Change Please!

Buyer beware! After bartering and agreeing on a price, do not give the vendor large bills that require them to make change. Once they have your money they will want to do anything but give you the change.

They will sell you more merchandise or try to sell you batteries!

And keep in mind that they believe that all Westerners are wealthy. So a good phrase to learn is: "I live in Beijing, I make Beijing money - I won't pay more than the citizens here."

And beware, several times we heard in Chinese, "charge them more, they have 2 children." We would go in and pick out what we wanted, take pictures, and then have our Chinese friends go back and buy the product if we were encountering bartering difficulty, however, that seemed to be a rare thing.

Donny Wanted a Pet, So I Took Him To Tibet

No, really I did not get him a pet, however, he did get a handcrafted wooden alligator during our trip. And a promise to get him a fish when we return home.

How Quickly We Adapt

After a little over thirty days the children started to communicate in Chinese. It was a flashback to my childhood when I was learning Spanish - and my father would only speak Spanish to me until I was fluent. Being in an environment where only Chinese was spoken helped the children to pick it up rather quickly. In fact, we had several people tell us how good our children's pronunciation was....like "real" Chinese they would say.

We learned about 25 characters, only 10,000 more to go! But we learned enough symbols to find restrooms, food, and entrances/exits. Along with roughly 50 words we began to carry small conversations on with the local people we would meet. The taxi drivers were always ready to practice their English on you - and you to practice their Chinese on them.

I was impressed with Donny on our last shopping trip. He asked the clerk in Chinese, "Can I see that one? How much does it cost? And are you kidding, that is too expensive!" And when the clerk would not deal any further, he turned on the tears...the clerk gave into Donny's offer of two pairs of tennis shoes for 100 RMB ($14 USD) just to get the crying to stop and all of the other Chinese shoppers to stop ridiculing him for not dealing with the cute little "doll" boy.
When we come back home we plan on continuing our Mandarin Chinese lessons - on this trip it has become very apparent to me the business opportunities that exist for those that are fluent in Chinese and English. Each day in the China Daily newspaper there were countless advertisements for English/Chinese speaking businesspeople from major corporations like Motorola, Microsoft, and Krispy Kreme Donuts.

(The Torch Building featuring gigantic television screens.)

In the statistics that I see China is quickly become the next financial powerhouse - and I plan on making sure that the children have the opportunity to learn the language to leverage themselves in their adult lives whether they are missionaries or business people learning a second language is something that will enhance their lives.

Tibet Fashion Statement

This is the main living quarters, dinner table, and bed!
Yes, all beds in China are "hard as a rock!"

American Businessman In China

The day that we visited Ti an An mien Square we drew such a crowd that a guard had to come and break up the mayhem. You see a little boy posing with Kate -in front of them are hundreds of people with cameras popping!

After that day - Donny learned the value of his and Kate's smile. He is a businessman in training....he told me that he could meet the demands of the people and make money in the process (LOL). He learned that he could fetch a nice sum of money for their photos - and thus asked our friend to create a sign for him to hold when they were out - the sign reads in Chinese/English: American Businessman and Sister, Photos only 100 RMB -

Kate also realized after the day at the Square, where a Chinese father tried to pick her up for a photo - that she would prefer to sit in her stroller all buckled up so no one could pick her up again.

South China Sea

The kids had never seen the ocean, so our trip to the South China Sea was a new adventure for them. At first they did not want to go to the beach because we had to take a small boat over the natural sandbar to the beach.

Once we got over our fear of the dilapidated boat - we arrived safely at the ocean.

The kids tested the waters....

The kids built sand castles..

The kids hunted for sea shells...
The kids chased the waves...

No one wanted to leave, and all Kathryn kept asking was: "When can we go back to the ocean?" It reminded me of my first trip to Florida to Disney World at the age of four. I do not remember Disney, but I remember the ocean. I bet if you ask Kate about China, she will tell you about the ocean too.

Cold Water, Please

Everything to drink in China is served hot. Even bottled water is not refrigerated. If you go into a restaurant and ask for water, they bring you a cup of boiling hot water. If you ask for cold water, they look at you as if you are crazy....why?

The Chinese believe that drinking cold water and other beverages upsets your stomach. One day Kate had a stomach ache - from all the candy her grandfather has permitted her to eat - however, an older woman lectured me in Chinese for several minutes that it was because I allowed the children to drink cold bottles of water.

And yes, they serve Coca-Cola warm as well.