Thursday in Kunming

Have I mentioned that Steven, our guide, has kept us busy? Today began at the Dragon Gate, a network of narrow corridors, shrines, and grottoes dug out of the hillside by Toaist monks a couple hundred years ago. The views from the side of the mountain were beautiful and the architecture impressive. Walking amongst these shrines just a few days before the celebration of Easter was a grateful reminder of the peace that comes from knowing a God that blesses us with every good thing; not because we perform ceremony or rituals, or because we've rubbed the right stone for "good fortune", but because of His unconditional love for us and because of the debt paid by His son. We had a few opportunties to share that gospel with our guide and he is very curious and interested.

After the trek up the mountain we stopped at some little roadside shops set up for tourists. We began bargaining with the first lady and she pulled out a pen to write the price....it just so happened to be a Toprol XL pen...the drug Pat's company sells! We gestured for the lady to hold it up for a picture and I think she thought we were crazy.

Then we took a bus ride to a beautiful park. A little girl gave Miyah a hard boiled bird egg. Miyah didn't know what it was and took a bite without peeling it. The egg was tiny, like a robbins egg.

All week I'd been asking Steven about trying a hot pot meal for dinner. So Steven arranged for us to try what he kept calling a mushroom hot pot. We asked him if there were other ingredients besides mushrooms...like chicken,etc. and he said there were veges and chicken also. Well, the hot pot was not what I expected it to be. There were mushrooms....lots of mushrooms...probably ten different kinds of mushrooms....and I hate mushrooms. There were also squid or fish balls and other strange ingredients. Lets just say we ate a lot of rice that meal.

Then we went to a silk factory and watched how they make silk comforters. It was very interesting, but the fashion show was a little strange. They put the show on just for our little group and of course the models were showcasing the silk made by the factory. There was a picture of international officials with the Chinese president wearing traditional silks made by this very factory...including Pres. George W!

Lastly, we were treated to a tea ceremony at "Dr. Tea". It was quite educational and thanks to the great saleswoman, we came out with $100 worth of tea. It looks like we'll all be drinking a lot of tea. Yunnan is known for it's puer tea (pronounced like "poor"). We saw puer tea shops all over Beijing. According to the saleslady it's pretty close to the fountain of youth (ha!)....it's good for cholesterol, weight loss, skin, wrinkles, old age spots, stomach digestion...you name it. It comes in a pressed cake and we bought two, plus jasmine, black, and green tea. Since we'll be living forever with this miracle tea, we should be all set with tea until eternity.

We (Jennifer, Mike, and our family) took Elsie, our guide Steven, and his fiance, Meggie out for dinner. We were starving after our lunch of rice, so we decided to take a taxi to Wei's Pizzeria to get some American food. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to eat pizza and french fries! The Chinese food has mainly been good, but it was still nice to have some familiar food...especially for the kids. Wei's even has a little playroom for the kids on the second floor...and western toilets. Small, but much appreciated luxuries.