Everyday in China...

No matter where we were and no matter what we had to eat, we were always given watermelon at the end of our meal. Breakfast, lunch and dinner...watermelon. It was summer and the season for the fruit which originates from Egypt. Of course there was rice too, and plenty of it. We learned to appreciate rice at some of the meals where what we ate was undefinable. The fried rice in Beijing was the very best because it was fried in duck fat!

My report on China cannot be complete without a story from the bathroom. The toilets above were sometimes our only option in a public bathroom. Our hotels all had Western toilets. In public, if there were 5 stalls available, only 1 would be the kind of toilet we were familiar with. And at a few locations the toilet above was our only option! The first time the girls encountered this was at the Great Wall. Bob and I were sitting inside a restaurant and the girls got up to use the bathroom. They were guided to a building outside of the restaurant and this should have been our first clue that things were not normal. They were gone at least 15 minutes! When they finally came back to the table, they stood by the table and said nothing. They just giggled. Here is what they said.

Maria: You need to see this.

Jennifer: There is no toilet paper.

Leah: And no toilets!

Mom: What?

Maria: You just have to come with us.

Jennifer: And bring some toilet paper.

Leah: And the camera.

We did our best to figure out the process but really had no idea how to proceed. Later in the vacation we were blessed with a tutorial on proper toilet use by a woman who neglected to close her stall door. We got a full view of how to use the Chinese toilets!

Check out the sign on this building. They advertised Western style facilities!