China Day 1 (Saturday, April 2)

We arrived on what must have been the most beautiful spring day that Beijing has seen in a long time. The air was wonderfully clear, there were trees in bloom all along the highway from the airport into the city, the temperature was springtime warm and dry. We didn't arrive until late afternoon so we didn't do much beyond arriving at our hotel, but fortunately, the next day was equally nice.

China Day 2

Our daily itineraries were pretty full so Leslie and Cady had to adjust to the time change, 12 hours in their case, very quickly. They did very well in that regard. We had no time change since all of China, including Taiwan, is in one time zone. Our first day of touring had us meeting our guide, David, at 8 am sharp. The first stop was the Panjiayuan Market. It's a huge area with stalls full of antiques and books and handicrafts and junk. What a pleasure to see it all thrown together in one massive market.

Leslie, Cady and David look over old metal coins.

If only we could have figured out a way to ship these home. They're about 10 feet tall but would look great in any backyard.

Lee tried out the pan pipe, but chose not to bring one home.

Our next stop was the Lama Temple, also known as the Yonghe Temple, a Tibetan Buddhist temple built around 1700. It was the Tomb Sweeping holiday weekend (which coincides with our April vacation week) so it was pretty crowded but it's beautiful and it was worth the stop.

If I had a more nimble mind I would remember what the four languages are on this sign. One is Mandarin (second from the right) and one is Manchurian.

After the temple we went to a Hutong neighborhood for a look-around. These are the old neighborhoods where everyone lived before China decided to tear down the old houses to make room for skyscrapers and malls. When the government figured out that tourists (international as well as Chinese) wanted to see the old neighborhoods they started to preserve the last remaining ones and they help subsidize the people that live there.

The streets are so narrow that the best, and pretty much only way to get around is by foot and pedicabs.

We had lunch at a local family's house and got to listen to the mom of the household and her 7 year old daughter play the guzheng (Chinese zither).

This is our guide Tina's adorable one year old daughter, out for a bike ride with her Baba.

The last stop for the day was a delightful tea house where we were entertained by a young man who served us lots of kinds of tea and explained the process of how to make each one. Then he led us into the purchasing part of the shop and we obligingly bought lots of tea and tea cups.

Not bad for our first full day in China.

China, here we come. We leave in a few hours for Beijing and then on to the Guilin area. We're meeting my lovely sister and her equally lovely daughter there for a week of relaxation and immersion in the Chinese culture. It's Cady's first time back to her birthplace and Lee's first time to visit the country that looms so large across the Taiwan Strait. Access to Facebook and Google is restricted so we'll be a limited in how we communicate, but that's not such a bad thing. It's time for a vacation, time to disconnect for awhile.

Sometimes I have found myself living very much in the moment but there are other times when my focus is on what's next, what's next. I don't particularly like that feeling. Right now there are so many things to think about that are coming up that I forget to think about and experience what's happening in the here and now. We're going to China in less than a week but I'm ironing some details out for our second trip there in June as we book flights home. My thoughts have been on that second trip quite a bit. I need to step back and remind myself, hey, you're going to CHINA in five days. How cool is that?!

I spent some time sitting on a park bench yesterday, getting back into the here and now. It was a beautiful day but I was feeling a little melancholy having just said goodbye to Gavin. It felt like a good time to spend some time biking around the art park and then finding myself a spot of sunshine to sit for awhile. Unfortunately, just as I settled into the first spot I chose, the sprinklers came on and surprised everyone nearby, but I did find an even better bench to settle on. It was such a beautiful day and really smelled and felt like spring. Last year it seemed like spring weather for most of November through April - dry and cool - and then suddenly it was hot and humid summer weather. I like when there's a pause between seasons when the air feels and smells a little different. Yesterday had that smell of new growth, that feel of warmth in the sun and cool in the shade, that you get on those uniquely spring days. It was a good re-charging moment.

This morning dawned beautifully clear and sunny. Not a cloud in the sky and hardly any pollution either. There is a cold surge warning for most of the island but it warmed up into the 70's by midday, which is about as lovely as it can be. We took advantage of the weather and headed to Monkey Mountain.

There's always the worry when you take newbies up there that they won't see any monkeys. The hike is a bit tough - lots of stairs so you gain elevation very quickly - so you want some reward, right? And this is Monkey Mountain, after all, so you want monkeys, right? The Chinese name for the mountain, by the way, is Shoushan, which does not translate to monkeys.

We did, once again, find monkeys to show off to Gavin.

There were not as many as we've seen on some hikes but there were a lot more than usual walking on the boardwalks with us. It's kind of cool, and kind of unnerving, to have a large monkey sauntering along next to as you hike in the jungle. They're barely interested in you, unless of course you open your backpack. I did not bring out any snacks for them to grab away from me, but we did see a woman lose her bag of nuts to a very speedy fellow.

Because the air had cleaned up so nicely the views were quite spectacular. This is looking north, with the ocean peeking out along the left.

This is looking west at a bunch of ships anchored off the coast waiting to come in to the harbor, or whatever it is they're waiting for.

Since we were out and about already we decided to stay out and about and headed down to the harbor. We locked our bikes at the base of the hill and walked up to the former British Consulate and enjoyed the view and a cup of coffee.

Lee was feeling a bit under the weather Friday afternoon - the road to recovery after pneumonia is very long indeed - so Gavin and I ventured out on our own after school. The weather has been cold and rainy and yesterday evening was no better. But he's only here for a week so you just put with it and go.

First, we headed downtown to the 85 Tower. I've been wanting to go visit there since we arrived last year but hadn't taken the opportunity before. It's 85 stories tall, as you can imagine, and was briefly the tallest building in Taiwan until the Taipei 101 was built a few years ago. There's an observation area on the 74th floor, which is where we headed.

My fear of heights has decreased substantially over the last few years and I did pretty well up there. The elevator is incredibly fast - I think it takes about 45 seconds to reach the 75th floor. That was the most unnerving part. With the smog and low clouds I expected the view to be ho-hum but it was actually pretty spectacular. There were no mountains to see and our neighborhood was lost in the gloom but the building is so much taller than anything else and right next to the harbor so you can see the layout of downtown incredibly well. Gavin had come downtown a couple days ago to see the AIT building and the newly built library, which are both architecturally remarkable buildings. It was pretty cool to look down on them from so high up.

Given that the weather was so crappy, it wasn't surprising that we had the observation deck pretty much to ourselves. (It's called a deck but it's all enclosed, which was fine by me.) We wandered around, paid our 10NT to look through the binoculars, watched the lights of the city start flickering on, then got hungry and headed down to the mall for dinner. That was a forgettable meal, not surprisingly, so we walked through the rain to the Liuhe night market.

Lee and I had been there once before and it's nice to see the contrast between that one and Rueifong, the one close to our apartment. I like Rueifong better because it's more congested, people bumping into each other, alleyways lined with tightly packed stalls that crisscross every which way. Liuhe is a city street closed to traffic for the evening, the stalls lined up along the sidewalk. It's a straight shot down one side and back the other. Last night it was busy with what I can only guess was a couple of busloads of Chinese tourists, all huddled under their umbrellas, sampling the deep fried fish balls and squid on a stick.

We bought some nougat, mochi and chopsticks. Oh, and the fabulous candied sweet potatoes I love at the other night market. Yum. Then back onto the subway and home for me, Rueifong for Gavin. He wanted some more of the tofu we'd gotten before and couldn't find at Liuhe plus he really needed to find our favorite scallion pancake guy. I think Gavin may have fallen in love with him, same as us.

Gavin has chosen an unusually wet week to spend in Taiwan. It rained hard on our walk to dinner Tuesday and he and Lee got caught out in a downpour yesterday coming back from the market. Today's forecast is for showers and Friday it may rain all day. I don't remember it raining at all in March last year. Actually, last March is a bit of a blur to me, but still, this seems like an awfully early start to the wet season.

While I was busy with my elementary school weaving club (which consists of five very enthusiastic fourth and fifth grade girls) Lee and Gavin biked up to the afternoon market. We affectionately call it Linda's market because our friend Linda is the one who introduced us to this very "authentic" locale. This is no tourist stop. It's just where one goes to pick up makings for dinner, either the raw ingredients or pre-made food. There are dumplings and scallion pancakes, fruit smoothies and noodle soup, plus fruit, vegetables, fresh made pasta.

And, of course, the butcher's section. Recently dead chickens with their heads and feet still attached, every part of the pig except the squeal, and fish and seafood so fresh the fish are still flopping on the bed of ice. This is a good way to face one's decision to be a meat eater. There is no hiding the fact that this meat comes from a once-living creature. There are no styrofoam trays and saran wrap to sanitize one's carnivorous nature.

Lee and Gavin skipped the meat and bought fruit and veggies instead. Once they dried off and changed we met up with some friends, including Linda, for whom we've named the market and had a wonderful dinner at an Israeli restaurant. Lee and I both ordered meat, Gavin, being a vegetarian, did not.

Gavin has arrived for a week of fun in Taiwan. His plane landed at a very reasonable 9:30 am Saturday. We should have suggested to all our guests to choose a flight that landed during the daylight hours. Those 11:30 pm flights are tough, especially when you have to go to work the next day.

Shortly after touchdown we whisked him off with Pearl to Meinong to have lunch at the Hakka restaurant and wander around the Hakka cultural village. When Gavin had talked to Zach about his recommendations of what to do while he was here, Zach said lunch with Pearl was not to be missed, and Gavin was not disappointed.

We'd never walked around the village before. It's a sort of shopping mall more than anything else. My favorite stall had a woman selling an odd collection of plastic toys, small metal sculptures and wooden instruments. Sitting behind her was an old gentleman playing Chinese music using a hand saw and a metal broom handle. We stopped at a tea shop and tried the traditional tea. We skipped the opportunity to make our own - it involved a half hour of grinding the tea into a powder - but enjoyed drinking the tea. Okay, not so much enjoyed as experienced. It was gritty with the flavor of hay. It reminded me of when I was a child and I'd drink the last of the milk leftover from a bowl of puffed rice cereal. Sweet, milky and gritty.

The air pollution on Sunday was as bad as ever but we ventured out anyway and tried not to breath too deeply. We spent the day on bikes, going to Cijin Island, walking around the lighthouse, stopping for mango ice by the ferry terminal. The views were completely obscured by the smog but it was a nice day nonetheless. It's a different kind of tour when you can bike everywhere. We were a bit stymied about where to go with Zach and Cierra because we spend all of our time on our bikes. It was harder to come up with ideas for them to do because we just didn't know what to do on foot. It worked out just fine, of course, and we learned about some places to visit that we didn't know before. We learned the bike rental system when the Pragers were here so that's made it easier to get a bike for Gavin.

Today he's coming to school to see the presentations my students have prepared on Taiwanese cooking. Josh got to learn about places to visit in Taiwan, for Zach and Cierra it was favorite spaces at KAS, and Gavin gets food.