china

i wanted to try to do an update on our first leg of the trip in china.

we had a wonderful time getting to visit and be with our friends.

the city we stayed in reminded me of new york city - with a few differences :)

after some delay with the weather - we were finally able to get a flight to china.

here is us before:

hope you appreciate the nice, fake smile from jordan :) he loves the pics!

we went to an asian fusion place for lunch one day -

this is how the diet coke came with the straw -

very unique :)

it was the chinese new year while we were there.

this means everyone is off work and go to their home towns for the week.

it also meant a lot of decorations (see below) and even more fireworks.

they don't have regulations about where to do the fireworks - like we do in the US - so pretty much all day every day you hear what sounds like gunshots - but is actually fireworks going off.

one night they had a magnificent firework display - it was around midnight - and it lit up the entire sky! pretty amazing!

here are some random food offerings from the street:

i think they told me that this was shark tail

any type of fish you would like - dead or alive - there is also a fish tank next to this where you can get the alive ones and get it killed right there (or i guess kill it yourself)

and they have fruit . . .

sweet campbell has been the best little traveler

she was quite a star in china - they loved her white skin and blue eyes

everywhere we went they wanted to touch her, take pictures of her and talk to her

she would just smile at them and give them quite the show!

here we are on a bridge - it was foggy so you can't see the city behind you,

but just trust me - it was busy with a lot of people!

i loved all of the different type of buildings that they had in this city,

very interesting architecture!

walking in a beautiful park

public toliets

(thankfully i didn't have to use these:))

and yes - there was starbucks!

one day we went to get our nails done.

that was a bit of a challenge communicating with very broken english

at lunch at pete's - a tex/mex place that was really good!

views from outside our hotel window

this is what most of the housing is like in this city

lots and lots of buildings

our room - this was just the sitting area - it was a huge place!

a typical arrangement for the chinese meal

sweetie pie c

see, i told you - everyone was in love with her :)

here we are leaving the city to go to the airport, this train goes up to 250 mph

i don't know if you can read that sign - but it says 430 km!

waiting for our next plane!

hope you enjoyed our little bits of china!