Breakfast Series and a Temple

Well apparently there was an earthquake in China today, though we did not feel it here in Guangzhou, which is pretty far to the south-east of the country.

http://www.maplandia.com/china/guangdong/shunde/guangzhou/

Here are a series of pictures of Libby at breakfast this morning. Every day more and more of her (very strong) personality come out - it's very fun to watch.

The picture at the top of the page is from the Buddhist Temple of the Six Banyans here in Guangzhou. I climbed up to the ninth and final level - quite steep steps and very low ceilings. Beautiful though.

A Quick Pic

Here's a quick picture of Laura interacting with Libby at dinner last night at Lucy's restaurant, where we have eaten many a delicious and fun meal.

Today, off to a Temple of some sort - I believe the kids can receive blessings from a Buddhist monk.

A way around the censors? Happy Mother's Day!

As you know, I have been unable to get to the Geen Kaas! blog for many days now, thanks to the Chinese Government censors. In fact I have not been able to reach any of the blogs hosted by Google's Blogger.com and the related blogspot.com, which hosts this blog.

However, I was able this morning to log into the blog posting part of the site, though it still won't let me view the site. Biz just confirmed that she could see this post, so I guess it works.

Here is a video of Libby from the Civil Affairs office right after she was presented to Laura.

More pictures of Libby (and pandas too)!

Another post from Biz...

Laura, Annabel, Libby and Chip went to the Xiang Jiang Animal Safari Park on Saturday and saw the park's crown jewel - 5 Giant Pandas. Also, here are some more pictures of Libby -- one close up from dinner last night, one with her mom on the safari train, and one where Annabel is making her laugh.

Shut Down!

This is Biz, Chip's wife. Chip asked me to add a post to let you know that the day after his last posting, the Chinese government internet censors blocked access to all blogs on blogspot.com and blogger.com from inside the country. Apparently they have done this several times over the past couple of years - usually randomly, and then just as randomly, they unblock the sites again. Therefore, Chip is not being lazy (as far as we know), but is prevented from accessing the blog to post entries.

I'm also posting some pictures of Annabel's new sister, Libby. Her full name is Elizabeth Chun Wei Curtis Brewer (not sure of the spelling of Chun Wei) and her Chinese nickname is "Fi Fi" (prounced like hi fi). Laura and Annabel (and Chip) are enjoying her company immensely and can't wait to introduce her to family and friends in the States very soon!

Quick Siteseeing update

Well, it was a brutal day for siteseeing here in Beijing - tremendous downpours, thunder and lightning, and quite cold. Nonetheless, here are a couple of shots and some good advice. Tomorrow is the Great Wall! Time for bed...

Lunch with Hilton

On Thursday, Laura and I followed separate paths. I worked from my hotel room and went to lunch with my colleague Hilton Zhao while Laura and Annabel visited the Temple of Heaven, Tian'anmen Square, and the Forbidden City.


While I don't have Laura's pictures loaded onto my laptop yet, she said it was an amazing day. The Temple of Heaven was beautiful - here's the Wikipedia link:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altar_of_Heaven


Thursday was May Day - a National holiday to celebrate Workers and their contribution to the prosperity of the country. As such, apparently Tian'anmen Square - the largest urban square in the world - was absolutely jam-packed with people, many of them in line to visit Mao's tomb. It is said that Tian'anmen Squ. can hold up to a million people, and Laura said it felt like there was easily 500,000 people there with them yesterday. The Forbidden City was also crowded, but not quite as crazy.


Meanwhile, I had the fortune to meet Hilton Zhou, a colleague of mine based in our Beijing office. Despite the holiday, he was kind enough to come to our hotel and take me out to lunch at a beautiful restaurant built around several inner courtyards, with beautiful woodwork, painting, trellises and plants. In one room was a waterfall, coy pond, and river that flowed underneath the transparent tiling under your feet. A very cool effect, though it unfortunately did not lend itself to an interesting photograph.












I just saw Laura and Annabel off with their driver for the day to go visit the Great Wall, and I will head into our office in a little while. I will have my chance to sight-see over the weekend while they head down to Hong Kong Disneyland. On Monday I'll fly down to Hong Kong and meet up with them for a day before we take the train up to Guangzhou and picking up the new baby!