Hi, Everyone,
We’ve had a full couple of days since our last entry. Yesterday, we started early and traveled a couple of hours with a family from Maryland to tour a town called Tong Li. Tong Li is over 1000 years old and is one of a few “water towns” built around a series of canals near the shores of a very large lake. We visited a couple of historic houses there we would probably more aptly referred to as villas. They were quite opulent, with receiving halls and small courtyards. Their buildings were all connected behind the scenes by dim, tall, very narrow hallways. It was easy to let one’s imagination run there.

We shared a boat ride on a Chinese gondola around a few of the major canals and under ancient bridges, clearing a couple of them by literally a few inches. Right afterward, we wound our way through some side streets to a tea house where we had a traditional lunch. Like most of the food here, it was very good. There was a variety of things on the table – large prawns, a couple different pork dishes, rice and tea (of course), a couple kinds of vegetables, local flatbread and beer (but not for the kids).

The drive gave us time to learn a number of things from our guide, ranging from details on healthcare in China to property reforms and taxation. It was very enlightening. The drive also took us through a variety of rural, lakeside and industrial areas as well. Through them, we saw almost every kind of conveyance we could think of. Countless bikes, trikes, scooters, 3-wheeled vans, trucks, tractors – you name it. The only thing we didn’t see were animal-driven vehicles – perhaps because the intensive agriculture appeared to be for human food. It didn’t seem like there was enough room to produce food for livestock that wasn’t itself intended for food.

We ended the day at a smoky restaurant a couple of blocks from the hotel. We had some soup that Kira could eat and a sea bass. Fish is often served whole. Eating prawns was good practice for eating food that is able to stare at you. We didn’t even feel like we had to apologize this time.

Today, we had a late start, but spent our 4th of July like any American would in Shanghai - at a couple of tea houses. We caught a cab to a place called “Wu Tea City” a few miles NW of us. It’s like a flea market for tea and tea paraphernalia. The tea sampling has a bit of a ritual to it so it takes a little time. The area was pretty devoid of tourists. We walked part of the way back to our hotel, but caught another cab for the way back.

Traffic here is heavy and aggressive, to say the least. We’ve seen a few fender-benders, but wondered why there weren’t serious accidents all over the place. We got an answer of sorts when we got back to our hotel. An accident with a bicycle had just happened nearby and a man was laying at the edge of the bike lane in the street, but there was no other vehicle apparently involved. When we got there, the man was conscious and sitting up. The police finally came but it took the ambulance over 45 minutes to arrive – well after the tow truck. We felt helpless. There wasn’t anything we could do for him. Finally, an ambulance came, but the police waved it off. They had commandeered a taxi to take the man away, with a family member who had since arrived at the scene. We puzzled about this for awhile, but remembered some of the things our guide had told us about healthcare the day before. It may very well have been the man’s request to avoid the ambulance purely for financial reasons.

Our touring is drawing to an end for this trip. After tomorrow, it’s time to get down to business. We meet our son on Monday morning. Kira is still pulling for us to name him “Diego”, but we’ve got it narrowed down between two other ones.

We hope you all had a safe and traditional 4th of July without us.

Kim, Michelle & Kira