http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/edmundm101/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from edmundm101 en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 07:33:04 +0000 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 07:33:04 +0000 As I write this the local time is 1233 p.m on Monday afternoon. At home the time is 1233 a.m. Sunday night into Monday and I'm sure most of you are sleeping. We depart at 630 p.m. which will be Monday morning to you all of you as you get up for work. We will be making the 13 hour journey home to the states while you are all working or enjoying your summer vacation.We have had an incredible tri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-418029.html No scheduled sightseeing which was a nice break from the routine.Time to explore on your own.Today most of the participants got up early at 340 a.m. to meet at 4 a.m. in the lobby to travel to Tiananmen Square to see the flag raising. Walked from hotel with the group and then put Lucy in a Pedi cab to save time. She rode with Julie. We arrived at the square by 4 30 a.m. and waited until about 4 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Tian-anmen/blog-418023.html Since we got in so late on Friday night we were fortunate to have a late start on Saturday morning. We were back at the same hotel in Beijing the Jinguo Garden Hotel and which meant we had the same food for breakfast an array of Chinese and American cuisine. As we get ready to return to the US and because Chinese 3x a day is getting a little old I opted for croissants and fruit rather than fri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-417842.html In the morning Matt and I had time for a bike ride on the city wall. The city wall in Xian is the oldest intact city wall in China and was built in 600 A.D. It is 8.4 miles in perimeter and Matt and I managed to bike the entire distance. Of course after the cobblestone ride and the lightly padded bike seats our butts were pretty bruised We checked out of the hotel and took the bus to lunch befo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-417688.html Sites Terracotta Warriors and Blue Goose PagodaSorry for the delay. We have been traveling and I just havenrsquot kept up with the journal as much.This was our first full day in Xian and the morning included a bus trip about an hour outside the city to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. The city itself is very beautiful and has about 8 million people which is on a par with the number of people in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanxi/blog-417671.html Of course you can't come to China and experience the culture without eating different food. Everyone knows that so many cultures revolve around a meal and being in China has been no different. I have to explain however that there are certain distinctions with Chinese food. We have had breakfast everyday in the hotel which is a mix of Chinese food and American cuisine. You can have fresh fruit http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-416828.html Today was a travel day from Beijing to Xirsquoan in Shaanxi Province. We woke up at 4 a.m. in order to have time to shower and pack up and be in the lobby by 450 a.m. We took our luggage to the lobby and received a box breakfast before we departed at 530 a.m. Our box contained a roll jam lunch meat a lot like bologna yogurt and a hard boiled egg. We left at 530 and arrived at the airpo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-416761.html The plan for today was to begin at 8 a.m. and take a bus to the Summer Palace. After a wonderful breakfast of dumplings fried rice fried dough and fresh fruit we boarded the bus for our journey to the summer palace. Again the weather here was very hot hazy and humid. We have not seen the actual blue sky for several days because of the haze and pollution in the city. The temperature was 33C wh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-416132.html Our main purpose for the trip was to present at the USChina Educational Leadership conference held today at the Peoplersquos Education Press known as PEP. We departed from the hotel at 730 a.m. in order to make it to the PEP for an 830 a.m. conference start time. I suggested to Jan and Jim our guides that some of the accompanying guests may not want to sit all day in a conference on educ http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-416081.html Today was another day of sightseeing that started out a little later than Saturdayrsquos tour. We took a bus ride to the Forbidden City also known as the Imperial Palace in the heart of Beijing. The palace was ordered to be built by Emperor Yongle the same as the tomb we visited on Saturday when he moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing.The palace has 9999 rooms because it was believed th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Forbidden-City/blog-415714.html After lunch in a nearby restaurant and more shopping in a government store we took the bus to the site of the 13 Ming Tombs. You may know that China was under imperial rule for many centuries. Each dynasty usually lasted 300400 years and ended with an uprising of the peasants. The last 2 dynasties were the Ming and Qing respectively. During the Ming Dynasty which lasted during the 1400s 14 emp http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-415385.html Today was 4th of July and of course being in China it didn't seem much like a holiday. But it was a pretty awesome alternative to be able to journey to see the Great Wall of China. We took a bus from the city to the Badaling Gate of the Great Wall of China about 90 minutes outside the city.On the way to the Great Wall we stopped at the Jade Factory to take a tour and to have a shopping opportunit http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Great-Wall-of-China/blog-415269.html Morning we departed for a trip to Bejing Normal University also called BNU. We learned that normal means teacher preparation college. We heard from several guest speakers including a professor from the Education Faculty and her graduate students. It was most impressive to hear their presentations in English with power point and an amazing control of the language. It was 98 today and their ver http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Olympic-Park/blog-415123.html Lunch more Chinese food with white rice this time. Still no watermelon thankfully. Be we have had room temperature water beer and coke at every meal. Matthew had some beer.... lol...just kidding. We did have a cabbage dish with hot peppers. I told Matthew to avoid the hot peppers because they were really hot. Of course that meant that he had to try them and found out that they were EXTREMELY http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-414456.html Our bus tour of the city took us to the Cultural District famous for paper goods art supplies and materials used for calligraphy. We had time to visit several stores to shop and also see the cost of the art supplies. Calligraphy is an ancient Chinese art and many of the supplies are quite costly.Matt and Lucy had to use the restroom while in the Art supply store so they had their FIRST experie http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Xuanwu-District/blog-414348.html ItineraryMorning Guest Speakers 830 a.m. 12 p.m. Ministry of Women's Education and representative from Chinese Psychological Association.Lunch 12 2 p.m. Afternoon Tour of city of Beijing.July 1 evening Went walking around the city and visited the mall in the area. We found the Night Market with all the specialties on a stick snake eel squid cicadas balls cricket grassho http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-414311.html Here are some arrival photos Beijing Capital Airport July 1 arrival http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-414307.html Day 1 June 30 2009Dulles Beijing China via United AirlinesAfter a 13 hour fligh direct to China we arrived safely. Amazing we left at 1245 p.m on Tuesday and then lost a whole day as we arrived on Wednesday at 130 p.m..almost the same time but one day later.Chinese Health Department came on the plane to check the body temperature of every person on board before we were allowed to deplan http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-414288.html