Happy New Year!

As I prepare to fly home to the US, China is preparing to celebrate their New Year. February 17 is the last day of the year of the dog, and February 18 marks the beginning of the year of the pig.

About a week ago I began to notice potted trees for sale on every street corner. These trees were 3-6 feet in height and 2-3 feet in diameter, and covered with mandarin oranges. Some trees had a smaller citrus fruit growing on them that was slightly yellower in color. Soon they were everywhere I looked. So I asked my taxi driver about them. He wasn't familiar with the words 'mandarin orange' so I asked if he had a tree in his home right now. He said yes. They're called Yuen Bau trees. The Chinese word Yuen sounds like the Chinese word Yuan, their currency, or it can also mean 'circle.' The word Bau means 'money.' And oranges come from gold, according to my taxi driver. So the Chinese place these 'gold coin' trees in their homes during the new year and decorate them with red and gold new years cards to bring good luck and fortune to their families in the next year. Sorry for the big white blobs in the first picture. It was raining when I snapped the photo.
The second picture was a leafless variation of most trees that I saw. This tree was in the lobby of my hotel. All of the employees laughed at me for taking the photo, but I was intrigued.

I have one more day of work here and then I fly home! The Japanese are all returning home as well. The plant here will shut down for a week. Many people have already started their vacation and traveled to other provinces to visit their families. All of the international travelers here are looking forward to the break as well. Our last hurrah Friday night will be at the nice Italian restaurant here in town.

Hope all is well back home. I heard there's been some interesting weather lately. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois made international CNN weather news a few days ago. They mentioned Elyria OH by name, as well as the city in New York that received 4 meters of snow... hard to imagine because it was 60 here today!

Happy New Year... Again!

Climbed a Mountain

I've attached a few pictures of Baiyun Mountain.
It's a large hill north of the city that has several walking trails, a tram, and a temple. The Chinese 'climb mountains' for weekend exercise to get fresh air. It took me about 45 minutes to take the stairs from the bottom to the top, so it's not a large mountain at all. It's starting to feel like summer here. It warms up to 75 Fahrenheit, sunny and humid in the middle of the day. Along parts of the trail there were two sets of stairs. The second set contained smooth stones about 1" in diameter. Many people took their shoes off and tried to walk the stone stairs instead of the cement. Not quite a foot massage, but meant to be therapeutic.

The temple that I toured was in the process of being cleaned. Many gallons of water had been dumped inside at the foot of the buddha statues, and workers were shoveling the dirty water out the front door. Just outside, women were worshipping by burning incense.