Greetings, True Believers! I am super sorry that this entry has especially taken longer than expected. I have been back in the U.S. now for about three months now and I have been relaxing and enjoying my time with my family and friends. But now that I have free time, I can now talk about my time in Beijing, the capital of China.
As I stated in previous entries, I decided to travel to China after my study abroad program ended. I applied for my Visa, obtained that more easily than expected, and paid for hotel and a plane ticket to China. I was fortunate enough to have my Mom come on the trip and we had a great time in China. So, now let's go over the trip.
We got in China on December 11, 2009 at around 10:30 p.m. The flight from Tokyo took about three and a half hours and it was alright for the most part. When we landed, it was cold and the only thing we could was thick smog, not fog. China has huge pollution problems, including smog and not being unable to drink water from the tap. Our taxi driver could not speak English, but we made it to to the hotel at around 11:30 p.m.
The first day in China was meant to catch up on the time differences in countries. I was coming from Japan and my Mom was traveling from North Carolina, U.S. My Mom did not experience any jet lag, so that made the trip more enjoyable for the both of us. We woke up at 1:30m p.m. just to give our body plenty of time to adjust to the time. We went out to explore Beijing and Tienanmen Square was a few block from our hotel. Across from the infamous Tienanmen Square was the Forbidden City (Both will be discussed later on).
At the Forbidden City, we got to see a little bit of it before we would be taking tours of the famous sights. All of our time in China could be described as freezing cold, as every day we had to wear many layers of clothes to protect ourselves from the December weather. We saw many guards on patrol, all were loaded with heavy firearms. I took one picture of a sign that you can view that shocked me to say the least. At the Forbidden City, there is a famous portrait of one of their leaders, Mao Tse Tung. We saw a lot of Chinese citizens trying to sell us good or take us on guided tours. We were advised not to take anything from them because of the scams that are pulled in the country. We walked a bit of Tienanmen Square before the daylight began to fade and we headed back to the hotel.
The hotel was one of the highlights of the trip. We were staying at a Hilton Hotel and it was glamourous to say the least. China wants to cater more to Americans and really pamper people who visit, so we were treated like royalty at the hotel. The room that we were in was very modern, with the latest furnishings and technological features at our finger tips. There was even a television at the bath tub for you to enjoy. The downside to China was that you could not drink the water from the tap, so we had to buy a lot of bottled water during our stay. The meals that were served were excellent, some of the best food I had during my travels. The hotel had a glamorous arrangement of foods for every meal, a tea time, and a wine time as well. Every meal and tea and wine time was $44 a day. That is quite a bargain if you ask me.
The first day of our stay in Beijing included the Forbidden City. It was a large palace complex for the Emperor and it was forbidden to outsiders and by the citizens of the China centuries ago. The palace was also the sight of the movie, The Last Emperor, which was a huge movie for the Chinese when it came out. The entire palace was over 183 acres and contained an impressive 9999 1/2 rooms. 10,000 rooms were only for the Gods, so that is why there is a half amount of rooms in place. The doorways would have a little step, in which we had to step over. This was believed to keep ghosts out of the palace and other rooms in the area. The palace was gigantic and we were not able to see every aspect of the palace. There were many trees, pieces of coral taken from the lake nearby, jade objects, sacred areas, and parts of the palace that we did not have enough time to see. The entire palace has 15 layers of brick, as to keep intruders from burrowing beneath the palace. The five most important elements that represent the palace were earth, fire, gold, wood, and water, with earth being the most important of them all. We saw many caretakers at the palace, who were usually sweeping to keep it as clean as possible. The Forbidden City was a fantastic place to be see and my pictures could never do it enough justice.
Our tour guide took us to Tienanmen Square next on the tour. For those of you who are not familiar, it is the largest public square in the world and also the sight of the famous demonstrations a few decades ago. The most prominent picture one can see is a of a lone man in front of a tanks. My Mom asked the tour guide if she knew anything about the incident and the tour guide quickly denied the incident of its existence. The Chinese citizens are not allowed to talk about it, so the subject was quickly dropped.
During our tours of China, the tour guide would take us to places in which in was requested of us to buy stuff from the locations. This was not a part of our original itinerary, so we were irked by the these pit stops. We would arrive at certain locations and stay there for an hour, so that purchasing could be done by tour groups. Most of the tourists were annoyed by this facet and not too many people ever bought anything. The store owners and workers were aggressive in trying to make us buy products, but we ignored them most of the time. The first place we went to was a herbal clinic, where I got a foot massage. The tour guide said it would be free, but then told me to pay the attendant. I gave him a dollar for his services and was off to lunch.
The lunches that we had on our tours were much different than how food was served in Japan. As a tour group, we were encouraged more interactions with one another as we sat a circular table. The circular table had plates of large portions of food that we would spin and scoop from. The groups would eat together and get to know one another. They encouraged more social interaction in China than in Japan.
We next went to the Temple of Heaven, which may look familiar to people who have been to Disney's Epicot. It was located in a large park area, one that was bigger than the Forbidden City, if that can be imagined. In the park itself, we saw many poor individuals, families, and merchants, but all were having fun and seemed happy, even under the cold weather conditions. Here is a video I took of an old lady practicing Tai Chi:
The Temple of Heaven was quite a sight to behold and it truly was marvelous to see it still standing after all the centuries it has been there. Here are some pictures of the park and the Temple of Heaven itself:
After we were done with the Temple of Heaven, we went on a detour to a Pearl Shop. These tlittle detorus were a part of every tour, every day and they were quite annoying. We would spend an hour at each distraction where the tour guides preyed upon us to buy things. They would grow to annoy the tour groups as the days progressed because all we wanted to do was spend time at the places we wanted to see, instead of being distracted by these sidetracks. At the Pearl Shop, we had an analyst discuss with us what the process was like in terms of getting pearls from clams. We played a guessing game of how many pearls were in a single clam and I guessed the closest. In estimating, there were over twenty pearls to be found in most clams! I was able to keep a few pearls for guessing correctly and I will probably have something made with them someday. Here are some pictures I took at the Pearl Shop:
The last place went on our first tour day was the Summer Palace. It was one of the largest palaces in China when constructed and has been used by the Empresses, known as the Dragon Ladies. During a war, most of the property was burned down by the opposing forces, but has been rebuilt several times in its existence. The palace sits on a huge lake that at the time was frozen solid and could be walked across by individuals. We got there from the Pearl Shop and were told as we got halfway through the palace that we only had twenty minutes to be there. The site was fantastic and we only had twenty minutes? My mother and I were quite ticked off. The area was too big to cover, so we sprinted to get to the places we found the most interesting. Here are some pictures from that short time there:
So, the first tour day in China was fantastic and what would proceed it would be one of the crowning moments of my life thus far. The first place we toured was the Ming Tombs, a burial site for many of the former Emperors of China. We were not able to explore the whole tomb area as it contained over fifty different burial sites. Most of the objects that were on display were of objects that both Emperor and his wife wore. Jade is one of the most important objects to the Chinese and we learned that white jade is more valuable than the green jade. We went to the most famous tomb, took a short tour, gained some background information, walked around for a bit, and then continued onto our next destination. Here are pictures taken from the Ming Tomb:
The next stop on our way to the big landmark was a jade factory. The tour group saw first hand how jade is produced. It is a very long process of cutting jade, cleaning, spraying, and furnishing it as a final product. One interesting product we saw was of jade sphere, which acts as a family heirloom to be passed down from one generation to another. It is hollowed out and more spheres are placed insider, allowing a person to shift the spheres inside themselves. Some of the pieces that we saw were magnificent and cost too much money to purchase. So, I took a lot of pictures for everyone's enjoyment. Here you go:
The next stop was the big one for my mother and I: we visited the Great Wall of China. People have read so much about it, so many stories, and a history like no other and were there. The sight of it was well worth the trip and stepping onto such an important landmark will definitely be one of my favorite moments ever. The tour bus we were on took us through the mountains and we began to see bits and pieces of it from far away and close-up. Today, most of the Great Wall is no longer walkable, due to the Chinese government not fixing it all the time and people taking stones to make houses. We could only travel so far on one part of the Great Wall because the other part of it we were at had disintegrated. We reached a cable car lift in order to get to the first summit and it was quite scary. The cars we were traveling in had to be over fifty years old, were not in great shape, had been vandalized, and my door would not shut.
We got to the top and spent two hours walking or in this case, climbing, the Great Wall. Where we were at was incredibly steep and required a lot of strength to haul yourself up to other steps. It was just as difficult to maintain one's balance going down, as my mother and I had to use a guardrail to climb down. It even began to lightly snow, which made the experience even a bit more magical. Here are many, many pictures from my time at the Great Wall of China:
