Oops – when I was writing my post for Saturday, I asked my mom what else we did that day (I wrote it on Sunday). Neither of us could remember at the time – you know how that goes. But, I now remember that I forgot three very important things that we did – it is funny how as soon as you stop trying to remember, it all comes back to you.
Before we went to lunch, and after the museum, we went to a silk rug making store. They have women working on different rugs in the store we went to, but generally the rugs are made by women out in the country. There are three different grades of rugs – silk and cotton (light traffic), silk on silk (heavy traffic) and another silk on silk that is for wall hangings. The difference between the three types is that the silk on cotton rugs only have 300 knots per square foot, while the silk on silk rugs have 625 knots per square foot, and the wall hangings have 1700 knots per square foot. It was pretty amazing to compare the work that these ladies were doing to the needlework that Mom does – I know how long some of her projects take and these rugs were far harder work. I forget the exact figures, but I know that some of the rug projects (e.g., the larger wall hangings) could take one person a couple of years to complete. That is working 4 – 5 hours a day for two years. I don’t know how a person keeps motivated, or how they read the patterns.
And after we went to the Yuyuan Garden, we went to a market to do some shopping – what an adventure that was. There were people everywhere – we followed Jay and Steven through the market to a silk shop – where they grew the silk worms, harvested their cocoons, and then used the silk for making cloth or comforters. \
I guess that silk worms sometimes cocoon together (coziness factor I guess) – and those cocoons are not good for making silk thread, because the strands are all tangled up. So single cocoons are used for making silk thread (it takes 8 cocoons to make one strand of thread), and double cocoons are stretched out to make duvets (it is quite a process to stretch them out). Lots of people bought the duvets to bring home – I will be curious to know how they compare to down duvets!
After the silk shop, we had free time to shop in the bazaar. It is an experience that is hard to describe. I did some serious shopping – buying a beautiful tea set that I really didn’t need, a purse that I really did need, and a few other things that were complete impulse buys. I got many comments on the new purse – which was kind of nice. We were given two hours to shop – and honestly, after an hour I was done. I got a coffee at Starbucks (31 Yuan or $ 6.20 Canadian) and bought a shirt for my barista at Starbucks at home. She will love it.
So, those are the things that I forgot on the November 1st day – sorry for all the confusion!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Sunday November 2nd
Today is our final day together as a group – and that makes me sad. As I sit here and write this tonight, we are all winding down for the night – some of us will be heading back to Canada tomorrow and 13 members of the delegation will be staying in China for the post-delegation extension.
Today we got up early and went to the Bund – the waterfront. We got to see that on one side are the heritage buildings, and on the other side of the river are the giant skyscrapers and high rises all built in the last 18 years. It is pretty impressive to see how quickly development can happen – but I personally liked the heritage buildings better.
There was a little tea house on the Bund, and most of us joined them at nine a.m. for a tea ceremony. I don’t think they were used to having such a big group – but it was fun. I learned the difference between green tea, oolong tea, and black tea (green tea is unfermented, oolong is half fermented, and black tea is fully fermented), and got to try several different kinds of tea. My friend Mary came to mind when I was at the tea house – I am bringing her home tea so that she can experience a little bit of China as well.
The highlight of my trip came after we were at the Bund. We visited a neighborhood in Shanghai and had lunch with a Chinese family. It was amazing. First we went to their Senior’s Centre and watched the Granny Chorus – they are between the ages of 71 and 87 and were very interesting to watch. The first group of ladies danced for us in very colorful costumes, followed by the group singing us “The more we get together” in English. They asked us to sing a song, so we sang a portion of the national anthem and then “If you are happy and you know it”. I saw some tears around the room as we finished.
Then we were separated into groups of 8 to go to our lunches. Mr. Ming was the father in our family, and he and his wife are both retired. They live with their son, his wife, and their grandson in a three bedroom, two bathroom condo on the 23rd floor of their building. We were welcomed into their homes with open arms. The meal was fantastic – I think Mr. Ming’s wife cooked about 15 different things for us – my favorite was a spicy chicken dish with peanuts and chilies. Mr. Ming also worked very hard to teach us a little bit of Shanghainese – some of us weren’t such good students (I tried to remember the words, but he spoke so quickly!!!).
After our wonderful lunch, the guides took us to a Chinese Farmer’s market – which was an eye opener for sure. It was a street market, so there were times where scooters were coming through the market like it was an open road. There were animals and body parts that we would never see at home (some cool, some gross), and at the end of the market were live animals (ducks, chickens and pigeons) for people to take home to butcher.
I think the most interesting thing about the market was the fact that meat is just put on the display table for people to buy. Not wrapped, not refrigerated – this may seem unsanitary to us, but it works for the Chinese people. And we noticed that there wasn’t much waste either – pig’s ears and feet are sold here and used in everyday cooking.
We had a few free hours after the market, and I think that people were doing last minute shopping and wandering around Shanghai. I, however, was not. I was napping. In the last day, my feet have swelled up to twice their size – which isn’t making me feel so good. But I wasn’t going to let it stop me from joining everyone for our farewell banquet at 6 p.m.
What an amazing meal and visit that was. Everyone looked beautiful and we had dinner in a hotel on the Bund. They played English music (who would have thought you would listen to Sarah McLaughlin in China), fed us wine (Mom had three glasses) and we got to spend our final evening together (lots of pictures were taken, including a video by Sarah Sark. She put her camera on the lazy susan and twirled the lazy susan around – everyone at her table was laughing about it.
As we said our final goodbyes to the people going on to the extension, we made sure that we were able to keep in touch. Linda Rammage got everyone’s email addresses and will be sending them to us. I am excited to have made so many new professional colleagues as well as so many new friends.
Today we got up early and went to the Bund – the waterfront. We got to see that on one side are the heritage buildings, and on the other side of the river are the giant skyscrapers and high rises all built in the last 18 years. It is pretty impressive to see how quickly development can happen – but I personally liked the heritage buildings better.
There was a little tea house on the Bund, and most of us joined them at nine a.m. for a tea ceremony. I don’t think they were used to having such a big group – but it was fun. I learned the difference between green tea, oolong tea, and black tea (green tea is unfermented, oolong is half fermented, and black tea is fully fermented), and got to try several different kinds of tea. My friend Mary came to mind when I was at the tea house – I am bringing her home tea so that she can experience a little bit of China as well.
The highlight of my trip came after we were at the Bund. We visited a neighborhood in Shanghai and had lunch with a Chinese family. It was amazing. First we went to their Senior’s Centre and watched the Granny Chorus – they are between the ages of 71 and 87 and were very interesting to watch. The first group of ladies danced for us in very colorful costumes, followed by the group singing us “The more we get together” in English. They asked us to sing a song, so we sang a portion of the national anthem and then “If you are happy and you know it”. I saw some tears around the room as we finished.
Then we were separated into groups of 8 to go to our lunches. Mr. Ming was the father in our family, and he and his wife are both retired. They live with their son, his wife, and their grandson in a three bedroom, two bathroom condo on the 23rd floor of their building. We were welcomed into their homes with open arms. The meal was fantastic – I think Mr. Ming’s wife cooked about 15 different things for us – my favorite was a spicy chicken dish with peanuts and chilies. Mr. Ming also worked very hard to teach us a little bit of Shanghainese – some of us weren’t such good students (I tried to remember the words, but he spoke so quickly!!!).
After our wonderful lunch, the guides took us to a Chinese Farmer’s market – which was an eye opener for sure. It was a street market, so there were times where scooters were coming through the market like it was an open road. There were animals and body parts that we would never see at home (some cool, some gross), and at the end of the market were live animals (ducks, chickens and pigeons) for people to take home to butcher.
I think the most interesting thing about the market was the fact that meat is just put on the display table for people to buy. Not wrapped, not refrigerated – this may seem unsanitary to us, but it works for the Chinese people. And we noticed that there wasn’t much waste either – pig’s ears and feet are sold here and used in everyday cooking.
We had a few free hours after the market, and I think that people were doing last minute shopping and wandering around Shanghai. I, however, was not. I was napping. In the last day, my feet have swelled up to twice their size – which isn’t making me feel so good. But I wasn’t going to let it stop me from joining everyone for our farewell banquet at 6 p.m.
What an amazing meal and visit that was. Everyone looked beautiful and we had dinner in a hotel on the Bund. They played English music (who would have thought you would listen to Sarah McLaughlin in China), fed us wine (Mom had three glasses) and we got to spend our final evening together (lots of pictures were taken, including a video by Sarah Sark. She put her camera on the lazy susan and twirled the lazy susan around – everyone at her table was laughing about it.
As we said our final goodbyes to the people going on to the extension, we made sure that we were able to keep in touch. Linda Rammage got everyone’s email addresses and will be sending them to us. I am excited to have made so many new professional colleagues as well as so many new friends.
Saturday November 1
Saturday November 1, 2008
Today was another tiring, amazing and fulfilling day. There are so many things to describe – I don’t even really know where to start! We started our day at the Shanghai Museum – it was opened in 1996 and had four floors of everything you could ever imagine related to Chinese history.
The top floor was minority costumes, furniture from way back when and currency (I didn’t check out the currency section), and the best section in my opinion was the ceramics and pottery section on the second floor. I took hundreds of pictures (again!) and although I didn’t think I was a museum person, I enjoyed the two hours that I spent there.
There was a wonderful gift shop where mom and I got some more souvenir shopping done – and the prices were amazing. Books for Ryan, magnets for me – I am amazed at how little it all cost. After the museum, we all hopped back on the bus to go to our Dim Sum lunch.
Dim Sum in China is much different than it is at home. Here food was still served on the lazy susan in the middle of the table. However, the difference was that many of the dishes were “finger” foods to be picked up with your chopsticks, rather than dishes to be scooped with a spoon. I am not sure if there were other differences, but that was the main one that I noticed.
After lunch we went to the Yuyuan Garden – what an amazing place! Steven shared with us all sorts of history about it - most of which I heard but can’t remember in the right order to put on paper here. But there were many photo opportunities – I was able to get a few pictures of mom and I that I will be printing out for friends and family.
Dinner was on our own last night – Harold, Kathy, Louise, Connie, Mom and I went to the Hong Kong restaurant recommended by Jei. It was a quick walk there, but on the way, Louise engaged one of the street vendors, which was a bit of a humourous situation. He kept chatting with her, and he jokingly said he would wait for us outside the restaurant. He was gone when we came out, but it gave us all a good laugh.
Our dinner was nothing short of excellent (as all of our meals have been on this trip). However, ordering it and eating it was a bit of a challenge. Yes, they had English menus. No, that didn’t really help us much when it came to ordering. All of the foods had a number, and you basically checked off on the order form the items that you wanted. Harold and I were feeling exotic so we ordered duck tongue and pigeon – it turns out Harold is much more adventurous than I am – he ended up eating most of the exotic foods.
After our dinner we took a walk along the shopping street behind our hotel. The street was completely lit up at 9 p.m. and we got to do some toy shopping for my nephews. There were still deals to be had (six big containers of gum for $ 4.00), but the prices were a little more like I had expected in regular stores in China.
Today was another tiring, amazing and fulfilling day. There are so many things to describe – I don’t even really know where to start! We started our day at the Shanghai Museum – it was opened in 1996 and had four floors of everything you could ever imagine related to Chinese history.
The top floor was minority costumes, furniture from way back when and currency (I didn’t check out the currency section), and the best section in my opinion was the ceramics and pottery section on the second floor. I took hundreds of pictures (again!) and although I didn’t think I was a museum person, I enjoyed the two hours that I spent there.
There was a wonderful gift shop where mom and I got some more souvenir shopping done – and the prices were amazing. Books for Ryan, magnets for me – I am amazed at how little it all cost. After the museum, we all hopped back on the bus to go to our Dim Sum lunch.
Dim Sum in China is much different than it is at home. Here food was still served on the lazy susan in the middle of the table. However, the difference was that many of the dishes were “finger” foods to be picked up with your chopsticks, rather than dishes to be scooped with a spoon. I am not sure if there were other differences, but that was the main one that I noticed.
After lunch we went to the Yuyuan Garden – what an amazing place! Steven shared with us all sorts of history about it - most of which I heard but can’t remember in the right order to put on paper here. But there were many photo opportunities – I was able to get a few pictures of mom and I that I will be printing out for friends and family.
Dinner was on our own last night – Harold, Kathy, Louise, Connie, Mom and I went to the Hong Kong restaurant recommended by Jei. It was a quick walk there, but on the way, Louise engaged one of the street vendors, which was a bit of a humourous situation. He kept chatting with her, and he jokingly said he would wait for us outside the restaurant. He was gone when we came out, but it gave us all a good laugh.
Our dinner was nothing short of excellent (as all of our meals have been on this trip). However, ordering it and eating it was a bit of a challenge. Yes, they had English menus. No, that didn’t really help us much when it came to ordering. All of the foods had a number, and you basically checked off on the order form the items that you wanted. Harold and I were feeling exotic so we ordered duck tongue and pigeon – it turns out Harold is much more adventurous than I am – he ended up eating most of the exotic foods.
After our dinner we took a walk along the shopping street behind our hotel. The street was completely lit up at 9 p.m. and we got to do some toy shopping for my nephews. There were still deals to be had (six big containers of gum for $ 4.00), but the prices were a little more like I had expected in regular stores in China.
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