Rainy day in Shanghai

Feb 20, 2015

Our final day in China and our family was back together. Turns out April and I were the only 2 who didn't take the optional tour the day before, but that our whole "family" had decided to take the tour and CRUISE for our last day. While we had been fortunate with beautiful weather for the past few days, our streak had run out, and the forecast for the day was rain :( Being the good travelers we are, we had planned ahead with boots and raincoats, but we were hopeful we wouldn't need them until the evening.

We started out morning with a visit to the Jade Buddha Temple and so did half the city. Being only 2 days after the New Year, it seemed like everyone and their mother…and grandmother…and grandfather…decided to visit the temple to pray for prosperity and health in the new year of the Sheep…or Ram…or Goat (in China the zodiac for this new year is the Yen, which symbolizes a small, meek, ruminant animal and therefore doesn't specify which of those animals it would be). The temple was very crowded and we often lost sight of our guide, so it was good we were all a close family at this point and kept an eye on each other. There were several depictions of Buddha in the temple and the most famous was the statue carved out of a single piece of jade. We weren't allowed to take pictures, not sure why, but there were lots of locals buying oil, saying a prayer with the bottle and then giving it back to the temple to be used in the lanterns around the statue. While Buddhism started in India, it made quite the splash in China. Originally all Buddha statues had a European face, but after centuries in China, he is now depicted with an Asian one. Xu Jin joked that if Christianity had been in China for as long, at eventually Jesus would look Asian too haha. There wasn't much room for our large-ish group, so we pushed our way back to the bus to head to the oldest market town in Shanghai.

This was the classic street market scene-lots of vendors selling goods and food, harassing you on the street and CROWDS of people. April said THIS was the China she expected, but we both agreed had all our stops been this crowded, we would have gotten overwhelmed long ago. We had 2 hours of free time to walk and explore, and April and I finished the last of our souvenir shopping. In most stores it was acceptable to bargain a lower price on your purchase, but a few were solid in their asking price. The new year acted in our favor because a lot of things were on sale. Still feeling burnt out on Chinese food, we were TERRIBLE international travelers (and I hate to admit this), but we caved and went to KFC for lunch haha. While the food items were the same as the states, we still had no idea how to order anything from an all Chinese menu; as soon as we got to the front of the line, the cashier gave us an English menu which was considerably more helpful. We wondered the market more and tried to explore each section, but were often met with police officers guarding entrances and trying to control the flow of pedestrian traffic. I'm not sure if this was a normal practice, or something they anticipated due to the after holiday crowds. When we met our group again at 2pm, we were all on time except 3 and while we waited for the whole group to arrive, April and I snuck away to run across the street for Dairy Queen Blizzards 0:-) Satisfied by our American food fix, we walked back to the bus in the rain (and of course it wasn't raining when we got off the bus, so I'd left my raincoat behind) and were kind of dreading our next stop-the Shanghai Museum.

When we got to the Museum, the line to get in stretched around the corner. By the time we'd waited in the cold rain to get inside, we would have had no time to see any of the exhibits. We took a group vote and the whole "family" decided we'd rather go to the mall. So, to the mall we went! While Xu Jin didn't like straying from the original program, we were convincing enough that he decided to accommodated us on our "optional tour" day. The near by mall was similar to that in the states with it's type of stores, but the layout of the mall was much more compact. Stores were almost one on top of the other and there were only narrow hallways separating the sides of the hall. While most items were on sale for the new year, things were still a little too rich for my travel budget, and we left empty handed.

An early dinner, and thankfully our last family style Chinese meal. Not to say I haven't been enjoying the food, but let's just say I won't be ordering Chinese takeout for a while haha. Between the saucy mystery meats and squatting toilets with no paper and disgusting hygiene, I was kinda feeling "over" China. Guess that's a sign of a good vacation…just enough time away for you to miss home. The highlight of our time in Shanghai was our after dinner river cruise. Xu Jin described Shanghai in the day time as "black and white tv" and the skyline at night as "color tv", and he was definitely right. The entire skyline was bright with colorfully lit buildings and LED displays facing the Huangpu River. The "old school" and the "new school" aka Pudong side of the rivers were even more beautiful at night, and despite the weather it was still enjoyable to see the sights and have one last visit with our family.

Back to the hotel for hugs goodbye to those flying to SFO in the morning (most of us were leaving for LAX) and back upstairs to pack. Departure time for the airport is 5:30am for our 7:30am flight from Shanghai to Beijing. Then Beijing to LAX at 1:30pm for 13hrs. Then LAX to Charlotte for 4hrs before our 1hr flight to Norfolk making our arrival time 12am Saturday. We've heard there's snow waiting for us at home and I’m definitely planning on spending the night at April's before my 4hr drive back home to MD.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Feb 19, 2015

Today was our 1st and only day to leisure, and we took advantage of it by sleeping in! Even though out start times haven't been too early, it was still a nice break. We leisurely ate our breakfast and set off for an unplanned adventure walking the streets of Shanghai.

At 1st we were hesitant to stray too far from the hotel, but armed with out trusty city map, and English translated street signs we ventured on. We stumbled up a little local park where people were playing with their dogs, playing badminton, practicing Tai Chi and even a guy working on his breakdance routine haha. We saw on our map there was a local brewery doing tours only a few miles away so we decided to head in that direction.

We walked in the sunshine on empty streets, which them grew more crowded as the buildings got taller. When we stopped for a few pics of the central square, April noticed we were standing across the street from the Shanghai Mary Kay building!! I knew MK was in China, but I had no idea where nor did I ever think we'd randomly run into the building :-D

Our walk continued on to the brewery only to arrive and find they were closed! Being New Year's day, 1 in 10 shops we passed were closed, so unfortunately it was a long walk for nothing more than exploring the city. We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch and were impressed with how far we got with only knowing how to say "hello" and "thank you"-there's a lot of pointing and smiling haha. After lunch we walked a few blocks more to visit another local park and a little people watching.

The walk home to the hotel ended at 4:45 and my feet were KILLING me! I was kinda proud of our independence in venturing out and exploring the city on our own (AND making it back home before dark) and we happily flopped down on the bed for a few hours. We went to the hotel restaurant for dinner and feeling pretty sick of Chinese food by now, we split a burger and pizza. Not bad for non-American chefs, and it hit the stop well enough.

Now we are back in our room lying around in our fluffy bed, drinking the last of our Great Wall cabernet, and getting ready for our last  day in China tomorrow ::sigh:: It's hard to believe we've already been here a week; although my feet would probably disagree haha.

City above the Sea

Feb 18, 2015

Shanghai literally means "city above the sea" and is a quickly growing city. While Beijing is considered the Washington DC of the East, Shanghai is the New York. Most of the sky rise buildings in the city were built since 1990. 1990!!! When they called it a young city, they really mean a YOUNG city.

Our Wednesday itinerary was a relaxed one with only 2 scheduled stops-Oriental Pearl Tower and the Bund.

Built in 1994, the tower is a very distinct landmark on the skyline (see pics) on the Huangpu River. We took the elevator ride up to the 2nd pearl, 259m of the 794m. It was a beautiful 360degree view of the city. It really reminded me of the Sky Tower in Auckland, and is the 2nd tallest building in China. We enjoyed the views and I finally managed to find SINGLE postcards. I never thought that would be a challenge, but all the postcards we've seen have been packs of 10, and I only needed 3. After climbing down we walked through the Shanghai Wax Museum, which I was pretty impressed with. The sings were not only translated to English, but they were *just* enough info to be informative, but not a brain drain.

The Bund is the area near the Huangpu River which also had a great view of the skyline. After walking for a while it we clearly noticed the divide between the "old" side of the city, with European influenced architecture, and the "new" side of the city, with the modern buildings that were built in the 90s. April and I were QUITE the celebrities and were asked for photos with the locals at least a dozen times. It must have been our blonde hair…we were the only ones in the whole Bund!

At lunch we decided to sign up for the optional night excursion-dinner and an acrobatic show. April had never been to something like that, and it was only $33. For dinner and a show, we couldn't do much better. We were hoping to find something fun and local to do to celebrate the Spring Festival aka Chinese New Year, but due to the stampede at the end of December, the government cancelled all the parades. The acrobatic show was 100% worth it, and afterwards we decided to come back to the hotel room and celebrate in the traditional Chinese fashion, by watching the "gala" on tv. It is the tradition to have a family reunion for the Spring Festival and watch the gala at night, eat dumplings and set off fire crackers.

The gala reminded us of the Rockin New Year's Eve countdown and the fire crackers went off ALLLLLLLLLL night. As early as 9:30,  there were fireworks all over the skyline. At midnight there was a big show right outside of our hotel room window and even thought it wasn't what we were expecting, I guess it was the traditional Chinese way, and like lots of other things, it was just part of the unexpected adventure.

Beijing --> Shanghai

Feb 17, 2015

Happy Mardi Gras!! No beads or King's Cakes to be seen, but it was another beautiful blue sky day with temps in the 50's and less wind. We started our tour by visiting the Temple of Heaven. During the Winter Solstice emperors would perform rites and sacrifices to Heaven and pray for a good harvest in the upcoming year. China is mainly an agriculture nation and food was always a top concern. Without full bellies, the people would rebel and overthrow the emperor. This large park complex is a site to see the locals of Beijing enjoying the fresh air and exercising. While exercising in the park in the US might look like yoga, or runners training for their next half marathon, the locals of Beijing (mostly elders) were practicing Tai Chi, calligraphy, or dancing. It was really cute to watch the old couples ballroom dancing in the park accompanied by the single grandma's just enjoying the dancing solo.

The gates in the Temple of Heaven were a sapphire blue to symbolize the color of heaven. The other gates we had visited were green to symbolize the emperor's power and greatness. I’m not gonna lie, all the temples and gardens have started to blend together, but it was nice to be back outside in the sunshine walking along the 500year old junipers. You can take the girl out of the US but you can't take away her love of the outdoors :)

Before lunch we visited a local pear shop. 90% of the world's freshwater pearls are from China and we were lucky enough to visit one of the shops. The pearl oysters look very different than our bay oysters-large smooth shells with significantly colored growth rings. Our oyster ambassador, Judy, opened one of the oysters for us to show us the pearls inside and there were more than 10! Varying shapes and sizes, but they were easily picked out of the shell. She didn't go into much detail about how the pearls are created, but it was interesting to see the differences between our oysters and theirs.

After a little shopping, it was time for lunch. We visited a local Beijing restaurant and had northern style traditional food. I won't pretend to be able to tell you what we were eating, but it was a variety of veggies, chicken, beef, and pork dishes and soups. A few a liked, a few I didn't care for, but c'est la vie. Our big lunch made me sleepy and we had a 30min drive on the bus to our next stop, so I definitely took advantage of the break with a quick cat nap.

The Summer Palace was our final site of the day. By now my brain was completely toured out…so many palaces…so many gardens!!! These imperial gardens were the summer vacation spot for the emperor and his family and are over 700acres on a beautiful lake. Me being me, as soon as I saw SAV growing in the lake I was determined to spot some fish haha. I allowed myself to get distracted from Li's tour and historical information about the tour and just enjoyed the hunt/sunshine. She gave us 20min explore, but April and I just sat and chatted with her while soaking up the Vitamin D and the view of the lake. We eventually moved on to walk more through a long corridor lavishly painted with things other than dragons! This was the 1st art work we'd seen that had something other than these mythical creatures and we sipped tea, glanced at a few, and allowed ourselves to relax.

Airport time again!! We suffered through the Spring Festival traffic (aka Chinese New Year)…just imagine trying to get to the airport the day before Christmas Eve and you'll understand…and made it to check-in with plenty of time. Li accompanied us inside to ensure a expedient process and the rest was as expected. A little slow through security, large bathrooms, and a long walk to our gate. April and I had heard that dinner on the plane might be a little iffy (rumors were saying fish heads and rice!), so we decided to grab a bite before out departure. Even though our exhaustion was high, we forced ourselves to catch up on journaling and photo captioning. We could see a few fireworks below in early celebration of the New Year and we were on our way to Shanghai.

1st impressions of the city of Shanghai was more modern. Out new guide's name is Xu Jin and he's a Shanghai native. He told us that about 50% of the residents of the city were internal immigrants and that most of them would be traveling back home for the New Year to see their families. Out new hotel is a Crowne Plaza, with a lovely lobby decorated for the Spring Festival. A large high rise with 24 floors, we have a great view of the skyline from our room on the 10th floor. My back was feeling pretty tight after all these days of traveling and my feet were really swollen so I did some stretching before bed and was very thankful that we had a late start in the morning.-9:30am

OMG we're on the GREAT WALL!!!

Feb 16, 2015

It was a BEAUTIFUL blue sky day in Beijing. I was worried that the city was always covered in grey clouds and it was just something we'd have to get used to; however, this was not the case. The temperatures was in the mid 50's, but it was forecasted to be VERY windy, which it was. First thing in the morning, after breakfast, we visited the Ming Tombs and walked along the Sacred Way. The tombs were settled in the hills outside of the city and the site was chosen due to it's Fenghui alignments. The shape of the hills and the valley are very guarded against evil spirits and thus ideal.

The Sacred Way was a long path through a wooded garden lined with auspicious animal statues. Lions, Elephants, Camels, and a Chinese mythical creatures like the Beeshee (the body of a turtle and the head of a dragon), and the Kylin (scaled of a fish, legs of a deer, tail of an ox and the head of a dragon). Each animal had 2 sets of statues; one prone (resting) and one standing (on guard). They were beautiful stone sculptures and great for April and I to 'stop drop and yoga' in front of; naturally there were a few versions of "camel pose" and a brief "elephant's trunk". There were several lovely gates signifying the unity between heaven and earth and were all about keeping evil away and welcoming good fortune. We didn't visit the tombs themselves, but it was nice to be outside in the sunshine listening to the magpies.

Next stop was to the jade factory. Jade is a very sacred stone in China and is highly coveted for it's powers. We learned that there are 3 versions of jade; soft jade--used for carving and often looks like "mutton fat" because of it's natural shine and color, hard jade-used for jewelry and some statues; and jadeite--living jade used for jewelry and will change colors over time. Just like the Green Stone in New Zealand the Chinese believe that "you give life to the jade, and the jade gives you life", it is best worn near the skin so our natural oils keep it polished and you are able to absorb it's healing powers. It is very common that women will wear a jade bangle on their left side and men will wear a circular pendant under their shirts. To date the Chinese have found 36 natural occurring colors of jade-dark green, light green, yellow, purples-you name it. Because the stone is so hard it must be drilled with diamond drills and we were able to see a man working on a "family unity ball" (3 layers of circular jade rings, carved inside the other signifying 3 generations of family protected by a dragon (male power) and phoenix (female power) aka happy couple) . These techniques are passed down from generation to generation and are often seen as family secrets. While all the jade was lovely, the prices…not so much. One jade bangle was $240. Beautiful, powerful, significant, and WAY outside my price range. The women at the shop reminded us that they were investment pieces and could passed down from generation to generation, but it just wasn't in the cards. Upstairs from the shop was our dinning room for lunch. A westernized "traditional" family style lunch with many different dishes including veggies, meat dishes and soups.

Then it was time…

After a short drive through the hills we were able to catch out 1st glimpses of the Great Wall. Not one continuous wall, we climbed the Badaling section, only part of the 3,500mi span. I won't bore you with the historic details of the who and why, you can read those in the history books; the highlight of this experience was the fact that climbing the wall, really means CLIMBING the wall. I cannot find the words to describe how STEEP sections of our trek really were. We were thankful for the sunshine and handrails because any type of rain or snow would have made it EXTREMELY dangerous. The wind was whipping, but it meant the pollution was blown north and the clear blue skies were the perfect backdrop. Naturally there were more yoga poses and utter excitement (o.m.g. we are on the GREAT WALL!!!!); it was truly a breathtaking accomplishment and another check on the bucket list.

Right before sunset we visited the 2008 Olympics site, the Bird's Nest. In comparison to the other 2 Olympic sites I've visited (Salt Lake City and Sydney), the Bird's Nest and Water Cube site felt much more grand. The Chinese are definitely a "go big or go home" type of people. While leads me to our after hours adventure. One of the guys in our tour group is a college student studying abroad in China. April and I tagged along with him, his parents, and 2 sisters in our group to explore the "Night Market" in downtown Beijing. We took the subway (nice and clean and easy to navigate) a few stops and with some help from the locals found a mostly hidden alleyway lined with food vendors. Our guide warned us against eating any meat at the market because some of the meat might have been their for 7 weeks (gross).
However, we knew one item was extremely fresh because we saw it wiggling on the sticks…the scorpions! We all ordered a stick of 3 and watched as they were dipped in the fryer and handed over for our culinary pleasure. I took a video of April and the others (the brave ones who took the 1st bites) and I will try to add it below. April described it was tasting like fried chicken skin, but I thought it was more like a fried soft crab's legs; salty and crunchy. We walked along the alley absorbing the sites and smells of the truly local Beijing. We also tried some sugar coated fruits, and roasted nuts. I was very surprised at the cleanliness of the alley considering the amount of food being purchased and that there were trash cans every few feet. Things didn't always smell so wonderful, but littering was definitely discouraged. A subway ride back to our underground mall and to the hotel for a 9:30pm dinner. We were both exhausted after a big day, so we packed out bags for Shanghai and crahsed

Sarah's Bootcamp Day 1

Feb 15, 2015

Let me just start by saying, if you haven't had a personal masseuse come to your hotel room and then ate chocolate and drank wine and you aren't jealous of us right now, you are crazy. But I'll get there in a minute.

Today was our 1st day of "Sarah's Bootcamp" which started with 3hrs walking through Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. Before heading out we grabbed breakfast at our hotel and while April stayed on the "safer" side with more American foods, I ventured out with dumplings, bean sprouts and eggs. It was a cool day in the 50's but with a strong breeze. After hearing so much about Beijing's air quality I was curious to see what our 1st full day in the city held for our lungs. I didn't really "feel" the poor quality, but the whole day had a strong haze almost that of a cloudy rainy day with out the rain.

Tienanmen Square is the political center of the city center. It's a very culturally significant site for the people of China and is usually very crowded with it's ability to hold 1million people, luckily on a Sunday in February it wasn't. Most of the square is blocked off to tourists and didn't have much to see, relatively speaking. Out guide let us know that people come of the square to take 2 pictures, one in front of the Forbidden City's portrait of Chairman Mao, and the other with the white tourists! She warned us that they would approach us for a picture or just grab us and snap away. Good thing that she gave us the heads up, but we were CELEBRITIES!! It was really cute when people would timidly approach us and were so tickled when we agreed to take a few pics with them. Sometimes the whole family would join in one at a time!

After freezing our little under-prepared American butts off we journeyed into the Forbidden City. Completed in 1420, the city was named because it was off-limits to the common person. The compound has 9,999 rooms, one less than God's temple in heaven and also because 9 is a heavenly and lucky number in Chinese. The emperor who built it required 6 levels of brick flooring to prevent underground intruders. The temples were beautifully decorated with gold gilded dragons (a masculine symbol) and Chinese characters. There were also small sculptures of phoenix (a feminine symbol) and lions, always in odd numbers. Most of the art depicted the emperor's control over the world with more dragons and spheres, symbolizing the world. Before reaching the South Gate's exit we entered the Imperial Garden. The garden had many limestone rock structures highlighting the beauty of natural erosion and 300 or 500 year old Juniper trees, gnarled and stripped. The mote through the City had money floating on the surface because of and old "fortune telling" superstition. If the money floated, it was bad luck; if the money sank, it was good luck.

The rest of the afternoon the other 17 people in our tour went on an optional tour of old Beijing. April and I wanted the day to explore the city, and we definitely got a real view of life in Beijing. We came back to our hotel, ate a Thai lunch, put on warmer clothes, and went to the Beijing zoo via taxi. Not maybe people outside of our tourist bubble speak English, so we had to get things written down before venturing out. The zoo ticket was 10RMB which is less than $2. I have to say, compared to the other international zoos, I was kind of disappointed. While there was a decent diversity of the zoo's collection, enclosures and signage were subpar. A lot of animals were not out and things just seemed kind of unclean for the animals. I was also pretty appalled that it was common practice for visitors to feed the animals despite signage against the action. After an hour of perusing the critters, we attempted to get a taxi. Unfortunately this proved more difficult than we expected. We flagged down 3-4 cabs that either opted to pick up the locals instead of us, or refused to take us back to our hotel. FINALLY we grabbed a taxi who was willing to drive us back to the CBD. Traffic was BAD. It took us an hour to get home while it had only take us 30-40mins to get to the zoo.

Back to the hotel around 6:30, and we were wiped. A light dinner at the hotel was the perfect fix due to our big/late lunch. April was feeling a little under the weather due to the stop and go taxi ride, so she had spaghetti for dinner and I had a beef broth and noodle soup. So far the noodles and dumplings haven't bothered my stomach, which just supports the foreign "non gluten filled" breads theory. We quickly showered and our personal masseuses came over. Our tour company arranged a GREAT massage deal; 180RMB for a 1 hour massage. The ladies were very sweet and naturally it was a super relaxing experience.

A few bites of chocolate and glasses of wine and now we are off to bed. Tomorrow we visit a jade shop and I think there's this old wall we'll be seeing…or something like that.

MD-->VA-->PHI-->LAX-->PEK

Feb 12-14, 2015

Considering my previous experiences with travel through LAX, today was SUPER smooth. April and I stayed at her Uncle Tim's in Tustin (just outside of LA) on Thursday night. We'd arrived in the late afternoon after picking up the rental car and a quick (although poor quality) bite to eat at Weinerschnitzle. We relaxed and played with their puppy, Abby, and grabbed a much needed shower before heading to dinner at the Lazy Dog. It was  a nice "last meal" in the states and we definitely ate our fill.

We arrived at LAX at 6:30am for our 11:50am flight (hey! We were paranoid about LA traffic!) before Air China had opened to check us in. Like I mentioned, it was relatively painless getting through security and to our gate. While we waited I wrapped up a few last minute Mary Kay business items and enjoyed a Chi Tea Latte. On my way to the bathroom a little boy, maybe 4yrs old with a large suit case tripped right in front of me. As I went to help him up, I noticed his dad who grabbed him up, was OWEN WILSON! I made eye contact and smiled (only seconds later recognizing who it was as he spoke to his son). April was jealous I'd seen him and hadn't grabbed a pic. We were on the look out for him at our gate, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Our plane was as expected. 3-3-3 seats. An amazing first class that made your mouth water and your legs weep. I had a window seat and April was in the middle and we were served lunch not long after boarding. We each watched a few movies, napped, got to stretch/pee every once and a while and on the whole it didn't feel like 12hrs. April's butt didn't agree, but I was pretty surprised I didn't get antsy. Am I finally getting used to international travel?! I'm not sure if that's good or bad, haha.

Upon arrival at the Beijing airport we traveled though customs in a breeze. So far all the Chinese women we have encountered are…not the most friendly. April and I will smile warmly only to be met with cold stares and the occasional 1/4 smile. We were VERY happy to see a bright face from our tour guide, Sarah (Pong Lee, or Sarah Lee haha). We are a small group of 19 American tourists and will be together for the next 7 days.

A 40min drive in traffic to the CBD where our hotel was and with no delay we checked in, exchanged money and went over to dinner. The city is already decorated for the Spring Festival, aka Chinese New Year, with lights, lanterns and images of sheep/goats. Out hotel, the Trader, is attached to the World Trade Centers and a small mall. It was super convenient for us jet-lagged, weary travelers to zip over to the mall food court for dinner. Nothing too exploratory on day 1…or 2…I too lagged to figure it out right now haha, but now in this fluffy bed with room to lay flat I'm feeling like that detail doesn't really matter. Tomorrow we are off to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden Temple, the #1 tourist attraction in the country.