New Year's Resolutions

Tentative list of travel resolutions:

1. Big trips: Puerto Rico and Disney - my kids have never been!!
2. Take at least one small trip a month
3. Give my six-year-old son a travel journal to write in on our trips
4. Write more travel articles


According to Blogthings, this is what my New Year's Resolutions should be:

Your New Year's Resolutions

1) Get a pet snake 2) Eat more sushi 3) Travel to New Zealand 4) Study human sexuality 5) Get in shape with water skiing

What Should Your New Year's Resolution Be?

Pagoda - Nanning, China

We traveled outside of Nanning to the complex on Qingxiu mountain to see the beautiful pagoda there. The pagoda was nine stories high, with open air windows on each side - and no elevator folks, so younger kids will probably not be that into climbing this one.




On the top floor a man sat weaving a fishing net.



It was amazing to me that there was a different beautiful view out of each window. One showed a field with geometric rows for the crops.



Another showed a sprawling building in mid-construction. I found a more recent photo of this same building on the internet - the finished product looks great! (Scroll down the page and click on the photo of the building to see it better.)



Out of a third one could see barges lazily making their way down the river.






And from yet another window one could see the city of Nanning rising up in the distance. Pretty cool. This photo isn't too good because of the haze, but I thought I'd include it anyway.

In the complex there was a pond full of koi and ducks, with food for visitors to feed them. Kids will get a kick out this activity. So many koi swarmed when someone was feeding them, that the ducks could actually walk right on top of them. I also found a picture of this elsewhere on the web.

Click on any of these photos to enlarge them.

Mingyuan Xindu / Majestic Hotel, Nanning

We stayed at the Mingyuan Xindu Hotel, aka the Majestic. This was a beautiful hotel with handsome marble all around the lobby. We were in Nanning during the summer when daily temperatures hovered around 100 degrees, but the hotel was nice and cool the whole time for the Westerners staying there. Our guide told us that we like it to be much colder than the Chinese do. One day there was a big conference at the hotel, and as soon as our group walked into the hotel lobby we could feel the difference in temperature - they had raised the temperature so the Chinese conference attendees would be comfortable. Just interesting little cultural differences.

The tv in our room had cable and we got CNN, HBO, and several other English language channels that I can't remember. I was surprised by that - I expected English stations in Beijing, but not Nanning. Like I said, though, I thought I was going to the ends of the earth or something and Nanning was really quite modern. The hotel provides two complimentary bottles of mineral water a day and a hot pot for boiling water. Tap water will give most Westerners dysentery (aka Montezuma's revenge). There was a little market downstairs with selling things like pop and toothpaste and tons of baby stuff, since many of the families staying at the Majestic are in the process of adopting Chinese children. There's a little supermarket across the street, too. In addition, there was a beauty shop, workout facility and a huge outdoor pool. Behind the Majestic is the People's Park, a large, picturesque park with paths, bridges and peaceful ponds.

There were three restaurants in the hotel - a Western style restaurant and two Chinese restaurants. There was also a good restaurant and bakery next door to the hotel that showed pictures of the food so you could point to what you wanted. And for when the kids get homesick, McDonald's is an easy walk down the street. There was a breakfast buffet every morning serving a mix of western and Asian foods and a chef on hand to cook your eggs any way you wanted them.

There's plenty of shopping in the area, fancy department stores and little mom and pop shops. Clothes shopping in China is a humbling experience, though, because sizes are very different there. A size medium here is extra-large there. No kidding. We wandered down an alley somewhere near the hotel (we were lost by then, so I can't tell you exactly where) full of little stalls, sort of like a flea market, selling toys, purses, succulent shrimp and beautiful, fresh vegetables. Somewhere on the other side of the alley there was a brand new shopping plaza, bright and clean.

Lesson learned the hard way: Take a good map with you when walking around. It's easy to get lost when you go out exploring since the network of roads and alleys can be confusing. However, there are plenty of cabs in Nanning and if you show them your room keycard, they'll know where to take you.




*****Congratulations to everyone who found this page because you just got your referral!!! You can read more about Nanning by clicking on the Nanning tag in the righthand column.*****

Nanning - First Impressions

Back to China. So the Great Wall and the Forbidden City were incredible. We also visited Tiananmen Square, but that didn't do much for me.

The next day we headed out to Nanning in the Guangxi province of China. Guangxi borders with Vietnam, and in late June and early July it was hot and steamy. Think south Texas or Florida in midsummer. It was funny, because while I was uncomfortable in the heat I must have adjusted somewhat, since after I got back to the midwest after two weeks in Nanning and the similarly steamy Guangzhou, I kept turning off the air conditioning in our home and making hot cocoa.

Driving into Nanning from the airport I was surprised to see many farmers tending their fields in the black pajama-like garments and sampan hats that we see in pictures of China from the twenties and thirties. I thought that clothing was a thing of the past, but no, it is still common dress in the country.

Nanning was nothing like I expected it to be. Situated as it is far from major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, I expected to find a quaint, rather backwards town. Instead I was greeted by a modern city with wide avenues, attractive buildings and plenty of shops and commerce. Our guide said most of the growth in Nanning has taken place within the past ten to fifteen years. I was constantly amazed (and somewhat dismayed) by the inroads western businesses have made in China - down the street from our hotel was a two story McDonald's, at the department store there was a Pizza Hut, and to our great surprise, there was even a Walmart. Of course we had to check out the China Walmart. It even had the same Walmart smell - what, do they bottle that stuff or something? There were plenty of differences, though - the Walmart at home doesn't sell live eels in the meat department, for example.

Hobo Traveler

I just found this blog yesterday and have been browsing the different entries. It's written by a guy who has been traveling for ten years, working odd jobs, seeing the world on very little money. Not very practical for those of us with little ones to raise, but a fun read for anyone who loves to travel. Yeah, the grammar isn't always perfect, but what he has to say is fascinating. Take a look!

http://www.hobotraveler.com/blogger.html