Well that was a very short night getting to bed around 1:30 am after returning by from that extraordinary adventure to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.
Today we are tagging along with Mark and Jane. They invited us and several others in our group to visit their coworkers and friends who in turn took us to a couple of nice places and an amazing lunch. We are so grateful to have been included to be able to enrich our minds with more local culture. We were picked up by Rick and his coworkers at a local factory and they planned an exceptional day. Our first stop was at a unique place called the Porcelain house or China house. We refer to porcelain as China because that’s where it originated.
This on whatever found out about “China House”
The house is now a museum. This is what was written on a plaque at the entrance. “It is a French-styled building and was the former residence of Mr.Huang RongLiang, the first consul in the New-Zealand consulate, the minister of Plenipotentiary in Australia in Qing-Dynasty, and the professor of JinLing university in China. Later, it became a residence of the foreign ambassador in China.
In 2000, in order to carry forward Chinese porcelain culture, Mr.Zhang LianZhi, bought this dilapidated building and renovated it for 8 years.
He used 13000 pieces of ancient porcelain wares and vases, more than 300 pieces of ancient stone statues, more than 300 pieces of stone lions from all the dynasties, more than 300 Ming and Qing porcelain cat pillows, more than 20 tons of natural crystal and agate, etc. Without blueprint and relying on his own imagination, Mr. Zhang.LianZhi, in a unique way, has made a perfect combination of his lifetime porcelain collections with the Western architecture.
He has given this hundred-year-old foreign building a new life and created a miracle in the history of architecture.”
It’s definitely a very unique piece of architecture. We had fun walking through it.
Our next stop was Ancient Culteral street, home to Ming Dynasty buildings and shopping. The only western faces here, curious chinese people were taking pictures of us constantly.
It was all about food and fashion. We bought more chocolates and some silk scarves. They are so beautiful here.
After this short retail therapy we headed to lunch at the Tianjin Duck Shop which has been in operation since 1862. It is the favorite of Chairman Mao, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), established in 1949.
Our amazing lunch, one of many that has totally ruined my taste for the Chinese food in the United States. It’ll never be the same. This food tastes fabulous and I’m getting the hang of using chopsticks. Haven’t tried noodles yet. That will take lots more practice. Our menu did consist of Peking duck. Soooo good! Our menu choices are served in a lazy Susan. You have to be quick and coordinate with your group. Such fun!
Rick gave us all wall plaques with a porcelain doll encased. A truly touching gift that we will cherish forever.
We know that saying goodbye was hard for Mark and Jane so hugs and thank you’s all around to Rick and Gavin, we had to get to the port.
China was much more than we expected and the kindness and generosity of the Chinese people was wonderful. Our visa is for ten years so who knowes, maybe we will be back!
Back in our room and I crashed for several hours, ate dinner and back to bed for the evening! Chuck wasn’t as worn out as I was but he and everyone in our group were pretty exhausted! But, we would do it all over again!
May God bless you always.
Chuck and Lea Ann
WorldTravelReynolds 