China Part 4: Day Two

0700 Hotel Breakfast (bring your own breakfast foods if you travel to China!)

0900 Visit Jade Carving Factory (on the way to the Great Wall)

1030 Tour at Great Wall

1300 Lunch at Friendship Store- Mixture of Chinese Food

1430 Tour at Summer Palace

1630 Visit Pearl Factory

1800 Dinner at Shu Wei Nong- Suchuan Style (Spicy Food)

1930 Visit Wangfujing Street

2030 Back to hotel and rest.

After a decent nights sleep on an Asian mattress (which is literally only **slightly** softer than a box spring, and yes, you can feel the springs), we headed down to a less than appetizing breakfast. I have very, very few complaints about this trip, but the hotel room and breakfast are two of them. Our hotel room was actually great... we were fine, comfortable, and it was clean, etc... BUT for the exact same price that we paid some of the other members in our group got the luck of the draw and ended up on the Executive Floor. Like I said, we weren't uncomfortable in our room, but in my opinion if it's the same price don't we all deserve the same standard of accommodations? Okay, off my soap box.

The breakfast was adequate. They have cereal, bagels (cold), pastries (cold and not sweet), sausage and bacon (VERY greasy), and even omelets (undercooked, with weird add ins). So if you aren't picky about breakfast, it's great. But none of it quite hit the spot with us, because none of it is 'quite' western enough if you know what I mean. So, we headed to the Starbucks next door for a little something extra to fill our bellies, hopped on the bus and began touring!

We learned a lot about the Chinese people on the bus ride out to the Great Wall. I took notes and will get those little details typed up one of these days. We stopped for a visit to the Jade factory. Over the course of the entire 3-day tour, there were three factory trips scheduled. I am not certain, but my best guess is that the tour guides get a percentage of what we purchase at these factories. These are not really my thing. The jade factory was not really interesting, just a lot of jade. I got to try on a jade bangle. I didn't know it was such a science to get one of those things on and off! And John was his normal, silly self wanting to pose for obnoxious pictures with Jade carvings.

After the Jade factory we headed to the Great Wall. I know I said I have very few complaints, and truly I do, but bear with me here because I'm about to complain again. There are three or four different places around Beijing where you can visit The Great Wall. One is a little further away, less convenient, but it has the most spectacular views of the rolling (and not so rolly) hills and the wall stretching on for miles and miles. You can take a cable car to the top, too so you don't have to hike up. Unfortunately, this "less convenient location" is not where we went. We went to the convenient one and it's not really that great of an experience. The place we went to is mostly reconstructed, and once you walk, climb, and moan your way to the top, there is literally NOTHING to see but hills. No Great Wall stretching on for miles and miles. It's a total rip off. It was still a cool experience, but it would have been SO much cooler if we'd gotten to visit the location with better views.

At the Great Wall you can chose to climb up the "Easy" side or the "Hard" side. The steps, although many have been reconstructed, are still crazy uneven. The Easy side is still like climbing a 15 story building! John and I did the easy side, and then my over-achiever of a husband left me to get down on my own and raced ahead to go up the hard side as well. The "Easy" side proved to be much more difficult than I had thought. I was ready to quit, take a picture at the half way point, and call it a day. But John wanted to go to the top, so we did... painfully. John was practically running up the stairs while I was stopping to moan and rest every 4 or 5 stairs. I told John that it wouldn't have been so painful for me if we'd just gone slowly rather than at warp speed. Live and learn!

Terra Cotta Soldiers at the Great Wall

John striking a pose at the top of the Wall

After the Great Wall we went to lunch at a Friendship Store. Like I mentioned before pretty much everything in China is controlled by the government and these Friendship Stores are just another example of that. They are government owned and operated and have a huge souvenir store (with prices marked up 300-500% of what you can pay at a market) and a place to serve the tourists lunch/dinner. I will say that the food was delicious! Maybe it was because I was hungry, but I couldn't get enough of it! Each table was given a bottle of liquor, too. It was 56% alcohol, which I think makes it like 112 Proof! Insane! We took our little porcelain shot glasses, made a toast to the trip, and drank up! It was disgusting, but at least I can say I've done it! It burned quite badly, too!

After lunch we headed to the Emperor's Summer Palace. John and I only stayed at the palace for about 15 minutes, just long enough to take some pictures, enjoy the architecture, and to check it off our list saying we've "been there, done that." Then we hailed a cab (that totally ripped us off) and headed back in to town to do some shopping, leaving the tour group behind.

We felt a sense of adventure heading off to explore the country on our own, but we also, surprisingly, felt a little vulnerable. You would think after living in Korea for a year we wouldn't be that way. I think the difference is that in Korea we can do some communicating ...we can give directions (left, right, straight, here, there) in Hangul/Korean and are familiar with the names of landmarks, etc... but in China we knew nothing! Our cab driver took advantage of that and charged us $15 (100 Yuan) for the 24 minute cab ride in to town. We arranged this set price with our driver before leaving the palace, as our other option was a metered taxi which our driver assured us was more expensive. Turns out he lied. We took several 20+ minute long METERED taxi rides after this one and they all averaged about $2! Ha!!

Most of the cab drivers in China speak no English at all. We did meet one cab driver that spoke a little English. He learned what he knew from watching American TV shows and movies, of which his favorites were Forrest Gump and Prison Break. He was very excited to learn we were from Alabama (because Forrest Gump was from Alabama).

So, after the expensive cab ride, we ended up at Yashow Market and did some shopping (which I've already blogged about here). We shopped until we dropped and therefore we missed the last few items on the itinerary above, but we felt like the shopping more than made up for it! We headed home to our hotel and ordered a pizza from the restaurant in the hotel lobby. As it was cooking we realized we were going to be late for our 90 minute reflexology foot and full body massages that we'd arranged earlier that day (for $30 each). So, we got the pizza to go, and went up to our room where two Chinese women met us and spent the next 90 minutes rubbing all the aches and pains from the Great Wall out of our legs! Come to think of it, I wasn't sore at all the next day and that climb up the Great Wall was worse than any set of squats or lunges I've ever done in my life. Hmmmm, maybe the massages have something to do with that.

After the massages we headed to bed for the night. We had one day in China left, and we planned to make the most of it!

China Part 3 - Day One -

1055 Arrive at Beijing Airport

1300 Lunch at Shan Shui Jian- Cantonese Style

1430 Tour Temple of Heaven

1630 Tour Tian An Men Square

1730 Watch Acrobatic Show

1900 Dinner at Hua Fu Ge Restaurant- Peking Duck Special

2030 Hotel check-in and rest

Day One was a long, long day. We gained one hour flying to Beijing, and with lunch being at 1pm (1300) we were starving upon arrival! We had our first "Lazy Susan" meal at a tourist restaurant. Most all of the places we visited in China were made mainly for the tourists. Tourism is HUGE in China. I'd actually like to find out more about it. I know that the tour guides have to go through training and get licensed to be a guide. The country is communist so you know the government has their hands in it all somehow, maybe in the script the guides say and definitely in the places they chose for us to stop. We could have seen SO much more in China if it wasn't for all the silly "factories" they bring us too. The prices in these factories are still way cheaper than in the States, but WAY more expensive than the markets where private vendors are selling. And I don't know this for a fact, but I can make an educated guess that the tour guides get a percentage of what you spend at those factories.

So, back to what I started saying... the restaurants we visited were set up strictly for tourism. I read in the Beijing book we borrowed that by 2020 they expect China to be the number one tourist destination in the world! Mainly because people are drawn to the open, communist country and are curious about it. Visiting it, you would never have known it was communist. It was very interesting.

So, after our lunch we boarded the bus and headed out to the Temple of Heaven. There are four temples that surround the Emperor's Palace (called The Forbidden City). The Taoist Temples (not Buddhist) were constructed for worship of Heaven, Earth, Sun, and Moon. The Temple of Heaven was the first built and is also the largest, and therefore the biggest tourist attraction of the four. The Emperor would travel to this temple several times a year to pray for a good harvest. During his procession to the Temple, none of the common people were allowed to witness it, so all the streets were closed down for the trek to the Temple.

As noted above the temple is Taoist, not Buddhist. China is a melting pot of Eastern Religions with roots in Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, and the like. When The People's Republic of China was established in the 1940's the government banned religious practices, but they are much more lenient with that ban now as there are many practicing religions in the country today, although none quite as organized (I think) as religions are in America. Many people practice parts of many different religions.

As for the Temple of Heaven and it's use today, it's really more of a public park. You see, the average Chinese home is only about 300 square feet that houses a small living room and dinning table, a one person only kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. In the older part of town, the housing does not have central heat and air so you often see plumes of black smoke rising from these buildings as the occupants burn coal and other things as a heat source. The older buildings also do not have bathrooms in each apartment but rather community bathrooms on each floor. These homes are occupied by the lower class.

Even in the average family home right in the center of the city the size doesn't get much bigger than 300 square feet (unless you're in the upper class) so the public parks are a big meeting area for the Chinese people to get out and socialize. Our tour guide described the local parks and places such as the Temple of Heaven as a kind of "living room" for the people because their homes are too small. They don't invite people over, instead they meet outside of the house. The Temple property was filled with people of retirement age playing cards, dancing, singing, playing instruments, flying kites, etc. In the early morning hours the parks are filled with people walking, doing Thai Chi, and other exercise activities. You can see the people doing some of these activities in the pictures above.

After visiting the Temple of Heaven, we headed to Tian An Men Square, which is best compared to "The Lawn" in Washington DC. It's a large paved area (I think it can hold 1 million people?) with a statue in the center and various government buildings on it's outskirts and on one side the wall of the Forbidden City (the palace), which now boasts a picture of the countries current ruler.

After Tian An Men Square we went to an acrobatics show that was pretty amazing, however it was no Cirque Du Sole. After the show we had a dinner of Peking Duck. The skin of the duck was SO thick and crunchy that I had a hard time stomaching it. The duck is traditionally eaten on a thin pancake with a plum sauce. John said it's the Chinese Fajita.

Posing with a whole fish on a plate... appetizing huh?

After dinner we checked in to our hotel (The Best Western Premier) and crashed for the night.

China Part 2 - Trip Overview -

The night before our China trip, we packed a little suitcase full of diapers, clothes, and other necessities and brought our precious baby boy over to our sweet friends Brian and Amanda Evans. They have two little boys of their own and we knew they'd have their hands full over the long weekend having three boys in their home, all under the age of three! I knew leaving my little man would be hard, but I did not expect it to be as hard as it was. As the trip approached I got cold feet and wanted desperately to back out of it. When we put Caden down for the night at their house, I cried.

The Evans' were troopers as they had to unexpectedly deal with Caden getting the stomach bug. He blew out both ends for a whole day... and in a strange form of irony, their older son, Trevor, threw up literally two seconds after we walked in the door to pick up Caden on the night of our return. And their other son, Parker, soon followed. It just doesn't seem right that they offered to watch our child for a long weekend while we travelled, and they were 'rewarded' with all that!

The next morning, Thursday the 27th (Thanksgiving Day), we left for the airport on a 6am bus. Once at the airport we met up with the tour group agent, checked in with basically two giant, empty suitcases (in anticipation of all the shopping we planned to do), and headed off on the 1.5 hour flight to Beijing. On the plane an Asian lady sat next to John. She apparently had not traveled much. We were polite to her, smiling, nodding, etc.... She looked over briefly at the book we were reading on Beijing, pointed at it, asked to hold it for a second, and we obliged. Then, it came time to fill out the declaration form for entering another country so we pulled out our passports to get some info from them and the lady tried to take our passport and look at them! Huge red flag!!! Not long after, she pulls out her cell phone (IN MID AIR) and turns it on! Another huge red flag! But, she was just a very naive traveller, not a terrorist.

Upon arrival in Beijing our tour guides met us at the airport and we were loaded on to buses and the touring began. First we stopped for lunch. On the way to lunch our tour guide (we had Willie, the other bus had Shelly) briefed us on things to be aware of in China. The first one was not to drink the water. No ice, no brushing teeth in it, etc. Only drink bottled water, from a store (not a street vendor) and check the seal to make sure it's not broken. Another word of warning was to always pay in exact change when dealing with street vendors because counterfeit money is a big problem there. We were really glad we'd been warned about this and brought with us mostly small bills ($1, $10, and $5) in American money because ATMs will only give you Yuan and in large denominations. Most vendors like dealing in dollars because of the exchange rate, rather than Yuan. 1 Yuan is roughly worth about 7 cents in American currency, 100 Yuan is about $15.

Throughout the whole tour (minus one meal) lunch and dinner was included. We would divide up into tables of about 8 or 9 people and there would be a giant Lazy Susan in the middle of a large round table. The staff would bring plate after plate of foods for us to eat. There were usually forks available, but we tried to eat with Chopsticks. I suffered through the first meal with them, but by the end I'd gotten the hang of it. The first full day in China, I never got full. The food was less than appetizing and if I liked a dish they brought, most likely everyone else at the table did, too so there wasn't enough to go around. But, by the second day that seemed to change. I don't know if I just acquired a taste for the food or if I was just too hungry to care at that point but I really liked all of our meals from that point forward. I had a sprite with just about every meal and at some of the meals they would bring a 'specialty' for us to try such as Chinese wine, and once Chinese liquor.

The group trip was the easiest way to see China. Everything was done for us, arranging for the Visa, checking in to the hotel, figuring out where to eat so we wouldn't get food poisoning, etc... It really is the best way to do China, but if we went again, we'd go on our own. I don't necessarily recommend this to others out there because it is not the easy way to do it. Especially if you're thinking of taking children because this country is not kid friendly (well, at least not 'baby' friendly)! There are no changing tables, high chairs, etc... I probably only saw 10 babies the whole trip (in part I'm sure to the one child per family rule for the country). That aspect alone is SO different from Korea. Here, you see babies everywhere.

We followed most of the tour, but we did deviate on our own a few times. The itinerary for our trip was:

1055 Arrive at Beijing Airport
1300 Lunch at Shan Shui Jian- Cantonese Style
1430 Tour Temple of Heaven
1630 Tour Tian An Men Square
1730 Watch Acrobatic Show
1900 Dinner at Hua Fu Ge Restaurant- Peking Duck Special
2030 Hotel check-in and rest

Day Two:
0700 Hotel Breakfast (bring your own breakfast foods if you travel to China!)
0900 Visit Jade Carving Factory (on the way to the Great Wall)
1030 Tour at Great Wall
1300 Lunch at Friendship Store- Mixture of Chinese Food
1430 Tour at Summer Palace
1630 Visit Pearl Factory
1800 Dinner at Shu Wei Nong- Suchuan Style (Spicy Food)
1930 Visit Wangfujing Street
2030 Back to hotel and rest.

Day Three:
0700 Hotel Breakfast
0830 Tour at Forbidden City
1030 Visit Silk Quilt Factory
1200 Lunch at You Shi restaurant- Western Style
1330 Free time. Rest of day at leisure.
**Dinner self treat

Day Four:
0700 Hotel Breakfast
0800 check out of hotel
0830 Leave for airport
1220 Depart for Incheon
1510 Arrive at Incheon

The Itinerary I typed above is verbatim from the Itinerary we were given. I will take each day/trip and elaborate on them in the following posts...

China Part 1 - The Shopping -

I have so much to say and share about our trip to China, but let's face it.... the thing you are all probably MOST curious about is how we made out with all the great shopping! So, that is where I'll start.

We visited several markets in China. We were told to go to the Pearl, Silk, and Lido markets. Somehow we only made it to Lido because our driver, or whoever we got to translate a note to our taxi driver, kept taking us to the wrong markets. Of course it took us a while (each time) to figure out we weren't where we were supposed to be, but we still can't complain because the shopping was still great! We toured the Lido Market (don't recommend it), Silk Street Pearl Market (which is neither the silk OR pearl market... but I can see how confusing it could be), and Yashow Market.

Yashow Clothing Market

This market was one of our favorites. It is mainly a clothing market with things like polo, Spyder, North Face, Columbia, etc... We also got some sunglasses and pashminas here, too.

The vendors at all of the markets carry all KINDS of stuff. Clothes, purses, scarves/pashminas, souvenir items, electronics, jewelry, etc. It's really quite overwhelming because in one market alone (Yashow, for example) there were 5 floors of shopping to sort through in only a short amount of time! The markets are all typically several floors high and they are set up in a similar way to craft fairs back in the states. It's best described as a ton of little cubicles where the vendors can display their goods as they choose. Some stalls/booths are more lavish than others (prime retail) and others are very simple and messy.

The vendors are mostly all very young (late teens, early twenties) Chinese women. The Chinese people are generally not as friendly or courteous as the Korean people. As you walk around the vendors are all shouting out at you "Lady, Lady, come here pretty Lady! I give you good deal. You need pashminas?" It's quite loud and the vendors CAN be very aggressive, although they are not always. Sometimes you might walk by and they'll grab your arm and try to pull you in to their booth. They usually quote you a price that is outrageously high at first... after much (much!) haggling you can usually walk away only paying about 4-10% of their original offer. Yes, you read that correctly! I really think the haggling is a game to them.

John found a good bargaining technique and he was quite the expert by the end of the trip. I will say that my husband has never really enjoyed shopping before, but I think he had more fun than I did on this trip! It really was a game to him. He start joking around and laughing at, and eventually with, the vendors. Almost like flirting with them, just cutting up and joking around about how crazy their prices are, etc... and before long he'd have them talked down to a decent amount, but still more than what we knew we could get it for... so we'd walk away. One step, two steps, three steps (come back sir), four steps, five steps, (okay, $20), keep walking, six steps, seven steps, (okay $15), keeping walking, and walking, ($14), and walking ($13), and then finally you hear the words you want to hear "Okay, okay, okay... come back, you win!"

So, what exactly did we buy in China? Too much! Ha, ha! But we had such a good time!

Here is a run down of our purchases:

Mens Spyder Ski Suit

Spyder Goggles

Spyder Gloves (2)

Sunglasses: Armani, Chanel, Ray Ban, Oakley

Cashmere and Silk Pashminas/Scarves (19)

Children's Spyder Ski Jackets (3)

Tiffany Necklace and Bracelet set

Chopsticks and a Beijing Magnet (our touristy type souvenirs)

North Face Hiking Backpack (small size)

Louis Vuitton Large Bag and matching wallet

Jimmy Choo Bag

Gucci Bag

Chanel Bag

1 set of Callaway Golf clubs complete with head covers, carry bag/travel bag, umbrella, and hat

Things we could have bought but didn't:

Uggs and many other name brand shoes (pumas, etc)

North Face/Columbia Ski Apparel and Jackets

Silk Blankets

Pearls (I heard a story about a girl who bought a set for $200, it appraised in America for $2000)

Jade jewelry and carvings

Ipods and other electronics

Polo shirts/pants/etc

Silk ties

and the list goes on and on

John trying on his Spyder ski pants with his favorite vendor of the whole trip, JoJo.

John sort of made friends with some of the vendors, JoJo being one of them. She told us that Americans are typically her best customers because they will pay a lot more for items than people from other countries. At the same time Americans are also her 'worst' customers because the ones that have done their homework prior to shopping know that you can get things for dirt cheap and know how to bargain. JoJo wrote out directions for us to visit another market where her sister works, selling sunglasses...

So, in a city filled with 17 million people, we set off to yet another market in search of sunglasses. On the fourth floor there were about 50+ vendors selling sunglasses. Imagine our surprise when we just so happen to chose the exact vendor where JoJo's sister works! Here is a picture of JoJo's sister (KoKo- notice a pattern?) in the purple elephant shirt, and the other vendor we 'worked' with whose name I do not remember.

Here I am with my friend, Kim, that I met on the tour shopping through a catalog of purses.

I will end this post with some "close up" shots of our loot!

Stay tuned for more from our China Trip!

Amenities

In preparation for our upcoming trip to China I got on the hotel website to see what amenities they have to help me determine what I need to pack...

You KNOW you're traveling in a foreign country when "Hot Water" is listed as a hotel amenity! A few of these made me chuckle and I hope they will you too...



Internet access–high speed
Cribs (infant beds) available
Domestic Direct-dial phone
International Direct-dial phone
Complimentary newspaper
Hair dryer
In-room safe
Wheelchair Access
Desk
Fridge
Coffee/Tea-making Facilities
Minibar
Table Lamp
Shoe Shine
220DC
220AC
24hour hot water
Slippers
Housekeeping
Smoking Rooms
Bedside Light
Thick Towels
Hot and cold water
Central air conditioning