Today was a day like getting ready. I had a free breakfast at the hotel … meh. I went to Michelle's with gifts and to visit her family. It was warm and friendly and a nice reunion. We had a modest lunch which included some delicious locally grown Asian pears, and fresh corn, which roughly approximates what I might describe as "field" corn. Not much like the sweet corn one finds in the shelves in America. This was textured and chewy, with a rich grainy flavor.
It was nice to see everyone and despite being delayed for a couple of hours at the hairdresser, we had a great feast for dinner, thanks to Michelle's "Uncle." If you look closely at the picture you'll see it contains some interesting foods, for the head suckers out there, some head-on shrimp. Some native blue colored crab. An indescribably good salt water fish. Pumpkin, eggplant, and silkworm chrysalis. Plus a fungus native to only to this (Liaoning?) area of China. A couple of kinds of pork. It was decisively good.
Today we also went to a travel agent and booked a 5 day tour to Beijing. And made decisions regarding several days between our trip to Dandong and the Tiger Mountain Great Wall, and our trip to Beijing. Perhaps we will go to Juimenkou Great Wall and the city of Panjin, on the coast.
The tour to Beijing include the Great wall and bicycling in the Hutong, and several other days of stuff. It's all described clearly in Chinese on the tour description … of which I will get some English language version of tomorrow or in a few days. You will get intimate details later, dear readers.
