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| Hello China! |
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| Air china boarding pass and Cecil at Auckland international terminal |
Our guide, Chen, met us at the gate at 5am (poor guy)! Chen took us through the maze that is the airport to meet our driver, Mr. Wong. Yes, we have a guide and driver. Driving in Beijing is something else (more on that later). We drove to the hotel on a three lane highway that was still pretty busy for 5am. During the drive we learned that the airport that we had just came out of was getting "too old" (aka too small), and that even though it was built in 2005, they was building another massive airport. The hotel had early check in (thank god) and were told that we would be picked up at 8:30am (3 hours later) and that we would go and see the sights. We took showers, because 14 hours in a plane makes that necessary and were bright eyed and ready to go see some of this city!
The first stop was a place called the temple of heaven. It was built in the 1400's for the emperor. The emperor had the job of praying three times a year for a good planting, strong rains, and a good harvest. The temple is made up of only wood with groove joints, no metal! Then we walked around the park that the temple was located in. Chen informed us that it is free for beijeng residents over 60 years old. Hence, we saw plenty of old people singing, walking, stretching and socilizing. we also saw a decent amount of older people playing chinese chess (no king and queen, just generals and troops) and dominos for fun (no gambling).
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| U: temple courtyard M: Temple of Heaven L: Temple of Heaven behind gate |
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| L: us in front of Temple of Heaven LR: old people playing cards |
After our brisk/chilly walk, we then stopped at a tea house and had some amazing tea and a tea ceremony. We sampled 7 different teas. Each of them are belived to help different problems. Everything from weight loss to eye health. It was seriously some of the best tea I've ever had. Even Cecil could taste a couple of them! Then we were taken to a local Chinese restaurant (local according to Chen, our guide). We sampled three different dishes including: sweet/sour chicken dish, a crispy pork dish in a citrus sauce and a sizzling beef and onion dish that remided me of faijtas in look but chinese in spice. After that our tour was pretty much over, but we were not done.
Since it was early afternoon we decide to go across the street to the grocery store. Chen showed us how to walk through the subway/underpass, instead of over the street, apparently to reduce the foot traffic. He left us to go home and we went to the New World grocery store. It was probably the largest grocery store we've ever been in. So many strange foods, goods and smells. The foods are very different than what we were used to. For example, in the candy/snack isle we found dried cod and salted squid! We bought some fresh fruit to snack on, some red dates, 2 small bottled waters and a 4L bottle of water (the tap isn't safe to drink from). Our total for our grocery cart: 85 yuan or $12.50 dollars. We started walking back to the hotel and kept on seeing scooters with thick blankets on them, turns out people "wear" these scooter snuggies to keep warm. On the way home I/Karen was attracted by the smell of fresh bread and we stopped into a Xinqiao Sapporo Bakery. We bought 4 different pastries having no idea what in the heck they were. We picked things that a lot of people had bought, lol. We came back and snacked on the fruit and the breads. In case your wondering, the breads were mostly odd. Like a dinner rolled filled with semi-sweet icing/cream. On the way up to our room we saw the optional meal for ducks blood with pig intestines and we were quite relieved that we had gotten bread instead. Then we worked out in the hotel gym, and then crashed and slept for 12 hours, because jet lag is a thing.
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| Playing hackney sack and using the exercise machines, and the tea ceremony |
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| Some American goodies top row. Salted squid in the candy aisle. Instead of candy bars next to the checkout there are condoms. BR: scooter snugly |
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| TL: bakery TR and BR: tasty baked goods BR: optional meal at our hotel restaurant |
Dec 1
Our alarm was set fot 6:30 but both of us were up by 5:30AM. We got ready and hit the largest buffet I've ever seen. It had the following sections: a full bread section with 6 types of breads and an equal number of spreads, a dumpling station with a half dozen of topings/sauces, a cereal station with 3 types of cereals, a yogurt and fruit station with 5 types of fruit and 2 types of yogurt, a huge coffee bar with every type of hot drink you can think of and probably 10 seperate machines, a cold drink bar with water and half a dozen juices (including corn juice!) an egg bar where you can have eggs cooked to order and all the omlett fixings, chinese steamed breads and more dumplings, english/NZ style breakfast foods with: potatoes, roasted potatoes, baked beans boil and fried eggs, ham and bacon, hot cereals including porriage, congee and millett congee and 5 types of pickled fixings (cecil loves it), stir dried rices, sauteed veggies, rice noodle dishes, and then cold vegitarian dishes, the final bar is a salad bar with salad greens, pickles, olives, 3 types of dressings, cold cuts, cheeses. Annnnyyywaaaayyy, we were picked up and ready to head to beijing with Mr. Wong and Chen.
We were picked up in a different car than the day before, and the reason is in China you can only drive every other day depending on your license plate. Therefore, the company has differnt cars so people can be driven around daily! They do this to keep the road conjestion down as there are 5 million cars! This is also an attemp to keep the pollution down. We had a beautiful day, although still expectedly cold. Our first stop was a walk through Tienanman square. We saw, but did not go in, to Chairman Mao's tomb. The square itself wasn't what I expected, it was just a huge square. We walked through the square and under an underpass to the forbidden city. The forbidden city was also not what we expected. It was much larger and more grandiose. First off, it is a city not just a couple of temples. It got the "forbidden" part as commoners were not allowed in. Oly governement officals, the emperor and those who served him. It also once was completely surrounded by a moat. It also has been mostly torn down and rebult by each dinasty. The current city is the one built/refurbished by the Ming Dynasty. It has an outer area with 3 temples and was used by the emerperer to do courtly activities. The inner court had even more buildngs and was where the emperorer and his empress and concumbines lived. Each of the several areas and spaces were seperated by oversized gates. The detail of the buildings was amazing. The colors were intenss and bright. Red was everywhere, and is the lucky color. There were carvings at the enterance of male and female lions, represting the emperor and his power. Dragons and phonnix were carved all over as well, dragons represented the empor himself and the phoneix for luck and life (all according to our guide). The buildings also had carvings on the corners to signify the level of importance. For example, the lowest court temple only had 3 carvings, were the inner temples of the emporter had 10, the perfect number. They also had water pot chambers EVERYWHERE, as the palace is mostly wood and fires were a serious danger. The giant water pots even had fires built under them in the winter to keep them from freezing. These big buildings were also very, very old and did not have any nails or metal joining them together. Also the buildings had incredibly thick supports, and our guide told us that these 15-30, 8 foot diameter supports were each from a SINGLE tree trunk (think of a california redwood) We also got to go in and see the museum relic and treasure area. Ornate and intricate gold sculptures, silver cups with intricate detail, giacantic jade carvings, beautful caligraphy poems, and lapiz lazul carvings are a few notable items. Think intircate and detailed on everything but also huge. The entire palace was that way. Another notable fact that I wasn't sure where to put in- we are here in the low season which has been ncie so far. There aren't to many people. It makes it a lot easier for seeing things, and getting into places. For example, somtimes the guide couldnt get into the inner treasure area becasue they only sell 80,000 tickets a day and they usually sell out in the first couple hours in the high season! It may be cold but at least its not crowded!
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| L: Tiananmen square. BR: us in the square, which is in front of the Forbidden City |
The forbidden city wasn't the end of this particular journey. We crossed the street to the Jing Shang park. It was a local park, similar to the one we visited our first day. It had a temple to budda at the top, which seemed odd as religion is not very common or at least not in the open. We saw many people doing exercises together and walking just as in the park the day before. The real reason we were there was the view. From the top of the tower we could see very far, all the way to the mountains in fact. We were lucky, as in the winter the smog usually prevents it. We could see the entire forbidden city, which really gives some perspective. Chen also told us that there is a central line in beijing and the important buildings are built along one line, which was easy to see from the high vantage point. One of the most incridible facts about the park is the fact that it was a man made hill, made up of construction waste from the forbidden city across the street. The hill is about 300 feet high and actually higher than most of the looming buildings that were in the forbidden city.
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| Us at the top of the hill, Forbidden City is behind |
We then went to lunch at another branch of Da Wan Ju that we went to yesterday. We tried some amazing food, including pan fried green beans that had A LOT of ginger and garlic (no vampires in china) as well as a shrimp dish that has some amazing sesame seed croutons. We then had 2 hours between the end of lunch to the next event and went back to the hotel and worked out. Afterwards, our guide picked us up and took us to an acrobatic show "The Wonderful Han" it was a bit like a cirque de soleil show in that there was no clear, overaching theme, but it was still entertaining. It had several acrobatic acts including everything from men on giant hamster wheels, to balance acts while on a human pyramid, to 5 motorcycles in a small sphere. You could definetely still tell you were in China, because the music transitions were strange, and the fact that most people were openly shooting video of the performance or just taking pictures. We even picked up some popcorn and a soda for 30 yuan (5 dollars) in our VIP seats.
After this we were taken to the Bian Yi Fang Roast Duck Restaurant for our traditional Peking Duck Dinner. This included three appetizers, baby bok choy, fried red peppers with pork, and orange citrus noodles with fried pork. We then got to see how to eat Peking Duck the appropriate way. The duck is carved in front of you, and served with a strong brown sauce, wrappers, sliced onion and cucumber. The waiter showed us very patiently, first taking the steamed wrapper (like thin won ton) taking the duck meat, dipping it in sauce. He then placed a bit of cucumber and onions inside and wrapped it up like a peking duck burrito. In case your wondering, yes it was delicous. Cec preferred the fried chilies, but we both enjoyed the famous beijing dish. The food was great, but something needs to be said about the restaurant. You walked in and saw tanks of fish, a counter where one pays, and a wedding dress display (presumably advertising for weddings). We were ushered upstairs bu our guide, passing advertisements for more things looking like weddings and rentals. We were the only ones upstairs, which also felt odd, but whatever. Later, we were joined by another couple tour groups. The room had fancy table cloth covered tables, but also a toy machne (claw type), tourist brochure, more wedding propoganda, a giant TV (off) with ipad (maybe for weddings?). It just felt very oddly decorated. Whatever, we are writing this full and happy.
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| UL: 8 acrobats riding a bike UM: blind backwards flip UR: hamster acrobats BL: Peking duck restaurant BR: chef cutting up our duck |
Dec 2
Morning came super early as our storage unit tried calling us over skype at 4:00AM in China. Needless to say, my wonderful parents called them and dealt with the problem (about payment, no big deal). After that we had trouble getting to sleep so we were the first ones at breakfast at 6AM and super ready to meet Chen at 8:00AM for our day. Once again, Beijing greeted us with a cold, sunny day. We were off to the Great Wall! There are different sections of the great wall, and this particular section was about 45 minutes outside the city, called Juyongguan Great Wall. This section was, quoting the information on the signs at the wall "stratigicaly located and difficult to access, Juyongguan Great Wall was named 'the most magnificent pass in the world' in acient times. The auxillary structures with different functions-southern and nothern arched citidels towers, water gate, together with the pass, form a complete and tight military defense system." We only walked a tiny portion of the wall but it was still impressive. The stairs were tiring to walk up as there was no uniform size on width or height. They also were very smooth from being walked on for so many years. Since it was winter, the greenery was dead. Chen said that in the spring/summer there are flowers every`where and it is very green. I still think it is worth traveling in the winter as we were one of the few people on the wall for the first hour and we got to experience it mostly to ourselves. By the second hour, there were many people. However, in summer Chen said that it is packed and showed us pictures of hordes or people shuffling up the wall. Cecil got his souvenir today as well. At the top you could by souvenirs in one of the buldings. Cec bought a medal and got his name carved for 25 yuan (about 4 dollars). He's going to put it with his marathon medals. Although we were on the wall for over 2 hours we barely got over a hair of it. You know the great wall is massive, but when you get there and see it enormous really doesn't cover it!
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| Pictures of us at the Great Wall |
After the great wall we drove to the largest jade carving factory in beijing. They took us on a brief tour and we saw some craftsmen working. We were shown some common items that are carved like a Peoyi, or "money beast". It eats money and doesn't poop so its supposed to bring weath. We also found out there are over 20 types of natural jade colors. Another fun fact is that the higher the ringing sound, the better the quality of jade. We looked at things but didn't end up with anything but a full stomach. We ate at the on-site restaurant. and once again were given way to much food. We were given a soup that was all mushroom, cured beef, fruit salad and oranges, a sweet and sour cashew chicken, a stew beef and pepper dish, dumplings, steamed brocccoli and sauteed bok choy with rice. The hard part with these prebought meals is not overeating!
From there it was to the Ming tomb area and to the 13th emporer's masoleum. In this area there are several tombs but this is the only one that was opened. Why? Apparently part of the foundation was exposed vs the other 13. /according to our guide, chen, the tomb was excavaeted from the soldiers as a gift to chairman mao. The tomb itself feels like a nuclear bomb bunker. The tomb has several rooms, but only 2 have anything of note. One as thrones for the emporer and empressess (there were 2 becuase of deaths) and the other room had replicas of the coffins and matching containers that held aritcules like jade carvings and jewlery. What struck us as odd was the lack of guilding. We expected it to be like a pharoh's tomb- lots of decoration. This was very sparse and ultilitarian. Honestly, Compared to the other sights we've seen this one was not very impressive. However, the courtyard with all the cyprus trees was much more interesting and instilled a sense of peace and respect. I'm still glad we went to go, Chen said very few foriegners go there and it is usually a place Chinese do.
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| Very sparse tomb and picture of 1,000 year old trees |
The way back to the hotel took a LONG time. Luckily we stopped at a pearl market and Karen got a set of pearls. The 45 minute drive out turned into over 2 hours back. Our driver even humored us and took us past a viewpoint to see the olympic buldings (it is a government bulding you can't go in it). It was around 4:00pmwhen we arrived back and we decided to walk over to the large "Glory Mall". Our guide asked us if we were comfortable getting dinner on our own and asked us to spend less than $160 yuan and bring a reciept for the company. When crossing the street everything is a mere suggestion. The cars turn when the crossing signs are on and the bikes have rules I don't understand. We just went in the middle of the mass of people and were fine lol. The mall was expensive and had a LOT of foreign brands like H&M, Sephora, Timberland and others. Remember earlier where we said things that are not made in China are super taxed? Apparently chinese don't care when it comes to style. Dinner was tough to figure out. It made cec and I miss our guide. We managed to find a place with a picture menu and make it work. Actually the place, called Cloud 9 had some of the best food we have had so far. We got milk tea with bubbles, kumkuat sour tea, red bean with balls sweet soup, dumplings and hot and sour tofu and pork soup. By the time we ate and got back to the hotel, showered, backed up photos and wrote the blog it was 8:00pm. Luckily, the next morning was a late start- 9:00AM. We were pretty tired and looking forward to some shut-eye.
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| Karen fishing for her some pearls, and here is her new set! I got some spicy Chinese food. |
Today was our last full day in Beijing. We started by a trip to the summer palace. This was built by the "dragon lady" empress who effectively controlled the chinese goverment during the Qing dynasty (1861-1908). She basically ruled because her son was a child when crowned. Then he died, and the new emperor was another child (her nephew). Even though she wasn't techincally the one in power she ran the show. This palace was built for a place to live in the hot summers because it was much cooler in the valley by the lake. One of the most notable features was a seventeen arch bridge which was older than the dragon lady's reign, and contained over 500 lion carvings! The atmosphere of the place was great as well. There was a temple in the distance where you could hear crowds of people singing. Not just 10-20, but it sounded like close to 200 people singing. The sun was shining and the air was cool and crisp. It made for a nice walk around the lake. According to Chen, the guide, it is particuarly beautiful in the spring and summer when the willows are blooming.
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| Beautiful scenery at the summer palace despite it being cold |
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| You were supposed to buy this token and put it on the wall. Karen bough the symbol for happiness and is going to use it as a Christmas decoration! |
From the summer palace we went to the Hutong district. It means "side street" in manadarin and is still in the style of the early 19th century housing on the outside. We had a rickshaw ride through the sidestreets, which is the thing to do in that area. What struck cec and I was the amount of abandoned bicycles, dirt, and garbage compared to the rest of the city. Apparently the community doesn't prioritize beautification like in the more touristy areas we had been previously. We also noticed that some homes looked very wealthy and others looked little more than shacks. For example, as we passed the abandoned bikes and covered electric bikes a TESLA pulled out of one of the fancy looking places. They have some of the best schools in the city and the only way you can go to the school is if you live in the Hutongs. One of the smallest Hutongs was 11 square meters (118 square feet) it recently sold for 3.5 million yuan ($653,000). Our guide informed us that those homes, even the hovel looking ones are worth a lot of money due to the super desirable location in the city. Oh, and none of the homes have a toilet/shower. There are community ones on each street! We stopped mid-rickshaw ride and got to eat inside a home there. The home was approximately the size of a one car garage (100 square feet). There were 2 rooms, one was a a bedroom and a living quarters (a curtain divded this room to those 2 sections) and the other room was a small entry way with a kitchen jutting out from it. We had a delicious strew of pork and sweet potatoes, celery and egg, spicy cabbage, dumplings, and rice. We ended up buying a perfume bottle from one of the girls that lived there. She paints the INSIDE of the bottle using special brushes. She even let me (Karen) try, and yes I screwed it up terribly! In fairness they were simply drop dead gorgeous. She even proudly showed us she had won an award and was featured in a book about the chinese folk arts for her painting (it apparently is a dying art).
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| UL: Chen and Karen eating in Hutong house. UR: us in a rickshaw M: view down hutong BL: master examples of inside glass painting BR: Karen trying glass painting (it was very hard!) |
After lunch we went back to the hotel to drop the camera off. Our afternoon was at our leisure, so we decided to walk the 20 minutes to the National Museum. We had to go through 2 security checkpoints (including getting patted down and wanded) as well as show our passports to get tickets. The museum was massive. We went and explored the ancient china exhibits for most of the time there. There were many pieces of bronzework from 2,000BC, so some incredibly old artifacts! We also looked at a painting gallery and a display on ancient coins and money. We even saw some paper money that was preserved from Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan! The fascinating part was seeing all the technological advances that they had so early. That, and the intricate detail given to pretty much everything from wine bottles to decorations for the roof. We walked back to the hotel, and were really struck by just how dark it was, not just because it was close to 4:30, but all the smog really made everytrhing a lot darker. It smelled like a gambling hall and the air even tasted bad. We noticed that there was a layer of dirt on nearly everything, from the plants to the cars. We did feel bad for all the people who had to live there, especially all of the little children. I (Cecil) have had to use my inhaler at least 3 times a day every day since we got here. Back in New Zealand I only had a asthma excacerbation once every 3 months, and that was usually after they mowed the grass and weeds. We ordered room service for dinner as we had to pack up and had an early morning plane to catch the next day. We had to practice pack as China Southern has a weight limit of only 20kg (45 pound) instead of the rest of the airlines that have a 22kg limit. We practiced because if you are overweight, there is a $150 fine!
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| Us at the national museum of China. Some of the pieces were from 200 BC! |
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