We arrived late, after dark, seriously jet-lagged, and without our luggage (for 3 days...) All we could do was collapse in our hotel rooms and sleep the night away. Breakfast the next morning was an amazing surprise! "American" breakfast foods and traditional Chinese breakfast foods filled the dinning room. We tried everything we thought looked good. Made a few mistakes (some sort of slick soft fish parts....) but overall our hotels had breakfasts that were plentiful and good. This picture shows about 1/3 of the buffet that was available to us each morning at this hotel.
By 7:45 a.m., our tour group of 28 loaded onto our very nice, clean, and comfortable Chinese bus, waiting for us in front of our modern high-rise hotel. Our tour guide was counting heads and herding us into the bus.
Traffic was as bad as we expected in a city of 22 million.
First stop was the infamous Tienanmen Square, the political center of Beijing. One of the largest city squares in the world, it is 950 X 550 yards.There were lots of military guards and soldiers. Camera monitors were everywhere in the entire city.
Adjacent to Tienanmen Square is the Forbidden City, the home of the last 24 emperors of China. The emperors' families, his concubines (the last emperor had 3000 of them!), and staff lived in this "city" of 980 buildings from 1420 - 1912. A portrait of Chairman Mao hangs over the entrance, It is said that no matter how you look at the painting, his eyes will always be looking at you.
The two girls in the foreground were with our group. We saw very few Caucasians and actually were quite a curiosity for many of the locals.
This is the first of 3 courtyards in the Forbidden City, each as large. A series of 9 gates allowed visitors further in the complex.
The last Queen Empress Dowager Cixi ruled China from here from 1861 to 1908, when she died at about 71. She kept control by appointing child Emperors during her power reign. She is known as the Dragon Queen. She also lived in the Summer Palace during the warm months. This is one of the gates to her courtyard.
Her bedroom.
Finally our first Chinese lunch! All meals are served at tables for 8 - 12, with a huge lazy-susan in the middle. Countless bowls of wonderful fried foods, rice dishes, noodles, veggies, and such kept coming. Each table is given a bottle of water (all Chinese tap water is not drinkable - everyone drinks bottled water), a liter of coke or sprite, and 2 or 3 liters of Chinese beer. Think about the weakest, palest beer in the US - that is about what it is. But we drank it! If a table ran out of beer, someone at the table could buy another liter for the equivalent of $1.45.
After lunch we visited the site of the 2008 Olympics. The tower with the Olympic symbol is tall and covered with cameras. Each of the light posts has a video camera.
Here is the Birds Nest, site of many of the games.
Another day, another adventure - the Great Wall of China! I think I was most excited to go there and actually see it. It consists of a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials. It was built along an east-to-west line across the northern borders of China, approximately 13,000 miles long. The earliest part was built in the 7th century BC with most of the wall built by 220-260 BC!!!
We climbed the steps to one of the first fortifications. I do mean climbed! These steps are STEEP and the step heights range randomly from a couple of inches to about 2 feet. There were some areas that I climbed on all 4's. We took several breaks in the climb!
Beijing has some of the tallest buildings in the world. This tall one is taller than the Freedom Tower in NYC.
A short 1 hour flight took us from Beijing to Shanghai, an equally large city. First stop was the Temple of Heaven. The Emperor was the only person allowed to enter the temple. He visited here once a year to pray for good harvests. He went again to give thanks. Twice a year. That's it.
A rickshaw ride was a treat! Our tour group rode through the oldest section of Shanghai to a family home where we had lunch. China is in the process of tearing down all individual houses and putting up enormous high-rises, at least in Shanghai, capable of housing 5000 each. This oldest section seems to have some sort of immunity right now but they continue to live without toilet facilities. A neighborhood toilet is the only thing they have. These are slot toilets and toilet tissue is never provided - bring your own.
Lunch! Bowls and bowls and bowls of food were prepared in an attached kitchen about 1/3 this size.
Beijing had relatively clear weather because they had a few days of rain right before we arrived. Shanghai did not. The smog got progressively worse as the week wore on.
From Shanghai we went to Suzhou, called the Oriental Venice because of the many canals. We took a ride along one of the canals to the Grand Canal. These old canals are narrow and through the very oldest parts of town.
At the town of Wuxi, we visited the Grand Buddha. He is 265 feet tall, one of the largest Buddhas in China. His statue is part of a large public park with fountains, walking paths, food stands, and several other Buddhas.
Buddha was born in Wuxi, so there is the Baby Buddha also. He is in the middle a large pool, standing in a large lotus flower that opens amid dancing fountains.
Also in Wuxi is the Lake Lihu where we took yet another boat ride.
Both Chiang Kai-shek and Chairman Mao have mansions here. They are on the opposite side of the lake. The large pinkish building is Chiang Kai-shek's. He was in power from 1911 - 1975. His widow moved from here to NYC after his death in 1975.
Next night, Hangzhou, a "small city" of 5 million. We arrived in the evening, in time to take a cab to a local market area. Our tour guide gave instructions to the cab driver and gave us a paper to give a cabbie for our ride home. Virtually no one speaks English, even the "Americanized" hotel staff.
This was a fun time, looking at the small markets and food places.
Small shop, no room for a dressing room? No problem, just install a dress machine! I stood on the little shoe marks and the machine took my picture, made a stab at my size, and put my head on a Barbie doll. It seemed to compensate for my heavy coat and purse stuffed around my waist. :-) I am sure I look JUST like this...Then we pressed buttons and watched me in all sorts of clothes! A lot of fun, but not quite how I'd buy clothes. Barbie Bobbie!
It took a lot of searching, but we each finally found things that we considered safe for dinner. Our friend Wendy went out with us - her partner was coming down with a bad respiratory infection. Luke was struggling with one; he wore a mask because of his cough.
Wendy and I ended up with huge bowls of warm soupy veggies, chicken, and noodles. Delicious! Luke had a platter of some sort of chicken and lots of veggies plus a complimentary child's fruit drink. Wendy and I each had a beer, which we paid for. Our grand total? Less than $6...
Our first tour in Hangzhou was to the West Lake, a beautiful park with boat rides. Yes, another boat ride before some exploring, This particular bridge is the Bridge of Youth - if you walk across it, you will become younger.
We tried!
The No. 1 Tea Plantation in West Lake was next. This is the oldest tea plantation in China. This may be fog rather than smog due to the altitude.
Tea bushes and white haired tourists. It was finally warm enough to go without our coats.
We did buy some tea, the Emperor's Tea, which is the first picking of the season of the Longjing tea, also called the Dragon Well tea. The name comes from the belief that a dragon lives in the well that waters this particular ridge of the mountain. This kind lady filled out canister by hand.
We did have several mandatory opportunities to "buy local". Jade, pearls, silk, embroidery, tea and Chinese herbals were all presented. I have to say, a lot of our group bought a lot of stuff. We got the tea and I bought a couple of small jade items. Not the $12,000 necklace....
We were impressed with the embroidery, though. These "pictures" are all small stitches of thread. Here are an overall picture and an enlargement.
One of our other favorite side tours was the Shanghai by night boat ride. The buildings were all lit up and many showing moving Christmas decorations.
Unfortunately, this video doesn't work, but you can see the lights on the buildings.
Our last day we went to Chinatown, (yes, they call it that) home of all of the trinkets, souvenirs, and peddlers than you can imagine! It was fun. If you even exude a whiff of interest, the vendors latch on, and bid themselves way down from their opening price! We picked up a few souvenirs and I had a cuppa Starbucks.
We had a late evening flight which helped us sleep a bit on the now 14 hour flight back to Boston. We both really enjoyed the trip and would suggest that anyone who is interested to go ahead and do it - via a tour group, though!
