June 1st, Taipei, Taiwan

{Today was our last day in Taiwan. We visited the National palace Museum, which houses some of China’s finest treasures. When the communists took over, there were many items that we’re taken by the republican army to China for protection. There were many beautiful things at the museum, nothing that I have photographs of, but some of the carvings were so tiny and remarkable. I found a couple of pictures on the website that I've put up here. You should check out their website if you want to see more.

The next day we left for home. And that concludes my trip! I hope you enjoyed this blog!}

May 31st, Taipei, Taiwan

{Today we visited the Li Tien-lu hand puppet museum. I got my first look at the Pacific Ocean on the way. (yes, strange as it is, I saw the pacific from the Asian side before the American side). The hand puppet museum was interesting, and Jenny's dad was helpful translating. We met a student there who was practicing in the theater. He allowed us to watch him practice and then he let me try the puppet. Li Tien-lu is a famous hand puppeteer from Taiwan. Chinese hand puppetry was all but extinct when the Communists took over, but along with most of the China's national treasure and the reublican army, Chinese hand puppetry found refuge in Taiwan. Chinese hand puppeteers (or Taiwanese as the case may be) are among the finest and technically precise in the world. They accent motions with stomps of the foot. Set pieces are often more symbolic than actual, with different colors of fabric representing the emotions of the characters.

Guan Yu, one of the generals in the Shu Kingdom is whorshipped in a lot of China, and also in Taiwan. There are temples built to whorship him for his loyalty to Liu Bei. His face is characterized by being red and having a long beard. Characters in the Beijing Opera and in Chinese hand puppetry are often identified through color symbolism. Red faces are the absolute best good guys. White faces are the villians.

We also saw a Taiwanese funeral on our way to the museum. The cars in the procession were covered in yellow flowers (yellow is a mourning color).}

May 30th, Guiyang, Guizhou, China

Pee-shjoo -- an animal with no bowels who holds money (figuratively speaking). A good pee-shjoo needs to appear ferocious {to keep people who would steal your money away} and have a big belly {to hold a lot of money}. If your rub its eyes, then ears, shoulders/chest, then butt, you're supposed to pocket the money. {The picture in the previous entry of the large green sculpture is a large pee-shjoo}.

{Today was our last day in China. The night before...} Mr. Lu gave me a very nice toast which translated went something like "to our American friend from across the sea, it has been our pleasure. When a friend comes from so far away we are very fortunate to have met her.

Last night I went around to each table and said "Daja how, shie shie" which means "to everyone, thank you". {It was very nerve wracking, but everyone had been so kind to me on the trip and I really wanted to express my thanks. I went to each table, said the phrase, and then the man who sat behind me on the bus (who was also following me from table to table) would yell gambe (drink it all!). By the end, I was still sober, and he was slurring his speech. Thank goodness for Portuguese constitutions!

We went to Qianling Park, and visited the Hongfu Temple, a buddhist temple built in the 1600's. The temple was surrounded by monkeys, which I got to feed. Feeding the monkeys was amazing because they are more human-like in person than they appear on TV. I gave one a strawberry fruit leather which he really enjoyed. I only had the one, and when i tried to give him something else, he knocked picked it up, smelled it, through it, and knocked the rest out of my hand. Another monkey saw that one of the women in the tour group had a banana in her purse. She had taken out a peach and was feeding one monkey. The other monkey opened her purse, took out the banana and ran up the tree.






We then headed back to Shenzen by plane, Hong Kong by bus then ferry, and Taipei by plane.

Here are pictures of me with the Chinese Tour guide, the dragon/phoenix man (I don't know his name), and Mr. Lu.

May 29th, Last full day in Guizhou

{No journal entry but here's what happened.

First thing in the morning, we climbed a mountain where a famous general is buried. I'm not sure what his name is, but he was at the "mountain stage sky"--literal translation. It might be "stage sky mountain", I'm not sure. I was translating from the sign.

At the very top of the mountain was a monastary and beautiful scenery. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. (The tomb of the general is up the stairs shown below).






After that, we went to an ancient village that is still inhabited by modern Chinese. The village dates back to the 1600's (one of the pictures shows ancient stairways--sideways). We watched a show which dates back hundreds of years dealing with a Three Kingdoms battle between Guan Yu (worshipped by the Chinese), Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Lu Bu.






Afterwards we took a boat ride on Red Maple lake. Then we headed back to Guiyang.}

May 28th, Guizhou

Longgong Cave and Tian Xing Landscape.

"Longgoong" means dragon palace. Long is dragon. Fon is Phoenix.

1 is ee
2 is er
3 is san
4 is stse
5 is oo
6 is lei-o
7 is chi
8 is ba
9 is jo
10 is sheur
100 is ee bai

I saw some interesting insects today, starting with a large moth that looked exactly like a dead oak leaf and ending with a white stringy bug that bites.

I had a lot of conversations with other members of my tour group. Mr. Lu was the person with whom I talked the most (as he spoke the most English). I which I good reciprocate with a little more Chinese.

{The Tian Xing landscape was a favorite place of the Empress and she claimed that this place was more beautiful than the river and waterfalls favored by the Emperor. Once again, it is the conflict between Emperor and Emperess which is a common motif in Chinese art. The dragon symbolizes the Emperor (and also man) and the Phoenix symbolizes the Emperess (woman). Often they are seen sparring over a ball, which symbolizes power (I think the ball might be the sun).

As a side note, one of the men I talked with taught me "long" and "fon" and in return I taught him dragon and phoenix. For the rest of the trip he would check his pronounciation of the words with me. He was the sweetest man.

The Longgong Cave is a cave that can only be entered by boat, so we took a boat ride into the cave. The cave was not quite as spectacular as Zhijin, but it was a pleasant ride. Then we went to a Buddhist monastary, established in a cave because at the entrance there appeared to be a Buddha in the rocks. I couldn't find him.

May 27th, Xinyi 8:11am

Everyone is feeling sick. Jenny's mom has a fever, Jenny's stomach is still reeling... we skipped breakfast this morning as no one felt ill until we ate at that restaurant. I'm really hoping I don't get sick. Otherwise, they might not let me back into Taiwan and in consequence home. {They're pretty serious about quarantine coming into and from China, probably because of bird flu. I didn't know until this trip that they have heat sensors at airports to monitor the body temperatures of travelers entering both Taiwan and the U. S.}

We've been eating a lot of fish here. Some of it has been pretty good. Some, not so much. {As a general rule, if they boil the fish and have very little covering it, the fish is fresh. The more fried and the more vegetable they cover it with, the older the fish is. There was one fish in particular that even covered and fried one could tell that the fish was very old. Yuck.}

I have accumlated 2 bottle of rice wine. It's apparently kind of a joke that I can drink it so... I'm sure Grampa will enjoy a bottle.

I've been stared at a lot in Xingyi. Kids look at me with wonder, and the men just stare. {I don't think too many Americans/ Europeans come this deep into Guizhou.}

Today we're going to the waterfall. I think it will be at least three hours until we get there. In the meantime, I will eat my powerbar and doze. We're off!

My own observations are that around Xingyi they grow a lot of corn, whereas near Anshun and Guiyang there's much more rice being grown. I've also seen banana plants in the forest of 10,000 peaks. They also grow a lot of watermelon and pumpkin in Guizhou too. It is very smoggy/ foggy in the mornings. It seems that it has been very dry here this season.

They roast corn over a fire and sell it on the side of the road.

Mou Tai is the top of the line rice wine, which takes 5 years to make.

{This is when it started getting difficult to write in my journal. Our first stop of the day was at the Beipanjiang Bridge, the highest bridge in China. The bus dropped us off on one side and we walked across it in the rain and fog. The pictures don't really show how high the bridge is. The bridge spans over Huanjiang Gorge and the bridge shares its name with a railroad bridge built in 2002 and touted as the bridge that would help the region (which on earns 10% of the national average's income) become more successful).

After that, we had lunch over looking Huangguoshu Falls, which according to the tour guide is the third largest waterfall in the world. I have not been able to find any information that verifies this. It is, however the largest waterfall in Asia, and it's name literally translates into "yellow fruit tree falls" . The fruit wasn't ripe when we were there so I'm not sure what it tastes like. The waterfall is beautiful! I tried to upload a picture from where we're eating lunch. If you look carefully towards to the left and half way up, those tiny itty bitty dots are people.

The waterfall is beautiful, and the Chinese say it is the only waterfall you can see from five different angles. In fact you walk around the front of it, then behind it, and can actually touch the waterflow. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.








Oh they also had a bonsai garden. One of the trees in the garden actually shakes when it is rubbed. Something about "nerves" in the bark. Again, haven't been able to track info about it down.

May 26th

The area near Xingyi, is much more affluent than that surrounding Anshun. The land is more flat, and the nearby city makes it easier for farmers to sell their goods.

So far, we have visited a market and Wangfenglin-the forest of 10,000 peaks. {It's called that because you could see the peaks of many karst mountains}.

I also had a variety of fruit this morning- including yellow plums, and a pear type of fruit. I was warned that you are not to drink water a half hour after eating the small yellow plums. I didn't drink water, but I popped an immodium just in case.

We also drove through a Bouyi village. The tour sang a raunchy song about the Bouyi people who don't believe in marriage.

I'm trying to write everything down before I forget but the bumpy mountain roads are making it difficult. I'll try again later. next is a boat ride.

8:30 pm

The LongYu Hotel.
The boat ride consisted of lunch while sailing around Wangfenglin lake. It is an artificial lake surrounded by beautiful karst landscape. It is one of the 5 biggest freshwater lakes in China.

In the "forest of 10,000 peaks" surrounding the lake (Wangfenglin) I could see caves where it looked like dragons could reside.







After the lake tour, we traveled to a museum about "minority" wedding rituals. It was interesting although I couldn't read the information. {Jenny's mom tried to give me a synopsis while listening to the tour guide, thank goodness!}. The building it was in used to be a govenor's mansion. Jenny's mom said that it was built in 1969, but the building looked much older than that. Some of the wedding rituals included arranging sticks, leaves and pine needles in different ways on rice to show the boy whether he is accepted/rejected/thought of as only a friend etc. {Ah if things could only be put so clearly!}

Then we came back to the hotel for a full body massage {gasp!}. When they say "full body" they mean it--eyes, nose, ears, butt, inner thigh, ALL the pressure points... I won't go into to much detail but not much was left unscarred. My butt in particular has never gotten so much attention.

I'm tired. Tomorrow it sounds like we will be doing the waterfall.