A week in Calgary

 At Heritage Park in the Snow

 Two guys in hats

 Heritage Park, Calgary

 Boy, those horses are big!

Had a great visit to Calgary with a day at Heritage Park, shopping, and spending lots of time with our grandson and his mom and dad.  Weather was cold, and we had some snow too.  Great flights both ways, and no problems with lost luggage.

OFF TO CALGARY IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS

We will be on our way to Calgary to see our grandson and his parents in early December.  Will try to post some photos of our activities there when the time comes.  In the meantime, enjoy the above pictures from fall of 2010!

SPECIAL REMINDER!

A REMINDER that any blog photo can be enlarged for viewing by clicking on it.  A slideshow of the post's photos can be viewed.  By clicking the X in the upper right corner of any of these large photos, you will return to the blog post, and small pictures.

Finally, An End to Friday!

The Friday we thought would never end began with trips to the Beijing Zoo for Anneke and Wendy, and shopping at the Pearl Market for the rest of us - except for Ron and Joyce who left for Toronto at the crack of dawn in Beijing.  About 32 hours after we woke on Friday, Oct. 28, we landed in Saint John, where we were greeted by Rodger and John, who was holding a drawing of Swallowtail to welcome us home.  All of us are now getting ready to sink into the first soft beds we've slept in since we arrived in China, and they will be a treat!

Our thanks go to our tour members who were all good sports about the unexpected in China.  We hope they had as good a time as we did.

Martha and Bryant

GUILIN & BACK TO BEIJING 27 Oct. Thurs.

Tasting Rice Wine in Guilin

Elephant Trunk Hill, Guilin

Two cormorants await their fisherman

NYC skyline, Reed Flute Cave, Guilin

This morning we packed up for the next to last time, and headed back to Guilin, where we visited the Rice Wine museum, Elephant Trunk Hill, and the colourful  Reed Flute Caves before having a delicious lunch at a French cafe in the heart of Guilin.  Then it was off to the Guilin airport for our final internal Chinese flight back to Beijing.

YANGSHUO Cont'd 26 Oct.

Water buffalo, Yangshuo countryside

Rice

Countryside buggy and passengers

Typical farmhouse

Grinding soybeans to make tofu

Karsts lit for Yangshuo evening show, water stage in foreground

Yangshuo extravaganza

Six of us decided to take an optional tour out into the countryside to learn how rice is grown, and to see a farmer's home and garden.  The villages were dusty and poor, with houses of  mud brick, and water buffalo assisting with the plowing, fertilizing and tilling of the soil.  We saw sugar cane, sweet potato, peanuts, water chestnuts, persimmons, pomelos, kumquats, as well as rice, corn, and green vegetables growing in the small garden plots.  There are fewer and fewer rice fields around here because development has claimed much of the farmland.  In fact Bryant and I were dumbfounded when we saw what 8 years of development have done to Yangshuo.

After dinner we went to a show that defies description - concieved and directed by the Chinese fellow who was responsible for the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Beijing.  The outdoor theatre with 3000 seats was built on the shore of the river in a natural karst amphitheatre.  The water/stage was larger than the audience space, and accommodated many rafts like those that the cormorant fishermen use, as well as powered set pieces such as a crescent moon.  The most magical moment came when the surrounding karsts, hundreds of feet high at the edge of the river, were lit from their bases, and became a natural set for the show.  It was simply amazing, with a cast of hundreds of young people who sang, danced, and paddled.

STICKY RICE - YANGSHUO 26 Oct.

"Keep together like sticky rice", ordered Ocean as we wound our way through the hordes of tourists to board a riverboat for a 5-hour cruise down the Li River to Yangshuo, in 2003 a small backwater hippie community with one short main street lined with cafes and DVD stores.  Development has transformed this village into a full-fledged small city, with many hotels and major thoroughfares lined with vendors selling the ubiquitous Pashmina scarves, "silk" Chinese children's costumes, and tons of other tourist items that we've seen all over the country.  The overabundance of "stuff" has finally lost its allure, and the walkway from the boat to the Yangshuo center was a test of our ability to ignore.

SIGHTS ALONG THE LI RIVER

GUILIN 25 Oct. Tuesday

Tuesday evening 25 Oct


We are tired tonight.  Some of our group went for a vigorous uphill walk this am after breakfast, but the rest of us opted to stay at the hotel and organize our bulging luggage.  Left Lijiang at 11:30 to go to the airport, which went smoothly, but Bryant and I had to organize  picking up baggage in Kunming and checking in again, going thru security again, and finding our gate before flying to Guilin, where we are now.  We did it all....checking in the group, getting boarding passes, arguing with an attendant who wanted to send us to another counter, but B. persisted and refused to do so.  Arrived in Guilin around 7:45, about 25 min. later than scheduled, but our young guide, Ocean, was there to meet us.  We are now "Ocean's  Eleven" as we are a group of 11.  He is so cute......young and good looking, with a good sense of humour and good colloquial expressions.....as in, (once we got our bags loaded onto the bus) "lets haul ass!"  I think we'll enjoy him.

More tomorrow from Yangshuo. 

MORE PHOTOS FROM LIJIANG

Silk embroidered butterflies, Baisha village

Ce relaxes in Baisha village

Ann, Grandma, and son in Baisha village

Jade Dragon Snow Mt. peeks out from clouds, Lijiang

Tibetan prayer flags near Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

Temple in Baisha Village

Bride and Groom photo shoot, Black Dragon Pool, Lijiang

Lijiang has been one of our favourite places on the tour.  Here are a few more photos from that wonderful day with Janice around Lijiang.

BAISHA VILLAGE, MT., LIJIANG Mon. Oct. 24

Janice explains Naxi script, Baisha village

Dawn and Ce examine fine silk embroidery, Baisha

PLEASE PASS THE YAK MEAT!

Our day began with a Western breakfast - 2 eggs sunny-side up, bacon, toast, and coffee.  The first time since we arrived in China that we can say that.  It tasted great, and blessed with clear blue skies and perfect temperatures, we left the Lijiang old town in our bus for the nearby Baisha village, the "capital" of the Naxi settlement in this part of Yunnan province.  When Bryant and I were here in 2003 it was a poor village of farmhouses and barns.  Today it still has farmhouses, but vendor stalls line many streets, and knockoffs are being touted all along the way by Han Chinese who have moved here.

We visited the 400 year old Baisha frescoes depicting Tibetan, Han and Indian Buddhism, all linked with Daoist symbols.  Our guide led us to an embroidery workshop where we were blown away by the work done there.  Absolutely incredible embroidery pieces done by hand with the finest of silk thread made in a Yunnan village about 4 hours' drive away in small home-based workshops, not large factories.  We were shown other pieces made over the years by family members, and came away with lighter wallets thanks to the amazing craftsmanship there.  Our guide took us to a jewelry shop as well as a stall selling embroidery and tie-dyed fabrics, some of which found their way into shopping bags and later into our increasingly bulging suitcases.

Our visit to the village continued with lunch in a family run Naxi restaurant where we ate in a courtyard decorated with ears of corn and piles of pumpkins.  Our guide then stopped by a farmhouse owned by an 89 year old Naxi woman and her 67 year old son.  She is like a grandma to our guide, and when we entered her courtyard, she immediately went into her house and came right out with a plate of sunflower seeds and candy.  Luckily Elaine still had a few of her Canada pins, so we were able to return her gift.  She was very agreeable to having her photo taken, and even posed with us for a group picture. (See below).  Meeting her was definitely a high spot in our day, and made our visit to the village so much more personal.

Then it was on to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, whose peaks played peek-a-boo with clouds all afternoon.  We boarded another bus and then most of us rode a gondola  up an opposite mountain to Spruce Meadow where we got a wonderful view of the 6000 m mountain.  We were well above 3000 m at the top of the gondola, and we felt the effects of the thin air on our breathing.  Everyone got lots of photos of the peaks and we were fortunate to have the viewing platform to ourselves for 10-15 minutes before another group came along.

Upon our return to Lijiang Old Town, we had dinner, and 5 of us headed to the blind masseurs/masseuses for full-body massages.  We all left very relaxed and refreshed, and ready for a good night's sleep after a superb day.

Our group with Grandma and her son in Baisha

LIJIANG Oct. 23 - Sunday

Old town street near hotel, Lijiang

Oct 23, Lijiang


Just made the plane out of Chengdu this morning, and arrived on time in Lijiang to meet our guide Janice, who is fantastic!  Strolled around a beautiful garden, the Black Dragon Pool, where you can get the best view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain when it is out of the clouds. A bride and groom to be were having their wedding photos taken. Unfortunately, it was drizzly this afternoon, but cleared later.  We had lunch and wandered the old town, watching some Naxi women in costume dancing in the square.  Our hotel, which is very picturesque, is located in the old town, a car-free zone. Went to tea tasting to soothe tired hips, knees, and feet before dinner.   Attended an authentic Naxi concert tonight, but doubt that anyone will be rushing out to buy the CD.

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Entrance to Sanhe Hotel, Lijiang

Restaurant courtyard

The group at Black Dragon Pool

Black Dragon Pool with arched bridge

Wendy finds an interesting tree

Naxi women dance in Lijiang square

Tea tasting in Lijiang

Ancient Naxi musical group

PANDAS AT BIFENGXIA Oct. 22 Saturday

Big panda at Bifengxia

Volunteers wash toddlers at Bifengxia

Rebel with a carrot

Jinli Street, Chengdu

Today was the day many of us had been waiting for - Pandas!  We drove for about 2 hours out of Chengdu into the mountains, and entered Bifeng Gorge Panda Preserve, where several of the pandas from the Wolong Preserve had been moved after the May, 2008 earthquake.  It is a wild area, with the panda habitations quite large and spread out over the preserve.  Of course there were vendors hawking all manner of panda goods.  We spent about 3 hours looking at the pandas, had lunch, then headed back to the city in a drizzle.  By the time we'd returned to Chengdu, the drizzle had stopped, and we went to stroll along Jinli street, a shopper's paradise in a newly restored area of the city.  Because it was Saturday it was very crowded.  Off tomorrow to Lijiang!