Please visit our site, so that we will start appearing higher in the Google rankings.  And if you have a blog or keep a website, please help us by placing link to our site if you can!  Thanks to everyone who has purchased already, and thanks to everyone for helping spread the word.

Tian's fifth grade classroom.

Tian's 5th Grade Teacher: Wang Laoshi.

Most of the students there had most likely never met a foreigner, so they were very excited to meet us.  We first stopped in Tian’s fifth grade class room, and the students introduced themselves to us and asked Mike some questions to try out their English.  After the bell rang, the entire school descended into the courtyard and mobbed us.  One student asked us for our autograph, and soon the entire school was pushing pencils and paper toward us.  It got a little crazy, so we excused ourselves and waved goodbye at the gate.

The school has three three-level buildings like this one surrounding the courtyard.

The first few kids got autographs.

Then it got to be OOC.

Sorry, no more today. Thank you! Gotta go.

Zai Jian!

The students’ excitement to meet us made us consider how in the US, students and most adults don’t react with such excitement when they meet or see a foreigner.  Perhaps it is due to the exposure many of us already have to different cultures in the US, or perhaps it is because subconsciously we don’t feel as much of an incentive to reach out and expend energy.  What do you think?

Ma Jiang training.

The big leagues.

Tian's dad repeatedly humbled us at Chinese Chess.

One hot afternoon in Xiaogan, Mike and I walked around the neighborhood and came across these two ladies playing Chinese Chess.  We watched them for a game, and then they invited us to play.  They held nothing back and completely dominated us.  Mike came in third, and I lost.

School is in session for Chinese Checkers.

The bus trip was more adventurous than we expected.  We took back roads that bounced passengers up and down like popcorn in a kettle. At one small town, the bus stopped and took on a woman with a baby. To our surprise when the bus rounded the curve a car was blocking the road, forcing us to stop. A couple of people got on and started fighting with the woman with the baby, trying to get her off the bus. After a few minutes, more people came on the bus. The entire scene continued for another 20 minutes, until finally the police came and got everyone off the bus.  And of course, as always in China there was a bathroom story. But we’ll have to tell you that one in person.  Haha!

Once we arrived in Wuhan, we had to rush over to the train station and get a ticket.  At that late hour, there were only standing room tickets available, so we had to stand for the hour and a half train ride back to Xiaogan station.  We played cell phone games and talked to other passengers to pass the time.  We split a taxi with a newly made friend and celebrated being home with Tian and her family!  We could finally relax…or could we?

Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate.  We learned that June is the rainy season in Huangshan, which meant the breathtaking views were hidden behind clouds, and the weather was cold and damp.  Mike and I decided to brave the mountain anyway, just because that is what we came to do, and it was definitely a trial.

This is a nice-weather view from "Beginning To Believe" peak (picture not mine, obviously).

The view from the top with two Canadian travel companions we met that morning. Are we in the same place?

One of the rules on the mountain was not to pick the flowers. Mike laughed because these were a ways off the side.

The famous "Yellow Army" of rainy Huangshan.

Two new members of the Yellow Army.

In the morning, the weather was mostly just a light mist, and we thought there was a chance it might lift as the day went on.  But we were wrong.  The rain picked up as the day progressed, leaving us more and more wet and cold.  It also got very windy on some steep exposed parts of the mountain.

"100 Steps Ladder" was very steep and windy. It was quite a climb. The picture doesn't do it justice.

These signs were everywhere. After a few hours on top, we finally took their advice.

When we got to the cable car line, we were excited.  But we soon learned the weather was such that the cable car wasn’t running. That left hundreds of people waiting in line in hypothermia-like conditions with no where to go and no plan.  It was a miserable hour-long wait until they started the cable car again.  But people huddled together under umbrellas and tried to stay positive.  Two bus rides and a few hours later, we were relieved to get back to our hotel room and take hot showers.  Our clothes were wet for two days.

We definitely want to go back again to see views like these.

1. “Mei Banfa,” which means “No way out.”
2. “Chi Ku,” which means “Eat bitterness.”

For fun one day, in the middle of one of these situations, Mike and I started singing these to phrases in a Chinese version of The Lion King’s “Hakuna Matata” lyrics.  It became an anthem of sorts that helped us relieve pressure in tense situations.

On the train at about 10 p.m.

On the train at about 1 a.m.

One of those potentially tense situations was when our train from Nanjing to Huangshan was delayed indeterminately ”晚点未定“.  It ended up being five hours late (the first time I ever had a late train in China), which meant that we arrived in Huangshan station at 2:00 a.m. with no idea where to go and everything closed.  Taxi drivers, who marked us as foreigners, were being unreasonable about their prices, and after waving away three gougers, we found one who was ok with just using the normal meter.  He took us to a couple of closed hostels until we found one with a sleeping desk attendant and a vacancy.  The fun part is that even though it was a little stressful, we kept our cool and had fun throughout the experience, singing “Mei Banfa. Chi Ku.”

The hostel had just bought new bikes, and we were the first to rent them. I even helped them write the English translation for the rental terms.

On the road, Mike led the way.

This lake, with this view of the Nanjing skyline, was our major destination.

On the way back to the hostel, another biker cut Mike off, and Mike fell.  Fortunately the crash was at low speed, and Mike had no injuries.  He was pretty frustrated though.

Mike. Post-crash.

This was "Our Booth" because we got it everyday.

Mike took a risk one day and ordered for us, even though he was nervous.

As an aside, the Chinese KFC never used “Finger Licking Good” as its tagline.  The reason is that Chinese view licking fingers at meals to be a dirty habit.

A street level view of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum.

During most of the 1930′s, the Japanese had occupied Manchuria. In 1937, they invaded southern China as well.  The major target was Nanjing, which was at that time the capital city.  When the Japanese took over the city, they slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people and committed terrible war crimes including systematic rape.  It was truly a dark time of human history.

A series of statues artistically presented the suffering of the victims.

The museum did a nice job overall of telling the story and creating a setting that presented the history in a respectful and solemn way.  The design used dark gray and black colors, with rough or course materials that created a stark landscape inside the park. At the entrance was a series of striking statues depicting the victims’ fear and suffering.

The only real criticism we had of the exhibits was the extreme and always pro-Chinese slant of the descriptions.  At all moments, the Chinese were “heroic” and the Japanese “barbarians” or “devils.” While these characterizations were not altogether false, the museum could have done a better job of keeping the language more formal, while allowing visitors to draw their own moral conclusions from the facts presented.