Mid-Autumn Visitors

It is Mid-Autumn Festival and National Holiday vacation time here in China. Which means perfect weather, fragrant flowers, and visitors from Colorado! Tim's mom, Carol, and her husband Joe made the trip to China, spending four days in Beijing and four days here in Beilun. They went on a tour of the major sights in Beijing, and we did our best to provide all the tour-guide services here in Ningbo-Beilun.

Carol, Fan Qin (statue), Tim, Sarah and Milan at the Tian Yi Pavillion

Every time I walk outside for the past two weeks this amazing fragrance fills my nose. Combined with the perfect cool weather, it has made a nice holiday week. (Sweet Osmanthus, 桂花 guìhuā, Osmanthus fragrans). We also discovered that this flower is in one of our favorite green teas - no wonder we love the smell so much!

In case you are considering a guided tour of the Ningbo area with the Sarah-Tim-Milan Tour Company (hint hint), here are some of the highlights you can expect:

We started with a trip to the local fruit and vegetable market and lunch at the noodle shop, followed by dinner at our favorite Sichuan restaurant. Most of the daily activities centered around food, where to eat, and when!

We made two trips into Ningbo, first to the Jiangbei Catholic Church (江北) in the Lao Waitan neighborhood, lunch at the Italian restaurant, and a stroll through the beautiful Tian Yi Pavillion Library and Gardens.

Tim, Milan, Carol and Joe at Tian Yi Pavillion

The second Ningbo day was to the Gu Luo shopping area (Pearls! Swords!) and lunch at the Lake House. We were excited to take them to all of our favorite places, finally have a chance to show off all the hard work we have done scoping out places in Beilun and Ningbo and using our Chinese! In-between Ningbo days we went to a Buddhist temple outside Beilun (Āyùwáng Temple 阿育王寺) and a visit to Milan's babysitter's house for an amazing dinner with her family.

Āyùwáng Temple Pagoda

Dinner at Milan's Ayi's house (Ayi is the lady sitting next to Tim at the back of the table)

We finished off the tour with a pot-luck dinner at our house with teacher friends from school. After a busy week of touring, walking, eating, and visiting, I'm sure Carol and Joe are relieved to get on the plane for 14 hours to relax! I hope we didn't wear them out too much, and I hope they had a nice visit to our little corner of China! Many more pictures on Flickr.