Well, since we have been getting up early anyway, it was not too difficult to leave the house at 3:30 this morning to make our 7 a.m. flight. - NOT! We were one sorry looking half dozen as we left Zhou-Zhou. It rained heavily last night, and we could actually see blue sky for the first time on the trip. We watched the sun rise over Beijing, and could finally see the buildings we hadn't seen before because of the pollution.
We took Delta Airlines to Tokyo. The kids were happy to see that each seat had a TV, so they all spent the flight watching movies. This was a little difficult, as the pilot kept coming on to make announcements. Each announcement was made in English, then in Japanese, then in Chinese.
The Tokyo airport is very modern, and we decided to have some comfort food. Lily, Bax and I went for McDonalds, while the others hit Subway. After a 55 minute train ride and a 15 minute walk, we arrived at our beautiful apartment. Like everything Japanese, it is clean, compact and efficient. For the first time on the trip, we were able to cook a meal - another comfort meal of shrimp and pasta in pesto sauce with salad. Now, if only I could find a real Diet Coke!
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
July 1: The great wall of China
Lucy continued to push our limits in order to show us as much of her country as possible. Today we left the house at 6:30 a.m. I'm really grateful that our body clocks are still all screwed up. The kids have been great so far. A few grumbles, but mostly they have eaten the food, taken in the sights, and have become very comfortable with our host. Did I mention that she is staying in the house with us? It was a little unsettling when she told us that she would stay with us, but it turned out to just add more to the experience.
So, the drive to the Great Wall took about two hours. the traffic was only moderate, so we made good time. The day was overcast and it was drizzling a little, so there were really very few people at the wall today. (Relatively speaking - Lucy says that on sunny days, you can barely walk because of the crowds.)
From the parking area, you walk up a pretty steep wide path with souvenir booths lining the sides. Like so many of our tourist attractions, there was a Subway, a pizza place, and Baskin Robbins ice cream. As you walk up the path, the vendors call out "Hey Lady! I got t-shirt good price! You wanna some chopsticks?" We walked up the path, and then took a gondola to the top of the wall.In this area, the wall is pretty high up in the hills. In the winter it gets a lot of snow, but in the summer it is a green and lush forest. With all the mist, it was like being in the rain forest.
It is rally hard to believe that soldiers manned the watch towers and walked the wall in all sorts of weather. Parts of it are very steep and smooth. The construction is phenomenal. All the stones fit together well, there are spaces for lookouts, and also for guns/arrows. There are built in drainage slots on the steps.
It was misty, so we couldn't see the postcard like long stretches of the wall going on forever. Rather, it looked like the wall just disappeared into the mist. You can almost envision yourself inside a game of "Temple Run"
After the wall, we came home, and Lucy cooked us a home-made special noodle dish. I then took Baxter, Miriam, and Quincy down town to see the dancers Thankfully, Miriam got a picture of some of them.
So, the drive to the Great Wall took about two hours. the traffic was only moderate, so we made good time. The day was overcast and it was drizzling a little, so there were really very few people at the wall today. (Relatively speaking - Lucy says that on sunny days, you can barely walk because of the crowds.)
From the parking area, you walk up a pretty steep wide path with souvenir booths lining the sides. Like so many of our tourist attractions, there was a Subway, a pizza place, and Baskin Robbins ice cream. As you walk up the path, the vendors call out "Hey Lady! I got t-shirt good price! You wanna some chopsticks?" We walked up the path, and then took a gondola to the top of the wall.In this area, the wall is pretty high up in the hills. In the winter it gets a lot of snow, but in the summer it is a green and lush forest. With all the mist, it was like being in the rain forest.
It is rally hard to believe that soldiers manned the watch towers and walked the wall in all sorts of weather. Parts of it are very steep and smooth. The construction is phenomenal. All the stones fit together well, there are spaces for lookouts, and also for guns/arrows. There are built in drainage slots on the steps.
It was misty, so we couldn't see the postcard like long stretches of the wall going on forever. Rather, it looked like the wall just disappeared into the mist. You can almost envision yourself inside a game of "Temple Run"
After the wall, we came home, and Lucy cooked us a home-made special noodle dish. I then took Baxter, Miriam, and Quincy down town to see the dancers Thankfully, Miriam got a picture of some of them.
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| The path up to the gondola to the wall. |
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| One of the steeper sections of the wall. |
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| After our wonderful dinner. |
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| A bit hard to see, but these are some of the nighttime dancers I mentioned. |
June 30: Tienanmen Square, Temple of Heaven shopping, Beijing
Another long day, which started at 7:00 a.m. Lucy has decided that Baxter needs "fattening up", and cooked him three eggs this morning. Thankfully, Chris came down and helped him finish them off. The rest of us had cereal and cold leftovers.
We all hopped into the van for a trip to downtown Beijing. It is so crazy that we took the van! There is an express train that would take 20 minutes. But, the car culture has hit China, and if you have a car here, you use it! So, we spent about 90 minutes getting downtown. Crazy!
We first visited the Temple of Heaven. This is where emperors came to be close to heaven. It is surrounded by gardens and park areas. Just like last night, there were hundreds of people dancing, playing badminton, and even a large group singing. All of this is spontaneous - just amazing. Also, there was a man using a large mop dipped in water to practice writing Chinese characters on the sidewalk.
There were a few westerners here, but we still got a lot of attention. At the center of the temple is a spot where the emperor would stand to be close to God. An older Chinese man just had to take a picture with Lily. We also saw Tienanmen Square. The security to get into the area was incredible. Several metal detectors just to gain access to the area.
We spent the rest of the day doing a little shopping and eating dinner. The day was finished off with a Tea House show. There were many traditional Chinese acts, including acrobats, jugglers, Kung Fu, and Mask Changers. Here's a link to face mask changing .
We all hopped into the van for a trip to downtown Beijing. It is so crazy that we took the van! There is an express train that would take 20 minutes. But, the car culture has hit China, and if you have a car here, you use it! So, we spent about 90 minutes getting downtown. Crazy!
We first visited the Temple of Heaven. This is where emperors came to be close to heaven. It is surrounded by gardens and park areas. Just like last night, there were hundreds of people dancing, playing badminton, and even a large group singing. All of this is spontaneous - just amazing. Also, there was a man using a large mop dipped in water to practice writing Chinese characters on the sidewalk.
There were a few westerners here, but we still got a lot of attention. At the center of the temple is a spot where the emperor would stand to be close to God. An older Chinese man just had to take a picture with Lily. We also saw Tienanmen Square. The security to get into the area was incredible. Several metal detectors just to gain access to the area.
We spent the rest of the day doing a little shopping and eating dinner. The day was finished off with a Tea House show. There were many traditional Chinese acts, including acrobats, jugglers, Kung Fu, and Mask Changers. Here's a link to face mask changing .
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| Practicing Chinese symbols with a wet mop. |
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| Baxter on the "god stone" |
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| Chris |
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| Quincy |
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| Miriam |
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| Lily and her fan. |
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| Temple of Heaven |
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| Silkworms in their "cocoons". |
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| Tienanmen Square |
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| In some restrooms you can choose between a regular toilet . . . |
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| or squatting over a hole. |
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
June 29: Qing West Tombs, the Lake, etc.
We drove through the countryside for about two hours to a really nice, huge reservoir. Lucy said that foreigners almost never come here, and we were the only non-Chinese. We took a boat ride across the lake, and stopped at a little landing. We then climbed a very steep path to an old Buddhist shrine. Apparently, Buddhist monks lived there at one time, and the local people would climb the hill to make offerings. On the way down, one of the people made the comment that we must be gods, because only Chinese people and gods walked this path.
After the boat ride, Lucy arranged for us to have lunch in the small farming village near the lake. We walked up a hill to a family's home, and sat on their patio while they prepared the food. And we watched the whole process. One of the women walked down the hill, and came back a few minutes with a large fish in a plastic bag, still struggling for breath. A man walked by holding a chicken by the legs, and we were soon watching him pluck the feathers off. our lunch. The whole family took part in preparing our meal, which was very inexpensive - about 300 RMBY, or $50.00. We had chicken, fish stew, rice, fried rice, vegetables, and some flat bread. We were unable to eat it all, so they just poured the leftovers into a plastic bag, which Lucy brought home.
After lunch, we visited the Qing west tombs, which are just as lovely, but not as frequently visited as the Ming tombs. There, we were the only white people. Several times people would stop and just look at Miriam.
We came home and ate leftover Chinese. Lucy took Chris and me out for a walk after dinner. We experienced the Chinese custom of going out - every night. Chinese people meet up in town squares, on the sidewalks, wherever. Someone brings a boom box, and they all dance. Sometimes there are games and stuff for kids to do, but mostly people just walk around the streets, do a little shopping and dance. I'm not kidding, every night hundreds of people meet on the street and just dance. I'm hoping someone else got pictures of this. It was really fun!
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| Donkey "McMuffin" |
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| The view of the lake from the Buddhist shrine. |
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| Traffic was stopped until the goats cleared the way. |
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| Another long day in the van. |
Day 1: Travel
Well, I have to say that our first leg of the trip l went off without a hitch. Everyone was up and out the door by 5:30 a.m. We got to the airport parking, and a shuttle van followed us to our car, so we got to the airport early. The flight to San Francisco was uneventful - We got the usual bag of pretzels and can of coke. The flight between San Francisco and Beijing was about 12 hours. Like most long flights, they fed us, showed a movie, fed us again, and fed us even one more time.
The customs and immigration process was fairly easy. The house where we stayed was in the town of Zhou Zhou - 60 miles southwest of Beijing. Fortunately, we set up a rental that included the owner as a tour guide. "Lucy" met us at the airport with a driver. We rode in her van for about 2 1/2 hours through rush hour traffic. The pollution was unbelievable. Seriously, you could not see buildings just a few hundred meters off the highway.
Lucy took us to a local restaurant for some excellent food. Even Baxter ate his fill. We then stopped for groceries and went home. Her home is really luxurious. There are 6 bedrooms, so everyone had their own spot. Here is a link if you'd like to see the place: Lucy's house.
The customs and immigration process was fairly easy. The house where we stayed was in the town of Zhou Zhou - 60 miles southwest of Beijing. Fortunately, we set up a rental that included the owner as a tour guide. "Lucy" met us at the airport with a driver. We rode in her van for about 2 1/2 hours through rush hour traffic. The pollution was unbelievable. Seriously, you could not see buildings just a few hundred meters off the highway.
Lucy took us to a local restaurant for some excellent food. Even Baxter ate his fill. We then stopped for groceries and went home. Her home is really luxurious. There are 6 bedrooms, so everyone had their own spot. Here is a link if you'd like to see the place: Lucy's house.
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| The welcome sign in Beijing. |
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| Pollution is really, really bad. |
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| The restaurant. Most tables have a huge lazy Susan in the middle so you can all share food. It's really hard with hungry kids, because they move the wheel constantly, and the adults get little food. |
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| Chinese Coke |
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| Lucy's garden. |
China, From the Eyes of the Asian One
China
China was really fun. We stayed in a small town outside of Beijing called " Zhou Zhou" There were many amazing sites to see and fun activities to do. I really enjoyed walking down the hudangs, there were many interesting things being sold and it was fun walking around and looking at them, although the merchants/sellers were annoying at times because if you just pick something up to look at it they will bug you to buy it. Also, buying things here is cheaper than in the US and you can bargain prices with merchants on the road/side of the street and in hudangs. The Great Wall of China was very fun, but it was raining and very foggy therefore we weren't able to see the view of the wall going on and on in front of us. We also went to a very famous teahouse. We had Green tea and Chinese desserts, appetizers, and snacks. There was a show with a Chinese opera, Chinese orchestra, magic acts, acrobats, dancers, ceramic bowl juggling (juggling with ceramic bowls mainly on head), kungfu, and mask changing which was very entertaining and fun to watch. There was a boat ride we took to a Buddhist shrine and around the lake to see the nature as in mountains, cliffs, and more. Plus, we went to the see the temple of heaven and its surrounding gardens and other buildings/temples. Best of all I got to eat actual Chinese food which was amazing! I tried so many things I haven't tried before and it was delicious! I tried donkey meat which oddly enough was really tasty until someone told me it was donkey meat and than I lost my appetite for it. As a shocking surprise I got sick of Chinese food at one time and i just wanted american food as in a burger and some fries! I couldn'y understand what most people were saying because they talked really fast but on the buildingd were Chinese charcters and the most common ones were HOTEL and RESTRUANT, and i talked to a few merchants/sellers in Chinese and understiid a little of what people were saying but overall i only really used greetings like "hello, thank you, good morning, and good bye". It's pretty polluted in China but not too bad but it's very humid. I didn't see too many animals as much as in America and there were lots of dogs wondering around but that was more where Chinese farmers were and they seemed to be comfortable around the farmers so i didn't think they were really stray more like un-official pets if you kind of get what I'm saying. Overall the experience was very fun and i rally enjoyed being there.
Written by
Lily Primus
Tokyo at last.
Ah, Tokyo at last. I can now connect to Facebook and actually post to my blog. I guess I didn't research blogs and web use in China enough to know that they prevent access to those sites. It's funny, the page telling me I couldn't go there was all in Chinese, but it was very clear what it meant. I guess angry controlling country looks the same in any language.
Anyway, I'm going to do a few separate posts to cover each day of travel.
Lisa
Anyway, I'm going to do a few separate posts to cover each day of travel.
Lisa
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