APEC, Guilin, Thanksgiving & a Mirror

In November we were given an unexpected break for 6 days!  Beijing hosted the  26^th annual gathering of APEC Leaders (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) from around the world.  APEC is the premier Asia-Pacific economic forum.  Their primary goal is to “support sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region, champion free and open trade and investment, encourage economic technical cooperation while enhancing human security,” amongst other things.  Sounds pretty cool huh!  We were just happy this was the year for it to be held in Beijing because that meant VACATION time!!!    

As you may be aware, we have a little bit of a smog/horrible air problem here in China.  There are days we can literally “taste” the air.  Not good.  It is generally worse in the winter months due to the fact that they burn coal to heat the city. So, in order to have favorable and cleaner air during the APEC meetings, various measures were taken to ensure a “good showing” of the capital city!  Factories were closed down, transportation was restricted on certain days for certain vehicles/license #s, etc.  This was again really good news for us as we experienced some beautiful blue skies and fresh air.  Before the week was over, *netizens coined the phrase “APEC Blue” to satirically refer to “something that is fleeting.”  We all knew the “Apec Blue” skies wouldn’t last, but it was GREAT while it did!!!

*net·i·zen - a user of the Internet, especially a habitual or avid one.

GUILIN

This little  surprise holiday gave us an opportunity to take another quick trip within China.  However, I had to get very creative with our mode of travel because as soon as this holiday was announced, we were competing with 1.3 billion other people to get flights!  Argh!  But not to worry…creativity is my middle name.  So, together with one other couple from here in Beijing (they teach at a different university but we get together frequently), we took the bullet train from Beijing to Xi’an, stayed one day in Xi’an, visited all of our favorite places and ate lots of our favorite foods,  then flew from Xi’an to Guilin the next evening.  Guilin is one of the most beautiful places in China and a top tourist attraction.

We boarded a boat early the next morning for a trip down the Li River (漓江 - Lí Jiāng).  The river trip took us 52 miles down the river to Yangshuo, another beautiful location.  Here are some of my pictures of the cool mountains!

                                               

                                               

After arriving in Yangshuo, we boarded a bus that took us high and deep into the mountains to the Longsheng Rice Terraces (龙胜梯田).  This place is amazingly beautiful!!  We then hiked for an hour to our hotel that was deep in a village in the top of the mountains.  We literally hiked up into the clouds!  The people that live in these villages farm the terraced fields.  The terraced fields are built along the slope winding from the riverside up to the mountain top, no space wasted.  They plant rice in the terraced fields.  It is absolutely breathtaking any time of year.  The terraced fields were mostly built about 650 years ago.  This area is called Longji, which means Dragon’s Back. 

                                     

Hiking up, up, up to our hotel in the village!  We went hiking the next morning for a couple of hours to see the beautiful terraces.  There were moments when the fog would clear and we could see everything.  Then a minute later it would roll back in and become very misty and serene! 

A picture in front of a picture of the terraces, just in case it was too foggy to see anything.  Which it wasn’t!  We had occasional glimpses of incredible views!

                                                

Beautiful fields after the harvest.  Kind of looks like snow but it is water.

We wanted to do a hike to Half Moon Arch but it was raining and very slippery.  Plus, you can see from this sign that they really don’t want you to climb it!

THANKSGIVING

We had a great Thanksgiving!  We tried to create a little bit of “home” by making all of our family favorite traditional foods.  It took a bit of hunting and searching all over the city of Beijing to find the necessary "Thanksgiving" ingredients, but we finally rounded it all up and in the end, it was pretty close to perfect!!!  We had about 14 people (CFAU foreign teachers and Chinese friends) here for Thanksgiving dinner.  Everyone ate and ate so I think it was a success!  

Out of the mouth of babes... 

Last week at church the Primary teacher was asking the kids what the Wise Men brought to the baby Jesus.  One kid said, “Silver!”  Teacher said, “Close!  It was gold but maybe there was some silver also.”  Another child said, “Frankincense.”  Teacher said, “Right!”  Last child said, “A mirror!”  Teacher chuckled.  I laughed out loud!