Sea Fishing in Sanya

Yu Gege is the fisherman in our family.  Yu Gege translates to "Fish big brother" and it's because he loves to fish.  So naturally when we went to Sanya we had to go fishing for the 'big-fish' of the South China Seas.  We looked through the local website, sanyaweb.com to find a fishing expedition.  It was about $50 per person and it they picked us up at the hotel and dropped us off in downtown Sanya's port. 

The waiting area for the boat.  It was crowded with others
either going fishing or waiting for boats to get wedding
photos taken aboard.

I made sure to set the boys expectations very low for what we would be catching because I could see it was not your typical Florida fishing boat.  But the trip out to the fishing hole was interesting in itself and worth the fee.

Most of the nice boats were being chartered for wedding
photo shoots.  It was an interesting mix of luxury on the water
and local low-income homes along the shore.

Yu Gege sitting on the yard furniture aboard the boat.  

True fishing vessels - encouraging.

This boat was called '<something> Great Wall' and had the
Great Wall of China motif.  I think in was a Chinese party boat.

Phoenix Island - a man-made island with hotels or apartments.

Wedding Photo shoot.  Queen and King for a few hours.

Ok, now on the way out of the harbor and out near the fishing spot.  This was said to be a deserted military island.  

Sloping hills into the water, seems like a good fishing area.

Maybe glacial by nature...

Out come the fishing poles.  Encouraging decent poles but the
size of the hooks was not good.  They were sized to catch
minnows...

The boat anchored and we let out our lines.  It seemed to be about 20 meters deep but the current/wind was strong so the line went out much further.  It went to the bottom and we waited, and we waited.  Hey someone caught one!!!  They were catching 3" fish, argh!

One of the big catches of the day, argh!

The saddest thing was that they were keeping these bait-fish.  No wonder there weren't any big ones.  They were bucketing all these to do what, who knows.

Bucket of about 10 tiny fish.  The whole boat of 30 people's catch.
Not even enough for a cat to eat...

Local boat with Phoenix Island in the background.

Waterfront property.  Probably priceless in 20 years!

A disappointed day for fishing but hey chalk it up as another China-experience.

Yings in Tropical China (Sanya)

Life has been busy with Mama Ying working as a full-time substitute at the kid's school and Papa Ying's been traveling and working hard.  So our vacation to Southern China to relax was a great choice.  We booked it to Sanya, China during the Tomb Sweeping holiday week.  Sanya has weather like Florida and is being transitioned to a resort town.  This blog is about our stay.

We thought our flight was at 6:05 pm on Friday evening to get us into Sanya at about 8:45 pm.  So we got to the airport at 4:30 in plenty of time.  Turns out that our flight was scheduled to leave at 4:45 and that we had read our itinerary incorrectly.  Anyway, we got to the airport, checked-in and were prepared to run to the gate.  But we were told to go to another baggage counter.  There we were then told that our airplane was not here and our flight would be delayed until midnight, argh!

At the gate this is the notification of the flight
time change.  No attendant just a poster...

We ended up leaving Shanghai at 10:30 ish and arrived in Sanya about 1:30 am.  We walked out to get a taxi and found one outside the long taxi-stand line.  260 RMB ($40) for about a 45 minute taxi ride to the hotel, normally it would have been about 175 ($28).  Worth skipping the 30 minute taxi line...so we thought.

3 am on a deserted highway in China.  Seems like a news story
waiting to happen...

But our taxi overheated and broke down about half way to the resort.  After we stood on the side of the busy highway in the middle of the night for 45 minutes another taxi showed up.  When we finally got there I only paid him 200 RMB ($32) and he was pissed.

At the Renaissance hotel and after much confusion about the reservation they graciously upgraded us to a villa.  The happy part of a long day traveling was that it was an unbelievable room (pictures later).  

Beautiful lobby, hotel grounds and ocean.

Massive snails in Sanya.  The hotel was trying to poison them
but not if Mama Ying could help them.

Taken from the beach area. No hotels nearby so the beach extended for many miles in either direction.

All you can eat breakfast are a big highlight.  Chocolate covered pancakes and waffles are the kid's favorite.

The Red Star Restaurant was great for breakfast and dinner
buffets.

Our own personal pool that filled half of our backyard!

Two fountains and a waterfall.  There was three patios and exits from three
rooms of the villa.  

This was the common area of our Villa.  There was 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms,
kitchen and plenty of luxury.

This was the hotel pool with lights on the bottom of it.  The pool went on
forever.  It was the largest pool in China.

The GM said the hotel spent 100,000,000 RMB on the landscaping.

Looking back from the beach.  Funny signs.

Yangmei doing schoolwork with a pina colada in the pool bar.  

Outdoor shower that was like standing under a
waterfall.  I took at least one shower a day in this one!

Rub-a-dub-dub three kids in a tub!

A great a memorable vacation.  The next blog will be about our fishing trip in Sanya.

Simply China - II

This is just various photos from the last couple of moths.  No particular order but some interesting things that happen.

I was invited to a leadership conference in Sanya.  Stayed at
the St. Regis, very beautiful hotel and location.

Chinese New Year is a time for feasts.  My team went out
to dinners with the COMAC teams to celebrate.  This was
one of six dinners for me.

I Love Shanghai (from Puxi looking at Pudong)

A little easier to read...

My taxi driver pulled over and had to pee.  Public deification
is more popular than you think.

China day costume for Caomei before school.
That is Chocolate, Frosted Flakes she's eating.

My office area at COMAC.  I've chosen to have a cubicle too.

Add caption

We had 3 days of snow last winter.  The largest accumulation
was about 1".

The family was asked to pose for a local magazine.  A topic for
another blog.

Ji'an Temple

Just one of those days that you need to get out of the house and see something.  We went to the Ji'an Temple over in Puxi.  It is a Buddhist temple with many large statues, incense burning structures, coin wishing opportunities and praying people.

You were able to purchase incense sticks and place them in
these structures.  Offering to the gods.

It gave us an opportunity to talk about other religions and what Buddhism is.

This big structure in the middle was the center of coin throwing.
You had to watch out for others missing.  The kids collected a
small treasure to bring home.

This idol was about 15 meters tall.

Lots of gold or jade in these idols.  You can see
there are kneeling furniture in front for praying.

This was the main temple, with the largest idol in it.

Wide-angle of the courtyard.  It is in the middle of the city.

Chinese Snake New Year

The largest holiday on the Chinese calendar is their New Year, or spring festival.  Most Chinese will leave the big city and go 'home' for a week or so to be with their families.  In Shanghai there is a large migrant population so the city probably decreases by 50% during this holiday.  Most foriegners leave the country since this is a week off from work that most other countries in the world don't celebrate.  The challenge is getting a ticket out. 

The view from the JW Shanghai looking down on People's
Square and towards the Bund.

It is still winter in Shanghai!

The fireworks at midnight.

It turned out that the fireworks were mostly close to the ground so it was not as impressive as we hoped.  They were exploding at about the 20 story and we were on the 55th or in the lounge on the 59th story.  

Two envelopes with 10 RMB in each from the hotel.
Money in envelopes is the Chinese traditional present.

A dragon paraded through breakfast (see video).

Caomei wore the freaky Chinese mask, I guess because she
was wearing here Chinese outfit.

Relaxing on New Year's Day by the pool.

AVIAGE Chinese New Year Party

Chinese New Year is huge in China - the biggest holiday of their year.  This year was the transition from a Dragon year to the Snake Year.  The Dragon is the best year out of the 12-year cycle so if you are going to have your baby then this is the year the Chinese do it (God permitting).  This entry is about the party that the company held for it's employees and spouses.  The company is up to about 300ish employees in Shanghai, and there was a 90% attendance rate (in the US it is typically less than 50%).  So the Marriott, where it was held, had about 500 people for dinner then the entertainment put on by the employees.  It was a fun concept since it built some fun relationships in the process.

I was asked to by one of the four Master of Ceremonies (MCs) - That's me in the tux below.  The presentation was done half in Mandarin and half in English.  Overall, the crowd really liked the show and I had much more fun than I thought I would have.

I introduced myself as Bond...Jame Bond - one of the funny points of the show.

One of the fun show items was a top-10 list that I put together.  It was a fun way to get the crowd into the show.  Here is the list.

Top 10 Best Things about 2013 Chinese New Year

10. It’s the only time of the year when you can get a taxi, even when its raining

9. A second chance for a new year's resolution since you already blew your one from Jan 1st.

8. Expats get to work another weekend.

7. A week of no sleep from the non-stop fireworks

6. A week of visiting relatives at ‘home’ will remind you of why you moved to Shanghai

5. A week off to catch up on episodes of your favorite TV show

4. No more stress about the world ending in 2012.

3. Sex can be fun again since there is no more pressure to have a ‘Dragon’ baby! 

2.  Snakes are less scary than Dragons.  

1. This year we will sign the Master Contract with COMAC.  

Belly Dancers, there were quite talented in their art.

A great show called 'Expat Style' based off of  Gangnam Style.
It was a great show that had the crowd roaring.

Chinese singing - the tree is for where you put wishes for
the new year.  

Brown-eyed Girl solo - very awesome

The leadership team entered the dinner with a lit up Dragon
and Snake.  There was a beating drum - very Chinese.

1930s song

My Favorite Things sung by a young girl.

Piano solo - a good time to take a rest.

Three guys on my team (Gary, Zong and Simon) doing a couple
songs.  After some technical difficulties in practice the result
turned out to be very good.

After the show my team gathered in the lobby for a fun photo
under the snake.