China June 2010

Wednesday, June 3, 2010

Our fun began by getting up at 2:15 AM to be at the high school at 3:45 AM. There we loaded our luggage onto a school van and all the people onto two school busses. At 4:15 we took off for the Kansas City International Airport—also known as KCI. Since we got to the airport three hours early, we had lots of time to sit in the waiting area. Coffee from Starbucks and card games kept us occupied until time for our flight. After checking in, we had to go through security. We weren't allowed to take any pictures there.

After walking down the jetway to the plane, we found our seats. We put on our seatbelts and listened to the flight attendant tell us about safety. Our group filled the entire plane! The Shoger family and FLM were assigned seats in the first class section! Leslie and Kay were our stewardesses and they took extra good care of all of us.

FLM decided to check out the restroom. It's called a lavatory on the airplane. It has a toilet and a place to wash your hands. The room is very small, but just right for FLM.

The airplane took us from Kansas City to San Francisco, California. Part of the fun was looking out the window at the Earth below us as we traveled half way across the United States. We saw large circles on the ground in Kansas that made us wonder what they were for. The circles make it easy for the farmers to irrigate the crops with very large sprinklers that go around in circles.

We also saw the Rockie Mountains in Colorado, the northern edge of the Grand Canyon and salt flats in Utah, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.

 

We switched planes in San Francisco and flew to Beijing, China.

 

We flew in a jumbo jet. It was huge! The flight took 12 hours.

When we got on the plane we changed our watches to the time in China—a difference of 13 hours. The flight attendants took good care of us. They gave us lots of things to drink including water, juice, and soda. We also got dinner and a snack. You could choose between Western food and Asian food.

We tried to sleep on the plane even though we weren't tired. We also read books and magazines, watched movies, and listened to music. Looking out the window wasn't as much fun as it was mostly clouds with a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean now and then. We did fly over the southwest corner of Alaska, the Korean Peninsula, and part of northeastern China before arriving in Beijing.

Thursday, June 4, 2010—yes, we "lost" a day because we crossed the International Date Line

We arrived in Beijing at 2:40 PM. We had to go through customs and immigration lines. That took over 90 minutes! We were not allowed to take pictures in the airport. The airport in Beijing is really big so we had to take a train to the area when our luggage was waiting for us. Next, we looked for a person holding a sign for our group. Tony and Simon, our Chinese guides, took us to two busses. All of our luggage was loaded onto a van.

We headed to our hotel, the Beijing Super House International Business Hotel—whew, that is one long name! On the highway to the hotel, we were surprised to see that all the signs were in English as well as Chinese. There were a lot of cars on the road and many were similar to cars in the US.

After checking in to the hotel we headed out to our first Chinese dinner. We were surprised that the food was not much different from Chinese food in the US. A big round lazy Susan was in the middle of the table. At each meal about 8 to 12 different dishes were placed on the lazy Susan. We could spin the dishes around so everyone could try all the different kinds of Chinese food.

 

Friday, June 4, 2010

We ate breakfast at a buffet in the hotel each morning. They served Chinese foods, such as low mein, fried rice, sesame balls, congee—a cooked rice dish similar to oatmeal, and sautéed vegetables. Western foods, such as omelets, bacon, ham, scrambled eggs, oatmeal and cold cereals, were also served.

After breakfast we exchanged our American money for Chinese money. Chinese money is called Yuan Renminbi, RMB, or just Yuan. 1 US dollar equals 6.76 Yuan, so we felt very rich. Then we loaded up the busses and headed to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

Tiananmen Square is a giant open space at the center of the city. It was originally the main entrance to the Forbidden City. This is where the Emperor would speak to the people. Museums are on two sides of the Square including the Great Hall of the People to the west and the Museum of Chinese History to the east.

South of the monument is the Mao Mausoleum. There was a wait of over an hour to see Mao's body in a crystal casket so we didn't go to the Mausoleum. There were guards positioned throughout the area. Most were very young men standing very still on small boxes. There were many people trying to sell tourists postcards, fans and umbrellas.

Next we entered the Forbidden City through the Gate of Heavenly Peace. Most of the signs were in both Chinese and English so it was easy to learn about each building.

The emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties lived in the Imperial Palace from 1368 to 1911. It is the largest palatial complex in the world. The ruling Emperor, his family and his court lived in the area known as the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was "a city within the city" away from common people. The common people were not allowed inside the walls, hence the name.

The Imperial Palace is huge and covers 861,000 square yards. It is surrounded by tall red walls. There's even a moat outside the walls. The buildings seem to go on forever. The outer courtyard has three grand halls and the inner courtyard contains many palaces including the Imperial Garden.

Huge lions guard the palace gates and can be found inside the complex in the courtyards. A female lion has a baby under her front paw symbolizing family. A male lion has the Earth under his front paw to symbolize power. The lions look strange because most of the local artists had never seen a real lion since they aren't native to China, but they heard stories from travelers and made the sculptures based on these tales.

We spent lots of time looking at the sculptures, roofs, and walls. Everywhere you look there are beautiful decorations and designs painted on the walls and ceilings. Many of the buildings were repainted for the tourists coming to the Summer Olympics in 2008.

FLM had a great time looking at all the sculptures and designs. Dragons lined many of the buildings. We read that many of the dragons spout water when it rains.

Where we ate lunch, we saw a tank of fresh water oysters. We chose an oyster to open from the tank. Many in our group thought there would only be one pearl inside. Boy were we surprised when there were over 20 in our oyster! We learned that fresh water oysters are triangular while salt water oysters are oval. After lunch we shopped in the pearl store.

Our next stop was the Summer Palace. This was the last resort built by an emperor in China. This is where the emperor would spend the warm summer months. There are palaces, temples and pagodas built around the Kunming Lake.

Long covered walkways along the shore connected different areas of the grounds and buildings together. The Seventeen-Arches Bridge connects the shore to Turtle Island.

A marble boat was built on the lake. It was used as a banquet area by the Emperor. After touring the grounds, we took a Dragon boat across the lake.

 

For dinner we headed to the Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant. Beijing—once known as Peking—is the home of roast duck.

Saturday, June 5, 2010.

Today we visit the Great Wall of China. There are many places where tourists can explore the Great Wall. We went to Juyong Pass just north of Beijing. The Great Wall is thousands of miles long. It was built for protection from invaders—there were people from other areas of Asia that wished to control China, as punishment—slaves and prisoners built the Great Wall, and as a method of transportation—there were no roads through the mountains and the Great Wall became a safe way to travel through the mountains. Most of the sections of the Great Wall currently visible are from the 15th century. Many miles of the wall are now in ruins. Only a few areas have been reconstructed or restored for tourists. The Juyong Pass is the newest part of the Wall. It was completed about 200 years ago.

All along the Great Wall there are buildings that served many purposes. Some were places for travelers to rest, others were guard towers where soldiers could watch for invaders. The towers at the highest points on the Great Wall would send messages by smoke to other towers on the wall.

The orchestra performed their first concert outside one of the towers.

When the concert was over the players were asked by many of the Chinese tourists to have pictures taken with the students. The tall boys and blond girls were especially of great interest to the Chinese.

There was time to explore and climb the Great Wall. This was a challenge to many as the steps were steep and varied in height from 3 to 18 inches.

There were many "tourist traps" along the wall. People could get their photograph taken wearing costumes. They could dress as emperors and have their picture taken on a great throne. Vendors also offered certificates and t-shirts in many languages stating that the traveler had "climbed the great wall." The vendors also sold jewelry, postcards, fans, umbrellas, dolls, stuffed pandas, wood carvings, and so much more!

This is a web site with more information about the Great Wall: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/greatwall

We left the Great Wall and headed to a Friendship Store. The Friendship Store is a government-run shopping area for tourists. It contains interesting items from around China including clothing, silk scarves, vases, green tea, jewelry, rugs, and many other interesting things. This Friendship Store contained a cloisonné art factory. Cloisonné is a technique used to create metal objects with enamel decorations. Pieces of metal are soldered to a metal object such as a vase, box, or figurine. These metal rods form outlines of images. The spaces are filled with different colors of enamel paste. The piece is then placed in a kiln where it is heated to a very high temperature and the enamel paste melts. Finally, empty areas are gilded and the final product is polished.

After the tour we ate lunch and shopped in the store. Rather than trying to communicate in Chinese or English, the shop workers use calculators to show us the price of the item we wished to buy.

Our next stop was in Old Beijing. This is also called the Hutongs of Beijing. The buildings in this area are very old and contain businesses as well as houses. The whole area is surrounded by newer buildings that have replaced older sections of the city. We took a tour of the Hutongs by rickshaw.

Our rickshaw was powered by a man riding a bicycle. He took us through the streets that appeared to be no more than alleys to the house of a family who allowed us to tour their home

.

We entered through a long open hall off of the street. At the end of the hall was a circular opening leading into a courtyard that was the center of their home. The courtyard had flowers, a tree and an urn filled with goldfish. The whole house followed the principles of feng shui. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_shui ) The four sides of the courtyard contained rooms that were used as a living room, a kitchen, an office/library and three sleeping areas. We did not see their bathroom. The rooms were small and not much different from our rooms.

The kitchen was compact and contained a small table and chairs, a few wall cabinets, a small sink, a very small refrigerator and a two-burner stove. They also had small appliances such as a coffee maker, a rice steamer and a toaster.

Before dinner we attended an acrobatic show where we were entertained by acrobatics, jugglers and gymnasts with amazing talents.

As we traveled along the streets of Beijing, we were amazed at how much it's like any other big city in the world. We saw cars, buses, shops, high rises and street vendors. Each major street had separate lanes for bicycles and scooters. There were a lot of electric powered scooters. Three-wheeled bicycles were used to deliver goods throughout the city.

 

People were dressed in everything from business suits to jeans and t-shirts. Signs for restaurants like McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, and brands like Nike, Polo and Sony could be seen everywhere. Overall the size of the cars was smaller, but we did see a few SUVs just like in America.

It was interesting to see all the ways that people used bicycles, from maintenance wagons to flower carts to delivery vehicles. People of all ages could be seen riding bikes. Two and three people often rode on a single bike. Bike repairer carts set up business on many street corners.

 

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/