However, some of you have asked how things have been here and I'll try to bring you up to date with my activities. As most of you know, Bob was here to visit from December 21st to January 1st. During that time, I was able to arrange for a very full schedule for Bob's four and a half days of sightseeing in Beijing and we had a relaxing time together sailing on the Yangtze River, seeing the Three Gorges Dam and the Lesser Three Gorges. On the cruise, we were lucky enough to meet some interesting and personable traveling companions: Michael from Houston who runs an art gallery; Lauren and Paul from Maine - Paul is working in China in the shoe manufacturing industry; Barbara and Ronnie from Hamburg, Germany who do extensive traveling; and Michelle and Mike from Chicago - a lovely young couple - Mike speaks fluent Chinese. They all sat at our dining table. Other people on the cruise were traveling with family groups and were from various countries. Bob met a man who knew colleagues of his in Orange County, CA. As they say, it's a small world.
We then traveled on to Xian for a fast tour of the city and to see the amazing terracotta warriors.
The Three Gorges Dam spans the Yangtze at Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei province, China. Construction began in 1994 and it is now the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. The Dam will be 2,335 meters long, 18 meters wide, and its bottom will be 130 meters wide after completion in 2009, and by then the water level will rise to 135 meters above sea level. The reservoir began filling on June 1, 2003, and will occupy the present position of the scenic Three Gorges area, between the cities of Yichang, Hubei, and Fuling, Chongqing Municipality . On the second day of the cruise we took a smaller boat into one of the Lesser Three Gorges which was very beautiful and seemingly remote. On the third day we visited Fengdu, which has fantastic temples of underworld demons and gods. It is known as the " Ghost City " and is a place for punishing the devil and awarding the good.
It is expected the rising of the water level will displace at least 1.2 million people. Along the way, we saw orange groves and buildings partially submerged as the water level slowly rises. There are high water markers for where the water is expected to reach and we could calculate which buildings and towns would be under water by 2009. We're told the old people are having the most difficult adjustment to being relocated. The young people are looking at it in a more positive light as they will get a larger, more modern apartment with central heating and air conditioning. However, it seems many of the buildings were made 8 stories high but with no elevator. Many of the old people were relocated to a higher floor and lose the opportunity to socialize with neighbors as they are not able to make the trip up and down the stairs. One can only imagine the devastation these people must feel at losing their friends and community.
In Xian, we had a city tour to the Shaanxi Provincial Museum and Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Then after a short rest we completed the day with a savory dumpling dinner where we were served 20 varieties of dumplings and were treated to the Tang Dynasty show at Shaanxi Grand Opera Theatre.
The Ancient City Walls, built on Tang dynasty (628 - 907 AD)foundations, date to the fourteenth century Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644 AD). The walls compose the largest and best-preserved ancient fortress in the world. There is a gate in each of the four sides, the gate towers built over each gate look lofty and magnificent and form a tight defence engineering system.
The Terracotta Warriors and Horses were first discovered in 1974 by local farmers digging a well. They are one of the most significant archeological finds of the 20th century. These 6,000 life-sized painted terracotta warriors and horses - individually sculpted from real-life models and arranged in battle formation have been protecting the mausoleum of the first emperor in Chinese history Emperor QinShihuang since 2,200 years ago. It's impossible to describe the sheer size of this site and pictures do not do it justice. All I can say is you have to see it for yourself! Unfortunately, it is surrounded by tourist kitsch but once you get through this it is well worth the visit.
For Bob's first two days in Beijing, on Friday, we took a walking tour of a hutong located close to my apartment, visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, had a special dumpling lunch in a local hutong restaurant and then were treated to a dinner of Peking duck by Mr. Cai, the General Manager of the YMCA in Beijing with Zhu Qi and Mr. Song joining us. The next morning we were joined by my Chinese friend Daisy and her daughter Sally for a trip to Great Wall at Mutianyu and had lunch at a roadside farm restaurant. Later in the evening, we attended the Nolita YMCA Christmas Party and Bob, dressed as Santa, was the guest of honor. On Sunday morning we visited the Temple of Heaven where we saw locals in the park singing, playing instruments and practicing their martial arts. In the evening, we left for our cruise.
The day after we returned from the cruise was Saturday and we took the subway to the beautiful Tibetan Buddhist Lama Temple in Beijing and then went to Wangfujing St. where there is an indoor mall, the largest in China I think, and an outdoor walking street. In the evening we met up with Bob's colleague Rui and his wife for a delicious Peking duck dinner and a walk to Tiananmen Square at night to see the lights. Did I mention it had snowed? This made for some treacherous walking. Many of the sidewalks in Beijing have a type of ceramic tile on them which make them very slippery when wet or snowy. I took a nasty spill which happened so suddenly I didn't even know I fell until I heard Bob and a Chinese woman talking to me. My feet just went out from under me!! I will certainly be much more cautious in the future. Luckily I wasn't hurt at all which I attribute to the hard head I inherited from my father!
Of course, there were no taxis available so we had to take the bus home, another adventure and one I hope not to repeat. The buses here are very crowded almost all the time as they are very cheap to ride, about 13 cents per ride. And now I hear they've discounted the bus fare to entice more people to ride the buses rather than take cars. Nice try but you won't get me on one unless I'm really desperate.
On Sunday, we went shopping to the Pearl Market, Antique Street, and the weekend flea market and then on to Factory 798, a munitions factory that has been converted to art galleries where we had lunch at a western style restaurant. In the evening, we ate dinner at a local restaurant and then it was time for Bob to pack and turn in for his early wake up call of 4:45 am. We had arranged for a car to pick up Bob in the morning. Everything went okay and the car was on time. However, it was a treacherous trip because the car's defroster was not working and the driver had to continually stop to wipe off the windshield. In addition, he could only drive about 20 miles per hour as the visibility was so bad. All's well that ends well and Bob got to the airport in plenty of time to catch his flight.
THE GUIDES
At each point of our journey, excepting Beijing, we had travel guides and drivers to get us from Point A to Point B. In Yicheng, we were met by a driver and guide to take us to the registration area for the cruise. This was a one hour drive. During the trip, our guide told us some facts about the area of Yicheng which we were unable to retain due to being very tired! At one point, our guide turned to us and said that this was Christmas Eve and he understood Christmas to be a holiday for families and why were we traveling without a family? Needless to say we were at a loss for words. We said that the two of us were a family but he inisisted that there had to be more to the story. It just illustrated to me how simplisticly we try to understand another culture and how difficult it is to explain the complexities of our lives.
At the end of our cruise, we were met in Chongqing by a driver and guide to escort us to the airport for our flight to Xian. The guide was very well-spoken in English and began telling us all about Chongqing. As we drove through the city to the airport we saw many hilly, tree-lined streets. It made us regret that we didn't have enough time to dally there. Chongqing is the biggest metropolitan area in the world (surpassing Tokyo). Chongqing's population is 30,000,000. The central city has a population of 15,300,000.
In Xian, we were met by our guide, Maggie, who took care of us during our time there. Maggie had a lot of knowledge about her beloved city, but it was obvious that she had a script and she was sticking to it. If we asked a question, especially if it was off the subject, she was thrown and struggled to refocus on her script.
However, all this was done charmingly, and we were very satisfied with our guides.
Unfortunately, at this time, I'm not able to upload any pictures.Hopefully, this will improve soon. When it does I will add some pictures to this post.
.jpg){kind=small}
No comments:
Post a Comment