Shanghai: Day Two

We were able to sleep in this morning which was great because we were exhausted and it is still pouring (it has only stopped raining once since we've been in China). We visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition, which was actually pretty interesting. The exhibition contained models of old and new developments as well as photographs of the old city of Shanghai, which was a small fishing village. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a huge scale model of the city of Shanghai, they even included buildings that hadn't been built such as a skyscraper next to the World Financial center that is sure to be either the first or second tallest building in the world. We went into a small theater room next to the model that seems like you're flying through the Shanghai of the future, from the airport to their world expo buildings to their skyscrapers.

After the exhibition we wandered through the tunnels underneath the People's Square (the site of Shanghai's municipal government headquarters/a large public square). There were hundreds of vendors and shops in these tunnels, we felt like ants, it went on for miles.

We ate lunch then wandered the city. We met up with our tour group to go to dinner at an older Asian couple's home. They led us up incredibly steep stairs to a self-made 2nd story where we ate dinner. Dinner was the best yet (most likely because our Chinese guide was able to order for us : ). We had vegetables, sweet and sour chicken, peanut chicken, etc. The ceilings were so low that David's head nearly touched the ceiling.

After dinner we took the metro with a couple other people to the Park Hyatt at the Shanghai World Financial Center, which is the tallest building in Shanghai and shaped like a bottle-opener. We found our way up to the 93rd floor for cocktails and the view. The bar was incredible. The definition of first-class according to David, mostly because of the toilets haha. As you walk through the stall door the toilet cover automatically opens. The seat is heated (sorry for the intimate details). Anything you could imagine a toilet doing - it did. Even wash and dry... So anyways, we ordered drinks and sat in the lounge overlooking the city. We were high above all the buildings and the lights were beautiful. Next time we are staying there! :)

Tomorrow morning we are heading to a small water town about a hour and a half away, Xitang.

Zai-jian!

Shanghai: Day One

We arrived in Shanghai after a 16 hour train ride from Xi'an. We went for a walk around the city and ended up in a beautiful Chinese garden- Yuyuan Gardens, which were built in the 1500's. We wandered the gardens and found a place to have dinner.

After dinner we watched a Shanghai acrobatic show. They did stunts on bicycles, motorcycles, and ropes. Girls spun plates and hula hooped with every part of their body. One part where a man and woman swung on ropes, they played a part of Titanic in the background. The first thing David whispered to me was, "They definitely don't have the rights to show this." During this acrobatic rope routine to "My Heart Will Go On" the girl swung by her neck a few times, which was scary. The acrobats also did the "ball of death" which is a round metal cage in which 4 guys ride motorcycles around each other.

After the show we walked along the Bund to go on a night cruise along the river. In the 1840s, the Bund was a muddy narrow lane with tall reeds. It initially became a British settlement. After Shanghai was established as the trading port in 1846, a street was paved there and the riversides were reinforced. Then, rows of commercial buildings were constructed. As the UK Concession, a building boom at the end of 19th century and beginning of 20th century led to the Bund becoming a major financial hub of East Asia. It was the center of Shanghai's politics, economy and culture more than a hundred years ago. Now the Bund is known for the beautiful buildings lining the waterfront, including buildings of various architectural styles such as Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neo-Classical, Beaux-Arts, and Art Deco (Shanghai has one of the richest collections of Art Deco architectures in the world).

The night cruise along the Huangpu River was beautiful. All the buildings have different types and colors of lighting that lit up the whole skyline. It provides a great contrast between the old and the new- the old buildings and architecture along the Bund on one side of the river and the brand-new skyscrapers dominating the other side.

Zaijian!

D & K

Army of the Terra-cotta Warriors

"Army of the Terra-cotta Warriors"

Stumbled upon by peasants digging a well in 1974, the 2,000-year-old army of Terra-cotta warriors is a fascinating record of artistic achievement and a grandiose expression of imperial power.

We were both so excited to see the terra-cotta warriors after hearing we were going to Xi'an. For those who may not have heard of them, the Terra-cotta warriors are 2,000-year-old life-size clay warriors built to protect the tomb of a Chinese emperor. They were discovered fairly recently in 1974, by a farmer digging a well. My favorite part about them is that each warrior represents an individual man and each have a unique face. The tallest warrior stands over 6 feet, and all were equipped with still-sharp bronze weapons- swords, spears, and crossbows.

Before we went to the actual site we made a pit stop at a factory that showed exactly how the Terra-cotta warriors were made. They had a basic mold they would use for the warriors, and generals. Then they would add individual touches to each mold. They did a bunch of other really intricate stuff but it was mostly yawn-worthy. :) we ended up getting a hand-made general. The guy was trying to get me to buy two because he said it would be lonely because it only knows Chinese. So I said we'd buy just one and say ni hao to it every day.

The site of the terra-cotta warriors was an open farmland but has since been turned into an outdoor mall with food places and shops. There are 4 pits that contain the soldiers. The first pit we went to, pit 1, is where the main army stands. 6,000 of the 8,000 soldiers and horses are there. The rows of figures are seperated by walls roughly 8 feet wide. Towards the back of the vault there is a pile of collapsed warriors with smashed heads that archaeologists are trying to reassemble like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Pit 2 is a vault of chariots, cavalry and infantrymen. Pit 3 is relatively unexcavated. It contains 68 soldiers and a war chariot. The figures appear to be high-ranking officials because of their more elaborate costumes. Our favorite pit was number 1. It is the most awe-inspiring, especially with the rows upon rows of 2,000-year-old clay warriors. We spent the day wandering the sites and learning about the discovery. Tonight we are off on a 16 hour sleeper train to Shanghai!

Zai-jian!

David and Kristen

Xi'an

Yesterday was our travel day; we took a 13 hour overnight train from Beijing to Xi'an. Our train had 6 bunks per cabin, and was open so everyone just congregated between the bunks and played card games and talked. I practiced Spanish with the Colombians and David talked about movies with the English guys. They turned off the lights at 10 and people used headlamps and flashlights until we finished playing games around 11. We woke up around 7am and David got a very exciting phone call. He got hired as a sales coordinator for ESPN! His dream job! We are both so excited and thankful for all the support and congratulations from our friends and family. :)

This morning we arrived at our hostel around 10am in Xi'an. Long ago it was the fabled beginning and end of the Silk Road; where camel caravans unloaded goods from across the Eurasian continent and packed up aspects of China that went on to influence the world (but mostly just Asia). We decided to rent bikes and ride them around the top of the city wall. The wall was built in 1370 during the Ming Dynasty, the walls are 12 meters high and form a rectangle perimeter of 14 km (about 8 miles). We ended renting a really rickety tandem bicycle and rode around the top of the cobblestone wall with friends, which was quite bumpy and fun. That night we had a group dinner at a famous dumpling restaurant. We tried 16 different types of dumplings, from vegetable to pork to beef. We all went out to local clubs to celebrate David's job (everyone elses idea :) Everyone loved it because I would barter with the waiter for drinks. He told us 15 yuan each and I said," shi" (ten). He just stared at us then shrugged his shoulders and said, "okay." It was a really fun night. Tomorrow we get to see the Terra-cotta warriors!

Zai-jian!

D and K

The Great Wall

We were able to hike a lesser-known section of the Great Wall of China known as Jinshanling (approximately 3 hours north of Beijing). The wall stretches from the sea in the east to its crumbling finale in the Gobi desert- almost 4,000 miles long. The wall was not the work of just one dynasty. It started in the 7th century BC, but under the first emperor of the Qin dynasty building really took off. The emperor, Qinshu Huangdi, threaded together the existing ramparts, erected watchtowers, and constructed beacons on the fortification to alert the capital of China. The purpose of the wall was to keep the hostile tribesmen of the north out of China, which failed spectacularly (most notably with the incursions that established the Jin, Yuan, and Qing dynasties.

Our 3-hour hike was majestic in every way. We followed China's greatest monument through various stages of repair; from freshly restored to thoroughly crumbling, over steep peaks and gentle flats, and through patches of wilderness and rugged farmland, with two dozen watchtowers along the way.

                                                                                

There was a light rain on our hike so there were barely any people, we passed maybe 3 people an hour. The higher we climbed the more fog would roll in over the wall, covering everything in a thick mist. The view was beautiful and it was entertaining to have a constantly changing path- one minute we would be climbing 2 foot stairs and the next we would be pulling ourselves up a muddy crumbling slope.

Later that night we spent the night at a hostel right next to the Great Wall. We had a home-cooked traditional Chinese meal. Our room was big but "rugged," with bean pillows, cat smells (they had 3 cats), and bed posts that said Happy Birthday. We were lucky though because we had Western-style toilets and the girls next to us had squatters. We played games for awhile and David became good friends with the old grandma in the house. We asked our guide if it would be ok to call her nainai (grandma) but she told us to call her aiyi instead. It means aunt but it could be used as a respectful term for an older women. She got super excited when David said, "Ni hao aiyi" for the rest of the night. :)

Tomorrow we are heading back to Beijing to take a 13 hour sleeper train to Xi'an, which has been the national capital of 11 dynasties and is home to the Terracotta warriors.

Zai-jian!

D and K

Wax body, tough bargains, and men wearing makeup

Kristen: This morning we started off at Mao's Mausoleum. We waited in a 30 minute fast-moving line with all native Chinese people. Many of the people are from far villages in China who save up money for years to be able to travel to Beijing and pay respects to Mao. We were moved through the building like cattle, constantly goaded to not stop walking. Right when we entered the entry hall there is a giant statue of Mao which everyone puts flowers at. Everyone becomes completely silent (a rare sight in China). As we silently walked into the room with his body in a glass case, it was interesting to see the intense power he holds over all the people-similar to a God. We read in a couple of books that Mau wanted to be cremated but they decided to embalm him. Supposedly they created a wax version of his body just in case the embalmed one didn't look very good. I've only seen a couple cadavers, none embalmed, but walking by his body we both were like, that's definitely wax. He looked wayyy better than he ever did in real life even years before he died- like a china doll with a flag wrapped around his body. Though we decided not to break the news to the villagers.

David: We both were really excited when we left the mausoleum because the forbidden city gate with Mao's portrait no longer had the scaffolding and green tarp that was all over it only two days before. We had a little photo session and walked around tiananmen square with thousands of people. We were told to check out the top of the forbidden gate to get a great view of Tiananmen square. So after more lines and people we finally made our way up. Kristen's sidenote: They let their kids (under age 3 more or less) pee and poo everywhere. We see it a few times a day. Kids squatting over planters to go #2. Peeing on the stairs of a plaza. So unsanitary and gross. We easily solved the SARS epidemic, by being in Beijing for 2 hours. SARS is an airborne illness so maybe stop spitting up massive wads of saliva everywhere? Done. :) The view was definitely worthwile and we saw some old pictures of the gate and the forbidden city that was very interesting. They have a picture timeline that showed the major changes and in the last part was a TV with a video of the president driving the streets in front of a military parade. It was both eerie and intimidating to see thousands of troops, tanks and missles line the same area you are in.

After lunch we took the metro to the Ghost Market. This market is an antique market that is pretty far from where we have been traveling and is a great spot to get some souvenirs. However we quickly learned that the locals don't like to drop prices when bartering at this market and they always started at 500 yuan no matter the object. I found it somewhat exhausting and frustrating to have to barter for an old Mao clock that is worth only 40 yuan when they start at 500 yuan (65 US dollars). After about two hours and wandering hundreds of rows we picked up a few things and headed back.

For dinner we found a little restaurant near our hostel that we only found because a girl in our tour told us it was good and to look for the welcome sign. Inside was a room that looked like a family kitchen and we enjoyed some pork dumplings and spicy chicken. Grandma was sitting near us and loved smiling at us with big black teeth. Super cute! But we were really excited to enjoy our first good meal thus far.

With our tour we went to a famous Beijing opera play. We both were a little hesitant but decided to do it anyways. I hate to say it but I was pretty disappointed. It started out with some super high pitched singing, followed by people walking around the stage a lot and some dancing (twirling in circles). We both had trouble staying awake and didn't really enjoy the story or pace of it (Kristen only fell asleep three times). We found out after that pretty much everyone else thought the same. The most fun part was watching the men put their stage makeup on, which is about as fun as it sounds. Tomorrow we are going to the great wall. So excited!

Zai-Jian!

D and K

True Life: "I live in Hutong"

"True Life: I live in a hutong"

This morning we went for a neighborhood walk around our hutong. We learned that hutong is actually a Mongolian word for water well from back when the Mongols climbed the Great Wall and conquered a Chinese dynasty. Each house has beams above their doors that represent the status of their family, from none (very poor) to twelve (reserved for the emperor, though of course he wouldn't have a normal house anyways). We took a rickshaw (a bicycle with a carriage attached to the back) ride around the hutong and up to the Drum Tower. The tower is massive in the middle of the city. Similar to a clock tower its purpose was to tell time. They would beat the drums every two hours (as opposed to ours every hour). We climbed up 70 steep steps to the inside of the tower where we watched a traditional drum performance. Inside was the oldest largest drum in the world (extremely battered and torn) as well as a newer "largest drum in the world" which was made out of just one extremely large cowhide. The drum tower, Jingshan park, the forbidden city, and Tiananmen square are all in a perfect line, which looks really cool from each place. After the performance we jumped back into our rickshaw and rode to a local family's house where we ate a traditional lunch. After we walked through the main door on the street we had to navigate small uneven passageways to get to their personal home (30 families share the same entry and courtyard). We all sat in their living area around small tables. I had to sit on the family bed because there weren't enough chairs- that was only slightly awkward. We had a family style lunch of duck, chicken, dumplings, rice and veggies. The coolest part of the place was the giant picture of Mao on their wall and their pet crickets that were as big as gerbils (they looked like Mulan's lucky cricket except for they weren't cute or lucky!). The same family has lived in the house for over 50 years, now three generations live there together.

Later that night we attended a Kung-Fu show in order for David to brush up on his skills. It was a mixture of kung-fu, ribbon acrobatics, ballet, and a play. We didn't really follow the plot very well but it was something like there was a young boy who didn't want to leave his mom and do kung-fu, but then he had a dance off with 2 other kids who were way better than him so he decided to join some school or monastery. As he was becoming the best fighter he turned evil because he thought he was the most powerful fighter and also liked a girl. So it ends with him realizing harmony is best and he didn't need a girl and so he became the warrior monk. Not your basic chick flick. David's favorite part was when little boys did frontflips and instead of using their hands they used their little bald heads to push off the ground (and my dad wouldn't let me do headers in soccer because it killed too many brain cells). My favorite part was when they did flips and swung on ropes hanging from the ceiling, with no harnesses. After the show we took the metro to see the Birds nest and water cube but they had just closed :( Tomorrow we are heading to see Mao's embalmed body, go shopping at an antique market, and end the night at the Beijing Opera!

Zai-jian!

D and K

Summer Palace

I think China believes if beds are harder than asphalt you will sleep better- I beg to differ. Perhaps they wouldn't need to do as much tai chi if they just invested in some memory foam.

I woke up this morning at 530 am with my stomach growling, totally starving- story of my life (this is obviously Kristen :) We ate breakfast at our hostel www.redlanternhouse.com and then set off to find the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is a sprawling imperial encampment full of temples, gardens, pavilions, with a beautiful lake at the center. The empress would travel there to get away from the forbidden city. It is so picturesque. There are beautiful Asian dragon boats gliding across the lake with massive red and gold temples on hills in the distance. We wandered the grounds for hours, through long outdoor corridors and up slippery rock paths. Side note: Its been sprinkling on and off since we arrived which is really nice because its only in the high 70's and not too humid ( though equally bad news for my hair).On our way out of the grounds we took one of the dragon boats back across Kunming lake. The Summer Palace was definitely the most beautiful sight we've been to in Beijing so far.

Earlier tonight we met up with our tour group for the first time. The people are from Australia, Germany, Colombia, England, and the US. They all seem super fun and sweet. Tomorrow we are waking up early to do a walking tour of the hutongs, shop at the Silk Market, and maybe see the Olympic sites!

Off to bed now,zai-jian!

D and K

A City with no Sun, lots of spit, and a ton of History

Preface: we are unable to blog directly from China (all blog sites are blocked) so we are emailing this to a friend to post for us, yay for big brother!

A  City with no Sun, lots of spit, and a ton of History.

After an easy 12 hour flight our journey in China began. Our taxi brought us to our guesthouse in the hutongs of Beijing (a tangle of minute residential passages throughout the city) at 5:30am in the morning and miraculously we were able to check in. We dumped all our luggage and set off for the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Along our walk to the metro station we saw people buying food out of an old couples’ home, it was like a to-go window on the side of an old Asian couples kitchen. Our meal only cost 90 cents! I was hesitant to try it but Kristen was adamant, she got me by saying, “it’s not like they’re scorpions.” I was pleasantly surprised by and egg biscuit and a large egg mixed with green onions, poppy seed, special Asian sauce, and crispy noodles. It was actually pretty tasty. After breakfast we hopped on the metro and arrived right in front of the famous Tiananmen Square. The first view you see is an enormous portrait of MaoZiDong. This famous portrait is an amazing display of China’s nationalistic views. It was intriguing that even through death he still has a powerful hold on the Chinese people. After walking with thousands of Chinese who came just to view this portrait, we started the trek into the Forbidden City. We quickly found ourselves partnered up with two Kiwis who had an English speaking guide who insisted that we walk though the Forbidden City with them. Peter, the Chinese guide, was more than informative about all of the buildings and history. He told stories of the emperors’ loves as we walked the path of the one mile City. We spent about an hour and a half walking around the City, talking a lot about where Mulan defeated the evil Hun army (this was mostly Kristen explaining to the Chinese guide) and how incredibly significant the smallest details in the buildings were (i.e. the number of tiny dragons on each roof represented where the emperor would be, if there were 9 dragons it was the emperors, if only 8 then just the elite). It was truly an amazing walk. Once we exited the City, we walked up a man-made mountain that sits directly behind the City.

It was built to show the previous dynasty that they were now more powerful.  We encountered great views, lots of stairs, and some aggressive picture takers on this mountain. The funny thing about Beijing is that there is no sun. It is like a constant state of twilight (all because of the intense smog). Peter told us that it was actually really clear today, most days you can’t see 100 meters in front of you! After sharing some tea with our new friends and enjoying some traveling stories we set off on separate ways and walked around the massive Tiananmen Plaza. It was pretty interesting that there is no reference to anything of its controversial past. We enjoyed watching soldiers march in sequence and seeing thousands of proud Chinese saluting the National Flag. Hunger struck us fast after walking for miles and we found a little Restaurant that was pretty interesting. Chinese food isn’t like what we are used to back home. But it was still good and we enjoyed trying the local food. Chopsticks are so slippery! After dinner we set out for a nearby lake that is surrounded by shops, restaurants, and bars with a younger crowd. About two hours of walking put us over the top and we quickly walked back to get a good night’s sleep. We had a great first day in Beijing; this country is an amazingly different one than the one we live in. China has been able to wave together its ancient past with new age technology in unique ways. From plasma screens in Tiananmen Square to skyscrapers towering over the narrow lanes of hutongs that line the city.

PS. Everyone hawks mad lougies over here! Like seriously every single man. All the time. In the street. And the metro.

Zai-Jian!

D & K

Almost leaving for Beijing

Can't believe we are leaving in 2 days for China for 3 and a half weeks. I forgot how small backpacks were to fit all of my clothes in! Hopefully my really cool Asian hat doesn't get too smashed during the flight over...
Cities include: Beijing, Xi'an, Xitang, Shanghai, Yangshuo, Guilin, and Hong Kong.
Ahh the countdown begins! : )

Zai-jian!

D and K