About the photos

Of course, as I've said a million times, I cannot read these posts and have no idea how the pictures and text are lining up. I received one message back that the pictures are all mixed up. So... from what I remember I told Hans to post... Pictures of Taylor with umbrella, chickens, men playing cards while smoking, man pumping water, and maybe some products on a table are were all taken in the tiny village we visited. There may be photos of food. This would be from our daily luncheon or dinner buffet here at the Lakeview Hotel. Not sure if Hans posted the orange-ish claws...those are duck feet. Ewww. Then there was the oxen tongue. Maybe mutton? Other things that may not be pictured are shrimp with their little black shiny eyeballs, fish -- the whole thing. Etc. There may be a picture of Jessi and Alex - the Lakeview is in the background. I'm sure we put some shots of Tenley in there. Cute cute cute. My sister Susan mentioned that Hans isn't in any of the photos. He posted them himself and removed the ones of him declaring that he looked terrible. Truthfully, he's still a little pale from being sick. Will get some better shots asap. I'm trying to remember what else we posted. If you have any questions, email at diannefp@rcn.com. I can check that for sure. Today we visited the Nanchang zoo. Bad news all around. I rather like the natural habitat zoos found in the States. This zoo in Nanchang looked like a throw back to 1950s -- as they were all in small cages, including larger animals like the lions. The animals were filthy and in a few instances, people threw rocks at the poor things as they circled inside their cages no doubt going mad in captivity. Simply put, there's no money to keep this zoo in good repair and the animals suffer for it. Couldn't take it any more and walked out of the "live" show where they had the dirty lions and tigers performing under whips and prods. Not the place for an animal loving vegetarian. On the way there, our guide Sally admitted to eating dog. Said it was tasty. She said the Chinese eat everything. I guess so. That's when Hans said the live show at the zoo is their version of a cooking show. I laughed! Back to the dogs... not sure how they eat dog and keep dogs as pets. I guess it's like the parrot owner eating chicken? Tomorrow Hans is meeting our guide to go to the civil affairs office with Tenley to secure her Chinese passport. That's needed to process her U.S. visa which is what she'll get in Guangzhou. We hope to be out of here tomorrow afternoon to join the rest of the group. Off to care for Tenley. The kids are all over her and she's most comfortable and happy with them. Signing off from Nanchang. Dianne