Still day 2 (1st in China) - Dinner

We arrived at our hotel, checked in, then went to dinner.  Our hotel was the Shanghai YMCA Hotel.  It was beautiful.  We went to a beautiful restaurant.  It had a fountain with koi in the entrance, fish tanks with live fish for purchase, a huge chandelier in the main dining room, and private dining rooms to which we were led. We used two rooms with the sliding doors in between open.  The tables had glass turntables in the middle.  The staff put a variety of dishes on the turntable throughout the night.  Whenever we thought we were done, yet another dish would appear.  Apparently, this is a Chinese tradition, to have a multitude of small dishes from which everyone gets a few bites.  The number of dishes greatly increases with guests.  Real Chinese food is nothing like what we eat in the U.S.  In fact, it is a joke to them.  I liked most of the food, although it did disturb me that they serve all parts of the animals.  Chinese etiquette:  never touch any food with your fingers, don't dig in the dishes for the parts you want - take what's in front of you, and eat everything you put on your plate, except for bones.  They put very small plates in front of you, like a cake plate.  You serve yourself a bite or two from the dishes you want as they turn to you.  The person in the seat facing the door is reserved for the host or honored person.  This person should serve themselves first from the dishes.  They don't always give you napkins, and when they do, they are very small and often just Kleenex.  Apparently the Chinese people are much neater eaters than we are.  We were in for a shock when we used the ladies room (if you are ever there, ask for the toilet).  The toilet didn't have a seat - just the bowl.  We were in for much bigger toilet shocks in the next couple weeks.

In the back room: Pat in the jacket with the blue collar, Joy whose face you can see, and Yarla sitting with her back to us. In this room: Soo on the left and Marilyn on the right.

In the back room:  Yarla on left and Tanya.  In this room from left:  Christina, Xiaoling (standing), Soo, Marilyn, Christal (waving) and Neva.  You can see the turntable in the middle.  The ceramic container in the middle is a covered toothpick holder.  Note the ashtray - the restaurants are all smoking as well as the hotel rooms.  There were ashtrays in the lobbies, by the elevators, on our dining tables, in our rooms.

 The little octagonal cup is a teacup.  We used the rectangular dish to eat off, but after going to other restaurants, I'm betting it's where a washcloth was supposed to rest, and the plate under the cup was our eating plate.  They served green tea every where we went but the type varied.  We had Chamomile, Oolong, Jasmine, and who knows.  All I served without sweetener of any kind.

My plate with my first serving.  The cucumber has a creamy sauce and a shrimp, the front dish has mushrooms and vegetables, and in back is pork.  All of this food was really good - I ate more mushrooms in China than I have in my whole life I think.

Clockwise from the teapot:  the mushroom dish from my plate, tofu, sliced mushrooms (it's one huge mushroom), the pork, boiled shrimp, and the cucumber/shrimp dish.

The dish in front is not worms - it is tofu and green bell peppers and the one to its left was pork and red bell peppers, the center dish was mushrooms and a vegetable they called a radish (its a long root vegetable nothing like a salad radish).

The toilet had no seat!

In the front of the restaurant, they sold live fish.  Much fresher than our fish at the supermarket!

There were bicycles, scooters and motor cycles everywhere we went.  We frequently saw them loaded down like this.  Sorry for the blurry picture, but it's something you have to see to believe.

First impressions - airport to hotel

I expected all the signs to be in Chinese, but experiencing it was discomfiting and exciting. Some had English too, but not most. I was amazed by the amount of people who could speak English  The drive in from the Shanghai airport to the YMCA hotel was about an hour. There are a lot of apartment buildings and most of them are skyscrapers. The homes and buildings are packed together, but there are farms in there too. The farmers live in apartments. The yellow crop is rice almost ready to harvest. In the city, the skyscrapers were beautiful and fascinating. The one that looks like a bottle opener is 6 knives (3 pointing up, 3 down). It was designed in Japan. Many of the skyscrapers were built in the last 20 years.

My first impressions are that Shanghai the variety seen in America are stirred together - they ramshackle, old and new are side by side.  The farms, apartments and offices are mixed together.  The city doesn't appear any more spread out than Atlanta, but it holds 24 million people by stacking them into the sky.  It is very noisy and cars honking constantly - the traffic makes Atlanta and Chicago traffic look tame.  Cars frequently create lanes where there are none and change lanes regardless of who's already in them.  There are plants and flowers and trees everywhere - Shanghai is greener than Atlanta and Savannah.  The greenery is in parks, medians, balconies, roof tops, medians, hanging off bridges, in corners everywhere.

A Chinese sign at the Shanghai airport seen from our bus

Chinese traffic signs

Rice field ready for harvest

More crops

Shanghai on the skyline

Shanghai skyline

Towers from the electrical power plant out of picture on left

Natural gas plant (notice white globes)

Apartments on way to downtown Shanghai.  Marilyn (left) and Christal (right)

Apartment buildings

More apartments - the aqua is a barrier on highway

More apartments under construction - the far right has a little of Tanya's face

The tricolor building are apartments, the others are under construction

Branch of the Yangtze River

Looking up at bridge as we cross river

Looking back at the bridge we just crossed

Cool building

Another cool building

Office building - another cool building in back on left - notice planters hanging off highway

 

Skyscrapers, including World Finance Center (bottle opener)

Lotus Flower Tower

The Pearl TV Tower

Gold roof

Cool skyscraper

Apartment buildings

Apartment building with the blue is cool

Old apartment buildings mixed in with new

Large apartment buildings

More apartments

Old apartments in front of apartments under construction

And more apartments - they were everywhere

Plants in the median - the Chinese people plant greenery in every nook and cranny

Flight to Shanghai

I didn't sleep well in Chicago - I kept starting awake convinced I had overslept and been left! I did get up and ready in time. We had a buffet breakfast - but where the grits were supposed to be was corned beef hash. Lucky I love it (though not as much as grits) - add a little Tabasco and yum! We caught the shuttle to the airport - much easier since Xiaoling, our partner and guide is in the million mile club. He works for Global Ministries and the United Church of Christ and he made sure we went and did the things we were supposed to do. My passport/visa was checked 3 times. Everything was pretty much the same except once we hit the gate all instructions were repeated in Chinese. I had a middle seat but luckily, the seat next to me was vacant so I could sit on the aisle. This plane had video screens in each seat so we could make individual selections. I finally got to see Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer and Dark Shadows - both were very good. I also listened to part of a Dexter audiobook. I was very uncomfortable even though I did have leg room and my seat leaned back. I walked a little and stood a little, both helped. The flight was a very long 14 hours.

My roommate Lonna

Listening to Dexter, Darkly Dreaming on Audiobooks

Christina watching the latest Ice Age movie

My dinner - Chicken & rice

The Journey Begins

I am on the first day of my two week journey in China. This is a Woman to Woman Worldwide mission through Disciple Women's Ministries and Global Ministries, a joint partnership between the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ. I attend Sanctuary Christian Church, a Disciples church. Woman to Woman Worldwide is a program that responds to the call of Christ for women in the church to experience solidarity with one another, to affirm the unity of the church of Jesus Christ and to join the common struggle for justice and peace in the world.

My mother and I left Warner Robins this morning at 4:15 am and arrived at the Atlanta airport at 5:45. I haven't flown since 9/11, so a lot has changed. When I checked in, the computers now face out for self service, and the clerks offer assistance. I just swiped my debit card and it found my information! Another surprise, the airfare didn't cover checking bags - there went another $25.

Security wasn't as scary as I expected, but everyone does have to take off their shoes and belts. Another odd thing, there are no airline employees anywhere unless absolutely necessary. They were at check in, security, and the boarding doorway. There are information desks and the like everywhere, but no one is there! I had a to figure out where to get my baggage by myself. Luckily, the emails about our trip mentioned the free shuttle. I had to go to a desk offering paid shuttles to find out where to go. I had to leave the terminal and walk a little ways to the unmarked, unmanned area where the hotel shuttles are. I finally had to Google the hotel and call them for instructions! Thank God I have an iPhone.

I had time for a 1 hour nap before our luncheon. The food was really good at this hotel. I had chicken Armani - spinach, artichokes, capers. It is really nice to be with these ladies - I knew several of the faces from Facebook. We learned about this mission, people sponsoring, what is expected of us. We have a Chinese partner and guide who made our itinerary and arrangements around that. I now know how to say toilet in Chinese! Ladies came from a church in Arlington Heights and commissioned us. The beautiful lady in pink in the photo is Katheryne Smith (I don't know her spelling) The gave us cloth scarves someone made - mine is a beautiful green print. I am so excited - I will be on a plane to china in 5.5 hours!!

Atlanta from the air

O'Hare airport

Automatic seat covers at O'Hare - so cool.

My shuttle driver to the Sheraton - O'Hare Four Points

My hotel room - the water says free

The ladies who commissioned us, and our own Christal -she is the second from the left.  Katheryne Smith is the 2nd from the right.