Back in the USA

 

This was our seat screen as we began the final leg of our flight home. We were hoping the 12 hours and 14 minutes would pass reasonably quickly, and they did. We landed, went through customs, picked up our luggage, talked to both Jordan and Hillary on the phone, and were in  our house by 7:30 p.m. It feels good to be home. Our trip was wonderful!  I can't say enough about how friendly and welcoming the Chinese people we met were to us. For a country that has never been on my "must see" list it surprised me in the best way. I loved it, and hope to go again. It was so interesting to learn about the history and culture of China, and to see some of the beauty of the country. It also made me appreciate our life here. Thank you for sharing our adventure. We loved your e-mails and comments. Please prepare yourselves for our four hour China slide show which is in the works!!     Lori 

Our Final Days

 

On Friday we left the Li River area to fly back to Beijing. The road to the hotel where we were staying is blocked each day from noon until 3:00 p.m. by a street market. Because of this, our taxi picked us up at 11:30 a.m. for a 5:30 flight. We had a long afternoon sitting at the airport, and were feeling a little frustrated that we weren't able to spend our last full day sight seeing. Jack wanted to sit in these chairs because he was feeling both old and weak.

 

Our luggage was heavier than the maximum allowed weight when we checked in. Jack quickly took out my folded clothing cube and yes, our luggage was successfully checked  without a charge. Lucky me...I was able to carry my luggage cube for the rest of the day like a briefcase. It gave me a professional appearance unless someone looked closely. By the time we flew into Beijing it was raining, and we didn't reach our hotel until after 10:00 p.m. Our hopes for going to the Olympic site flew out the window. Actually, I was still up for going but note Jack's description above.

 

Saturday morning we decided to go for a walk before leaving for the airport. It was a beautiful day, and yes, Jack was waving again. 

 

We also walked through a hutong just north of our hotel. A hutong is a traditional Beijing neighborhood consisting of narrow alleys with small attached buildings facing a courtyard. People live in the interior area, and often times the outside walls are lined with shops. This is a picture of a courtyard area. 

Bamboo Raft Trip

 

Today we went on a bamboo raft trip on the Li River. This is our boat man with his raft. It actually should be called a bamboo/PVC raft. We were on the river for two hours.

 

The scenery was beautiful. Jack and I tried to compare it to places we have been and came up with a combination of Hawaii, the Bahamas, Seattle, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

 

Jack is at the front of the raft in this picture. We probably passed 50 rafts just like ours, and I think he waved at every one. I'm just not that friendly.

 

This karst is called "the man on a horse." Jack and I couldn't make out a man or a horse, but we politely nodded to our boatman. It was difficult enough for him to give us the name in english. It was a nice afternoon. Tonight we went back into town, roamed the streets, and had a delicious $10 dinner of beef stir fried rice, noodles and pork in broth, and stir fried vegetables. An older man who does paper cuts made one of Jack and followed us for quite a while trying to sell it to us. I thought it did hold some resemblance, but Jack thought it looked like Dick Cheney. He refused to buy. Tonight we are packing for our flight back to Beijing tomorrow. We would like to get an earlier flight so we can make a trip out to the Olympic sites tomorrow night. If we make it, we'll post some pictures!

Visit To Conehead Land

 

Jack here. I am giving Lori a Blog rest.  Which means you'll get very little history or valuable content from my entries.  We flew out of Xi'an today amidst their normal heavy polution and said bye bye to this small city of 8 million people.  It reminded Lori and I of Bladerunner.  After paying too much for a taxi to Scooter (all taxi drivers from here on out will be known as Scooter when I blog), we got to Xi'an airport, and jumped on Southern China Air for a 2 hours flight to Guilin (pronounced "gweelan").  Very tropical and HUMID.  We had a driver scheduled to pick us up to drive 90 minutes to our destination city, Yangshou.  More on that later.  Upon getting in the cab, Scooter handed me the note you see above.  Read it carefully, slowly and out loud if you like.  If you can tell us what it means, I'll pay your 3000 Yuan.  Because we had no idea.  Eventually, and once we disregarded the title that must have had something to do with Lori's perfume, we figured out that he was offering to take us on a much less scenic path to our hotel for 30 more Yuan.  Less views of beauty for more money?  Of course we chose that option.  

 

This is literally the view from our room, a floor to ceiling window vista.  And naturally the pic doesn't do justice to its magnificence.  We are outside of a town named Yangshou, which is located on the Li River.  The area is completely surrounded by these odd shaped mountains, called Karst...Limestone covered with tropical vegetation.  They look like the Coneheads from Saturday Night Live. And there are a gillion of them.  This area is a hotbed for tourists, esp rock climbers.  Obviously the reason Lori and I chose Yangshou.  The area is filled with bike paths, the Li River, which we'll be on tomorrow on a bamboo raft, and of course, hiking.  So you want to know a little about our hotel?  Well....its called the Li River Retreat.  "Li" in Chinese stands for "Red Roof Inn".  Scooter drove down this very narrow and dark path, stopped and put the car in reverse.  And he was backing up a very steep mountain.  In reverse.  He eventually stopped, we got out, turned around and were standing face to face with the Li River Retreat.  All the windows were open, the front door was open (+80 and heavy humidity) and I am thinking, "Well, I guess I could always sleep on the flight home, because it's not going to happen in this hotel."  But as always, the front desk person was terrific, friendly, offered us a cold coke and introduced herself as "Bunny".  We checked in, and Bunny who was all of 85 lbs, carried our overweight suitcase up a flight of stairs (wouldn't let me).  We opened the door and it was very nice.  And then the view above.  Bunny did hand me a remote with white band-aid tape on it. The tape covered up the Chinese writing with words like, "Fan", "High", "AC On".  How many places do you get to control your ac from bed?  My wife knows how to pick em.

 

This is a much more comfortable view of Lori after we had been in town for 2-3 hours.  After we arrived at the hotel and room, she kept smiling, but continued to mutter something like, "I am out of my comfort zone, but I'll be fine. I am out of my comfort zone, by I'll be fine".  Kind of like a chant. But once she got over the fact that there was no elevator in the place, she was just fine.  As shown above.  A bit on Yangshou.  The word, loosely translated means "Gatlinburg",  "Estes Park" or "Branson".  I don't know what the Chinese version of Funnel cakes would be, but I am sure they are serving them somewhere on this street.  Funky and fun restaurants, lots of stores where people, once again, are clamoring to sell stuff, and some seriously great people watching, which brings me to my last photo.  

 

The white haired guy to the left might as well have a sign that says, "I am really stupid.  I am a lonely American and just want to talk English with someone".  This is one of the great street schemes.  The girls in the picture come up to American looking people, and say they are working to improve their English. They would like to try it out on you.  Provided you say yes, they walk with you, eventually to a booth where they try to sell you Chinese Funnel cakes.  You can sense the con a mile away.  Unless you are this guy who's wearing that sign I just wrote about.  When I walked by him, I heard him say something like, "Well, missy, I think your english is great.  Better than many in my own country.  I would be glad to help you...."  I quickly spun around to shoot this picture and the flash must have pulled him out of his "trance".  Lori will probably be back at her Blog Desk tomorrow. Stay tuned for more whacky adventures.  Especially the Bamboo River Boat Ride....can't wait.

Hi all. Lori has been dutifully keeping the blog alive. We are completely absorbing it all. For me? I am interested in the smells, the views, the daily life of those we connect with and whether there's a coffee shop within 40 ft of my every move. I am also compiling a list of observations of the Chinese culture and what I'll call habits. Here are some early thoughts:
1. There are no nicer people on the planet than the Chinese. They smile at you, even if you are driving them crazy....as I have done.
2. There are no kids cuter on earth. I started to build a small library of photos of them, but stopped as to not be arrested for creating exactly that.
3. You can buy anything you need in China. Anything. But...
4. Chinese local merchants are relentless but decent in the lengths they will go to sell you stuff. Here are the "hooks" they might use on the street to get eye contact: "Hey, welcome back!" Hey, I remember you!" "Hey you need to replace those pants". "Hey, do you love your wife?"
5. They have the strongest legs. You would too if you road a bike that was 10 years old every day with at least 1-2 people on it.
6. They work hard and never complain. I was talking to a person we bought some items from and asked her if she every "rested"? She said yes, because she gets 2 days off per month. And she works weekends.
7. They will push you down to get a close up picture of Mao.
8. They get pleasure out of us trying to act "local". Earlier in the blog, Lori posted pic of me eating a kabob type of fruit with sugar. I asked my P&G Chinese colleague if she had ever eaten one and she said no. I asked her why and she said, "Because I am Chinese."
9. Chinese watch their pennies. First example: A bell hop at our hotel gave us a reco for dinner but warned us it could be expensive. He said he couldn't afford it. Lori and I went and spent $11 for 2 people. Number 2: I see old men on bikes riding throughout town and always with old construction materials strapped on. I asked what they were doing with those materials and our guide said they'll build something. Out of 1' pvc pipe, old 2x4's and cardboard boxes?

More on this later. It's late and we are off to Li River tomorrow. I can confirm there will be no Starbucks in this town.

Terracotta Warrior-Two

 

If you look closely at this picture you can see a water bottle on the ground by these soldiers. Someone accidentally dropped it into the pit. We all heard it fall and it was amazing that it did not hit any of the figures. I think in the United States the whole area would be protected by plexiglass. Our tour guide told us that in the first few years the museum was open, visitors could actually go into the pits and stand by the figures. 

 

Here I am with our very informative tour guide, Elsie. 

 

This warrior is an archer. It is the only figure that has been excavated intact.

 

Here is Jack with another warrior and a life size horse. Tonight we ate at another dumpling restaurant and then walked through "Muslim Street." This is a three block area filled with Muslim street food, restaurants and shops. Very lively and interesting, but it was recommended we not eat the food for safety reason. Tomorrow we fly to Guilin and then will be picked up and driven to Yangshuo by the Li River. This area is described as very scenic and relaxing....a nice way to end our trip. We will report again tomorrow.

Terracotta Warriors-One

Today we went to the Terracotta Warrior Museum outside of Xi'an. We were able to visit three pits which are still being excavated. Another amazing experience, and another history lesson. The first emperor of China started the construction of his mausoleum in 247 BC. The soldiers were commissioned to protect the emperor at his burial site and also to guarantee his prestige and power in the afterlife. In the three pits 8,000 soldiers are expected to be excavated.

The warriors have different facial features, hairstyles, clothing, and shoes making each unique. Some of the figures were signed by the artist who sculpted them. The emperor did not want any ruler following him to have the secret of how these were made, so he had all the workers from the project put to death and buried in his tomb.

These warriors were called vanguards. They were considered the bravest because they were at the front of the tomb and had no weapons. Other soldiers were found to have bronze weapons in their hands.

The yellow paint found on this soldier is very rare. When the soldiers were unearthed they had colored faces and uniforms but soon after being exposed to the air the colors faded.

For Nancy

 Hi Nancy, 

A picture just for you!

The Summer Palace

Yesterday Jack and I spent much of the day at the Summer Palace. Once again, it has a long royal history. The emperors and empresses of the last dynasty in the 19th century used it as their main residence for much of the year. We really enjoyed our visit, and could understand why this location would be preferable to the Forbidden City. It is like a large resort area or park. It is located on a lake which was used for boating, and the landscape is beautiful.

Guess what we did? I bet you guessed. We climbed 100 stairs to the upper level of this Buddhist Temple at the palace. Climbing a multitude of steps is no problem to the Chinese. I am always surprised by the age span of those climbing-young children to the elderly. I think Empress Cixi was probably carried to the top to worship, and then you wonder about the logistics of that!

This is the front of one of the royal residences. It was beautifully decorated.

I am standing in front of the Long Corridor which is a 800 yard walk way at the palace. It was used by royalty to walk along the lake and to and from buildings, and it is decorated with 14,000 paintings commissioned by one of the last emperors. People come to the Summer Palace not only to see a historical site, but also as a place to relax, take boat rides, and picnic. The corridor was filled with families enjoying the view of the lake. You don't see large families, usually there is only one child but sometimes two, and the children are given a lot of attention and affection. Also, the children are very well behaved and quiet. The families are often made up of grandparents, too. It is very interesting. After our visit, we went to the Silk Market and visited a nice pearl store recommended through P&G. And, Jack ended up doing a little haggling at a few stalls. I think he likes the give and take. When he finishes, the sellers always smile and shake his hand. There have been a few hugs, too. You know Jack. Last night we ate at a delicious steamed dumpling restaurant. When I got back to the hotel, my internet connection wasn't working, so this blog is actually being posted a little later than usual. Right now we are in Xi'an. Our first impression is very industrial with not much charm. A haze of pollution hangs over the city, which I had read about. We are debating on where we are going to eat dinner. There is a large Muslim influence here which could be interesting. Tomorrow we are going to see the terracotta warriors. I will report back!

The Great Wall

 

Today we went to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. There are two sections that are actually closer to Beijing, but they are usually more crowded. At Mutianyu the wall has not had much work done, so it is much the same as it was when it was built. In this picture, we are just getting ready to take the chairlift to the lowest point of the wall.

 

We were lucky enough to have a wonderful P&G employee & friend, Sybil, join us today. She arranged for our driver and spent the day with us. She is a young woman who has always lived in China and it was so interesting and enjoyable to discuss many, many topics with her. She was just a pleasure to be with.

 

This is just the beginning of the section of the wall we climbed. The views were fantastic. Once again, we had to marvel at the man power that was involved in building this. The earliest sections were constructed in the 7th century B.C. The stairs alternated between sections of very steep large steps and very shallow smaller steps. In every section there was a local stand where a man or woman was selling water, pop, and bananas. We wondered how they carry their cases of water to those heights.

 

This view was from the very top looking back toward the section we had just climbed. This was the highest guard house we passed. I loved the pitch of the roof. Our day here was wonderful. The weather was beautiful, sunny and around 85 degrees. We finished our afternoon at the Yashow Market which is a building filled with stalls of purses, luggage, clothing, and jewelry. Sybil helped us haggle. By the time we left, Jack was getting into the act and now thinks we need to make another trip before we leave. I was a little surprised by that idea. Tomorrow we go to the Summer Palace. We will have to see if we can squeeze in some haggling!

my first posting

Ok, while Lori is the queen poster, I decided to write a bit. First, we brought some very tasty nuggets of food with us, because we thought the local fare might not be worthy. You know, dried fruit, dried snack bars. I am surprised Lori didn't pack some Tang to wash it alll down. But, the food in our pov has been excellent. We ate at a noodle place last night frequented by Anthony Bourdain. While they served lots of things with "blood" in the title, we found the noodles to be excellent. Lori had a dish that was one very long noodle...about 7 feet long. And tonight we had Peking Duck. multi-course meal, very filling for a whopping $50. And that included Mumm Champaign. Alas, the dried morsels we brought over 18 hours of flight are untouched. Today, we headed to the Great Wall. Lori researched it and we ended up going to a less busy section. Shockingly beautiful. I can't imagine how a gillion people were used to create a wall 1000's of miles long with millions of bricks and so long ago. Words cannot describe. Lori will post pic's. But it was so high we had to ride a chairlift to the top. And we road a toboggan down. No lie. And oddly enough, everytime we turned a corner on these two forms of transportation, there was a sign advertising the local version of Coke. None to buy, just a sign saying, "drink me". It was as though Disney had taken hold of part of the place. Back to the wall... we climbed stairs for almost 2 hours. At the top there was a sign that said, "No public allowed beyond this point." So, Lori, Sybil, a Procter and Gamble employee who arranged for our driver and visit, and I proceeded. This do-no-enter path was actually a part of the Great Wall that hasn't been rebuilt. And it ended on top of a high peak. Very humbling to be on a worn out great wall path that was built 100's of years ago and I am walking on it with my standard Nike running shoes. I'll let Lori talk about the shopping experiences we had following the wall. But it was a day to remember. And as Lori probably mentioned already, I do not think there are nicer people on earth that the people we have met in Beijing. What a trip.

Happy Jack

 

On the way back to our hotel after visiting The Forbidden City, we added an excursion to Tiananmen Square and Jack was able to get his picture taken with Mao. This has been on his "to do" list for weeks. Unfortunately, while making him very happy it made me slightly grumpy. Even on my best day, Mao holds little interest for me, but after 4 hours of cobblestone walking, my feet were very plainly letting me know they were finished. They did not want to step forward any longer.  I tried my best to be accomodating, but I think Jack knew I was reaching the end of my rope.

 

So, we decided we needed a little treat to get us back to the hotel. It seemed like everyone was carrying around skewers of a glazed treat. Was it sausage, tomatoes, small apples? No, warm candied strawberries which turned out to be quite tasty, but a little messy. While we were sharing our skewer, two Chinese families video taped our messy eating. We just smiled with our sugary mouths, and waved.

The Forbidden City

 

We made it to the Forbidden City, even though it was raining on and off all day and it was a national holiday that made everything very crowded and chaotic. Wet and crowded? Jack and I took turns being irritable. The Forbidden City itself is very difficult to capture in pictures because it is so majestic and ancient. Its construction began in 1406. The city is filled with halls and smaller residences called palaces.

 

In the background of this picture is the Hall of Supreme harmony, the largest hall in the Forbidden City. It is where all the grand ceremonies were held.

 

This is a side gate which takes you to an inner court. The glazed yellow tiled roof was a sign of royalty.

 

I am standing in a passage way that leads to a number of smaller residences where the royal concubines lived. All in all, our visit was very interesting. But we found the information that was provided was more about the structures and the governing aspect, than the personalities of the emperors and those that surrounded them. We would have enjoyed more description of what it was like to actually live there on a day to day basis. Even with that missing, it was amazing. Tomorrow on to The Great Wall! 

The Lama Temple

 

Today I was solo, and decided to go visit the Lama Temple which is north of where we are staying. I took Beijing's underground metro for the first time and was thankful for my previous experience in London. Actually I started my visit at another site which I paid to enter, and have no idea what it was, but soon realized it wasn't a temple...no statues or incense. I changed direction and continued to ask people and show pictures of the temple until I reached its entrance. Before reaching the temple there are many, many incense shops like the one above. People buy incense to burn in front of the many buddhist statues as an offering while they pray.

 

 

Originally a palace for Prince Yongzheng in the late seventeenth century, it was transformed into a temple in 1723 when he became emperor. Photography of the many statues of Buddha is prohibited. They were beautiful to see. One is 85 feet tall and carved out of a single block of sandalwood.

 

One thing I have definitely noticed, everyone is so friendly. Even when they don't speak English, they try to help. That hasn't always been the case in other places we have visited. So far, I am really enjoying our visit. Tomorrow...the Forbidden City with Jack.