Shui Xin Hotel Wenzhou

... meals, did our laundry and navigated us through the hospital maze. My mom and I got $2 “hair washes” which included 50 minutes of scalp, neck, shoulder and arms/hands massage as well as a quick blowdry. Paul got a haircut, which included everything in the “hair wash” and a cut and blowdry for $5. We ended up really liking my grandparents’ hometown for our short visit, and it felt like home to us too.

China has had the one child policy in force since 1980. So people have not seen families with more than one child in almost 30 years. Now that all those only children are old enough to procreate, the latest policy is, that if both husband and wife are only children, they're allowed to have 2 children, to represent each side of the family. There have been so many comments, stares, surprised ...

A family visit would not be complete without a visit to our ancestors' graves. We visited 4 gravesites on the hillside above my great grandfather's house. Here’s a picture of my great grandfather’s tomb. To scare the "evil spirits" away, my mom’s cousin set off fireworks at each gravesite. That was quite a thrill for the kids.

Paul bought a few Roman candles, small firecrackers and little cone shaped ...

... the view out the front door of the remodeled section of the house. Back then, this huge paved road was their garden and they had a view over the river.

My mom has such nice memories of this place. It is really neat to be here, to meet relatives we wouldn't otherwise get to meet, and hearing family stories. It is a real highlight of the trip for me.

We took the train from Hangzhou to Qingtian today. Here's the train station waiting room. The train ride was 7 hours. There were students in the aisles standing room only who paid a ½ fare (for students). We thought that was a pretty long time to stand the whole way. Good thing we booked ahead! They were going home for the long holiday: the 60th Anniversary of Communism (Oct 1) and the Moon Festival ...

... my students. I got grade 8's and the majority of them are incredibly rambunctious, messy, and loud. Every time I come into my classroom after lunch, the room is in shambles. I can't lock my door so it's invaded when I'm not there. They write all over what I have written on the board if they haven't erased it. Someone evidently tried to set fire to my blackboard seeing as there were two lit matches on the tray and two nice dark black burn ...

Situated right next to what has to be the smelliest strip of water of all time is a beautiful little piece of land called Jiangxinyu. It`s a little island that has 500 year old temples ... and an amusement park ...

We saw a Buddhist ceremony and a roller coaster. Tim won me a little prize at the baseball booth. At first I grabbed a little ...

... a prison. We were taken up five flights of stairs with our heavy luggage and when we got to the top we were shown our rooms. The first shock was that the rooms were dorm-styled and not apartments like we were told. The second shock was there were GIANT cockroaches in the fridge in one of the rooms, and on the walls as well. We were left alone by the people who had brought us there – they basically said "OK ...

... 67II Hair Straightener; BMA-49 Hair Straightener; BMA-47 Hair Straightener; BMA-46 Hair Straightener ...

... CDPZ65 JXF PZ50 electric bell fuse RL6 RT16 RT16 insulator isolating switch CD-72 CD-96 D86 DD607 DD862 DDS607 DDS2222 DDSY607 DTS607 SX42 SX48 SX96 power supply SJW SVC TDGC2 TND ...