Day Four: More of Shenyang and Goodbye to Shenyang

Update on Gordon's bag: It's apparently still in LA, which is where it was 2 days ago when we asked them to send it to us in Shenyang. Nobody seemed to be able to tell us why it hadn't yet been sent. Gordon suggested that they just send it to her home in Salt Lake out of fear that she'd never see it again if she kept trying to get it sent to her but the lady on the phone said Beijing would be easier. Gordon pointed out that actually Salt Lake was a couple 1000 miles closer to it's current location and within the same country, but the helpful lady insisted it would be easier to send it to China.

After taking the scariest taxi ride ever we made it to the Shenyang Zhiwu Yuan, or the Shenyang Botanical Gardens, which our guidebook explained as an intriguing, quaint, hell-of -a-time little spot. Our first clue that this was not the case should have been the fact that the name had been changed last year to The 2006 International Horticulture Exposition. (I'm not sure what that means, but I totally hope they win) So anyway, we went. Turns out it's now like an amusement park based on . . . plants. Not an activity I would have chosen had I been fully informed but still slightly entertaining.

At first I thought we'd been lucky enough to go on the same day as the local army, but really that's just a group of college kids on a field trip, right before they got in a big line to have their picture taken with us. Really. We were held up here for about 15 mins. But I didn't mind at all because you never know who might be an angel among us. . . .


So, we saw. . .
preying mantises:


mini temples


unidentifiable stuff


the tree of life


a marching band that actually only sat


cool architecture and pretty colors


and I probably shouldn't be posting pictures of such things on the internet, but really some things they do there just aren't right.



and some of the best Chinglish signs ever:

So after we got our fill of plants, passed on the International Food Court's Italian booth offering Squid and octopus pizza, took note of a few more awesome new hairstyles (this is totally gonna be the in thing in the states in like 6 months),


We then had time for a nice massage before getting on the train that night for a 13 hour ride to Mudan Jiang.
That massage came at a good time since we got stuck with the top (3rd high) bunks which don't leave anyone over 4 and a half feet with enough room to sit up straight.



I got especially lucky with this particular bunk because the speaker used to announce arrivals, train rules, food for sale, play instrmuntal versions of "yesterday", and toothpaste commercials for our section of about 75 people was placed about 18 inches from my pillow!!