#18 Two Peanuts & No.1 Silk Factory

We did two fun things today that rate as firsts for us in China - lunch at a Chinese restaurant and a visit to the Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory.

We ate for the first time as family at a Chinese restaurant in Suzhou. We have been here nearly two months, but before today we had not taken the kids out for Chinese food. If you knew China, this would tell you immediately that our city is somewhat unique in the number of western food options that it offers. We ate at Yang Yang's restaurant in the Suzhou New District near church. The restaurant was recommended to us by a neighbor who is another family with four children. Yang Yang offered the essential features of a menu with photographs and English language translations.

One of the standard appetizer traditions in China is a bowl of salted peanuts. Joseph is showing off his chopstick skills by holding two peanuts simultaneously with chopsticks. We were told that experienced chopstick users can pick up three peanuts directly from the bowl. This would be a very difficult challenge indeed.

The restaurant was very good, but the kids ate only watermelon and rice. It was a "two thumbs down" experience for the under-10, American crowd.

Next, we took in a sight that is recommended for all visitors to Suzhou - The No. 1 Silk Factory. Suzhou is famous for silk as it lies along the famed silk road that Marco Polo travelled from Europe to China. The No. 1 factory is a bit of a tourist trap, but offered a very interesting overview of the process of silk making all the way from silkworm (Marco is holding a silk worm) to woven cloth and silk products as modeled by Joseph. The products for sale in the store next to the factory are priced 5 to 10 times higher than identical items at small shops a few blocks from the tour buses.

I have posted the remainder of our pictures from the day on our Snapfish page.

#17 Dinner at Tim's Apt

Kathleen and I had a great night out tonight with some friends from work. Tim, our supply chain manager, invited us and two other friends over to his place for dinner. Tim lives in a penthouse on the 25th and 26th floors of a apartment building very close to our office in SIP. The apartment is quite amazing with probably 500+ square of balcony space alone. The views are incredible (see first picture) and he has plenty of space to spread out (particularly for a single guy).

The food Tim served was equally amazing. He had two courses - first was grilled salmon and second home-made, shrimp-filled ravioli with pesto sauce. Tim enjoys cooking and eating and is exceptionally good at both (he was the co-worker that ate six cicadas last week in Xuzhou).

We finished out with a great carrot cake that Cary made for Gary's birthday and afterward headed out for a beer at Harry's Bar, an expat hangout in downtown Suzhou. Gary wanted to hear the live band that was playing. The night was a blast, made even better by leaving the kids at home with our Ayi.

#16 Extreme Chinese

I have been travelling more frequently to Xuzhou to work with the Caterpillar factory and NPI teams there. Last week I travelled there with four of my colleagues from Suzhou. On the second evening in Xuzhou, the general manger of the Xuzhou plant hosted a dinner for us that included some "Extreme Chinese Food".

Pictured above are pictures that my friend and colleague Yao San took during dinner. The item in the picture on the left is the foot of a chicken that was in the soup - intentionally, I think. I did not eat the chicken foot. The next picture has me holding a fried cicada which I did eat. I ate two cicadas while two of my American travelling partners ate half a dozen each.

The cicada did not taste all that bad, but there was no mistaking the fact that I was eating an insect. It had a crunchy shell and a barbeque flavor. Most of all it just looked like a bug.

The cicada dish was prepared after a special request from our operations manager, Scott. He has eaten many extreme Chinese foods since he moved to China ten years ago and is married to a Chinese woman from Xuzhou.

Our Chinese colleagues ate many cicadas. Supposedly it is a popular dish here. The waitress brought a large dinner plate of bugs and the group ate most of the plateful. I have to admit, my prime motivation for eating cicadas was to write about it in this space !

#15a More Signs

#15 Chinese Signs

The Chinese, like Americans, post many signs directing people how to act, where to go, and what to buy. When Chinese signs are presented with an English translation, things typically get skewed and twisted. At best, the English translation is imperfect and amusing and at worst it can be incomprehensible or even vulgar ! I have begun taking pictures when I come upon these uniquely translated signs.

The sign above being pointed at by my colleague Bill could not be clearer in its message, but it certainly makes you wonder what prompted the posting of the sign. Did an unsuspecting hotel guest get offed on this spot by a deadly snake ?

Translations in food menus can be equally perplexing or amusing. A business which provided English proof-reading services would be a great service to China. A few more fun examples are posted in blog entry #15a (I cannot figure out how to post the additional pictures at the bottom of this blog page).

#14 Marco's 5th B-day

Marco had his 5th birthday this week and his first birthday in China. Kathleen and I had made a trip to Shanghai a couple of weeks ago to shop at the Toys-R-Us at the "Superbrand Mall". The Superbrand mall was remarkable in its similarity to any mall in the U.S. I liked it about as much as I like going to the mall in Peoria - which is not much.

Kathleen treated Marco's preschool class to chocolate donuts from Franco Papa bakery in SIP. I think that made everyone happy to celebrate Marco's birthday

On Saturday night, we had a couple of Marco's friends and their parents over for a beer-and-pizza birthday party. We had a great time and Marco did also. Marco particularly loved his new Batman costume sent by Grandma. Above are a couple pictures.

#13 Humble Garden

Kathleen and friends took a shopping trip to Shanghai which left me with four kids for a long Saturday afternoon. It had been a long time since the kids and I did one of our weekend outings so we embarked on some sightseeing in Suzhou.

Late morning, we all piled into a taxi and went downtown. We took in the #1 and #2 most famous tourist sights in town - The Humble Administrator's Garden and a boat tour of the Suzhou canals.

Suzhou is a city famous for gardens and the Humble Administrator's is the most famous one in town. It is also one of the most highly regarded gardens in China - reportedly on par with the Summer Palace in Beijing. And best of all it has an abundant number of rocks, caves, and moon gates on which the boys could clamber and climb. I was surprised that the gardens did not include many flowers, but rather display ponds, foot bridges, trees, stonework, and rocks. It was very interesting and the kids really enjoyed the exploring.

Next, we took a terrific boat ride that toured along the network of canals for which Suzhou is also famous. Suzhou has been called by westerners the "Venice of the East" and our boat ride seemed very much like what a Venetian gondola ride might be like. Our boat captain paddled through canals and under bridges with low clearance. We saw the homes and workplaces of people dwelling next to the canals. He even sang to us a few Chinese folksongs. The kids returned the gesture by singing him a round of the alphabet song. Now that I think about it, why didn't we sing "Row, row your boat" ?

Next outing we plan to see the #3 top tourist sight which is the silk factory - Suzhou is on the silk road that Marco Polo once traveled and is well known for silk furnishings and embroidery.

#12 R&R in Bali

One of the fantastic perks of our China assignment is a company-sponsored benefit called "Rest & Relaxation" trips. Twice a year, we get to take a vacation out of China with support from Caterpillar. This past week we went to Bali, Indonesia, a resort island in the Indian Ocean.

In short, this trip was the nicest vacation we have ever taken. We stayed in a five star resort on the beach in Nusa Dua on the east side of the island. The room included a terrific breakfast each day and the hotel had multiple pools and a gorgeous beach (see picture). We spent most days at the beach or the pool. The kids swam for hours each day and Marco set daily records for the most continuous time in the water.

I made one disastrous mistake on Day 1 when I applied sunscreen to all of the kids except Joseph. Joseph has the fairest skin and the lowest tolerance for discomfort. He got sunburned badly and suffered throughout the rest of the week. I felt so terrible.

We also did some sightseeing around Bali and one day went to the Elephant Safari Park and rode elephants (see picture). Elephants are not native to Bali, but the indigenous tourists love them and we had a lot of fun with this experience. We did a lot of shopping in town and with the wandering vendors on the beach. Bali is especially known for handmade sterling silver jewelry and handcarved furniture. We bought some of both.

If you are interested in seeing more pictures, you can click to see our online Snapfish Album.