Greetings From China July 17, 2013

Good morning. I'm writing this while we are flying from Tibet to China.  It seems  that there is never enough time in the day to write personal E Mails.  We are heading to the city of Chengdu, home of the Panda Research Station and several cooking schools.  

After we land today we are going to check out the possibility of taking a class in Sichuan cooking and then maybe Fred and I can make an authentic Chinese meal for someone.

We are so looking forward to getting into a nice hotel and to getting our clothes washed.  Contrary to popular belief that all Chinese laundry is cheap, we paid close to $80 Cdn for two loads last week.  Way over budget on that!

When planning this trip we were sure that one month would give us a good overview of China....well, it doesn't.  To see this country properly you need a lot more time than we have.  We are starting to get a little tired and will need a day of rest soon - but that probably won't be until we get home.

The number of people living here is staggering, even the small cities are 2 to 4 million.  We booked Chengdu because we wanted to see the pandas and we were expecting a relatively small city in the mountains....found out today that it is small, only 14 million people. Everywhere we look there are cars, people or motorcycles.

In some areas of the country the pollution is so horrible that people are advised to wear masks for their own safety.  So far we have been fortunate enough to miss that sight.

Besides those negatives, China is growing into a modern and wealthy country.  New buildings are being built everywhere, even Tibet.

The one thing I do notice is that the Chinese don't need us...they don't need North American tourists to boost their economy.  In fact, we are probably a bother to them.  Even so they are polite and eager to help.

We are loving this adventure and definitely would not hesitate to do it again.  Food wise, it has turned into a very expensive diet!  Chinese food at home does not resemble the real deal.  Other than the dreaded Yak meat, there is an enormous amount of fat and MSG used in most dishes.  To me the best dishes are the vegetables...as long as we can recognize what's in the dish.