Thanks to all of you who sent me birthday wishes - early, late or on time! It does get confusing sometimes trying to remember the time difference! My actual birthday was a pretty plain day - Sammy took Leah and I to the grocery store, but Jim had a customer in from Germany, so he didn't come home for lunch or dinner! We saw him for about half an hour before he left to go out to dinner. After returning from dinner, he had a conference call to the US, so Leah and I watched a Scooby-Doo movie we had bought [View Full Entry]

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Xiaotang is what everyone calls a “ small” town and is just a 5-10 minute walk from where we are living. This is where the other people who live here do their shopping. King Kong, who works with Jim, and his girlfriend, Miracle, walked to Xiaotang (pronounced show -like in cow - tahng) with us one night. Once we left the Ace gates, we heard music and saw a group of people across the street. They were standing in the driveway of a Honda dealer and we were told that these were the employees of that company and they were doing [View Full Entry]

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June 1st is International Children's Day. Although the info I found online says that it is recognized in the USA, I have never heard of any type of celebration where I've lived - has anyone else? The people here were surprised to hear that we didn't really celebrate Children's Day in the USA, they thought it was a big, worldwide celebration! It seems to be a very big day here in China. Leah and I were invited to join in the celebration at a local elementary school in Nanqiao. I don't know the name of the school where we were, but [View Full Entry]

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After visiting the aquarium, we walked next door to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. This is an unusual looking building, actually older than many now standing as it was built in 1994. There is a history museum in the basement, a restaurant part way up and an observation floor at the top, but we decided to continue on to the other towers with observation floors. We ended up walking through more construction walls to get there, one area had some food vendors and a man playing an old Chinese instrument. The two tallest towers in Shanghai are right next to each [View Full Entry]

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After reading about the attractions in Shanghai, I asked Leah what she wanted to do most and she chose the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium, so that's where we headed to first on Friday. It was the nicest aquarium I've ever been to, but the one in Kentucky, just across from Cinncinnati is close to it. There were many unusual creatures that I won't be able to name in the pictures, but there were also many familiar exhibits. The exhibits were set up in sections according to world zones: China, South America, Australia, Africa, Southeast Asia, Cold water, Polar, Sea & Shore and [View Full Entry]

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We spent May 28, 29 and 30th in Shanghai. We chose to stay at the Ramada Plaza Hotel from reviews in a guidebook and online and were very pleased with the choice. It is not actually part of the US Ramada chain any longer and is actually much nicer than US Ramadas. It was located right on Nanjing Road, which is the big "walking street" or pedestrian mall of Shanghai. We were one block from Renmin or People's Square and Park and about a mile from the Bund. The first day there, we just kind of wandered, we had planned to [View Full Entry]

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Thursday, May 28, 2009 was Dragon Boat Festival, or Duan Wu Jie, one of thre three biggest holidays celebrated in China. It falls on the 5th day of the 5th month on the lunar calendar and is therefore also sometimes called the Double Fifth Festival. This festival is actually celebrated to mourn for a man who died more than 2000 years ago (278BC)! He was Qu Yuan, a poet, writer, a patriotic officer who challenged corruption, and was very popular with the common people. When the Dynasty he served was defeated, he committed suicide by drowning himself in the river. Supposedly, [View Full Entry]

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Today Leah and I went to a local park called Guhua Park (pronounced Goo-ha). A wonderful lady named Sammy, who works at Ace, accompanied us and gave us a tour. I did not try to keep straight the names of the different buildings and bridges, just enjoyed it. So, here are some pictures for you to enjoy also. Many people were talking to Sammy and I had no clue what about until finally after awhile she said "Leah, I think I should have made a sign to hang around your neck that says " I am 9 years old and am [View Full Entry]

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We decided to spend the day in town Sunday. We took a taxi into Nanqiao, which cost 14 RMB, which is a little over $2 USD. We left about 9:15 and got dropped off at the Sentosa Hotel where we had their breakfast buffet. After breakfast, we walked to a little park not too far away. We've seen various things going on there as we've driven past, but there wasn't anything going on when we were there. We did get to take some pictures with the 2010 Expo Mascot. He is supposed to represent a Chinese character and he's all over [View Full Entry]

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At first glance, the large grocery stores look much like those in the USA, but, upon closer inspection - there are definitely differences! Leah has enjoyed taking pictures while we're shopping, so I'm just going to post some. We definitely attract attention when we are shopping, especially Leah. Picture a guy walking through the mall with 6 inch spiked green hair and a multitude of piercings and tattoos - you know the kind of attention he attracts? Well, that's about the amount we get just walking through the store! Only it's surprise and curiosity, and the women often tell Leah how [View Full Entry]

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