2017 June: A Girls weekend out to Luoyang, Henan Province, China

11 June 2017

Greetings all and happy Pre-summer greetings from China. Even though it's "pre-summer", here in Shenyang, things are already hot in the day.  Getting ready to go into the rainy season of July and August.  But, before we get there, I want to share a special trip that I took with our Chinese family here.  I say "I" because this was a "girls weekend" with Daisy and her mother.  The location we visited was chosen by me for several reasons.

First of all, I heard about Luoyang in my first Chinese language course by Pimsleur and it said that this city is famous for the Peonies (the national flower of China). I would have had to go in April to see the Peonies...but from what I understand the place is wall to wall people, so not so sad I missed that time in Luoyang... a picture and a couple of silk scarves will do just fine for a souvenir of the Peonies!

Secondly, last year when Rod got a book about the different areas of China, in this area it showed some examples of Tang dynasty pottery, specifically some beautifully crafted large (some would call fat!)  ladies.  If you have been following this blog for awhile, you know I personally went through a  physical transformation from large to not so large (See May 2013: What I lost in China). 

24 June 2012: Dragon boat at Dandong and the Great Wall "East"

Greetings all,
I know it has been awhile since I last wrote and I'm trying to get caught back up! May and June have been such a hectic pace from a traveling standpoint, and I'm just now getting un-let-lagged to be able to get caught up, so bare with me!
This weekend is a 3 day weekend here in China to celebrate Dragon boat festival.  This time last year we were in Hong Kong seeing the Dragon boat races, so this year, we decided to stay a little closer to home, but still get away, so we went south of here to the North Korean border town of Dandong. (Yes, in Shenyang, we really are north of North Korea!)
Dandong has 2 claims to fame (at least that we know of...there may be more!) 1) is the bridge that goes across the Yellow River from Dandong to North Korea, that was blown up by the Americans in the Korean war.   The bridge that was on the China side is still standing and is now a tourist attraction.  2) The eastern-most portion of the Great Wall of China.  Dandong is about 2.5 hours drive, so we went down on Friday, spent the night, and came back on Saturday...a good way to spend a 3 day weekend, giving us 1 day to just relax!

When we arrived in Dandong, the city is situated along the Yellow River, population about 600,000...a small city by Chinese standards), and so much of the life of the city is along the river, which empties out into the Sea, so the tide changes the level of the river.  They have a nice riverside promenade area which, I used to do my morning exercises.  Down by the blown up bridge is where all the tourists stuff is and of course I had to have the picture taken with a Korean dress on!

Sarah in the Korean dress, in Dandong, China, on the border with North Korea.  The arched bridge in the background is the one that was blown up in the Korean War...it stops a little over 1/2 across the YaLu river.

We walked out onto the bridge, listening to music, which I'm guessing was patriotic Chinese music (I'm sure was not pro-American) sung by the Chinese choirs!  Rod made up some lyrics which made it pro-American for us and sang right along, which of course made us even more of a tourist attraction than the bridge itself!
Here are some pictures of the bridge...it was a draw bridge, but instead of vertical, it was horizontal.  Of course, none of that is working now because it got blown to smitherines!

Close up of the bridge destruction

More of the bridge...alot of force to blow that thing up!

Sarah, in front of the blowup bridge

Rod in front of the blown up bridge

 After the bridge, we went to the War memorial there with intentions to go to the museum, but by the time we got there it was closed, so we just walked around the memorial and gardens.

Rod & Sarah with a friend of our drivers at the Korean War memorial in Dandong, China

The base of the Korean War Memorial

The expression on the faces of the sculptures here is just fascinating..so real life!!

 Down from the war memorial was a reflection garden with lots of lily pads in the pool and a bird avery.

Rod whispering sweet somethings in my ear at the reflection garden at the Korean War Memorial in Dandong, China

The reflection garden at the War memorial

Rod in front of the reflection garden at the war memorial

The Korean War memorial at Dandong, China

Sarah at the Reflection pool at the Dandong Korean War memorial

There was a lady who had this peacock trained..it wouldn't turn around so that you could take a picture unless she told it to...and she wouldn't tell it to until you gave her 5 RMB!  So I paid, and then she put me behind him to take this picture!

After the war memorial, we walked around and over to a little island community called "Moon Island"...by this time it was dark and of course, in classic Chinese fashion, the neon and LED's came on to light up the place!  This is where we really saw the 1st stark difference between China and North Korea...on the China said, business is booming...on the North Korean side, it's pretty dead...dark and not much activity..only a few car headlights at night and not many lights in the apartment buildings in North Korea.

Rod on the bridge to Moon Island, Dandong, China

 The next day, we went to see the Eastern most portion of the Great Wall of China.  Contrary to popular belief, The Great wall is not continuous, nor was it all built at the same time...part of it was 1st built around the 1st dynasty and has been added to and reinforced and renovated several times throughout history. 

Sarah at one of the platforms on the Great Wall

Rod at one of the platforms at Dandong Great Wall

Looking from the top of the great wall out at the creek separating China (left) from North Korea (right).  You can't see it in this photo, but farm field on the right is being plowed by a single cow and 1 person leading the cow and 1 person behind the plow...tough life....communism at it's best.

Great Wall at Dandong, China

it never ceases to amaze me that some chinese women choose to climb the great wall in high heels...there are parts of this wall that are really steep..brings a whole new level of mastery to walking in high heels that I surely don't have!

Rod and Sarah walking on the Great wall in Dandong..in tennis shoes and sweating!

After the Great wall, we went to the bottom where there, in a pavillion area, some woman had set up shop cleaning ears...yep, and you can't see it clearly, but she's using something on her key ring to clean these ears...makes me turn my head just to think of it!

So, that's about it for today...(it's hard to post a photo after the ear cleaning one and keep any train of thought going!) Hope everyone has a great day and thanks again for your continued prayers as we continue on our journey here in China!

Rod & Sarah


Sarah

4 June 2011: Chinese medicine and rice dumplings for Dragon boat festival!

Greetings all!
Well, I thought I would be in Hong Kong writing this poste, but I had some noteworthy experiences that I thought I'd share.  Rod has sprained his knee or pulled something that has making it difficult to walk..then when he did walk on it, he favored the knee, and consequently, now his ankle is hurting.  One of the ways I learn new words and how to express myself to the driver is to tell him what's going on in our lives...so of course Rod's pain situation was a topic of conversation and led to many words I didn't understand!  Bottom line, when the driver was out with Rod, they went to a Chinese Pharmacy and got a bandaid type thing and explained to put it on his knee.  Rod put it on (smelled really bad!) and it seemed to really help the knee...so this morning, I put one on his ankle...and have been trying to get him to stay off of it (I'm not very effective in that area).  At the sametime, we were sent a bunch of bananas, cherries and mangos and they told Rod to eat these and drink lots of water.  They advised him not to eat meat or eggs while he was sore because it would make the pain worse...so we figured, what do we have to lose!    I mean, who doesn't love banana's anyway!?

Here are some photos of the of the Pharmacy...really thinking of my cousins here!

The outside and entrance of the Pharmacy

The inside aisle of the Pharmacy, clean and well organized

This yellow box is what Rod is using which has the 5 bandaid type things in it

This is the bandaid thing.  It's embedded with herbs, then you add an oil before applying it.

The bandage applied on the knee...we had to really make sure the bandaid adhesive was well sealed...otherwise the oil can seep out.

Rod seems better this afternoon, and we're still going to Hong Kong tomorrow!  I'm believing he will be much better tomorrow!
Onto more pleasant news!
As you may know, this is week is the Dragon boat festival here in China.  The origins of the festival are legend (since it dates back to xxx BC, it's understandable that the exact truth is not known!).  The one I was told about when we moved here goes like this account from Wikipedia (I shortened it!):

In the year 278 B.C., upon learning of the upcoming devastation of his state from invasion by a neighbouring Warring State (Qin in particular), Qu Yuan is said to have waded into the Miluo river holding a great rock in order to commit ritual suicide as a form of protest against the corruption of the era. The Qin or Chin kingdom eventually conquered all of the other states including Chu and unified them into the first Chinese empire. The word China derives from this first dynasty of empire, the Qin (or Chin) Dynasty, under imperialist unifier Qin Shi Huang.
The common people, upon learning of his suicide, rushed out on the water in their fishing boats to the middle of the river and tried desperatedly to save Qu Yuan. They beat drums and splashed the water with their paddles in order to keep the fish and evil spirits from his body. Later on, they scattered rice into the water to prevent him from suffering hunger. Another belief is that the people scattered rice to feed the fish, in order to prevent the fishes from devouring the poet's body.

Since then, the dragon boat races have been going on...and people eat a traditional rice dumpling.  This is a clump of rice, mixed with a type of sweet bean powder, making it all stick together.  This is then wrapped in a lotus leaf.  It is eaten every year at this time and you see them for sale in the markets.
You put sugar on the rice and eat it (not the lotus leaf) and Rod tells me it's good (I havn't had mine yet!)...(our Driver gave us some that his mother cooked, and the hotel staff sent some up for us as well, so we're full up on rice dumplings)

 

 

3 Dragon boat rice dumplings  in a bowl.  One is untied so you can see the rice inside.  It's kind of slimy when you unwrap it because of the sweet bean sauce

The Dragon Boat rice dumpling...those you don't eat, throw in the water with the dragon boat races!

So, when we go to Hong Kong, we hope to see the local Dragon boat races  (you'll know if I do...there will be photos!)

Have a great day everyone!!
Sarah

16 June 2010: Dragon Boat Days and the Imperial Palace in Shenyang

16 June 2010 China Update

Hello everyone!  Happy  "Dragon Boat Day"...don't know about Dragon boats?  Neither did we before we moved to China!

It was a national holiday here on Wednesday and Rod and I took some time off to see another sight here in Shenyang.  Before I get to that, here is something I got off the internet about the Dragon boat festival. 

"The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is a significant holiday celebrated in China, and the one with the longest history. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by boat races in the shape of dragons. Competing teams row their boats forward to a drumbeat racing to reach the finish end first.

The boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival are traditional customs to attempts to rescue the patriotic poet Chu Yuan. Chu Yuan drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Chinese citizens now throw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water.  Therefore the fish could eat the rice rather than the hero poet. This later on turned into the custom of eating tzungtzu and rice dumplings.

 

The celebration's is a time for protection from evil and disease for the rest of the year. It is done so by different practices such as hanging healthy herbs on the front door, drinking nutritious concoctions, and displaying portraits of evil's nemesis, Chung Kuei. If one manages to stand an egg on it's end at exactly 12:00 noon, the following year will be a lucky one."

Rod and I didn't see the dragon boat races  here in Shenyang, instead we went to the Imperial Palace (Forbidden City).  This Forbidden city is only slightly smaller than the one in Beijing and is in really good shape for it's age...Some of these buildings have been around since the early 1700's and many of the artifacts on display were around in the 1300's.  It's amazing!

This is Rodney and Sarah in front of the Royal throne building in the main coutryard.  The entire complex is probably at least 100 buildings, all very traditional architecture.

Here is a close up of one of the roof lines...I always like the little figurines on the roofs, and also the little end caps on the ends of the tiles.

Close up of the roof line at the imperial city in Shenyang, notice the dragon rain spout and the end caps on the roof tiles.

At the Palace, there was a place where you could pay a few Yuan and get the traditional dress costumes...I'm sure none would have fit me, but I did get some good pictures of some of the Chinese visitors getting into them as you'll see below.  The little girl only has the hat, but I thought she was adorable, so I took her picture!

Little Chinese girl at the Imperial Palace with her hat                                                                                                           

Chinese woman on "Dragon boat day" at the Imperial Palace in Shenyang, China

Sarah with a little boy in traditional dress...

Back to work tomorrow!  Have a great "rest of the week" everyone!

Sarah