8 Spruce Street, Dec 26, 2011

Beekman Tower and or currently marketed as New York by Gehry from the Brooklyn Bridge.

Brooklyn Bridge, Dec 26, 2011

Dec 26, 2011

The old south ferry building, love the color; more pix in FB

the old south ferry building, Dec 18, 2011

Washington Square Park arch

Washington Square Park, Dec 18, 2011

王氏别业

Theodore Roosevelt‘s home at Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay is next door to Charles B. Wang 王嘉廉 Wang Jialian’s Chinese style home.  I don’t follow Wang, the few articles I read about him, none has mentioned his elaborate Chinese style dwelling perch high above the Cold Spring Harbor in Oyster Bay. When I came up on it from the Nature Trail on the TR’s property (there are high fence separate them), it was a pleasant surprise. More pix in the gallery; TR’s museum.

Charles B. Wang

TR's house, Nov 26, 2011

by the museum

2011 Nov 24 at Shadow Lane, etc.
2010 Nov 3 at Great Neck
2010 Oct 23 at Great Neck South High
2009 Nov 12 at Kissen Park

Oakland Lake is a 15,000-year-old spring-fed glacial kettle pond located in Alley Pond Park. The lake, once known as Mill Pond, became known as Oakland Lake, named for the 19th century estate on this site called “The Oaks” for the many oak trees in the area.
Oakland Lake is fed by underground springs and a ravine, and at one time it was speculated that the lake was 600 feet deep and had a massive underground river leading to nearby Little Neck Bay. In 1969, a diving expedition went in search of the lake bottom, undergoing elaborate emergency prevention measures in case the alleged river’s current was too strong. However, the dive proved that the lake was only approximately 20 feet deep and did not lead to an underground river as legend claimed.

This Bayside (New York) little lake is bounded by Springfield and Cloverdale Boulevards, 46th Avenue and 223rd Street. The pictures was taken on 46th Avenue near 223 Street on Sept 18, 2011.

Sept 18, 2011, on 46th Avenue

Sept 18, 2011, on 46th Avenue

• 3/19: tickets on CX, US$ 1,575.20 pp; JFK-PEK, PVG-HKG-JFK
• 6/13: getting the visa, $140
• 6/17: pick up the visa
• 6/27: Mon 10am – JFK- 北京 Beijing (6/28, 晚上 6:30pm)
• 6/28: one pc luggage delayed; stopping on the road
• 6/29: lunch; Panjia Yuan 潘家园; Peking Opera
• 6/30 tea house, crop top shirt; Zhongguancu St; DaLi Restaurant;
• 7/1 shopping with Tiger’s daughter; ICBC bank
• 7/2: the Grand Epoch City 天下第一城 DiYi Cheng; tennis
• 7/3: Grand Epoch City 第一城 DiYi Cheng; tennis
• 7/4: studio pics; tea at Peninsular Hotel; bath house Morley Holy Club
• 7/5: Sun Changling; Xiaoyi birthday
• 7/6: Nan LuoGu Xiang 南锣鼓巷; fire cupping;
• 7/7: Hefei 合肥, Huangshan 黄山
• 7/8: Huangshan
• 7/9: Xidi
• 7/10: Hefei museum, Pan Yuliang 潘玉良
• 7/11: lunch with Wang Zhen; pick pictures; bath at Yihai;
• 7/12: eye Dr; TGIF; fish head 鱼头泡饼 biz meeting; Olympics
• 7/13: tennis at Keda; bath at BiZhongHai
• 7/14: ICBC bank; Don’s Mom; shopping with Di; dinner with Guo Yuan and her son
• 7/15: tennis at 党校/Haidia; bath QingHua Chi 清华池; dinner with family for Jimmy; wine in China
• 7/16: National Museum of China in Tiananmen Square – Liu Bingzhang; Louis Vuitton Voyages; Mao’s Snow; dinner with Hou; ice dance: Sasha Cohen, etc. rained .. gave umbrella
• 7/17: Auntie Spalding; Canzhen Hutong; ballet
• 7/18: working at the hospital; Canzhen Hutong; book store; school being strengthened
• 7/19: 三味书屋 Sanwei Shuwu, a book store
• 7/20: meeting Aunties Sun & Fu; suite at court; ice wine .. 金鼎轩
• 7/21: picking up portrait’s CD; Wangfujing; 798; dinner at Hou’s house
• 7/22: TJ; Italian Street
• 7/23: TJ, old mansion sold .. Kiessling Restaurant 起士林餐厅; hotpot dinner Valerie and her husband
• 7/24 Sunday: Swan Lake bath house
• 7/25: Zoology Institute; tea house; dinner with classmates
• 7/26: with cousins: 6am shopping; breakfast; cemetery, tea house, Qianmen 前门
• 7/27: 天坛; family dinner by Don’s Mom
• 7/28: fast train to Shanghai; 七宝老街; dinner with Yishi, Xu Yan ..

July 28 – Aug 4 Shanghai 魅力江南八日游 – 济贫团

• 7/29 Fri Beijing-Shanghai, ¥550, 8am fm BJ South Station 上海 (明悅大酒店或同級)
• 7/30 Sat 上海-蘇州: 城隍庙 Temple, lunch; Suzhou-garden   (利物浦或同級) B/L/D
• 7/31 Sun 蘇州-無錫: silk factory, lunch; Wuxi- buddha and the stairs; Lake Tai; (錫州花園 或同級) B/L/D
• 8/1 Mon: 無錫-南京: Wuxi pearls; lunch; Nanjing Changjiang Bridge; 夫子庙 Confucius Temple; Exam Hall 江南贡院(鼎業金陵 或同級) B/L/D
• 8/2 Tue 南京 -杭州 – jade, lunch; HZ: dinner, performce  (百瑞運河 或同級) B/L/D
• 8/3 Wed 杭州-上海: XiHu, tea, lunch; Shanghai: foot massage, dinner (明悅大酒店或同級)B/L/D
• 8/4 Thur 上海 .. B .. China Pavilion; 陆家嘴 Lujiazui, Manhattan of the East; k-9
• 8/5: NanXiang Dumplings; French Concession
• 8/6: Jinjiang Hotel 锦江; Bank of China; bath at 大浪淘沙
• 8/7: typhoon 梅花 plum blossom; TV; local dinner – sweet
• 8/8: jade pendants arrived in the AM; Xintiandi 新天地; Uncle Chen Yuanguang; bath at 鼓浪屿 Gulangyu
• 8/9: visiting Ida; Harry Potter movie; Hu Anshu; adventure 斑马线历险记; dinner at Korean w/ Yishi & Chen Weiqiu
• 8/10: dinner at Lao Yangfang 老洋房; hair cut; French Concession; Sinan Mansions, 上海思南公馆酒店
• 8/11 Thur 8:40 Shanghai-HK; 尖沙咀; late dumpling for dinner
• 8/12: exchange rate; Yung Kee 鏞記酒家 – Famous Roast Goose in Central – for lunch; seeing Liu Mama, Uncle Peizu at North Point
• 8/13 Sat 18:30 – 香港 HK- 纽约 JFK;  尖沙嘴/ 尖沙咀 Tsim Sha Tsui

I first learned it from my cousin Don in VA which offered it at US$99, then my cousin Sophie in LA told me it’s only US$49. Since I’ve never traveled with my Jiujiu and family so I decided to join them even it’s inconvenient my already booked/planned schedule.

We took the newly minted CRH Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway 京沪高速铁路, departing Beijing South Station at 8am on Friday July 29, arrived in Shanghai safely little before 1pm. It cost ¥550. In the aftermath of the Wenzhou CRH D301 and D3115 train rear-end accident that happened on July 23, we didn’t have any choice. My initially wish was to take the overnight train from Beijing to Shanghai, mainly for Pumpkin to experience it. But since the Beijing-Shanghai express starts running, many overnight trains, on the face of overwhelming complain, was being eliminated. I simply couldn’t get any tickets. Another story, another time.

The tour put us at MingYue 明悦 (上海浦東新區崮山路50 號) in Pudong, departing for the tour the following morning July 30, after breakfast. Over all, the tour is good, hotels were better than the lunches/dinners. Buffet breakfasts were at the hotels, generally ok. We have a baby-sitter tour guide who with the bus driver were with us 24/7; collected our passports at night for hotel check in, etc. At each city, the company would send a local guide who did the selling guiding.

Not sure IF there is talking point enforced by the company but the tour guides all uniformly echoed few themes:
- China, undeniably is doing pretty good, although there are many improvements to be made; please give us a break little time
- 孝顺 filial piety
The guides are well informed and worldly, they never hesitated in telling you that they, too, traveled the world. They can be sarcastic about China; openly talked about their personal experience/lives which made the conversations – even they were the one did the talking mostly – the more enjoyable.
It’s my first time joining a China tour. Few tour mates/cousins told me that this is pretty first class, in comparison to the local tours they experienced in the past. Perhaps Nexus wants to impress 统战 the overseas Chinese. I wasn’t prepare for the shopping element. Before the tour, Sophie said we would not buy anything. Ya right. .. We ended up spent our children’s college tuition. We wrote IOU at the jade store; we borrowed money from the baby sitter at Hangzhou, in order to buy Longjin, the dragon well teas. Heck, we even wrote I owe you for the tips. How charming! I couldn’t believe they, the stores and the tour guide would engage in such risky business!
Those stores we visited were all tour sponsors. However, there were never pressure to buy. It’s us who couldn’t resist.
As we drove back to Shanghai from Hangzhou after lunch (we always traveled to the next city after lunch), the baby sitter guide began telling us more about himself.
He’s the fourth child of a rural family, born in 1980. By the time, one child policy was already pushed to the countryside. So his parents considered to gave him away due to financial constrain but ultimately decided to pay the ¥250 fine, to keep him. He said many kids called him 250 二百五 which in Mandarin slang, means an insult: stupid person or simpleton. He would become the first college educated child of the family. During his college years, to help pay for his tuition, he went to Shenzhen for a summer job, as a shipyard labor. He earned a grand ¥2000+. When he went home, upon seeing him, his mother turned her head slightly to wipe away her tears: he was dark and extremely skinny. He said, he pretended not seeing her cry. He got me teared on this. Mothers.
He just got married a few years ago; they are expecting their first child this October. His father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer shortly after their marriage and purchasing of their apartment. His wife suggested to sell the apartment to help pay for the medical bills. He said he’s extremely moved by her devotion to her parents and loved her all the more. His father-in-law died a year later; left behind a ¥400,000 bill (after the insurance).
At the end of long talk, he gently asked for the tip. I thought it’s part of the package, no asking is needed. However, he said it’s US$60 ($8 x 7.5 days), and can be more or can be less. Hmmmmm… both advertisements in the USA printed $48. In any case, IOU him ¥800 for the two of us – Jiujiu would send the money: ¥2500 for the teas and ¥2400 tip (for the six of them), plus my share of tips from Beijing, a total of ¥5,700.
People in our group are predominately China-born. There were few Chinese from Australia, south east Asia, Taiwan. A black lady with a while husband who’s business partner with one of the Dads on the bus. The tour offers only Mandarin or Cantonese because the tour aims at: interested in China? Then learn the language.