Lijiang, Yunnan

Chip and I decided to spend this holiday traveling around Yunnan province in the south of China. Yunnan is much warmer than our home this time of year, but still cool. Changchun is -8 degrees Fahrenheit today and it is in the 50s here in Yunnan. We met up with two friends who traveled with us around the province: Jeanna, who teaches in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, and Stephanie, who teaches in Changsha, Hunan.

Our first stop in Yunnan was Lijiang. Lijiang has a beautiful old town that takes you back to ancient days in China before high rises and smoggy pollution.

Can you see the mountain in the distance?






Sellers with street foods and local flavors of the Naxi minority people group


And many handmade handicrafts




Hanging wishes


Washing in the creek that runs through the old town


Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is the backdrop of this beautiful, ancient city



We hiked up the hill and to the top of this pagoda for a better view of the city and the mountain.




A sea of Chinese style roofs

Breakfast at a delicious Western Cafe

Chinese New Year

We experienced our first ever Chinese New Year (and really had we planned better we might have tried to avoid it because housing, transportation, etc. became much more complicated). The highlights were watching people hang red banners on the door frames of their homes and businesses for good fortune and happiness.




Also, Jeanna and I did group dances in the city square.



The lowlight: Hearing fireworks most of the night. . .and for the following days (the loud, popping kind, not the pretty, colorful kind). The firecrackers are believed to scare away evil spirits.




Chip with the luggage--moving onto our next stop in Yunnan province. . .

Harbin Ice Festival

We had a great trip to Harbin (even further north than our home of Changchun) to see the annual ice festival. If you would like to see more photos, check out our album on facebook. Even if you don't have a facebook account, you can see the album by clicking on the title.

Chip's Chewable: Cesarean Nation

Chew on this: "The cautionary tale of how China came to have the world's highest C-section rate." Click on the title to read more.

Little Baby Dragon 小龙

TQ was my very first tutor of the semester. We change tutors every month, but there is just something special about your very first tutor. TQ has been tutoring for our program for five years, but will be taking some time off in the spring to have a baby. We decided this was a good reason to celebrate!

This year in China is the year of the dragon, and as her baby will be born in 2012, he will be a dragon. So I decided to go with a dragon themed party! Chip drew this cute baby dragon saying, "I am called Little Dragon."




Homemade dragon cake



And lots of other grub including deviled dragon eggs and. . .

Yep, dragon pellets.

We all decorated dragon cards for mom and baby.

And wrote blessings inside


We played "cut a piece of yarn that you think is the circumference of the pregnant belly."




Amanda has a pregnant belly of her own, so she used that for reference.

Determining the official circumference

And comparing our yarn to see who got the closest

Janice wins!

Then we played hot potato with a stuffed animal dragon.
Can you see it flying through the air?

Nettie Wins!

Lots of sweet baby presents and clothes

So TQ wears this smock everyday. Many pregnant women wear these in China because they believe it blocks radiation. My friend, Amanda, is also pregnant and her husband was one of TQ's students. He asked TQ about her smock. She said it is something pregnant women wear. He said, "Oh, should I buy one for Amanda?" She said, "No, Westerners don't believe in them."

Letting the babies chat




TQ just found out today that she is having a boy. We were trying to convince her to name her son Little Dragon. I think she likes it!