06.15.02

China Trip-Day 6

Today Aric and I got up real early so we could meet some of his coworkers at the train station at 7am. We took the train from Shanghai to Hang Zhou, which took two hours. Aric, Amy, J.T., Tang (a coworker also from the Fountain Valley office) and his two daughters-Cahn and Thao took a tour visiting all the beautiful and historic sites of Hang Zhou. The tour had six stops...mostly gardens and temples.

The first stop was a historic garden that was once hailed "the most beautiful garden" by Marco Polo. The second stop was to a temple of a once famous warrior (I forgot the name). The third stop was to a tea leaf factory...where you can sample and buy their tea. The fourth stop was lunch and a shop where you can purchase one of the world's finest silks. The fifth stop was to a fresh water spring. The fifth stop was to a Historic Mongolian Museum/Park. The sixth stop was to a huge temple with many interesting carvings along a rock mountain. Oh, we had another stop...but it was just to a regular park. I think that was so people can switch buses before getting dropped off at the train station again.

I was really bad at listening to the informative facts of each site. Mainly because the tour guide spoke fast and her accent was really strong...at times, it didn't even sound like Chinese to me. Another reason was that traveling with Ashlyn made keeping up with the group hard. When it came to her feedings or diaper changes, Aric and I would miss out on seeing some of the attractions. Luckily Amy helped out a lot...especially toward the end, when we went to the huge temple. Aric and I left Ashlyn with Amy so we could scale some of the walls and hike some of the trails. I bought a bunch of incense and burned them at the temple for good luck. The sour thing was, while I was lighting my incense, some hot ash from other peoples' incense fell onto my bag...burning holes through my Kenneth Cole tote. Sucks, yo. =(
The day was long, the sun was draining, and we did a whole lotta walking.

Ashlyn made friends with everyone on our tour. So many people would just stare, smile, and talk to her. Some even wanted to hold her. She's become quite a celebrity around here. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was close to 9pm. Aric went out and picked up McDonalds while I got Ashlyn ready for bed. Aric and I had Big Macs as we watched "Friends" on DVD via Aric's laptop. Yeah, of all places to eat in Shanghai, we choose McDonalds. =P hehehe

Pictures from today:


Aric pushing Ashlyn


Aric, me, and Ashlyn at the "most beautiful garden"


old skool boat


Aric, Ashlyn, and Amy on the ferry


bridge at "most beautiful garden"


me and Ashlyn by the water


me at the "warrior" temple


J.T., Aric, and Ashlyn at the fresh water spring


Ashlyn with Amy


at the Mongolian Museum/Park


Aric armed with a bow and arrow


I may look like I know what I'm doing, but I don't


waterfalls


carved stone


Aric with one of the rock carvings


in a cave


Aric and J.T. getting on the train


pictures of houses (with neat roofs) taken from the train


Ashlyn and Aric dog-tired

Ashlyn moves around soooo much in her sleep. Now that she sleeps with us, Aric and I always get woken up with a foot in the face or something. Aric and I have grown accustomed to sleeping right on the edge of the bed, while Ashlyn takes up all of the middle. She usually ends up lying perpendicular to us...so that the three of us form the letter "H". What a damn bed hog!


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