So I’ve just been writing these in a Word document since I
can’t find a decent internet connection to upload them. Today, it is HOT. And HUMID.
We’re in the very south part of China, which has a tropical climate. It
will take some getting used to, especially since we’ve been staying in cities
with climates very similar to what we’re used to back home. Today, we went to
the Guangxi Botanical Gardens, where all kinds of medicinal plants are
grown. We saw all kinds of plants used
in traditional Chinese medicine, including the one plant rather popular all
over the world, known as 大麻. You may know
this plant by many other names in the U.S., but it’s most commonly known as
Marijuana. Yes, there was a small patch,
but nothing worth picking.
After our trip to the gardens, we went to our hotel, which
Dr. Ming tells us is rated 5-stars. It was a really nice room, except for the
beds, which were incredibly uncomfortable.
Here in China, beds are not soft like in the West. Here, they are literally boards covered in
blankets. It’s supposedly good for your
back. We changed into some nicer clothes
and we went to a banquet provided by one of Tao’s good friends, who is a very
successful businesswoman. Much to my
surprise, we were joined for dinner by a couple of faculty members from
Concordia: Ken Foster, and Per Anderson.
We dined for a long time, and by the time we were full, a whole three
hours had elapsed since we left our hotel.
Tomorrow, we’ll need to get up early again, this time to catch a train
to Beihai, a city on the southern coast of China. We’ll stay there for one day, after which we
will return to Nanning for a homestay.
