China – Shanghai – Day 1

Just steps away from our hotel was Shanghai’s main shopping street - Nanjing Road.  This pedestrian walkway has every practically every shop imaginable. 

Nanjing road of the past and present

At night the street is abuzz with hoards of people and the street glows from all the florescent lighting and brightly light advertisements.  Apparently, even Paris Hilton has her own store on Nanjing road.  Not surprisingly, all the handbags in her store were massively marked down.

   My mom and I went on a mini food adventure.  She bought a pound of her favorite beef jerky, we ate dumplings, I had the best drink of my life (herbal tea with grass jelly), and we shared scallion pancakes off the street despite the questionable hygiene practices of the vendor.

I had an unhealthy dinner consisting of a fruity tea with passionfruit, a beard papa’s cream puff (since I had never tried one before), a mango dessert with tapoica and pomelo, and soup.  This wasn’t your ordinary soup – first they gave you a tray of ingredients including vegetables, meats, an egg, and unidentifiable other edible dishes. They then brought out a bowl of hot broth with noodles, into which we dumped the contents of all our small dishes, and the ingredients cooked themselves.  I thought this was a fun meal to eat, but there was yet more food to be tried and eaten! I never wanted to eat the same thing twice while in China, there are too many delicious and unknown things to try!

China – Xi’an – Day 2

Our primary reason for coming to Xi’an was to see the famous terracotta warriors, and they did not disappoint.  I feel like sometimes I get a little skeptical of the tourist hot spots of the world.  Perhaps they won’t live up to the expectation, or maybe they’ve become over commerialized and feel ridiculously touristy.  For example, the leaning tower of Pisa, not much else to see there.  I was pleasantly surprised by the Terracotta warriors, and the site went beyond my expectations.  The first area we stepped into I felt like I had stepped into a football stadium full of hundreds of warriors.  There were so many warriors with different poses and facial expressions and they were still in such good condition!  The amazing thing is that there are even more warriors to be discovered!  In addition to the warriors, there were horses with really round butts which my mom really liked.  Also, in the middle of the building there was an excavation in progress!

To get back to the city we grabbed a public bus.  A woman sat down next to me and started speaking Chinese.  I explained I only spoke English, and she was surprised because she thought I was Chinese.  We proceeded to talk over the next hour – she had been visiting her Aunt outside of the city, but was on her way back home.  She gave me a fruit only grown in that area, and although I had no idea what it was at the time, it turned out to be a pomegranate!  At the end there was a bit of confusion because she tried to give me 5 yuan.  I had no idea why she was giving me money, and she explained it was for the bus fare.  Then I thought she wanted me to pay for her bus fare for talking to her in English.  I had read in the tour books there are students who pretend they just want an English speaking friend and they try to sell you expensive art.  Then I thought she wanted me to pay for her fruit.  There was lots and lots of confusion.  Anyways what had happened was that when my mom and I got on the bus, I paid the 7 yuan fare for both of us.  My mom switched seats because she also wanted a window view.  My new Chinese friend later got on the bus, sat down next to me, and when she tried to pay, the fare collector said I had already paid for her (not realizing I had paid for my mom who was now sitting in a different seat).

My mom and I then walked around the city wall and came across groups of tents selling food and providing musical entertainment to locals.  We also walked the scary spectacle.past 2 Chinese women yelling and trying to attack each other.  We had wanted to bike on top of Xi’an’s city walls but got back too late.  We then tried to catch a taxi back to our hotel, but were unsuccessful.  This random Chinese women asked if needed help and bought us to a bus that would take us back.  She also helped us cross the hectic and death trap of a street.  According to my mom, she was a angel out of nowhere.

China – Beijing – Day 3

We only had one day left to hit Beijing’s major sites – The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven!  We were unable to visit these sites the previous 2 days because of the preparations for China’s 60th anniversary as a country.  These preparations even squashed our dinner plans last night after we returned from the great wall!  A bunch of streets in the vicinity of our hotel were closed off to pedestrian and vehicular traffic because the government needed to practice rolling army tanks down those streets for October 1st.  Even if we went out, all the stores and restaurants in the area were closed.  Thus, we had a lot to accomplish for our last day in Beijing!

First we stopped by the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square which were simply overwhelming.

 

From the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square we walked to the Temple of Heaven.  I thought it was really close by, only a few blocks away, but it ended up being quite a hike.  However, in the process we definitely got to see more of what China is like and saw this nerdy bridge!

    

For dinner we feasted on Peking Duck.  We went to a highly rated restaurant called Da Dong, and even though we had to wait over an hour for a table it was the best duck I’ve ever had.  The chefs prepared and roasted the ducks right at the entrance of the restaurant in an open air kitchen/oven area which kept us entertained until we finally got our chance to try their specialty.

 

Happy mom.

China – Beijing – Day 2

The Great Wall is epic.  My mom and I decided to visit the Jinshangling portion of the wall against the urgings of our hotel.  They kept trying to convince us to go to more touristy, jam-packed, and closer portions of the wall.  This section of the wall is a further drive away, but it was well worth it.  Most people who decide to make the trek out here start at the Jinshangling section and walk to the Simitai section.  That hike takes about 5 hours and requires ascending steep and loose sections of the wall.  On this particular day it was also raining on and off, making the stone slippery.  Once we got to the wall, you could go left toward Simitai on a rugged unrepaired section of the wall, or go right on a partially rebuilt part of the wall. My mom and I decided to walk as far as we felt toward Simitai on the rugged section, return to the starting point, and then walk as far as we felt to the right.  We spent about 3 hours at the wall, and saw only about 25 other people that day compared to this possible nightmare http://greatwall.se/blog/wp-content/badaling.jpg if we went to the closer sections of the wall! We got a great workout and enjoyed this ancient marvel in peace and quiet.

 

At a certain point my mom stopped to take a break, and I continued on toward Simitai.  This is where I decided to turn around and meet up with my mom again.  Although I’m sure I could have climbed up this portion of the Great Wall, I didn’t really want to climb back down it.  

China – Beijing – Day 1

For our first day in Beijing, we took the suggestion of my friend Miriam to stop by the Nanluoguxiang Hutong area for good food and shopping.  Well originally we had a different itinerary for our three days in Beijing until we found out that Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City were going to be closed 2 out of the 3 days we were there!  The areas were closed off in preparation of the October 1st celebration, which marked the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.  So off we went instead to the see the hutongs, a former style of neighborhoods and housing in China that are disappearing in favor of large apartment structures.  After buying some cashmere scarves, we noticed a long line out the door of a shop.  We got in line despite not knowing what the store sold except that in came in a small white cup.  The store turned out to be called Wen Yu cheese, and we bought 1 cup of cheese curd with mango on top, 1 cup with red bean on top, and a box of cheese curd/red bean swirls.  I generally avoid cheese and find the word ‘curd’ to be gross, but since we didn’t know what it was at the time I proceeded to eat the dessert.  I found it completely nauseating, but proceeded to eat it hoping I would increasingly enjoy it with every bite.  That experiment failed, and I ended up with a stomach ache for the rest of the day.  From there we headed over to the bell tower and Hou Hai lake.  We enjoyed a stroll around the lake, stopping to view minor sites.  I wasn’t feeling too well from the Cheese dessert, but couldn’t stop from breaking into laughter when a Chinese man looked at me and said “smellll!”.  My mom thought he said we smelled, but he was actually trying to tell me to smile, which I immediately did of course!

Wen Yu Cheese. Popular, but not appetizing for this girl.

 Mom shopping and exploring the Hutong.

     After the lake we headed over to the Olympic area to see the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest.  We didn’t go inside either of them, opting to enjoy the unique architecture from the outside.  Among the masses of people, the one that most stood out were the 20 couples wearing matching tops and posing for a photographer.  That would not fly in the US.

I didn’t see as many Chinglish signs as I expected, but this one made me smile.

China - Yangshou

For our first foray into China, my mom and I first stopped by the city of Yangshou.  The scenery in this area is famous for being on the back of the 20 Yuan bill.  This was our small city respite between Hong Kong and Beijing.  We planned our itinerary to alternate between large and small cities, adjectives which have different defintions in China than in the United States as I would find out throughout the trip.  There is no doubt that Yangshou is a tourism oriented city.  I thought we were going to be staying in a small quaint town setting, which was partially true other than the street of bright neon lights, bars with booming rap music, and county fair style games such as shoot the balloons and shoot basketball hoops to win prizes.  In many ways, this area reminded me of the road to Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica.  The closer you get to the beautiful beach area, the more brightly lit signs, booming bars, and hawkers selling goods appear.  It just seems so absurd juxtaposed next to the beach, or in this case next to the beautiful towering peaks adjacent to the city and Li River.

The next morning we started off our day by bicycling to the Yulong river.  We followed a man on a moped out of the city and through the countryside on bumpy dirt roads all while taking care to avoid small dogs and chickens while rolling past corn and rice fields.  We arrived at the river launch point and sat down on our 2 seater bamboo raft.  The moped man then pushed us downriver using a bamboo stick for the next 2 hours.  It was a relaxing mid morning activity through the countryside.  There were floating snack stands selling food and water.  Every once in a while our guide would tell us to lift our feet and the raft would drop down 5 ft due to the nature of the river.  The river felt relatively unspoiled unlike the city and was a relaxing retreat.

  

We hopped of the raft and were greeted by our bicycles which we rode over to Moon Hill a rock formation with a half moon shape missing from the middle. 

We then bicycled all the way back to the hotel and took a short break before heading out for our afternoon river adventure, this time on the Li River.  This boat ride took us up and down a very picturesque portion of the river on a motorized 2 person boat.  At the turn around point my mom and I took a touristy picture with two cormorants.  Fishermen in this area use cormorants to fish.  The birds dive into the water to catch the fish, but are unable to eat their prey because the fisherman have put a ring around their neck.  The fisherman gather the catch and allow the birds to eat every 7th fish.  The photographers although out in the middle of a river had nice digital SLRs, a photo printer, laptops, and a laminator although I couldn’t tell where they were getting power from on this rocky beach.  So long to getting away from technology.

  

We headed back and ate a quick delicious vegetarian meal before going to see Impressions, an artistic performance by the same director as the 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony.  It featured 600 local fisherman and other performers dancing and moving across a section of the river amidst some towering peaks.  It was a love story although I actually have no idea what was going on since it was in Chinese.  It was an interesting show but I preferred the opening ceremony.