Day 2 Sunday morning we woke up early. There were actual roosters crowing, and crowing, and crowing. We had a couple hours before breakfast, so we decided to go for a walk. The kids grabbed their binoculars (best purchase ever--yay me). We ran into the young girl, Hu Yan, whom we had met the day before and she came with us to find the waterfall. We followed the water and eventually came to a large waterfall. It was about a 15 minute walk mostly downhill and on our way we passed these guys that offer rides in chairs they carry on their shoulders working in teams of two men. We saw these guys on our other mountain adventure in Huangshan. We never considered hiring one then, but Emily was intrigued and the price was right, so ... read more

On Monday morning, I took the train with Mark to Suzhou. For the record, Suzhou is pronounced "sue-jo". He was going there for work, so we said goodbye at the train station and he went to his meeting and I got in line for a taxi. I had copied the pages from our travel book to avoid carrying the whole big book, and had a tiny map of the city and the highlights for tourists. I decided to go to the furthest spot and work my way back toward the train station. Another city that claims to being the Venice of the East, it also has a history of being a water town. I only had a few hours, so I did a couple of sights from the guidebooks. I picked a famous garden called Wangshi ... read more

Another national holiday. Really? We have been on the go a lot this year, and it's been wonderful to see and explore. This weekend, after some debate, we decided to stay in town and do day trips. It's just a 3 day weekend with Friday, May 1 being Labor Day here in China. As with all holidays, the trains are packed and often sold out and the flights are full and expensive, so we opted for a less expensive excursion. Friday I had been wanting to visit a water town--often called the Venice of China--since we arrived last summer. We missed the window between too hot and not hot enough and decided to try again in the spring. Spring has sprung, so off we went to Zhujiajiao. Joo-jah-jow is close to how it's pronounced. We all ... read more

I often wonder if I'm just about out of stories. Just when I think I am about to go into reruns, we have a new experience, see something blog-worthy, and so for now I'm still in business. If you want to follow my other blog I'm writing for City Weekend, you can check my profile on CW and see my latest stories. Last week I wrote about the previous weekend's activities and never did make a posting on this blog...so check it out if you are interested in knowing ALL we have been up to. My profile. I spent a lot of time last week at the kids' school. I was there Monday and Tuesday volunteering at the used book sale. English language kids books are like treasure in our house. I liked that the parents ... read more

Friday (3/27/09) Great Wall day! I had done some research and sought out advice and we agreed to go to Mutianyu -- a village with an entrance to the Great Wall--rather than a more popular but very crowded entrance. Mark had been to the other (Badaling) and said it was crowded, full of vendors all along the wall and just not as peaceful sounding as Mutianyu. Instead of buying a package tour, I just rented the car and hired a guide, and told the tour company we wanted to set our own agenda. The deal was I had a place I wanted to go for lunch that had been recommended to me. If you buy these packaged tours, you often end up on tours of factory outlets and you eat at pre-arranged restaurants. It worked out ... read more