China - April and May 2012

Time is flying. We have been in Shanghai for 9 months already! Things have definitely gotten easier. I can get around, speak a little Mandarin (I can give the taxi driver some directions!), and can recognize some areas of Shanghai. Not too bad!


Randy's boss, Chris, his wife and three children came to Shanghai for Spring vacation. We had a lot of fun showing them around.One place we went is to the Shanghai Flower and Bug Market. This is quite a place to see. See the pictures to understand!

Randy and Daniel looking at all the turtles. Lissa is taking a picture. Wes is
at the bottom left.

This is a cricket. Cricket fighting is big here. You see men, at this market, looking
at the crickets and deciding which one will be a good fighter. There are
thousands of crickets at this market. It is very loud.

Frogs anyone?

Chris, his three children and Daniel looking at some of the crickets. Each of the
boxes have crickets in them.

Worms!!

These are Cricket baskets. Each one has a cricket in it.

We also went to a silk worm factory. We learned how they make silk and we even helped stretch the silk for a quilt.

Learning about the stages of a silk worm.

This worker is showing us the worm inside the cocoon.
To use the silk they have to boil the cocoon. Single worm cocoons are put on
a machine to unwrap the thread, which can be used to make scarfs, blankets, etc.
The double worm cocoon can only be used for the inside of blankets and pillows.
The cocoon of a double worm is stretched over the hoops you see in the
picture.

We stretched the silk for the inside of a blanket. Silk is naturally
hyper-allergenic.

We took them to a water town, Zhujiajiao (we visited Xiatang in January), just outside Shanghai. It was a wonderful day.

The Taylors dressed in traditional Chinese costumes for a picture!

One of the crafts you can buy. These are made out of bamboo leaves.
There were dragons, and all sorts of animals. They were very cool.

Another crafter. This stand had instruments made from
gourds.

This woman is preparing a food for street side vending.

The item on the left is what the woman was preparing. The item on the right
is pigs feet.

Pork wrapped in, I believe, bamboo leaves.

Unsure if these are chicken or frogs!

Lissa and Wes looking out from one of the bridges.

The Taylors and Daniel going on a boat ride. The boat could only take 5 people
so Richard and I stayed behind.





















There are still many places to explore. My friends and I have been doing just that. My driver laughs at us, because we find places that he doesn't even know. I joke with him that he needs to stick with me and I will show him Shanghai! :)

The weather has been very nice. Not too many hot days - those are coming. The one thing that has surprised me here is how beautiful the flowers are. They plant tons of flowers along with flowering trees. For a city, it is absolutely beautiful. Wish it would help the air quality a little! The air quality is so bad some days that the children can not have recess outside.

These trees were blooming in April. Veronica (left) and Heather (right)
were taking pictures also!

One of the trees up close. Can you see the butterfly?

I made Daniel stand in front of this bush
(doesn't he look happy that I stopped his play!)
These are all over the complex.

This was taken from our balcony. It was beautiful when it was in full bloom.

This tree was in the water town we went to. Pretty with the old style building.

Just along the roadway.

Another tree in our complex. I loved the way the
 flowers went all the way down the trunk

An up close picture of the blooms on the tree.

These flowers grow everywhere in the spring. Any patch of land.

The reason why these yellow flowers grow everywhere is because
the harvest them and make oil out of it.

Here is another type flower that grows along the roads.

Up close picture of the flowers.

We are very excited, Amy arrives on May 31 and will be here until we come back to the US on July 4. Her friend, Kendra, will arrive on June 11. We will be very busy touring with them in June. Can't wait!!!!