Laundry Magic

There are no clothes dryers available to us and the only one I have seen in China was in a Korean home. We wash our clothes in the kitchen in cold water (the drain hose runs across the entry way to the bathroom drain) but then the clothes need to be hung on this rack or in the bathroom to dry. It has been over 70% humidity in our place (right now it is 75%) and the whites that I washed 24 hours ago were still very damp when I got up this morning. Someone had told me that they dried their socks in the microwave so I decided to give it a try. I heated each piece for 30-40 seconds and then hung them up again. Magic--they are dry. Every time I go to put socks on they feel a bit damp to me no matter how long ago I washed them. New trick. I'll just cook them a bit and then let them cool before I put them on.

Your Chinese Parents

Garden

Almost every day when I look out my kitchen window there is a man or perhaps even a couple doing gardening. You can see by the second picture that they have used the little space beside the driveway to plant different vegetable crops. Because everyone in Qingdao lives in apartments they have little opportunity to garden. It has been interesting to see how these people have taken advantage of every place that they can.

Yan'tai

We got up Sunday morning and drove to Yan'tai where we visited the famous Changyu Wine Culture Museum. It may have been a bit more exciting if any of us had an interest in tasting or knowing about wine but it IS a famous brand.


We went to KFC for lunch. We get delivery in China. In Qingdao they use scooters but in Yantai it is obviously a bike business.

This family seemed to be very comfortable at KFC. This little boy was just darling. He kept smiling and waving to us.

Penglai

We took our last overnight trip this weekend to Penglai a coastal tourist city known as the "Fairyland on Earth". The hotel was more like crap-land but the area was beautiful. This statue is of the eight immortals. There is an island where prisoners were kept long ago and the story is that the prisons were getting too crowded so the government told the Warden to throw the worst criminals into the sea each month as new prisoners were brought to the island. Eight of the strongest willed are said to have swum the ocean to Penglai and so history has made them immortals.

I took these pictures from the bus as we traveling there. There is some very beautiful countryside.

This was where we had our lunch.

The beach across the street from our hotel.

Our gondola ride to the Penglai Pavilion - one of the four most famous towers in ancient China. Notice the bride climbing around the rocks for her photo shoot.

a picture of the tower

I took this from the bus window as we were driving out of town.

More Signs

These signs were in prep for a gondola ride and at the entrance of a Buddist Temple.

This sign was on a water fountain that can give either hot or cold water.

2 7 Fair

On Friday we went to a HUGE fair that is open on all of the days with a 2 or 7 on the lunar calendar. It is many blocks long and probably about 8 rows across most of the way. There is everything you can imagine there. I'll label some of the items. This was the bus ride there. It is probably almost an hour ride from our apartment and it was standing room only, as Mike can testify;-D

Eggs anyone? The ones in the bags were a light blue.

Better watch out Art.

Grinding corn and grain. They are using a belt to the drive of the truck to run the one mill.

An oil press for making soy oil from soy beans

Many of the men that we have seen all over China are playing cards. These guys seem to have some type of checkers.

It would take a full day just to see what everyone has.

Cheery Cheeks

This is a sight often to behold. Toddlers in training don't wear diapers. There clothes are just slit and when the adult senses that it is time they just put the child down, make a certain sound and magic-- the trick is done. One must always be prepared with bottom open so the clothes are made this way. Many cheery cheeks great us whenever we are in crowds with children.