After over 2 ½ months in easy and familiar Australia and New Zealand, we took a deep breath (possibly the last one we’ll be able to take for the next 2 ½ months) and headed for China. China was Jim’s country choice for “must see” on the trip, and like Iceland (Xander’s choice) and Madagascar (Liam’s choice) it didn’t disappoint.
We started our trip in Hong Kong for a short visit during which we went to Hong Kong Disneyland—possibly the only place in China that is less crowded than the equivalent in US. We had fun on the “it’s a small world” ride trying to pick out places we’ve been. Next we flew to Beijing to anxiously await Carol’s (Jim’s mom) arrival. We ended up booking a guided tour back in November (!) to facilitate getting our visa (one of the many onerous requirements (including getting the visa in person in Chicago) was that we had to know exactly when and where we were staying throughout our trip). It turned out to be a welcome respite from travel planning and a smooth and efficient trip. If we had been in charge of all of the logistics on our own, it would’ve taken us at least 3 times as long to fit in all we did—of course our per day cost for China will likely be the highest of anywhere on the whole trip, but it was worth it.
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| Good eats at the Beijing snack market |
Jim and I remember Beijing from our trip to China 14 years ago as full of bikes and a little 3rd-worldy. Not anymore. It’s a buzzing metropolis filled with endless high-rise apartment buildings, huge shopping malls, countless cars and almost more people than all of Australia (20+ million). We were thrilled when Carol arrived and we could show her the “snack market” we discovered—complete with wriggling scorpions on a stick and fried cockroaches. Yum.
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| Posing for some of the many fans |
Our first day on tour in Beijing included Tienanmen square, the Forbidden City, a bike tour through the Hunan district and a visit to the Llama temple (told you we couldn’t have done all that on our own.) The Forbidden city was the imperial palace from the early 1400s until the early 1900s (and the setting for the movie “The Last Emperor”). 500 years in China is kind of like the age of humans in geologic time- China has had dynasties since before 2000 BC (and we thought remembering 250 years of US history was hard.) We marveled in the colorful nail-free buildings, lion statues (turns out that the boy lion is on the left and has its paw on a ball, the girl lion has its paw on a baby lion, and is on the right- because, of course, women are always right) and hordes of Chinese tourists. It also turns out that Liam is rock star with Chinese tourists—everyone wanted to take a picture with him.
The next day we went to the Temple of Heaven, a lovely park that is filled with tons of Chinese elders playing cards and “elder-cizing” (Carol’s term)—doing everything from tai chi, to line dancing, to hula hooping, to hacky sack. We also walked through a crowded square where parents had “resumes” of their (~25-35 year old) children who they wanted to find a match for. Who needs Eharmony when you’ve got parents in the park? Later that day we drove out of town to the Great Wall of China. Although it’s not really true that you can see the Great Wall from space, it’s definitely amazing from a ground view—watch towers dotting the peaks across the horizon as far as you can see. Hats off to Carol who faced two of her greatest fears (riding a chairlift and tobogganing) and crossing an item off her bucket list in the same afternoon!
Our last day in Beijing we went to the Beijing zoo to see a bunch of extremely cute pandas (one of which was apparently responsible for charming the Olympic committee and getting Beijing selected as a host city.) Then it was on to the summer palace, seasonal home of the “dragon lady” empress dowager Cixi who ruled china for about 50 years (!) in the late 1800s. She used the money for China’s navy to build the summer palace, so she built a marble boat in the lake there. She also had her nephew locked in a temple for decades and had his pregnant concubine thrown down a well. Ah, the things you get to explain when homeschooling. That afternoon we took a high speed train (over 300 km/hr) to Xian for 1200km. When Jim and I took the same trip last time, it took over 12 hours. Yay for technological advances.
Xian is the home of the famous terracotta warriors—a clay army built by over 700,000 workers as part of the tomb of the first emperor of China (~200BC). A farmer (who we met!) discovered the site in the 70s while digging a well (cool national geographic video here). The excavation is about twice as big as when we were there before and they are literally uncovering more things every year. Each of the 8000+ warriors have unique faces, clothes, and even shoes. Archeologists haven’t even begun to excavate the actual tomb of emperor (that is another 1.5 km away!) because they don’t yet possess the technology to protect the unearthed artifacts from being destroyed nor deal with the contamination present from the rivers of mercury that were present in the tomb. We also learned that concubines had to be buried (alive) with emperors when they died. Yikes. Other highlights in Xian included walking through the chaotic muslim quarter that included all sorts of street bbq complete with half flayed dead animals, riding bikes atop the Xian city wall, and learning to make dumplings at a local Xian woman’s apartment.
Next we flew south to Guilin, home of the terraced rice fields and karst mountains of scroll painting fame. It was great to see some trees after a week in the big cities—the scenery was gorgeous. Liam and Xander bargained for treasures in the market and we went on a bike ride out to the “countryside” that involved a thrilling ride through the busy city street (“that was an experience,” deadpanned Liam). We celebrated Xander’s 13th birthday overlooking a lake with beautiful lit pagodas and watched the nightly waterfall cascade from the top of our hotel (ah, weird and wonderful china). The waterfall is in the Guinness book of world records (but we couldn’t quite figure out for what: biggest hotel with a waterfall running down it’s sides, the biggest man made waterfall for tourist value, the biggest waterfall inspired by a poem about a beautiful waterfall…). The waterfall was wider than any waterfall we know of in Colorado and falls at least 12 stories.
We spent the last few days of the tour in Hong Kong, where we checked out Victoria peak, the incredible skyline and harbor, and the Hong Kong History museum. Hong Kong has the distinction of being number one tourist destination in the world, the most densely populated city, and one of the most important financial centers in the world. Hong Kong was a British colony until June 1997, when the “99 year lease” was up and it became a part of China—but not really—Hong Kong is a “Special Administrative Region” of the People’s republic of China, and we actually had to go through Chinese and Hong Kong immigration to travel between the two. What most characterized the difference between Hong Kong and China for us is that we didn’t have website restrictions in Hong Kong, like we did in China, where we couldn’t use sites like Google, Facebook and You Tube. (The horror! Wow did we figure out quick how much we rely on Google products once we couldn’t access email, search or Google Maps – which is perhaps one of our best travel companions.)
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| Waterfall hotel |
We were awed by the massive industrialization and urbanization (a small town is one with less than 5 million people; a few places we visited 14 years ago now have millions more people)and impressed by the industriousness of the people we met—Young people (including students as young as 5) work incredibly hard with high expectations and limited time off. Even elders were extremely active. The huge malls and tons of fancy cars belied any misconceptions about a country of peasant farmers but we still got glimpses of some of the differences between the countries. For example, Chinese people need to apply to move between regions, and won’t necessarily get approved. There’s no way parents could take their kids out of school for a year of travel (but that’s been true almost everywhere we’ve gone.) Many families wouldn’t have “kids” because of the one child policy (which was just changed earlier this year.) Some cultural differences were a bit shocking- mostly the fact that spitting is a big thing—any time we were walking down a (crowded) sidewalk you’d hear multiple people (including little old ladies) hocking up huge loogies and we’d flinch and watch our step. Plus a ton of people smoke. Everywhere. Carol said it’s like the US in the 70s. And you wouldn’t believe how many people will squish into an elevator—with 5 times the people than the US, personal space has different boundaries.
Even with the haze and crowds, China is beautiful and the people are vibrant and friendly. The best thing about our trip was being with Carol—She inspired with her enthusiasm, impressed us with her intrepid sense of adventure, and charmed us with her wonder.
Now we’re in Vietnam with Tracey (Carolyn’s sister). Yay for family who’s willing to travel J
Senses:
Jim: The crisscross of red and yellow cranes and trucks building an island outside our hotel window in the Hong Kong harbor; The stare of Chairman Mao over Tienanmen square capturing the reverence of the Chinese people and the iconic image I have of China; the warehouse sized buildings of terracotta warriors lined for battle representing the power of the emperors of old and pulling at my imagination of future; the kaleidoscope of colors lighting the path through the crystal reed flute cave and highlighting many wonderful creatures trapped in the stone
Xander: The rows of the different terracotta warriors surrounded by an aura of wonder and old musty air; the flooded terraces of the rice fields reflecting a perfect image of the cloudy sky in the Long Sheng village; the lush green peaks bordering the Li River framing the steep white limestone cliffs towering over our boat; the wind furiously blowing on our jackets on the top of Victoria Peek as I look over the towering skyscrapers in the Hong Kong Harbor
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| Xian city wall |
Liam: Gazing at the small rectangular watchtowers spread across the peaks of the mountains in the horizon as I walk up the crooked but amazing great wall of china; the multitude of faces, arms, torsos and legs pieced together to make a magnificent scene of a terracotta army fit with horses, chariots, and generals; the long haired local girls suddenly jumping out from behind their costumes into what looked like bare skin as I gasp in surprise and confusion at the Guilin cultural show; the loud exhilarating blaring horns coming out of the multiple ramshackle trucks and motorbikes as I try desperately to navigate successfully across the round about
Carol: The crushing undulating crowd of humanity as each person vies to glimpse the unseen inner sanctum in the Forbidden City; tears streaming down my face as the first drops of "not that spicy" sauce scald my lips at dinner in Xian; the arresting grand canyon-like beauty of the Li river followed by the nerve racking energy of bargaining with the intense, hardworking, toothless vendors in the west street market in Yangshou; the heart stopping thrill of proving the axiom that there is more to balance than not falling down (on a bike) fact check… in China, carts, vendors, trucks, motorcycles, buses and cars all use the mostly one way bike lane.
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