Hong Kong airport, en route to Taipei
Our first stop was Taipei, where we visited our friends Grace and Sammy. This is the street outside of Sammy's apartment.
Meg, Grace, Sammy and I outside of Taipei's City Hall, with Taipei 101, the world's tallest building, in the background.
Taipei's subway
Outside Grace's favorite restaurant in Taipei
Cute kid outside Grace's favorite restaurant
The Sun Yat Sen memorial in Taipei
Changing of the guard at the Sun Yat Sen memorial
Changing of the guard
The Sun Yat Sen memorial
The entrance to the Chiang Kai Shek memorial
The entrance to the plaza outside the Chiang Kai Shek memorial
A building near the entrance to the Chiang Kai Shek memorial
The eaves of that building
The Chiang Kai Shek memorial
Sammy, Grace, Meg and Dan
Inside the Chiang Kai Shek memorial
The plaza outside the Chiang Kai Shek memorial in Taipei
A nearby building
Taipei 101 at night
Getting out, bright and early, for more sightseeing (who are we kidding; it was almost noon!)
The view down the street
This is where we picked up breakfast while staying with Grace and Sammy
Grace and Meg at the National Palace Museum
At an outdoor restaurant in the mountains north of Taipei
The food was good, but had to be heated before serving
It was a little chilly
It was also a little foggy
Best hot tub ever
Front office of the hot tub place
The night market in Taipei
Chowing down
All sorts of treats were available
Squid on a stick!
Hong Kong airport, en route to Nanchang
Hong Kong airport, en route to Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province
Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. Just in case you were wondering what inspired the Eagles song.
The Nanchang Folk Museum was located at the former headquarters of Zhu De, a leading military general during the communist revolution
A model showing Nanchang a thousand years ago
Towers old and new in Nanchang. The one on the right is Shengjin Pavillion, which had been the tallest building in Nanchang for many years
A very large bell at the entrance to Shengjin Pavillion
Landscaped pool with lots o' carp
Shengjin Pavillion
Inside the pavillion
The view of the front gate from the top of the pavillion
Not-so-glorious housing abuts a glorious temple at the pavillion's site
Watch your step!
Meg and our guide Susan at Ba Yi Square, in the heart of Nanchang
Shiny building across the street from the square
Ba Yi Square is actually a rectangle, a really big rectangle
Sun setting in the side streets
Waiting for lunch before we visited Longhushan (Dragon & Tiger Mountain)
Meg tries sugar cane
Mahjong anyone?
The gate to Longhushan (Dragon & Tiger Mountain)
Map and description of Longhushan
Map close-up
The tourist station where we got onto a boat to visit Longhushan
Nice looking boats that we didn't ride on
We rode on one of these rickety things
Nice dragon head!
Across the river from the boat launch, a temple sits on a cliff
On the way to Longhushan
A small performance at this temple shows one theory of how the ancients were able to bury their dead in caves high up on the cliff face
The temple was built into the rock face
Look Ma, no hands
Closeup of the small temple
Closeup of one of the burial caves
This nice woman poled our boat upstream
This big rock is called the Peach Pit
Nice river scene
The equivalent of a street vendor, this woman paddled alongside us and sold sticky rice in lotus leaf and sweet potatoes
Dan and Susan
We walked the last mile to Longhushan but we could have been slackers and ridden horses...
... or pushcharts
Longhushan (Dragon & Tiger Mountain). The Dragon part is the undulating nature of the ridge. The Tiger part is the foremost part of the ridge (on the right)
A Taoist temple has sat at the foot of Longhushan for 1500 years. This was rebuilt in 1989.
More pushcarts
The temple gate
More of the front entrance
Meg and Dan in front of the temple
Nice detail on the roof
More of the temple grounds
The men poled the boats downstream. Chivalry is dead in these parts.
The peach pit again
Sunset hitting the rock face
Nice river view
Really weird poster on the walk back to the village
Nice place for a wedding
The scene of the infamous "mesh wire" incident -- a really nice hotel room in Shangrao
So nice Meg took two photos of the room
They didn't speak English too well at this hotel, or rather, they wished for no fire.
Across from the hotel was a humongous development; in fact, the entire area was recently or currently under development
The other part of the development
We went from Shangrao to the mountain area called Sanqingshan. To get to up the mountainside, we had to take a cable car
The hotel where we stayed was in a very nice location, that is, if you're not afraid of heights
We walked for an afternoon in Sanqingshan park and -- surprise, surprise -- took many photos
Sanqingshan
Sanqingshan The Rhododendren tree we're posing next to was over 900 years old. Looking good!
It was shortly after taking this picture, next to the sign pointing the way back to the hotel, that we got lost
An old Taoist shrine
A statue in front of another old Taoist shrine
The other old Taoist shrine. It was all the way over here that we realized we were very very lost.
Nice rock carving
Another 1500 year old Taoist temple. The building was rebuilt in 1989. The gate is original. It was over here where we were shown the way back to the hotel.
Our hotel had this funky sculpture/garden
And lots of stairs
It was the only place in China that we saw with a designated smoking area
The next day was quite foggy, so we went for a shorter walk and took just as many photos
At the end of our walk, Susan sang a song about the sights in Jiangxi province
The cable car was under repair so we walked down the mountain. It was a very pretty walk through a lot of fog.
This is how they bring supplies and water up to the hotel. The cable car is only for tourists.
After we walked down the mountain, we had lunch at a cute restaurant. The people in the photo are standing in the kitchen.
We then went to the city of Shangrao, where CJ is from. We visited the orphanage that received her and placed her with a foster family. The orphanage is a mile or so down a dirt road off of a pretty busy boulevard. This is the gate to the dirt road.
This is the orphanage
The side of the orphanage had a lot of different displays
Meg filmed the different displays
One of the displays
Another display
What I initially thought was a playground was actually a disassembled construction crane
Video of the dirt road on the way from the orphanage
Driving in Shangrao
This was the main government office in Shangrao. We believe this is where CJ's birth mom left her to be adopted.
We took a number of photos here.
She was supposedly left at these steps.
The building's plaza
The sidewalk to the right
Back to the building, looking right
Back to the building, looking straight ahead
Back to the building, looking left
Shangrao city, Jiangxi Province
A tourist sign across the street
The English copy was better than usual
We then went into a grocery store in Shangrao. It was quite fun. We were probably the first white people to step foot in the store.
Lots of candy
Really big yams
Shangrao sits on the Rao River. This tower, dating back to the mid 19th century, sits on the water's edge
The City was refurbishing the tower and the surrounding plaza for tourists
It looked like it could be nice when finished
But as tourists, we probably came a little earlier than was expected
Across the street from the plaza were slums and shanties
Shangrao overall was one tough crazy town.
Down the river was a larger tower, same vintage
Through the murky air, we saw a lone boater.
Video from our drive to Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province
In Jingdezhen we visited a museum dedicated to the porcelain industry
Jingdezhen is known in China for its porcelain
Several Presidents of China have visited the site
More on making the porcelain
Painting the finished product
The kiln from the outside
The kiln from the inside
This was the temple built for the ancient factory
The temple's inside. In the back is the tourist shop
The building was about 150 years old, with nice woodwork
More detail
The hotel we stayed at in Jingdezhen was quite fancy
Driving back to Nanchang, we some piggies going to market
The view from our hotel in Nanchang -- boats on the Gan River (how about that air quality?)
Umm, an interesting food experiment
Back in Nanchang, waiting until we meet CJ.
We met CJ in one of the hotel's conference rooms.
The six girls came in cute little red costumes
Dad and CJ
The six families, just before the girls came
Things got a little crazy
CJ's the one on the right
She now likes the stuffed animal, and loves Mom
Trying to comfort CJ
How to pronounce CJ's name: Ling Cha Jiao
CJ and Dad
Mom and CJ, in a quieter moment
Mom gave CJ her first bottle with us
CJ quickly figured out the camera and started posing
CJ dressed for our first excursion
The gate to the Tengwang Pavillion
We listened to a folk music performance
The roof of the top floor
The grounds of the pavillion
Mom and CJ
CJ liked the outing
The White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou
The view from our hotel window
Here's where we had our laundry done
CJ likes her noodles
Ba ba is Mandarin for Daddy
Asleep in what passes for a crib in the White Swan. It's the most expensive hotel in South China.
CJ the poser
Not liking the idea of bedtime
We had dinner with Jeff, a former colleague of Dan's
She's asleep -- time to drink
A view of the spread
Our last day in Guangzhou we walked around the town a bit. This is an open air pottery market
The pedestrian bridges were pretty fancy
Guangzhou street scene
A pedestrian mall in Guangzhou
This sign seemed appropriate
Our red couch photo
The making of the red couch photo
Hong Kong airport, finally going home
ON THE PLANE! finally going home
The reception at the airport
