Even More Pictures

The gang is away for 12 days. Here are some more pictures to enjoy

More Pictures

We are catching a train shortly and will be gone for a week or so. If we get internet access, we will provide an update. In the meantime, enjoy some more pictures.

Dear viewers,
We first like to apologize for our delayed posting. China is a very big country with many people, yet they have a limited number of webspace available. Unfortunately, this website is not currently available to us directly. We are using a 3rd party person that has generously agreed to assist us with the postings. We will try our best to get as many postings out, so stay strong and visit often.
As for China, we got a late start. Our plane was delayed 2 hours in Toronto due to a mechanical problem that was miraclously fixed. However, our plane had to stop in Vancouver to "get some gas" as a result of the mechanical problem, and the 13 hour plane ride turned into 18 hours. But, once we got to China everything went smoothly.

Day 1
July 21
Arrived in Beijing too late to do anything but go to bed. Poor Janet had to wait at the Chinese airport for 8 hours, but her dad showed up and took her to lunch. Lucky for us, Janet is a patient woman.

Day 2
July 22
We went to a place called the pearl market where Steve bought out the Northface jacket store. He bargained his way down to a fair price. Kareem almost had a concussion after he hit his head on a pole crossing the street trying to avoid a woman who wanted Kareem's half-full bottle of water. He made us promise to take him to the hospital if he lost consciousness and he wanted us to check his pupillary light reflexes just in case. Lu's grandmother applied a magical ointment to the bruise on Kareem's forehead and it magically disappeared after only 3 days.

Day 3
July 23
Forbidden City
We went to the Forbidden Palace and walked around. A lot of places were closed because of renovations for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. We hiked to the top of a mountain behind the palace and got a great view and some great photage. Kareem was able to dress up like a Chinese emporor and we took turns posing as his concubines.

Day 4 - 6
July 24 - 26
We left that day for the countryside where Lu spent all of her childhood summers. It was about a 3 hour ride there and we were promtly and warmly welcomed by dozens of aunts, uncles, neighbors, great-somethings, and cousins. We spent a lot of time eating and toasting each other and hanging out at a milk shop where one of Lu's relatives worked. While there were many warm bags (not bottles) of milk there, we didn't really drink that much milk. But we met lots of cool milkmen and milkwomen. They were really quite taken with Steve and Kareem and taught them Chinese and learned English from them. They asked us to stay an extra day so we did. This was the hilight of the trip so far.

July 27
We left the countryside at 5:30 am to get to the bus station where we just caught the bus pulling out. After getting back to Beijing, we rested then took a leisurely stroll through the Temple of Heaven which is pretty much the best park any of us have ever seen.

July 28
Today was a very special day. We took care of all of our tickets for traveling around China. It was a long and arduous process like you would not believe. We got back, had lunch, and then took a cab back to the Forbidden City where it took us about 2 hours to find a place to rent bikes. The Lonely Planet told us about a place across the street from a peking duck restaurant and next to a hotel. Oddly, we found a place that fit this description, but it was only a bike parking lot. After another hour, we realized that we had been walking down the wrong street. We biked around the Forbidden City and historic parts of the city called Hutong for about 2 hours.

That's all so far. We're leaving Monday for Huangshan and we'll try to post pictures as soon as we get to Guilin, but no promises.

Love,
Kareem, Janet, Steve, and Lu