http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Henan en-us Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:37:40 BST Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:37:40 BST THERE IS SO MUCH I WOULD LIKE TO SAY BUT NOT ENOUGH TIME TO GET IT ALL ENTERED. HERE ARE SOME MORE PICTURES THOUGH. THERE ARE MANY PICTURES HERE. A FEW STILL FROM THE FORBIDDEN CITY THEN A VISIT WITH LOUISA AT THE BIG BOWL TRADITIONAL CHINESE NOODLE RESTAURANT OUR TRAIN RIDE ARRIVAL IN XINYANG CHURCH AND MORE. I STILL NEED TO EDIT THIS AND REMOVE SOME PICTURES THAT ARE A REPEAT BUT I AM http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-303084.html Pictures at our hotel and of our own private dining room http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-302114.html Here are some pictures of my wonderful Chinese students http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-302109.html We rushed home today after a busy morning of studies and teaching other games. I purchased a marjonng correct spelling provided by Vivian thank you Vivacious Vivian last night at Xia Market. So today Jack and others taught Megan how to play while I taught Leo Larry a nice young lady who just joined our class yesterday and Gilliam to play scrabble. Another grouped played cards. In the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-301862.html Sorry I know I spelled Tiemmenn Square wrong I will fix it later AND ADD MORE PICTURES. OFF TO LUNCH NOW http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-301632.html I have seen many more beggars on the streets than during past visits. I wonder if this is a bigger problem then it used to be or if it because I am traveling on a busier more commercial street than I have in years past Today I passed a woman twice sitting crosslegged on the ground holding her daughter who was maybe six. Both times I passed the young girl was asleep and looked flushed and ill http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-301431.html As the world changes so changes XinYang yet so much remains the same. Urban renewal is everywhere. So many buildings have been torn down and rightly so but so much remians the same and are the new buildings really any better Wednesday Ms. Ruan one of the teachers where we are teaching took us the back way to our hotel. She took us past a large shopping center. The moment Megan and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-301422.html MORE PICTURES FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE THIS SECTION INCLUDES STILL MORE EATING SEEMS WE DO THAT A LOT. TONIGHT WE WERE HONORING CSV AND THE SPECIAL PEOPLE IN CHINA THAT HAVE HELPED IT ALSO INCLUDES A MEAL FROM THE NEXT DAY BUT I HAVE NO IDEA WHICH MEAL http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-301364.html July 1765292 2008 We went shopping this evening. Again things change so many upscale and rather upscale stores. We did a lot of looking not much buying Tomorrow evening Mr. Wan is going to try to make an appointment for us at the blind man massage hospital. He told us when we ask about massages in China we should be sure we ask for a blind man massage. He said massage has a bad name in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-301010.html Photos from our travels July 8th and 9th 2008. I think that is right anyway. Somewhere along the line I lost a day and I am still trying to find it LOL http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-300810.html Hi there sweetieWhere there is a will there is a way. I can't seem to send any emails from Comcast tonight12290 This keyboard doesn't work shit and I can't get on gmail and it keeps reverting to Chinese12290 See 384632600721457 32553307012145731471I had to tell you I LOVE YOULOVELINDA http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-300532.html This has definitely been a long day with all the trials and tribulations. I could barely drag my butt out of bed this morning to start off with. Lunch would could have been bad ended up okay. The school we teach for has arranged for us to eat meals at our hotel. Like most good hotels in China they have a restaurant however we have determined they only serve lunch and dinner. We eat in our http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-300530.html I must apologize to everyone. I can not answer any emails tonight. I got to read them all guess that was lucky. Every time I go to reply to a message though it says the server is timed out. Such is my luck. I thought it might be the computer but this computer is the same. I will try to answer everyone tomorrow. So sad. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-300525.html There are so many things to tell and so little time Last night I was too tired to do much of anything. Tonight I have more time and am feeling better and I have a bad computer. Isn't that just lifeThis was a busy day and it has been a bit stressful the past few days. Megan and I came to China with a 30 day visa but are staying 31 days at least by our count. The other day Monday I thin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-300522.html It is nice to be settled in our new home and to begin our work. Megan and I have felt like traveling salesman so far Since departing Los Angeles at 1230am on the 6th of July we have not spent more than one night in the same place Tonight will be our second night in our new home While in Beijing we spent the night in a new hotel ROOM every night 3 nights. The we spent the night on the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-299624.html After seven weeks in China my VISA had all but expired so I head for a small city called Kaifeng a four hour busride from Luoyang in hopes of getting an extension.Unfortunately because of the Olympics 2008 is China's 'Special Year' and VISAs are hard to come by. In Kaifeng they could only give me a 10 day extension from that day not much point when I still had 13 days left on the current http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Kaifeng/blog-297378.html I took a seven hour train ride to Zhenzhou arriving late and then a three and a half hour busride to the town of Luoyang.The next day I was up early to get the public bus out to the Longmen grottoes. They obviously didn't get too many foreign tourists on the bus as pretty much everyone stared at me for the 50 minute journey...It was worth it though as the Longmen carvings were brought to us b http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Luoyang/blog-297377.html Time goes so fast Several monthes have past .I miss my younger sistersAddIsion Ellie Emmahere are some pictures of them.Hope they are happy in the other world. Gold bless them Love them http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Zhengzhou/blog-294235.html At the beginning of the 2008my singapore triped in henan and xi an. Here are some pictures of them. We began zhengzhou kaifengluoyangxianbeijingsingapore. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Luoyang/blog-293080.html We arrived by train on Tuesday afternoon then left by train on Wednesday night.I was too tired then to find anything out and Im too tired now to write anything. This is what happened in between..... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Luoyang/blog-289825.html After the experience of living in the Hong Kong Temple I returned to China for 30 days. There I came to two places very magical and mystical places. Here I want to share through some poems and photos my deep love and appreciation that I feel when in China especially when in such places as theseLongmen Dragon GatesThese Buddhist...caves more like a portion of a river valley that has http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Luoyang/blog-287862.html I have worked for adoption family for some timei was touched a lot.When i saw the children in the orphanage when i saw the family when i saw the happy facewhen i heard the laugh i can not image my feeling.I am a simple girl but i am easy to be touched. Andrew Dana they are very kind and nice person.They already adopted one childher name is niaomi.she is a sweet girli like her too http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Zhengzhou/blog-287654.html Guoliangcun was another one of those small towns that was incredibly difficult to find. We left Shaolin in the early hours and got on a local bus to Luoyang and then made our way to the long distance bus station in Dengfang. At first we struggled to find the long distance bus station because everyone kept pointing us in different directions. I got the feeling they didn't have a clue what we we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-282743.html In Henan we have four cities called ancient capital citiesthey are LuoyangZhengzhou.Kaifeng and Anyang.Luoyang is famous for the Longmen caves Guanlin templeWhite horse temple and so on. Zhengzhou is famous for the Shang dynasty3500 years agothe king of the Shang dynasty made the capital in Zhengzhou so that is why until now Zhengzhou has another name Shang city. Kaifeng is famous as http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Kaifeng/blog-282725.html MAY 29thi got one call from my teacher .She wanted me to go back to the college to teach english .Seriously i did not know how to teach i was a little upset. There were more than ten girls in the classwhen i saw them i was thinking about my past.It was a little hard but it was life . In 2005i was thinking to be a tour guide.But in my college. there is no history for the english to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Zhengzhou/blog-281719.html May 24thi went to railway station to pick julia.then we went to dengfeng by car.It took 2 hours from Zhengzhou to DengOn the way to Dengfengwe had enjoied the time .I talked about the history of Henan and Zhengzhou .Julia enjoied a lot.We had a nice time together.The next daywe went to tour the Shaolin Temple.All the people know that shaolin kung fu is so famous in the worldmaking the templ http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Zhengzhou/blog-281701.html Well we have just spent the day visiting the home of Kong Fu and I am most impressed. We arrived in Shaolin from Luoyang after visiting the Longmen Caves which is one of China's few surviving masterpieces of Buddhist rock carvings. While in Luoyang we spent the day checking out the entire face of a mountain which has been carved into a thousand images of Buddha. The detail in the carvings made http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/Luoyang/blog-280788.html So as you probably noticed it has been a pretty long time since Phil posted his last blog this is because the computer that he is using in China is not letting him sign onto the travelblog website. I chatted with him online this morning and his computer shut off 7 times in one hour. He has been writing his blog on his laptop but since his laptop wont connect to the internet in his room he can u http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-279350.html I'm BackSorry that it took me more than a month to get this entry out. Teaching your own language is tougher than it appears. Honestly when I started writing this entry it began after a week of classes... Right now it is week six of classes...so I am a little lazy. No actually it has been very busy for me. As time past I just slowly added more and more on. This entry has grown I ha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-261758.html it's time to say goodbye to china...The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of sleep deprivation long train rides sunflower seeds and music. The three fungal horses set off from Kunming in midMay after a couple of great gigs there and in Dali and headed up to Chengdu.Kunming... the city of eternal spring finally pulled out the stops and gave us some good weather just before we left. Kunming w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Henan/blog-259636.html