Guiyang

Nihau,

We are back in Guiyang tonight after spending the last couple of days up in the beautiful moutainside exploring waterfalls and village life. It's very beautiful up in the mountains, the photos show only a small taste of the hills and the terraced rice and corn crops.

Unfortunately I can't upload photos of the village life because my camera needs to be recharged...sorry (always something isn't it? I got some great photos of the village kids today, though it was a kind of touristy village. That's how things work in China. We have Prof Rick, our scholar-guide, then we have Wei-Ming, our assistant guide (he does the logistical planning, etc.). At every city we also have city guides who travel during the day trips with us and do the city plans, etc. Also, today we had a village guide who showed us through her village, up to a Buddist Temple, lunch and a short village opera. At every single sight we must walk through the gauntlet of souvenir shops. The Chinese have wasted no time in learning that capitalistic art...even to the extreme. Today, one of the gals tried to buy a corn-on the cob for, maybe 1.50 yuan (not even .25 cents). Well, she only had a 5 yuan bill (about .80), the sellers (old lady villagers) wouldn't give her change, but forced two more corns on her! Prof Rick & Ming had to intervene and track down the culprit to get her a refund!

You should see the look on the Chinese when they hear Prof. Rick speak Chinese! It's really funny. he looks like a regular white American & they don't realize that he is fluent. When he speaks, they 'bout stop in their tracks! It's like when John talks to strangers in Mexico : )

Well, the Huangguoshu Falls walk was really gorgeous, walking through the countryside & seeing mountains, water and green forests on every side. It was even pleasantly not-too-hot, as it was up about 3500 feet. Anshun, where we stayed last night was up to 4500 feet. I really liked being up where it was cooler...

Tomorrow we go back to lectures and a tour of a college (I think) for a couple days before we fly out to Shanghai Thursday afternoon. Kristi, thanks so much for taking care of the cats, Mika and Miko. I wish we could tell Mika that I'll be home in a few days, poor girl. we are in an area of China where they do eat dog meat. I haven't seen any that I know of, and don't want to. I have seen a few dogs around, pretty mangy looking, though. And only a couple of cats. The Chinese are not into pets much as far as I can see, except for maybe a cricket or a goldfish or two.

OK, I go for now. Will write again before I leave our fancy Hoard-Johnson Htel here in Guiyang. There is even a pool here! I am going out for a walk in the nearby park before I splurge on a Hawaiian pizza here at the hotel...really I had to, I had to.

Matt...write...love Mom