7 May 2016 Friday Hangzhou The rain came. I looked out after pre-dawn computer grind, and everything was a soft glowing wet gray-green, the reflecting pool glimmering and agitated, the tree trunks etched black with the wetness against the lacy greenery of the oaks,...
6 May 2016 Friday Hangzhou, China So it did not rain after all. All day, beautiful and sunny and not that hot as far as I was concerned. I was inside in this perfectly controlled manmade climate of beautiful space and high ceilings. Coming down in the early morning ...
5 May 2016 Thursday Hangzhou, China An interesting day. I was up early and working and then hungry by seven, but nothing was open except a convenience store. I wanted an apple, but all that was available were nori-wrapped rice rolls filled with some kind of...
4 May 2016 Wednesday 12:35 am Shanghai, China But it is really Wednesday, Or maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s Monday-Tuesday – since I lost a day coming here from Ashland – ii’s all a blur. The flight was fine; the food was terrible. the...
Saturday 14 November 2015 How much can one learn about China in a two-week visit? A lot and not enough. Mandarin is a forceful language. Speaking it requires full use of the entire mouth and the throat. The language, like the architecture, grows out of the fullness...
上海 SHANGHAI Friday 13 November 2015 When you get off the long distance bus and step into a puddle with your white shoes and are standing in the rain without your umbrella because you cannot get it because it is still in the luggage compartment of the long distance...
杭 HANGZHOU Thursday 12 November 1015 So at seven in the morning, we are checking out of the hotel in Shanghai and arguing about whether to take metro (7 RMB, one hour and 20 minutes) or taxi (200 RMB, one hour), when the desk clerk calls to another customer,...
上海 SHANGHAI Wednesday 11 November 2015 On their second day in Shanghai in 1908. the Gambles visited Southgate School, which was run by missionaries. Today, Shanghai Southgate High School exists on the same site as did the original Christian missionary Southgate...
上海 SHANGHAI Tuesday 10 November 2015 It seems silly to travel six thousand miles just to sit in a dowdy hotel room with terrible lighting all day. But there it is. Most of Tuesday was spent sitting in a dowdy hotel room with terrible lighting, puling together the...
上海 SHANGHAI 9 November 2015 And so it all worked out very nicely. The Astor House Hotel did not have our Monday night reservation. Mr.Lin could only come on Monday. Dear Mr. Lin, who can speak Chinese and who lives in China and who can read kanji and who functions in...
