Annie was waiting for us by 7:30 in the morning and we headed off to the Beijing airport. Once there, she walked us in, showed us how to identify our flight, how to recognize where to check-in, helped us check-in and took us to the security line. After many hugs, we went through security. Annie waved from the other side once we were through and we were on our own. What a marvelous three days of sightseeing!
Both Mark and I had experienced a few Pepto Bismal moments by now. Mark, however, was feeling pretty drained and appreciated the chance to snooze on our flight to Dalian. The flight was easy and uneventful. We made our way down to baggage claim and scanned the waiting crowd outside the gates. Sure enough, there was Charlotte waving and jumping up and down. Of course, so was I!
Into a taxi and we were on our way to our hotel just down the hill from her parents’ house. Shuzhun, Charlotte’s mom, was waiting for us. It was lovely to see her again. Next, an interesting thing happened. Although, the Wangs had reserved the room and told the staff that dear friends were coming from out of town, the hotel didn’t want to rent us a room. Turns out that there is a lot of government paper work involved in housing foreign tourists and the staff suggested that we go to the part of town usually frequented by tourists --probably a 30 minute bus ride across town.
Shuzhun found the manager who she had talked to before. The manager said, “We never thought your dear friends were going to be Americans!” By this time, Yong Shin, Charlotte’s dad, had arrived also. Everything got worked out, we dropped our luggage in our room, and walked up the hillside steps to the Wang’s compact apartment for a much anticipated lunch. Yong Shin is an excellent cook and we feasted on dish after dish until we were stuffed.
We went back to the hotel for an hour’s nap and then Charlotte whisked us off to see a few Dalian sights. The day was overcast but we relished a walk in the beautiful Labor Park. The park is fairly large and has multiple varied venues--two ponds, a children’s area, a long promenade with statues of the twelve Chinese year animals (I’m year of the dragon, Mark is horse, and Charlotte is snake), and a mist shrouded rose garden.
From there we walked to the dynamic Dalian Market, a seven storied very modern mall. We particularly enjoyed walking through the ground floor food market with its myriad, very non-Western food choices including heads, feet, and innards of various animals.
Eventually, we ended up at a hot pot restaurant for dinner. Each person is given a burner and pot of boiling broth (different choices). We ordered tofu, sweet potatoes, spinach, a couple of other green vegetables, and thinly shaved and rolled lamb and beef to cook in our individual pots. Next we chose from an array of sauces--hot, sweet, savory. We also had peanut sauce and little roasted peanuts to add to the mix. Dinner was an extended affair.
During dinner, Charlotte talked about the wedding plans. She mentioned that she and Zhiyong had no relationship with the pastor of the cathedral where they are to be married and in talking together had come up with an idea. She then asked Mark if he might be willing to marry them! They had discovered that any active member of a Christian church could legally marry them. Mark was a bit overwhelmed and decided to think, pray, and sleep on it.
Returning to our hotel, we agreed to meet Charlotte for a “typical Chinese breakfast” at 7 AM the next morning before church.
No comments:
Post a Comment