OK, here we are again. Part 1 was filled to max with images so I started part 2. Here are a few images to go with ending of part 1.

These are door greeters/servers from Ashley's pizza. Then Lee and I finishing Pizza dinner. Instructing Lee on the finer aspects of a knife and fork.

This is that strange fruit from Thailand I mentioned a ways back. Supposedly it tastes fantastic but smells like a garbage dump in mid July. I'm not ready to try this yet. Mmmm... looks good, right? This is the number 1 item I told Lee I will not eat......chicken heads. These are on sale fresh at grocery store.

I spotted this vehicle in downtown. Just thought you would like to see the varity in day to day life here.

EUREKA !!!!!!! (I've always wanted to say that)

I believe I've made a scientific discovery, a real break through that will help man-kind in many aspects from industrial to space travel. I have officially discovered the most slippery substance known to man. PERIOD. It makes teflon, even synthetic oil (Mobile 1, etc) pale in comparison. It's the wet Chinese shower. I know, I know...all of you think you've seen slippery showers before. Well, I say....HA. If you had those special shoes they wear, with 3 inch spikes, for climbing glaciers in the Artic on, it would still be dangerous. No one has heard of those anti-slip flowers you stick on the bottom of your shower. Not even the Tupperwear bath tub mats. It seems no one before me, has EVER addressed the issue of sudden death in the shower. If I get hurt here in China at all, it won't be from a band of marauding Chinese bandits, or even from wild man-eating Giant Pandas, it will be from these super-slippery showers. I will never give up my quest for anti-slip something for my shower. As Captain Kirk would say..."to the ends of the galaxy and BEYOND". More later.

The other evening Lee took me to buy a smaller camera bag and a tripod I needed. I have both back home, but could not get them here in my luggage. We were off to an area with many camera stores. You could spend all day and night looking into these stores. I swear I think there is at least one store for each citizen of Zhengzhou. Into the first store we go. I see no bags at all. We ask, actually Lee asks, for a medium to large size camera bag. The salesman shows us a bag about 4x8 inches in size. That was the biggest he had. We asked for another store that may have one and we are told there are none in all of the city. Ok, we need to at least look a little longer. Out the door, turn left and there is another camera store right next door. There are no camera bags visible but the sales people are very excited to see me. They asked Lee if I was a foreigner and where I was from. As soon as they heard America, I was an instant celebrity. Everyone wanted a picture with me. Of course I obliged, just as I’m sure Tom Cruise would. After about 6 pictures with all employees, I’m told one of the pictures will be hung in the waiting room on their wall of fame. Maybe one day I’ll go back and autograph it for them.(just kidding) we ask the same question about a camera bag and are asked to sit please. We do and are promptly served lukewarm water which is very popular here. Very cold drinks popular in America are not so common here. Here comes the first bag. Green, bigger then the other store’s bag was by far, but still a little small. Not one bag is on display. He has to go into the back room and bring bags out one by one for my review. It seems like a very slow process to me, but we do it their way here. In a few moments he returns with bag #2. I see immediately it has potential. Looks good, bigger, lots of padding, has both a shoulder strap as well as a “back pack” style harness. I check dimension inside and I’m pretty sure it will work. We all smile. The ticket price is 700 rmb. Now I ask for a tripod. Off he goes again to that mysterious “back room”, then returns with a good looking tripod. Looks great, just like a Bogen brand, in fact exactly like one. It’s a copy, a good copy made in China. Ticket price is 435 rmb. Lee translates and we start our customary bargaining session. I asked about the bags padding and durability. The clerk immediately takes the bag and throws it on the floor very hard. H says “see, no damage” in Chinese of course. I told him I was worried about damaging my camera not the bag. Everyone laughs. We turn our attention to the tripod for a moment. It really looks pretty strong and feels solid. I had to question the strength, then he does a one handed hand stand on the tripod. I guess it’s strong. Lee is talking price now. Chinese are something like Italians, they talk louder but are not really arguing. They want 1135 rmb for both while Lee offers something like500. after a while I hear them both sort of settle down a bit. Lee turns towards me and says “how about 700 rmb for both”? that’s about $80. the tripod sells for more then that alone in America and I paid about $50 for a similar bag in Orlando. So I paid full price for the bag and got the tripod for free. Such a deal. The whole store of people come to the door to wave and say good bye as we leave. I was the first foreigner ever in that store.
Today Lee took me to see a few of the local sights here in Zhengzhou. There are not many here as this city is an industrial center and very few tourists come here. Almost 5000 years ago, the original Zhengzhou was a famous city. They built a wall around this city for defense purposes. The was about 30 feet tall, maybe 75-100 feet wide more or less and was constructed in a strange manner in my opinion. They built a wooden frame, or mold of sorts, out of wood. The mold was filled with dirt. It was then packed down with tremendous force. I have no idea how it was compacted, but they compacted the dirt until it became a solid object. They would then take down the wooden mold, move it a little farther along and do the same thing again and again until the city was completely surrounded. It took over 1000 years to complete. It sounds similar to the dykes built in New Orleans, except these work. Most of this wall has been destroyed over the years due to commercial uses of the land or lack of maintenance, but a few small sections remain. We went to see one of these sections. I took a few pictures of what remains. They also built a small park around this section and it looks very nice. Adjacent to the park, I mean touching the boundaries, is the new, industrial parts. There are apartments are for common people. You can see the electrical conglomeration in between the buildings. This is to supply heat to them in winter. Looks very early 1900’s America to me. There was an elderly woman selling hand made shoe inserts outside the park. Very nice looking and well made. For some reason she refused to allow me to take her picture making one of them. After this, we went to see the Zhengzhou Pagoda, a monument built to honor those that died in the Jinghan railway Strike February 4, 1923. It is 14 stories tall and located in the center of Zhengzhou business district, the center of town. There is a huge bell at top of the Pagoda that chimes with a beautiful sound that can be heard for miles. Just before the bell strikes hourly, it plays the melody of Dong Fang Hong. Very pleasant to hear. At the top you can see for a great distance. Just below I saw what looks like a town square of sorts. A very big black and white area maybe 50x50 meters with a tile pattern. Upon looking closer, I believe that pattern holds a VERY big water fountain of sorts. No one could answer me on this, but I’m sure I’m right. I will try to come back one evening to see if I am. There is a section of street off to one side that is closed off to all vehicles. It’s sort of like our Church Street in Orlando, all shops for people to walk store to store. At the edge of this area I see a big stone set as a monument or statue of some kids neatly bordered by greenery and big Chinese lettering on the front. I asked for a translation, and was told it was a friendly reminder to all shop owners, “Do not cheat customers”. Hmmm… interesting.
On the way back to my apartment we decide to stop for lunch. Lee asks if I would like to try “Hot Pots”? I saw something about them on TV the other day on the ONE English channel. It looked very good, so I agreed. Into a taxi and we are off. All the hustle and bustle of the big city, then we make a turn onto a side street. I was amazed. It was beautiful. A strong hint of country, the suburbs, in the middle of the city. We stopped in front of a beautiful restaurant and two attendants immediately ran to our taxi to assist us. Very nice. We walk in and are greeted by a young woman in a long red gown. I feel under dressed in my shorts but I’m assured it’s ok. We are seated at a table immaculately set. There are two chrome, double cooker sort of looking objects on the table. One foe each of us, along with beautiful dishes (China?) and chop sticks. Lee looks over the menu. She knows what I won’t eat, feline, canine, chicken heads, etc. I’m looking around, and I tell you truly, this place would look great in Manhattan. Everything is beautiful, first class. The chef is behind a big glass wall with all shiny chromed tools and appliances. He is slicing meat so thin you could see through it. It is rolled up loosely with about a ½ inch hole in the center, then placed on a serving plate. Lee finishes ordering. In a few moments, a heard of servers approach our table, each with one certain job to accomplish. One takes away the extra settings, one brings 5 small bowls of different liquids and spices, one brings and pours the orange juice we ordered, one removes the upper half of that chrome double pot looking items and lights a very small burner in the bottom, then replaces the upper portion. Something is cooking but I’m not sure what yet. Steam starts to come from the upper part. Lee asks me to remove the lid and place it on the table. It hardly touches the table and someone appears to take it away. I try to notice everything around me. I see that the boiling liquids in our very small chrome pots are different. Mine is milky white and hers is a dark brown color. I asked her why and she told me that hers was spicy hot and she knew I did not like spicy, so mine was not. Smiles all around. Ok, here comes our personal army of servers again…1,2,3,4,5, no, there are 6. each has something in hand. They place the plates, bowls, cups, etc, in perfect exact locations, then leave. I tell Lee that I am at her mercy and I will follow her lead on etiquette. She explains that we have two different types of beef rolled up on these two silver plates. There is also shrimp balls arranged on another silver, smaller plate, adorned beautifully with some greenery. A plate of lettuce, another bowl of another brown liquid each, a small 6 inch empty plate in front of each of us, and by-god, I think we are ready to experience a first class lunch. Lee takes a rolled up piece of beef in her chop sticks and places it into that boiling small pot I mentioned. I copy her exactly. She says that when the beef changes color in about 20-30 seconds, it’s done. Take it from the pot with chop sticks, dip it into that last bowl of brown we were served, then place it on the empty plate in front of me. Seems easy enough, that is except for these chop sticks. Lee tells me I’m getting a lot better using them. I have no choice, it’s either use them or starve. I close my eyes, put that beef in my mouth and I have no idea what to expect. I was very surprised. It was the best beef I ever had. Now I take a piece from the other platter and I’m on my own. Lee is laughing. Wow,,, better then the first. Now a shrimp ball goes into my pot. She tells me these take a little longer, maybe 1-1.5 minutes. These also were great. There is something on a plate I’m almost afraid to ask about. They are white in color, about 1/32 inch diameter and 8-10 inches long, something the size of a shorter spaghetti, but limp. They are grouped together in about 50-75 pieces, bent in horse shoe shape and arranged on another platter. Les tells me there is no English word she knows for this but it’s made from a potato. Potato? How dangerous can that be. I take a bunch in my chop sticks and place them into the pot as Lee does. These too take a little longer. NOW comes the hard part, getting them out of the pot onto my plate. These are very, very slippery now. Lee, the army of servers as well as other customers are enjoying watching me attempt this one. Little by little I get most of them. They do taste good, but I’m still not exactly what it was. Now I’m full. Wait, here come a scout, a single server from our army. He brings a plate of neatly arranges water melon triangular slices. Oops, here comes another. These servers never seem to travel alone. This one has a small dish of unknowns, and another dish of 6 pastry or bread-like objects topped with sesame seeds. A sampling of these and Lee and I are done. A meal like this, in a place like this in America would easily cost $100-$150 for two people. The bill was 120 rmb ($15) and remember, no tipping allowed in China.
Lee tells me we have one more place to go…the super market again. Remember, a super market here is not just food, it’s more like a four story Super Wal-Mart. Once inside, we head up. As usual, everyone stares. We get that elusive bulb I needed for the new lamp I bought for bedside. Then a bucket for mopping, and we look around some. Low and behold, the “shower gods” have smiled on me. We locate shower mattes, both for inside and outside the shower. I’m getting the feeling I may survive my China adventure as that slippery shower thing really had me worrying another taxi to my apartment and we relax a few minutes before Lee has to leave. I walk her down stairs and she shows me her scooter. Looks very similar to the Cushman scooters we used to have in America, just these are a little smaller and run on battery. Looks great and silent. Zero pollution. We say bye for now and she zips off on her scooter.

We went to the real Shaolin Temple today. Unbelievable to say the least. David Carradine was a joke compared to these guys. Lee and her sister picked me up at 8:45am in here sister’s car. She has a new Hyundai, the big one like the Toyota Camry. Very nice. Off we go. It’s supposed to be about an hour drive to the temple. Leaving the city, it’s as crazy as other times. Best thing I can do is hang on, try to not look at what’s going on, and be quiet. If I make too much noise, I may break the driver’s concentration on our life or death journey. As we leave the city I notice the roads start to look more and more like in America. This one is pretty nice. Two lanes each way plus what looks like a nice paved shoulder. Guard rails and landscaped shrubbery divide the two sides. Very nice. There are houses along this road which looks a little strange for a modern highway, in fact, a toll road. After a bit we pull over in front of one of the houses and stop. Lee walks to the door then goes inside. She is in there maybe 10 minutes before returning. She has three small plastic bags in her hand, gets in and off we go again. One of the bags has 4-5 brown steaming eggs I assume are hard boiled . The other bag has three things inside that appear similar to a biscuit, just sized different. They are about ¾ inch thick and 6-7 inched diameter, steaming very hot, clearly just made. A few green teas are in the third bag, room temperature of course. Lee peels one of the hard boiled eggs. Hmmm… the egg itself looks a little stained, not pure white like in all eggs I’ve seen. She tells me it’s tea. The really popular boiled eggs here are boiled, not in water, but in black tea, the regular tea we drink in America. It darkens the shell and adds a slightly different taste to the egg. She takes one of the biscuits and splits it open sandwich-like with her fingers. She places the egg inside, sort of squeezes it to crush the egg and spread it around in my instant egg sandwich, hands me this and a warm green tea, and I have a breakfast just like McDonald’s, except cheaper. This meal cost 3.3 rmb for each of us, approximately 47 cents. No salt or pepper, but the tea adds a little flavor that’s ok. I’m praying this meal doesn’t ruin my 11 days in a row and not using a public toilet. On up the road I start to see more strange vehicles. As we get closer to the temple, we are also much more rural. Trucks loaded to way over max. here goes a farm implement of some sort. Now a two wheeled roto-tiller is attached to a small farm wagon and driven to town at a whopping 3 miles per hour. It’s one cylinder diesel engine making a distinctive “thump thump thump” sound as it chugs along.
We arrive at the temple and try to park. Here comes an employee to talk with the two ladies. He tells us if we eat at the restaurant, we can park for free. I guess we are about to eat here. (come on day 12…public toilet, remember?) the meal was ok. Not bad at all. The next table was watching me closely using chop sticks and made some comments for Lee to hear. They were surprised I was using them as well as I am. I’m surprised myself. I rarely flip food across the room any more. SEE… I am adapting. Did I mention steps?? There are steps every where we go in China, and here is no exception. The restaurant was two flights down stairs, so that means two flights back UP. We start to walk, as I am lead by the ladies. Through a huge “gray” stone pillar sort of gateway. Remember, gray must be the national color. I se what looks like an electric golf cart station wagon transportation area on the left. Lee’s sister looks that way and says something in Chinese to her. I tell them yes, we can ride this thing. Her sister says I’m her new best friend. I agreed quickly after I saw a sing that named several of the places we wanted to go here and there was a distance written next to them. 1000m, 2200m, 4000m…it does not take me long to mentally figure, 1mx39 inches, divided by 3, times 4000 = lets take the cart. This is a big place. at least a 10 minute drive to the other end of the property and we get out and walk. Vendors approach us to buy their wares. First stop is what’s called “The Pagoda Forest”. Here comes the rain. Did I mention it rains a lot here? Everyone says it’s rare, but it is raining….again. lee and her sister have a small collapsing umbrella each. They steer me towards a vendor selling rain jackets that show it fits down to your knees. They ask for a large for me…ha. Seems a large Chinese person is a medium at best, in American. I stopped wearing medium in jr high school. My arm got stuck in the rain jacket sleeve. We all try to share the two tiny umbrellas. After a bit it stops raining and I get some pretty good shots I think. This pagoda forest is actually a cemetery for the past famous Monks that lived here and fought to save their Dynasty for the then current Emperor. The bigger the pagoda, the more famous he was. There over 200 of these here. More walking, and many more steps. It seems the golf cart left us I say. They say, “oh yes, we walk from here back.” I remember those 1000-4000m distances and start to ask myself if I took my one aspirin a day to avoid heart attacks today?
The Shaolin Monks are astounding in their training. They twist, turn and contort their bodies in all shapes. The standard show included in the tour is by the trainees, not the certified Monks themselves. That is never mentioned and few realize this fact. Lee finds a small area where there will be a performance by the actual Monks, but it is additional fee for this. The way Lee is looking at me I think it’s a big fee. She says it’s additional 20 rmb each, that’s $2.50. in we go. The building is pretty large. As we enter I see a stage at the other end and maybe 50 plastic chairs. We go to second row and sit. The floor is dirt. The lighting is very poor. I hope it gets a lot better so I can photo the performance. It begins and I realize the lights I se are IT. Make a quick adjustment to my iso (film speed) and try again. 800 no good, 1600 too slow, I go to my max of 3200 and let it fly. No flash allowed. Very few cameras can go 3200. Finally a little good luck. I am truly amazed at what they do. After the show we walk again. More steps, many more. My legs are moaning. We get to the main temple and it’s at least three big levels of stairs up. This is a very modern performance center building. Cooler air, concession area, lighted stage, etc. we arrive just as the show starts and there are no seats at all. In fact we barley get to stand in back of the crowd. I have to literally hold the camera over the heads of everyone and shoot blind. I sure hope I’m getting some of this. One Monk approaches a thing that is about 6 feet tall. It has a shelf looking area half way up. There is a very noticeable pointed spear looking thing in the center pointed straight up. The Monk climbs up onto the shelf. He prays and readies himself for something he will do shortly. What on earth is he DOING? He lines up the center of his stomach right on the point of the spear. He leans over, then straightens out with his whole body weight on that pointed spear. No death, no blood at all. Here comes another Monk. He has an assistant with two long, bamboo spears with pointed metal tips. The assistant stands on the un-pointed ends placed on the stage, and the spears angle up towards the other Monk 7 feet away. The second Monk places the spear metal points against his throat on either side of his Adam’s apple. He prays, then I see the spears start to flex, to bend. This Monk is pressing his throat harder and harder against the points. The spears flex all the way to touch the floor. I half expected to see a spear come shooting out the back of his neck. The next ones to come out are three Monks together. One has a blue balloon, the next a pain of regular window glass maybe 12 inches square. The third appears to have nothing. They walk around the stage and allow many people to touch the balloon and the glass pain. The third has a regular looking needle in his hand. The fist stands there holding the balloon. The second next to him shielding the balloon with the glass from the third one with the needle.
They all bow slightly and pray, number 1 and 2 presumably for the accuracy of #3. they get ready…number 3 moves so fast you can hardly see him move. Pop, the balloon is broken. Monk #2 walks around and lets many see the tiny hole in the glass from the needle. After the performance it’s, you guessed it, down the stairs and more walking.
Families send their kids here to the Shaolin Temple at a pretty early age, to live and train. They stay here learning Kung Fu and the Monk's lifestyle, schooling and teachings. This place looks like Ft. Benning in Georgia like we train Army Infantry. After we saw all we could and started to leave, we walked past 300-400 kids in a big field training. All were in a uniform, half of them in a red tee shirt with logo and half a white tee with logo, Same pants for all of them. we walked a little more and another field, and another and another, all filled with a few thousand kids. Now I see many more walking towards us in group formations of maybe 50-75 in a group just like the Army does. As they turn the curve in the road ahead, I see another and another. There must have been 15 groups of 75 kids walk/march past. So many. Except for the LOT of walking, I loved it. We get into the car and start back. As we drive through the very small town of Denfeng City , I notice what look like schools with many children of all ages practicing martial arts outside. 1,2,3,4,5…..at least 20 of them. Lee tells me this whole town has many such schools that teach Kung Fu to children that stay here to live and train. This town is like a Super Wal-Mart of Fung Fu training. We are all three very tired as we head back to Zhengzhou. Oops, filled up with pictures again. Click here for part 3. http://www.my-china3.blogspot.com/