We learned that Saturday,
June 23, 2012 is Dragon Boat Race day
– a national holiday. The Chinese workers got Friday off from work.
We REALLY want to see the Dragon Boat Races and see what they're about. So why not take a cruise on the Hai He River (which runs through Tianjin)??? Maybe we'll see what a Dragon Boat is!
How about some dinner first????
And of course dinner with friends is ALWAYS better than dinner alone!!!
Let's look for a place to eat in the Italian District.
How does Venezia Club sound to you??? I think Italian food sounds good to me!!!
The kids' table :
which attracted a lot of attention from passer-bys…
See what I mean?
Here's an item on the menu:
So….does it come with a lightbulb???
And too many unnaturally posed wedding photo sessions happening here in the Italian District:
Did you enjoy walking around the Italian District? Good. Now it's time to head over to the river and buy our evening cruise tickets.
I think we need to buy our tickets here:
Ancient Culture Street Pier
Did you get your tickets? We just bought ours!! It looks like a nice evening for a cruise too- not too hot and not at all chilly.
Some of the men in our group were looking for this:
Exactly what we needed!
Hey, the kids want to check out the toss-the-ring games we passed walking to the pier. Let's follow them!
Annika's Spoils:
One of Ava's spoils(which she traded for something else):
One of Marko's spoils:
It's a ceramic toilet!!!! I bet you want one too, right????
Time to get on the boat:
The Tianjin Eye:
The Tianjin Eye- a famous Tianjin landmark (a giant Ferris wheel on a bridge over the Hai He River)
And more photo taking of the kids:
Can you tell what she's taking a photo of????
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The Blue Hour:
and a very lovely ornate bridge
Another lovely bridge. The Hai He River has lots of interesting bridges spanning it.
The Century Clock
Bathers! I sure hope they're had all their shots! Who knows what's in this river?!
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A very sweet & lovely couple:
Debbie & Croydon
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Back in our seats….almost time to leave the boat:
This fellow kept taking our photos during the entire boat ride- are we really THAT fascinating????
Some days we feel like a freak show with all the photo taking. Don't you think it's weird to take photos of strangers? What must their photo album look like????
Okay- we're off the boat now. It's such a lovely night- why don't we hang out at the pier for a bit before we go home?
Hey!!!! Check out what these people are doing:
It's a floating lantern!!!
I really wanted to see the floating lanterns during the Chinese New Year festivities but the wind and the cold (and not having our proper winter coats) prevented us from going out.
Watching the lanterns floating up, up, up into the sky- what an amazing sight!!!
Hope you had fun- we did!!!
….but did you notice something????
Did we actually get to see any sort of dragon boat, let alone dragon boat races????????????
(no, we did not!)