Trip to Mt. Tai in Tai'an

We recently took a one day trip to Tai'an by bus and hiked most of the way up Mt. Tai which was very beautiful.  It remined us of the Uintahs in a way and was a wonderful experience getting up high enough to enjoy the cooler air than what we are beginning to have again here in Jinan.  We waited in long lines for a cable car ride up the steepest part of the mountain and then again to descend via the same means.  There were lots and lots of people there that Saturday.

Susan is also enjoying tutoring two young children in English (lower left) with Lowell's assistance twice a week and enjoys the gifts her students bring her when they come for the near weekly English hour at our apartment.  Several of her married students brought her the bouquet of flowers just prior to Mother's Day.

We are soon to be home and will miss all of these people and this scenery.

Weifang and Shouguang

We recently took a two day trip to Weifang (City of Kites) and Shouguang (City of Vegetables) where we viewed some interesting things.  The Kite Festival was over the preceeding week so we missed the crowds there and didn't see any kite competitions, but did see a lot of intesting kites.  The vegetable exhibition was in full swing and we were in the midst of the crowds there (seemed like millions of people).  We enjoyed the sculptures made of vegetables and seeds (like the bulls and elephant above).  The cart and donkey were intesting only because of the front and back "catchers" for anything the horse might lose along the way.

Things We've Done Recently

We have been tutoring two children (top center) ages 4 and 5, had a lunch with some former students (lower left), had a birthday celebration,  judged an English speech contest (lower right) and climbed Thousand Buddha mountain recently.

River Cruise Down the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River)

We took advantage of the Qing Ming (Memorial Day) Holiday to fly to Chongqing, China and board a cruise ship (upper and lower right) to visit the Three Gorges Dam in Yichang.  We stopped in Fengdu (upper left) to visit a "Ghost City" (meaning the temple commemorating "hell" where the spirits of the deceased go (according to Buddhism) to be judged after death to determine where they will eventually end up in the next life. After visiting the dam, we traveled by bus to Wuhan, China where we boarded a flight to Qingdao for a bus ride back to Jinan.  We had a side trip on a motorized sampan (top and bottom center) piloted by a member (listen to him singing below) of one of the minority groups in China (we are posing in part of his get-up). The Three Gorges Dam (which has caused the water level in the reservoir it formed to rise 180 feet above the original river and displaced many villages and towns) has a series of 5 shiplocks which all boats and ships moving up or down the Yangtze River must pass through (a process which takes approximately four hours). These shiplocks are just a bit shorter than the Panama Canal.  The power generated from the turbines in the dam supply between 3 to 5 percent of all power used by the entire country of China. The Yangtze River is the third longest river in the world following the Nile and the Amazon. Fourth longest is the Mississippi.

Lion Dancers

Susan caught this Lion Dance in process as she was headed towards Thousand Buddha Mountain.

Firecrackers or Gunfire?

Year-Round Firecracker Weddings

Seldom does a week go by that we don't hear the explosion of firecrackers announcing that there is yet still another wedding inprocess.  The sound is such that one would think it were gunfire rather than just firecrackers.  We recently got an up-close view as someone living above us was obviously going to be married that day.  Some of the revelers brought two large rolls of firecrackers and unrolled them in the entry way to our building.  The photographer was ready (left) and after it was all over, someone (blue coat, right) went through to step on any that had not gone off (of which there were several).  The couple to be married, not yet dressed for the wedding, left in a car decorated with flower sprays to go to the official ceremony and the awaiting guests.  I tried to load a video of these two long rows of firecrackers going off, but I guess it was too lengthy.