Our first dayOur first day in China will be pretty relaxed as we acclimate to the time change. 

Details
Hotel: InterContinental Jinan City Center
Check-In: July 9th
Check-Out: July 15th
Weather: Highs in the upper 80’s, lows in the mid 70’s; humidity around 70%.
Here’s a full layout.

Things to do in Jinan
Each day we will have a fair amount of chilling time where we can occupy ourselves in whatever way we wish. A few things we can try to pepper into our day:
Baotu Spring Park
Daming Lake
Black Tiger Spring 
Shandong Art Museum
See a movie
Wander the gigantic mall across from the hotel
Play poker
Nap

Day 2: Tutorials & Home cookingOn this day we’ll be acclimating ourselves to the city—probably we’ll all naturally get up pretty early because of the jet lag. The most important things are that we get a phone for you (the folks) and teach you how to utilize the tech. This is something that you shouldn’t really need to do, but helpful in case of emergencies. Shuwen and I will also activate our phones and we will simply enjoy some food as we wander the city.
In the evening we will go to Shuwen’s parent’s house for a home cooked meal. A likely menu will be: 
Homemade Dumplings (Chive & Pork, or Carrot & Pork)
Small cold dishes 
   







Things to do in Jinan
Each day we will have a fair amount of chilling time where we can occupy ourselves in whatever way we wish. A few things we can try to pepper into our day:
Baotu Spring Park
Daming Lake
Black Tiger Spring
Shandong Art Museum
See a movie
Wander the gigantic mall across from the hotel
Play poker
Nap

Day 3: Big DinnerToday is the Big Family Dinner where we will have a meeting of the families. This is something I already experienced and it’s quite nice. The meal takes place in a separate room with a large, round table in the center where we all will sit and food will be placed on the motorized, rotating center. Grab food at your leisure.

Menu should be pretty chill, staple foods in the North are more noodles or buns, but rice is still present. These meals often have a lot of small dishes with fresh fruit, cold vegetable salads, fish is a specialty, lightly prepared duck, crisp crackers, any soups are usually present.    

Day 4: Family Photo & Friends DinnerWe’ve been slowly easing into the trip and indeed the Jinan leg of this traveling journey is intentionally slower. Partially because of the jet lag and partially because it is a sleepy little city, despite its population. Today, however, we will be having a slightly longer outting that includes a whole family photo. For this it will be about a 2 hour affair with dress that is not too formal, but still presentable.  We will be outside so make sure to have a walkable shoe and breathable clothing. 

In the evening we will have another small dinner with Shuwen’s best friend Hao and her mother. This will be a much more relaxed dinner.  

In the evening we will drive to Taian and stay the night at Shuwen’s Aunt and Uncle’s large home to get up early an see Mountain Tai. 

Day 5: Taian Today we have a small day trip to Taian where we will also take a small tram to see Mountain Tai as well as enjoy another family meal. This is where Shuwen’s Dad’s brother lives. This is about 45m-1h drive to and from, so we will leave slightly earlier and it will be a fairly full day.