second time around

I tried to get to the blog site in Chengdu and got in, so maybe it is just Beijing or even just that hotel that blocked the access to blog sites. Anyway here is an update:

One week into the China tour and all is well. The group seems to be meshing very well. We have Terry and Grace, a couple from Rochester, New York; Johan and Lily, a couple from Australia; Anne and Susan, traveling friends from Portland and the Bay area; Annaleise, a single girl from Long Beach, Norbert from Chicago whom I met in Fiji and myself. We saw the sights of Beijing first, hitting all the usual spots. Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, the Great Wall, the Ming Emperor Tombs, the Hutong area, and the Summer Palace. It rained a bit the first day and then was clear which was great as it cleared the air. Beijing is permanently hazy and so the clear day was very nice.

Some random thoughts on arrival in China:

I liked the opening page of the guide from Chinaspree. It said:
PARTING WORDS OF ADVICE
“Be patient, flexible, open and good-natured. China is a learning experience, not an escape: an adventure, not a getaway; a new challenge, not necessarily a holiday.” Travel with an Open Mind and Expect the Unexpected.

Flying over most big cities there are miles of city with the occasional areas of “downtown” that have high rises. Flying into Beijing there are miles of highrises. There are just rows and rows of apartment buildings and office buildings. They warned us in a memo that in China cars and not pedestrians have the right of way and they are not kidding. “Walker beware!” I was especially impressed by the railway station, on a six lane road the pedestrian light turns to walk while the middle four lanes get a red light and the outer lane each way gets a green U-turn light to cross the pedestrians twice! The lane markings are only for tourists to think there is some sort of order. Mostly it is just honk your horn to say “I am coming through out of my way.”

The history of the Forbidden City struck me deeply while walking through it. The Great Wall is all that and a bag of chips, except for the long row of stalls selling everything touristy. How can you sell T-shirts at “two for a dollar?” though I did like the one of Obama in a Chairman Mao hat and shirt. The locals call them three generation shirts: wear it once and wash it then your child gets it, wash it again and the baby gets it. Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum was closed as it was the Moon Festival holiday, but it is a big place and usually a long line to pay respects. I liked the row of tiny figures on the eaves to keep away bad spirits. The Temple of Heaven built with no nails. Exercise in the park by tossing and catching (not hitting) a birdie with a soft racquet. A very Tai Chi style of swooping and swirling and behind the back tosses. The dinner of Peking Duck was spectacular, the dinner on the airplane was not. The obligatory “see how they carve jade tour” and shopping expedition was interesting as far as seeing them carve the 5 layer ball inside ball from a solid cube of jade. The shopping was less interesting, although I did love one bowl which was white with orange fish inside, carved from a single piece of stone with the color pattern in the single stone. I just didn’t love it $6,000 worth.

Terra Cotta Warriors: “the eighth wonder of the world”. The farmer who found them while digging a well in 1974 was there signing a book about it. Xian is the former capital of China during the Qin and Tang dynasties. Now it is a small city of 7 million. We had a great Dim Sum (17 rounds of dumplings) dinner with a music and dancing show the way it was done in the Tang Dynasty time. The seven story “Wild Goose Pagoda” honoring Xuan Zang who was huge in spreading Buddhism in China was very nice.

Then we moved on to Guilin. The city with the Li River and the amazing Karst formations, those high skinny hills you see in classic chinese landscapes. That is actually what they look like. Very incredible to see. While on the boat we had to get a glass of “Snake wine” to try. It is actually a liquor of about 40% alcohol with a nice snake in the jar. I wonder if the liquid was yellow before the snake was in it for some time or not. Before going on the cruise we spent a day driving out to Long Sheng to view the “Dragon’s Spine Rice Terraces.” A two hour drive out of the city then transfer to a 45 minute shuttle bus up the hill. The shuttle was about like the road to Machu Picchu except it was paved. Several places where the guard rail posts were knocked over and one nice rock slide across the road. Once we reached the end of the road we walked through the village up to the viewpoint. 1000 vertical feet along a stairway made of slate and stone with very irregular heights and depths. It was 95 degrees and close to 100% humidity. But yes it was worth it! This is another one of the places that pictures don’t really show the place. Coming down I was tempted by the purse made from a leopard pelt but then my Karma meter got the better of me. We were aghast at the sight of the tiny, older Chinese woman porter carrying a basket on her back with a huge oversized suitcase in it up to the hotel near the top for some tourist. How can you possibly need more than an overnight bag in a remote village that barely has electricity?

We overnighted in Chengdu so that we could make the obligatory visit to the Panda Research Center in the morning before flying on to Tibet. It was raining pretty steadily, so the masses of people with umbrellas were trying to poke my eyes out again and again. The Panda were fun to see and I don’t mind the rain except for the umbrellas. Being a little cooler with the rain the Pandas were more active and we did get to see them out and about.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 17th, 2011 at 9:11 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.