Hi from China

City buses and school buses, just about anything that had a huge wheel to turn a huge rig without having to really do a huge workout on turning the wheel had one. I forgot what they're called, technically, but I think we all know what they are now!

I only respected your wish due to you being a mod.

Dude they eat dog and cat like we eat chicken and beef so watch out if one day the dog next door goes missing and the neghbors look like they are full and happy you know what happened. Just remember that in some places a cow is sacred and what we eat might offend some too. So don't judge try it you might just be suprized and like it you might have even already had some cat or dog and don't even know it. just keep a open mind.

Actually that is an outdated idea we have about China. The Chinese have suffered through some nasty famines and have eaten just about anything to stay alive, but those days are over. You really cannot fault someone for eating dog or cat when they are starving. Let me remind you that early American colonists, your ancestors, ate dogs, squirrels, possums, and other varmints to supplement their daily diet.

We have seen many cats and dogs in the streets of Taiyuan and Beijing actually has a problem with large pet dogs and have instituted a size limit.

I have always been adventurous in my diet and the only thing I refuse to try again are pickled ducks feet. Yuck.

Cheers !!

We have been in Taiyuan (1 hour by plane south west of Beijing) for a week now and have proceeded with the adoption, which went as smoothly as could be hoped for, what with a handful of bureaucrats who do not speak English, an interpreter who has been on the job for 2 months and a 3-year old who is just getting used to new North American parents.

We went for a walk around the hotel today and were often stopped by Chinese who asked us about our daughters, only in Chinese of course. Luckily we have a postcard that says, in Mandarin, that these are our adopted daughters and we are able to say, in Mandarin, where they are from. Invariably the Chinese are happy to see the girls adopted into a Western family.

Friday we are leaving for Beijing to finalize the Canadian side of the adoption and then fly back to Canada on May 24th.

I will post a few pics of our adventure, and the various pickups I have seen, upon my return.

i'd like to go to china one day. seems like a good time. i like tea and panda express.... i'm good to go

We took the train from Beijing to Taiyuan in a first class cabin with sleepers. It costs $25 US a ticket and there are 4 berths to a cabin. It was well worth it.

We bought a fourth ticket because we thought our interpretor was taking the trip with us but she didn't.

We ended having an extra berth and that was cool. We used a top berth for our bagage and our daughter could sleep in the other top berth.

The exchange rate is currently almost 7 Yuan for 1 CDN dollar. A bottle of water is 1 Yuan, i.e. about 30 cents. A good evening meal is about 160 Yuan or about $20 CDN. Needless to say the food is cheap... and good.

However, the cost of hotel rooms, clothing and other dry goods is comparable to Canada.

Earlier this week we visited a temple that is 2800 years old. The oldest European settlement in the US is Jamestown at a paltry 400 years old. French fishermen had been fishing cod off the coast of Canada since around 1500 or so, which is also nothing compared to the Chinese.

This is a people who invented cheques, paper money, bureaucracy, noodles, gunpowder, printing, and so on. Europeans like Marco Polo brought many of these inventions back to Europe.

We were nothing but knuckle-dragging savages when the Chinese already had a modern society. It wasn't ideal since it was a totalitarian empire but the Chinese are slowly moving towards democracy.

I'll post more later on.

Cheers !!

Yesterday we visited our newest daughter's orphanage. It is located 2 hours by car from the regional capital of Taiyuan.

I thought the driving customs in the city were fun (total disregard for lanes, constant honking, weaving, cutting other cars off, etc.) but it is definitely NOT fun when you are zipping along at 100 km/h plus and the drivers do the same thing they do in town at 30-40 km/h. In addition, the van had no seatbelts!!! I was glad when the 4 hour round trip was over.

The visit at the orphanage was worth it and the staff treated us to lunch to thank us for adopting our daughter. The staff ordered several local dishes, most of them involving chili peppers, and 4 huge bottles of the local beer. Good thing cause the chilis were HOT !!

Today we are leaving for Beijing where we will visit the usual spots (Great Wall of China, Forbidden City, etc.). If all goes well, we are back in Canada on May 24th.

Cheers !!