::: Golden Week, Part IV (4)

John is up early and I am sleeping in. I hear a knock on the door of the room I am staying in and he summons' me to the breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn. This is the hotel that I usually stay at where the western breakfast buffet is killer. I am even considering getting a room for one night of my visit just to feel like old times...and another excuse to get the buffet again.

I pound down all of my favorites and this time around I am not as shell shocked to the few Asian items on the other side of the buffet...they seem normal to me. That is one point I realize that this is normal, that this is home to me. I have those every now and then. We visit with the hotel management that he has introduced me to over the years, a few American's who are there on business, and enjoy that great coffee that the hotel has perfected.

Shortly after, we head home on foot. We are walking around and I am just being updated about all the latest development projects. The most shocking was seeing that from the hotel all the way back to the oldest Christian church in China had been leveled. Completely leveled. All the shops, homes...everything. I had bought things in these stores, been to small groups in these homes, and basically just looked at them from the rooms high above in the hotel and wondered about the life among the people there. All of it is gone...just so we can add another shopping mall I am sure.

We walk and walk, and I am soaking it all in again, it feels so great to be back in this city. We pass the incinerator where they cremate bodies, and while we are passing, a fresh one rolls up. Luckily, it was in a van. Sometimes, they just come up from the hospital still on the gurney. We lingered there a minute, hoping to see such a sight. Nothing happened. We walked.

We stopped for a frozen lemonade there by the University Campus...XIA DA (sha da). LUIS TOVAR I AM THINKING ABOUT YOU RIGHT NOW. Anyway, Tovar took Xia Da to a new level. So, yeah we walked, talked, got a cab. Headed home. After a bit we went and looked at another hotel to see if it would be too nice for groups to stay in, and it was. Too nice, same price. Can't be too high on the hog on those kind of trips.

From there we looked at the newly installed boardwalk all along the beach-front. The great thing about the Chinese is that once their minds are made up, they do it. No red tape. Just do it. Bulldoze. Tear down. Build a boardwalk. But, the downfall of this bias for action is that it gets done. Without planning. Just done. They built the boardwalk on the beach during the daylight hours during low tide...well guess what happens during high tide?...that's right...boardwalk disappears! T.I.C! (this is China...they just do things differently).

So from there we grab a mango smoothie and head home, make popcorn for the 8 ten-year olds that are at the 4fish home and are going to spend the night with their daughter. From there we head to get pizzas at an Italian restaurant favored by the local internationals for their dinner. After we deliver the pizzas we head back to this restaurant and I have one of the best meals I have ever had. Chicken leg stuffed with sausage. It was incredible! I mean the flavors melted together so well. The chicken was actually stuffed with more of a salami than sausage. So as it cooked, the juices and everything married so well together. Amazing.

We head home and check on the rest of the family and the 10 year olds.