Saturday, May 17, 2008
Earthquake News
As most of you know, Monday afternoon a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck a remote area to the north of us in Sichuan province. Though its effects were widely felt, we did not feel anything. My best guess is that it rocked the Sichuan plate and we are up on the Tibetan plate. The death toll is estimated to rise to 50,000. Students here are helping collect food and clothes for the survivors. Sadly the spring rains are here in earnest, hampering rescue efforts. It appears the international media is being allowed good opportunity to cover this tragic incident.
More Grandmothers!
Li has had an exceedingly good Grandmother year. She recently entertained (or vice versa?) Grandma Marcia who interspersed vacation in Lijiang with work in Hong Kong and Guilin. Marcia got to experience the high class accommodations provided to teachers here and the intermittent access to hot water during the rainy season. We did a thorough job of traversing the old town, buying unknown vegetables in the market, using up many megabytes of camera card space and filling suitcases with souvenirs. Li enjoyed showing her the exercise field and building cakes of mud and organic material. Sadly we have discovered that Li is allergic to both Wyoming and Yunnan in the spring. Clover is a common denominator.
Thinking to give her the full experience, we loaded Marcia onto a bus bound for Dali complete with gory Chinese war films, poor air conditioning and windy roads. Li, who can always be relied upon for a good vomit fest during travel, obliged. But we arrived without mishap (thank to the judicious use of the driver's horn) and barged through the line of "helpful" taxi drivers waiting to take us to their favorite hotels. The Lonely Planet failed us however as I spent the night vomiting after eating at one of their recommended dining options.
The rest of the crew forged on and walked miles around the Three Pagodas (famous on every image of Dali including its beer) in the rain. As an antidote to the throngs of tourists the next day we took the gondola up Cangshan Mountain and explored Qingbi stream. It is akin to hiking in Yosemite. We were undeterred by the Chinese tourists who told us to turn back, the "road is not good" and found ourselves alone in the canyon with the mist around us. Li brought home 5 pounds of rocks, Marcia took many pictures and Steve saw a new bird. A good time was had by all.
The rest of the trip involved lots of walking, sightseeing and eating. Lucky for us, Marcia took home an extra suitcase of our things in what is just the beginning of trying to get ourselves out of here!
Thinking to give her the full experience, we loaded Marcia onto a bus bound for Dali complete with gory Chinese war films, poor air conditioning and windy roads. Li, who can always be relied upon for a good vomit fest during travel, obliged. But we arrived without mishap (thank to the judicious use of the driver's horn) and barged through the line of "helpful" taxi drivers waiting to take us to their favorite hotels. The Lonely Planet failed us however as I spent the night vomiting after eating at one of their recommended dining options.
The rest of the crew forged on and walked miles around the Three Pagodas (famous on every image of Dali including its beer) in the rain. As an antidote to the throngs of tourists the next day we took the gondola up Cangshan Mountain and explored Qingbi stream. It is akin to hiking in Yosemite. We were undeterred by the Chinese tourists who told us to turn back, the "road is not good" and found ourselves alone in the canyon with the mist around us. Li brought home 5 pounds of rocks, Marcia took many pictures and Steve saw a new bird. A good time was had by all.
The rest of the trip involved lots of walking, sightseeing and eating. Lucky for us, Marcia took home an extra suitcase of our things in what is just the beginning of trying to get ourselves out of here!
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