Xiaoniu 小妞

You’ll have to excuse the length of this posting. We saw a lot during our trip and I’m eager to share it all. I’m also posting it before I finish writing it all.

For all those not interested in reading it all here is a summary

For our honeymoon we took a 10 day group tour of China. We visited the major sites in Beijing, Xi’an, Wuxi, Suzhou and finally Shanghai. Overall the trip was wonderful. Visiting another country and seeing new people and cultures is a great a experience. Pictures from the entire trip are posted here.

New York to Beijing

Our trip to China was overall very good. We booked the 10 day trip through a travel agent in Flushing Queens. Despite having waited until 2 hours before check in time to give us the correct tickets they did a fairly good job. The price was great considering what other agencies were charging for similar trips. If you have somebody that reads Chinese have them check out the ads in a Chinese paper. The prices are usually cheaper. The airline was great, hotels were the some of the best that China had to offer (all 5 star hotels) and the sites were amazing. There are a lot of historical places to visit; we only touched on a few in each area. Of course there were a few things that you had to get used to during the trip, but nothing unexpected.

The flight from NYC to Beijing went better than I expected. We were on a Boeing 747-400. Our flight took us due north through Canada, almost directly over the north pole, down through easter Russia and into China. After flying on a few domestic flights I was expecting poor service, boring food and cramped seats. Air China has roomy enough seats for me (6′ 2″), the service was good and the food was great. All of the announcements were spoken in Mandarin Chinese as well as English. The flight attendents all spoke enough English for you to get whatever you were looking for. They also take the time to clean the bathrooms during the flight. Needless to say 12 hours on a plane is a long time, but it goes by well enough. They show 2-3 movies during the flight. One in English with Chinese subtitles, followed by a Chinese movie with English subtitles.

Beijing

For all those that don’t know Beijing is the current capitol of China; the political center of Chinese government. We ended up arriving in Beijing later than expected. The plane arrived late to NYC so we were also late by a few hours. It was about 10pm when we got there. After about 5 minutes we were finally able to locate our tour guide. He is a local tour guide so we didn’t know who we were looking for at first. Then, we found a guy with my name (only my name) on a piece of paper. We took a short (slow) drive to Beijing to eat dinner.

The tour group and local guides have agreements with local restaurants and stores. So, even though it was late enough for the restaurant to be closed to the public, the staff stayed late just to cook food and serve us. The food was pretty good. When we ate we always ate a couple of local dishes so that we could get a feel for the local food. You start to see differences between the cuisines as you travel between the major cities.

Here is a picture of us after our long flight and very late dinner. We look like a couple of bums:

And here is a quick look at the restaurant itself:

We spent our first few nights in the Temple of Heaven Holiday Inn. Unfortunately, we didn’t take any pictures of the rooms but it wasn’t too special. This was a 5 star hotel in a pretty dirty area of Beijing. The room had two single beds, local TV with some channels from the US and the normal goodies you usually get at any hotel. The only complaint I have is that the room was a “smoking” room so it did have the odor of stale cigarette smoke.

When you are travelling in China you have to keep in mind that the local water is not potable unless you like getting sick. Most hotels will provide a couple of bottles of water. You use it to brush your teeth. I made the mistake of brushing my teeth with tap water, but got lucky enough to not get sick.

Continental breakfast commenced at 6am. The food was much better than expected. When we travelled in Europe a continental breakfast consistented of watery OJ and corn flakes. Breakfast here was omelette bar, pastry bar, miscellenous Chinese dishes, juice bar and the traditional Chinese breakfast: rice congee (soup) with a large varitety of sides. After eating our fill we were off for our busiest day of touring the city of Beijing.

Our first stop was the Temple of Heaven. It consists of an outdoor alter where the emperor would pray to the gods, gardens and some other buildings. The alter itself is a three level, round structure. The two flights of stairs have 9 steps each. The top of the structure has large tiles placed in concentric rings. The number of tiles in each ring is a factor of 9. So, ring one has 9 tiles, the second as 18 and so on. In the center is a single tile where the emperor knelt to pray to the gods. The rest of the Temple of Heaven consist of a three buildings and the echo wall surrounded by gardens. On the way in you walk down a long pathway like a city square where the local people perform Taichi and dance to music.

Here is the Temple of Heaven alter:

The next place we visited was Tiananmen square. It is the largest public square in the world. It is indeed large and filled with tourists and locals walking around. There are a couple of memorials for the revolution and Mao’s tomb. We walked past all this to make it to the Forbidden City. According to our tour guide the Forbidden City gets close to 80,000 visitors a day. When you get there you’ll feel like most of them came at the same time as you. Despite all of the construction (renovating all of the buildings) the area is still very impressive. We basically walked from one end to the other taking quick looks into some of the important buildings.

A monument in Tiananmen Square:

A small part of the Forbidden City:

After our 6th bottle of water (it was very hot and dry that day) we made it to the oldest Pharmacy in the world. This was the first of many stops intended to separate you from your hard earned money. We were brought into a room to be taught the ways of ancient Chinese herbal medicine and the importance of yin yang. The doctors proceeded to diagnose our problems, whether we knew of them already or not. Most of the cures were to take some of their herbal medicine and get some exercise.

Since this was our busy day we hopped back into the tour bus and travelled toward the Summer Palace. On the way we made our second stop to learn something new and have the chance to buy some. We were brought to a shop within Beijing that specializes in fresh water pearls. They show you how they are harvested from the clams and made into jewelery and beauty creams. You learn how to detect fake pearls and then you are unleashed to shop until your wallet is empty. We opted to not buy anything there. Although, at the time we didn’t know it we were going to be at another shop that actually had better prices.

After shopping we went the rest of the way to the Summer Palace. Here we saw a man-made lake and mountain that the emperor had built for Feng-shui reasons. We didn’t see any of the palace, but we did get a chance to walk a good portion of the “longest corridor in the world”. I’m not sure how long it is, but it definitely would take a while to walk the entire length. It is open to the elements, but the ceiling and area near the ceiling is covered in paintings. Each painting is unique. After walking the corridor we spent some time looking at some old buildings and courtyards where somebody was locked up.

A picture from inside of the corridor showing the paintings:

After all this we went out for our dinner. Like always we went to a tourist restaurant and ate some local dishes. Hot tea, soda and local beer was available. That night we went out to a Peking acrobats show. By this point in the day we were wiped out. Trying to keep awake while in the warm, dark theater, regardless of the entertainment and noise, was difficult. By the time we got back to the hotel we were so exhausted that we barely made it to bed.

The following day we took a road trip out to the Ming tombs. There are a number of tombs, but we visit only one. We learned about the excavation of the tomb and the contents. There are some pictures in the photo gallery of the tomb and everything in there. Not too exciting, but historical.

Sometime that morning we made a stop in a Jade factory. We were supposed to learn how they get jade and make it into stuff, but we all had to pee by then and we spent the time taking turns at the bathroom. By then the class was over so we spent time shopping. This is where we spent the most money. They have plenty of jade items to tease you with. We picked up a few items for family members. We got a couple things for ourselves as well.

After the tomb and shopping for jade we went out to the Great Wall. Visiting the wall is definitely worth the trip. It is amazing to see. The steepness of the mountains and length of the wall make it an amazing site to visit. When we arrived we decided to try to climb it. Unless you are in great, athletic shape you will have trouble with it. We found ourselves resting a few times as we went up. Between the heat of the day and the very steep steps you can easily wear yourself out. Your nerves will be tested as well. While walking up people are coming down and nobody stays to one side. If heights make you nervous you’ll find yourself holding the railing up and down.

Here is a shot I took about half-way up the first part. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but the stairs are quite steep.

After eating lunch we were off for a short 2 hour long domestic flight from Beijing to Xi’an. We were on a smaller plan, but got the same good quality service and very smooth flight.

Xi’an

When we arrived in Xi’an it was raining. After spending so much time in the dry heat of Beijing the wet heat of Xi’an wasn’t too bad. At least it was different. There was some complaining when we left the airport because the bus couldn’t pull up to the front. So, we had to walk about 200 feet in the rain. Some of the people with us complained, but they had to do it. We had a quick lunch near the airport and finally drove into Xi’an city to check into the hotel.

We were off to take a rain-drench tour of a well known Budhist pagoda. Even with the rain it was a nice place to visit. Even with our shaky legs (from climbing the Great Wall) we opted to climb the 6 flights of stairs to the top of the pagoda.

Here is a shot of the Pagoda from a distance:

Xi’an was at one time a capitol of China. So, it had a city wall surrounding the important part of the city center. We took a quick tour of the wall after leaving the Pagoda. Although it is just a city wall it is pretty amazing to see that something like that was made. The wall was quite tall and well made. On the top of the wall you are brought into one of the battlements to discuss Feng-shui and what different symbols mean. This place is run by the government, but they too will try to sell you stuff. After learning about Feng-shui in general you learn about the dragonhorse. It is a mystical creature that has is supposed to provide good luck to the owner. It has a big belly, big butt, but not anus. So, basically it takes everything in and never lets go. “Money comes in and never goes out”. The dragonhorses they had for sale were made of jade. The different colors mean different things. Pink is for girls looking for love, green is for something else and white is for luck. We bought my dad a nice white one. He needs all the good luck he can get.

Sue standing in the rain on the Xi’an city wall:

If you plan to buy a jade dragonhorse your best bet is here. It is run by the government and they are not in it for the profit (yeah right) so the prices are supposed to be good. We checked around and the same dragonhorses will go for a lot more money in other places. Sometimes twice as much money.

After eating dinner we were herded into a theatre to watch a Tang Dynasty dinner show. I did not enjoy myself, but not because of the entertainment. The parts of the show I watched were very good. Some parts had beautiful dancing and others were funny. It was a very unconfortable place to watch a 1.5 hour long show. With the table being too low to put your legs under and there being too many people in the room it was tough to get comfortble enough to watch the show in peace. I was happy when it was over so that I could get out of there.

A very poor quality picture of the dinnershow:

The next day we were off to learn about the terracotta warriors. The first stop was the terracotta warrior factory where they make the parts to fix the warriors found in the tombs. It is also a place where you and your money are supposed to part your ways. After a quick tour of the factory where the terracotta warrior parts are made you are brought to a place where they make laquer furniture. Very nice stuff and you can see that each piece requires a lot of work. Finally, you are brought into a showroom to buy some terracotta warriors for yourself. They have them of all sizes. And plenty of other rooms were filled with laquer furniture of all kinds, hand woven silk rugs, jade, etc. Everything in the place was overpriced even by tourist standards, but the silk rugs were amazing. They were so soft it would be a shame to walk on them. Not to mention each strand is added by hand. Lots of labor to make one. We bought a couple of warriors for friends and left.

Our next stop was the Xi’an terracotta warriors tomb. The tomb consists of four different pits and some museum buildings. You can see some of the original pieces in the museum and them check out the actual pits where the warriors were found. Of the four pits there was only one really worth seeing. Here is a picture:

In this pit alone there are 6000-7000 warriors in total. This is the pit that you usually see when somebody shows you a picture of the warriors. The other pits are fairly empty and mostly contain a few broken warriors and horses.

After the long walk back to the bus and defending ourselves against the locals trying to sell us stuff we were off to lunch. We ate in a local restaurant that was close to the pits. About 3/4 of the way through the meal some young girls stopped by to show us a number of very tall Chinese paintings. They were painted by a local teacher and they were asking 500 yuan for each. If you talked to them you could get them down to 300 or even 250. However, if you do your shopping you can get the same thing for 200 yuan at other places. We bought a couple of nice paintings. They are great if you have the wall space to display them properly.

The next stop was the Huaqing Springs, which consists of a hot springs, garden and pond of the nine dragons. I’m sure there is something historically important about the place, but we forgot it and enjoyed the nice gardens. There are many small paths and stairways through the gardens there. You can actually get away from some people and enjoy the scenery. If you have time you can take the cable car to the top of the mountain next to the garden and visit the temple at the top. We didn’t have time to spend there so we walked around the garden and pond area.

Sue at the gardens:

And that is Xi’an in a nutshell. Terracotta warriors and a garden. The city does have a bad traffic problem. The inner city is the worst with the limited amount of roadspace, but outside the wall you’ll find driving difficult. Not to mention driving a car in China takes a lot for dexterity and forgiveness than it does in the US. You will always get passed by and cutoff by other drivers. You just make the best of it and do the same to others. They expect it. Sitting in a bus watching it all happen is amusing. I would not want to try it myself.

Typical Xi’an traffic:

Another interesting thing to point out is that Xi’an has an extremely bad pollution problem. The air is constantly hazy. It is not uncommon to see a haze when looking down a block of the city. The sky is never blue and we are told that seeing the mountains in the distance only happens on rare occassions when the pollution is mild. We were lucky enough to see the mountains while at the warriors pits.

We left Xi’an the following day to travel to Shanhai.

Shanghai

We flew into Shanghai, but only stayed long enough to eat a quick meal and visit a garden before we left for Wuxi. Shanghai is not known for its gardens or historical spots. It is a city like NYC and it has a lot of people. We drove in and sat in plenty of traffic to get the to the restaurant. The bus broke down (for the first time). The spring that returns the throttle to the closed position came loose. The driver fixed it within 5 minutes and we were off again. The food at the restaurant was good. We ate and then ran off to a small garden in the middle of a large market.

One small part of the gardens:

The garden was quite nice considering it was set inside of a busy city like Shanghai. It was a big tease on the way in and out to have to walk through the shops and not be able to stop and buy anything. You can spend the good portion of a day in this area alone just shopping. Plenty of locals there too. When we got back to the bus we found out that the driver was working on the bus some more to get it going. We had full confidence that all was okay.

The trip from Shanghai to Wuxi took about 2 hours. It would not have been bad if the bus wasn’t so damn bumpy. The tires were way out of balance so anytime the driver got it up to highway speed (60kph) it would shake you like crazy. Any faster and we would risk it falling apart and us getting sick from the motion.

After spending the night in Wuxi we were ready for a day of touristing and travelling. The first stop was Taihu lake. It is a very large fresh water lake. It is large enough that you cannot see from shore to shore. A lot of the areas near the lake edges are filled with fresh water clam farms used for making pearls. We stopped at yet another place were we would learn the ways of the fresh water clams and pearls and ofcourse the chance to buy some of the nice pearls. This place was owned and run by the government so there was little room for negotiation on the prices. Overall the prices were pretty low, but they got suddenly lower when we tried to leave. If you plan to buy pearls this is a better bet than Beijing. A little cheaper and decent selection.

Taihu lake:

After Taihu lake we made our way out to a large garden are. I believe the name of the place was turtle head something. The area was designed to look like a turtle head. It was surrounded by a lake. We walked around the gardens and enjoyed the nice plants, etc. Afterwards we took our trip to Suzhou.

Turtle head garden:

While in Suzhou we had another local guide. The guy that got us at the airport was a local guide, but knew little about Suzhou so this woman took over during our time in that city. She took us to an active temple that like others had a pagoda. We took a trip to a nice garden named something like the lion heads garden. It had many large natural stones displayed. The shape of the stones made it look like lion heads are all around you. Years of erosion have made the stones less distinct, but there are some that still look like lion heads.

Some of the rocks at the garden:

Our next stop in Suzhou was the Suzhou silk factory. There we learned how silk worms are raised, their cocoons harvested for the silk threads and saw how silk comforters were made. You guessed it. We were offered the chance to buy some of the nice silk comforters they showed us earlier. We bought one for ourselves and picked up a few for others in our family that wanted to buy some. We of course picked up matching pillow covers and duvets, made of 100% silk. On the way out we were herded into a room for a fashion show. There was only 9 of us including the tour guide. The factory has 6 or 8 of its employees dress up in different outfits made of silk. No men, just women. After watching the show you were brought to another area that was setup like a department store. Here you could buy silk clothes for men, women, children, etc. Some things were nice, but unless you are into silk shirts you are at a loss. I bought a tie for myself and an outfit for Feifei.

Not ones to sit still for long we were back in the bus for a trip to Hangzhou. This was a 3 hour long trip made longer by the fact that the bus broke down yet again (for the second (or third?) time). A quick diagnosis from the driver and we find out the spring that came loose earlier is now completely gone. So, with no throttle control he limped the bus off the highway and down to an intersection. We spent some time waiting for the driver to run between the local businesses trying to find a replacement spring. No luck and we had to pee. We took a trip down to the gas station for a bio-break. Then we walked to a local store to stock up on water. Not cheap as the grocery store in Beijing, but not as expensive as the tourist areas. I think the woman that runs the store was surprised to see us. About 1 hour after we broke down the driver had a new spring in hand and had the bus up and running.

After a 4 hour trip to Hangzhou we had dinner. We spent that night in the Howard Johnson of Hangzhou. Don’t make the mistak of misjudging this hotel by the name. We were on the 20th floor of this building in one of the nicest hotels we had the pleasure of visiting the entire trip. We had a great view of the city from our room and it had all the five star features you’d come to expect. Plenty of freebies and nice amenities.

Hangzhou is known for its gardens and greenery. After driving around the city you certainly see why. There are plenty of gardens, trees and flowers every where you go. It is also a relatively clean city. While there we spent some time walking through a shrine to a military leader that did something special many many years ago. Afterwards we took a boat trip around the lake. I’m still not sure why, but I don’t remember seeing much that made the trip worth it. We spent most of the time waiting to get to shore. There really was no need for the trip since there was little to see. On our way back to the bus we stopped and took a group photo. Only six of the eight are in the photo. Two of the people in our group spent the time back in the bus. They opted to not see the sites and instead spent time sitting around.

Waiting for the boat trip:

We then went out for a quick lunch. On the way we found out that the travel company was providing us with a new bus because of the incident that happened the day before. After some quick goodbyes and thanks to the driver we met our new driver and loaded all our crap into the new bus. It was much larger and slightly more comfortable than the first one. At least in this one we had room to spread out. The first bus was cramped due to the fact that we had to have all our luggage on the bus with us since we didn’t stay in any hotel for longer than a day.

After eating we travelled to Dragonwell mountain. There we spent some time in a place where they process green tea. We were hussled into a small room and quickly shown how green tea is to be brewed and drank. The woman talking only spoke Chinese, but the gist of the speech was that green tea is good for you and ours is the best. We drank our tea and it was indeed pretty good. Not bitter at all and it actually had a spinach smell to it. The really good stuff is okay to eat. We each tried a piece, but I think I’ll stick with drinking my tea. Eating the leaves leaves (haha) a strong tea flavor in your mouth. We bought some tea for us and for gifts for others. Like most other places they had a large shopping area where you could pretty much buy anything. It was here where we saw the paintings for cheapest.

The tea farms behind the tea place:

We left the tea place and travelled to a Budhist temple not far away. It was a 1600 year old temple with an extremely large budda. There are also a lot of buddas sculpted into the rock walls surrounding the area.

A picture of the temple from a distance:

We left the temple for a very long drive back to Shanghai. Here is a picture of some of the houses and rice fields near the highway:

The first stop in Shanghai was a foot massage school. It took some time to get there since the new driver we had didn’t know Shanghai and there is a lot of construction. After a while we finally found the place. While there we soaked our feet in medicinal herbs and the students rubbed our feet. It would have been an okay experience if they didn’t spend the entire time trying to sell us stuff. We were happy to leave for dinner.

We ate dinner at a strange restaurant. Being in China you wouldn’t expect a place like this. We walked in while some guy beat a drum. Inside the staff wore some type of traditonal outfits. The dinner wasn’t too bad though. There was a small show put on by some people that worked there.

After dinner we went to Shanghai Grande or as our guide told us Shanghai Bund. I’m not sure which is correct. There are not many historical sights to see or gardens to visit, but there are places to shop. There is one street near the water that has many shops. We visited a few, but since we only had 2 hours by ourselves we didn’t get a chance to do much shopping. We did pick up a new suitcase and some Chinese books. We needed the luggage to bring all of our goodies home. On the way back to the bus we got to see the lights and buildings in Shanghai Grande. It is similar to Times Square, but on a much larger scale. The only difference is that they turn it all off at 9:30pm or so.

We went back to the hotel for a night of much needed sleep and to prepare for the long trip back home the next morning. We got up around 5am, packed our stuff and were rushed out to the airport. Shanghai traffic is awful so we were eager to leave early and get on board the plane on time. The trip from Shanghai to Beijing wasn’t bad. When we were in Beijing we had to wait a little bit to get on the plane, but had lots of security to go through. They screwed up the gate assignments so we had to wait longer for a plane to board and then we could board our plane to NY. 13.5 hours back to NY over north east Russia, Alaska and through Canada to NY. The flight was good, but like any trip home it took too long. We had a good 2.5 hour trip home in the car by the time we got back too. That night we got plenty of sleep. It took the entire weekend to recover from the 12 hour jet lag. We also spent the weekend doling out the gifts and collecting money for things that were not gifts.

If you made it this far then you are glutton for punishment. We learned a few things while travelling in China. Here are some travel tips for you if you ever plan to visit there yourself. They are nothing unexpected, but it is nice to know in advance so that you are prepared and don’t get sick or run out of money.

Some travel tips when visiting China

• Unless it is clearly marked as potable do not drink local tap water. Almost every hotel we stayed at offerred complimentary water and they all provide cups. One charged us if we used their bottle water, but their tap water was potable. Use the bottle water and cups to brush your teeth. I made the mistake of brushing my teeth with tap water, but didn’t get sick. I was probably lucky, but don’t take the chance. You’ll be sitting on the can wishing you didn’t. You can shower and wash your clothes in the water, but try not to drink too much while singing in the shower. Even locals boil their water before drinking it. When at a restaurant they usually offer you bottled water or iced water made with boiled water.
• Do your number 2 in the hotel before you leave. There are bathrooms at most tourist areas, but do not expect nice accomodations. Sometimes, you’ll get a normal toilet, many other times you’ll get a squat type toilet. There is rarely paper in the bathrooms. Some may have one roll and you must grab what you need before you go in. For women it would be best to bring your own TP with you. For guys you’ll just have to get comfortable peeing into a trough with other guys. Oh and don’t expect any paper towels to dry your hands. If anything you may get a hand dryer, but they rarely work.
• Wear sneakers whereever you go. Sandals and flip-flops are confortable, especially in the hot, summer weather, but your feet get extremely dirty. I learned from my mistake the first day.
• Bring cash instead of traveller’s checks. We brought American Express traveller’s checks and had a heck of a time getting them cashed. We never had free time during the day to go to a bank and most hotels have a very strict policy when it comes to exchanging traveler’s checks. I couldn’t cash mine because my signature on the check didn’t exactly match my signature on my passport. I showed them my driver’s license and the receipts for the traveller’s checks, but they still wouldn’t accept the traveller’s checks. Cash is quickly and easily exchanged.
• Bring a MasterCard and Visa. Big-ticket items can be bought using credit cards, but most places take MasterCard and Visa. Some take Amex, but not many.
• Learn what the local money looks like. Take a look the pictures of Chinese money. There are One RMB bills and coins. Some bills are fractions of a RMB called Jiao. There are coin equivalents as well. Learn the money or bring a print out of the page here.
• When visiting tourist traps be prepared to be hounded by the locals to buy something. You’ll hear them say things like “hello hello hello” or “hat’r hat’r hat’r” (they are saying hat). They will follow you when you walk trying to sell you things. Some places post guards and police, but this doesn’t deter these people. Save yourself the trouble and learn how to say “Bu yao”, which roughly means “I don’t want” in Chinese.
• If you do buy anything from a local make sure you are haggling in the same currency. If they say 1 or 2 dollars they are talking US money, not local money. 1 dollar US is about 8 local dollars (yuan).
• Never accept the first price offerred. All prices are negotiable unless they say otherwise. Some retail stores negotiate as well. We bought stuff at a retail store and were able to haggle the price down a bit. You’ll know immediately whether or not they will haggle. Keep in mind you’ll still pay tourist prices anywhere you go, but even those are reasonably low compared to the states.
• If you are going in Spring, Summer or Fall you’ll need to drink lots of water. If you have some free time find a local grocery store and buy plenty of water. You’ll pay 4-5 yuan at the tourist traps. The same water bottle goes for 0.80 yuan at a grocery store.
• Like any tourist area there are always pick-pockets. Keep your money hidden in multiple places. Be creative. We used money belts and our shoes.