Exotic Destinations > Travel Tales > The Intrepids in China

The Intrepids in China!

by Cathy Wilkes

Wow! What an Odyssey the 31 fearless "China Intrepids" had in September! Before we left we had already bonded... lunch in Chinatown, a tour of Canada's largest Chinese supermarket (plus a potluck lunch of our purchases in Fellowship Hall after...) and a backyard Barbeque for last minute details and get-to-know-you chat. Rev Mark even joined us for that! And of course, we enjoyed an apres photo-swap and Italian dinner at Martins with another one planned at Cartwrights. We are a sociable group!

We actually began the trip in Vancouver — where we stayed in an airport hotel and enjoyed a very "happy hour" and dinner the night before our 11 1/2 hour flight to Beijing. Non historical highlights included the applause spontaneously given by the members of the Gang Wa Shi Church for our rendition of "Go Now In Peace" at the front of their church; our rickshaw tour of an old neighbourhood (hutong); freezing in the brisk wind at the bow of the ship but loving the beauty of the mist enshrouded Gorges on the Yangtze Cruise; riding bikes on the old wall of Xian; watching Dennis Cartwright "perform" in the ship's staff talent show; munching on smoked oysters, cheese, crackers and Pringles while we enjoyed an original kind of fellowship known, due to the tight quarters, as "Hall Parties"; the Chinese massage, incuding the back walking... which explained the gymnastic apparatus suspended over each table; and the ladies' elation in finally getting the hang of the Chinese-style toilets...

The food (and the local beer provided with each meal) was both tasty and nutritious. There were many more vegetable dishes than one orders here in Chinese restaurants but each area we visited had its own specialties such as handmade noodles, broth-filled dumplings and deep fried whole baby fish. Peanut butter jars carried from home made breakfast the western meal of the day for many of us... On our last night in Suzhou we celebrated Sally Jo Martin's birthday and the restaurant proudly brought out a huge, beautifully decorated birthday cake...and glasses of "Great Wall" red wine for the celebration.

Did we enjoy the history and culture of China? Absolutely! Did we have fun? Definitely. Did it take almost 2 weeks to get back to Toronto time? Oh yes!... (supersleeper Dave McNaught excluded). And, the best shopper award goes to Bill (Pepper) Martin and Heather Cartwright who didn't dither about purchasing hand-embroidered silk Chinese art work. It's worth finding an excuse to visit the Martins to see Bill's tiger or the Cartwright's to see Heather's silk treasure!

Our next trip will be Fall of 2007. Stay tuned!