Jan Baker writes:

"We are very fortunate to be in China during the New Year Festivities. The New Year is based on a lunar calendar, and this is our first visit during the celebration. Every evening the sky is bright with fireworks, and the crackle and boom of firecrackers of all sizes. The celebration will continue until March 1st. In the morning, the sidewalks are littered with the red paper remnants of the night's explosions, soon to be swept up by women with handmade brooms.

This morning we walked a block or two from our hotel into a hutong. Hutongs are very, very old neighborhoods of one story buildings, set in a rambling maze of streets and paths. There are store fronts, small markets and private homes, bicycles and people. In the interest of modernity, the Chinese government is tearing down many hutongs to make way for larger streets and taller buildings. We divided into the groups we will be traveling with, and wandered in.

At one tiny shop, a man was spreading a batter on a flat iron about three feet across. He used a wooden spatula to quickly distribute the batter all over the iron. Some of us were thinking crepes, but the huge disk of batter was folded and folded and folded, then quickly cut with a huge knife, and we bought a bag full. The resulting confection was so thin it was translucent, and the crispest thing we'd ever tasted. Wow!


We continued along, and found a large outdoor food market. Everyone checked out the vegetables, some familiar, and some completely new to us. There was a tea stall and lots of people bought green tea and flower tea. Some of us got a little lost and turned around in the narrow streets, but we finally made our way out.

We took subways and buses to Christina Xiang's neighborhood and stopped for lunch. We had another delicious meal and reaffirmed the notion that we ought to have lazy susans at school. After lunch, with great sadness, we said good bye to Lincoln and Shuo. They returned to Shanghai and Shenzen. We are so greatful to them; we couldn't have done it without them. They are terrific problem solvers, energetic, always up for adventure, and tremendously proud of their country. Now that they have departed, Penny is doing a great job.

We visited Christina's school, a 600 year old institution with 3000 students. Our students visited two classes and spoke English with sixth graders. It was a lot of fun, and the students were proud to show off their English skills. We returned to our hotel, washed our hands and faces and headed out for the theatre to see the Chinese acrobats. We sat in the fifth, sixth and seventh row, and watched the troop of young acrobats. Tumbling, leaping, flying through the air, throwing hats in the air and retrieving them on their heads while tumbling, and contorting their bodies in ways that defied reason!


After the performance, we returned to the hotel where we greeted Margaret, Max, Erick, Ella and Mr. MacKnight, all of whom are happy to be in China and out of an airplane.

After a quick bowl of noodles for dinner, we returned to the hotel to pack for tomorrow's departure, and hit the pillow."