Summer Palace (Day 2), The Great Wall (Day 3) and A Great Day (Day 4)

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Day 2

We went to the Summer Palace today. This is where the Emperor spent the summer. It was very beautiful! A big lake that you could walk around and a long pathway with hand painted pictures all the way down it- 1/2 mile of it. If I (K) was the Emperor, I would live here instead of the Forbidden City- much more green and open spaces not as much concrete. The lake and the entire area was all man made- they took all the soil from the lake dig out and made Longevity Hill and then put a temple on top. It's amazing what man power can do for you! We had lunch at a place on top of the fresh water pearl factory. The head of the factory showed us how to open the clams and get the pearls out. G got to dip out with a net a clam for the man to open and then each girl and mom was given a pearl (loose) from the clam. In the store K bought some items and G bought a bag of loose pearls.

The rest of this day, we went back to the hotel and Grace swam in the pool with her friends and the adults relaxed. That night, we confess, we ordered Papa John's pizza. It was good.

Day 3

We sepent one half day ( day three of the tour) at the Great Wall of China. Although B and I (K) had been there before, we were still very impressed. It had grown up a bit and was a nice park system now. We took the slightly more elevated side of the wall to climb and it was a climb! G did excellent climbing the very steep parts of the wall B made it no probelm and K and some of the other "middle aged" moms felt very good about making it to the top. G and her friend did a bit of Kung Fu on the top of the wall, we recorded them doing it for their Kung Fu instructor. There was an older gentleman who started to tell us all about the wall in Chinese. B, K and G could pretty much understand the gist of it. He was a very nice character to talk to and at the end we gave him an American Flag Pin and he shook our hand and bid us a good day. The Great Wall truly is a wonder of the world and we are always in awe when we think about how they made the whole wall by hand. While we were at the Great Wall a group of African delegates came by and they made us move off of the section of the wall we were on so that they could have a private tour. It was OK since we were about done anyway. We then went down into the Great Wall village area ( it looked a lot like a ski village in Colorado, small gift shops and coffee/tea shops). We purchased some t-shirts (G got one that said, “I climbed the Great Wall of China”) and had an artist paint her Chinese name into a small jar for her then we had some water and a snack. A fun and physically challenging morning.

The afternoon held for us lunch ( they have been feeding us authentic Chinese food every day) and a trip to a cloisonné factory. We got to see the artists working on many vases and saw them fire the pieces and sand them. It is tedious and intense work for the artists. They work about 4 hours a day and then go home, they make about $800 Yuan a month which is considered a very good job. We did not purchase any thing from this factory but our friends from our hometown negotiated for a lovely cloisonné portrait that they will hang over their fireplace. We then headed to the Olympic Village. It was an impressive place- huge! We got to see the famous “bird’s nest” stadium and the water-cube (which is now a public water park with water slides like the Dells). While we were there one of our girls got separated from the group, we had a terrifying 5-8 minutes until we located her. We had just called all the emergency numbers when we found her. Her mom just about had a heart attack. We all stressed to the girls how important it is to stick with the group- lesson learned. We had dinner near the olympic village ( more authentic food) and then headed for the hotel. We all slept hard that night.

Day 4

Today we took a tour of an authentic Hutong neighborhood. The tour began by walking through the main shopping district and arouns a very lovely lake area. Apparently this area has quite the nightlife. We did see a Starbucks and I (K) had to take a photo of the sign in Chinese, but alas it was too hot for coffee and I didn't trust the ice for a Frappachino. Then we went 78 stairs up into the drum tower. The drum tower used to sound on the hour to tell the residents the time. You could see quite a bit of Beijing from this tower. Then we all boarded rickshaws for a ride through the Hutong. It was a maze of small alley ways with many families sharing one courtyard. In the early 90's the city began to demolish parts of the Hutong, but now they are preserving them and it has become fashionable to live in them again. The Hutong neighborhoods are 200-300 years old, typically 4 generations would live under one roof and you would have 20-30 families in one house/courtyard area. About 100-200 families share one bathroom! We had lunch in a Hutong house and were guests of the family that lived there. They made us an incredible lunch and were very generous and nice. They showed/taught the girls how to wrap/make dumplings (pot stickers). We showered the family with gifts before we left (presented in a red bag and with 2 hands to show respect) G presented our gift. Then more rickshaw riding! Such fun ! and our driver was a good sport, laughing and smiling and gave a fan to keep cool as we rode (I ended up fanning G more than me). Back to the hotel after that to pack up and check out. The parenst attended a citizen's panel while the kids did children's activities together. The parents got to ask citizens of all ages and genders questions about living in China and the culture, etc. Very interesting and moving. They also asked us questions. Mostly they expressed how they were grateful to us for raising our daughters so well! And we said, "no, we are the lucky ones to have the girls!" After the meeting we traveled (in tortuous Beijing rush hour) to a place for an authentic Peking duck dinner. G LOVED the duck! B and I also enjoyed it.

The Train

After dinner we went to the train station to catch a train to X'ian. The train station was a mass of humanity, so many people! We couldn't stop to take photos, we had to stick close and hold hands and get through security ( and not let people cut in front of us and separate us from our group)- I used my height to my advantage and elbowed and pushed right along with the locals who would look up at me and then back off. Score one for the tall red headed American. B got stopped at the gate before we boarded and they were holding his passport and yelling at him. We didn't know what the problem was, but then our guide leader stepped up and yelled back at them and we finally got in. It was scary there for a minute. Later we found out that Brian's ticket number didn't match his passport number. Usually they don't check for that so our guides had just randomly handed out the tickets. We finally boarded the train. We had our own compartment and our group took up one whole train car. It was just a "party car" for us! The girls went back and forth visiting each other until bed time. We slept good on the train, it was a 12 hour ride to Xian and we slept most of the way ( it was night time so nothing to see out the window anyway). In the morning we could see the country side and there was less smog so we saw the blue sky too. I ordered coffee (10 Yuan) for the morning- Whew! it was strong. But a welcome shot of caffine. We arrived in Xian and checked into our hotel, showered and had some free time (hence the blogging). This afternoon we will walk along the city wall and fly kites on top. Then we will go to a local park and soak up the local culture. Tomorrow we will go to see the Terra Cotta Warriors and visit a local school in the country side. The city kids have 3 days off for the Dragon Boat Festival but the country kids are coming into school for a couple of hours to host our group ( we will shower them with gifts tomorrow for doing this for us).

Here are some photos. They are from the first few days, enjoy!

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Comments

[marla]

love the blog
you are having such a fantastic time and soaking up culture and people and to be in a private home must have been such a wonderful experience. Using the language must make you feel good to communicate even if it is just a little bit. Great bargaining tool! Mom

[Kristin]

COOL
That is the coolest plane seat I have ever seen! Hope you are having a great time!!!

[Anne Calkins]

What an absolutely spectacular adventure you are having. I can hardly wait to hear about the Terra Cotta Warriors. That is quite fascinating. I hope you are staying as cool as possible. Still hot and miserable back at home. G, you look like you are having an awesome time. The stories that you are going to tell....I can hardly wait. Love you guys,,,stay safe