Day 2 in Hong Kong has been a great experience.  We walked the streets around our Hotel Ovolo.  Our hotel is in a non touristy area and we were surprised to find no one could speak English.  Liam and Dad at the laundry store one block from our hotel.  Cantonese is very different from Mandarin.  Wow,  didn't realize how grey my hair was?

        Locals often did not want their pictures taken.  We are the Ugly Americans and still took some of those pictures.  Sorry John Kerry, you better get to Asia and smooth things over after the Pattens leave. 
                

This guy just waved us away

this guy ended up coming after Mimi

Great dinner and view!!

Dave and Liam's Wagyu flat iron steaks won the prize as the best cut of meat for the night.  Watching Wimbledon at the hotel as I enter these pics,  12 midnight, long day,  great night with family, and it is 12 noon back in the states.

   Where the  %#*^%#  are we??   Chinese relations have gone south since the Pattens arrived

Paula +paula@davidpattendds.com

, I hope all is well in Hampstead.  Pics at www.patten5.blogspot.com  .  I don't know,
but just by looking at this picture, I don't think China is taking over the world just yet.
At least they are not winning any fashion contests, although the Last Emperor in 1911
might have liked these pajamas?

Thank you for the graduation gifts, very generous.....+bunverferth@gmail.com,
 +sinserra@comcast.net, +dandmlighthill@rr.com, and +dlespatten@gmail.com

No wonder the Emperors of China were eventually overthrown as the Forbidden city
was more than a bit of an overkill.  I just had no idea how big the place was?  The one
 area where the many extra wives were parked was called the hall of extreme happiness.
  How obnoxious is that? 

This is just one little section of the Forbidden City.

Next we went to walk through some Hutongs, which for hundreds of years was all
 of Beijing.  Presently there are just a few areas of Hutongs preserved showing
 how the masses of chinese people lived for many years.

Time to fly to Hong Kong!

Local Fish restaurant (not a tourist stop).  Had learned about this from Liam's Beijing friends.

The fish were still moving which did not make Mackenzie feel good?  She was a trooper and did end up eating the fish and some of the meat off the fish head which, as Liam calls them, the Beijingers love.

Pictures from Great Wall.  One of the most remote parts of the Great Wall.

Local Fish restaurant after 4 hours on the Great Wall.

This is Thursday night June 27th, 2013.  I could not post any blogs until tonight because the Chinese government blocks blogs on google's eblogger.  We flew today from Beijing to Hong Kong.  Even though Hong Kong is now under Beijing's rule, Beijing has let Hong Kong rule pretty much as before the British had to let Hong Kong go back to China's control in 1999, after 100 years of British rule.  The internet works better and Hong Kong has a very different feel compared to Beijing.  On Tuesday we did a 4 hour hike on a remote part of the Great Wall away from the crowds and got some great pictures.  Wednesday Liam Patten graduated from his Beijing university and again we got some great pictures.  In the afternoon we went to Tianamen Square, and then to the Forbidden City.  The Forbidden City is much bigger than most people think.  We did go to walk through some Hutongs where people lived for hundreds of years in Beijing in very crowded conditions.  I am too tired to write anymore due to jet lag and busy days, so I will just post some pictures.   Dave

pattenfareast

bunverferth@gmail.com, liamhuangzhou@gmail.com, dave@davidpattendds.com

Headed to Beijing

June 23rd, 2013.  We, (Maureen, Mimi, Mackenzie, and myself(Dave)), got up this morning at 2:15am with the plan that a town car we booked would be in the dark driveway at 3am to drive us to Boston's Logan airport for our 5:45am flight to Washington DC's Dulles airport.  That sentence reminded me of UAHS 10th grade English where my teacher put a red slash through my run on sentences.  I promptly took my bag out into the driveway at 2:59am and introduced myself to the driver who had shown up early at 2:50am.  His name was also Dave, and he seemed to be very friendly and a bit talkative.  In fact he must of spent the past two years in solitary confinement as he really needed someone to talk to?  After a lot of coaxing, I was able to get Mackenzie, and then Maureen, and finally Mimi into the car for our trip to Logan.  It was now 3:35am.  We had promised to each other the night before we would leave by 3:15am.  One mile down Mack Hill Rd, still in Amherst, NH,  Mimi declared she had forgotten her camera battery charger and that we needed to turn around and go back.  We turned around and headed back up Mack Hill and ten seconds later Mimi let out an embarrassed gasp, "Oh God, I do have my charger."  Turn and head back towards Boston.  I kept thinking I sure would like a cup of coffee right now, while the Dave the very nice driver, drove very slow and talked non stop like he had drank ten cups of coffee right before getting to the Patten house.  Forty minutes later with a low level, "Oh Shit!",  Mimi declared that she had forgotten her drivers license.  At this point, we all felt a little panicked, as there was probably not enough time to turn around and go back, unless Maureen was driving.  I thought for a second and realized we didn't need her driver's license because we had her passport.  We went on to airport and caught our flight to DC where we were told we could use the United Club with our Platinum American Express card.  We showed up at the club at 7:45am where the desk jockey told us we could not come in.  We are now sitting in an empty gate with a five hour wait for our flight to Beijing.  And by the way Mimi did have her driver's license but only told Maureen.

trip to China +dave@davidpattendds.com

Out of Boston, Mass. Sunday June 23, 2013.

The Patten family leaves for Beijing, China Sunday at 5am, from Logan airport, Boston.