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Published: November 26th 2005
We arrived in Beijing on the 15th and were met at the airport by our travel guide, Helen. She drove us to our hotel. Our hotel room had a tv and a computer with internet. The next morning we woke up early and our guide took us to a huge plaza where beggers tried to sell us hats and fake Rolex watches (Tianamen Square). Then we went to the Forbidden City. It was very big and a lot of the bridges and walls were made of marble. We spent a long time there looking at builidings, statues and other things. We then went to the Temple of Heavan which was very cool.
We went to a restaurant and had Peiking Duck which was very greasy. Then our guide took us to a chinese opera. After the first act we wanted to leave and die in a corner. The second act was a good story with actors doing flips and juggling.
The next day we were driven to the Great Wall. It was a wall. It seemed to go on for a long time (over 4,000 miles?) We saw camels and lots of people selling stuff on the wall. On
the steep part of the wall, I slid down the railing.
We visited the Ming Tomb which was deep underground. We also walked the Sacred Path that had elephants, camels, lions, soldiers and xie-zhi, some kind mix of a dragon and a unicorn.
We left Beijing after 4 days and took an overnight train to Xian. The train took 12 hours. We went in a soft sleeper car. We had our own room with 4 beds (bunkbeds)and a TV with only one channel that we couldn't turn off. When we got off the train at 7 am, a woman wearing full black leather told us she could take us to a good hotel for a cheap price. We got rooms for $30 a night.
Xian City has a 700 year old mosque and a drum tower that has been drumming in the early evening for the past 800 years. We did a lot of walking in the muslim quarters.
A taxi took us the the museum of the terracotta warriors. See pictures.
We left Xian for Chengdu. We went to see the Giant Pandas and the smaller red pandas. See pictures. While walking throught the
Forbidden palace
This stone was carved out of one piece of marble and slid on the ice in the winter to get it to the palace.Tibetan quarter of Chendu, my dad gave money to some beggers. A bunch of beggers started to follow us down the street for 20 minutes. When my dad said no, one guy with no legs rolling on a wheeled platform kept saying no, no, no...We finally got away by going in a university. That night we flew to Kunming.
At Kunming airport we got in a black car with a woman who said she would take us to our hotel. When driving into town she said we should go to her hotel. She was very aggresive. She kept saying she didn't know where our hotel was. My mom jumped out of the car at a stop and insisted that she give us our luggage that was in the trunk. The woman kept screaming at us and followed us into a fancy hotel that we had stopped in front of. She hung around the hotel for awhile trying to get us back in her car. We think she was crazy. We waited until she left and then took a taxi and it was 1:00 o'clock am by the time we got to our hotel.
My opinion of China
is that everyone is always working, and trying to make money. China now has McDonals, KFC's and other american stuff. They also make most of the brand products that we see at home.
My parents are planning a trek through some rice fields in southern China, a week of walking. Oh, and there has been a lot of internet cafes and computers everywhere. The internet service is just slow. We are going to Myanmar (Burma) after China.
Today my dad had a bad reaction to eating Sechuan chilis. He ate the whole plate of meat in red chiles and then turned bright red. He had to go back to his room at the hotel and I took a picture of him. He won't let me send it...maybe next time.
Paris Yaffe
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Nancy Carson
non-member comment
Hi from Wyoming. This post gave us some big laughs. We are very much enjoying your travelblog. The photos are wonderful. We received your postcard from Japan. What a great trip. You're really seeing the world. Thanks for sharing it with us. Love from Andy and me, Nancy