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Xian City Wall
The four of us had a very bumpy ride on these bikesA Birthday to Remember
We had planned this trip before we even moved to China. My mom and dad had always planned to come to visit us in China before my dad got sick and he thought it would be really cool for us all to celebrate my 40th Birthday on the Great Wall of China. It was sad that my parents weren’t able to make the trip but we decided to make plans around the date of my birthday as my dad had wanted. They would be with us in spirit and I was taking enough photo’s to send to my dad so it would seem like he was really there!!!
Our trip….. first stop on this vacation was in Xian, home to the Terracotta Warriors. We were staying at the “Hyatt” hotel in the city center and weren’t disappointed by it at all. The Hyatt is a 5 star hotel (thank god for corporate rates!!) which lives up to its rating (some hotels here can have a high star rating but would be a much lower rating back home in the States or probably most places in the world).
Thursday morning we were met by a local guide
Xian
Woman making mini warriors for sale named “Snow”. It was suggested we get a guide and driver for our tour of the warriors in order to appreciate them fully. Her English was great although she had a really squeaky voice like she had been sucking on Helium before meeting us!!! She took us to a local place that makes the terracotta warriors for sale. It was amazing watching how they mold each one and use little knives to make sure the details were “just right”. The girls and I all bought a warrior each, but just small ones. We were offered free shipping if we decided to buy a life sized one or bigger. I can just imagine what my neighbors would think if they woke up one morning to find a warrior standing guard over front yard. It would definitely be taking the “gnome” idea a bit far!!!!
The tomb for the warriors was both cool and a little disappointing. I can be honest when I say that the idea of it all is a lot better than the real thing. Don’t get me wrong… it was exciting to be able to see them all lined up in formation to guard Emperor Qin’s mausoleum. It’s
The Terracotta Warriors
Our first glimpse at the warriors an honor to say that we have seen them but at the same time I was expecting more and left with just a little doubt as to the full authenticity of it all. It certainly was a busy tourist spot and you could even get the farmer that discovered them all to sign a book for you is you wished. We kept joking at the fact that this poor old farmer was probably one of the richest men in China right now!!
Xian used to be the capital of China so our day was filled with visits to the local historical attractions including a Bell Tower (used to wake up the town for work) and a Drum tower (used to tell them that their work day was over). Both were very detailed and beautiful buildings and of course Megan had to beat both bell and drum to let them know we were there. The highlight of Xian for the girls had to be our bike ride around the city wall. The wall is 14km long and very wide so we hire a couple of tandem bikes and headed off. We laughed a lot as you can imagine at how bumpy
a wall that is hundreds of years old is. I still can’t believe we made it all the way around is just over an hour. Of course my butt was definitely a little saddle sore after it all but them again I can’t remember that last time I actually rode a bike!!!
Off to Beijing…. I can honestly say that our flight from Xian to Beijing has got to be the worst flight ever. We had turbulence the whole way and the plane even dropped dramatically at one point which left me in a such a state of panic that you would have thought we were on a white knuckle ride for the rest of the flight because I was gripping onto the seat so tightly. We finally arrived and were ready to begin our adventure in Beijing. We started off well…. Sophie left her iPod on the flight and didn’t realize until we were in a cab on our way into the city. Of course the words that came out of her mouth were not to say “I’m sorry” …she had to say “Can I have a new one?” It lit a fire under me and so boy
Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Xian
Kevin and the girls wth our guide, Snow. did she hear from me about the lesson on responsibility!!!!! Luckily it took us a little while to get to our hotel so I had calmed down and said we would forget about it for now. Throughout our trip we couldn’t help but give her little reminders of what she had lost!!!
Beijing Duck- this is a specialty of Beijing so we joined some friends at one of the most famous restaurants in the center of the city and joined hundreds of people who were all there just to eat duck. You couldn’t actually eat anything else cause everything on the menu was something made with duck!! We ordered 2 ducks for 4 adults and 3 kids. When ready an “expert carver” comes out and craves the ducks in front of you. It’s not healthy but the skin is regarded as the best part of the bird and I have to say that when its rolled up on a pancake with some plum sauce, shredded cucumber and green onion it is definitely a taste to be reckoned with! It was delicious and so good that even my incredibly picky daughter Sophie ate about 6 pancakes to herself.
After dinner
Xian
Drum Tower we decided to have a look at the night food market. Oh my god!!! You have never seen anything like it. We were shocked by the food items that were available at the many open air food stalls. You chose your item and they quickly grilled or fried it for you. They seriously will eat anything here in China, confirmed by the fact that the choices here were:- Cockroaches, Beetles, Scorpions, Starfish, Sea Horses, Sea Urchins, Centipedes, and the "piece de resistance" the Penis (I tried to ask whose it was but they didn't understand and thought I wanted to try it…no chance of that happening!!). All of these delicacies come on a stick and were just as popular as the chicken, pork and beef Kabobs that were sold there too. As much as my stomach was turning over and over I loved browsing up and down this street. I'm sure though that my oohs and erghs attracted a few disapproving looks!
The Great Wall - never in our lifetimes did we imagine we would be walking on the Great Wall of China. It was always something that we read about in books or that everybody else did and
Beijing Duck Restaurant
The chef comes out to carve the ducks in front of you here we are doing it ourselves. We started the day with a 7am pick up from our hotel. You have to have a driver to get to the wall as it is a 1 1/2hr drive which is a bit much by taxi. Our friends had picked up MacDonald’s on their way to us so we all sat in a huge Minivan eating pancakes and Egg McMuffins. It was fun. We drove to part of the wall called Mutianyu to try and avoid most of the tourists. All the tour groups go to an area called Badaling so we wanted to avoid that. We headed up the hill to a cable car that thankfully takes you up to the wall. It’s a long walk for anyone choosing to hike up and we decided it would be a long walk on the wall itself so taking the easy way up was an easy choice to make. Taking that first step on the wall and looking across the top of the mountain to see the wall stretching away in front of you was an amazing sight. No, it was an incredible sight! A lot of the wall has been renovated but it
Duck Restaurant
All of us enjoyed the duck. I think Andrea is still eating it in this photo is still incredible to stand up there and look at the extent of the work that had to be done to build the original structure. The walk on the wall is not a gentle walk. The wall moves up and down with many steps as it follows the contours of the mountain. It was 96 Degrees this day and although we were sweating buckets, had aching legs and were pretty much exhausted we didn't complain at all. Wherever you turned there was a spectacular view and to be honest it was a privilege to even be there when so many haven't had the chance so moaning about any of it simply would have been a travesty. Megan and Sophie had a blast going up the look-out buildings that were built every 150 ft and they were very excited when the time came to go back to the car. Not because they wanted to leave but because we opted against walking down , and against taking the cable car, because we were going to slide down on toboggans. There is a toboggan run that’s winds down the mountain and it is a blast!!
China hosted the Olympics last year so
of course we couldn't go to Beijing and not take a look at the Birds Nest and the Cube. We couldn't believe how busy they were. You have to pay to go into the Birds Nest and it is certainly as big as it looked on the TV. The whole structure on the outside is literally made of solid steel. Quite a spectacular design when you see it up close. Inside there were hundreds of tourists from every corner of the world it seemed. It was quite cool to listen to all the different languages as you walked around. The girls again seemed to attract attention and at one point there was even a line of people waiting to have their picture taken with them. We had to video because we couldn't believe they were so popular. Both girls got a gold medal from the gift store and boy did they deserve it for their patience!!! One family wanted them to hold their little boy who was really adorable until we realized that he wasn't wearing a diaper. The Chinese call it "potty training" but come on, how many babies are trained at a few months old. CRAZY!!!! Anyway Sophie
Penis on a stick
We're not quite sure which animal these come from nearly had a coronary when we looked back at the photo I had taken myself of her and the baby. She said "is that my finger?" ---well look at the photo and see for yourself!!!!!
The cube unfortunately was closed but we think it is only opened for VIP's. I guess it would be dangerous to have hundreds of tourists walking around with all that water. I loved just looking at the outside of it as it seems to change color when the sun shines on it. I think I saw most of the inside on the TV as swimming and diving was what I watched 90% of the time.
Sunday…the day I turned 40!!!! We had a busy day planned. We first went to Tiananmen Square and looked at the monument over General Mao’s mausoleum. Only the privileged get to look inside and only when his body is raised once day for cooling. The square is basically just a big square in front of the Forbidden City. I wanted to go there purely because of what had happened all those years ago but it is nothing to write home about! The Forbidden City was next and I can
The Great Wall of China
We went to a section in Mutianyu honestly say that I am glad that we have been and that we have seen it all but I'm not interested in seeing it again. Maybe the 92 deg heat, blinding sun and thousands of people had something to do with it but we were happy when we left. It’s huge but once you have walked into the first part you have seen it all. The buildings are very repetitive and OK some of them are pretty to look at but in general it is just too vast and not very interesting!
We went for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Kevin and I have always tried to visit a Hard Rock cafe wherever we are in the world and this was no exception. Plus I was craving a "good" burger for my birthday so it was the place to go. We laughed when we walked in because you could only see Western faces except for the wait staff! I ordered a BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger and enjoyed every mouthful. How many celebrate their birthdays with a burger??? We picked up our token souvenir, a baseball cap for me and then headed off to the Temple of Heaven.
The
temple was beautiful, made up of an array of different engraved colorful pieces. You can't go inside but we were content to stand and look at its glory. It stood surrounded by beautiful grounds full of trees, flowers and walkways. As we walked around we stopped for several impromptu performances by the Chinese people there. At one point we stopped to listen to a huge group of Chinese people who had decided it was the perfect day to sing. They didn't have a care in the world as they boldly sang to anyone that wanted to listen. Further on we came across some ball room dancers (very common here in China) and then the "Simon says" crowd. The women in the front shouted something and they followed her directions from sticking their fingers in their ears to beating their chests. Apparently they were doing some "cleansing" exercises but it looked like Simon says!!! Our time at the temple was very relaxing and a great way to finish this day...or so I thought!!!!
We had decided to just have a "snack" for dinner after having a big lunch so the plan was to go to the hotel bar/cafe. You can
The Great Wall
There were lots of steps imagine my surprise when we walked in t be greeted by a waitress that said "Happy Birthday "to me. We were seated at a reserved table and then presented with a beautiful chocolate cake and another waiter offering birthday wishes. The candles were still in the packet but Kevin did the honors and the four of us enjoyed sitting in the bar with a drink and a slice of cake. It was a wonderful end to a very enjoyable day.
The Summer Palace - this place is a great place to spend the day. The palace sits very high on a hill above a huge lake and grounds. The walk around the lake took us hours but it was so beautiful the time just flew by. The pathway went under weeping willow trees and up and down arched bridges. The summer palace is described as the largest and best-preserved imperial garden in China. Its Chinese name, YiHeYuan, translates as 'Garden of Nurtured Harmony' or 'Garden for Maintaining Health and Harmony'. There were lots of spots to just sit down and take in the scenery or watch the other people walking by. It was peaceful, even when the bigger parties went
by. Surprisingly we didn’t get too many moans from the girls. There are always a few but it was a scorching hot day and we did walk 6 or 7 miles so we let most things slide. The palace again was not open to the public. You can look through the open doors but can’t go in. I thought it was cool to see a car at the palace. It was the first car to be brought into China and it was for the Emperors wife who had high “standing” in the empire at the time. I think I am becoming a history buff when it comes to China. I just find it fascinating!
Our last day - we had a few hours before our flight so we decided to take the girls to Beijing Zoo to see the panda’s. Anyone that knows me knows that I won’t even go to a circus because I don’t like the way the animals are treated so you can imagine how I was feeling about going to a Chinese zoo. I was pleasantly surprised by the Panda’s. They had quite a big enclosure and they seemed to have a good rapport with their
The Great Wall
We came down on a toboggan handlers. It was lovely to see them playing “rough and tumble” together and they did look happy and well fed. Of course they didn’t look black and white, it was more a shade of beige and white but none the less I was pleasantly surprised. Now of course we had to walk around the rest of the zoo. The bears were on concrete, no shrubs or water, the zebras came all the way up to the fence and so the Chinese visitors, ignoring the “DO NOT FEED” signs, fed them sandwiches and anything else they could find. The big cats had to be the worst though. They were in indoor enclosures that were no more than concrete cells with a bench to lie on. It stunk so badly and they barely had room to move. I wanted to set them all free but not before feeding a few Chinese people them first. They were banging on the glass or rattling cage doors. It was disturbing! I had to get out of there so we headed for the exit as it was nearly time to head to the airport anyway. At Sophie’s request we did make a final stop at the
The Olympic Birds Nest
The girls posed with their olympic gold medals reptile house. It was actually what we needed because we laughed at all the turtles they had there. The Chinese will eat turtle at any given moment. You can find them at any supermarket for sale and there are even stores that only sell live turtles. Yet here we are with the biggest display of turtles I have seen in my life. All we could say was that they were lucky buggers at that they were the safest turtles in China. The Chinese were being so quiet around this area it was weird!!!
Well off to the airport we went and although exhausted after being on the go all the time we left very happy. I don’t know if we will make it back to Beijing again but we will certainly not forget the things that we have seen and done.
What a way to spend a birthday!!!
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Gillian
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WOW
What an amazing way to spend your 40th birthday!