Final Day in Shenzhen

We have had some of our most delicious food in China at this China “Camp David” resort. A huge banquet hall held hundreds of people, and offered dozens of different delicious and fresh dishes. Remember that the “New China” is built on the farmer. Their history states that the farmers led the revolution. Food is one of the main pursuits of China. This resort, in keeping with this theme, features botanical gardens which primarily show food (papaya, hua long guo, pumpkin, beans, etc.) and the vegetables served were grown on site.

One of these pictures shows the deluxe villa where the Chairman and the very top officials stay when they’re in town. It’s at the other end of the property. The resort also offers health and spa service. Liping arranged a lovely massage for Max (he loves these, and there was only room for one appointment). We had lovely strolls and conversation at the beautiful destination!

Next, Liping took us towards the center of town. First, Max was dying for real coffee, so she took us to Starbucks (we haven’t touched one McDonalds or KFC; but he has had a Starbucks coffee about every third day). As we entered this Chinese version of a multi-level Barnes and Noble, we discovered a book signing. Liping said, “Oh, you are very lucky…here is Mao Tse Tung’s granddaughter”. We saw, in the ampitheater of this book mall, a hundred people gathered to listen to Kong Dong Mei introduce her latest book and sign their copies. Liping immediately walked up to her “handler” and asked if we could meet her. She was so gracious: she immediately stood up after signing the book in front of her, walked over to us and allowed picture-taking. We suddenly became the center of attention, and what seemed like a hundred cameras were trained on us taking our picture.

Next, Liping took us to the Shenzhen city museum, a wonderful new museum which presented the history of the Chinese people and of the local Cantonese culture.

As a treat for Joy, who put up with all of this adult talk in English, and a long Museum visit, we went shopping for some personal things she finally admitted she could use. Finally we ended up with one more delicious meal of local Congee before boarding the bullet train back to Shenzhen after 10 at night. We finally fell into bed after midnight, and missed Liping.