Day 1:

Overnight flight to China, we meet at the airport at 1 pm, flew to Seattle, quickly changed planes and continued onto Beijing.  The flight lasted about ten hours.

Day 2:  

We arrived in Beijing in the late evening.  We were greeted by our tour director, Michael and escorted to our bus.  On the bus we meet our “Sexy Driver” (pronounced sessy by Michael).  Michael told us that we were very lucky to have the Sexiest Driver in all of Beijing.  He also gave advice on how to successfully travel in China.  It was at this point that we learned that Michael only speaks in the 3^rd person and has quite a sense of humor.

Day 3:

Breakfast at the hotel:

Our breakfasts at the hotels were all buffet style; the hotel in Beijing had the biggest variety of things: kelp noodles, haw juice, salted duck eggs, steamed bread, fried noodles, rice with sweet bean paste, scrambled eggs, banana bread, fried eggs, muffins…

Summer Palace:

We started our day at the Summer Palace, which was originally built in the Ming Dynasty as a place for the emperor’s mother to escape the summer heat in Beijing.  In the Qing dynasty the man-made lake was expanded considerably and a man-made mountain was added from the soil dug out to make the lake.  At the Summer Palace, we walked around the lake guided by our local guide Amanda.  She used these ear pieces that seemed to be on the fritz for the first part of the day, so some of us missed the details of the tour.  However the lake, gardens, pavilions and boat ride were beautiful.  At the Summer Palace we learned that Chinese tourists like to take pictures of foreign tourists just as much or maybe more than they like to take pictures of themselves.  Our blond twins, Madison and Morgan, were a huge hit!  Literally hundreds of people took our pictures as we traveled throughout China.

Pearl Factory/Lunch:

After the Summer Palace we visited a large freshwater pearl shop where we learned how fresh water pearls are raised and harvested.  Apparently freshwater oysters produce many more pearls than saltwater.  Our guide opened one oyster that had 30 pearls in it.  At the pearl shop we got our first taste of China’s dicker economy.  We realized that no matter how official a price tag looks, the price is almost always negotiable.  Here we also learned to be mindful of counterfeit money which is a major problem in China.  One of the students from the school traveling with us (from Philadelphia) found out he had counterfeit money when he tried to buy some pearl earrings for his mother.  We also had our first Chinese meal at the pearl shop, family style, with chop sticks, small plates, and small glasses just like the Chinese.    

Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City

Michael kept calling this portion of the day the “Long March,” he was right.  Our bus dropped us off at one end of Tiananmen square, with our ear pieces in and Amanda leading the way with a Beijing Olympic flag, we walked probably two or three miles across Tiananmen Square and through the Forbidden City.  In Tiananmen Square we saw Mao Zedong’s Mausoleum, the national museum, the People’s Congress, Monuments to the People’s Republic, the giant portrait of Mao (repainted every two years), and the gates to the Forbidden City.  Before we left the bus, Michael warned us that he could not discuss politics or the Tiananmen Square protests while in the square, but said that we would have our picture taken in the spot where the student stood up to the tank. 

From Tiananmen Square we entered the Forbidden City, the enormous palace of the Ming and Qing Emperor’s.  This palace was originally constructed 600 years ago and housed the imperial family and court eunuchs.  The architecture was amazing with building after building covered in elaborately painted trim, yellow tile roofs, and intricate sculptures.  The corner of every roof had small animals; the number of animals on each corner indicated the importance of the building.  Amanda said these where called corner animals, this was the first of several examples of how the Chinese tend to use very literal names for things.  We also encountered our first four star bathroom, it actually had a plaque with four gold stars.  A four star rating for a bathrooms means it has at least a few western style toilets.  We exited the Forbidden City through the court gardens which was filled with 300+ year-old cypress trees.  Amazing to think, even the trees in the garden are older than our country.

Temple of Heaven and Taiji Lesson

Later we visited the Temple of Heaven, this was a Daoist Temple where the Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasty would come each year to pray for a good harvest.  It is a really amazing blue pagoda on top of multilevel platform.  After exploring the Temple of Heaven we meet a Taiji master on the temple grounds and participated in a Taiji lesson.  I am not sure if we really mastered the art of Taiji, but it was a lot of fun.  Our instructor was quite the taskmaster, regularly fussing at us for not being in a sitting position while doing our exercises.  We also were quite a show for the Chinese locals who were visiting the park, we had quite a crowd by the time we were through.

Peking Duck Dinner

Our first traditional Chinese dinner was Peking Duck.  The duck is brought whole, head included, to the table where it is carved table sided and served with bean paste, pancakes (like tortillas), and fresh vegetables.  We learned to roll the duck with vegetables and bean paste up in the pancake with our chop sticks.  Most people enjoyed it.  After dinner, we returned to the hotel, sent some emails from the coffee shop and then settled in for the night.

Day 4:

Morning Jog

Grace and Natalie woke up to take a morning jog through the streets of Beijing with Dr. Ruther and Mr. Hoge (who walked).  The area where we walked/jogged was an evening street market.  These streets were a mess with the left over produce, dinner scraps, and cuttings from vegetables but as we walked several city workers with handmade brooms swept the streets.  By the time we finished our exercise the streets were good as new.

Great Wall at Badaling

Despite the rain and fog, the Great Wall was totally amazing.  Once we got our bearings, we split up to spend about two hours exploring and climbing up the steep steps and ramps of the wall.  Everyone agreed that wall actually looked pretty terrific in the dense fog.  It was quite mysterious looking as it snaked into the mist and disappeared along the mountain ridges.

Lunch at the Great Wall

Before lunch we explored a large gift shop at the main gate in the wall, here several people continued to work to perfect the haggling skills.  Lunch was a buffet with several western options.  In the dining room we noticed the first of several unusual English translations of Chinese.  Two signs hung from the ceiling, one read “Chinese Area” the other “Western Area.”  Although it looked an awful lot like Jim Crow it actually was supposed to indicate where you could get Chinese vs. Western food.

Tea Ceremony

When we returned to Beijing we went to a local tea house to learn about and taste Chinese tea.  We tried about four or five different kinds of tea with mixed reviews.

Olympic Park

Next, we made a quick stop to explore the 2008 Beijing Olympic Park.  We walked around the National Stadium (better known as the Bird’s Nest), the Water Cube, and the Media Tower.  Here Dr. Ruther and Mr. Hoge proved that they were truly the bargaining masters, buying 21 kites from street venders.  The negotiation was quite intense, after buying our first 10 kites we learned that string was not included.  Another vender appeared from nowhere to sell us string for the kites and the negotiations had to start all over again.  In the end the negotiations involved, among other tactics, running away when the price was too high. 

Rickshaw ride through the Hutongs in Beijing

Traditionally the people of Beijing lived in the Hutongs, tightly packed neighborhoods with very narrow winding streets.  Today most of these neighborhoods have been replaced by high rises.  We had the opportunity to explore one of the remaining Hutongs in pedicabs.  It was pretty exciting as we flew through the narrow streets in a long line of red topped rickshaws.  We stopped for dinner at a local family’s home.  They had set tables up in their living room and dining room for us; here we enjoyed a home cooked meal.  After dinner we learned that our host was one of the personal chefs to China’s third Chairman.  He described to us what it was like to work at the center to political power in communist China.     

Kung Fu Show

After dinner, a few students and Dr. Ruther enjoyed a Kung Fu show while the rest of us went back to the hotel and crashed.

Day 5:

Visit a local school

On our way to the bus this morning we encountered the first of several very aggressive laser salesmen.  Jonathan and Seth had discovered the laser pointers for sale on the street the evening before.  World must have gotten out that Americans like to buy laser pointers because our bus was almost boarded by people selling laser pointers several more times.

After we made our laser pointer purchases we visited a local Middle School.  The students, mostly 13 years old, prepared a show for us.  Among other things, they played traditional Chinese instruments, danced to Ke$ha, and hosted a game of musical chairs.  Everyone had a chance to sit and talk with the kids.  They talked about their school work, Justin Bieber, sports and our impressions of China.

Flight to Xi'an

Ride into Xi’an

When we arrived in Xi’an we meet our next local guide, Arnie and our new bus driver who Michael explained was not sexy but instead very ambitious.  Ambitious was Michael’s code for road rage, on several occasions he opened his window to yell at people who were in our way.  Arnie gave us an extensive history of Xi’an as we rode about an hour from the airport to downtown.  We learned that Xi’an was the imperial capital of the several dynasties including the Song and Tang.  He pointed out pyramid shaped burial mounds that were several thousand years old along the highway.  He explained that Xian was both a major university town (1/5 of the population are college students) and the silicon valley of northwest China.  We described how fast the city has grown and how it is continuing to grow.

Big (Wild) Goose Pagoda

Apparently the official name is Big Goose Pagoda, but Michael kept calling it the Wild Goose Pagoda.  Later he told us he was the only one who called it that, which he said was fine because he figures the goose was not only big but also wild.  This was a Buddhist Temple.  Here we learned about the various Bodhisattvas common in Chinese Buddhism, the rituals of the temple (males use their left leg to enter a temple, females the right), and history of art in the temple.

Dinner in the hotel

We had a buffet style dinner in the hotel, pretty good.

Foot Massage 

Michael arranged for traditional Chinese foot massages for those who were interested.  Several folks took him up on it, and seemed to really enjoy the experience.

Exploring Xian

Those of us who did not get a massage took to the streets to explore Xian.  We walked up the main street which was beautiful with elaborate landscaping, huge buildings, and signs like Time Square in New York.  Along the way we hoped to find a soccer jersey for Dr. Ruther, conditioner for Jenai, candy for Aspen, and Wi-Fi for everyone.  Turns out it is next to impossible to find a Chinese national soccer jersey but we all tried, confusing several Chinese clerks in the process.  We did better with the conditioner, although we did have to squeeze some out to make sure as the label had no English and this clerk also had no idea what we were asking.  We also had little success with Aspen’s candy and the Wi-Fi.  Apparently Xi’an is a Wi-Fi black hole, despite its status as “silicon valley.”  We walked for a mile or so and after some unnerving experiences crossing the road we found a huge shopping center with tons of young Chinese people.  We explored this area for about an hour, finding all sorts of things for sale including puppies, chicken toes, fresh coconut milk (served in the coconut), Chinese hipster wedding portraits, and probably just about anything else you could ever need.  In the middle of all of this, a large group of older Chinese women were doing exercises which looked a lot like country line dancing.

 Day 6:

Terracotta Warriors

In the morning we boarded ambitious guy’s bus and head to see the 2,500 year old Terracotta Warriors from the tomb of the first Qin Emperor.  As we rode, Arnie gave us a great history of the tomb, we learned that well over half of it is still not excavated; what we were about to see was only a small portion of what was basically an underground city with all of its inhabitants made out of clay.  We explored the three pits that are excavated so far and saw some 6,000 life size statues of soldiers, each one totally unique.  This place was really amazing.  As we were getting ready to head back to Xian, we learned that Chinese children don’t climb trees.  While we were waiting for everyone to make their way back to the meeting place, several of our students climbed up into the low branches of a tree to sit down.  The Chinese tourists in the area were totally intrigued by this, taking tons of pictures and even climbing the tree themselves after we left.  We asked Michael if Chinese kids climb trees, he looked at us like were crazy and said “no, we lost that ability.”  

Dumpling Lunch

Xian is in the north of China and the main crop in this area is wheat.  Xian is particularly famous for its wheat which they use to make steamed dumplings.  We stopped at a restaurant on the way back to Xian for a lunch of traditional Xian dumplings.  We must have had at least fifteen different kinds of dumplings.  I think that the consensus was that this was a pretty good lunch; I think even Seth liked it.

Calligraphy Lesson

After lunch we stopped a small art museum for a tour and a lesson in Chinese calligraphy.  It is harder than it looks to write those characters with a big paint brush.  Although it looked like a few our folks were naturals.

Bike Ride on the City Wall of Xian

After an exhaustive speech on bike safety from Arnie, we arrived at the 600 year old city wall of Xian.  Here we climbed to the top of the wall for a nine mile bike ride around the wall.  I think most of us made it all the way around.  This was really terrific, because it was like taking a tour of the city from above.

Tang Dynasty Show

Some our students and Dr. Ruther attended a dinner theater in the evening, from what I heard it was quite good.

Hot Pot Dinner

For those of us who did not attend the show, we enjoyed a Chinese hot pot dinner.  Each of got a pot of boiling broth and the table was filled with raw beef, lamb, vegetables, noodles, and eggs.  Michael showed us how to proceed; we enjoyed pretty good food and an adventurous meal.  Most of us agreed that the egg cooked in the broth was the best.

Day 7

Flight to Shanghai

When we arrived in Shanghai, Michael gave us a brief history of the city and a rundown of the people.  According to Michael, Shanghai people are all about the business of making money and living well.  Michael says that Shanghai women control all the family money, he made it sound like Shanghai was full of hen picked husbands (sort of makes you wonder if Michael had a bad experience). 

World Financial Center

Our first stop in Shanghai was the World Financial Center, the tallest building in Shanghai and the second tallest building in the world.  We took the fastest elevator in the world to the top where we took some time to explore the enormous skyline of Shanghai.

Dinner in the Hotel

Acrobatics Show

After dinner we went to a Chinese acrobatics show.  We saw unicycle jugglers, air wire tricks, tumblers, and several people flying through the air.

Day 8

Introduction to Shanghai

Our last local guide joined us in the morning, her name was Jasmine but Michael called her Peony and Chrysanthemum interchangeably.  As we rode to our first stop, Jasmine gave us a very interesting lesson on the history of Shanghai’s Jewish community.  Jewish merchants arrived in Shanghai in the 1800’s and the community grew to be quite large during World War II when large numbers of European refugees moved to Shanghai.  We learned that the Sassoon (Ancestors of Van Sassoon) were very influential in the development of Shanghai’s international trade.

Jade Buddha Temple

Here we explored a large Buddhist temple built to house several large statues of the Buddha given to China by Burma.  We learned that Chinese parents visit the temples and tie red ribbons around the temple to pray for their children’s success on school exams. 

Silk Factory

We took a tour of a silk comforter factory where we learned how silk worms are raised and how silk thread and cloth is made from their cocoons.  Our guide at the factory unraveled a silk worms cocoon so we could feel the tiny thread that we then watched spun together with 8 other cocoons to make one silk thread.  Apparently it takes nine cocoons to make one kilometer of thread.  We also learned that they use the double cocoons to make comforters by stretching the cocoons out, several of us got to try this.  This factory like all factories in China had a gift shop, but unlike just about everywhere else they did not haggle on prices.

Lunch on Nanjing Road

We stopped at Shanghai’s “5^th Ave” for lunch.  Jasmine warned us not to buy any European or American brands here because they would be much more expensive than in the U.S.  Even though American clothes and electronics are made in China, the taxes make them more expensive there than here.

Bund

We made a brief stop at the waterfront to visit the area where wealthy European merchants had their homes and warehouses.

Yuyuan Garden

In the afternoon, Jasmine took us to a Ming Era family garden.  We took an hour or so to explore the elaborate garden and learn how a wealthy Chinese family in the Ming Era would have used it.

Chinatown

Our final stop in China was, ironically, Chinatown.  It seems strange at first that there is a Chinatown in China, however if you consider that Shanghai was a concession port leased to the British, French, and Japanese after the first Opium War it makes more sense.  This was the only area in town that Chinese could live in from the mid-1800s through about 1945.  Here we explored and shopped for about two hours.  After seven days in China, our bargaining skills had been honed to a fine art.  When we all returned, everyone had bags of treasures and each of us was convinced that we had gotten the best price ever.

Exploring Shanghai

Several of us headed out on our last night in China to explore the streets of Shanghai.  We found three huge malls, a park, street venders selling a strange variety to creatures to eat, and the biggest subway station I have ever seen. 

Day 9

Fight home

Our plane home was considerably more comfortable than the one that brought us to China.  We each had our own TV and head rest that made sleeping much easier.  We flew from Shanghai to Detroit were we went through immigration and customs and then on to Atlanta.