) we were met at the hotel by Liu Juan (a PhD student) and Wu Wei (a Post-Doctoral fellow).  Both work in Xue-jun’s lab.  They were given the dubious task of taking us around for the day.

We took a taxi to the downtown area of Guangzou and were enthralled with the architecture of the surrounding buildings.

The landscape is dominated by the Canton Tower which is a telecom tower and the highest structure in all of China……

Our destination for the morning was the Guangdong Museum.  It has only been open for 3 years and is a beautiful and well-done facility…..

 

The first exhibit that we visited was a display of Duan Inkstones.   Chinese ink can be found in a solid stick to which you add small amounts of water to reconstitute.  The small well on the stone is used to hold the water which is brushed onto the ink stick.  The ink stick is then scrapped on the flat portion of the pad and then further mixed together with a calligraphy brush.

The Duan stone is dark purple in color (although it looks black in these photos) and is considered to be the best in China because of the smooth texture.  These stones are also carved and are incredibly beautiful.  This one was housed in a gorgeous pearl in-lay case……

….and this one is a parrot and a pear……

The next exhibit was of Chaozhou Woodcarving which is part of a famous school of folk woodcarving in China.   It was a diverse exhibit ranging from simple wood to ornate lacquered pieces.

I love this piece and labeled it “Happy Crabs”…..I love the looks on their faces….

I thought that these two designs were great…..

….and Michael wanted to bring this chest home with us……

We then moved into the Exhibition of Guangdong History and Culture (Guangdong is the Provence  that we are in).    This was the beautiful entrance to the exhibit…..

As usual, I was drawn to the shapes of the wonderful pottery……

This one was very interesting……

Through out the exhibit, there were bronze statues depicting every day occurrences, from the tradition tea ceremony……

…… leading the young…..

…and this was my favorite, partly because of the way it was displayed with the mural background…..

I, of course, found a sewing machine but laughed at the description…. Hand cranked sewing machine and “refueling box”…….

I wanted this clock for our mantle, but Michael said no……

There were many magnificent jade carvings, but this was my favorite…..

We entered an area that gave information about traditional Chinese herbal medicines.  There was a photo of each plant, information about its uses, and a display of the plant leaves.

Although I enjoyed reading about the plants, I was more enamored with the shapes of the leaves….

After leaving the museum we walked to the “most famous restaurant in Guangzhou”.  Liu and Wu spent a long time looking at the menu, trying to pick the best selection of dishes for us to try.  They started with a little (4 page) menu, then moved to the larger (8 page) menu and then asked for the full menu which was a book of 30+ pages!!!

Here is a photo of our wonderful hosts,  Wu is on the left and Liu on the right…

I have now learned that you are not supposed to place purses or bags on the floor in restaurants.  Instead, you put them behind you on the chair.  In this restaurant, they came along and placed a cover over your bag and the back of the chair as well, so everything was secure.

Wu brought out a copy of one of Michael’s books and hinted that he would like Michael to sign it.  We had a good laugh later as we realized that it was a pirated copy of the book and not one purchased thru Oxford University Press.

The food started to arrive, beginning with fried goose.  It was fairly nice but then came the tofu with beef and corn….

Although it looks beautiful, it was not our favorite, mostly because of the texture.  It was similar to an undercooked flan….it just melted in your mouth!!!  Also it is fairly taste-less.

Next came a wonderful broccoli.  The white pieces in this photo are pieces of carved ginger…..

Next was a plate with two pork dishes.  One was fried with a slightly spicy coating and the other was cooked in a sweet soy sauce.  Both were WONDERFUL!!!!!  

Then a hot pot that contained chunks of pumpkin, lotus stem and lotus seeds arrived.   We have now eaten lotus root, stem and seeds.  Apparently the leaves are used in many traditional medicines…..

And just when we thought that we were finished, out came the fish……

Finally, we had dessert.  Now our luck with Chinese desserts, especially steam buns, has not been good.  So, as the waitress was pushing the buns, we found a picture of a tart-like object and insisted suggested it instead.  Fortunately  they were very good…..

There was quite a bit of food left so Liu asked for a “doggie box” and proceeded to stuff it with the fish and leftover goose, and then placed the tarts on top of it all.  I am afraid that everything will taste like fish when she gets home!!!

We continued to walk thru the city area……

….and ended up at the river and this stadium that was built for the Asian Games two years ago.  I thought that it was a cool looking stadium…..

We caught another taxi and headed to the South China Botanic Garden.  As we were driving we commented that traffic was not bad.   They told us that cars were limited in the downtown area and that motorcycles and scooters were forbidden in the most of the city as well.  This drastically changes the traffic patterns!!!

Once we arrived at the Botanic Garden, the conversation immediately turned to genetics and research…..

I didn’t mind as it gave me more to time to look around and observe the comings and goings.

One of the things that I enjoyed watching were the various brides and grooms who were taking photos.  Liu told me that these photos were taken prior to the wedding, with the bride wearing a Western style dress.  However, she will often wear a traditional Chinese wedding dress on the big day.

The photo shoots were elaborate and the photographer’s assistants worked hard to set up the shot.  Here is a video of one of the shots…..