Hong Kong for the Holidays

Rebecca and I went to Hong Kong to visit our friend Ken during China's National Day holiday. It was a great trip. We took the overnight train from Shanghai to Guandong. From there, we took another train to Shenzhen, where we walked across the border into Hong Kong. We took had a great time taking some walks outside the city. We were both pleasantly surprised at how convenient it was to see some actual nature. The trip back was a bit harry as our flight from Shenzhen to Shanghai was delayed for about 4 hours. We did however make it eventually. Take a look at some of the pictures we took: Hong Kong pictures

Backyard-beachball cricket - A game is born

After the West Winfield Volunteer Firemen's parade, Doug and I, along with the Clark and Nathan Witt, decided to play something. Not having enough room for a baseball diamond, I introduced the boys to cricket. At least, my understanding of cricket. The rules are fairly similar to regular cricket, except due to the limited number of players, only balls hit in front of the wicket are in play. We played two matches, and the Witt boys won both. Here are some blurry pictures to commemorate the event. Backyard-beachball cricket.

A few more pictures

I've uploaded a few pictures from Skye and Rebecca's high-flying business trip to Germany. Here are the pictures from Skye and Germany.

Our trip to the UK, May-June 2007

We finally had a reason to take some pictures, so we did. These pictures were taken during our trip to the UK from late May to early June. I arrived in Manchester on May 24th and stayed a few nights with a friend. Rebecca arrived the evening of the 25th, and we met up on Saturday and flew from Liverpool to Inverness (thanks Susan for driving). Mr. and Mrs. Lund picked us up in Inverness and drove us about 2.5 hours to their home in Skye (thanks to you too). We spent about 9 or 10 days in Skye, and then drove to Manchester where we spent 4 days sprucing up the Lund home and seeing friends. I also picked up the bad habit of listening to test cricket on the radio. Oh, I've also included a link to Rebecca's pictures from Germany. You'll have to ask her for details.

Pictures from the UK
Pictures from Germany

Chongming Island

Rebecca and I decided to go to a charming little place called Chongming Island for a day during our Chinese New Year holiday. It was very pleasant in that the air was cleaner than in Shanghai proper, but the "national park" had go-karts and bumper cars. There was, as you will see, an animal forest. Go on, click the link below and be amazed!!!

Pictures from Chongming Island

Christmas in Shanghai

While we would have much rather been spending Christmas with our families in places where Christmas is actually celebrated, we did the best we could here in Shanghai. Decorations were cheap but typically not very tasteful so we went minimalist. At any rate, if you want to see some pictures, please follow the link below.

Christmas in Shanghai pictures

Getting to Wenzhou, really fast

For the October National Holiday Rebecca and I went to Wenzhou. We just missed the airport bus, so we took the Maglev instead to get to Pudong Airport. After spending a day in Wenzhou (and being awakened by a brass band at about 4:30 a.m.) we headed to Yandang Shan for some nature. Thankfully, it is a relatively well kept secret and the place was not completely overrun by other tourists. We got some good walks in, and figured out how to eat a pomelo properly.

Wenzhou Gallery

Hangzhou

Rebecca had to go to Hangzhou in July on business, so I tagged along and we took in some of the sights. Mostly some tea and West Lake (Xi Hu in Chinese). It was pleasant to visit during the week when the crowds were not too bad. Click the link below to check out the pictures.

Hangzhou Gallery