What a busy day! All day long…from 8AM to 8PM….traveling and visiting different sights. It was so hot today.
We stared with a boat ride around West Lake. (Henry said there are a lot of West lakes in China. That is interesting to me because during the Cultural Revolution in the ‘60’s the west of anything was very evil here. Now there are lots of lakes with that name.) The lake is only 9 miles around and is only about 5’deep. It is a natural fed lake and fish do very well in it. It was just funny to me, because in Alaska, we have so many lakes that are spectacular. But they are very proud of this lake and have done a lot to make it a huge tourist place. I told Henry he needed to come to Alaska to see our lakes.
Then we went to a tea plantation called Dragon Well Green Tea Plantation. It was actually very interesting. They produce green tea and we learned all about the benefits of tea and why and how we should drink it every day. It is even mixed with some flowers to cure diabetes. She talked about how you use green tea for facials, to clean your stomach, it is a natural fluoride, and how it absorbs oil if you put it in your meat to cook. Mike may wonder when he gets the credit card bill for $90 at the tea plantation. JonMarie wanted to buy some and for some reason her credit card would not go through, so I used mine. She paid me later in American money.
We went to lunch…surprise! Chinese food!
After lunch we went to the Leifeng pagoda. It was interesting. There was this bid hill where there were carvings dating back 1600 years. There are 338 Budhas carved in the mountain side. The best part was a Chinese young man heard us talking and stopped to talk. He answered several questions about Buddhism and we started a conversation about politics. He was so kind. He took our emails and wants to email us when he gets home to Beijing. He seemed very intelligent. I asked if I could ask any question about his government and if he could answer his opinion without getting into trouble. He said he could and wanted to know my question. I really did not have one. I just wanted to know about his freedoms. I did not feel comfortable going into detail with him because I did not want to get him in trouble. I do hope he writes. He was very pleasant.
Last we went to this place called Square Bamboo Corner. It really does grow square. It was so weird to touch it. We heard some very talented musicians play in the Yellow Dragon Garden and heard and Opera singer singing. Henry told us an interesting story about the name of this place. He said that there was a little dragon who wanted to grow up to become an adult dragon, but he made some mistake. So he was kicked to this small village. He was put in charge of fire control. A big fire started and he was killed trying to put it out. When he died, only his head was sticking out of the cave. Thus the name, Yellow Dragon Cave. Afterward we went to dinner. I did not think I was hungry, but ate anyway. Every meal is a special occasion here. I feel bad we waste so much food.
We were suppose to get to go shopping again, but did not have time. I have really not spent much money
Interesting facts: Because of the Beijing Olympics they are trying to clean up the air so they are doing several things.
1. They have closed down several factories that produce pollution.
2. Drivers, from now until the Olympics are over, only can drive every other day. According to their license plate number the police can tell who is supposed to be on the road. They are being very strict about it.
It is very funny because when I was here two years ago, the air was so bad and they said it would be cleaned up for the Olympics.
3. Girls cannot inherit land…just boys
4. For so many years families have prefered boys to girls in China. Henry was telling us today that it is now the girls because they are so much cheaper than boys. HUM…
We stared with a boat ride around West Lake. (Henry said there are a lot of West lakes in China. That is interesting to me because during the Cultural Revolution in the ‘60’s the west of anything was very evil here. Now there are lots of lakes with that name.) The lake is only 9 miles around and is only about 5’deep. It is a natural fed lake and fish do very well in it. It was just funny to me, because in Alaska, we have so many lakes that are spectacular. But they are very proud of this lake and have done a lot to make it a huge tourist place. I told Henry he needed to come to Alaska to see our lakes.
Then we went to a tea plantation called Dragon Well Green Tea Plantation. It was actually very interesting. They produce green tea and we learned all about the benefits of tea and why and how we should drink it every day. It is even mixed with some flowers to cure diabetes. She talked about how you use green tea for facials, to clean your stomach, it is a natural fluoride, and how it absorbs oil if you put it in your meat to cook. Mike may wonder when he gets the credit card bill for $90 at the tea plantation. JonMarie wanted to buy some and for some reason her credit card would not go through, so I used mine. She paid me later in American money.We went to lunch…surprise! Chinese food!
After lunch we went to the Leifeng pagoda. It was interesting. There was this bid hill where there were carvings dating back 1600 years. There are 338 Budhas carved in the mountain side. The best part was a Chinese young man heard us talking and stopped to talk. He answered several questions about Buddhism and we started a conversation about politics. He was so kind. He took our emails and wants to email us when he gets home to Beijing. He seemed very intelligent. I asked if I could ask any question about his government and if he could answer his opinion without getting into trouble. He said he could and wanted to know my question. I really did not have one. I just wanted to know about his freedoms. I did not feel comfortable going into detail with him because I did not want to get him in trouble. I do hope he writes. He was very pleasant.
Last we went to this place called Square Bamboo Corner. It really does grow square. It was so weird to touch it. We heard some very talented musicians play in the Yellow Dragon Garden and heard and Opera singer singing. Henry told us an interesting story about the name of this place. He said that there was a little dragon who wanted to grow up to become an adult dragon, but he made some mistake. So he was kicked to this small village. He was put in charge of fire control. A big fire started and he was killed trying to put it out. When he died, only his head was sticking out of the cave. Thus the name, Yellow Dragon Cave. Afterward we went to dinner. I did not think I was hungry, but ate anyway. Every meal is a special occasion here. I feel bad we waste so much food.We were suppose to get to go shopping again, but did not have time. I have really not spent much money
Interesting facts: Because of the Beijing Olympics they are trying to clean up the air so they are doing several things.
1. They have closed down several factories that produce pollution.
2. Drivers, from now until the Olympics are over, only can drive every other day. According to their license plate number the police can tell who is supposed to be on the road. They are being very strict about it.
It is very funny because when I was here two years ago, the air was so bad and they said it would be cleaned up for the Olympics.
3. Girls cannot inherit land…just boys
4. For so many years families have prefered boys to girls in China. Henry was telling us today that it is now the girls because they are so much cheaper than boys. HUM…
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