China - Buddhist Temple

We got to visit a Buddhist Temple in Beijing called the Lama Temple.

Built in 1694, the Lama Temple (or Palace of Peace and Harmony) was the residence of Prince Yin Zhen, a son of Emperor Kang Xi of the Qing Dynasty. After the prince came to the throne, half of the residence was used as an imperial palace and the other half was converted to a lamasery. It is a current functioning monastery where many burn incense to Buddha.




I did not realize it, but there are actually many, many kinds of Buddha. When you enter the temple, you enter the first of five "halls". Each hall has a different type of Buddha. One of the halls has the "Happiness Buddha" which is the smiling Buddha that so many people rub for good luck. The last hall contains a Buddha statue that is 72 feet tall. It is carved out of a single tree trunk of white sandal wood. Before each hall are large containers where incense sticks can be burned. Then people kneel on the benches in front of the hall to Worship. This Buddha is in the Guiness Book of World Records.







I did not know until I visited China that the current Dali Lama is exhiled from The People's Republic of China because of his efforts to seperate Tibet from The Republic of China.







When China became a communist country, Buddhism was highly discouraged because it was considered superstitious in nature. But today, people are allowed to worship freely. We were told several times that now in China there are both more Christians and more Buddhists that Communists.



Yes....look closely...that is a Monk on a cell phone!!!

China - Taxi Rides

We had two interesting Taxi rides while we were in Shanghai. The car taxis there are everywhere....like you'd see in New York City. They are smallish cars, and one person can ride up front, and it is a law that only three can ride in the back. So four all together...wouldn't you know that there are five of us!! Some taxi drivers would let five squeeze in, especially if you gave them a few extra RMB. We left one area, and there was the young Chinese couple we are with, Libby, me and my Dad. We wait in a long line for a taxi. We finally get in one and squeeze in. The taxi driver starts yelling at us in Chinese. Are Chinese friend responds back. We can't tell exactly what's going on, but it appears that he doesn't want to take five of us. Our Chinese friend kept trying to explain that one of us was a child and shouldn't count. And the taxi driver took off....so I thought it was resolved. But he pulled up to a police officer in the middle of a busy road. More rapid Chinese is spoken back and forth. The policeman looks us all over. Then nods his head. The taxi driver screams at us and we all get out of the taxi in the middle of the busy road. Apparently he'd insisted that the law said only four. When we wouldn't get out he'd driven to a Policeman. The Policeman had told the driver that he didn't care do what he wanted...and he threw us out! So we had to find another cab!!

Most of the cab rides were very reasonable. They charged 8-14 RMB for most places we wanted to go...which is about $1 - $2 in American. My Dad, Frank and I went in search of a trumpet for him. We were told that there were many music shops on Jinx Ling Road. So we had a cab drop us off and walked down the road a ways. We found a great trumpet for Frank. By the time we were done it started to rain. We tried to wave down a taxi, but no one would stop. Finally this guy on a three wheeled ancient motorbike pulls up. It has a little covered seat on the back of it. He indicates we should get in. Frank sits up front with the driver and Papaw and I sit in back facing backwards. It kept us dry. We came across a large group of people cross the street in a cross walk, and this guy just plowed through the middle of them without slowing down. When we got to the hotel, my Dad asked him how much it cost. The man said "50". My Dad goes "Oh, no way too much....15". The old man says "No, raining...50!!!" So we paid him 50. It was worth it to stay dry. LOL.

China - Shanghai

Shanghai is a very interesting city. Probably the most memorable thing for me about Shanghai is the driving. There do not seem to be many traffic rules. I mean there are police men, stop signs, traffics lights, cross walks, traffic lanes....it just seems like most people ignore them!!! People drive on sidewalks, down the middle between two lanes of traffic. If they want to go somewhere in a car, they just go and assume that all other cars and pedestrians will get out of their way. Amazingly there seem to be very few accidents.

Since China re-opened to other countries during the 80s, it has become a very Westernized city. It's still a very old city, but it does not seem to have the history that Beijing has. Even when my parents last visited Shanghai two years ago, it was a very polluted city. But the younger generation in their 20s and early 30s are becoming very interested in ridding their cities and country of pollution. And even two years has made a big difference. The government hires many people to pick up trash in their big cities. This is a "trash boat" that goes along the River Bund. The operator scoops up trash with a net and puts it in the bottom of his boat. This picture is looking down on the boat from our hotel.



There are no "houses" in Shanghai. Everyone lives in an apartment, townhouse or condo. Most families of 2 or 3 live in 300-900 sq ft of living space. There isn't room for washers and driers. And I never once saw a Laundromat. So after people wash their clothes, they hang them out of the window to dry. Sometimes on lines and sometimes on long poles sticking out of windows. It isn't unusual at all to see undies floating about you in the breeze.



Shanghai has many of the same restaurants and shops that the US has. There are McDonalds and KFCs all over the place. They even have a Barbie store and Hooters.





Many American products are available. Its odd to see products we use every day with Chinese Labels. One thing China DOESN'T have is Diet Pepsi. They have Pepsi and Coke Zero which they call Pepsi Light. I really, really missed my Diet Pepsi. We got this can of Pepsi out of a vending machine. My kids didn't know how to open it!!! Show's my age that I remember when all pop cans opened this way.




This McDonalds is four stories tall!!



Shopping is always great fun in Shanghai. We got Ipod Itouches for $75. Designer purses for $25. Pearls at an awesome price. Crocs for $2 a pair. Brand new BlueRay DVDs for 50 cents to $2 per movie.

China - Tian An Men Square

In chinese "men" means gate. Ironically Tian 'anmen means "Gate of Heavenly Peace" The Square is named after the gate which is on the north end of the square. It was a humid and foggy day when we visited and the buildings are mostly gray with some red on them. There was nothing particularly beautiful about the square its self. But looking at all that space its hard to wrap your arms around exactly how large it is. It covers a hundred acres of pavement. During the Spring Festival in China up to a million people crowd into the Square. It is the largest public square in the world, at the exact geographic center of Beijing and is the center of the Chinese Government.

I was a little surprised that our tour guide did not mention what Americans refer to as the "Tian 'anmen Square Massacre". It happened in 1989, the year I graduated from High School. University Students were protesting in Tian 'anmen Square. Soldiers came in with machine guns and tanks to disperse them. It's unknown how many died. Accounts vary from 10,000 to 241.






Above is the gate on the South end of the Square. It is called Zheng yang men or Qian men. Beijing was once surrounded by a city wall and a moat. This gate is one of two remaining gates of the old city wall. The rest of the wall was destroyed when a subway was laid in Beijing



Monument to the People's Heroes



The kids and I on the square in front of the National Museum





Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. This building occupies the center of the square. Mao united all of China under The People's Republic of China in 1948. His body is embalmed and lies on view in the building. People stand in lines for hours daily to see his body. His picture his hung on Tian an men Gate. The same portrait is replaced once a year so that the color remains fresh.



Tian 'anmen Gate. It seperates the North end of the Square from the Forbidden City.

China Trip and Buying Land

I haven't posted in a while. We've had a very busy summer. Granny and Papaw allowed Frank, Libby and I to tag along on their vacation to China. We just got back on Sunday. Bob and I have also been working on purchasing ten acres of land a few minutes north of our current home. It has a 1500 sq ft trailer house on it. The plan is to purchase the land, sell our current home, and then build on the land.

I'm going to start a series of posts about our trip to China. It was awesome.

Emotional Attachments

We are dog sitting my parents' dog, Cooper, while they are in China. Since he's been with us, he's stuck to me like glue. I was sitting outside the other day and he was pressed up against me. Carlie came by and said "You know that dog just doesn't have an emotional attachment to me. He growls at me, but he likes you and Madi." LOL

International Business Woman

When my parents go to China they come back with all kinds of movies, games and electronic gadgets. Most of them are knock-offs and all of them are very cheap.

Libby wanted to start playing the flute again, so I spent $300 this December having my old flute re-conditioned for her. So I got to thinking that if my parents could get all that other stuff in China and such a good price, they ought to be able to get me a flute or piccolo or two while they are there.

I started hunting on the internet and wheeling n dealing with Instrument makers in China. Normally they do wholesale business, but a few of them were willing to ship me 1-2 instruments. So I have two different companies shipping flutes to my parents' hotel in Shanghai. A total of three flutes and two piccolos. I hope they are of decent quality. My parents don't play so, I won't know until they get home with them. But I got them for 20% of the cost that I would have paid in the States.

I'm 37 years old, and today was a first for me. I wired money internationally to China to pay for one set of my purchases!!!

My Parents are in China - Part III

We are staying on the 18th floor in our very nice hotel. I have a wonderful view of the city and I love to sit in my chair by the windows and watch the happenings below. Only a few blocks from this area you can find people scouring for cardboard to built their houses. Over here there are large tarps called red, white and blues (yes they are red, white and blue). They can buy these very cheap and they use them for tents. You can also buy a large bag made of this same stuff for about a dollar and people use these everywhere to carry their things.

Directly across from our window we watch a family. Part of their house opens up to the roof. There is an old man in a wheelchair and his wife who looks after him. When the weather is warm she will bring him outside to the edge of the brick retaining wall and he will sit for a long time watching the people below him. Sometimes at this same house a young boy about ten comes out with a jump rope and entertains him with that.

The children here have practically no grass at all to play on. Most of the play areas are on top of the buildings that they live in. Sometimes you will even see a swing set on these roofs. Chinese still typically obey the one child rule. The poor families travel on bicycles. The dad will be peddling the bike, mom will ride on back and the child will sit on a basket on the front of the bike. At least they don't have to worry about them being strapped into a child safety seat with a seat belt. The bicycles are relics that you would find in a salvage yard at home. They also walk everywhere. The streets are always full of people.

There is no such thing as a single family dwelling in China. All of the buildings have several floors and many many people living in them. The normal family home might have a washer but no dryers. The washers are often outside because it doesn't get cold enough here in the winter to freeze the pipes. They hang out their clothing to dry on long poles hung out the window. It amazes me that they never lose anything off these poles. You will see bedspreads, sheets, rugs, and underwear hanging all over the city. The women here will beat their clothes with a stick to loosen the dust and dirt. There are many who still hand wash all of their clothing with just a bucket and soap.

David will travel to the factory tomorrow to teach the people there how to better use the machinery they have. Hopefully I will get out and take some pictures. Until later.....Brenda

My Parents Are In China - Part II

Yesterday I got out and did some shopping. I found a grocery store and boy was it different from ours. There was raw fish piled up and eggs do not come in a carton here. I thought that was how hens laid them. The eggs were stacked up in a box. We still have a hard time finding Diet Pepsi. Here it is called Pepsi Light. You can not tell by reading the package what you are buying unless you recogonize the same wrapping we have at home. You can find most any American products you want.

I noticed when I was out shopping that most of the Chinese people wear black all the time. They wear the same clothes for about three days. This is maybe why they always wear the black. I will try to send some pictures tomorrow. My card reader for my camera is not working so I need to buy another one. Anytime you are out on the street you are followed by a group of men who are saying in broken English, Lookie, lookie, wanna buy a watch? They they try to sell you an assortment of knock off Rolex watches. LOL

Later in the afternoon David called me and told me that the company was sending a driver to pick me up and we would be eating out near the plant. I did have to good sense to ask him what the car looked like. When I went down to the lobby there were TWO black Audi's exactly alike parked there. When I tried to ask the driver if I was supposed to go with him all he could reply in English was Debbie? I told him my name was Brenda but he did not understand any English. After much deliberation on my part and the drivers part and me saying every Chinese word I know, I uttered the word Evermark which is the name of their company and he shook his head and repeated the word again as if he understood. As soon as the car took off I felt like I had made a big mistake. So I called my husband and told him I would do some serious harm to his body if I was in the wrong car. Fortunatly I was in the right one.

When we finally reached the plant, JoAnna wanted to take us to eat where we could eat Chinese country food. We drove and drove forever it seemed. Finally we did pull into a nice placed that looked a lot like a greenhouse. Here they grew all the food we had in our meal. We had pumpkin, sauted minnows with some other junk in it, shrimp, various green vegetables that Keith called grass. One of the main dishes was boiled wild chicken (maybe like our prarie hen). As they were stirring this around I realized it had feet and all. After we had finished our meal and sat around the table visiting, one of the ladies asked for the leftovers and fished out both feet and the tips of the wings. She then sucked all the meat off those pieces. I really had to turn my head not to gag. We tried some corn juice which was just like it sounds. We did have fresh cucumbers which tasted so good and always at each meal we have fresh watermelon. I think if I had not had bottled water to wash it down I would have been a goner!

I will be using this email address while I am here. My other one is messed up. Until later..... Brenda

My Parents are in Shanghai - Part I

I'm going to share emails and posts about my parents' current trip to Shanghai. My Mom is good at writing funny stories too.

Hello from China





We arrived in Shanghai about noon today. It was probably in the fifties but most of the flowers are already blooming here and the grass is turning green. We are staying in the Shanghai JC Mandarin Hotel. It is a pretty fancy hotel but across the street from here you can see people living in shanties. It is so hard to beleive how much the old can be side by side with the new. There are three malls near us but they all contain Gucci, Coach, and all the rich stores. Where are the Walmarts? We had a good Chinese dinner tonight that included fresh fish (they actually brought the live fish out for our approval before they cooked it), pork, chicken including the head, rice and some veggies I had not seen before. Actually most of it was very good. LOL Keith bought us both new world cell phones so we can call each other during the day. We will be here for two weeks.

Keith also told us today that he wants to fly us to Hong Kong for the next weekend. We have never been there so that will be a new experience. Hopefully I can get out and take some pictures. Until later.... Brenda

My kids are Multi-lingual

Madi has a really neat 1st grade teacher this year. They are learning all kinds of neat things, and its so much fun she doesn't even realize she's learning.

They have been studying China for the last two weeks. She came home and told me all about the Great Wall of China, and the Huns invasion of China.

Last night she informed me that she knows how to count to 10 in Chinese, and she starts rattling it off. Then Libby chimes in "Well I know how to count to ten in Spanish!! Uno, Dose, Trace...." Then Carlie says "Well so what, "I" know how to count to ten in ENGLISH!!! One, two...."

A few minutes later, Madi says "Did you know that if we lived in China, that Frank would be your only child???"

It tickles me that she's learning so much.