Day Sixteen
Li and I visited with the contractor. The building
was not plumb true, so we had to slightly adjust the
position of the large wall. We also decided to
enlarge the downstairs bathroom. I then returned to
work on my sculptures before going to bank to
exchange U.S. dollars for RMB. Li showed me a new
branch of China Bank which was much nearer the
compound where I was staying. It was not crowded. I
thought of need for an electric bicycle for this
type of trip which was too far by a traditional
Chinese fat tire bike on a regular basis.
Li and I went off for lunch. Ye Dongsheng, her
husband, was to join us. But he was stopped for
speeding. Because he had a number of prior moving
violations, he had to go to the police station.
After lunch, it was too hot to work. I put on my
ipod and started to read my Tao book before I fell
asleep for 2 ˝ hours. Then I went back to work fine
tuning the finish of the smaller version of Long and
Slender and doing some preliminary packing. I was
going to the antiques market on Saturday morning and
then going directly to the airport. Detail work can
be tedious and boring , but it is a necessary evil.
Li Gang, Wendy and Heying came by and they wanted an
early dinner. Gang and his work crew had just come
back from the Norwegian embassy where they were
working on a sculpture installation. Also, the
sculptures from the showing at the Swedish consulate
were dropped off and in the daylight I had a chance
to study them more closely. They were very well done
and Li Gang explained to me that there were very few
Chinese contemporary sculptors working in bronze
because of the high cost of bronze casting. The
doubling and tripling of the cost of bronze has
further limited the number of contemporary Chinese
artists who are willing to do bronze casting.
We went to one of Heying’s favorite restaurants near
where she lived. I had been there before with them
two years ago. Although my stomach was feeling
better, I decide to drink a type of semi-sweet rice
milk rather than wine or beer. Since Gang and Heying,
had just come back from two months in Austria they
were feeling broke. Heying did not like Austrian
food and thought the price of food in the
restaurants was outrageously expensive. She enjoyed
a side trip to Amsterdam , but felt that the price
of Chinese dinner there was far too high. She was
very happy to be back in China. She loved the book I
brought for Wendy and said it really helped her with
her English reading. She communicates very well in
English but wants to increase her vocabulary.
I took a cab home and did some more detail work on
Long and Slender. I then packed and after calling
Leslie, went to sleep since we were leaving for the
antiques market at 7:00 a.m.
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