Hello again! We've been enjoying our time in Beidaihe and Qinghuangdao. I've been learning a few Chinese phrases which help me get by. One I need to learn yet is Please don't touch her! She's sleeping! I know how to say she's sleeping, but the don't touch part would be nice. :) Yes, the Chinese quite like the two little kids we've got with us. Very popular wherever we go. In the past couple of days, Brian and Dave have done a lot of birding, adding more than 15 lifers to Dave's bird list and even more to Brian's. Over 90% of the birds he sees are lifers for him - makes for very interesting birding! We're staying at the Jin Shan Hotel in Beidaihe, a 1-minute walk from the Yellow Sea and a sandy beach which Breyden and Chelsie have been enjoying. This hotel is where 'all of the birders' stay, mostly because of an English-speaking Chinese lady named Jean who helps the birders in many different ways. She's gotten drivers for us, packed a breakfast for one earlier morning, bought our return train tickets, made sure our meals were to our liking...Without her, I think the birder would be much more scattered. She is a birder herself, having learned from tourists for the last years and now being very into it herself : ) Very neat. This is prime birding area because it's on the birding migratory route. Around the middle of May (we're a bit early) thousands of birds come through here. There are other birders here as well, including a group of 10 Dutchmen who proclaimed there were at least 5 Opa's in their group when Breyden said "Opa" at supper :).
Trichelle and I haven't been birding like our husbands too much though. On Monday we explored the beach and a beach path with the guys birding on the way. On Tuesday, we joined them in going to a rice paddy and pond area looking for birds . After McD's for lunch (not many other choices if you don't want Chinese food), we found a supermarket and returned to the hotel where the kids had naps. Then we walked down and enjoyed the beach with them. On Wednesday, the guys went out all day so we went to a market in Beidaihe which was supposed to be great, but turned out to be mostly pearls and a few clothes. From there we walked for quite aways to Olympic Park - a park with some Olympic type things including the rings, statues, and some copper books on 'Olympic Road' which we assumed would be one for each Chinese athlete with their hand, foot prints and signatures. Kind of interesting. Breyden and Chelsie played for awhile in this park - nothing like our parks. Kids in China don't go out much under the age of 5, so there are no playgrounds, and you're not supposed to walk on the grass - it's for show. We played in a square (concrete area) and some Chinese guy videoed them playing for quite awhile. Then we went into Qinghuangdao for lunch and ended up at a different McDonald's near a lot of street shopping (clothes, puppies, kittens, belts, combs, other junk...). We explored for a while and found several markets by accident. Trichelle would see people leaving a door in the side of a building and ask what was in there - I'd go and look and we'd find a market! 3-5 Stories of shopping and noise. FUN! So we'd shop and explore some more. Both Breyden and Chelsie fell asleep despite the noise and people poking at them, and woke up very cheerful over an hour later. When we returned to the hotel, we mommies were tired out from walking most of the day, but Dave called that they'd found a playground at a nearby hotel, so we headed out again. It was definitely worth it - Chelsie and Breyden (and Dave and Brian) had a great time on the 6 slides and the stairs, and teeter totter animals, etc. It was a perfect playground - no places for little ones to fall.
Today we headed to the zoo between Beidaihe and Qinghuangdao. Chinese zoos are a little different than Canadian ones, for sure. Animal rights would have a hey-day in these zoos! The first animals we saw weren't treated that well - a boa with it's mouth taped shut being draped over tourists for money; a monkey on a chain leash with a choker neck again for pictures for money; an elephant chained to the ground so he'd stay near the fence...etc. It was nice to see animals, especially for the 2 kids who didn't notice what we noticed. After this part of the zoo, the main portion was very nice. We got on a train, completely caged in, and drove through a wild animal park, similar to Bear Country USA or even a bit like the bus that goes into the Vancouver Zoo. We quite enjoyed seeing bears, tigers, lions, and many other animals from the train. We were able to get off to feed and see the giraffes, and then at another stop which was a carnival area with a carousel, very large monkey area, and other carnival type things. Then it was back on the train - with about 10x more people than we'd had before (very Chinese style), and through another area of animals. We were dropped off by a herd of goats which were excited to see their food source leaving the train :) In China, you're welcome to feed the animals whatever you want...interesting. We walked through a bird area, and finished our 4-hour time at the zoo walking through a beautiful tulip area. That was our morning today. Our afternoon was quite relaxing with naps for almost all of us, packing to leave tomorrow, some birding (of course), and a game of Monopoly Deal (a game we're all enjoying).
Tomorrow we head for Beijing on the morning train from Qinghuangdao and hope to catch an acrobat show in the evening. Saturday it's onwards to the Philippines, going our separate ways from Dave and Trichelle for a few days. The weather here hasn't been as warm as we hoped, but Chelsie has some nice colour. The Philippines should give us the sunshine we'd like :)
I hope to update this again soon, but it depends on the internet availability and cost. I have no idea how to get pictures onto this computer and don't really trust it as it seems a little ancient, but hopefully I'll have a chance yet. Hope you're all doing well! Thanks for reading :)
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