Finally, the bi-annual website update! We've just returned back to Dalian and back to work and school. Cosmo is now in grade 2 and Hanna in grade 4! Sara and Adrian are already busy at work.
Summer was wonderful at our cabin, visiting with friends and family. It was especially good to see grandma Wolfe who returned from two years in the Gambia.
This year we spent our winter holiday in the Philippines, spending much of our time with friends Bill, Susan, Ava, Nadia, and Mischa Colorado.
Click the links below to see video action from this fall:
Hanna's birthday:
Cossie's Skating party:
Hanna and Cosmo skiing for the first time:
Hanna's performance at school:
We are back in China and all is well. The kids are both at Maple Leaf Elementary school in Kaifaqu and Sara is working full time and really enjoying it. We had our second summer at the cabin, and it was wonderful.
Our trip to Beijing and Shanhaiguan, where the Great Wall meets the sea.
Photos from our last winter holiday.
The National Day holiday, called “golden week” in China, began October 1st. We took the opportunity to go on our first real road trip in our own car, “the Hulk”. We had many adventures on this trip which saw us cover 1000 km and nearly half of our province, Liaoning.
We began on Friday by picking up Hanna and Cosmo from school at noon and driving to Dandong, China’s frontier town on the North Korean border. We have been there twice before. It is a pleasant little town on the Yalu River. The main attractions are the museum of US Agression (we gave it a miss-it’s actually a Korean War museum) and a half-bridge that the Americans blew up during the war. The Chinese and Koreans decided neither to rebuild it nor tear it down. Luckily for the Chinese the half that still exists lies on their side and for RMB 20 you can stroll right to the end that was blown off. The Chinese run boat trips on the river where you race over to the North Korean side and at the last minute turn, cruising parallel to the shore about 4 metres from the North Korean sailors, soldiers and fisherman. The last two times we went the Koreans ignored us, as we do when the Chinese stare at us like we are monkeys in a zoo. This time however we got some real emotion. One group of soldiers gave us a huge smile and a friendly wave while a few minutes later our boat captain was sworn at and received the evil eye from a fisherman who didn’t appreciate Chinese tourism interfering with his fishing line-can’t say I blame him.
Just as we were setting off for a day of fun on Saturday morning a horrible thing happened. We were on a one-way street stopped at an intersection with another one-way street. I was watching the heavy traffic that we had to merge into as I began to pull out. Before we had moved more than 2 or 3 feet we collided with a cyclist, who went over the hood, before falling onto the road. Luckily, this middle aged man was OK, probably just bruised. I felt sick. After picking him up, and then reversing the car off his bike, I offered to take him to hospital. At this point I realized that negotiations were now beginning. He wouldn’t answer if he was ok or not but kept mentioning his bike that was ruined. Of course I felt terrible for hitting him; I should have looked both ways before pulling out. On the other hand this guy was riding his bike the wrong way down a one-way street. I pointed this fact out to him. By this time a crowd had formed and to my surprise, a group of women began telling the man to settle quickly, to accept rmb 300 ($45Can) in compensation for his bike. I was hoping to settle things as quickly as possible to avoid the police showing up which would have meant spending the whole morning discussing what had happened. In Canada, I’m sure he would have been totally to blame for going the wrong way down the road, but I didn’t want to argue all day and I truly felt responsible for the accident too. I handed him 300 rmb for his bike and the crowd approved, although the cyclist clearly was hoping for more. In the end, I gave him an additional 100 rmb in case he decided to go to hospital later (he seemed fine at the time, but perhaps he was still in shock) but mostly to make myself feel better. Before driving off, I picked up his bike and noticed that the only damage was to the rear wheel. I had assumed during the “negotiations” that the bike was a write off! Oh well, with my heart still pounding, I was happy that everyone was alive. Hanna and Cosmo watched the whole thing happen from inside the car. Apparently Cosmo was concerned that Daddy was headed for jail! We knew when we bought the car that sooner or later an accident would happen. Let’s hope that’s it (Everyone knock on wood, please!). With that done, we headed off for our planned adventure.
The real reason we decided to visit Dandong again was to visit the Great Wall of China. Only a week earlier, I had come across a website that mentioned this little known section of The Wall. Apparently in 1992 a small section of the Wall was rediscovered here. All the Chinese history and geography textbooks state that the Wall ends at Shanhaiguan, just east of Beijing, where it plunges into the ocean. Upon further research, it was indeed found that Ming dynasty records tell of a section of the Wall being built right up to the Yalu river. I am not sure if this was to keep Koreans out or keep them safe. Anyway, the Wall has been rebuilt for the sake of tourism as it has in the more well known places in Hebei province, north of Beijing. The nice thing here is that very few people know about it and it was largely deserted-there were very few Chinese and not a single foreigner on the Wall, other than ourselves of course. On National Day, the other Great Wall sites would have been horribly packed places with tour guides screaming in their megaphones. We had a nice peaceful day. A truly intriguing aspect of the visit was the fact that the wall really did border North Korea, and that this border appeared not to be guarded (just two weeks ago a group of N. Koreans smashed their way into the S. Korean international school in our town where several friends teach English). From what we could see, the agriculture on the Korean side was just as fruitful as on the Chinese side, everything looked lush-corn and rice fields stretched across the flood plain.
Hanna and Cosmo were so excited to be on the Wall. We haven’t been since Hanna was 5 months old. They are, of course, familiar with the Wall, especially since Mu Lan is one of their favourite movies. Cossie raced up and down the Wall pretending to be invading China!
After snacking on some barbequed silk worms (Adrian only) we drove up to Benxi to visit the water caves. The caves are full of wonderful stalactites and stalagmites. Electric powered boats zoom visitors through the caves, which are lit up with coloured lights. We all really enjoyed this. Outside the caves, we went river rafting (although not exactly white water rafting), a relaxing affair. Shortly after our rafting we went to check out a crocodile show. Much to our surprise, three Ladyboys (Thailand-style transvestites) appeared, grabbing Cossie and trying to get us to pay them to have photos taken with them. We had to say no, sorry to say. You just never know what you’ll see in China!
We then drove on to Shenyang, the provincial capital, where we stayed the night. We drove back to Dalian the next day, stopping in nearby Jinzhou for a swim at the waterslides. At the waterslides Sara and I witnessed a middle-aged man masturbating himself with a spray of water in the kiddie pool. Ah, life is strange.
Life at our cabin on Deka creek was busy and fun this past summer. We worked hard, played hard, and saw many friends and family members. Can't wait til next summer.
Maple Leaf International School reunion was held July 11th. Typical Vancouver weather scared us off the beach so we gathered at Grandma Jackie's. There was a great turnout and it was wonderful to see everyone. Hope to see you all again next July.
Photos from the last holiday.
