confu, golf, crazy food, holy mountains and sucky cups

Just captions and pictures this time.  Sorry it took so long for an update, I wanted to wait until I had lots of cultural goodies to post. It’s hard to write about how cheap my pedicures are or how we spent our last evening eating foie gras and frog legs with the Sofitel GM in a fancy french restaurant an elevator ride away.

First some introductions.  This is my dad’s support network here in Jinan, his driver Mr. Li and his family.  His wife and children have joined us for tours around the city, several delicious meals and little ‘bing bing’ and 11 year old Kyleen have provided many smiles.  Kyleen is learning english, and we had lots of time to practice.  Mr. Li’s sister is Jade, she has been my dad’s interpreter as her english is good and Mr. Li is just learning.  She has also been a tour guide and good friend so we have spent a lot of time learning about chinese culture with her…including the proper way to get my nails done and feet rubbed. hah!

First real game of the year for Greg and I, dad has been here already a dozen times, I think we did alright but this picture might say otherwise.  If you look close enough I think you can tell that I am mid-curse word as my drive skidded to a stop 20 yards in front of the tee box.  Also please note my huge guns.

Jade had us over to her apartment for a home cooked meal, which was amazing! plus she had a lot of great chinese art work so we had a chance to decide what type of art we wanted to bring back.

Dad helped out with the cooking too, he’s really trying to interrupt the womans role here.

Some street food including crabs on a stick!

Of course with all the culture we’re taking in an afternoon nap was in order.  I think the guys were busy playing chess, and taking pictures of me drooling on the couch.

Greg and I went to climb Taishan Mountain, the most Holy of China’s Taoist mountains.  At least one climb is mandatory for all chinese Taoists and the hike is taken very seriously….all 6,700 stone steps of it. (as if Nepal wasn’t enough we actually chose to do this activity)

Unfortunately we had really terrible weather.  Rain on the way up and fog for our morning sunrise. Bummer, maybe we’ll do it again someday.

When getting married, many chinese hike up Taishan to bring a lock as it will bring good luck to their marriage.  I saw Greg lingering by the locks, then I saw a bolt cutter…hmmmm

Of course, on this, the most pampered leg of our journy, we even had a good connection waiting for us on top of the mountain, Mr. Zhang.  He met us at the top, brought us to our hotel and ordered us lunch.  Mr. Zhang then gave us a tour of the mountain and joined us for dinner.  He practiced his english with us and we really were grateful to have him share his time with us. This is pig’s foot btw.

We woke for our famous sunrise opportunity and found thick fog and heavy winds.  No sun for us 😦

Imagine a gong ringing in the distance and war cries of tourists echoing around the blind bend of the mountain. And then you can imagine why Greg thought we were walking into an ancient battle.

The mountain is littered with many painted stones.

Mr. Zhang giving us our fair well as we get ready to walk down the mountain.

We just loooove the stone stairs.

Ridin first class

One of my favorites – the hotpot.  Sooo good.

I guess I could have given warning before the pictures….but, after the foot massages at around midnight I decided to get a suction cup type massage. It hurt and I now have big bruises.  Of course I made Greg do it too, but I think I have looser skin or something because my back is much more knarly

This is an hour later.  Also sweet Lee jeans right? Rhinstone incrusted too. Awesome.

Jinan is the ‘City of Springs’ with close to 100 springs bursting up around the city.  This creates canals and lakes, the perfect place to build many city parks.

This housboat on the main canal is also a teahouse, we had great tea there but had a hard time finding a spoon to stir the sugar.

Onto Qufu, the home of Confucius.  We visited temples, his home and his grave…along with hundreds of other chinese tourists.

Women step with the right, men with the left. And no stepping on the doorjam. I tried to fake out Mr. Li a few times and I think insulted some Chinese people in the mean time. oops.

Greg was looking for confucius, he wanted to have a ‘beard-off’. 

More good food, all this food is for 7 people.  And a huge pot of fish soup followed the meal.  It’s insane how much we eat here.

The gang leaving Qufu, including James and Maggie, two students here in Jinan who majored in English.  They found my dad and befriended him many months ago.  James has showed my dad many gems around Jinan and they both took us to an amazing dinner one night.  Their english is nearly perfect so having them on our Qufu trip was super helpful.

 

Greg and I are catching a night train in a few hours heading to Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors and the city itself.  From there we go straight to Beijing to finish out our trip.    My dad and Jade are joining in Xian where surprise surprise we’re staying at another Sofitel…saweeet…  and Jade might join us in Beijing where she has friends and of course the amazing skill or ordering the most delicious food for us.

Also, you can see more pics if you click on any of the above pictures – it will take you to my webalbum.

~ by kmdingman on April 16, 2009.