January 21 - February 15 - 2010
-Trip to Hainan, Hong Kong, SW China, Viet Nam, Cambodia
January 21 (Thursday)
We flew out of the Qingdao Airport to Shanghai, where we stayed overnight in a Holiday Inn. Shanghai is an ancient sea faring port of colonial times, having been occupied by several different countries and religions from the 1600s to the recent past. We toured several prominent points, and had dinner in the downtown area.
Shanghai is home to the World Exposition this summer starting in May, so there is much activity related to it. There is a very tall TV/communication tower and some interesting colonial buildings, from the banking and trading days of the 1800s. We visited a Chinese area called the Yu Yuan Garden, being the heart of the old city.
Additional teachers joined us in Shanghai and informed us that they rarely/never see the sun, because it is continually smoggy of foggy. The city has a huge population (18,000,000 or more and is the centre of much manufacturing.
January 22, (Friday)
We continued visiting the city until early afternoon, including a ride to the top of the TV tower and a visit to an excellent museum at the foot of the tower. It portrayed life in the 1800s as it existed amongst the foreigners and the locals.
In the late afternoon we went to the airport, joined by more teachers for the flight to Hainan Island and specifically the City of Sanya on the southern coast. The flight was delayed so our arrival was after midnight at the hotel.
January 23, 2010 (Saturday)
We looked around the nearby area to the hotel, including the beach area being a short walk. The water was beautiful and warm, but crowded, with Chinese and a lot of Russians, it being a favourite resort for them. We took a long bus ride of two hours to an area known as the Monkey Island. We had lunch in the adjoining city, which was very crowded as a market area and then a short boat ride to the Monkey Island and the resort hotel. The hotel was situated on the beach and had very few guests. We could have stayed there the whole week and just relaxed and swam in the ocean (it was so restful).
We boarded small buses and went to the area where the monkeys were literally everywhere. They were small and very active. At one point there was a show put on with the monkeys and some “monkey men” providing the entertainment.
January 24, 2010 (Sunday)
Still at the Monkey Island resort, we had lunch and then left the island to return to Sanya where we stayed the next 3 nights. We traveled to “the End of The Earth” on Sanya Island, where there were some unusual rock formations along the beach and huge crowds. It was good to have a fixed hotel for three nights. We walked around and found many places catering to the Russians, including some places that had Russian only sign age on the places of business.
January 25, 2010 (Monday)
We became adventurous and took a local bus to another part of the island to an area called Yalong Bay. The beach was very different than the beach close to the hotel. It was hard packed and had many sand crabs. There were very few people, mostly people strolling for relaxation. There were many bicycle type carts trying to get you to be given a ride along the beach area as well as the major roads. We ended up walking back to the hotel, much to the surprise of the rest of the group. It was probably no more than 2 miles, maybe a little more. We found a McDonald’s along the way as well as many interesting shops and people.
For supper we found an interesting restaurant near the hotel that served western food. The shopping was not of particular interest to us.
January 26, 2010 (Tuesday)
The day was spent walking around and visiting the beach, again very crowded. I (Burton) actually went in the water and got all wet. Patricia managed to find some bugs that bit her legs. Sun tan lotion was scarce and pricey, but did the job. The hotel had a nice pool where we met a lady from Mongolia who teaches German in Mongolia. It seems the Germans have a lot of business interests there.
(Yalong Bay is a 7.5km beach located southeast of Sanya City, Hainan Province, China. It is also known as the Yalong Bay National Resort. The climate is warm and sunny all year around, and Sanya is known as China's Hawaii.) - Wikipedia
January 27, 2010 (Wednesday)
We boarded an early flight from Sanya (a very busy, but small airport) for Shenzhen in China, the nearest city to Hong Kong. Shenzhen is a city that grew from 1000 people 30 years ago to 13 million today. Everything is relatively new. The population is young, average age being 29. The city has beautiful roads and parks including a folk/culture village that we visited. One of the major attractions was a Mongolian horse demonstration, with the types of activities you might expect, from racing to battles. The evening night show was spectacular. Many cars are manufactured here.
January 28, 2010 (Thursday)
We traveled by bus from Shenzhen to Hong Kong. You might think that Hong Kong would be like China, but not so. You have to cross a border, getting off the bus on one side and re boarding on the other. Hong Kong was a British Colony until about 1997 but has retained many unique features. The place is filled with non Orientals, many non Chinese businesses and a sense of freedom that is totally different. Mainland Chinese have to pay a hefty fee for a 7 day pass to visit Hong Kong, so our tour guide went back to Qingdao for three days, as he did not need to be in Hong Kong. It is a fair drive from Shenzhen to the actual city of Hong Kong. We arrived at the YMCA, Salsbury House, which is really a hotel. We walked the areas around the hotel and the harbour getting briefly acquainted. The tailors were out in full force, looking for customers, most of them seemed to be East Indian. It is a busy area.
Below is a double decker bus we saw driving down the street.
January 29, 2010 (Friday)
This was visit the temple day. We were lead to the temple via subway and those who knew the way. The temple was prepared for our large group, but had to run two sessions to accommodate us. All went well and we walked a long way to catch a bus to get back. The afternoon was then for sightseeing. We took a ferry to the island (of Hong Kong) and then a bus that took us down very narrow streets and up narrow roads to the other side of the island and beautiful beach area. We came back on another bus, and somehow crossed the bay, (under it) without noticing and without the ferry, arriving safely at our hotel. BYU hosted a meal at Dan Ryan’s Steak and Seafood restaurant, where we had eaten by ourselves the night before. It was all good. We however, visited a tailor along the way and ordered 3 shirts and a suit each. (Actually, I think it may have been the day before, but in any event, the shirts and my suit was ready in about 18 hours (0vernite) and that included a fitting. Patricia ordered hers the next day and went for the fitting, but the tailor got sick and it was not finished in time to pick it up before we left. The tailor assured us that it would be delivered to us in China, as his expense in about two weeks.
January 30, 2010 (Saturday)
The annual meeting where the teachers report on successful teaching ideas was held in the Church office building (being a 12 story office tower housing a few wards, Area offices and other uses. It has to be a valuable piece of real estate. The Church has other buildings including the Temple and many ward and stake buildings. The meeting was very well done and we all presented our experiences and ideas. The afternoon was free time (I cannot remember what we did, maybe some laundry).
January 31, 2010 (Sunday)
Sunday morning we all got in Taxis and traveled to an older Church meeting building for the special District meeting. Both District Presidents were there and spoke. It was a good meeting. Many of the teachers were leaving for their home cities, whereas we were headed to South West China. We returned to the hotel and checked out promptly for our bus trip to Shenzhen, (China) for an evening flight to Guilin, China. We stayed at the Guilin Universal Hotel.
February 1, 2010 (Monday)
We boarded a bus after breakfast (all hotels serve breakfast) for a trip on a boat to Yangshou. The boat ride was on a shallow river, one of many boats making the same trip. It is warm and a little cloudy, but traveling through some very unique mountain and rock formations. There were unique villages and fisherman along the way. Lunch was served on the boat. After the boat ride was ended we were able to walk through a village area and see how some people live. There are fisherman who use a bird known as a Cormorant, that are trained to fish for them. The birds are on a rope tether, so they do not fly away.
We stayed at the Yangshou Hotel, right in the middle of the small city of Yanshou. There was a great market place and a McDonalds, Great bargains were to be had everywhere. In the evening, we went on a boat (after dark) on the river to watch the fisherman catch fish using lights and the Cormorant birds.
Well that is about it - (from Stacey) - I will post more of their trip soon. (Viet Nam and Cambodia)
No comments:
Post a Comment