China Day 4 - November 29, 2008

Day 4 was probably our longest and busiest day in China. We fit so much into the last day leaving early in the morning around 8am and returning about 945pm. Needless to say we were exhausted by the end of the day.

We started the day off at the Temple of Heaven. The Temple was built in 1420 A.D. during the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifice to Heaven. The Temple of Heaven is enclosed with a long wall. The northern part within the wall is semicircular symbolizing the heavens and the southern part is square symbolizing the earth. It is much bigger than the Forbidden City and smaller than the Summer Palace with an area of about 2,700,000 square meters.

Leading up to the Temple of Heaven it was filled with crowds of people, more like performers. They ranged from dancers, even just couples dancing, to games of people playing sports. We even saw some men playing a game that looked like checkers outside of the restroom.

Next, we were off to the Hutong area where we toured a traditional Chinese town, market, had lunch in a traditional family's home and rode a rickshaw through the area. Yes I did have to ask the man if they ever had to tell someone they were too heavy to get in, they said no. The Chinese are a lot smaller than us Americans. They do have very strong leg muscles.

After lunch and the Hutong area, we took a bus ride to the Olympic stadium area. We were allowed about an hour to walk around the area. For us this was an hour too long. We felt we could have just drove by and took pictures. Sadly, the area is already starting to fall apart. The concrete outside of the birds nest was already coming up. It was put up so quick and does not look like it was taken care of. We saw and took are pictures but ended up just getting back on the bus and resting for our next stop the Silk Alley where it was floors of shopping.

The Silk Alley had several floors, I think around 6 floors of shopping. This is where you could buy all the knock offs your heart could possibly want: North Face, Columbia, Timberland. You name it, they had it. You really put your bartering skills to the test. It was so crowded and overwhelming though. It was truly an experience. The vendors would be "Hey lady, you like. How much?" Your son so handsome, I make you a deal." This is also where the kids truly got pawed at and so much attention to where Kyle finally had to start yelling at people to leave him alone. They were actually pulling at his ears and on his cheeks. We actually had enough of that. We did get some great deals. Don got an awsome North Face ski jacket for about $40.

Our last dinner was at a more Western style buffet that served pizza, french fries, less Chinese food. Again, after dinner before we hit the bus we were mobbed by street vendors selling bags, pashmina scarfs and other treasures. Yes, we did buy from them at some great prices. We boarded the bus bound for an awesome acrobat show. I tell you the Chinese definitely are talented. I see how they won so many Gold medals. They were amazing, what they could do with their bodies. The contortionists and a young girl who had the strength to ride a bicycle while holding herself and nine other girls on the bike. We were not allowed to take photos at all.

We finally made it back to the hotel at about 9:45 pm exhausted. Our final night, it truly was a once in a lifetime trip.

China Day 3 - The Great Wall - November 28, 2008

We got up and out of the hotel early today for the highlight of our trip...The Great Wall. We all were a little excited about the day's adventure. We drove for awhile out towards the country of China. We actually drove past some developments that reminded us of being back in the states. China is a little more Western than Japan in terms of its housing and malls.


We left the hotel at 7:30am and arrived to the Mu Tian Yu section of the Great Wall at 9:15am. We walked a little bit through some vendors to a cable car which would drop us off at the climbing section of the Great Wall. Again as we got off the bus, Kyle got a bloody nose. You'll start to notice this through a lot of our pictures. I hope one day we'll look back and laugh at the pictures. He was such a good sport through it all.


The cable car had some interesting views on the way up...

When we got off the cable cars and got out it was breathtaking ...
It truly was amazing. There is no other way to describe it. It was breath taking. It was a once-in-a lifetime experience that I hope Megan and Kyle will remember. We spent 2 hours walking the stretch of the wall that we were on just snapping and snapping away. We learned that it about 1-2 million people died building the wall and it took I think they said 20 years to build. It was truly impressive. It stretches from Shanhaiguan on the east coast to Jiayu Guan in the Gobi Desert, which is more than 4000 miles.



It was a wonderful walk along the wall. We definitely could have used about another hour or more. We had about 20 minutes to get down the wall so we found ourselves running down the wall. Then at the bottom we were bombarded by all of the vendors to buy a souvenir. They sold everything from t-shirts, stuffed pandas, dried fruits and nuts, to stamps with your name in Chinese. We did find time to buy a few souvenirs then boarded the bus. Thankfully the Kelsey's were not the last ones like usual. We were then off to lunch at the Cloisonne Factory, where of course we bought more souvenirs (another tourist trap).


Our final stop of the day was the tour of Ming's tombs. This is the final resting place for 13 of the 16 Emperors.

Here is a picture of the street vendors at the "Spirit Way", which is a road lines with statues of guardian animals that leads into the Ming Tomb grounds...

We finally made it back to our hotel room exhausted and ready for dinner. Rumor had it there was a great American restaurant right by the hotel. We had our fill of Chinese food everyday for lunch and the thought of some good old fashion American pizza sounded good. Let me tell you we had to go to China to get it but it was the best Pizza Hut I have ever eaten and the fanciest too.

China Day 2 - Thanksgiving November 27, 2008

Day 2 - Happy Thanksgiving! We woke up and ate downstairs at the western style buffet. It took us a day to figure out they had made to order eggs and omelets. We loaded up on fried rice, fresh fruit, cereal, eggs and pastries. There were no panckages, french toast or waffles for breakfast. Thank you Don for letting me pack my french vanilla powder creamer so I can have my fuufuu coffee. Then at 8am we were off for a day of fun. It would be another busy day.

The first stop was The Forbidden City were the Emperor had ruled. The place was amazing, it was said that there were 9999 1/2 rooms when it was built, but I thought our guide Cha Cha said when someone counted they were really only somewhere around 8,000+ rooms. Still there were a lot. The funniest story though I have to tell you all was that, when the Emperor ruled back in the Ming Dynasty I believe that his color was yellow. All his silks were made of yellow and Cha Cha told us that if anyone but the Emperor was caught wearing yellow they were automatically beheaded. Oh my god!!! Kyle was wearing a gray coat with a yellow lining and he about freaked, he started to cry and kept saying they are going to chop my head off. He didn't hear the part when Cha Cha said they no longer do that that now anyone can wear yellow. It was so funny I couldn't stop myself from laughing. Whenever he started to act up we kept reminding him "Behave remember you are wearing yellow". That's bad but it worked that day.

The outside of the Forbidden City...

Entering the Forbidden City...

A family photo... A cute picture of the boys...The kids' fan club...

The Forbidden City was massive...notice the yellow lining in Kyle's coat?

We left the Forbidden City and walked right into Tiannamen Square, which was built in 1417 as the front door to The Forbidden City. The square is huge, about 440,000 square meters. Mao Zedong Memorial Hall is at the South side of the square, and this hall contains the crystal coffin for Chairman Mao, the founder of the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party. Everywhere we went along the square we were hounded by street vendors wanted to know if we wanted to buy a souvenir from the Olympics. We finally gave in and the kids each got a ski cap from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I let down do all the bartering for the items, since he had all the conversion cards on how much stuff cost. It was quite an experience. We stayed in the square for just a short while then went to lunch then off to the Summer Palace.

Our guide Cha Cha. Kyle would sing to her everyday, "Cha Cha Cha Cha". She thought it was very funny...

My 2nd favorite place (behind the Great Wall) that we visited, the Summer Palace. It was the Emperor's Summer home. It was surrounded by a man made lake. I would have like to have seen a little more and spent a little more time here, but unfortunately Kyle had another bloody nose. It was very beautiful and peaceful. There was a nice walkway and beautiful painted ceilings along the corridors along the lake.

My favorite view...

On the way back to the hotel, we had "extra" time, so we detoured to the Silk Market (a tourist trap). I got suckered in to buying two new pillows and a silk blanket for Megan. It was interesting to see the life of a silkwork and how it is all done. Did you know the life of a silkworm is only 45 days from the time they hatch until they die?

Here are the stages of a silkworm...

Touring the factory...

The silk is very strong...
We got to help stretch the silk for making comforters...

We made it back to the hotel and just went to dinner at the hotel restaurant for a sandwich and pizza, then off to rest. We had to leave at 7:30 am tomorrow morning for The Great Wall, the highlight of our trip.