Happy 40th Birthday Xiao Yang!

This past Saturday we had the pleasure of having lunch with our dear ayi, Xiao Yang for her 40th birthday. It was really nice to see everyone and to have lunch at one of their favorite eateries. Here are a few pictures of the day.



Xiao Yang and her Mom



Xiao Yang and Da Yang having lunch!



Xiao Yang's sister-in-law who is extremely pregnant in this picture! Good new, she left the lunch with an upset stomach and ended up in the hospital the next day with labor pains and on Monday she gave birthday to a healthily baby girl!



Xiao Yang's son Bobo with Angus. Angus loves Bobo!



There was quite an array of interesting cuisine on hand for the birthday lunch. Here was one of the delicacies, duck head! We also were served up fish stomach, rabbit and pig's ear! I just love that the Chinese do not waste anything!



The man on the far left is one of Xiao Yang's younger brothers who became the proud Papa on Monday. The man on the far right is Xiao Yang's boyfriend, although that is currently debatable.

A Quick Post

We just arrived in Chengdu on Thursday at 8:10 pm. We were pretty tired and all were in bed by about 10 pm. At 12:40 pm I was jolted from my bed by what I think was an aftershock. I had convinced myself I was imagining things with jet lag and all. I checked http://www.usgs.gov and sure enough there were two tremors registering at 4.6 and 5.0 which were back to back. What a welcome back to Chengdu! Luckily we are leaving again next Thursday for a while. I guess I should let Northern Ireland know that I am nothing but bad luck.

Some good news though, I checked my blog and I can now read it without having to go through a proxy server! Yeah!!! I hope this motivates me to post more!

Brian and the Big Buddha

Brian and I also took a quick trip to Leshan to check out the Big Buddha. We had an incredible sunny day with blue skies, which is not a common thing in our neck of the woods. Here are a few snapshot of our trip.



I couldn't talk Brian into kissing the Buddha like Jeanette and I did in the past.





Brian amongst the bamboo.

Baijiu Monday

On the Monday that Jonny and Brian were to return from their trip to Emei Shan I spent the day catching up on grocery shopping and tidying up around the house. Our ayi, Xiao Yang invited me and the kids to her house for dinner that evening and I accepted graciously as Jonny and Brian wouldn’t be around for me to cook.

We went over and had a fabulous dinner of chicken drumsticks, long beans in garlic, roast duck, shredded potatoes with chilies, etc. Jonny and Brian phoned and said they were exhausted from their hike and would just stop at Xiao Yang's house to say hi and then go home and shower and go to bed.

Brian and Jonny showed up around 7 pm and there was still plenty of food to eat. They had both ate, but in Chinese culture it is impolite to refuse food and drink, so they nibbled away on the food that was in front of us. Xiao Yang's youngest brother arrived after his work and insisted on have a few beers with Jonny and Brian. The funny thing about the beer was that there wasn't actually any beer in the house, so Xiao Yang sent her 12 year old son down the street to pick up a few bottles. After they had finished a few beers and their food, Xiao Yang's brother insisted that they drink the famous Chinese alcohol called Baijiu. Baijiu is like doing a shot, but it can be either 38% alcohol or 52% alcohol. I am not sure what they were drinking, but it was strong anyway. After a couple bottles of baijiu (they are not huge bottles) they were all in the 'spirit' of things.



Jonny with our ayi, Xiao Yang.



Jonny with our driver, Liu Bin.



Xiao Yang's brother, Yang Feng Lei and Brian ganbei(ing)(cheers!) some pijiu (beer)!



Gemma having a laugh at Uncle Gingar!



Xiao Yang's boyfriend, Dong Min De, Yang Feng Lei, Jonny and Brian with another ganbei. The Chinese are all about ganbei!



The boys (Liu Bin, Dong Min De, Xiao Yang's son Bobo, Angus, Jonny, and Brian) with their shirts off, otherwise known as Chinese air conditioning.

After our fantastic dinner and entertainment provided by Jonny and Brian I dropped the two of them off at the Shamrock. I heard later we weren't the only ones to be entertained by these two!



Jonny and Brian, a perfect Baijiu couple!

The previous week-end our friend Sam introduced Brian to a woman named Connie. She is quite the sweetheart and a good sport. Brian called her and asked her to meet him at the Shamrock. Here is a picture of the happy couple.



Rumor has it Connie and Brian spent the rest of his time in Chengdu together and they are still in contact.

Emei Shan

After our few days in Lijiang we returned to home to spend a semi-relaxing week-end in the 'Du. We spent most of our time at the Shamrock having a few drinks and introducing Brian to our friends. On Sunday Jonny and Brian left me and the kids to take an overnight trip to Emei Shan. They left for Emei Shan in the afternoon and took the cable car to the top. There is a hotel at the top and they stayed the night there.

When the woke up the next morning they hiked all the way to the bottom. Since I wasn't with them, not too much commentary, just lots of beautiful pictures!



Sunrise



Early morning at Emei Shan


















Jonny with a big gold Buddha statue in the background.



Brian with the same background. They both look very cold!









People giving incense offerings.

Here are some photos of their hike down the mountain.







There were monkeys everywhere!



And very lazy people!



There were also mules hauling huge loads of steel bars and construction materials to the top of the mountain. Poor things!

Lijiang - Day 1

Brian and I had a half day left in Beijing and it was pouring down rain, so we decided to go to shopping at the Silk Market before we headed to the airport due to it pouring down rain. The Silk Market is a big knock off market, but they also have really nice jewelry and nice Chinese-type gifts. We had a nice shopping trip except for the overly aggressive shop owners. Brian was able to get great gifts and I actually collected quite a few gifts to give as birthday gifts for my friends back in Chengdu (It is slim pickings for these types of things in the Du.).

We headed to the airport for our 3 1/2 hour flight to Lijiang. It was a fairly uneventful flight and we arrived safe and sound in Lijiang. It was much cooler in Lijiang that in Beijing and we were still dressed in our summer clothes. We took a taxi from the airport and were dropped off on the street with 5 bags between us and waited for someone to come and help us with our bags as we weren't exactly sure while we were being dropped off on the street. Two men came and gave us the business card of the hotel and grabbed our bags. It was about a 400 meter walk to the hotel and I was sure glad I didn't have to carry my bags on the old cobblestone street with a step here and there. We arrived at the hotel and were pleasantly surprised. The hotel was beautiful with gorgeous Chinese antique furniture and nice clean rooms. Brian took the room downstairs while I took the room upstairs for my family. Here is the view I saw from outside our room.



It was so beautiful! When I moved to China this is what I thought all of China would look like. Unfortunately that isn't the case.

Brian and I got settled and headed for a bite to eat while we waited for Jonny and the kids to arrive around 10 pm. We found this Belgian Cafe with fabulous Chinese food and sat and waited for Jonny to call. Jonny and I must have got our wires crossed because they were already at the hotel when we got back from dinner. The kids fell asleep on the plane just as they landed in Lijiang and slept all the way into town in the taxi.

Jonny had his hands full with the two kids, so they were kind enough to send a rickshaw to pick them up. Here is a picture of Angus sound asleep in the back of the rickshaw.

Jingshan Park-Forbidden City-Tian'anmen Square

On our first day in Beijing we headed to Jingshan Park. It is a beautiful park just north of the Forbidden City. We had gorgeous weather and blue skies, which is not very common in China's big cities.

We walked around the park and there were lots of people around playing musical instruments and dancing. There were other people playing cards and young people playing hackysack. Everyone was happy and having a great time. We stopped and watch some dancers that were really having a nice time. I have a little video clip for your enjoyment!



We walked around the park, which was really beautiful. Jingshan Park is a beautiful imperial park and in former times belonged only to the emperors in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties (1271-1911). For their enjoyment they used to climb the hill, admire the scenery and eat and drink in the park.


Brian thought he should dress accordingly.



Here is Brian with the Forbidden City in the background.



A temple in the park.



The gorgeous peony garden! They are one of my favorite flowers!

After the park we headed to the Forbidden City for tour. We hired a guide to accompany us through the city. It was well worth the money and very entertaining. Here are some of our photos.

Me and Brian

Brian with his new favorite beer "Yan Jing" and our guide David Yang. (Yes, you can walk around these tourist attractions and drink beer!)

Brian and me with our guide David

Outside the Forbidden City and the big painting of Chairman Mao.

We headed to lunch at a place recommended by my friend Irini. It was a place called Din Tai Feng which served dumplings. These weren't just any dumplings, but dumplings with soup inside them. She told me that her husband and she called them "dumplings from heaven". She was lying, they were heavenly!!!

After our beautiful lunch we headed to Tian'anmen Square. We were a bit disappointed as there isn't much to see there. Brian got his first chance to bargin on something. There was a guy selling Mao watches and I made the mistake of saying hello to him. The guy would not leave us alone. Brian ended up buying the watch at the end of it and making a new friend.

Brian and the watch guy!

A picture from the Square looking over at the Forbidden City.

More to come!!!