Back to Beijing

After another 12 hour train ride we arrived back in Beijing. There was more staring but that was nothing compared to the taxi line of DOOM! We waited in line with hundreds of other people fresh off the same train as us.

Let me start by explaining that in Chinese society the idea of queuing up is not as natural as say in countries like the US or Japan. Most places there are no lines. My mom kept getting flustered and irritated when she would try to politely wait only to have people push right by her.

So we come to this line which was only enforced by two metal handrails to corral us all. Pushing was still part of the game but in this crowd it only got you so far. At one point there was no part of my body save my face that was pushed up against someone else. It was like a huge group hug except with strangers and luggage.

After finally getting a taxi and arriving back at our hotel, Dad and I headed back out to see the hutong. These are old traditional neighborhoods that are quickly disappearing and being replaced by high rises. The Lonely Planet was very sentimental and made them seem like they were quaint and picturesque. In truth they were a maze of dirty narrow streets with closed doors and very few hints of what lay behind them. We took a rickshaw tour which was ok. We negotiated a really low rate which was good because I would have been irritated to have spent more money just to see the little that we saw. It might have been grumpiness left over from the taxi line of DOOM but neither Dad or I were impressed.






That night we went to an acrobatics show. And that was far from disappointing. After the Great Wall this was the next thing I was really excited for. Mom almost smacked me on the subway ride over because I decided she was not exhibiting enough enthusiasm for the show and tried to pump her up. (She still wasn't feeling well at that point.)

The show itself was awesome! They had lights and fogs. They sold popcorn and icecream. And the bendiness...oh the bendiness of those Chinese acrobats. They had 12 girls on a bicycle. They had two guys running around in a ring of death. And we had front row seats for the whole 1 1/2 hour extravaganza. Sadly, they didn't allow pictures so here's a shot of the three of us before the show started.



The last day Dad and I headed back out without Mom to see the Forbidden City. Not surprisingly it was a lot less crowded on a Thursday versus Sunday. Members of the royal family lived here and were not allowed out. Certain people were allowed into the first two thirds of the city but only eunuchs, servants, and royals were allowed in the inner court. It was beautiful although I will admit after awhile all of the courtyards started to blend together. The audio guide was nice though. It was full of stories of palace intrigue and scandals.








One of several throne rooms




The royal "climbing wall." The emperor and his concubines climbed this for fun in the spring.



They have this clock exhibit inside the Forbidden City. You have to pay extra but it wasn't much so we shelled out and went in. We actually timed this for 11am so that we could see the clocks go off. A wonderful plan except that we didn't realize there were two rooms in the exhibit and only discovered where the clocks went off the last 20 seconds of the last clock. Cue my Dad's sad face. Oh well he still enjoyed the other clocks. I have kindly chosen only 3 pictures to show you out of the dozens he took in there. ;-)




This one was cool because this little man writes a Chinese character on the hour.


After leaving the Forbidden City we went across the street to the park and hiked up the hill to see a view overlooking the palace. But not before Dad excitingly pointed out the moat. I tried to tell him there was a moat at the front where we came in (and had crossed over 3 times before during other trips to Tienanmen) but he didn't believe me.


Look! There's a moat!


The view overlooking the Forbidden City


He really liked that moat. ;)


After lunch we headed back to the hotel where we spent our last night relaxing and packing. We had one last lunch with our new American friends from earlier in the week and then it was off to the airport. Mom can mark the Great Wall off her bucket list and I didn't have to wait a whole year between seeing them both.

Xi'an

After 12 hours on the overnight train we arrived in Xi'an and met up with our tour guide for the day who took us out to see the famous Terracotta Warriors. First we watched a video that looked like it had been made in the early 80's, not too long after the site was discovered, and then we got to meet the farmer that actually found them. And by meet I mean we bought a book and he glanced at us and then signed it for us.

This Chinese peasant farmer, whose picture we unfortunately did not get, had been earning the same meager existence he had before he found the treasure trove for many years after until President Clinton came to China for a visit. Clinton requested that during his visit he have his picture taken down among the Terracotta Warriors and that he get the autograph of the farmer who had discovered them. The only problem was that the farmer was uneducated and unable to write his own name. So the government sent him some tutors who decided what characters he should use and how to write them. He's been signing his name ever since.

On a side note, Clinton was also the only person to ever have his picture taken down among the soldiers. Even Chairman Mao had his picture taken from the observation platform.

Once we had our autograph we moved to the first warehouse that protects the biggest group of warriors from the elements. They estimate that there are about 6,000 warriors housed in there, but only a small percentage have been reconstructed. Even still there were enough reconstructed to instill a sense of amazement. They say that each face is different, modeled after a real soldier. And every last detail is sculpted, even the tread on the archer's shoes.


The first pit was the largest



The Terracotta Warriors were commissioned by Emperor Qin who declared himself the first emperor of China in 221 BC. The warriors were meant to protect his kingdom from any invaders or usurpers in death. They all face east which is in the direction of where Emperor Qin's enemies and defeated lands lay. There are generals, infantrymen, archers, and chariots. Only the horses and iron pieces of the chariots remain. The wood has long since rotted away. The warriors were also painted at one time but as soon as they excavated and the figures were exposed to the open air, the paint disappeared. The archeologists are now working on techniques to excavate the remaining pits in such a way as to preserve the colors.






After checking out the Terracotta Warriors we had lunch and then headed back to our hotel in Xi'an. We decided to explore the Muslim Quarter for dinner after being told that very good and very cheap food could be found there. We wandered around until we found a place that wasn't too crowded but still had a decent amount of people in it. The menu was overwhelming and lucky for us one of the waiters spoke some English so we convinced him to order for us. We ended up with cold sesame noodles, some spicy chicken, and a cooked cabbage dish, all of which were delicious. It was way more than we could finish and even with me ordering a beer the bill only came to roughly $8. It was like that almost everywhere we went in China. If you went to a McDonald's or a Starbucks you could expect to pay roughly the same as you would back home but if you were adventurous and went in a Chinese establishment then the prices dropped dramatically.

After dinner, we toured a traditional courtyard house that also had a shadow puppet show and perused the market. Back at our hotel we enjoyed spectacular views of the Bell Tower.


The Muslim Quarter at night.


The view from our hotel room.

The next morning mom, who had been feeling sick the last couple of days thanks to the pollution in Beijing, woke up feeling horrible. So Dad went out to see another nearby tomb while Mom and I slept in and checked out late. I ran out in the late morning to get her some medicine and was surprised to be offered a Z-pack at the pharmacy. I didn't buy it then but we did go back later and bought it for her and some more antibiotics for me to take back to Japan because doctors here seem disinclined to prescribe a full 10 day dose and I get sinus infections on a regular basis. (The last time I got 4 days worth.) It cost me less than $2!!!

Once we met up with dad we went back to the Muslim Quarter to do some more shopping, see the Great Mosque and have some lunch. The mosque was of particular interest because unlike any other mosque in the world it is built with Chinese architecture rather than Middle Eastern (although those elements are also present, they are more subtle.) All the flowers were blooming and it was really a lovely place. And the fact that in order to get to it you had to go through these small back alleys crammed with shops made it even more romantic.






In the market on the way back from the Mosque.


Birds for sale.


Before we caught our train back to Beijing we went in the Bell Tower, where we saw a short show featuring traditional Chinese music and I got to ring the bell three times. Dad also tried his best to get a picture of the city wall (the only city left in China that still has a wall intact.) The Bell Tower was traditionally used in the morning to signify the start of the work day and the drum tower down the street (which we didn't go in) signaled the end of the day. Both were impressive. We could hear the bell being rung by tourists from our hotel but we never did hear the drums.







Looking down to the main gate of the wall.


And then it onto the train station for more staring and another 12 hour ride back to Beijing. We all three agreed that we wished we could stay longer in Xi'an.

Next up: The taxi line of DOOM, the hutong, acrobats, and a huge photodump of the Forbidden City.

China: Summer Palace, Pearl Market, Temple of Heaven Park

On day three of our trip we made our way out to the Summer Palace on the edge of the city. I should mention that anytime we went anywhere it took a long time to get there. We started off the week with all of these grand plans of seeing more than one sight in a day and quickly realized that was impossible with the travel times. The city of Beijing is roughly the same size of the entire country of Belgium! And with a massive place like the Summer Palace it is easy to spend an entire day there...in fact that's just what we did. We got there around 10 am and didn't leave until almost 5. We got back to the hotel, ate some dinner at a cafe nearby and then collapsed. Sightseeing is hard work!

The Summer Palace itself was absolutely beautiful. I wouldn't rank it as high as the Great Wall but it was a highlight of the trip. We were still pretty energetic and not beaten down by the crowds or sickness this early in the trip either so we had a very pleasant day.


The more animals on the roof the more important the building is.


A shopping street so the royals could see what it was like to be a commoner...kinda.


These two little girls were adorable with their princess headgear.


One of several temples in the palace.










For 10 yuan (about $1.50) I dressed up as a royal princess.

Sunday our plan was to take our bags to the train station and put them in lockers and then go to the Forbidden City. Then head back to the train station to catch our overnight train to Xi'an. We had scoped out the route and where the lockers were our second night in Beijing. This was a perfect plan on paper. But in reality we were at the wrong train station. Beijing has six million different train stations apparently and we were supposed to be at West not at Central.

Thank God I can read some Japanese because the girl trying to explain we were at the wrong station could only say, "Not here." So we hopped in another taxi and got to the right station. Where after a little trouble and finally some help from a very cute attendant we were able to get our things in a locker. Then we tried to look for the non-existent subway station that is on the map but hasn't been built yet. Completely frustrating! Throughout the entire trip the train stations were crazy - packed to the rafters with people inside and outside. A lot of them were from the countryside and they carried these large sacks of who knows what (we never did figure out what was in them) and they stared at us like they had never seen a white person before (which they probably hadn't.)

Now I'm used to be stared at in Japan. People stare and tell me I'm beautiful and I have a high nose. My tactic here is to either stare back or to say hello. This usually gets me an embarrassed hello back and the staring stops. In China they wouldn't stop! Even after I said hello and stared back. I was having staring contests with strange Chinese men who weren't just looking at my face but undressing me with their eyes. It was soooo uncomfortable.

So after losing several staring contests and wanting to punch someone or something we finally figured that we needed to take a taxi back to Tienanmen and where to catch that taxi. We get to the Forbidden City and it too is absolutely packed to the gills. It was a Sunday after all and it felt like everyone in Beijing had decided to see the Forbidden City that day. So already tired, frustrated, and striking out on all aspects of our plan we abandoned it and caught the subway to the Pearl Market where some coffee and a little retail therapy perked me up. (Dad had tried en route but I warned him that any comfort he tried to offer would just make me turn my frustration at the situation onto him. Maybe this is why I travel better alone?)

We had a card for a pearl retailer named Kathy from our friends back in the States and she offered us rock bottom prices. I bought birthday presents for my sisters, several necklaces for myself, earrings, and talked my mom into getting me a beautiful string of pearls for my birthday. It was a relief not to have to bargain and I only ended spending $60 for a huge haul. The market had more than just pearls and I also bought a jade stamp with my name carved in English and Chinese, some Diesel shoes, and some new ear buds.

Then we headed over to the Temple of Heaven park to relax before heading back to the train station (Beijing West!) The park was beautiful and also packed with people. There was a large group of people dancing. A choir performed and local people wandered up and joined in. Groups of young and old were playing hackey sack. I saw about 20 different cards games going on and several people had brought karaoke machines and were performing. We watched all of the activity for awhile and then found a quiet spot to relax for a little bit.



Then we caught another taxi back to the train station where we were frustrated again trying to find a place to sit down. It took us awhile to figure out that our first class tickets gained us admission to the soft seating waiting hall but once installed there we comfortably waited for our sleeper train. Then it was off to Xi'an!

Next up: Terracotta Warriors, Muslim Quarter, and the Bell Tower.

China - Tiananmen, Sacred Way, and the Great Wall

The first day of China was not exciting but was instead spent traveling and then waiting in the airport for mom and dad to arrive. Pretty much a wash. We got to the hotel, checked in, ate in the restaurant downstairs and went to bed early.

We were up bright and early the next day thanks to jet lag on mom and dad's part. We started the day off geo-caching in a park with views of the Olympic area and then we met some lovely people - friends of a friend back home. Mom had taken requests via email on things they missed from the States and we delivered bags of candy, cereal, and coffee creamer. They in turned bought us lunch and gave us tips on things to do and see.


The view from our hotel room.



Then we headed over to Tiananmen Square where we got our first taste of annoying salespeople trying to sell us postcards, books, hats, and English tour guides. We resisted them all and stayed around until sunset when the national guard lowers the main flag in a special ceremony.


The flag goes up at sunrise and comes down at sunset.


A patriotic little girl.

The next day we joined a tour to see the Sacred Way and the Great Wall at Mutianyu. Of course they also take you to a jade factory and a Chinese medicine center where you are encouraged to buy jewelry and herbs. Although all cynicism aside, the doctor of Chinese medicine did accurately pinpoint most of my annoying health issues, especially the fact that I have "too much heat in my belly." Apparently my tongue is not the color it should be. Still, I didn't buy any herbs. I was there for the Wall.


The doctor diagnoses mom.


But before the grand finale of the day we visited the Sacred Way which is a long road book ended with large gates and lined with statues that leads to the Ming Dynasty tombs. Each year the royal family would make a procession down the Sacred Way to inspect the construction of the royal tombs.

We learned all of this from our super cute English speaking guide, Mary. She spoke really good English but she had a very thick accent and when we got off the bus here the three of us had to have a short conference to determine why she was talking about "janitors in Asian times." We finally realized she meant "generals in ancient times."







Then finally after lunch we headed to the Great Wall. It really was amazing. We had talked about doing a section of the wall where you hike 10km but we knew mom wasn't going to be up for that due to her bad knees. After hiking just a very small section of it that we did this day I wondered if I would have been up for it. It's not just long. It's steep. We took a cable car to the top since we only had 2 hours to explore but even just getting to the cable car station almost did mom in. Dad and I had to leave her at the first guard house and continue exploring without her.

We walked quite a ways, through many guard towers until we came to a huge flight of steep steps that went took the wall up over another peak. Dad walked about halfway up and I think regretted it the next day. Most of the wall we were standing on was built during the Ming dynasty but other walls had been built for hundreds of years before, as early as 220 B.C. The part we were on is touristy (there was a Subway next to the car park) but a lot of the Wall is poor condition. I would have loved to have seen some more of the "wilder" Wall but even this tourist safe version was easily the highlight of our entire trip.













Next up: The Summer Palace, a mistake you wouldn't want to make on the Amazing Race, the Pearl Market, and the Temple of Heaven park.