Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

Outside, crowds of tourists. Inside this tea house, the quiet clicking of mah jong tiles. Local residents sipping tea, chatting, gossiping, playing mah jong and other table-top games. We ordered the tea tasting which gets everyone's attention and they crowd around to watch and comment. Several ask us (in basic English--our Mandarin is limited to please, thank you and where is the w.c.) where we are from and many details about our hometown (Denver). One elderly gentleman invites us to a local park for tai chi early the next morning. while there we watch locals walking their birds--they walk, swinging their birds in their cages, the little chickadees hanging on to their perches for dear life.