Getting in Step

Greetings. By now you have deduced that we have surmounted the technical difficulties. We had help but the names will not be revealed.

As I write this we are in Chuxiong and the camellia conference is under way. The opening ceremonies this morning were absolutely mind blowing. We were driven to what appeared to be a large shopping plaza. To get to the area where a stage and chairs had been set up for the welcome and opening ceremonies we had to walk a distance approximately equivalent to going from the Sonoma County courthouse to the Santa Rosa Junior College. (For you out-of-towners I am guessing between one-fourth to one-third mile). Both sides of the literally red carpet were lined with colorfully costumed singers, dancers and musicians. The stroll from bus to assembly area took just shy of one-half hour.

At the reviewing area we were given Camilla conference baseball caps and treated (if that is the right word) to welcoming speeches by local politicians. Following the obligatory hot air there was some very cool music and folk dancing by some of the colorfully costumed greeters. This was capped with a small but very impressive fireworks display. (It is a shame that photos will not be available for awhile but in truth the photos will be a very pale imitation of the real thing).

Following the opening ceremonies we got to wander through the shopping center which was laid out like a small town about eight blocks long and six blocks wide. We were allowed to walk the length of it but restricted to only one-half the width. Potted camellias in full bloom, literally hundreds of them, lined the entire walkway. At one point, having wandered ahead of Nancy who was oo-ing and ah-ing over the camellias with her fellow enthusiasts I discovered a small art shop with Chinese style scroll paintings of camellia blooms. I went back and collected Nancy. She found one she liked and one of the student volunteers helped us to communicate with the shopkeeper. After the deal was struck we learned that the shopkeeper was also the artist. Nancy wanted photos of herself with the artist and the artist asked if we would download the photos to his in shop computer. Done.

At another point, having wandered off by myself again, I discovered a wine shop. There was a young blonde woman sitting out front and I chatted her up (old habits die hard). Turned out she was from Indiana and she and her husband ran the shop. I met him as well and when he learned I was from California and a wine drinker he brought out the only bottle of California wine he sold. It was a Merlot from Paso Robles. I gave him a stern lecture (kidding) and he invited us to return at 8 p.m. when he would open the bottle so we could give him our sophisticated (stop giggling) opinion. Unfortunately, the area was way too far from our hotel to walk so we were forced to take a rain check.

Sandwiched in here and there were two television interviews. At the first one both Nancy and I were interviewed for a local TV station. The second one was Nancy only (get the ugly dude off camera). I fully expect that if we were to return next year we would find Nancy’s face adorning billboards advertising cars or Internet providers or clothing, all of which are billboards we have seen.

On that subject China so far seems a strange mash up of the utterly alien (no toilet paper in the public restrooms, huge platters of food but no serving utensils at the meals) and the familiar (billboards, television advertising). As many folk far more articulate than I have noted China is a land of striking contrasts. The city we are in now is ultra modern, everything we have seen is post WW II construction and very clean. The city we were in yesterday was ancient and filthy.

Our bus ride yesterday took us to several historic and/or natural wonder stops. The best was a park where we hiked around through rock formations similar to what is found in Pinnacles National Monument or Bryce Canyon in Utah.

The weather has been very accommodating. Clear, dry, very cold at night but warm (around 70) during the day. Since I now find myself writing about the weather it is clearly time to stop. We will be sitting at this hotel for the next couple of days while the camellia conference continues so hopefully I can blog a bit more before we are on the road again.

Zai jian.

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