China report. December 2-22 2011. Part one.
We got up at 2:30, got ready to go and left around 3:15 and drove up to Washington, DC to catch our flight to Chicago.
We then met up with a bunch of the other team members in Chicago. The Zastrows, Betsy, Mikah, Susan, Orrin, Amanda, Daniel and Jerry.
We got to Beijing in the late afternoon of the 3rd(I think). Flying for 13 hours, then having the time change thing is really confusing!
While at the hotel we were staying at we had to go through all the crumbs and divide them up evenly so each team would have colorful tracts and green ones so we could bundle them together. That was a very interesting endeavor:) It took a while and was quite confusing. We had everybody going in and out, in and out.
We took an overnight train ride from Beijing to Lanzhou. I really enjoy the train rides. Lots of time to talk, get to know the other teams members better, and eat chicken feet!!!:):):) Well I didn't eat the whole thing, just kinda nibbled it. Jimmy was very impressed. I had given him a hard time teasing him about eating it last time. I don't think he was expecting me to eat one. Not the best tasting thing in the world but defiantly not the worst.
We reached Lanzhou in the morning. But then comes the sad part of having to split up:( We had a few hours with the rest before our bus left. In the meantime we all bundled crumbs for our bus ride to
He Zheng. Our team (Dad, Mikah, and I), Christian and Jonathan, Jerry and Jimmy, and Daniel and Orrin would all the leaving that day while the rest would be staying the night then heading out. Gabe and David were waiting for Scot to arrive. His flight came the day after ours.
We left in the afternoon for our town and arrived at some sort of a bus stop where a van was picking up the bus riders. The people at the bus stop thought it was funny that we Americans needed so much luggage and had a fun time laughing at us struggling with it:):) The van took us to He Zheng and dropped us off on the side of the road. We started unloading while dad was trying to ask him where we could find a hotel with a phrasebook. Meanwhile we are getting plenty of stares . Dad and the van driver had a crowd around them in no time trying to see what they were talking about. Typical thing in China. When you are trying to ask someone a question you will have a crowd of 5-10 people gathered around to see what going on is mere seconds. When he understood what we were asking him, he motioned for us to get back in the van. He would take us to one.
The hotel he took us to was a nice one. It had Internet too! Just after we got settled in, there was a knock on our door. We had no peek-hole on our door so Mikah had to open it and see. Outside were three cops and a lady. For a moment there we were both a little freaked out thinking "not yet! we haven't even started!". Suddenly I remembered that they often will check and see what foreigners are doing in some smaller towns. They asked to come in and asked one of us to go get dad. I had to leave poor Mikah in there alone with them for a a minute to go get him. After getting back, the lady who spoke English told us they wanted us to fill out some forms and ask a few questions. They asked a few questions about why we were there, where we had been, and such. For the forms we had to fill out our names, passport number, we we had been, how long we were staying and a few others. They needed to take our passports temporarily to fill out some more forms.
A little while later we wanted to go out. We went to the front desk and tried to ask the police for our passports. They communicated to us that we could get them later cuz they still needed to fill out some forms. So we went out to a noodle shop to get a bite to eat. The Hui Muslims really know how to make noodles. They make the best noodles in the world there.
This noodle shop has its own story. We ordered 2 bowls of noodles. I wasn't really hungry. When we finished eating we asked for the cost and the boy showed us the price on a calculator. 55 YUAN!!!!! Which is like 8 US dollars. A bowl of noodles in China should be no more then like 6 yuan. Its usually 5 yuan. We knew we were being cheated, but we couldn't say we would not pay it cuz we had already ate and it would be really hard to communicate so we just paid it and never went back:)
He Zheng had this mosque right outside our hotel and about every half hour they would blare their prayers calls.
We then met up with a bunch of the other team members in Chicago. The Zastrows, Betsy, Mikah, Susan, Orrin, Amanda, Daniel and Jerry.
We got to Beijing in the late afternoon of the 3rd(I think). Flying for 13 hours, then having the time change thing is really confusing!
While at the hotel we were staying at we had to go through all the crumbs and divide them up evenly so each team would have colorful tracts and green ones so we could bundle them together. That was a very interesting endeavor:) It took a while and was quite confusing. We had everybody going in and out, in and out.
We took an overnight train ride from Beijing to Lanzhou. I really enjoy the train rides. Lots of time to talk, get to know the other teams members better, and eat chicken feet!!!:):):) Well I didn't eat the whole thing, just kinda nibbled it. Jimmy was very impressed. I had given him a hard time teasing him about eating it last time. I don't think he was expecting me to eat one. Not the best tasting thing in the world but defiantly not the worst.
We reached Lanzhou in the morning. But then comes the sad part of having to split up:( We had a few hours with the rest before our bus left. In the meantime we all bundled crumbs for our bus ride to
He Zheng. Our team (Dad, Mikah, and I), Christian and Jonathan, Jerry and Jimmy, and Daniel and Orrin would all the leaving that day while the rest would be staying the night then heading out. Gabe and David were waiting for Scot to arrive. His flight came the day after ours.
We left in the afternoon for our town and arrived at some sort of a bus stop where a van was picking up the bus riders. The people at the bus stop thought it was funny that we Americans needed so much luggage and had a fun time laughing at us struggling with it:):) The van took us to He Zheng and dropped us off on the side of the road. We started unloading while dad was trying to ask him where we could find a hotel with a phrasebook. Meanwhile we are getting plenty of stares . Dad and the van driver had a crowd around them in no time trying to see what they were talking about. Typical thing in China. When you are trying to ask someone a question you will have a crowd of 5-10 people gathered around to see what going on is mere seconds. When he understood what we were asking him, he motioned for us to get back in the van. He would take us to one.
The hotel he took us to was a nice one. It had Internet too! Just after we got settled in, there was a knock on our door. We had no peek-hole on our door so Mikah had to open it and see. Outside were three cops and a lady. For a moment there we were both a little freaked out thinking "not yet! we haven't even started!". Suddenly I remembered that they often will check and see what foreigners are doing in some smaller towns. They asked to come in and asked one of us to go get dad. I had to leave poor Mikah in there alone with them for a a minute to go get him. After getting back, the lady who spoke English told us they wanted us to fill out some forms and ask a few questions. They asked a few questions about why we were there, where we had been, and such. For the forms we had to fill out our names, passport number, we we had been, how long we were staying and a few others. They needed to take our passports temporarily to fill out some more forms.
A little while later we wanted to go out. We went to the front desk and tried to ask the police for our passports. They communicated to us that we could get them later cuz they still needed to fill out some forms. So we went out to a noodle shop to get a bite to eat. The Hui Muslims really know how to make noodles. They make the best noodles in the world there.
This noodle shop has its own story. We ordered 2 bowls of noodles. I wasn't really hungry. When we finished eating we asked for the cost and the boy showed us the price on a calculator. 55 YUAN!!!!! Which is like 8 US dollars. A bowl of noodles in China should be no more then like 6 yuan. Its usually 5 yuan. We knew we were being cheated, but we couldn't say we would not pay it cuz we had already ate and it would be really hard to communicate so we just paid it and never went back:)
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