Xiamen, Thursday.

Today is a pretty laid back day for us, nice to relax every now and then. Some would say we are going too slow, but please remember, we have been here before. If this was our first time in China, I think every minute would be scheduled out beforehand.

Having some challenges reaching the people we were going to meet for dinner, so that may not happen. An artist we met in Sarasota does not speak English, so that is a handicap.

I write a lot, yes. Paul Doughboy (not his real name) used to tell me in Qingdao that I wrote too much. Not true.

For instance, I have not told you about mini bars in China. For instance, our present mini bar here has the following prices: Coca Cola, 8 RMB, Sprite, 8 RMB, Tsingtao Beer, 8 RMB and mineral water 20 RMB. That is triple for water, and that equals about $3.00 USD! How did we ever let these water people get to this stage? Incredible.

Or that I took 200 pictures in Jing de zhen. Bet you are glad I did not post and discuss all of them. Then 60 more the first day here, and remember, we got here about 4:30 pm. Amazing what a digital camera can do for you. Glad I am not using Kodachrome or Fuji. I used to go through ten rolls while visiting here for 30 days. Matter of fact, I have not seen a single camera “booth” since arriving this time, everyone uses digital here. If you want to see all of them, come over to our house when we get back and we can have a slide show like my parents used to make us sit through. That was not fun for me. But I have gone through a lot of batteries, guess there is a good reason.

Also guess that means you need one of those new multi-gigabyte camera cards to store all the pictures. I dump them into my computer each night. But it is far heavier than a mini disc or whatever they call them today. I’m sure they are available here, but we have stayed out of the electronics stores, except one in Suzhou. Three floors, each at least 4000 sq ft, and packed with kids, adults, and more kids. They take their electronics seriously: computers, cameras, more computers, gaming, more cameras, more computers and lots of stuff I did not recognize and was too pressed to ask about. If I remember right it was a Sunday afternoon, no school.

And remember all those giant hotels for foreigners? Lots of modern and clean hotels along the Motel 8 concept are springing up. Some even have parking spaces set aside for drivers. Used to be the big ones were easily $150.00+/day (many still are), but these new ones are around $20.00/day. They are going to shake up the travel industry here, big time. Last year in Beijing around Olympic time the big ones were charging $4-500.00/night! Or maybe I should say asking, never heard if they got any takers, but know there was a good bit of criticism that many event seats went empty. Even for the popular events, too expensive. Just try searching for China + city name + hotel and see what you come up with. Lots of internet booking going on as China now has more broadband users than any country.

Tomorrow we head to Hong Kong. Hong Kong used to be the all time shopper’s paradise. The last several times I have been there however, prices have been higher than most big box stores in the US, so I usually leave empty handed except for a few souvenirs. That might be a good thing as I mailed home a heavy box yesterday to lighten the load. They also used to let you take in one suitcase per person, but leave with two at no extra charge. I’m interested to see if that still is the way it works.

Still smiling.