Case Family in Hong Kong

View of a town square in Yulin from the restaraunt.  Saturday night is skate night

Ezri makes a friend during our after dinner walk through the square.

Ezri gets in the groove to Chinese techno. 

Riding the bus out to the park outside Yulin.

Walking to the lookout with some kids we met along the way.

View from the lookout spot of Chinese farmland.

Walking past some cows to get back to the bus.

So, as previously mentioned, the three of us headed off on a trip to mainland China during Jason’s spring break.  We began our adventure early on Wednesday morning of last week, and, about 12 hours after stepping out of our door, we arrived at our destination to visit friends!  It took about 1 hour on our local train to arrive at the Chinese  border, and then getting through customs and immigration (interesting to exit one country, and take a few steps to enter another…something you don’t really get to experience when you travel by air), and taxi ride to the bus station was another hour, and then we embarked on a 10 hour bus ride!  I know, I know…..crazy with a baby, right?….RIGHT!!  But, really, Ezri did fabulous.  We took along a few of her favorites:  coloring book and crayons, books, magazine, blueberries, cheese, yogurt drinks, gummies, and the ever-important dvd player!  She slept about one hour each way, and the other nine, we just entertained as much as possible–a full-time job.

It is fun to note that the bus was fully equipped with what we will call a ’squatty potty’, so-called b/c you have to squatty as you go to the potty….unlike a western-style toilet.  These are quite common in China….and other parts of the Asian world, as we understand. 

As you can see from our pictures (posted earlier) mainland China is quite different from Hong Kong.  There are villages surrounding the city we were visiting, so we took a bus ride out one day and took a scenic walk that allowed us to look out on the rice fields and other crops that the people are busily planting this time of year.  We spotted some water buffalo, cows, chicken farms, duck farms…..quite interesting.  One day we walked around the city and checked out this massive Buddhist ‘museum’…..looks like a temple to me!  It was quite impressive.  There were brass dragons on the gate outside of it; Ezri ‘roared’ at them out loud! 

Of course, Ezri enjoyed the crazy attention of the waitresses at restaurants and of other people we met during our trip.  The young girls go especially ‘ga-ga’ over her, and she eats it up!  One of our waitresses gave Ezri her pen with which she was to write down our order!….and then actually went to get another one, so as not to upset Ezri by taking her pen back! 

Oh, and if you are planning a trip to mainland China, know that there will be no signs or anyone anywhere speaking English (many of you already anticipated that, I’m sure…but it was a shocking reality)!!  Luckily, we were with friends who got us around town with no problem…..otherwise, we’d have been out of luck!

Our second full day in Beijing on the 11th I wanted everyone to experience the markets.  First we headed to Panjiayuan, but ended up at the antique market, but I was smart enough to realize that was not what I had seen on the internet so we asked around and were told that the “dirt” market was about a 10 minute walk away from the antique market.  We stopped and had lunch ad Mickey D’s and then headed over to the market.  Being that it was not the weekend the market was only about a quarter full with vendors, but it still presented a nice warmup for Hongqiao Market.  After we finished at Panjiayuan (which was unbelievably cold by the way) we headed to the world-famous Hongqiao market where mom, Donna and Melanie lost their minds bartering for deals.  I was able to snap some shots of them with their spoils, and they left the market like I imagine fishermen do after a good catch.  All was right with the world until Donna dropped her vase and broke it into pieces.  She remained pretty bummed out for the remainder of the trip until we got home and Melanie lost her purse with our passports in it.  Praise God that someone at the airport turned the purse in and it only cost us an extra bus ride back out to the airport to pick it up.  We did have a few bumps along the way in Beijing, a taxi driver gave us a 5 cent bill rather than a 5 dollar bill one time in change, and we got in an argument to get a sufficient taxi for the ride out of Beijing back to the airport (they wanted us to take two), but all in all, we couldn’t have asked for a better trip.  Ezri did wonderfully, and the trip gave us a deeper appreciation of the beauty, ease, efficiency, weather and class of Hong Kong. 

I hope to post two updates detailing the 4 days of our trip.  As we first arrived it was cold!!! It was below 32F the entire time we were there.  Our taxi driver was at the airport waiting for us, thankfully, and took us to the hostel.  The first thing a visitor should learn about Beijing is that the taxis are very reasonable.  The ride to our hostel was about 30-45 minutes and only cost about $20 USD.  Trips to most places in the city are less than $5 USD.  We got settled into the hostel (Jade International Youth Hostel) about 2-3pm and then decided to walk over to Tiannamen and Forbidden City.  We got there just as it was closing (4pm).  We snapped some pics, mom & Donna got their first taste of the Beijing hawkers and we caught a taxi back to the hostel.  We had an Internet cafe at the hostel so we decided to conduct research ourselves as to a bus that rides out to the “Great Wall”.  We found out that bus 919 leaving every 5 minutes from Deshengman Bus Station rides out to Badaling, the most popular tourist destination.  Another big thing to know about Beijing is that noone speaks english so you need to have your front desk fill out the addresses of your destination for you, in potonghua so you can then present the card to the taxi drivers.  The trip was about an hour and a half out to Badaling and cost about 12 yuan a person ($1.50 USD).  Melanie did an excellent job of nursing Ezri to sleep on most our longer trips.  Badaling is in the hills, practically in the middle of nowhere, as we headed up to the entrance, what did we find but nothing other than good ole Starbucks, our little slice of Americana right that in the Chinese hills.  Mom, Donna & Melanie were able to hike to the highest point of the “Great Wall” in Badaling, check the pics.  Ezri and I decided to ride the Chinese bobsled back down to town (as did mom, Donna & Mel later).  Ezri got to see some Black bears, and absolutely did not want to leave them.  We hopped on the bus back to Beijing, everyone wore out. 

On December 6th, Mel, Ezri, Wayne & Karen made it to the south side of Hong Kong Island to visit the infamous Stanley Market.  The trip was shorter than expected.  It was about 1 hour from where we live (we thought it might be up to an hour & 1/2), they took the MTR downtown and then took a Double Decker bus to the opposite side of Hong Kong Island.  They passed Ocean Park, one of the top tourist attractions for families (oceanarium, theme park & pandas), and Repulse Bay on the way out there (one of the best beaches in HK).  Wayne proclaims, “This is a flea market lover’s paradise!!!”  They enjoyed their time in the open market, bartering and trying to make some deals.  They note that it is MUCH more laid back than the city.  The treated themselves to some gourmet hot dogs (they love them here), a Chicago-style hot dog stand would do gang busters.  Mel purchased some very reasonably priced paintings to decorate our walls, then they headed back home to rest up for their next adventure!

 Here are the previously-promised, and I know, long-awaited clips of our day trip to Macau.  Hope you enjoy.