Week 28 - First Day at School

This is my baby.  Wearing a uniform.  Carrying an enormous backpack.  Taking a packed lunch. Going to school.  Where has the time gone?  She's so grown up.

Week 27 - Moon Cake in Carrefour

Coming up in late September is the Mid-Autumn Festival.  It celebrates the end of the summer harvest, and the autumnal equinox.  Celebrations include eating moon cakes.  Like Christmas decorations, these seem to be appearing earlier and earlier each year.  This one we called the 'Whole of the Mooncake' - it's enormous!!!  And so you'd expect for costing 2888RMB (AUD$478). Those baskets behind are full of bite size mooncakes... some are delicious, and some have awful surprise meat fillings in!  I particularly like a coconut one this year.

Week 26 - Natural History Museum

After sweltering in 40deg heat, we decided that one way to escape the heat would be to visit a museum.  We caught a taxi to Puxi to the Natural History Museum, except that the taxi overheated and dropped us closer to People Square, so we had to walk back almost a kilometre to get to the museum... And then it was cool only for being in the shade and with high ceilings, this old museum had some portable air conditioners and ceiling fans only.  It was interesting to see all the specimens, skeletons and stuffed animals.  And a year after visiting and loving the Natural History Museum in London, it was funny that Jie Jie didn't like the dinosaurs because they had 'no skin'.

Week 25 - First haircut

It was so hot and sticky, and his long curls were giving him heat rash on the back of his neck and a few dreadlocks were forming, so I took him to Head to Toe, Jinqiao to have his first real haircut at 18 months old.  (We have trimmed it once before.)  He sat so still, while the snipping and combing was going on, sitting in a little red car - you can just see the steering wheel and back tyre.  He never ever stays still that long when I try to brush / comb the knots out!

Week 24 - Baishuitai, Yunnan

Baishuitai, or White Water Terraces, are about 100km from Shangri-La and was one of the most beautiful localised spots we saw on our trip. The terraces are formed as a combination of erosion and deposition of limestone, and the area has an incredible amount of water continually flowing, higher up the mountains in streams, and then just flowing over the stone. It is high altitude, so the water is cool, and also I think the cleanest flowing water I have seen in China!

Week 23 - Shangri-La

That's me and Ellie lolling about in rubber rings. We are relaxing in the Tianshenqiao Hot Springs not far out of Shangri-La. The water in the pool comes out of that cliff, and is hot like a bath. The minerals in the water made our skin tingle. Such a magnificent spot for a swim, surrounded by the cliff, mountains all around and you can hear the rapids in the river running just next to the pool.

Week 22 - Dali, Yunnan

This lady was selling chickens, for dinner, not egg laying, and although these 3 were on top of the basket, it was full of more chickens. Not exactly RSPCA approved! And certainly not free range now!

Week 21 - Kunming

We're on holidays in Yunnan, and while this is not the most beautiful photo of the region, it is interesting! This guy is curing pork legs using a blow torch, on a gas barbecue!! Then he picked up the leg and scraped off the burn, and then did it again. We didn't have this guy's pork, but cured pork leg is used in loads of dishes and is delicious. Mike was thinking about a dish called Pork Propane.

Week 20 - The Bund

Mike and I went out for lunch at Lost Heaven on the Bund, and then thought we'd go home via the Bund to Nanjing Dong Lu station, thinking there would be very few people because of the weather... How wrong were we? The crowds were still there, just under umbrellas. I love the sea of umbrellas crossing the road and up on the riverside promenade, where there is no shelter at all. I also love the misty view across to Pudong.

Week 19 - Thumb Plaza, Lianyang

Mike and I were out celebrating the end of the school year with his colleagues, and decided to walk home. It had been raining while we were there, and the lights were looking beautiful in the puddles. Mike took this long exposure shot, and I walked through it. So did a lady wearing elegant high heels... Sort of eerie.