All right, for me, it's Sunday morning, so I'm going to have to backtrack a bit. Depending on my memory, this could be a long post. Are you settled? For the first thing, this hotel is driving me bonkers. There wasn't a safe in our room, to begin with and when we went to check at the front desk, they patently didn't believe us. But they sent up someone from housekeeping, who went straight to the closet, opened it, looked down and went "Oh." So they sent up another one. Who steals the SAFE from a hotel? LOL Then the fancy glass showers in all the rooms leak, so you end up with a swamp in the bathroom. And finally the "business center" hours are 8:30am -9pm, the shortest of anywhere we've been and when I came down Friday night at 8:30pm, it was already closed. Aaargh.
But onwards. Friday morning we climbed on the coach for the 1.5 hour drive to the medium sized city of Suzhou (population 8 million!) 2.5 hours we finally got there and all made a beeline for the washroom! Suzhou is looked at be Shanghainese with a big of pity, because it's so small, but Suzhou looks down it's old blood nose, because it's been around for about 2000 years, while Shanghai is a baby at 700 years. Suzhou is famous for a number of things, and I think we saw them all.
We started at Tiger Hill, where the Leaning Tower of China is located. It's a Buddhist pagoda, that is 6m taller and several hundred years older than the tower in Pisa, but not as famous, because its lean is only 2.5 degrees as compared to Pisa's 4 degrees. And they've shored it up now, so no chance of it overtaking it's marble cousin. It's on the top of a hill (more steps!) and most of the hill is comprised of a beautiful park, full of little buildings and ponds and trees.
From there, we went to the Silk Mill and had a completely awful "Western buffet" lunch in their cafeteria. Yuck! Then we went in to the mill to see the Mulberry trees, and the silk worms and the process for unwinding all the silk from the cocoons. It was pretty cool. Then it was time to shop! The first stop was in the room for bedding. People went nuts - some folks bought one or two or three complete bedding sets: comforter, duvet cover, sheets, pillows and bedskirts - all made out of silk. I already have a silk duvet and wasn't really interested in a duvet cover, even if they'd had a pattern I liked. Then we saw a short fashion show and they let us loose on the clothes. It was a total bust - nothing came even close to fitting me, not even close enough to bother tailoring. Sigh. Even the rolls of fabric were disappointing, not my colors and way too many flowers. I'd gone in prepared to break the bank and ended up with a tie -bah!
The next stop was fun though. Suzhou continues the Italian theme by also being the Venice of China. Many moons ago, they Chinese dug a Grand Canal from Beijing to somewhere south of here. It goes through Suzhou and the local people dug smaller canals off it, into the city. We just managed to squish everybody onto one small boat and tour some of the canals. They run down what would be the back alleys at home and it's pretty wild. Everyone's house has steps that run down the back into the water. There isn't space to tie up a boat there, so they just look like steps into nowhere. The boat guides were great too - not great English, but very friendly and happy and excited to be showing us stuff. Much different from some of the bored folks and a huge improvement on "Hello Lady, come look at the "whatever", you buy, cheap!" which is what we usually hear. LOL
After another 2.5 hour drive back into the city, we had dinner at a floating restaurant on the river. Chinese this time, but pretty disappointing as well. Unfortunately, it seems to be one of those places that depends of the novelty of the setting and has let the quality of the food drop. By the time we got home, the business center was closed, so no blog, sorry.
Yesterday, we started out by walking the Bund, the strip which began as all the foreign concessonaries and is now the "wall street" of Shanghai. Then we stopped at the Jade Buddha temple here in Shanghai; one of the few temples in the city. Our local guide here, Tony, would seem to be a Buddhist and became a bit more reserved and formal in the temple, which was funny, because normally he is very lively and amusing. From the temple, we slogged through traffic to a formerly private garden which became public when the republic was formed. It was very beautiful and I took lots of pictures, don't worry.
We stopped for lunch and I got my chance to continue my survey of international fast food. Stuart is going to gag and spit, but I ate at the McDonald's. I've eaten there in Singapore and Hawaii too, just because I'm curious how "american" food translates. It turns out that Chinese McDonald's is pretty much exactly the same as at home. Which is funny, because it wasn't in the other places. Don't worry, Stuart, I've brushed my teeth really well!
The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping in the old temple district and on Nanxing Road. That was kind of disappointing actually; we didn't see anything we hadn't already seen everywhere else. I'd planned to get my "knock-offs" here, but it turns out the Shanghai is much more expensive for those than anywhere else, so I guess I missed my chance.
We were all pretty tired by the time we headed off for dinner. Fortunately, it was Thai and turned out to be quite yummy. After dinner, we went to the theater to see the Acrobatic Show. I'm running out of time, so I can't go in to details, but it was spectacular. You'll have to ask me in person to find out how.
Anyway, today we get on the plane for the ride home, and I can't wait to see what goes wrong. Talk to you all when we're back in a similar time zone.
Cheers!
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Yangtze River
I think the blazing question from last post can be answered first: yes, we made the boat! Eventually. LOL
It turns out that a three star hotel in China is a BIG step down from a four star. Our usual hotels have been rather luxurious, provide free water, etc. The three star was kind of like a run down motel: water stains down the walls, barely clean, smelling of smoke... we were all glad it was only one night. It was scary opening the curtains in the morning - I think we all had the same reaction "o. my. god." The fog had settled in to Xi' An, it was like looking out at a big grey wall. We ate breakfast watching it lift and settle, wondering what we were gonna do. However, by the time we got to the airport, the sun was out and burning off the fog, so we were good. It only took them about 45 minutes past our scheduled lift time for them to clear out the backlogged planes and off we went. (It was a tiny plane, by the way, about 30 seats - fortunately it was a pretty smooth ride.)
We landed in Yichang and went straight to lunch. It was ok, but too many deep fried and sweet things, even for me! Although, by that point in the day I was feeling pretty miserable, so maybe I was just off my feed. Congestion, sore throat, the usual litany of misery that you hear from me in full blown allergy mode.
After lunch, we went to the Three Gorges Project. Whether or not you agree with the decision to build the thing, you do have to be awed by the sheer, magnificent, ridiculous scale of the thing. It will be the biggest dam in the world, with 25 active turbines and it will still only produce 6% of China's current energy requirements. Insane. It's freakin' big though and landscaped in ways only the Chinese would think to do. :)
From the dam, we caught the coach to catch up to the Victoria Anna, our cruise ship. We were finally re-united with our luggage here and everyone showed up for dinner looking spiffy. After dinner I had arranged an appointment with the ship's doctor, hoping to get some herbs or something for my allergies. He took one look down my throat and said "You have an infection." Suddenly, I was hooked up to an IV getting approximately 750mL of antibiotics straight to the blood stream. I also ended up with oral antibiotics, what I think is the Chinese version of Tylenol Cold and a box of truly effective throat lozenges. All told, including the hour to monitor the drip, it cost $1200 yuan, which is approximately $150CAN. Dr. Xu had 7 years of medical school, comprised, he told me of 60% TCM and "physical treatments" (acupuncture, cupping, moxa, etc.) and 30% Western medicine. I mentioned that I had studied TCM and shiatsu and he made a comment about how young I was - he thought I was 20!!!! SQUEAMISH ALERT: if you don't like needles, skip to the next paragraph. The IV insertion went about standard for me - he tried to do it in the right hand first and either missed or popped out of the vein, so I got about a tablespoon of subcutaneous antibiotics and now have a lovely bruise. Fortunately, there was better luck with my left hand!
At any rate, I'm not 100% today, but I am feeling human again. This is two courses of antibiotics this year for me, which is way over my cut-off limit, but given the circumstances, I think it was warranted.
This morning after breakfast, we boarded a ferry to go up one of the tributaries of the Yangtze, called Shuodong (?). The effects of the dam became very apparent on this trip and one of them was regarding the Hanging Coffins. A very old group of people who lived in this region believed that your spirit went to the sky when you die, so you showed respect to your ancestors by climbing up cliff faces and wedging the coffins in crevises in the limestone. Nobody really knows how they managed it, but there used to hundreds of the things. Now most have been removed and taken to museums, because the dam is designed to raise the water level 175m above it's previous height and they were all going to end up under water. There are still a few deliberately left in the highest spots for tourism, but since they were almost level with us on the observation deck, it left a little to be desired.
Another thing is the 1.4 million farmers who had to be relocated, because the land their families had been working for the past 6 or more generations is now under water. They basically had three choices: move to new villages built higher up the mountain, find family somewhere else to live with or let the government re-locate them to other parts of the country. There are problems with all of these options, but since the project will be complete by the end of the year, there's not much they can do about it. We've seen a whole lot of the new towns that have been built by the government and they sit strangely on the eye. Because flat space is at a premium, the spacing of buildings is similar to pictures of Greek islands, but the buildings themselves are reminiscent of the Russian housing blocks. It's strange.
There's nothing to complain about with the natural landscape however. The mountains here are not so tall as we're used to at home. We passed the highest peak of the Three Gorges area today and it's approximately 1, 300 m tall. So for the most part, they are completely covered with the lushest, greenest vegetation I think I've ever seen. They are composed primarily of limestone, so you can see the action of all the water and wind - they are almost fractal in how every curving ridge breaks into smaller and smaller ones. Even with the boat engine evident under you all the time, it's very serene and peaceful.
Getting back to our trip this morning, we took the ferry up the tributary to a small station where we transfered to "peapod boats". These are exactly what they sound like, low flat boats shaped like half a pea pod. They hold 18 passengers, and are run by a crew of 4-5. They rowed us upstream using these strange paddles, which had low, narrow, curved blades. Given the wirey strength of these guys, they could kick Olympic butt with some real paddles! Then, when we got to the rapids, they jumped out to shore and towed us across with long bamboo ropes. Apparently, they used to do all this naked, but that was ixnayed with the start of the tourist boom. They still wear grass sandals woven by their wives though, so Teva could probably make a killing in there.
The crew had prepared us for cold and rain, so of course the sun came out and we all baked. It turned out to be one of the nicest days of the trip so far, finally encompacing the feeling that I somehow thought that all of China would have. What's the point of thousands of years of study and practice, just to throw it out the window to become more North American? Sigh. And on top of that, I forgot I had my hat with me and managed to sunburn my scalp!
The cruise line we're on is American and our boat is the Victoria Anna. After a week in China, it was weird to be given forks and knives again and most of us asked for chopsticks. The beds are American style though, which I was happy about! Somehow I thought a bigger boat would be smooth and quiet to ride on, but not so. You are constantly aware of the engine, everything rattles and clicks with the turbulence and I'm afraid that with my allergies, I'll never be really comfortable with the pervading damp, musty smell. Which isn't to say it isn't nicely appointed - dark wood, lush carpets and intricate carving are everywhere. Including for sale - this is China, after all - the center stairwell section on each level has all the same old things for purchase, and more expensive, usually, than at other stops. I did succumb a little bit though - I've seen paintings in several places that show some kind of scenery in a set of four, one for each season. I loved the concept but couldn't find pictures I actually liked. The artist on board had a set showing the Three Gorges area that was gorgeous and reasonably priced, so I splurged. Here's hoping Stuart likes them!
Well, I'm supposed to be "dressing" for the Captain's reception tonight, except I was told nice dress wasn't required, so I didn't pack anything. I'm sure the rich folks in my group will show up all gussied, but I'm not worried - there's a huge tour from the States on board too and they are totally living up to the reputation of Americans abroad. As long as I don't get drunk and barf on the Captain, I doubt anyone will notice me...
Cheers!
It turns out that a three star hotel in China is a BIG step down from a four star. Our usual hotels have been rather luxurious, provide free water, etc. The three star was kind of like a run down motel: water stains down the walls, barely clean, smelling of smoke... we were all glad it was only one night. It was scary opening the curtains in the morning - I think we all had the same reaction "o. my. god." The fog had settled in to Xi' An, it was like looking out at a big grey wall. We ate breakfast watching it lift and settle, wondering what we were gonna do. However, by the time we got to the airport, the sun was out and burning off the fog, so we were good. It only took them about 45 minutes past our scheduled lift time for them to clear out the backlogged planes and off we went. (It was a tiny plane, by the way, about 30 seats - fortunately it was a pretty smooth ride.)
We landed in Yichang and went straight to lunch. It was ok, but too many deep fried and sweet things, even for me! Although, by that point in the day I was feeling pretty miserable, so maybe I was just off my feed. Congestion, sore throat, the usual litany of misery that you hear from me in full blown allergy mode.
After lunch, we went to the Three Gorges Project. Whether or not you agree with the decision to build the thing, you do have to be awed by the sheer, magnificent, ridiculous scale of the thing. It will be the biggest dam in the world, with 25 active turbines and it will still only produce 6% of China's current energy requirements. Insane. It's freakin' big though and landscaped in ways only the Chinese would think to do. :)
From the dam, we caught the coach to catch up to the Victoria Anna, our cruise ship. We were finally re-united with our luggage here and everyone showed up for dinner looking spiffy. After dinner I had arranged an appointment with the ship's doctor, hoping to get some herbs or something for my allergies. He took one look down my throat and said "You have an infection." Suddenly, I was hooked up to an IV getting approximately 750mL of antibiotics straight to the blood stream. I also ended up with oral antibiotics, what I think is the Chinese version of Tylenol Cold and a box of truly effective throat lozenges. All told, including the hour to monitor the drip, it cost $1200 yuan, which is approximately $150CAN. Dr. Xu had 7 years of medical school, comprised, he told me of 60% TCM and "physical treatments" (acupuncture, cupping, moxa, etc.) and 30% Western medicine. I mentioned that I had studied TCM and shiatsu and he made a comment about how young I was - he thought I was 20!!!! SQUEAMISH ALERT: if you don't like needles, skip to the next paragraph. The IV insertion went about standard for me - he tried to do it in the right hand first and either missed or popped out of the vein, so I got about a tablespoon of subcutaneous antibiotics and now have a lovely bruise. Fortunately, there was better luck with my left hand!
At any rate, I'm not 100% today, but I am feeling human again. This is two courses of antibiotics this year for me, which is way over my cut-off limit, but given the circumstances, I think it was warranted.
This morning after breakfast, we boarded a ferry to go up one of the tributaries of the Yangtze, called Shuodong (?). The effects of the dam became very apparent on this trip and one of them was regarding the Hanging Coffins. A very old group of people who lived in this region believed that your spirit went to the sky when you die, so you showed respect to your ancestors by climbing up cliff faces and wedging the coffins in crevises in the limestone. Nobody really knows how they managed it, but there used to hundreds of the things. Now most have been removed and taken to museums, because the dam is designed to raise the water level 175m above it's previous height and they were all going to end up under water. There are still a few deliberately left in the highest spots for tourism, but since they were almost level with us on the observation deck, it left a little to be desired.
Another thing is the 1.4 million farmers who had to be relocated, because the land their families had been working for the past 6 or more generations is now under water. They basically had three choices: move to new villages built higher up the mountain, find family somewhere else to live with or let the government re-locate them to other parts of the country. There are problems with all of these options, but since the project will be complete by the end of the year, there's not much they can do about it. We've seen a whole lot of the new towns that have been built by the government and they sit strangely on the eye. Because flat space is at a premium, the spacing of buildings is similar to pictures of Greek islands, but the buildings themselves are reminiscent of the Russian housing blocks. It's strange.
There's nothing to complain about with the natural landscape however. The mountains here are not so tall as we're used to at home. We passed the highest peak of the Three Gorges area today and it's approximately 1, 300 m tall. So for the most part, they are completely covered with the lushest, greenest vegetation I think I've ever seen. They are composed primarily of limestone, so you can see the action of all the water and wind - they are almost fractal in how every curving ridge breaks into smaller and smaller ones. Even with the boat engine evident under you all the time, it's very serene and peaceful.
Getting back to our trip this morning, we took the ferry up the tributary to a small station where we transfered to "peapod boats". These are exactly what they sound like, low flat boats shaped like half a pea pod. They hold 18 passengers, and are run by a crew of 4-5. They rowed us upstream using these strange paddles, which had low, narrow, curved blades. Given the wirey strength of these guys, they could kick Olympic butt with some real paddles! Then, when we got to the rapids, they jumped out to shore and towed us across with long bamboo ropes. Apparently, they used to do all this naked, but that was ixnayed with the start of the tourist boom. They still wear grass sandals woven by their wives though, so Teva could probably make a killing in there.
The crew had prepared us for cold and rain, so of course the sun came out and we all baked. It turned out to be one of the nicest days of the trip so far, finally encompacing the feeling that I somehow thought that all of China would have. What's the point of thousands of years of study and practice, just to throw it out the window to become more North American? Sigh. And on top of that, I forgot I had my hat with me and managed to sunburn my scalp!
The cruise line we're on is American and our boat is the Victoria Anna. After a week in China, it was weird to be given forks and knives again and most of us asked for chopsticks. The beds are American style though, which I was happy about! Somehow I thought a bigger boat would be smooth and quiet to ride on, but not so. You are constantly aware of the engine, everything rattles and clicks with the turbulence and I'm afraid that with my allergies, I'll never be really comfortable with the pervading damp, musty smell. Which isn't to say it isn't nicely appointed - dark wood, lush carpets and intricate carving are everywhere. Including for sale - this is China, after all - the center stairwell section on each level has all the same old things for purchase, and more expensive, usually, than at other stops. I did succumb a little bit though - I've seen paintings in several places that show some kind of scenery in a set of four, one for each season. I loved the concept but couldn't find pictures I actually liked. The artist on board had a set showing the Three Gorges area that was gorgeous and reasonably priced, so I splurged. Here's hoping Stuart likes them!
Well, I'm supposed to be "dressing" for the Captain's reception tonight, except I was told nice dress wasn't required, so I didn't pack anything. I'm sure the rich folks in my group will show up all gussied, but I'm not worried - there's a huge tour from the States on board too and they are totally living up to the reputation of Americans abroad. As long as I don't get drunk and barf on the Captain, I doubt anyone will notice me...
Cheers!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Xi' An (October 3, 9pm)
The very first thing is, I have to describe my current surroundings. I'm in the basement of a building next to the Xi' An airport hotel. It's smoky, dark and stuffed with computers (like about 200) that are mostly being used by young Chinese men playing online games or checking out porn. I am most definitely getting a lot of covert attention. But it's 4 yuan an hour here to use the internet and the hotels charge 30 yuan an hour, so it's a bargain.
We were supposed to be sleeping on the boat tonight in Yichang, but there was heavy fog there, so our flight was delayed for 3 hours before finally being cancelled. The bad news is that our main luggage is already on the boat. The good news is we'd checked our liquids this afternoon and we got that back, so I have a toothbrush, my contact solution and my deodorant, so I'm a happy camper. Karen (the national guide) was freakin' amazing - within an hour of the cancellation, she had us a new flight in the morning, hotel rooms and dinner! Fortunately, most of the group has taken it all in stride and the few inclined to complain are keeping it low key.
Before all this, the day was pretty low key. We visited the Golden Goose (?) Pagoda (that's not right, but I'm a bit sleepy), we saw the old city wall and the Drum & Bell Towers. After lunch, it was airports all the way, baby.
I thought I'd take this time to address a few more general things that haven't been making it into the posts to date. For instance, the weather. It's definitely more humid here than Alberta (like what isn't? LOL), but not unbearably so. For the first day or two, we were all bringing our jackets and umbrellas, until we figured out that the overcast wasn't cloud - it was smog. The government instituted some changes before the Olympics to clear up the air, but it's rapidly returning to "normal". They still burn a lot of coal here for cooking and heat and there basically aren't any controls on industry - the push for modernization has been deliberately rated higher than maintaining the environment. The "little people" we've talked to seem to agree with this policy, so I guess they'll have to learn the hard way. It's been basically shirt sleeve temperature though and when the sun shines through it gets down right toasty!
Another interesting thing here is the toilets. For one thing, public toilets do not supply toilet paper - it's a lot like camping with Stuart, you have to carry your own. For another, only the hotels reliably have pedestal toilets that we take for granted in NA. Most of the washrooms have squat toilets. Yup, exactly what it sounds like - a trough in the floor with non-slip grips on either side and a floor pedal to flush. And your TP goes in a little trash pail that is generally overflowing. They don't seem to concerned with aim either, so the public washrooms here reek to high heaven. We asked one of the guides about it and apparently the Chinese don't like pedestal toilets because they are unhygenic. ????? I'm all for cultural differences, but I have to admit that one baffles me.
A second thing I won't miss about China at all is the smoking. There are no regulations against smoking anywhere here and my sinuses are completely out of the habit of dealing with it. In the last day or so, I've developed a wracking cough, because all the soft tissues are inflamed, but there's really nothing to do about it, so I try and ignore it.
It is still funny to watch the reactions to us though. People are fascinated by us, not only because we're white, but we have maple leafs plastered all over and apparently Canadian visitors are rare. Little kids will walk up and stare or start waving and saying "hihihihihihihi". I've had comments through Karen from several people along the lines of "You're so pretty", but I'm not sure if it's specifically me or just that I'm white and 20 years younger than anyone else in our group! LOL And poor Mom keeps getting told that she's very elegant and she's not sure how to react either.
Oh yeah - one other thing I meant to talk about is the beds. I like a firm mattress, but these are crazy. It's like they put a plywood sheet on some train grade springs, then cover it in fabric to look like a mattress. In Beijing, I could stand on it and there was no noticeable movement. The first hotel in Xi' An, I could get about 3mm of depression by standing on the mattress, but laying on it dispersed my weight enough that there wasn't any movement. We'll see what tonight's is like...
At any rate, assuming that the fog clears, we'll be on a plane at 11am tomorrow to Yichang to get on the boat. Normally if you don't make it on time, you have to catch up somewhere up river, but with the fog NO ONE got there and the boat is just gonna wait for us all. I'm not sure how we'll make up the time, but I'm sure someone will tell us sometime. The boat is supposed to be the "relaxed" part of the trip and there is supposed to be internet, so more then.
Cheers!
We were supposed to be sleeping on the boat tonight in Yichang, but there was heavy fog there, so our flight was delayed for 3 hours before finally being cancelled. The bad news is that our main luggage is already on the boat. The good news is we'd checked our liquids this afternoon and we got that back, so I have a toothbrush, my contact solution and my deodorant, so I'm a happy camper. Karen (the national guide) was freakin' amazing - within an hour of the cancellation, she had us a new flight in the morning, hotel rooms and dinner! Fortunately, most of the group has taken it all in stride and the few inclined to complain are keeping it low key.
Before all this, the day was pretty low key. We visited the Golden Goose (?) Pagoda (that's not right, but I'm a bit sleepy), we saw the old city wall and the Drum & Bell Towers. After lunch, it was airports all the way, baby.
I thought I'd take this time to address a few more general things that haven't been making it into the posts to date. For instance, the weather. It's definitely more humid here than Alberta (like what isn't? LOL), but not unbearably so. For the first day or two, we were all bringing our jackets and umbrellas, until we figured out that the overcast wasn't cloud - it was smog. The government instituted some changes before the Olympics to clear up the air, but it's rapidly returning to "normal". They still burn a lot of coal here for cooking and heat and there basically aren't any controls on industry - the push for modernization has been deliberately rated higher than maintaining the environment. The "little people" we've talked to seem to agree with this policy, so I guess they'll have to learn the hard way. It's been basically shirt sleeve temperature though and when the sun shines through it gets down right toasty!
Another interesting thing here is the toilets. For one thing, public toilets do not supply toilet paper - it's a lot like camping with Stuart, you have to carry your own. For another, only the hotels reliably have pedestal toilets that we take for granted in NA. Most of the washrooms have squat toilets. Yup, exactly what it sounds like - a trough in the floor with non-slip grips on either side and a floor pedal to flush. And your TP goes in a little trash pail that is generally overflowing. They don't seem to concerned with aim either, so the public washrooms here reek to high heaven. We asked one of the guides about it and apparently the Chinese don't like pedestal toilets because they are unhygenic. ????? I'm all for cultural differences, but I have to admit that one baffles me.
A second thing I won't miss about China at all is the smoking. There are no regulations against smoking anywhere here and my sinuses are completely out of the habit of dealing with it. In the last day or so, I've developed a wracking cough, because all the soft tissues are inflamed, but there's really nothing to do about it, so I try and ignore it.
It is still funny to watch the reactions to us though. People are fascinated by us, not only because we're white, but we have maple leafs plastered all over and apparently Canadian visitors are rare. Little kids will walk up and stare or start waving and saying "hihihihihihihi". I've had comments through Karen from several people along the lines of "You're so pretty", but I'm not sure if it's specifically me or just that I'm white and 20 years younger than anyone else in our group! LOL And poor Mom keeps getting told that she's very elegant and she's not sure how to react either.
Oh yeah - one other thing I meant to talk about is the beds. I like a firm mattress, but these are crazy. It's like they put a plywood sheet on some train grade springs, then cover it in fabric to look like a mattress. In Beijing, I could stand on it and there was no noticeable movement. The first hotel in Xi' An, I could get about 3mm of depression by standing on the mattress, but laying on it dispersed my weight enough that there wasn't any movement. We'll see what tonight's is like...
At any rate, assuming that the fog clears, we'll be on a plane at 11am tomorrow to Yichang to get on the boat. Normally if you don't make it on time, you have to catch up somewhere up river, but with the fog NO ONE got there and the boat is just gonna wait for us all. I'm not sure how we'll make up the time, but I'm sure someone will tell us sometime. The boat is supposed to be the "relaxed" part of the trip and there is supposed to be internet, so more then.
Cheers!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Xi' An October 2
Ok, friends and readers... it's been a busy two days (big surprise), it's late (big surprise), this keyboard sucks and I've just had a completely, amazingly, fantabulous massage, so this will be as short and sweet as I can manage.
Our last day in Beijing started with a drive by the Bird's Nest - the stadium built for the Olympics. It takes about 2 weeks to get tickets and the crowds were the worst yet, so I'm glad we just took shots from the bus! From there we went to one of three one style neighbourhoods that is being preserved by the government. They are basically a warren of narrow alleyways with almost ancient Greek style houses: four walls of rooms around a central courtyard. We got to visit one family's house, meet all their dogs and their fighting cricket. Cool! We also got pulled around in tricycle rickshaws for a little tour, which was fun. We had a home cooked lunch in another house in the neighbourhood and hands down it was the best food we've had here so far!
From there we were off to the Silk Road Mall, which is basically six floors of stalls selling anything anyone can think of to make a knock-off of. Busy, noisy and totally sensory overload. I might buy some of that stuff in Shanghai, but I couldn't see any reason to try and drag it all over the country, especially with the extremely strict weight limits on domestic flights. Instead, Mom, Karen and I had a lovely chat over blended fruit drinks.
From there we headed back out to the airport and had to say goodbye to Marco. The plane was definitely designed for short people and we were all very glad that it was only an hour and a half flight. Particularly since there was a lot of turbulence! But we did make it in one piece to Xi' An.
Back on another bus with our new local guide Rocky (or you can call me Stone) - too hilarious, but his Chinese name means rock or stone, so I guess it works. He's nice enough but ridiculously repetitive and if he tells us that Emperor Chin was the first person to unify China for the first time, I'm gonna belt him.
This morning we visited a ceramics factory and saw how the Terracotta Warriors were produced. Of course, there was also an opportunity to buy replicas from about 10cm tall to life size. To give you an idea of this crowd, at least one couple bought a life size one and arranged to have it shipped home! Yikes. From there, we went out to see the real Terracotta Warriors. They were too cool to try and describe quickly, you'll have to hear about them when I get home.
After lunch, we... did something. Hang on, I'm drawing a blank. Oh yeah! The hot springs. Unfortunately, like Banff, the natural water isn't running anymore, so you can't bathe, but the setting on the side of a mountain is beautiful and overlooked by a Taoist temple. I wanted to visit but you have to take a cable car up and we didn't have time. We had to head back to the city for our dinner show: dumplings and a recreation of a Tang dynasty pageant. That was cool; gorgeous costumes and talented dancers.
Apparently, Xi' An is also famous for it's massage parlours, so some of us went after dinner. For $120 Yuan (about $20CAN) you get a foot massage that lasts for 70 minutes. It starts with your neck and shoulders while your feet are in a hot bath. Then you lay on your back while they massage your arms, then your feet and legs, then you turn over and they do your back. All six of us were in the same room and the therapists were all quite young. They found us hilarious and laughed through the whole thing! I feel marvelous darling, just marvelous! Must teach Stuart how to do it!
Anyway, I'm crashing, so that's it for now. Tomorrow we're on another plane and then a boat, I think. I'm told there are internet connections, but it may be another two days 'til I can actually use it.
Cheers!
Our last day in Beijing started with a drive by the Bird's Nest - the stadium built for the Olympics. It takes about 2 weeks to get tickets and the crowds were the worst yet, so I'm glad we just took shots from the bus! From there we went to one of three one style neighbourhoods that is being preserved by the government. They are basically a warren of narrow alleyways with almost ancient Greek style houses: four walls of rooms around a central courtyard. We got to visit one family's house, meet all their dogs and their fighting cricket. Cool! We also got pulled around in tricycle rickshaws for a little tour, which was fun. We had a home cooked lunch in another house in the neighbourhood and hands down it was the best food we've had here so far!
From there we were off to the Silk Road Mall, which is basically six floors of stalls selling anything anyone can think of to make a knock-off of. Busy, noisy and totally sensory overload. I might buy some of that stuff in Shanghai, but I couldn't see any reason to try and drag it all over the country, especially with the extremely strict weight limits on domestic flights. Instead, Mom, Karen and I had a lovely chat over blended fruit drinks.
From there we headed back out to the airport and had to say goodbye to Marco. The plane was definitely designed for short people and we were all very glad that it was only an hour and a half flight. Particularly since there was a lot of turbulence! But we did make it in one piece to Xi' An.
Back on another bus with our new local guide Rocky (or you can call me Stone) - too hilarious, but his Chinese name means rock or stone, so I guess it works. He's nice enough but ridiculously repetitive and if he tells us that Emperor Chin was the first person to unify China for the first time, I'm gonna belt him.
This morning we visited a ceramics factory and saw how the Terracotta Warriors were produced. Of course, there was also an opportunity to buy replicas from about 10cm tall to life size. To give you an idea of this crowd, at least one couple bought a life size one and arranged to have it shipped home! Yikes. From there, we went out to see the real Terracotta Warriors. They were too cool to try and describe quickly, you'll have to hear about them when I get home.
After lunch, we... did something. Hang on, I'm drawing a blank. Oh yeah! The hot springs. Unfortunately, like Banff, the natural water isn't running anymore, so you can't bathe, but the setting on the side of a mountain is beautiful and overlooked by a Taoist temple. I wanted to visit but you have to take a cable car up and we didn't have time. We had to head back to the city for our dinner show: dumplings and a recreation of a Tang dynasty pageant. That was cool; gorgeous costumes and talented dancers.
Apparently, Xi' An is also famous for it's massage parlours, so some of us went after dinner. For $120 Yuan (about $20CAN) you get a foot massage that lasts for 70 minutes. It starts with your neck and shoulders while your feet are in a hot bath. Then you lay on your back while they massage your arms, then your feet and legs, then you turn over and they do your back. All six of us were in the same room and the therapists were all quite young. They found us hilarious and laughed through the whole thing! I feel marvelous darling, just marvelous! Must teach Stuart how to do it!
Anyway, I'm crashing, so that's it for now. Tomorrow we're on another plane and then a boat, I think. I'm told there are internet connections, but it may be another two days 'til I can actually use it.
Cheers!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Beijing 8:25pm (6:25am Alberta)
Today was a crazy busy day, so get comfortable....
Our story actually starts last night, when I was woken up by the sound of falling water. The annoying Chinese torture kind of "plink. plink. plink." At first I thought one of us hadn't tightened a tap all the way, so I got up to check. Nope, there was water falling from the ceiling in the bathroom - although most of it was landing in the tub, so I guess that was good. So, I called down to the front desk and had one a truly surreal conversation. Apparently 2am is not a good time to practice your 2nd or 3rd or whatever-th language. In the end, she sent up someone from housekeeping, who brought us 2 bottles of water. LOL I brought her into the bathroom and you could see the comprehension dawning. "oooooh" with big eyes.
So we threw all our stuff in our bags and moved into the room across the hall. Which turned out to be non-smoking, so yeah! Unfortunately, although she'd been fine 'til then, Mom started snoring at that point and after the move I couldn't locate my earplugs again. Soooo glad we'd passed out early!
6:30am wake-up call this morning and after climbing on the bus, we set off for the Great Wall. However, it's about a one and half hour drive, so there was a stop along the way at a Jade Factory. (Did I mention yesterday, that the Factories are Government sponsored and the product is guaranteed, so it might not be as cheap as on the street, but you can be sure it's not plastic!) I bought myself a cool piece that can be worn as a ring or a pendant and some gifts for people at home. Mom and I both got presents because she's the tour leader. Cool!
Beijing is HUGE and on the way to the Wall, you're basically driving through urban, urban, urban... bang! Mountains! The are totally the mountains you see in paintings too, down to the mist of the morning. However, the sun came out as we made our way through the traffic to the parking lot. We could see some sections of the wall and they were literally nose to neck with people. Yikes! Fortunately, lovely Marco took us to a slightly less famous section (no Presidents or Prime Ministers have done publicity shots there) and it was completely reasonable.
I always pictured the wall as just a single line, but there was a an outpost in the valley, from which you could climb either way up to the wall on the ridge line on either side. Most of the group went left to the flatter section, but I thought of Stuart and hung a right with two others to the steeper climb. They gave up after a bit and I kept climbing. I didn't quite make it to the very top, because I was starting to run out of time, but I got damn close and it was my turn to be a rock star in the process. Apparently white girls climbing the wall alone are a novelty - old men were giving me the thumbs up, a group of four girls climbed along with me and I got stopped by about 50 people to take photos with them. Aaaahh... my adoring public. LOL
I actually think I would have made the top if I hadn't have stopped so many times. Oh well - next time. I have to bring Stuart here, he would adore it. No two steps are the same height or depth, so it's a lot like climbing a mountain path. And with the sun out, but the time I reached my turning point, I was roasting and had drunk most of my water! When I got back to the bottom, I bought a lime ice pop that was so cold, I froze my inner upper lip to it and ripped some skin off. Nothing like a little blood with your lime!
From the Great Wall, it took us about 45 minutes just to get back to the edge of the city. That National Holiday again and everyone was coming to the Wall. We saw empty buses and cars abandoned in the left lane and people decided to just walk from where they were. Thank god they took us early.
It wasn't much farther into the city that we stopped at a Friendship Store. There are two in China and they were started by Chairman Mao when foreigners weren't really encourage to visit. There was only one hotel, one restaurant and one store they could be in, and he basically used them to rob visitors blind. Now, it's just a nice restaurant and a cloisonne factory. We had lunch and Mom and I both bought goodies for people at home.
The next thing on our itinerary was the Temple of Heaven. For the first time here I felt what I'd been expecting all along. There were a billion people (of course!) but it was peaceful and happy and just lovely. Due to the hundreds of trees, they call it the lungs of Beijing and you could finally get a breath of clean air. Aaaaahhhh.... The temple itself was huge, especially when you consider that they only used it twice a year! Now it's place where the retired folks hang out to play cards, play music, sing, dance and generally have a good time. I also bought myself some silk on a wand to swoosh around and got some applause from the locals. Apparently, white girls aren't expected to be able to DO anything!
That was our last scheduled stop of the day, but Marco had a surprise for us. He'd arranged tickets to Kunfu Legend, which is a famous live show about a Shao Lin monk. It combined martial arts, ballet, tai chi and Shao Lin tricks like breaking steel rods on their foreheads. It was surprisingly cool. Not everyone went, but those of us who did were glad we had. Plus, Marco bought us ice cream, so Stuart would have approved - dessert before dinner!
The bus with everyone else picked us up and we went for Thai food. As usual, very yummy! I have to say that foodwise, nothing has been particularly new or startling. If you think of Chinese food as what you get at the mall, it might be an education, but to me it's been like most of my diet anyway.
I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton of stuff I meant to tell you, but it's been a long day and I'm tired. Besides, I have to have something left to tell you when I get home! Tomorrow we leave Beijing in the early evening, so I don't know if I'll get in a post tomorrow night or not. Don't panic if you don't see one right away!
Cheers!
Our story actually starts last night, when I was woken up by the sound of falling water. The annoying Chinese torture kind of "plink. plink. plink." At first I thought one of us hadn't tightened a tap all the way, so I got up to check. Nope, there was water falling from the ceiling in the bathroom - although most of it was landing in the tub, so I guess that was good. So, I called down to the front desk and had one a truly surreal conversation. Apparently 2am is not a good time to practice your 2nd or 3rd or whatever-th language. In the end, she sent up someone from housekeeping, who brought us 2 bottles of water. LOL I brought her into the bathroom and you could see the comprehension dawning. "oooooh" with big eyes.
So we threw all our stuff in our bags and moved into the room across the hall. Which turned out to be non-smoking, so yeah! Unfortunately, although she'd been fine 'til then, Mom started snoring at that point and after the move I couldn't locate my earplugs again. Soooo glad we'd passed out early!
6:30am wake-up call this morning and after climbing on the bus, we set off for the Great Wall. However, it's about a one and half hour drive, so there was a stop along the way at a Jade Factory. (Did I mention yesterday, that the Factories are Government sponsored and the product is guaranteed, so it might not be as cheap as on the street, but you can be sure it's not plastic!) I bought myself a cool piece that can be worn as a ring or a pendant and some gifts for people at home. Mom and I both got presents because she's the tour leader. Cool!
Beijing is HUGE and on the way to the Wall, you're basically driving through urban, urban, urban... bang! Mountains! The are totally the mountains you see in paintings too, down to the mist of the morning. However, the sun came out as we made our way through the traffic to the parking lot. We could see some sections of the wall and they were literally nose to neck with people. Yikes! Fortunately, lovely Marco took us to a slightly less famous section (no Presidents or Prime Ministers have done publicity shots there) and it was completely reasonable.
I always pictured the wall as just a single line, but there was a an outpost in the valley, from which you could climb either way up to the wall on the ridge line on either side. Most of the group went left to the flatter section, but I thought of Stuart and hung a right with two others to the steeper climb. They gave up after a bit and I kept climbing. I didn't quite make it to the very top, because I was starting to run out of time, but I got damn close and it was my turn to be a rock star in the process. Apparently white girls climbing the wall alone are a novelty - old men were giving me the thumbs up, a group of four girls climbed along with me and I got stopped by about 50 people to take photos with them. Aaaahh... my adoring public. LOL
I actually think I would have made the top if I hadn't have stopped so many times. Oh well - next time. I have to bring Stuart here, he would adore it. No two steps are the same height or depth, so it's a lot like climbing a mountain path. And with the sun out, but the time I reached my turning point, I was roasting and had drunk most of my water! When I got back to the bottom, I bought a lime ice pop that was so cold, I froze my inner upper lip to it and ripped some skin off. Nothing like a little blood with your lime!
From the Great Wall, it took us about 45 minutes just to get back to the edge of the city. That National Holiday again and everyone was coming to the Wall. We saw empty buses and cars abandoned in the left lane and people decided to just walk from where they were. Thank god they took us early.
It wasn't much farther into the city that we stopped at a Friendship Store. There are two in China and they were started by Chairman Mao when foreigners weren't really encourage to visit. There was only one hotel, one restaurant and one store they could be in, and he basically used them to rob visitors blind. Now, it's just a nice restaurant and a cloisonne factory. We had lunch and Mom and I both bought goodies for people at home.
The next thing on our itinerary was the Temple of Heaven. For the first time here I felt what I'd been expecting all along. There were a billion people (of course!) but it was peaceful and happy and just lovely. Due to the hundreds of trees, they call it the lungs of Beijing and you could finally get a breath of clean air. Aaaaahhhh.... The temple itself was huge, especially when you consider that they only used it twice a year! Now it's place where the retired folks hang out to play cards, play music, sing, dance and generally have a good time. I also bought myself some silk on a wand to swoosh around and got some applause from the locals. Apparently, white girls aren't expected to be able to DO anything!
That was our last scheduled stop of the day, but Marco had a surprise for us. He'd arranged tickets to Kunfu Legend, which is a famous live show about a Shao Lin monk. It combined martial arts, ballet, tai chi and Shao Lin tricks like breaking steel rods on their foreheads. It was surprisingly cool. Not everyone went, but those of us who did were glad we had. Plus, Marco bought us ice cream, so Stuart would have approved - dessert before dinner!
The bus with everyone else picked us up and we went for Thai food. As usual, very yummy! I have to say that foodwise, nothing has been particularly new or startling. If you think of Chinese food as what you get at the mall, it might be an education, but to me it's been like most of my diet anyway.
I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton of stuff I meant to tell you, but it's been a long day and I'm tired. Besides, I have to have something left to tell you when I get home! Tomorrow we leave Beijing in the early evening, so I don't know if I'll get in a post tomorrow night or not. Don't panic if you don't see one right away!
Cheers!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Beijing 7:04 pm (5:04 am Alberta)
It's been an interesting day. Breakfast was a buffet of both Chinese and Western foods, as well as stuff that was some weird (and not always successful) amalgam of both. Skip the so-called sausage is my suggestion. There were Danish, fruit, fried eggs, mini steam buns, all sorts of things. Just my kind of breakfast - a little bit of everything, rather than one big bowl of porridge to work through.
We got everyone down in the lobby and on the bus in good time. Today was the start of the one week National Holiday, so all the tourist places are chock full of not only foreign visitors, but all the folks in from the sticks. Everywhere we go, we are almost as interesting as the landmarks and people would be staring at us, pretending to be taking a picture of a building but really snapping pics of us... the little kids were fascinated and would follow us around. Mom in particular is a big hit - at the Summer Palace, one lady insisted on getting her picture taken with Mom! (According to Marco, Mom looks like a Hollywood star who is famous in China, but he can't remember the actress' name and we were all stumped.)
It's probably the lack of sleep, but I found a lot of what we saw today less impressive than I'd expected. The Summer Palace and the Winter Palace (or Forbidden City) are both huge, but awfully repetitive and you can't go in to most of the buildings, so it's just one exterior after another. And the buildings you do get to see inside of are usually quite short on furniture, so it's like looking at a really nicely painted warehouse. I do have to admit that I loved the garden at the Winter Palace - I guess that's more what I was hoping for; quiet, beautiful, serene. We kind of whipped through it and even with all the people, I could have hung out for a couple of hours.
Tian' Anmen square is just a big, flat paved space with buildings around it. In a sense, it's so big and it was so full of people that I think you don't get the true sense of it's scale. And it was unsurprisingly short of decorative tanks. However, because of the holiday, there was an abundance of police and military. The police service is national, so anywhere in the country they wear the same navy uniforms and they seemed a little more willing to interact with people. The military here are all boys between 18-20. It's a voluntary service and being young men with far too much testosterone, they take themselves pretty seriously. But they stand at attention really well!
Between Palaces, we stopped at a National shop for pearls. Mostly they sell cultivated fresh water pearls, although they also had some salt water pearl jewelery for sale. They had a big tank of oysters to demonstrate on and since no one else stepped up, I fished one out for the girl. It had enough small pearls in it for each lady in our group to be given one as a souvenir (I got the biggest for picking it out!) Then we went upstairs to let them try their darnedest to sell us goodies. The manager sent over a lovely necklace of black pearls for Mom, as she was the tour group leader. And the girl who'd given the demonstration attached herself to us to try and make a sale. Lucky for her, Mom was in a buying mood. She picked out a rope of pearls and crystals in purple and black colors and I found a silver lariat with two black pearls. They were marked at the same price, so you know who got the higher quality pearls! ;) As a tour, they offered us 20% off, but Mom got our necklaces two for one. I expect they still made a handsome profit, but we got three necklaces with pearls in the top of the mid-range for about $200. I think if we'd paid the price they'd been marked at, it would have been closer to $750.
We had lunch at the restaurant next door to the pearls and it was quite tasty. Lots of yummy Chinese food, with a plate of French fries tossed in for some reason. If nothing else, it made me laugh and the fries were actually pretty good. We never order in the restaurants, we just sit down and food starts appearing. I find the tour group frustrating in a lot of ways, they tend to zip passed what I want to linger at and spend forever in places I find completely boring; it's frustrating trying not to lose anyone, but there is a certain je ne sais quais in not having to think at all. :)
Dinner after the Forbidden City was Peking Duck. The restaurant had a giant roast duck on the roof, but unfortunately it was too dark to get a decent picture. For some reason, the meal started with a bunch of other dishes and then the duck came out. It was served with mu shu wrappers, sauce, julienned cucumbers and onions and diced garlic. The taste was absolutely fantastic. Marco told us how they raise the ducks specially to exercise and eat lots when they are young to develop big stomachs, then they are cooped up but still continue to eat a lot. This way, they develop about 1cm of subcutaneous fat, which is what makes them so moist and tasty when they are cooked. So it's not the nature, but the nurture which creates Peking duck. I don't really care, when the end product is smoky and sweet and melts on the tongue.
The only downer to the day is that I missed Stuart. I was right - I kept seeing things he'd like or wondering how he'd react to something or want to make a comment that only he would understand. Oh well - I'll just have to try and remember it all for when I get home!
Monday, September 22, 2008
5 Sleeps
Yup, it's true... only 5 more sleeps before I'm on a transatlantic flight. I'm finally starting to get excited, but I think it's also starting to sink in that I'm going to be away from Stuart for 2 weeks. After a year and a half together, it will definitely be that longest that we'll have been apart. No hugs, no kisses and how am I gonna get to sleep without snuggles?!?!?! Sigh.
In other news, Angie's birthday part Friday night was fun. We all met downtown for cake on Stephen Ave and then went to the Metropolitan Grill for dinner. I had the Lobster Claw Mac & Cheese, which was rich and yummy, then Stuart and I split the Creme Brulee. They do it with berries which adds a nice tartness to the usually super sweet dessert. After dinner, the crowd headed to the other Metro Grill for dancing, but Stuart and I opted for sleep instead. Since Mike said the music was ridiculously loud, I'm just as glad.
Stuart spent the rest of the weekend at Fall Con, moderating the Flames of War, playing Formula De and BattleTech. I spent it shopping for last minute trip things, primarily a pair of decent walking shoes. I'd already hit the "usual" shoe stores and been underwhelmed by the selection. So I googled shoes and went to check out some specialty shops. I lost track at about 30 pairs, but I tried on a LOT of shoes. In the end, I spent a stupid amount of money on a pair of MBT shoes. I had seen them before, but considered them something of a fad item. Trying them on and walking around that last couple of days is making me into a convert though. I don't know if I'll end up with gorgeous legs, but they are comfy and do seem to be helping with my plantar fasciitis, so I'm happy. If I discover an awful downside, I'll let you know. :)
In other news, Angie's birthday part Friday night was fun. We all met downtown for cake on Stephen Ave and then went to the Metropolitan Grill for dinner. I had the Lobster Claw Mac & Cheese, which was rich and yummy, then Stuart and I split the Creme Brulee. They do it with berries which adds a nice tartness to the usually super sweet dessert. After dinner, the crowd headed to the other Metro Grill for dancing, but Stuart and I opted for sleep instead. Since Mike said the music was ridiculously loud, I'm just as glad.
Stuart spent the rest of the weekend at Fall Con, moderating the Flames of War, playing Formula De and BattleTech. I spent it shopping for last minute trip things, primarily a pair of decent walking shoes. I'd already hit the "usual" shoe stores and been underwhelmed by the selection. So I googled shoes and went to check out some specialty shops. I lost track at about 30 pairs, but I tried on a LOT of shoes. In the end, I spent a stupid amount of money on a pair of MBT shoes. I had seen them before, but considered them something of a fad item. Trying them on and walking around that last couple of days is making me into a convert though. I don't know if I'll end up with gorgeous legs, but they are comfy and do seem to be helping with my plantar fasciitis, so I'm happy. If I discover an awful downside, I'll let you know. :)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!
It's not 100%, absolutely for sure yet, but it looks like I'll be going to China for two weeks in October. (Seems to be the month for travel, that will be almost exactly two years since I went to Singapore.) Psuedo-uncle Peter asked Mom to guide his next group and she's willing to pay my way to have company and help. It's 4 star hotels, a 5-star cruise down the Yangtze, the Great Wall, the Forbidden Palace, the terracotta warriors, a whole selection of pagodas - I can't wait!
The only sad part will be leaving Stuart for two whole weeks. :(
The only sad part will be leaving Stuart for two whole weeks. :(
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)