Our Prenatal Adventure in China: Part III

This is part III of a series.  Click here to read from the beginning.  We are behind in posting updates on our prenatal care, so expect another one soon!

During my first successful prenatal visit in Ningbo, a few of the blood tests the doctor wanted me to get had to be done while fasting (i.e. before breakfast).  They asked me if I would stay overnight in a hotel and come the next morning.  Seriously.  I told them no way, I had a baby at home and, to be honest, I never had a prenatal blood test in the U.S. that required fasting and wasn’t sure these blood tests were even necessary.  I also didn’t have my passport with me, and if you stay overnight anywhere other than your residence, you have to register your passport with the police.  After I refused, the English speaking nurse said, “oh, then just get these ones done at the Sanmen Hospital and bring the results next time.”  Wait, you wanted me to stay overnight to have a blood test done that I can just have done locally?  They scribbled the test names on to a scrap of paper and told me to give it to the other hospital.

Knowing from past experience that just walking into a Chinese hospital is not feasible for foreigners, I sent an e-mail to our site doctor.  There is always a doctor available here on site 24 hours a day – and they have office hours during the day.  However, they have limited equipment available to them, their training is sometimes suspect, and the normal diagnosis (for anything from a cough to a fever) is usually, “you should go to Shanghai for this.” 

So I just sent an e-mail to the site doctor with a scan of the blood tests they wanted done locally and asked him how to navigate the Sanmen hospital.  He was actually very helpful.  He wrote out step-by-step directions in English and Mandarin and even offered to go with me.  I declined though, since I knew our ayi would be with us.  Mark also decided he wanted to see a Chinese hospital so he came along too.

The Sanmen People’s Hospital is about 40 minutes away from where we live.  We rode the normal Tuesday morning bus into town which is provided weekly for the spouses of the expat employees.  When we get to the hospital, there are people with severe injuries roaming around.  We have to sidestep some puke to get through the door – and we know it didn’t just happen.  Obvious things like that are left to sit while workers do other meaningless duties like sweep leaves.

Our ayi was armed with the directions from the site doctor and went up to the head nurses station as instructed.  However, the head nurse started arguing with her.  Soon we were told (via our electronic translator) that they couldn’t help me.  Knowing that wasn’t supposed to be the case, I ran outside and called the site doctor.  I then handed the phone to our ayi who passed it on to the head nurse.  Apparently he straightened things out, because soon after that I had my registration book (again, my name is “Hui Li”) and was sent upstairs.  We think the problem may have been that they thought I should go to Ningbo for this stuff since that’s who was doing my prenatal care?  We’re not really sure.  Everything else was quick.  The blood draw was efficient and we were on our way – told to pick up the results around 2PM.  Our bus back to the site was at 11:30AM though, so LiLi and I had to be driven back to the hospital just to grab the results later that afternoon.  Yes, a bit annoying, but a lot less so than going all the way to Ningbo!

We now know for sure that we’re glad we’re not delivering at the Sanmen Hospital.  The place is run like a bus station and the overall feeling is “dirty”.  While Ningbo isn’t much better in some regards, they are better equipped to deal with emergencies.

The flow sheet Mark’s HR department gave us on what to do if we have a medical emergency actually tells you to only go to Sanmen to be stabilized in a “dire emergency” and refer to it as a “borderline” hospital.  You should then be transferred immediately to Ningbo (or preferably Shanghai).  They are too overcrowded and under sanitized.  They are okay for x-rays, ultrasounds, lab tests, and imaging though.  Most of the Ningbo hospitals don’t fare much better in the analysis, but the hospital we are going to for my prenatal care is listed as “acceptable” and it says “It would be possible for an expat woman to safely deliver at this hospital.”

What an adventure!


Read Part IV

Our Chinese Puppy

Before we came to China, we were told that no pets were allowed in our company provided housing.  However, once on the ground, the reality was quite different.  Several people brought cats with them and a few even brought dogs from the U.S.  We were quite disappointed we had left ours behind unnecessarily.  Our beloved dog Ilsa, who went to live with Vicki’s family, actually passed away from a stomach tumor six weeks after we left.  She was nearly 11 years old.  However, this meant we now no longer had a dog to come home to.

If you know us, being petless – and especially dogless - is quite unusual.  There are a lot of stray dogs here, but we couldn’t even pet them for fear of diseases (Rabies is the very unlikely but very deadly fear).  And dogs are one of LiLi’s favorite animals.  “Dog” was even LiLi’s first word, though she quickly cashed it in for “what’s that?”  Mark insists that Vicki was dropping hints about intending to get another dog soon, though she insists that is not true.  She was just lamenting the sadness of our situation (e.g. “I’m so sad LiLi doesn’t have a pet to love.”).

About two month ago, Mark asked, “so, when are we getting a dog?”  Not actually thinking that was an option, Vicki was ecstatic, and quickly researched the laws on bringing a dog back to the U.S.  We were not going to abandon a dog in China after a couple years.  We were surprised to find that the laws were actually no different than if we had brought a pet with us.  The animal just needed to be appropriately vaccinated, etc. to enter the U.S.  Vicki even found a veterinarian we could use in Ningbo (2 hours away) that was recommended on an expat forum.  With that hurdle cleared, we started formulating our puppy acquisition plan.

Vicki read several horror stories online of expats who ended up with sickly Chinese puppies that would die after a few days.  However, those stories all seemed like the buyers fault (or at least Vicki knows enough to avoid the issues the others ran into).  Seriously, who buys a very young , lethargic puppy from a cage on a street corner?  Of course it is likely to have parvovirus.  We’ve actually only seen puppies being sold around us one time – in the local marketplace (and they were little, lethargic, and sickly looking).  Those puppies were being peddled for 120 RMB (less than $20).  Convinced of Vicki’s ability to differentiate a sick puppy from a healthy one, we decided that the best plan was to actually get a street dog – not one from a pet store or a marketplace – since there are no animal shelters here.

Since dogs aren’t really pets here still, we had to buy dog supplies in Ningbo.  So Vicki purchased our puppy supplies about 6 weeks ago: leash & collar, puppy food, treats, bowls, puppy shampoo, nail clippers, and a brush.  Until we got our puppy, LiLi had practiced walking her stuffed dog with the leash and collar.

We then did several puppy reconnaissance missions.  While riding the tandem through local villages we always see lots of dogs, and often puppies too.  We always assumed them to just be strays, but when we started watching closer, we realized the dogs did have homes, just very indifferent owners.  The dogs may be given scraps, but certainly not fed.  We decided to needed to do puppy reconnaissance missions first to see 1) what was available; 2) how friendly the puppies were; and 3) what the process might be for getting a puppy (just swipe one or negotiate)?

On our first puppy reconnaissance mission, we wrap the corner into the first target village, and there is a puppy standing on the side of the road playing with a large piece of plastic.  Then a moment later, a village woman hit the dog on the head with a stick.  Horrified, we stop to see what is going on.  We called the puppy over to us and it was actually very friendly.  Vicki even picked it up – at which point the lady who had been beating it and then giving us the evil eye when we stopped, began talking in a really shrill (nearly howling) manner, came over, took it out of Vicki’s arms, and threw it inside her house.  Apparently it was her dog.

We learned from that first puppy search that there were puppies out there that fit what we wanted, they were largely friendly, and even though indifferent at best, the dogs did have “owners” and we should negotiate for a puppy.  We also decided that we couldn’t settle on an older puppy, because we wanted to do the socialization – not have a lady with a stick doing it.  It is also important to note that this one woman is the only person we have seen being cruel to a dog.  Everyone else just seems to indifferently coexist with them.

On a solo ride Mark did with LiLi, he spotted some other puppies he thought might fit what we wanted.  So last weekend, finally ready to actually obtain a dog, we went out with our dog acquisition supplies: a backpack, leash & collar, 350 RMB (~$50), our electronic translator, and a couple pictures of LiLi with our old dog Ilsa (to show we wanted a pet dog).  It was about an hour bike ride out to the spot he had seen them the week before, but this time they were not out.  So we decided to go explore some other local villages and then loop back to this same spot.  Still no luck.  We were now riding backwards on the loop we usually do, so we ended up missing our right hand turn.  We decided to ride it out and just see where this ended up.  And that is when we found our puppy.

We were in a rural area comprised largely of fish farms (they grow fish (or crabs) in ponds).  When we rode up to this area, there were two adult dogs and three puppies in the middle of the road.  We decided to stop and take a video of them (LiLi loves to watch videos of dogs), hoping the barking mother (and other adult female dog) would bring someone out of the house.  But no one came out.  We didn’t want to just swipe a puppy – plus we didn’t really have a means of doing so.  The mother (who looked like a small white/silver German Shepherd) probably wouldn’t just let a stranger grab her puppy.  The mama dog tried to lead the puppies away, and two followed her for a bit.  One stayed back at the house though (and started to come to us when coaxed), so the mom and the other puppies had to loop back.

Just when we were about to give up and leave, a man came walking in from amongst the fish ponds.  He was talking on his cell phone and didn’t seem to care about our presence.  He hung up the phone and went to get on the scooter parked in front of the house with the dogs.  Mark quickly asked, “Nǐde gǒu ma?” (Your dogs?).  The man affirmed that they were.  Mark told him they were cute and then the man realized we might want one.  So he said to us, “Wǒ sòng nǐ yīgè” (I send one with you).  Mark quickly realized he was offering a puppy to us and asked how much, but the man said it does not matter (Méiguānxì).  The man went and grabbed a sack up at the house, went to grab one puppy (the least cute of the bunch – but closest one to him), and Mark asked if we could have one of the other ones.  He then grabbed our puppy by the scruff and deposited him in the sack.  Apparently being difficult gift recipients, we asked if the other one was a girl (since we knew the first two were males), so the guy checked quickly, but all three were males.  They guy handed us the sack with the puppy, refused the money we tried to give him, jumped on his scooter, and left.  At least this gave us a moment to inspect the puppy ourselves.  He seemed friendly enough (though likely had never actually been touched before being thrown in the sack).  Vicki did a quick health assessment and deemed him good.  Even though we wanted a female, we decided a male was ok, particularly since he will be neutered ASAP.  That meant we now had a puppy.

We put the sack in the backpack and rolled down the edges of it.  Vicki then wore the backpack on her front so she could keep an eye on the puppy as we pedaled home.  The puppy quickly fell asleep and didn’t seem to mind being in a sack in a backpack on a bicycle at all.  This was still a new way home for us, so we didn’t actually know how far we had to go!  It ended up being a 45 min. ride home after getting the puppy – and nearly a four hour ride in total.

When we got back to the apartment, before heading upstairs, we asked her if she remembered what Mama had in the backpack.  She immediately started squealing “dog, dog, dog!”  She has a good memory.

When we let him go in the house, LiLi immediately started gathering toys to try to share with the puppy.  Smelling like a fish farm, we gave the little guy a bath, which he handled quite well.  We named him Jiǎozi (Jee-ow-zi), which means “dumpling” in Mandarin.  It actually makes for a fun tongue twister when we want to tell someone his name, because the sentence is “Tā jiào xiǎo jiǎozi” (He is called little dumpling).

Despite likely lacking in human socialization, this little guy is turning out to be a rock solid puppy.  He loves to be cuddled, is great with LiLi (who, in turn, is awesome with him), and is even working hard on his potty training.  He hasn’t seemed to miss life on the street at all, particularly when cuddled up in our bed.  LiLi loves “dog” (as she calls him).  She likes to read to him and share her toys with him.  They are the best of friends.

The videos are of when we first arrived home with the puppy.

Our Prenatal Adventure in China: Part II

This is part II of a series.  Click here to read from the beginning.

My second attempt at a Ningbo prenatal visit was much more successful.  I took the train so I wouldn’t have to stress about catching the bus home – and scheduled my return train ticket for well into the evening.  When I arrived at the hospital, I called the VIP clinic to alert them to my arrival and was asked which entrance I was at.  I had no idea.  The only Chinese character I could recognize was mén, which just means door!  It seemed to be the most non-emergency main entrance though, so I was quickly found.  To be honest, it would have been a lot simpler had they just told me to go to the 5^th floor and follow the signs that say “special requirement clinic” – their Chinglish for VIP Clinic, which was literally 15 feet from where I was last time.

Instead of having to do the registration process myself this time, a nurse from the VIP clinic does it for me – for $10.  That $10 then gives me the VIP status that bumps me to the front of every line.  From my last failed visit, I already had my Ningbo Universal Outpatient Case History book and card.  Medical records in this city are electronic, carried by you on your card.  Any hospital in China can access my records were I to drop in.  For all China lacks on, this is quite advanced compared to the U.S. system!  Anyway, the nurse who took my card to register me came back a bit confused – “Is your name Hui Li?”  Why yes, it is.  At least at your hospital! 

The one nurse, who spoke exceptional English and is also from Sanmen, then took me over to the maternal clinic to the next room.  Since I was a VIP, I didn’t need to wait for my number to be called this time.  We walked right in and sat in a room with three other patients.  The woman at the desk took my card, had the nurse translate some questions (e.g. When was your last period? Have you ever had a baby before?  Was it a vaginal delivery?  How old is that baby?) and she entered stuff into the system.  The woman at the computer than scratched some notes into my medical book, swiped my card to record the information she had entered into the computer, and we were on our way.  It was only after we left that the nurse told me I had just met with the doctor.  “What?  The woman at the computer was the doctor?”  Yeah, not quite the U.S. for sure!  Apparently during that brief meeting with the doctor though, she had ordered several blood tests, a urine test, and an ultrasound for me. 

Next, we went down to the second floor and wound our way through a mass of pregnant women standing in a narrow hallway.  When we reached the door, the nurse peaked in and asked if we could come in.  We were ushered right in and I was now the next patient in line for my ultrasound.  Having always been a person who follows the rules and never cuts lines, I must say I felt really guilty for jumping in front of all of those other women waiting in a hot, narrow hallway.  However, without my VIP status I would have to go to Shanghai since there was no way for me to navigate this system without special treatment.

The ultrasound room had three stations separated by curtains that weren’t pulled.  I was told to get on the table, had the jelly put on my belly, the ultrasound tech confirmed I was pregnant and 11 weeks along (spot on with what I told them), and then had to hurry and wipe off my belly – “next patient!”  I was seriously on the table less than 30 seconds.  The way they have the ultrasound equipment set up it is pretty impossible for the woman to even see the screen, and since they aren’t private rooms, the fathers aren’t allowed in.  What a medicalized process.  They do print off an ultrasound picture for you though, which was amongst the worst I’ve ever seen (considering I was 11 weeks).

Next, my nurse guide told me was the urine sample.  She brought me to a public restroom, handed me the cup, and offered to hold my backpack for me.  I’m pretty proficient at using squat toilets, but forgot to grab my toilet paper from my backpack before I went into the bathroom.  It is rare for a public toilet to provide any toilet paper – apparently even at a hospital.  The cleanliness of the bathroom was comparable to a dirty bathroom at a gas station – you know, the ones you try to avoid.  When I walked in, the stalls were all full.  And in one, there was a woman trying to help another person get a stool sample.  That person missed the toilet stall altogether on their way in – there was a diarrhea trail into that one.  And then the woman helping that poor soul had several cups lined up on the floor where she was gathering additional stool samples.  Crazy.  If you’re female and have ever given a urine sample in the States, you know how the nurses have to explain to you in detail every time how to get a “clean catch” when they hand you the cup and three sterile wet wipes.  It was such an ironic contrast to be standing in a bathroom holding an urine sample cup and have no wipes (or toilet paper in general) or even instructions on a “clean catch” and be trying to not look at the diarrhea trail as I waited for a cleaner stall.

After that, all that was left was the blood draw.  This was quick and good.  Interestingly, the phlebotomists here don’t change their gloves between patients.  Apparently they wear them to protect themselves – not you.

With that, I was on my way home, told on the way out to just call again a few days before I wanted to come for my 16 week checkup.  Although I only had a crappy ultrasound picture of our “little mite” in my backpack, I still had a sense of satisfaction that I had successfully navigated a Chinese hospital and was told I had a normal baby.  Yes, I had to pay out of pocket and then be reimbursed by our insurance company, but the total cost for that visit was less than $40.  And that included the fee for an ultrasound.  Despite all of the oddities, since I don’t think a medicalized birth is necessary, I figured this place would be sufficient for at least my prenatal care – we’re still deciding on where to have the actual birth.

Read Part III

Linhai

Rice combine

We’ve been meaning to make it to Linhai for some time now, but hadn’t found the time.  Linhai is 70K away (80K by bike) and has what is known as the “southern great wall of China”.  Finally taking initiative, Vicki booked a hotel room and put together some GPS tracks – successfully getting accurate tracks by making a map in Google Maps, overlaying it on satellite images in Google Earth, and then redrawing the actual path before uploading it to our GPS.  While we did ok in Anshun navigating with a slightly off GPS, it was really nice to have such accurate tracks to follow this time!  At one point we took a wrong turn and knew it within 100 ft.

It was a very nice, leisurely weekend.  And the weather couldn’t have cooperated any better – 75 degrees and sunny!  We even acquired fresh tan lines.  We left on the bike at 8:15AM on Saturday morning and took a long route to Linhai so we could visit the Linhai National Geological Park on our way to Linhai proper.  That deviation added an extra 25k to the ride.

Rice combine and wedding
Porsche refueling 

Apparently it was a wedding weekend, so we saw lots of wedding party processions throughout the journey and heard lots of fireworks (they never wait for dark here – they set them off at all hours).  We also saw our first small rice combine harvester (like a driven tractor).  In Guizhou Province, where we saw rice being harvested for the first time, it was largely done by hand – beating it against the side of a wooden barrel.  It is an incredibly labor intensive process.  There were also some farmers there who had small hand-fed motorized threshers.  It was so crazy to see how quickly the combine could harvest a field ~ 200x faster than with manual labor.  It makes us wonder why China isn’t investing more into modern agricultural equipment.  It could greatly increase the productivity of its people.  If only China had fewer Rolls Royce and more combines. 

When we made it to the Geological Park, we were quite disappointed to realize that it was just a Chinese tourist trap.  All it consisted of was a big concrete monument with the words “National Geopark of China Linhai”.  The mountains around us were not even unique.  We have prettier ones outside our Sanmen apartment.  So we ate a few Oreos and jumped back on our bike.  We made it to Linhai about 2PM.  We decided to go straight to the “great wall” using our clothes methods we had refined while on vacation in Anshun – throw on jeans (that had been stuffed in LiLi’s seat) over our shorts and just change our shoes (which were tied to the back of LiLi’s seat).

Linhai Wall

Main entrance gate

Construction of the Linhai wall began in the Jin Dynasty (265-420 A.D.) and was completed in the 1300’s.  The wall was originally 6k long, and 5k of it still remains intact today.  The main tourist entrance to the wall also happens to be the steep section of the wall.  After riding 105K to the wall, Vicki was pretty tired having to walk all of those steps!  Since we had to return to our bike that we left at the main entrance, we decided it wouldn’t be prudent to try and walk the entire 5K.  We ended up doing the steepest part and then exited the wall through a temple that was connected.  The temple had a tree on its premises that was incredibly old –about 1300 years old.

East Lake as seen
from the wall

We then walked the road back to the tandem, bought some cantaloupe on a stick (we never had a formal lunch), and pedaled to our hotel, which ended up being only about 1K away.

The old tree

When we rode up to the entrance to the hotel, the place was packed with people in formal wedding clothes.  And we were wearing our cycling clothes.   Apparently there were three different wedding parties taking photos there at that moment.  Mark weaved his way through the crowd and checked us in.  Two hotel staff quickly came out and helped me wheel the tandem to the security office in the back.  We had requested to keep it there overnight instead of in the hotel room so we wouldn’t need to 

LiLi enjoyed the
drainage holes

decouple it to fit it in the elevator.  The staff was very nice and helpful.  When LiLi and I got into the hotel with our stuff, Mark was just finishing checking us in (it can be a longer process in China since they have to register our passports with the police).

East Lake

After quick showers, we were starving so we headed out to find some dinner.  We ended up at U.B.C. Coffee.  They have a pretty predictable menu with pictures and some English, which is what we wanted that evening.  It was a fabulous meal and we returned to our hotel and went right to sleep.

Line dancing

Linhai wall

The next morning we woke up before the breakfast buffet even opened and downed the bananas the hotel staff had left in the room for us.  While waiting for 7AM, Vicki and LiLi were watching the people in the plaza below the hotel do their morning dance groups, calisthenics, and play badminton.  This is a morning ritual for many older Chinese!  Then, suddenly at about 6:50AM, an area in the plaza cleared and about 200 people who had been doing their own thing a few minutes before formed a large grid and started marching to some Chinese music.  After only a few steps, the leader would yell at them and they would go restart this march.  They must have finally done it right though, because on the third or fourth try, they marched forward to the Chinese music, then suddenly they all whipped out fedora hats (they didn’t look like real cowboy 

At East Lake

hats) and the music changed to American Country Music and this massive group did a very well choreographed line dance!  It was the most unexpected thing we have seen in China.  The National Day holiday just passed, so we have no idea 

LiLi makes
friends everywhere

what they could be practicing for.

We were still hungry though… so we didn’t watch for too much past 7AM.  Whenwe checked in we had been told that there was a Western breakfast at the hotel in addition to the Chinese breakfast.  We were excited about this since we sometimes have a hard time filling ourselves on the Chinese breakfast.  It was a wonderful buffet that included eggs, toast, yogurt, fruit, and coffee.  Sometimes it is the unexpected little things that make you the most happy.

Hiking path

We then headed out to visit East Lake (Dong Hu).  It is a pretty little park just on the other side of the plaza we were looking down on from our hotel room.

We climbed to the
top of this pagoda

After walking through most East Lake, we decided to try to do more of the Great Wall – starting at the other end this time.  So we hailed a taxi and successfully made it to the other end.  After a short walk on the wall (a section not even requiring a ticket), we came to a temple complex with several pagodas.  We decided to go see what it was and realized we had made it to the “Ancient Town” we were planning to ride through on our way home.  The ancient streets actually turned out to be the least interesting thing here.  The Buddhist temple complex was the most active Buddhist religious center we have seen yet.  There were a series of temples to visit and hiking trails that led to a couple of pagodas.  One of the pagodas was even still open to climb up to the top of. 

Fun times for LiLi

Being short on time since we had to check out of our hotel by noon and still pedal 80K home (with a major hill climb on the route home), we decided that exploring the rest of the wall would have to wait for another visit and we went to find a taxi.  We couldn’t find any though and eventually settled for a “bam bam” – a sketchy little three wheeled vehicle.

The bike ride home was largely uneventful.  The local farmers were drying rice on the roads, which would make a two lane section reduce to one.  The roads were not crowded though, so this wasn’t a big deal.  We were more mentally prepared for the two long tunnels this time, which made them a bit better.  While we have a blinking head and taillight, on our way there, the headlight was dim since the batteries were dying.  Additionally, the lights in the tunnel are dim at best and these were 

Concrete resurfacing -
already marred by
chicken feet

long tunnels, one after the other!  There is also a curb that you want to hug, but not bump; because of the dim lights though, it was hard to see the curb, making the navigating stressful for Mark.  When you add crazy Chinese drivers to the mix, it can make it a scary experience.  On our way to Linhai a car in the opposing lane decided to pass another car by swerving in our lane (a normal driving habit – but especially stupid in a tunnel where many locals don’t have any lights on their vehicles, scooters, or bicycles).  The way home was fine though.  We had both lights working and we had a game plan (pedal as fast as we can as Vicki calls out any rear approaching cars to Mark).  While it was a 

Terraced fields

nice bike ride sans these two tunnels, we have a hard time recommending this ride to friends since they are less experienced riders than us, which would make these tunnels a lot more dangerous.  

When we got to the major hill climb of the day, we 

found a crew adding 8” of concrete on top of the existing pavement, which meant it was shut down.  Not quite knowing another easy way home, we decided to push the tandem on the side of the road until we could ride it again.  Thankfully, it wasn’t too far.  Among the cyclists on site, this climb is known as the “tea farm climb” since there is a tea farm at the top.  Few of the riders here have actually descended the backside of it.  It is simply an up and back down the same way sort of climb.  While our normal way up it is very pretty too, the other side of this hill is just spectacular.  It is pretty mountainsides punctuated by crazy terraced fields.    The amount of human labor that goes into farming the mountainside is extraordinary.  It is also a very quaint area.  Cattle are used to help with some of the farming, so it is not uncommon to have them standing on the roadside – or the middle of the road.

Our tandem looks good
at the top of hills

LiLi and the orange
grove owner

When we reached the top of the climb, we decided to take a little break to eat, stretch, and let LiLi walk a bit (not that she complains about riding though!).   We were starting to consider how to ration our remaining food since we didn’t have much more for the way home when Mark realized we were sitting next to an orange grove.  Vicki wouldn’t let him steal any oranges though.  However, a few minutes later, a car comes driving down the dirt driveway next to the orange grove and stopped a few yards from us.  A few people jumped out of the car, opened the trunk, and brought us four oranges!  It turned out one of the people in the car was the owner of the orange grove.  She thought LiLi was really cute and wanted to give us some of her produce.  She also taught us the “proper” way to eat the oranges – rip them in half and then eat the fruit directly off the

Rice drying

 peel.  Before the left, they brought us another six oranges.  We no longer had to ration food!  It was a nice descent down the hill and pedal home.

Us in a traffic mirror.
See how awesome
this hill climb is?

It was really a perfect weekend vacation.  We never felt very rushed, we got to pedal our tandem a lot, and we didn’t have to pack much stuff at all.  And then when we got home, one of our friends called to say she was dropping off dinner for us:  Thai fried rice.  The social norm of reciprocity sure is wonderful.  Vicki had made banana bread for this friend earlier in the week, so this was her way of reciprocating.  After 185K in two days, it was really nice to not have to cook dinner.

LiLi's Verbal Skills

It seems that LiLi has finally had a third breakthrough in her verbal skills.  The first breakthrough occurred at a mere 10 months old when she started saying “What’s that?”  For the 9 months since, she has been saying “What’s that” about 200 times a day (seriously).  The second breakthrough was a bit more subtle and we didn’t document when exactly it happened, but at about 16 months (this past July) she began pointing at animals in her book when we said the name. 

This past weekend we had a very obvious breakthrough where she has begun moderate talking.  And since we’re teaching her two languages, this is a bit more complicated to explain.  Whenever Vicki references ‘daddy’ LiLi now ALWAYS corrects her by saying “baba” (Chinese for daddy).  Whenever she needs something, she calls out for mama (same meaning in Chinese and English).  When we ask her where Baobao (baby) is, she either points at Vicki’s belly or goes to point at the two characters on our baby carrier.  She also now will say “bikebarn” when we point at anything that says bikebarn.  Today, looking at a picture of a fish she said “yu” (fish).  Finally, she has started to say “I did it” at various appropriate time. And, of course, she still says "what's that?" at least 200 times a day.

We don’t fully grasp the extent of her understanding of Chinese, but we know she knows most of her animals in both English and Chinese.  When asked if she understands Chinese, LiLi doesn’t like to talk on command; however,  if we ask her “gǒu shuō shénme?” (what does a dog say?), she’ll almost always go “woof woof”.  We look forward to more breakthroughs in the future!

Our Prenatal Adventure in China: Part I

Before we left for China, the plan was always to have a baby while abroad.  We wanted to hit the ground first though, to know the healthcare circumstances of our location.  Being “crunchy” parents though, and having already had one perfectly normal (and natural) birth experience, there wasn’t going to be much that could change our minds.  Chinese people have babies all the time!

We live in a fairly rural area, though our closest hospital, the Sanmen People’s Hospital, is only 35 minutes away.  Ironically, the issue here doesn’t seem to be having medical support, but getting the medical community to leave us alone.  We don’t view birth as something requiring a medicalized experience.  We actually only had LiLi at a hospital, instead of a birthing center, because we wanted to go local and utilize the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center’s midwives, who are required to deliver at the local hospital.  However, our midwife fully supported us through a natural birth, kept the nurses at bay, and even let us do skin-to-skin so long after birth we didn’t even know Elli’s length or birth weight when we called our family!  With midwife and pediatrician approval, we were out of the hospital by 30 hours after her birth (she was born at 1AM, so it was nominally 24 hours).  It seems we are going to have to fight pretty hard for a similar birth experience here.

The norm for expats expecting babies in China is to go to a Western hospital in a major city for their prenatal care and birth, which for us would mean going to Shanghai.  However, Shanghai is 4.5 hours away (by car or train), making it a couple day affair (and about $200 out of pocket).  Additionally, as China has modernized, they seem to have taken some of the worst aspects of the Western medical community while limiting some positives.  For instance their C-section rate is over 50% and you are legally required to deliver your baby with a doctor in a hospital.  While the Chinese infant mortality rate has significantly decreased in the past decade, that seems to be related to prenatal care becoming more widely available in rural communities and better education.  There is no data that can link the decrease in infant mortality to hospital births.  That’s a whole other point for discussion though…  Short story: I think China is making a mistake swinging so far in the “medicalized birth” direction, particularly since the vast majority of Chinese women only get to experience one birth.  It makes me sad that they cannot enjoy the beauty of the birth experience without so much medical intervention.

Anyway, we have decided we do NOT want to have go to Shanghai for prenatal care, particularly since at the end of the pregnancy the visits are so close together.  In fact, it appears that we would have to stay in a hotel there for the last two or three weeks.  Instead, we have opted to obtain prenatal care at a Ningbo hospital.  Ningbo is 2 hours away (1 hr. by train) and is a large city (3.1 million pop. in the city proper), but it is not a Western city by any means.  We opted to not just go to the local Sanmen hospital because they do not have any staff that can speak English, and their system already seems overwhelmed.

I found a Ningbo hospital website with a decent English translation, so I e-mailed them to ask if any staff spoke English, about health insurance, etc.  They responded, reassuring me they could assist me (though I would have to pay out of pocket – they don’t do insurance), and told me to call to schedule my first appointment.  I scheduled my first appointment for later that week, 2PM on a Thursday, their first appointment time after lunch, when I was 9 weeks pregnant.  I brought LiLi’s ayi with me, who speaks no English but can use our electronic translator pretty well.  More importantly, if they tell us to go to the fourth floor she can lead me there.  When we walked in, I asked a few hospital staff, “Nǐmen shuō yīngwén ma?” (Do any of you speak English?), but always encountered blank stares.  At that point, my ayi took over since she knew I was there for a prenatal visit.  She helped me to register.  They couldn’t enter my name into the computer system since it required Chinese characters, so my name on all my hospital records is now Huì Lì – which means “beautiful - benefit”.  We were then sent to the 5^th floor.  There was a sign in the elevator in English that said that floor was for maternal care – a good start.  However, when we got off the elevator, still 30 minutes before my appointment, I quickly realized that there were 50+ pregnant women, mostly dressed in pajamas (the preferred “pregnant” attire here!), all waiting here for a 2PM “appointment”.  We were supposed to be catching a 3:30PM bus home.  Not looking good…

At 2PM, a nurse appeared and all the pregnant woman (and my ayi) rushed the desk to grab a number.  Soon, an electronic board about the nurses’ desk started displaying groups of patient numbers and room numbers.  My ayi directed me into a room, with about ten other women, where we were weighed and had our blood pressure taken by a machine that would spit out your values.  You would then give this “ticket” with your stats to the nurse in that room and she entered it into the computer.  We then went and sat in the hallway again.  After a little bit, I was directed to a room with a bunch of other pregnant women, where I now know we were meeting with a doctor.  After a lot of animated talking (that didn’t include me!), my ayi was able to translate (via my electronic pocket translator), “when was your last period?”  After I gave the date, I was told to leave.  Maybe they could help me tomorrow.  Apparently I wasn’t pregnant enough to be there for a Thursday appointment.  At that point, I was very disappointed and angry that I had been told they could help me, that I told them how many weeks pregnant I was when I scheduled the appointment, and that in the end I was turned away after driving 2 hours to the appointment.

The next day I sent an e-mail to the hospital, letting them know how disappointed I was after having been reassured that they could help me and explained to them my experience.  I received a phone call a few minutes after I sent it from one of the English speaking nurses, who apologized and said that I was never supposed to be in the maternal clinic, but to have gone to the VIP clinic, where I DID have a 2PM appointment.  I had never received these instructions when making the appointment though, and none of the staff directed me there.  Ironically, it turns out I was literally 15 feet from the VIP clinic when waiting in the maternal clinic.  Since going to Shanghai was even less appealing than trying to navigate the confusing Ningbo hospital, I scheduled another appointment – this time being told to call when I arrived and they would send someone down to meet me.

As a side note, several employees here at the Sanmen “site” (i.e. the nuke plant where we live) are actually expecting babies.  However, none of them are currently planning a China birth, which means I am the pioneer here on this.  The one wife, due the beginning of January, already retuned to Iowa with her two kids to await the birth of her third baby.  Understandably, since her other two were both preemies (7 & 8 weeks early) that had to spend time in NICU after birth, she decided she felt most comfortable with a U.S. birth.  She is planning to return to China once the new baby is two months old.  Another wife, due in February, is in Vietnam with her family.  While her husband, a Vietnamese American, speaks English, her English ability is limited.  Since this is her first baby, she thinks she wants to have the baby in Vietnam.  However, her husband thinks the prenatal care system there is worse than China, so he is actively trying to convince her to come back to China for the birth (which would be in Shanghai if he can convince her to return).  And finally, there was another wife here who had planned on a China birth (first baby), but decided after 6 weeks of living in China she hated it here and flew back to the States.  We can only imagine her husband is actively looking for a new position in the States.  Anyway, that currently leaves Mark and I as the sole expats navigating the prenatal medical system.  While we could go the “simple” route and just go to Shanghai, I think regardless of where we go this is going to be an interesting cultural adventure.

Read Part II

Anshun

Our vacation to Anshun was a success despite a rocky start.  We left Sanmen on a Wednesday afternoon and took a train to Ningbo (40 min. train ride) where we had to lug our suitcases up many flights of steps since the Chinese seem to have an aversion to escalators or elevators.  Even when they are in place (and running), you usually have to go up at least a flight of steps to reach it.  They do have ramps next to the steps which makes the dragging a little easier, but it is still awkward (and going down stairs is harder than going up because of runaway luggage).  We then caught a cab to the Ningbo Airport and successfully checked our heavy bags and extra baby bicycle seat for no extra fee.  Once in Guiyang we caught a taxi to our hotel where we spent one night before heading to our final destination: Anshun.

A bit tired, but happy to be on vacation

There is a train to Anshun, but since we hadn’t yet used the Chinese bus system, we opted to take a public bus for the 1.5 hour drive.  After buying the tickets we realized they had a time stamp on them of 9PM when it was only noon.  This led to several tense moments as we tried to figure out what to do for nine hours when we thought it was supposed to be a frequent bus route.  Thankfully some nice Chinese people understood what we thought was our dilemma and kindly informed us that was the time that our ticket expired – not the leave time.  We were leaving on a bus less than 30 minutes later.  The bus actually proved to be a really nice mode of travel with luggage in tow.  It has much greater storage capacity than the trains, making it less stressful.

Once we arrived in Anshun, we tried to catch a taxi to our hotel but every taxi was full.  Some overly helpful bystanders then took it upon themselves to get us to our hotel.  We eventually ended up with our luggage and Mark in a three-wheel motorized cart and Vicki and LiLi sharing a taxi with some other random stranger.  We weren’t sure if we were actually going to make it to the hotel and Mark’s driver didn’t even know where he was taking Mark – he just tried to follow the taxi, not realizing we were dropping off the stranger before going to the hotel.  Further, the three vehicle couldn’t keep up.  Vicki’s taxi would be 

Ringing a bell at the
Confucian Temple

completely out of site and then we would catch them at the next traffic light.  It was very stressful.  We did make it though and successfully checked.  Although it was classified as a 4-Star hotel, it was pretty worn.  It was nice to have a lay down space for 8 full days though.

The next morning Mark built the tandem and we left trying to ride it to at least some local attractions.  However, the weather was not cooperative.  We were not out with the tandem for more than two minutes when it started to rain.  It was more of a mist to begin, so we still pedaled for 30 minutes just to start to get our bearings and to practice navigating with the GPS (which was off since Google Maps doesn’t actually align with GPS points.  So while (most) streets are right, we were really riding about 0.5 miles off course according to the GPS.  When we returned to the hotel we dried off, grabbed umbrellas, and headed back out to try to navigating on foot.  After getting a little lost, we finally made it to the Wang Ruofei house, which was the home of a rich “proletariat” during the start of the communist revolution in China.  We then continued on, trying to find the Wen Miao Confucian Temple.  We wandered through a traveling carved stone market and wandered along a riverside, trying to figure out where the temple might be.  We stopped under a gazebo to get out of the rain in order to look at our map and an old man there told us to follow him and he would take us there.  We were a bit skeptical as he took us down some back streets with old cobblestone roads, but he brought us to the temple!  We definitely wouldn’t have found it on our own.  After walking through the temple grounds we dec

ided to head back to the hotel, looking for a place to eat dinner on the way home.  Not far from the hotel, we stopped at a restaurant that looked like a hotpot.  While it was a hotpot, the broth base was ambiguous.  We just pointed to one on the wall, and when it came it was too spicy for us to consume.  They ended up scooping out the red peppers, adding more water, and bringing us rice in order to make it edible for us (though certainly not palatable!).   They also 

Our unknown meal

brought LiLi an egg dish and a bunch of bananas since there was no way she would be able to eat the other dish.  We’re still unsure as to the base of the broth.  We thought the bones and claws looked rodent-like, though some people have told us it may have been a frog.  We will likely never know!  It was definitely a strange exercise in saving face, with us trying to decide how much food we had to eat to not embarrass the restaurant and the restaurant trying to help make their food edible for us.  This meal was the low point of the trip for Vicki, who went to bed hungry that night!

On Saturday it was still raining so we still couldn’t ride the tandem to any of the more interesting tourist destinations.  We decided we couldn’t spend two days back to back wandering around Anshun in the rain though, so we decided to try to get to one of the destinations too far away for us to pedal to.  We chose Hongfeng Lake, which was about 65K away and was supposed to be a beautiful reservoir with many maple trees and surrounding ethnic minority villages.  We asked the staff at the front desk of our hotel to get us a taxi there (expected price of $60 round trip), and one hour (and $100) later we had a private driver and tour guide (who didn’t speak English).  This was Mark’s low point of the trip.  If he had been in a door-side seat, he would have jumped out at an intersection when still in Anshun.  However, he couldn’t convince Vicki to do so.  It was quite stressful for the tour guide to keep talking and talking to us despite us telling her again and again “women zhi wei yi dian dian Zhongwen” (We only know a little Chinese) and “women bu zhi dao” (we do not understand).  Mark finally got the idea to pull out his Chinese language flashcards and LiLi’s Chinese books and say “You be teacher; us students; sit here”.  So the tour guide sat between us and we practiced our pronunciation.   From that point on she (largely) stopped trying to explain the history of the area to us and just became a companion, which was nice.  She also became fairly competent at using our handheld electronic translator, which made the stress of communicating drastically decrease.

Happy to eat a good lunch
with our tour guide and driver

As we made it to the town with Hongfeng Lake, the tour guide asked if we would like to eat lunch before going to the lake.  We agreed that was a good idea.  The first place the driver stopped looked like a hotpot from the night before, and when we told them “bu la” (no spicy), they decided it best to take us elsewhere.  The driver then talked to people on the street and made a few u-turns as he drove and we thought for sure we might never get lunch or get to Hongfeng Lake, but alas we made it to a backwoods restaurant.  Our tour guide ordered for us and we ended up with a delicious meal of eggplant (not slimy!), rice, an egg dish, fish, and some type of root.  We finally made it to Hongfeng Lake in the early afternoon.  We bought our entrance ticket, and soon found out that Hongfeng Lake looked like a foreclosed tourist spot.  And, none of the destinations “included” in the entrance fee are accessible unless you charter a 

Hongfeng Lake...

boat.  Since it was a rainy day, and the place was disappointing looking already, our tour guide negotiated the cost of the boat down from Y500 to only Y300 – about $45.  This was turning out to be an expensive trip to an awful destination!  None of the islands turned out to be very interesting, and our tour guide, who had come along to learn about the place since she had never taken a group there before, was confused as to why it was a destination at all.  At least we got a good lunch!

With rain predicted for Sunday as well, we decided it was safer to walk Anshun in the rain then risk going to another disappointing tourist trap.  We also wanted 

Anshun Bai Tai (White Pagoda)

to look for a baby carrier like we saw all of the locals wearing.  We ended up covering quite a few miles, walked through a nice local park around a lake, and visited Anshun’s white pagoda that was built in 1326.  While certainly not how we hoped the vacation would be, this day didn’t really feature anything negative, which made is a positive day, right?  The best part actually was that while walking back to our hotel, we found a great bakery that made delicious cookies and muffins.  We stocked up our room so we could hopefully never be hungry again on this trip!

On Monday the weather finally cleared.  55 degrees and cloudy!  We pedaled the tandem 35K to Tian Long Tun Bao, which was an old stone village largely unchanged since the Ming Dynasty (14^th century).  The homes are built of stone and the people around here are the Buyi minority, made up largely of farmers. They wear distinctive clothes – which were not just for the edification of tourists (unlike the Miao at Hongfeng Lake), because we saw lots of locals working out in the fields in these outfits miles from the actual tourist attraction.  Not quite sure 

The stone houses

what to expect of this destination, we were pleasantly surprised to find an awesome Buddhist temple on a mountain with some beautiful hiking paths and ancient walls.  The village itself, while old, was much more touristy, with the main road through it being a thoroughfare for Chinese crafts (which to their credit did seem to largely be locally made) and antiques.  Overall, it was a pretty neat destination that is undersold in the information we could find online before the trip. 

Buying a baby carrier

When we got back to our hotel in Anshun that evening, we decided to ask the hotel staff if they could tell us where to find a baby carrier like we see all the locals using.  The one staff member offered to take us to get one the next morning.  While 10AM the next morning was a bit late for us since we had other places we wanted to go, we really wanted a baby carrier and to honor the woman’s generosity.  She was actually ready to go by 9:30AM the next morning.  We then took a taxi to a little side street market where there were at least four sellers of these carriers.  In the States, these retail for over $100 each.  We ended up buying three different varieties of the carrier for less than $35 combined.  We also got LiLi a “watermelon suit” – a fuzzy hooded blanket they wrap their kids in before putting them in the baby carrier.  We were back to the hotel by 10:10AM – well worth a delay in our day’s plans since we got such awesome baby carriers!  The nice woman who took us there wouldn’t even let us pay for the taxi (only $1) or give her a tip.  We tried to explain to her how much they were worth to us and that we’d like to give her a tip for helping us find them, but she refused.  Such generosity!

Happy to finally be on the bike!

Since the weather was still (relatively) clear, we wanted to go explore some more local sites on the tandem.  So we hurriedly changed and were out pedaling by 10:30AM.  We decided that since we had previously budgeted two days for Huanggushu National Park, we would head there since if we didn’t get to see much because of our morning delay, we would at least have a game plan for the next time we went.  The park was 45K away, or about 2 hours.  While it was supposed to be a “Provincial Road” we would take all the way there, which in past experience here in China are relatively well maintained, this particular road would sometimes devolve to a very rutted dirt road, where we could pedal faster than the vehicles could travel.  The little villages along the way were fun though.  And there were so many more instances of cows in the road than we encounter back home in Sanmen. 

LiLi knows how to attract a crowd

However, Chinese driving habits drove us a bit crazy here.  For instance, horns (which are the loudest horns we’ve ever heard in our lives) are used much too frequently.  And they just keep honking the whole time they are passing you.  Also, if an oncoming vehicle is bigger than you and they think your lane is the nicer route, they will just take it.  Large vehicles prefer to make left hand turns from the right lane and vice versa.  Less of a turning radius then?  We’re not sure on the logic, but it can be scary.  Lights in the dark are also optional, even for large vehicles like public buses.  And looking before pulling out into the road is completely optional.  Apparently oncoming traffic is supposed to respond to you?  Since our speeds are so low, these driving habits are much less dangerous for us than they probably sound here; they are largely just incredibly annoying.

Enjoying some field corn

Well, anyway, we made it to Huanggushu around lunch time and decided to find a nice place to eat.  The restaurant we ended up at just had us point at food items (as is often protocol here) so we had no idea what we were actually getting.  The Chinese are usually good at telling us when we have ordered enough food (when pointing you have no idea preparation method or portion size).  This restaurant didn’t tell us though, so we had way too much food when it finally came.  The food was actually incredibly good, but we sure got a “Yankee Discount” when the bill came.  We can often eat out for $2-$5 for our family, and at a really nice place it might be about $20.  This bill was $45.  This rarely happens to us though, so we just chalked it up to a learning experience.  We could have easily asked the price before completing our order – there were warning signs that this place might be expensive.

Since lunch took so long (it was pretty slow service) and we knew the ride home would take a lot longer (we did a lot of descending (1000ft)  to reach our destination), we only had about 1.5 hours to do anything.  So instead of buying 

Guanyin Temple
Cave Buddha

the park entrance ticket, we decided to try to find the stone village that was supposed to be nearby.  We never did find it (we think we may have missed it by a couple kilometers),  but we did enjoy a nice day of riding.  Since we were pushing nightfall (we had a headlight and taillight on the bike), we decided to take an “expressway” (not closed to bikes) that largely paralleled the bumpy provincial road.  Unfortunately though, the traffic on it was a lot faster and the scenery was less interesting.  It was easier for LiLi to sleep though without all the bumps of the provincial road.

On Wed. we went to Dragon Palace (Lónggōng) Cave.  It was about a 40K ride from the hotel (also 1000ft descending).  This was a really neat place with a water filled limestone cave 

Entrance to the limestone
cave via boat

that you take a boat through to see all of the stalactites.  Right nearby there is also a Buddhist temple built inside a cave.  We were pretty tight on time if we wanted to try to beat dark, so we didn’t know if we would actually 

Limestone stalactites

make it to the cave temple, but we did and it was worth it (though we did get back a little after dark).  It was a pretty unique one.  Instead of riding the same way back to the hotel, we decided to take a road that had a sign pointing “to Anshun”.  It ended up being a beautiful road through lots of small farming villages.  The second best road of the trip - fun times!

Unique waterfall in the Tianxing Scenic Area

On Thursday, our last full day in Anshun, we headed back to Huangguoshu National Park.  This park is famous for the Huangguoshu waterfall – the largest in China.  Since we had been there two days prior, we knew right where to go to buy our tickets and headed straight for the first stop: a small waterfall in an area with lots of peacocks.  LiLi was so impressed with the hundreds of peacocks walking around us.  She would have loved to stay there all day.  However, based on all the tourist spots listed on our ticket, we figured we only had about 45 min. at each location.  On to the next stop! 

Crazy carved limestone valley

Cool road climb to Huangguoshu

45 minutes later (yes, when we were supposed to be done with the second attraction), we finally arrived at the second stop (after another big descent too (1000 ft) – so the way out was going to be even slower!).  I guess our plans were going to change a little!  This spot was the Tianxing Scenic Area and was so beautiful.  They built a bunch of stepping stones and paths through a river surrounded by limestone which had been carved by the river.  The start of this was pretty crowded, but (thankfully?) most Chinese tourists only come for the picture, not the experience.  So by the first bailout, almost all of the people were gone.  This scenic area may have been our favorite part of the trip.  When you finally exited on the far side, you then have to take a bus back.  But most people on the bus just want to go to the next tourist spot, so it was only at the last minute that we realized the bus was driving past where our tandem was parked!  We managed to successfully jump off the bus though, and only had to walk a little ways back.  We then had a beautiful hill climb out of the valley to get to the main attraction: the Huangguoshu waterfall.

Since this was the main attraction, it was also the most crowded.  It was also the only place where we saw any other Westerners during our whole vacation.  There were about five of them here.  This waterfall ended up being a bit disappointing.  It is taller than Niagara Falls, but the actual water flow is so much less, making it that much less grand.  It did have a natural cave carved out behind it though, so you can walk behind the “water curtain” of the waterfall.  The Tianxing Scenic Area was much more grand.  On the way out we 

Huangguoshu Waterfall

bought some more boiled sweet potatoes (our staple food of the day, along with Oreos, since we knew we didn’t actually have time to stop and eat), ate some Gu, and started the ride home – only about 40 minutes behind schedule.  We actually felt a lot stronger that evening that we had two nights prior when doing the same ride, so we made it back to the hotel only about 20 min. after dark.

On Friday, our journey home began.  We checked out of our hotel and took a taxi to the bus station, where the staff was very helpful (they wouldn’t even let Vicki carry a suitcase) in making sure we got on the correct bus, which was mostly full.  The one employee even went on ahead of us to ask some people to move, so that we could have seats next to each other.  Once in Guiyang, we caught a taxi straight to the airport and again checked in successfully without any extra weight charge or a fee for LiLi’s bicycle seat.  Since by the time we would arrive in Ningbo, all the trains to Sanmen would be done for the day, we called “Taxi Jackie” (a local entrepreneur who knows a little English and now has a very successful taxi business with very nice cars and (mostly) safe drivers.  He can sometimes be unreliable though, since he always says “yes” even if he didn’t understand your request) to have one of his drivers meet us at the airport and drive us the two hours home.  It was actually quite nice to not have to lug our stuff through a train station, and instead have a guy with a sign with our name on it waiting to pick us up.  He even had oranges for us in the car.

LiLi was so excited to get home and see all of her toys.  Unfortunately, we were greeted with the smell of rotting food.  The power had gone out very soon after we left on vacation, and the property management folk (who knew we were gone since they are the ones who register us with the local police) missed checking our apartment to reset the breaker.  Our freezer was filled with nastiness (shrimp and crab).  Cleaning that was not exactly what we wanted to do once finally home…

Behind the Huangguoshu Waterfall

Overall, it was a good vacation.  We pedaled for 18 hours in the last four full days.  LiLi is an amazing toddler – always pushing us to ride more than we even want to!  It was interesting to see another province and to realize how wealthy Zhejiang Province is in comparison.  It was also neat to see so many of China’s ethnic minority groups since the Han Chinese make up 92% of China and 99.2% of Zhejiang Province.  We also learned to always pay the hotel deposit in cash, because then the hotel can’t forget to take a hold off your bank account!  Two weeks on, the hotel hadn’t cleared the hold, so we had nearly $1000 in our Chinese bank account that we couldn’t touch.  When we called the hotel, they had “lost” the deposit receipt and said they couldn’t clear it.  And our bank said we would have to wait for it to clear automatically (after one month).  Thankfully, the hotel finally found the paperwork and cleared it for us.  China is full of little learning experiences…

We have a lot more to update regarding our recent weekend trips to Linhai and Hangzhou, so hopefully it won’t be so long between updates.  We considered shortening this once since it is so late, but decided we wanted the written memory of the trip.