Final day in Beijing

A temple in old Beijing

On Friday, our final day in Beijing we went to the Great Wall as a group. This was a different section than I had climbed a few days earlier and certainly had tons more people. But it also had a crazy steep incline just to get up to the top. After that it looked flatter than what I had already climbed, but I opted for staying at the entrance this time, eating ice cream and writing post cards:) I've attached a picture here for you to see the hike, though. Yikes! While I was sitting there, a middle school boy came up behind me and said in near perfect English, "what are you doing?" I told him I was writing postcards and we had a short discussion about why he was there and the English he had studied in school. He was so cute and just had no inhibitions. So many of the Chinese have come up and looked at what I was doing if I was reading or writing, or they will listen in to our conversations if we are speaking English in a group. Of course they often ask to have their pictures taken with us too - a very curious group of people, but then I often feel that way towards them since so many things are just very different.



For lunch, the tour always arranges to take us to these very touristy places where we are the only people there is a massive restaurant with lots of tables. The first day it was a hotel and the second was a jade factory where they also served us lunch, hoping that we would also do some shopping in the store afterwards. These kinds of places always remind me of the movie, "If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium" where the American tourist group is eating lunch in Luxembourg (called Lunchenburg by then since they move through so quiclkly:)) and in wondering what to order one of the Americans asks the waiter was the locals eat. The waiter responds: "Locals do not eat here, Madame, this is reserved for our tourist friends.":) That pretty much sums up the kinds of places we ate - just us and a lot of empty tables in an otherwise fancy place. But still, the food has been good, lots of vegetables, kung pao chicken, rice, various kinds of potatoes, pancakes with raisins, and mini omlets with different kinds of vegetables inside. It has all been good, but still I have been sick to my stomach, as have a few of the other teachers It might just be the kinds of oil they cook with or something, i don't know. But for the past day, I have just had crackers and watermelon - could be worse than that, I guess:)

After lunch we went to the Summer Palace, which is absolutely lovely. This is a palace on a lake that was the summer residence for the Imperial Family about 500 years ago. If you can ignore the insane numbers of people it did feel a little like Switz or Austria. We didn't have time to visit everything, but we got to walk around the lake a bit and see some lotus flowers.




One more great sign from the Summer Palace was the hours in English - High Season and Slack Season:) We decided that "Slack season" must be the few days a year when there is no festival going on:) (See photo below):



Then, the last thing was getting to the train station to take the overnight train to Wuhan. I have never seen so many people pushing to get up the stairs and over the bridge to the station as I have in Beijing. Apparently, about 1 million people per day go through this station and we certainly sensed that. Trying to make your way up the stairs carrying heavy suitcases is hard enough, let alone some of the poor women also carrying babies. Incredible! Pictures can't do it justice, but I tried to capture a little bit of it here.



Finally, we made it inside the train station and onto the train for our overnight ride to Wuhan, where we arrived very early the nex morning.



Train compartments



Our leader, Minru, and teachers as we arrive in Wuhan

Day 4 - Thursday, July 7, 2011

Rickshaw drivers - just like a 1930s Hollywood movie

Early the next morning we all met for breakfast and then headed out on our day of mega touring - Forbidden City, lunch in the Hutongs and a visit to the silk factory.

We started our tour with Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It was so amazing to walk through there. The square is the largest in the world and can hold up to 1 million people for a variety of ocasions, or something like the horrible events of 1989, which I thought about a lot. But it is really impressive. Then the Forbidden City you are walking in the steps of the old Emperors up to 500 years ago. I kept thinking of the scenes from the movie, The Last Emperor:) It's incredible to be walking through this historic place.

But there were also thousands of people, literally, and it was almost 100 degrees, so after a while, I just hit the wall and couldn't really enjoy it anymore no matter how great. Chinese people were walking around with umbrellas to shade them from the heat which added to all the chaos.

The beginning was incredible, though, when you first enter. It's pretty overwhelming.


Impressive and imposing Tiananmen Square


Our guide in Tiananmen Square with the ever present panda to lead us:)



Mao and the entrance to the Forbidden City




Everyone with their umbrellas at the entrance to the Forbidden City



Crowds of people in 90 degree heat!!







After the Forbidden City, we went to the Hutongs and took a rickshaw ride to our lunch destination. This truly made me feel like I was in a 1930s movies with rich Americans or British Imperialists in India and China. They're always shouting "Richshaw, Lady" as they pass; just like the old films:) But what can you do? It's how they make a living from tourists. The best was that sellers of purses or other things would bike up next to us and try to sell their goods while still on the bike and while we were riding. That's dedication:)


A new way to sell goods on the street - ride up right next to you!



For lunch, we ate in a private house in the hutongs. We had a delicious lunch of dumplings, rice and vegetables. Afterwards, the host showed us how to make the dumplings and gave us a chance at it as well.


Making dumplings

After lunch, our last stop was at the silk factory where they showed us the whole process of taking silk worms and turning the silk into something they can use for sheets and comforters. Actually, it was quite interesting, and our guide was such a good saleswoman, many people came away with some comforters to take home!


Pulling the silk out in many layers to make a comforter

Day 3 - Meeting the rest of the group

A tee-shirt we found in Beijing - wow!

Thursday, the 6th, Casey had to leave very early to travel to another part of China and I was to meet the rest of the teaching group late afternoon at our hotel. There were so many places I wanted to see but after two whirwind days, I couldn't get myself to move very quickly. I didn't leave until later that day. I was able to get out and get a taxi to the hotel where the group was meeting. After checking in I went to the Temple of Heaven. It was just two stops away on the metro. Such a beautiful temple with a huge park surrounding it.




This is a very important Taoist temple, built by the same architect as the Forbidden City, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can find more information from Wikiedia below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Heaven


When I got back to the hotel soome of the other teachers had arrived, so I walked to the famous Night Market, about 20 minutes away with one of the other teachers.
The market was incredible with lights and lanterns and all kinds and all kinds of souvenirs and food. I just had an egg roll but they were selling live scropians, or some kind of beetle on a stick!! Ew!!! I guess they fry them and people eat them; I don't know, but I shudder to think about it! I couldn't bring myself to eat any scorpions either. Anthony Bourdain would have been disappointed. Where is my sense of adventure, right?:)

Some photos from the market:

Day 2 - Wandering around Beijing

A candid shot of four locals resting in Beijing (photo by Chrissy)

On Tuesday morning, July 5, I had the day to wonder Beijing a bit while Casey went to work. We started out the morning with delicious French pastries, at a European bakery and then we walked through part of the hutongs to the famous lake area, Houhai.


Beijing Chic


Casey in the Hutongs

Casey then went to work for a while and I walked part of the lake and then attempted to get back to the Confusious temple and the Drum tower. I could see the Drum tower off the main street when we entered the lake but as soon as I started walking down the tiny, winding streets I got all turned around. I ended up walking through hospital grounds where everyone looked at me like I was crazy. I kept trying to find an exit but it just took me to another wing of the hospital. It was like a bad dream where you can never get out. Finally, I did make it to the Bell and Drum towers and from there you could clearly see where the more touristy areas were.

In order to visit the drum tower, you had to climb about 100 steps straight up to the top to see all the old drums. These were originally used as musical instruments and then as a sort of town clock to tell time. Every 30 minutes there is a demonstration and drum ceremony. I wanted to see it, but after climbing the Great Wall, my thighs were so sore an felt like rubber! Each step up, I had to hang on to the railing, I didn't think I would make it! But, I did and it was very interesting.



I would have visite the bell tower too, which is the exact same style of building across the square but it holds the bells. I just didn't think I could climb any more steps that day, however, so I went to the Confusious temple and walked around some of the old streets and hutongs of Beijing for the afternoon.

Here are a few of those images:



Amazing the things they could carry on their bikes around town!





Confucious Temple





At the end of the afternoon, I was exhausted and Casey and I went to eat Hot Pot - delicious! Then we took the 30 minute stroll back home, both exhausted. The weather in the evenings was so lovely in Beijing. It cooled off from the day and was usually in the low 80s. A very nice day!

1st day in China - Happy 4th of July!

4th of July on the Great Wall!

So, I arrived in Beijing late at night and my cousin, Casey, had sent a driver to pick me up:) This was great except that he got a little lost and luckily had her phone number to call. I could hear her voice on the end other talking calmly and then the driver yelling and screaming back at her. She told me later he wasn't angry, this was just the way some Chinese people talk on the phone! Kind of like in Italy, you will hear people screaming at someone on the phone, like they are about to murder that person, and then when you ask what is wrong, they say they were just inviting their brother over for lunch. Go figure:) Because I arrived after midnight, the gate to my cousin's apt building was locked. So we literally had to throw my suitcases over the fence and then climb over ourselves! The best is that as we were climbing over my cousin mentioned that this was nothing compared to climbing in high heels and a skirt after a night out. As she said this two girls arrived in just those outfits. Thank God I thought to wear comfortable traveling clothes! You never know what kind of situation you might come up against:) Ironically, the gate was locked but once we got to the actual apt. building, the front door was open. Wouldn't it make more sense to leave the gate open but have the door locked? Whatever... Casey's apt. was really cute and I was so tired I just crashed pretty soon after arriving.

Casey only had the next day fully off so she wanted to show me a less touristy part of the Great Wall. Even though I was jet lagged and it was nearly 100 degrees, we decided to go! We hired a driver and drove about 2 and 1/2 hours from Beijing to hike on less touristy and jaw-dropping part of the wall. We started at the entrance, walked up to the top, and then hiked to the first point where you can walk down again - many towers later!:) It was SO steep and the steps were broken It was a great first day, although I was completely exhausted afterward! Doing the three-hour hike on the super steep Great Wall in the sweltering 95 degree heat was so hard; I didn't think I was going to make it! All the other tourists were coming up on the cable car and just walking a little bit to get the views. But Casey said that we would miss a large part of the hike if we did that, so we did the 3 hour hike to the next possible place to walk back down back to the road! The only people we saw by the end were 75-year Chinese locals who hike this every day to sell water and drinks!! And once in a while a hearty German couple:) But we did finally make it and Casey was right, it was truly amazing!! It was super steep with broken steps half the time, and one of the hardest things I have done in years, but still, my cousin was right, it was truly amazing!!!







Could this be any steeper!??



At the end of the day, we headed out to the top of the Hyatt for a grandiose view of Beijing and then we went to eat the famous and fabulous peking Duck. Here is Casey explaining the proper way to go about eating it:)



Bon appetit!

How I would love to have violet eyes

"So much to do, so little done, such things to be."
Elizabeth Taylor

I love this quote by Elizabeth Taylor. The most gorgeous of Hollywood with an amazing life story, she had such an admirable quality of jumping into everything she did with extreme passion. Right or wrong, at least no one can say she did anything halfheartedly. I aspire to do the same.



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Three great April poems for National Poetry Month

April's Charms by William Henry Davies

When April scatters charms of primrose gold
Among the copper leaves in thickets old,
And singing skylarks from the meadows rise,
To twinkle like black stars in sunny skies;

When I can hear the small woodpecker ring
Time on a tree for all the birds that sing;
And hear the pleasant cuckoo, loud and long --
The simple bird that thinks two notes a song;

When I can hear the woodland brook, that could
Not drown a babe, with all his threatening mood;
Upon these banks the violets make their home,
And let a few small strawberry vlossoms come:

When I go forth on such a pleasant day,
One breath outdoors takes all my cares away;
It goes like heavy smoke, when flames take hold
Of wood that's green and fill a grate with gold.


Over The Land Is April by Robert Louis Stevenson

OVER the land is April,
Over my heart a rose;
Over the high, brown mountain
The sound of singing goes.
Say, love, do you hear me,
Hear my sonnets ring?
Over the high, brown mountain,
Love, do you hear me sing?

By highway, love, and byway
The snows succeed the rose.
Over the high, brown mountain
The wind of winter blows.
Say, love, do you hear me,
Hear my sonnets ring?
Over the high, brown mountain
I sound the song of spring,
I throw the flowers of spring.
Do you hear the song of spring?
Hear you the songs of spring?

An April Night by Lucy Maud Montgomery

The moon comes up o'er the deeps of the woods,
And the long, low dingles that hide in the hills,
Where the ancient beeches are moist with buds
Over the pools and the whimpering rills;

And with her the mists, like dryads that creep
From their oaks, or the spirits of pine-hid springs,
Who hold, while the eyes of the world are asleep,
With the wind on the hills their gay revellings.

Down on the marshlands with flicker and glow
Wanders Will-o'-the-Wisp through the night,
Seeking for witch-gold lost long ago
By the glimmer of goblin lantern-light.

The night is a sorceress, dusk-eyed and dear,
Akin to all eerie and elfin things,
Who weaves about us in meadow and mere
The spell of a hundred vanished Springs.

For more poems about April and Spring, see the link on the right side of the page.