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Published: October 14th 2014
Evil Spirits, Orange Slices and the Last Emperor Hello again… well, when we left you we were headed out of Incheon, South Korea. The 2 day crossing of the north Sea of Japan and into Boi Hai Gulf was rocky to say the least, but… no dishes flying across the ship so that was good ;-) This morning we awoke as the ship was docking at Xingang, Peoples Republic of China (PRC). It took a good hour for the Chinese Port Authority to clear the ship so we could get off. We had to have a copy of our passport stamped by the Chinese government in order to get off. Now we have to have it in our possession until after we leave Shanghai in about 5 days.
The gangway was on our Deck 1 (Dolphin Deck) but at near the bow of the ship so we began what we call the “thousand yard walk”, (actually 784 feet ;-) to the other end of the ship. After having our “ship’s card” scanned we headed for the immigration station that had been set up on the dock. Brrrrr!! It was plenty cold with the wind blowing
15 knots. The officer looked at our documents and waved us through. Then another “thousand yard walk” down the dock to the huge, modern terminal. The terminal was virtually empty as we looked for “Door 3” where we were to meet our tour guide. Before we left then states we contacted a tour company in Beijing to arrange a tour guide. Of course Door 3 was blocked off and many young women working in uniform came running over to us gesturing that we were NOT to go through Door 3 ;-) Okay, we’re pretty compliant folks so… off to Door 2 where, as promised was our tour guide with a big sign that said “David Norcross” ;-). Her “adopted” name as a tour guide is Christine, her real name is Cai Lei. So off for another “thousand yard walk” as Christine explained that our driver, Mr. Lee was not able to park anywhere near the terminal for safety reasons. So… eyeing Mr. Lee’s Toyota Camry way out on the horizon, we started our hike ;-) You’d think being on a ship you wouldn’t get any exercise, not so…;-)
Anyway, Mr. Lee was happy to see us and
Christine told us he was a VERY safe driver…LOL uh huh.
Tianjin is over an hour away from the port and has 11 million people in the city. The region has 42 million people. Once again, like South Korea, thousands and thousands of high-rise apartment buildings. We quickly moved onto a toll way. Mr. Lee is definitely keeping us safe, as he hits his horn over and over the entire day. Honking at people, honking at bicyclists, honking at busses, honking at anything he thinks might be getting close to us. We felt very safe…LOL.
Although Christine was sick and coughing, she gave us a running commentary from the front seat where she sat with Mr. Lee. Tianjin has some agricultural areas surrounding the city; they grow rice and fruits mostly. But, Tianjin is for the most part an industrial city and port. The city is split by the river, Hai. Therefore, the streets are all catawampus (how the heck do you spell that? ;-) According to Mr. Lee unless you were born in Tianjin, you will get lost, and we learned he was correct! Fortunately he was born in Tianjin. After offering Christine
American cough drops, for which she was very grateful, we continued to our first stop, the Shi Family residence where we encountered our first beggar. He had a tin can on a stick and came up smiling and pointing to the can. Before we had time to contemplate giving him anything, Christine motioned us into the residence. The wealthy Shi Family were merchants and their home as been restored. We saw the theatre room where dignitaries were entertained, courtyards, gardens and the about a dozen of the 278 rooms. A really modest sized pavilion by most standards taking up maybe a block square of property. There were some magnificent jade sculptures the most beautiful of which was a large cabbage ;-)
Out on the street again we wove our way through motorbikes, bicycles of every type, taking our life in our hands to reach the car. Pedestrians
DO NOT have the right of way! If you’re in the way, the car drivers will beep the horn over and over and you better jump out of the way!
Finally, we spot Mr. Lee, holding the car door open for us to make our quick escape
;-) He is parked in a space that not allowed for parking. We’re off to the area where Tianjin started along the Grand Canal (which no longer exists this far north) and the Hai River. This is “Old Town, Tianjin”. We walked the winding, narrow “Ancient Culture Streets”, with vendors and cafes, no cars allowed- thank heavens. I bought a small gourd, from a gentleman who grows them to ward off Evil Spirits… I figured, why take a chance LOL.
At the end of the street there was Mr. Lee had waiting for us on the street, so we jumped in and headed to lunch. On the way we saw the Earthquake Memorial dedicated to the 24,000 who died in the 1976, 8.2 quake. Mr. Lee dropped us off and we made our way through a maze of bicycles, cars and motorbikes to an outdoor shopping mall. Passing many vendor stalls along the way we took the stairs up to the balcony level and our restaurant. This was a local place where people who are working in the area come for lunch. People were in casual wear and a few in more upscale wear for working in
offices. Nothing in English, no westerners, except us of course. Fortunately, Christine has pre-ordered for us. She and Mr. Lee sat at another table and a young woman started bringing lovely dishes of food to us. First two types of chicken dishes… then sweet and sour pork and white sticky rice. After looking around to see how we were supposed to eat this stuff (apparently you use your chopsticks and just eat directly from the common plates) Okay, got it, we didn’t waste any time in picking up our chop sticks and digging in… delicious.
Back on the first floor of the center I stopped at a stall and bought a small jar of candy that looked like orange slices, for 10 Yuan (about $1.70). The stall keeper offered us sample of something that looked and tasted a little like jelly beans. Yum.
Back in Mr. Lee’s car we headed for what the Chinese call the China House. Much of the outside is made of china (like dishes) and very beautiful. We jumped out, ran though traffic and stood in front of the house taking pictures ;-) We never did totally understand about this
house except is now a museum.
Mr. Lee is waving to us to hurry so we hop to it, zigzagging between cars, crossing the street and sliding into our assigned seats in the back of the Camry. We put on our seatbelts however, Mr. Lee and Christine think this is silly...and smile indulgently at us, LOL.
Our last stop was in the old concession area of the city. Old and new are intermingled in Tianjin. For many years around the turn of the century they had Japanese, German, Italian, British, French, American, Australian and Belgium Concessions in the city. Each concession (area) was its own world with hospitals, schools, etc. So each section, in this part of the city reflects the architecture and culture of the countries who occupied it. The concessions were formed between 1895 and 1900 but over the last century, the original inhabitants have left and the areas are home to more upscale Chinese.
Probably the most amazing part of the day for us was our last stop. The family home of Puyi, who at age 2, became the last emperor of China. After Japan’s defeat in 1945
Puyi was captured by Russian troops. In 1950 he was returned to China where he spent 10 years in a re-education camp and ending his days as a gardener in Beijing. He died in 1967. The awesome part was just standing in the home of the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty of China. Once again courtyards, beautiful lacquered furniture and lots of history.
Well, our safe driver, Mr. Lee honked his way back to the ship, once again honking at busses, people and bicycles ;-)
Next Stop: Quindao, China
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Rafael
non-member comment
All right!
Finally we get pictures! I see the resident techie was able to get the problem resolved. Great!