This is not related, just an interesting KFC.

Last time I said we were going to southern Yunnan. I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone past Weg is a liar, and you should never trust him.

In truth we did look into going to southern Yunnan, but everything there was pretty "meh". A Botanical Garden. A jungle trek to see elephants that are usually not around this time of year. A night market. That was actually the only thing that looked interesting, and I know it would be disappointing compared to any Thai night market. Still, we thought we'd go see the parents first, and then figure out what to do. But the decision was made for us when Ella's parents both said they were sick. I assume it was COVID, but they didn't take a test so who knows (they're fine, but stay tuned to find out what happened!). Anyway, we cancelled our ticket to figure out what to do next. (sidenote, did you know you can cancel tickets at any time in China for no penalty? Another way travel is crazy convenient here.)

So now we had some time to kill, but we didn't know how much. We decided to just make our way west, and you know, see what we could find on the way. It started with a very... unorthodox route to a water town in the neighboring province. That is, we could take a bus 90% there, and get a taxi the rest of the way. What I didn't expect is just how in the middle of nowhere this bus stop was, basically dropping us off in front of a farm. But against all odds, we got a Didi after a 15 minute wait. So yeah, Xitang Water Town is pretty rural. I had heard it was one of the prettier water towns though, and in fact, was a filming location for Mission Impossible 3. Who did it better? Tom Cruise or us?

 

 

In truth it's comparable to Zhujiajiao, which is on the very edge of Shanghai, and crucially, has a metro station so you don't have to mess with the dumb route we did. We've been to Zhujiajiao before, and I really liked it. So, Xitang, I honestly don't think it's worth the trouble to get there unless you're a Mission Impossible fan, because Zhujiajiao is just as good. Anyway, we got some photos, had an amazing lunch, ticked it off the list, and made our way back to the "city" for the night.

 

I say "city" because Jiaxing would barely be a footnote for Chinese cities, having "only" 5 million people. But Jiaxing historically has a very significant claim to fame, as being where the Chinese Communist Party was officially established. Funny story about that! The meeting actually began in Shanghai, and they were chased out by the cops. Undeterred, they went to the next big city over, literally borrowed a tourist boat, and finished the meeting in the middle of a lake so nobody would bother them. Now you can of course see "the boat" where they put the final stamp of approval on things, but it's just a replica. I wonder what happened to the real one? Anyway, we didn't see the Red Boat, because it didn't sound very exciting. In truth, Jiaxing itself wasn't very exciting. I don't know if it was because of Chinese New Year coming up, but it was dead. We went to the "cool" lakefront area with bars and restaurants, and almost all were closed. We eventually found one that was open, and there was some corporate event going on. But they said they still have seats, so we got to witness team building shenanigans with dinner. Which deserves a mention, because there is 0, ZERO percent chance this stuff would fly in US corporate culture. For example, they had this game - coworkers had to wear a belt, and attached to that was clear plastic box full of ping pong balls, with one hole in it. So they had to be up on stage and twerk their heart out to get the balls to fly out within 60 seconds, much to the amusement of everyone.

They had other games too, and seriously, HR would see a lawsuit waiting to happen.

 

Seriously, quite a nice Starbucks.

With Jiaxing having nothing to offer, we made our way further west to my old home, Hangzhou. Ella and I came here before, but there was some stuff left over. For starters, we need to finish our collection of provincial museums by going to Zhejiang's, which I had never done. Actually, I counted, and this is our 11th provincial museum. And against all odds, it is by far the most boring. Seriously. I don't know how. I mean, even little old Hunan province had a real mummy. Hainan province re-created an old street with interactive exhibits. What does Zhejiang have? Zhejiang has pots. And a garden.

Guys. Guuuuuuys. You are the richest province per capita. You have amazing history. Why is your museum such a drag? We practically ran through it, and then went for a walk on West Lake's Bai Causeway. At the end was a Starbucks, which was inside a restored old building. It was 100x more interesting than the Zhejiang Provincial Museum.

After, we went for a bit of a walk through a nature area called Jiuxi. Not normally my thing in winter, but to my surprise it was very beautiful. In fact, this was by far my favorite place in Hangzhou, and one of my favorite places I've been to in China. It's through tea fields, and me, not knowing anything about tea, was happy to see that they keep their leaves year round. It was a very well maintained trail that ended in an equally well maintained village. Despite being winter, everything was very green and the stream along the path had crystal clear water. Hard to believe we were just a few kilometers from downtown. So here are a bunch of great photos from this place.

Thy blessed Italian Meat Flavor Chips

After a long hike, we took a cable car up to the top of the highest mountain in Hangzhou. It was alright, but probably not worth the 45 minute wait, because after you see the view, it's like "Yup. Okay, let's go back." And then, our Hangzhou trip suddenly came to an end. Ella's parents messaged to say they felt better, so the next morning it was off to the train station. A bit of a whirlwind trip for sure, being all unplanned and last minute. Still, a nice break. And now I write this on the train, some 8 hours into the 11 hour journey. We usually fly to you know, not have to sit on a train for 11 hours. But doing the math it's only about 2 hours slower after lugging your way out to the airports and back. Anywho, at the in-laws place it will be a week of eating, napping, and playing Switch. Sounds fine to me, I have a big backlog.

 

It is now 2 weeks later, and umm... stuff happened.

 

So we went to mom and dad's, and yes, of course, they did have COVID. This isn't surprising, as probably 80% of China has had it already. Dad was fine, but mom had a lingering cough. Then again, when I had COVID I did too for a couple of weeks. But when mom had little bits of blood coming up, we walked to the hospital to get a checkup. And so began a 9 day saga. In truth, mom never felt that bad. The doctors said "Yup, you're staying here," because things can turn bad quickly. Since Qujing is pretty rural, I assume they're used to farmers traveling for a few hours to come in, and not taking a walk across the street. Anyway, mom had an infection they cleared up with antibiotics, but also some other issues in her lungs. Fortunately the CAT scans showed things are getting better, so no permanent damage. But she'll probably be a bit slower for a month or so.

 

Which is a good time to talk about Chinese hospitals! Because oh boy, things are different than what you're probably used to. First of all, it goes without saying they're pretty affordable. And honestly, the level of care you get seemed to me to be the same as what you get in the US. The nurses, doctors, everyone was very attentive, if a little blunt. However, that is all you get - care. Everything not medical related YOU are responsible for. You have clean sheets when you arrive, but if you want them changed? That's on you. You want food? Your responsibility. They do have a cafeteria (which actually looked pretty decent and very cheap), but delivery is so ubiquitous in China it's not really a big deal. Even drinking water from the water cooler, you need to pay for that (about $1.30 a jug). Some patients even just go home and come back, since they know the doctor's schedule. Overall, it's a very functional hospital but also not pretty (in fact, a bit depressing). But it gets the job done. So for those 9 days, we were on shifts. I brought breakfast in the morning, Dad brought lunch, and Ella brought dinner to stay the night. It was a unique time to be sure, and although I don't want to do it again, it makes for an interesting experience.

You don't want to see the hospital. Here's the lake.

 

So of course we stayed until that was all resolved, and then a few extra days with mom back at home. Dad and I even took a trip, just the two of us, to do some shopping and see a little lake. This was the first time I spent time with just him, which is a bit of a challenge since he does not speak Mandarin. His dialect is pretty similar, but different enough to cause me, a so-so Chinese speaker, to not understand him and he not understand me. Turns out if we have some patience with each other, and don't mind pauses to explain around things or look up words in my dictionary, we can actually do pretty well.

 

Now back in Shanghai, I still had about a week before work started up again. We went out for the final day of the "official" Chinese New Year season, just to see if there was anything going on. In truth, not much. Yu Garden supposedly had bunny lanterns, but after arriving they wanted 80 yuan just to see them. Nah. Instead we went to a place that's been on the back of our minds a while, the Shanghai Aquarium. It's pretty solid overall, although you can tell it was built back in the 90s. I don't know, it just has that kind of feel to it. I'd say it's comparable to the one in Cincinnati, although it's a bit behind Kending Taiwan's or Bangkok's. So, worth the look if you don't have an aquarium in your hometown. It was about a 1, 1.5 hour visit, and they had a lot of those walk-through tunnels, so that's cool. I don't really know what else to say about an aquarium, so here's some photos I guess?

 

 

Don't all weddings have a twisty slide?

But the last weekend before going back to work really ended in a bang, although not of my own doing. Two of our friends got married, and did it in the most awesome way. They rented this house/AirBnB way out in the suburbs of Shanghai, and just hosted a rager party all day. For the ceremony itself, there was just a tent in the yard around lunchtime, and they got another friend to be the officiant. And... that was it. We went the night before to help set up, and the rooms were basically like a hotel, with a key for each. Ours had a sleeping loft and bathtub, and looked more Italian than Chinese. I liked it, but Ella LOVED it (I'm sure she'll put some photos on FB at some point). The bride and groom even contacted an Indian restaurant to cater the thing, so we stuffed our faces with a ridiculous amount of that. So yeah, imagine a rich friend that owns a villa decides to invite 50 people, and that's basically what we had. They even hired a nanny to watch the kids so the parents could cut loose - which, I think is the best idea ever and should be the standard thing to do, because parents in "YES! NO KIDS!" mode for the first time in forever are tons of fun. It's honestly one of the coolest weddings I've ever been to, and although I imagine it was not a bargain, was certainly far, far less expensive than a more traditional church/wedding hall thing, especially with everyone chipping in for drinks and other things. Then again, I'm a big fan of bucking tradition and doing a wedding exactly how the two of you want to do it, because if you're not, what's the point of doing it at all? And as often as those two like to have people over to chill, a house party to end all house parties seems like the best way possible to start their lives together.

 

Headphones for the silent disco