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Yep, must be the same machines. This was my second trip to Chongqing this year, with the first one in February for the New Year. My wife would like to find a place there at some point since her family is there. Personally I find Chongqing to be a depressing place to be in. Her friend has a very nice place on the outer part of the city. If I was to live anywhere in the city, I might be able to tolerate it there. The place is up against a park so it has some insulation from all the noise and traffic. It also has a small yard attached. According to her friend the apartment shell cost $200000. So it would be pretty pricey once you did the interior as you wanted it.

"The Chinese Exclusion Act" premieres on PBS, May 29th at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. The documentary was created by Ric Burns and Li-Shin Yu. The film documents the law's development and implementation and connection with other parts of American History at the time.

And this morning there is a report that the U.S. is launching "a national security investigation into car and truck imports that could lead to new U.S. tariffs similar to those imposed on imported steel and aluminum in March." https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-auto-probe-china-tariffs_us_5b067d30e4b07c4ea105063a From the article: The governments of Japan, China and South Korea said they would monitor the situation, while Beijing, which is increasingly eyeing the United States as a potential market for its cars, added that it would defend its interests. “China opposes the abuse of national security clauses, which will seriously damage multilateral trade systems and disrupt normal international trade order,” Gao Feng, spokesman at the Ministry of Commerce, said at a regular news briefing on Thursday which focused largely on whether Beijing and Washington are making any progress in their growing trade dispute. “We will closely monitor the situation under the U.S. probe and fully evaluate the possible impact and resolutely defend our own legitimate interests.”

So we came back from China last week through Los Angeles. We had to wait for 16 hours to get our connecting flight. Any way, we get down to the re-entry point and it has completely changed from what it used to be. You now have to go to automated check-in stations. The machines read your passport/greencard, ask customs declaration questions and then spit out a picture with your information on it. I had to ask how to use the machine, because, you know, there were no instructions that were obvious. Or maybe I missed them, after the long flight it was pretty frustrating. Now, of course this was supposedly done to make the process faster. However, after completing the task with the machine, you then go on to be interviewed by a customs and enforcement agent. They still ask the standard questions about your trip (purpose, etc.). They collect the information processed by the machine before you exit. They did not take the paper customs form and did not even ask the total dollar value of what we brought back. So I did not see where there was any benefit to the new setup. Makes me want to stop traveling at times.

Never did make it to Shenlong so can't comment on the toilets there. I did go to Jindao Canyon Scenic Area which is similar in character to Shenlong. I am happy to say that the toilets there do not stink. They were very clean. Jindao is a nice area to visit. It is a very narrow canyon cut through limestone, that has some karst features and others created by earthquakes. A friend of my wife took us there along with their daughter and son-in-law. They were a lot of fun to go with.

Been here since 4/30 but haven't made it to Shenlong yet. The wife is busy taking care of personal/family business. Hopefully we will actually get to do something fun, soon. I have two packages of flushible wipes to use. I do find Chinese toilets to be abysmal in some places, and I grew up using outhouses at times.

From the New York Times, an article on China's rating tourist toilets: "One place that the government penalized last year was the Shenlong Gorge, a scenic area in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing known for its white-water rafting. Shenlong, which had been classified as 5A, the highest level in the five-tier ratings, was delisted last summer after inspectors conducted two undercover visits. The National Tourism Administration said in a news release at the time that the Shenlong Gorge was a “prominent laggard of the toilet revolution, with messy toilet sanitation, filthy conditions, seriously bad odors and dirty toilet appliances.” In response, the site closed for five days in August, partly to renovate its 12 restrooms and add soap and toilet paper dispensers. But as of this week, it was still unaccredited. The number of visitors to Shenlong Gorge has slumped, and the management recently dropped the entrance fee to 80 renminbi, about $12, from 100 renminbi, said Liao Jiangwei, Shenlong’s general manager. He said that he was working to improve the site’s restrooms but that some of the government’s standards appeared to be subjective. “It is hard for us to judge if our own toilets are smelly or dirty,” Mr. Liao said." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/world/asia/china-tourism-toilet-revolution.html The wife and I are going back to Chongqing this weekend. We are planning a day trip to this area while there. Hopefully, the toilets are better than when this article was written. Luckily, I can still hold my breath for two minutes.

Back in 1984, I changed jobs and moved from OH to TN. At the time, the Federal government was prosecuting a case against the Butcher brothers and a bank they were operating. They were making illegal loans among other things. It had a disastrous effect on the TN economy. A number of surety companies went under, which caused problems for some coal mines that had bonds through them. It also caused problems for people buying homes and operating businesses. The brothers were convicted. I haven't looked kindly on banks since then.

She had done it that way in 2016, two different times, and they both went through. So she tried to do it the same way last year but it failed. Any way, she will probably only carry money with her now.

My wife tried to transfer money from BofA to BofC, twice, early last year. They failed both times on the China end. First time BofC gave no reason for the failure when she called about it. Second time they told her it was because the conversion from dollars to yuan was done on the American end, and they wouldn't accept the exchange rate used by BofA. Don't know if that was actually the case, but who knows. She ended up carrying cash with her when she went to China later in the year.

I have read the following books over the past year and a half. They may be of interest to some on this forum. EMPRESS DOWAGER CIXI: THE CONCUBINE WHO LAUNCHED MODERN CHINA, by Jung Chang - a slightly different portrait of how she has been portrayed by others. ZHOU ENLAI: THE LAST PERFECT REVOLUTIONARY, by Gao Wenqian - biography by author that emigrated from China to America in 1993. THE CHINA MIRAGE: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICAN DISASTER IN ASIA, by James Bradley - history of American interaction with China starting with the opium trade in the mid/late 1800s. Emphasizes effects of the "China Lobby" on U. S. policy backing Chiang Kai-shek

It was pointed out in the documentary that they sold over 3000 mortgages to Fanniemae that were supposed to be suspect. Of those, only 9 went belly up. Their percentage of defaults were way lower than other banks. They had actually fired one person they discovered falsifying loans and reported it to banking authorities prior to any effort by the DA to look into them. They talk about the cash economy in Chinatown and how that represents challenges for banking as well. While there were a number of employees gaming the system it does not appear that the higher officials new what was going on. An interesting stroy.

I watched "Abacus: Small Enough To Jail" last night on Netflix. It was a pretty interesting documentary concerning a bank servicing New York City's Chinatown. The bank was founded by local Chinese American business men to serve their community. The bank was prosecuted for mortgage fraud but found not guilty on all charges. I recommend it to anyone who might like to watch it. https://www.netflix.com/title/80145790

I booked flights on Hainan last month to go to China for Chinese New Year and to visit my wife's family. We have a direct flight from Las Vegas to Beijing and then connect to Chongqing which is our final destination. Direct flights to Chongqing are not available right now, although they were for a time. Still tickets round trip were $570 each. I also booked a apartment through Air BnB, which is the first time I have used them.

I can understand her liking turtles as they can be pretty unique. I had one for 5 years when I was a kid before it died. Lettuce, carrots and broccoli were the things it liked to be fed. I used to let it run the yard for a while each day so it would also forage for its self. Ate dandelions so less weeding for me. Also would put out a dish with water in it and it would drink from it. At times it would crawl into the bowl seemingly to cool off. Water was shallow so it would not get completely submerged. Here in Las Vegas I had a neighbor that had a desert tortoise that they kept inside. It was as large as a plate and slept under their bed. It would actually crawl over to the door leading outside and knock on it with it's shell to signal it wanted to go out. On the retirement front, my wife went back over to pick something up yesterday. At that time they informed her that if she brought in proof of having one child she could get more money. Don';t know what that is all about as it is hard to talk long distance to her. I did have to laugh that after all the time she spent there they only told her about it at the last.

Just saw this article. Don't know if it really helps or not. For China it says 90 days in advance yields cheapest flight. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-cheapest-day-to-buy-an-international-plane-ticket-mapped-by-destination_us_5914a276e4b066b4217251a4 My most recent purchase of a ticket was about 30 days out and it was $492 round trip to Chongqing from Las Vegas. Wife gets back tomorrow.

My wife gets back from Chongqing the end of this week. She has been to the place for filing for retirement 4 times and finally seems satisfied that everything is right. She went back over her work history with a couple of places she worked at, and then presented them to the retirement center to correct records. She will have her "sister" do one more thing for her after she leaves China. Hopefully it will be worth it for her.

My wife is in Chongqing right now. She will be filing papers for retirement while she is there. She is not eligible to collect yet but she wanted to file so that she doesn't have to worry about new changes that might go into effect. She has said that she will need to report to a consulate every year here in the U.S. to show that she is still alive. That will mean in LA for us since it is closest. I have explained several times about SS that she will be able to get along with her eligibility for half my pension when I die. Tried to convince her that should be more than adequate. But god bless her she just can't stand to leave any money on the table. I think she probably will get enough each year for plane tickets to somewhere, so hey, it is all good.

I am in my early sixties and had hoped that all that I saw in my younger days had been put behind us. My hope now is that this is the last gasp for this kind of thing. I know that I am probably wrong, and racism will never really go away. There was also a recent article about the University of Texas at Austin. Flyers were distributed around the campus that were basically anti-Chinese, prior to that anti-Muslim flyers were distributed. I worry about my wife who is Chinese encountering these kinds of things, but nothing so far. One of the few things I like about Las Vegas is that there seems to be little push back against other races/cultures. Of course a major part of that could be the dependence on tourism.

So we are looking at my wife taking Hainan from Las Vegas to Chongqing and back end of next month. She will stay for her mother's birthday and return after 20 days there. Flights start at just under $500 round trip depending on departure and return dates. If she leaves when she wants it will still be under $600. Depends on when her employer will let her take time off.

Was not sure where to put this. Seems like an extreme waste of time but may be designed just to put people off from visiting. And of course we can all believe that there would be no "negative interpretation or inference." https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/02/20/the-us-wants-to-check-chinese-visitors-social-media-profiles/21717527/ "U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) plans to publish a proposal asking travellers from China to disclose what social media platforms they use, and what their handles are, according to Politico. Holders of business and visitor visas will be affected by the move — amounting to almost 3.6 million applicants per year, the proposal estimates. However, travellers can choose not to disclose the information, and will still have their requests processed "without a negative interpretation or inference." The move is meant to increase security as well as to "facilitate legitimate travel." Of course the vitriol in some of the comments is more concerning.

Hainan Airlines has inaugurated it's round trip service from Beijing to Las Vegas. Everyone who makes money off tourists here is drooling over more Chinese visiting the city. Hopefully it will make trips to China cheaper and easier for my wife and I. http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/tourism/inaugural-hainan-airlines-flight-beijing-las-vegas-underway

I just finished reading a book called "The Free State of Jones". And yes, there is a movie out, but I have not seen it. It is a history about a group in Mississippi that did not want to leave the Union and ended up fighting against Confederate forces. There is also a discussion about inter racial marriages, miscegenation laws and how people within the same families had different views on the subject. Overall an interesting book.

The author of Wild Swans has a new book out. It is titled EMPRESS DOWAGER CIXI, The Concubine Who Launched Modern China. The book was published in 2013. I am about a third of the way through and have found it to be interesting. I picked it up just before the holidays at Barnes & Noble.

Some time back I read the book "Wild Swans" by Jung Chang. It was a pretty interesting, and unflinching look at the Cultural Revolution as experienced by the author and her family.