Day Fourteen - China

Today we traveled to 2 factories, both Northwest of Hong Kong about a 2 hours drive. The factories are all starting to look the same now but we did travel into some areas that were a little less congested...more 4-5 story buildings than high-rises and a lot more agriculture as we are close to the Pearl River delta (I think). After visiting the second factory, Tim left for Hong Kong with both of our Chinese hosts, so Mike and I were left alone with our driver who speaks ZERO English! We were supposed to have a 1-hour drive to our hotel but for some reason he took a route that would resemble trying to get from Kansas City to Topeka and going through Emporia!! We would have corrected him but it took us about an hour to find a street sign in English and by that time it was too late to get it corrected! After a 3-hour ride, we finally got to our hotel. The hotels in China are very nice and pretty new but they mainly cater to Chinese guests and only a few of the staff speak English so it was interesting trying to order dinner!

On another note (and I may have mentioned this in yesterday's blog), all flags in China are at half mast for 3 days to mourn the earthquake victims. This is the first National Day of Mourning in 30 years and the first one in the history of China that mourns ordinary citizens!

Also, I forgot to mention in Sunday's blog that I ran into a couple on the subway that was from Canada. I told them I had a brother who lived in Winnipeg and they asked what took him there. I mentioned he was working for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the lady (probably 60-65 years old) mentioned she played the organ for a Layton Ford crusade a long time ago in Canada...there is more to the story but I probably shouldn't post it in my blog while in China. I can give more details when I get back.

You will notice a couple of funny things about the photo below...1) I took a picture of it...2) it's misspelled. I was got a pretty good kick out of this and also taking a picture of it. The sign was posted in our hotel lobby next in front of a miniature replication of a new housing development going up around the hotel...not sure why photoes are off-limits.

The weather has been absolutely fantastic for our entire trip until last night and today as it has been raining non-stop. It didn't really matter since we were inside factories all day but it does make the drive a little more interesting. I will say one thing about the Chinese, the rain does not keep them off their bikes or motorcycles. They all wear ponchos and don't seem too affected by the rain. Even the motorcycle taxi drivers have 2-person ponchos that attempt to keep the passenger dry as well!