My last days in China

It's Thursday night and I leave for the USA tomorrow afternoon. I've added a few pictures and will let them do the talking. It was nice blogging you!

Todd

I was out of commission

I was in the central part of China and lost all communications for a few day's. I'm back in Shenzhen and will have my final blog tonight. Felling 100% and eating goat meat and singing Karaoke! I've been making a lot of new friends. Tonight I will post a few interesting pictures.

Todd

Mike sings @ Tom Petty Concert

Hi Todd,

We're thinking of you. Hope you are feeling better. Life is getting back to normal....sort of....I put the 3 lbs. back on.  The sleeping patterns are still awry. I'm still up around 2:00 AM each night. Maybe I could now join up with the dancer moms! We've had company (Nebbias) so it is unusual I am not the first to bed. We went to the Tom Petty concert on Sunday night. We were in row 5. It was awesome as you can tell by Mike's expression!

Good luck, get some benedryl for the ride home!

Lynn

Deja vu - Czech Chick Drops Again

Todd - wouldn't you know it, I took the ladies to the parade of homes in Omaha and we had to walk up and down hills, 90 + temp. and 100% humidity - "boom goes the czech chick", Rene is down.  All is well now as a passerby looked down at her and said he felt the same way.

Mike

Down and Out in China

This blog has been temporarily delayed because of a minor illness. Something I ate or drank poisoned me. Imagine that! I am doing the full tourist thing today and should have a few interesting things for tonight.

After suffering through the day my colleagues wanted to get a relaxing ancient Chinese massage. They dressed us up in pajama's and twisted and turned us like pretzels. I'm not the most flexible man in the world and I thought I was going to break. Plus, when your stomach is churning it's not too safe for someone to grab your legs and pull them over you head. I think I'll stick to a foot massage.

Todd

Might have to get an extra plane seat for the ride home

I suggested we have a light dinner tonight and this is what I got. And, every lunch we have "ice beer" as the Chinese people call it. It's hell riding in a car for 10 hours after eating all this. My catcher stance is getting some practice.

For those of you who are still reading the Blog it may not have the female flare it use to.

Todd

P.S. I did eat everything in the soup!

On the Run

Stayed in Shanghai last night and drove to a town called Suzhou today. They call this town the little river town. It reminds me of San Antonio. Now that Rene and Lynn are gone I rarely hear English. Ate traditional southern Chinese food tonight. Don't ask me what it is. It's 10:00 PM at night and time for bed. Room is slightly different tonight.

Todd

Czech Chicks are in Lincoln

Hey Todd,

We made it home! We again enjoyed our 1st class seating, (THANKS MIKE- Lorene says it is the "Cat's Meow". Food was not as tasty but the gin and tonic, wine and food put us to sleep pretty well. This time they gave us travel bags that helped me. It contained eye mask, ear plugs, toothpaste & brush, etc. The eye mask worked for me!

We froze in the "cigar" plane as Mike calls them from Newark to Omaha. Wow, we missed our 1st Class seating on the second leg! We had a beautiful lightening show on the way home and didn't even mind our stop for gas @ 12:45. In fact, I have unloaded my suit case, started a load of laundry, displayed the gifts for the boys and it is 2:45. I just popped a benadryl and will pour myself a glass of wine so I can maybe fall asleep. What is it in China??? 

Wed afternoon? We're messed up!

Lynn

Duck Necks Destroyed

Made it through customs but had a little glitch. I was bringing Todd's duck necks to share for our next party but they didn't make it through. I had to go to the agriculture department and they will be destroying them. They said that with scares of the bird flu, they don't let any poultry in at all. I assured him that it was fine, I wouldn't have eaten them anyway and he said, "I wouldn't either and I'm Chinese!" Anyway..... we are now waiting for the last leg of our journey, our flight leaves @ 9:30.

Rene

Czech Chicks Leave China

Rene and Lynn left China at 3:45 Pm today. China will never be the same. We parted ways and I left for Shanghai. I will be here tonight and traveling the remainder of the week. Sunday I leave for central China.

Hey Rene & Lynn my room in Shanghai has no dirty dolphins! Check out the bed. It's a famous old hotel that's really cool. Ate to much again tonight (ox hoofs / jelly fish / tofu).

Hope your trip home went well. See you all in a few weeks.

Todd

Czech Chicks Coming Home!

Hello all,

Glad you enjoyed our blog! We are now at the Beijing Airport ready to head home. It is Tuesday about 2:45 here and we leave in about an hour. We get to NE around midnight Tuesday. We lose a half of day when we fly back!

This morning Rene and I managed to walk to the Temple of Heaven before our driver picked us up. It was another fascinating place to visit. Yesterday we spent hours walking through the Forbidden City and then went to "Shopping Street" ... that is what the Chinese call it. We went back to the same restaurant we were the night before because the Czech Chicks finally found something they liked....snow peas and chicken with walnuts. Todd ordered duck again. He'll be quackin' by the time he gets home!

The past two evenings we enjoyed going to happy hour in our hotel. We posted some pictures of our new friends! Ahhh, Americans we can talk to and enjoy. Birds of a feather flock together as they say!

Boys, I tried to get you China soccer shirts but could not find official ones. Jason and Mr. Her both said, "soccer? not so good... Team is bad." I did pick up a couple of Olympic shirts. Don't worry, they don't have the goofy looking kids on them. The Chinese people don't care much about style. Today I saw a girl with red pants, orange shirt and yellow shoes. Many of their shirts have huge logos. The Nike/Addidas/Polo shirts have oversized stitching on them. Not cool.

Another interesting observation....Remember I said there were NO and I mean ZERO fat people in Shenzhen? Well, Jason told me it will be different in Beijing. I asked why and he said it is because they eat more meat. Well it is true. There were some men and women with extra body fat, but not much...they might be carrying an extra10-20 lbs. We have not seen one obese person here!

Well, they are going to board our plane so I need to sign off!

Thanks for checking in with us. You might try in a few days as Todd says he

will post a few notes. He is off to Shanghai. He returns July 25. Rene and I are glad we are not him. Love it, but we are ready to come home!

Lynn

Top 12 Reasons the Czech Chicks moved to the Marriott

12. Room considered "Deluxe" ... one per floor

11. Curtains are extremely fire retardant i.e, plastic.

10.   Exercise facility located on each level. Just look for ancient air dyne bike on Faux bear skin rug next to elevator, facing blank wall.

9.. After staff turns down bedding, yellow shag bath mat appears next to bed with one pair of plastic slippers.

8. Karaoke bar lined with red shag carpet.

7. Two Chinese women for each male......or more ....REALLY!

6. Environmental air quality passes even with smoke in the air.

5. Air Conditioner fan louder than a lawn mower.

4. Mysterious stains on carpet in multiple places.

3. Display of "Happy Trip" pamphlet with vibrating condoms for sale.

2. Lobby adorned with massive bouquets of dusty pink plastic roses.

1. Soiled, three foot stuffed dolphin on end of bed  ????????????

    (wife refuses to touch it)

Beijing walking trip

Today we toured Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It was rainy and cloudy all day so the pics will not look the greatest. Our calves are killing us as we have walked miles! I think you really have to walk through the Forbidden City to really grasp its massiveness and vastness. We then took a cab to "shopping street".  

Lynn

Olympic Dragon on Great Wall

We saw this as we were headed up to the Great Wall. Looked cool.

It is a 13,112 meter long cloth scroll made up of flags of the 205 countries and regions participating in the Olympics. 

This is interesting to me....

China's money is called renminbi yuan, hence RMB. For awhile I thought it was R&B.

Kathy says foreigners can't pronounce renminbi.

Lynn

More Pictures

Here are a few more interesting pictures:

• Czech Chicks climbing the wall.
• Duck tongue in gel bowl.
• Ancient fishing village.
• Farm village.
• Farmers tomb.

Todd

Czech Chick Recovers from Heat Stroke

If you have not read Todd's blog about the Czech Chick Dropping @ the Wall...read that first.

The Great Wall is an experience in itself, without having someone ill on location. It 

was serious! Todd kept telling Rene to gut it up and carry on. Once he tried to pump her up and went to the top of the steps and did jumping jacks and yelled out some pep talk.  I kept telling her to stop and take multiple breaks. We do think Todd saved the day by running ahead and finding a place to buy water. This was back at the base. I don't know how he even found it. We did have water but obviously it was not enough. I think it was a combination of lack of a "good" breakfast and more diet coke than regular water for her. (ha,ha! You'd think I was a doctor!) It was a little scary for awhile because there are not red cross stations, no official help, no phones, no cell phones to call for help, no place to buy water, no place to get out of the sun, no one that speaks English.... Todd said later he thought he would have to throw her over his shoulder and carry her out. If any of you have been to the Great Wall, you would know that it would be damn near IMPOSSIBLE as it is hard enough to get yourself up and down! Anyway, we've had some good laughs about it. 

Other observations:

*We are movie stars! There are SO few Americans and foreigners that we are a sight to behold. I think when we were in Shenzhen we saw a handful of Americans at the hotel restaurant....5-6. Here in Beijing we've seen a few more. .... 10-15? This means we are like movie stars! In fact we have posed for several pictures. Parents especially like to take pics of us with their children. Everyone does the thumbs up! I think they like Todd best as they are not sure where I might have come from! :) We will be in a few photo books after the Great Wall trip!

*Featured Food that Todd has eaten (happily)

-duck tongue in gel mold

-duck kidney in peanut/vinegar sauce

-duck head

-pig blood soup

-flying fish

-sea bugs

-sea urchins

-french fried shrimp 

Lorene and I are just not so adventuresome. We loved our meal tonight. Chicken with walnuts and sesame seeds,  a plate of snow peas and broccoli. We continue to like the same things and leave whole bowls of soup and other dishes we just don't have the taste for.

Mr. Her drove us to the Olympic sites today. We really couldn't get into them as they are not finished. Many, many people were like us and would like to take a peek. We drove by and quickly jumped out of the car and tried to take a few snap shops. Would love to stroll through there but it is not in the cards on this trip!

Good news is that we found the Marriott! Poor Mr. Her, our driver and friend, he drove us everywhere today and found our hotel! It was such a hard hotel to find. We were driving in circles for awhile. We were all reading signs and looking up and down tall buildings. The hotel is on  Chongwenmenwai Street. It was difficult and Todd was getting super crabby as he had not eaten anything since breakfast and then our hotel was going to cost more.........." No Problem We Happy now! Lorene and I are thrilled to be in this hotel and we get breakfast and the best for Todd is HAPPY HOUR! We convinced him he'd make up the difference in price after one session on the 16th floor! We even made some new friends during happy hour who are from Fresno State(CWS) and Mongolia.

History: I can't wait to get home and read more about China. Each of our drivers know so much about the history of China. They told us about emperors, when they were leaders and what province they came from and what they did. I am clueless! They are happy about China's progress forward. Tonight it was also interesting to hear about Mongolian's history......the reason China built the Great Wall.

I better call it a night.......I'm sore........not from climbing the Great Wall.....yet....I discovered

bruises on my calves from my massage a few days ago. During the massage I felt tickled,

then tense and sometimes it was painful. Kathy kept telling me to tell them what I liked and didn't like.......... it was pretty hard to communicate so I just let them do their massage. Maybe I need another one!

Goodnight,

Lynn

Czech Chick Drops on Great Wall

You can dress her up, but you can't take her out. Over 15,000 people walking on our section of the Great Wall and my wife drops spread eagle on the ground and hugs the wall for shade. Heat got the best of her and by this time total Delirium had set-in. Lynn and I thought we would have to call a helicopter to have her evacuated. After 2 hours of pushing and prodding we got her out.

Todd

Moving to Marriot!

Good Morning!

Looks like I did a lot of griping about our hotel before I went to bed last night. A 6 hour sleep helps everyone! We are happy to be moving! I walked about 5 blocks to find a Star Bucks this morning. I waited for it to open at 7. Todd says people here don't start their day so early. It is Sunday here. Todd and Rene are off looking for a McDonalds as Rene is hungry. The meal

she ordered last night was really good...it was spicy with peppers & peas and pork. The only problem was that each small piece of pork had a bone in it. Hard to eat and

she was convinced it must have been from the pig's tail:)

Since I am just waiting for our driver to pick us up I will babble on about some of our observations.

*People are SOOOOO nice to us! The Chinese are calm, happy, not rushed. Even when they

drive they don't get angry at each other. Kathy said when they honk it mean " hey, here I am 

on the side of you"

*The lines in the road don't really mean you need to stay between them. You can be a couple of feet over on either side...depends where you want to go. When I booked the Marriott last night, the reservation gal asked if I needed to rent a car. I burst out laughing! There is NO WAY any of us would drive a car here. First off we can't read any of the signs. I asked our driver what the name of the famous street was as it was very long......can't pronounce or spell it!

*We are so lucky to have our personal guides...Thanks to Todd and his business connections. 

Mr. Hu's business people are taking us EVERYWHERE. We have not had to take a cab once.

They meet us at the "Welcoming Place" in the airports, pick us up at the front of our hotel, take us where we want to go. When we got to the Shenzhen airport yesterday, Jason dropped us off and we said we could take it from there and he didn't need to come in.....Jason said, "I worry about you!"

*Shenzhen Airlines---Sally, you would be very interested to see how the Chinese Airline attendants do their work. All of them are Very Young! Maybe Early 20's and are between 5'7 and 5'10. At the end of the flight they line up in throughout the cabin and we all stretch our bodies by following their instructions during a song. You lean to one side and then to the other, you clap, pull your ears, massage your face, rub your shoulders, etc. Pretty cool!

*I don't know if I can explain about crossing the streets here in Beijing. I shadowed  a China man to make sure I didn't get hit. Somehow they are instinctive.......no one follows the street signs.

Todd is convinced no one is reading this. It doesn't matter as it will serve as our diary later on!

We have heard from some of you. John & Erin? Tim? Craig? Are you out there?

Lynn

PS Hope to post a picture soon as I am sick of seeing the Boom goes the Dynamite at the top of the screen when I open the blog!

Beijing

Arrived safely! Took a ride through town. Still amazed at the traffic and driving!

Rene and I both like Beijing.....Clean buildings and busses and such.....although...

Our hotel is GROSS!!!! Rene and I got on line and found a Courtyard by Marriott.

It is about $5 more a night. We want an American hotel. My room burns my nose from

past smokers, beds must be made of plywood and I will not take off my sandals until 

I get into the plywood bed! There is a display of items you can buy...a little notebook called "Happy Trip - for People frequently on Business Trip" with other items such as The Passions is Lasting and Like Fire to Ones Hearts Content ...."vibrated Condoms."

The air conditioner sounds like a mini mower! I can still hear it with my ear plugs in!

Will be heading to the Great Wall of China in the morning. 

Goodnight!!

Lynn

Hanging out @ airport

Observations:

*2 gas masks and available in each hotel room

*People point  and look at us from top to bottom and smile

*Todd especially gets double takes...blue eyes, bald, and facial hair

*Don't see anyone with facial hair

*Todd made a sale @ the power plant

*Jason told us (girls) would bring them good luck and we did

*Chinese are superstitious and Jason's wife doesn't want  him eat chicken wings

because she doesn't want him to fly away

*Yes, Chinese men spit

*In the China Daily newspaper it said restaurants were told to take "DOG" off the menu during the Olympics

Lynn

Gopher Hole

I'm having a difficult time with the gopher hole.  Bad knees and no flexibility make for an interesting session.  

Todd

Flight Canceled!

No, problem. We're taking then next one in 2 hours!

Killing time at a Star Bucks. At least they have free wi-fi!

Andrew said we need to spice up our blog so I am asking Todd to 

add more details...like "BOOM GOES the DYNAMITE!"

Lynn

Fly to Beijing today!

Jason is picking us up @ 8:30 this morning and taking us to the Shenzhen airport.

Lynn

One Long Car Ride

Our trip to the country side on Friday was very LONG!

Somehow I heard that that we would ride with Todd and Jason to the countryside...

1 hour there, 1 hour back with a 1 hour meeting. Lorene interpreted that it was a 2 hour ride one way. Turned out that it was over a 3 hour ride there with a 2 hour meeting. The ride home was even longer because of traffic. Traffic....driving....IMPOSSIBLE to describe. Todd sat in front and squawked and swore a few times. But Jason's famous words are usually "no problem". Anyway we left around 9:30 AM and returned to our hotel around 9PM. We stopped at a restaurant along the way for lunch. It was a great experience to see the countryside and we would have never seen what we did without the long ride!

We had a bite to eat at our hotel and met Kathy and Mr. Wang at a spa for a foot and back massage. That was interesting.

Lynn

Boom

Hey Mike we ate whole flying fish yesterday afternoon and "boom goes the dynamite."

TODD

Friday, July 11

It is Friday morning here. Todd didn't get home until 2AM last night. They had gone out of town for business meetings and he thinks they put 1000 miles on the car! Today we are going with him and Jason on one of his business meetings. We plan to ride in the car and see the country side. While they are in their meeting, Lorene and I plan on reading our books in the car. We'll get a new perspective of China.

Happy Birthday, John...WOW your are 25! Can I be that old? I ordered your bday present on line before I left. I'm sure dad will let you know when it comes in. Are you having a party at your new house?

Lynn

Thursday, Shopping Trip!

Thursday we met our driver in the lobby to begin our day in Shenzhen. It was raining hard so we went to the "famous shopping center". Rene describes it as a MEGA Chinatown x's 10! Luckily, we had Kathy with us who can speak Chinese and GREAT English. (I have to say, Kathy had never been there because she pretty much buys the real stuff!) Anyway, I think she had fun with us because she bought items too. We spent close to 5 hours there and bought pearls, sunglasses, shoes, and other jewelry. We also had a pedicure and manicure. No Tommy Bahamas for Mike. We couldn't find the store. The mega mall was 5 stories high. Shopping became overwhelming because there were about 4 sales people for every 10 ft of space and they started calling out to us "missy, want to buy sunglasses, bag, dvd" for every step we took.

Erin, we spent the most time on negotiating and picking a black bag for you. Kathy, our lifeline, insisted that it had to be a quality bag. The sales lady said her goods were A++ but when they called the warehouse for the sample, Kathy said, "No, it wasn't good enough." We spent at least an hour or more there with panicked sales people as the police walked by and catalogs and bags were whisked away and conversations were changed. I'm not even sure what I bought you yet because the "driver" took it back to the office so we wouldn't have to walk around with it. Don't get too excited, Erin, it is a basic black bag! 

After all of that we drove to the sea. "The Sea World"...not like in America. It was a beautiful area by the sea. There were lots of restaurants and people enjoying the outdoors. My favorite part was watching the children rollerblade, skateboard and play around a center area with mothers and fathers helping and watching. The roller blades flashed lights as they bladed around.

What day is it?

We noticed that it says, Wednesday, July 9, 2008 on our blog this morning.

It is still Wednesday where you are. As I am typing this it is Thursday morning.

I suspect this is because I am using Tim's laptop and it is set to our time at home.

Thanks Tim, so far so good!

Lynn

Dinner Out

We had an authentic Chinese dinner last night. When you make reservations, each party has its own separate room with a large round table and a large lazy susan in the middle so the food can be shared. There is also a bathroom in each dining room. Rene and I LOVE the fruits and vegetables and we're even trying things we can't identify. We had pigeon, steamed fish and more. Rene told Kathy she would try the pigeon as long as the head wasn't part of it. When the dish came, someone quickly tried to remove the head from the plate. We made them put it back so it could be in the picture. When we finished dinner, Todd wanted to make sure we saw where the food came from so they took us to the tanks. All fish/seafood is alive, nothing frozen. They say it is especially important to have live fish when you steam it as the taste is so much better.

I'm glad you are enjoying reading this Barb and Elmer. I am surprised there are not more bikes and rickshaws. There still are some but not as many. Kathy said less people use them now. When you do see them, it is hard to believe a little person can carry such a load. There are also several scooters. I would be so afraid to ride one. We saw a couple riding  the wrong way in between traffic last night. We also saw a cycle ride between a huge bus and car in a narrow space that made us hold our breath!

That is all for now....off to an AMERICAN breakfast

Lynn

First Night/ by Rene

Last nights dinner was really good and INTERESTING! They do serve heads with all dishes, it really isn't too bad, just don't want it on my plate! I've never had such fresh fish, the prawns were the biggest and and the best I've ever tasted! I'll let Lynn give the details, she has the pictures and notes.
Todd is going out of town today, a three hour drive, and will not be back until late evening. We're lucky to have such accommodating hosts! Kathy is going to take us to a place where we can buy knock-offs today, get a foot massage, and maybe a pedicure & manicure.
Found some good 'green' practices that I think Americans should take note of...... When we enter our hotel room, we put our room card in a slot by the door and it turns on the lights. When you remove the card when you leave, it shuts the lights and tv off.

1st Day Touring

We had a long day of touring today. Kathy, the wife of the business owner, took us around Shenzhen all day. We used her car but she had a driver. I can see why. Americans would be screaming, swearing, honking .... It would be serious road rage but somehow they just edge their cars around and into lanes and pedestrians. She took us shopping to a jewelry section. We thought we'd be buying knock offs but it turned out to be the real stuff. After many stops we communicated that we didn't want to spend that much money. Kathy ended up calling a friend who recommended someone. When we made it to that shop the manager met us outside with his assistant and escorted us to his shop. We both bought a jade necklace. He gave us 75% off thanks to Kathy. She also said he was so excited to have Americans in his store. He made us tea after the sell. I noticed there were about 15 employees and 3 shoppers. We were surrounded by 4-5 of them at all times. The numbers would be opposite in the US. Kathy said, "well, there are many people in China who need jobs!"

Here are some other observations:

*Some people walk backwards for good health

*they don't use clothes driers, they hang all clothes outside on hangers to dry

*people squat to rest while they are waiting for buses

*$100 = 685.30 RMB's

*100 RMB's = $14.59

*Shenzhen is a big city without a lot of historical sites as it is 30 years old.

*we toured an art village where painters sell their works...many, many shops

*tried to get to a mountain top but the road was closed due to so much rain.

*have not seen a single overweight Chinese man or woman, no butts and guts here!

*ate at a mall today, large portions. Kathy said she thinks the Americans eat too much butter      and fat.

I have to rest up now. We are going out to dinner in an hour to a seafood restaurant.

Lynn

Wednesday, July 9

Good morning!

Went to the gym this morning @ 6AM. Todd & Rene came in soon after me.

We're up early! This is the view from my room. 

Lynn

Spoiled!

Yes, Rene and I are the Czech Chick Queens...or Wendi might say "BK's" (sorry inside joke)

We compared flights with Todd over a glass of wine and some Chinese beer tonight and we think we had the better deal. He wishes he had taken pictures of his ramen noodles and cardboard sandwiches so you all would know the difference.

We are still full and couldn't eat tonight but Todd was starving. 

This will be TOO  much detail for some...but it will serve my memory later so skip the following if you are not interested...that would be many of you.... plus ......John, Tim & Craig!

They HATE details!

We started our flight  with warm roasted nuts with our preferred cocktail or beverage, Lunch..Soya braised chicken with roasted red and yellow tomatoes and asparagus, fresh field greens, Romain and Belgain endive with cherry tomato, goat cheese and pecans with balsamic vinaigrette.

Dinner - Herb-crusted halibut and char-grilled shrimp with lobster sauce, stewed artichoke hearts, roasted red tomatoes and fine green beans.

Fruit and Cheese cart...we were too full for the American and imported cheeses, fresh fruit, crackers and port wine!

Dessert Cart - Edy's Classic Grand Vanilla ice cream with choice of toppings or warm peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

SkySnacks--I think we slept through this!

Mid Flight refreshment - Char siu pork and egg noodle soup with choy sum, shallots and green onions, tea sandwiches and peach/blueberry tart.

Pre Arrival Light meal - seasonal fruit, cinnamon and crusty rolls, croissants with butter and strawberry preserves

Breakfast Main Course - Mushroom Omelette with broccoli potato gratin, grilled smoked pork loin and turkey sausage patty

& Chocolate!

Now Todd needs to explain his menu!!

He was pretty descriptive. He wishes he would have taken pictures! :)

We arrived!

Hi,

Just ckd into our hotel. It is 9AM your time and 10PM here.

Lorene and I had a great time flying 15 hours in first class. It is like

having your own lazy boy with many attendants making sure you have 

drinks, hot  towels, dinner, snacks and breakfast.(thanks for the points, MIKE!) 

We read the newspapers,

books, watched a movie and slept. (thanks to a benedryl)

A guy named Steven YIP picked us up at the airport and took us through

customs. Then a guy named Jason Deng met us on the other side of customs.

We had one small glitch. When our visas came back there was a pointed

sticky arrow on our Visa sheet. Lorene and I both thought it was meant to

"sign here". My custom's agent shook his head at me and let me go through.

Lorene's agent said "it was not allowed to write on the visa" so it took her a little

longer to get through. 

Since it is dark out I can't tell you much about Hong Kong or Shenzen except that I  feel like I am in Chinatown in NY or San Francisco!

One of the airline attendants visited with us about shopping. She gave us cards of her favorite merchants and one who makes clothes for her. She said we HAVE to buy pearls. (Kevin, the Tommy's are knock offs she said but just as good.

We think we will have to have a glass of wine and a benadryl soon so that we can sleep and be ready for our tour guide, Kathy, in the morning.

I'll try and post some pic's but the general blogspot page is in Chinese so I might not be able to follow directions.

Lynn

PS Craig, everyone can read what you wrote...or should I be talking to Tim? Are you guys in middle school???

Preparing to leave for China

It won't be long and the Czech Chicks leave for China!

Todd says he'll pick me up @ 4:30AM 

Wonder what we forgot? Mike says as long as we have $$ and

our passport and visa we will be okay!

This is my first time blogging. I'll try to keep you updated on

our adventure!

Lynn

What did we forget?