9/19

9/19 8:30am CST

http://picasaweb.google.com/105909573807230408134/9_19?authkey=Gv1sRgCNWy7pHjg5KjnwE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrmM8hefT2Y

This morning, we got up and packed into the same loaf car. Today, 2nd Uncle, Yupo, and my family were going to visit Qinhuangdao, a city south of Tangshan. There my mom wanted to see another brother of her father's and his children. Yupon wanted to go because he was working on his own story about the period between the end of WWII and the end of the Korean War. Supposedly the old man was a war vet, so Yupo was looking to get some color to lend to his story. Qinhuangdao is only about an hour away, but the accent in that city is totally different. In fact, it sounds much closer to how people talk in Beijing -- quickly and with less expressiveness. Anyways, about the first thing we did was stop at a supermarket to buy gifts of alcohol and moon cakes (Mid-Autumn Festival is almost upon us). Then we went to their home and visited a bit, before turning around and heading out for lunch. On the walk over, we walked by what was apparently the largest rotary in the city, and definitely one of the biggest I've ever seen. It was a good few hundred meters across, with a little park in the middle.

Lunch was really good. The dishes were different to what we'd had before, and most of them tasted excellent. I have the write-up in the photos.

After lunch, we walked back. The sight of a TKD school got Yupo and me talking about my sanda kickboxing training. I think he was a bit of a kungfu nerd back in the day. He showed me once his caricatures of all thees different kungfu styles, like eagle, rabbit, snake, tiger, etc. He even asked me what stance you took in sanda. There is no such thing, but I guess I'll show him when next we meet. He stayed with the old grand-uncle a bit while the rest of us went to visit one of my mom's classmates. Relatives and classmates -- that's pretty much all we're here for. My mom got to swing by and look at this real estate deal that she couldn't close in 2008. I managed to use the internet a bit at her classmate's apartment. Her classmate gave us gifts of Buddhist bead bracelets. I took one supposedly made of obsidian. It looked cool.

On the way back to Tangshan, my mom made the driver stop off at Beidaihe, which is on the coast. It was a huge hassle driving through the densely packed village streets, but the sea looked nice. I love the sea. I picked up a stone to skip out into the waves. As I released and snapped my hand back, I felt the bead bracelet I had just received snap. I looked down and the beads quickly sank into the washing sand. I managed to hop into the water a bit and recovered one, and with a bit more inspection found two more on the beach. Easy come, easy go, I suppose.

We finished off the trek after sunset, so my Aunt had prepared a meal for us. She hand-made a first-rate won-ton soup. I haven't had a won-ton soup that good in the US, as a point of data. It takes forever to roll dough skins that thin, so I really appreciate her effort and admire her skill. She also bought a miscellany of meat from the corner stand, and those were good, too.