Friday, January 9, 2009
Xi’An – Day 2
We slept in for a bit and then went to get our free breakfast at the hotel. It was actually pretty nice: scrambled eggs, steamed buns, weird Chinese sausages, fried cabbage, etc. It was pretty good for the price we paid for our room. The Xi’An City Center Hotel was really worth the bang for the buck! After breakfast we relaxed a bit longer in our room before checking out at noon. Today was just as hazy and polluted as the day before (yuck!). We mailed off some postcards and got to hear “P.I.M.P.” blaring from the post office main square – nice, China! We also peeked at the Bell Tower which is right next to our hotel, but there really wasn’t anything to see, especially with all the pollution. So we then caught bus 609, as recommended by our hotel, to the Xi’An History Museum. Well, our hotel didn’t tell us that the bus actually didn’t pass right by the museum. Lucky for us, we used our heads (and our guidebook map) and picked up from the few English signs in the city that we wouldn’t be going directly past the museum. So, instead we got off at the Great Goose Pagoda area. This was inside a Buddhist Temple complex. We paid the entrance fee and moseyed around for a bit. We saw the large pagoda, which I think was 15 stories tall?, but didn’t pay the extra fee to go up it. After walking around for a bit we navigated our way over towards the history museum. We stopped for lunch along the way, getting a pork and mushroom dish and, our new signature dish, sweet and sour chicken. We also got to see some dude working on a helluva mess of power lines. His buddy held a ladder while he climbed up onto the power lines, which were all tangled and knotted and looped. We couldn’t believe the mess they were! And here was this guy scooting along, climbing over and through these wires. He must have had some balls! Anyway, we crossed the street and headed into museum. There was a special line for foreigners at the ticket booth, so we grudgingly commented to each other that we would probably have to pay double the entrance fee. Lo and behold though, it ended up being free for us after we showed them our passports. The museum itself was better than we had expected, although had only a small fraction of their 370,000 piece collection on display. Nevertheless, there was a substantial amount of items, particularly some great collections from early Chinese dynasties, since Xi’an was the capital for nearly a millennium. The early jade works, pottery, and bronze works were all fantastic. Some of it extended all the way back to the Shang Dyanasty (16-11 cent. B.C.) We finished up not long before closing time and returned to our hotel where we picked up our luggage and took the Bus to the station. The place was absolutely swamped. This was still several weeks out of the Chinese New Year, but already there are tons of people trying so hard to obtain tickets home (the nearly 250 million migrant workers in the large cities). We ended up in line for our train and struck up a conversation with a couple from Australia who were in the midst of a two month trip from the UK back home to Australia. They had taken some time on the Trans-Siberian railroad and highly recommended it to us. We ended up boarding late due to the fact that our train was just stopping in Xi’an on its way from Lhasa to Shanghai, a trip of three days. Yuck. The car we were staying in also had two guys who, we believe, had been riding since Lhasa. They seemed to have been struck with some cabin fever, and I can’t say I blame them. Our train took off and we made our way to Shanghai.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Xi’an – Terra-cotta Army
We arrived bright and early at 7 am this morning in Xi’an. It was still pre-dawn here; China uses one time zone, and it’s as wide as the continental US. Oops. Guess those silly ignorant peasants can’t handle it. If you ask me, it’s just further insult to injury for poor Tibet, because that means it won’t get light until about 10am in winter and dark until after midnight in the summer out there in Lhasa. Yuck. We looked around for a taxi again this morning, yet AGAIN having issues getting a taxi. We finally got an offer for 40 yuan, which is only 7 bucks. Considering that our trip out to the summer palace was about 30 for 4km or so, this seemed reasonable for a 6km trip. We also had a bit of a problem spotting our hotel, as the entrance to the lobby was along the side in a small alley despite having a big sign out front along the main road.
We checked in, then went out to get our tickets to Shanghai. We had some initial problems finding the ticket place, but after asking a guard he showed us to the line that was really long. Awesome, while waiting in line, Bethany pulled some more cash out and then we got our tickets. Next up we took the bus for the first time; returning to the station and then taking a bus out to the Terra-cotta army- 15km outside of town. The trip took a while out there, but it was no problem.
The place was pretty devoid of people, being a regular Monday during the off season. Gauging by all the gates and stuff we saw, this place must just be swarming with people during the summer. There is also a ton of tourist shops set up as well as food stalls. We were both pretty hungry by this point, our last meal being about 20 hours prior and a quick one at that. We ended up getting three dishes that were piping hot (as we were the only people there) and fairly reasonably priced considering this place was obviously geared towards tourists.
Afterwards we made our way in, having paid the killer entrance fee of just over $10 each. (only some sarcasm here :P) We entered the main pit first; it’s the largest and makes the most dramatic impression. Having done a project on this back in May, its worth mentioning that this gigantic pit is a tiny blip on the whole complex that was built by Emperor Qin Shi Huang in ~230 B.C. (it was an ongoing process that took over 30 years) Still, the silent army that greets you upon entering is still breathtaking. We walked around the perimeter, noting that further back you can see the state they were found in: toppled, broken, fused with the packed earth surrounding them. It’s a meticulous and painstaking job to restore these to their original state. We also visited two other excavated pits, some with archers, cavalry and the like. There was also an exhibition hall where we could see them up closer; as well as the two ½ size bronze chariots that were built (at least its thought) to shepherd the emperor around his complex and to the afterlife to converse with the gods. We then made our way out and caught a bus back to the rail station. This bus took a longer and different path back – giving us a much clearer view of what Xi’an is really like. A marvelous blend of old and new. Dusty and green. There are huge stretches of brick buildings being torn down, rubble strewn everywhere; something out of a post-apocalyptic book. The older people wear thick dusty army jackets; the young wear nike apparel. I saw a man walking through rubble kicking a brick – while talking on a cell phone. We passed a corner that had brown rubble in every direction for over 100 yards – a bright blue sign on the corner said “Northwest Nuclear Research Facility”; I couldn’t help but think ‘would it look any different if something went terribly wrong? Or did it already?’ We got back to the station finally, took a bus to our hotel, and have been relaxing since then. I’ve had the pleasure of spending the last several hours catching up on the last three days of adventures finally being blogged about. :-P
We checked in, then went out to get our tickets to Shanghai. We had some initial problems finding the ticket place, but after asking a guard he showed us to the line that was really long. Awesome, while waiting in line, Bethany pulled some more cash out and then we got our tickets. Next up we took the bus for the first time; returning to the station and then taking a bus out to the Terra-cotta army- 15km outside of town. The trip took a while out there, but it was no problem.
The place was pretty devoid of people, being a regular Monday during the off season. Gauging by all the gates and stuff we saw, this place must just be swarming with people during the summer. There is also a ton of tourist shops set up as well as food stalls. We were both pretty hungry by this point, our last meal being about 20 hours prior and a quick one at that. We ended up getting three dishes that were piping hot (as we were the only people there) and fairly reasonably priced considering this place was obviously geared towards tourists.
Afterwards we made our way in, having paid the killer entrance fee of just over $10 each. (only some sarcasm here :P) We entered the main pit first; it’s the largest and makes the most dramatic impression. Having done a project on this back in May, its worth mentioning that this gigantic pit is a tiny blip on the whole complex that was built by Emperor Qin Shi Huang in ~230 B.C. (it was an ongoing process that took over 30 years) Still, the silent army that greets you upon entering is still breathtaking. We walked around the perimeter, noting that further back you can see the state they were found in: toppled, broken, fused with the packed earth surrounding them. It’s a meticulous and painstaking job to restore these to their original state. We also visited two other excavated pits, some with archers, cavalry and the like. There was also an exhibition hall where we could see them up closer; as well as the two ½ size bronze chariots that were built (at least its thought) to shepherd the emperor around his complex and to the afterlife to converse with the gods. We then made our way out and caught a bus back to the rail station. This bus took a longer and different path back – giving us a much clearer view of what Xi’an is really like. A marvelous blend of old and new. Dusty and green. There are huge stretches of brick buildings being torn down, rubble strewn everywhere; something out of a post-apocalyptic book. The older people wear thick dusty army jackets; the young wear nike apparel. I saw a man walking through rubble kicking a brick – while talking on a cell phone. We passed a corner that had brown rubble in every direction for over 100 yards – a bright blue sign on the corner said “Northwest Nuclear Research Facility”; I couldn’t help but think ‘would it look any different if something went terribly wrong? Or did it already?’ We got back to the station finally, took a bus to our hotel, and have been relaxing since then. I’ve had the pleasure of spending the last several hours catching up on the last three days of adventures finally being blogged about. :-P
Lama temple and Dong Miao
Our last day in Beijing, we woke up late, but again were woken up around 6:15 by people yelling in the main area of the hotel. There is absolutely no sense of common courtesy here (although I did have one guy let me go ahead of him this very night at the train station, so let’s just say it’s really rare.) We got off at the Lama Temple station, walked out, and looked around for several minutes trying to find it to no avail. Then we started going back towards the subway and realized that the map we had been standing at looking for it was in the shadow of one of the towers for the temple. Hah. We proceeded to walk along the outside for several hundred meters as the main entrance is actually along the west side and we had come out along the north. The Lama temple is the largest temple complex remaining in China, and is devoted to Tibetan Buddhism (after the Qing emperors brought back Buddhism, they often invited Buddhist scholars to Beijing, this temple was converted to a Lamasary in 1744 after one such visit. There were lots of smaller temples within the complex, and it was really interesting to see people praying, considering the official stance of China is that everyone is atheist. It was also nice to smell lots of the incense they were burning at the altars, although some places inside didn’t allow them to burn it, so several times we caught the priests working there carrying out armfuls of incense and setting it into the lighting pits to let it burn. There was also an exhibition set near the back that had tons of very interesting gold/copper/silver/bronze statues that were all very intricate. Unfortunately, it left us with a lot of questions about Buddhist art. The best part though was the 55 ft. tall Buddha carving made from a single block of sandalwood. The entry way into the temple it’s in has a low entrance and ceiling and you can just see the feet as your eyes adjust; by the time you realize how big the base of this thing is, you’re walking in and the room opens up and lets you look all the way to the ceiling. It’s simply magnificent.
Afterwards we spent some time attempting to find Kong Miao, or Confucius temple- the largest for him outside of his hometown (so important it’s the special religious building for Confucianism in Civilization 4!) The place was located very close to the Lama temple and off a neat little shopping street, and was pleasantly calm inside. It also had nearly 200 large stone stelae that had the names of those who passed the (ridiculously difficult) imperial service examination that was held every three years. There weren’t too many names on them. :-P The area was neat to see although wasn’t particularly outstanding in any way. If anything, the best part was the exhibit on Confucius inside. Now, I will preface this by saying that Confucius was pretty much one of the most influential philosophers of all time and instrumental to creating Chinese and therefore Asian culture as we know it. In fact, he even coined the golden rule; 500 years before the birth of Christ. Nevertheless, this exhibit was over and above in its regard for Confucius and the claims about him. To name a few:
• Confucius was a democrat
• The modern educational pedagogy is based on Confucius’ teachings
• Japan and Korea’s culture stems solely from Confucianism
• Confucius was responsible for the industrial revolution, French revolution, and the enlightenment period
• Confucius founded the first public school ever. (this may be true)
• Confucius was the first human to harness fire, driving away the darkness so mankind could finally step into the light. (Ok, I made this one up)
Basically, Confucius was responsible for pretty much any major invention and important advance in human history; ever. The exhibit ended with pretty much any little thing that was related to Confucius in any way being mentioned in the news in the last 30 years, as if the exhibit designer had realized he didn’t have enough to fill the rest of the exhibit and spent the last night before the project was due frantically searching for information on the internet. There were whole 10ft long, 6ft high displays devoted to such trivial things as ‘Former Reagan aide mentions Confucius in speech’ or something to that effect. Or Nobel scientists say that we must look back to Confucius for the 21st century; in fact, I think that article was mentioned twice. Also, Confucius was ranked as the 5th most influential person in history in some book written in what appeared to be 1955 judging by the cover of the book they had scanned for the exhibit. Pretty bleary stuff.
After Kong Miao, we made our way back to our hotel for the last time. We got our suitcases which we had left there, thanked Jessie, the English speaking lady who had helped us out with everything and left. We stopped one last time for the absolutely delicious sweet and sour pork and then made our way to the military museum stop. We noticed that there were several other people with their suitcases, so we had a good feeling that we were on the right track. We then walked to Beijing West station to catch our train to Xi’an. It was a decent walk and was a bit chilly out, but nothing terrible. Once at the station, we had to only wait about 20 minutes before we boarded the train. We noticed that the original train we had wanted to take to Xi’an, but didn’t because we were told it didn’t have sleeping cars, was scheduled to leave later that night and we seriously doubted that a train leaving that late didn’t have them, but oh well. We had wanted it because the ‘Z’ class overnight trains are of better quality. The room we had had four bunks in it and was pretty small. We had opted for the upper bunks because it was cheaper. We kinda regretted the decision (and will be on the lower bunks to Shanghai) but it wasn’t terrible. It’s just that there was a small foothold and that was it to get up. We shared our cabin with an old husband and wife couple who were pretty cute (according to Bethany, who thinks anyone over the age of 60 is just adorable). The train ride wasn’t particularly bad, our beds had nice comforters, but it had a really loud speaker that we were able to block pretty well with our luggage. I slept pretty well, but Bethany had some problems because of the train being really loud and squeaky.
Afterwards we spent some time attempting to find Kong Miao, or Confucius temple- the largest for him outside of his hometown (so important it’s the special religious building for Confucianism in Civilization 4!) The place was located very close to the Lama temple and off a neat little shopping street, and was pleasantly calm inside. It also had nearly 200 large stone stelae that had the names of those who passed the (ridiculously difficult) imperial service examination that was held every three years. There weren’t too many names on them. :-P The area was neat to see although wasn’t particularly outstanding in any way. If anything, the best part was the exhibit on Confucius inside. Now, I will preface this by saying that Confucius was pretty much one of the most influential philosophers of all time and instrumental to creating Chinese and therefore Asian culture as we know it. In fact, he even coined the golden rule; 500 years before the birth of Christ. Nevertheless, this exhibit was over and above in its regard for Confucius and the claims about him. To name a few:
• Confucius was a democrat
• The modern educational pedagogy is based on Confucius’ teachings
• Japan and Korea’s culture stems solely from Confucianism
• Confucius was responsible for the industrial revolution, French revolution, and the enlightenment period
• Confucius founded the first public school ever. (this may be true)
• Confucius was the first human to harness fire, driving away the darkness so mankind could finally step into the light. (Ok, I made this one up)
Basically, Confucius was responsible for pretty much any major invention and important advance in human history; ever. The exhibit ended with pretty much any little thing that was related to Confucius in any way being mentioned in the news in the last 30 years, as if the exhibit designer had realized he didn’t have enough to fill the rest of the exhibit and spent the last night before the project was due frantically searching for information on the internet. There were whole 10ft long, 6ft high displays devoted to such trivial things as ‘Former Reagan aide mentions Confucius in speech’ or something to that effect. Or Nobel scientists say that we must look back to Confucius for the 21st century; in fact, I think that article was mentioned twice. Also, Confucius was ranked as the 5th most influential person in history in some book written in what appeared to be 1955 judging by the cover of the book they had scanned for the exhibit. Pretty bleary stuff.
After Kong Miao, we made our way back to our hotel for the last time. We got our suitcases which we had left there, thanked Jessie, the English speaking lady who had helped us out with everything and left. We stopped one last time for the absolutely delicious sweet and sour pork and then made our way to the military museum stop. We noticed that there were several other people with their suitcases, so we had a good feeling that we were on the right track. We then walked to Beijing West station to catch our train to Xi’an. It was a decent walk and was a bit chilly out, but nothing terrible. Once at the station, we had to only wait about 20 minutes before we boarded the train. We noticed that the original train we had wanted to take to Xi’an, but didn’t because we were told it didn’t have sleeping cars, was scheduled to leave later that night and we seriously doubted that a train leaving that late didn’t have them, but oh well. We had wanted it because the ‘Z’ class overnight trains are of better quality. The room we had had four bunks in it and was pretty small. We had opted for the upper bunks because it was cheaper. We kinda regretted the decision (and will be on the lower bunks to Shanghai) but it wasn’t terrible. It’s just that there was a small foothold and that was it to get up. We shared our cabin with an old husband and wife couple who were pretty cute (according to Bethany, who thinks anyone over the age of 60 is just adorable). The train ride wasn’t particularly bad, our beds had nice comforters, but it had a really loud speaker that we were able to block pretty well with our luggage. I slept pretty well, but Bethany had some problems because of the train being really loud and squeaky.
Temple of Heaven and Shopping street.
We slept in nice and late today, enjoying the rest minus the loud people who were waking us up early. Our hotel’s walls are paper thin or something, because we heard them plain as day and it was pretty aggravating, although when the heater was on it helped drown them out a bit. We left and got out near Tiananmen station although on an alternate line. Our first stop was a shopping street that starts by heading straight south of Tiananmen. The street was pretty recently renovated, and had two trolleys moving at a snails pace back and forth. We walked along it for a bit, then cut down the shopping street, snagging some meat on a stick for lunch (three sticks for 10 yuan, aka 1.50$, not a bad deal huh? :P) We walked along this for a while, looking into several little shops, but not finding anything particularly interesting. We looked through several tea shop’s selection of tea sets, but they were pretty far overpriced for the quality. We did end up settling on getting a Chinese style lantern that wasn’t particularly exceptional but was pretty cheap, so that was fine for us. We also got some neat cut-out paper art as well. These were really quite neat, despite the person selling it to us trying to say they were the four seasons, even though the characters were quite obviously not for the seasons. But we still liked them very much and ended up getting them. That rounded out our time on the shopping street, and we snagged some candied apples and strawberries on our way out as we looked for our next stop; the underground city. The city was ordered to be built by Mao during the Sino-Soviet rift during the 60’s. While there are several entrences, we were trying to find the most visible, unfortunately, it was well hidden, the streets weren’t marked well either, and it looked like we had to make our way through some rather rougher areas of town to get to it.
We decided that we weren’t particularly in the mood for dealing with that, so we just kept going down the street we were on and then doubled back to get to the main street that we follow south to get to the Tian Tan (aka Temple of Heaven, a bit of a misnomer). The walk there was fairly long, as the street directly south had actually been at an angle so we ended up having to go back east to get to the north gate. That added quite a bit of time to the walk, but we were pretty happy by the time we got there. We entered at the North end, with the complex being situated along a North-South axis as its major theme. So we actually ended up starting at the place that the Emperor ended his trip, but that was fine. The north end had the hall of heavenly prayers for good harvests, the building most commonly associated as the ‘Temple of Heaven’. This main building is 125 ft tall, toped with a golden finial, and was built without using a single nail. Pretty darn impressive. We then moved south along the Red Step Bridge, a bridge that sits about 10 feet above the ground and is the central walkway along the entire complex. In the very center of this brick road is a smooth marble path that the Emperor used; a direct line from Qinian Dian at the northern end and the Marble Platform at the southern end. After we reached the southern end’s marble platform, we began to walk around the outer areas of the complex, which had long walkways and many cypress trees, some over 400 years old. While walking along the outer section, we noticed that some people up ahead were stopped and looking back into the woods. Once we got up there, we saw why, there was a white cat nestled down in the long grass stalking some birds. Just after we got there it made it’s move, sprinting for them and jumping up, flaying it’s legs as it attempted to snag all four birds instead of one; ending up with none. It was pretty awesome, particularly as it looked around after it’s attempt and noticed that there were a dozen people looking at it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cat blush before, but that’s about the closest I’ll ever see. We finished up and made our way out of the complex and back towards home, stopping at the restaurant near our station with the really delicious sweet and sour pork (and the dumplings we had were also really good.)
We decided that we weren’t particularly in the mood for dealing with that, so we just kept going down the street we were on and then doubled back to get to the main street that we follow south to get to the Tian Tan (aka Temple of Heaven, a bit of a misnomer). The walk there was fairly long, as the street directly south had actually been at an angle so we ended up having to go back east to get to the north gate. That added quite a bit of time to the walk, but we were pretty happy by the time we got there. We entered at the North end, with the complex being situated along a North-South axis as its major theme. So we actually ended up starting at the place that the Emperor ended his trip, but that was fine. The north end had the hall of heavenly prayers for good harvests, the building most commonly associated as the ‘Temple of Heaven’. This main building is 125 ft tall, toped with a golden finial, and was built without using a single nail. Pretty darn impressive. We then moved south along the Red Step Bridge, a bridge that sits about 10 feet above the ground and is the central walkway along the entire complex. In the very center of this brick road is a smooth marble path that the Emperor used; a direct line from Qinian Dian at the northern end and the Marble Platform at the southern end. After we reached the southern end’s marble platform, we began to walk around the outer areas of the complex, which had long walkways and many cypress trees, some over 400 years old. While walking along the outer section, we noticed that some people up ahead were stopped and looking back into the woods. Once we got up there, we saw why, there was a white cat nestled down in the long grass stalking some birds. Just after we got there it made it’s move, sprinting for them and jumping up, flaying it’s legs as it attempted to snag all four birds instead of one; ending up with none. It was pretty awesome, particularly as it looked around after it’s attempt and noticed that there were a dozen people looking at it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cat blush before, but that’s about the closest I’ll ever see. We finished up and made our way out of the complex and back towards home, stopping at the restaurant near our station with the really delicious sweet and sour pork (and the dumplings we had were also really good.)
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Mutainyu, Sacred Way, and Night Market
We woke up bright and early as several calls from our tour guide let us know that we’d be leaving at 7 instead of 7:30 for our tour. Unfortunately, this meant that the normal schedule of having breakfast in the morning was dispensed because they had been late on breakfast every day so far, and hence asking for breakfast at 6:45 meant that it wasn’t done in time when we left at 7. Oops. We were the first two in the group of 8 that were taking the tour today, so we talked with our tour guide a bit then just chilled out on the mini-bus as we went to get the others. Unfortunately for us, the rest of our group was filled with tardy losers. The three Taiwanese people we picked up (one of which was a Kama-clone) were 10 minutes late, and the three French people made us wait for half an hour. Yeah, that was pretty awesome of them. So we finally got out to the wall around 9, but it was 9:15 before we were actually on our own, which left us with only an hour and 45 mins to be at the wall. We opted to take the cable car up to the wall, which was built on the spine of the mountain, way up from the valley. I really have no idea how people put this thing together. The ride up to the top really drove home just how high up we were, as at points it seemed to be nearly straight up. Once at the wall, we had options of going either left or right, the right had less people but took us down and back towards where we had come from, while the right was steeper and had more people, but was more off into the wilderness. We opted for the left, but it would have been fun to go both directions. The decision was worth it, and we realized if we pushed ourselves we could probably get to the top, and started out at a brisk pace. We stopped periodically along the way to either go on top of the watchtowers and snap pictures and such, but more or less kept the pace strong to get to the long steep climb that marks the final bit of the walk. Well, we got there, and just stared up this steep climb. We then began the hike, breaking it up by stopping every 50 steps. Yes, we counted them. It was 454, with the last 30 being the steepest and just brutal. Once you get to the top, you can look out and see how it just stretches on for miles in each direction. This is one of those things that really stands out so much more when you are there. The silence, the fact you can see for miles in each direction, numerous mountains are the scenery, with this almost sublime guardian running along the tops of the mountains for as far as you can see. You can certainly imagine the soldiers (of whom, at it’s peak, there were over 1 million stationed) gazing out from the top of one of these mountains into the mountains viewing themselves as the first line of defense of civilization against the unrelenting hordes of the north. (the kanji for China is 中国, or literally ‘middle’ ‘kingdom’. Given the cultural weight of China, you can see why they viewed themselves as the center of the world.) I guess the most important thing is that the great wall, especially out at Mutainyu, which is much less touristy, really helps drive home the magnificence of what still stands as one of mankind’s greatest architectural achievements.
We were ten minutes late heading out of here because the frenchies in our group opted to ignore the posted signs and continued on past the top into a restricted zone, which I couldn’t have cared less about, except that they were then subsequently late in getting back. Lamers. Alas, our Taiwanese counterparts were also late, helping drive home this theme. Ugh.
Next up we drove to lunch out near the Sacred Way. Lunch was great and also at a state jade factory / store. Basically it was a ploy to get us to buy jadeite wares, but no one was paying much attention as everyone, worn out from the trip on the wall, had fallen asleep on the bus (me included; Bethany is a given of course.) So we all just kinda zoned out, then enjoyed our lunch, served at one table with a big lazy susan, which was kinda funny because we had three groups who were forced to share with each other. It wasn’t a problem, but I just liked how it was assumed we were all the same group or friends or something.
After lunch we looked around the great jade things they had for sale. Bethany and I kept our eyes peeled for the most expensive things, finally noticing a huge female Buddhist monk for a cool $55,000. I also spotted some sexual jade figurines, which while engaged in intercourse, seemed to rather be practicing Cleveland’s finest acts. For $500, who wouldn’t want it? If it had been say, 50, I totally would have bought it. Instead we bought a neat little sphere that has two additional free moving spheres inside of it, all carved from a single piece.
Afterwards we went to the Sacred Way, the main pathway for the tombs of 13 of the Ming Emperors (14-mid 17th centuries). The main pathway was an interesting walk, but I would have enjoyed seeing at least one of the three opened tombs, but It was worth sacrificing this to get to go to Mutainyu instead of Badaling for the great wall. The walk was lined with many different important figures, from imperial magistrates to animals of importance and such. The final part had the huge entrance gate (we were going backwards) that had the great turtle that holds the world on its back with a huge pillar with Chinese written on it. It was a nice stroll for after lunch though.
We then drove on back to Beijing and had a last stop (that wasn’t mentioned as part of the tour) to a silk factory. We had a pretty good clue that this would be the same as the Jade factory, as in trying to get us to buy stuff. Bethany and I both gave each other looks when our tour guide had the audacity to say ‘some people thing this is as good as the great wall!’ (pfft, yea right. Maybe if they’re idiots they do.) The initial part was kinda interesting as they showed the stages they go through to get the silk, but alas the part we were most interested in was left out: how they get the silk to go from a cottony texture to the recognizable ‘silk’ feel. We then had to burn some time trying to get silk items sold to us, but basically we wandered around laughing at how terrible the designs were on the silk items. One interesting part to note though, was that after our little info-mercial on how silk is made, they basically told us to take a stab at trying to stretch the silk out over a large square base to then go inside of a blanket. So we line up, two on each side to try and take this piece that’s the size of say, a pizza box, and stretch it out to the size of a blanket. It’s pretty obvious that if you go slowly and everyone works together, it shouldn’t be impossible to make this work. Well, she tells us to go and we all start pulling out a bit, but then she stops us and lets us get readjusted and then actually lets us go at it. Well, everyone but Bethany and I started pulling too fast, the highlight being the Kama-clone just tearing it like he’s trying to rip-start a lawnmower. The icing on the cake was that the lady then went on to tell us how we did a terrible job and we couldn’t get a job at the place (paralleled by our tour guide telling us how we’d do this and if we did it well we could get a job at the place, which was met by half-hearted chuckles, as in: “Gee, I’d sure love to work at a silk factory in Beijing! That’d be a swell job!”) and it was just despicable. Well, she said all this in the exact same tone for everything else she had said, which just made it hysterical. I wanted to call her Miss Robot.
We then made our way home, Bethany and I being the last to be dropped off; going to our hotel and doing some preparation for our next stops before we took off for the night market. On our way to the night market, we took a way a little off from the main path to go through some shopping areas. Along this way we found a kebab place out along the alley (off the alley we were already in) and decided to pick out some stuff. We put it in a basket and handed it to them to cook, and then went inside to wait for it to finish. We didn’t know we’d be going in, but it was all right. We got quite a few looks as we waited for a place to sit since it was full; we used this as a good sign that we were in place that doesn’t get many foreigners. The food was dirt cheap, and probably had dirt on it, but it tasted fantastic. They brought us some silkworms with our food, which we hadn’t asked for, but it was an additional $1.75, and they were seasoned really well so it was fine. Afterwards we continued on to the night market area. This place had a ton of tourists, many of whom were Chinese. There was a wide selection of food, and while a bit overpriced it was still totally reasonable. Being a bit hungry still, I snagged some sheep hearts and something else that both tasted great. After this we FINALLY got the candied crab apples and some candied strawberries. Frankly, I have no idea why we don’t do this in America. Basically, you take a fruit, and dip it into melted rock candy, encasing the fruit in a shell of sugar. The crab apples are a popular traditional Chinese version, but I’m partial to the strawberries. We then continued on, noting some of the specialties such as sea urchin, worms, cicadas, and scorpions. On the way back from the other end, I decided to go ahead and try some of the scorpion. I settled for a stick of 3 little ones, not only because they weren’t quite as imposing as the big black ones, but they were also 80% cheaper :-P. Turns out that they were pretty darn good! Bethany even took a stab at one and liked it! (basically there was so much grease and salt on it that it tasted like a French fry.) But still, that’s something new to notch in the book. :-P While giving it a shot, a Chinese girl stopped and watched me eat it and then looked at me and gave me the thumbs-up sign as a question and I nodded and said yep while giving an OK. She grinned pretty big at that. Gotta love cultural exchanges. We then got back to the other end and were deciding what our last candied fruit would be; all while being bombarded by the guys in the last stall trying to get us to buy from them. They were just screaming out. “STRAWBERRY! I LOVE YOU!” “STRAWBERRY! FREE! FREEEEEE!!” So Bethany and I go up there and buy a strawberry and kiwi one, and the guy holds out a crab apple one and says ‘’FREE!’’ and so I reluctantly take it, and then we pay him the 15 for the berry and kiwi, and then he says that it isn’t enough cash. I hold up the apple one and go ‘free?’ and am met with ‘’NOT FREE!!!!’’ and I go ‘’psssh” and give it back to him. Also one guy asked us where we were from when we were getting it and Bethany goes ‘America’ and he replies, ‘oh, very beautiful!’ We made our way back home and settled in after a long day. But a very fun one.
We were ten minutes late heading out of here because the frenchies in our group opted to ignore the posted signs and continued on past the top into a restricted zone, which I couldn’t have cared less about, except that they were then subsequently late in getting back. Lamers. Alas, our Taiwanese counterparts were also late, helping drive home this theme. Ugh.
Next up we drove to lunch out near the Sacred Way. Lunch was great and also at a state jade factory / store. Basically it was a ploy to get us to buy jadeite wares, but no one was paying much attention as everyone, worn out from the trip on the wall, had fallen asleep on the bus (me included; Bethany is a given of course.) So we all just kinda zoned out, then enjoyed our lunch, served at one table with a big lazy susan, which was kinda funny because we had three groups who were forced to share with each other. It wasn’t a problem, but I just liked how it was assumed we were all the same group or friends or something.
After lunch we looked around the great jade things they had for sale. Bethany and I kept our eyes peeled for the most expensive things, finally noticing a huge female Buddhist monk for a cool $55,000. I also spotted some sexual jade figurines, which while engaged in intercourse, seemed to rather be practicing Cleveland’s finest acts. For $500, who wouldn’t want it? If it had been say, 50, I totally would have bought it. Instead we bought a neat little sphere that has two additional free moving spheres inside of it, all carved from a single piece.
Afterwards we went to the Sacred Way, the main pathway for the tombs of 13 of the Ming Emperors (14-mid 17th centuries). The main pathway was an interesting walk, but I would have enjoyed seeing at least one of the three opened tombs, but It was worth sacrificing this to get to go to Mutainyu instead of Badaling for the great wall. The walk was lined with many different important figures, from imperial magistrates to animals of importance and such. The final part had the huge entrance gate (we were going backwards) that had the great turtle that holds the world on its back with a huge pillar with Chinese written on it. It was a nice stroll for after lunch though.
We then drove on back to Beijing and had a last stop (that wasn’t mentioned as part of the tour) to a silk factory. We had a pretty good clue that this would be the same as the Jade factory, as in trying to get us to buy stuff. Bethany and I both gave each other looks when our tour guide had the audacity to say ‘some people thing this is as good as the great wall!’ (pfft, yea right. Maybe if they’re idiots they do.) The initial part was kinda interesting as they showed the stages they go through to get the silk, but alas the part we were most interested in was left out: how they get the silk to go from a cottony texture to the recognizable ‘silk’ feel. We then had to burn some time trying to get silk items sold to us, but basically we wandered around laughing at how terrible the designs were on the silk items. One interesting part to note though, was that after our little info-mercial on how silk is made, they basically told us to take a stab at trying to stretch the silk out over a large square base to then go inside of a blanket. So we line up, two on each side to try and take this piece that’s the size of say, a pizza box, and stretch it out to the size of a blanket. It’s pretty obvious that if you go slowly and everyone works together, it shouldn’t be impossible to make this work. Well, she tells us to go and we all start pulling out a bit, but then she stops us and lets us get readjusted and then actually lets us go at it. Well, everyone but Bethany and I started pulling too fast, the highlight being the Kama-clone just tearing it like he’s trying to rip-start a lawnmower. The icing on the cake was that the lady then went on to tell us how we did a terrible job and we couldn’t get a job at the place (paralleled by our tour guide telling us how we’d do this and if we did it well we could get a job at the place, which was met by half-hearted chuckles, as in: “Gee, I’d sure love to work at a silk factory in Beijing! That’d be a swell job!”) and it was just despicable. Well, she said all this in the exact same tone for everything else she had said, which just made it hysterical. I wanted to call her Miss Robot.
We then made our way home, Bethany and I being the last to be dropped off; going to our hotel and doing some preparation for our next stops before we took off for the night market. On our way to the night market, we took a way a little off from the main path to go through some shopping areas. Along this way we found a kebab place out along the alley (off the alley we were already in) and decided to pick out some stuff. We put it in a basket and handed it to them to cook, and then went inside to wait for it to finish. We didn’t know we’d be going in, but it was all right. We got quite a few looks as we waited for a place to sit since it was full; we used this as a good sign that we were in place that doesn’t get many foreigners. The food was dirt cheap, and probably had dirt on it, but it tasted fantastic. They brought us some silkworms with our food, which we hadn’t asked for, but it was an additional $1.75, and they were seasoned really well so it was fine. Afterwards we continued on to the night market area. This place had a ton of tourists, many of whom were Chinese. There was a wide selection of food, and while a bit overpriced it was still totally reasonable. Being a bit hungry still, I snagged some sheep hearts and something else that both tasted great. After this we FINALLY got the candied crab apples and some candied strawberries. Frankly, I have no idea why we don’t do this in America. Basically, you take a fruit, and dip it into melted rock candy, encasing the fruit in a shell of sugar. The crab apples are a popular traditional Chinese version, but I’m partial to the strawberries. We then continued on, noting some of the specialties such as sea urchin, worms, cicadas, and scorpions. On the way back from the other end, I decided to go ahead and try some of the scorpion. I settled for a stick of 3 little ones, not only because they weren’t quite as imposing as the big black ones, but they were also 80% cheaper :-P. Turns out that they were pretty darn good! Bethany even took a stab at one and liked it! (basically there was so much grease and salt on it that it tasted like a French fry.) But still, that’s something new to notch in the book. :-P While giving it a shot, a Chinese girl stopped and watched me eat it and then looked at me and gave me the thumbs-up sign as a question and I nodded and said yep while giving an OK. She grinned pretty big at that. Gotta love cultural exchanges. We then got back to the other end and were deciding what our last candied fruit would be; all while being bombarded by the guys in the last stall trying to get us to buy from them. They were just screaming out. “STRAWBERRY! I LOVE YOU!” “STRAWBERRY! FREE! FREEEEEE!!” So Bethany and I go up there and buy a strawberry and kiwi one, and the guy holds out a crab apple one and says ‘’FREE!’’ and so I reluctantly take it, and then we pay him the 15 for the berry and kiwi, and then he says that it isn’t enough cash. I hold up the apple one and go ‘free?’ and am met with ‘’NOT FREE!!!!’’ and I go ‘’psssh” and give it back to him. Also one guy asked us where we were from when we were getting it and Bethany goes ‘America’ and he replies, ‘oh, very beautiful!’ We made our way back home and settled in after a long day. But a very fun one.
Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City
We woke up today ready to hit up the counter to the Summer palace. We were able to ride the subway to tiananmen Square but we weren’t exactly on the ball with figuring out which entrance we needed to go out of. Our first exit took us to the forbidden city, our 2nd try was on the side of Tiananmen but we couldn’t get across the street, so we went back down and across to finally get out the right side. This included several trips through the baggage scanners. Whenever you board the subway, when you purchase your tickets, you have to have your bag scanned. Well, at tiananmen, which also includes Mao’s mausoleum, you have to scan it on your way up to the square as well.
We wandered into Tiananmen square, and at least for me, it was really interesting to be on the spot where the demonstrations were taking place nearly 20 years ago already. Unfortunately, since it was New Year’s, the place was already getting pretty packed at 10am. From the square you have a great view of several huge buildings, that don’t seem to be quite as big as they are due to the immense size of the park. We guessed that Tiananmen to be probably 4 x 8 city blocks, potentially more. Including the entrance to the forbidden city with the huge portrait of Mao, the PRC Legislature building, and the National Museum (and all of it’s gorgeous propaganda) and towards the back Mao’s mausoleum with a monument to fallen revolutionary soldiers towards the middle, you just feel like it goes on forever. We decided we’d like to go to Mao’s mausoleum, but this included a trip out across the street to check our bags because you can’t take anything into the place. So of course when they were asking what we had we said we had a camera, which incurred an additional 5 yuan fee. Which is crazy because they say they refuse to take cameras, but then you have tons of people taking cell phone pics on their way in. We made our way along the long line on into the tomb, but noticed that they were selling flowers to place inside for 3 rmb each. This was pretty hysterical to us, because we figured that it would make perfect sense to have them gather up say, half of them every hour and just resell them. The entrance includes a huge statue of Mao sitting on a chair that seems a straight parody of Lincoln in his memorial. We were also surprised because this was one of the only times we’ve seen people quiet down in public here. We ushered through the burial area, but that’s misleading, because Mao was filled with embalming fluid so he’s preserved. So we made our way out and down the outside along a long sloping exit and took a look at the very communist statues they had on the outside here as well. We went back, picked up our stuff, and made our way over to the forbidden city. This place was funneling tons of people into it, and was just absolutely packed.
The Forbidden City really earns it’s name. This place exemplifies China again in the sense of scale. Once we had entered, we walked for oh, two blocks or so to get to where we purchased our tickets, oftentimes being pestered to see if we needed tour guides either for the Forbidden City or the great wall etc. We snagged our tickets (we again opted for the all-inclusive ones) and made our way through the huge doors. Lots of the doors here have numeous golden nubs on them. In China, 1,3,5,7,9 are all associated with yang (masculine) (while even numbers are with feminine yin) with 9 being pretty much reserved for the Emporer. So 9 sets of 9 is seen as particularly auspicious, hence the large doors. We spent the next several hours in the place, with still more things to see by the time we had finished. There are three major temple halls in a straight line on back, with innumerable buildings along the sides and such. We walked more or less straight back for nearly half an hour just passing one after another of these huge pavilions with a large temple in the middle. We started poking around the sides to see the museums and such they would have, hoping to catch several the major sights we wanted to see. We also purchased some tickets to go back into a ‘treasures’ section, with an additional bonus of weeding even more people out making it much more quiet and enjoyable. There were many different displays, including ancient rocks carved with poems talking about the activities of the Emperor, musical instruments, gifts given and received by some of the last emperors, and the like. There was also a huge marble and iron area that was filled with water and did something awesome, but we didn’t see any signs in English. One of the coolest factors of this whole experience was simply the walk. With these 20ft high walls everywhere, it made turning each corner like opening a present since you had no idea what you’d find. Furthermore, you could get anywhere even if it was off the beaten path in a sesne. For example, walking around the backside of a building would likely take you through a small door along a backway, but still allow you to continue on without having to double back. At one point we found our way to the three story opera performing stage, that included 8 trap doors (3 on the 2nd story). This place also had a fantastically intricate reproduction to showed all the specialties of the stage. We then continued on try to find our way to the north west corner to see one of the four arrow towers. We got fairly close and took a great picture of it but didn’t bother actually getting all the way there. Our walk continued on to the Imperial garden, but we had gotten to the north end and got the middle and just made a bee-line towards the south end where we had entered. This was actually really neat because we got to go through every single temple and such placed on the major north south axis. Each time we came through a doorway and saw yet another 200m long open pavillion with a huge temple, we asked ourselves “is this the last one?”. Seriously, there had to be at least 5 of these. We finally got back to the front though and made our way over one of the 5 bridges of Confucian thought and on out. As we were getting towards the exit we had the pleasure of hearing a little kid behind us puke. We walked a bit, then heard the poor guy get the rest of his food out onto the pavement. I made sure to note to bethany the potatoes and carrots I saw, which she greatly appreciated. The best part of this was that since people here are ALWAYS hacking up lougies, we often were joking it sounds like they’re throwing up.
As we were making our way to the subway, we starting chatting with two women who said they were visiting from other parts of China. We talked with them for a bit and as we were about to head down to the subway, they asked us if we wanted to grab some tea with them so they could practice their english and such. We said sure (whoops!) and we started walking to a place to snag some tea. Little did we know we were getting pulled into a tourist trap. I think our guard was down due to the adorable little boy from the previous day out at the Summer Palace who wanted to practice his English with us. Another clue should have been how they took us out to this tea place a ways away with no problem finding it. (again, hindsight is 20/20 eh?) So we tried some different teas, which were admittedly pretty awesome, and then had one pot of some great tea. Then the bill came: 385 rmb each. So, only 65$ each! So basically we got burned. We did get a free thing of tea on our way out (which has been the subject of many subsequent jokes: ‘free with 100$ purchase!’ or after dropping two little tea pieces on the floor and trying to put them back into the tin, bethany – ‘don’t, those were on the floor!! Although, at this price, we probably can’t affort to waste it!) So we made our dumbstruck way back to the subway, said goodbye to our swindlers, and were pretty much skulking the rest of the way back to our hotel. Live and learn though, right?
At 5:15 Andy came and picked us up for our dinner and Beijing opera event we were going to. Dinner was at a very nice restaurant and included several different dishes, along with peking duck, but admittedly the sweet and sour stuff was the best :-P. (bethany did love the duck though, ‘it melted in your mouth, tasted like turkey with crispy fat on it!”) It was kinda funny because andy and our driver were eating a couple of tables over and he would periodically come by to tell us something about the food and whatnot. It almost had a 3rd wheel / bad sitcom feel to it, but it was nice of him. Afterwards we went to the ‘opera’ house which was built very much like a dinner theatre inside of a hotel and was packed with foreigners. But whatever. It only lasted an hour, but had three short acts that had various traditional theatre styles to them. The first had a great acrobatic fight scene that was pretty humerous. The second act was a true ‘traditional theatre’ act. Which scared the bejeezus out of the french people in attendance, because after it finished, they began to leave in droves. Like, we had people sprinting for the exit before the third act’s curtain finished coming up. The third act was another acrobatic scence, but had quite possibly the greatest, most well crafted, magnificent prop I’ve ever seen in a theatre. Lemme just say you should check out the photo of it to see what I mean, as words can do no justice. Afterwards andy took us back home and we got ready to crash because we were getting up bright and early the next morning for our trip out to Mutainyu & the sacred way.
Day 3 Observations: outside of many places that require tickets for admittence, people camp out and wait for their (more affluent?) friends to make their way through along the outside gates. It’s a lot like leaving the secure section of an airport.
Getting sucked into tourist traps suck. Real bad. Unfortunately, it makes us really pessimistic about meeting people who are actually interesting in chatting etc.
We wandered into Tiananmen square, and at least for me, it was really interesting to be on the spot where the demonstrations were taking place nearly 20 years ago already. Unfortunately, since it was New Year’s, the place was already getting pretty packed at 10am. From the square you have a great view of several huge buildings, that don’t seem to be quite as big as they are due to the immense size of the park. We guessed that Tiananmen to be probably 4 x 8 city blocks, potentially more. Including the entrance to the forbidden city with the huge portrait of Mao, the PRC Legislature building, and the National Museum (and all of it’s gorgeous propaganda) and towards the back Mao’s mausoleum with a monument to fallen revolutionary soldiers towards the middle, you just feel like it goes on forever. We decided we’d like to go to Mao’s mausoleum, but this included a trip out across the street to check our bags because you can’t take anything into the place. So of course when they were asking what we had we said we had a camera, which incurred an additional 5 yuan fee. Which is crazy because they say they refuse to take cameras, but then you have tons of people taking cell phone pics on their way in. We made our way along the long line on into the tomb, but noticed that they were selling flowers to place inside for 3 rmb each. This was pretty hysterical to us, because we figured that it would make perfect sense to have them gather up say, half of them every hour and just resell them. The entrance includes a huge statue of Mao sitting on a chair that seems a straight parody of Lincoln in his memorial. We were also surprised because this was one of the only times we’ve seen people quiet down in public here. We ushered through the burial area, but that’s misleading, because Mao was filled with embalming fluid so he’s preserved. So we made our way out and down the outside along a long sloping exit and took a look at the very communist statues they had on the outside here as well. We went back, picked up our stuff, and made our way over to the forbidden city. This place was funneling tons of people into it, and was just absolutely packed.
The Forbidden City really earns it’s name. This place exemplifies China again in the sense of scale. Once we had entered, we walked for oh, two blocks or so to get to where we purchased our tickets, oftentimes being pestered to see if we needed tour guides either for the Forbidden City or the great wall etc. We snagged our tickets (we again opted for the all-inclusive ones) and made our way through the huge doors. Lots of the doors here have numeous golden nubs on them. In China, 1,3,5,7,9 are all associated with yang (masculine) (while even numbers are with feminine yin) with 9 being pretty much reserved for the Emporer. So 9 sets of 9 is seen as particularly auspicious, hence the large doors. We spent the next several hours in the place, with still more things to see by the time we had finished. There are three major temple halls in a straight line on back, with innumerable buildings along the sides and such. We walked more or less straight back for nearly half an hour just passing one after another of these huge pavilions with a large temple in the middle. We started poking around the sides to see the museums and such they would have, hoping to catch several the major sights we wanted to see. We also purchased some tickets to go back into a ‘treasures’ section, with an additional bonus of weeding even more people out making it much more quiet and enjoyable. There were many different displays, including ancient rocks carved with poems talking about the activities of the Emperor, musical instruments, gifts given and received by some of the last emperors, and the like. There was also a huge marble and iron area that was filled with water and did something awesome, but we didn’t see any signs in English. One of the coolest factors of this whole experience was simply the walk. With these 20ft high walls everywhere, it made turning each corner like opening a present since you had no idea what you’d find. Furthermore, you could get anywhere even if it was off the beaten path in a sesne. For example, walking around the backside of a building would likely take you through a small door along a backway, but still allow you to continue on without having to double back. At one point we found our way to the three story opera performing stage, that included 8 trap doors (3 on the 2nd story). This place also had a fantastically intricate reproduction to showed all the specialties of the stage. We then continued on try to find our way to the north west corner to see one of the four arrow towers. We got fairly close and took a great picture of it but didn’t bother actually getting all the way there. Our walk continued on to the Imperial garden, but we had gotten to the north end and got the middle and just made a bee-line towards the south end where we had entered. This was actually really neat because we got to go through every single temple and such placed on the major north south axis. Each time we came through a doorway and saw yet another 200m long open pavillion with a huge temple, we asked ourselves “is this the last one?”. Seriously, there had to be at least 5 of these. We finally got back to the front though and made our way over one of the 5 bridges of Confucian thought and on out. As we were getting towards the exit we had the pleasure of hearing a little kid behind us puke. We walked a bit, then heard the poor guy get the rest of his food out onto the pavement. I made sure to note to bethany the potatoes and carrots I saw, which she greatly appreciated. The best part of this was that since people here are ALWAYS hacking up lougies, we often were joking it sounds like they’re throwing up.
As we were making our way to the subway, we starting chatting with two women who said they were visiting from other parts of China. We talked with them for a bit and as we were about to head down to the subway, they asked us if we wanted to grab some tea with them so they could practice their english and such. We said sure (whoops!) and we started walking to a place to snag some tea. Little did we know we were getting pulled into a tourist trap. I think our guard was down due to the adorable little boy from the previous day out at the Summer Palace who wanted to practice his English with us. Another clue should have been how they took us out to this tea place a ways away with no problem finding it. (again, hindsight is 20/20 eh?) So we tried some different teas, which were admittedly pretty awesome, and then had one pot of some great tea. Then the bill came: 385 rmb each. So, only 65$ each! So basically we got burned. We did get a free thing of tea on our way out (which has been the subject of many subsequent jokes: ‘free with 100$ purchase!’ or after dropping two little tea pieces on the floor and trying to put them back into the tin, bethany – ‘don’t, those were on the floor!! Although, at this price, we probably can’t affort to waste it!) So we made our dumbstruck way back to the subway, said goodbye to our swindlers, and were pretty much skulking the rest of the way back to our hotel. Live and learn though, right?
At 5:15 Andy came and picked us up for our dinner and Beijing opera event we were going to. Dinner was at a very nice restaurant and included several different dishes, along with peking duck, but admittedly the sweet and sour stuff was the best :-P. (bethany did love the duck though, ‘it melted in your mouth, tasted like turkey with crispy fat on it!”) It was kinda funny because andy and our driver were eating a couple of tables over and he would periodically come by to tell us something about the food and whatnot. It almost had a 3rd wheel / bad sitcom feel to it, but it was nice of him. Afterwards we went to the ‘opera’ house which was built very much like a dinner theatre inside of a hotel and was packed with foreigners. But whatever. It only lasted an hour, but had three short acts that had various traditional theatre styles to them. The first had a great acrobatic fight scene that was pretty humerous. The second act was a true ‘traditional theatre’ act. Which scared the bejeezus out of the french people in attendance, because after it finished, they began to leave in droves. Like, we had people sprinting for the exit before the third act’s curtain finished coming up. The third act was another acrobatic scence, but had quite possibly the greatest, most well crafted, magnificent prop I’ve ever seen in a theatre. Lemme just say you should check out the photo of it to see what I mean, as words can do no justice. Afterwards andy took us back home and we got ready to crash because we were getting up bright and early the next morning for our trip out to Mutainyu & the sacred way.
Day 3 Observations: outside of many places that require tickets for admittence, people camp out and wait for their (more affluent?) friends to make their way through along the outside gates. It’s a lot like leaving the secure section of an airport.
Getting sucked into tourist traps suck. Real bad. Unfortunately, it makes us really pessimistic about meeting people who are actually interesting in chatting etc.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
last bit on Summer Palace
We then spent some time checking out several exhibits in the ‘treasures’ section which, while intriguing, couldn’t really hold us because we were cold and feeling ready to wrap up our day. So after spending about 30-50 minutes looking around in that area, we finally made the way out to the main gate enterance to start our trip back home. As we were walking out to find a taxi, we saw one that was flashing its lights at us, so we went over and pointed out the station name we wanted to go to; this guy also gave us the no answer. Another taxi was pulling up, and we pointed it out to him as well, and received yet another awesome ‘no’. Sigh. We started walking around trying to find out where one of the buses we could take back to the station or just somewhere (but we really didn’t have any idea.) One more taxi was pulling up, so we asked this guy as well, and to our relief received a yes answer. We hopped in, took the taxi to the station, and took the station to our stop. After getting off at Dongsi, we spotted the restaurant that we wanted to stop and have dinner at (we had noticed it the day before). Since it was barely 5 when we came in, we pretty much had the place to ourself. This place also had an english menu (but a chinese one w/ pix as well, so either would have been fine :P) and got a huge selection of stuff since this was our one big meal of the day. We had sweet and sour pork, shredded pork w/ beijing sauce, a soup, and drinks. Grand total was like, 15$ (including drinks). We couldn’t believe we were able to stomache all the food we had!
We got home (after stopping at a grocery store and picking up oreos, dove chocolate, juice, and wine made from some chinese fruit. We had grand plans of having a great evening to celebrate our last night of 2008. Instead, by the time I settled on watching Speed Racer, Bethany had already fallen asleep; it was 9 (or just before :P). I watched the movie while Bethany napped, and I woke her up to ring in the New Year. Whee.
We got home (after stopping at a grocery store and picking up oreos, dove chocolate, juice, and wine made from some chinese fruit. We had grand plans of having a great evening to celebrate our last night of 2008. Instead, by the time I settled on watching Speed Racer, Bethany had already fallen asleep; it was 9 (or just before :P). I watched the movie while Bethany napped, and I woke her up to ring in the New Year. Whee.
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