16--More Medicine


The day before we went to the brick factory, the school finally was able to take us to Jinan. They had planned it for Friday, the 28th, so we told the doctor that Dick wouldn't be able to come for his acupuncture treatment. Lu told us that the Thursday could be his last treatment for the first course, and after a few days rest we could both come back for another ten day course of treatment.

We did that, but the trip to Jinan was postponed until the Saturday because Mr Liu was quite sick with a cold. So Dick went to Jinan on March 29th and finally sent the Christmas presents home. He had another list of things that he wanted to get done, one of which included getting prints of a number of pictures I had copied on a diskette for him. There is no place in Huimin that can print them out, so we had quite a number of them to do.

The following Tuesday we started another ten day course of treatment, and I found that my back improved a lot, although it wasn't healed completely. Dick also noticed some improvement to his fingers, but again, not completely. We know that both cases are difficult to treat because they are the result of abuse to our bodies over a long period of time, so we didn't expect the treatment to magically cure them. But all in all, we are impressed with acupuncture.

Lu was with us the last day of the treatment, and asked us if we wanted another course. While it isn't all that expensive, we declined because we needed to prepare for our journey home for the summer, and weren't sure what costs we would incur. Dr Tian prepared a bill for both of us, and in addition, gave us the tubes with our acupuncture needles. If we ever come back for treatment, we simply bring our needles, but they cannot be used on another patient, so we might as well have them as souvenirs.

After we paid our bill, Lu and I went over to the optician shop around the corner of the hospital. Dick had left earlier because he had a class, so it was just her and I. She had shown me the shop before because I had mentioned to her that I needed reading glasses. Mr Su had accompanied me to a shop to get glasses, but they had only tested me for distance, so the glasses I ended up with were good for driving (ha ha, in China??!!) and for watching TV. But I really needed reading glasses.

So they took the reading on the machine they have in the shop, and Lu did some calculations to allow for my astygmatism, and then she gave me some lenses to try on for a while. She said I had to read for at least half an hour to make sure that I wasn't going to have any problems with them. I obediently read my dictionary, the only English reading available to me, and meanwhile she called her department head at the hospital to confirm her calculations. The department head agreed, but a few minutes later came back with another set of numbers that might work for me as well. I tried them on, again for half an hour, and decided I did feel more comfortable with the second prescription.

While I was reading, the daughter of the department head came into the shop (Lu had stepped out for a few minutes). This girl, a highschool student, started to try out her English on me but she was quite shy. So I spoke with her for a little bit, but it was strained. Then I piped up that she should help me pick out a frame for these glasses and I showed her the ones I thought I wanted. But neither she, nor her mother who had also come over to the shop, liked them on me. They had me try different ones, and finally I found some that we all liked.

Lu had come back, and told me that this young girl would be able to help me shop, especially in the bargaining process, which I admit I'm still not very good at. I took down her number and after her final exams will probably take her up on it, if we're still here.

So I had spent a couple of hours there, but I walked out with a new pair of reading glasses for less than 200 Yuan, and with having had the service of two eye specialists in the process! Lu walked me to the bus stop, and the bus got there right away. I thanked her, jumped on the bus and went on my way home. Funny, the attendants are always nervous about letting me off at the right place. This one asked where I was going, but I didn't understand her. Finally another passenger managed to ask me in English, and I said Guang Yuan, the name of the school. I had already realized that this bus went a different route than I was used to, but I knew where to get off. They stopped the bus at a corner I was quite familiar with, and the attendant indicated that I would have to walk from here. I agreed and got off the bus and walked home in the rain.

CONFUCIUS SAY....
When Dick had gotten home from Jinan he sprung an idea on me. He wanted to take me there for a weekend, stay in a hotel so that I could have my HOT BATH and then we could do some shopping. This would be my birthday present, and I wholeheartedly agreed to it.

We tried to contact Aaron, and managed to speak to him briefly, but Dick's plan of having him make the arrangements for us didn't pan out. In the process of contacting our young friend, we had to use Mr Su to phone Aaron's dad, so that he could contact his son and ask him to call us. Of course, Dick had to explain to Mr Su what we were trying to accomplish, and in the end, Mr Su suggested that he and his wife accompany us to Jinan and that we also take in Qufu.

Qufu is the birthplace of a man we know as Confucius. It is a tourist site because of this, and there are three sites in the town to see. One is the Kongzi Forest, where Confucius and his descendants are buried, the second is a series of temples built by the emperors who came to visit Confucius, and the third is Kong family manor.

We set out early on Saturday morning, April 12th, and brought one of our new pieces of luggage. We discovered very quickly that, as usual, we had packed way too much. The Chinese people tend to travel very lightly, and somehow Mr Su had everything he and his wife would need in a small pouch that he carried by it's handle. We had the small suitcase, in which I brought extra clothing, the battery charger for the camera as well as the power bar, our travel book about china, and, of course, personal grooming things.

By the time we arrived in Jinan a couple of hours later, we had already decided that we did not need to bring all of this stuff with us, so we checked our suitcase at "Left Luggage". Some of the signs caught our attention. They are in English as well as Chinese, since Jinan is a provincial capital, but I asked Mr Su how you would go about waiting at high speed? He understood the joke and laughed.

We boarded the bus to Qufu. The trip took about two and a half hours, and it was a very comfortable bus. Much nicer than the one we had come to Jinan on. It even had a movie playing on it, and it was partially in English. The Chinese movies are different. They employ a lot of martial arts, people always bleed from the mouth when they die, there are far too many things going on all at once, and I can't always follow the storyline, but it's entertainment while getting from one place to another.

Upon arrival in Qufu, we immediately headed for the Kongzi Forest. There were vendors all along the roadside with the oh so typical souvenirs. Most of them, if not all of them, were cheap molded statuettes of Confucius or other such items. And Mr Su cautioned against buying here because everything was far too expensive.

We entered the Kongzi Forest and walked around. It was relaxing to walk around the trees, which were hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. But at the same time it was awe inspiring. Confucius lived from 551 to 479 BC, that's 2,500 years ago! And he lived, and died, in this town. We were walking the same streets as he had walked. At this point I knew that my knowledge about Confucius was scant to say the least, so I decided I had to learn more about him.

So first of all let's talk about his name. He was born Kong Qiu, Kong being the family name. As he grew more popular with the rulers of that time, he was addressed as Kong zi (zi being a title of respect). But later his disciples called him Fuzi, which means Grand Master. So now we have Kong Fuzi. Enter the catholic missionaries, and they added the Latin "us" ending to the name. There you have it, Kong Fuzi-us, or Confucius.

Confucius was a brilliant man who became a teacher almost by default. But he also had aspiriations of serving his country with a strong conviction that the very books from which he had been teaching would help restore order and promote prosperity for his country, which he loved deeply. He was appointed to office in about 500 BC, and did exactly what he had dreamed about for so long. He promoted a social order in the family as well as society, encouraging people to take their proper place, treat others with respect and do their work diligently and honestly. He taught statesmen that if they treated the common people with respect, that respect would be returned to them, a concept that was quite foreign to them at the time. He implemented his brilliant ideas to improve the economy, including irrigation systems, and the country thrived. Even today, the Chinese have a tendency to adhere to his school of thought.

That's about as much as I know at this point, but I am reading a book about his life and learning more about this Master who has influenced so many of our lives, whether we know it or not.

We walked around the forest and came to a place where we had to climb a few steps to a sort of platform. There were two statues facing each other and some other monuments on the platform. Behind the platform was a grassy hill, taller than most graves we had seen so far. This was the grave of the grandson of Confucius. Mr Su explained that the small pagoda-like building was where the emperor would go to say his prayers and pay his respect to the deceased. We took some pics there, and then went on, down the steps , around the corner and behind the grandson's grave. Now we were at the grave of Kong Li, the son of Confucius. He was one of his father's disciples, of course. And then, next to that, was the grave of Confucius himself. The hills were each taller than the other, and of course the grand master's was the tallest of all. Monuments had been erected, and there seemed to be double grave stones. We think it might be old writing and new. So much has been destroyed in China by various conquerors who would do away with the old ways, and this area was no exception. But restorations have been done, and that's probably where the double headstones come in.

Dick was acting very strangely, standing on the area where such a famous man was buried. I found out later that he had a very deep calm come over him. I suppose it was the awe of it all, being at the grave of a man he had admired for many years. Imagine, this man lived 25 centuries ago! And his teachings still have an effect on us. A lot of his sayings, which we jokingly consider to be fortune cookie material, still hold true today.

Then, off to the left there was another platform with a monument and a small building behind it. It was the gravesone of Zi Gong, one of Confucius' most loyal disciples. After the death of Confucius, all the disciples vowed to look after the grave for three years, but Zi Gong stayed on for another three years after that. He is deeply respected for his loyalty to the master he loved so well.

We stayed around that area for a while, taking pictures of each other at the gravesites of the famous master and his pupils. I think Mr Su was just as emotionally charged as we were, and he appreciated our interest in his culture and history of his country.

Then we slowly started back, looking at all the monuments at some of the other gravesites, which total over 100,000 in all, Mr Su read the words on some of them. One depicted the 68th generation of descendants, and then, accross from that one, were the 72nd, 73d and 74th generations. Those of you who are into genaeology, can you imagine tracing your family back for 74 generations?!!

We walked around the forest for a while longer, going up the stairs by the gate and taking some more pictures. It was such a nice day, and the spring air was fragrant and very pleasant.

When we exited the forest, through the big red gate, we were on a small square, a sort of gathering place for the many taxi's and other tourist services. There were horsedrawn carriages that were brightly painted, and of course all sorts of souvenir sellers. They kept trying to sell me a book of famous sayings by Confucius, but Mr Su wouldn't let me buy it because it was too much. He said we could get this in Jinan for much less. Unfortunately, we never got the chance to look for it in Jinan. Hopefully we will be able to do so before we go home in the summer. However, I have been able to google the "Analects of Confucius" and have saved a version of that on the computer.

There were some yards that had statues of lions and dragons and other such creatures that sparked Dick's interest. One creature, the Qilin, or Chinese unicorn, Mr Su explained, was a creature of great mythical importance. It was able to fly, swim, run, breathe fire, whatever the situation required. I found a neat website on it that explains its origin:
(http://lair2000.net/Unicorn_Dreams/Types_of_Unicorns/Chinese/Chinese_Unicorn.html) for those of you who are into researching such stuff.

We walked down the street, which was divided by a double boulevard with a stone path in the middle. Mr Su explained that in old times this was the road, which was wide enough for horse-and-carriage traffic, but now there are paved lanes on either side of this road to allow for automobile traffic. All along the road there were vendors set up selling their wares. Some were cheap souvenirs, while others were items for daily life, and of course, food. There was also traditional medicine on display, of which I took a picture. There were people selling goldfish in small, round bowls, quite common in China. One vendor had puppies and kittens, which seemed to be well cared for and in good condition.

Then we spotted something I had hoped to capture on the camera. An old time fortune teller. He was dressed in traditional robes, complete with beads, and he was telling someone his fortune. He was really giving this guy whatfor, pointing his finger and being quite animated in his speech, all the while smoking his cigarette. What a find! I took a couple of shots, and as usual, showed it to the bystanders. Then I also got a pic of one of the bystanders, who was just as much a character shot as the fortune teller himself. I only wish I could have understood what the fortune teller was saying.

I managed to get some pictures of the street and its lively character. Then a truck full of musicians came driving by, playing lively music, and Mr Su said I should get pics of that. The next truck that came by had a small, very colourful paper pagoda in it, along with a half dozen or so people. This was a funeral procession, and they were headed for the Kongzi forest for a burial. I'm not sure if this was for real, or just for tourist purposes, but Mr Su told us it was for real. The Chinese believe that a funeral is a happy occasion because the old person's body is being allowed to rest and the spirit continues. They send paper money, by way of burning it, to the spirit world, so that the deceased will be well provided for in the afterlife. Another interesting point is that the class system of ancient China would continue in the spirit world as well. A poor person could only pray to the lower gods, while the rich and powerful could pray to the higher gods. Only the emperor could pray to heaven.

I picked up some of the yellow paper "coins" that were being tossed from the truck, but unfortunately they disintegrated before I got them home. Obviously they are not for spending in this world.

The Kongzi Forest being on the north end of town, we had walked to the south and were now at an old gate. The rounded walls are new, Mr Su told us, but the archway was part of the original town wall, actually representing the north gate to the original town. We took some pics and continued to walk. As we got closer to the Confucian Mansion and Temple, there were signs all along the street, every 100 yards or so, each of them with a famous quote, or analect, by Confucius, in both Chinese and English. Some were hard to read because the red words had faded somewhat, but most of them were quite legible. I was able to see the wisdom in his words.

We continued and walked around the corner to the gate of the Confucian Temple. We entered and walked around the grounds looking at building after building. Apparently whenever an emperor came to visit the gravesite of Confucius, he would erect a building, and each of them would try to outdo the previous one. Some of the buildings were for the emperor to go into and pray to the gods on Confucius' behalf. They all have the upturned rooflines that Chinese architecture is so famous for, and some of the eaves actually overlap. A new building would be constructed to have the corner of its first roofline stick out in between the two eaves of an existing building.

One of the buildings was a massive structure, I'd say three stories high, but apparently the posts are all single trees. Another building, the Dacheng Hall, has massive stone pillars, all of them with dragons carved all over them. In front of that building is the Apricot Altar Pavilion, where Confucius apparently held his lectures.

After the temples came the Confucian Mansion. Unfortunately, with all the things we packed with us that we didn't need, we had forgotten to include the box of diskettes that I packed in the suitcase which was at the "Left Luggage" at the Jinan bus station. So, since I new there would be photos to take, we bought a disposable camera, for which I received explicit instructions. Having used the darn things many times in the past, I didn't really need those, but in the process I forgot to check if it had a flash. Seeing as it was getting late in the afternoon, the sun was not in an optimum position for photos, and I could have used a flash in some of the pics I got. The other unfortunate thing about this situation is that the photoshop in Jinan was not able to put them on diskette for me, which I had hoped they could.

Now Confucius himself, not being appreciated in his lifetime, did not live in this house, but generations of his descendants did. It was a massive complex of brick structures, and apparently is the second most elaborate dwelling in all of China, only to be outdone by the imperial family's. The buildings were nice, but we couldn't go inside, so we admired them from the outside. But the thing that caught my attention was the garden. It was exquisite! And this being spring, we managed to see it in its fullest glory with all the fruit trees being in full blossom. There were so many different aspects to the garden, the rockery, which is so popular in China, the bonsai trees. Potted plants and flowers arranged in an artistic fashion in one area, fountains and ponds with little bridges and a pagoda from which you could see all the fruit trees with different colours of blossoms against a background of evergreens and other trees. It was truly breathtaking. This is the kind of garden that is depicted in all of those famous paintings and stories.

On the way out we went past some small courtyards that also had greenery. Some had blossoms on one side and bamboo trees on the other. All in all, this is a place worth seeing. I can understand that the Kong families had trouble leaving this place, which apparently happened in 1949, when the 76th generation fled for Taiwan, fearing persecution from the Communists.

Now it was time for us to go back to Jinan. It had been a full day, and we still had to retrieve our suitcase and find a hotel. Dick had looked in our travel book, and decided on a middle of the road hotel. It was sure to have a bathtub in it. The rates would be in the 150 - 200 Yuan range.

On arrival in Jinan a couple of hours later, we collected the suitcase and then took a taxi and asked it to take us to the Shandong Hotel. We stayed in the car while Mr Su went in to talk to the clerk. He came out and at the same time the driver got out to talk to him. Apparently there is a rule that foreigners can't stay in a hotel like this. We have to go to at least a three star hotel. So the driver said he knew of a good hotel that was quite close to this one. They got back in the car and we were taken to a tall building with a huge driveway. This was the Long Du Hotel, quite new. Mr Su went in to talk to the clerk. He came out and gave us a rate card and said that normally the rate for a room would be 888 Yuan (minimum), but he had talked them down to 460 including breakfast, or 430 without. We thought for a while, but since this was a five star hotel, we didn't think it was too much to spend for only one night. If you convert it, it's actually quite cheap. So we checked in and Mr and Mrs Su went to a different hotel.

All of the staff at this hotel spoke fairly good English, and we got supurb service. We didn't tip because we had been told by Owen that in China you don't tip. But we still have doubts as to whether that was appropriate in this case. Anyway, the room was very nice, nothing too fancy, but that's no big deal. What I was looking for was a bath tub and it had one. A real western style bath tub, complete with shower and all the little things they put in a good hotel. It had a hair dryer and something I should have realized it would have but didn't find out until we were leaving the next day, bathrobes. Oh well.

We got comfortable and then decided we really should have a bite to eat. We looked at the room service menu and noticed pizza. But we weren't sure if that's what we wanted. So we looked at all the hotel information pamphlets and noticed they had a dining room on the third floor that was still open. We went down there and perused the buffet dishes, which were all good western style cuisine. But nothing really tickled our fancy. The idea of pizza was still on our minds. So we asked one of the waitresses if we could have pizza and they seated us and gave us menus. We were the only ones in this huge dining room.

We ordered seafood pizza and I said Dick might want to have a Corona, which is his favourite beer in the western world. I stuck with orange juice, not being in the mood for a drink, even though this place came with a fully stocked bar. After we placed our order, we received two glasses of water with a small ice cube in them, and the waitress said that this was "ice water". I tasted it, and it was just like all other water served in China--hot! The next refills were from the all so familiar thermoses. Too funny, but fortunately we have grown to like the hot water idea. The Chinese believe that it is not good to put anything cold in your stomach, so the idea of ice water is completely foreign to them.

Anyway, we waited for our pizza and sipped our respective beer and orange juice. The staff placed dishes in front of us, complete with forks and knives. I hope they weren't expecting us to use them, I thought, because I've always been of the opinion that pizza is finger food. Soon after this the pizza arrived. It had broccoli on top, and some dark stuff was buried in the substance that we had gone without for a long time, CHEESE. I picked up my piece of pizza and began to eat away at it. Not bad, but no seafood. The dark stuff tasted like spicy ham, or was possibly pepperoni. So there we were in a five star restaurant, having a pizza with a cardboard flavoured thin crust, not enough sauce and the wrong toppings; it was probably frozen pizza brought in from the US -- but we loved it!! We hadn't had this for months and it was like heaven to us.

We were alone in the dining room the entire time, except for the staff. There were two men who walked into the lounge next door at some point during our meal, but no one came into our private dining room at all. We finished our meal and paid for it. A rather expensive meal by Chinese standards, but to us it was worth it.

We went back to the room so I could have my long awaited bath. It was quite late, but I didn't care. I had been without a tub for so long now, I wasn't going to wait another minute. In the bathroom there were the typical hotel cosmetic products: soap, toothbrushes, shower caps, lotion, shampoo and conditioner and bubble bath. But there were also a couple of pouches of a herbal mixture that was for use on the skin. I read the instructions and it could be used in the tub. So now I had to decide which one to use, the free bubble bath or the herbal mixture that would cost us 15 Yuan. Dick suggested I use both, so I did. Aaaahhhh. You have no idea how much you can miss a large tub of hot water. It was wonderful! A perfect gift for my 50th birthday.

Not being used to the hot water anymore, I didn't stay in the tub as long as I had intended, but it was a muchly appreciated pampering. The room had two single beds with very comfortable mattresses. We were going to meet the Su's early the next day, so we decided to get some shut eye.

We thought we had made arrangements to have breakfast together, but when Mr and Mrs Su arrived (we invited them up to the room so they could see it), they had already eaten and thought we had taken the breakfast with the hotel deal. But we weren't interested in eating at the hotel again, so we decided we would find breakfast somewhere along the way.

We walked along a canal and Mr Su took us up one street while his wife stayed at a square, sitting on a bench. One of the shop owners told Mr Su there was a restaurant up the street, but when we got to it, we discovered it was another fancy western hotel. So we decided to go ahead to Daming Lake and we would find something to eat there. It's not the first time we've gone without breakfast and it wouldn't kill us.

We entered the park, which is in the centre of town and has a very good reputation. I could see why. It was very beautiful. Mr Su said that it was surrounded on three sides by lotus flowers and the side we were on was lined with willows. We only managed to see two lotus ponds, but they haven't started blooming yet. The fruit trees in the area were all blossoming, and it was a nice warm spring day, perfect for a stroll in the park.

We found a little restaurant that actually sold coffee. Well, it was instant and came with creamer mixed into it, but it was better than nothing. We ordered our 5 Yuan cups of it, and then we spotted the eggs. They were hard boiled with lotus root, and similar to the tea eggs we had had in Beijing. We each had a couple of those with our coffees and that was breakfast, at least until we found the shop that sold sandwiches and such, where we got some sweet buns to finish it off.

About halfway around the lake, there was an amusement park with rollercoasters and a ferris wheel. We took a picture of the "Challenger" there, thinking we would tell people it landed in China, but somehow the joke just doesn't seem to be in good taste.

All over the park there were school children in their familiar track suits with the school identified on their backs. We approached some of them, and got the typical reactions of anywhere from complete shock to nervous giggles to brave "hello, hawr you?"s.

During the whole day, it seemed I didn't get to have our camera much. Mr Su had developed a liking to it and decided that he would take pictures of us at the park. My personal feeling is that pictures turn out much better without me in them, but, oh well. He has a more artistic style of picture taking than I do, and most of them ended up on an angle. But I do have to admit, his were much better focused and composed, even if I was in all of them.

There is a small island in the lake, and we took a boat to go there, greeting school children as we arrived. On the island was a series of buildings, including a gift shop. I went in and found quite a number of things to buy at a much lower price than they were in Qufu. And having Mr Su along again proved to be profitable, he talked the shopkeeper into throwing in some small items for free.

One of the last venues we came to was a sort of temple with very tall stairs. Children were sliding down the stone dividers, being helped and protected by parents or grandparents. You could see the bum marks along them in the shiny stone, so this has been practiced for quite a number of years I would bet.

At the top I was glad to see a sign. This was a craft workshop where they sold the traditional Chinese paper cuts. These are delicate pictures cut from red or white paper and depict characters from different stories and so on. I wanted one of the ones that was framed in the small showcase to the right, but the woman didn't have one. It would be perfect for my son. Pretty soon an old man came into the shop and started working at the lock on the back of the showcase. Mr Su explained that the owner of that showcase wasn't there, but they would do everything they could to help me. Had I known what was about to happen, I would have told them I would take another one, but how was I to know the Chinese mind?

The old man, who seemed to be a maintenance man on the grounds, had started applying force to the lock on the glass panels. Eventually, one of the panels broke and he cut his finger. It was bleeding but not badly, thank goodness. I managed to get my picture, and paid for it as well as the other pictures I had picked out. Mr Su had haggled for the lady to throw in some of the trinkets, and she did. It seems that Chinese people will do anything to please us foreigners, including breaking things open to sell us something. I'm not sure how much it will cost to replace the glass panel, but I hope it doesn't cut into the profits too much.

We truly enjoyed the morning at the lake, and when we exited it was lunch time. We walked across the street from the park and there was a chinese fast food restaurant. The order counter was huge and there were small tables just like at MacDonald's. Music was blaring, quite a contrast from our peaceful morning, but there wasn't much we could do about it. Dick and Mr Su went to order the food and soon we received about eight dishes that were really small, but very good. The meal was not very expensive, even with the beers we all had with it. Mrs Su was quite interested in the operation and went to observe the staff behind the counter while we visited. I feel bad that we can't communicate better, even though I had spent some time showing her my treasures from the gift shop while the men were ordering food.

After lunch we went to find the photoshop that Dick had used a couple of weeks ago to get some prints done. He seemed confident as to where the shop was, but Mr Su worried about him getting too far ahead of the rest of us. After all, this is a big city, not at all like our little rural community. Dick had told us we were looking for a Fuji sign, which we didn't find. So we went into a shop that sported the Kodak sign to ask them, and as soon as we were inside, Dick realized that this was the shop he was looking for.

We went to the back where a girl was working on the computer. I handed her my diskette and let her know which pictures I wanted and how many of each. Most of these pics were for restaurant staff of the two places we frequent the most. I had a fair number of pics to do, and the girl was quite busy, so the men decided to leave me and Mrs Su, who was napping, at the photo shop and they went off to find the Yamaha shop to get some accessories for the keyboard. Unfortunately, the Yamaha dealership had moved, but they were not able to find where it had moved to. However, they did manage to come back with some books Dick had hoped to find. He had been reading about text books for the primary grades and managed to find some of the teacher's manuals as well as order the ones for all the other grades. He also brought me a treasure, a book in English about the life of Confucius.

Next, our trip took us to the department and grocery store. We were too tired to do too much shopping, but we did check out the grocery store. We found something that had not been available to us prior to that day: CHEESE. It was plastic mozzerella, and very mild cream cheese, but it's better than no cheese. We bought three different kinds. We found a few other things that we purchased, but this time no coffee. We had received quite a bit of it from home and didn't need to buy any at this time.

There were some other things we would have liked to look for in Jinan, but we were all pretty tired and it was time to think about going home. We had to collect our suitcase from the hotel, where we had left it, and then get back to the bus stop.

We arrived home quite late, but safe and sound, and had enjoyed a wonderful weekend. Not only that, we managed to travel before the May 1st holiday, which is usually quite busy, but this year has been cancelled due to SARS.

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