windeymoor: CHINA: In a Nutshell, I mean in a Dumpling!

Our trek began in San Francisco. Jb has never been to the city (and I have never officially gone as a tourist) so we decided to do the "typical" tourist trap--- Pier 39. I can't say either of us were that impressed with it, but the voyage there was neat. We saw a FEMBOT, cool buildings, fun street art, and Jb's favorite: a parade of segway parking meter maids.

On the BART :D

Mzz. Fembot

Ticket patrol!!

This is what I was told about by friends in San Diego...so I had my heart set on clam chowder in a bread bowl. SEEK AND DESTROY, ARGH! It was delicious :)

Our flight to China was a nonstop all the way to Beijing. The bird was HUGE and flew for about 13 hours straight...Jb was lucky enough to get some shut eye but I could not catch a break. Instead I began Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase...in case you were wondering, it was a really great book. So great I have three more of his books on order (: X)

We arrived in Beijing around 6pm and to my surprise did not walk off the plane into the airport lift and then into the airport as per normal. Instead, we exited down a long flight of rolly stairs (into the SUFFOCATING heat and humidity, ha) and onto the runway of the airport. We then crammed into a bus that took us to a different part of the airport. Once we got to this part we walked through customs and down escalators till we reached a tram. The tram took us to yet another part of the airport where we walked some more until we found the exit to baggage claim. When we finally got out through the swarms of people waiting for their loved ones, we met our awesome, absolutely ADORABLE guide, Ming. She greeted us warmly and once she had collected the rest of the tour group we were on our way. The only thing that was going through my weary mind at this time was, "Holy crap, I'm in China...and holy crap this is the biggest airport I have ever seen."

BEIJING
Population~20 million
Traffic~10 X's worse than Los Angeles during rush hour.

Beijing was crazy. I guess I didn't really prepare myself for modern China because Beijing is huge. By huge I mean there's tons of people and tons of buildings...and I'm not gonna lie, in my mind's eye, I pictured China as big but more forest like... more natural I guess...I was definitely instantly enlightened! On the first day we visited Tinnamen Square and the Forbidden City. We also visited the Hutong district via rickshaw! Here's some pictures from that day.

I had to take a picture of the traditional toilets!! Quite comfortable actually.

Forbidden Temple shots :)

The Lion Dog.

The next day was the apex of our trip. We drove to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall but before that we visited the Sacred Way of Ming Tombs. There were tons of really awesome statues and the surrounding scenery was lovely (no buildings in sight!! Just mountains and greenery!!)

The Mutianyu section of the wall is the furthest from the city. China Spree (our tour group) decided to take us to this part of the wall because it is the most beautiful and also receives less foot traffic then the other sections. The drive to the wall is beautiful...and the wall itself is absolutely stunning. It was beyond words.

The gondola ride up to the wall

View from the gondola's window

I'd say this is from the beginning, but it's not...ha

I asked my tour guide why Asians do this in pictures. She told me that it means, "I'm cute"...I always thought it was double peace signs...oops!

Ming explained to us that to be considered a real Chinese man or woman you have to have climbed the Great Wall. She said she would count the heroes and heroines at the end of the climb. At first I thought the climb was relatively easy. Granted it was a million degrees and a billion percent humidity, Jb and I walked with relative ease. The we hit these stairs. "This must have been what Ming was talking about," I chimed. We began the ascent and everything went really quiet. You didn't hear any voices, no telephone wire buzz, no frequencies...everyone trekking up the wall was quiet, focused, determined to make it to the top. All you could hear were monkey and bird calls hidden amongst the forest...oh, and the sound of everyone's tennis shoes meeting each ancient step. I swear, it was the coolest sound...like a chorus of water drops.

The mile of ~~cars~~ stairs!

The gondola ride down.

After the wall, we had to walk through a maze of vendors.
Probably one of the craziest things ever. Everything is, "One dollah!" "Lady, lady, look!" "Chopstick, teeshirt, one dollah!" I got grabbed (not hard or anything), pulled on the arm, and stood in front of in high hopes that I would buy something from their booth (every booth had the exact same things...I mean exact) It was such an experience.

On our last day of Beijing, we visited the Temple of Heaven. Now, I did take pictures of it all but to be honest, once you see one temple they all kind of look the same...and have a similar story line (not to be culturally insensitive!! It was all cool, but I wanted more person-person interaction) While walking through one of the parks, I walked by this delightful, singing, elderly man. He was singing and dancing and totally reminded me of my grandma. Grandma Korkee, meet Grandpa Korkee...the Chinese male reincarnation of you :)

XI'AN
Population~9 million
Traffic~okay...not as bad as Beijing!

Xi'an was definitely the most traditional city. It looked much older than Beijing and also had their city wall in fantastic condition. I thought it was kind of funny, the city wall and city temple were by far the nicest and most up-kept buildings in the entire city.
Anyhow, Xi'an was all about the terra cotta warriors...which were absolutely incredible. Before we we went to the actual museum, we went to the factory store where they make reproductions for sale.

I am the terra cotta KING!

Actual warriors in the pits...literally? ha

HANGZHOU
Population~ 480 people per square km
Traffic~touchy, can be bad

Hangzhou was probably one of the prettiest cities we visited. It seemed cleaner and a little less polluted...but still pretty crowded. We visited a little market with an ancient pharmacy in it (the pharmacy is still in business!) and I thought it was really neat. They offer a free tea to the people who come inside (it just brews in a barrel) and it accustomed to the season. Here are some of the medicines. Basically the doctor prescribes you herbs, roots, and what not and you boil it into a tea according to the doctor's directions. Really cool.

After the pharmacy we got to walk about the market place. We only had a short amount of time before we had to meet for lunch but Jb had his eyes set on the McDonalds he noticed a couple shops down. We were both already sick of Chinese food so we had no choice, ha. After lunch we went to walk around West Lake. It was hot and sticky. I already had about 5 mosquito bites and the bee sting from the great wall...I was not enthralled to be walking around a lake. Thankfully, things got pretty funny along our walk...the typhoon touched down and our whole group got poured on! We tried for shelter under trees but Ming had a better idea. She fled and came back with ponchos. We got into them...but then had a hard time getting out of them...plastic and humidity don't play that nice together. Long story short, the rain let up and we went on a boat ride across the lake. One of the men on our tour, Patrick, decided to dry out his poncho in the air...it was an instant trend and our boat became a spectacle of crazy Americans flying blown up ponchos. It was awesome.

mr. handsome

Patrick!

Cutie-pie Ming

The next day we visited the "countryside" of Hangzhou. It was really beautiful and happens to be where the best green tea in the world is grown (allegedly :P) We got to try this tea and participate in a tea ceremony. Enjoyable and somewhat relaxing.

Those are tea rows behind us!

So much color. It was a "stick your tour pin" here board...I think.

SUZHOU
Population~6 million
Traffic~not terrible

I can't say I was terribly impressed by the city of Suzhou. They did have the silk factory though and that was pretty cool. We were taught the life cycle of the silk worm and then got to walk through the factory!

Cocoons being sorted.

Ming showing the cocoon.

After the silk factory...we went on another boat ride. This was my favorite part:

But it was before we got on the boat. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad boat ride or anything, I just was getting so tired of sitting around and looking. I wanted to explore...and didn't really feel I had the freedom to.

SHANGHAI
Population~22 million
Traffic~Pretty bad...but not like Beijing

Shanghai was pretty cool. There are so many skyscrapers, so much to look at, and looks bitchin' at night. Anyhow, our hotel was amazing. 38 floors and we were looking down at the city from the 23rd floor. Absolutely stellar. On one of our days there we were taken to the 88th floor of Jinmao Tower. I can honestly say I have never been in a building that tall before. It was really, really neat.
After the Jinmao tower, we visited the city bazaar. It was pretty overwhelming. Expansive and easy to get lost in...thankfully, I have a good sense of direction.

Jinmao Tower

Shanghai's mascot building.

Way up high!

OVERALL

China was an incredible experience. Our group of people was pretty cool and we lucked out with an amazing guide for our stay. I learned a lot of interesting bits about Chinese culture and society and have to say I admire and appreciate the culture very much. However, the trip made me increasingly grateful that I live in the USA...and grateful for my culture. When you travel overseas you are greeted with similarities and differences...and in those similarities and differences it really gives you a true perspective...a perspective that your eyes, senses, and thoughts have created and understood. It isn't something you've picked up from a professor, a book, the media...it's your entire being understanding, accepting, learning, and in my case being filled with a ton of gratitude. I hope you all travel to China some day. It is really amazing. Jb and I traveled through China Spree and they are really fantastic. Thanks for reading all.

Love you, love, me.