Rose Family Adventures: December 17, 2017

We've been helping coach four contestants for a regional English speech competition. This week began with us attending it. 40 participants from universities around the city were allowed in the event; it's the 23rd annual competition and leads to a national competition next spring. During the morning, each student gave an impromptu speech from a topic selected by the judges. The top 14 made it to the afternoon event, where they gave 3-minute prepared speeches and answered two questions from the judges. One of our Tongji students made it into the final 4 and will go to the national event!!

Our four contestants, along with two teachers from the department.

The school where the event was held used to be the residence and gardens of the mayor of Shanghai, where he reportedly played chess with Chiang Kai-shek.

At the garden chess board, which is very hard to see, even in person,
as the chess board carved into the top of this concrete table.

Kathy and Kristina got our apartment decorated for Christmas! 15 years of China teachers means an abundance of things left behind from other teachers, so we had plenty of trimmings for the tree John bought from Walmart. After he bought it, we found two smaller trees hidden in the closet as well. So we had three trees.

While Kristina was here, the Roses and Ansteads made a quick trip to Hangzhou, about an hour (fast!) train ride from Shanghai. Kristina's roommate from Duke lives there. This lovely historic city, built around West Lake, hosts a show each night on the lake - music, lights, and dancing (in the water!), designed by the man who did the opening show for the Beijing Olympics. It was cold, but a wonderful show!

Another high-speed train ride. About the same speed (308/KPH)
as the magnetic one, but this was isn't magnetic - still a smooth ride.

A great tree in the Hangzhou Wyndham Hotel

Decorated entirely with Santas in various dress. Our brother-in-law,
Dan Reeder, would have loved it. He was a "helper Santa" for many,
many years and brought joy to so many children at this time of year!

The customer service at the Wyndham was the best we've experienced anywhere, hands down! There was an intern from Italy on duty the night we arrived. She greeted us, gave us directions to the lake show, greeted us again on our return, talked to us about the area, took photos of our group, made sure our stay was good, and let us know Leonardo would be on duty in the morning to assist us.

And he was. And just as helpful. Leonardo arranged for late checkout, a car to take us to the places we wanted to visit, then on a tour of the hotel, including the roof (where they have a garden and grow some of the foods used in the restaurant) to see the view of the city from there.

Dancing in the water in December. Glad we don't have THAT job!

And amazing effects, including a giant fan rising from the lake!

Including a floating grand piano!

The next day, we went to a park with hundreds of Buddhist grotto carvings, a Buddhist temple, and a pagoda before heading back to the train station to go home.

We found beautiful leaf colors and contrasts.

John's favorite - a fat, happy Buddha

Kristina found a vine seat.

And we climbed 5 floors of a pagoda (using the inside stairway).

Back in Shanghai, we went to a beautiful garden called Yuyuan.

Around the garden is a market area where there's a very popular dumpling filled with crab soup. You drink it using a straw and then eat the dumpling.

The line to buy dumplings - on a weekday -
Saturdays are much worse!

Note the picture with a straw in
the top of the dumpling.

Later, we wend to dinner. Sometimes it amazes us how small Shanghai seems. Next to us at dinner was a father and his two sons on vacation from Idaho - wearing "Fredette" jerseys in support of the famous player from BYU. They were on their way to see him at a Shanghai Sharks basketball game. The next day we ran into the same people in a mall in a different part of Shanghai!

The three of us with the Shanghai Tower
in the background. A few years ago, it was
the tallest building in the world, but has
been outdone in the last few years.

We ate dessert that night in a restaurant on the 91st floor of the
Jinmao building -- looking over buildings that are 1500 feet tall!

We also went to the Shanghai Circus:

Five people balancing on a moving bicycle.

Balancing a pot on his head

And more balancing!

In the meantime, we asked Kristina to be a guest lecturer in our Business English classes. She gave a presentation about virtual team structures and communication and answered questions about everything from her company's pregnancy leave policy to how to choose what kind of company to work for.

Tired, yet? Next we went to Beijing for the weekend on another bullet train, this time reaching 347/kph (215/mph). 750 smooth miles with only a couple of stops in 4.5 hours. We stayed in a "courtyard hotel"-not to be confused with a Marriott Courtyard-where the rooms are built around little courtyards in a style known as siheyuan.

It was a quaint little place. The room included a canopy bed and a more traditional bench/bed, with a western style restroom. The breakfast had a nice mix of foods like toast, cereal, scrambled eggs with shrimp or spinach, stir-fried vegetables, porridge, and drinkable yogurt (the yogurts in this country are great).

The canopy bed.

The traditional bench bed. Our
room also came supplied with
pajamas.

The motel was right outside the Forbidden City (officially known as the Palace Museum) in a section of Beijing with "hutongs" or alleys. Our place was about 1/4 mile down a dark, narrow alley - a place one would never go in a large US city but felt safe in Beijing.

This is the front of our motel.

Down our narrow alley. Very dark at night.

We loved our stay and highly recommend the place, which was recommended to us by a former BYU China teacher. You just need to go prepared for the experience of the location.

While in Beijing, we visited the LDS Church ex-pat branch there - where the meeting was a beautiful Christmas theme with a wonderful choir. We also visited The Great Wall, the Palace Museum, the Ming Tombs, the Temple of Heaven, the Pearl Market, and the Great Pandas at the Beijing Zoo.