No doubt you will all know where Dayboro is but you will wonder where the heck is Dachang??

Introduction:  Dachang is an industrial area about 40 klms from Nanjing China which is approximately 300klms west of Shanghai.

I was born and raised in Dayboro (Whiteside) but currently live in Nanjing China and work in Dachang.  My sister Margaret and her husband just spent one month visiting us and she brought over a copy of the Dayboro Grapevine for me to read.
Travel News
Margaret and Stan arrived in Shanghai in Nov 09 where my wife Liuyang and I met up with them.  After an exploratory weekend in Shanghai we took the fast train from Shanghai to Nanjing on the Sunday afternoon.
Monday morning arrived with Nanjing turning on an early display of snow with 75mm of snow on the ground for about 3 days and of course the cold snappy air that comes with it.  This was a sharp difference to the 35c that they left behind in Brisbane.
(pictured L - R) Stan, Margaret, Liuyang, Graham and Mr Wu

They spent several days in Nanjing visiting the local tourist spots, building snowmen, crossing over the mighty Yangtze River for the first time and enjoying 5 star treatment with our many local friends here in Nanjing.
They also took the time to visit the mega international petrochemical project that we are developing at Dachang.
Liuyang was voted in to be the local tour guide and they all set off to Xi’an (The home of the Terracotta Warriors) and then on to Beijing to visit the Tiananmen Square, The Great Wall and Olympic Stadium and the Cube swimming complex.
This was topped off by an interesting shopping spree to an underground market (compliments of a confusing taxi driver) and the local supermarkets.
They then took the first class fast train (250klms/hr x 8 hrs) from Beijing to Nanjing to take in the variety of country scenes across the centre of China and arrived back to Nanjing for some R&R and wrapping and sending presents back home.
After the rest from the northern trip they then all took off south of Nanjing to Chengdu which is the capital of  Sichuan Province (State) to visit the cuddly panda bears at the world famous research centre established there.  They also took a 2 hr trip south west from Chengdu to see the giant (71m high) mountainside budda called Lanshoun Dafur.
They were joined in Chengdu by Liuyang’s daughter, Sun YuanYuan and took a 3 hour drive across to LongChang to spend 2 leisurely days staying with Liuyang, and her many Chinese family and friends at our new apartment.
They then drove across to ChongChing, the heartland of the Three Gorges Dam, and flew back to Nanjing for a rest before heading off again to Shanghai.
Liuyang travelled with them to Shanghai where they visited the picturesque city of Suzhou and Margaret made a final assault on the shopping markets. She tells me she had become quite skilled at bargaining with the market sellers by this time and wanted to try out her new found skills in the big smoke of Shanghai.
On the 10 Dec 09 Liuyang bid them farewell at Shanghai airport where they left China to take a 3 day holiday in HongKong before flying back into Brisbane.
Background to the story
I have spent the past 14 years working overseas with an American Engineering company and I have lived and worked in 9 different countries across the globe during these years.  I have spent approximately 8 of those years living and working here in China.
Liuyang and I have been married for some 4 years and we have lived and worked in Mongolia, Indonesia and China in these years but from time to time we still find time to slip back into Dayboro to pay our respects to my parents buried at Dayboro cemetery, have a cold beer at the Crown Hotel and enjoy a nice meat pie at the bakery.
The Clune family were some of the pioneers of the Dayboro district and Margaret and I were born in Brisbane and raised in the Dayboro district including time spent in Mt Pleasant, Morayfield, Rush Creek, Kings Scrub and Whiteside.  The time at Rush Creek saw us share farming with the Hays sisters and living in the now famous Hays Cottage on display in Dayboro.
We lived with our father and mother, Patrick (Paddy) and Easter Clune along with our brother Barry and sister Desley.  We finally settled on our own farm at Whiteside and after the death of our father in 1957 and the sale of the farm in 1959 we settled at River Street Petrie.
Margaret and Stan married at this time and moved to Strathpine where they still live today.
During my 14 years of travel this was the first time any of my family has had the time to visit with me and it was a really exciting time for Liuyang and I to host them here in China.