Today is Wednesday...we have had two beautiful days in a row. By beautiful days I mean that the sky is blue and we can see white fluffy clouds. The smog has been blown somewhere else and it is very nice to see our river view again. Today is a three + bridge day!!! The temperature is still hot and muggy but not as bad as before we left for Beijing. The kids are having fun exploring Shanghai and shopping. Today....I decided to stay home and "veg" for a while. Xiao Zhang is sick today so I will have to make dinner....hmmmmm....I wonder if I still can???

My new Chinese teacher is very cute. She is the same age as Tucker and Kim....so....guess what?....I could be her mother. This weeks lesson is all about getting your hair cut....too bad I did not have this lesson 5 months ago.....it may have saved a lot of trouble.

We are having some trouble with Mr. Zhang. It seems he has been using the car for "personal" activities which is totally against the contract that we have with our car company. This was reported to his boss and now he is in a very bad mood. He seems to be going out of his way to make things more difficult for us...i.e....taking the longest way to our destination, not answering his phone when we call him, does not acknowledge when we speak to him....etc. This is a cultural thing that is a very big pain to deal with. We are all a bit frustrated with him. I just want to say...SNAP OUT OF IT!!!! I am afraid if he does not change his attitude we will be getting an new driver......aaaarrrrggggg!!!

Abi has been spending the past two days rearranging her room and getting herself organized to go back to school....yes...she starts school next Wednesday. I think she will be finished with her summer reading Tuesday night....ha ha.. No need to rush into anything!!!

Here are some pictures from last Friday : The Great Wall and The Old City

The Great Wall.....and Wow is it ever Great....It exceeded my expectations

Kim and Tucker with The Great Wall in the background

In the market at the bottom of The Great Wall

The Spoffords hiking the wall

Some factoids about the wall.... the wall is 6000 kilometers long....which means that it could span the US from Coast to Coast. The Wall was never conquered....but it was once "over taken". A General was bribed to let warriors pass through without a battle.


Tucker and Abi at the Wall

The country view is absolutely beautiful from the wall.



This is one way to get down off the wall. Abi, Tucker and Tim took this way.....Kim and I took the chair lift down.

Abi at the bottom of the wall
.... The market place at the bottom of the Wall


On our way back to the city we stopped for lunch. Tim caught a trout and it was BBQ'ed for us on the spot.....now that is fresh fish!


Waiting for our fish to be cooked

After lunch we went into the old part of Beijing and took a rickshaw ride through the streets. We stopped at a home an visited with a local family

Abi in the rickshaw

Walking through the market in the Old City.

Ahhhhhhh.....we found a Starbucks. Nothing like a cold drink when you are tired of "touring".

Next Stop.....dinner at the home of a local family. We visited another local family that made dinner for us. It was really very good how ever we could not identify everything on the table. Specifically the yellowish squares with Chinese characters stamped on it. Tim decided to try it and then Kim said it was probably soap....we all cracked up and had much discussion about what the Chinese family thought about us eating the "soap"....

Tim laughing about eating the soap....we all had tears running down out faces we were laughing so hard.

Dinner in the Hu tang (old city area) of Beijing.

Dumplings....Can you tell which one was made by the expert and which ones were made by the "Americans"?

This is our dinner host showing us how to make dim sum....Dumplings

Tucker making dumplings...

Abi making dumplings. This is a very important part of the Chinese New Year Celebration. Each family gets together on the Eve of the New Year and make dumplings. All generations and genders participate in this tradition. Each family has a "special" recipe for what is put in the middle of the dumpling.

Okay...this is my third attempt to get these pictures uploaded. It took most of the evening to load them one at a time....very slow.....Anyway...here are the highlights of our tour on Thursday... Abi standing in front of one of the dragons guarding the gate to Tian'anMen Square. There are two dragons...one male and one female. Abi is standing in front of the male dragon.....we know this because his paw is holding a ball...this means power. The female dragon has a little baby dragon under her paw which symbioses future generations... We learned that every little detail in the Chinese culture has symbolic meaning....including Feng Shui design in the construction of the city.

Tucker and Kim in front of the gate at Tian'anMen Square.

Abi getting a medical exam from one of the doctors at the old pharmacy. This pharmacy was responsible for the royal family....none of the common people could be treated here. The recipes for the herbal treatments date back.....well....lets just say forever!!!!

Count down to the Olympics

Clocks like this are placed all over the city....you can really feel the excitement of the 2008 games that will be held in Beijing.

This is a structure that is being built in Tian'anMen Square for the National Holiday in October. The dark vertical figures are workmen. They are passing pieces of the structure piece by piece from the bottom to the top.

Whaz sup??

The gang in the Forbidden City. The forbidden city is huge!!! Why is it forbidden you ask??? It only for the Royal family....only very high ranking officials were allowed into the city.

Our lunch restaurant

Anny (our guide) ordering lunch

Lunch time....we ate cold noodles. The noodles were in a bowl and we added fresh vegetables and "soy bean jelly stuff " to the noodles to add flavor. This was not our favorite meal but it was a fun cultural experience.

This is the lake at The Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was built by a greedy, selfish, evil women. She lived a life of glutton while the rest of her county was starving. The Chinese people are ashamed to say her name so we are now calling her...... She-who-shall-not-be named (taken from Harry Potter). She stole money and cheated everyone and anyone she could. Her son, who was very young was the emperor and she controlled the power from "behind the curtain". When her son died at age 18, she appointed another very young emperor (age 3) so she continued to have all power. This emperor was said to be sympathetic to the common people and so She-who-shall-not-be-named but him in the Royal jail. This was kept a secret from the country. The young emperor waited and waited for her to die so he could help the people....but...he died mysteriously a few hours before S-w-s-n-b-named. It is said that she arranged for him to be poisoned before died. China has such interesting history!!!

Crazy Kids!!!

We drove by the Olympic Village....it is still under construction

The large squarish building in the background is
"The Cube" where all the swimming events will be held.

This is "The Birds Nest"....built for the opening ceremonies

Housing for the athletes

Okay....It is taking forever to upload pictures through the Internet in our hotel....I finally got some of yesterdays pictures uploaded and just finished writing when....KAZAM...it all just disappeared!!!!!!!!!! AARRGGGG!!!!!!!! So...a short recap of our past two days..... Yesterday we went to Tian'anMen Square, The Forbidden City, and The Summer Palace. Today we saw the Great Wall....WOW!!!....and took a rickshaw tour through the old city of Beijing, learned how to make dumplings, and eat dinner in a local families home...all very fun activities.

Stay tuned for pictures.....

Kim arrived right on time.....she made it through customs with no problem....Yippee!!! We took her back to the hotel for a quick shower and then off to Peking Duck Dinner.... Abi showing us her mad chopstick skills by picking up two peanuts at one time

Tucker practicing his chopstick skills

Here is the duck!!!

Our tour guide showing us how to eat Peking Duck

This was the best Chinese food I have eaten since we arrived in China

To Beijing
Tuesday Evening…

Going to the train Station:
We really were not sure what to expect as we arrived at the train station this evening. While we have been living in China we have discovered that some times we assume certain things and don’t really even know the right questions to ask. Lucky for us a friend has taken the train before and gave us some pointers. One of the most important…..the bathrooms are closed while the train is in the station and continue to remain closed for ½ hour after departure…I won’t go into the details around this rule…but the same rule applies when you are approaching your destination. This is the type of information that is “good to know”!!!

The train station in Shanghai.

At the train station:
Lesson 1 and "Note to self": No need to arrive early next time....good thing we brought books and cards...

Playing cards while we wait for the train

We are really not sure what this sign means??? Maybe....buy your ticket here if the train station is closed??? That is our best guess.

Got bored with the cards....moved on to drawing little creatures in their sketch books.

After boarding the train:
We are pleasantly surprised about our “home on the train”. It is very cozy (translation: very small) and very clean and smoke free (except for certain areas that have good ventilation). I am so happy!!! The kids explored the other cabins and discovered a little restaurant in car #9 where you can watch the cooks prepare food. Tucker said he would never eat there…..so….we are happy that we brought snacks. In fact we happen to have a bottle of wine, cheese and crackers, and plenty of chocolate. What more could you ask for??? We are all settle into our bunks and about to watch a movie on the computer.

Our reflection in the mirror that is hanging on the door of our train car.

Abi on her upper bunk

Picture from the upper bunk

Cozy train car....

Our train car was equipped with slippers....Tim's were a little too small.....imagine that!!

Next Morning:
Most of us slept pretty well last night.....the beds are a little narrow but overall comfortable. Tim and I ordered coffee to be delivered at 6:00am this morning....we were really looking forward to a cup of Java.....but...it was really bad coffee... I took the first drink and everyone else enjoyed the sour face I made as I tried to swallow... nasty nasty coffee.. Next time we will order tea.

Tucker told us this morning that he called Kim while she was in San Francisco (1:00 am Shanghai Time) and she told him that someone had stolen her wallet somewhere between Portland and San Francisco. Luckily she still has her passport so she will have no problems getting into China.
Train Station in Beijing

Our tour guide for Beijing happened to be in Shanghai this week and was returning to Beijing on the same train...same car too...so just before we rolled into the station she came to our "room" and introduced herself. We followed her out of the train, through the station, and to the tour van.

Lesson 2: You need your train ticket to get out of the train station....oops!!! We left ours on the train. Who Knew? Lucky for us...Tim remembered that our travel agent made a photo copy of all the tickets and we used that to exit the station. The sky is blue and the temperature is bearable.

Our hotel is close to the train station and everyone is taking a shower and putting on fresh clothing. We will explore the area around the hotel until it is time to get Kim from the airport.

After Showers:

Tim and Abi went exploring and found that our hotel has a beautiful swimming pool, a Starbucks AND a Subway. We may never leave the hotel...