Li Shangyin, the poet of Tang Dynasty had a romantic line in his poem, "The setting sun has boundless beauty; only the yellow dusk is so near." The verse was just a figure of speech referring to the old age of senior people. We fully appreciate the verse describing the happiness of the retired people now that the government pays great attention to the welfare of the seniors. When the summer season in Beijing came to an end, we lingered away the hot weather at a VIP Club of a luxurious Hotel in Beijing enjoying a good time in similar conditions of ancient Roman public baths. The program of the leisure was arranged by CASS and the admission tickets were paid by the Institute. We had a favoured treatment as the management gave us a 30% discount. The bill 70 yuan charged for each paid by the Institute covered the costs of buffet lunch and dinner, swimming excercise and shower baths as well as the service for foot massage that in all we spent 10 hours there. The new hotel was constructed 2 years ago and it embodied the refinements of the policy in the reform period of China. We enjoyed ourselves in the water area of the club and took a long rest after foot massage.

buffet dinner

retired people sit around the table enjoying the deliocious food

the resting hall for playing chess and watching TV programs

warming pool

dresser mirror and lotions

entrance of VIP Club

changing clothes

swimming pool area

you can watch TV programs enjoying massage

massage rooms

The massage girl rubbing my foot is from the mountain village of

Henan Province.  She has long hair drapped over her shoulders

 like the city girl's style and she is wearing high heels.

The bathing and swimming facilities of the VIP Club in the Hotel were modeled after the ancient style of Roman Empire.

Comments from my friend Carol:

The hotel and club pictures showed a very luxurious place.  Senior life in Beijing is very good! It sounds as if you and Anne are doing well and enjoying life.

Right now we have the neighbor family here from Rome: parents and two girls, age 9 and 11. They are staying with our friends who were our apartment mates in Rome two years ago, but John and I have been entertaining them for several days. Lots of work. It is very interesting to see how different they are from American children their ages.

We leave for Rome in two weeks. We will return 3 weeks later, October 4. On the way home we will stay in Boston for the weekend, visiting Chris and Lucy and the two girls in their new home.