This trip report is reeeeeeeeeeeally long and as a smart man (Bob) has recommended, I should post it in parts so here we go.

I have made it to and from China and Thailand and already I have been home for one week so it is time to get a report off before I get too consumed with work. As the trip reports from other Forodites have helped me enormously with my planning for my first trip to the Orient I want to reciprocate with my views . .

First, to answer one of my own questions to the Fodor board before departure - weather. We were in China from May 26 - June 6 and then in Thailand June 6 - June 25. I had looked at the weather reports before I left and there was a lot of rain in the forecast. While we were on vacation I checked the weather reports and there was rain and thunderstorms forecast almost every day! We had the most beautiful weather. We got a little rain one afternoon on May 31 in Beijing but we had plans to go shopping at the silk market so it didn't matter. In BKK it had rained in the night as well as a couple of nights in CM. So, it seems that May and June which is the start of the rainy season is the same as the rainy season on the west coast of Mexico with the rain falling usually at night.

Another tip - two weeks before departure and every day of the vacation I took 2 peptol bismol, pink pills. In the 33 days away from home I only had stomach discomfort twice - and not very bad at that. We ate on the street and I ate a lot of new, different foods so I think that these pills helped. (and I had an average of 2 beer a day which could have been it?)

We left San Francisco on United Airlines flying direct to Beijing. In my opinion this is the way to fly although the seats could have been more comfortable. The service was great, the food was good and the 12 hour flight did pass by faster than I had anticipated.

For arrangements I used Chris Smith a travel agent in Minn. at [email protected]. She comes to Mexico and is a client of mine so we worked it all out over the internet. She purchased my package through Orient Flexi-pax. I was content with the service although they couldn't book me into the hotels that I wanted on our first stay in BKK or in CM so I arranged those on my own using the www.hauhin.20m.com recommended here. I wanted to fly business class and searching the internet for the prices it was only a few thousand dollars cheaper just for the airfare than buying the package with the hotels in China, airport-hotel trnasportation, some tours and our breakfast included. I was satisfied with what we received.

We stayed 6 nights at the Capitol Hotel at 3 Qian Men East Street. Just a few blocks away from Tian'an Men Square and the Wangfuijing street market and food stalls. The hotel was find, clean and with friendly, helpful staff. I did notice thought that the Grand Hotel on East Changan Street is where I would like to stay - if (when) I return because it has a better location.

The first night we walked up to Wangfuijing street market to check it out. It has a lot of arts and crafts, food stalls and restaurants. Most of the food stalls were selling skewered meat that was roasted on a BBQ upon order. A lot of variety and a lot of "mystery meat" too. The most astonishing item was the live scorpion skewers, plain or with seahorses . . .No, I didn't try it, instead I went for a tasty bowl of homemade noodles for only Y5!
Lots of fun! Lots of good photos.

Sunday I had to go to Pan Jian Yuan Jihud Schang (dirt market). Lots of interesting and different stuff here. I found some wonderful "boudoir" water colors done with semi nudes and cats? Very unique and apparently done by a local Chinese (although I can't remember the name). I loved it immediately and bought 4 framed paintings - not thinking about getting them home obviously). BUT, only one little guy there was selling water and iced tea so I suggest that you don't forget your water bottles here.

Back at the hotel we had two women come to our room to give us a one hour full body massage. At one point I felt the bed rocking a lot and looked over and saw that the woman giving my companion his massage was walking on his back! Good deal for Y220, but they didn't even touch our feet??

That night I went out alone for dinner at Jin Shan Cheng. Seems as though it is a chain and I went to one that was only a Y10 taxi ride from the hotel in a mall (sorry, I don't have the address - near an Embassy maybe?) Good thing that I had the name written in Chinese on a card because I had to ask about 5 different people for directions to find it. It is a huge restaurant with a lot of separate dining rooms. Hardly and English spoken here but the menu had photos of all the items and titles written in English as well as Chinese characters. Even with this I hadn't a clue what a lot of the items were like; boiled pork treasure, beef sinew with flavor, braised fish lip in thick soup for example. It was somewhat difficult to get a beer but one young lady was able to understand that I wanted a Chinese beer - my accent must be just horrendous. There were bottles of Heiniken on a lot of tables but of course when in Rome . . .
For my meal I had to try the donkey stew. I liked it a lot. Great presentation - came in a pot set upon a burner which was lit and it bubbled away while I was happily eating. Honestly though, it could have been almost any meat, it was seasoned with five spice and red and green chilis which were very dominant in the flavour. After dinner I wanted tea and ended up drawing a picture of a teapot on a paper napkin to get my order understood. Fun! I would recommend this place. The was Y72. I tried to tip the waitress but she wouldn't accept it.

We had a tour included with our package for Tian'an Men Square, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace one day and the Great Wall at Badaling for another (which we didn't do). We went with it for the FC and the Summer Palace. As I had been up early the day before and had walked over to T. Square to see it and we had no desire to see the preserved Chairman Mao I didn't feel that it was necessary to have an actual tour there. The FC was awesome! I took the suggestion from a posting on this board and asked to see the Jewlry rooms. This was a great move because it got us away from the masses and to a cooler part of the city too. We were there about 4 hours - which was enough time IMO.

I had my first experience with the Chinese toilet here! Yes, a whole in the floor but it is porcelain (which I wasn't expecting for some reason - I was thinking more "outhouse" kind of thing). The whole is rather large so that you can't really miss aim (and I am a girl). If you are comfortable with squatting completely,it really isn't such a big deal (the Chinese must have good knees). Probably more sanitary than our public washrooms - wondering whether you should actually sit on the seat of not AND easier thatn squatting over one of our toilets. (Actually in Thailand there was a sign in one of the stalls that I used where they had our type of toilet saying not to put your feet on the toilet to squat).

After the FC we had a lunch that was included with the tour.
Then to the Summer Palace. To be honest after such a full morning and a big lunch we really didn't do justice to the Summer Palace. It was hot and we were pooped! It is spectacular though! There is a covered walkway that has beautiful scenes painted on the ceiling. It extends for 880 meters around a part of the man made lake from the Dragon ladie's house to the marble boat. Then we went on a short boat ride back to where we started. Lots of tourists here but a must see.

We had dinner at Bellagio. A trendy, young Chinese crowd with a very contemporary decor and all young waitresses. At first I did´n't see any English on the menu (although I forgot to bring my glasses) and worried about how we were going to order. Fortunately, below the Chinese characters there was English and needless to say we didn't know what a lot of it was anyway. We were very happy when our waitress, Orange, spoke to us in English. She helped us with our selections. Wonderful Tiawanese/Sichuan food. We had leek and duck salad followed by a roast duck and BBQ pork platter and a sizzling black pepper beef dish (yum), rice and coconut, mango dessert. Two beer for me, and 2 sodas, the bill came to Y208. No tipping here either. We were observing the other tables as they left and no one left a tip!?
We went next door to the 100 lane, 10 pin bowling alley. Good thing it was automated because there was no English here but we bowled a game anyway. In this same building there are 4 night clubs. We chose to have a drink at Face. Now I feel like a 50 year old - oof - and even though I felt that my eardrums were going to burst at any moment it was fun to watch all the action of the bartenders and the dancers.

We spent the next day shopping around, riding the subway and browsing. Of course there is a lot of construction happening all over. As I LOVE duck, we made our way back to the Wangfujing area to have duck lunch at the famous Quan Jude Duck restaurant. We got there to discover that it didn't open until 4:00pm and we were too early. This turned out in our favour as just across the street there was a crowded dumpling restaurant (no name). There was no menu in English, no pictues, but the dumpling makers were in a glassed off room so we could see what to order and there were a lot of small dishes of different things, some duck, vegetables, tripe and of course mystery meat too. Along one wall were 3 huge pots with soup that a lot of the patrons were helping themselves to. We thought it would be easy enought to point and order - wrong! It was a pay before you get the food kind of self-serve place. We were starting to get frustrated and wondering how we were ever going to eat when we heard some one say (almost sounded like an Angel), "Do you need help"? It was a woman from Malaysia who helped us out telling us the system and actually ordering for us - YEH! we had two orders - 6 in each - of wonderful, fluffy, steamed pork and vegetable dumplings and soup (very watered down flavour for our liking). I had a beer - only 750ml bottles available, my companion had 3 sodas and the cost was Y53! Great deal.
I had wanted to take in the Chinese opera but after the first night when there was some sort of opera going on at the market I thought that it may be too much of a culture shock for us. I booked us to see the Kungfu-acrobat-paly at the Red Theatre. Very well done but VERY touristy. They told the story in English and had it translated in Chinese on a screen above the stage.

Tomorrow, May 30, my 50th birthday on the wall at Mutianyu. I will continue part 2 with that.

Deborah

Great start! Waiting for more!

Aloha!

good start....good idea to break it up...

'smart man'

Posting further parts as replies on this thread would make it easy for all of us to follow your complete trip.

Thanks for the tip Jed, I was wondering how to continue with this. So here goes with Part 2.

May 30, my 50th birthday and we are off to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. I had rejected the tour for Badaling that was included in our package because I had already made arrangements over the internet before leaving home. Thanks to ekscrunchy and her posting I contacted Konglin at [email protected] and was very happy. He arrived right on time with a driver. He gave me a golden pig piggy bank for a birthday present - how sweet! He was very informative and did a great job! I had agonized over where to go onto the wall and the wall at Mutianyu was the right choice. There was hardly any people at all. How spectacular, the Wall snaking up and over the mountian tops - incredible! We took the chair lift up to the wall which took about 10 minutes. Once on the wall we went up the right branch - I liked the look of the left side better because it was steeper and a longer hike BUT, since my companion wasn't in shape for it and Konglin had a plan we went to the right. (I'll just have to come back). The air is a bit hazy but after the first et of hills - moutains can sort of be seen. This view would be fantastic on a clear day but everything is green and fertile so it looks fabulous anyway! We went through three guard towers and in the final one on the top of the hill we could go no further. The government had not restored any further up the wall and had posted a sign that no tourists past that point. The wall beyond the sign looked older and was overgrown with trees and shrubs but still was very impressive. In this final tower Konglin put a paper birthday crown on my head and we ate birhtday cake that he had carried all the way up for the occasion and my compnion pulled out a bottle of Dom Perignon from his backpack so we enjoyed a little celebration! Both guys scored full points for this birthday surprise! !
The return down the hill was fun. Instead of going back down to the parking area by the ski likt there is a bobsled run -yeehaw! Good thing there were a couple of slow guys ahead of me or I probably would have gone too fast and over the side as needless to say there is no one controlling speed or spacing the riders.
Time for lunch and I had asked Konglin to take us to the Family Reunion restaurant. Great meal there. We ordered two tasty chicken dishes, one of which was a hot pot with sweet potato noodles, don't know the names though as Konglin did all the ordering, 4 kinds of dumplings (yum), 2 big bottles of beer - yes, we ordered too much food - and it all came to only Y112!
Next stop the jade factory. Konglin was great about this and had asked us if we wanted to go or not instead of the obligatory unwanted shopping stop. Well, bieng that it was my birthday and no one should be without a piece of jade jewelry - brings good luck they say - I bought a beautiful, emerald green bracelet.
We then went to the Lamma Temple but once again we didn't do it justice and I realixe that for us, more than one attraction in one day is too much.
Back to the hotel, another full body massage in the room Again they didn't touch our feet?? We at first said (or tried to say, don't bother with the head but do the feet, they said yes, yes, but no feet?). After the hour we said "the feet", oh yes, foot massage Y220 extra . .

Last day in Beijing we do a hutong tour that I had arranged through the hotel. A woman by the name of Jeffery who spoke excellent English arrived at 9:00am for our tour. It was great! Even though it was starting to rain we enjoyed it. Jeffery was ahead of us on a bicycle and we made several stops for her to tell us about the houses & special buildings etc. At one stop we went into the Chan families home. I noticed the crickets and was very interested. I had read about the cricket fighting before leaving home. Mr. Chan had 3 crickets, 2 pets and 1 fighter. Amazing all the special equipment and training that they have for the crickets. My companion (who grew up on a ranch) was surprised to hear that Mr. Chan had paid the same amount for the cricket as one would pay for a horse!
From the tour - to the shopping mall. We asked to go to the Silk Market but ended up at the Pearl Market on Silk Road - can that be right? Whatever. It was a great place to shop. Wow! I have never seen such aggressive saleswomen in my life! One woman held onto my hand so tight that I couldn't pull myself away, not even with using my other hand to free myself?? Fortunately Chucho swung a good deal (on yet 4 more water colours by the same artist that I had bought previously - but no frames) and with that I was released. We were also surprised when a lot of the women spoke almost fluent Spanish to us. Of course with Chucho being Mexican it was almost a sure sale there.

I love duck and I had done a lot of research of where to go for my Peking duck dinner. From reading the board I selected the DaDong Koaya Dian restaurant at Nanxiang Inter. Plaza. Huge place - two floors with two large ground floor dining rooms and 8 smaller dining rooms on the second floor. A glass walled kitchen greets the patrons when you walk in. There is an enormous brick fire burning oven where about 50 ducks are hanging and being roasted. The place is fancy schmancy and I was excited to get off the street and into some fine dining - at first. . .
Although there were a lot of staff it took FOREVER to get any one to even take our drink order (honestly, we waited about 20 minutes before we actually got someone's attention!). The menu was a thick catalogue with pictures and explanations in English and Chinese which fortunately kept us occupied until we got some service. We were somewhat surprised that none of the staff spoke English. I say this because #1 the menu haveing the English and #2 in the dining room where we were seated, there were 9 tables and out of those 6 tables had non-Chinese, Anglo patrons. We ordered sweet ribs and a whole duck. It was fun with having the duck carved at our table and trying all the different condiments that came along with it. Honestly though, I was disappointed. Maybe I shouldn't have been because I have never had Peking duck before and I was expecting it to have the flavour of Chinese BBQ duck. I found it quite bland if it wasn't eaten with a slab of fat and the other sauces on it. To their credit, half way through the meal they brought us duck soup and some flavoured orange/mango iced sorbet and finally a plate of fresh fruit presented over dry ice - that was impressive. We drank only 2 cokes, a regular water and a coconut water and the meal came to Y204. Have to say, glad I tried it but I wouldn't go back. Chucho's comment was that the owner should go to the Pearl market and try to hire some of those English speaking women.

We liked Beijing. The people were friendly and tried to be helpful even with the huge language barrier. The city itself is grey. I hate to say it but it is true. It was hazy the whole time - whether from the impending rain or the dust blowing in from the desert or smog (which two of our guides denied could be a posibility), but you can't see any skyline. The city is one big construction site. The areas with any character that we found were around the Tian'an Men Square up the meridian to the Forbidden City and on up and over coal hill to the drum and bell toweres to where the hutong is located. I was pleased too that I saw only 3 McDonald's signs and the same number for KFC. We both agree that if they can get this incredible amount of construction finished in the 13 months before the Olympics are to start that they will be able to host a very successful event.

I will stop with this. Xi'an and Hong Kong in Part 3.

We liked Jeffrey's tour and I had told her that I would post her email address for anyone interested, [email protected]
telephone # 13488870717.

As you discovered, foot massage in China can be a separate event. That's probably why it wasn't included in your hotel massage. If you go to a massage place they will have sections set up for foot massages, and you can just have that.

Chucho: Congratulations on celebrating your 50 years young birthday on the Great Wall with cake/Dom Perignon and a crown on your head! Can't wait for the rest of your report and pictures. Gracias!

can't wait for the pictures of you all rolling down the hill...haha

we did not like the duck either, but we had it at the oriental's china house in bkk....bland is the best description....guess i need either ketchup or hot sauce on everything??

great job

great report! looking forward to the next installments.
can i ask, how much did your tour to Great Wall at Mutianyu cost?
thanks!

Good question sydnik. . . . . I know that Konglin had hired a driver to take us there for the day and the driver was 600RMB. Then there was Konglin's fee and the tickets for the wall. I think maybe we paid 1500RMB for the day but I don't remember. Why not contact Konglin at [email protected]. He is a very sweet, honest, hard working guy in my opinion.

Deborah

P.S.
I will ask Chucho when I have the chance and see if he remembers the fee. I know we did tip because afterall he did carry a birthday cake for me all the way up the wall. He also took some pictures of us that he emailed me which was also above and beyond IMO.

Now onto Part - 3. Xi'an and HK, and I will try to make this shorter.

We have a 3 night stay at the Sofitel on Renimen Square. Wow! Great hotel! Very modern style and although the room is small it is spectacurlarly done and I love it!
We feel a little achy from the travel day so we book a one hour foot massage and another for a full body Oriental massage in the hotel's spa. The spa is one of the most opulent that I have ever seen! The massages were top rate (I didn't expect anything less). No deal on the price but I hadn't expected one from a spa of this quality anyway.

I wanted Mongolian hot pot and the guide who had picked us up at the airport had suggested the Chengshiziyan restaurant which was in a back alley behind the Drum Tower hotel. I have the map (and I am very good with directions) and have a very hard time finding the place. Finally I decide to go into the lobby of the Hotel Xi'an (written in English on the sign outside) and ask for help. When I ask for the restaurant they say that it is there! It is the Ming Palace restaurant in the Hotel Xi'an. Grotty type of hotel - and a very basic restaurant but it was worth the search. We each got a little hot pot in which to cook our food. There was a long list of ingredients that you choose from - all a la carte. I ordered the lamb and C ordered the chicken (but after tasting my lamb he ordered lamb too). We also ordered fat rice noodles, lettuce - the waitress recommended it saying it goes very well in the hot pot and it did, and since they were out of spinach we had swamp cabbage ? no idea what it is but we liked it. In the middle of the restaurant on a table there are condiments for your hot pot. Soy sauce, sesame oil, chili oil, peanut sauce, chopped scallions, beadcurd paste and a lot more. You put this into the hot pot to give your brother flavour and after the cooking process is over you have a delicious broth to drink. D E L I C I O U S! Maybe my favourite meal so far. We had two 660ml bottles of beer and some tea and all for only Y86. Once again the waitress wouln't accept a tip.

We were impressed with the city center of Xi'an. A lot happening around the drum tower which is lit up beautifully at night. Needless to say there is a lot of traffic but instead of crossing the street there are tunnels under the street. Great idea as not to stop the flow of traffice this way.

It's Saturday and tour day with Sonya. This was also included in the package that I had purchased. First the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. There were renovations going on so we couldn't walk up the stairs to the top. We did go into an art gallery where Mary gave a short lecture on Chinese art - yes, I bought a painting - again same artist and I got a name chop made too.

We had a buffet lunch and then to the warriors. First though a stop at a "warrior factory" where you can puchase the different warriors in a wide variety of sizes. Also Sonya said to take pictures of them here because at the actual sight photographing is forbidden. There was a lot of crafts here and even more sales people but we got through them without making a purchase.

The site with the warriors is a large museum which consists of 5 buildings. They do a good job of making money out of this deal, starting with having the buildings a 20 minute walk from the front gate. If you don't want to walk there is a 9 man, electric people mover for the small fee of Y5. To us this was a great deal as it was 95° out and I hadn't thought to bring a hat or sunglasses.

The warriors are definitely impressive! WE spend a couple of hours there AND we could take photos just not with a flash.

The city center of Xi'an is encircled by a wall that measures 14km and has been beautifully maintained. At two of the gates there are bike rentals for only Y20 per 100 minutes. I was thrilled when I was given a brand new bike! The ride was great and very easy but it would have been better on a clear day when you could see further than 200meters. WE were able to look over the wall and to see typical housing and local markets - very enjoyable.

Later, a massage at a massage parlor that Sonya had recommended. This one cost only Y260 per person for a one hour foot and then a one hour full body massage. I had one of the best massages that I have ever had.
From there we shopped our way through the huge maze that is the Muslim flea market. I didn't see anything different here but we did buy the souvenir t-shirts. We stopped in a little restaurant to have chicken and fresh mushroom soup and dumplings. The soup was very good but the dumplings were greasy and thick skinned - so good thing I don't remember the name of the place.

That night we went to the Tang Dynasty show which was a good way to spend our last night in theis city. It gave us a little exposure to their music - which I liked - and traditional dance from 3rd and 4th century China.

On to Hong Kong.
We LOVED Hong Kong! To start out the airport is soemthing else! I would almost go there agian just for the airport - well, not really but it is really well done. We stayed on the island at the Excelsior hotel - very disappointing. The hotel could do with an overhaul. I ws told that we had a harbour view, well, I could see a small sliver of the harbour and the buildings of Kowloon between the towers in front of my window. I asked for a room with a better view and it was doable with a $125HK upgrade per night. With it being 8:00pm and only one other night in HK I decided that it wasn't worth it. We were tired and hangry so we just went around the corner of the hotel to the Delicious Kitchen restaurant. That was definitely the right name for the place. We ordered the specialty of the house which was pork rib - OMG - fabulous! No bones, just pork meat encrusted with giner and served on rice - yum-yum, so good we had two orders. We also had noodle soup - pretty basic but good and an oyster pork dish. One beer and one soda and the bill was $202HK.

We had a fantastic one day in HK. As dim sum was very high on my list of things to do I thought that just a little fruit and toast for breakfast would be a good idea. Yeh, right. The breakfast buffet was incredible (which is included). I couldn't control myself . . . everything was there, obviously they cater to a very international clientele.

So, dim sum will have to wait for a later hour than I had planned. That was good because we went up to the peak immediately. We were blessed with a gorgeous, warm, sunny day. We were too early to get up the escalators to the top of the tourists lookout so we wandered a little - bought a couple of oil paintings - and took some pictures. We took a taxi to the top of the hill. Our timing was great becasue we did get to see the South China Sea and Aberdeen - for all of 1 minute before a fog rolled in and up and over the hill. There was a strong wind with it but the temperature was about 85° so it made it very exhilarating! The walk down was beautiful. The vegetation is so luch, tropical with banana trees but also juniper bushes and other types of evergreens too. The fog stayed at the top of the hill so on the walk down to the peak tower we took about a gazillion pictures.
We did some shopping and more pictures and then down the tram beating the crowd that was coming up - early was good.

Now, Maxim's for dim sum. Our timing held because when we arrived we had our choice of 2 tables. When we left I noticed a line of around 60 people waiting to get in. I wasn't disappointed, although I have had better dim sum but, I really wanted C to have the experience of the trolley service and he was thrilled. They had all of my old favourites except for black bean spare ribs and curried squied but I made up for that with other dishes. We had 10 items, a bottle of water and a fresh pear juice and the bill came to $387HK.

I wanted to see the 800 meter escalator so we wandered down Des Voeux Road. For some reason I was under the impression that the escalator was 800 meteres long. When we saw that it was in one and two block segments (which makes more sense) we decided that it wasn't necessary to go to the top. As C was fading I knew that we needed another break. At that moment someone handed me a flyer for the "Tranquility" spa massage we went for it. They started us in the foot jacuzzi chairs with the massaging back rollers for 20 minutes. Then the actual massage for one hour. Okay, now the scale has been set, 1 to 10 the HK massage was at least a 12! It will be very hard for anyone to beat the foot massage that I received here.

With our batteries recharged on the Man Mo Temple. Glad I saw it and I got some great photos but jeez, way too smoky with all the incense burning to really spend anytime inside.

We strolled through the streets until we come to Graham street. Now this is something to see. Being restaurant owners we were thrilled to see all the fresh produce and live seafood, although the cage of live bullfrogs wasn't too appealling.
From here we make it down to the pier and cross over to Kowloon on the star ferry, We do some shopping and again our timing holds and we get good seats to watch the laser show. The weather was warm and the magic was in the air so we enjoyed the show.

Back to the hotel where C flakes out and but I go out to check out the shops and the photo ops in the area. Great energy here and a surprising amount of people out and about shopping at this hour - 10:00pm.

Great day, great city, I will definitely be back.

Next stop Bangkok. . . . Part 4