We had to go to Hong Kong for our China Teacher's conference during Winter Holiday, so we signed up for a fun tour that most of the teachers were going on to explore some of the wonders of Southwest China. It was wonderful! Attached is a Word document with our journal on it. It has some pictures on it that are quite small. If you'd like to see a larger view of any of them, click on the picture, put your pointer on one of the corners and drag it as big as you'd like. If you don't save the file that way, they'll all snap back to the origional size when you close it. Let us know if you have any trouble opening it. Sorry it's so long - 8 pages. Delete it if you don't want to take the time. I compressed it, so it shouldn't take long to download.
Love, Dondavid and ReNee.
4 Feb. 2007,
Hi!
We made it back! We got back last night about 9:30 p.m. after flying back to Beijing, then taking a bus down to Tianjin. It was a really good trip, but we’re sure ready to be home and get some rest! We saw a lot of things, nearly froze to death, but had a good time. We hop-scotched between the storms, were truly fortunate to not get caught up in them. If we’d been a day later we’d have spent the whole time stranded in airports with half-million other people. We flew into Shanghai on Friday, it rained the whole time we were there, but we got to go to the Bund and see the old French, British and Jewish concessions, buildings that were built at the turn of the last century when the West established commercial districts in China. We then toured the “Pearl of the Orient Tower.” It is a beautiful tower with a TV repeater inside, plus a revolving restaurant that overlooks all of Shanghai, much like the Seattle Space Needle. It is the third tallest tower in the world, and has a big wax museum in the basement that depicts the history of Shanghai for the past 1500 years. Shanghai was first established (Historically, anyway) in 600 BC, about the same time Lehi left Jerusalem. It was a commercial port for traders from all over the world that traded with the orient. It was officially incorporated as a city in 1296 AD, but was still controlled by the emperors of the various dynasties. During the Opium Wars of the 1840’s it was one of the concessions China had to make to the conquerors of the West, thus ended the isolationism that had protected them for so many centuries. Of course, that’s also when the Western cultures began to intrude. The concessions ended in the 1940’s, and Shanghai became the economic hub of China. (Thanks to what they learned from the Westerners!) The figures in the museum look like they could be alive! It was fascinating!
After the museum, we went down to watch the light show on the waterfront, and see a lot of the famous buildings including the famous “foreign sector” were all of the foreigners had their stock exchanges and business enterprises shortly after the turn of the century, all in the rain. It wasn’t TOO cold, but near freezing, so we dressed warm. They have neon lights on the fronts of a lot of the big buildings, plus big spots and lasers on the tops of some of them, and they have them all choreographed to music, and it is awesome! They do it at 8:00 in the evening, which is just as it’s getting good and dark, and it lasts about 20 minutes. It had stopped raining, only a light mist, so the light beams were accentuated by the moisture, and it was really beautiful. I tried to get some pictures, but they didn’t turn out. One of ReNees did pretty good, so I’ll put it in.
The next morning we got up and went to the Natural History museum, and it had lots of stuff about the various dynasties. The two that we wanted to see most were closed for renovation to get ready for the Olympic crowds, but we saw coins, armor, pottery, and lots of other artifacts from through the ages. We wanted to see the Jade exhibit and the art, but next time. We had a big Chinese dinner in a fancy hotel, then went downstairs to where they have a silk factory. They have the silk worms that they feed Mulberry leaves, and show the various stages the larva go through. When they worms spin a cocoon, it is amazing. The threads are so fine you can hardly see them. They unwind them off the cocoons and onto a wheel. Each cocoon thread is nearly a mile long, and they twist 9 or 10 together to make one silk thread. Then they dye it and weave it into beautiful fabric! The silk at the factory was REALLY expensive, but it sure made us appreciate the silk scarves and jacket Mom already had bought. We flew out in the evening, and it was definitely turning colder. We flew to Dali, which is the Hawaii of China. and it was raining there, too, but definitely warmer. When we got up we saw on the news that they had had a huge snowstorm in Shanghai and that there were 150,000 people stranded in the airport we had just flown out of. Whew! They ended up being stranded there for three days. The next morning we got up and it was clear and sunny, temp in the 70s. Warm! We stayed in a four-star hotel only a block from the beach, and it was paradise! We went down and waded in the South China Sea, watched the people, wandered the markets, and thoroughly enjoyed the warm. Dali has been a resort area for the Chinese emperors for thousands of years, but was never developed. It is a small city (in Chinese terms-only 500,000 people) that has a really friendly feel.
The next morning we went to Monkey Island, which is the largest monkey reserve in the world. There are thousands of monkeys, and they have really learned to work the tourist trade. They come and beg you for food, do tricks, and behave so much like humans it scary. It was really fun, and we also enjoyed the beautiful semi-tropical scenery. On the way back we stopped by Yalong Bay, which is famous for it’s white sands and clear water. It is amazing, and the water is so clear you can see the bottom still where the water is 100 feet deep. We just relaxed along the beach and enjoyed the company of our friends. The next morning we took a bus to the Nan Shan cultural zone, where they have a huge Buddha statue that stands out in the ocean on a taller, but is their image for the “Goddess of Mercy.” It is beautiful, but they were doing construction so we couldn’t go clear to it and walk around it. It is built really interesting, though, it has three “fronts” so as you walk around it, you get a different person. As we walked along the beach we could see each of the fronts, and it looks a lot better than it sounds. Again, the weather and scenery was beautiful. They have a big park that runs along the beach with statues from many of the cultural minorities depicting the history of China. It was a great stop. Then we went over to Tian Ya Hai Jiao, which translates “The End of the World Where The Sky meets the Sea.” In ancient times it was thought to be the edge of the world, and if you sailed any further you would sail over the edge into the great void. It is beautiful, with big boulders that they have carved in the symbols Ya Hai and Jiao. Now we can see that we have been to the end of the earth! It is a beautiful park where they have recreated each of the most famous scenic regions of China, from the panorama of the Gobi desert to the tropics. It was an awesome place to visit.
On Wednesday we flew back up to Shenzhen which is across the bay from Hong Kong. Again it was cold and rainy, but our flight wasn’t delayed. Most of the flights on the board were either delayed or cancelled, depending on which way one was flying. We visited the China Folk Culture Village where several of China’s 55 minorities live and have preserved their culture, and for the sake of tourism, many still wear their traditional clothing. We also visited “Splendid China,” which is a large cultural area which was designed after the Polynesian Village in Hawaii. They hired the LDS group that did the Hawaiian one to come do it. It’s interesting that most of the cities and tourist areas we visited, though ancient, are relatively new. In 1996 they had a huge earthquake here that flattened thousands of villages and buildings, and they have had to rebuild most of them since then. They are now constructed mostly of reinforced concrete with a lot of re-bar. However, many of them are concrete columns with bricks laid between them, so it will be interesting to see if they survive another earthquake. I hope they do. The buildings that have been rebuilt are rebuilt to look exactly like they did in ancient times, and many of them are still original that survived the earthquake. Most of the pagodas and temples were made of wood, so they survived. A lot of the plaster coating was damaged, but they have restored them. They are also very willing to point out which buildings or sites were damaged or destroyed by the Red Guard during the cultural revolution, and they feel bad that it was allowed to happen. Many of those have also been rebuilt, and most of them have been designated as world heritage sites. I’m really glad, as the culture and traditions here are priceless! The Chinese can trace their heritage back thousands of years BC, and something that is only 7 or 8 hundred years old is relatively new. We were walking on the wall in Kunming day before yesterday, and they mentioned that it was built in about 1260 a.d. That’s almost 250 years before Columbus sailed for America! And it is considered late in Chinese history! We went through one museum that had artifacts and pottery from 250 BC to 1200 a.d. It is amazing how much many of their relics resemble those of central and South America.
We rode the bus from Shenzhen to Hong Kong, and of course it again rained, but at least it wasn’t snowing! In the morning we had a great session in the Hong Kong temple, then had a regional conference with President Toronto and Elder Prichett of the Area Presidency. The temple is really interesting, it’s on the 4th floor of a building that looks like all the other skyscrapers in town. But it’s the only skyscraper with an Angel Moroni on top! Our conference is was on the second floor where the Hong Kong chapel is. Then we had a fun afternoon riding the ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong and back again, rode the trolley up to Victoria peak, over the “bump” to the Stanley markets, and just enjoyed ourselves. Because of the rain and fog, we weren’t able to see as much of the scenery as we would have liked, but the next morning it wasn’t raining, though it was still cloudy. We were able to see much more of the bay and the islands. They are beautiful!
On Saturday we had our China Teacher’s Conference, where all 80 China Teachers from the program met to share ideas and stories. It was really fun to see what other teachers are doing in their classes, and what works best for them. Each teacher was given two minutes to explain their best technique, and it was really fun. You gave out a handout you’d prepared in advance, and gave a thumbnail description. At 1 min 45 seconds they held up a sign that said “15 Sec.”, and at two minutes they held up a sign that on one side was printed the words, “Thank You” and on the other side was the word, “Applause.” Some of the presenters were pretty upset when their time ran out before their words did, but it sure helped the time go smoothly. Wonder if we could do that in Sacrament meeting??? Most people were done before they held up the second sign. That evening, the CTP took us all out to an awesome Western restaurant in Kowloon that served Barbeque Spare Ribs or Salmon, and it was pure heaven to change from Chinese. The Chinese is REALLY good, but not a lot of variety, and we Sunday morning we had a regional conference in the Chapel, heard some good talks by the district presidency and several of the teachers who were asked to bear their testimonies. Mom did a great job! After conference we went to the airport to catch our plane to Guilin. It was delayed because of the weather for 3 hours, but was one of the only flights again that wasn’t cancelled. We were really blessed!
In Guilin we went to the Reed Flute Cave. It is a huge cave with fantastic shapes and formations that they have accented with colored lights. It is like a fairyland! If someone could just sit in there for a couple of days you 
could imagine enough shapes and things to write an entire fantasy book! In one of the rooms there is room to seat 1000 people! The cave is three levels, but we only got to go in the middle one, as the lower one is under water part of the year and the upper level isn’t safe for large numbers, and only research people are allowed up there. That’s fine, as it took us about three hours to walk through the one we did, but it was absolutely incredible.
Because of the rain we weren’t able to do some of the things we had planned, but we still got to go to a factory where they make crystal. It was fascinating, and they showed us how they find crystal, a lot of it in caves or in geodes, then they cut and polish it and it sparkles just like diamonds. There are so many colors and grades. Of course, there are equally as many prices. Mom got a crystal bracelet, but that’s about it. We also went to another fun park where there were some pagodas, temples, and a lot of markets. It was fun to walk through them and shop for trinkets. Half the fun of shopping is the bartering. You never pay asking price for what you want, you bargain. Of course, once you settle on a price, you’re obligated to buy it. You quickly learn that if you really don’t want something, don’t even feign interest! Usually you pay anywhere from 1/3 to ½ the original asking price. In the government controlled stores you find a really good selection, but they don’t bargain.
After our visit to Guilin we drove down to Yangshuo to the Li River. It is an awesome river, but again it was raining, so we didn’t get to take the big cruise that we had hoped. We did take a boat up the river about a mile and back, and it was a lot of fun and the scenery was beautiful, even in the rain. We had a great visit, and there were a lot of these little bamboo fishing rafts that the men stand on and have two or three cormorant birds that help them fish. When the birds are 4 months old, they begin to train them. They tie a string around their necks so they can’t swallow the fish they catch, and they are trained to swim back to the boat and give it to the fisherman. They then go out and catch another, etc. After about 20 minutes, they get tired, so the fisherman takes the string off and feeds them a fish. Then of course they are full, so then won’t fish anymore. After all the birds are done, they pole the raft back to shore and wait till the next day. Those birds came up with some really nice fish! As the birds are trained, the fisherman only ties a straw around the neck, as the birds know they can’t swallow the fish anyway. There grows to be quite a bond between the fisherman and his birds!
The next day we drove back up to Guilin and flew to Kunming. It is also a smaller city, only 1.13 million people, which is beginning to feel quite small! We went out to the Stone Forest, which is an awesome forest of stones and pillars , all carved by the rain and wind into fanciful shapes. The weather was clear and sunny, and we thoroughly enjoyed a warm, leisurely stroll through a breathtaking scenery. We then visited the Grand Pavilion in Kunming where we were able to enjoy and appreciate the ancient culture and literature of China. We also got to shopping some more (Yayyy! NOT!) but the women really enjoyed it. Mom has all kinds of treasures she gets to show off. We went through a tie-dye factory where they make fantastic patterns in fabrics by tying off parts, 
then dipping the cloth into huge vats of indigo. When they take it out and it dries, they untie it and it reveals shapes, patterns, beautiful pictures. Nothing like the tie-dyed t-shirts in the US. We also went to a place where they needle-point beautiful pictures. It’s hard to imagine the number of hours that go into them, and they are absolutely alive. Mom got a small one, but they had some that almost covered a wall.
On Thursday we flew to Lijiang and visited the Black Dragon Pool park, which is a beautiful park with a pool so deep it looks black in the middle, but the water is crystal clear. The villagers here go early in the morning a dip their drinking water right out of the lake. It is fed by natural springs fed by snowmelt from the surrounding mountains. The elevation there is between 7500-9000 feet, and the air is crystal clear and clean. The Naxi people have an interesting culture, in that the women are in charge of everything, they do all the work, and the men are expected to sit around and drink tea, play cards or mahjong, and take care of the kids. Kind of like some of the older Indian tribes in America. And we though we could improve on that?? J Again it was raining and cold, so we didn’t spend as much time there as we would have liked.
Friday we went from Lijiang to Dali where we wandered around Old Town, a village which is really in two parts, the new Old Town that has been rebuilt in the last 12 years, and the “Old” Old town which is 1300 years old and looks like it. The people there still live just as they did in the old days, make their own clothes, cook in the open or on stone stoves, sleep on reed mats, and make tourist trinkets. They have the hawking part down really good, but it is so fun to see and talk to them it’s worth it. Still raining, but a fun adventure. The next morning we visited the Three Pagodas park and the Chongshen Temple, which is a temple built for multipurpose. Some days the Buddhist people use it, others the Tao and Daoists, and others the local religions. True ecumenical multi-use! It is a huge complex of 1000 acres. I guess in it’s prime it was mostly Buddhist, and stretched for 7 kilometers and was home to over 15,000 monks. It’s pretty impressive as it is now! It overlooks the Yinan lake, which is the 5th largest fresh-water lake in China. It’s located at the edge of the Himalaya mountains, and is at about 7500 feet elevation. We were feeling the effects of the altitude after so long at Tianjin which is only about 300’. Are we getting soft, or what! Yes, it rained again.
Saturday after visiting the Three Pagoda Temple, we flew back up to Kunming and spent a fun afternoon just relaxing and drifting around town, went to a fabulous culture show that evening. ReNee wasn’t feeling well, so I went with others in the group. It was a fantastic show that lasted two hours. I tried to buy a video of it so Mom could see it, but they wouldn’t sell any. I guess it’s rated as one of the top ten shows in the world, and they don’t want it to get out. Some guy was trying to video it a few seats in front of us and they zapped his camera with a laser. I guess they were serious when they said no pictures or videos are to be taken of the performance.
Sunday we loaded all our stuff onto the bus and headed back to the airport to come home, and part of the group continued on to Viet Nam and Cambodia. We opted not to do that this year, and I’m sure glad! We were wasted after the hectic travel schedule, freezing in the rain and wind, and living strictly on Chinese food. They fed us great meals, but after two weeks it all tastes about the same, in spite of the lavish hotels serving it. Our hotels were truly luxurious, the nicest I’ve ever stayed in in my life, mostly 4 or 5 star, but since they are in Southern China, it isn’t usually cold, so they didn’t have good heating systems and we like to froze. The average winter temperatures there is usually down into the 60’s, and we were in the low to middle 30’s most of our trip. And humidity at or near 100%. They told us we wouldn’t need our winter clothes after the first week, but we ended up only wearing our summer ones for three days in Sana.
We decided we must be getting accustomed to China when we are gone for two weeks and are excited to get back “home.” It was so nice to walk onto our apartment and collapse onto our rock-hard bed with our cushy 2” foam pad on it. Who would have ever though 2” of foam could feel so soft! And back to the bright sunshine! Not necessarily warm, but sunny! Today it’s up to 36o F and it feels like Spring! Here it is, Feb. 6th. We had a skiff of snow yesterday morning, but it’s gone by noon. Today is New Years Eve by the Chinese calendar, and boy, are they celebrating it! New Years Day is China’s most auspicious holiday, and they celebrate it from Christmas until the middle of February. Of course, they hit it the biggest this week, and all week we’ve been hearing and seeing fireworks that make the 4th of July in the US seem like a minor event. Each night there are rockets, flares, firecrackers, booms and bangs that rock the building. Last night at 11:30 they set a bunch off just outside our building in the parking lot that about bounced us out of bed. We got up and opened our drapes and watched them shoot them off for about 15 or 20 minutes. They’ve been echoing around the city all day, and the big bang isn’t supposed to hit until between 11:45 and 12:15 tonight. I can hardly wait! They’re closing over 100 roads in Beijing just so people can set off their fireworks without endangering the traffic. Now, these folks know how to celebrate! And they aren’t wimpy little “black cats” like you can still get in Wyoming. I think they could use some of their aerial rockets to launch a space shuttle! The boomers must be a couple of sticks of TNT tied together! AWESOME! (Mom isn’t too excited about it, though. See what she missed not having brothers?! J) I asked one of the kids if they could still get cherry bombs here. He said, “Of course. But don’t you want something fun?” This is China! Too bad they don’t let you take them on the airplanes! Last night they set off a string of M-80s that was 50’ long. Cool! At one hotel we went to they set off a string that must have been 300’ long. It took it about 15 minutes to all go off. I wanted to go out and pick up the “duds” that had blown out when the others went off, but mom didn’t think I ought to, being an old Laowai and all. Might not look good for the program.
Well, I guess this is about long enough. We are loving our experience in China. We truly miss our family, especially our two new granddaughters we haven’t met yet, and the two more that we will have by the time we get home this summer. Teresa had her baby Ivy in December, Brent and Kiley had their little Kaedyn last week while we were in Sanya. Kelli and Shaun are expecting their little girl in May, and Troy and Emma a baby in July. We should be home for that one! We also miss our children and grandchildren that we haven’t seen since last summer, but we sure don’t miss the weather Rexburg is having this year! Over 20” of snow in December, another 20” in January, and trying hard for another 20” in February. Over 6” more in the first three days, with snow forecast for the next two weeks! And that doesn’t count the wind and -21 F they’ve also had several times. Ed says he has already missed so much school they’ll have to make up some next summer, and the winter isn’t over yet! They have had a vicious winter 
here in China, with huge ice and snow storms that have stranded millions all over China, and even some big storms in Beijing. But they have all gone around us, and we’re enjoying the sun and hardly ever complaining about the bitter Siberian winds we get some days. Our classes start up again Feb. 25th, so we’re working on our lesson plans and gathering neat stuff to share with our students.
We were saddened to hear about President Hinckley, but certainly not surprised. I think President Monson will do a wonderful job, as will Pres. Eyring and Pres. Uchdorf. Isn’t it wonderful how the work continues smoothly even with major changes in leadership? We are blessed!
May the Lord bless you all. Thank you so much for your support and wonderful letters. They mean SO much to us! Give your families our love, and let us know how you’re doing.
Love, Dondavid and ReNee.
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