Goodbye Beijing!

It’s the last day in Beijing. It is sort of bittersweet--I mean I would love to see more of this city, but the smog is beginning to hurt my throat. Daniel found out that someone in another group had an asthma attack and had to go home. The pollution is quite rough. 

Birds Nest Stadium...in the smog.
It was actually across the street when this pic was taken.

Today we are going to spend the morning at the Temple of Heaven park. It is Saturday morning and everyone gathers in the park to exercise. It’s not like anything you see in NC. People here are actually exercising! When you enter the park, there is a group of women (about 30 or so) line dancing to a Lady Gaga song in Chinese. Then on further down, there is what looks like a playground but it’s actually machines for adults to exercise on--and they are full! Here we met a the most flexible guy I have ever seen. 

There are people playing hacky sack with something that looks like a badminton shuttlecock except it has huge feathers on it. People are also playing badminton. There are some parents out walking their children in strollers, some are just walking, some are jogging. We pass a huge group doing traditional Tibetan Dance. A small group were doing some Tai Chi and a lovely woman was doing some sort of traditional Chinese dancing and got two of our members involved. It was quite cute!

We then headed up to the temple or alter itself. This is where the emperors would come to pray for a good harvest. It was beautiful! We circled around it taking pictures and enjoying the view of the city. On a clear day (if there ever was one) you could see the Forbidden City and Summer Palace. It wasn’t that clear for us.

We met back toward the entrance to the park to do some exercising of our own. A tai chi master had agreed to give us a lesson that morning. As we all lined up, he gave us a beautiful demonstration. However I noticed right away, it was not the tai chi I had been taught! He began to attempt to instruct us, as which point a many Chinese tourists found it amusing to watch us and take some pictures. We said to Daniel, “They're laughing at us, aren’t they.” In his cute but patronizing way, he said “No,no. They are just jealous and want to join too!” Yeah, they were laughing at us.

We posed for pictures with the master afterwards and headed back down to the bus. We had a plane to catch for Xi’an. Goodbye for now to Beijing. I do hope I come back one day.

If you want to see more pictures of Beijing, click here.

I saw this tree and felt it needed a hug

Tai Chi Master

Traditional Tibetan Dancing (but not in tradtional garb)

Beijing Day 3 part 2: You haven't lived until you ride a rickshaw...

After the hike down the great wall, we headed back down the mountains into the city for what Daniel described as a tea ceremony. The word “ceremony” usually gets me excited, but in reality, it was a tea tasting. 

Tea House

We were ushered into a cute little room with stools and a long table and a cute little tea set and a woman came in and made us a variety of teas. The sales pitch wasn’t too bad either. I ended up buying a cup and two types of teas: fruit and oolong. 

Next up on the agenda, a rickshaw ride through the Hutong district and a homemade dinner in a real Chinese household. Daniel had set us up with a family to witness a real homemade meal. But to get there, we took a rickshaw ride through the streets of Beijing. Ibby and I teamed up again to witness the insanity and our driver was more than happy to make the ride entertaining---especially when he realized that I was ducking and covering my eyes when we almost hit several vehicles and some pedestrians! He took us through the winding streets with coffee shops and the locals sitting out playing cards. Then we turned a corner and a view of the lake opened up. It was wonderful! I filmed part of it and you can see it here.

The dinner was set back in a small flat that was 3 rooms downstairs-a small room with a table set up for dinner, a family room with 2 tables set up and a kitchen. The whole thing was probably as big as my living area. We all crammed in to experience a wonderful meal cooked by a Chinese soldier no less. Turns out our chef only “moonlights” as a chef. During the day, he works in the Army. He has a beautiful wife and a 2 year old that we got to meet at the end of the meal. This living space, plus the sleeping area that was up stairs was shared by 4 families. It really makes you think about space in America.

Part of the meal was the zongzi’s I mentioned before in celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival. The lake area (as you could see in the video) was full of people and the treats were divine! They were, however, too rich for more than one.

We had to get back to our bus so that we could make our show, The Legend of Kung Fu, so our rickshaw riders were out waiting for us. We rode back though the district in the same hurried state that we began. Eight of us in our group were supposed to go see a Kung Fu Show that night, but 2 in our group were so tired that they gave their tickets away. I admit that I had trouble staying awake through part of it, but to watch those kids turn flips on their heads was pretty awesome.

Tomorrow we have one more place to visit in Beijing then we are off to Xi’an. If it weren’t for the horrible smog here, I would enjoy spending more time exploring the city and the culture.

Jasmine Tea Ball

Day 3, part 1: Yet More Walking ON A GIANT WALL!

We started the day with something that was not on the original plan. One of the group members asked Daniel if we were going to see a Panda on this trip. Well, Daniel, in his infinite greatness, scheduled us to stop by the National Zoo in Beijing to take about 30 minutes to see a real Chinese Panda...in China. This was worth the 50 yuan we shelled out to see it.

It was also a national holiday today--the Dragon Boat Festival. The kids were out of school and parents and families were gathered together at the zoo to spend some quality time together. We were told that we would see the same at the Great Wall today. Also, there would be boat races on the lake at the Summer Palace and among other Chinese traditions, dragon boat treats, zongzi, would be made. This is basically sticky rice mixed with some sweet sort of nut or fruit (a red bean perhaps) and wrapped up in bamboo leaves. Little did we know that later we would experience this festive little treat at a home in Beijing.But for now, we were off to the Great Wall! 

There are several different places that have been restored for the public along the Great Wall. Our tour guide took us out to Badaling, a quaint little section. Built around it are restaurants and souvenir shops. Daniel took us up to the entrance of the wall and passed us through a gate. We all had our pictures made there and then he informed us that we could walk up the wall two ways: hard and harder. The harder part would probably be less crowded. Since I had my fill of crowds yesterday, I decided I would head up the harder part of the wall. After all, how hard could it be?

Holy cow! I think at one point, I could have used a harness and a rope. Being an overweight, out of shape American, this was tough. But I kept going. The views were amazing!

I was also climbing along with a tour buddy, Ibby, and we kept getting stopped to have our pictures taken with total strangers. As it turns out, we were a rare sight to see out here for some of the Chinese people with our light skin and blonde hair and blue eyes. We stopped several times to try to communicate with these folks and pose for pictures. The people out here on the wall were so friendly. AND  there were no vendors trying to sell us anything. This place was almost Chinese heaven.

We were getting quite hungry so we headed back down the wall to the shops and restaurants. There was a place called California Beef and Noodle which appeared to be the most Chinese place of them all (as far as fast food goes). Inside we found more of our group so we all sat at one big table and ordered noodles and dumplings. The whole meal cost me $33 yuan which was roughly $5.22. 

Then it was time to shop for jade and souvenirs. I must say that most shops around here are somewhat overpriced but the goods are quality. I bought my first piece of jade here, a bracelet, and a few other “teacher” items. 

This part was pretty long, so I will continue this day on another posting. Coming up: tea tasting/ceremony and a rickshaw ride through the Hutong area!

entrance gate to the Great Wall

Beijing Day 2: walking, walking, walking....

Oh, my Buddha, how many miles can we do in one day?

The answer is about 10. But it felt like 50.

Daniel and Katey outside of the school

The first real day of sit seeing in China began at about 9 am after breakfast and a short bus ride into town. We stepped off the bus across the street from Tiananmen square to visit Qianmen Foreign Language School. The school year was about up for these students, but we were lucky enough to be able to visit and check out a classroom. Most students were getting ready for a four day period of rest before major exams and a national holiday. We handed out gifts and took a few minutes to talk to the students. 

Afterwards we walked across the street to Tiananmen square. It's huge. It's busy. It's overwhelming. There are people everywhere. Most of them are tourists just like us--and they delighted on taking pictures of the laowei--the white people (laowei roughly translates to "big nose.") As you head across the streets and through the underground crossings, you come across security. The Chinese government wants to check your bags---if you are Chinese. However, since we are in a tour group, we can just glide on through. Our city guide, Katey, asked on the bus to refrain from asking about the incident in 1989 while we were out in the square. With the presence of Chinese soldiers, this was very easy to do.

And then we were also bombarded with street vendors--both of the illegal and legal kind. If you want to buy a cheap watch or some post cards, you can haggle with the peddlers. We were advised to not buy from these guys at all. To peddle your wares on the street, you must have a government issued license and these guys didn't of course. But I did not get taken advantage of today. 

Chairman Mao's portrait still hangs above the temple of peace in the square (as well as his corpse that is still in a mausoleum for spectators.) We did not visit the mausoleum, but there were many lined up to pay homage to the former leader. Many people still believe he was a great man and helped China progress. 

Across a major street is the entrance to the Forbidden City, called as such because when the emperor lived there, no commoners were allowed in. We began the long walk through the city which would take us a couple of hours. The city is HUGE. It has exactly 99,999.5  rooms. If you watch the movie The Last Emperor, which was filmed here, you will see all you need. I filmed a few 360’s. You can check them out here.

So after braving the heat (sucked down 3 twenty ounce water bottles) we boarded the bus for lunch. As it turned out, I traveled over 8 thousand miles to eat at a KFC. What???

Back on the bus to head out to the emperor’s summer palace. Our tour guide tried to sweet talk us on this one and say that there wouldn’t be as much walking because we were going to take a boat out. Well, he was right--we did take a boat out, and then proceeded to walk back. Maybe tonight is when I really need that reflexology. But we did see some beautiful art and a fantastic lotus field. 

Somewhere also planted in this day was some pearl shopping at Longing Pearl Company. This place is owned by the Chinese Government so they guarantee their pearls. They also did a pearl demonstration which was way cool.

After all that walking, we needed some food! So we headed to a restaurant somewhere in the city for our Peking Duck dinner. I have no idea where we were, but I did manage to take a picture of the entrance of the restaurant. Notice the duck in front.

Back to the hotel Dongfang to crash for the night. Tomorrow we brave the Great Wall and we are going to need all of our energy for that!

Peking Duck!

marble boat at the Summer Palace

Forbidden City

Day One: Let's go to Beijing!

First day is a travel day. There are 18 of us in our NC group flying out of Charlotte to Newark and then Newark to Beijing. When I flew to Hawaii, I did it in 3 legs--18 ours of flying. But this was broken into only two--which meant a 15 hour flight. I thought the 10 hour to Greece was rough. Geeze.

We left at 9:30am on Tuesday and arrived in Beijing at 1:30 pm on Wednesday. Needless to say we were all wiped out. We met our tour guide, Daniel, after we collected our luggage and made it though immigration and customs. For the record, as long as  you have your visa already approved, getting into the country is easy.

Daniel, our guide for the next 7 days

Daniel informed us of our plans to check in to the hotel and have dinner around 6. Our group was to merge with 3 other groups from Texas, Connecticut, and Ohio, but they weren't due until much later that night. 

Our hotel in Beijing was the Dongfang Hotel and it was situated right in the middle of this wonderful little community. Daniel informed us that if we were interested, we could get an hour reflexology massage for about $150 yuan, which converts to roughly $23 American dollars. SOLD!!!

view out of my hotel window

Before dinner, 7 of us walked 2 blocks down to the massage parlor. Now, I had read that you should be aware that some massage parlors offered you more than massage.....if you know what I mean. This place was clean, friendly, and I received my rub down while fully clothed. But the work on my feet was amazing!

Now that I was relaxed, and dinner was served, I would sleep very well tonight. It's a good thing because the next day was to be the roughest walking day of the whole trip....

You're going where? CHINA!!!

Last summer as we were getting out of school, a colleague of mine, Diane, told me that she was planning a trip to China the next summer and that I should come along. At the time, it seemed overwhelming to go on such a trip. After all, the closest I had been out of the country was the Bahamas. But after about six months of traveling light (and a BIG trip to Greece), I figured it was time to take the big plunge. After all, I was taking this year off to do some traveling, might as well go big!

But planning a packing a trip to China is no small feat. Diane planned the trip through an educational company called EF or Education First Tours.  They would take care of the big things like transportation, rooms, meals and tour guides. All we had to do was show up with our amenities and a visa.

The visa for entrance to China, if filled out correctly, only takes about 3 weeks to process once you have sent it off. I sent mine off right before I left for Hawaii and it showed up a week after I returned. But then there is packing. First of all, the tap water is unsafe to drink, so you must be careful not to open your mouth in the shower or rinse your tooth brush out with it, so bring extra toothbrushes in case you forget. You may also want to bring tissues because toilet paper is not always available. I also packed a load of wet wipes and hand sanitizer. We were going to visit a school and a family while we were there, so the tour guides suggested we bringing a little gift. I managed to get six days worth of clothes, 10 days worth of underwear plus all the extras in my carry-on suitcase and make it to the terminal in Charlotte by 7 am Tuesday,  June 19th, ready for my next big adventure!