Qingyuan Hot Springs

It has been brought to my attention that I may be developing a slightly obsessive compulsive fascination with digestive issues, assorted bodily functions, and modes of transportation.

Therefore, I am choosing a different topic for this entry. This weekend, I traveled to a tourist destination in south china. It is a natural hot springs in an area called Qingyuan. I enjoyed a 3 hour drive from Guanzhou through expanding mountains and lush scenery. As we left the cities, I began to see Rice and sugar plantations. They are seemingly still farmed in the same way they might have been for hundreds of years. It was not uncommon to see the files littered with men, women, and children harvesting the crop. In the rice Fields, they would dump the "bales" of straw into an old crank to apparently strip the rice. One such field is pictured with a solitary man biking off in the distance.

Qingyuan was a neat village, with lots of smalls stands for shopping, hotels, and outdoor activities. Here you could choose to go horseback riding, grass skiing, rock climbing, whitewater rafting, or any number of leisure activities around the pool or hot springs. I was there with a band that was performing for a company that was here on a team building exercise.

While Karoke is huge in China, this band set-up and played out an outdoor amphitheater for the evening entertainment after a huge bar-b-que. Tons of fun, with most jumping on stage at some point to either participate in the song, or even jump in on the set.

For those of you who remember the "she bangs" guy from American Idol, I now know where he honed his singing skills.

One item I continue to notice is how sheltered I as an American have been in so many ways-so many of the people I meet speak at a minimum several languages. Many from Europe speak at least 4, and cannot remotely understand that we typically do not. They also seem to stay much better connected to global business, politics, and show much greater sensitivity to different cultures and belief systems. While I have been avoiding politics in most situations, it is evident that while most genuinely like American people, they are frustrated with direction of foreign policy of US. I had an interesting discussion with people at the bar-b-que regarding Iraq. Around the fire, there were people from Denmark, Germany, France, England, Korea, China, and Japan. Almost without exception they leaned on me regarding the missed opportunity of 9/11. Their point regarding 9/11 was basically a moment in time where international support for an American agenda could have been galvanized, and instead lost through the need for some type of immediate retaliation. (For my conservative friends, I am merely relaying the gist of the discussion)

The amazing observation that is this type belief has been absolutely consistent in the many people I meet-that have been consuming enough beverages to share their thoughts...In any event, they remain gracious and seem to thoroughly enjoy spirited debate.