China Trip - Summary

This year, Gordon, Aisling and I took a trip to China organized through the University, partnering with an organization called Legends of China. It was a ten day trip, starting in Beijing, then going south to Souzhou, Hangzhou and finally ending in Shanghai. It was a great trip. The sights in China were amazing, from the ancient sites like the Forbidden City and the Great Wall to the ultra-modern skyscrapers in Shanghai. The people were very friendly to us, we had great student volunteers on the trip, and our bus captains were awesome, with lots of really great information. The other people on our tour bus were also wonderful, and we had a great time with everyone. Some of the things that stand out are the beautiful sites in Souzhou and Hangzhou, Shanghai at night, the amazing amount of construction in Beijing, the Great Wall, and the Forbidden City. The only downside was that it was hot and humid.

I would recommend the tour to anyone, with the only warning that it is a busy tour. You're kept going all the time and there's a lot of walking.

You can see photos from the trip taken by myself and some fellow travelers at the following sites:
General Photos
More Photos
Erika's Photos
Mel & Liz's China Journal
Pictures from Bus 5

China Trip, Day 9 - Aug 2

The last day! Our fellow B3ers who were heading to LA had a later flight, so it was sad to say goodbye to them at the hotel. We took all our luggage, which had grown considerably since we arrived and headed to Shanghai's Podung airport. Jenny accompanied us into the airport, which was great, because we did have some problems checking in. For me, my Irish passport was a small problem, because at first they couldn't find Ireland into their system. Eventually a supervisor or someone found it. Secondly, one of my suitcases set off the alarm, and Gordon had to go to the luggage check room, where they basically unpacked the suitcase to figure out what set off the alarm. It turns out that one of the fake iPods set off the alarm. So Gordon repacked the suitcase and off we went. Kim also had problems, as it turns out that someone with her name is on the "no fly list" so she had to convince them she was not a terrorist. We had a flight from Shanghai to Beijing, and then a connection on to San Francisco. We boarded at Shanghai, and then we sat on the ground for three hours before we could take off, apparently due to thunderstorms in Beijing. We even ate lunch and watched a movie before we took off, it was so boring. There also wasn't much information given out except for one announcement in Mandarin. Luckily for us, Alex in our group speaks Mandarin and he checked in with a crew member who kept us up to date, and also gave us the good news that our flight from Beijing to SFO would wait for us.


We landed in Beijing and changed planes, leaving Beijing three hours later than planned. The flight across the Pacific was long but uneventful, and we managed to sleep. When we landed in SFO, I called Dara to arrange for her to meet us at Bart. Dara told me that she was in the hospital, delivering my grandson a month early! We picked up our luggage and checked back in with her, and she said it would be another 3-6 hours. We headed to Bart and she called back, saying they were doing a C-Section, and would wait for me. Ten minutes later, she called back saying that they couldn't wait. So we went straight to the hospital, arriving only 10 minutes after baby Aidan was born. Dara & Aidan are both doing fine, although he was little because of being early. What an exciting end to our trip!

China Trip, Day 8 - Aug 1

Our last full day in China started with breakfast at the New Mayfair, which actually wasn't that great. Some people chose to eat at other establishments, Aisling had pancakes at MacDonalds and Siegrid had a red bean scone at Starbucks. We went to the Shanghai Museum. On the drive to the museum we started to see what Shanghai looks like. There are an incredible number of skyscrapers, and mostly they look fabulous. It's much nicer than Beijing. Shanghai is divided by a river, and one side of the river is new Shanghai, a lot of skyscrapers, all built since 1990. We also saw the Shanghai Expo, which was built in the 60s with help from a Soviet architect, so it looks very Russian. Jenny told us that we would have two hours in the Shanghai museum, and asked if that would be enough. We indicated that it would be, and she told us that when Bill Clinton was in Shanghai, he was scheduled to spend two hours in the museum, but ended up basically spending all day there. However, when George W. Bush went to Shanghai, he skipped the museum altogether!

The museum was in a beautiful building, four floors, very airy. It had many interesting exhibits. One of my favorites was the room with artifacts from the Chinese ethnic minorities, including the Mongols and Manchurians. I also enjoyed the calligraphy and painting, both of which were quite beautiful. In the jade area, there were carved pieces of jade from the 23rd century B.C. I also really liked the furniture, especially an exhibit of miniature furniture carved for an eighth level administrator, a person in charge of cooking condiments for an emperor, which he had buried with him. In addition to a miniature of a house and other buildings, there were several miniature carved soldiers that went along with the miniature. Gordon loved the museum, and could have spent all day there, but we had to leave to go to our next destination, a silk carpet factory. That was really not that great, although the carpets did feel very soft and looking at some of the really old carpets was interesting. We ate lunch in the same building as the carpet factory, it was Mongolian barbecue, which was different and pretty good.

We got back on the bus to get to our next destination, the Yu Ling Garden market. On the drive, Jenny went back to the marriage topic, telling us that in China, Shanghai men are considered to be good catches - they cook, clean and generally take care of things. We again got another decent look at Shanghai, quite a fabulous city, but with terrible traffic! We arrived at the Yu Ling gardens, which is a lovely rebuilt complex, very traditional looking buildings with ponds, lotus, and Chinese architecture. It's a shopping complex with lots of shopping options. A great deal of bargaining went on - special price for us - and people wrapped up their souvenir shopping. It was thoroughly enjoyable, however, because of the variety of shops, the street food (we got a sweet pancake) and the architecture. It was thoroughly packed with tourists, however, both Chinese and foreign. After our shopping, we went to dinner at another nice restaurant, where we had a lecture by a professor from a Chinese University, giving advice on doing business in China. It was very interesting, and she made lots of good points, including discussing cultural differences between China and the west.


After dinner we went on a night cruise on the Huangpu river to see Shanghai. This was the highlight of Shanghai, I think. As I mentioned, on one side of the river is old Shanghai, with the famous street called the Bund. The Bund has older buildings with a colonial feel. I believe that they have mostly been converted to high end stores now, but at night they are beautifully lit up and look fabulous from the boat. The other side of the river is new Shanghai, all skyscrapers, all built since 1990. Some of the most impressive ones include the Oriental Pearl television tower (pictured), tallest in the Asia at 468 meters, with eleven steel spheres, which is very futuristic in its appearance. Then there's the Jin Mao tower, over 90 stories, with a Chinese flair. I understand that it had a starring role in Mission Impossible III. And finally there is the International Finance Center, currently under construction, slated to become possibly the tallest building in the world (pictured at right, between the buses).

After the cruise, we went back to the hotel, and Gordon, Aisling and I headed down the street to a massage parlor to get a cheaper massage than we got at the hotel. Aisling and I went together, she got a back massage and asked for the cupping option and I got a ginger foot massage. Aisling's back massage seemed like it went well, although somehow a back massage included her legs and feet, and I had a very hard time explaining that they should not massage her broken foot. After her massage, the masseur went ahead with the cupping, which is a form of acupressure called Gua Sha. He brought in about 10 jars, and then got a long stick, attached some cotton wool and lit it. He put the flame inside a jar, pulled it out and immediately put the jar on her back. He did this with each ten jars. Because the flame created a vacuum in the jar, it stuck to her back and caused her flesh to bubble up. It looked so weird! Then when he took the jars off, she still had little circles on her back.

My foot massage was almost as weird. First, he brought in a barrel filled it water and plugged it in. I put my feet in there, and let them steam. At some point, it just got too hot, and I had to ask him to turn it down. Then he started to massage my feet. He noticed that I had a lot of hard skin on my feet (all that walking in China) and so he asked if I wanted my feet scraped. I said sure, and he went out and got the scraping tools. When he brought them back, I was beginning to regret saying yes. They were essentially straight edge razors of varying lengths. His only English word was "relax", which he used many times when scraping my feet. Then he asked if I wanted my toenails cut, I said sure, and he actually used one of the razors to cut my toenails! I think he was the number 1 foot scraper in China. When he was finished with the massage, he went and got a ginger substance that he slathered all over my legs, and then covered with very hot towels. My legs got very hot, and I couldn't actually make it to the scheduled end of the treatment!

Gordon was still getting his massage when we left, so when he was done he asked at the reception desk where were the two women he was with, and they thought he was asking for the "home service". We all got back to the hotel pretty late and I packed Aisling up for the flight home.

China Trip, Day 7 - July 31

We had a very nice breakfast at the Hangzhou Honglou, and then took a bus to West Lake for a cruise. It's a very beautiful semi-man made lake, and considered to be one of the most romantic spots in China. We walked along the Lovers Causeway before we got on the boat for a cruise. We heard several sad stories about Chinese lovers, including the white snake lady. All the stories seem to end with somebody dying. Hmm. There are hills around the lake, all made from silt taken from the lake. The gardens around the lake include three sites, the solitary hill, which isn't solitary, the long walk, which isn't that long, and the broken bridge, which isn't broken. On the lake, there are three little pagodas (pictured), which are also depicted on the back of the one-yuan bill. Around the lake, there are about 700 tea houses in Hangzhou, where people can spend all day drinking tea, eating and playing cards. Apparently, people in Hangzhou are pretty relaxed and believe in taking care of themselves. Jenny also told us about a moon holiday when the local people come out to the West Lake and see the 33 moons. Apparently there are five moons on each little pagoda, and with their reflection in the lake, that makes 30 moons. Then there's the moon in the sky and it's reflection, that makes 32 moons. And finally the moon that shines with love in your heart (or something like that) is the 33rd moon.


We left West Lake and headed to a tea orchard, which was a bit of a drive, but it got us out of the city and into the country. It is a beautiful area, with lots of tea trees, which are about the size of tea bushes. They have green tea and black tea. We walked over by the tea trees, and then watched a local man drying the leaves. We then went into the tea house for a cup of green tea and a lecture on tea. Like the embroidery and silk factories, this totally exceeded all expectations. We learned that tea is picked from March on into the summer, and the earlier that it's picked, the better the quality. We also learned that the water should be boiled and then cooled to 85 degrees. The tea lady put two pinches of tea in our cups, glasses actually, and then the hot water was poured in a very specific manner, which is hard to describe but it was sort of a triple pour. The tea lady then told us to lean over the glass and get some of the green tea steam in our eyes. It's apparently really good for our eyes. Then we drank and refilled and learned how green tea is good for everything. We were all sold, not only was she the number 1 tea packer, but she was also the number 1 saleslady! We bought as much tea as we did silk comforters. Aisling even bought a tea-filled pillow!

We went to have lunch at a lovely restaurant by the lake. I went to the bathroom, and on my way back to the table, Gordon called me and said, "Hey look at this". It was a case full of live snakes! There was also a frozen alligator! Because we were tourists, they didn't offer us snake or alligator, however. We then went to Lingyin temple, a buddhist temple in Hangzhou. Although many religious icons were destroyed during the Cultural revolution, this one was apparently protected by the Premier at that time. In it's heyday, long before the Cultural Revolution, there were as many as 3000 monks in this temple. We walked through a long garden, with many stone Buddhas, most of which had a strong Indian influence, as one of the founding monks was Indian. There were three main buildings, one of which had the largest Buddha statue in China. I guess it's the number 1 Buddha. Another building had 500 bronze statues of Buddha's followers, each weighing one ton. It was amazing.

We went back to the bus and drove on to Shanghai. We checked into the New Mayfair hotel, which was fabulous. We went to a nice restaurant for dinner, where we had a short speech by Yu Li, the president of Legends of China. Because the hotel was in downtown Shanghai, there were lots of things close by, including a park, several Starbucks and other fast food type places. After dinner, several people went for a walk around the hotel. Then Aisling went to Pizza Hut with some of the young people and Gordon and I got a massage in the hotel. It was Chinese massage, very tough, but I felt better afterwards. We were in the same room, and Gordon's masseuse came in first. When my masseuse came in, Gordon was lying face-down, and she thought he was my sister because of his pony tail. After our massages, we had a drink in the hotel bar with Kim, Joe and Harry before going to bed. All said, I think the MayFair was the best hotel, because of it's location in Downtown Shanghai and all the facilities in the hotel.

China Trip, Day 6 - July 30

Day 6 begin with breakfast at the Holiday Inn in Souzhou, which unfortunately wasn't as good as the breakfast at the Loong Palace. We then got on the bus to go to Tiger Hill. Jenny seemed to continue with her marriage obsession, explaining to us that in North China, the husband tends to have more control in the marriage and makes all the decisions, and that they call this the "Big Husband". That's not so true in South China. She also told us that Souzhou was once part of the Pacific Ocean, and that Tiger Hill was an island in the Pacific Ocean. An emperor came from North China to this area, and ultimately was buried at Tiger Hill. 10,000 workers built his tomb, and they were later killed so that nobody could locate the tomb. Apparently, this same emperor saw a white tiger on the hill, which is why the hill is called Tiger Hill. Centuries later, a pagoda was built on the hill. The pagoda is now leaning, and the theory is that it's leaning because it was built on the tomb, which impacted the foundation. The pagoda is 48 meters tall, and is leaning 2.34m. Jenny pointed out that this is a more extreme lean than the leaning "pagoda" in Pisa. The visit to Tiger Hill was fabulous. The grounds are beautiful. In addition, it was much less crowded that anywhere we had been in Beijing and that was a nice change. It was, however, hotter than Beijing, at least 110 fahrenheit and very humid. We climbed the hill to get to the leaning Pagoda, a much less strenuous climb than the Great Wall. Even Aisling was able to manage it.

We left Tiger Hill after a couple of hours and headed back into Souzhou. There are lots of canals in Souzhou, and also in Hangzhou. An emperor many centuries ago built the grand canal all the way from Beijing to Shanghai for transportation. This, the other canals, the lakes and natural features in this area do make beautiful scenery. The Chinese refer to Souzhou and Hangzhou as Heaven on earth. Jenny also mentioned that I.M. Pei had spent part of his childhood in Souzhou and has designed two buildings there, including the new museum, which contains artifacts that were discovered in the leaning Pagoda.

We then headed over to an embroidery factory. True to her pattern, Jenny told the men that Souzhou women are considered to be the most beautiful women in China. She said there are five different Souzhou girls, and I can't remember all of them, but one of them was embroidery girl. I wasn't looking forward to the embroidery factory visit, but I must admit that it far exceeded my expectations. We saw the most beautiful embroidery and watched the embroidery girls at worked. They could produce one-sided or two-sided embroidery. In the case of the two-sided, they could even produce a piece that was a puppy on one side and a kitty on the other! The embroidery pieces created by masters were just incredible. There was a really amazing portrait-size piece of Chairman Mao. In the garden, we saw three little kittens, and that was the high spot of the embroidery factory for Aisling.

We went for lunch to the number 1 Silk factory in China. They decided we should have western food that day, and it wasn't very good. We then had a lecture about silk, and went into the silk factory. Like the embroidery, this was fabulous. The lecture explained how the whole process works. Apparently the worms eat and eat for 25 days. Then they actually spit the silk thread out of their mouth and make a cocoon. The cocoon is put in the oven, basically to kill the moth, and the workers find the start of the thread in the cocoon and pull it off. We walked through the factory and saw the worms eat, and watched the women pull the thread of the cocoon. It was fascinating. Also, there are some double cocoons, where two silkworms get together and make a cocoon with their two threads. Of course, Jenny referred to this as a love cocoon. Because there are two threads intertwined, they can't really pull the silk threads off, so instead they pull the cocoon apart and use the fibers use them to make these fabulous silk comforters, filled with this fiber. We had heard about this from Lauren, number 1 shopper on bus B3, and we were mostly already pretty much sold on the whole silk comforter concept, so let's just say the number 1 silk factory in China got lots of sales from our bus. I bought three myself, as well as the silk covers to go on them. When we got back to the bus, Jenny greeted us by saying "on behalf of the governor of the province, I thank you for your contributions to the local economy". We also had a fashion show - Souzhou's next top model, I believe. We went into the room, and before the models came out, Gordon and Aisling both took a turn on the runway. They were considerably more animated than the models, who really looked bored. I have a theory that they were girls who worked in the factory (Silk girls, as Jenny called them) who were required to do the modeling as a condition of employment and were all bored by it. They modeled some of the silk clothes for sale in the store.

Our final visit of the day was the Humble Administrators garden. Jenny indicated that the gardens we had visited in Beijing at the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven are Imperial Gardens, built on a grand scale, but that the Humble Administrator's Garden is built by a private citizen, and is on a much smaller scale. But it was beautiful, and I am not sure why it's humble. He must have been a pretty high ranking administrator to be able to afford to build a garden like that. Apparently, it became divided into three later when a descendant of the Humble Administrator lost it while gambling with three other people. There was a lovely lake filled with beautiful lotus plants, and an old lady in a boat harvesting the lotus root. Also, there was an entertainment pavilion where performances could be presented to visitors. The picture of Gordon and me on my blog was taken at the Humble Administrators garden. Jenny also noted that the garden is designed to bloom year round, so there are flowers that bloom in each season. We just happened to be there in the time for lotus to bloom, the summer.

We returned to the bus and headed to Hangzhou. From the bus as we drove through Souzhou, we got to see more of Souzhou and what a lovely city it is with all the canals and beautiful bridges. Jenny noted that Souzhou is known as the honeymoon capital in China. We got to our hotel in Hangzhou, the Honglou, and spent a little time in our room before we went to dinner in the hotel. It was a very high rise hotel, and we were pretty high up there, and we were lucky to see fireworks from our room! Not sure what the fireworks show was about. The hotel was in downtown Hangzhou, near the train station, so after dinner we went for a short walk. We went into a couple of small local shops, where we bought a couple of souvenirs, and also a bottle of cheap white wine, brand name Great Wall. Over in a park near the train station, there were tons of people, including, inexplicably, a guy hanging his laundry in a tree. After that, we went to meet Aisling and Kim who had already gone to the pool. For some reason, the route to the pool was through the karaoke room and the game room, where several men were sitting around playing cards. We then went back to our room and had some of our cheap white wine, which wasn't bad.

On the way back from the pool, we ran into Denise and Erika, who had gone to the spa to get a massage. They were told that massages were only for men, and were shooed out of there. Gordon and I decided to try our luck. The story we got was that I could get a foot massage, but not a body massage. The reason for this, we were told, was because the only had male masseurs working, and that they wouldn't massage women. However, we heard the story the next day from Mike who actually got a massage. It turns out that it was all attractive, scantily-clad female masseuses who were seeming to want to sell additional services! A little different to what I had been told!

China Trip, Day 5 - July 29

Today was our last day in Beijing, so we packed and brought our luggage down to the lobby to checkout and get it loaded onto the bus. Angie collected our passports and tickets to get us checked in on the airline. Because of our excursion the night before, Siegrid, Aisling and I were watching very closely to make sure that people showed up at breakfast, hoping we hadn't lost anyone! We didn't. We actually had a little time at the hotel after breakfast and then left and went to a very early lunch before going to the airport. Angie spent some time on the bus comparing Beijing and Shanghai. Beijing is actually bigger than Shanghai - 16,800 sq. km compared to 6000 sq km in Shanghai. However, the population of Shanghai, at 19 million, is larger than Beijing's 17 million. Beijing was feeling pretty crowded to me, so I could only imagine what Shanghai must be like. Angie indicated that Beijing is often known China's Washington DC, while Shanghai is known as China's New York. A third city that we visit, Hangzhou, is known as China's Venice, because it's full of canals. Angie also mentioned that the food in Shanghai is different to Beijing, commenting that it's more sweet and less seasoned.

After lunch, which was very good, we said goodbye to Angie, Hunter and Mr Wu, the parking master, at the airport. We went to the gate to find that our flight was delayed, so we spent some time playing cards at the gate. Then our gate was changed, and we had to run to the new gate.

While waiting for this flight, I had a rather bizarre bathroom experience. Now at the airport, at least all the bathrooms were western style, rather than the Chinese "squatting" style, which I really found hard to master. Anyhow, I went into the airport bathroom, and found that the lines were by stall rather than one single line. I, of course, got in line for the slowest stall. I was standing there for so long I was wondering if it was out of order or something, when the woman who was in there dropped her compact. Turns out she was putting her makeup on in there. She finally came out. I was pretty quick in the bathroom, but the woman in line behind me knocked on the door like I was too slow. It was very weird.

The flight from Beijing to Shanghai was bumpy, but we arrived safe, although quite late. We flew into Shanghai Hongqiao airport, the domestic airport. There's also an international airport that we would fly out of later. Nobody's luggage got lost, so we went to the terminal and met our new bus captain, Jenny. It was definitely hot and humid when we got to Shanghai, but it seemed less smoggy than Beijing. We saw the sun there, which we hadn't seen at all in Beijing. We got on the bus and drove to our first stop, Souzhou, about two hours from Shanghai. I thought that Shanghai looked quite different to Beijing as we drove along the freeway. We arrived in Souzhou at about nine. It was really pretty charming. There were lots of canals, and it was very nicely lit up. Also, the streets were smaller, it's a much smaller city than Beijing, and the way the driver maneuvered the bus was pretty amazing. While there were still a lot of bikes on the roads, there were also a lot of mopeds. I don't think I saw a single helmet on a bike or moped rider in China, and in Souzhou, the mopeds didn't seem to have lights either. Jenny explained that the government encourages the use of mopeds, which are electric, to minimize pollution, by levying large taxes on cars and motorbikes.

We got to the restaurant, and the food was different to what we had in Beijing. There was a soup made from some local plant that grows in the lake, I forget the name. That soup got mixed reviews, but I personally liked it. Jenny made a joke about food - Chinese people eat everything with two wings except a plane and everything with four legs, except the table. Also, Jenny seems to be pretty obsessed with marriage and romance. She made several jokes about Chinese women looking for a 3C man - a man with a car, career and credit card.

Jenny also talked about the Family Planning Policy in China. Angie spent a lot of time talking about this too. They noted that without this policy, the population in China would be about 1.9 billion. (It's currently 1.3 billion). They were very careful to point out that it's not just a one-child policy, it also encourages later marriage and later childbearing, and they both pointed out several times that there are exceptions to the one-child rule. For example, if you and your spouse are the child of two only children, you can have two children. Also, they discourage learning the gender of the child before birth to avoid abortions. It's really interesting that previous generations were really encouraged to have lots of children, as Mao felt their strength was in their population. It's amazing that they have gone from families with six or seven children to one-child families in the space of a single generation.

In Souzhou we stayed in a Holiday Inn. It was very new and the room was nice.

China Trip, Day 4 - July 28

After the previous night's thunderstorm, we woke up to a cooler day on day 4. We're now used to our routine. Get up, have a great breakfast at the hotel, head over to the bus and go for a drive to someplace fabulous. Today it's the Summer Palace. As if the Forbidden City isn't enough, the emperors had a special palace in Beijing where they spent summer - April through October. Mostly Angie talked about the dowager Empress, who basically ruled through her children following the death of the emperor. I may not have that completely right, but essentially she was in charge. The palace is in a beautiful garden (like all of them) on a man-made lake. Lots of lotus on the lake. The palace was lovely, and there was a covered walkway, called the long walk, where the empress took a walk after each meal. Each meal consisted of 128 courses, so we can see why that might be necessary! It's worth noting that this was during the time of bound feet, so she did this mile-long walk several times a day on bound feet. What a woman! The long walk was covered with roof with the most magnificent blue paintings (pictured).

The street vendors were out in strength in the Summer Palace. The item of choice here was the fake designer bag. I must admit that I succumbed to the fake Gucci. Unfortunately, when you buy one, it seems to attract other vendors!


We took a boat ride across the lake to get back to the bus from the Summer Palace. Where we boarded the boat, there was also a really interesting decorative stone boat. The boat ride gave us the best views of the palace itself, which is on a hill overlooking the lake. We also got to see several beautiful bridges across the lake, including the 17-arch bridge that links to a man-made island in the lake. From there, we drove to a Pearl factory, government store. A little disappointing, basically there was a pretty hard sell for the pearls, and it wasn't nearly as interesting as watching the Jade master at work. We had lunch there, also a little disappointing, and then off to Tian'anmen Square.



Nothing disappointing about Tian'anmen Square. It's the largest public square in the world. The cement slabs that make up the square are designed to hold two people standing, and when they're full, it holds 1 million people. There's a big Mao poster on the wall of the Forbidden City facing Tian'anmen Square (photo below), plus Mao's tomb in the middle, which, of course, isn't accessible. Also, there's a memorial to the fallen heroes of the Cultural Revolution (pictured above). All in all, very impressive. The downside is that the street vendors are out in force, and are really very aggressive. Gordon did buy a Chairman Mao watch, and because it had heated up again, I really needed to buy a fan. We all learned the call of the street vendor - "special price for you!" Tian'anmen Square was also packed with foreign tourists and Chinese visitors. Again, many in our group were photographed with Chinese nationals and Aisling's cast was a major point of interest. As with the Forbidden City, the sheer size of Tian'anmen Square is breathtaking, and like everywhere else in Beijing, it is very crowded.


Our group had some "free time" then so we did a couple of our own activities. First, we went to a distinctly non-government shopping mall. It was a blast. There were lots of little stores with people aggressively bargaining better prices. Some of them might have been a little *too* aggressive. One of the vendors practically ripped my arm out of my sockets trying to drag me into her store when I tried to leave. We bought all kinds of stuff, I have no idea if the jade I bought is real, in spite of my lesson at the factory, but I am certain that the iPods we bought were fake! I mean, they were $20! Aisling bought one, and then I piggy-backed on her, and Don & Diane piggybacked on that purchase. But we were all overshadowed by Lauren's serious shopping! 40 Pashmina scarves, 20 silk ties and heaven knows how many strands of pearls! Absolutely amazing. She spent $200 and made out like a bandit.

We left our shopping frenzy and had a very nice dinner, although they clearly thought we were craving western food because in addition to the regular Chinese fare, we had fries! Our table specifically boycotted the fries, however. At dinner, we made plans to go out that night back to the Lotus market to go "clubbing". Some people had a pre-arranged tour to the Beijing Opera, those of us that didn't went back to the hotel and went swimming, and we arranged to meet in the lobby at 10:30.

At least 12 of us met up to go to the Lotus Market, including our student volunteer, Hunter, and Aisling. I don't know if it makes me a bad parent to let my 11-year-old daughter go clubbing in Beijing, what can I say? We also picked up four additional people from UCLA, and off we went in four different taxis. Aisling went in a cab with some of the other girls, while I rode with Siegrid, Hunter and Carrie. It turns out that Hunter told the company that he was going out with us, and they told him that he should keep an eye on us and not let us drink. However, Hunter indicated that beer doesn't really count as drinking. I think the Legends of China company was very concerned that we not do something crazy and miss our flight to Shanghai the next day. We arranged to meet at 12:30 at the Starbucks (there's one on every corner) but I honestly expected to run into people walking along the street, as that had happened the previous evening that we were there. However, we didn't run into each other for the first hour, so I was a little worried about Aisling, although no need to worry, she was with Alicia and Erica, who really look out for her. Siegrid, Hunter, Carrie and I went out on a boat on the lake, Hunter and I had sodas but Siegrid and Carrie had beers, so Hunter and I pedaled.

We all met up as scheduled at 12:30 at Starbucks, including the UCLA folks. Denise had connected with a friend of hers from Guatemala, who now lives in Beijing, who offered to take the group to a different area, more of a student nightlife area. Aisling was tired, however, so I took her home. One of the UCLA group, actually the father of a UCLA student who also is on the faculty at UCSF, Bob, decided to also come home in the taxi with Aisling and me. The UCLA group had been drinking bottles of beer, and Bob asked if I thought he could take his beer in the cab with him. My guess is that it wasn't going to be a problem, and sure enough, it wasn't, so he got to finish his beer in the taxi on the way home. Aisling finished her frapuccino.

As I've mentioned, the hotel is out in the suburbs, so sometimes it's hard to get a taxi to go out that far, however, the first taxi that stopped agreed to take us. However, he must not have read the directions on the hotel card too well, because he ended up driving in the total opposite direction! We went miles out of our way before he finally confessed to being lost, at least I assume that's what he was saying. There was a bit of a communication issue. He finally called the hotel and got more directions and took us back. We then had to haggle about the cost of the taxi ride, as it showed almost three times what it should on the meter. The hotel staff helped, though, and we got it to a reasonable cost.

I took Aisling to the room she shares with Siegrid. Siegrid was already back, even though she left way after we did. Her taxi didn't get lost on the way! The group that stayed behind decided to go get some pizza before going to the other area, and walked to a pizza place just outside the lotus market. The had to walk through a very deserted dark alley to get there, which was a little unnerving for some of the group. The pizza place was closed anyhow, and Hunter got more calls from Legends of China, so he came home with Siegrid and Kim. The rest of the group went on to the other area and by all accounts danced into the wee hours of the morning.

China Trip, Day 3 - July 27

Day 3 took us to the Great Wall of China, probably the highlight of the trip so far. It was a longish drive on the bus, but out of the city, so the traffic wasn't as terrible. When we got there first, we had to assemble with all the Legends of China groups and have one huge photo taken with the Great Wall in the background. We were then left on our own to climb. Aisling couldn't really climb, so she hung out with some of the other people who found it a bit daunting at the souvenir shops in the bus parking area. She is quite the little bargainer for a lower price. We headed up, and at the first "bridge" we saw our silk squares hanging there! All the LOC squares had been mounted there for the day. We then proceeded to go up, and it was a really tough climb. The stairs are uneven and sometimes steep, and of course there are lots of them. I wish I had remembered to count! It was hot and sticky. I cannot remember the last time that I was that hot and sweaty. We did make it all the way to the top, however, and it was totally worth it. It's such a foreboding structure. It must have been impenetrable to outside invaders. It's so steep up the sides, and then it's on a hillside, you would need to be crazy to try to assault it. Coming down was almost scarier than going up, I'm just glad they put in the rail for the tourists!

We headed to lunch at a combined restaurant/government friendship store, and then back to the hotel to freshen up for about thirty minutes. Then we headed to QingHua University for a short walking tour. It was interesting, but we didn't get a lot of details about the buildings or the University itself. We then went to dinner in the student dining hall, not the fanciest food we've had, but the convenience store was a big hit. I think I paid 2 yuan for a bottle of cold water and 5 yuan for a beer. We then had the silk banner/olympic ceremony and show. We had three winners for the silk banner contest on our bus - Mike, Carrie and Gloria. The show, which described China's successful bid for the Olympics, was completely done by Chinese students, and other than being a little long, was quite enjoyable.

After the show, we headed out for a night tour of Beijing. I enjoyed this enormously. The bus drove us down Chang An Boulevard, which is kind of like Beijing's Champs Elysee, and it was very beautiful. We passed the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen square. Most of the buildings on Chang An Boulevard are government buildings and are very large and impressive. Some of the street lights were designed to look like fireworks, it was very pretty. We also saw the remains of the original Beijing City Wall. There's very little left of it, much of it destroyed in earlier building frenzies. Our guide (it wasn't Angie) also told us that most Chinese people like to do some light exercise after dinner for health reasons. So the parks were literally full of people either walking or dancing. Apparently, dancing in the park after dinner is very popular. Usually someone brings a radio or CD player, or there may be live music, and other people gather round and dance. We saw lots of people dancing in the parks in Beijing. We saw some waltzes, but probably the most interesting was the country & western line dancing, which apparently is very popular in China right now.

We stopped for a half hour at the Lotus Market. This is a former market and now is Beijing's night spot. It's on a lake, and is very pretty. We stopped in one bar where I had a drink that I can't even describe, except maybe as firewater. We didn't have time to eat, but I know that Gordon was interested in the turtle and snake soup.

After we got home and to bed, there was a thunderstorm in the middle of the night.

China Trip, Day 2 - July 26

We still weren't over the jet lag, waking up at 5 a.m. There's not much of a view from my room window, given that we're out on the fourth ring road, but even out here in the suburbs, it's interesting to note that there are 12 huge cranes visible. Our hotel is pretty new itself, and right next to it, there's a building that looks like an old motel that seems to be housing construction workers. Breakfast at the hotel was great, I went with the Asian breakfast, noodles, rice and congee, a kind of porridge. But I didn't skip the coffee! The bus was due to leave at 8 for our first stop, but left a little late, so Angie spent a lot of time talking about our first destination the "number 1" jade factory in Beijing. Our bus driver, Mr. Wu, is the "number 1" bus driver in the company. The jade factory is government approved, and the store there is a government store, so we were encouraged to shop there for the better quality. We took off, and then got a good sense of the driving style in Beijing. There are lots of bikes as well as cars, but the rules seem to be that the largest vehicle has the right of way. Bike riders in this city must have nerves of steel!


The jade factory was enjoyable, we got to see the jade masters carving away at big blocks of jade making my personal favorite, four jade balls, one inside the other, carved from a single piece of jade (pictured in various stages at left). We also learned how to tell good jade from bad jade, although I can't say I really know how. The government store was somewhat disappointing, quality may have been good, but prices weren't. However, Aisling spent a fair amount of time looking at all the jade jewelry. We then returned to the bus to head for the Forbidden City, which is in the center of Beijing, so it was a fairly long ride. On the way, we continued to get a good sense of all the construction and a better view of the "birds nest" Olympic stadium. The other Olympic venues for various sports are designed to look like they are related to the sport, for example, the aquatics center has a "wavy" kind of look. The Olympic village, also under construction, is pretty darn large and imposing also. We were joined on the bus by Hunter Lee, a student volunteer from Peking University.

We drove from the Jade factory, which wasn't far from our hotel, into Beijing to go to the Forbidden City. On the way, we passed lots more construction, and also the older part of Beijing. In the old city, there are little buildings called Hutong, where people live in very close quarters, usually with a lot of little alleyways running in between the houses, and with most of the houses facing into a communal square. While many of them have been destroyed and replaced with high rises, they are now protected and it's not so easy to tear one down.


We arrived at the Forbidden City. Now that we're in the center of Beijing, we could really get a feel of just how crowded a city it is, especially at a major tourist site like the Forbidden City. Our group tried to stay together, and we were fairly identifiable, as we all had our yellow "B3" tags on. The Forbidden City is huge. There are 9999.5 rooms in the Forbidden City, and I believe it covers 250 acres. Plus, there's a moat around it. The land dug out from the moat then was used to make a hill directly across from the Forbidden City. As we waited in front of the entrance for Angie to buy our tickets, several members of our group were approached by local people who wanted to have photos taken with them. This was particularly true for members of the group who are African-American, a very interesting phenomenon. We also got our first taste of street vendors, selling us everything from postcards to fans to umbrellas. The fans became very popular as we got into the trip and the heat wore us down. We got into the Forbidden City and started our tour. It was fabulous, just the sheer scale of the buildings was enormously impressive. The wife and concubine quarters, however, were smaller than the other sections. Angie tried valiantly to keep our group together, through the large distance and the huge crowds, however, we unfortunately lost four people! Everyone took lots of photos, however, my camera picked that particular day to die, unfortunately. We spend several hours in the Forbidden City, going from building to building and courtyard to courtyard, finally getting back to the bus minus four people and very hot and tired.

We went to lunch in a building called the "Bonding Center". I thought the group was already pretty well bonded, but it didn't seem to hurt. It was a good lunch, also Aisling got her photo taken in a traditional Chinese costume and then shopped at their little gift shop. Even in that shop you could bargain! You can bargain anywhere that it's not a government shop. We left lunch and headed for the Temple of Heaven, where the emperors prayed for good harvests. The temple buildings are in a very nice garden, and while we were waiting for Angie to get the tickets, we read the rules of the park. Some of the English translations were pretty funny including:

Don't be lying on the benches.
No leaking.
No percussion.
No teaching dance for profit.
Don't hang items from trees.
No recycling.
Don't stay at the entrances and exits for a really long time.

The garden itself was lovely. Also, like the Forbidden City, the sheer size of the buildings was most impressive. In the Temple of Heaven, the roofs are all blue, like the sky, whereas in the Forbidden City, the buildings are yellow with red roofs to signify that it's an emperor's home. Aisling's aircast on her foot attracted a lot of attention. People would just stop and stare at it, and finally a Chinese man who was walking with a cane insisted on having a photo taken with her.

We found our missing four people at the Temple of Heaven. They had taken a taxi (or two) back to the hotel and then called Angie, and arranged to meet us there. We then went to dinner at another very nice restaurant. Aisling thought the highlight of this restaurant was the shop next door. Gordon figured out that you can but a second bottle of beer for the table for 10 yuan (about $1.50) and that became a standard practice at our tables. The food was good, however, we're noticing that the same dishes seem to be showing up at all the meals.

We then headed back to the hotel. Some of the group signed up for the Chinese Acrobatic show, but we hadn't done that so instead we walked around the hotel and got a fairly early night.

China Trip, Day 1 - July 24-25 2007

The trip got off to a dubious start, with our flight out of San Francisco delayed by two hours. Gordon, Aisling, Siegrid and I had lunch with Dara and Mike Sinatra. We ate the most American food we could find - Lori's Diner! Lots of pancakes, BLTs etc. We went to the gate, chatted to some of our fellow travelers and waited for the flight. The plane was a combo passenger/cargo plane, very strange. The flight took off two hours late, but was uneventful. We arrived in Beijing, landing at about 8. We got off the plane on a tarmac, and got a shuttle to the terminal, which gave us an opportunity to experience the heat and humidity in Beijing, which is comparable to what I experienced living 13 years in St. Louis. When we picked up our luggage, we cleared customs and immigration and went out to meet our Bus Captain, Angie Wang. Angie took us to a restaurant for dinner. On the way, we got a full taste of the frenetic pace of construction in Beijing. Even though it was after 9 or so at night, there were still crews working. We got our first view of the Beijing Olympic stadium, currently under construction, which is designed to look like a birds nest. Angie told us that the airport currently has two terminals but that they are adding a third for the Olympics, as they expect to have 60 million visitors next year. They'll depend heavily on the public transportation/subway system to move people around. We arrived at the restaurant, which was very attractive, and the food was very nice, although not that different to what we might experience at a Chinese restaurant in California. Drinks, however, were served in a very non-American style, we were allowed to have one glass of a soft drink. Soft drinks included sodas (no diet), beer and water. We chatted and began to get to know each other at dinner (through my blog I'll just mention people's names, rather than do introductions). Angie also made us laugh back on the bus when she told us it would be very hot tomorrow, so we should dress accordingly, suggesting that the men wear "wife beaters". We then went back to our hotel, the Loong Palace hotel, which Angie indicated is "out in the suburbs". Beijing has five "ring roads" with a sixth coming for the Olympics, and the Loong Place is on the fourth ring, meaning it's pretty far out there. The hotel was very nice, the rooms were beautiful. I fell asleep at midnight about 9 am California time, and while my sleep was a little broken up, I felt good about getting any sleep at all.