Nancy and Barbs Big Adventure - Part trois, quatre, cinque

We made it back late last night from Xi'an. It was a wonderful, busy week with many highs and no lows.

Beijing was not what we expected. You have your own ideas of what China will look like and we was pleasantly surprised. Very much a government city with large tree lined streets. We went to the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square day two and the Great Wall on day three (see pictures). We could not have asked for better weather and we got to the wall before the hordes of bus tours arrived. We were sitting on the wall, in my own little section, all by myself. I had to pinch myself that I was actually there. Later that day we got to have Peking duck and see an acrobatic show. It was great fun and Tina talked us through everything in both English and mandarin.





From Beijing we went to Shanghai...think George Jetson. This city is so modern and futuristic...the buildings are in shapes and sizes hard to imagine. Highways as high as 20 stories, one on top of the other, it was sensory overload. We looked down on the city from both of the Hyatt's in both a day and night view. Looking down on the river, sipping martinis, Ahh, Magic!

We were picked up after 2 days in Shanghai to go to the river village of Tongli. Wow, talk about a departure from the modern. It was quaint and rustic and some Chinese lady tried to rip us off for beer money...Tina talked her down. So now it just doesn't matter where you are...a buck is a buck. The hote was cute, think Fred Flintstone for the bed. lol

We were picked up in Tongli and made our way to the airport and our flight to Xi An. We had dinner at the "best" dumpling house in Xi An. In China everything is the best or #1. The next day we made our way to see the Terracotta Warriors and to say the least we were speechless. What an undertaking to unearth all of those warriors, no two looking alike. We thought Xi An would be very polluted as we were told by many of our friends that they found it difficult to breath. That is not the case now...no more coal burning, no motorcycles, etc. The day was clear and the sky was blue.

Nancy and I were amazed at how fluent Tina is in Chinese...she has gotten the lingo down. She was tour guide extraordinaire. Nancy and I were very lucky to have her with us.

That's all for now until next time.

Nancy and Barb

Beijing Tours

Alright, it looks like you'll all need to wait another day before someone in Tina's family steps up and does another guest post. Apparently they had a long day today and can't get into the right frame of mind for writing to the masses....

But at least we are all back home in Xiamen , and I figured that I'd fill in a little more of our time in Beijing. Karen had mentioned that we toured the Olympic areas, so I figured that I'd throw in a couple of quick photos from that for you.

Bird's Nest

Christel, our guide, Gottfried, Me and Karen with the Water Cube in the background.

The other little tour that we took was a cyclo ride, because they don't have rickshaws, through the hutongs. The hutongs are the old housing areas, narrow streets and courtyards and tiny family houses, but they have done a lot of work lately in restoring them and opening them up to tours. Tina and I feel that the local alleys here in Xiamen provide a better feel for how the locals are living....

Row of cyclos

Christel and Gottfried in the cyclo.

It was a good tour, and fun just to get peddled around for a few hours before we headed to the airport and flew back to Xiamen. Fun was had by all...

Day 3

Welcome to day 3 of our Chinese vacation. We woke to a cloudy day and it look as though it was going to rain. We had breakfast (what a variety) and waited for our tour guide. No not Mark, a real guide. Today was going to be the tour of the Great Wall and the Olympic venues. The great wall is an amazing piece of wonder and with its history an impressive piece of engineering. I can understand where the great artists get their inspiration after soaking in the Great Wall and it atmosphere.

A bit of history – The Great Wall was built in shorter pieces in the 5^th century. This was used to defend the smaller states from its enemies. The first Qyn emperor who unified china linked and extended the walls as a protection from other nomadic tribes. It was originally built by slave labor and considered the longest grave site in the world; many of its build were buried where they fell. Most people go to the badling area to see the wall. Not us, we went to mutianyu which is approximately 70 k from Beijing. This area isn’t as touristy as the rest, but there were still a lot of people. We took cable car up to the other sections and walk other sections of the wall. We had 90 minutes to wonder and enjoy the breathtaking views. From there we had lunch and again a lot of food.

The Olympic venues were our next stop where we visited the water cube and birds nest. Again, there were a lot of people. We were not allowed to visit inside the venues.

They then drove us to the market where the designer knock offs are. There was nothing we really we wanted so we left and went for dinner.

Since Peking Duck is Beijing’s specialty dish we had to try it. We were all somewhat full from lunch, we still managed to eat ½ a duck. It really is delightful dish. Tina tells me I can finish this part of the blog now.

Day 2 - China tour

Its day 2 and we’re off to see the sites. After a great breakfast, we followed our resident Chinese ‘expats’ (Tina and Mark). Off we go to the Forbidden City and Tiamennan square. I am really looking forward to these sites.

Every time I asked Mark how far we were – ‘half way’ was his answer. Everywhere, was ‘half way’!! I learned quickly to accept only ‘half’ his word. Mind you, I learned from Tina a long time ago that everywhere is ‘around the corner.’

We finally made to our destination. I couldn’t believe all the ‘#$%&’ people. I swear half of Asia was there. Needless to say, we weren’t that interested in going into these sites. So off we go again to another site, ‘Summer Palace’. This time we went by subway. Our guide (Mark) did a splendid job. In the subway we went upstairs, downstairs, transfer line here, transfer line there. DOD (dear ol’ Dad) asked the magic question…. How far? Guess what our guide told them? You guessed it – ‘halfway’.

We made it and none too soon. DOD was starting to grumble. Once he saw the Summer Palace things were looking up. He seemed to be interested.

This time we did steps, steps and more steps. It was quite impressive; the work done at the time must have been quite backbreaking. The artwork is amazing and quite intricate.

Some history on the summer Palace – it only opened to public in 1925. Its 717 acres and ¾ of it is water. It was original built in the 12 century and expanded in 1860 by the British / French army. It was rebuilt and then badly damage by foreign powers. Then restored in 1903. The imperial court lived here from April 15 to October 15 and only those invited were able to stay.

From the summer palace went by taxi to lunch. Our guide now has ideas of his own. He was determined to locate a restaurant for DOD and Christel. A restaurant specializing in German cuisine. Now, I know why we took the subway earlier on. We walked and walked and walked and yep, walk some more. He was like a dog with a bone – bound and determined to find this restaurant, whether or not we ended up going in circles.

We managed to find a bar area and our guide let us rest. Once we got our energy back we were off and walking again…… Now Mark is determined, he’s rested. Our journey begins again and this time we went around the block. As time went by we had to go for another beer. This time a place called the Blue Frog. Beijing is really growing up. Large stores, and more bars. Our ‘guide’ is now asking the owner of the Blue frog where the “Drei Kronen”, finally….. He knew the area and explained where he thought we had to go. So now we know the area where it should be. Specifics, not yet, so ask, again we did. Two young ladies did there best to help us.

You know what? Let’s take a cab. One thing I learned about the Chinese is…..don’t confuse them because you won’t get anywhere. Since were 5 of us we would have to take 2 cabs. Mark and I took one cab, and Tina, Dad & Christel took another. Mark and I went first. Off we go. Mark told the cab the area and not even 2 min. the cab stopped and told us to get out. He doesn’t know where it is. Thank God the other 3 hadn’t gone. So back we go. We all met up again and once again we begin our search. Here we go a walkin’….. I think by dumb luck we found it!!! We finally found the Drei Kronen. There we sat and ate and drank. Dad was in his element, yakking to all the young women, especially those that spoke German. As time wore on tiredness crept in and Dad started walking around and ended up at a game with a bunch of patrons. I’m not sure what the game is called. It seemed as though it was like air shuffleboard. He did manage to win a game and make new friends. He did have one fellow who wanted to buy him a drink but DOD refused. It was time to go back to the hotel. Two taxis we took and again Mark and I shared a cab and again the cabby didn’t know where to go. Actually, he took up to the wrong hotel (a real nice one). It did work out and we ended up where we were suppose to. The others also had a problem with directions and they did end up back where they were supposed to.

Guest Blog #5.5 - Mark's Parents

From the lost e-mails, another guest post from my parents (and this time including photos):

First full day in Beijing:

The best fact about life in Beijing: they retire at an early age so the younger people have jobs. Our tour guides parents are 47 & 48 and are retired. I LIKE this rule!!!

Gas is only $1.00 but parking is very expensive since there is so little of it; city was built for bicycles, not cars.

In preparation for the Olympics, the city is beautifying itself with plants. They have planted 2.4 million trees yearly since 2003.

But the best part of the day was the Great Wall at the Mutianyu section. I had to keep pinching myself that I was really here. The hike up to the cable car was somewhat steep but not steep compared to if we had hiked all the way up to the beginning part of the wall here. The driver called our guide at 1 PM to ask where we were-we were taking too long. In conversation later, she said that most people are only there 1 1/2 hours; we were there a total of 3.

We just kept taking pictures, climbing, taking pictures, climbing, taking pictures. . . . but never boring. It was SO beautiful. Words can not describe it. . . . awesome, phenomenal. . . . these words do not do it justice.

We will do the Badaling section on Friday but she agreed with what we had read. . . it is busier with more tourists, and pictures will always have other people in them. Also the vendors are very pushy at Badaling.

We stopped for a late lunch of Chinese and Dad actually ate the most of any of the Chinese meals so far, not counting the one at Temptations. Of course he may have been starving after the climb. He said the chicken with peanuts and a pork dish were very good. She will write down their names for us. We also did another tea ceremony where the different tea benefits were explained. We purchased the tea for longevity; also I enjoyed it the most; Dad only tried the 1st one.

Our guide Amy asked how long we have been married. . . 37 years. . . . wow, thought maybe we were newlyweds. We are different from other couples she has had (you knew that, but she said she meant different in a good way!).

After the lunch we took an optional tour of a ride on a rickshaw through the older neighborhoods behind the Forbidden City. Most have been torn down with the Olympic planning but this section is being preserved as an historic site. We went into a family's courtyard, the life style of the courtyard (old and now) was explained, and we could take pictures of the different rooms. The families who agree to open their homes do receive some monies.

The rickshaw took us through the Hou Hai section where the night life is active with the young people and tourists. We could picture the 2 of you having a beer here, taking pictures, and putting your stories into the blog.

We returned to the hotel, sat at the bar for a soda and beer, relaxed, Charlie had cheesecake, and then we retired to the room. Laundry to do now, then to bed, because we have a very busy day tomorrow.

P.S. The tap water at this first class hotel is not potable