Ni hao

That means “hello” in Chinese. I actually think I might be able to pick this up a bit. The word order is almost the same as English. And I just hear it better. I think Myung is half offended.
This is the first time I’ve been able to sit for any lengthof time at a computer since arriving in China. I don’t have such an interesting story yet, but wanted to write now, as my friend Renato, who babysits me through all my computer needs, may try to update this website to a newer edition. I may be out of commission for a while if I need to learn anything new. I’m an old dog and I never learned all the features of the old WordPress.
Next time I’ll put in some pictures. They should be nice, as we are in a very beautiful and famous place, Yangshuo, near Guilin in Guangxi Province which is one province west of Guangdong. If you want to look at pictures, you can search either Guilin or Yanshuo, or Li River or Yulong River. You’ll recognize the scenery from travelogues and such. It’s famous.
Let’s see, we flew to Guangzhou, north of Hong Kong, on the 23rd, I think. We went there because most of China is cold now, and it’s merely cool here. They are in the middle of a cold wave, so the high temps have been about 50 degrees F., or about 10 C.. Feels like Yangsan on a warm day. anyway, we only sent there because it was the cheapest destination in the area. We went to a place north of there as soon as we arrived, but didn’t do anything. There are nice temples there, but we weren’t in the mood to deal with going. So the next morning we went to Shenzhen, where Myung lived for years. I’ts just over the water from Hong Kong. You can see Hong Kong from there. There is little to do, but it’s Myung;’s old stomping ground, so we cruised around there for about three days. It’s a Special Economic Zone, so most of it is quite modern. There is a lot of steel and glass. The bloom is off the rose since the economic meltdown, but the shutters will probably come off the building fronts some day. I’ll post a couple of pictures next time but, really, it isn’t much. I saw the apartment building Myung lived in and the building where her office was. She flew pretty high back then. Nice digs. We went shopping and walked in a couple of parks. That’s about it. It was Chinese New Year, so things were a little slow anyway. Most everybody was with their families, or en route.
Chinese New Year wasn’t especially dramatic. You could go find dragon parades adn there were definitely firworks, but Diwali it wasn’t. I was fine just hanging out.
Now we’re in Yangshuo, having arrived this morning after taking the 11 hour night bus from Shenzhen. Ugh. Myung is sleeping it off. I’m getting this done before possibly updating the site. Who knows? I may not be able to operate the new one.
Renato put a new link for a map of Southern China on my homepage. I’ll try to keep up with it.
Until next time, be well, all of you.