New Years Fireworks in China!!!!!

Can you count all the people? This was just one...no part of one street..if you can find Waldo please let me know!!


Read on for the full story of all these people.







Ok here we go. The same day that Doug and I went to the Big Buddha we also went to the huge fireworks display for Chinese New Year....yup I know now what a sardine feels like but more like a can of sardines being stepped on.

The fireworks started at 8 and Doug and I started to head to the area we were going to meet some friends around 7...but we couldn't get there...The streets had already filled up and the policemen and women had already closed them down. You could get no where...Doug and I barely found a place to stand before the huge crowd caved in around us. And as clarified before the Chines push...no matter what you say they PUSH. So of course nothing the world starts on time...no matter where you are so the fireworks started late...but let me tell you they were worth it. We were on the Kowloon side and watching the firework go off over Hong Kong...they were the most amazing fireworks I have ever seen!

I swear we were holding the camera still!!!!

If you want to know the truth this picture was really taken for my sister Meghan......there were so many stores like this. So shiny and pretty that said come and spend money in may store...and in reality you could go by the same thing but a knock off....two blocks down!!!! (FOR WAY CHEAPER)

Anyway this one is for you....Meghan!!

Oh and we never found our friends there...but we did find ice cream...that was nice!

A day at the big Buddha

Ok so here are some pictures....more pictures of our trip to Hong Kong. The explanation of the whole excursion down below. I had a little trouble with Blogger so deal with the backwards stuff of this. The picture above is at the monastery place...they are burning incense. Huge incense...and the smell was overwhelming...it was pretty cool.

No this is not the huge Buddha this is a Bodhisattva...and they were surrounded by this metal fence so you wouldn't climb on them...there were also signs that said do not throw coins at them...which is a praise thing...and what were all the Chinese doing? Yup throwing coins! These statues were gigantic....not as huge as the Buddha but pretty big!

Doug and I witht he large huge Buddha in the background....can't see it can you? Well that's becasue of the fog...you could barely see the hand in front of your face that day...but we did get to eat real doritos....

Doug climbing the stairs to the huge Buddha...there were a lot of them but it was easy...funny how everyone says we are lazy Americans and the longest Doug and I stopped was to take this picture....

HERE IS THE REAL EXPLINATION OF WHERE WE WERE....REMEMBER HAD A LITTLE TROUBLE WITH BLOGGER SO DIDN'T FIX IT....LIFE GOES ON!

Ok so while Doug and I were in Hong Kong I wanted to take him to a few places I had gone when I was in 8th grade with my family. This was our first full day in Hong Kong and I thought going to the big Buddha would be fun. Now it wasn't warm out and you couldn't really see too much but Doug and I were up for anything. (Sometimes it is hard to do things in a different country when you don't speak the language. or know where you re going)

Ok so we got on the subway...as said before is wonderful....and we are on it for about half an hour or 45 mins and then we get on a bus to get to the temple and Buddha. The bus ride was like a being on a roller coaster for 30 mins. All a long the mountains, through the forest and all the FOG! We fell asleep for a little while otherwise you probably would have gotten car sick.

Anyway we finally make it to the big Buddha and the walk begins!

Random Pictures of Ferry ride over to Hong Kong

This is the ferry terminal to take the boat over to Hong Kong. The boat ride is about 50 minutes and we were thinking it was going to be a beautiful ride over there. The ride cost about 120 RMB...so about 15 bucks or so. And yes you have to go through customs and get your passport stamped and everything else. It is pretty amazing since China and Hong Kong are the same country but yet not...and not the same money. Very strange...ANYWAY the boat ride.....

Picture of the boat.

Here is the inside of the boat...it was almost like riding in an airplane. The seats were very comfortable. The view was great...and it was great to look at the insides of my eye lids!

Random pictures of flowers that we saw in Shenzhen!

Also another random picture but this was taken in Hong Kong. This is one of the many alleys in Hong Kong. And the thing about these alleys they aren't easy to walk up. They are all on hills...so all the stores are built into a hill...amazing. All the stores are usually open except for the week on Chinese New Year. But it was neat to walk up and down them!

More Chinese New Year

We stayed in a town called Shenzhen which is on the water across from Hong Kong Island. This town...sorry not a town...huge city was awesome. Doug and I got to have Starbucks every morning and eat food that you would find in the states every night. Our first night in Shenzhen we ate at an Italian restaurant. Oh my god it was delicious. Doug and I ordered a meat and cheese plate for an appetizer and we ate so much bread...we don't eat a lot of bread here so it was like heaven.....I had salmon Alfredo with asparagus and Doug had tenderloin. It was the most amazing meal we had in a long time. Amazing..we would go back in a heart beat...of course we spent more money on that one meal than we had in a long time it was worth it though!



Now what was really amazing was the fact that so many people spoke English. We could almost talk to anyone...listen I'm not saying that we are slackers and are not learning the language but Chinese is way hard....



Also the great thing was their public transportation. Which there is a picture of up above. The picture is when Doug and I were on the train. The train...subway...was probably the cleanest line of transportation that I have ever been on and it was so easy...everything was electronic and easy. So easy, and everything also had an English name written out or in pinion.




This picture was taken at a one of the largest shopping areas that I have every been to. This is Tim Allen and his daughter Rosalee. This shopping area is called Lo Hu...pronounced Low Who...and I think it is spelled Lo Hu. Well it is this shopping mall that is about 6 stories tall and huge. There are a million little stores, and you can buy anything there, I mean fake purses, CD players, MP3 speakers, DVD players, anything else you can imagine!!!! We started at the top and maybe made it three floors down. we definitely did not have enough time. You can bargain with anything. You have to remember to go half the price they are giving you and go from there. No worries they are always making a profit! Dad would have loved it just because you could bargain.

So just like a typical mall it had a huge display in the middle. well this display was of an Ox...yes I know it doesn't look like an Ox but it is. I think...since it is the year of the Ox..yup welcome to China!!!!

Doug and I being silly in the elevator to our hotel. This hotel was awesome. It was a five start hotel and they actually had a no smoking floor which we got to stay on. It was so beautiful. We went running in the gym, we could have putted on the putting green, the pool was so cool, and the people were so nice. And to tell you the truth this hotel was one of the least expensive places we have stayed in. It was called the Sunshine hotel in Shenzhen. If we have time when our family comes we will take them there not just for the shopping but to stay in the hotel.

Not the best picture in the world but the hotel decorated everything for the Chinese New Year!!! So AWESOME!

Da Fen

On our Chinese New Year trip we spent a few days in Shenzhen with our friends Tim, Wendy, and Rosalee Allen and Avis Larson. We tagged along with them as they went around and explored an area that they had lived in before. On our trip Tim and Wendy had the plan to visit a city called Da Fen which is like a suburb of Shenzhen. This place produces 95% of the world reproduced art. I mean Mona Lisa, Van Goghs and anything that you could possibly buy in Bed Bath and Beyond or Kohls. Now you might have heard about this place because it has been on the news lately with the closing of so many stores the painters are slowly going out of business.

Anyway that was the sad note to this...but the place was any artists dream. Painters just line up and paint all day long...now mind you not all the reproductions were great but it was still art.
In the picture about two gentlemen are wheeling probably over hundred painted canvases on their bike to the store where they will be sold. It was pretty cool.


Here is just one building...store where they sold artwork...most of these places had a store with tons of artwork just stacked up and then some hanging outside. Also many of the people that worked in the stores also painted. When you walked in the store there was usually a little area with paint everywhere and two or three artworks being worked on at once. They usually had a folding chair and that was it. Pretty amazing.

Here's a close up of some of the artwork....I just found it so amazing...In mean I could have just bought replications of so many artworks so my students good understand the greats. Doug was so great through all of this we just kept looking at art and talking about it and discussing things. We just had a blast...and for lunch after buying tons of stuff we got to have KFC.

This is me walking around with some art we bought and going into every shop I could even though they started to look the same. It was great to buy presents and hang out...even though it was freezing!

Here's a picture of an artist's studio area...pretty coll huh? Mixing paint, working on two or three artworks and in this store like so many others there was no heat!!!! Da Fen was pretty cool.