Back from China

Hey la gang,

un mot... WOW! La Chine fut un excellent voyage. The first thing I thought was, hey... I'm surrounded by Kai's (my office co-worker). Anyhow, not sure what to expect, Beijing definitely did not let us down. Weather was great (and hot), the city is simply huge with unbelievable buildings and I'll get to the shopping later on.

Our 3 day schedule included a visit to the Forbidden City, Tian An Men Square, the Summer Palace, lot's of shopping and of course, the highlight of our trip, the Great Wall. Pour commencer, il faut dire que la Chine c'est vraiment pas cher. Les taxis moyennent $2.50, la bouffe environ $10 à $15 pour 4 personnes, et les shopping en générale très cheap. On peut avoir de n'importe quoi la bas, faut pas oublier que tout est fait en chine après tout. Par exemple, Gino s'est acheté un set de golf Callaway au complet, avec sac, sac de voyage et sac accessoires pour un gros $250. Hey, ça en vaut $3000 ici! Tina et Loulou ont eu leur souvenirs et décorations et moi... des t-shirts et beaucoup de photos!

Les bâtisses ici sont tous énormes, presqu'impossibles. On ne se croirait jamais dans un pays communiste. Nous nous sommes bien débrouillé même si la majorité du monde ne parle que Chinois. Les mains peuvent dirent beaucoup de choses.

For Gino and I, the main reason for this visit was the Great Wall. Let me tell you, it's a grand site, and we were not let down. It's simply amazing, set in a beautiful mountanous backdrop. You can't even imagine the work it took to build this massive structure. We spent the morning on the wall, before the tourists started pouring in. At times we were the only ones on it and the feeling was great. AT noon, the sun was like a hot torch so we made our way back. Our `chauffeur` was waiting for us, took us out to a local lunch place. Did I say that the food is great here, well it is. All in all, a perfect day in the mountains. Thanks to Louise and Gino's generosity, we lived a unique experience!!!

Anyhow, I can go on forever but I won't. I strongly recommend a visit to China if you can. Louise is now breifing us on our upcoming 7 day trip to Japan which includes a 14 hour cruise, TGV train to Osaka, Hiroshima, Kyoto and Tokyo and a 2 hour high speed hydrofoil boat back to Korea. How's that for transportation. Merci Steeve pour le tip du Japon, je vais checker ça out pour la planche.

That's it for now. Merci pour la maison Stéphanie et Martin, Bonne fête des pères Maurice et Alcide, Kwesi ont va essayer de visiter ta famille si ont touve le temps. ET/CT folks, go for that beer if the oilers win, they are playing as I type (let's go Oilers). Blog you all soon,

Nic and Tina.