Day Three, Great Wall of China

Everyone talks about China with the Great Wall being number one as the tourist attraction and destination to visit.  We were so excited today as we had waited years to be able to tackle this Bucket List wish.  Sam met us again at 8 am and yes, it was sunny and fairly smog-free.  Before we drove to the Great Wall, the usual jade factory visit awaited us.  There were other tour buses there (we saw our cruise friends Doug and Suzanne from Australia there).  It truly was interesting and amazing to see the artisans using their mechanical drives to transform a chunk of jade into an intricate circle representing family.  And of course, after the demonstration, we were led in the jade showroom. Beautiful earrings, necklaces, and bangles, all ranging from adequate jade to incredible pieces of jade.  Jade bangles are worn on the left wrist as the Chinese feel the pathway to the heart flows from the left hand quickly.  Jade is worn to protect the wearer.

We arrived at Mutianya, a Great Wall section that is slightly less congested than Badaling section.  It was very interesting to be passengers in the back seat of the car, enjoying the passing scenery and seeing the rural life around us.  We did not get a chance to take any photos as we made our way to the Great Wall.  Badaling section of the Great Wall is easier to reach from Beijing so many tour operators take their guests there.  However, since we were private clients, we asked Sam if we could go to a less congested part of the Great Wall.  So we made our way to Mutianya, not quite as busy as the other section and not as 'repaired' either.  When we arrived, yes, we did see other tourists and tour buses and vans.  Quite interesting!  We had to make our way through the throngs of souvenir hawkers selling trinkets, tee shirts, tablecloths, etc.

We paid extra to take the enclosed cable car ride up the steep hill to the Great Wall.  It is possible for you to actually take an hour and walk up the hill instead. We just wanted to get up to the top and start exploring!

After leaving the gondola exit area, we turned left and proceeded towards our destination, Tower 20.  We started at Tower 14 and we looked at a posted map first, just to see the layout of the Wall.

We walked along the fairly wide rock path (perhaps eight--ten feet wide?) and along the way, we met up with an English speaking group of elementary students (grade 2?) doing a field trip. 

 

Showing you the views along the way:  here I am, cllimbing more steps

 

 

 



The Great Wall does look like the backbone of a dragon, doesn't it?

 

 

Here you can see the uneven height of the steps, some very low, others fairly high.  Remember, the Great Wall was built long before building codes and standards!

 

 

Notice the steep climb up the hill.  That was our next challenge!  We climbed it and still had more towers to reach!

 

Making it to Tower 20.  It is 420 steps from this spot up to the tower.  And yes, you do get tired and you are breathing hard (but so were all the younger people next to us!)

 

 

This is showing you how misty it was, October afternoon.  It was fairly warm so no need for jackets.

 

Conclusion:  Wow, what a rush!  To be able to say that yes, my feet touched/walked along part of the Great Wall!

 

 

Day 2, Summer Palace

The gorgeous weather lasted throughout the day.  After lunch our driver drove us to the Summer Palace, the Imperial Gardens originally built in 1750 (approximately).  The gardens and surrounding buildings were destroyed in 1860 but six years later, reconstruction began.  Unfortunately, the funds used had been earmarked for the Chinese navy so when war occurred a few years later, the Chinese navy was found wanting.

The Summer Palace and gardens have now been designated as a UNESCO Heritage site.  This acreage is a masterpiece of Chinese landscaping garden design.

The Empress Dowager Cixi was an avid fisherperson and she enjoyed fishing in Kunming Lake (2.2 km) in size.  One of the Palace workers stocked the lake with fish to ensure that his Empress was successful each time she enjoyed her hobby.  Kunming Lakes is a man-made lake.

In the lake there is the Marble Boat (Qingyan Fang) which is 36 metres long.  It was started in 1755.

 

The Long Corrider (Chang Lang)  is 728 metres long.  An Emperor had it built for his mother and hundreds of artists decorated the ceiling with paintings ranging from native flora to typical Chinese scenery.  This corridor thoroughly impressed us with the artistic details.

The Summer Palace is also home to many pavilions and temples.   The Tower of Buddhist Incense is the highest building in the complex.  It sits atop Longevity Hall which is 60 metres high.

After walking about the gardens and seeing all the amazing buildings we drove back to Beijing and attended a kung fu show (interesting, but very short performance).  And of course, I must mention our dinner that night:  Peking Duck....yummy!

Another awesome day in Beijing!

Day 2: Tian'anmen Square and Forbidden City

It would be the unusual person who would visit Beijing and yet not visit Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.  We expected a gigantic Square jammed with throngs of people.  Yes, there were people walking about but the crowds were very manageable.  The Square is the largest one in the world, being 500 metres wide and 880 metres long. The flag raising ceremony is held every morning between 5 and 6 AM.  In our hotel room there was a card with the next day's flag raising time.

Monument to the People's Heroes

 

 

Beautiful flowers at the Square

 

After walking through the Square, we walked to the Forbidden City.  Everyone has read or heard about the Palace that had been home to 24 emperors since its completion in 1420 (14 years to construct).  There are approximately 800 buildings and more than 8700 rooms.  It would take several days if not weeks to see all the rooms and buildings in this example of Imperial architecture.

 

As we approached the Forbidden City walls:

 

 

 

 

 



 

Some of the buildings within the complex

 

In the photo below, one of the many pots used to gather rainwater.  Note the scratches made by foreign soldiers.  The rainwater was used to put out potential fires.



 

 

Not many buildings were open to the public but here is one photo that showed a building's interior:

 

 

 

 

More buildings with their beautiful colourful roofs

 

 

A protective lion 

 

After two hours, we had walked from the south end to the north end of the Forbidden City.  We did not visit any of the buildings that were to the east or west of the main pathway.  We hope to return and explore these other areas on another visit.  It was definitely worth having a guide to explain all the many interesting details about the buildings.

Day 2: Temple of Heaven

Another sunny warm day greeted us.  At 8 AM we waited for our guide Sam and driver Lee; we were not the only tourists waiting.  8 AM appeared to be the starting time for most tour groups.

We set off to explore the Temple of Heaven, which is an example of Ming architecture.  The drive through Beijing was  congested!  So many cars whizzed by; and please don't forget all the scooters, bicycles, buses, taxis, vans and commercial trucks on the road too.  Our driver was excellent as he swiftly changed lanes, beeping his horn of course!

Temple of Heaven:  I  knew little  about this tourist attraction but we were very pleased we managed to spend some time here.  Sam purchased the tickets while we photographed the interesting looking trees.  Some of them had 'knotted' portions on the trunks.  Make for great photographs.

 Right away at the Temple of Heaven we saw  tai chi being practised by the locals.

Our guide said that the man on the right leads the group each morning.  He is considered an expert in tai chi.

This other gentleman also visited daily to write poetry.  Each morning, depending on his mood, he used his brush, some water, and wrote the poem on the sidewalk blocks. Of course, by the next day, all was gone so he would begin anew.

We continued walking until we saw this amazing building, the actual Temple where the Emperor  prayed for a good crop.  In the fall he thanked the gods for the plentiful harvest.

 

 

The stairs leading to the Temple.

 

 

 

The Temple itself

 

There were many other buildings on this expanse of land.  Below the beautifully painted interior of one of the other buildings.

 



 

 

Love this cast iron (?)urn  Notice the blue sky.

 

This park is very well used by the Chinese locals.  Each morning it is jammed with people, mainly seniors, who use this locale for their knitting projects, card playing or chess games.

 

 

 

 After spending time walking about the grassy acres, we continued on our way to the next stop, Tian'anmen Square.

 

 





Beijing, China Day 1

Our 23 day cruise from Vancouver BC ended in Tianjin, China (port for Beijing) on October 9, 2012.  Weather again was cloudy but the temperature was mild.  The day previously we spent some time in our cabin doing the dreaded job of packing!  All that stuff that we brought with us now had to be rearranged back into our suitcases.  For this cruise plus post-cruise time in Beijing, this is what we brought:  1 28" suitcase,expandable; 1 carry on for dear husband; 1 24" suitcase for me.  Now I do have to admit that I also had a purse and a backpack while the netbook and information went into the over the shoulder bag that my dear other half carried.  We both had our own digital cameras.

Disembarkation was very efficient as all the Platinum and Elite passengers gathered in one lounge (Club Fusion).  We waited for our colour Orange 5 to be called.  By 8:00 we walked through the cruise terminal (brand new) with our luggage, which we had taken off by ourselves.  We saved time by taking our own luggage from our cabin instead of putting it out the night previously.  If you put your luggage out, the next day you have to search for it in the cruise terminal.

It was wonderful to see Sam, our tour guide for the next few days, waiting very patiently for us.  When we saw our name on his sign, we greeted him and a little cheer erupted from his friends.  We asked him about this later in our trip and he smiled.  You see, we were the first passengers off the ship to find their driver!  (of course, we are not talking about the Princess transfers).  Maybe there was a wager set to see who would win?  Anyways, he was very happy to see us; it is not uncommon for these tour guides and drivers to wait over an hour for their clients to appear.  Our driver's name was Lee, who proved to be an excellent driver indeed!

I almost forget:  we were under the assumption that we were just 2 people in a group.  With the price that our travel agent quoted us, we felt that was a fairly safe bet.  Imagine our surprise when I asked Sam where the other people were and he said:  You are on a private tour.  Yes, it was the two of us with a guide and driver!  How fortunate we felt as that meant no tour buses filled with many other passengers.

It took about 2 hours from Tiajin to our hotel in Beijing.  This was a very new highway that we were on with quite a few toll booths.  The road had been built to accommodate the new cruise terminal, which unfortunately has not seen the economic changes that they were hoping would occur.

What amazed us as were entering Beijing:  the skyscrapers and modern feel of the city.  Lots of different bank names, American brand name stores, many hotels, and of course, stores upon stores, and people galore!  It was different for us as we did have this image of Beijing as being less modern than North America.  Myth busted for sure!

We drove through the financial part of Beijing and continued on many roads, names unknown, until Sam said:  We are now in the older section of the city.  A few twists and turns and voila, our home for the next few days appeared!

The front of our Best Western Royal Phoenix Hotel.  And Sam helped us register at the Front Desk as English is not readily spoken in this hotel.  After saying goodbye to him, we went up to the fifth floor to our room 520:

Taken from the door to show you the size of the room.  The bathroom is to your right and the closet is to your left.

Yes, a king sized comfy bed with a bench at the foot of the bed, which we found quite handy for unpacking our suitcases.

And here is the bathroom which had a good sized shower and wash basin.  Two bottles of bottled water were supplied by the hotel as it is possibly not safe to use the tap water.  The white towels were thick and fluffy.  Soap, shampoo, and conditioner were supplied.  Note the telephone in the picture below in the bathroom.  There was a second telephone in the bedroom area.  This hotel also supplied red plush robes and white slippers, wrapped in plastic.  There was a mini-fridge and a water kettle, which we did use nightly.

 

 

 





After we munched on the fresh fruit, peeled, we decided to explore the surroundings.  Oh, I failed to mention that our Hotel was in Qianliang hutong....yes, we are actually in a real hutong.  Before this trip, we had planned to find a hutong and wander about.  Well, to our very pleased delight, we are in a hutong already.  So, we walked one block and turned left and found....the Bank.  Which Bank it was I am not sure, but we entered, the lady gave us a number, and we waited 2 minutes.  We went up to the male teller who was behind his glass barrier.  We wanted to exchange some money for Chinese money.  First question he asked us:  May I see your passport?  Well, we had taken a copy with us but no, with Chinese rules, we needed the real passport.

Thank goodness we backtracked only a very short distance, got our passports, and returned to the bank and repeated the number, then the waiting, more waiting, more waiting.  After about 15 minutes our number came up on the electronic display board.  We know now that if you enter a bank, everyone waits for the tellers!  And we thought our waits were bad...actually, in Beijing, they supply chairs for the waiting.  Maybe our bank could install some chairs!

Okay, it's our turn.  Passport turned in, money given to him.  Request should be fairly simple, right?
Nope, he examines the money, smooths it out, counts it, puts it through this machine that flips the bills out, then he calls his supervisor over, who now re-counts the money and flips it about to make sure it is paper? perhaps?  Papers to be printed out, papers to be signed.....well, finally, we get our Chinese yuan bills, passport returned, and a BANKING EXPERIENCE, NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN!  Never ever complain about your bank again, please, not after what we had to do.  Interesting, yes, fun, of course.

What did we do after our banking?  Just plain walking around the streets which weren't all that crowded.  We saw fashion stores beside hardware stores beside scooter stores.  Mid-priced scooter is about $400 Canadian.  As we were walking, we did see sights like this:

We were looking for a specific park that Sam had mentioned to us but we never did find it.  But that was fine as we did find the nearest Subway stop, Dongxi, which a few days later we would enter and use the subway line. (2 yuan per ride)

We had a wonderful dinner that may have been on the expensive side but it truly was fresh, as it was cooked right in front of us.

Believe it or not, as it got darker, we continued to walk the hutong streets and we finally found a really interesting shop!  It had all sorts of 'fun stuff' ready to be cooked on the skewers.  Are you ready to see this?

 

 

Yes, you are seeing juicy black scorpions!  And if you look closely, you will see crickers or grasshoppers, some cocoons, and not sure of the other set of skewers.

 

After roaming around some more that night, we finally decided it was time for bed.  What a fun day this has been!  Tomorrow Sam and Lee will meet us at 8 AM for more explorations.

Halloween

Yes, it is that annual crazy event known as Halloween here in our community and elsewhere around the world.  As usual, the weather in our parts of the wood means:  cold and showery
At present, it is greyish and when I look at our lawn, all I see is:  golden.  Why, golden?  Because the wonderful trees have been shedding their golden leaves all over the property!  Poor dear husband has been out using his favourite toy, the JD, or otherwise known as the John Deere tractor, mowing the grass and leaf collecting.  He has been able to tackle half the yard now but with the truly dreary wet soggy lawn, it has not been easy to 'perfect' the lawn to a leafless existence.  He complains about doing the lawn but in reality, it is a relaxing time for him out there, where he can don his headphones and just 'veg' out there.  (and he is not listening to a certain Asian in the background talking about much of anything that her little brain thinks up!)

In my original blog (www.anthonymusings.blogspot.com) I included a photo of our two sons when they were still in elementary school.  One dressed up as a knight in shining armour and the younger son dressed up as Dracula!  In the ensuing years, they have dressed up in more terrifying costumes than those!

And here is an interesting specimen dressed up in a Dralion (Cirque du Soleil) mask:

On packing day (last day of the cruise) we hung it up outside our cabin door with a note, offering it to someone to take home, and we were lucky, yes, someone actually wanted it!  Glad to see it being used again.

Trivia question:  Who sang MONSTER MASH?  This was one of the 1950's Trivia song questions.  And of course, I have been youtubing it today and listening to the funny lyrics!

Do you have the answer?  The singer passed away a few years ago (2006)  but his name was

             Bobby "Boris" Pickett and his group The Crypt Kickers

Chinese Toilets

I know that some of you might be interested in knowing about the toilets; well, at least I was curious.  I had heard some of the horror stories so I managed to snap a photo or two to share.

Our Beijing hotel was in a hutong area of the city, which meant the old section of the city, where thousands of years ago, the court ministers and their families may have lived.  Nowadays, not everyone has private toilet facilities, so on each lane/alley/street of a hutong, you will find a public facility.  This is a photo of the toilets.  There was one Western toilet too, which I noticed was very handy for the elderly people that I saw who visited this place.  These are all flush toilets and yes, you do have to provide your own TP!