Day 2- China Adventure

Day 2

So the day started off really well. I stayed at the Jin Long Tan Hotel somewhere in Beijing. They had a breakfast buffet that was real nice. It was a mix of Western and Chinese. I tried some dragon fruit, saw duck eggs, which we hope to have on out own farm when out duck starts laying, some fried/cooked eggs with a delicious fried roll thing. Not sure what that is called but it was good, and some baked bacon. Everything is better with bacon. I used chop sticks but I was glad to have the option of a fork.

Once I got my fill I then took a walk around the block to see some of the city in day light. One observation was their power design. I was probably a half block back when I took the shot of the power lines. They have 220V here so they have some heft to them.

On the main roads, you can tell they make an effort to not see any wires. There were also many people out sweeping with long willow brooms. Some were very long around 2-3 feet and some had been worn down to what we think of as a broom. They have lots of willow trees so brooms are easy to renew. I also noticed lots of bikes. It looks like they are like ride share bikes or they are all registered somehow. At one point I came to a couple piles of bikes. Another pic has a sunflower in it. There was a patch of them among the huge buildings.

 Next door was a gas station. I stopped to get a drink and grab a ice cold coke for my friend Coach Leek. He works for Coke so I was interested to see their logo in Chinese. It was rather humid out so I had no problem downing the bottle. Interestingly, the gas station had about a dozen attendants waiting to pump gas. I miss having someone gas you up. I believe in my hometown there is a gas station that still has people pump it. I like that touch.

Next it was off to camp which is located in the North of the city. We went past the Olympic section of town and saw the IBM building which is shaped like a torch with a huge screen on it. We also say the Birds nest and some towers. The Birds Nest was huge and I understand it has been sitting empty. We joked the Biebs needs to come and fill it up. Beautiful building though. The area is mainly empty now which seems to be a theme after the Olympics leave town.

We also noticed the city was organized into different sections. We went by the car dealer section which had every make /i have ever heard of. Then we passed what we dubbed the Home Depot section. It was all vendors for building materials including Pagodas. n a side note, I have taken two rides around town and I amazed at the driving here. Our drivers were in and out of traffic without turn signals, passing in the breakdown lane. Not once did I fear for my life nor did our drivers ever slam on the brakes. There are a couple of times I feared for other peoples lives while we were waiting at lights. Any how, we then got into a agricultural area and then we hit the Camford Royal School. It's a nice campus that looks like it was once a park/pool area.

I had my first squatty potty sighting. I had heard about them but not until I went to the bathroom at the school did I see one.

We met our helpers for the camp the they showed us around and that's when things went a bit sideways. They showed the dorms for the kids which were ok. It is camp after all. Then they showed us the classroom. It was a 10 x 12 room with 30 mini desks and carpet that smelled like must. It had plumbing on the outside of the walls that I was unsure what it was to. It might have been heat. We also saw a classroom in the dorm for dance. We asked if we could use that and they laughed. Then it was time for lunch. The cafeteria was nice. The food was good. I ate Tofu. I also used chopsticks. The rice here is perfect for picking up. Not sure how they do it but I could handle it with my chopsticks.

Then the afternoon was spent waiting in the conference room for our materials to show up so we could organize. Some parents and kids started to show up and that's when things turned into what we call Bian yanshu. So the drama was some parents were unhappy about the dorms and some left. We then switched venues to a bed and breakfast type place where we stayed the night. It's near the foothills where part of the wall is. We saw a turret tower at the top of one of them. Pretty cool, despite the fact we are in the middle of no where. The person who sent us here came in late last night to sort things out and get things straight so after I finish up writing this I need to go organize materials and figure out what we are going to do with the 2 remaining campers out of 16.

I have learned that the parents here are ferociously helicoptery. I watched one dad take out a wet wipe and wipe down a camper before he let him inside. We used a lot of humor and went with the flow in a weird day. I don't think that it's anyone's fault things are weird but we will work together and figure it out. I am in China after all. My take on the first full day is things are definitely different here both culturally and environment. It's good to outside of the normal to appreciate the normal and definitely bian yanshu.