This is our Beijing guide, Water Lu
Believe it or not, this is Tianamen Square, it is really big (that is what I was told, even though I could only see about 100 yards in any direction)
Are we ready to join the Peoples Army?You look too happy to be in the Army...
Okay, that's much better!
Does this haircut look familier? We're thinking that is where the Estee dew came from... This guys picture is everywhere, I think he might be important, maybe Estee is related?
Ready to enter the Forbidden City.
Man it is Freezing! Where is my hat?
Is this why he bumps into people all the time?
This is just a tiny part of the whole forbidden city...
The detail on these buildings is incredible. The fact that they are still standing is even more incredible, they are just made out of wood and paint... it must be the paint holding the buildings up...
Bill, you have my permission to use that in your Tip of the Month!
This is the Dragons Claw tree, only the Emperor was allowed to have them due to there great power... Too much for us common people.
This is the Dragons Claw tree, only the Emperor was allowed to have them due to there great power... Too much for us common people.
Amazing juxtaposition of natural stone and beautiful buildings.
Looks like a teapot doesn't it... Hmmm, hot tea, that sounds good...
Tea time at the Tea House. The tea was better than any tea I've ever had before! Those lipton green tea bags... well lets just say its not the real thing!
Yum thats good!
Ready for the rickshaw tour thru the Hutong District. 
It's alot colder than it looks!
Chillin... (literally)
Typical street in this ancient part of Beijing.
This was the entrance to the home where we ate lunch. I think about 12 families lived in this small quadrangle.
Why is he so happy?
The real chopstick expert showing how its done!
Good to the last peanut!
Here is the Mom and her son, he was the cook. I can think of more than a few restaurants in CA where he could make some good money!We woke at about 3:00am in spite of going to bed stuffed and tired, but managed to lay around a few more hours, till the urgency of communicating to the world snuck up on me. I thought I knew what I was doing with the plugs, adapters, converters... several hours later figuring out that my computer just plugs into the wall! Then I fought with an intermittent internet connection while trying to post pictures, thus by the time breakfast rolled around I had but a few minutes to tell what our trip was like.
This day was different, the food in the buffet was an interesting and tasty mix of east and west, an omlette station next to the Hot and Sour soup, the kids of course made a bee line for the doughnuts.. A pleasant note, we had steeled ourselves with the notion that we would be without good coffee for the duration, only to find coffee staions in the dining room with super automatic expresso machines - at this point I knew it was a good day...
COLD! Okay I know we're from California but it was just cold and foggy when we made it outside (we found later that the high temp for the day was at 10:00am at 39 degrees, it got colder as the day went on!!). The fog excluded us from any long veiws of Tianaminn Square and the Forbidden City, but we were still able to take in the massiveness of it all. The square is the largest city center square in the world, made completely of large granite blocks! It is very rare to see any concrete in that part of town. We were told by our guide that the crowds were very light, but the line to see Chairman Mao's body was 10 wide and at least a mile long. Evidently his preserved body shrinks a centemeter in lenght every year. The "light" crowds would make Disneyland in summer tame, but the size of the square dwarfed everything.
The Forbidden City is quite a bit larger than I imagined, the part most often seen in the movies is just a small peice of a, well, like the name implies, CITY. The architecture is amazing, all wood structures of intricate design and color over 1000 years old puts our "old" buildings to shame. Every peice of the outer walls, courtyards and steps were hand hewn granite or marble. The stair rails were intricately carved figurines that were still recognizable. The courtyard floors were constructed of 15 layers of stone "bricks" to keep invading armies from digging under the city. The most recognizable part of the City was covered in scaffolding and green mesh, signs of the preparation for the 2008 Olympics.
The bathrooms, re-named "beer rooms" by our guide Water, are BYOTP. Good thing we planned ahead. Most of the "Tourists" were Chinese, and evidence of the one child policy was clear. Also clear was the high regard children are held in by their parents, many spoiled children..
As we thought our feet were getting frostbite, we arrived at the warmth of a Government run Tea Room. We were served many 6 different types of teas by a well spoken young woman. The kids were surprisingly interested, enjoying each of the diffent teas, as well as the "lucky boy" that tested the water temp for tea-worthyness. We were just thawed when we were taken on a freezing Rickshaw ride thru the Hutong district of Beijing. This is one of the older parts of the city, where many of the poorest live. The alleys were very narrow, but cars still zipped past our bikes and the people taking thier trash out. We ended up in the heart of the district at a home where we would have a traditional Chinese meal with a family. The food was even better than the night before, I haven't seen the kids eat that much in one sitting before. Thier skills with chopsticks are improving, except Zach who uses a single stick as a spear to harpoon his dumplings. He proudly claimed to have eaten 20 of them after letting out a loud burp (to compliment the chef of course!)
We then took the bicycle taxis back to meet our coach. I am going to make a compilation video of the bicycles of China, they are so interesting, they do everything around here, including defy death on the roads! Speaking of the roads and defying death, I am continually amazed at the relationship the pedestrians, cars, busses, and bicycles have, its almost organic the way they avoid contact, with the sound of the horn as their only communication. Its a transportation ballet with a billion Chinese all participating at once, with no mistakes, and a small American family stuck in one of thier leotards... But I digress, while waiting for our coach, we viewed a large drum tower one one end of a small square, with a large bell tower on the other. They were both open to Tourists, for a fee, but our guide said their isn't much to see, so we just did laps around the square to keep warm. Another thing about the Chinese, they don't ever seem to be cold, our guide Water, has worn just a thin jacket and jeans the entire time, and I never see him shaking like me!? They even ride thier bikes without gloves in the 30 degree weather, it is amazing.
Our coach finally came, then we were off to the Silk factory (run by the government - which is cool, cause they guarantee the quality, and the price, but you can't negotiate... (see tomorrow for great bargaining story)). Silk is pretty amazing, they get 1000 yards of thread off each tiny little coccoon, then they twist 8 strands together to make one thread. Actually seeing the process was cool. The thread was really strong (I couldn't break it), then they showed us what they do with a double cocoon (where two worms wove around themselves, so the threads are tangled and can't be unwound like the single cocoons), they soak it in water, then pry a small hole in it, drop out the worm, then stretch it over a frame that is about 18in tall and 12in wide, and it forms an upside down "bag". They keep adding cocoons until they have 12 layers or so (and if you try to push your finger thru the 12 layers, it is impossible!) then they take that "bag" of 12 layers and 6 woman, grab each side and stretch it over a frame the size of the duvet they are constructing. They do this a bunch of times depending on the thickness of the quilt they are making, and presto you have a silk duvet, that is light warm/cool (depending on the season) and virtually indestructable (some of the last Emporers silk bedding is still on display and in perfect condition, over 100 years old!). Amazing, these Chinese are ingenious, which I guess makes sense since they have been working with silk for thousands of years.
After a short break at the hotel, the kids were ready for some "real food" as Zachary put it, which I don't understand since he seems to enjoy the Chinese food the most when we eat it!? We had a recommendation for the best Pizza and Beer in Beijing, so we took our "Water" with us and set out by taxi. We ended up in one of several "Bar" districts, and headed down some seemingly random back alleys, they got smaller and darker. We were passing an American looking guy, so I nodded a greating to him, he smiled and politely asked me if I needed any "stuff", since Stacey had topped off our Alka-Seltzer before we left California, I declined his most generous offer... I imagine one can obtain just about anything one wants in this great city! The place was called the Tree, I'm guessing it was the tree in the middle of the place that they didn't cut down to build the place... It was a gathering place for ex-patriots, so there was a bit of english to be heard, in fact the waitress spoke it near perfectly as I asked her to recommend a Belgian beer to go with my Pizza. The Beer was fantastic, but the pizza, despite being cooked in a real brick, wood fired oven, left much to be desired. I think there might be a business opportunity for good pizza in this town.
The family headed back to the hotel (with their trusty hotel card - it has the name and address of the hotel written in Chinese, so you just show that to the taxi driver, and you are off). Taylor and I were a bit more adventurous, so we went to visit a friend of a friend who lives in Beijing. He is a writer, and his wife (is Peruvian) works for the Peruvian ambassador to China. What an intersting guy, he has had the see the worl itch since he was a kid, and has seen much of it, but not in the typical tourist way. he usually lives in an area for awhile, so he can really experience the place, from being spending the night hiding in a pond after being shot at by guards while trying to sneek into Russia in the 80's or living with a man who was in a Mexican drug cartel, while working for the government (nice tightrope that guy walked!). So we listened to his stories and had a good time. Taylor enjoyed tuning and playing a 65 Gibson that he had in a back room, while he enjoyed some blue beer, actually it was kind of an aquamarine color - why, I have no idea, but it tasted fine. About midnight we headed back to the hotel. Let me tell you these Chinese don't just pick one day to celebrate the new year like we do, they have a whole week, and its not just during the night, but all day, at random times you will hear automatic gunfire, Oh sorry, firecrackers exploding, and at night (ALL NIGHT) they are shooting of fireworks. The street in front of our hotel is like Disneyland every night. On the way back to the hotel we got to enjoy yet another fireworks show along the side of the road, several times... Water told us that this is the first year that the government has let all the country people come into Beijing for the celebration, so I guess they have a reason to be happy. Tomorrow the Great Wall!
I am still having trouble with the pictures, but as they say, it is always better to read the book before you watch the movie.
Also sorry for the mispellings, I haven't had time to run spell check...
Brett
This day was different, the food in the buffet was an interesting and tasty mix of east and west, an omlette station next to the Hot and Sour soup, the kids of course made a bee line for the doughnuts.. A pleasant note, we had steeled ourselves with the notion that we would be without good coffee for the duration, only to find coffee staions in the dining room with super automatic expresso machines - at this point I knew it was a good day...
COLD! Okay I know we're from California but it was just cold and foggy when we made it outside (we found later that the high temp for the day was at 10:00am at 39 degrees, it got colder as the day went on!!). The fog excluded us from any long veiws of Tianaminn Square and the Forbidden City, but we were still able to take in the massiveness of it all. The square is the largest city center square in the world, made completely of large granite blocks! It is very rare to see any concrete in that part of town. We were told by our guide that the crowds were very light, but the line to see Chairman Mao's body was 10 wide and at least a mile long. Evidently his preserved body shrinks a centemeter in lenght every year. The "light" crowds would make Disneyland in summer tame, but the size of the square dwarfed everything.
The Forbidden City is quite a bit larger than I imagined, the part most often seen in the movies is just a small peice of a, well, like the name implies, CITY. The architecture is amazing, all wood structures of intricate design and color over 1000 years old puts our "old" buildings to shame. Every peice of the outer walls, courtyards and steps were hand hewn granite or marble. The stair rails were intricately carved figurines that were still recognizable. The courtyard floors were constructed of 15 layers of stone "bricks" to keep invading armies from digging under the city. The most recognizable part of the City was covered in scaffolding and green mesh, signs of the preparation for the 2008 Olympics.
The bathrooms, re-named "beer rooms" by our guide Water, are BYOTP. Good thing we planned ahead. Most of the "Tourists" were Chinese, and evidence of the one child policy was clear. Also clear was the high regard children are held in by their parents, many spoiled children..
As we thought our feet were getting frostbite, we arrived at the warmth of a Government run Tea Room. We were served many 6 different types of teas by a well spoken young woman. The kids were surprisingly interested, enjoying each of the diffent teas, as well as the "lucky boy" that tested the water temp for tea-worthyness. We were just thawed when we were taken on a freezing Rickshaw ride thru the Hutong district of Beijing. This is one of the older parts of the city, where many of the poorest live. The alleys were very narrow, but cars still zipped past our bikes and the people taking thier trash out. We ended up in the heart of the district at a home where we would have a traditional Chinese meal with a family. The food was even better than the night before, I haven't seen the kids eat that much in one sitting before. Thier skills with chopsticks are improving, except Zach who uses a single stick as a spear to harpoon his dumplings. He proudly claimed to have eaten 20 of them after letting out a loud burp (to compliment the chef of course!)
We then took the bicycle taxis back to meet our coach. I am going to make a compilation video of the bicycles of China, they are so interesting, they do everything around here, including defy death on the roads! Speaking of the roads and defying death, I am continually amazed at the relationship the pedestrians, cars, busses, and bicycles have, its almost organic the way they avoid contact, with the sound of the horn as their only communication. Its a transportation ballet with a billion Chinese all participating at once, with no mistakes, and a small American family stuck in one of thier leotards... But I digress, while waiting for our coach, we viewed a large drum tower one one end of a small square, with a large bell tower on the other. They were both open to Tourists, for a fee, but our guide said their isn't much to see, so we just did laps around the square to keep warm. Another thing about the Chinese, they don't ever seem to be cold, our guide Water, has worn just a thin jacket and jeans the entire time, and I never see him shaking like me!? They even ride thier bikes without gloves in the 30 degree weather, it is amazing.
Our coach finally came, then we were off to the Silk factory (run by the government - which is cool, cause they guarantee the quality, and the price, but you can't negotiate... (see tomorrow for great bargaining story)). Silk is pretty amazing, they get 1000 yards of thread off each tiny little coccoon, then they twist 8 strands together to make one thread. Actually seeing the process was cool. The thread was really strong (I couldn't break it), then they showed us what they do with a double cocoon (where two worms wove around themselves, so the threads are tangled and can't be unwound like the single cocoons), they soak it in water, then pry a small hole in it, drop out the worm, then stretch it over a frame that is about 18in tall and 12in wide, and it forms an upside down "bag". They keep adding cocoons until they have 12 layers or so (and if you try to push your finger thru the 12 layers, it is impossible!) then they take that "bag" of 12 layers and 6 woman, grab each side and stretch it over a frame the size of the duvet they are constructing. They do this a bunch of times depending on the thickness of the quilt they are making, and presto you have a silk duvet, that is light warm/cool (depending on the season) and virtually indestructable (some of the last Emporers silk bedding is still on display and in perfect condition, over 100 years old!). Amazing, these Chinese are ingenious, which I guess makes sense since they have been working with silk for thousands of years.
After a short break at the hotel, the kids were ready for some "real food" as Zachary put it, which I don't understand since he seems to enjoy the Chinese food the most when we eat it!? We had a recommendation for the best Pizza and Beer in Beijing, so we took our "Water" with us and set out by taxi. We ended up in one of several "Bar" districts, and headed down some seemingly random back alleys, they got smaller and darker. We were passing an American looking guy, so I nodded a greating to him, he smiled and politely asked me if I needed any "stuff", since Stacey had topped off our Alka-Seltzer before we left California, I declined his most generous offer... I imagine one can obtain just about anything one wants in this great city! The place was called the Tree, I'm guessing it was the tree in the middle of the place that they didn't cut down to build the place... It was a gathering place for ex-patriots, so there was a bit of english to be heard, in fact the waitress spoke it near perfectly as I asked her to recommend a Belgian beer to go with my Pizza. The Beer was fantastic, but the pizza, despite being cooked in a real brick, wood fired oven, left much to be desired. I think there might be a business opportunity for good pizza in this town.
The family headed back to the hotel (with their trusty hotel card - it has the name and address of the hotel written in Chinese, so you just show that to the taxi driver, and you are off). Taylor and I were a bit more adventurous, so we went to visit a friend of a friend who lives in Beijing. He is a writer, and his wife (is Peruvian) works for the Peruvian ambassador to China. What an intersting guy, he has had the see the worl itch since he was a kid, and has seen much of it, but not in the typical tourist way. he usually lives in an area for awhile, so he can really experience the place, from being spending the night hiding in a pond after being shot at by guards while trying to sneek into Russia in the 80's or living with a man who was in a Mexican drug cartel, while working for the government (nice tightrope that guy walked!). So we listened to his stories and had a good time. Taylor enjoyed tuning and playing a 65 Gibson that he had in a back room, while he enjoyed some blue beer, actually it was kind of an aquamarine color - why, I have no idea, but it tasted fine. About midnight we headed back to the hotel. Let me tell you these Chinese don't just pick one day to celebrate the new year like we do, they have a whole week, and its not just during the night, but all day, at random times you will hear automatic gunfire, Oh sorry, firecrackers exploding, and at night (ALL NIGHT) they are shooting of fireworks. The street in front of our hotel is like Disneyland every night. On the way back to the hotel we got to enjoy yet another fireworks show along the side of the road, several times... Water told us that this is the first year that the government has let all the country people come into Beijing for the celebration, so I guess they have a reason to be happy. Tomorrow the Great Wall!
I am still having trouble with the pictures, but as they say, it is always better to read the book before you watch the movie.
Also sorry for the mispellings, I haven't had time to run spell check...
Brett
7 comments:
Hey Musgrove Family, thanks for taking us on your journey with you. James cries himself to sleep....he says I can't post that, but I'm getting ready to press send. Prayers keep going out for all of you. (JK about the tears) I'm jealous of the eating ... Hugs & Kisses, Babs (barbara) off to Taylor's Blog
Taylor, For everyday you do not update your blog, I get to punch you in the face, so far I'm up to 2 punches. Dude, eat some food for me, and be a cool big bro dude, use all the Californian slang you can think of, make the Chinese people go "WWHHAAT!!!???" JAMES
OMGosh, another post from us. Hey, James wants to know if Taylor has or can set up a screen name on AOL/AIM then set up a "meeting time" so they can instant message, time difference considered. Thanks, bye, barbara and james
Hey guys, at the rate you are consuming the great food you will have to be rolled off the plane when you get back :-) Sounds wonderful. Wow! that is COLD! Glad you took warm clothes. Keep up the great updates. Loves, Mom & Dad
Brett: We prayed for all y'all from Scott & Merideth's on Sunday night. So even though you left early, you were definitely on our hearts and minds. Not to be too spiritual, we also had a good laugh at your San Marcos Pass incident. :) Thanks for sharing the journey! Godspeed...the only speed faster than Brett!
Comments are so much fun--glad you are having a good time, we're following along!
--The Nelson Family
Water Lu... I'm still giggling. So I take it you are getting in the Chinese spirit of having a high regard for children, which brings new light to your comment about leaving them in Hong Kong, and putting them in coach. Take care.
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