China 2012


China 2012

18AUG20124 Comments
Five days and I will be boarding the plane for China. I am set to land in Beijing August 23rd at 10:05 pm. Camera? check. Passport? Check. Toiletries? Check. Nerves?…..Nerves?…..Nerves? Now where did I put the them?
DAY !
Day 1 The adventure begins by my parents picking us up to take us to the airport. Now that is an adventure alone!
August 23rd China time.  59 hours awake and 17 actual hours in airplane seat with 5 to 6 hours running from gate to gate and sitting in waiting areas.  I can actually say it has already been an experience.  You can tell the clumsy big American woman with heavy luggage and her awkward bags. Starts off by rolling over the first Asian man’s foot in Atlanta while trying to board.  Im not talking about a toe, Im talking his entire foot with both suitcase wheels.  In disbelief and embarrassement he quickly told me it was ok; but I don’t think the loud Japanese woman in the seat in front of me on the airplane was as forgiving when I rather  brought my elbow square down into the top of  her skull. (also accident) I did notice that she was much quieter the rest of the trip.
Atlanta layover was not very bad. Flight to Atlanta was pretty uneventful. Plane ride to Tokyo was exhausting.  Nice plane and all they wanted to do was feed you. We got 2 meals and a snack which was more like a lunch, and snacks. But I guess you would expect that with a thirteen hour flight. I sat with a nice young lady from  Knoxville.  Mekia couldnt sit with me because of our booking couldnt be done together.  Layover in Tokyo consisted of going forever to reach the gate.  Talked and met several people going on plane with us to Beijing.  The plane ride to Beijing was not good in my opinion,  seats were cramped, couldn’t hardly move, couldnt figure out where ear plugs plugged in to watch the movie.  After about 20 minutes I found it but somehow I was only hearing chinese music.  So here I was watching “I Bought A Zoo” with Matt Damon, could only hear the chinese music and look at the chinese subtitles. After about 30 minutes into the movie the attendent helped me figure out what was wrong.
We met Grace our tour guide for a few days at the airport in Beijing.  They brought us to hotel, shower, update blog, now going to sleep.

2nd day August 24

25AUG20121 Comment
khickman1023Posted under Uncategorized
After getting to our hotel from the airport the time was 12:30.  Exhausted!  Dehydrated a little, and legs felt like noodles.  Got up at 6am (accident) but wanted to go ahead and get ready for our first adventure in China. Meeting our tour guide Samuel to head for the Great Wall.  Didn’t really want to do wall today, because my legs were still like jello, but hey, I was excited.  The wall was not exactly what I expected but was wonderful….however; oversized, out of shape, middle aged woman with legs that were in noodle form, couldn’t make it to top. Made it about half, but still had a great view. I still felt like I had most of the experience. It was beautiful. I was proud that Mekia made it to the to the top, but as far as I go, I just felt I was actually helping our tour guide so he wouldn’t have to walk as far. ;) You know me, always thinking about others.
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After the Wall, we went to the Birds Nest (Olympic Stadium for 2008) and Water Cube (used for swimming events in the olympics) The construction and architecture was so amazing. We took pictures.  A salesman wanting me to buy kites kept following me.  Kite, Kite, 2 Kites, 3 kites, …kite you need kite….
We went to eat at the Golden Dragon. We ate at the buffet; it was very good. I didn’t know I could like fish balls, but I didn’t realize I was getting fish balls. Before the dinner we toured the handicraft place where they make beautiful copper items. After the dinner, we asked Samual to take us to the Silk Market, he misunderstood me and instead we went to the Silk Museum….not exactly the same.
Samuel took us back to our hotel so we could get ready for the Peking Opera. My getting ready consisted of getting a 3 hour nap. We were supposed to meet Samuel at 6:40, but ended up getting up at 6:36. oops.I don’t think I got my full nap out, but I was still excited.
The Peking Opera was beautiful. The masks, the makeup, the insturmental music, the fighting, the betrayal, the drunkenness. The singing made me evaluate my capabilities to fall asleep sitting up, without others noticing. The trick is not to sleep for too long and take breaks by waking up and taking pictures and use camcorder and then return eyes to sleeping position.  Samual was such a great tour guide. He definately knew his history, and tells it well.
Overall it was a wonderful day. I am ready for the next.
We got up about 7:30 today, sore as I don’t know what from our wall walking.  Grace our tour guide met us at 10:00, she told us we would be going on a walking tour…:) from our hotel we walked to Tienanmen Square.  Yes, it is a big square . 9Mekia and Grace                                                                   It was very crowded because not only was it a Saturday, it is very close to their Nations Day Holiday.  Took few pics then headed across the street, through tunnels, through traffic,  to Forbidden City.  This was interesting.  The buildings are very nice and the various architecture is wonderful.  I Enjoyed history that Grace told us, It was about the  Concubines, and their story.  I truly loved the Yuan gardens outside of the Forbidden City.
Grace warned us that many of the people who will be visiting these places haven’t seen foreigners and they will probably want to take picture of us ;especially since I look so different than anyone they have ever seen. We didn’t get too much of that though, but we did get a lot of pointing, smiling, waving, but the giggling really gave me a complex.  There was several of the Chinese young men giving Mekia the look overs, the ones that were fascinated with me usually were the elderly people, or the ones that had few teeth.  The tour was about 4 hours of walking, up and down steps.
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After Forbidden City, Grace took us to eat at Kim Mansion Roast Duck.(Peking Duck)  This is true eating of the Chinese.  Needless to stay chop sticks are the best diet tool.  I was horrible at using them.  Actually I was so bad the waiter felt so sorry for me he came and took my chop sticks away from me and started getting me food with them…I was waiting for him to try and feed me!!!  Part of the dish is these spring roll wraps you do yourself.  You have a dish with several ingredients on it, and by using your chop sticks you put the items you lack on to the wrap and fold it up.    I guess he thought I was a hopeless case so he went and got plastic gloves and started making my spring roll for me.   Now thats service!!!!
After lunch we went to Pearl Market.  Pearl Market is like a large indoor flea market of new stuff.( Funny how my feet didn’t hurt so bad shopping…go figure.)  you suppose to haggle with them, for better prices. I have no problem haggling, but I get caught up  in the haggling I forget about how much it is in US dollars.  I overpaid for a few items, but overall I was pretty successful at haggling. Mekia has a little less comfort in haggling, but myself being the daughter of a flea market king, I’m pretty good.   The vendors would have a good time with me, and really was surprised.  Mekia really got cornered and attacked by the shoe ladies.  I think they overwhelmed her, she haggled though and got a decent price.
After the Pearl Market we went back to the hotel for a break, our plan was to go to Hui Hou (back lakes) and another street I had found on trip lake river.   At night the lights of the streets are magnificent.  Tried a milk tea…very pretty good, sort of tasted like melted snow cream. Walked for approximately 3 more hours, haggling with street vendors and enjoying the scenery.  One street at Hou Hui reminded me of IMG_0335 Alley from Harry Parter.IMG_0338IMG_0319
After that we came back home and collapsed….My feet look like melons they are so swollen and sore.
One thing that really surprised me was the price of stuff in Beijing. I have been told how cheap things were here, not so anymore. The  economy has grown so much, that the prices I have paid for such things as hotel, souveniers, and the stuff from Pearl Market is about the same as I would have paid home, some even higher. Grace told us that the past 5 years China has changed dramatically.  Still love it.  On the schedule for tomorrow is Summer Palace and Rickshaw tour….The rickshaw driver will look at me and charge me double.
Grace was amazing tour guide, instead of the business of tour guide, it was more like friends hanging out.She was so helpful and I don’t  know what we would have done without her.IMG_0226IMG_0227IMG_0230IMG_0239
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August 26th (china)

27AUG20121 Comment
khickman1023Posted under Uncategorized
Today was really good.Samual picked us up at 10am and we left this morning for Summer Palace (emperors summer home)  Now this was a pretty place.  The Lotus pods, the flowers, the architecture.   Once again the stairs and pointing was very amusing.  The lake with the boats was fun to watch.IMG_0068IMG_0084IMG_0073IMG_0131
At Lunch time one of the places I had read about, Samual decided to take up.  It is called a Hot Pot.  IMG_0153
Now this is unique eating. A metal pot that has burning coals underneath sits in your table with boiling water and oil,with spices.   You take raw beef and mutten (Samuals Choice) and with chop sticks you put in oil.  After it cooks you place in your bowl of soup(sauce) ours was oil and minced garlic and ginger sprinkled with onions. Make sure you cover it with your sauce then eat.  Then you add veggies, our choices were:  tea tree mushrooms, arucula, and some other skinny mushroom, also some leafy stuff like greens  , cabbage, and finally a wide noodle.,. I loved everything but the noodle it was too hard to catch with chop sticks and was slimy.  Needless to say I had a mess using chopsticks again.  Mine and Mekias side of table looked like toddlers had ate there. While Miss Young (driver) and Samuals looked neat as a pen.
After lunch we went for a richshaw ride to see original hutongs.  Im sure the poor richshaw driver looked at me and wanted to protest, but he didnt.  (I made sure I tipped him double what others did)  Our guide who rides along beside you on a bicycle was Howard.  I think Mekia wanted to pack him in our suitcase IMG_0158and take him home with her.  He was adorable and so sweet.  I videoed him and he kept getting tickled.  We aggravated him telling him he was camera shy.  There were salesmen chasing us with bicycles trying to sell us stuff while we were in richshaw.  Mekia got a musical instrument that he wanted 10 us dollars for.  She told him that she only had 10yuen (1.50 us) in her pocket, so he sold it to her.  I ended up buying chop sticks while riding.  When we stopped and listened to our guide another salesman drove me crazy trying to sell me somebags…I finally bought them after haggling along time.
We returned to the hotel and took nap and then Mekia and I went shopping and exploring near our hotel.  It is so nice and beautiful.
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summer place
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August 27th (china)

27AUG20125 Comments
khickman1023Posted under Uncategorized
We didn’t have tour guide today, on our own. Raining in the morning so didn’t get out till 10:30 or so. Went to some more shops, bank for exchange then to lunch. We ate at a fried chicken place…ok, I know being cheesy.  However with both places we at today I have figured out how to order food from  chinese people who dont speak English,  Just stand there with a blank look on your face and they run get someone who can speak a little English.
The place we ate for dinner was bejing noodle place;couldn’t read the name.  We pointed to menu and held up fingers to say how much we wanted.  It seems we must be really bad at chop sticks, eventhough I thought we were getting much better. One waiter kept giving me lessons on chop sticks, then shaking his head and smiling.  Then the girl waitress runs to the back and comes back with “Space Mouse” childrens forks.  I really don’t know what was so bad….80%  made it to the plate and 75% of that made it close to my mouth.
Decided to hang around hotel for the rest of night, since getting up early tomorrow for the train ride to Shanghai. Samual will be picking us up to take us to Maglev train and put us on it. This train goes 270 miles per hour.It will take 5 hours to get to Shanghai, but from there, we are on our own again…..

August 28th China

28AUG20127 Comments
khickman1023Posted under Uncategorized
The day started out good. We had breakfast and met with Samual to head toward the train station.  I forgot how much luggage we had after the souvenier buying.  When we got to train station, was very big and very nice.  Samual got us on the train and let us go…
Five hours on a train that went at least 309km….I had a window seat.  Watching the scenery is beautiful but I was watching it in fast forward.  We had a couple of kids near us, yelling, aggravating each other, noisy most of the way.  Kids are the same everywhere.
We ate on the train….(with chop sticks)  rice, tiny cut vegetables with peas…slippery mushroom noodle things, hardest things a person could eat with chop sticks.
We get to Shanghai train station…..oh my god…..It was a monster.  Not only is it a train station, it is a bus station, and airport.  We wondered around the station for 40 minutes just trying to find exit.  No one spoke English.  Trying to find place to catch taxi, and also trying to buy tickets for when we leave Shanghai.  Ticket booths were closing down, so didn’t get to buy tickets however did find taxi wait.  Couple of airport shuttle tried to snag us into getting them to use their service for 5 times the cost, but we went straight to taxi area.
We have been getting around in taxis for a few days now with Grace and Samual and I know the driving.  Anyone who has been to new york and know the taxi cab drivers there needs to understand the comparison is like a carousel to rollercoaster ride. The streets look like normal highway streets, lights, signs, etc….but for taxi drivers those things are only suggestions, not rules. Its nothing to be going face to face with oncoming traffice just to see who will duck over first.  The bravest people I have seen are the pedestrians and bike riders.  Fearless.  Almost to where we thought our hotel was, at a four way intersection there was a traffic jam.  Everyone going every which way in one pile up, so what does our driver do?????pulls right into middle of it.  So here we are with people on all sides of us, bus in front, black mercedes on right, white car behind, and truck on left.  Everyone starts blowing the horns, mercedes keeps inching up on me, but we could not move, so everyone starts yelling at car behind us, man in that car gets out starts yelling back, people get out of cars goes toward man in that white car….more yelling, more blowing, white car moves, all is well with the    world
(Pearl tower looks like Christmas tree topper the other looks like a pineappe
one )           
We get to the hotel, only to find out it is not our hotel.  Gave the desk clerk our reservation, he said it was near football stadium…(like I know where that is)  He helps us get another cab, and gives address to correct hotel. Only this cab driver cant find it..he goes up and down street where the football stadium was.  He tries calling hotel, but they must not answer.  At one point I thought he was going to kick us out near football stadium…but I sat firm. We finally found it.  I had reserved the deluxe room for a little extra room….I’d hate to had seen the standard room. Clean, but not one person speaks any English.
We were so worn out we ate our dinner that consisted of crackers and cheese with slim jims. and went to bed.

August 29th,China

30AUG2012Comments Off
khickman1023Posted under Uncategorized
Well the hotel we got here in Shanghai is ok, JinJiang Hotel, but unfortunately it is too far away from tourist area and things we wanted to see. However it had to be a lot better than the one I almost  booked by accident. According to the reviews I read  It had a brothel on the fourth floor.(Ive heard of woofing, working for room and board, but I just dont think this is what they meant; besides I definately don’t want to work this way for my room!)
Today We were also pretty tired.  So we mainly stayed around hotel, went walking on the street and went by the stadium. Yes Tammy we crossed several streets. Also went to a little mall which was nice and where did we eat???? Burger King!  Come to china and eat American….It tasted the same.Fries were actually better.
While we were walking it is funny to watch people stare, so I told Mekia we would take pictures of people who stared…In 5 minutes I got 8 pictures Heres one:.
Mekia started sneezing from allergy attack and she took benedryl and slept half the day when we got back to motel.
We ate in the hotel restaurant which was very nice.  We ate this beef and mushroom dish that was absolutely the best I have ate since being here.  The glazed duck we had was pretty good too. We had cabbage and rice also.  Of course a waiter had to stand nearby and watch me with the chopsticks…and of course I got my normal chopstick lesson with a shake of his head as to say “lost cause”.

August 30th China

30AUG2012Comments Off
khickman1023Posted under Uncategorized
Moved to a different hotel today. We had been trying to  figure out a way to get tickets for the train from Shanghai to Nanchang.  Didn’t have tour guide here.  We tried to buy them in Beijing but they were sold out. We tried buying them when we got to trainstation, but the ticket booths were closed.  Our last hotel couldn’t help because they couldnt speak English.  So I asked my sister to get in touch with a contact she has in Shanghai.  He called and offered to help.  Really glad he did, because if I couldn’t get train tickets we were going to have to fly.  5 times the cost of the train.
When we got to this hotel it was much closer to all the tourist area.  With my little trip advisor app and gps we were able to find the Bund which is about 2 blocks away. Beautiful view.  The buildings here are amazing. I feel like George Jetson.  While here, again I think we were the main attraction.  One man kept wanting to get the little boy he was with to come and sit with us and have his picture made.  Boy wouldn’t do it….I can here the conversation now ..Father: “..Go son, sit on the space creatures lap, they won’t hurt you, lets get a picture….” Son:  ” No Daddy, I don’t want to sit on the space creatures lap, they may eat me”
After walking the Bund and browsing a few shops I used the App again to take us to a very good restaurant where the food was delicious. This time we were in a corner and I sat my back to the waiters so they couldn’t see me use my chop sticks.
After lunch we came back to the hotel and took a nap. When we got up we walked to Nanjing Road using our little App. Nanjing Road is a famous road in Shanghai for its shopping.  It looks like TIme Square in New York. What is so funny when I was in New York one time there were several Chinese people trying to sell blackmarket items from Gucci, Prada, etc… What is so funny the same thing is here.

Stopped at the 7/11 on way back to room and collapsed on bed wore out.

Today started off pretty lazy.  We were also waiting around for Atif (Tammy’s contact who was getting our train tickets) He told us it would be later, so off we headed for Yu Yuan Gardens.  Last night I was up reading about the different scams in Shanghai, including the unlicensed objects such as Rolex and Gucci;  So with this fresh in my mind, I was ready to shop at the big shopping area outside of the gardens.
On our way along the road many people spoke and again pointed at us along with  the stares.  This is getting to be normal for us now…I just pretend we are celebrities, but I think its more like side show freaks.  Two young girls approached us and asked us if we would take their picture and I gladly did so, (so nice to take someones picture without them wanting me in it).  They talked to us for a while, about where they were from, and about America, Mekia’s school and we told them we were headed to the Yu Yuan Gardens, they said it was so crowded. They said they were headed to a tea festival that had been going on for a month and it was nearing the last day of it.  They asked if we wanted to follow them, they said it was great.  All of a sudden, a lightbulb went off in my head….”this is too familiar”.  I realized at that point that it was one of the scams I had just read about.  They get you to come to this tea house, where they are so nice and then you get a bill for about $200 USD….If you don’t pay they get mad, and they threaten the police or have people there that get aggressive.  So to get out of our predictament with a little grace, I pretended I had a phone call and answered it. I told Mekia, who hadn’t read the article, that Atif had called and we suppose to go meet him at the hotel. So we told them, and they kept asking you have friend here???I said yes and walked off.  Shewwwww…close one.
As we were walking we met another gentleman who spoke English. He said he was a shop owner and he was on his lunch break.  He was very nice and talked about his family in US, he showed us around the shops and showed us the differences in the buildings of the actually old and new.  He showed us to where the gardens were, and pointed to his shop. We went into his shop which was pearls, he had oysters there where he actually opened and demonstrated how they were inside. He gave us each one. He also showed us the tea ceremony and gave us samples. After shopping a little more we ate lunch…yes people…McDonalds.
We actually  made it to the Gardens but decided we wouldn’t have time to make it to the Finance Center (on our list) and decided to go to the Gardens tomorrow, so we headed off to the Center only to change our mind and go back to the hotel for our midday siesta.  Before we got there, Atif called and said he was on the way to our hotel.  We met him in the lobby and told him how grateful we were. He was so nice, and refused to take any extra money for getting the tickets for us. Mekia and Atif
After our midday siesta, we thought we would go back to the place we ate lunch yesterday I think it was called Shanghai’s Grandma.  I had the chicken again (Ms. Adventurous as Mekia calls me) and she had the River Eel…Which had so many spices it could had been anything.  I just know it wasnt chicken. We also walked the Bund again and cannot describe how beautiful it was. The pictures I will post later does not do it justice.  The only bad part of today was the beggars in the street.  I usually do ok with them, but these were little and very old ladies who can barely walk, all except the young man without arms. These were nothing like the ones in the US.  I had to give them something, they just broke my heart and was so thankful.

31AUG20121 Comment
khickman1023Posted in Uncategorized

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