Day 7

Andrea and I woke at 5:30. Since the alarm was set for 6 anyway I declared that it was hardly worth going back to sleep but Andrea replied "yes it is," rolled over and went to sleep. I decided to get outof bed and read a bit The Art Thief, a novel I bought on Kindle long ago but never got around to reading.

We got packed up and left the hotel by 6:30, reversing the long walk through the old city with luggage and the van ride from a couple of days ago. Our plane ride was uneventful but long. I finished The Art Thief on the plane. It was a rollicking page Turner but several things bothered me about it, ranging from being excessively predictable in places to a piece of plot that just made no sense. We landed, and went to the hotel by bus. We're staying at the crown Plaza and the contrast with our last hotel couldn't be more stark. You could fit the entirety of the last place in the lobby with room to spare.

We ate a snack from the convenience store across the street and went into town. We stopped the old Temple (now a shopping area) and Amy go to the teahouse on the top floor of one of the buildings where we fit great views of the whole cut. Then we walked to the riverfront before eating dinner at a take out sushi place. I'd talk more about dinner but I don't want to increase the argument count to 6.

The city is bustling. The skyline is very impressive and many of the skyscrapers have interesting shapes. The city is much more cosmopolitan. I saw more noon Chinese in a few hours than I've seen in the entire time since Hong Kong. Nobody asks to take their picture with us although a couple of teenage girls practice their English on me before giving and running away.

We took a taxi back to the hotel and I struggled with the Internet for half an hour but the firewall is completely uncooperative. I went to sleep, exhausted around 11am woke at 4:30. Andrea wood briefly at 5:15 but even though I offered to entertain her she went right back to sleep.

A couple of notes:

Andrea is threatening to start annotating this blog with this that she thinks that I have been wrong about. She claims that we've had more than 5 arguments. If argue it but I doubt it is worth having argument number six over.

I haven't yet posted any pictures, partly because of the intent speed, or lack thereof but also because I have limited ability to edit. I've been shooting mostly snapshots of the family. I figure that there are plenty of great skyline pictures in the world taken with the best equipment, so what's the point of me adding ones taken in a rush, with a small handheld camera and every time I stop to take one the group charges ahead. I would love to take a trip with equipment and time to shoot one day. I'm still getting some interesting shots, especially textures that I might be able to use in composites some day.

I feel like I'm not doing as good a job on this blog as I did on past trips, perhaps because in an effort not to embarrass sensitive teens I'm omitting much of the family dynamics, perhaps because of the jet lag, or maybe it is just the difficulty of writing and editing on a tablet. I did not want to lug my heavy laptop, risk breaking it, have it infected with mallard, etc. I thought about buying a really lightweight alternative like a Surface but couldn't justify the expense, so I'm stuck on an android tablet.

There are many choices to be made when planning a vacation. I prefer to stay in one place for a long time, to get to know people and see how they live. Andrea prefers to move. She wants to see all the sights. Since she and Donna planned this trip it is definitely more of a see everything itinerary. In the past we've done mixture, like our trip to Greece when we spent two weeks seeing many of the major sites and then two weeks living with a family on the sleepy little island of Kalymnos.

Another choice is between major cities, small towns, and rural areas. Andrea and Joshua want to be in big cities but Donna and Li Feng planned more small town days. When you live in Beijing I guess that big city sites just aren't as exciting as they are coming from Okemos.