China # 7

Been awhile since we last posted - so before we forget what we did - here goes ........
March 23rd we started our day at the  Emperor'sSummer Palace.  I didn't bring a warm enough jacket so I wore Dad's.  Naturally, the Palace was very beautiful.

  The grounds feature a lovely lake that was hand dug by slaves and the hills surrounding it are the dirt that was heaped up.  Incredible.



There is also a large marble boat in the lake which the emperor had built to symbolize his security and stability in the uncertain waters.  Of course, it doesn't float - but that's another story.

 The grounds also have a long  covered walkway that is ornately painted and allowed the emperor to see the mountains on the right side and the lake on the left.  These guys had it all - at the great expense of others.

After that we had our lunch at the Pearl Factory where we saw the process of the cultured pearls - and also the beautiful jewelry.  For once, we resisted the temptation to buy - even though the smooth salesman had me put on a beautiful string of golden pearls to model.  He demonstrated how every women has a specific color and length of pearls that highlights her best.  Must say - nothing was cheap.
We ate our lunch upstairs in a large room.  They have the tourists thing figured out.

After lunch we headed off to the Beijing Zoo - just for a couple of hours to see the Pandas.  It was very interesting.  For one thing, the Panda exhibit was put together for the Olympics - not all that long ago - but already looks old and rusted.  It must have been some fast work.  Also, they just don't have the same standards as we do - and even though I realize it was too early for trees and flowers - it still is not what I think we are used to in the U.S.  Still, the pandas were very cute and certainly close to the viewers.

That night we opted to attend a Chinese acrobatic show - and it was amazing.  No way to really explain all the mind boggling acts - but the Chinese are known for this kind of stuff - we weren't disappointed. The girls are all very young when you see them close up and our guide told us that by about 15 or 16 they are no longer flexible enough for these acts. 

One weird thing that happened was that the previous night  Dad had a tailor come to our room and measure him for a custom made suit.  We thought she (the tailor) would meet us at the hotel later for his first fitting - but she came to the theater and Dad had to go the restroom and change there.  OK - whatever.  You can guess that these guys (and girls) work crazy hours.

China Trip - Post #6

This day we started off with a visit to the countryside to reach "The Sacred Way," the path leading to the tombs of the Ming Dynasty Emperors.  The whole area covers about 40 square kilometers, but the path itself is over a mile long.  The path starts at the gate (above) which is guarded by the fourth son of the dragon (looked more like a turtle to me) and then opens into a long path lined by pairs of stone creatures.  Each of the creatures had one standing, one sitting - one on guard duty, one resting.  The day was overcast as you can see, but the whole walk was impressive.

You can see the long path - this photo was taken at the half-way point.  The carvings were very cool.  After leaving this site we stopped at a jade factory for a tour.  We bought a couple of beautiful pieces, one for Mom for our anniversary.

 

Our first view of the Great Wall of China.

The Great Wall was GREAT!  China's most renowned monument, begun 700 BC to keep out foreign invaders (which always came from the north), the entire wall is over 4000 miles in length.  It goes from the Yellow Sea to the Gobi Desert.  The section nearest Beijing was about an hour drive from the city.  As you can see it is quite a walk.  I guess I had pictured a leisurely stroll along a flat surface like the city wall in Xi'an.  Not so!!!  It was steep beyond the ability of most in our group.  The steps vary from about 3 inches to 18 inches and some are slick and sloped.

Mom begins the hike!  We are going to go all the way to the top in the highest peak you can see in this picture.  It then turns down, crosses to the opposite canyon wall and climbs again.  We didn't do that loop!  I was exhausted!  Mom could have done it, but we didn't have time.

Just to give you some perspective on how steep it is!  This is taken while we were still near the bottom.

Proof that we made it to the top!!!!  See the wall winding below us.  I was most impressed that Mom was the first one to the top!  There were younger couples with us (I think only eight of us made it to the top) but they kept stopping and playing in the guard towers along the way.  Mom came in first, I came in a distant third!  She didn't want me to put this part in, but you can tell that I am proud of her!

This was definitely one of the most memorable parts of the trip for us both.  The scale of the wall, and the fact that it was created by an ancient people is entirely mind boggling.  Yes it has needed some repairs through the centuries and has required some maintenance to keep it intact, but it is still for real!

That ended our day.  We returned to Beijing tired but happy and had a McDonald's dinner.  As we sat talking a young Chinese student sat next to us.  I caught his eye and smiled, and he said "You are talking too fast for me to understand."  He sat by us on purpose to listen to English.  It was nice to talk to him.  He was studying to be a pilot at the aeronautical college next to our hotel.  Very nice kid.

China Trip - Post #5

He's back!!  It's Dad again.  Before we left Xi'an we made a quick stop at the Muslim Quarter, a very eclectic, ancient but hyper-active street with a mix of ancient China and modern activity.  Hundreds of little shops like you see all over China (just like I used to see in Brazil) selling everything from goat's hoofs to silk scarfs.  Mom and I really enjoyed ourselves - but the only decent restroom (or Happy Room, as our hostess Grace called them) was in a Starbuck's.  Mom bought a couple of Starbuck's cookies for the train trip coming up.

As you recall, Xi'an was the start of the silk road in ancient times.  Consequently there was a significant population of Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, Christians, etc. in the city.  Grace said still about 10% of the population today were Muslim.

This is the start of the Muslim Street.  That is Grace with the yellow flag. At one point she wanted to come up with a name for our group and some of the party convinced her that we should be called the "Cougars."  However, when she said it it sounded more like "cookers" (or worse) so we changed it to "Jazz."

This is the kind of architecture that we saw all around.  Hard to comprehend the ability they had to construct such massive structures 2000 years ago.  This is one of the bell towers or drum towers that sounded on the hour in ancient times so they knew what time it was.  It was also used to sound the alarm whenever there was an enemy or an emergency like a fire.

Mom and our friends the Blake's taking off down the street.  It was a bit nippy and overcast, which I think held down the crowds.

After the Muslim Quarter we were on a tight time table to get to the train station to catch our overnight sleeper train to Beijing.  What an experience!!  I don't want this to sound politically incorrect, but the train station gives new meaning to the concept of a "Chinese fire drill."  Masses of humanity, many of the poorer people cuz others would travel by air, crowding, pushing, and jockeying for position to get in front of everyone else to get to their trains.  And in the middle of that was poor Grace with her yellow flag, trying to herd a group of confused and somewhat intimidated Americans together to our train.  And that is with a wheelchair that couldn't get though any of the gates since nobody planed for handicap access in any part of China.  But we made it - BARELY! - Grace came over the horizon with the wheelchair just as the train was getting ready to pull out.  Whew!

This is the hallway in our sleeper car, just like you see in old movies.  Made me think of "Murder on the Orient Express", but we decided not to talk about that.  By the way, the real Orient Express originated in Xi'an.  The car is broken into 12 sleeper berths, into which our group neatly fit.  What needs to be noted, however, is the woefully inadequate restroom facilities.  They had a western toilet in one end of the car and a Chinese toilet in the other end, neither of which adequately flushed.  Gross!

We got to stay with the Beards in our berth.  Very nice, fun couple from Layton.  He was a retired professor at WSU, I think Biology or something related.  We had a lot of fun and laughed as we "farckled" into the evening.  They taught us a new game, Farckle.  It will be fun to play with grandkids.  Anyway, I slept on the top bunk and Mom on the bottom.  Surprisingly enough, we actually slept reasonably well.  We woke in the morning as we pulled into Beijing's train station, nervous about how to find our guide after our harrowing experience the night before.  Imagine our relief when we opened our windows and saw a guy standing with a Utah Jazz flag on our platform.  Hooray for Henry!

He took us to our hotels where we were able to shower and rest for the rest of that day.  Mom and I took advantage of an in-room 90 minute massage (cost about $30 each, deep tissue - we felt beat up)  and spent the day relaxing.  That night the group wanted to get together for an American dinner.  We walked over to a "Big Pizza", the local name for a Chinese version of  Pizza Hut.  Unfortunately the group was having a hard time communicating what we wanted and most gave up and went to McDonald's.  But Mom and I plus two others figured out how to do it and went upstairs for a very good all-you-can-eat pizza buffet - not quite Craigo's, but tasted very good.  Pizza, plus all the Chinese delicacies you could want.

The next morning we took off for our first stop in Beijing - the site of the 2008 Olympics.  There is a HUGE plaza with several different and very recognizable Olympic venues all around.  I can only imagine what it must have looked like during the Olympics - masses of humanity.  Henry reminded us that they took great steps to put on a good face for the world - they even outlawed cars for a few weeks ahead of time to help with air pollution.  You can see that it was a bit chilly and overcast/polluted this day.

You recognize the "Bird's Nest" from the Olympics. 

This is me on the plaza, with the Water Cube in the background.  Very beautiful at night, with bright blue bubbles in shimmering shades.  Note the cool architecture in the modern building in the background.  You see all kinds of amazing new buildings in Beijing - an architect's playground!

This is the other view of the plaza, with the Media Tower on the left and the Olympic Torch (in red) on the left.  You have to imagine it with the flame.

Closer look at the torch.  It is all carved, sculpted throughout, but hard to tell in a photo.

That is enough for now.  Next up will be Ming tombs and the Great Wall!  Stay tuned!  Dad/Jim

China Trip # 4

This is Mom now - and I wanted to be sure and have a picture of our guide, Steven, as we all fell in love with his sweet personality and sincerity.  He shared a lot of heartfelt feelings about his life and the challenges of the youth in today's China. 

On our way down from the mountain village, we stopped for a program where the Yao minority women danced and showcased their hair.  They cut it once in their lifetime - when they are 16 to 18 years old - then never again.   They save the hair they cut and add it to their hair creating a pretty serious up do.  Dad was coerced into going on stage with a couple of other guys to dance with some of the single ladies - and what a racket.  They made the men buy silver bracelets for the girls - then put them back on the "for sale" rack afterwards.

From here we caught our plane to Xi'an.  We arrived at night and checked into our REALLY nice hotel suite.  Our new guide was Grace - a 28 year old woman - who was so OCD that we loved her!! (Sure glad no one in our family is like that, though - ha! ha!)
 
Xi'an was the ancient capital of China (one of three cities designated as ancient) and really beautiful. In the 10th century this city had a population of over one million!  Xi'an is the beginning of the famous "Silk Road" that carried trade to the Mediterranean.  The wall still surrounds the old city, and the newer part of the city is outside the wall and mote.  The wall is approximately 12 miles in circumference.  You can ride bikes on the wall - but it was a cold morning.  Guard towers like the one below are situated around every quarter mile - with bigger soldier quarters in various spots.  It has booby traps to keep the enemy out and was very interesting.  We left our camera in the hotel room the day we first went up on the wall - and this picture was taken the next day as we were leaving the city.

This was also the day we visited the Star Fish orphanage and felt so badly that we couldn't take pictures of the children and our time there.  Others in our party took lots of pictures with promises to get some to us.  The orphanage is run by a woman from South Africa.  She is not there now - as she is being treated for cancer in Memphis.  A young man from Utah (a returned returned missionary that served in Taiwan and then married a Chinese girl from Xi'an) is acting head of the orphanage and it was very impressive to see the wonderful work there.  There are several sweet Chinese women who also help with the children.  
The children come from other orphanages and  places that take abandoned children -  all with special needs  (cleft palates, brain damage, etc.).  We all brought supplies and wrote checks as they are strictly funded by private donations.  We stayed about 2 hours and just held and played with the children - (infants to 6 years).
That night we shopped in the ancient city's Muslim quarter - again no pictures and so interesting. 


Next day was our day at the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses.  This INCREDIBLE archaeological site guarded the tomb of China's first emperor for over 2,200 years.  It was discovered in 1974 by a farmer digging a well.  The excavation is still in progress and has uncovered over 6000 life sized warriors.  Each one is individually sculpted with the unique features and characteristics of the archers, infantrymen, cavalry (and horses), officers, etc, that they were modeled after.  The farmer is still signing memorabilia at the museum. 

Here is one scary, fierce warrior!! (Actually taken at the Terracotta Factory - where we bought a very cool Emperor statue.)

Just a glimpse of the work completed - (there are several massive buildings)

This is kind of hard to decipher - but if you look closely you can see the pieces like a big jigsaw puzzle that they are still putting together.  Some are more intact than others.  Can't appreciate the scope of this.  The site is massive - and who knows how much is yet to be uncovered. 

Considered the 8th Wonder of the World.

From this place we headed back into the Xi'an train station to board our overnight sleeper car to Beijing.  More to come on that!

China Trip - Post #3

OK, I'll do one more post tonight.  Mom mentioned a couple of things I forgot to tell you in the earlier post.  The house we visited was OLD, having been occupied by the same family for 12 generations in essentially the same form.  And the Five Poison jar had those little beasties in there for nearly 50 years!  Think of drinking formaldehyde in your biology class!

Back to the narrative - I told you that we went to a little village high in the mountains where the people over the generations had carved the mountains into terraces to allow rice planting.  Well, we arrived at night and the "'walk" up to the village was more like a rigorous hike in pitch black on wet stones set in a muddy hillside.  We couldn't see anything so had no idea where we were or what the surroundings looked like.  The hotel was a palace for where it was, but no where near what we had experienced - certainly wouldn't rate many stars.  The bathrooms were spare, the bed was nice but the sheets felt damp in the jungle climate.  But we slept great, in spite of the fact that I was concerned for other members of the party and the challenges that some of them faced in surmounting the hill climb.

When we woke in the morning this is what we saw outside our window.  We had arrived in a 3rd world country, definitely!  There were no clocks in the room, but the roosters started crowing about 3 AM.

Mom slept so well that I let her sleep in and a few of the party took a further hike up the mountain to see more.  The terraces in the picture below give you an idea of the magnitude of the task of carving them in the mountainsides.  They go off into the distance for miles.  This way the village would be able to take care of itself without ever coming down off the mountain and exposing themselves to enemies.  Keep in mind that these are hundreds of years old, having been done with shovels and hoes by hand.

 This is the view immediately outside the village.

 This gives an idea of the hike up the hill, about a third the distance of the hike up to the village the night before.  We are climbing up to the three flags you see at top.

 Evidence that I made it to the top!  Note the terraces on all sides.

 This little grandmother was making her way up the trail as we were coming down.  Don't want to even think how many times she has climbed this in her life, carrying heavy loads. 

 We hiked back down the hill in the late morning to catch our bus back to the airport.  You can see from this picture with Mom how the village is cut right into the mountain side.  Very rustic adventure, to say the least.

One more picture near the bottom of the hill.  There are red lanterns all over the place in China like the ones you see in the covered bridge.  They just celebrated their new year of the dragon, plus red is a sign of happiness.  You see red all over the land.

One thing I forgot to mention.  The driving style is not limited to the city.  The bus ride up and down the hill was more exciting than any ride at Lagoon.  The driver had the bus going full speed on corners, barrelling through little villages along the way, shooting for a record on how fast he could get his bus up the hill.  WOW!  Half the group was terrified, half of us were having a ball.

That's it for now.  Next post we go to the ancient city of Xi'an.  You will love what you see!  Dad/Jim

China Trip - Post #2

Here I am again, Mom is sleeping (she needed a nap, jet lag) so I thought I would post a few more tidbits of information.  Don't worry, we are not going to post ALL of our pictures or tell you ALL of the things we did.  Just enough to give you the flavor of the experience.

Traffic in China is unlike anything you have ever experienced in the US.  Traffic rules are simply "guidelines" and are totally unenforced.  Reminded me of Brazil.  Picture huge trucks, buses, automobiles, bicycles, golf carts, motorbikes, and electric bikes on the same roads at the same time - some traveling at 70 mph, some at 30 mph, darting into any opening in the traffic they can find regardless of danger to life or limb and you can get a feel for it.  Expect the unexpected!!  For instance, if our bus driver wanted to turn around on the busy highway, he simply stopped in the fast lane and pulled a U-turn without concern for how it impacted other drivers.  It is just how it works.  I actually think it is a form of population control in their country!

Add to that traffic mix pedestrians, especially tourists.  Traffic does not stop for pedestrians.  I am used to that from Brazil and found that I had not lost any of my street crossing skills from missionary days.  But the others just didn't get it at first.  Standing between lanes while traffic rushes past on either side is somewhat distracting to the uninitiated, but we all made it.

We woke up the second day and got into "golf carts" which seated up to six people and ventured out into the traffic storm.  It was exhilarating and life threatening at the same time - I loved it!  We went into the county to visit a typical native home which we found very interesting and compelling.  Very simple life styles, yet they seem  to be just as happy as we are but without the gadgets.

 Mom and I with the grandmother of the house, taken in front of a family "shrine" in the central part of the home.  Photos of dead ancestors and family memorabilia are very important to maintain a family identity.  People generally stared at my height and Mom's blonde hair, even stopping us to take pictures a couple of times.

 Even Scott and his "sample any food" philosophy might have balked at this.  This is called the "5 Poisons Jar" and it contains bodies of a poisonous snake, a scorpion, a spider, and a couple of other poisonous creatures.  They fill it with liquid (must be some kind of strong alcohol) and everyday the grandfather drinks a shot glass of the stuff.  Helps maintain his virility!  No telling how many years these creatures have been in there.  No thanks!!

This next photo is out of order, but I can't figure out how to move it.  Oh well.  That afternoon we went to a tea plantation.  They made a point of telling us that this part of China plays an important role in US history.  It was from one of these locations that the tea that was thrown into Boston Harbor at the start of the Revolutionary War came from!  Very interesting experience from an historical perspective since this was one of the main links between China and the Western world.  The British influence is still strongly felt - our host spoke with a decidedly British accent.  We sat through a "tea ceremony", learning how to hold the cup properly, what each tea is supposed to taste like, etc.  They only brewed decaffeinated teas for our party since they don't do herbal teas. 

After visiting the native home we went a bit further into the country and stopped at these rape seed fields.  This is the principal ingredient in canola oil and has become a big crop for China.  We hit them at the perfect time since the crops just came into bloom and were a vibrant yellow.  The weather was a bit overcast with rain all around us, but never on us.  Made the surrounding mountains look quite ethereal.

Isn't Mom cute?  This picture gives a good impression of the beauty of the surrounding area.

That's it for now.  Tomorrow I will be going back to work so maybe Mom can pick up where I left off and the narrative will be a bit more descriptive.  See ya. Dad/Jim

Home From China!! Part 1

 Me on the street in front of our hotel in Guilin.

 Mom heading out for lunch in a Chinese restaurant - imagine my surprise!

 Took this out the window of our bus.  Typical landscape.

View from the Li River in our little bamboo rafts.  Kinda fun.  We are about half the size of the boats in this picture.

Hello all!  We are officially back, although I caught some kind of "Asian Flu" the last day that knocked me for a loop on the flight home.  Combined with jet lag, I didn't go to work today.  Went to the doctor and got an Rx for antibiotics today.

This is our first stop of the 13 day journey.  We will post a bit each day to not bore you.  We flew into Shanghai the first night, drove through the heart of the city (very modern, cosmopolitan with lights like Las Vegas) in the rain to our VERY NICE hotel.  Crashed for a few hours, then got back up for another flight to Guilin early the next morning.

Met our tour guide Steven (that is his English name, can't remember his Chinese name).  Very nice, single guy, graduate, about 30.  He gave us some real insights into Chinese culture, pro and con.  You can see the countryside in the photo's above - it was like that everywhere.  Jungle, humid, although not yet hot.  It rained all around us but never on us - very lucky.  The rain around us gave an unique feel to the surroundings, kinda misty.

Got on little bamboo rafts and took off down the river for about an hour, got hijacked by vendors on a little island.  They are EVERYWHERE and hyper-annoying.  Fortunately there is always one member of the group who acts interested and they all flock to him/her like sharks smelling blood in the water.

Ended the day at a big outdoor event that tells a Chinese fable about lost love, etc. all done on the water with amazing lighting.  It was interesting, but so many of us where exhausted that we fell asleep, me included.

Ate very well everyday.  However, I have had a three year supply of Chinese food - after the 13th Chinese lunch they all start to look the same, although when they are in front of me I didn't seem to mind.  All very good. 

For whatever reason, Mom slept like a log in China, for which we are very grateful.  Our group of travelling partners was GREAT.  More on that in future posts.

All for now.  Glad to be home - really.  We thought of you and prayed for you every night.  Dad/Jim