In the morning Eliza went off to the Panda Preserve, armed with money, bug spray, my iPhone camera, and bottles of water (thanks to the ‘it takes a village’ mentality shared by my co-travelers, she’s well looked after). I met Qing and Hui in the lobby and they whisked me off in a cab to visit the Wuhou shrine – an incredible series of temples and gardens in Chengdu built in 161 AD, and then rebuilt in the 1600s after damage by fire. Hui hired me my own English-speaking guide and practically throws flower petals in front of me as I walk. We returned to the hotel at the time when the children returned from the Panda preserve and had tea in the bar (which Chen Hui evolved to ‘high tea’ by ordering an enormous fruit plate, cakes, and pastries for me to eat). Hui and Qing are very disappointed that they cannot take me to dinner (I can’t imagine how I could possibly do it!) so a quick consultation with the tour guide led to the decision that they join us at the restaurant we are scheduled to eat lunch in. While Eliza rode on the bus, Chen Hui took me in a private car with a driver that works for his colleague in Chengdu – who also serves as our translator. We followed the bus through crowded streets to a lovely restaurant, where the tour group sat together on the first floor. Chen Hui had arranged that WE eat in a private dining room upstairs, where he proceeded to order incredible delicacies for which I don’t know the names…but everything was shaped like something else and served on silver platters with Chinese characters written on them (using sauce) in calligraphy. I know that we ate a whole fish (delicious), smoked salmon with some green vegetable arranged to look like carrots, soup, chicken, little balls of something fruity that were arranged to look like a bunch of grapes…endless tea in tiny cups, and cake. I couldn’t possibly begin to make a dent and I hope that I didn’t insult them. They both are doing very well in their jobs – they both have homes, private drivers, and very high-ranking positions with lots of travel (Qing is responsible for the conservation budget, which is interesting – she just allotted $1 billion rmb for purchasing trees to reduce the impact of carbon dioxide emissions). We talked a lot about the economy and how China is becoming a leader in ‘green’ construction and environmentally sound policies.
We made our goodbyes outside the restaurant – which was very sad. We must take out a second mortgage so that I can send them something worthy of the way that they treated us. Chen Hui wishes that Richard were here – he can’t say enough about how kind and good Richard is (and I agree!).
In the afternoon we visited an embroidery factory and then shopped for vegetables at the free market, which we later cooked in a ‘hot pot’ restaurant (sort of like fondue, with lots of spices). On to the airport, and a VERY delayed flight…we didn’t reach our hotel in Guilin until 2:20 AM – yikes.
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