Travel Blog Posts
April 26th 2008
Last Day in China Never underestimate the entertainment value of a middle-aged white woman taking her first ride on a motorbike in a crowded intersection of downtown Yangshuo. A crowd quickly gathered to witness my maiden voyage, as I struggled coordinating the hand throttle and hand brakes, and dodging the unlucky pedestrians who wandered into my path. The crowd shouted words of encouragement and instructions: “OK! OK!”, “Brake!”, “Stop!” and the ubiqitous “Hello, Be Careful!” (which flows of the tongue of every hawker in China.) I eventually made a full circle without stopping or encountering a near miss, the crowd dispersed, I rented the bike, we headed off with Lilly for a day in the country. We soon left the paved roads and spent most of the next 4 hours on dirt roads that connect the ... read more
April 23rd 2008
Yangshuo The river boats carrying tourists on the famous Li River Cruise from Guillin to Yangshuo pass just beneath our deck every morning between 10:30 and noon. A cacophony of boat horns, of varying pitch and volume, announce their arrival at the Yangshou dock, just a mile downriver from us. I am reminded of sitting near the Ballard Bridge one Sunday afternoon when the large lock emptied out its capacity of sailboats and motorboats heading back to Lake Union or Lake Washington after a weekend in the salt. Somewhat controlled chaos, and lots of near misses. It is a sight to see from up on the hill above the fray. We are staying in a wonderful inn the said mile out of downtown Yangshuo, on the hill above the Li River, with a great views of ... read more
April 21st 2008
Leaving Lijiang We arrived in Lijiang in the dark, but left this morning at 7 AM, on a warm day with the sun just starting to rise above the mountains. This is a beautiful spot, with near-perfect weather, and I can see why the Naxi settled in this mountain valley some 500 years ago. The kids were all heading off to school when we walked out of town with our baggage in tow (no cars allowed in the Old Town). They must start school pretty early! They were all dressed alike, in red pants with a red and white jacket. A woman had fired up her gas stove (? propane) and had the huge cast iron skillet hot, and was frying up the rounds of bread that everyone eats here. And hotdogs! So the kids were ... read more
April 20th 2008
What's stuck in my mind after a week away from Beijing.... Wudaokou station on the subway line lies astride Chengfu Road, a broad and busy boulevard that stretches through the sprawl of northwest suburban Beijing. Much of the area is taken up with universities - 8 or 9 of them, one after the other, with what must be hundreds of thousands of students. Departing the Wudaokou station, you can walk in one direction toward the Foreign Language and Culture university (where Doug teaches English); in the other toward Qinghua University and Peking University - these are the cream of the crop, typically described as the MIT and Harvard of China. I worked with a few Qinghua-educated engineers and they lend credence to the boast. But whichever direction you walk, at almost any time of day or ... read more
April 19th 2008
We have settled in to this bipolar town, and are loving it. The up side is the ancient architecture, good food, alpine scenery, warm weather,and the glimpses into everyday life of the Naxi. The down side is the daily arrival of the tour buses, from which quite literally thousands of people are disgorged and descend upon town like bees to the hive. EVERY ONE has a camera phone, and photo ops abound. The Chinese seem to like their photos quite formal and posed, so the notion of a "snapshot" is completely unheard of. Amazingly, Caucasians of any sort are still a miniscule part of the tourist crowd here. Most are Chinese or other Asians, so we Americans do stick out. It is both flattering and bit unnerving to be the subject of so many photos while ... read more
April 17th 2008
We arrived in Lijiang late last night after a short flight from Chendu. Lijiang is in southwest China, near Tibet, and the town has an elevation of 7800 ft. It is nestled in a bowl, surrounded by mountains. The highest peak nearby, Snow Jade Mountain, reaches well past 15,000 feet, and you can take a chair lift ride up to 14,00 feet. The travel guide says local vendors will sell you oxygen up there if you need it. I think Jim and I will be going up the mountain in a few days, but we may skip this highest elevations. We were feeling pretty winded today climbing up the 7 stories to the top of the local pagoda. Doubling our elevation probably won't make our breathing easier! LiJiang is the home of the Naxi (pronunced Na-shi) ... read more
April 17th 2008
The Coffee Buzz Jim and I finally succumbed to our urge for a cup of joe, and ended up in the local Starbucks. This shop, in the heart of Chengdu, is indistinguishable from my local Mercer Island version. Same warm décor, same pretty glass pendant lights, same tall, grande and vente. Funny how the earthy color of paint on the wall and that wooden menu board can conjure up a bit of security in a strange place. We lingered for an hour…. A cup of coffee in China is clearly the most overpriced product we have found. The two of us paid 63 yuan for a mocha and an americano. This is just about $9 US. Not bad….only a dime or two more than we might pay on Mercer Island. But, 63 yuan in China ... read more
April 15th 2008
Chengdu We are now in the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province. This is a “moderate” size town of nearly 9 million people. Chengdu has the look and feel of a western industrial city….a welcome change from the frenetic pace and minute-to-minute challenge of holding on to life, limb and sanity in Beijing. We are staying a few blocks from the center of town, near the city square and the giant statue of Mao (where all the Chinese tourists must have their picture taken.) Chengdu is a pleasant city, with many parks and public spaces. Today we spent several hours in “The People’s Park.” It was lush with trees, azaleas and rhodies, sculptures, pavilions and locals young and old. A group of women practicing Tai Chi, a Chinese band and singers entertaining the crowd, a cluster ... read more
April 15th 2008
Xi'an Terra Cotta Warriors On Sunday, Jim, Doug and I visited the Terra Cotta Warriors archeologic site near Xi’an. Here, in 1974, a couple of farmers digging a well, discovered the 2000+-year-old remains of an entire Chinese army division sculpted in clay, and carefully arranged in appropriate formations. Each figure is different, and accurately represents the uniforms, weapons, chariots, horses, armor and configuration of military units and divisions of this era. The warriors were commissioned by the emperor to accompany him to his grave, and thus were purposefully buried in well-built chambers, the remains of which survive to this day. The artists preserved their metal weapons using a thin application of chrome plating, a technique not discovered again until the 20th century by the US and German armies. I marvel at the sophistication and artistry of ... read more
April 12th 2008
Doug, Jim and I are flying from Beijing to Xi’an aboard Shanghai Airlines. It’s been a busy 3 days in Beijing…amazing how the time flies. On Wednesday we visited the Summer Palace, a vast enclave that was built in the late 1700’s during the Ming Empire for the pleasure of the emperor. It covers about 3 sq km, and includes a large lake, an opera house, Buddhist temple, multiple residences, meeting halls, and courtyards, and the first large residential gardens in China. (Makes Bill Gates’ place seem ho-hum.) Lovely traditional Chinese Imperial architecture. The photos do not do it justice. Hard to imagine the number of laborers and artists that would be required just to paint the ceiling tiles in the 50 or so buildings. Most fascinating to me were the beautiful fired clay tiles and ... read more
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