The commentary and notations below come strictly from my own observations and feelings as a documentary of my travels. Any opinions are my own and should not be construed otherwise. If you find this account to be boring then stop reading. If you are curious and wish to continue, then read on. Keep in mind that I am not a writer and I do not typically keep a diary. I only wanted to write this to remember the trip and to avoid having to repeat every detail multiple times. Enjoy!

March 17, 2011 – Thursday – 8:18 a.m. (Xi’an, China)

We are on our bus headed to the Xi’an International Studies University. Our dinner last night was at a restaurant where each place setting has a hot pot. You choose your veggies and lamb from the lazy susan and boil them in the pot filled with broth. There was also an area where many spices were set up and you filled a little bowl with what you wanted to add to your pot. You cook it yourself which was fine and I feel like I ate enough to satisfy myself.

Once we arrived back at our hotel, Bryan and I walked across the street to this huge shopping mall to pick up some bottled water. It was a really interesting mall with an entire floor dedicated to shoes, and another for cosmetics, and so on. Each of the 8 or so floors was a different type of item. After getting the water that we needed, we popped in a McDonald’s to get a milk shake. We were in the bed by 11 p.m. and I slept well.

March 17, 2011 – Thursday – 5:20 p.m. (Xi’an, China)

Wow! We’ve been busy today and no time to write until now. We are relaxing in our room. This is the first time since we left the U.S. that we have had any significant time to just relax and do nothing. Every day we are up and out of the hotel by 8 or 8:30 and we usually do not return until 9 or 10 at night. There is no down time. I do not consider napping on the bus in a smog filled city in stop and go traffic ample rest time. If there was one thing that I could suggest it would be to give the students a little more down time. But, I can understand some of the reasoning in keeping us so busy.

This morning’s lecture was alright. It was about Chinese History which one cannot possibly learn in a two hour meeting let alone even grasp a tiny bit of it. It’s such a long history – thousands of years. It’s hard to wrap my mind around. We sat through another PowerPoint presentation.

Bryan just left to go across the street to a little market to pick up some snacks for the flight tomorrow.

After our lecture we went to the Shaanxi History Museum. It’s a very modern museum and holds many Chinese artifacts from each of the dynasties. To enter the museum, you must first go through the market store. It was full of the usual stuff but the best part was that there is a master seal engraver inside the gift shop. These seals are sometimes also called a “chop” and are a person’s official seal, somewhat like a signature.

Dr. Peng told us that if we ever wanted to have a personalized chop made by a master, this was the place to do it. This was definitely something that Bryan and I wanted to do because it would be much more personally valuable to us as reminder of our trip. We first chose a stone about 4.5 inches tall and about 1.5 inches square. I have not measured it exactly. The top is carved with a dragon (for male) and a phoenix (for female) and they are intertwined together. We both of our first names and our last name engraved in Chinese on the other end – creating our chop!

While we were touring the museum, the engraver was busy making our chop. As we got ready to leave, we stopped at his area in the gift shop to find out if it was ready. Dr. Peng, Dr. Peoples, and Fred all came down from the upstairs where this man actually does the carving. They had watched him make our chop. He was so proud of it that he stamped it on a paper and then also wrote our names out in his beautiful calligraphy and he signed it with his own name. This is a special piece that we are very proud to have. Eventually, I will frame this piece of paper. This is truly the most memorable thing that I could possibly have from our trip.

Bryan had already walked out to the bus with some of the others and did not see the finished piece until I came out with it. We paid 2200 Yuan (about $340 USD) for this piece of art – the stone. It is absolutely beautiful and when I showed it to Bryan, he was very pleased.

We had lunch at a hotel restaurant that was considered a “Western” buffet – not completely American but a few dishes were. Neither one of us ate much on this lunch. After lunch, we actually were able to come back to the hotel and have 4.5 hours of free time! From 2 p.m. until 6:30 p.m., we have been on our own – and it’s been really nice.

After a 30 minute rest we went for a walk in the old Muslim quarter of Xi’an. There are many typical Chinese vendors and shops – this is how the people still live today. It has been the home of Chinese Muslims for over 1,000 years. We saw many kinds of exotic foods and interesting items.

A funny story… we needed some foot powder to put in our shoes. We’ve done so much walking and when your feet are in your shoes for so long, some deodorizing foot powder for them would be really nice! We found a tiny “pharmacy” and after about 10 minutes of attempting to communicate with the clerk, she handed me a piece of paper and a pencil. I wrote “talc powder” in English on the paper and she handed it to the older man behind the computer. I watched as he used the search engine “Baidu” to look it up. This at least helped them both to understand what exactly we were looking for. After a couple of seconds, the clerk reached down and took a small box from the shelf and handed it to me. I could not read anything on it but the little pictures were enough to tell me that what I needed was inside. It was just very funny that she and I went from back pain pills, to deodorant spray, to foot fungus spray, finally to foot powder.

We continued on and walked in a big square to get back to where we started. We decided to return to the hotel and actually rest for a couple of hours since we had time to get refreshed. It’s almost 6:30 p.m. so we are off to meet up with the group for our dinner.

March 18, 2011 – Friday – 11:00 a.m. (Xi’an, China)

 Last night’s dinner show was really great. We went to another hotel that had a theatre inside. They served us a dumpling dinner with 18 different dumplings. All of them were so good! Everyone enjoyed it and none of us were hungry! The cultural show that we saw was the Tang Dynasty Cultural Show and it started at 8:00 p.m. The costumes and headdresses were very colorful and beautiful. I’ll have to do some research on the Tang Dynasty later so that I can understand the parts of the show better. There was a lady playing a stringed instrument similar to a cello but lying flat across a stand – like a steel guitar would be set up. The music was beautiful and her movements as she played were fluid and sensual. You could tell that she was fully into the music she was creating. One dance was called “the dance of a thousand hands.” The girls were all dressed in yellow golden outfits and they looked like a spider with many arms. The entire show was about an hour and twenty minutes long. Everyone in our group loved it. It was by far the best show we have seen since we arrived in China. We all really like Xi’an. It’s a much nicer place than Beijing although it is equally as old, dirty, lacking of sanitation, etc.

Once we returned to the hotel, Bryan went back out to photograph the Bell Tower and our hotel in the night. I stayed in the room so that I could pack up our bags for the flight to Shanghai today.

We used the hotel laundry service to have our clothes washed both days that we were in Xi’an and that really helped so we didn’t have a bunch of dirty clothes packed in our bags stinking things up. We had a lot of things washed and it only cost us a total of $69 USD – which was much cheaper than we would have paid in a US hotel to have an equal amount of items washed.

Bryan came up and was so excited about the images that he took – I peaked at one frame and it is really cool. It was about midnight when we went to sleep but we were all packed up and ready to go on to the next stop – Shanghai.

This morning, we made sure that we were on time. We were some of the first people to get into the dining room for breakfast. Bryan and I were checked out of our room by 7:30 a.m. After loading our luggage onto the bus, we helped pull everyone else’s luggage out to the bus. We were about 10 minutes late leaving the hotel so that’s not too bad. Our flight was supposed to take off at 10:40 and we are on the runway just now taxing to the starting line and it’s 11:25 a.m.

Our lecture in Shanghai is supposed to start at 3:30 p.m. and run until 5:30 p.m. We may be a little bit late. Here we go! I’m going to take a nap now.

March 18, 2011 – Friday – 1:17 p.m. (Shanghai, China)

We just landed and are taxing to the gate.

The commentary and notations below come strictly from my own observations and feelings as a documentary of my travels. Any opinions are my own and should not be construed otherwise. If you find this account to be boring then stop reading. If you are curious and wish to continue, then read on. Keep in mind that I am not a writer and I do not typically keep a diary. I only wanted to write this to remember the trip and to avoid having to repeat every detail multiple times. Enjoy!

March 16, 2011 – Wednesday – 8:39 a.m. (Xi’an, China)

Our train arrived this morning in Xi’an at 8:10 a.m. We are currently on our bus. I think we walked about a mile or two from the train station to get to the bus. They are taking us to the Bell Tower Hotel where we will stay for two nights and it is located in the center of the old walled city just across from the bell tower.

Xi’an is the capital of the Shaanxi province and is one of the oldest cities in China with more than 3,100 years of history. Our guide is a local woman who we call Linda. The ancient city wall was built from mud and something from rice, and then brick. There is a moat around the city wall with a park in between the moat and the wall. There are four gates to enter the walled city; North, South, West, & East. The base of the wall is nearly 60 feet wide and the top area is a little narrower. Bicycles can be rented to take a ride around the circumference of the wall which is about 12 kilometers. The wall is almost 40 feet in height and was constructed in 1370 during the Ming Dynasty. This is not the original wall however! The original city wall was started in 194 BC and took 4 years to finish.

There is a bell tower that rings in the mornings and a drum tower that is sounded at night. The city was laid out like a chess board with many blocks. The city has a population of about 8 million people.

March 16, 2011 – Wednesday – 12:05 p.m. (Xi’an, China)

I am currently sitting on top of the city wall near the main gate. The gate tower is to my left and the arrow building (now a Feng Shui museum) is to my right. There is a very pretty music playing in this area. It’s peaceful and quiet. The smog is pretty bad here too, unfortunately.

We arrived at our hotel this morning after coming from the train station. We were all very hungry and wanted to shower. There were no shower facilities on the train, just a washroom and a toilet. Luckily, we were able to go directly in to the hotel and eat breakfast. This hotel is much nicer than the one in Beijing. Bryan and I have two twin beds this time, oh well! I was just glad to be able to shower and wash my hair.

We will be leaving the city wall in about 15 minutes to go see the Terracotta Warriors. It should be fun. My allergies are still giving me a hard time but I’ll be ok. Xi’an has a lot of nice things near the hotel – such as shops and restaurants – and other stores we need for conveniences. It doesn’t seem quite so foreign.

We have had a couple of hours this morning up on the wall to wander around. We chose not to rent bicycles and instead walked in the vicinity of the main gate taking photos. I am not up to a nine mile bike ride. Four people in our group are off on the bike ride now and I’m sure they are all having a great time. This is relaxing whether you are riding a bike or just taking a quiet walk. It’s time to get with the group and gather up!

March 16, 2011 – Wednesday – 12:40 p.m. (Xi’an, China)

Guess what? We are back on the bus and driving out east of the city to the Terracotta Warriors. Linda is giving us a lecture on the history of the area. She is extremely knowledgeable and there is no way that I can write down everything that she is telling us. The Chinese history is very complicated with all of the different dynasties plus the fact that the history is so very old. The United States are mere babies in comparison to this. We thought learning American History in grade school was daunting? Try learning 4,000 years of history! And these people do!

March 16, 2011 – Wednesday – 6:30 p.m. (Xi’an, China)

It’s been a long day! We first stopped at a terracotta warrior factory. They gave the usually “presentation/sales pitch” of how these replicas are made in the same fashion as the actual Terracotta Warriors. They also had lacquered furniture and beautiful hand painted screens.

I almost let myself be convinced to purchase a beautiful embroidered silk. Good thing that I did not because Dr. Peoples told me that we would actually go to the silk factory in Shanghai and that is the place to buy silk because it’s definitely real.

(Footnote to myself – after the fact, 06-May-2011 – hindsight is 20/20: you should have bought the silk piece you wanted… the silk factory wasn’t really all it was cracked up to be, in my opinion.. when I go back on my own someday, I will steer clear of the “state-owned factories” and get off the beaten path to find some really nice things… but when this is a planned group trip, you have no control or flexibility… you have to roll with the punches! It was still an awesome experience!)

After leaving this replication making facility, we went for lunch. This was by far the best lunch or dinner we have had yet. The food was much better than in Beijing and seemed fresher. We sat at a table with Katie and Ale this time, with whom we had not dined with previously. They are really sweet young ladies. Our guide, Linda, is awesome and this lunch choice of hers was a favorite by all! There was a man that came in making noodles. It was like a long piece of dough and he was swinging it around and it kept getting thinner and thinner. Quite an interesting process and we had the option to purchase a bowl of the noodles for 20 Yuan if we liked. Of course, we did and they were great! People are always happy when you feed them well!

From the lunch restaurant, the Terracotta Warriors were only about a 15 minute drive. The parking area is a very long walk to the entrance of the site – at least a mile, maybe more. We were heckled by every vendor along the way.

The actual site itself is amazing! It’s the 8^th Wonder of the World and I believe it. I shook the hand of one of the original farmers who discovered the site. He’s a very old man now and I told him that it was an honor to meet him. He had no idea what I said. Oh, well.

We walked our butts off and our feet hurt for sure now! The #1 pit was huge! It’s where the bulk of the warriors are that they have excavated. There are many, many more that have not been uncovered yet. Unbelievable until you see it! There are also pits #2 and #3 which we also visited as well as seeing the bronze chariots.

A little bit of research on this amazing site reveals that this is a “collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China and the figures date from 210 BC.” They were discovered in 1974 by the six farmers and are located near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. (Wikipedia website)

We are on our way to dinner now. It’s almost 7:00 p.m. and we are almost to the gate of the walled city. What an amazing day!

Disclaimer:

The commentary and notations below come strictly from my own observations and feelings as a documentary of my travels. Any opinions are my own and should not be construed otherwise. If you find this account to be boring then stop reading. If you are curious and wish to continue, then read on. Keep in mind that I am not a writer and I do not typically keep a diary. I only wanted to write this to remember the trip and to avoid having to repeat every detail multiple times. Enjoy!

March 15, 2011 – Tuesday – 7:48 a.m. (Beijing, China)

We are all loaded and leaving the hotel on our way to the university. Dr. Pong took care of making sure that we were all appropriately checked out of our rooms. Our breakfast was good this morning and we made certain to load up on the basics! I had a small omelet, cereal, toast, yogurt, and coffee. I’ve been having them fix an omelet for me every morning. You really can’t go wrong with that in my opinion. This morning, Randall really wanted simply two scrambled eggs but didn’t know how to ask the young man who was at the omelet station. I was able to communicate with him enough to understand what to do with the eggs but when they were ready, he wouldn’t give them to Randall because he thought that they were for me. It was really quite funny when Randall came over to the table and I asked, “Where are your eggs?” and he replied, “He won’t give them to me.” I went over and fetched his eggs!

It’s sunny this morning but cold and I don’t see any smog in the air, yet!

The street vendors are out everywhere today, but I would bet that this is just a typical day in Beijing.

Uh oh, Ale just realized that she left a pair of high heels in her room! That sucks, but Dr. Peng is talking with the driver to make arrangements to have the room checked.

Today’s schedule is to hear a lecture on social change at the university, then have lunch near the Olympic Bird’s Nest. In the afternoon, we will have another lecture on history / culture. Around 3:30 p.m. we will drive to the Temple of Heaven and spend about an hour before having dinner at 6:00 p.m. We will then be headed to the west train station to catch an 8:10 p.m. overnight train to Xi’an. This will be an experience for both us. We’ve ridden on the Eurostar before but never on an overnight train.

Random information from Dr. Peng regarding the Peking Opera from last night…

He says that it is more about formality – there is no change, no originality. They imitate the previous actors and try to be exact even down to the individual steps. During the last dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, the second to the last emperor made a rule that there could be no more than 24 concubines. There used to be as many as 3,000. Many emperors would step out into the red light district and sleep with prostitutes. When two of them got STD’s, their mothers were very upset. The Peking Opera became the entertainment for the men. Government officials were not allowed to sleep with women and homosexuality sky rocketed. There is a Hollywood movie about the Peking Opera.

More random notations…

All of the gas stations have attendants that pump the gas. There are only two choices of gasoline, 93 and 97 octane.

Late September and October are good times to visit Beijing, as well as Spring in late March and April. The cherry blossom and peach trees are all starting to bloom even now. There are beautiful pink and white blooms everywhere. I can only imagine how beautiful it is when they are in full bloom.

110 is the equivalent of our 911 service. In the larger cities you have the option of English or Chinese but in the rural areas, you best be able to speak and understand Chinese.

The government does not allow access to Facebook and many other Internet sites. It is heavily censored. Pornography is illegal.

Some of the U.S. restaurants that we have seen are KFC (many!), Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, and of course Starbucks. I have also seen a few Dairy Queens! I wish I could get an Oreo Blizzard right about now.

Dr. Peng says that the reason we see so many strange looking buildings – designs – is because architects “try out” their designs here in China. They don’t know if a building will collapse or not and they really don’t care. They just want to be different and there are not many structural regulations. He says that it will be even more amazing in Shanghai.

It’s 9:15 a.m. and we have arrived at the university. We are fifteen minutes late so we must hurry. Traffic!

March 15, 2011 – Tuesday – 11:30 a.m. (Beijing, China)

We are on our way to lunch. We are going to a Dai restaurant near the Olympic stadium (bird nest). Dai and Taiwanese are very similar. Our lecture this morning was interesting. It was sort of boring though because the professor preferred to do it all in Chinese and that made Dr. Peng have to translate. Her PowerPoint presentation had an absolute ton of photos and far too much text. And, to top it off, she went so fast, we could not read it, even if we wanted to.

March 15, 2011 – Tuesday – 4:31 p.m. (Beijing, China)

We are back in the bus driving to the Temple of Heaven. Of course, the traffic is insane. I am still having a lot of trouble with allergies today. I am tired of blowing my nose.

Our lunch was very close to the Olympic stadium (bird nest), almost directly across the street from it. There was a short performance of Dai (Thai) music before we ate. The first girl that came out onto the stage was playing a Thai flute. I loved the sound of the instrument! It was very calming and I could probably listen to it for hours. She was a beautiful girl with long silky black hair. I took some great photos of her since we were seated in the front.

March 15, 2011 – Tuesday – 6:01 p.m. (Beijing, China)

Wow, we jumped off of the bus at around 5:00 p.m. at the Temple of Heaven. It was sudden and I was in the middle of writing about our lunch. Bryan did not care for much of anything at lunch and that is irritating when there are not any other choices. It’s not like you could grab something off of the menu that you might like better than what was put out in front of us. We didn’t get any choices. We haven’t gotten any choices since we have been here and I would be willing to bet that things are not going to change anytime soon.

I am glad that I did not have to go to the ladies room while we were at lunch because Candyce said it was the worst yet. As soon as we finished eating we all jumped back on the bus and were taken to Dr. Tea. Guess what they sell? Tea! We were all ushered into a room and seated around a large table or around the perimeter of the room. The young lady that “performed” did an excellent job of explaining the five different teas that we tasted. I call it a performance because at this point I was starting to catch on to how things work here.

Oh, we are about to get dinner near the west train station. More Later.

March 16, 2011 – Wednesday – 2:40 a.m. (on a train, between Beijing & Xi’an)

I cannot sleep so I decided to get caught up on my writing. Back to the tea house episode in Beijing. I really enjoyed the demonstration and getting to taste the different types of tea. I found that interesting and I learned a lot about the health benefits of each type. The young lady was extremely entertaining and funny. Prior to this, I only knew about Arizona Green Tea, and that is nowhere close to these types of tea. She explained to us the proper way to hold the teacup. Ladies should hold the cup with their thumb and first finger at the rim, middle finger underneath the bottom, and last two fingers held out. Men should tuck the pinkie finger in or they will be called “lady boys!” Ha. Ha.

Once the presentation was finished, the vultures swept in with a vengeance. All of a sudden there were probably 12 ladies in the room with us. The ratio of them to us was seemed like two to one. It might have been the other way around but it was like bees on honey and extremely overwhelming to be pressured to buy right then and there. I hate high pressure sales. Bryan and I (along with Candyce) escaped as quickly as we could.

Guess what was across the street? McDonald’s! It was great for a quick bathroom break and to get something to snack on. More so for Bryan than for me since he didn’t eat anything for lunch. We had to hurry back to the bus so that we could go back to the university for the afternoon lecture.

While on the bus though, Susan made what seemed to me to be a very derogatory remark about McDonald’s just being “trash” food and how she doesn’t eat it. That was just rude and it’s getting on a lot of people’s nerves. I am not a “lover” of McDonald’s myself and I don’t eat there often at all but for goodness sake when a person is sick of rice and not getting enough to eat, then whose business is it anyway if they choose to get a burger and fries from McDonald’s.

Our afternoon lecture was with Professor Gu. He was wonderful! Even though he spoke only Chinese, and Dr. Peng translated, Professor Gu was very funny and entertaining. He discussed the Chinese culture. He is a very traditional Chinese teacher. He used an old school slide projector and designated me as the person to turn off and on the lights since I was sitting nearest the switches. Professor Gu teaches tourism and he trained the volunteers for the Olympics. He loves to show photos of himself when he was very young and travelling all over China to the historical sites. He is interesting to watch because he is extremely animated in his teaching, pointing and raising his hands, and such. Also, his eyebrows do this funny up and down motion constantly while he is talking. It looks like he is “making eyes at you” and it reminds me of when my daddy used to wiggle his ears for me. He loves Bill Clinton and he has an extreme respect for women. He quoted Chairman Mao, “Women hold up half the sky.”

Our lecture was over at 4:00 p.m. and after a few quick photos with Professor Gu, we headed over to the Temple of Heaven. When we got there, we walked for a very long time to get to the actual entrance, only to find out that the last entrance time was 4:00 p.m. All we could do was walk around the outer wall and take a few photos. I do believe that this “fly by the seat of your pants” method we have been on for the last few days really sucks. At every event or location, we are told to wait while Dr. Peng goes to get our tickets. I suppose I am just used to having my tickets already in hand and knowing when things are open and closed. Logistics and planning are very important.

One cool thing is that Ale’s shoes showed up at the Temple of Heaven!

After the Temple of Heaven fiasco, we went for dinner near the west train station. Our food was on the table when we walked through the door. Again, no choices. What did I tell you!

I finally fell asleep on this train at about 3:40 a.m. – it is now only 6:15 a.m. and I am awake again.

We drove from dinner last night over to the train station. We had to be dropped off by Mr. Lu across the street. So, we all had to carry our own luggage and bags up a long flight of stairs to a pedestrian crosswalk. It was tough for some and it was very cold and windy. The rolling suitcases were the worst to have to drag up those stairs but we all tried to help each other. I am thankful that Bryan and I have REI backpacks. It allows me to move through the crowds much easier. After passing through several entrance points and walking a very long distance, we finally arrived at Platform 9. Our train was waiting on the tracks. We went so fast through all of the people in the train station that by the time we got on the train, we were exhausted. Bryan and I are rooming up with Jordan and Adam. When we first got into our cabin, with our luggage, all four of us were sitting on the two bottom bunks just staring at each other. It was a moment to exhale. None of us cared to do anything but say, “Whew, that was crazy!” We talked about how psycho the last five days had been and we wondered what Xi’an would be like. I think we just sat there for about 45 minutes chatting. Several others in our group stopped by the door to see how we were doing, and what we were doing. Finally, we put away our things so that we could all function in that cabin. Bryan and I went down to the dining car to get a Pepsi.

We met three young men that were part of a group of 90 students from a Belgium university and another few from a group of 16 from Australia and New Zealand. From the conversation, every one of them is only concerned with getting completely wasted while on this train.

The power supply did not work in our cabin and that is not good when you (rather Bryan) need the power for his CPAP machine. I had prepared myself mentally for a night of his snoring but neither one of us actually slept much anyways so it didn’t much matter.

The commentary and notations below come strictly from my own observations and feelings as a documentary of my travels. Any opinions are my own and should not be construed otherwise. If you find this account to be boring then stop reading. If you are curious and wish to continue, then read on. Keep in mind that I am not a writer and I do not typically keep a diary. I only wanted to write this to remember the trip and to avoid having to repeat every detail multiple times. Enjoy!

March 14, 2011 – Monday – 5:30 a.m. (Beijing, China)

We are dressed and ready for today.

Yesterday afternoon we had a chance to walk down a nice pedestrian street with shops on both sides – it was called Dongsi West Street. Fresh air and cool. Still in the city but it was nice to have some time to wander around at our own pace. We just marveled at the items in the stores and the people.

There is definitely a level of culture shock but the Chinese are trending more and more toward American ways. I just wish they would improve the restrooms. Most of the time there is no toilet paper and rarely do you find a Western style toilet and forget about hand soap. It probably sounds like I’m complaining about a lot of things but really I am just amazed at how good we really have it in the U.S. Not really amazed, but rather thankful and feeling extremely fortunate right about now.

from the Jade Museum yesterday

After our walk it was about 6:00 p.m. and we then went to a huge hotel for dinner. I have no idea the names of the restaurants.  We had about 45 minutes to eat. I had a glass of their beer and this time a fish with the head on it came out. Bryan was thrilled – I did not eat it! As soon as we finished eating we went to a traditional Chinese Acrobats Show at 7:15 p.m. It was interesting with many tumbling and high flying acts. The girls with diabolos (Chinese yo-yo) and bicycle acts that were just crazy. Only complaint is that the theater was hot like a sauna. But I think this is a place that many tour groups get drug to and so they make a lot of money and don’t do much for upgrades or conveniences. Another sad thing was that they did not allow any photos. We did get in a couple before we were asked to stop.

When the show was over at about 8:45 p.m., we were all exhausted. I even fell asleep on the drive back to the hotel. After a quick shower, I was out like a light.

But, back up this morning at 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. Today we go to Beijing City University to meet the students and have two lectures with them. We will be there most of the day so not much walking. We are going down for breakfast now since the time is 5:40 a.m.

March 14, 2011 – Monday – 7:15 a.m. (Beijing, China)

We are finishing breakfast. Dr. Peoples, Fred, Jordan, Adam, and Candyce are all around the table now. I gave Dr. Peoples my seat and I am off to the side writing. We had breakfast with Susan too but when she finished, she went outside for a walk. I think I’m going to walk around for a few minutes.

March 14, 2011 – Monday – 7:39 a.m. (Beijing, China)

Our lecture will be on the Origin of Chinese Language from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. We will have a brief lunch with the students and they will stay with us until 3:00 p.m. for free discussion time. We will leave the college about 3:30 p.m. and do the Temple of Heaven. We will then do a Peking Duck Dinner tonight and go to the Peking Opera show. It is only from Beijing (there are 32 states and provinces and each has its own opera).

Random information from Dr. Peng…

Mandarin is the national language of China.

Chinese lost WW2 to Japan. Dr. Peng jokes this morning about how the pollution from the last couple of days may have been blown overnight to Japan.

We are driving to Beijing City University in the Monday morning traffic. (This is not a random piece of information – it was a fact.)

Goods are organized by “cities” – such as Antique city, Car city, etc. That means that they group stores together by type of goods sold.

The temperature at this moment is 10°C. It’s quite cold.

There are community volunteers all around the city. They are typically older retired people and they keep an eye on their neighborhoods. You can distinguish them by the red armbands on their left arms. They also help to control the lines for the public buses.

Dr. Peoples and Fred are having a lively discussion regarding the economy and politics.

All of the land is owned by the state but when the government wants to move the farmers out of an area, they have to pay them.

We are at the university now so I will continue this later of course.

March 14, 2011 – Monday – 10:40 a.m. (Beijing, China)

We’ve been in a lecture with Ms. Leo Le learning about the Chinese language. Bryan is across the conference table from me and I can tell that his allergies are giving him problems also. We are taking a short break.

March 14, 2011 – Monday – 4:07 p.m. (Beijing, China)

We are back on the bus headed to the hotel. We had lunch at the university. Let me just say that it was the absolute worst meal I think I have ever had. There were four different dishes on the tray.  There was something with eggplant, two different fish dishes, and one that looked like a bunch of mushrooms. The fish had bones all throughout it. Luckily, there were bananas, oranges, and yogurt cups on the table. They forgot to give us the rice until we had all already tried to eat. I was happy for the rice. I can’t speak for anyone else but I was not enjoying the lunch at all. I did catch several looks from the others and it didn’t appear that they were enjoying it either. I know we shouldn’t be picky but geez this lunch was difficult to stomach.

After our lunch, we had the opportunity to visit with 14 Chinese students. They were all either accounting or finance majors. We were paired up with them and had about 45 minutes to get to know them. I had the privilege of meeting Zhang Si Wen – I’ll refer to her by her American name, “Wenny.”

Wenny is 19 years old and a freshman accounting major. She is an only child like most of the young people in the large cities and she grew up in Beijing. She enjoys listening to all types of music but has no particular favorite. Wenny would love to come to the U.S. and hopes that she is able to in her second year of college. She misses her grandfather and the little things about him. Wenny is very smart because she didn’t write any notes about me and was able to introduce me to her classmates very well. The thing that Wenny wanted me to remember most about her is that she loves to smile. I will remember her smile for a lifetime.

Bryan was paired up with “Penny”. Unfortunately, this is my journal and so I don’t have any notes on Penny. 

Me & Wenny

 

 

 

Bryan & Penny

Our ACC group with students from Beijing City University

We completed our day at the university at around 4:00 p.m. and we are currently driving back to the hotel so that we may freshen up for the evening. We have a Peking duck dinner and the Peking Opera to attend.

March 14, 2011 – Monday – 10:20 p.m. (Beijing, China)

We are in bed and absolutely exhausted! The smoke and smog is still wrecking havoc on me and has been pretty bad all day today.

After a quick rest at the hotel this afternoon, we left at 5:30 p.m. for dinner. The drive to dinner was at least an hour or more. We went to a restaurant that specializes in Peking duck. Again, I don’t know the name of it. Maybe next time, I’ll pay more attention to things like that. But, we are moving at such a fast pace, we don’t have time really to even try to figure it out. After the lunch today, I was looking forward to something good. There was disappointment again if you are not a duck fan. Duck isn’t for everyone. We played what seemed like Russian Rhoullete with the lazy susan. Most of the people at my table were not eating the duck.

the duck

 After dinner, we went to the Qianmen Jianguo Hotel for the Peking Opera performance at the Liyuan Theatre. I know the name of this place because I looked it up! When we walked into the lobby, it was gorgeous and very swanky. My eyes went straight to a glass case that had chocolate mousse and other desserts in it! Bryan and I shared a chocolate mousse and it was like heaven. Several others in our group also enjoyed a yummy dessert.

March 15, 2011 – Tuesday – 3:00 a.m. (Beijing, China)

I fell asleep before I finished. I am tired mostly from the air. It’s very hard to breathe.

March 15, 2011 – Tuesday – 4:40 a.m. (Beijing, China)

I am awake again. I hear Bryan in the shower. Last night the Peking Opera was interesting. The first lady was dressed in a very colorful outfit and headdress. She sang at a very high pitch. It was definitely unlike any other opera that I had ever seen. (I found out later that it was really a man!)We have to check out of the hotel this morning at 7:30 a.m. We are going back to the university today for two lectures. Then we will have dinner and go to the train station where we will board an overnight train to Xi’an. I hope lunch today is better than yesterday. If not, at least there is rice. We will eat a good breakfast here at the hotel just in case. More later. 

Peking Opera

Peking Opera

Peking Opera

Peking Opera

Peking Opera

The commentary and notations below come strictly from my own observations and feelings as a documentary of my travels. Any opinions are my own and should not be construed otherwise. If you find this account to be boring then stop reading. If you are curious and wish to continue, then read on. Keep in mind that I am not a writer and I do not typically keep a diary. I only wanted to write this to remember the trip and to avoid having to repeat every detail multiple times. Enjoy!

Before we get started… here are three photos from the day before at Summer Palace. I really like them and wanted to share before I move on.

one of the buildings at the Summer Palace

the dock area at Summer Palace

at Summer Palace

  March 13, 2011 – Sunday – 8:00 a.m. (Beijing, China)

We are on the bus headed to the Great Wall. It was built to keep out the Mongolians – and other nomads. The part we will see was built 600 years ago during the Ming Dynasty. The oldest part of the Great Wall is 2000 years old back when China was seven powerful kingdoms that were fighting each other. The state of Qin conquered the others and the king Ying Zheng became the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang.  The first thing he left China was the Great Wall. He connected the smaller sections of walls and formed the Great Wall and the seven kingdoms were unified. The second thing that this emperor left was the Terracotta Warriors – built to defend his afterlife. He felt insecure. We’ll see that in a day or two.

The Great Wall is almost 4,000 miles long. It is built around the mountains. The Han Chinese people were farmers then and they were good at riding horses. They kept getting defeated by the Mongolians on horseback. The wall was to make them get off their horses and fight on an equal level. The Great Wall is a symbol of the defeat of China – it was useless.

During the First Emperor’s period – China’s population was 4 million men and the Emperor summoned one million men to build the Great Wall. His dynasty only lasted 23 years after a peasant uprising defeated him. About one half of the men died while building the Great Wall. The original portions were made of mud.

The area that we will see today was built during the Ming Dynasty (about 1440s) and was made of bricks and stone. After the Ming Dynasty was overthrown, the Great Wall was neglected.

Random things that Dr. Peng told us while we were riding to Badaling, north of Beijing, to see the Great Wall….

Beijing is divided by six circles / rings. The first and second are considered downtown. No trucks are allowed inside the fifth ring during the daytime. After 11:00 p.m., they are allowed up to circle 3 but nothing beyond that.

Motorcycles are forbidden because of accidents in the big cities. They are also prohibited due to previous problems with purse snatchings.

China is moving towards the same type of policies and regulations that the U.S. has on many things such as auto insurance.

The political capital of China is Beijing. The financial capital is Shanghai. Chongqing is the largest city in China with over 28 million people.

Every five years there is a census in October. The last one just occurred in 2010. Floating and migrant workers are not counted. They are supposed to register with the city government if they intend to stay longer than three months.

The military is voluntary and China has about two to three million troops. They get good benefits and jobs, similar to the U.S.

Money spent on military operations is secret and they don’t disclose figures. Navy and Air Force are the branches they are spending the most money on.

China is second in space technology.

Fifteen years ago there was a patent registration system but now days there are more venture capitalists.

The People’s Bank of China is the central bank similar to the U.S. Federal Reserve.

China holds 3 trillion U.S. dollars in surplus which is all in state owned commercial banks. This drives the value of the Yuan up. So, China’s currency is gaining value.

The business practices are less stringent in China; free from as many regulations as in the U.S. Local governments encourage new businesses. There are no labor unions. Chinese people don’t argue with the boss. Most laws are there but they are just loosely enforced.

There is no competing between banks and there is only one lending rate.

March 13, 2011 – Sunday – 9:20 a.m. (Beijing, China)

We are driving up to the Badaling portion of the Great Wall. Signal towers burned wolf droppings to signal each other.

It’s 9:26 a.m. and we have arrived at the Great Wall!

Great Wall

a view high up where Bryan went

another from Bryan's perspective

portions of the wall are very steep

Candyce, Susan, Randall, and Me! hanging out in a signal tower on the Great Wall

Wow! We really were on the Great Wall of China!

Beijing 2008 Olympics sign on the hill in the distance "One World, One Dream"

March 13, 2011 – Sunday – 5:34 p.m. (Beijing, China)

It’s been a full day already. We have been going non-stop! And we aren’t done yet! I am sitting on the bus waiting for everyone. We are somewhere in Beijing, God only knows where. I usually have a great sense of direction but I really can’t tell which direction is North, South, East or West. I have lost my bearings and it’s hard for me to do that without having a feeling of being totally lost and overwhelmed. Kind of reminds me of the time when Bryan and I were outside of Venice, Italy… I was driving, he was navigating, and we missed our exit off the autostrada for Venice. That did it for me – total meltdown.

The day has been awesome! The Great Wall was really amazing and I still can’t believe that we are really in China although it is pretty obvious that we are “not” in the U.S. We were able to drive up really close to the entrance area which was good because the walk would have been much longer. We seem to have some connections.  At least our driver, Mr. Lu, must have some connections. I was able to go up to about one fourth of this section. I waited at a signal tower area. It was extremely windy and very cold. I felt no desire to push my knees and climb all the way to the end up the side of the mountain. I could have gotten up just fine but the coming back down part would have been brutal. Bryan and Candyce went all the way to the top of this section together to get photos. I waited with the backpacks and gear so that Bryan would not have to carry the extra weight. The person watching was nice and I felt like I had some peace up there. No one bothered me and the air was fresh. The first fresh air I’ve had since we’ve been here. That was the best part! I know it will not last though. Truly amazing to just sit on the Great Wall and look around.

We were there until 12:30 p.m. We enjoyed Lily café mocha at the small shop where we “had the connections”. It was so good to have hot coffee especially since the temperature was probably only upper 30’s, if that.  We set up for a group shot with the Great Wall in the background and did that before we left.

Coffee and Tea inside the little shop near the entrance to the Great Wall

Our entire group - at the Great Wall

It was a winding road coming down and the scenery was amazing. There are villages along the mountain sides. Instead of coming down the expressway, we took the scenic route. I am beginning to think that it’s standard protocol for tour buses.

They took us for lunch at the Friendship Store cloisonné factory. We listened to a quick presentation (go figure) and walked through where the ladies were doing the hand work. Then we climbed two flights of stairs to eat our meal.

March 13, 2011 – Sunday – 9:30 p.m. (Beijing, China)

We are back at the hotel and I’ve had enough time to shower before writing.

Our lunch was in a huge three or four story building. Two of the levels were the restaurant and tons of tourists come here. There were really beautiful pieces in the cloisonné area but just so large and expensive. Lunch was lazy susan style but a little more Americanized. There were actually French fried type potatoes and every person that was eating there was off of a tour bus and of western / European decent.

Hand crafted cloisonne

After lunch we drove to a jade factory – it was closed already so we loaded back up and left. They took us to another location. We got a presentation about the types of jade and of course a sales pitch. This time our presenter was “Ida”. After some time there, we left and headed back into the city. We drove for what felt like hours and finally went down into the old original part of the city.

Carving Jade Sculptures

"Ida" explaining the different types of jade and how to tell a fake from the real thing

huge cabbage jade sculpture

March 14, 2011 – Monday – 3:30 a.m. (Beijing, China)

I fell asleep writing. Yesterday we got down into the old part which was interesting because of the little shops on both sides of the streets. There was a man on a bike that was a knife sharpener and he would ride the streets and sharpen people’s butcher knives. There are so many things to take in. Bryan tried to grab a photo of him through the bus window from across the aisle. We’ll see if it comes out at all.

The mobile knife sharpener

steam from the sewer as a bus passes

a truck full of bicycles

we were as perplexed as the lady in the background

Andres just being Andres!

Monument to the People - Tian'anmen Square

Our entire group in Tian'anmen Square

Ale & Katie

Mob of Americans!

the light makes it look like snow - the Forbidden City

I like this angle - the Forbidden City

the Forbidden City - you can see Dr. Peng talking to me in the right corner down on the ground. Fred is standing behind me.

i love these lions! - the Forbidden City

this is about to enter the Forbidden City

Tian'anmen Square - Gate of Heavenly Peace

Dr. Peng talking to me, Adam & Candyce

Our group taking in the super large LED screens in Tian'anmen Square

Government Propaganda

this is one of the government buildings in Tian'anmen Square

The commentary and notations below come strictly from my own observations and feelings as a documentary of my travels. Any opinions are my own and should not be construed otherwise. If you find this account to be boring then stop reading. If you are curious and wish to continue, then read on. Keep in mind that I am not a writer and I do not typically keep a diary. I only wanted to write this to remember the trip and to avoid having to repeat every detail multiple times. Enjoy!

March 12, 2011 – Saturday – 2:47 a.m. (Beijing, China)

Both of us are awake! The bed is extremely hard and the smog here is terrible. We both miss our bed. My shoulders ache so badly and I cannot lie on my side because that makes my hips hurt. I now have this congestion and mucous in my nasal cavity that I just can’t seem to get rid of. We just got here and the smog (and the smoking in the hotel) is really getting to me. It’s a good thing that I brought with me two packages (30 each) of HEB honey lemon cough drops on the advice of my husband. I’ll probably have a cavity by the end of the trip because I’m eating them constantly.

March 12, 2011 – Saturday – 3:55 a.m. (Beijing, China)

Screw it! We are getting up to walk around and check out this hotel.

March 12, 2011 – Saturday – 7:05 a.m. (Beijing, China)

We have had breakfast – well, we are having it. I’m writing at the table. We walked around the inside of the hotel this morning to see where everything was located. We found an ATM machine and took out 800 Yuan for cash, whatever that amounts to? Ha Ha.

The front desk clerk was sound asleep with his head on the desk. He didn’t hear us walk by and we seriously thought about walking over and smacking the top of the counter with the palm of our hands just to scare the crap out of him but we didn’t do it. It was so funny – sleeping on the job – got to love it!

After going back to our room, we were wide awake and decided to just get ready for the day. While I was showering, Bryan downloaded our photos from yesterday from the memory cards onto to the  and the back up hard drives.

We came down for breakfast about 6:30 a.m. There are slightly weird items on the breakfast buffet: rice, noodles, veggies, cold cuts. But, there are also “normal” items such as cereals, juices, breads, etc. The coffee was very good and we found plenty of food to fill up on.

Just before we came down for breakfast, we watched on the television a story about an 8.9 earthquake that hit Japan during the night. The story said that it was felt as far away as Beijing. We didn’t feel anything and if we did, I don’t know that we would have even realized it. It’s possible that we had not even arrived here yet. Also the earthquake caused a tsunami across the Pacific Ocean, hitting some of Hawaii, and on to the western coast of California. At least that’s what the news here is saying.

It looks like most of our group is up also. We have visited over breakfast with Randall and Matthew, as well as Adam. And, I see that Candyce, Susan, Rustin, Andres, and Fred, are all here now too. Well enough for now – let’s see where this day takes us.

March 12, 2011 – Saturday – 12:50 p.m. (Beijing, China)

We are currently in our bus headed to lunch. We have had an interesting morning! First, we left the hotel and went to Tian’anmen Square. We by-passed all of the security lines going under the tunnel for the street crossings. Dr. Peng (“Murray”) is a really cool guide and he must have some connections! He has already told us so much about the history and culture of China. We walked from Tian’anmen Square to the Forbidden City. It felt like we just kept going through gate after gate. Section after section. It’s just like the movie The Last Emporer. Only one third of the Forbidden City is even open to the public and, what is open, is huge. At the back of the Forbidden City is the Imperial Garden. There are many rocks with natural holes in them all over the garden.

We lost Susan again when we came out. She has a hard time staying with the group I guess.

Jordan is 6’6” tall and many of the young Chinese girls wanted their picture taken with him. The street vendors are very aggressive. Jordan tried negotiating with one and almost got into a scuff. The lady tried to rip him off; she changed the price after she had given him the item and took his money. Dr. Peoples tried to help and the lady tried to pull the item out of his hands; generally accosted him.

The traffic in Beijing is horrible and the smog is also very thick. I think I’ve said that a few times already.

There are two lions at the entrance to many buildings and parks. There is one male on the right with a ball under his paw and the female is on the left with a cub under her paw. There is significance to this but I can’t remember what Dr. Peng told us. I’ll have to look it up later on the internet.

On the roads you will find cars from Bentleys to the old rickshaw type bicycles. Housing complex buildings are everywhere! All ages of buildings – and very small quarters.

on the grounds of Summer Palace

Jordan, Randall, Andres, Matt, & Katie - entering Summer Palace

March 12, 2011 – Saturday – 10:46 p.m. (Beijing, China)

I wish that we would have had more time to photograph but then again the crowds are very heavy and frankly the sun never shines because of the smog. Most photographers would say that some overcast skies and clouds are good because they act like a giant soft box. Well, that’s true but this is dirty gray smog! Big difference!

After we left the Forbidden City, we drove to the Summer Palace. This is the area where the emperor would spend the summers. There is a huge lake called Kunming Lake which is entirely man made. The dirt that was excavated was used to build Longevity Hill which is 60 meters high and the dominating feature of the Summer Palace. Again, extremely crowded. I wonder why they named the entire place “Summer Palace”? Why not “Summer Garden” or “Summer Retreat” or something like that? The walkways and corridors go on for what feels like miles. The crossbeams in all of the corridors are painted with murals of different scenes. They are beautiful, detailed, and no two are alike.

a hutong is a neighborhood

the moat around the Forbidden City

We have done a lot of walking today and I am wishing that I would have gotten a cortisone shot from the orthopedic surgeon in my knee before the trip. It really stinks to have meniscus tears in your knees and it’s extremely painful when they get agitated. Along with Dr. Peoples, Dr. Peng, and Fred, Bryan and I decided to stay at the bottom while the rest of the group (all of the young people – well most of them!) climbed all of the stairs to the top of Longevity Hill. It was a good time to take some photos and a little break.

By the time we were walking out of the Summer Palace, my right knee was killing me. We then stopped at a state-owned pearl farm. They had a huge showroom of freshwater and ocean pearls. A girl could shop like crazy in a place like this but I am not a huge pearl fan. I would like to have one nice piece but not a lot.

A demonstration was given by “Flower” – that was her American name – and she was very funny! Her English was really good but you had to listen closely because between her accent and the fast pace of her speaking you could hardly keep up. We learned that she was 25 years old and had worked at the store for 5 years. She explained the difference between freshwater and ocean pearls.

Freshwater oysters are a triangular shape while ocean oysters are more oval. That’s the first difference. The second difference is that freshwater oysters have many pearls inside while ocean oysters have only one. She opened a freshwater oyster for us and it had 18 pearls inside! The pearls can be a variety of colors like white, champagne, lavender, black, and others. It all depends on what minerals the oyster absorbs from the water. All of their freshwater pearls come from oysters out of the Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace. Hey we were just there!

We were given some time to do a little shopping after the demonstration. I found a really pretty pendant, a black pearl encircled with white crystals.

the Emperor's bedroom at the Forbidden City

more Forbidden City

another Forbidden City building

I forgot to write about our lunch today. We went after the Forbidden City but before the Summer Palace. Lunch was similar to dinner last night, family style all served on a huge lazy susan, around a table seated with 7 or 8 of us.

After we left the pearl farm/factory/store, whatever you want to call it, we went to a place called the Silk Street Pearl Market (called Silk Market for short). Don’t let the name fool you, it’s not a silk products market nor a pearl market exclusively. Yes, you might find silk and it may be 100% pure silk, but it may not! And you may find pearls, real or fake. This was like the Mexican flea markets that we have here; only on steroids! Before going in, me, Bryan, Katie, and Ale walked across the street to Starbucks, thinking we would find a clean comfortable restroom. Wrong! No public restroom. We did get a coffee drink just because it was familiar and we went a few doors down to a McDonald’s. There’s bound to be a public restroom in a McDonald’s right? Sure! This was the second time today that I had used the “squat style” toilet. It’s a porcelain fixture flush with the floor with grooved places to put your feet. For someone who has only ever used the sitting style throne, this one is a little tricky.

It’s 11:12 p.m. and Bryan is snoring and out like a light. I can’t wake him to use his CPAP machine because I need the power converter to finish the back up of images from today. I don’t mind listening to him snore while I write. I know he is very tired. Today was an extremely busy day with a lot of sites all packed into one day.

Back to the story of the day though. We walked back to the Silk Market and after walking through it we purchased two Chinese dresses for me (one short, the other long), a bottle of Giorgio Armani cologne for Bryan, and a nice Chinese dress jacket / shirt for Bryan. All total for the dresses and jacket we spent 500 Yuan which is about $76 US and the cologne was 65 Yuan or approximately $10 US.

Getting out of that place was like a rat maze. I think they deliberately make it difficult so you will get stuck inside.

One lady said to Bryan, “Oh, you such a big man!” All of the people who work in this building are very aggressive. They heckle you from their stalls, “Hey lady, what you want?”

Candyce was with Bryan and I and we were trying to get out by the 8:00 p.m. time we to be at the bus outside. We were a couple of minutes late and then after headcount, we were missing Andres. So, Dr. Peoples went back inside and found him pretty quickly. I’m surprised that we all found our way out to begin with. They don’t make it easy.

Forbidden City

Dr. Peoples, Dr. Peng, Rustin, Adam, & Andres - inside the Forbidden City

Thank goodness we were headed to the hotel after dinner. All of us were worn out. Even though we got here close to 10:00 p.m., we had to download and back up our photos. So, now it’s 11:45 p.m. and all 700+ photos for the day are backed up on three different drives. Bryan has his machine on and I’m turning out the lights.

Tomorrow, we do the Great Wall.

Sunny but smoggy in the Forbidden City