July 14 in China...our last full day!

Our first stop was the XiXi Wetlands...beautiful...and it was pretty warm hot!  Once again, here are these fences made of bamboo...I just love them!

Yes, we ARE in China! 

We walked a total of 4 miles on this 'hike'...but the scenery was gorgeous.  I thought it was so peaceful...

There were speakers hidden in the trees, I guess, because tranquil music was playing...and then there were these sweet little canoes and other boats scenically placed.  Effee said I was falling for it!  I was..I loved it!

This was some roofing!  People had just walked by and braided it, I guess!  It wasn't all like this...just in this section.

Doesn't that look peaceful...even with 35 people?

We had a stop here...some of the buildings were like little museums..

silkworms

Nick

Some of our delegation took advantage of some shade and a bit of time to sit down before we continued on.

This boat was not for us!

After about 2+ miles, we stopped for an "experiment" to test the quality of water in the wetlands.  I won't comment on that here...you can ask your son/daughter about it.  :)

We continued on... Isn't it gorgeous? 

This is the top of the Underwater Sightseeing Gallery.  We walked down some steps and then inbetween those posts you can see.  You could see in the water...awesome!

At the end of our hike, we hopped on little trolleys to take us back.  Thank goodness cause we were hot and tired.  I love this sign! 

This picture of the fish is out of place...it should be up in the underwater gallery...

Our next stop after lunch was the fan factory.  Wow!  These women were FAST with folding...with gluing....

They were so careful with the painting...and didn't seem to be going 'fast'...although, look at the number of fans! 

This is the kind of fan I bought.  This guy sawed out each individual little tiny hole!  It was amazing to watch.

We each 'made' our own fan...we had these parts..and we had to glue and assemble.  Look easy?  Well, quite a few of us had quite a bit of trouble...

 

Here we all are with our finished fans...

The bullet train back to Shanghai was next.  It actually made a couple of stops before I had the feeling of being on a 'bullet train.'  After the second stop, it really picked up speed. 

It was a great time to walk around and take photos of this amazing group of students...

 

 

 

Next to Charles is a sleeping Anthony!

Dinner that night was great...as usual...but it was different.  It was a Mongolian Barbeque

We had a birthday to celebrate...another 16th birthday...

And then...the delegates were told that Effee had turned 50 years old a couple of days earlier. He was bombarded by this group of Americans who absolutely adored him. I think know it touched him with how happy they were to celebrate with him!

Our last night in China!!!  What a way to end it!