China Adventure

The Dragon Dance greeted us at the kung fu school. Parents leave their children at the school when they are 5 years old.

The Chinese Circus performers were fantastic!

A pair of Chinese charmers.

The upturned corners of Chinese roofs are to keep evil spirits off their houses.

Tiananmen Square square in the center of Beijing adjacent to the Forbidden City, the largest public open space in the world.

ORIGIN Chinese, literally ‘square of heavenly peace.’

A Dragon Boat within the "Forbidden City".

A temple along one of the rivers.

Terra Cotta solders. Go to the following address and see morehttp://www.terracottawarriorexhibit.com/

In this modern culture many things are still done the "old fashion" way.

These "fishermen" used cormorants to catch their fish. A ring is placed around the bird's neck and a tether is attached. When the bird catches a fish, it can't swallow it. It is pulled up and the fish is squeezed from it's throat. (They let them eat one occasionally)

We harvested tea leaves and placed them in our hats. Then we were taught how to brew tea properly (no tea bags!)

Shanghai is an example of the modernization of China. When we were there hundreds of skyscrapers were being built. The contrasts in the country were huge. The streets were full of motorized vehicles, but also bicycles being used as trucks and people carrying things on their backs. Cars were everywhere, but their were few parking lots (many cars were parked on the sidewalks).

The boat ride on the Li River took us through the unique Guilin Mountains.

The McDonald's menu reads differently in Chinese

The five day trip down the Yangtze River was fabulous!

Scenes inside the "Forbidden City" of the emperor.

The dam on the Yangtze River is a mile long.  It's supposed to control the distractive floods that the river is famous for, but, when it is fully functional, the river behind it will rise displacing millions of people.

 The Chinese believe these figures on the ends of the roof will keep away evil spirits,

 A representation of an evil spirit.

We visited the open air market.  It had to be 200 yards long with everything you could think of eating (and some things you would not!).  They have a saying in China: They eat everything on four legs except the tables and chairs and everything that flies except the jet planes.

The costumes at the Chinese opera were fantastic.

Some of the new buildings in Shanghai