Tuesday & Wednesday in Jilin

After a great meal on Monday with leadership from Jilin City, we knew we would spend the next two days touring the city and enjoying what it has to offer. Again we ate breakfast at the hotel buffet which is really excellent. Honestly, I have to admit that this hotel is spectacular. I knew the Langland and Beijing ones were good, but with Jilin being a place that doesn't host a lot of foreign tourists, I really expected this one to be smokey, hard beds, traditional Chinese breakfast, construction outside the window, and noisy and hot. This is the best hotel of the bunch. The rooms are huge, the shower is still in full view of the room, the breakfast is incredible, the rooms are clean, the mattresses are a bit rough due to how firm they are, but Hal guaranteed that he would have Northwest Bedding remedy that for us. 

We had our usual team briefing at 9:00 to prepare for the day and off we went. In the morning we went to a famous mountain in Jilin City that overlooks the city. Like many of the famous mountains, there were tons of people, lots of stares, coke and ice cream vendors, and heat and humidity. Though it's not as blistering as Beijing, it's still really warm. At the top of the mountain, maybe a 25 minute hike, is a Buddhist temple similar to those throughout China. As we continue to observe Chinese culture, its interesting to visit one and see how some of the traditions have permeated into the culture. From there we headed to a Korean BBQ. It was a huge buffet with little BBQ grills in the middle of the table. I think this was one of the favorite lunches as people got to get their own food, drinks, and dessert. I know my oldest daughter would have absolutely loved it!

During the afternoon we split up. The girls took their chaperones and Christine to a local high school where they joined about 40 students from the states who have spent time at a two week language program in Jilin. They learned a traditional paper cutting technique, and then then shared a bit about Spokane and Lilac. 

The rest of us went to two places. The first was a museum of the Manchu people. China is comprised mostly of Han Chinese and has about 55 recognized minority groups. Though most live in SW China, the Manchu people are unique to this area. After that we went to a park along the river. Cool place. We spent most of our time watching parents and grandparents with the children playing to water fountains, and streams. We then joined our girls and went to another hot pot dinner. This one was buffet and was much better than the one in Langfang....but blistering hot inside. You could always find our team huddled in front of the air conditioner or in line for another kabob of chicken heads. After we got back to the hotel, Danielle, our host, arranged a time at the massage place nearby. I know that doesn't sound good with all the news in Spokane, but this one is particularly good and clean. I think $12 for an hour massage is a pretty good deal no matter where you go.

Today, we again pulled out at 9:00 and headed to Songhua Lake, which is the backwaters of the dam on Songhua River which flows through the town. Not quite the Coeur d Alene resort as the boat is just pulled up on the rocky shore with two 2 x 8 planks to walk up. It was beautiful and similar to our own city. 

We then had lunch at a local place that had some pretty interesting choices...warm bean curd custard, chicken head platters, and soggy green beans. Some was good but it was a good experience at local cuisine. After that we got an opportunity to visit a state run orphanage briefly. This was a fairly new 6 story building that was a social welfare institute housing seniors also. Though there were supposedly 70 kids there, we only saw about 15 special needs kids. It all looked great but but when you've seen many, many orphanages, you see things like PT equipment that hasn't been used and playground equipment that is still new. Oftentimes it is because of lack of staffing or a lack of knowledge about therapy, but it was good to see this and compare it to some other places we saw last week.

We then went to the Meteorite Museum and saw three rocks. 

Below is the largest metorite in world.

Tonight we are on our own for dinner and walks down by the river. It should be a good quiet time to enjoy each other, get some rest, and prepare for some time tomorrow at a farewell lunch and a flight to Beijing.

It's pretty obvious that our team is missing friends and family, but we are finishing well and representing to the end. Thanks for all of your prayers, support, and encouragement as we go.

Steve

Here is the gift the Mayor of Jilin gave to the City of Spokane.

It won't be too much longer that we will be bringing home to Spokane.