Monday, February 28, 2011

City Tour of Zhu Hai


Newfield China team members. The center arch was built in 1886 at the request of the Emperor to honor Chen Fang who donated 3,000 tael of silver for the relief of his fellow citizens left homeless after a severe flood. Chen was living in Hawaii at the time he heard the news. The left archway was built in 1891 to honor Chen Fang's son, Chen Long. The arch on the right was destroyed by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution so it is not known who it honored. When the Red Guards attempted to destroy the other two Archways, all the villagers in Meixi sat around them and their action prevented the Archways from being totally destroyed.


The home of Chen Fang.


Chen Fang had 16 children by his first wife and 3 by his second wife. One daughter married an American Marine General and settled in Hawaii.


Dishes from the 1800's


Chen Fang's bed. The ceiling is about 20-25 feet tall.


Pots for household uses


A garden in Zhuhai


Beautiful flowers everywhere


A local fisherman along the coast edge.


The Lady with the Pearl could be compared to the Little Mermaid in Denmark.


It's a favorite site for tourists as well as the locals.


The walkway from the shore to the Lady with the Pearl.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Going our separate ways

I am offf to KL for the week and Terry back to Houston.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Balcony view

Overnight snow in BJ

We got back in about 6pm from ZhuHai and the great sunny weather. It was not that cold when we arrived, we took the subway home from the airport as it was rush hour and the subway stops about half a mile from home. We had to walk it as no taxi wanted to get out of line to drive us half a mile. It wasn't too bad, who ever invented roll on bags should be sainted! It looks to still be snowing lightly this morning.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Pearl Lady like Mermaid in Copenhagen

We are headed to see a 4-D movie, no idea what that is? This is a neat city, next to all the gambling in Macau. Mom walked about 5 miles yesterday and saw a lot of the city. We fly back to BJ tonight, then on Sunday I go to KL for a week and Mom back to Houston. Typing on bus. Due to lack of time to get to the airport we had to skip the 4-D movie so still don't know what it's all about.

Statue of the Lady with the Pearl

Replicas of famous Archways in city

Chinese wood carvings

We are touring the home of China's first Bill Gates - he had 16 children, the 3rd daughter married a US Marine General and the family still lives in Hawaii today.

Zhu Hai Mnt padlock rock

The padlock symbolizes you will be together forever, locked together.

Major outdoor presentation

Old fishing village

Lots of food - all good

Mom learns how to use chop sticks

Big banquet at unbelievable place, we will have a re enactment of the Qing Dynasty naval battle. The restaurant is replica of the Summer Palace

Big banquet Mom is seated next to chief

Dinner venue-very impressive

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Macau casino lights

We took a tour boat out in the harbor to look at the city lights, it was really cool. The flight down from BJ took about 4 hrs. Smoggy or foggy all the way - no scenic views from the windows. We took the express subway to the airport this morning it was fast and easy. Also saved about 100$ over the taxi.

Macau the Las Vegas of SE Asia

The ghost couple

Boat tour of the harbor

All the big buildings in Macau are wildly lite. The ferry in the photo is outlined in red lights

Zhu Hai is on the coast next to Macau

Leaving the airport in Zhu Hai

The air is clear and there is humidity - we feel immediately at home

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Terry and Doris our helper

Doris is in HR has been helping us - she is Whit's age but knows electronics and phones like Anna. She is helping Terry figure out her new phone. We are at BJ airport headed to Zhuhai for 3 days. Finally got our passports back this morning, now I have a life and Terry will be able to head back to Houston.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Saturdays Shopping Trip

Mom standing by a large Bonsai - like a "giant shrimp"



Cool rock fountains made from dolomite. If I had a garden I would get one of these.


I don't know - this reminds me of some one but I just can't place it....

I thought Whit would like these big wood carvings



Rub his belly for good luck
This is the view from my office on a clear day, 37th floor. You can almost make out the mountains way in the distance behind the brown haze. The really tall building is part of the YinTai complex, there is a mall and other towers around the tall one. The former District President has his office in that building - institute is taught there on Wed nights.

12 Days In Beijing

We have been in Beijing now 12 days, in that time we have visited Ikea, Super Wal-Mart, Jenni Lou Stores, and a number local shopping areas. The local shopping areas are fun as you get to negotiate the prices and/or walk away if you don't get your price. For example, Terry needed a warm winter coat as the day time temperatures have been 23-29 degs. We went to the silk market and found a goose down coat for her. The starting price was 3,800 RMB, I countered at 300 and held firm - after a few minutes of hard negotiating we walked away to look for different styles and colors, with the sales girl walking after us yelling "make me a good offer". Just before closing we returned and resumed negotiations - me at 300 and the girl at some ridiculous number. Eventually we arrived at 500 RMB - which I consider to be 100 RMB too much, but it was closing time, the snow was falling and we had a 15 min walk back to the hotel.

Then the girl in the stall across the way came over to sell me a scarf. "Did I want my beutiful wife to freeze to death on the way home, you need to buy this scarf ". Mind you she was in on all the coat negotiations, so she knew we just bought a heavy down coat for 500 RMB. So where does she start at for a 5$ scarf - 500RMB - so I countered at 30. Then we got into joking around and I told her I would pay twice her price if she could guess how many kids we had, but if she missed I got the scarf for free (mind you it is worth about 6 RMB). So the two of them commenced to guess, after about 10 guesses they gave up. Unfortunately I did not hold her to the bet and get the scarf for free. I think I paid her 150 - mostly for the entertainment.

On Friday Terry went shopping with 6 of the ladies from church and found a place like the silk market but the sales girls are not so aggressive - in fact no one even grabbed her arm or tried to box her into their booth (now where is the excitement of the hunt?). This place is near the new US embassy and has great rock shops and really cool flower stalls. We went back on Saturday and saw some amazing fountains and wood cravings.

Our branch is large - about 100+ families. I think it is as big as the Glen Loch or College Park Wards. The people are fantastic, really nice and they all have interesting stories of how they come to be in BJ. We had a Valentine's Day diner/dance Friday night that was well attended and a lot of fun. We have people from all over Europe, lots of Koreans and many Chinese who have either foreign passports or are married to a foreign passport holder. The missionary effort is doing well, there are at least 12 investigators. They even had a YM do his Eagle Project the week before we arrived. The 1st weekend in March is District Conference so that should be interesting.

The other branch (BJ 3rd has more families and less empty nesters) is conducting a 3 month trial program of meeting for sacrament first in small groups in designated homes, then only family units meeting in their own homes. The purpose is to test out how the people cope during times when political conditions are such that leaving home to attend sacrament at a building is not safe. This has been useful in some West Africa countries.

It looks like we will really enjoy our branch and living in BJ.

We are trying the Indian Rest next door

Wow this great, I love Indian food and this good. For lunch the young guys showed me the really cheap cafeteria in the basement of our building. It was $2.50 for all the bad Chinese food you could stomach. I probably will not be going back any time soon.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Embassy row - we are surrounded

See the 4 o'clock sun?

Our apartment building

We are the 2nd row of balconies. It is a high polution day.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

No MP3 player

McDonalds delivery

Ice fishing in canal

We are walking home from church - colder today, the cannal is frozen and guys are fishing behind the dam. The street we are on was full of side walk sellers on the way to church. Giant flea market, now all gone. The speakers in church are Wood Badgers, he was just a course director in NM.

Interesting tea set