New Year through spring break
After a teary good bye to Celia we settled back into our regular Shunyi Beijing life. I organized the first ISB Adult tennis mixer. We filled the 6 ISB indoor tennis courts, everyone brought way too much food, and had a super time playing tennis and getting to know one another. I borrowed a megaphone to keep everyone in line.
Morton’s ping-pong season progressed. He went to Shanghai for a big tournament. They were outplayed, but as Morton’s a first year high school student, playing on the varsity team, he should feel pretty good. At the end of the season the coaches honored him with a big award for his hard play and for the impressive improvement in his game.
For Chinese New Year we planned to stay in Beijing as China gets crazy crowded over Chinese New Year with 1.4 billion Chinese traveling to their home town. At last minute I decided my mother seemed like she could really use a visit and I’d also love to see her. I bought a ticket and then thought I should plan a quick trip with the boys at the beginning of the holiday before I left them for rest of holiday. I had heard someone at the school was connected to a lovely ski resort not too far from Beijing. Next thing, we were heading to Thaiwoo ski resort for a few days. The place was lovely, the scenery was stunning. The owner of the resort invited us to dinner and gave us a lovely tour of his education facilities. It was a great trip. For better or worse, and despite two days of private lessons, Morton was not convinced that skiing was the sport for him.
I flew off on the new direct flight from Beijing to Boston. (Direct, affordable flights from China to the U.S. are still very slow to return post Covid.) Elon and Anna put me up and I spent a couple days running around with them and Celia. I took Celia and a few of her friends out to dinner. It was so nice getting to know them.
I then jumped onto a train to NY for two days -(why didn’t I take more photos?). It was SO nice to catch up with friends and family. I met cousins Mitch and Leslie for lunch by the train station, had dinner with Chris, Anita, and Jeanhee in Park Slope. The next day I met up with my friend Manju to stroll in Chelsea before Susan hosted a wonderful Art Luck.
The next day, before running back to train station, I had a quick hang out with Steve – who told me the crazy story of our house being a historically famous chess club — who knew?? (Aparently just chess nerds – wink to Steve).
I met Celia on the Amtrak train heading to Philly which we took down to visit my mother. Celia stayed for a long weekend and I visited her for around two and a half weeks. It wasn’t my mother’s best period, but I was happy I was able to be with her. Judd ran up for a quick visit while I was there – which is always so nice. And on my flight back I spent the night in San Francisco, catching up with Aaron and family.
While I was gone the boys kept busy: They took a hiking trip up an ice river at Baihu. They went to Grand Canal Museum, and they went to a hot springs hotel a couple times. Right before I got back Dan went to Xiamen to catch the CBA Allstar game. Don’t ask me who won (or played for that matter!)
Other noteworthy things since Chinese New Year and before spring break:
Dan went to Korea to look at Korean universities where ISB sends most of their Korean graduates. While there, he met with a number of these Alumni. Dan was wowed by these universities – both by the amazing schools and by their shockingly low price tags.
A friend of mine caught Dan playing Gaga ball at school (and he says he works so hard!)
My friend Dong took Lisa and I out for a couple of her fantastic exploration of Beijing and vegetarian Chinese meal.
Dan joined a few friends of mine at an art opening and then we stumbled upon a show of Liu Qinghe’s work which I loved!
Morton and I made an excellent apple pie.
Milo took some naps.
And just as Morton and I were departing for Spring break in Guilin, Dan ran off to Shanghai to collect an award for ISB being the top International School in China award and then back to Thaiwoo to give a talk to an educational conference.
Morton and I flew down to Guilin and spent the day exploring Guilin City. I had taken a boat out of Guilin with my parents and brothers back in …. Too many years ago to admit.. but I don’t think we saw the city or area around – just the amazing karsts that the area is world famous for.
We picked Dan up at the airport that evening before heading down to the outskirts of Yangshuo which is an hour or so south of Guilin. We were all awed. Our hotel was nestled between karsts and the Yulong River. The landscape is nothing like what we’ve experienced before – being surrounded by the mountainous forms that go directly up from where we were standing and then quickly come back down.
We spent four days exploring and enjoying the area – by bicycle, motor bike (morton in a side car), by bamboo raft, by cable car and by rock climbing.
One day we took a cable car up Ruyi Shan (Mountain), hiking (?) on a walkway and walked on a glass bridge. A bit cheesy but the views were overwhelmingly stunning that the gimic of the bridge didn’t even dent the experience.
That night we went into Yangshuo City and saw Zhang Yi Mou’s performance on the river. It wasn’t quite as amazing as his Olympic opening ceremony – but it was so beautiful seeing this performance on the river in front of us with the scenery being lit up and the “dancers” floating on the river.
Our last night in Yangshuo we went back into the city for dinner. We went to an Indian restaurant that preCovid was written up as nightly having an hour wait. Dan called ahead and made a reservation. We showed up and were their only customers until another couple showed up. The owner was lovely -but it’s been tough on businesses.
Morton and my plans for the last couple days fell through at last minute so we scrambled and booked a hotel in Xingping Zhen- another town in the area about an hour north of Yangshuo.
Dan drove up with us then jumped in a train first to Guilin City and then down to Hong Kong to meet his brother for the Hong Kong 7’s – a rugby tournament.
Morton and I spent the next day and a half exploring Xingping Zhen between incredible downpours. The views were AMAZING but we had to cover our ears as it was Tomb Sweeping holiday and everyone was constantly shooting off fireworks at their ancestral tombs to keep away the bad spirits. It was VERY loud! The first afternoon we took a boat across the Lijiang River to go up XingPing Mountain – which was not very challenging but the view was astonishingly beautiful. Once we got to the top we couldn’t believe the tiers of lookout decks which were flooded with Chinese vying for the best viewpoint to take their selfies. It was so over the top it was funny.
That afternoon we wandered around the town and in the touristy area Morton found a place that sold home made super yummy yogurt. He got his with Oreos in it – can’t beat that!
The next day we took the obligatory picture with the view point from the 20 Yuan bill behind us – though we took it slightly up river from the actual spot as the crowds at the actual spot were crazy! Afterwards we took again took a boat across the Lijiang River, though a little lower down.
We planned to rent motor bikes on the other side and explore. When we got to the other side, there was no where to rent motor bikes, which was very disappointing – until the downpour started a few minutes later. We paid someone to take us on their golf cart/tuktuk type vehicle to see a buddist nunnery I heard was worth seeing.
It was beautiful but the ride there was the best part. XingPing Zhen is a bit overrun by tourists but in this area was peaceful lovely scenery. The nunnery was down a crazy muddy road that I can’t believe the driver took us on. Twice we ran into other tuktuks (one each direction) and the path is only wide enough for one. Somehow we eventually were able to pass – each tuktuk finding spots they could safely edge off the road just enough. The nunnery itself was tiny and nestled under a cliff overhang. It was lovely.
That afternoon and evening Morton and I explored the beautiful outskirts of Xingping Zhen by foot before heading back to our hotel for the night and heading to Beijing in the morning. I had a little surprise when heading back to the airport in Guilin. Although on the map Xingping Zhen is much closer to Guilin city than Yangshuo so I thought it’d be a quick trip in the morning, there was no road, so we had to drive an hour or so back down to Yangshuo and then another hour or so back up to Guilin! Luckily I found this out in plenty of time so had no trouble making our flight back to Beijing.