Longyuan Holiday Town Heyuan

Today another shopping day downtown.

First stop, and eye doctor for Amy's father. There the girls working there loved qiqi, one even gave qiqi a birthday present, an embroidery that she made herself.

Later some more shopping and then after dinner, qiqi visits a traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy and doctor.

... who confirms the right track and that my ticket is correct. Train is very nice, high speed, and airconditioned. In Shenzhen ....I'm surprised how easy it is to spot Adrian and my new 2nd cousin Ian (5mnth old). We grab a cab and head out to the beachy - resort suburb up the coast where Adrian's wife , Cat, works for a large Chinese real estate company ...

Since we've been so busy with many things, we thought we needed to give qiqi a break and enjoy something special. She seems to like animals, so we went to the zoo to give her a first look at real animals.

She seemed to enjoy it, though it was all a bit overwhelming for her.

Today Qiqi went to visit a beach resort, actually a future beach resort since this place is not finished yet. Most of the condos have already been sold out, even though the place is not finished yet.

It was only about 80km from downtown shenzhen but it took about 3 hrs to get there by bus! The road system is not yet built up in this area, so travel take a much longer time than we are used to in the US.

... normal for this trip.

But before we left to come back, I noticed one of the tires was flat! So we had to find a local tire repair shop (see photos) and then begin our journey back.

The trip back took about 4hrs! due to the traffic and two accidents that we had to pass along the way.

But we arrived back safely, and have decided to return the rental car! it is still much easier to take taxi and public transportation than to try to drive on our own.

... then, back in HeYuan, we then discovered the actual beauty of the city which claims to have the highest water fountain in Asia (yeah, true). At around 8pm, indeed, a nice spectacle started at the riverside with a fountain inside, having a nice choreography to some music. At the fountain indeed was a high one. Apart from that, the riverside was nicely enlightened, and at the main square and park, people did entertain themselves ...

... to one night on instead of two. Oh well, better than none. Bought some cool souvenirs running out of room. We did cooking class last night, and then got to eat the three meals we cooked; just like a chinese restaurant. They gave us the recipes so we can replicate them at home. Spectacular scenary, lots of limestone mountains and everybody ride push bikes on the wrong side of the road and beeps their horns the whole way. Love to all!

Well it has been a while since I have had the chance to update my travelpod everywhere we went lately the computors have been busy so I have let K use the computor because he is a lot faster. We crossed into mainland china yesterday and spent the night on a train called a hard sleeper [we will also be travelling on the soft sleeper later on the trip and the difference being hard is ...

... and I was a little disappointed, I must say - the two of them were in two seperate enclosures and they were asleep - I mean seriously, didn't anyone tell them I was in town. To finish our day, we meet up with a very wicked witch, trying to get us in the mood for Halloween.She succeed to put Ken in the mood anyway!! Sa************ed out for the birthday meal followed by loads of drinks.

... bigger, more powerful bully, but always gets the best of him through his superior intellect. I can't help but think that Jerry is a popular name for Chinese men due to some subconscious view toward us big, brutish, cultureless westerners (Americans in particular.) I have never met a Chinese man named Tom. I've also met a surprising number of Chinese women named "Vivien." I guess until fairly recently it was difficult to get access to newer Hollywood movies in China. Evidently ...