This past spring, I was accepted into a Writing Center conference in Suzhou, China-- way too long a flight to just go to a conference for a few days, so it turned into a two week tour of four cities.
June 1: The beginning of 24 hours of flying
The first day of a China trip really all about getting there. And it is a full day-- like a whole 24 hours. Up at 6 am to get to airport before 8 for 10:15 am flight, mostly because my dad was driving us to the airport and he was convinced we'd get stuck in traffic on our way to Dulles. So,we got to airport around 7:40 and were sitting at gate by 8 am, with breakfast in hand. Because we bought premium economy seats (I think), we got to go through priority TSA, which significantly speeds things up. Plus, it made me feel special. But, all that waiting in Dulles was just the build up to a one hour flight to Toronto to sit in airport for 3 hours-- which at least had the French Open on for entertainment, so I was actually ok. And then, a 14 1/2 hour flight to Beijing in said premium economy seats which meant that we were in the bulkhead and there was no one in front of us so we could stretch our legs, which made it better, but 14 1/2 hours is still a really long time to be on a plane. About 6 hours in, I was expecting the flight to be almost over... and I was really wrong.
June 2: The "first day" in China
Arrived in Beijing around 4 pm. It took about an hour and a half to get through border control, through baggage claim and out of the airport and then another hour in a taxi to get to the hotel. Driving is crazy in Beijing-- there's a ton of cars and traffic to rival NYC and lane markings seem to be optional guides as do traffic lights. Drivers seem to turn left on red (because it's easier to turn through cross traffic than oncoming traffic?) and they sort of force their way through each other by ignoring the lane markings. It's a little terrifying, especially after being up for 24 hours. And our taxi driver kept speaking to me in Chinese-- like a whole conversation-- even though it was pretty clear that I didn't understand what he was saying. What I did manage to understand, however, at the end was that we owed him not only the cab fare on the meter but also the 10 RMB he was charged to exit the airport, though I don't really know why I understood that except that I originally thought it was really strange that taxis had to pay to leave the airport. So, it sort of made sense that we also incurred that cost. It was still less than $20 to get from the airport to the hotel-- hard to imagine an hour in a cab in the US costing less than $20.
We go to to our hotel around 6:30 pm (6:30 am US time-- so pretty much 24 hours after we'd started the journey)-- the Beijing Double Happiness Hotel, which is in a hutong (alley) between main roads.
We go to to our hotel around 6:30 pm (6:30 am US time-- so pretty much 24 hours after we'd started the journey)-- the Beijing Double Happiness Hotel, which is in a hutong (alley) between main roads.
The hotel is lovely-- the rooms surround courtyards
and it's really peaceful, not at all like the business and bustle at the end of each alleyway. Hutongs are traditional in old Beijing, but many are also being "renovated" by the government-- which means they are being cleaned up and also expanded (they are really narrow-- a lot of taxies won't go down them, but ours did because of something it said on the "voucher" the hotel sent me to give to the cab driver). But, this also means they are losing a lot of their character. (And, it means some other things for the the stores and restaurants which our food tour leader talked about the next night.) This was certainly the most "traditional" place we stayed-- it looked most like what I imagined hotels in China look like.
We were really jet-lagged and sleep deprived, so we ate in the hotel bar.
I had hot and sour soup and my mom had chicken and mushroom soup and we split dumplings.
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| Hot and Sour Soup and Dumplings |
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| Chicken and Mushroom Soup (and toast...) |
It was really good-- the hot and sour soup was especially good-- but we didn't finish all of it. I think at some point we were just too tired to eat. And, so that was basically our first "day" in Beijing-- navigating the airport and having dinner.
Despite being really tired, I think we both woke up around 3 or so in the morning, Beijing time, mostly, I think because it was 3 pm at home and it felt weird to be asleep. This happened to me the whole time we were in Beijing. It was really hard to get onto a time clock exactly 12 hours ahead of the one we were used to.
June 3: A real first day in China
June 3: A real first day in China
We got up in the morning in time to get to the hotel breakfast before it closed. The hotel serves a whole buffet for breakfast-- a mixture of Chinese, European and American fare.
It's really good. Outside, there are two birds in cages, one which squawks quite a bit and the other which actually does speak and says "Ni hao" (hello).
After breakfast, we headed off for the the Forbidden City. We wanted to walk it which seemed to surprise the people who worked at the hotel. It shouldn't have been too long a walk-- but Beijing isn't really a pedestrian friendly city. Pedestrians rate on the bottom of the totem pole of commuters-- and motorbikes and bicycles only sort-of follow traffic laws along with the cars they share the road with. Walking is really the most dangerous thing about China-- overall, it's a really safe country. It's safe to walk around at night-- there doesn't seem to be any theft or crime. I think there are some con-artist risks, like taxi drivers who take your money and then tell you that you gave them a fake bill (because they switched yours out) and then try to make you give them more money or pretty girls who somehow lure you into dining at a touristy, overpriced tea house that isn't really a tea house (both of which our hotel warned us about, though neither ever happened). But that seems to be the most serious crime. The police in China don't even carry guns-- though, there are a lot of security check points. You have to run any bags you have through a scanner at every metro stop and pretty much every tourist attraction. But, that seems to work to keep the city safe-- I certainly felt fine walking through the city at night, in the dark, even though we were down a hutong and, in general, anywhere else in the world, I tend to think twice about walking down a dark alley. None of the alleys were really dark-- they were pretty well lit at night-- and were quite the opposite of the "menace" I tend to attach to alleys.
We were on a straight path to get to the Forbidden City, passing some lovely examples of decorative street art
when a young Chinese man heard my mom and I speaking English and started to talk to us-- he's studying art and wants to be an art teacher and is trying to improve his English (which was really quite good). He also somehow managed to quite quickly convince my direction challenged mother that we were walking on a touristy path and should follow him to the walking street, a less touristy more traditional path, to the Forbidden City. And, since she found him so friendly, she took off after him, which meant I had to take off after her. And, as we were walking, he told us about studying art and this led to an invitation, if we had time, to come up to the art school to see an exhibition of work, which my mother also thought sounded like a good idea. Thankfully, Beijing is a safe city because I think in a lot of cases, this scenario (one which took us in a back entrance and up what felt like a service elevator) leads to kidnapping or worse. Instead, we would up in a relatively small room filled with paintings on silk and glass bottles painted from the inside.
His work was also on display-- they are painting depicting the seasons.
Apparently, this was the last day of the exhibition, so he offered to sell us whatever we wanted for a lower price-- 400 RMB a piece, bottle or painting. I have no idea if we got ripped off or not (though, I actually want to not be cynical here and say we got pretty good deals. For one, there were price tags on a lot of the work which indicated it was originally priced much higher. And, looking in other shops at other prices, we got much more quality work for about the same price. And, we supported art students.). We would up buying two painted bottles and two paintings of the Great Wall done on actual leaves. And then, he directed us back to the walking street with instructions on how to get from there to the Forbidden City.
The walking street wasn't as traditionally Chinese as I was expecting-- it wasn't filled with tourists, but it was lined with Western stores-- most of them expensive ones like Prada and Cartier. There was different "street art" here.
And, I do think it was a more winding route towards the Forbidden City-- one in which we were also approached (and followed) several times by men on rickshaws (though bicycle ones, not ones like the statue) wanting to take us to the entrance. We were incredibly conspicuous as two white women, which didn't help.
Eventually, we made our way to the Forbidden City, which you need an ID to enter-- this happened all over, though not in any way that made sense. Some places in China require ID (which, for a foreigner means your passport) while others don't-- and there's no logic to it (I asked our guide in Xi'an and he confirmed that there's no real reason why some require ID and others don't-- they just make up their own rules). But, basically, if you are a tourist in China, you should always have your passport on you or you'll get turned away from a lot of attractions.
The touristy way to enter the Forbidden City is through Tienanmen Square, which is not the way we entered. Rather, we followed the canal "moat"
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| This is actually the moat outside the exit. But it pretty much looks the same all the way around. |
to the square just beyond which is the actual entrance to the Forbidden City.
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| Meridian Gate |
The Forbidden City is huge-- 7.75 million square feet. It's the largest palace in the world-- and I know we didn't see the whole thing. For a while, the path through it is pretty straight path through the major pavilions, or halls. There are three halls in the outer court: the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Perfect Harmony, and the Hall of Preserving Harmony (you can see the theme) which is where the emperor would do things like make speeches, hold court, and conduct other public business.
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| These are buildings off to the side, not part of the main path of halls. |
Some of the "relics" like thrones still exist and are on display, though you can't actually walk into any of the halls.
Rather, you have to take pictures from a cordoned off opening, where lots of people (and I mean a lot-- and we were there on a relatively uncrowded day) are also pushing to get to the front to take pictures. This greatly disconcerted my mom, who found all the pushing rude. But, I think it's only rude by American standards. In general, the Chinese don't line up well. If you want them to stand in a line, you have to use actual objects that create a structure in which there is no other choice. Otherwise, they will all sort of huddle and push-- which sort of makes sense given that there are always a lot of people around. But, also, if you get in the mix and push back (or, plant your feet and hold your ground, refusing to be pushed until you get your picture), no one seems to mind or take offense. So, generally, I just pushed along with everyone else and made my way to a position (usually) to take pictures of some sort. (This often led to my mom's hand stretching across the crowd to try to hand me her camera as well since she never quite got a feel for joining in the push.)
The rest of the buildings are part of the inner court where only the emperor, his family and his concubines (of which an individual emperor could have hundreds or thousands) and after a while, you realize that there are different entryways off to each side that lead you to other sections of the palace and then wind you back to one of many courtyards, and so you've likely missed some other winding path (or several of them).
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| I don't know who this kid is, but his family was doing a whole photo session with him in front of these doors, so eventually I just took the picture with him in it as well. |
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| The decoration around doors is really ornate and detailed. |
We paid for electronic guides through the Forbidden City, which, using GPS, begin telling you about the area you're in as soon as you cross over (which is nice in one respect because sometimes it's hard to get oriented. However, there's no real way to pause or rewind the track, so you have to be ready to listen, even when you don't realize the track is going to start.) You can sort of see the straight path of the larger pavilions with all the winding ones off to the sides.
The Forbidden City is relatively new by Chinese standards-- it was begun in 1406 and completed in 1420 (which is pretty impressive given how big it is). A previous palace from the Yuan dynasty was demolished to make room for it, though this one was well used, housing 24 different emperors from 1420-1923. Many of the current buildings aren't the original ones built in 1420 as the palace has been ransacked and pillaged and parts have been destroyed by fire over the years--
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| This is an example of a pot that was used to hold water in case of fire (clearly not enough....). You can see where the gold which used to adorn it has been largely scraped off. Most of the artifacts that are left are missing their gold because pillagers took even that when they ransacked the palace. |
so it's been rebuilt and restored. Most of the buildings (halls) open to the south, which is the direction associated with imperial rule, part of the feng shui that organizes most of what is built in China. For example, these lions are found at just about every place the emperors stayed. The lion is associated with power
and there is always one male and one female, always placed as above-- with the male on the right and the female on the left (as you're facing them). The male always has a ball under his foot, which indicates his propensity for providing money (though I'm not quite sure why because I'm not sure how a ball represents a prosperous occupation) and the female with a cub under her paw, indicating her ability to care for the family.
The inner court is where any greenery is located-- in the Imperial Garden.
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| These rock formations are "centerpieces" of a lot of gardens. Or, they are just placed on their own in courtyards. Emperors (or Empresses) would see them and then have them moved to different locations. |
This is pretty close to where you exit the Forbidden City.
After the Forbidden City, we went across the incredibly busy and dodgy street to Jingsong Park, where you can climb up to a temple from which you can see the entire Forbidden City from above.
Jingsong Park's hill was built using earth left over from digging the moat around the Forbidden City. It was designed to block the Forbidden City from the harsh northern wind (again, feng shui). From the top, you can get a vast aerial view of both the Forbidden City
and Beijing in general.
The pavilion itself (named Yanchun Ge) is something of a Buddhist temple-- there is a statue of the Buddha inside, which we weren't allowed to photograph. Inside the pavilion is also a gift shop selling cheap tourist schlock. It's set up basically around the Buddha-- so, I'm a little confused about what is sacred and what isn't: too sacred to take photographs, not too sacred to sell cheap crap to those who climb up.
There is no shortage of concession stands, gift shops, and commercial photo opportunities in China-- no matter where go, some kind of gift and concession stand will be waiting for you. (There were gift shops all over the Forbidden City, often occupying the buildings to the sides of the main halls, especially in the inner courts. I'm assuming they are in what was once the concubines' housing.) Outside this pavilion is a photo stand where you can dress in costume and have your picture taken against the ornate backdrop.
Jingshan park is also the site of a tree which marks the spot where the last Ming emperor, Chongshen, supposedly hung himself in 1644 as rebel armies were about to overrun the city. This is a memorial tree-- the original was hacked down.
After visiting Jingshan Park, we headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before setting out again for our evening Old Beijing food tour. Our food tour had 8 of us-- and three of the people on our tour were also from the DC area (a woman working for the American Embassy in Beijing and her visiting cousin and cousin's husband. The woman from the embassy had also gone to UNC-Chapel Hill, so also new North Carolina and the university I work at-- small world). The others were an older couple from England and another woman originally from Australia who had lived most of her life in England but was currently located in Singapore for her job. We all met outside a metro station (only a couple stops away from our hotel, so we walked)-- and found each other because we were rather conspicuous as a group.
Our tour guide, Erik, is from Toronto. He took us to several local places in and around the hutongs of Old Beijing. Our first stop was at Lao Liu's Mongolian firepot where we started with some dumplings and pork shoulder that actually came from Crippled Brother's Restaurant
and then moved onto the main attraction, which was the hotpot.
It's a little like fondue except that it's hot water rather than oil or cheese. We had lamb, spinach, tofu skin and a few other veggies, like mushrooms, to stir in. It's all cooked pretty quickly-- and it's really tasty.
I ate way too much here given what was to come. But, by the time we all met up at 7, I was really hungry-- notice there was no lunch mentioned all day. We did have a soft-serve ice cream at the Forbidden City, mostly to cool down. But, really, we hadn't eaten since breakfast. I've been on many food tours, so I know to pace myself-- but hunger won out a bit, especially since the hotpot was so good.
Here, we also tasted a Chinese liquor that tasted like anise-- which my mom did not like, not even to sniff.
Along our way to the next restaurant, we stopped at a couple different stands: one for yogurt, which is a more a drink consistency in China and is really good.
It comes in glass bottles with a straw. You can pay for either just the yogurt (in which case, you drink the yogurt right there and then hand the jar back) or you can pay a bit more and take the jar with you (which is what we did). In that case, you can either keep the jar, or just drop it off somewhere (and, by somewhere, I mean pretty much anywhere on the sidewalk) and someone will pick it up. You can also get this yogurt in plastic containers-- our hotels in Beijing and Xi'an served them at breakfast. It tastes the same but lacks the cache of the glass bottles. In either case, it's not quite like yogurt we're used to in the States (and certainly MUCH better than the yogurt drinks sold in most grocery stores) and I have no idea if you can get it even in Asian specialty food stores, but I plan to find out. I already miss the yogurt.
We stopped at a second stand, Xiao Yan's, for a version of crepes called jianbing which have bean paste and chile and some kind of bean curd in them that makes them crunchy.
Our second restaurant stop (but, now, 4th or 5th course) was at a noodle shop
but along the way there, Erik had picked up burgers-- donkey burgers! from Fatty Wang's Donkey Burger-- for us to try. We ate them in the noodle shop (so, the second place we brought outside food into-- which would never happen in the US, but doesn't seem to be a problem in Beijing).
If you didn't know it was donkey, you wouldn't know that's what you were eating, but my mom still struggled with it. It actually tastes a lot like lamb-- it's a bit dry because (I guess) donkeys don't have a lot of fat, but it's really pretty good. I only ate a couple bites as well, but mostly because I had eaten so much at the Mongolian place (and then finished the yogurt and crepe half). You can place this salad on it as a condiment to make it a bit less dry.
The noodle bowls were especially good. It actually might have been my favorite thing. I wish I wasn't so full. The noodles are all hand made and you can tell because of the variety-- you only grab one noodle at a time (if you can) because it could turn out to be incredibly long (like feet). Or, it could be shorter.
From there, we went to a place that serves chicken wings, though along the way, we also stopped to pick up some fruit
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| This is a lychee. |
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| This I forget the name of but it sort of tastes like a raspberry. |
which we ate outside in the alley while we waited for our table at Fifth Brother's Chicken Wings (so named because the owner is the fifth brother in the family).
It's in a hutong-- I have no idea how you find it if you don't know it's there, but it was packed. And, apparently, you have to have a reservation to get in-- the owner won't take walk-ins. You also are supposed to order at least 20 wings a person (which I think actually means skewers, not total wings. A skewer is 2 wings--which really means 40), but I think we were allowed to get away with ordering 20 for the group in 3 variations from mild to super hot.
There was edamame
and we had a sour plum juice to drink (not really sour-- and which I liked quite a bit. My mom didn't like it as much, but mostly because I think she wanted it to be the black currant juice she had loved so much the year before in Poland... and it is different.)
The wings were really good-- but we'd had a lot to eat by this point, so I think we each just had two. To be fair, though, on my best night, I couldn't have eaten 20 (or, 40 as it might be) which I think in other circumstances would have been an insult to the owner who doesn't really like to provide to-go containers. (To go containers are pretty standard... just not in this place.) The owner is also quite patriotic and has many tattoos of Chinese leaders, including Mao. He has pictures of Xi Jinping (current president) hanging up. And, he seemed quite keen to talk about them-- I sort of caught the enthusiasm if not the content when he came over to talk about and show off his tattoos.
The wing place still seems to be something of a Beijing institution, but part of the issue with the renovation of the hutongs is that restaurant owners have sort of expanded up (literally up-- there is more room up than out) on their own over the years-- while the government can basically do what it wants, it doesn't really regulate anything (or rather, it doesn't enforce the regulations, at least not until it decides it wants to). The restaurant industry has gone relatively unregulated in Beijing for a while, so people just sort of open up places on the bottom floors and then live above, expanding as needed. But, part of the clean-up of the hutongs has meant a bit of a crack down on these restaurants and many of them have been told they can only operate on one floor now-- so their business space has been reduced. Apparently, most of the value is in the property, not the actual restaurants, so eventually the owners could sell if they needed. But, the renovation seems to be changing the hutong culture a bit. Property is the one thing that is at a premium in Beijing-- while the rest of the costs are quite reasonable (see taxi example above and metro cost below), apparently property is exorbitant, both to rent and to buy.
The food tour ended around 10, so we headed back to our hotel to go to sleep because we had to be up really early the next day to head to the Great Wall.
June 4: The Great Wall and Summer Palace
We were picked up at 8 am by our guide for the day, Sue (not her real name-- but easier for westerners to pronounce, though actually her real name wasn't that difficult). She's a former teacher who took this job because her husband is lazy and so she needed to make more money-- apparently being a tour guide pays better than teaching. She told us the history of the Great Wall as we were driven there. The Great Wall was built over a very long period of time, with each emperor and dynasty adding a new section to protect from newly perceived threats and to outdo his predecessor's achievement. The first section was built between 453 and 221 B.C. and continued through to about 1644 (that includes reconstructing parts of the wall as time went on). Different parts of the wall are more or less reconstructed; some of it is quite precarious to traverse or completely inaccessible. According to Sue, the signatures of chief architects are located at the bottoms of sections (some of which have been found) so that if the Wall fell down in places, the emperors would know who to blame. The precise length of the wall is unknown-- my guide book estimates it at 4,160 miles which is apparently a conservative estimate. But, that's greater than the 3,951 mile radius of the Earth-- so even conservatively, it's quite large. Sue joked that our president is probably really jealous of their wall-- which is probably more true than funny.
We visited the Mutianyu section of the Wall, which is less touristy but becoming more so.
It's hard to describe the immensity of the Great Wall. I don't think the pictures quite do it justice-- it's really overwhelming. And, this is a very small section of it.
I tried to get pictures of other sections in the distance, but it pretty much looks like hill.
We were on a pretty intact part of the wall, so you can get a real sense of what it looked like and how wide-- and steep-- it is in the best of conditions.
We walked to about 3 watch towers
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| The smaller hole is the one they shot arrows out of. |
before returning to find Sue so that we could toboggan back down to the bottom (cameras weren't allowed during the toboggan ride).
The toboggan was really fun- it makes me wonder why I don't travel by toboggan more. Apparently, the people who work there didn't want my mom to do it because they thought she was too old, but Sue convinced them it was ok.
She did go down more slowly than most (you could use a handle to control the speed-- if you go to fast and hit someone in front of you, you are libel for damage and injury), though, to be fair, the handle you use to control the speed was really heavy. I tried to go faster but could only push the handle so far.
After the Great Wall, we went to lunch. Sue really seemed to want to take us to some government run place because she thought the quality of food was better. It was above a jade factory (which may actually be why she wanted to take us there-- I'm pretty sure tour guides get commission off of certain shopping expeditions. The tour I booked was supposed to be shopping free, so we didn't have to go to this particular place, but our other lunch option seemed to be the Subway located at the Great Wall, so this was better.) While we waited for our lunch to be made, were were introduced to jade making-- and how to tell what is real jade and what is fake. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside-- the only ones we were allowed to take were of this man carving a harmony ball in a room located outside where all the jade artifacts and jewelry are housed.
We were also shown around the shop a bit, but it turns out jade is quite expensive. Lunch was really lovely, though seemed quite geared to what westerners think Chinese food is. Or, at least it looked more familiar than I was expecting food to look like in China since I figure what we eat in the US has been modified for our pallets.
It was a lot of food-- we didn't finish it all, which apparently is ok because it's polite to not finish. The Chinese take that as a sign that they've been hospitable and fed you enough. In fact, if you clean your plate, a Chinese host is supposed to bring you more food because finishing is a sign that there wasn't enough. We also didn't pay for the food, which seemed strange because I was pretty sure that lunch wasn't included in the tour price-- but there was no bill, nowhere to pay, and no one asked us for money as we left, so maybe I was wrong about that.
From lunch, we went to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is a series of pavilions, bridges and walkways built along Kunming Lake.
The Summer Palace was initially constructed between 1749 and 1764, though it was leveled by foreign armies and then rebuilt twice between 1860 and 1903. The Empress Dowager Cixi made it her full time residence and so most of the stories of the palace include her.
The Summer Palace has the longest covered promenade in the world (or so we were told), called the Long Corridor. Every crossbeam and pillar painted with a different scene from Chinese history, literature and myth.
There are also actual windows, all of which are painted differently.
Supposedly, the corridor is so long that the Empress Dowager often had to rest as she walked from her residence to the dining room (one might ask why she didn't just build them closer together...), so there were servants stationed along the way to entertain her by telling her stories, I assume connected to whatever section of the corridor she was sitting at. The dining room is now a famous restaurant where many presidents and dignitaries have dined.
At the end of the corridor is the Marble Boat.
Apparently, it's the Empress Dowager's backhanded reference to the funds she used to restore the palace, which came from money intended for the Chinese navy.
After the Summer Palace, we were taken back to the hotel, where I totally crashed. I think the jet lag and weird sleep had finally caught up to me. Even after we both woke up, we were really tired and disoriented, so we decided to have dinner in the hotel again-- my mom had the chicken and mushroom soup again and I had egg drop and corn soup, which was sort of a mixture of egg drop soup and corn chowder.
June 5: Last day in Beijing
After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel, but had most of a day to explore before we had to get to the train station for our overnight train to Xi'an. When we checked out, we were given a container of loose tea-- a second one. The night before, when we had stopped at the desk to arrange a taxi to the train station, we were given a departing present. Then, in the room, we talked about how we wish we'd been given two since there were two of us-- and magically got a second one the next day. This is only remarkable because it's a pretty good bet that any hotel you stay in in China is has microphones and that you're being listened to... so I'm not sure if they forgot that they had already given us a departing gift or they really had been listening.
Since we had most of the day, we went to the Temple of Heaven Park. This meant taking the metro for the first time, which is surprisingly easy-- and inexpensive. I think the whole day of taking the metro cost about $3.50 for the two of us. The metro itself is really nice-- and all the signs are translated into English phonetic spelling, so it's easy to maneuver. And, there's artwork.
The Temple of Heaven Park was built around the same time as the Forbidden City. The altar to heaven is in the south of the park and was used every winter solstice by the Ming and Qing dynasties for rites and sacrifices meant to promote the next year's crops. It too has a corridor to go down on your way to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests-- though it's not nearly as long as the one at the Summer palace.
The Hall of Prayer itself is surrounded by smaller pavilions, which hold different exhibitions about the history of the park and China. There are signs in English, but they give overviews-- the more specific signs about smaller parts of the exhibit aren't translated, so you get the sense you're missing some key details.
The original Hall was completed in 1420, but burnt down in 1889 and was rebuilt the following year. It was constructed without a single nail.
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| I was trying to capture the series of 9s-- but I don't think you can really tell from the pictures. |
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| Burning Stove-- there were 8 of these. (I feel like there should have been 9...) |
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| Firewood Stove |
There is also a smaller version of the Hall of Prayer called the Imperial Vault of Heaven
which is surrounded by the Echo Wall. It's supposed to be possible for two people on opposite sides of the wall to send whispered messages to one another, though I think this only works when it's not crowded (so, probably never anymore).
Outside the Echo Wall is the one restaurant in Temple of Heaven Park (though there are concession stands in many locations), so this where we had lunch.
For what sort of looks like a fast food place, it was quite good. And, we were able to get fresh juices-- watermelon and kiwi--
with our food.
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| dumplings |
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| honey chicken and rice |
There are other buildings as well, such as the Fasting Palace, the Resting Hall, and the Animal Killing Compound (where animals were prepared for ritual sacrifice).
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| The Animal Killing Compound |
There is also a kitchen, which I think is sometimes tourable, but we were there on a Monday and it wasn't open (Monday is a day when several attractions are closed-- like the Forbidden City).
The other recommended temple to see was Lama Temple, so since we had time, we took the metro there as well. Lama Temple was a palace which was converted to a Buddhist temple and is still the most important Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. It is an active temple, so at the entrance, there are people who give you incense so that you can participate in the prayer ritual.
You burn 3 sticks of incense at each "site" or building- of which there are many. There are five central halls as well as many that line the sides.
Each of the buildings holds statues, some of the Buddha, others of other important figures like the first Dalai Lama.
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| Tsongkapa-- the first Dalai Lama (1357-1419) |
There was also an exhibit which explained the history of the development of Buddhism (this statue of Tsongkapa is in the room with that exhibit) in Chinese culture-- specifically the role of Tibetan Buddhism. There was a lot about the importance of it as well as the cultural changes to it over time to make allow it enhance free Chinese religious practice as well as to improve the cultural value-- and as I read, I kept wondering if the Tibetans would agree with this version of the history. I don't know enough about the history or the religion to fully read between the lines.
The last of the central halls-- The Tower of Ten Thousand Happinesses-- has the largest statue.
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| Statue of Maitreya (the future Buddha) |
It's 60 feet tall and carved from one piece of white sandalwood.
I have lots of photos of Lama Temple- and everyone around us was also taking photos, though as we were leaving, I noticed the sign on the way out that says no photos-- but there were lots of guards around and none of them stopped anyone from taking pictures, so it's clearly not an enforced rule. In fact, almost everywhere we went, there was something which wasn't supposed to be photographed-- but about the only place it was ever enforced was in Jingsong Park on our first day.
After the Lama Temple, we headed back to the hotel to get our luggage and head off to the train station. The train station is a bit chaotic-- it's a lot of people. But, we managed to find our waiting room (there are different waiting areas for different trains) and get on the train and find our "soft luxury" sleeper car, which has two bunks, an arm chair and a private bathroom- the height of luxury, if a little cramped.
Once we were settled, a porter knocked on our door to offer us hot water-- this finally answered my question about train information we had been sent. The company I booked our train tickets through had sent me information about the station, how to read out tickets, and eating on trains-- or, rather, not eating on the trains (apparently the Chinese try to avoid eating train food), saying that most travelers bring cup-o-noodles on board... which begged the question of where they got boiling water for them. Now I knew.
I did make us lock the door to our cabin because it felt like an unlocked door was an invitation to murder on an Orient express... And that took us overnight to Xi'an.
June 6: Xi'an, Day One
We were met at the train station by Noble, our guide for two days, and our driver, and were whisked pretty immediately to the Terracotta Soldiers-- though we stopped first at the Terracotta Factory, which gave us a brief explanation of how the soldiers were made and then a chance to shop (which I'm guessing earned Noble a commission). Outside, you can pose as a Terracotta Soldier.
And, inside, you can watch artisans work.
There are also replica soldiers on display, for purchase,
as well as some really lovely furniture.
From the factory, we went to the site itself. At the entrance to the Terracotta Warriors site is a statue of Emperor Qin Shihuang, founder of the Qin Dynasty and builder of the Terracotta Warriors.
His mausoleum is located in a burial mound to the west of the warriors-- the warriors were supposed to protect him after his death. There are thousands of these warriors-- and each one is different. And, there may be thousands more. The Chinese have stopped excavating because exposing the warriors to air is oxidizing them and causing more ruin. The ones that are out in the open used to be brightly colored, but pretty much none of the paint survived exposure to air. Supposedly, they aren't going to continue excavation until they can find a way to simultaneously preserve them and whatever else they find.
The Terracotta Warriors were discovered in 1974 by a farmer who was digging a well. When you go into Pit 1, the largest of the excavation sites, there is a marker where the well was to be dug in the left corner.
Pit 1 is huge and full of warriors that made up the infantry and includes chariots.
many of which have been restored (in other pits, you can see the more "natural" state in which they have been found).
The soldiers are arranged in battle formation and include varying ranks as well as horses and chariots.
The soldiers were armed with real weapons, most of which were pillaged at some point, though some still remain. This does beg a question-- what were clay soldiers supposed to do with real weapons? Did the emperor think that after his death, the warriors would come to life to protect him? I'm a little unclear on the logic.
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| It's hard to see the weapon, but you can sort of see the outline of a kind of battle ax here. |
Apparently, all of this was done over the course of 37 years, though it's unclear how many people were working to build the warriors. There are also tombs with the remains of actual people at places throughout the pit, though no one seems to know who is actually buried there-- and I did wonder if it's the artisans themselves (like, were they just buried if they died while working?).
Pits 2 and 3 are smaller have been left more in their "original" condition-- that is, no one has restored the remains there.
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| Pit 2: The Calvary |
Pit 3 contains the command post and houses 68 senior officers-- you can tell from hairstyles and clothing as well as the way they are positioned that they have seniority and that they aren't in a battle formation.
There is also a Cultural Relics Exhibition Hall which has bronze chariots reconstructed from 3.500 fragments.
There are also completely restored warriors on display with explanations of what rank each one holds (I think I've labeled them correctly).
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| High Ranking Officer |
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| Armored Infantryman |
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| Kneeling Archer |
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| Unarmed Infantryman |
If you want, after you visit the Terracotta Warriors, you can meet the farmer who found them in 1974-- apparently, he's become quite rich off of a book he wrote about finding the warriors (though, I'm wondering how long that book can really be...was digging a well one day and stumbled across the site doesn't feel like it needs hundreds of pages) and now spends his time selling autographed copies and taking pictures with tourists. We skipped meeting him though and instead headed to lunch.
Lunch was a tea house only gotten to by going through the really touristy gauntlet of vendors that leads up to the Terracotta Warriors. Noble tried to get us through a short cut that would have let us avoid this, but a guard stopped us from heading that way. The tea house itself was at the edge of this, and so probably still a bit touristy itself,
but we got to try several teas and got a lot of information about the difference in teas, their leaves, how you determine how hot the water should be, and how many times you can reuse different leaves.
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| A variety of teas. |
We ordered two of them cold
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| Mine, which is closest, is lychee black tea. I can't remember what the other one is. |
and also had lunch, which was fruit, their version of a hamburger, pork, and rice. (And, again, too much food.) I don't know what dressing they put on the fruit, but it was really good.
From lunch, we went to the Hua Qing Hot Springs. The ride there was the one time I saw an actual traffic accident while in China- which is surprising because driving seemed so precarious and chaotic. The upside of how much traffic there is that no one could have been moving very fast, so while the accident seemed to have involved many cars, it seemed mostly like a fender bender.
I had to ask for the Hua Qing Hot Springs to be added to the tour, as apparently not a lot of western tourists go here, though I'm not sure why. It's probably my favorite palace of the trip-- and it's not even in the guide book I bought.
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| The accident looks like a parking lot |
I had to ask for the Hua Qing Hot Springs to be added to the tour, as apparently not a lot of western tourists go here, though I'm not sure why. It's probably my favorite palace of the trip-- and it's not even in the guide book I bought.
Hua Qing Hot Springs were part of the larger palace built in 723 by Emperor Xuanzong (Tang Dynasty), supposedly as a place to go to with his favorite concubine.
It used the naturally occurring geothermal heating to create a series of bathing pools for men and women (not together).
The baths themselves aren't nearly as impressive as the scenery outside.
Some of the buildings themselves have examples of the furniture from a different era (the palace was used by three different dynasties), which is surprisingly plain.
It all really doesn't quite compare to the lush courtyards which are well worth wandering around, especially since it's not a hot tourist spot, so it's relatively uncrowded compared to other sites and palaces in China.
I'm still not sure why...
There is a fountain where you are supposed to be able to wash your hands in the hot spring water,but it wasn't turned on. You can pay extra to bathe your feet in the hot spring water, but this didn't seem worth it.
From Hua Qing Palace, we went back towards old Xi'an to the Muslim Quarter and the Mosque.
I would have actually liked to spend more time in the actual Muslim Quarter-- there's a lot of touristy vendors selling cheap souvenirs, but there are also a lot of interesting food stands and, while we weren't hungry, we sort of wanted to look at the options. I asked if all the food in the Quarter was halal or if there was some kind of distinction being made in the writing about each one, but Noble seemed not to know what halal meant-- and I only really knew how to explain it by comparing it to kosher food, which he also didn't seem to know. At any rate, it would have been worth spending more time here, but Noble seemed quite intent on getting us to the Great Mosque.
To get to the Great Mosque, you do have to head through a series of alleys filled with lots of vendors selling all sorts of cheap souvenirs. It's kind of a maze and might be difficult to navigate with some knowledge of where you are heading. But, it ends at this really serene set of pavilions which make up the largest Mosque in Xi'an (which actually has 38 mosques).
It was founded in 742, during the Tang Dynasty and so it does look a lot more traditionally Chinese than Islamic.
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| Minaret |
By the time we had finished touring the Great Mosque, it was about 4 pm and we still hadn't checked into our hotel, so we went back there to check-in, rest and shower before heading out to the dumpling buffet and show that Noble had recommended first thing that morning and made reservations for.
We were booked in the Grand Park Hotel, right outside the city wall and in clearly expensive area as the hotel was surrounded by high-end clothing and jewelry stores. It turned out to be a really lovely 5-star hotel (who knew- it was about $90 a night and included breakfast).
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| Lobby |
Later, we headed out to the Tang Dumpling Buffet and show that had been booked-- we had been shown incredibly gorgeous pictures of a variety of artfully constructed dumplings that look a lot like the ones that appear in this ad: https://www.viator.com/tours/Xian/Tang-Dynasty-Music-and-Dance-Show-with-Dumpling-Banquent/d326-31384P13?eap=lonelyplanet-main-6296&aid=vba6296en?label=viator-no-review-score-badge
The reality isn't quite the same, though it was good.
It's set up like a dinner show, with large tables aligned perpendicular to the stage.
And, we were served dumplings in several courses, with a cold plate (which is a pretty typical plate of "appetizers") first.
And then a variety of dumplings (which were not as colorful as we were led to believe they would be)
as well as soup that had dumplings in it.
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| How many dumplings you got when you ladled the soup into your bowl had some kind of symbolism though now I forget what each means-- they were all fortuitous in some way. |
And there was dessert.
It is possible to attend the show without having the dumpling banquet as a bunch of people entered the theater right before it was about to start.
The show is series of musical dance numbers that are supposed to be traditional to the Tang dynasty and tell stories from that time. The costuming is nicely elaborate.
There were explanations, in English, of what each song and dance meant before it was performed-- that everything was explained in English further solidifies that this is something that is totally touristy, but it was fun.
This had been a long day, so after the show, we went back to the hotel-- from which there was sort of a view of the city wall lit up at night.
June 7: Xi'an Day Two
The breakfast at the Grand Park Hotel was really impressive, though I don't think you can quite tell from the picture of my actual breakfast. (The coffee was fair-- I don't think China is ever going to be known for its coffee. At least this wasn't instant.)
After breakfast, Noble and our driver picked us up for our second day of touring Xi'an, which started with the Shaanxi History Museum.
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| Of course, there is a lion at the front. |
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| This is actually where you exit the museum. |
I sort of wish we had started here first because one of the nice things about the museum is that you walk through it in chronological order of the dynasties-- I spent most of our visit not quite sure which order the dynasties came in (not that I completely remember now... but the museum helped with orientation a bit). It starts from about 115 million years ago in the days of China with artifacts that came even before the Terracotta Warriors.
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What's pretty amazing is the use of cast bronze. It looks pretty advanced for something so long ago. This first exhibition hall goes up through the Terracotta Warriors (so, to the first dynasty-- the Qin), of which they have a few restored ones. They're really well restored in a way that gets at the real detail in each one. On the wall behind, you can see photographs of many individual warriors, showing all the facial differences.
The second exhibition hall largely contains artifacts from the Han dynasty, which also includes terracotta statues, but of much smaller proportions.
The third exhibition hall has artifacts from the Sui and Tang dynasties
with this as a sort of "farewell" statue (the lighting kept making it blurry from every angle).
From the Shaanxi History Museum, we went to the Great Wild Goose Pagoda.
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| The Pagoda is in the middle. The drum tower and bell tower are pictured in the foreground. |
The Great Wild Goose Pagoda supposedly got its name when one day when the monks could not find meat to buy, one monk saw a group of geese flying overhead and wished for the merciful Bodhisattva to bestow meat upon them. At that moment, the largest goose fell from the sky. This was taken as a sign that the monk was not being pious enough and from then on they stopped eating meat. (There is also a Small Wild Goose Pagoda which we also went to-- its name also derives from this story.) The pagoda was originally built in 652. It houses the translated manuscripts written by Xuanzang, who traveled to India and translated those sacred texts to Chinese in order to spread Buddhism there. There are about 75 texts translated into 1000 volumes.
There are also multiple depictions of the Buddha in various buildings around the pagoda
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| Laughing Buddha |
as well as this really beautiful depiction of the Buddha's life.
Many of these artifacts used to be in the Pagoda itself, but an earthquake years ago have made the Pagoda a bit unstable. It leans, much like the Tower of Pisa. You can see the lean-- it's not that my pictures are crooked.
I expect that there are often people who take pictures like the ones at Pisa in which they pretend to hold up the tower.
Our actual tour was given by a woman who worked at the Pagoda (not Noble), and part of it included a tour of the art studios and a demonstration of Chinese calligraphy, including instruction on the actual line strokes which are used in combination to make up the Chinese language (of which there are surprisingly few)
and a demonstration of how to write Xi'an in both the old style of characters as well as the new ones.
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| I took this backwards-- but in this picture, the old characters are on the right and the new ones are on the left. Most people don't know how to read the old characters anymore, though they appear on a lot of older palace buildings. |
There was then, of course, an opportunity to shop, buying things included penned calligraphy on rice paper and silk of our own names as well as other art and then other touristy items with the money going to benefit the monks and the monastery.
After the Great Wild Goose Pagoda, we visited the Small Wild Goose Pagoda which was named based on the same story about the goose falling from the sky.
The Small Wild Goose Pagoda was built in 625 and then restored in 704. Currently, this Pagoda is 13 stories-- it used to be 15 but was also damaged by earthquake. You can see the damage at the top a bit better because it has been left a bit in its basic state of disrepair.
There is also a giant bell at the Pagoda
which supposedly can be heard more than 3 miles away, so if you miss your loved ones, you can strike it and it'll convey your feelings to them. (You have to pay for this-- which we didn't because it seemed a bit of a stretch to think it would carry all the way to the U.S.)
Also at the Pagoda, a little outside of the main area of buildings, is a series of old hitching posts
which the monks used to tie their horses to when they arrived at the temple. It looks a bit like a cemetery until you notice the holes in each of the stones where the horses were actually tethered.
I think we could have spent a bit more time at the Small Wild Goose Pagoda looking at some of the art stores there, but by then we were quite hungry, so we left to go to lunch. Noble asked us if we wanted real Chinese food and seemed a bit surprised that we did because he said westerners rarely like real Chinese food. So, I tried to explain to him how much the Jews love Chinese food and how it's a tradition all over the U.S. for Jews to eat Chinese food on Christmas but I don't think it translated. Apparently though, someone needs to get the word to China that the Jews love their food.
We wound up at what looked like sort of a hole in the wall, but was a great noodle shop.
Lunch was a noodle soup as well as their equivalent of a burger on the side (which Noble ordered for us-- the soup was huge, so I don't know that we needed sandwiches as well, but everywhere we went, there was too much food, so this seemed about right).
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| My soup had hot chili on it-- which made it look like it would be really spicy, but it wasn't overbearing. |
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| Plum drink (and orange in the background). |
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| "Hamburger" |
After lunch, we headed to our last tourist spot in Xi'an-- the city wall. The Xi'an City Wall is the largest and best preserved city wall in China. Most city walls were destroyed by Mao, but this one was left intact. It's little less than 9 miles total-- some of it can be biked (you can rent bikes once you're on the wall).
The current wall was built during the Ming dynasty-- at different times, they have extended farther out, but now what remains surrounds the inner core.
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| The map shows the different configurations of the wall over time-- it is color coded but it's hard to see in the picture. |
There are four watch towers, one in each corner, as well as storage "houses" along the way where guards could store their stuff while on duty.
The top of the city wall also affords nice views of Xi'an.
This was our last stop, so after we walked the wall for a while, we went back to our hotel and said goodbye to Noble.
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| Mom and Noble |
It was only about 3 in the afternoon and we actually hadn't had time to explore our hotel, so we ventured to the top floor which was supposed to have a pool. We didn't find the pool, but we did wander into the spa (which wasn't really advertised, so we didn't know that there were spa services available). There were prices posted for massages which were quite reasonable and so we went in to try to make appointments for the later in the evening-- but this wasn't quite translating, so instead, we were led into a room and given massages right then. They were Chinese massages, which meant that we were fully clothed for them-- and it was amazing. I have no idea what this woman did, but nothing hurt anymore after an hour. And, I was pain free for days after (not that I'm generally full of pain-- but walking hours and hours a day while travelling can begin to make a back ache. The massage cured it though.)
Because we were on the executive floor (I have no idea why...), we were also entitled to go to happy hour between 5 and 7-- so we did. There was free wine and beer and snacks being served, which was nice after a massage. And then, I think the exhaustion of having been on the move for a week took over because I ended the evening by running a fever and not feeling very well, so we went for a bit of a walk around Xi'an inside the city wall and then stayed in the room for the rest of the night.
June 8: Travel to Suzhou
In the morning, we were picked up by the tour driver and taken to the airport to fly to Shanghai. We took China Air-- and even though the flight was only a little more than an hour, we were served a full, hot meal on board, and it was really quite good. And surprising-- we would have been lucky to get a package of peanuts if it had been a U.S. airline. From Shanghai, we took a car to Suzhou, which is about 2 hours outside of Shanghai and was the site of my conference (the impetus for going to China in the first place).
The hotel we were staying at was on the campus of the sponsoring university: Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. (I don't know why Xi'an is in the name...) We were in the Scholar's Suite, which was more like a small apartment than a hotel.
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| Separate Bedroom |
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| Living room and kitchen |
The campus itself is divided by a road and a canal, so there is a tunnel that runs underneath North and South Campus which has been wonderfully decorated by student graffiti art. (We got our first glimpse of the tunnel as we trekked from one side of campus to the other-- there is also a conference center hotel on the campus which is where we were dropped off, but not where we were staying, so we had to roll our luggage across campus to get to the building that my conference was being held in. I went back later to take pictures of the tunnel.)
By the time we got to the hotel and got settled, we really only had time for dinner. There are a couple dining halls in the building we were in-- though they aren't like dining halls we think of in the U.S. They are a lot more like restaurants-- and include menus. (I'm not sure how this works for students, but it worked like a regular restaurant for us.)
Suzhou is really a tourist destination-- those who go often go as a day trip from Shanghai, and so fewer people speak English and the menu is a bit more exotic. This one included items like bull frog (which we didn't order). We opted for less exotic beef.
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| Salad-- again, no idea what the dressing was, but it was good. |
It wasn't a particularly exciting day... which was ok because we were meeting our Suzhou tour guide at 8 am the next day.
June 9: Touring Suzhou
Originally, the conference was supposed to be 3 days, but I think there was less participation than hoped (this was China's inaugural Writing Center Conference), so Friday was solely for registration-- which left us that day to tour, after breakfast (which was included every day) in the other restaurant in the building.
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| The screen is a karaoke screen-- it largely seemed to play Adele songs in a loop. |
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| A rather traditional English breakfast, really. |
I had booked a tour of old Suzhou a few days before we actually left for China-- it's not particularly easy to find a tour of Suzhou in Suzhou since most people do this from Shanghai, but I did find one tour that would come pick us up locally.
Our first stop was supposed to be the city wall, but it was apparently opening later than our guide expected, so instead we headed to the canals first.
Suzhou is said to be the Venice of the east. I'm not sure it quite rivals Venice, but it does have a large canal system. Our first stop was to take a ride on a boat through part of the canal.
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| From inside the boat. |
We were pretty much the only scenic boat on the canal. There are other boats on it with people who are cleaning and trash or debris out of the water. One of them was apparently the wife of the man steering our boat. So, there's a whole chicken in the bucket next to him.
And, at some point, we passed another of the boats on the canal
and he handed the chicken off to his wife. Like, he went to the market for her and then handed her the chicken so she could cook it for dinner (or, this is what I gathered from our guide, Jolin, who was translating).
After we turned around to head back, the man steering the boat performed a couple of older, traditional songs as he rowed. Our guide didn't know what they meant-- they are apparently in an older dialect that the younger generation doesn't speak anymore.
After our canal ride, we took a rickshaw ride along Guanqian Street which is actually the road that runs along the canal. I knew that there was a rickshaw ride involved in the itinerary. I just didn't realize it was the basically the same route as the canal ride.
Apparently, there was some confusion as our rickshaw peddler/driver didn't speak English and so my mom and I though he was saying he was going to turn around when really I think he was asking us which way we wanted to go and because we misunderstood we told him it was ok to turn back. Since the ride itself was supposed to be longer, our guide had him drive us around the main street where there are cars.
I'm not sure I necessarily needed to do the rickshaw ride-- I know it's sort of traditional Chinese, but I think it's more romanticized than the reality.
Our next stop was the Humble Administrator's Garden-- which is really not humble. It was built in 1513 by one of the emperors retired administrator-- clearly administrators did quite well.
It's the largest garden in Suzhou-- it's a complex of pools and buildings connected by bridges. Like the palaces we saw, while it one residence, it was a series of buildings rather than one structure.
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| Stairway in the building that served as the daughters' bedroom. |
Upon the administrator's death, his son inherited the garden. His son was quite the gambler and promptly lost it to three other men in a game of mahjong. Those three men divided it up into three parts, though now that it's open to the public, it's one unified space.
The pools are filled with lotus petals.
We were a little early for the lotus flowers, the national flower of China, to be in bloom, though we did see one.
It was still rather early after we finished touring the Humble Administrator's Garden (since we had started out at 8), but our guide was pretty insistent that we should stop for lunch because our last two stops-- the silk factory and city wall-- weren't really near a lunch place. We ate lunch at what I assume was a pre-planned stop.
We ordered a variety of food for lunch-- much more than we needed, but everyone kept insisting that we weren't ordering enough food.
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| Yams with blueberry sauce-- really tasty. |
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| Steamed garlic broccoli. |
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| Pork (I'm pretty sure pork belly). |
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| Dumplings |
After lunch, we headed out for the silk factory. It's a little difficult to tell the true story of historic trade like the silk road because every city we went to wanted to claim it's preeminence along the route and Suzhou is no different-- it wants to claim it was the first stop on the silk road. I don't know if this is really true, but it does still have many working silk factories. The one we went to actually raises the silk worms it gets the silk from.
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| Silk worms feeding on leaves. |
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| larvae. |
Then, the silk is "washed" and processed.
Then it's woven together into threads.
Then it's hand stretched into layers.
We were allowed to help with one layer of the stretching-- everyone has to pull at the same pace and with the same force for it to come out evenly and it's tougher (like takes more strength) than you would think.
The end of the tour, of course, leads you into a shop full of silk goods-- first bedding, then clothing and then scarves and wallets and purses.
The last stop after the silk factory was the city gate: Panmen. This was definitely the hottest day of our trip and so I know why Jolin had wanted us to go there first-- it was now about 2 pm and the hottest part of the day. Had we been able to, it would have made more sense to see the wall when it was a bit cooler. But, it was fine.
The best view of the city gate is actually from the bridge over the canal-- so from outside of it. It gets the tower as well as the surrounding area.
The section of the city wall is rather small with only the one watch tower, but it's also not an intact wall but rather one gate which was built about 2500 years ago. Panmen is the only remaining water and land gate in China.
Some of the devices used by those guarding the city from the wall remain, like the winches to raise and lower the gates to lock invaders into the area between the inner and outer wall.
And this grate:
which is the top of a prison hole where they would put prisoners. It lets in the water from the canal so that prisoners would drown.
This was the last stop on our tour, and so we were taken back to the university-- which allowed me to register for the conference and meet some of the organizers.
For dinner that night, we decided to wander off of the university in the direction of the KFC (not because we wanted fried chicken but because it's a pretty big landmark sign). It turns out that the KFC is on the edge of a large square full of restaurants. The square was also hosting some kind of dance exhibition/competition (which I tried to take video of but it was hard because of the crowd).
In this square is also a bakery called 85 Degrees.
Having decided that maybe we needed a break from Chinese food, we opted to eat there. You get a tray and pick pastries from the offerings-- pastries are both savory and sweet. We got what were basically the equivalent of ham and cheese and a hot dog
as well as this sweeter pastry.
They also have these coconut "candies" in the refrigerator section.
They're hard to describe-- they're sort of like coconut marshmallows, but not as sweet as a marshmallow would be. They were really good-- I got more the next day. If I could have brought them back to the States, I would have, but since they were kept cold in the store, I assumed they wouldn't travel well. We also picked up fancy desserts for later, which we than ate in the room.
They also weren't as sweet as they looked-- the Chinese aren't big on sweet or dessert (in fact, the dessert portion of menus almost always listed more savory items or soup, not sweets). But, they were good. And a good way to end the day.
June 10: Conference Day
I was at the conference all day on June 10.
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| Conference Welcome and Keynote |
This turned out to be ok because it stormed all day-- like major thunderstorms, so it wouldn't have been a good day to tour anyway. (My mom hung out in our room all day, except at lunch when we went back to 85 Degrees to get food.) The conference was interesting and I learned a lot about the Chinese education culture which is helpful since my university is recruiting heavily from China. But, I won't bore people with the details of Writing Center sessions.
I did, however, meet a woman who teaches at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD where I used to adjunct. It's also relatively close to where my parents live-- so small world. Angela happens to be African-American and was telling me about having been in Hong Kong before the conference-- where people stared at her so long they bumped into walls while they were looking. And, took her picture a lot-- they thought she was either Beyonce or Rihanna, that apparently being the main Chinese exposure to black women. My mom and I had been photographed a few times, but nothing like what Angela experienced.
Saturday night, however, was the conference dinner-- which was great. I had asked earlier if my mom could come and was supposed to have paid for her, but it turns out that 60 people RSVP'd to dinner and then only about 35 showed up, so there was room and the conference organizers really nicely didn't actually ask us to pay. It was a dinner full of a variety of food When we sat down, there was some food on a lazy Susan
and for a while this was the only food, which made us all wonder if this was the only thing being served. What was there was good and a little exotic-- this is jellyfish
which I only at a little of. It was really good-- kind of the texture of jerky and sweet-- but my mom made me stop eating it because she was afraid I'd have an allergic reaction (years ago, I was stung by a jellyfish and had an extreme reaction to it that required a lot of medical attention. I don't think the toxins are present when you eat it... but I guess I don't know that for sure.) Just as we were really beginning to wonder if this was all the food, more started coming out. It turns out what was there originally was just the "cold dishes" (what the Chinese call appetizers, whether they are actually cold or not). And then, there was just a deluge. It was an enormous amount of food that included countless meat dishes, three different kinds of soup, a giant bowl of rice, and plates of vegetables. And it just kept coming out four or five dishes at a time. I never managed to capture the enormity of the amount of food because plates kept coming and going. It was largely all really good-- and probably the most "authentic" food we had. Certainly, there were some exotic things that we ate without necessarily identifying. There was also quite a bit of wine, mostly because each table got one bottle of red and one of white, but then the Chinese diners didn't really seem to like wine, so their bottles were passed off to the westerners-- and since none of us had to drive, it seemed only polite to drink what had already been opened. (It didn't amount to THAT much since there quite a few of us at the table...) And that was the end of day one of the conference.
June 11: My presentation and travel to Shanghai
June 11 was the day of my presentation-- so I had breakfast, ran through the presentation a couple of times and then was part of an 11 am session which went pretty well. The last day of the conference felt smaller; I think a lot of people left after the Saturday sessions. But, it was still pretty well attended. There was a closing lunch, and then we got our stuff together to go to Shanghai for the last couple days of our trip.
Again, we took a car to Shanghai, to Les Suites Orient on the Bund
which provided a complimentary beverage at check-in (which was some kind of tea, I believe).
The room was definitely the most modern we stayed in
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| Next to the far bed is a panel of buttons which control the window shades, the lights, and the sound system. |
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| Entry way |
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| Bathroom |
as well as a spectacular view of the Bund.
We got in to Shanghai late afternoon and decided to go walk the Bund Promenade. The Bund runs along the Huangpu River and is the eastern boundary of the old downtown.
What it really offers is a great view of the other side of the river, where there are incredibly modern buildings including the Oriental Pearl Tower, (the pink, round tower) which is actually a TV tower turned tourist site. It is also a popular place for engagement and/or wedding photos. These two were being taken as we walked
and then we passed more wedding parties on their way as we continued to walk. Along the promenade walk is also the Monument to the People's Heroes
which was built in 1993, dedicated to Chinese patriots (patriot as defined by the Communist party) from the 1840s on.
There is also this watch tower.
The promenade itself is raised. Walking along the sidewalk next to it, you can see that outside wall itself is decorated with flowers.
There are also several statues, like one of Chen Yi, Shanghai's first mayor from 1949-1958
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| I originally thought this was a statue of Chairman Mao-- apparently I'm not alone in this because Wikipedia informs me that Chen Yi is a '"dead ringer" for Mao (and I don't read Chinese, so I didn't know what the characters said). You really know it's Chen Yi because of the dates showing the range of his life. |
and one of this bull
which is a reprisal of Wall Street's "Charging Bull", though this bull is supposedly younger and stronger.
There is also the Gutzlaff Signal Tower
which was completed in 1907 and served as the control tower for river traffic until 1956. It's now located about 22 meters from its original location, moved when the street was widened.
Along the lower, sidewalk section of the Bund is also the "food court" which is mostly fast-food places, many of which are American or Western (like Subway or Costa Coffee). There is also a Starbucks which serves a lot of the same drinks as in the US, though it's more expensive in China (you have to convert from Yuan to dollars...)
but also has some unique drinks, like mango shaken tea, which was quite good (though, I pretty much love anything with mango).
From the Bund, we set off to the Yuyuan Bazaar, which is perhaps the most touristy place in all of China. To get there, we walked through Gucheng Park
which has sculpted trees (which aren't bonsai but Oleaceae, Fraxinus)
and is also home to an incredibly large feral cat population, including many which looked to be just weeks old (if that).
The cats were everywhere-- and I'm guessing quite used to people because they weren't particularly skittish.
At the other end of Gucheng Park is the beginning of the Yuyuan Bazaar area
which is largely imitation Ming architecture housing lots and lots of touristy stands selling all sorts of stuff. Most of it is fairly cheap, though there are some higher end stores selling things like jade jewelry sprinkled throughout. The entrance to the Yu Gardens is also here, though we arrived too late in the day to go. Outside the bazaar is all stands selling stuff like fidget spinners and cheap watches. There is also a giant mall-- which doesn't look like anything from the outside, but once you go in, you realize it's five or six floors of endless stalls crammed full of stuff.
Inside, the Ming-like architecture makes it a prettier experience.
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| This is the Huxinting Teahouse. |
Crab soup dumplings are exactly what they sound like-- they are crab soup inside a dumpling.
They are served on a plate, with a straw. You put the straw inside the dumpling to drink the soup
and then eat the dumpling after. There is a good reason why there were a lot of people in line for this.
There were also stands selling fried food, including grandma's scallion cakes
which were also really good. Basically, you can walk around the Yuyuan Bazaar and keep stopping at stands to try different foods, most of which are about one to two dollars US and make a whole dinner out of that. I highly recommend it.
There are also more typical American places in the Bazaar (I'm pretty sure there's a MacDonald's. And there's a Subway, which seems to be, by far, the favorite US food chain in China). And, there's Haagen Dazs, which we did go to-- it does have unusual ice cream flavors though, like mine on the left which is green tea flavored.
And then, we headed back towards the hotel, walking again through Gucheng Park where the topiary is lit up at night
and there are dance parties-- which happened a lot. Every time we walked this direction, there was some kind of dance/exercise event or class happening on this corner-- usually with more elderly people.
And then we returned to our room-- where there was now a lovely night view of the Bund.
June 12: The other side of the river
Les Suites Orient, like our other hotels, included breakfast with both Chinese and Western fare
and including made-to-order omelettes. And, the best coffee I had in my whole time in China, mostly because it was European and made in a very fancy machine. I drank more coffee at breakfast here than anywhere else because I was so excited to finally get a decent cup.
After breakfast, we set off to do really touristy things in Shanghai, which began with taking the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel to the other side of the river.
The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel is a tram which goes under the river and plays a light and sound show as you travel. It was hard to get still photos that capture it
but video does an ok job of capturing the strangeness of the experience. The light show and visuals are quite cool-- the accompanying sound which "interprets" the lights doesn't always make sense.
You emerge from the tunnel on the side of the river with several tourist attractions including the Shanghai aquarium and the Oriental Pearl Tower. We opted to go to the aquarium first-- while we had been warned against going to the zoos, which tend to feature dogs more than any other animal (though I am wondering if this is true since the Chinese had a lot of pet dogs and seem much more enamored of them than we are led to believe), the aquarium was touted as a good one. And it was.
The aquarium, like many others, is organized by continent. But, I'm not enough of a fish expert to remember which continent most of them came from. There were some that I had never seen before like these weird worm things which were weirdly fascinating.
And there were brightly colored fish and coral of all kinds.
And sharks...
And there were the usual aquarium attractions like penguins (where they were showing Happy Feet next to the habitat)
and luminous jellyfish
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| This exhibit changed color-- and then so did the jellyfish. |
and stingrays-- though I've never seen a spotted one like this before.
After the aquarium, we headed back towards the Oriental Pearl Tower, which has several attractions within it including the viewing towers and a museum.
We bought tickets for two observation decks and the Shanghai History Museum. There is also sort of a mall in the lower level as well as a restaurant. We tried to check these out first, but were emphatically directed by a guard to the line to get to the elevator for the observation decks-- apparently, there is an order in which you are supposed to experience the sights.
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| The sightseeing galleria, the most popular observation level, is 263 meters high. |
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| This one has our hotel in the middle of the picture. |
but it does have kitschy attractions like a space suit to take a photo in
and other space exhibits.
The better observation deck is the Transparent Observatory which is at 259 meters, so right below the Sightseeing Galleria (you take stairs down) and is not for those who are afraid of heights. It is really strange stepping out onto the glass-- even though you know there's a floor, it feels like you're stepping of onto nothing. The natural instinct is to take really slow, trepidatious steps onto it.
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| That's my feet on the transparent glass, just to prove I actually stepped out onto it. |
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| View of a traffic circle through the transparent floor. |
It catalogs the development of Shanghai as well as discusses the influence of other nations, especially the French, on the city.
It's a kind of resigned history, with a tone that suggests they feel abused by the influence of other nations, but are also resigned to the way in which it has influenced the way the city looks (and, as I mentioned earlier, it does look a lot like a western European city).
There are also some moving displays which feature holograms-- they're kind of cool in a creepy way.
By the time we finished with the museum, we were really hungry It was quite late in the day), though not hungry enough to eat in the other Oriental Pearl Tower feature, the Coca Cola Happiness Restaurant
so we were really pleased that there was a fancy, international ice cream place-- Global Ice Cream-- in the tower plaza.
Global Ice Cream is exactly what it sounds like; it features tons of ice cream flavors from all over the world.
There is so much choice, it's hard to choose-- but I went with flavors that were a bit unusual: a cheese flavored ice cream from Kazakhstan (because when am I likely to ever get there-- though the ice cream does make me want to go. Cheese ice cream is surprisingly yummy!) and a spicy chocolate ice cream from Guatemala.
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| My ice cream is in the forefront. |
I'm having a bit of a hard time remembering what flavors my mom ordered, though I really want to say one of them is macadamia. Ice cream here is priced by calories-- the more calories, the higher the price.
I've decided this a potentially brilliant strategy-- if we priced everything in the world this way, produce would now be really inexpensive and fast food would cost a lot... and that would address a lot of food inequality issues. But, I don't think "penalty pricing" is likely to catch on any time soon.
There is also a garden tea shop near the Oriental Pearl Tower-- notable because it is both a tea shop and a hanging garden.
We really wanted to go there to have tea outside, in the actual garden, but when we got there we were told it was closed. I couldn't even get out to take a picture-- the best I could do was a photo through the door.
After tea (which we both had iced because it was hot), we headed back to the hotel, again through the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel which is the same light and sound show in both directions, to check out the tea and coffee room there, largely because there were snacks and free wine, beer or drinks offered (one per person). It had coffee, tea and snacks all day long-- and drinks from 5:30-7:00 pm.
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| I actually drank both glasses of wine because my mom doesn't drink. Shhh! |
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| Spaghetti bolognese and a Caesar salad for me |
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| Club sandwich and fries for my mom |
June 13: Dumpling tour and Yu garden... in the pouring rain
Our last full day in China started with a dumpling food tour and cooking class. After a light breakfast, we set out to find the metro (which was next to the YuYuan Bazaar) and meet our tour group. When we left, it was raining-- not hard, but enough to need an umbrella. We had left early because the concierge at the hotel told us it was going to take at least 45 minutes to get where we were going which was a grand overestimation of the time. It took about 25, maybe. The Shanghai metro is as easily navigable as the Beijing one with signs in English; we took it to the French Concession area-- an area given over to the French from 1849 to 1943-- where our group was meeting. On our way to meet the group, my umbrella broke-- the plastic at the top just snapped. There was no way to keep using it, so I threw it away. It was basically just drizzling by then anyway.
We met our guides-- one of whom, Kylem is the owner of the company and was basically watching (and I assume training or evaluating) the woman who led the tour, Yoky-- around 10 am. The rest of the group were ex-pats from the US, their visiting friends, and an Australian couple.
The first place we went was Huji Potstickers-- for potstickers
so named because they stick to the pot a bit, which is how they get color on one side. It was a really small place-- our table is basically right behind the people preparing and cooking the dumplings. These are pork filled. It seemed a bit strange to be eating dumplings in the morning, though I gather from all the buffets at the hotels we were staying in that it's not strange for the Chinese to eat dumplings at any time of day. (I think it was also scheduled this way to avoid lunch "rushes" at these places-- all of them were pretty small with only a few tables.)
The second stop was Lao Hongxing Soup Dumplings, where we ate a variety of dumplings, one of which is significantly thicker than what you would tend to think of dumplings being-- they were almost like pretzel dough.
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| These are the thicker dumplings. |
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| We had other dumplings as well-- more traditional steamed dumplings |
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| and wontons. |
By now, it was raining really hard-- and I was without an umbrella, but Kyle had an extra one with him (which turned out not be an actual "extra," but his umbrella. I really thought he meant he had one in addition to his, and then felt badly when I realized that it was his only one-- and it was new. The tag was still on it. But, he kept insisting that I use it, and it was raining really hard.). The umbrella was especially useful because your next stop was Da Mu Ge Steamed Buns which is really just a stand on the street.
These were totally different; they are "buns" more than what I would think of as dumplings. And, they were filled with a kind of custard. It's not overly sweet, but it does feel more like a dessert than a savory dumpling.
As we were walking to our final stop, we passed through side streets with sort of make-shift storefronts, including one that shooed us away when we stopped to look. Kyle explained that they were selling live chickens for food which had basically been illegal since the bird flu epidemic and so the guy selling them didn't want undo attention. Maybe he has a way of closing up really quickly should anyone official come by-- it was a side street, which I guess made him a little inconspicuous, but it was also spilling out into the street, so it wasn't really hidden.
There were also fruit and meat shops on these side roads/alleys. These two are pretty much next door to one another.
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| Produce stand. |
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| Meat shop. |
Here, we had dumplings (of course), as well as a kind of salad with mushrooms, beans, cabbage, and a couple other veggies. And beer.
After we'd been eating for a while, we headed to a small cooking school to learn how to make our own dumplings.
The ingredients were already laid out for us-- most everyone made dumplings with a shrimp filling. I and one other member of the group made veggie stuffed dumplings (I'll eat almost anything, but I really don't like shrimp. The other veggie dumpling maker was allergic to shell fish.). We made everything from scratch starting with the dumpling dough, which is predominantly corn starch-- the class was lead by an expert dumpling maker and then translated by Yuky.
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| Our instructor is the woman leaning into the picture on the right. |
When they were finished, we put them into bamboo steamers (my pictures of them actually make them look kind of "professional". In truth, I don't think the real professionals have much to worry about. These don't look nearly as nice as the ones our instructor made.).
And, finally, we ate our dumplings.
When we we done, it was still pouring out-- and Kyle was nice enough to let me keep the umbrella. (I still have it-- it's pink. And, it's now in my car-- an inadvertent souvenir.) Normally, I would have come up with something indoors to do, but the one thing we had left to do in Shanghai that we hadn't yet was go to Yu Garden and it was our last day in Shanghai... and we were already soaked. So, we headed back to go find the garden.
The entry to Yu Garden is actually inside the Yuyuan Bizarre. And, you wouldn't really realize how big it is-- it's "hidden" behind walls and actually covers quite a bit of ground.
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| Entrance Rock |
and rock gardens.
There are actually six areas (though I'm not sure I would be able to delineate them) separated by walls topped with dragons.
Even in the rain, it's pretty-- and was probably less crowded because the weather was so bad.
There are also important stones, like the harmony stone, which has its own pavilion.
By now it was a little after 3 pm-- and we were so soaked that I no longer even knew that my shoes were soaked all the way through. But, the rain wasn't slowing down at all, so we decided to go back to the hotel and have tea and coffee in the lounge. It was a bit early to end our last day of sight-seeing, but six hours in the pouring rain had gotten a bit old. And, we needed to change shoes so that ours would have some time to dry out before we had to pack them to get on the plane the next day.
By dinner time, the rain had stopped and so we set off again to try to find Lost Heaven which once again had been recommended to us by the ex-pats on our dumpling tour. And this time, we found it!
It's much trendier than anywhere else we ate while we were in China. Lost Heaven actually has several locations, including one in Beijing-- it specializes in food from the Yunnan regions (southwest) but also has some Thai influences. It has fancy drinks-- both alcoholic and non-alcoholic ones.
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| On the left is a house specialty drink sort of similar to a Pimm's Cup; on the right is watermelon juice. |
as well as a vegetable side.
This was more than enough for us, but once again the waitress seemed surprised that we weren't ordering more food. There was a table of guys near us who made up for our small order by ordering a ton of food, so it all balanced out.
And that was our last night in China.
June 14: Flying home
We actually didn't have to leave for the airport until early afternoon, so we walked the Bund again and then (with me protesting a bit because one experience having people try to sell me junk was enough-- and we'd actually been there twice since we had to go through the bizarre to get to Yu Garden), walked back to the Yuyuan Bizarre in order to buy my niece and nephews fidget spinners, most of which are actually made in China (they loved them-- possibly more than the unique gifts we got them). And then, we caught a taxi to the airport where we had our last meal in China-- it was a lunch special with a choice of a kind of chicken (different flavor/spice level) and then rice or noodles. We both ordered noodles-- which turned out to be spaghetti bolognese which is not what I was expecting when given that choice.
And then, eventually, we boarded a plane for another 14 1/2 hour flight which is really the part of the trip I'd rather not remember. (It culminated in a mad dash for our connection in Toronto and my luggage being lost for more than 24 hours... but none of that chaos seems like a good way to end a blog about a fabulous trip.)
结束
(the end)
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