CHINA-WHAT AN ADVENTURE!!

As most of you know I recently returned from a trip to China with my sisters and sister-in-law. We had a great time, it was so interesting and lots of fun, but I will never go back. It is SOOOO far away and the food wasn't that great and quite a few of us got bad colds and, well, there is no place like home (except for the fabulous shopping of course). I'm posting some pictures so you can get an idea of how cool it was.


We started out in Shanghai, where we met up with Cameron and Julie Brown (Peri's son and daughter-in-law). They are living in China where Cam is in a special program from BYU. He served a mission in Taiwan and speaks fluent Chinese. It was so fun to walk into our hotel after 23 hours of travel and see a very handsome (but bald) young man come flying towards us yelling and screaming and jumping up and down. We loved being with them!!!

Here are Cam and Julie in Shanghai. They are so cute! Here we are on the Bund looking back across the river towards the new part of Shanghai. It is amazing!


This is a really cool part of Shanghai where you can shop. We went into a side street to get Lori a good deal on a purse/back-pack. It was fun, but we were glad we had Cam to speak their language. We did get pretty confident and good at bartering by the end of the trip, however. It was fun to compare and see who could get the best deal on the same stuff. The pagodas are really cool and you can see them everywhere.

This was a park in the city of Hangzhou. It was absolutely the most beautiful city and the park was gorgeous!

Their English signage was hysterical. We were constantly laughing at how they translated, or attempted to translate things. We were surprised at how many people spoke English or at least tried to.

We took a three day cruise down the Yangtze River and one of our excursions was a ride up a tributary in a Sanpan. The Chinese guy looking at the camera in front of Bonnie Comstock, was our country guide, Edward. He was so awesome! He really took good care of us.

The people were very friendly and they loved to have you take pictures of their children who were so adorable and very fat.

The children were beautiful and so friendly. They loved to be fussed over and to have their pictures taken.


Just a sampling of what delectables were available in the markets where the people shop.

Despite the grossness of their meat and such, they did have nice looking produce and seemed to know how to display it attractively.

What's a trip to China without seeing the pandas. They are really big and cute.

This is us in Xian with one of our cute city guides, Louisa. All our guides had given themselves English names. Louisa was one of our favorites. She would sing to us on the bus.

This is the "Bird's Nest". It will be the sight of the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics in Bejing. China is such a country of contrasts. Don read that more than 2/3 of the cranes used for building are in China and believeme, it is true, as they are building everywhere we went. It is amazing.

As I mentioned, it is a country of contrasts. This is an "apartment" building in the middle of Xian, a very prosperous city in most respects.

Julie was able to meet us in Bejing (Cam had to work), and this is the Forbidden City, where many of the Emperors and royalty lived. It was huge and very interesting. Sherri and I had just read an historical novel about this place, so it was so interesting to see it first hand.

One of my favorite things was the Great Wall. It was an incredible feat and just enormous. We were so lucky to have had such a beautiful day to visit.


After all was said and done I am so glad I had the opportunity to visit such an exotic and mysterious place. It is definitely a country of contrasts. We really loved the people and whenever I travel I am amazed at how much people are alike. Cultures, customs, traditions are diferent, but hopes, dreams and desires are the same. It was a wonderful trip and I was so grateful to share it with my sisters!