Travelgirl's Trip of a Lifetime - China Excerpt - from Summer 2006
Apr 27th, 2007, 08:06 PM
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Travelgirl's Trip of a Lifetime - China Excerpt - from Summer 2006
Hello. In the summer of 2006, our family of 4 (me, DH, DS1 - aged 13 and DS 2 - aged 11) spent 77 days traveling around Asia and Europe. I wrote a long report titled "Travelgirl's Trip of a Lifetime" and posted it on the Europe board.
I'm going to post each country's section separately now, so the information can be searched by people traveling to a particular country. Happy traveling!
I'm going to post each country's section separately now, so the information can be searched by people traveling to a particular country. Happy traveling!
Apr 27th, 2007, 08:08 PM
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Day 11 – Flight from Osaka to Beijing
We awake ridiculously early to finish packing and catch the 5:46 am train from Kyoto to Osaka Kansai airport. We are half an hour early for the train. We are the only ones on the platform. It is then that I realize that no one is really early in Japan. Everyone seems to arrive about 5-10 minutes before the appointed time, but not before.
The train to the airport has space for our luggage at the end of the compartment. I guess maybe all the airport trains have this space. We check in at the airport and then find a place for breakfast. DS1 has a traditional Japanese breakfast. We notice that among the Japanese people around us, the older people usually have a Japanese breakfast and the younger people have a Western breakfast. I am so happy to have French toast. We notice that many people in Japan try to give us Tabasco with our food. Not sure why this would be… We eat while overlooking a two-story high poster of Meg Ryan, which is a bit surreal. Our flight on Japan Air is fine and uneventful. Just the way we hope all our flights will be.
Upon arrival in Beijing, at first it seems very quiet. We get our baggage. Then, we see the gauntlet we will have to run to get out of the airport. All of the sudden, there are hordes and hordes of people lined up behind a barrier. We eventually see a man holding a sign with our name on it. I’ve arranged for a taxi with the hotel. They quoted me a rate of 500 RMB (about $62) for a minivan, which I knew was very high. But my main priority upon arrival was to easily get to our hotel and get situated, before dealing with figuring out how things work in China.
We easily check in to the Lee Garden Service Apartments. It is right next door to the Peninsula Palace Hotel. Our 2 bedroom apartment, with kitchen and living room, is pretty nice. The people at the front desk are helpful and speak some English, but we are not always able to communicate very well, so we keep the communications simple.
We decide to go for a walk. I am under the impression that the Forbidden City is very close, so we set out with a map. We walk and walk. We think we are going in the right direction, but it seems that we are walking very far. Also, people are staring at us. All around, the roads are crowded with cars, bicycles, pedestrians. Everyone is all mixed together. Bikes make turns directly in front of cars. No one stops to let pedestrians cross the street, so you just have to watch for an opening and go quickly. I am relieved when we finally get to the Forbidden City about 40 minutes later, thinking it will be more peaceful here.
But, as we go through the first gate of the Forbidden City, everyone is noticing us. I don’t see any other Westerners around. Suddenly, people hawking postcards and books and water are flocking to us. We avoid eye contact, say “No, thanks”, and keep walking. After about 10 minutes, we get to the third gate, where the tickets are sold. It is 4:00 pm and too late to buy a ticket. So, we begin the walk back out. The hawkers continue. As I finish my bottle of water, a man comes up and takes it out of my hand. He is collecting the empty bottles. Outside, we attempt to hail a taxi.
I had heard that it is important to have your destination written in Chinese for the taxi drivers. That is excellent advice. I have a card from the hotel with the name of a supermarket written on it. The first taxi we come to declines to take us. We keep walking and hail another taxi. He seems nice and agrees to take us to the Carrefour. We drive in very heavy traffic for at least 30 minutes and are getting nervous that we’ve had a miscommunication. Eventually, we arrive at the Carrefour. The fare is 33 Chinese Yuan, which is about $4. (This lets me know how much extra we paid for the ride from the airport!) As we get out, several people rush at our taxi. It is apparently difficult to get a taxi from there, which makes me wonder how we’ll do when we are all loaded down with groceries after shopping.
We go into the Carrefour and see all sorts of household products, electronics, clothes, etc. for sale. It is very crowded and it is difficult to make our way through the store, as we look for food. Once again, we are the only Westerners. No one seems to speak much English, but there are some signs in English. At the back of the store, we see a sign leading us to a motorized ramp. It is like a flat escalator, built for carts and people. The cart seems to lock into the ramp and does not roll downhill. It is very interesting and we debate whether the wheels are secured between some bumps or whether the ramp is magnetized. Downstairs is the grocery market, where we purchase bottled water and some food for breakfasts for the next 4 days. The bakery products look good, so we purchase a few things there. We also buy Nutella, which we love, but never purchase at home. The meat section is huge, with a tremendous section of raw and cooked meats. There are several meats that we have never seen. Words cannot describe it. It is amazing.
At checkout, there is some problem with the fruit, which we cannot understand. Suddenly, I remember that in Europe you have to weigh the fruit in the produce section, prior to coming to the front cash register. The lady behind us in line speaks a little English and confirms that is what we are supposed to do. DH runs back to weigh the fruit. Once everything is successfully rung up, we present our credit card. The cashier calls someone over, who arrives on roller skates and takes our card away for approval. When she returns with the approval, we are on our way.
Once outside, the flimsy plastic bags start breaking and our food starts falling out onto the ground. Holding and carrying the groceries as best as we can, we walk a block away so we can have a better chance at flagging down a taxi. One comes along right away and we put our groceries in the trunk and pile into the taxi. We go about a block and DH asks the driver to put the meter on. He speaks English pretty well and says he will do it in a minute. We chat with him a bit and he seems very nice, but we are anxious for him to turn on the meter, as we’ve heard that rides without the meter can turn into rip-offs. After another two blocks, he stops the car, gets his phone out of the trunk and proceeds to have an argument with someone over the phone, while standing outside on the sidewalk. We are totally baffled and have no choice but to wait while he is having his heated discussion.
The driver comes over to DH’s window and says he cannot take us to our hotel. He says his mother is on the phone and would like to talk to DH. He hands the phone to DH. DH listens for a while, nodding, and says “OK”. The three of us in the back seat are really curious what is going on. Afterward, DH tells us that it was the taxi driver’s mother and she said that she is sorry, but the driver cannot take us and he will find another driver to take us. It is very funny to see DH just nodding and saying OK to the driver’s mother, but he later asks us “What could I say?” The driver is very apologetic and keeps saying “I’m sorry, my mother”. So, he flags down another taxi, helps us load our groceries into the other taxi’s trunk, explains to the other driver where we are going and says he is sorry again. The other driver brings us back to the hotel. We never find out why the taxi driver’s mother didn’t want him to take us. Maybe it was too long a trip to go all the way across town? Maybe he was expected home for dinner? The boys are very amused by all this. I tell them, “See, even grownups have to listen to their mother.”
Back at the apartment, we are mentally exhausted from our day’s adventures. We are all kind of cranky, wondering how we will cope for the next few days. We order a room service dinner, which no one really eats. We are finding the change of pace and the unfamiliarity to be pretty jarring.
We awake ridiculously early to finish packing and catch the 5:46 am train from Kyoto to Osaka Kansai airport. We are half an hour early for the train. We are the only ones on the platform. It is then that I realize that no one is really early in Japan. Everyone seems to arrive about 5-10 minutes before the appointed time, but not before.
The train to the airport has space for our luggage at the end of the compartment. I guess maybe all the airport trains have this space. We check in at the airport and then find a place for breakfast. DS1 has a traditional Japanese breakfast. We notice that among the Japanese people around us, the older people usually have a Japanese breakfast and the younger people have a Western breakfast. I am so happy to have French toast. We notice that many people in Japan try to give us Tabasco with our food. Not sure why this would be… We eat while overlooking a two-story high poster of Meg Ryan, which is a bit surreal. Our flight on Japan Air is fine and uneventful. Just the way we hope all our flights will be.
Upon arrival in Beijing, at first it seems very quiet. We get our baggage. Then, we see the gauntlet we will have to run to get out of the airport. All of the sudden, there are hordes and hordes of people lined up behind a barrier. We eventually see a man holding a sign with our name on it. I’ve arranged for a taxi with the hotel. They quoted me a rate of 500 RMB (about $62) for a minivan, which I knew was very high. But my main priority upon arrival was to easily get to our hotel and get situated, before dealing with figuring out how things work in China.
We easily check in to the Lee Garden Service Apartments. It is right next door to the Peninsula Palace Hotel. Our 2 bedroom apartment, with kitchen and living room, is pretty nice. The people at the front desk are helpful and speak some English, but we are not always able to communicate very well, so we keep the communications simple.
We decide to go for a walk. I am under the impression that the Forbidden City is very close, so we set out with a map. We walk and walk. We think we are going in the right direction, but it seems that we are walking very far. Also, people are staring at us. All around, the roads are crowded with cars, bicycles, pedestrians. Everyone is all mixed together. Bikes make turns directly in front of cars. No one stops to let pedestrians cross the street, so you just have to watch for an opening and go quickly. I am relieved when we finally get to the Forbidden City about 40 minutes later, thinking it will be more peaceful here.
But, as we go through the first gate of the Forbidden City, everyone is noticing us. I don’t see any other Westerners around. Suddenly, people hawking postcards and books and water are flocking to us. We avoid eye contact, say “No, thanks”, and keep walking. After about 10 minutes, we get to the third gate, where the tickets are sold. It is 4:00 pm and too late to buy a ticket. So, we begin the walk back out. The hawkers continue. As I finish my bottle of water, a man comes up and takes it out of my hand. He is collecting the empty bottles. Outside, we attempt to hail a taxi.
I had heard that it is important to have your destination written in Chinese for the taxi drivers. That is excellent advice. I have a card from the hotel with the name of a supermarket written on it. The first taxi we come to declines to take us. We keep walking and hail another taxi. He seems nice and agrees to take us to the Carrefour. We drive in very heavy traffic for at least 30 minutes and are getting nervous that we’ve had a miscommunication. Eventually, we arrive at the Carrefour. The fare is 33 Chinese Yuan, which is about $4. (This lets me know how much extra we paid for the ride from the airport!) As we get out, several people rush at our taxi. It is apparently difficult to get a taxi from there, which makes me wonder how we’ll do when we are all loaded down with groceries after shopping.
We go into the Carrefour and see all sorts of household products, electronics, clothes, etc. for sale. It is very crowded and it is difficult to make our way through the store, as we look for food. Once again, we are the only Westerners. No one seems to speak much English, but there are some signs in English. At the back of the store, we see a sign leading us to a motorized ramp. It is like a flat escalator, built for carts and people. The cart seems to lock into the ramp and does not roll downhill. It is very interesting and we debate whether the wheels are secured between some bumps or whether the ramp is magnetized. Downstairs is the grocery market, where we purchase bottled water and some food for breakfasts for the next 4 days. The bakery products look good, so we purchase a few things there. We also buy Nutella, which we love, but never purchase at home. The meat section is huge, with a tremendous section of raw and cooked meats. There are several meats that we have never seen. Words cannot describe it. It is amazing.
At checkout, there is some problem with the fruit, which we cannot understand. Suddenly, I remember that in Europe you have to weigh the fruit in the produce section, prior to coming to the front cash register. The lady behind us in line speaks a little English and confirms that is what we are supposed to do. DH runs back to weigh the fruit. Once everything is successfully rung up, we present our credit card. The cashier calls someone over, who arrives on roller skates and takes our card away for approval. When she returns with the approval, we are on our way.
Once outside, the flimsy plastic bags start breaking and our food starts falling out onto the ground. Holding and carrying the groceries as best as we can, we walk a block away so we can have a better chance at flagging down a taxi. One comes along right away and we put our groceries in the trunk and pile into the taxi. We go about a block and DH asks the driver to put the meter on. He speaks English pretty well and says he will do it in a minute. We chat with him a bit and he seems very nice, but we are anxious for him to turn on the meter, as we’ve heard that rides without the meter can turn into rip-offs. After another two blocks, he stops the car, gets his phone out of the trunk and proceeds to have an argument with someone over the phone, while standing outside on the sidewalk. We are totally baffled and have no choice but to wait while he is having his heated discussion.
The driver comes over to DH’s window and says he cannot take us to our hotel. He says his mother is on the phone and would like to talk to DH. He hands the phone to DH. DH listens for a while, nodding, and says “OK”. The three of us in the back seat are really curious what is going on. Afterward, DH tells us that it was the taxi driver’s mother and she said that she is sorry, but the driver cannot take us and he will find another driver to take us. It is very funny to see DH just nodding and saying OK to the driver’s mother, but he later asks us “What could I say?” The driver is very apologetic and keeps saying “I’m sorry, my mother”. So, he flags down another taxi, helps us load our groceries into the other taxi’s trunk, explains to the other driver where we are going and says he is sorry again. The other driver brings us back to the hotel. We never find out why the taxi driver’s mother didn’t want him to take us. Maybe it was too long a trip to go all the way across town? Maybe he was expected home for dinner? The boys are very amused by all this. I tell them, “See, even grownups have to listen to their mother.”
Back at the apartment, we are mentally exhausted from our day’s adventures. We are all kind of cranky, wondering how we will cope for the next few days. We order a room service dinner, which no one really eats. We are finding the change of pace and the unfamiliarity to be pretty jarring.
Apr 27th, 2007, 08:09 PM
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Day 12 – Beijing – Hutong Tour
We wake up early, have a leisurely breakfast in the apartment, and decide that we will have to arrange some tours of Beijing. Everyone is feeling better. We’ve decided to regard this as an adventure. But, taking taxis and touring on our own will be too stressful for us. We are apparently not as adventurous as we had imagined ourselves to be. So, we get to work booking some tours for the next few days. First, we book a Gray Line Hutong tour for this afternoon and another Gray Line tour to the Great Wall for tomorrow. And we send an email to Jane Yeo, who has been recommended by several Fodor’s posters. We hope she can show us the sights around Beijing.
We start to unpack, research Beijing a bit and catch up on our email for a couple of hours. We start some laundry. It is a combined washer and dryer, European style. It runs for about 3 hours, at which time we have to leave to have lunch before our afternoon tour.
We have lunch at HUANG TING, in the Peninsula Palace Hotel, which is next door to our apartment. As we approach the entrance to the Peninsula, there are two revolving doors. Stationed inside the hotel, at each of the revolving doors, is a staff member whose job it is to spin the doors as you walk through. Now, this is service.
While waiting momentarily at the restaurant for a table, another woman strikes up a conversation with us. I notice that her husband, who appears Western, is speaking to the hostess in Chinese. I ask him about this. He tells me that he was with the foreign service in Australia and was posted in China in the 1970’s and again in the 1980’s. He is here on a diplomatic mission to arrange scholarships for foreign students to study in China. He tells us he was a Greek and Latin professor prior to joining the foreign service. The couple is charming and it sounds like they have had an adventurous life. They tell us that Beijing has changed so much over the years that they don’t even know where things are today. I can see how this would be, as there is construction everywhere.
Huang Ting is a beautiful, serene restaurant. Fodor’s says it is arguably Beijing’s best Cantonese restaurant. We order shrimp dumplings and barbecued pork buns from the dim sum menu. Also, sautéed asparagus, beef with mango, soy marinated chicken and some fried rice. We share everything and enjoy it all. The kids really like the barbecued pork buns, beef with mango and fried rice. We give this restaurant a 9.
The service is excellent. Our jasmine tea is constantly refilled with hot water. We order a large Evian and DH receives it. We are momentarily confused, since with such fabulous service, we would expect them to pour the water. He opens the bottle and the waiter then rushes over to pour it. DH tells me he realized that it is probably a courtesy to give us the water unopened, so we can confirm that it is a fresh bottle of water. Until he fills me in, I am oblivious and thinking he is rude to have opened the water with the waiter standing right there.
After lunch, we head back to the hotel. We have had airplane tickets to Xian delivered to the front desk. I’ve ordered them through www.wacts.com. There seems to be a problem with DS2’s ticket and it looks like we will be proceeding to Xian without him. The lady at the front desk tells us she will work this out and also call the airline to confirm our flights, which is necessary in China. Later, she tells us that we just have 3 paper tickets and 1 electronic ticket, which should be fine. Once back to our room, we find the load of laundry soaking wet in the washer and the door will not open. But, it is time for our tour, so we will have to deal with this later.
For the HUTONG TOUR, the Gray Line mini-bus picks us up and takes us to the hutong area. There is delightful family from Maryland on the tour bus also. The pedicab tour is with www.hutongtour.com.cn. It costs 220 yuan per person (about $25) and there are 15 people on the tour. Jackay is a very nice guide and we are each taken, 2 to a bike, from site to site, where he describes what is going to happen and gives us a history lesson. We visit the bell tower and climb to the top, where there is a brief drum ceremony. Then, we go inside a family’s hutong and garden, where the man of the household explains their lifestyle to us. This is a very upscale hutong, with indoor plumbing, electricity and running water. He is a retired engineer and now does paper cutting. His work is simply beautiful. Our last stop is at a tea house, where we are instructed in the tea ceremony and we try oolong tea, jasmine tea, and lychee tea. We end up purchasing a lot of tea to take home. Overall, we all love this tour. It is quite varied and also allows us to relax as we are driven through the hutong neighborhoods.
When we return to the apartment, we find that the clothes are still soaking wet and we still can’t open the door. A call to the front desk brings someone to the apartment with the instructions written in English. After some fiddling by DH, the clothes are finally done a bit later. Meanwhile, I am writing on Fodors.
We want to go to FANGSHAN for dinner. It was established in 1925 by three royal chefs. It is in a lovely spot on the shore of Beihai Lake. As we are leaving in the taxi, the doorman tells us it is raining and asks if we want to take umbrellas. No, thank you, we tell him. How bad could the rain be, we think, as we are just being dropped off at the restaurant.
As we are driving to the restaurant, the sky opens up and it begins to pour. Then, the thunder and lightning begin. The driver is not quite sure where to go and he makes a call and then stops and gets out of the cab to ask someone. Eventually, he drops us off at the gate to the park. When he stops and points ahead and doesn’t drive any longer, we realize that we have to get out. We bolt through the rain and find a somewhat dry haven underneath the gate to the park. While waiting under the gate, it proceeds to get windy and soon we are pretty well drenched. We keep waiting for the rain to abate. About 10 people are huddled together waiting. Most people have umbrellas and one poor guy is huddled under a box. We have nothing to shield us from the rain, but the gate above us. The parking attendant goes to retrieve someone’s car and stops at a nearby shop. He returns with umbrellas and says they are 50 yuan (about $5) each. Yes, thanks, we’ll take 4. When he returns the change, I realize he is charging us 15 yuan (about $2). I briefly wonder how much he paid for the umbrellas, but I don’t really care. That is the best $8 we have ever spent.
After waiting about 35 minutes for the rain to slow, we decide to walk to the restaurant. We are all very wet. DS1 is completely soaked. We head off, over a bridge and along a path next to the lake. Soon we come to a flooded area. So, this is what a flash flood looks like. The path to the restaurant has about 4 inches of water covering it. The restaurant workers lie pallets down and we skip from one to the next. There are only 4 pallets, so they are continually bringing the last one forward. Eventually, we make our way to the restaurant this way. As we arrive, everyone stares and laughs. We are laughing too. DS1 has removed his shoes and this causes lots of laughter.
The dinner is pretty good. We order a set menu and I think there were about 15 dishes. But, we are wet and pretty cold and miserable. We give this dinner a 7. After dinner, one of the waiters walks us all the way back, along the lake, over the bridge, through the gate, along some small streets and to the major street. The rain is a soft drizzle and the floods have disappeared. He hails a taxi for us. I am grateful, because at this point we just want to head home and take a warm shower.
Back at the apartment, DS2 slips on the wet bathroom floor, falls and skins both knees. Luckily, he is okay. We then start another load of laundry and wonder how long this load will take… DH and I reflect on the last 2 days. When we first arrived in Beijing from Japan, we were overwhelmed by the activity and the pace. Now, we are finding China to be exciting and interesting.
Day 13 – Beijing – Great Wall at Mutianyu Tour
Today we take a Gray Line tour to the Great Wall. We decide to take the half day tour to Mutianya, as we’ve heard it is less crowded than Badaling. The bus picks us up at 10:30 am. We drive around Beijing and pick up other passengers. The tour guide is very funny (a comedian really) and speaks excellent English. He tells us a lot of history about the various dynasties and the wall. We make an obligatory stop to a ceramics studio. We arrive at the wall at 1:00 pm. We have about 2 hours to climb and walk on the wall.
Everyone walks through a gauntlet of vendors on the way to the cable car. The vendors are hawking t-shirts (3 for $1), drinks, souvenirs, etc. Some of the vendors’ setups are quite elaborate.
The trek to the cable car seems like it is straight up hill. We are all huffing and puffing (especially me). The cable car ride is nice. Once on the wall, it is amazing. It continues as far as the eye can see, in both directions. It has been a dream of mine to walk along the Great Wall. I can't believe we are actually here!
I'm glad we've come to this section of the wall. It is not too crowded. Our whole busload of people get to the top almost at the same time. But if you wait ten minutes to let everyone else go on ahead, you can have the wall almost to yourself. The kids have a grand old time hiking here.
We ride the cable car with a couple from Wales. DH tells them that he has noticed a ton of advertising in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere, trying to attract business to Wales. The man from Wales tells us that they have had technology jobs be outsourced to cheaper countries, so they are indeed looking for new investment.
There is one enterprising vendor about 1/4 mile along the wall, selling cold water for 10 yuan (about $1.20). This is a little pricey, for waters should cost 3 or 4 yuan (maybe even less), but I am impressed at the industriousness of this vendor (and many of the people in China), so we buy some water bottles. This is a large country, full of hard-working people with lots of energy. I think their economy is going to be unstoppable in the future.
After our hike, as we exit the cable car, we again run the gauntlet of vendors. People step into our path, showing us their t-shirts. It is hard to make our way through. DS2 has no problem, pointing out to us that it is only the adults who are being mobbed.
DH stops to purchase some water and soda and beer. The purchase comes to 40 yuan. For 100 yuan, he is given change of 50 yuan plus 10 yuan. He notices that the 50 yuan looks a little funny. We had been warned that this is a popular place for passing counterfeit money, as the tourists will likely not be back and most will not notice a problem until later, if ever. DH calmly hands the 50 yuan back to the woman. She calmly gives him a different 50 yuan bill. DH looks at it and again calmly hands it back to the woman. She sighs and walks to the back of the shop and returns with a 50 yuan that looks better. We are so proud that we have not been taken advantage of!
On the long bus ride home, DS2 and I discuss the counterfeit situation. He says it is just wrong. While I agree, I also have some sympathy for people working hard to better themselves. It is tempting to get frustrated with the people who are chasing you and yelling at you to buy their products. But, if I lived in China, this is probably what I would be doing too, if it was the best way to earn a living.
I ask DS2 - what if your family was starving? Would you steal a loaf of bread? He says no. I say, but what if your family was starving and there was no other way to feed them? He says he'd get a job. I say, what if there were no jobs or the job you could get would not pay enough to feed your family? He decides that he would take half a loaf of bread and create his own job by making some crafts and selling them. It is hard for us to imagine living in a place without unlimited opportunities. This has been a good experience for the kids.
After the Great Wall tour, the guys all go for a swim at the apartment pool. I go for a foot massage. There is a massage place located between the Lee Garden Apartments and the Peninsula Hotel. I met a woman on the hutong tour who said she had a great foot massage there, so I thought I'd give it a try. Well, it was terrific. Jack was the masseuse and he was a total professional. My feet and ankles felt great afterward.
In the same location, there is also a tea shop. I had to stop and buy more tea cups and some tea. The prices, as I would expect, were much better than the official tour teahouse we were taken to the day before.
The prices in China are difficult to know how to deal with. There is the local price. Then there is the price which the foreigners are used to paying in their countries. Sometimes I knew people would charge us five, even 10, times the local rate. And it would still seem cheap to me, relative to the Western rate. But, what is fair? I decided not to stress out about it. Although at the government ceramics shop, the prices seemed high even by Western standards, so we just didn't buy anything. In general, I would pay the local price when possible (i.e. taxis for $3-4 for a 30 minute ride) and a marked up rate if it wasn't more than I was used to paying (i.e. $25 for a 45 minute ride to the airport in an air conditioned van).
That night for dinner, we went back to the Peninsula Palace Hotel and tried their restaurant JING. This restaurant had a good write-up. We went because they had a buffet and we thought that the kids would like to pick out what to eat. The food was above average for a buffet and the kids appreciated the choices. We thought the food overall was okay, but nothing special.
As we wound up another day in Beijing, we found that we were loving it. The noise. The chaos. The bustling excitement. The dust. The smog. The crowds of people. The place is totally alive!
We wake up early, have a leisurely breakfast in the apartment, and decide that we will have to arrange some tours of Beijing. Everyone is feeling better. We’ve decided to regard this as an adventure. But, taking taxis and touring on our own will be too stressful for us. We are apparently not as adventurous as we had imagined ourselves to be. So, we get to work booking some tours for the next few days. First, we book a Gray Line Hutong tour for this afternoon and another Gray Line tour to the Great Wall for tomorrow. And we send an email to Jane Yeo, who has been recommended by several Fodor’s posters. We hope she can show us the sights around Beijing.
We start to unpack, research Beijing a bit and catch up on our email for a couple of hours. We start some laundry. It is a combined washer and dryer, European style. It runs for about 3 hours, at which time we have to leave to have lunch before our afternoon tour.
We have lunch at HUANG TING, in the Peninsula Palace Hotel, which is next door to our apartment. As we approach the entrance to the Peninsula, there are two revolving doors. Stationed inside the hotel, at each of the revolving doors, is a staff member whose job it is to spin the doors as you walk through. Now, this is service.
While waiting momentarily at the restaurant for a table, another woman strikes up a conversation with us. I notice that her husband, who appears Western, is speaking to the hostess in Chinese. I ask him about this. He tells me that he was with the foreign service in Australia and was posted in China in the 1970’s and again in the 1980’s. He is here on a diplomatic mission to arrange scholarships for foreign students to study in China. He tells us he was a Greek and Latin professor prior to joining the foreign service. The couple is charming and it sounds like they have had an adventurous life. They tell us that Beijing has changed so much over the years that they don’t even know where things are today. I can see how this would be, as there is construction everywhere.
Huang Ting is a beautiful, serene restaurant. Fodor’s says it is arguably Beijing’s best Cantonese restaurant. We order shrimp dumplings and barbecued pork buns from the dim sum menu. Also, sautéed asparagus, beef with mango, soy marinated chicken and some fried rice. We share everything and enjoy it all. The kids really like the barbecued pork buns, beef with mango and fried rice. We give this restaurant a 9.
The service is excellent. Our jasmine tea is constantly refilled with hot water. We order a large Evian and DH receives it. We are momentarily confused, since with such fabulous service, we would expect them to pour the water. He opens the bottle and the waiter then rushes over to pour it. DH tells me he realized that it is probably a courtesy to give us the water unopened, so we can confirm that it is a fresh bottle of water. Until he fills me in, I am oblivious and thinking he is rude to have opened the water with the waiter standing right there.
After lunch, we head back to the hotel. We have had airplane tickets to Xian delivered to the front desk. I’ve ordered them through www.wacts.com. There seems to be a problem with DS2’s ticket and it looks like we will be proceeding to Xian without him. The lady at the front desk tells us she will work this out and also call the airline to confirm our flights, which is necessary in China. Later, she tells us that we just have 3 paper tickets and 1 electronic ticket, which should be fine. Once back to our room, we find the load of laundry soaking wet in the washer and the door will not open. But, it is time for our tour, so we will have to deal with this later.
For the HUTONG TOUR, the Gray Line mini-bus picks us up and takes us to the hutong area. There is delightful family from Maryland on the tour bus also. The pedicab tour is with www.hutongtour.com.cn. It costs 220 yuan per person (about $25) and there are 15 people on the tour. Jackay is a very nice guide and we are each taken, 2 to a bike, from site to site, where he describes what is going to happen and gives us a history lesson. We visit the bell tower and climb to the top, where there is a brief drum ceremony. Then, we go inside a family’s hutong and garden, where the man of the household explains their lifestyle to us. This is a very upscale hutong, with indoor plumbing, electricity and running water. He is a retired engineer and now does paper cutting. His work is simply beautiful. Our last stop is at a tea house, where we are instructed in the tea ceremony and we try oolong tea, jasmine tea, and lychee tea. We end up purchasing a lot of tea to take home. Overall, we all love this tour. It is quite varied and also allows us to relax as we are driven through the hutong neighborhoods.
When we return to the apartment, we find that the clothes are still soaking wet and we still can’t open the door. A call to the front desk brings someone to the apartment with the instructions written in English. After some fiddling by DH, the clothes are finally done a bit later. Meanwhile, I am writing on Fodors.
We want to go to FANGSHAN for dinner. It was established in 1925 by three royal chefs. It is in a lovely spot on the shore of Beihai Lake. As we are leaving in the taxi, the doorman tells us it is raining and asks if we want to take umbrellas. No, thank you, we tell him. How bad could the rain be, we think, as we are just being dropped off at the restaurant.
As we are driving to the restaurant, the sky opens up and it begins to pour. Then, the thunder and lightning begin. The driver is not quite sure where to go and he makes a call and then stops and gets out of the cab to ask someone. Eventually, he drops us off at the gate to the park. When he stops and points ahead and doesn’t drive any longer, we realize that we have to get out. We bolt through the rain and find a somewhat dry haven underneath the gate to the park. While waiting under the gate, it proceeds to get windy and soon we are pretty well drenched. We keep waiting for the rain to abate. About 10 people are huddled together waiting. Most people have umbrellas and one poor guy is huddled under a box. We have nothing to shield us from the rain, but the gate above us. The parking attendant goes to retrieve someone’s car and stops at a nearby shop. He returns with umbrellas and says they are 50 yuan (about $5) each. Yes, thanks, we’ll take 4. When he returns the change, I realize he is charging us 15 yuan (about $2). I briefly wonder how much he paid for the umbrellas, but I don’t really care. That is the best $8 we have ever spent.
After waiting about 35 minutes for the rain to slow, we decide to walk to the restaurant. We are all very wet. DS1 is completely soaked. We head off, over a bridge and along a path next to the lake. Soon we come to a flooded area. So, this is what a flash flood looks like. The path to the restaurant has about 4 inches of water covering it. The restaurant workers lie pallets down and we skip from one to the next. There are only 4 pallets, so they are continually bringing the last one forward. Eventually, we make our way to the restaurant this way. As we arrive, everyone stares and laughs. We are laughing too. DS1 has removed his shoes and this causes lots of laughter.
The dinner is pretty good. We order a set menu and I think there were about 15 dishes. But, we are wet and pretty cold and miserable. We give this dinner a 7. After dinner, one of the waiters walks us all the way back, along the lake, over the bridge, through the gate, along some small streets and to the major street. The rain is a soft drizzle and the floods have disappeared. He hails a taxi for us. I am grateful, because at this point we just want to head home and take a warm shower.
Back at the apartment, DS2 slips on the wet bathroom floor, falls and skins both knees. Luckily, he is okay. We then start another load of laundry and wonder how long this load will take… DH and I reflect on the last 2 days. When we first arrived in Beijing from Japan, we were overwhelmed by the activity and the pace. Now, we are finding China to be exciting and interesting.
Day 13 – Beijing – Great Wall at Mutianyu Tour
Today we take a Gray Line tour to the Great Wall. We decide to take the half day tour to Mutianya, as we’ve heard it is less crowded than Badaling. The bus picks us up at 10:30 am. We drive around Beijing and pick up other passengers. The tour guide is very funny (a comedian really) and speaks excellent English. He tells us a lot of history about the various dynasties and the wall. We make an obligatory stop to a ceramics studio. We arrive at the wall at 1:00 pm. We have about 2 hours to climb and walk on the wall.
Everyone walks through a gauntlet of vendors on the way to the cable car. The vendors are hawking t-shirts (3 for $1), drinks, souvenirs, etc. Some of the vendors’ setups are quite elaborate.
The trek to the cable car seems like it is straight up hill. We are all huffing and puffing (especially me). The cable car ride is nice. Once on the wall, it is amazing. It continues as far as the eye can see, in both directions. It has been a dream of mine to walk along the Great Wall. I can't believe we are actually here!
I'm glad we've come to this section of the wall. It is not too crowded. Our whole busload of people get to the top almost at the same time. But if you wait ten minutes to let everyone else go on ahead, you can have the wall almost to yourself. The kids have a grand old time hiking here.
We ride the cable car with a couple from Wales. DH tells them that he has noticed a ton of advertising in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere, trying to attract business to Wales. The man from Wales tells us that they have had technology jobs be outsourced to cheaper countries, so they are indeed looking for new investment.
There is one enterprising vendor about 1/4 mile along the wall, selling cold water for 10 yuan (about $1.20). This is a little pricey, for waters should cost 3 or 4 yuan (maybe even less), but I am impressed at the industriousness of this vendor (and many of the people in China), so we buy some water bottles. This is a large country, full of hard-working people with lots of energy. I think their economy is going to be unstoppable in the future.
After our hike, as we exit the cable car, we again run the gauntlet of vendors. People step into our path, showing us their t-shirts. It is hard to make our way through. DS2 has no problem, pointing out to us that it is only the adults who are being mobbed.
DH stops to purchase some water and soda and beer. The purchase comes to 40 yuan. For 100 yuan, he is given change of 50 yuan plus 10 yuan. He notices that the 50 yuan looks a little funny. We had been warned that this is a popular place for passing counterfeit money, as the tourists will likely not be back and most will not notice a problem until later, if ever. DH calmly hands the 50 yuan back to the woman. She calmly gives him a different 50 yuan bill. DH looks at it and again calmly hands it back to the woman. She sighs and walks to the back of the shop and returns with a 50 yuan that looks better. We are so proud that we have not been taken advantage of!
On the long bus ride home, DS2 and I discuss the counterfeit situation. He says it is just wrong. While I agree, I also have some sympathy for people working hard to better themselves. It is tempting to get frustrated with the people who are chasing you and yelling at you to buy their products. But, if I lived in China, this is probably what I would be doing too, if it was the best way to earn a living.
I ask DS2 - what if your family was starving? Would you steal a loaf of bread? He says no. I say, but what if your family was starving and there was no other way to feed them? He says he'd get a job. I say, what if there were no jobs or the job you could get would not pay enough to feed your family? He decides that he would take half a loaf of bread and create his own job by making some crafts and selling them. It is hard for us to imagine living in a place without unlimited opportunities. This has been a good experience for the kids.
After the Great Wall tour, the guys all go for a swim at the apartment pool. I go for a foot massage. There is a massage place located between the Lee Garden Apartments and the Peninsula Hotel. I met a woman on the hutong tour who said she had a great foot massage there, so I thought I'd give it a try. Well, it was terrific. Jack was the masseuse and he was a total professional. My feet and ankles felt great afterward.
In the same location, there is also a tea shop. I had to stop and buy more tea cups and some tea. The prices, as I would expect, were much better than the official tour teahouse we were taken to the day before.
The prices in China are difficult to know how to deal with. There is the local price. Then there is the price which the foreigners are used to paying in their countries. Sometimes I knew people would charge us five, even 10, times the local rate. And it would still seem cheap to me, relative to the Western rate. But, what is fair? I decided not to stress out about it. Although at the government ceramics shop, the prices seemed high even by Western standards, so we just didn't buy anything. In general, I would pay the local price when possible (i.e. taxis for $3-4 for a 30 minute ride) and a marked up rate if it wasn't more than I was used to paying (i.e. $25 for a 45 minute ride to the airport in an air conditioned van).
That night for dinner, we went back to the Peninsula Palace Hotel and tried their restaurant JING. This restaurant had a good write-up. We went because they had a buffet and we thought that the kids would like to pick out what to eat. The food was above average for a buffet and the kids appreciated the choices. We thought the food overall was okay, but nothing special.
As we wound up another day in Beijing, we found that we were loving it. The noise. The chaos. The bustling excitement. The dust. The smog. The crowds of people. The place is totally alive!
Apr 27th, 2007, 08:10 PM
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Day 14 – Beijing City Tour
Today we are going to TOUR BEIJING. Jane Yeo (http://janeyeotours.com/beijing.html) comes to our apartment at 9:00 am. We sit and discuss our list of places we’d like to go. Since we only have one day, it will be a busy day. First, we have to visit the pandas at the zoo. DS2 loves animals and this is what he wants to see in Beijing. Jane has a driver and an air conditioned van waiting outside, so we zoom across town to the zoo. She quickly gets the tickets and leads us directly to the pandas. It is a Saturday morning, so there are lots of families visiting the zoo. It is quite crowded, so we have to learn how to follow Jane, who is amazing as she stealthily slips through the crowd.
Next, we make a brief stop at Carrefour, which is right next to the zoo. It is very crowded, even more than our previous visit. While everyone waits in the van, Jane leads me right to a sunglass rack. We order the sunglasses, go to the register to pay (change is not made for 100 yuans, so Jane lends me 40 yuans) and then go back to the sunglass area to pick up the glasses. The clerk has removed the packaging, wiped them clean and given me a pouch for them. As we leave, we spot the van and slide open the door. The van is empty inside and the driver is surprised by the intrusion. Obviously, this is not our van, since we are expecting to see DH, DS1 and DS2. We keep looking and eventually find our driver and my family. By the way, our driver (Mr. Li) is very good natured and we immediately like him, although we can’t communicate with him at all.
Our next stop is the SUMMER PALACE. There is a huge man-made lake in the garden area. We walk and walk and take a boat across the lake. This was my favorite stop on the tour. Jane explained the significance of what we were seeing. It was nice to see all the families there. There were just a few other Westerners, so again we are asked to pose for pictures.
As an aside, people everywhere seem especially intrigued with DS1 and DS2. Maybe it is because they are boys and there are 2 of them. I think that most Chinese families in the city still have only 1 child and it seems that people are very happy to have boys. In fact, someone we met on a different day who admired our boys told us that when his wife had a girl, his friends told him they were sorry. Another person admiring the boys sadly told us that they had a girl. I told them that in the US, it doesn’t really matter whether you have a boy or a girl. They were somewhat incredulous. I could tell they were really thinking about that.
After the Summer Palace, Jane takes us to lunch. On the way to the restaurant, she runs into a market and purchases bottled water and Pepsi. The restaurant is Goulin. It is huge and has table after table of Chinese people enjoying lunch. She orders kung pao chicken (spicy with peanuts), iron beef, garlic eggplant, roast whole chicken, spicy whole fish and fried rice. Everything is delicious and we also enjoy sitting down to rest. There is a lazy Susan at the center of our round table and we spin it around to serve the food. She also orders a bottle of Sprite and 6 glasses. Then, we are free to drink our water and Pepsi also. This is surprising to me, as bringing your own drinks would be frowned upon in the US. We enjoyed visiting this restaurant with Jane, since we would never have been able to do this without her. Everything is in Chinese, I doubt if anyone speaks English, and we are the only Westerners here among the 200 or so people here.
Our next stop is the money museum, something like the MUSEUM OF CHINA NUMISMATICS (or Currency). It is right next to Tiennamen Square. This is where DS1 wants to go. He has a keen interest in coins and history. We have read that there are people outside the museum, selling old coins. He is disappointed to find no one selling old coins. We breeze through the museum and rush over to the FORBIDDEN CITY.
We race across Tiennamen Square, as Jane explains various things to us. As it is nearing 4 pm, when the last tickets are sold, I ask Jane if she wants to go on ahead and get the tickets and we will meet here there. She readily agrees and speeds off. She is very energetic. We get to the gate at 3:55 pm and meet up with Jane. We go through the vast palaces, etc. of the Forbidden City. It is very interesting. Courtyard after courtyard, with huge buildings, separated by fancy gates. The place is huge.
At one point, we start to go into one area and a worker basically slams the door in Jane’s face. She politely asks him if we can come in for a few minutes. She points out that it is still early and we have paid for the tickets. He is mad and yells at her. Even in Chinese, I can tell that he is being very rude. He yells and yells. Eventually, Jane yells back at him. Then, he pushes her. I can’t believe it. Jane steps inside the door and tells us to come in. The man is still yelling, now at us, “No, no”. Jane is yelling to us, “Come in, no problem.” People are stopped and staring at all of us. DH, DS1, DS2 and I are suspended for a moment, not sure what to do. Finally, Jane grabs my wrist and pulls me inside the door. It is like jumping off of a huge cliff, I’m not sure what will happen. DS1, DS2 and DH pause for a moment and, when nothing happens, they follow me in. We take a quick spin around and then go to leave, making sure we are not the last ones. But, the man has blocked the door with a large rock and seems to be threatening not to let us leave. After some more yelling, the man moves the rock, Jane opens the door and we are free. We continue our tour of the Forbidden City.
As we walk to the meeting place for the driver, DH makes the mistake of looking for 2 seconds at a vendor’s plastic dragon. The vendor follows us for about 10 minutes. We are relieved to finally shake him. Jane asks us where we want to go next. We debate going to a market, but it is after 5 pm and we have been moving fast all day. So, we go back to the hotel. According to DS1’s pedometer, we have walked 12 miles today. We are all full from lunch and too tired for dinner. Everyone else goes to the pool and I go to sleep early.
We liked Jane. She took care of us all day, answering all of our questions. She knows her way around and we are able to do much more with her and the driver than if on our own, in a much less stressful way. And, she is smart and spunky, qualities which I admire.
Day 15 – Flight to Xian
We had arranged with Jane to have Mr. Li take us by minivan to the Beijing airport for 200 yuan (about $25). This is still pretty steep, but a big improvement over the 500 yuan we paid from the airport. He is right on time and it is a comfortable ride.
We are flying HAINAN AIRLINES. We have no problem checking in with our 3 paper tickets and 1 electronic ticket. I had been slightly concerned about flying a Chinese airline. The flight turns out to be fine. I am surprised to find it is more than half filled with tourists, mostly English-speaking.
We are only flying from Beijing to Xian in order to see the TERRACOTTA WARRIORS. We will stay for just one night, tour the next day and then take the overnight train (16 hours) to Shanghai. I hope this detour turns out to be worth the trouble and money it took to get here. A friend told me that we couldn’t go to China without seeing the warriors. Fodor’s posters also said that they felt it was a worthwhile trip.
When we arrive in Xian, we get our luggage and head out to the waiting area for drivers. We are looking for Clarence Guo ([email protected] or [email protected] or http://www.taxitour.com/cave.htm) , who will be picking us up from the airport. We search the drivers holding signs. We see a little boy, holding a sign with our name on it. I point to it and wave to him. He waves back and waits until we walk out of the holding area. He says “follow me, please”. So we do. We are all exchanging looks, wondering what is going on. My boys are wondering too, since he is even younger than they are. The little boy takes us to the elevator and says “wait here for a moment, please”. He is so cute as he holds out his hand to indicate we should stop our cart and wait for the elevator. We go outside and he makes a call on his cell phone. A few minutes later, a van pulls up and a man gets out to help us with our luggage. This is Clarence and the little boy is his son. His little girl is also in the van with him. The kids are adorable. We talk with them on the way. The little girl comes in the back to sit between DH and DS2.
While talking with Clarence, we decide to see a show tonight with Chinese dancing from the Tang dynasty. He books the show and dinner for us and tells us he will come to the hotel later and take us to the show.
We check in to the GRAND HYATT XIAN. The lobby seems nice. We are staying on the Executive floor, so that we can hang out in the lounge and have a quick breakfast the next morning. The Executive Lounge is very nice. It is comfortable and spacious. This is where they send us to check in. When we arrive, they bring us some cold drinks.
We have 2 rooms here. The rooms have the best set-up we’ve had in any hotel yet. They are interconnecting, with 1 king bed and 2 twin beds. Perfect for us. The rooms are a little dark and tired though. Not too bad, just not great.
The staff at the hotel is very nice and helpful. The woman at the front desk doesn’t even laugh at me when I try to exchange 1000 leftover Japanese Yen into Chinese Yuan. I think I am going to get about $80, but I’ve miscalculated and it is only about $8. When she tries to explain it to me, I can only think of the exchange to dollars and then back to yuan. She is very patient. I go get a few British pounds and also some Euros and exchange them also. In China, we’ve found it easy to exchange cash or traveler’s checks at the hotel desks. I wish we’d brought a little more cash with us. We had $300 in traveler’s checks in case of emergency, but we ended up exchanging them at hotels in China, rather than try to find an ATM, although I don’t think it would have been that difficult to find an ATM.
Soon, Clarence picks us up and takes us to a dinner theater to see the TANG DYNASTY CHINESE DANCING SHOW. We are not excited by dinner. It consists of tons of types of dumplings. They keep bringing them and bringing them. Everything is okay, but it is clearly banquet style food for a lot of people. The show is about an hour. It is enjoyable, but we know it is for the tourists. Afterward, we take a taxi back to the hotel and go right to sleep. We have planned a busy day of touring tomorrow.
I forgot to mention – on our Hainan Airlines flight, while we were going through security. They didn’t seem too concerned about the various electronics we had with us. They did, however, open every bottle of water or soda we were carrying and proceed to sniff each bottle. Do you think they were looking for alcohol? Or explosive liquids?
Today we are going to TOUR BEIJING. Jane Yeo (http://janeyeotours.com/beijing.html) comes to our apartment at 9:00 am. We sit and discuss our list of places we’d like to go. Since we only have one day, it will be a busy day. First, we have to visit the pandas at the zoo. DS2 loves animals and this is what he wants to see in Beijing. Jane has a driver and an air conditioned van waiting outside, so we zoom across town to the zoo. She quickly gets the tickets and leads us directly to the pandas. It is a Saturday morning, so there are lots of families visiting the zoo. It is quite crowded, so we have to learn how to follow Jane, who is amazing as she stealthily slips through the crowd.
Next, we make a brief stop at Carrefour, which is right next to the zoo. It is very crowded, even more than our previous visit. While everyone waits in the van, Jane leads me right to a sunglass rack. We order the sunglasses, go to the register to pay (change is not made for 100 yuans, so Jane lends me 40 yuans) and then go back to the sunglass area to pick up the glasses. The clerk has removed the packaging, wiped them clean and given me a pouch for them. As we leave, we spot the van and slide open the door. The van is empty inside and the driver is surprised by the intrusion. Obviously, this is not our van, since we are expecting to see DH, DS1 and DS2. We keep looking and eventually find our driver and my family. By the way, our driver (Mr. Li) is very good natured and we immediately like him, although we can’t communicate with him at all.
Our next stop is the SUMMER PALACE. There is a huge man-made lake in the garden area. We walk and walk and take a boat across the lake. This was my favorite stop on the tour. Jane explained the significance of what we were seeing. It was nice to see all the families there. There were just a few other Westerners, so again we are asked to pose for pictures.
As an aside, people everywhere seem especially intrigued with DS1 and DS2. Maybe it is because they are boys and there are 2 of them. I think that most Chinese families in the city still have only 1 child and it seems that people are very happy to have boys. In fact, someone we met on a different day who admired our boys told us that when his wife had a girl, his friends told him they were sorry. Another person admiring the boys sadly told us that they had a girl. I told them that in the US, it doesn’t really matter whether you have a boy or a girl. They were somewhat incredulous. I could tell they were really thinking about that.
After the Summer Palace, Jane takes us to lunch. On the way to the restaurant, she runs into a market and purchases bottled water and Pepsi. The restaurant is Goulin. It is huge and has table after table of Chinese people enjoying lunch. She orders kung pao chicken (spicy with peanuts), iron beef, garlic eggplant, roast whole chicken, spicy whole fish and fried rice. Everything is delicious and we also enjoy sitting down to rest. There is a lazy Susan at the center of our round table and we spin it around to serve the food. She also orders a bottle of Sprite and 6 glasses. Then, we are free to drink our water and Pepsi also. This is surprising to me, as bringing your own drinks would be frowned upon in the US. We enjoyed visiting this restaurant with Jane, since we would never have been able to do this without her. Everything is in Chinese, I doubt if anyone speaks English, and we are the only Westerners here among the 200 or so people here.
Our next stop is the money museum, something like the MUSEUM OF CHINA NUMISMATICS (or Currency). It is right next to Tiennamen Square. This is where DS1 wants to go. He has a keen interest in coins and history. We have read that there are people outside the museum, selling old coins. He is disappointed to find no one selling old coins. We breeze through the museum and rush over to the FORBIDDEN CITY.
We race across Tiennamen Square, as Jane explains various things to us. As it is nearing 4 pm, when the last tickets are sold, I ask Jane if she wants to go on ahead and get the tickets and we will meet here there. She readily agrees and speeds off. She is very energetic. We get to the gate at 3:55 pm and meet up with Jane. We go through the vast palaces, etc. of the Forbidden City. It is very interesting. Courtyard after courtyard, with huge buildings, separated by fancy gates. The place is huge.
At one point, we start to go into one area and a worker basically slams the door in Jane’s face. She politely asks him if we can come in for a few minutes. She points out that it is still early and we have paid for the tickets. He is mad and yells at her. Even in Chinese, I can tell that he is being very rude. He yells and yells. Eventually, Jane yells back at him. Then, he pushes her. I can’t believe it. Jane steps inside the door and tells us to come in. The man is still yelling, now at us, “No, no”. Jane is yelling to us, “Come in, no problem.” People are stopped and staring at all of us. DH, DS1, DS2 and I are suspended for a moment, not sure what to do. Finally, Jane grabs my wrist and pulls me inside the door. It is like jumping off of a huge cliff, I’m not sure what will happen. DS1, DS2 and DH pause for a moment and, when nothing happens, they follow me in. We take a quick spin around and then go to leave, making sure we are not the last ones. But, the man has blocked the door with a large rock and seems to be threatening not to let us leave. After some more yelling, the man moves the rock, Jane opens the door and we are free. We continue our tour of the Forbidden City.
As we walk to the meeting place for the driver, DH makes the mistake of looking for 2 seconds at a vendor’s plastic dragon. The vendor follows us for about 10 minutes. We are relieved to finally shake him. Jane asks us where we want to go next. We debate going to a market, but it is after 5 pm and we have been moving fast all day. So, we go back to the hotel. According to DS1’s pedometer, we have walked 12 miles today. We are all full from lunch and too tired for dinner. Everyone else goes to the pool and I go to sleep early.
We liked Jane. She took care of us all day, answering all of our questions. She knows her way around and we are able to do much more with her and the driver than if on our own, in a much less stressful way. And, she is smart and spunky, qualities which I admire.
Day 15 – Flight to Xian
We had arranged with Jane to have Mr. Li take us by minivan to the Beijing airport for 200 yuan (about $25). This is still pretty steep, but a big improvement over the 500 yuan we paid from the airport. He is right on time and it is a comfortable ride.
We are flying HAINAN AIRLINES. We have no problem checking in with our 3 paper tickets and 1 electronic ticket. I had been slightly concerned about flying a Chinese airline. The flight turns out to be fine. I am surprised to find it is more than half filled with tourists, mostly English-speaking.
We are only flying from Beijing to Xian in order to see the TERRACOTTA WARRIORS. We will stay for just one night, tour the next day and then take the overnight train (16 hours) to Shanghai. I hope this detour turns out to be worth the trouble and money it took to get here. A friend told me that we couldn’t go to China without seeing the warriors. Fodor’s posters also said that they felt it was a worthwhile trip.
When we arrive in Xian, we get our luggage and head out to the waiting area for drivers. We are looking for Clarence Guo ([email protected] or [email protected] or http://www.taxitour.com/cave.htm) , who will be picking us up from the airport. We search the drivers holding signs. We see a little boy, holding a sign with our name on it. I point to it and wave to him. He waves back and waits until we walk out of the holding area. He says “follow me, please”. So we do. We are all exchanging looks, wondering what is going on. My boys are wondering too, since he is even younger than they are. The little boy takes us to the elevator and says “wait here for a moment, please”. He is so cute as he holds out his hand to indicate we should stop our cart and wait for the elevator. We go outside and he makes a call on his cell phone. A few minutes later, a van pulls up and a man gets out to help us with our luggage. This is Clarence and the little boy is his son. His little girl is also in the van with him. The kids are adorable. We talk with them on the way. The little girl comes in the back to sit between DH and DS2.
While talking with Clarence, we decide to see a show tonight with Chinese dancing from the Tang dynasty. He books the show and dinner for us and tells us he will come to the hotel later and take us to the show.
We check in to the GRAND HYATT XIAN. The lobby seems nice. We are staying on the Executive floor, so that we can hang out in the lounge and have a quick breakfast the next morning. The Executive Lounge is very nice. It is comfortable and spacious. This is where they send us to check in. When we arrive, they bring us some cold drinks.
We have 2 rooms here. The rooms have the best set-up we’ve had in any hotel yet. They are interconnecting, with 1 king bed and 2 twin beds. Perfect for us. The rooms are a little dark and tired though. Not too bad, just not great.
The staff at the hotel is very nice and helpful. The woman at the front desk doesn’t even laugh at me when I try to exchange 1000 leftover Japanese Yen into Chinese Yuan. I think I am going to get about $80, but I’ve miscalculated and it is only about $8. When she tries to explain it to me, I can only think of the exchange to dollars and then back to yuan. She is very patient. I go get a few British pounds and also some Euros and exchange them also. In China, we’ve found it easy to exchange cash or traveler’s checks at the hotel desks. I wish we’d brought a little more cash with us. We had $300 in traveler’s checks in case of emergency, but we ended up exchanging them at hotels in China, rather than try to find an ATM, although I don’t think it would have been that difficult to find an ATM.
Soon, Clarence picks us up and takes us to a dinner theater to see the TANG DYNASTY CHINESE DANCING SHOW. We are not excited by dinner. It consists of tons of types of dumplings. They keep bringing them and bringing them. Everything is okay, but it is clearly banquet style food for a lot of people. The show is about an hour. It is enjoyable, but we know it is for the tourists. Afterward, we take a taxi back to the hotel and go right to sleep. We have planned a busy day of touring tomorrow.
I forgot to mention – on our Hainan Airlines flight, while we were going through security. They didn’t seem too concerned about the various electronics we had with us. They did, however, open every bottle of water or soda we were carrying and proceed to sniff each bottle. Do you think they were looking for alcohol? Or explosive liquids?
Apr 27th, 2007, 08:10 PM
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Day 16 – Xian – Tour of Terracotta Warriors and Overnight Train to Shanghai
To go to the TERRACOTTA WARRIORS, Clarence picks us up at 8 am. He is very quiet during the drive. We notice that the pollution is very bad and the air is extremely hazy. It seems even worse than Beijing. We get to the Terracotta Warriors and it is amazing. It is totally worth the trip and DH says this is the most interesting thing he has seen yet this summer.
It is a huge tourist site, with a big park outside of the museum. They have relocated the village which used to be there, in order to make the park. You have to walk about 10 minutes through the park. At the entrance to the park, there are huge parking lots, starting to fill up with buses. While Clarence is parking, we gesture and ask some men to take our picture in front of a large statue. They agree and then ask to take their picture with our two boys. Everyone is smiling and very happy to pose with the boys. This happens again and again, everywhere we go. I know I’ve said this before, but I find this so interesting.
It seems that about half of the people here are Westerners. This is a stark contrast to Beijing, where we didn’t see as many Westerners as we’d expected (although we did see an interesting tour group of Westerners in the Forbidden City who were all using Sign Language to communicate with each other – Jane found this interesting too – I wonder if Sign Language varies depending on your native country’s language or if it is its own language??).
There are several museum buildings which are very modern and it is quite an impressive place. The farmer who discovered the warriors (one day while he was digging a well) is here. For a price, he will autograph a book on the warriors for you. No photos of the elderly man are allowed though. So I take a picture of the photo of the man hanging on the wall. And, of course we buy a book and have it autographed.
In the display areas, you stand behind fences and gaze out upon the warriors in an excavation pit. There are small rooms where you can have your photo taken next to a warrior, for a price. I start to take a picture in one of these rooms of the warrior, up close, but the guard stops me. Clarence tours part of the site with us and then we tour a lot of it on our own.
After the Terracotta Warriors, we stop in a small town for lunch. There will be a table available in ten minutes, so we walk through the nearby market for a few minutes. Everyone watches e-v-e-r-y s-t-e-p w-e t-a-k-e. They make no attempt to be subtle. I feel like an alien from Mars.
This meal is fantastic, maybe our best in China. Once again, we are the only Westerners. In this town, we are a major oddity. Everyone watches us. During lunch, we see people nudging the people next to them and pointing to us and whispering, in order to alert them to our presence. This continues during our entire meal. This must be what it feels like to be a celebrity. Although it is amusing for a day, I don’t think I’d like it as a lifestyle. Luckily, I don’t have to worry too much about that (ha ha).
Clarence orders all sorts of dumplings. They are delicious. Our favorite is filled with green beans. Why knew there were green bean dumplings? We also have sweet and sour pork, spicy crispy fried eggplant and chili peppers, fried rice, two kinds of greens sautéed with garlic. Yum!
Clarence is a great host at lunch and tries hard to make sure we are happy with our meal. He is constantly refilling our drinks. It is funny when he piles food onto DS1 and DS2’s plates, since he is sitting next to them. Even though they have refused eggplant and some of the other ingredients in the past, they are polite and try everything (I’m proud of them for this). Much to my surprise, DS2 even finishes most of what he is served.
After lunch, we stop to get some cigarettes and a watermelon. We are headed to visit some caves near Xian. Clarence has befriended some people in a village with cave houses. They allow him to bring visitors to their homes. The dirt road is very bumpy. Then, we walk up a path to the caves. It is fascinating. They have dug a well and have electricity, although it is not working at the moment. It is funny to see a TV in the cave.
We visit a family with four generations living together. The eldest man and woman seem amused by us. The man points at me and laughs, while saying something to Clarence. Clarence says it is because we are foreigners, but I think it is really because I am an overweight foreigner with blue eyes. The man walks up to me, stands very close, and searches my entire face. He is fascinated by me and I am fascinated by him. I wish we could talk to each other. But, what would we say?
After visiting the caves, we head back to Xian and visit the TAOIST TEMPLE. We all use the bathroom at the Taoist Temple. DH tells me that DS2 almost passes out when they walk in and he sees a man in an open stall squatting over an open trench.
We also visit the Muslim part of town. The MOSQUE is not what I expected. It is built in the Chinese style, with various buildings surrounding a series of courtyard gardens. The pathway leading to the Mosque is a flea market. The Saddam Hussein playing cards are slightly amusing.
We go back to the hotel and relax in the Executive Lounge for a half hour. It is cool and tranquil, so we enjoy the break. I wish it was longer. Then, Clarence drops us off at the train station so we can take the OVERNIGHT TRAIN FROM XIAN TO SHANGHAI. I had expected the Xian train station to be small. Boy, was I wrong. It is huge and absolutely teeming with people. We see a waiting room for our train and it is overflowing with people. I show our tickets to a guard. He points upstairs so we take the escalator up (about 3 stories high). We go to the ‘soft sleeper’ lounge. The lady shakes her head no and points downstairs. We say that the guard said to come up. We ask her where to go. She says to sit down and wait a minute. Soon, another lady comes and motions that we should follow her. There is no down escalator, so we have to carry our luggage down the 3 flights of stairs. I hope DH doesn’t have a heart attack, as he has the largest rolling suitcase and also 3 smaller bags.
She takes us to a ‘soft sleeper’ lounge downstairs. She tells us the train will come on track 1, which is right outside the lounge, and she will take us to the train. We are surprised, delighted and relieved by the personal service. Sure enough, about ten minutes later, she motions for us to follow her and takes us to our platform and shows us where to wait for our car.
We wait for a few minutes and then follow a man onto the car. The cleaning people come over and shoo us off the train. Eventually, we are allowed back onto the train. Only, I cannot proceed down the hallway, since the cleaning people are in the hallway while changing the sheets in the last two cabins (one of which is ours). The people behind us are irritated at us and keep trying to pass us, which is impossible with all of our luggage. Someone far behind us starts banging to show their irritation. They can’t see the cleaning people, so they are probably wondering what the crazy foreigners’ problem is. Finally we are allowed to pass and go to our cabin. We pull all of our luggage inside the cabin, which leaves us all sitting on the beds, with nowhere to stand. Eventually, we spy an overhead compartment and stow the luggage, while stepping all over each other. Complete chaos and lots of bickering about who is stepping on whom.
After the excitement of getting on the train (it was hell) and getting settled, the actual train ride was fine. It reminded me of camping, which we’ve done quite often. As far as I could tell, we were the only Westerners on the entire train. The soft sleepers were pretty comfortable. Each of us had a separate bed and we were together in our own cabin, where we could shut the door for privacy. It was quite a lively scene outside our door, with lots of Chinese people clustered in the hallway, talking and laughing.
DH, DS1 and DS2 went to the dining car, while I waited with our stuff. They were unable to communicate, so they were just given some food, which they described as edible. People were smoking (a lot) wherever they wanted to. At one end of our car was a pit toilet. When DS2 went to use it, it was stopped up, so he used the handy bamboo stick provided to push everything through the hole. There was also a Western toilet at the other end of the car, which was ok. The attendant brought each car a pot of hot water, which many people (not us) used to make ramen noodles in their compartments. We had brought some packaged food, which we ate in the morning in our cabin.
Day 17 – Arrive in Shanghai
After 16 hours on the train, we arrive in Shanghai at 11:00 am. Getting off the train is easy. We find the taxi line, where there are two lanes of taxis. Some people were standing in line, but I don’t know why they bothered, because no taxis were arriving at the taxi stop. It was a madhouse as everyone just ran into the street and tried to get into a taxi. We stopped one, but he didn’t recognize the name of our hotel in English. (Drat, I meant to get it written in Chinese, but never got around to a second attempt after the hotel concierge in Xian didn’t know to write the name “Radisson”.)
A man is following us around, offering us a ride. These solicitors are to be avoided, we’ve heard. We are getting desperate, so we discuss whether to take his ride. All 4 of us are standing in the middle of the two lanes of traffic, wondering what we should do. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a nicely dressed man speaks to me in English. I am suspicious. But, he tells us to avoid the man who is following us, since he will charge us twice the normal rate. I ask him if he can tell the taxi driver where we are going. He flags down a taxi, fights off a girl who tries to get in the passenger seat and explains our destination to the driver. I thank him profusely. He really saved us.
We are staying at the RADISSON SHANGHAI NEW WORLD. We also show the cab driver a picture, since it has a distinctive shape, rising in the sky to a point with a sphere at the top. It reminds me of ‘The Jetsons’. As we step into the hotel lobby, the contrast is amazing. It is beautiful and calm. People rush to take our luggage. It is a wonderful hotel. We love it. We have booked a 2 bedroom family suite. It is 2 bedrooms with king size beds and TVs, 2 bathrooms and a large living area with living room with plasma TV and a dining room which seats 8 people. It is richly appointed. In fact, I would say it is the nicest place I have ever stayed (although the ceilings seem low in Asia, as compared to the US). This was the last accommodation I booked, because I just couldn’t find what I was looking for, and I had no idea how it would be. We lucked out.
It cost $275 (plus 15% service and tax) for the four of us, which is not cheap. But, in NY, this would run well over $1000 (probably more). China is the only place where we can afford to travel first class. This caused me some amount of consternation, as China is also a place where you can live simply for very little money. The dilemma over whether to live it up or save money was tough. I finally decided that we would live it up for 2 nights in Shanghai.
The only problem with that is that none of us wanted to leave the hotel. We ordered lunch from room service, which was pretty good as room service goes. We watched some movies in English on HBO, went for a swim, took showers, etc.
For dinner, we went to the SUMMER PAVILION RESTAURANT at the Portman Ritz Carlton hotel. This was rated by Zagat as a 28 (out of 30), which was the highest food rating for Shanghai. We found it to be excellent, as well. Dinner for 4, with drinks, cost about 980 Chinese Yuan (about $123). It was very elegant. Service was very attentive. We ordered crispy barbecued pork, beef tenderloin with leeks, noodles, fried rice, sautéed celery root and vegetables, and scallops and egg in chili sauce. After dinner, we walked to a nearby Haagen Dazs for an ice cream cone. It was still pretty hot outside.
Then, I was surprised to find a very slow moving and crowded taxi line outside of the Ritz Carlton. I definitely would not appreciate that if I was staying here. Although there was an express lane for Ritz Carlton guests and a regular lane for the rest of us, no one was moving too fast. We walked out to the street and in about five minutes, DS2 had hailed a taxi to go back to our hotel. He’s become a man of the world.
Back at the Radisson Shanghai New World, we peeked into the revolving restaurant. We went to the sphere at the top for a drink. The dome at the top houses a bar, with live entertainment. We had drinks and the kids had hot chocolate and watermelon juice. That was a new one to us, so DS1 had to try it. By the way, we’ve heard there is no minimum drinking age in China. There was a terrific rainstorm, complete with thunder and lightning, which was fun to watch from the glass domed enclosure. It was cozy to be inside, watching the weather show and admiring the lights of the city. It seemed that the most of the city lights went off at about 11 pm.
To go to the TERRACOTTA WARRIORS, Clarence picks us up at 8 am. He is very quiet during the drive. We notice that the pollution is very bad and the air is extremely hazy. It seems even worse than Beijing. We get to the Terracotta Warriors and it is amazing. It is totally worth the trip and DH says this is the most interesting thing he has seen yet this summer.
It is a huge tourist site, with a big park outside of the museum. They have relocated the village which used to be there, in order to make the park. You have to walk about 10 minutes through the park. At the entrance to the park, there are huge parking lots, starting to fill up with buses. While Clarence is parking, we gesture and ask some men to take our picture in front of a large statue. They agree and then ask to take their picture with our two boys. Everyone is smiling and very happy to pose with the boys. This happens again and again, everywhere we go. I know I’ve said this before, but I find this so interesting.
It seems that about half of the people here are Westerners. This is a stark contrast to Beijing, where we didn’t see as many Westerners as we’d expected (although we did see an interesting tour group of Westerners in the Forbidden City who were all using Sign Language to communicate with each other – Jane found this interesting too – I wonder if Sign Language varies depending on your native country’s language or if it is its own language??).
There are several museum buildings which are very modern and it is quite an impressive place. The farmer who discovered the warriors (one day while he was digging a well) is here. For a price, he will autograph a book on the warriors for you. No photos of the elderly man are allowed though. So I take a picture of the photo of the man hanging on the wall. And, of course we buy a book and have it autographed.
In the display areas, you stand behind fences and gaze out upon the warriors in an excavation pit. There are small rooms where you can have your photo taken next to a warrior, for a price. I start to take a picture in one of these rooms of the warrior, up close, but the guard stops me. Clarence tours part of the site with us and then we tour a lot of it on our own.
After the Terracotta Warriors, we stop in a small town for lunch. There will be a table available in ten minutes, so we walk through the nearby market for a few minutes. Everyone watches e-v-e-r-y s-t-e-p w-e t-a-k-e. They make no attempt to be subtle. I feel like an alien from Mars.
This meal is fantastic, maybe our best in China. Once again, we are the only Westerners. In this town, we are a major oddity. Everyone watches us. During lunch, we see people nudging the people next to them and pointing to us and whispering, in order to alert them to our presence. This continues during our entire meal. This must be what it feels like to be a celebrity. Although it is amusing for a day, I don’t think I’d like it as a lifestyle. Luckily, I don’t have to worry too much about that (ha ha).
Clarence orders all sorts of dumplings. They are delicious. Our favorite is filled with green beans. Why knew there were green bean dumplings? We also have sweet and sour pork, spicy crispy fried eggplant and chili peppers, fried rice, two kinds of greens sautéed with garlic. Yum!
Clarence is a great host at lunch and tries hard to make sure we are happy with our meal. He is constantly refilling our drinks. It is funny when he piles food onto DS1 and DS2’s plates, since he is sitting next to them. Even though they have refused eggplant and some of the other ingredients in the past, they are polite and try everything (I’m proud of them for this). Much to my surprise, DS2 even finishes most of what he is served.
After lunch, we stop to get some cigarettes and a watermelon. We are headed to visit some caves near Xian. Clarence has befriended some people in a village with cave houses. They allow him to bring visitors to their homes. The dirt road is very bumpy. Then, we walk up a path to the caves. It is fascinating. They have dug a well and have electricity, although it is not working at the moment. It is funny to see a TV in the cave.
We visit a family with four generations living together. The eldest man and woman seem amused by us. The man points at me and laughs, while saying something to Clarence. Clarence says it is because we are foreigners, but I think it is really because I am an overweight foreigner with blue eyes. The man walks up to me, stands very close, and searches my entire face. He is fascinated by me and I am fascinated by him. I wish we could talk to each other. But, what would we say?
After visiting the caves, we head back to Xian and visit the TAOIST TEMPLE. We all use the bathroom at the Taoist Temple. DH tells me that DS2 almost passes out when they walk in and he sees a man in an open stall squatting over an open trench.
We also visit the Muslim part of town. The MOSQUE is not what I expected. It is built in the Chinese style, with various buildings surrounding a series of courtyard gardens. The pathway leading to the Mosque is a flea market. The Saddam Hussein playing cards are slightly amusing.
We go back to the hotel and relax in the Executive Lounge for a half hour. It is cool and tranquil, so we enjoy the break. I wish it was longer. Then, Clarence drops us off at the train station so we can take the OVERNIGHT TRAIN FROM XIAN TO SHANGHAI. I had expected the Xian train station to be small. Boy, was I wrong. It is huge and absolutely teeming with people. We see a waiting room for our train and it is overflowing with people. I show our tickets to a guard. He points upstairs so we take the escalator up (about 3 stories high). We go to the ‘soft sleeper’ lounge. The lady shakes her head no and points downstairs. We say that the guard said to come up. We ask her where to go. She says to sit down and wait a minute. Soon, another lady comes and motions that we should follow her. There is no down escalator, so we have to carry our luggage down the 3 flights of stairs. I hope DH doesn’t have a heart attack, as he has the largest rolling suitcase and also 3 smaller bags.
She takes us to a ‘soft sleeper’ lounge downstairs. She tells us the train will come on track 1, which is right outside the lounge, and she will take us to the train. We are surprised, delighted and relieved by the personal service. Sure enough, about ten minutes later, she motions for us to follow her and takes us to our platform and shows us where to wait for our car.
We wait for a few minutes and then follow a man onto the car. The cleaning people come over and shoo us off the train. Eventually, we are allowed back onto the train. Only, I cannot proceed down the hallway, since the cleaning people are in the hallway while changing the sheets in the last two cabins (one of which is ours). The people behind us are irritated at us and keep trying to pass us, which is impossible with all of our luggage. Someone far behind us starts banging to show their irritation. They can’t see the cleaning people, so they are probably wondering what the crazy foreigners’ problem is. Finally we are allowed to pass and go to our cabin. We pull all of our luggage inside the cabin, which leaves us all sitting on the beds, with nowhere to stand. Eventually, we spy an overhead compartment and stow the luggage, while stepping all over each other. Complete chaos and lots of bickering about who is stepping on whom.
After the excitement of getting on the train (it was hell) and getting settled, the actual train ride was fine. It reminded me of camping, which we’ve done quite often. As far as I could tell, we were the only Westerners on the entire train. The soft sleepers were pretty comfortable. Each of us had a separate bed and we were together in our own cabin, where we could shut the door for privacy. It was quite a lively scene outside our door, with lots of Chinese people clustered in the hallway, talking and laughing.
DH, DS1 and DS2 went to the dining car, while I waited with our stuff. They were unable to communicate, so they were just given some food, which they described as edible. People were smoking (a lot) wherever they wanted to. At one end of our car was a pit toilet. When DS2 went to use it, it was stopped up, so he used the handy bamboo stick provided to push everything through the hole. There was also a Western toilet at the other end of the car, which was ok. The attendant brought each car a pot of hot water, which many people (not us) used to make ramen noodles in their compartments. We had brought some packaged food, which we ate in the morning in our cabin.
Day 17 – Arrive in Shanghai
After 16 hours on the train, we arrive in Shanghai at 11:00 am. Getting off the train is easy. We find the taxi line, where there are two lanes of taxis. Some people were standing in line, but I don’t know why they bothered, because no taxis were arriving at the taxi stop. It was a madhouse as everyone just ran into the street and tried to get into a taxi. We stopped one, but he didn’t recognize the name of our hotel in English. (Drat, I meant to get it written in Chinese, but never got around to a second attempt after the hotel concierge in Xian didn’t know to write the name “Radisson”.)
A man is following us around, offering us a ride. These solicitors are to be avoided, we’ve heard. We are getting desperate, so we discuss whether to take his ride. All 4 of us are standing in the middle of the two lanes of traffic, wondering what we should do. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a nicely dressed man speaks to me in English. I am suspicious. But, he tells us to avoid the man who is following us, since he will charge us twice the normal rate. I ask him if he can tell the taxi driver where we are going. He flags down a taxi, fights off a girl who tries to get in the passenger seat and explains our destination to the driver. I thank him profusely. He really saved us.
We are staying at the RADISSON SHANGHAI NEW WORLD. We also show the cab driver a picture, since it has a distinctive shape, rising in the sky to a point with a sphere at the top. It reminds me of ‘The Jetsons’. As we step into the hotel lobby, the contrast is amazing. It is beautiful and calm. People rush to take our luggage. It is a wonderful hotel. We love it. We have booked a 2 bedroom family suite. It is 2 bedrooms with king size beds and TVs, 2 bathrooms and a large living area with living room with plasma TV and a dining room which seats 8 people. It is richly appointed. In fact, I would say it is the nicest place I have ever stayed (although the ceilings seem low in Asia, as compared to the US). This was the last accommodation I booked, because I just couldn’t find what I was looking for, and I had no idea how it would be. We lucked out.
It cost $275 (plus 15% service and tax) for the four of us, which is not cheap. But, in NY, this would run well over $1000 (probably more). China is the only place where we can afford to travel first class. This caused me some amount of consternation, as China is also a place where you can live simply for very little money. The dilemma over whether to live it up or save money was tough. I finally decided that we would live it up for 2 nights in Shanghai.
The only problem with that is that none of us wanted to leave the hotel. We ordered lunch from room service, which was pretty good as room service goes. We watched some movies in English on HBO, went for a swim, took showers, etc.
For dinner, we went to the SUMMER PAVILION RESTAURANT at the Portman Ritz Carlton hotel. This was rated by Zagat as a 28 (out of 30), which was the highest food rating for Shanghai. We found it to be excellent, as well. Dinner for 4, with drinks, cost about 980 Chinese Yuan (about $123). It was very elegant. Service was very attentive. We ordered crispy barbecued pork, beef tenderloin with leeks, noodles, fried rice, sautéed celery root and vegetables, and scallops and egg in chili sauce. After dinner, we walked to a nearby Haagen Dazs for an ice cream cone. It was still pretty hot outside.
Then, I was surprised to find a very slow moving and crowded taxi line outside of the Ritz Carlton. I definitely would not appreciate that if I was staying here. Although there was an express lane for Ritz Carlton guests and a regular lane for the rest of us, no one was moving too fast. We walked out to the street and in about five minutes, DS2 had hailed a taxi to go back to our hotel. He’s become a man of the world.
Back at the Radisson Shanghai New World, we peeked into the revolving restaurant. We went to the sphere at the top for a drink. The dome at the top houses a bar, with live entertainment. We had drinks and the kids had hot chocolate and watermelon juice. That was a new one to us, so DS1 had to try it. By the way, we’ve heard there is no minimum drinking age in China. There was a terrific rainstorm, complete with thunder and lightning, which was fun to watch from the glass domed enclosure. It was cozy to be inside, watching the weather show and admiring the lights of the city. It seemed that the most of the city lights went off at about 11 pm.
Apr 27th, 2007, 08:11 PM
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Day 18 – Shanghai
Due to our luxurious surroundings, DS1, DS2 and I refused to leave our room today. Room service was our best friend. DS2 did let in the man to check the mini-bar and forgot to alert me, so I was surprised while watching a movie in bed in my pajamas by a strange man charging into my room. That was our excitement for the day.
Oh, and also I have won a ‘Bad Mother of the Year’ award. No, I did not kill DS2 for letting a strange man into my bedroom. My precious children’s innocence has been soiled by watching an R rated movie. It’s their first. None of us meant for it to happen. We just happened upon the remake of “The Manchurian Candidate” on HBO. I told them this was a movie I’d always wanted to watch and convinced them to watch it with me. I did not realize it was rated R or how violent it was until we were deep into the movie and people were being graphically murdered left and right. Oh well, it was an interesting movie anyway, but I felt kind of bad about that.
To keep up with our Fodor’s responsibilities, DH went touring by himself. Here is his trip report for the day:
He was most impressed with the JADE BUDDHA. There are twenty or more Buddhas that are gold and about 30 feet tall. On the second floor, there is a giant Buddha carved out of jade and covered with jewels. He also went to YUYUAN GARDEN, which he described as a smaller version of the Summer Palace in Beijing. There is an extensive street market surrounding the garden, which you have to go through to get to the garden. He thought that THE BUND was like an elevated walkway along the river, with a small section of buildings from the 1920’s and 1930’s. You can also see the new buildings across the river. He said that if you’ve been to Paris or London, it’s nothing that you haven’t seen there.
One thing I noticed about Shanghai was the architecture. The skyscrapers are amazing. There are so many creative buildings, in such a variety of shapes and sizes. (I wonder what Benedict O’Looney would have said about them?)
I would like to have toured Shanghai a little and was sad that we had to leave without seeing too much. Tomorrow we head back to London, en route to Athens and Santorini.
My impressions of China:
It is not easy or relaxing to travel here, but it is infinitely interesting and rewarding.
You can travel independently, if you choose.
I think it is helpful to arrange some tour activities.
Bring cash to change into Yuan at the hotel front desk.
Taxis are very cheap.
There are usually no seatbelts in the back seat of the taxis.
Always have your destination written in Chinese, to show the taxi driver.
Be very careful crossing the street.
People spit a lot.
People smoke a lot.
People hang out on the street corners a lot. They squat a lot.
It is pretty polluted here.
People will stare at you or talk about you or follow you around.
I felt very safe here, as a foreigner. I felt that we enjoyed a kind of ‘protected’ status.
I felt the presence of the government everywhere, in ways large and small.
The people seem circumspect and sometimes the tiniest bit sad.
Some people will try to make as much money off of you as they can.
The disparity in disposable income is very difficult to reconcile. You know that by giving someone a 20 yuan tip, which is only a little more than $2, it will be considered outrageously excessive, but sometimes you just can’t help it.
Some, but not too many, people speak English. Some people that can speak it will still not understand you when you speak to them.
The place is amazing. The people are amazing.
I’m so glad we saw it now.
Tomorrow we fly from Shanghai to London.
Due to our luxurious surroundings, DS1, DS2 and I refused to leave our room today. Room service was our best friend. DS2 did let in the man to check the mini-bar and forgot to alert me, so I was surprised while watching a movie in bed in my pajamas by a strange man charging into my room. That was our excitement for the day.
Oh, and also I have won a ‘Bad Mother of the Year’ award. No, I did not kill DS2 for letting a strange man into my bedroom. My precious children’s innocence has been soiled by watching an R rated movie. It’s their first. None of us meant for it to happen. We just happened upon the remake of “The Manchurian Candidate” on HBO. I told them this was a movie I’d always wanted to watch and convinced them to watch it with me. I did not realize it was rated R or how violent it was until we were deep into the movie and people were being graphically murdered left and right. Oh well, it was an interesting movie anyway, but I felt kind of bad about that.
To keep up with our Fodor’s responsibilities, DH went touring by himself. Here is his trip report for the day:
He was most impressed with the JADE BUDDHA. There are twenty or more Buddhas that are gold and about 30 feet tall. On the second floor, there is a giant Buddha carved out of jade and covered with jewels. He also went to YUYUAN GARDEN, which he described as a smaller version of the Summer Palace in Beijing. There is an extensive street market surrounding the garden, which you have to go through to get to the garden. He thought that THE BUND was like an elevated walkway along the river, with a small section of buildings from the 1920’s and 1930’s. You can also see the new buildings across the river. He said that if you’ve been to Paris or London, it’s nothing that you haven’t seen there.
One thing I noticed about Shanghai was the architecture. The skyscrapers are amazing. There are so many creative buildings, in such a variety of shapes and sizes. (I wonder what Benedict O’Looney would have said about them?)
I would like to have toured Shanghai a little and was sad that we had to leave without seeing too much. Tomorrow we head back to London, en route to Athens and Santorini.
My impressions of China:
It is not easy or relaxing to travel here, but it is infinitely interesting and rewarding.
You can travel independently, if you choose.
I think it is helpful to arrange some tour activities.
Bring cash to change into Yuan at the hotel front desk.
Taxis are very cheap.
There are usually no seatbelts in the back seat of the taxis.
Always have your destination written in Chinese, to show the taxi driver.
Be very careful crossing the street.
People spit a lot.
People smoke a lot.
People hang out on the street corners a lot. They squat a lot.
It is pretty polluted here.
People will stare at you or talk about you or follow you around.
I felt very safe here, as a foreigner. I felt that we enjoyed a kind of ‘protected’ status.
I felt the presence of the government everywhere, in ways large and small.
The people seem circumspect and sometimes the tiniest bit sad.
Some people will try to make as much money off of you as they can.
The disparity in disposable income is very difficult to reconcile. You know that by giving someone a 20 yuan tip, which is only a little more than $2, it will be considered outrageously excessive, but sometimes you just can’t help it.
Some, but not too many, people speak English. Some people that can speak it will still not understand you when you speak to them.
The place is amazing. The people are amazing.
I’m so glad we saw it now.
Tomorrow we fly from Shanghai to London.
Apr 28th, 2007, 07:14 AM
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Thanks for separating the China portion of your trip individually on this board. I read some of your posting on the Europe board, but it is very hard to wade through now it is so long!
Very interesting, as I plan to take my kids to China for a month in a year or two.
Very interesting, as I plan to take my kids to China for a month in a year or two.
Apr 28th, 2007, 07:22 AM
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Many, many thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed and entretaining report. I felt like I could spot your family if I saw you in a city, and you made China come to life. I go to China next week, and for once I am on a tour. After reading your report, I feel I've made the right decision to maximize my time in the 2 weeks I'll be there.
Apr 29th, 2007, 05:09 AM
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travelgirl2,
Your account of wrestling with the washer/dryer at the Lee Garden brought back memories of our own bewilderment with that machine during our April 2005 visit to Beijing. Thanks for the smile!
CanadaKate
Apr 29th, 2007, 03:17 PM
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Fabulous trip report, really enjoyed it, and your impressions are true and realistic, it's an amazing country.
Couldn't stop laughing about your "moving ramp" experience at Carrefour, I was quite confused the 1st time too. Now several chinese megamarkets have also installed them, and the 1st floor is like a Home Depot with furniture and there is underground parking.
Couldn't stop laughing about your "moving ramp" experience at Carrefour, I was quite confused the 1st time too. Now several chinese megamarkets have also installed them, and the 1st floor is like a Home Depot with furniture and there is underground parking.
Oct 5th, 2007, 05:44 AM
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travelgirl2- I know this is an "older" post but if you still follow the comments would you talk more about the Lee service apartments. We are planning a Sep 2008 trip and those are one the apartment complexes that we are considering. I would love some more information.
Oct 5th, 2007, 06:04 PM
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We liked the Lee Garden apartments. We were surprised at how large and luxurious the master bathroom was. It was very comfortable, with enough room for the 4 of us to spread out. The front desk people were helpful, but didn't speak perfect English, so I'm not sure if a hotel concierge would have been more helpful. I would definitely stay there again. If there is anything specific you'd like to know, I will try to remember...
Jan 25th, 2008, 11:46 AM
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Came across this report while searching on the internet. Wonderful and extremely informative. I was wondering if you could also post it on ChinaTravelGuide.com to share with fellow travelers. I was looking for info there, but only found questions, not enough answers. Hopefully Fodor's won't treat this as a commercial here (I have huge respect for Fodor's).
Jan 26th, 2008, 09:31 AM
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Monica,
Clarence is charging us 700 yuan(van+guide) for the warriers, Great Mosque, & evening to dumpling dinner & Tang Dynasty Show.We're 2 couples so we divide the price, making it affordable.
Clarence is charging us 700 yuan(van+guide) for the warriers, Great Mosque, & evening to dumpling dinner & Tang Dynasty Show.We're 2 couples so we divide the price, making it affordable.
Jan 26th, 2008, 10:51 AM
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Monica - I'm sorry, I don't remember Clarence's fee. You can check his website: www.taxitour.com He was also responsive to emails.
I just want to mention that I recently saw a post from Stu Tower that Clarence was a no-show for him in Xian, so he booked another guide at the last minute.
I just want to mention that I recently saw a post from Stu Tower that Clarence was a no-show for him in Xian, so he booked another guide at the last minute.
