A day in Macau

June 29 - 30, 2009

My cousin's husband taught me the cheapest way to go to Taiwan from Mainland China. Go through Macau. Sure enough, the cost from Jinan to Taiwan was going to be over 5000 RMB, but through Shanghai and Macau to Taiwan, the cost was 2000 RMB, or 300 USD.

From Macau airport we took a cab to the hotel, the Metro Park Weijin. It's a 4-star, and is one of nicest hotel we've stayed in for a while. It even has a deep tub. After living in China without a bathtub, any place with a tub makes me happy. We went to the Fisherman's Whart and walked around the place. It was very beautiful and very expensive too. The hotel we stayed in had a free shuttle taking people to the pier which is near the Wharf. In talking with the driver, he told us instead of spending 80 HongKong $ to the airport, we ought to take the Venetian shuttle to visit the place, then they would take you to the airport for free. It was a fun experience. This is like the one in Las Vegas, may be larger. All the indoor shopping streets, indoor/outdoor canals around the place were gorgeous. We enjoyed some Japanese food at the food court.

All in all, it was a fun trip to Macau. But, to save on airfares, best thing would be to fly in in the morning and fly out at night. Macau isn't all that big, half a day is probably enough unless you are going there to gamble. They do have beautiful casinos and yes, gold jewelry stores (just in case you hit the jackpot).

Our trip home, Hangzhou/Shanghai

Mr. Zhang and us

June 24 - 29, 2009: Hangzhou and Shanghai

Mr. Zhang, the taxi man, came to pick us up at 2 PM to Jinan airport. Mrs. Chen, the lady who helps us clean once a week came to work that day. She was a tremendous help. Being a Christian, who goes to a local Christian Church, we gave her whatever we wanted to leave with her. It was hard to say goodbye to these two people who helped us during our time in Jinan. Then, some neighbors started coming out. The neighbor upstairs came with a bowl of "jiano tzes" for lunch and to say goodbye. The neighbors downstairs all came out to say goodbye. We gave the old grandpa a BYU alumni t-shirt and the granddaughter a can of hot chocolate. They were so gracious.

Mrs. Chen and me

Our neighbors

We had two 23-kg medium size suitcases, plus each of us has 2 carry-on bags. Elwin has a backpack full of students' autobiographies which didn't make the shipment, plus his computer bag. I had a small suitcase with my mac and books, plus my big purse. All were carefully planned as we had some domestic flights that only allowed one check-in suitcase per person. Still, it was a lot of luggage to travel with. At Jinan airport they told us the weight was fine. We pray that it would stay that way until we leave to go back to the States as we would be allowed to check in two bags each. Sadly, at Pudong Airport, they told me each bag weighted in at 26 kgs and I ended up had to pay for overweight cost of around 25 USD. But the same bag weighted in at 23 kg again in Macau making one wonder if the scale in Shanghai was rigged.

We arrived in Shanghai at 5:45 PM and took a long distance bus to Hangzhou. It was a two-hour ride. The saying goes: heavens up above, Hangzhou and Suzhou down below. We looked forward to spending two days there. We stayed at a Home Inn which our agent Marvin reserved for us. We took an all day tour with a Chinese group. The tour guide was very enthusiastic and quite knowledgeable about the West Lake and the city. It was a fun tour and we visited 6 or 7 sites. What a beautiful city Hangzhou is! Hope y'all have a chance to visit there someday. Enjoy the slideshow below.

We took a bullet train from Hangzhou to Shanghai on day 2. It took only an hour to get there vs. 2 by bus. We visited with my cousin Mali's husband, Li Hai Sheng. He is a business man working in Shanghai. He took us to a famous "dim sum" restaurant and it was fabulous. It was located at the Cheng Huang Miao (temple) district. It was a big giant shopper's dreamland. Elwin and I spent 5 hours there. It was a record for Elwin. They have everything under the sun. We bought more ties, more shoes, more of everything. :-)

On Sunday we attended church with some BYU China teachers, the Rasmussen's and the Sullivan's. It was good to see them and they were also leaving China to go back to the States in a few days. We visited the unusual "Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum" Sunday afternoon. The Russian Jews were driven out of Russia during WW IIand went to Japan during Hitler's rampage in Russia. They were not welcomed in Japan. The KMT's Chinese Government welcomed them to Shanghai. They were there until well after WW II. The memorial was built to remember the goodness of the Chinese.

The next day we took a subway train (by then, we were very good at riding on the subway) to the shopping center by Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. We were there about 4 months ago. So, we knew where to do some shopping. Then, it was time to take off to Pudong Airport to go to Macau. The fun thing we'll remember was the ride from the subway station to the hotel. There were rickshaws in the small alleyways to take people to wherever they needed to go. They were also motorcycles with the motor running to give you a ride to wherever you need to go too. We took the rickshaw and the cost of 5 RMB or 75 cents. It was quite a ride.
It was a fun 3-day stay in Shanghai. We would do it again.

We took a taxi instead of "mag lev" to Pudong airport as it was raining cats and dogs and it didn't cost too much more than taxi. Over all, it was a fun 5-day stay in Hangzhou and Shanghai. We'd recommend it to anyone who might be interested in touring China.

davisatsdu blog is available again!

We've been out of touch, blog-wise, the last 6 weeks. It feels good to be able to get connected again. We are in Taiwan for 10 days. We miss everyone. It won'be long before we get home! Yippee!

Goodbye, Our Friends!

It was hard to say goodbye. We spent the last two weeks of school meeting with our students on individual interviews. We love them so much. It was hard to say goodbye.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy Mother's Day!

It was wonderful to hear from our children. But, least expected, I received a greeting from one of our students too. The message is touching and I would like to share it.

Dear Doctor Davis,

Happy Mothers'Day! I'm sorry that I don't have your cell phone number so I couldn't send you short message to express my best wishes.You have deliver the saying"Man is that he might have joy",while I'll say"Mothers are women who are certainly to be loved!'' Isn't it Chinglish?

You are a dynamic and charming mother.Your smile is just like a ray of sunshine.In Jinan,I seldom have seen an interesting woman like you who are happy with peaceful smile everyday.I should learn from you,as well as my mother .In a way, my mother is bad-tempered because she is under enormous pressure from her work.But I do know that she sacrifices too much for me.Even though I don't like my major which she choosed for me till now,I don't hate her any more.I love her!

Dear Doctor Davis,you must be a lovely mother who won't push her children to do something they don't like.Frankly speaking ,I'm so envious of your children.I love you too!

May you be happy forever!

Yours sincerely

English Corner

April 19, 2009

Elwin and I invited our Class 2 Sophomores over for English Corner or Fireside. We made sloppy joe for everyone and had stations for different activities. It was raining dogs and cats that day. I received a phone call from the class monitor about half an hour before they were supposed to come: "we need to cancel our appointment today" was what I heard. Why, I asked? The monitor politely told me that with the rain they were afraid they were going to make the floors at our house dirty. Also the wet umbrellas might be very unpleasant. With all the food prepared, I convinced them that it would be perfectly allright for them to come. So, they came. Of course, they came about 10 minutes early, but stood in the rain for almost 10 minutes before they knocked on the door. The Chinese politeness was amazing. We had a great time. A lot of students commented that they never had this type of opportunities to visit foreign teachers' homes.

The menu: (yes, I had some help...our house cleaning lady came to chop vegetables...it took hours of preparations to get them all cleaned and chopped)

1. 80 hamburger buns
2. 10 pounds of ground meat
3. 3 pounds onions
4. 3 pounds green peppers
5. 3 pounds carrots
6. 2 pounds mushrooms
7. 4 heads of Romaine lettuce
8. 80 hard boiled eggs
9. other
   

Activities:

1. one group watched "Smallville" with Chinese subtitles.
2. one group did "Easter egg" decoration
3. one group played Uno

We rotated every half an hour so everyone was able to do all the activities. It was so fun to have them.

International Vegetable Fair

April 26, 2009 - Visiting the International Vegetable Fair in Shouguang, Shandong

On our way home from Weifang, we stopped to visit Shouguang, where they were having a big veggie fair. A city known for its vegetable production in Shandong Province, China, Shouguang is holding its "Shouguang Vegetable Fair 2009" from April 20 to May 20. The fair aims to exhibit vegetable cultivating/processing technologies, new vegetable varieties and achievements made in vegetable production, develop technological cooperation and exchanges, and promote vegetable industry upgrading.

There were literally thousands of people at the Fair. Every pavillion has lines of at least 20-30 minutes. Since a lot of people didn't queue in, it seemed to take even longer. The varities of vegetables were amazing. But the most amazing thing was the children and their parents. When they saw foreigners they all wanted to have pictures. Elwin and the other "foreigners" had photo opts everywhere they went. They certainly were the celebrities of the Fair.

Parents taking pictures of their children with foreigners, Elwin et al