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.