Freak Show Hits Martyr's Park

Yesterday (Thursday) was a free day so we jumped in a cab and headed over to Martyr's Park. I would best describe this as Central Park meets Dave and Busters, meaning it's large, beautiful and has a little of everything, including lakes, boats, beautiful trails, a carnival, amusement rides for kids and adults, food courts, fishing, flower gardens, Sr Citizen American Idol contestants, etc.

Upon our arrival we were immediately mobbed by a hoard of 200 middle-school kids all trying to sell us Chinese newspapers. After plowing our way through them, we entered the front gate and started our 1/4 mile walk to a Chinese memorial located in the middle of the park honoring various hero's who died during WWII.

Being the only "white guy" there, I drew some attention. I felt much like Sheriff Bart from Blazing Saddles riding his horse into the town of Rockridge for the first time. It confused them even more to be there with my English speaking Asian wife and daughter. Although there are many European looking people displayed on billboards and store windows, to actually see one in person is an entirely different story. So basically I was the freak show and could have set up a booth in the carnival area and charged admission.

A young man wanting to practice his English approached us for conversation. I tried getting his thoughts on Jay Cutler wanting to be traded from the Bronco's, but acted as if he had never heard of the Bronco's or Cutler. I had to show him that American men are very shallow and can only converse on American sports so I quickly ended the conversation and we moved on.

After stopping for an ice cream, we headed over to the amusement park area where Morgan got to blow off some steam by bouncing around on an inflatable castle. After shooing away a half-blind lady begging for money, we found a very informative sign to help guide us through the maze of rides. Please tell me if you can understand any of these.

Morgan then took me on an elevated plane ride around the park. I quickly learned not to walk under this ride as evidenced by the young men spitting down on the people below. Nice to know that Chinese and Americans have some things in common.

What made the rides even funnier was the fact that there is zero safety or ride enforcement. Kids would push and shove their way onto the rides. The safety straps were a joke and never used. Kids on the log/water ride would stand up in the boat to see how far they could rock it back and forth. While doing this I was jokingly using my "Disneyland voice" saying "please remain seated until the ride has come to a full and complete stop . . . or until you've capsized the boat, whichever comes first".

Not knowing when these rides last had their last certified safety inspection, we decided to leave the amusement park and walk around for a while longer, then head back to the hotel for a little time in the pool. Jax has never been in a pool, but we put his swimsuit on and tried to at least get his feet wet. Morgan on the other hand is a human fish and swam many laps.

Today is another free day while awaiting Jax's passport delivery tonight. So with a lot of time on our hands I may inflict my own version of Chinese torture on you and continue to blog all day long . . . sorry, I'm not that cruel.

This morning at breakfast we met Dave and Paula from Iowa. It's always nice meeting other "freaks" from America here in China. They have a 4 year old adopted Chinese daughter and 7 year old bio son back home. They're here to adopt a 5 year old Chinese boy that suffers from febrile seizures.

I think we're going to head out to a lake this morning then come back for another dip in the pool, then go bowling on the 7th floor. They don't have a bowling alley, we just thought it would be fun to bowl.

Tomorrow we head back to Guangzhou . . . it will be nice to have the distraction of traveling and going somewhere different.