In the interest of expediting the grand finale of my China 2008 series, I will be skipping the
MacGuffin today and instead, jump right into the travelogue. Enjoy!
After leaving Dali, we headed back to Yunnan's capital city of Kunming, but not before stopping at a few more obligatory shopping traps! Our first stop was a wholesale jade market. This one was different from the one we visited earlier in that it featured jades from all different manufacturers, not just the upscale manufacturer that ran the last one. Of particular interest to me was the booth they had set up where you could have any jades you owned already looked at. For fun, we took my dad's jade pendant to get assessed, only to find out that they would really only tell you if it is fake or a certain grade of real jade. Dad's was Grade A, but that was the highest grade, which encompassed jade pieces in the store ranging from about $100 USD to the order of several thousand dollars.
See, the thing about jade (and many other precious stones) is that no one really knows how much it's worth. As our tourguide said, it's pretty much worth whatever some poor sap out there is willing to pay for it. But, in true eastern philosophic fashion, if you are willing to pay for it, then you and that piece of stone are meant for each other and it is thus worth what you paid for it. Jade is actually pretty nice. The best ones have a bit of translucency to them, and are generally free from certain types of blemishes - however, other types of blemishes are highly valued. Wearing a chunk of jade on your body is said to protect your body - which might not be totally unreasonable since it is a mineral of sorts and it is known that minerals do good things for your body. In addition, the oils from your body also tend to contribute to your jade's sheen, and thus it is said that your jade raises you, and you raise your jade. Or maybe that's only if you're jaded?
Anyway, Ed and Melinda picked up a few small pendants (I didn't, but I have a probably fake pendant that I got in Shanghai along with a real pendant that Cherrie got for me for my 22nd birthday), and then we made off for our next stop - an herbal medicine wholesale warehouse of some sort. Herbal medicine is currently a pretty hot fad these days, and Chinese herbal medicine is about as famous as herbal medicine gets. I'm always a bit wary of these kinds of treatments, but a lot of people swear they work wonderfully for all kinds of things like joint pain, weight loss, acne, and all kinds of other things, plus they're all natural and all that. Good enough to merit mention in my travelogue!
Next was the Floral Whisper flower oil essence distributor. Yunnan is also famous for its abundance of flowers, thanks once again to its year-round spring-like climate. As such, our tour guide explained, the usually expensive business of harvesting millions of flowers to produce a few fluid ounces of flower oil is drastically reduced in Yunnan. The question that begs to be asked, of course, is what do we need flower oils for? Apparently, a lot of the things that Chinese herbs are for as well - pretty much anything from simple perfumes and moisturizers (admittedly, many of them do smell pretty good), to treating sweat pores and body odor to acne treatment and even breast firming for the ladies! Sorry, there was no demonstration of this last of the 10,000 uses of flower oil essence.
Continuing with the theme of flowers, our last stop in our Yunnan trip was to an actual flower depot. Interestingly, the depot also sold substantial amounts of coffee - Yunnan is also one of the only places in China that produces its own coffee, as the caffeinated hot drink of choice in China is its many varieties of tea. While there were thousands upon thousands of fresh flowers up for purchase, it would not have been particularly practical for us to buy them only to bring them back to the states, although they were very attractive. Instead, we bought several items made with dried flowers to spruce up the fragrances in our cars and closets and what have you.
After leaving the flower depot, our group dispersed and we all headed to our own individual destinations. My family headed to a hotel in Wuxi while Cherrie and I went back to her house for one last night before we headed back to the States. After cleaning everything up, we slept briefly before waking up early to pick up my family from the hotel and be driven back to Shanghai Pudong Airport, where Cherrie and I would be leaving the rest of the family. My parents and Ed and Melinda would stay behind for a few days in Shanghai, my grandparents and my aunt headed back to Taiwan, and Cherrie's parents stayed with us for a few hours before we went into the abyss that was airport security.
Actually, airport security in China isn't really that bad - in fact, I would argue that it is quite a bit quicker than security in the States. Fortunately, Cherrie's passport issues had been taken care of, thanks to her parents' relations with the local Public Security Bureau, so we were able to get into the waiting area without much issue. The biggest pain was actually during boarding, when, for some reason, all the passengers on our Boeing 777 had to get their carry-on luggage inspected again, one by one. That took an abominable amount of time and actually delayed the flight a bit, but the good ol' triple seven can go fast enough to easily make up the lost time across the Pacific.
One last point of interest, while we were the waiting area, much to my surprise, I ran into my friend Karn! Apparently, Karn and his wife were on the last legs of their trip to Thailand when they were delayed overnight at Shanghai Pudong Airport. As luck would have it, their flight was rescheduled and they ended up on the same flight Cherrie and I were taking back to Atlanta! Unfortunately, we were all pretty burned out and we didn't really get to talk a lot during the 14 hour flight back to the States. Even so, I thought it was yet another interesting example of how small our world has become!
And that, my friends, finally concludes my very lengthy travelogue of China 2008!
Anyway, the beautiful hi-def programming allowed us to see Gator running back Brandon James put on some of his best moves yet, as he scampered 54 yards on a kickoff return (where he initially dropped the ball - imagine if he hadn't!), and, as if that weren't enough, spun move, juked, and cut with both legs on his way to a 78-yard punt return for a TD against the Volunteers! The punt return for a TD was the fourth of his career, tying him with Jacquez Green for most career returns for a TD by a Gator. To think we are just a quarter into this season!
James wasn't the only Gator to assert himself in the 30-6 rout of Tennessee. Although Tim Tebow completed just 8 passes for a mere 96 yards, he did connect on two touchdown passes, including yet another of his famous "jump passes" to emerging tight end Aaron Hernandez. Tebow's stats have thus far been underwhelming this year, as he still has yet to find the end zone on a QB rush, but he is winning games, and by substantial margins, at that!
The Florida offense as a whole didn't make many gains at all in terms of yardage, but a big part of that is probably because of the several short fields that Brandon James provided on his big punt and kick returns. Percy Harvin hauled in a couple of passes, including the other touchdown pass from Tebow, and Louis Murphy also made a clutch catch. The biggest breakout performance on offense, however, was probably the emergence of USC transfer Emmanuel Moody, who showed some good, old-fashioned downhill running ability as well as some shake and bake on his way to 55 yards on nine attempts. Let's hope we see more of him in the future!
