Dim Sum to Dim Sun

As long as I can remember, I have loved dumplings.  My mom used to make the best chicken and dumplings in the universe, although I have to confess as a boy I was only interested in the fluffy boiled dough, not the savory chicken and vegetables.

So, when we saw our tour's optional Dumpling Dinner would only cost $15, we immediately signed up.

That worked out well in an unforeseen way, as we spent so much time viewing Emperor Qin's Terracotta Warriors that we skipped returning to the hotel before dinner.

Fortunately, Mao's Cultural Revolution did not banish dim sum to the trash heap of history, because all eighteen selections served to us were delicious.

Yes, with so many to choose from, many people skipped a few, but I tried and enjoyed every kind of those culinary works of art.

Not only were they tasty, but they often had design flourishes, including delicious duck dumplings that looked like little ducks.  As I said at our Peking Duck Dinner, I never knew I liked duck before going to China.

Our entire group enjoyed our festive feast, with most of us washing down our dim sum with the usual two beers provided with meals on the tour.

From an early morning breakfast to exercise in the park to terracotta and furniture craftsmanship demonstrations to Marco Polo spaghetti lunch to the Emperor's Tomb to dumpling dinner, it has been a long day in Xi'an, and by the time we drove to the hotel, we were ready for bed, knowing after breakfast, we'd be on the bus heading to the airport.

Our flight the next day was uneventful, and while not my favorite way to spend the better part of a day, a couple hours in a plane beat the alternative of 10 plus hours by train to cover about 1000 miles. We were greeted by our new local guide, Andy, who would help Yuan by providing local color about Shanghai.

While Candy in Xi'an was a California casual type, Andy was considerably more flamboyant, wearing bright outfits each day that brought smiles to us.

It had been somewhat smoggy when we arrived in Beijing, and less so in the more isolated Xi'an, but nothing prepared us for Shanghai.

Los Angeles on its worst smog alert day fifty years ago wouldn't compare to Shanghai that afternoon.

Like Los Angeles, Shanghai has millions of cars crowding its roads, but Shanghai also burns a lot of coal for heating and factories, and apparently they don't have state-of-the-art scrubbers and other clean-coal technologies yet.

During their rapid growth from a third world to first world economy, they haven't been diligent about controlling pollution, not unlike the United States and Europe when we underwent our own industrial revolution.

I would postulate that many companies manufacture in China to some extent because of lax environmental regulations, whether knowingly or due to concern only for the lowest bid when outsourcing products.

Just as importantly, high mountains around Shanghai stop the smog from escaping, similar to California's San Bernardino, where you also can't see the nearby mountains for the smog.

Nonetheless, I'm optimistic that China will one day get better at controlling their pollution, just as we have gotten better.

With prosperity, they will be able to afford to do something positive for the environment.

For now, it isn't bad enough to stop farmers from moving away from the fresh air of the countryside to the opportunities of the city.

Julie, whose olfactory senses flash alarm signals for everything from cigarettes to toilet cleaner to scented detergent to hair products to cologne to air fresheners, said that surprisingly, while the air looked bad, she had no problem breathing or with her eyes stinging.

Shanghai gets more frequent rainfall than Southern California, and while we were there, a brief shower cleared the air dramatically.

In any case, by that evening, the air seemed to magically clear for a breathtaking cruise past the illuminated skyline, which created much a more enticing picture.