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- China Stories (8)
- General Information (7)
- Health Tips (1)
- December 21, 2011: Tian Tai
- August 20, 2011: Hangzhou and Ningbo in July
- July 28, 2011: Please Nominate our Business for a hiring grant!
- July 26, 2011: Summer vacation
- July 23, 2011: QiGong at Sun Acupuncture
- July 18, 2011: Sun Acupuncture Presents:
- July 16, 2011: Raspberry Festival is Saturday, July 16th!
- July 16, 2011: Buses and Taxis
- July 6, 2011: Settling in and Going to Tai Shan for the Weekend!
- June 24, 2011: The Chinese Medicine Lyme Disease Study Mission Statement!
Tian Tai
December 21, 2011 by admin.
We were off to Tian Tai Shan, which let me point out was the initial reason we planned our trip to this area of China in the first place. Tian Tai was a Buddhist monk who lived between the 6th and 11th century in China and he studied the lotus sutra and discovered the concept of three thousand realms in a single moment of thought which began a new Buddhist school of thought and changed the understanding of the Lotus Sutra forever. We, as Buddhists who practice Nichiren Diashonin’s Buddhism have a clear line to Tian Tai and his teachings, so while in China it was important to us to travel to these mountains where he studied, no doubt wandered and meditated, lived and started a school of thought. We headed to the bus station for our fist long distance (4.5 hr) bus trip through China. It was a piece of cake getting on the bus, however, it was a small bus, like a mini bus here, with no bathroom.
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Hangzhou and Ningbo in July
August 20, 2011 by admin.
Sorry to you loyal readers! I have no good excuse, I have been neglecting this blog. I will try to do better.We arrived in Hangzhou after a short train ride, only about two hours. We got a taxi, which as I wrote before is a different experience in each city with different obstacles each time. This time we had a business card and the taxi driver took us right to the hotel. Okay, this was the worst hotel we stayed in the entire time we were in China and maybe in our entire lives! We arrived and firstly Hangzhou is famous for the West Lake so you want to stay in walking distance to that lake because thats really the only area your going to want to see as a tourist. So, no lake in site, no idea how far from the lake we were and of course no idea where we could go instead. We checked into our room and proceeded to check it out. The room was huge, but disgusting and dirty with shoe prints on the walls and smelly dampness in the air. We went to look at our view hoping that would make it all worth wile and there in front of us was nothing but buildings and as we gazed down from our third story window there it was, the biggest, blackest, coal bin storage center with trucks loading and unloading as we looked on in horror! What the hell happened and why the hell did our friend book us into this hotel. We really didn’t know what to do, we would have checked right out and went someplace else, but we were new to this city and to China so we kinda froze and thought we were stuck. So we stayed. We settled as best we could in our nasty room and thought it would be fine, we were only going to be here two nights. Then it happened! Max, our oldest son, threw up and upon assessment was running a high fever! So, here we were in this disgusting hotel, with a sick child, in a strange city, in China! Ha, what else could happen. We determined Max had summer heat and needed to rest for the day inside before we could go anywhere. Brian and Jaxon went looking for supplies so we could hold up for the day and hydrate Max and get him back on his feet. After Brian brought me back supplies, I told him that he and Jaxon should go and enjoy the day and not worry about us. I couldn’t have all of us in one room together with nothing to do for an entire day anyhow. So, he took Jaxon and headed to West Lake and the Li Feng Pagoda. Its a famous pagoda and there is a finger bone from the body of Shakyamuni Buddha in this pagoda and Brian wanted to check it out as well as climb the pagoda and see the lake. They were only gone for a couple hours when they came back and reported in that they were on the escalator outside going up to see the pagoda when suddenly Jaxon threw up all over the place! Holy crap, so now we had two sick kids…. what a disaster. The moral of this story is don’t take two little kids on a summer trip where your going to be outside running around all day when its over 90 degrees and humid because they will over heat. We even made sure everyone was drinking plenty of water and liquids and they still got heat sickness. So, me being me, I sent Brian off on his own to do some site seeing and I stayed with my two sick kids listening to them take turns vomiting and trying to stay cool. This was quickly becoming the worst vacation ever, but we tried to hang in there and make the very best of it. The boys rested and I read a book and took long naps in my dark, dirty room.The following day Max was a bit better, but still had a low grade fever and Jaxon seemed fine. We decided to that we would be leaving in one more day to travel to Ningbo, a beautiful city on the sea and we really wanted the boys to be okay to travel so we stayed in the hotel for another day and did nothing. Brian went and did some site seeing because I couldn’t go on my own since I didn’t really speak any Chinese yet, so there really wasn’t a choice. He had a nice time, but of course wished we all would have been there. We vowed to return to Hangzhou again before leaving China so we could see West Lake together. We left the next day on a two hour bus trip to Ningbo which was not too bad and the hotel in Ningbo was beautiful! The boys were feeling a little better so we were getting back on track again but still taking it rather slow to ensure they were healthy. Ningbo is a sea city in Zhejiang Province that has been around for over 2000 years. Ningbo was a port city that was part of the silk trade and has become famous for its beaches and water passages. We also were interested in an old buddhist temple: http://www.whatsonningbo.com/ningbo-info-97.html King Asoka’s temple. It was a famous temple that dates back to the 1700’s. It was one of the places on our travel list. So we decided to go and visit the temple. We took the first day to settle and let the boys rest after traveling in the wild bus ride and the next morning we headed to the temple. We had a bit of a hard time finding directions to the temple as its not a famous tourist spot but we ended up getting dropped off in the middle of nowhere and realizing the temple was just down the road. So off we went. The link I posted tells all about the temple. It was really neat, very run down, but nice and the monks were friendly. We enjoyed our time there and then we headed into Ningbo to have dinner. To our surprise they had a very modern city center with nice shops and restaurants. We had a nice dinner and walked into the city center to check it out. We had learned by now that every city has a peoples square and that everyone hangs out there in the evening. So, theres no better way to get the feel of the local people than in their peoples square. And, we were correct, there were loads of locals hanging around and lots of kids that wanted to play with our boys. We sat and watched and talked and enjoyed the summer evening with all the lovely people from Ningbo. It was very nice and it was one of my favorite city square experiences. The locals there were respectful of us and didn’t really bother us, the kids all played but nobody really bothered us so it was nice. Dont get me wrong, I like talking to the locals, but often its more of a celebrity thing and the same conversation “I can speak English” and then they want to practice and its always the same small talk. Its nice to just relax and not have to help people with their language skills. Anyhow, after a good day and a very nice evening we made our way to our hotel. I forgot to say that the hotel in Ningbo was lovely. It was cute and clean and very well maintained and it was in a decent location. We were much happier and the boys were so much better. All was good with the family! We only had one day in Ningbo so the next morning we were off to Tien Tai Shan (mountain) by bus for 4.5 hours. I’ll be back to tell the tale soon.
Posted in China Stories | 6 Comments »
Please Nominate our Business for a hiring grant!
July 28, 2011 by admin.
We are in a contest to win a 25K hiring grant. We would use this grant to continue to serve our patients and expand our business.
Please help us out and take a minute to nominate us!
Visit: http://lovealocalbusiness.intuit.com/fan
and vote for Sun Acupuncture - Hopkins Mn!
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Summer vacation
July 26, 2011 by admin.
In July we decided to take a summer trip before Brian started to study and got really busy in the fall. We decided to go south and see Shanghai and Hangzhou and head in to Zhejiang province to the mountains and see a famous mountain called Tian Tai Shan. We are pretty organized and detail oriented people so we mapped out our trip and exactly how many days and what trains and then we went to a travel agent for help with the hotel and two sleeper trains that required more help with to get set up. Most sleeper trains had different levels of comfort, you could stay in a hard sleeper car that had bunkbeds three high and were open to the hall or you could stay in the four person soft sleeper were you had a private compartment and your own soft bunks and a table. There was one private room that even had a bathroom. But, we didn’t know this so we got a soft sleeper and we still had to go out and use the bathroom if we needed to go. This was a drag in the early morning cause the bathrooms get really gross and full of urine and paper overnight. But, it is what it is. So, we had the travel agent do some of the work for us and we focused on the actual tourist stuff we wanted to see. We started out on a 10pm train to Shanghai with great excitement and the boys loved the sleeping car and the soft bunks and it was really a nice ride. I believe it was about 9 hours to Shanghai but I’m not sure anymore. When we arrived we were off to the hotel and found it was in a neighborhood and was okay for the standards we had asked for. We told them we only wanted two star hotels that were clean and that was all we cared about. We didn’t plan to do anything but sleep, so it just needed to be clean and cheap. We got what we asked for. It was a Chinese hotel and very small and clean. It was fine. We settled and then headed out to do some exploring. We headed downtown to the Peoples Square to do some shopping and see the museums and all the great architecture there. I should mention that every city big and small has a Peoples Square and this is where everyone hangs out especially in the evenings. It was really great. There are some pretty awesome buildings in Shanghai, like we had never seen before and the gardens were amazing. We saw Lotus Flower ponds that were packed full and blooming perfectly. I was amazed with the beauty! We saw the bund which is a famous area along the sea where the architecture is very european and the Pearl Tower which is out across the bay. It was really wonderful and full of such rich european history. We walked and enjoyed this all day. We made our way into many little shops and found some fun trinkets for the boys. This is when our son Max decided he wanted to find an old sword in every city we traveled to. So, of course we went to many stores looking for a unique sword for him to buy. I think he ended up with a few on this trip, he was quite a good finder of treasures. We found a Starbucks and had a coffee, that was one highlight of the day. I decided to buy a starbucks t-shirt in every city I found one and started with Shanghai. I know, a little tacky but I thought it would be fun at the time! While in a bigger city that had western restaurants we decided to have Mexican food at a taco place called Zapata’s or Zantigo or something like that. It was okay, the boys enjoyed it and it had been a long time since we had tacos. The funny thing about western restaurants in China is that they usually are a little more Chinese than western. You still don’t get the western style of cooking so in the end its kind of a let down. But, we still ate at western restaurants in the big cities just because it gave us a little taste of home and the boys really appreciated it. So, onward. We spent one more day in the Shanghai area and took a bus trip to Suzhou to tour the famous moats and rock gardens. They call Suzhou the venice of China. Our bus trip was about an hour to Suzhou and they wisked us through several rock gardens that were spectacular. Here is a link to one of the gardens we visited. http://www.china.org.cn/english/e-sz/index.htm. The Chinese were and are so creative and imaginative with their rock gardens. I took hundreds of photos so I could maybe someday attempt to do something even close to as cool as they have with their rock gardens. It was a nice afternoon and we also made a trip to Tiger Hill ( http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/jiangsu/suzhou/tiger_hill.htm)This was an excited place for our family. We read the history about Tiger hill and the King who was killed in a war and his son buried him and after his death a white tiger came and sat on his grave as if protecting it. Thats when it became known as tiger hill and this same king had a sword testing stone where he tested rare swords and one even caused the stone to split. With Max being a sword collector and Jaxon loving Tigers, it was an exciting trip to Tiger Hill. We were all excited and I will add it was super cool. I even liked it more than the rock gardens just because the stories made it real and it had really neat sites all over the hill. It was a perfect day and we all headed back to Shanghai tired and with little energy left for evening fun. We were leaving the next day for Hangzhou so we got a good nights sleep in preparation for our train trip. I will end here for now and write about Hangzhou soon. Good night and happy reading!
Posted in China Stories | 1 Comment »
QiGong at Sun Acupuncture
July 23, 2011 by admin.
This morning we started Qigong in front of our clinic! It was awesome and we had a good start to the class with six people participating today. We hope to have double that next week so we can really stir up the Qi!
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Sun Acupuncture Presents:
July 18, 2011 by admin.
Rise with the Sun QiGong
Saturdays - 8:00am
July 23rd - August 20th
Please come early for registration and to sign-up for sessions.
Sign up for all 5 sessions and pay $25.00
Drop in is fine - pay $7.00 each time
Sun Acupuncture: 723 MainstreetHopkins, MN 55343
952-935-0600
Qigong is an amazing, energy producing Chinese movement technique that is recommended forrelaxation, reducing stress and even helping the body rid itself from sickness.Qigong combines focused concentration with simple movements and balanced breathing ina controlled way.It’s simplicity makes it easy to learn and easy to do for most people.In Chinese Medicine, there is only one cause of illness and that is stasis of energy or Qi,the body’s vital energy.The practice of Qigong increases the flow of energy and naturally helps move stasis and therefore,is beneficial to health.
Sun Acupuncture is pleased to introduce:Heather Reade; Lic. Tai Chi, CYT, ACE Personal TrainerHeather Reade; Licensed T’ai Ji and Qigong Instructor BCCMA, ACE Certified Personal Trainer and T’ai Ji/QigongProgramming Coordinator for The Marsh in Minnetonka, MN has been teaching since 1999 in England and the US.She is a Senior Trainer for Dr.Lam’s Tai Chi for Health programs and T’ai Ji Liaison for the Arthritis Foundation inMinnesota. Heather is currently pursuing a Master’s of Science Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine and is thecreator of Shui Gong TM a unique, health-enhancing therapy pool program utilizing T’ai Ji, TCM and Qigong.She teaches Yang and Sun-style T’ai Ji, Qigong, Fan Form, as well as the Tai Chi for Arthritis and Diabetes programs.
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Raspberry Festival is Saturday, July 16th!
July 16, 2011 by admin.
Hey, its that time of year again! The Hopkins Raspberry Festival is Saturday July 16th from 9-4pm. Sun Acupuncture will be there - Will you?
Posted in General Information | 2 Comments »
Buses and Taxis
July 16, 2011 by admin.
We had no car or bike or any choice for getting around Jinan other than buses or taxis. Buses were the cheapest way to go and really convenient. No matter where you needed to go, you could get there on a bus…. but you had to know which one to get on and you had to know the city roads and sometimes signs were only in Chinese. Firstly we learned how to get to the grocery store, then downtown and then we started to feel like we were pretty smart! If you missed a bus the next stop wasn’t too far usually so it wasn’t a big deal and the buses really came frequently in the busier areas so you really didn’t get stranded for long. It was nice. I should point out that I never take the bus here in Minnesota and our bus system is nothing like China’s anyways. So, I was feeling pretty proud of myself. City busing was 1 yuan or 2 yuan if you wanted to ride the air conditioned bus, and they really were cooler, but in the hot summer or when the bus is packed it doesn’t really matter. Let me tell you, those buses were sometimes so full you were literally touching the person in front of you and you could for sure smell them
sometimes not so nice an experience. But, definitely the way to get around. Taxi’s are great but they can cost a lot more, usually it was a base fee of 6.5 Yuan for a taxi in Jinan and a trip to the grocery store was usually 7 yuan or 8 if a driver went the long way. It was okay sometimes but we tried to take the bus whenever possible. Taxi drivers, some were great, some thought they were in a race car and there is no rules or lanes or signal lights. There were some experiences in taxis where we all looked at each other and held on for dear life! Usually Taxi drivers were pretty smart and could find their way around and sometimes they were so incapable and they couldn’t get you where you wanted to go. It wasn’t always our Chinese either, it was just ignorance. Oh and I must say I couldn’t take a taxi for a long time because of my Chinese. I had to listen to Brian talk to people for a long time before I could do it myself. I remember the very first time I tried by myself. I was SO scared and nervous and I had to say the name of the store I was going to so many times I was ready to get out and give up and then my kids helped me and off we went! Go figure, from then on I tried to get my kids to tell the drivers were to go, and they wouldn’t do it so I still had to get my shit together so I did! Oh, lets get back to the buses. Long distance buses, the craziest, bumpiest, closest to puking all over the place experiences in my life! Be prepared if your going to long distance bus in China! Our first experience was in the south later that summer and we got on this mini bus, no bath, kinda run down, 2.5 hour ride ahead of us. We were in the front seats which we thought was cool cause we could see, but after a while you really don’t want to see because its a little scary. Anyhow, we’re on this bus and I’m on the left with my youngest son and Brian’s on the right side with Max. We are on the road getting thrown all over the place and the driver is honking his horn nonstop and we are giving each other that look like what the heck is going on and all of a sudden an old woman sitting right behind Brian and Max starts to puke in a bag! I couldn’t look toward Brian because I was afraid I’d see something so I stared forward and waited for her to finish and then looked and found my husbands big eyes looking at me like he was ready to get sick himself and he said “Did she just puke?” It was so gross! I will never forget that bus ride and many others too. Well, I’m sorry if this wasn’t the most exciting blog. I really am just rambling and I’m not even going to edit this one. I am super busy this week and I just got a few minutes to write this. I will write a fun story next week but take this for what it was, just fun and information about bussing and taxis in Jinan and China.
Posted in China Stories | 2 Comments »
Settling in and Going to Tai Shan for the Weekend!
July 6, 2011 by admin.
After settling into our apartment on “Flower Mountain Road” (nice translation huh?) we explored the neighborhood and our new friends Annie and Tony took us shopping for furniture and really helped us get set up for our new life. I can honestly say if they hadn’t helped us find these remote furniture stores, we would have been in trouble. We needed to buy mattresses for these two really strange wooden frames I had never seen before and then we needed a whole bed set for one of the boys. We also needed to buy the boys desks since they would be schooling at home, I got a vanity table for my room and then there was the refrigerator, washing machine and all the little things for daily living as minimally as possible because we knew we’d have to get rid of it all in 3 years. The landlord had a couch, two chairs, a coffee table, a dining table and a cook stove so we didn’t need to buy them. Okay, an apartment tour…. I will look into attaching pictures to these blogs, I dont know how yet. So, visualize with me, an apartment on the 3rd floor with all tile floors. The front door is on the left side in the middle of the rectangle if your above the image. Right inside the door to the right is the bathroom which consists of a toilet they put in for us otherwise it was a squatter. There is a sink and a really old stone top around the sink. There is a tank, maybe 8 gallons on the wall; you need to fill this tank and then plug in the heater and wait for it to warm up for your showers. We later had a roof top, solar tank added into the bathroom and a shower head put on the wall so we would have hot water in a safe eco-friendly manner. Anyhow, this bathroom was pretty rough, it was all one floor space (no tub or divider), so when you showered everything got soaked and you couldnt keep anything in the bathroom. This is why we bought the vanity in my room so we could keep things in there. The bathroom took a lot of cleaning. I had to srub all the black mold off the ceiling and walls and the pipes, as there were no interior walls, before we could even use it and it was really never a happy place to be. It was really just a shower room with a toilet like you’d see at a beach or campground here in the states. As you entered into the apartment you were in the living room. To your right, off the living room were two bedrooms and off of one bedroom was a screened in porch with clothes lines for drying laundry and a beautiful view of the building across the way and in the distance the mountain that soon was named Gu mountain because our Chinese last name is Gu and we climbed to the top of this particular mountain many times. Okay, so then back inside and to the left of the entrance was the dining room and another small bedroom and then out a door into the kitchen. In China the older apartments had kitchens that are more like a big screened in porch so you are outside with the open flames and smoke and oil. It was a good idea, but in the winter this did become a really cold place to go and cook. It was a long, narrow room, maybe 4 feet wide by 15 feet long if that, and on one end was a stone cabinet and a two burner camp stove with a gas line that came in from outside. This was our stove, no ovens, we did buy a toaster oven so the boys could make toast or whatever in there and we could’ve bought a microwave but we don’t like them and we don’t cook in them, so we decided to go with the toaster oven instead. On the other end of the room was a wash tub with cold running water and that was our sink. We would boil water to do the dishes and our washing machine was also shoved into this corner so we could have it empty into the wash tub. So, I guess thats the apartment tour, kinda fast but hopefully good enough to visualize. Oh yes, our kitchen was on the interior side of the building facing the courtyard where we could see all the other people cooking at the same time. This was actually pretty cool because we got to see all the grandmas with the kids playing in the yard every day and then everyone went in and you’d smell all the yummy food cooking. China is all about community and the set up with these apartments really shows that and you really feel it every day when people are home and cooking together, yet in your own home.Okay, so on to the Tai Shan Mountain Trip. In May our new friends Annie and Tony asked us if we were interested in going with them to Tai Shan mountain for the National holiday weekend. We were really excited and said yes. Tai Shan is a city only an hour away from Jinan by train. We would be taking our first train trip and we would climb a famous mountain, Tai Shan (Shan means mountain) and we were totally ready. Jinan was nice, but we wanted nothing more than to explore China as much as possible and we were ready! The week before our trip, Max became very ill. Max was our fearless leader when it came to trying new foods in China and we think he ate something funny. He was vomiting and had diarrhea so badly, nothing would stay in his body for almost a week. We had to make our first hospital trip and he was a real trooper. It was really scary for me, you really had to trust since you couldn’t communicate and there was my baby. I was probably more nervous than Max and then when they decided to take blood from him and the needle was about a foot long I had to go. They used one of those old fashioned long needles that looks like a knitting needle. I couldn’t even watch, Brian had to take over and I had to leave. Max was great! They put him on some dehydration drinks and some diarrhea medication, it was all Chinese medicine and one anti-viral med. and acidophilus. I was so impressed with their choice of medications and acidophilus, what doctor in MN gives that out as a med? The doctors new it wasn’t bacterial and within a couple days Max was ready to go so we were all very happy and of course relieved that Max was better. Let me just add here that I’m not putting the emphasis on this illness like it really happened, Max was VERY ill and lost a lot of weight and if you know him, he’s already super thin so I was pretty freaked out! All I can say is thank goodness he came through it quickly because it was getting near a critical stage when we finally got him into the hospital. I will admit I waited because I didn’t know what I was gonna do at the hospital since I couldn’t speak Chinese and then Brian’s Chinese language teacher helped us go to the right place and helped translate what she could so we made it through this one. We were all happy and full of relief cause we were leaving for Tai Shan that weekend. And, we did. The train station was packed with people going all over the country for the holiday. Really, as we later learned, the holiday is not the best time to travel if you have a choice. The Chinese don’t have a choice so they ALL travel at the same time, need I say more
The train seats were packed with people and so was the floor and standing as well (like cattle). Tony and Annie had our motel booked so that was good and we only traveled for an hour so it was very fast. We arrived and settled into our hotel and then we took off to walk around the city of Tai Shan. We would climb the mountain in the morning as it takes all day. So today we would just explore and rest up for the next day. We found a temple that was basically at the foot of the mountain and decided to tour it and it was really neat. It was like a history museum about Tai Shan. Here is a like http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/437 if you’d like to learn more and I also tried to upload a map we used to climb the mountain. The temple was fun and it gave us a lot of history and it prepared us and got us all excited about the next days adventure. We had dinner and all got to bed early so we could get up and get climbing in the morning. We arrived at the entrance to Tai Shan by 7am. Being the first time we ever climbed a mountain in China, we didn’t know what to expect. Firstly you are climbing up stone stairs endlessly…. it starts out with a ton of trinket booths and vendors selling all kinds of stuff and then after a while it heads more into stairs within the mountain setting. Coolest think ever, I had to reflect on the amount of time and the men that worked tirelessly on building a stairway to the hop to a mountain. It was crazy and beautiful and I was speechless really! I had never seen anything like this in my life and I was super pumped to see more. As you go, there are always beautiful things to see, walkways with bridges and rock formations that have been named after deities and then you will reach temples along the mountain and there will be vendors there selling water and food and lots and lots of people. I was amazed at how many Chinese women were wearing high heels and climbing the mountain. Here I am ready for climbing in my tennis shoes and backpack with snacks and water and an emergency kit and these ladies are clicking their way up the mountain in high heels and dresses! I guess you could do this since they sell water and food all the way to the top, but we didn’t know this and high heels! I’ll never get over that reality…. wow….amazing!! So, we climbed and climbed and then we had our first encounter with a man having a seizure. There were people everywhere and nobody was doing anything. This man was seizing and he already hit his head as there was blood on the ground. I looked at Brian and he immediately went into action. He put a shirt under the mans head and then he started to work on some acupuncture points to try to help stop the seizure. After what seemed like a long time, but was probably a few minutes, the man stopped seizing and he started to come out of it. Brian didn’t speak a lot of Chinese so he just waited for the mans friend to come and he left him there with him. We asked our friends why nobody helped him and they said they were probably scared and didn’t know what to do. I really believe thats true because we saw people have seizures several times after this and nobody ever did anything until the person finished seizing and then they helped them get up and go. Only once did I see someone get into a taxi after a seizure and go to the hospital which I still was surprised to see. My friends did tell me that you should never call an ambulance because they will not come fast and they cost a fortune. They said if you can go in a taxi then do that. Lets just say I’m happy we never needed an ambulance! After that fun event, we discovered we were about half the way up the mountain and we’d been climbing for six hours. We took a break and I was concerned about Max since he was still recovering from his illness. He said he was really tired and he didn’t want to go up anymore. He wanted to go back to the motel and rest. I decided to go back down with him and let Brian and Jaxon continue to the top with our friends. Brian and Jaxon would have to tell the story about the top of the mountain. I can only tell you that they reached an area not far from where we turned around where you could take a bus down the mountain (had I known this, Max and I would have saved a lot a time from climbing back down) or you could take a gondola up to the top. As you know climbing to the top of any mountain is a huge achievement and this is what Brian really dreamed of, but with Jaxon and Annie wanting to do the gondola, he gave in and went with them. Tony and Annies sister climbed by foot and they ended up back at the hotel after about 12 hours. Brian, Annie and Jaxon went to the top and said it was awesome - see the pictures on the website I’ve attached if you can. I hiked back down with Max and we took a taxi to our motel and rested until everyone came back. Max and I did a little shopping on our way down and Max bought a wonderful tea set made out of stone from the mountain so that was pretty cool! We stayed in Tai Shan for the night, found our first bootleg movie store and bought a really badly taped movie from America. I cannot remember what movie it was, but it was hilarious because the dude was taping it using a hand held video recorder and you could see people in the theater and hear them eating popcorn! It was a great day and we were excited we got to see our first famous landmark in China. I will never forget the kindness from Annie and Tony to include us on their trip to Tai Shan and how much fun we had spending some time getting to know them! Stay tuned for my next adventure with setting up English classes with Chinese kids in my neighborhood.
Posted in China Stories | 2 Comments »
The Chinese Medicine Lyme Disease Study Mission Statement!
June 24, 2011 by admin.
Chinese Medicine Lyme Study
723 Main Street Hopkins, Minnesota
1-952-935-0600
Mission Statement:
The Chinese Medicine Lyme Study is an ongoing clinical research project investigating the effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Chinese herbal formulas and acupuncture for the treatment of Lyme Disease.
Please contact us for more information and enrollment options into the Lyme Study.
Posted in General Information | 1 Comment »