China

May 4th, 2005

After a short but bumpy flight, we landed in Xian.  We were greeted by Shirley, our local tour guide.  As we headed into the city, we were told that Bill Clinton’s first stop in China was Xian. On our way in to the city, Shirley told us that the director of “The House of Flying Daggers” lived in Xian.

Xian is much smaller than Beijing and the outer communities that we saw while headed into the city looked rather poor.  The hotel we checked into, Tianyu Gloria Plaza Hotel was very nice.  After checking in we headed to a dumpling banquet and dinner show at the Shanxi Grand Opera house.  The performance used musical instruments and costumes from the Tang Dynasty.  If you saw the movie “The House of Flying Daggers” you would recognize the style of dancing.

May 3rd, 2004

The Great Wall is one of the 7 wonders of the world. Seeing is believing it. Climbing it was no easy task and you cannot help but think, “how did they ever build it?” Although it was built rebuilt over a period of 2000 years, the wall stretches over high mountains, up steep inclines and back down again.

There are a lot of books written on the Great Wall and you don’t need to read any of them to appreciate the spectacular achievement.

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Temple of Heaven

May 2nd, 2005

Imperial Emperors were regarded as the sons of heaven (Tian Tan) and since they derived their authority from heaven, temples and ceremonies to the heavens were important.

Built in 1420, the Temple of Heaven was used by the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties to worship the heavens and to carry out elaborate ceremonies to insure good harvests.

The temple was built without using any nails with trunks of trees brought from South China to use as columns. Surrounding the temples are acres of peaceful gardens where local people come to visit. I enjoyed watching them play cards, sing songs and act out plays.

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May 2, 2005

The Summer Palace is the largest and best preserved Royal Garden in China. It was used by the Imperial courts to escape the summer heat of Beijing. Throughout its 800 years of history, the palace and garden has been built and rebuilt throughout the wars. The Summer Palace was opened to the public after the last Qing Emperor Puyi was thrown out in 1924.

Our tour group boarded a dragon boat to cross the man-made lake to get to the summer palace. Incredible to think that this was a man-made lake and even more incredible was that it was done before there were bulldozers.

The  Marble boat was created in 1893 for the Empress to sit on and view the lake.

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May 1st, 2005

Built in 1406-1420, the Forbidden city was the Imperial Palace for the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is the world’s largest palace with 9,999 rooms and halls. The walls surrounding the complex are over 10 feet wide 30 feet high surrounded by a moat.

Ordinary men were not allowed into the city thus creating the name “Forbidden City”.

The forbidden city was easily recognizable from the movie “The Last Emperor”. I didn’t realize the magnitude of the complex. There is gate after gate, building after building with six palaces, three were used for ceremonial and three were private. I could have spent a better part of the day there, unfortunately, we didn’t have the time.

As we went through gate after gate, we finally got to the inner palace where the Royal families lived and today there is a Starbucks.  There is something fundamentally wrong with that.

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May 1st, 2005
After checking in to the hotel and a morning walk, the group headed out to lunch followed by a visit to Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is at the center of Beijing. It is named for the Tiananmen (Heavenly Peace) gate that separates the square from the forbidden city. It is the size of 6 football fields and is the largest square in the world.

It was here where Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In 1976, people came to the square to pay respects to Mao as he lay in state. Chairman Mao can still be viewed in his mausoleum where he rests, well-preserved in a crystal coffin. Continue reading →

Lisa, my tour guide

May 1st, 2005
I arrived in Beijing, the capital city of China, at 5:00 AM after a 12 hour flight. Actually, I am not sure how long the flight was with the time changes and international date change, I think it was a 12 hour flight but it felt longer. The flight was crowded but it wasn’t uncomfortable. I did got a kick out of the accent “Thank You for Frying Air China and Prease, have a Present Fright” announcement.

Across the aisle, there was a little Chinese boy who kept himself entertained for hours playing Peak-a-Boo with the curtain that hides the service area. Of course it drove the flight attendant crazy but it was amazing how a simple curtain could provide hours of entertainment for the little boy.

Upon arrival, I quickly spotted the tour guide leader – Lisa. I was the first out of baggage claim but it wasn’t too much longer until I spotted a few other people wearing their bright Yellow “China Discovery Tour Badges”. Continue reading →

I pulled up the itinerary up on the web and realized that I had to do a lot of research to do during the next few weeks. It was going to be a busy and fast paced tour and I wanted to make sure that I understood what I was about to see as opposed to reading about it in a tour guide as I looked at it.

I bought a book and started to read and found that Tivo was also very effective at helping me do my research. At first it was difficult, taking a crash course in three thousand years of history was not easy. The names of empowers, the different dynasties and the different regions all blurred together but at some point it came together. Although I am no expert, I am not going in blind.

Although there was an ordeal with the Post Office and my travel documents, I finally got them. There is something about getting “the package”, it makes it all so real. Tickets, Passport and Visa, and since just about everything is made in China, I didn’t have to worry too much about what I packed. Continue reading →

March 22, 2005 11:40 AM

As I prepared to head out to lunch, I noticed Allan had sent me an email. The subject line read “A Bizarre & Sad Communication”, a bit unusual for Allan, his subject lines are usually upbeat. I quickly opened the message, reading that Alan had planned on taking a trip to China but unfortunately his travel partner, through a bizarre set of circumstances was not going to make the trip. Alan was looking for a travel partner to go to China. Continue reading →