uh oh, I've fallen behind -- I'm back from Xi'an

It all happened so fast it seems. We've been back from Xi'an for some days already and I didn't report on the New Year's dinner, the family's health or the road trip home.

Oh well, here are some pictures to compensate and get a jump start on the update.

Yes, those are chicken feet in the stew.



Sister YY fell and broke her knee, but seems happy enough. It's Chinese New Years after all.












I counted 17 homemade dishes for the New Year's feast.

As the foreign son-in-law I contributed my specialty -- cream cheese and caviar on a cracker. They liked it.

Our main cook, bro'-in-law MM, finally gets to try some.

At the temple on New Year's Eve

These pictures are being sent directly from my phone at the 1,300-year-old Dayanta Temple in Xi'an. It's well past midnight and there are hundreds of people here. We've all come to say a prayer for the Niu Year . The family's calling me. Got to go

Baba's annual tribute

This is perhaps the most touching part of the annual routine when we come home to Xi'an. We visit my father-in-law's mausoleum and take his portrait and stone for a little walk. It's really a happy occasion that shows great respect for a great man. He's been gone nine years and he's missed and remembered by all.

ZZ is the grandson and most like his Yeye(grandfather) who raised him for many years. ZZ is smart and ambitious and learned many life lessons from his Yeye.

From a big hall in the back of a park where the ashes of hundreds are stored in their own cubicle, we walk Baba to yard made for offerings.

On a concrete tableau we set out his photograph beside nice things to snack on and burn money in his memory. Beside his little alter we draw circles with an opening to the north. Here we burn money to other generations and relatives who have passed on. I made an offering to my mom too. I think she understands that her son is really a Chinese son-in-law.

ZZ sets off a long braid of fire works and he smiles. He says for sure his Yeye heard them and appreciates them.

Life a good daughter (she's a great one actually), FF cleans out her father's cubicle, dusting off all the little things that keep him company, including some games.

More on this later.... The pictures really tell the story.

We made it 'home' to Xi'an

We have finally 'dao jia le' -- made it home. Lot's of sparks of love, broad smiles and happiness. I forced a few hugs and kisses from the family. Only the foreign son-in-law would do that.

It's good to be back and I feel more comfortable than I ever have. My Chinese has improved again this year so communicating is a bit easier. This year will be smallest gathering in years. The oldest daughter is in the U.S. and the second oldest is in bed with a broken ankle and knee. That leaves the youngest son, his wife and daughter, the oldest grandson and FF and I. Of course Mom, the true matriarch of the family, is the center of our love and concern.

I entertain with my iPhone. Taking pictures and making funny sketches as you can see.

We're staying at the Party School's hotel that is just a five minute walk from home. They turn the heat off between midnight and five a.m. but it only cost $20 a night. We can also see the Wild Goose Pagoda from our room. It's from the Tang Dynasty, more than 1,000 years ago.

A super highway to Xi'an

The road -- make that Super Highway, is amazing. It's new, it's fast and it's expensive in more ways than one. The two very different provinces we travel through -- Shanxi and Shaanxi, are the crusty, ancient heartland of China. (Xi'an, the city of our destination, you'll remember was the home of China's 'first' emperor.) It's winter so there's no green; it's all classic China-yellow earth. I hesitate to call the landscape barren, because it is all occupied and cultivated or mined.

Okay, back to the road -- a four-lane divided highway. Our little convoy of two Great Wall SUV's rip up the road at about 140 km\h, just over the 120 speed limit. We're faster than most, but serious speeders are passing doing 180 or better.

While the rolling countryside is interesting and impressive, the highway engineering is amazing. We travel across the longest and tallest bridge I've ever seen. It must be several kilometers long and its supports 30-storeys tall. Another bridge hits you following a steep mountain descent. In the rising mist from the valley far below the far end of the bridge disappears and there's an illusion that you're on a runway to another dimension. Alas, it leads only to kilometer-long tunnel that takes you through the next mountain instead of over it.

There's very little traffic for such a huge expensive project. My theory is that this is what the World Bank funds with its infrastructure loans. The Xi Yun Highway is the best highway this side of the autobahn and yet the towns and villages flanking it appear to have little hope of ever scrapping out of third world status.

Okay, we're almost there. So far it's has cost us about $50 in toll fees.

Off roading in Shanxi Province

Got off the super highway to take in the sites of Hancheng. A dirty, dusty coal mining town in Shanxi Province. Its market street is vibrant and blaring and full of life. There's everything, from satellite dishes to over stuffed PLA army coats.

The city has 1,000 year old buildings and temples. Its environment sold out for the prosperity of bigger cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Off roading in Shanxi

Our ancient guest house in Pingyao

This is where we stayed on our way home to Xi'an. The ancient town of Pingyao. We drove through mountains and plains-- 650 kilometers down 650 to go.

We had made a reservation online but something fishy was up when we go to the wall of the ancient part of the city. A 'guide' met us at the south gate and told us we had to leave our car in the parking lot outside the wall. An eight-seater electric cart was to take us to the hotel. This was all very odd to us and it was freezing when we piled our overnight stuff and valuables into the open-air cart. The topper came just as we were about to set off and they asked for 40 RMB about seven dollars to take us to the guest house. We all bailed on them and XD had more than few choice swear words -- oh my, he was pissed. They cut the fee to 20 RMB and then it was free. We were all tired and not about be taken advantage of so we got back in our own vehicles and just ignored the signs at the city gate that banned cars. There were plenty of others doing the same. Good thing we were driving SUV's. It was quite an adventure driving the narrow alleys -- the walled-city planners of the day could never have imagine our little group.

We soon enough found a delightful courtyard/guest house. Of course it had been renovated and restored but I'm sure it was the real thing. It was likely built 50 generations ago by a merchant family. It was half the cost of our reserved room, at $20.

The four-and-half of us walked the cobbled street in the dark and stopped at the tiniest, localist dinner we could find. No more driving meant XD and I could enjoy a beer and some bijiu. It was a great meal even though the only heat was from a coal-burning heater in the middle of the four-table restaurant.

Outside the city wall is a dreey, grungy industrial town, but Pingyao has preserved the past. You can wander through alleys and courtyard museums, but there's little recorded history. No one really seems to know the past here. It's all about tourism. It might be better in the summer but it's not much more than a solid shell and a trap.

Why would the guesthouse with the fancy website and online reservations screw us around like that? They let $100 slip through their fingers. I've got to alert Lonely Planet.

Getting ready for China road trip

We're heading home to Xi'an in a few days, which means stocking up on Beijing goodies.

Here we are in downtown Beijing buying bags of sweet things and a vacuum packed Beijing duck. Hmm, not sure about the later. There are a thousands kinds of candies to chose from and a thousand other shoppers with the same idea.

This is the famous Wangfujing Street center of Beijing.

If these posts really work, I'll keep you posted all along the way.

My first entry and ice making in Beijing

I'm not sure what this blog will achieve or exactly what it will be about. Of course it will center on my very interesting and exotic life in China.

I've been in Beijing more than three years and I'm still struck by the oddities of daily life and the mostly lovely encounters they create. For an Anglo Canadian boy, who has learned to speak quite fluent Mandarin Chinese, life here is almost always a pleasant challenge.

On my walk with Xiong today, for example, I saw a group skaters applying a fresh coat of ice on one of the local canals in my neighborhood. They sloshed buckets canal water on the bumpy, dirty frozen canal while two guys pulled a sodden carpet remnant over the damp mess. Of course it seemed to work. As you can see they were making one little circle of fresh ice at the bend of the canal.

There are very few skaters in Beijing. The winter is barely long enough for the effort, although this year has been the coldest I've experienced. I haven't seen ice skates for sale in any sports store, but I've heard you can find them.

Oh yes, Xiong is our friends' little white dog who has come to stay with us for a few days. We've been having great walks. The white dog taking the white guy for a walk sure gets some odd looks.

Okay, enough for a first entry. Let's see how this looks.

Cheers,
Lao Bi

Post by mms

Let's see if this works. I think I've got it. I can send pictures and text directly from my phone to my blog. This is my first. I picture of our favorite Great Wall spot.
B

Test post to my blog

This has been sent from my iPhone.