It's official... I've been to a Communist country, and lived to tell about it. Overall, the trip was amazing! I tried interesting food, had incredible tours of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, and finally walked the Great Wall of China! One of the best days of my life... It truly is breathtaking. Forwarning, this post will be lengthly due to the subject matter and "journal" style of this blog. Hold on for the ride...
[Also, I am sad to report, my camera deleted all of my pictures from Beijing and the Great Wall -- I'm absolutely devastated :-( -- I was able to download a few before that happened, but it's only a snapshot of my trip. I'm hoping to be able to recover the rest, so please think good thoughts!! I hate you technology.]
---
Thursday (6/28) - We took the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou which took approximately two hours. For dinner we had a very authentic meal... For starters they brought out a live fish to get our approval before cooking - talk about fresh! I thought it was dead already so yes I screamed when it started flopping around. Easy to have thoughts about becoming a vegetarian here. Our pallets also endured other delicacies like frog legs, pigeon, chicken feet, duck's blood, etc. Surprisingly enough, one of the best meals so far!
Train to Guangzhou
Before and After
Frog's Legs, craw fish, fish balls, etc.
Pigeon
After dinner, a few of us decided to take a walk around the city before heading back to the hotel. We found a huge fish market -- live fish, eels, turtles, frogs, crocodile, and even snakes. Gross! You walk around and pick what you want... They literally had everything. A very different dining experience indeed.
Fish Market
---
Friday (6/29) - We had a full day touring Gaungzhou starting with the Opera House, view of the Pearl River, and saw the Asian Games Stadium. It was so hot out I could barely breath; such an uncomfortable feeling. I was really looking forward to the dry heat in Beijing... We left the new area and arrived at Ersha Island to tour the Art Museum. Once there, we realized we left one of the girls at the Opera House! And no one even realized it until we had gotten to our next stop! Instead of driving back to pick her up, our professor told her to grab a cab and come on her own. I would have freaked. The theme of this trip, clueless.
Lunch was quite the experience also... This Chinese restaurant was apparently giving our group a hard time and kept moving our table when finally my professor had enough and snapped. There was definitely no saving face at this moment. I'm actually surprised they even served us. Then again, I have no idea what they were saying since it was all in Mandarin, but whatever it was, it wasn't good. Let's just say, my professor was very flustered and needed a beer afterward. We were happy to oblige, of course.
Opera House
Pearl River and Asia Games Stadium
The Canton Tower (1,480ft) - Tallest structure in China and fourth-tallest in the world
Art Museum
Next it was on to the Temple of Six Banyan Tree where we saw more Buddhas and endured a lecture on Buddhism - Very spiritual actually. Kinda makes me want to learn more about that "religion". They say as long as you have faith in goodwill then you can be a Buddhist. [Note: A lot of the foreign families that come here to adopt Chinese baby girls have them blessed at this temple.]
Temple of Six Banyan Tree
Our last stop before the airport was the Chen Family Temple. Formally a "place both for offering up sacrifices to ancestors and for study. Now it serves as the Guangdong Museum of Folk Arts and Crafts to show the most characteristic Guangdong architecture." Ivory sculptures are very popular here. The way a sculptor becomes famous and renowned is by the number of individual layers they can make inside each piece of ivory. The record today is 45 layers!!
Ivory Sculpture
After I sweated enough and endured enough heat and tension within our group, we finally made our way to the airport. (You sure do learn a lot about someone when traveling with them for 5 weeks. But that's a story for another blog at another time that will never come). We were supposed to stop at Shamian Island where the famous White Swan Hotel is located that typical Western parents prefer to stay at when they pick up their Chinese baby girls. However, my professor decided against it due to the heat and our short time frame; plus it's under construction and the only way to get to the island is on foot. With 90% humidity, no thank you.
Made it to the Guangzhou Airport - it was HUGE! Honestly put LAX to shame. I guess it makes sense considering Guangzhou is the fourth largest city in China with 14 million people, but still wasn't what I expected. The airport experience was an entirely other animal. Our scheduled flight didn't leave till 7:30pm, but since we got there so early, they decided to put us on an earlier flight out on China Southern Airlines (not China Eastern thank goodness as I'm told that's the worst. And Garuda Airlines). Needless to say, it took us forever to get our boarding passes, to the point where we were running to security, had to go through the emergency line since we only had 15 minutes to catch our flight, then spiriting to the gate, picked up by a golf cart and rushed to the plane. Pretty classic. They just piled people on top of us, but we made it! After all that stress, we ended up sitting on the plane for another hour and a half because the pilot decided to wait for 30 more passengers who were connecting to the flight. We finally took off when our original plane would have departed. Oh well. Just continues with the theme of this trip - disorganization. All I know is that one thing I've learned is to go with the flow. I'm literally flying by the seat of my pants. On the upside, I sat next to my professor and had the opportunity to chat with her for a few hours during our journey. It was actually really nice - I learned a great deal about her, her background, scuba diving, back surgery, kids, family, snowboarding, and she asked me all about my life as well. Since she has two young boys, she only had kid movies on her iPad, so we ended up watching Lady and the Tramp (favorite!) and the beginning of The Sound of Music (classic). Well that and National Geographic's Trekking the Great Wall and Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony 2008. Oh and on domestic flights in China they still serve dinner, and surprisingly enough it was quite good. Get with it, USA.
Saturday (6/30) - Made it to Beijing! In the morning we met our tour guide, Tony, and bus driver, Mr. Sha. They were both hilarious! It's amazing how a good tour guide can make or break your trip. We headed off to Tian'an Men Square where the student massacres occurred in the 80's. Very moving. The entire area was huge! We walked around and took in the sights while hundreds of people stood in a queue waiting to see Mao's wax body... kinda weird.
Tian'an Men Square
Next we headed across the street to the National Museum of China - the world's largest museum, and walked through the Ancient Periods, Mao's Reign, and the Enlightenment Dynasty. From there we toured the Forbidden City and yet again, it was enormous! "For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government"... Complete with concubines during the Ming Dynasty.
National Museum (with our guide, Tony) -
He wanted to do "Rock on" instead of the typical "Peace" sign.
Forbidden City
Forbidden City -
The figures on the roofs represent the status of the person that lived there.
Ranges from 1-10 figures. This person was obviously pretty prominent.
Afterwards, we stopped at a traditional Chinese tea house and had a free tasting. All of the tea was delicious; some for heath and beauty, others for intelligence. Before dinner, we had the pleasure of seeing a live Martial Arts Kung Fu show that was absolutely incredible! Claims to be the best Kung Fu show in the world; the energy and talent was intoxicating. While others slept, I sat on the edge of my seat, of course.
Tea House
Kung Fu Show
That night we enjoyed a nice dinner with our professor and three guest speakers; one was Marsha Brown, the Chief Bureau of CBS. We ate a traditional Beijing meal complete with Peking duck, but I thought the one I had in Australia was better. After dinner, a group of us went out to a locals bar spot which was packed with people and situated next to a small lake. There must have been at least 70 bars on the strip and all of them had live music -- it was insane. Definitely a cool vibe though. Off to bed and excited for the Great Wall in the morning... I felt like a kid on Christmas -- bursting with excitement I could barely sleep!
Bar Area
---
Sunday, July 1
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA MARIE!! Today would have been her 97th birthday... I can't believe it's already been 12 years. I still miss her so much, but I'll celebrate on the Great Wall!
We woke up early in Beijing and headed off to a tour of the Hutongs.
Hutongs are alleys formed by lines of traditional courtyard residences.
Our mode of transportation? Rickshaws!! What a fun ride... Our pedaler was hilarious. We saw the old houses that have been there for centuries where the government pays these families to live there and keep up the house. They pass it down from generation to generation. The house we saw was 300 years old! The mother retired at 55, but her husband, a professional artist, has to work until 60 then the government will pay him to retire as well. They will soon pass down their house to their daughter.
Hutong Tour with Rickshaws
Family of the oldest Hutong - 300 years!
Next it was on the bus and off to the Great Wall! On the way out of the city, we passed The Birds Nest Olympic Stadium which was definitely a must see. Again, enormous! It's completely made of steal, but unfortunately the haze made it difficult to see. Another reason to go back!
Two hours later we arrived at the Great Wall of China! You had the option of taking a gondola or a chair lift up. We chose the chair lift (since I've never been on one of those before :-P ). Once I came over the last ridge and saw the Wall I was mesmerized. WOW! I was standing on the Great Wall of China! Something I had only dreamed about before... I couldn't believe I was actually there. The wall was exactly how I had imagined it - The only downside was the haze as it made it difficult to see very far, but it was still awe-inspiring... Walking from tower to tower, climbing up and standing on top of one of the watch towers, taking countless pictures, the list goes on and on. While walking on the Wall, you are bound to meet people from all over the world, even some fellow Americans! The nice part about the section we visited is that it's not the main one so it wasn't as crowded. Actually felt like I had the whole place to myself - made it that more special. I wish we had more time there. But now that that's crossed off my bucket list, I'd love to replace it with camping on the Great Wall, or hiking a good portion of it (even though it is over 6,000km long), but a girl can dream, right? After two hours walking around, taking in the sights and legacy, stopping to breath and take it all in, we celebrated with a Tsing Tao on the Wall. Not many people can say that! Now it was time to head down... Our mode of transportation? Why an alpine slide of course :-) It was actually a blast! Touristy, but still so much fun. Next time I definitely want to hike up though; it takes about 40 minutes. We didn't arrive at the top of the Wall until 4pm and it was still blazing hot. My advice to future Great Wall travelers, go in the late afternoon or early morning before it gets too hot and the sun is too harsh. Plus it's better lighting for priceless pictures :-)
Chair lift to the Great Wall
GREAT WALL OF CHINA!
Grandma Jewel at the Great Wall in 1989 (Age 69)
Deena at the Great Wall in 2012 (Age 26)
Inside a watch tower
Tsing Tao celebration
Alpine Slide
Back on the Great Land of China, I attempted to purchase a souvenior and ended up getting harassed by a woman selling tshirts and eventually had to yell "Mei yow! No!" (Mandarin translation: "I don't want any! No!") Dinner was served at the School House Restaurant where they had glass blowing classes and meals with views of the Wall.
Our accomodations that night was the Brickyard Hotel -- absolutely stunning. We had a view of the Great Wall from our room! The room was spectacular, our own private patio, and a shower that had a huge window that you could see the Great Wall from too. Unfortunately, because of the haze we couldn't see the Wall that afternoon, but we could Monday morning! We celebrated an unforgettable day with a bottle of champagne out on the common area garden and lawn...
Monday (7/2) - It was a long and busy weekend of walking, hiking, and being a tourist that I fell asleep instantly and woke up in the morning to a view of the Great Wall from my bed! The sky was clear blue, stunning and the Great Wall looked incredible. I'm really wishing we could have stayed there for two days because the views from the Great Wall would have been much better Monday than they were Sunday. Oh well, I guess that's why I have to come back!
View of the Great Wall from my hotel room
The weekend was amazing, and even with the disorganization and lack of information at times, seeing the Great Wall of China made it all worth it. I honestly can't wait to go back someday. This world is so huge and offers so much history and amazing adventures. It's eye-opening, humbling, and allows you to see just how important it is to live each day to the fullest. I know I am!
[If I'm able to recover any additional pictures I will post them on Facebook...]
