Guest blogger: my dad part 3

My dad's third email about their trip.

We were in China for a couple of days and Sally had mentioned that she would like to see something "old" while visiting China. As previously mentioned, Shenzhen with a couple of exceptions is 25 years old. Jen found the Dapeng Fortress, about 50 miles east of her apartment and still in Shenzhen. She and Randy arranged for a private car and invited their friends David and Katie and their 2 children along. This gave us the opportunity to see a more rural Shenzhen, and the new highway that winds through (and I mean "through") the eastern mountains. We passed through 9 or 10 tunnels on our way to Dapeng. We passed one of the largest container yards in the world, evidence of the growing internationally commercial side of China.

Brief side note:
My motorcycle friends who are copied on this email know this part of the story, so I'll be brief. Many of our family know Sally and I are motorcycle nuts. One of the things we do is "collect" areas in which we ride. We have collected many states, a few Canadian provinces, and now CHINA!! In this eastern part of Shenzhen small motorcycles are allowed (not in Jen's neighborhood) and there were a couple of bikers on 125cc bikes in the parking lot in front of the fortress entrance. David explained to one of them that Sally and I were from the USA and rode motorcycles and was it OK to take a photo of us on his bike. We took a very brief ride in the parking lot and thus collected China. This gives us terrific bragging rights.


Jen posts about the Dapeng Fortress here:
"...not sure how much of the existing fortress dates back to its 1394 founding, but this Hakka village is pretty darn old. The Dapeng fortress saw attacks from the Portuguese, the British (to start the Opium Wars), and even the Japanese.

We spent a couple of hours walking through the fortress. There is a village inside where people still live. The Chinese have been able to keep some parts of the fort attractive to tourists.



Since the Dapeng Fortress is near the shore when we left the fortress we looked for a beach so we could touch the China Sea and thus the Pacific Ocean. You will see a couple of beach photos. This is not a resort or public beach, just a sandy section of shoreline we found down a small rural dirt road.


We headed back to "downtown" Shenzhen and found a very nice upscale Hunan restaurant. It reminded me of Bob Chinns Crabhouse in Chicago - very large, fast, excellent service, great food. The Jen and Randy and David and Katie ordered for us, following tradition we had 8 or 9 different entrees and everyone got to try each one. David told the staff that a fish platter should be served with the head still attached. They apologized a thousand times while they served the fish platter, as the head had been removed. They put two fins and two olives for eyes at one end to create a fish head. Such service!! Hysterical!

NOTE in this email I include a location map so you can see approximately where we were.