Beijing, China 6/14-16/2006 (Continued)

The 2 perfect speaking Chinese fellows are Henry Wang & Zhon Bo, pronouced Joe Burr. Janeen buys a painting of a Panda scene from Henry Wang who is the youngest looking of the two. I buy a single horse running from Zhon Bo. He signs the painting for Sage and uses the English name Joe Burr. I have given him the spelling from the phonetic sounding of it. The painting means "Success Coming". The horse represents success coming and if you will notice, you will see these type paintings hanging in Chinese restaurants here in the USA. Sage loves the painting and it is hanging in her room today. Because of this diversion, we're too late for The Forbidden City, it is closed. We walk along the wall towards the park on the map and again the Chinese want their pictures taken with us. I'm beginning to feel like Marilyn Monroe with my pen ready!!!! Finally find the park and bump into an Irish couple just leaving who tell us how lovely it is. The park is very beautiful but you can see lots of prep for Beijing 2008 Summer Games. We have dinner in the park at a nice restaurant and sit relaxingly outside. The weather is lovely. We never figure out how to get across the lake to the restaurant the girl at he entrance had told us about. The park is called Beihai (North Sea) Park, one of the oldest, largest and best-preserved ancient imperial gardens in China located in the center of Beijing. There is 1,000 years of history here. It was initially build in the Liao Dynasty (916-1125) and was repaired and rebuilt by many of the Dynastys. In 1925 it was first opened to the public. There is the White Dagoba at the top of a high peak with a beautiful view of Beijing. The White Dagoba was built in 1641 on the former site of the Palace of the Moon where Kublai Khan received Marco Polo. Bump into Eddie, an Irishman that lives in Alaska and Ching Ching from Beijing. They have met on the Internet. She helps us get a bus back to the hotel for l yen. Interesting ride on the bus. Get off at the fifth stop and walk thru the mall to the pedestrian street where our hotel is located. Ching Ching had said get off at the sixth stop, Janeen wanted to stay on the bus but the collector insisted out hotel was this stop. A Chinese guy on the bus led us to the mall and thru to the hotel right across, so the collector was right but lucky for us the guy guided us. Back in the room I drink my beer and go to sleep. Ben, the guide for tomorrow's tour of The Great Wall calls to let us know the pick up time before I am totally asleep. Wake up call at 7 a.m., shower quickly and meet Ben in the lobby at 7:40 a.m. We meet Jordan from California in the lobby waiting for Ben who does not show till 8 a.m. In the bus we meet Joel and Sarah, sister and brother from Montreal. Joel is working in a circus that travels and is in Beijing now. Sarah has come to visit him and is presently living in San Francisco. We also meet a French girl whose parents are living in Korea. She is visiting with her mother and sister. Her mother is afraid of heights and the sister is taking an exam, so she is alone on this tour. We head out of town and Ben tells lots of history. Beijing, the capital in the Ming Dynasty from 1368-1644, Quin Dynasty from 1644 to 1911. The last Emperor was 3 years old, born in 1905. The revolution was 1911. The last Emperor lived in The Forbidden City till 1924 when it because a museum. China consists of 65% Chinese, 35% Mongolian, Manchurian and Tibet. In 1970 a watch, bicycle and sewing machine were the most important things to own. 1990 a TV, refrigerator and washing machine were the most important things and today, 2006, it's a car, house and jewelry!!! Jade is a symbol of power ad was only worn by the Emperors. A Jade bracelet is worn on the left arm and given, two of them, by a girl's mother for health and happiness. The color of the Jade changes when worn and if darker or greener, they know they are happy. Family planning began in 1982, 1 family, 1 child. 13 million live in Beijing, 16 million in Shanghai and 1.4 billion in all of China. China and India compose over half the population of the world!!! He speaks of the Yen Sun Mountains and that the people's choice for living is west but is too close to the mountains and south the tap water is not good. Spring is dusty and dry, summer is hot, winter is cold and the best season is Fall, September thru November. We stop at the Ming Tomb first. It is the burial site of 13 out of 17 Emperors of the Ming Dynasty. Of the 13 tombs, only 2 are open to the public. He says that, Tienanmen Square represents the head of the Dragon, The Forbidden City, the heart and the Ming Tomb, the tail. It was originally built only as Changling, the tomb of Emperor Zhu Di and his empresses. The camphor wood in the tomb comes from the south province and is the largest camphor wooden structure in China. The Lingxing Gate that we step thru represents the negative and positive powers. The Great Wall was first built in the Quin Dynasty and originally was the border of China and Mongolia. It is 4,000 miles long. The Ming Dynasty's part of the wall is 400 miles. We go to lunch at the wall that is included with our tour today of $25. A very good lunch. We meet Linda and Juan, a black couple from Los Angeles at lunch. They have come from Capetown, South Africa and Juan complains about most of their time has been spent on planes. After this they were leaving for Japan, my God, what a wild wind tour!!! We stop at the Jade factory and I buy a jade bracelet for $75. They fit the bracelet on your wrist so tightly that you have to use a plastic bag over your hand or heavily lotion it. I think I should have use my own judgment on the size of this bracelet. I love it and it has turned a lovely color on me, but it is a real challenge to get it on and off. If I ever return to China I will buy a larger one and give this one to my daughter Amy, who has a much smaller wrist than mine. We do have to pay an additional $7.50 for the cable car ride up to the Wall. The part of the Wall that we have visited is called The Badaling Great Wall. We ride the cable car up. It was thrilling to see the Wall for the first time from the bus but I was a bit disappointed from our approach. It is very touristy and riding the cable car up takes away the experience for me. We climb thru lots of tourists after getting off the cable car. Actually down and then up. I go on down further where there are less people. It's tiring though as there is full sun and quite a beautiful day, so I don't walk down as far as I would like, thinking of the hike back up! I bump into a German guy who is living and working in Shanghai who takes my picture. You can see it on the photos of this Blog as well as some other photos of Beijing. I use my binoculars to view portions of the Wall that look overgrown. It is overgrown and crumbling in some portions of the Wall, none of the area we are in but visible thru the naked eye or better thru the binoculars. Down from the wall and the guide takes us into a silk factory on the premises. We have found that most of the tours, whatever country you are in, end up taking you into a shop to buy the local art and probably receive a percentage of the purchase. I buy a beautiful silk caftan with butterflies and in a teal blue color with the money my children have deposited into my account for my birthday. I love this caftan and have worn it with many good memories. I also purchase a 1,000g weight silk blanket which I am using today for a summer comforter. I purchase the lightest weight blanket. The filling of this blanket is pulled silk yarn. We watch the girls pulling the material for the inside of these blankets. I have never seen a blanket of this material anywhere else I have been or in the USA. It is much cooler to use in these months than my down comforter from up north. Jordan tells us about Joel walking the wall on his hands. I would have loved to see and photo that, but I missed it. Joel is the fellow from Montreal working in the traveling circus. It was a specific desire he wanted to full fill. How cool is that??? En route back to our hotel from the bus window we see this outdoor line of food concessions, the carts each colorful and with equally colorful awnings and the vendors all dressed in colorful smocks, so jump off the bus to check it out. I swear the Chinese eat anything that moves! Well, sensational TV, here it comes.......grasshoppers, other unidentifiable insects, small skinned sparrows, kidneys, snakes all on skewers..........sea urchins, starfish, squid, crabs, shrimp, anything you want. It was wild!!! One of the vendors picked up a skewer with a snake on it and wiggled it at me.....YIKES.......we decide to eat at a local restaurant. Can't handle this.....I took lots of pics though. At the restaurant I order an assorted dim sum plate but am disappointed. Not like the dim sum you get in Hong Kong!!!! Next morning we try to see The Forbidden City, but really don't have enough time to rationalize the investment, so that was a disappointment too. We walk around Tienanmen Square, which is the symbolic heart of the country. It connects to The Forbidden City, Gate of Heavenly Peace, Great Hall of the People and China National Museum. Several art students who speak perfect English are working the streets to get you to buy their paintings. We walk back to the hotel to get our stuff together as we need to catch the sleeper train back to Hong Kong. We check out and go out to the street to catch a taxi on the corner we had seen people catch them. There was a policeman ticketing 2 of them and they appeared to be very angry with the policeman. Evidently the taxi drivers are cheating and picking people up on corners that are not designated taxi stops. Well my bag is heavy and I am getting a little aggravated with this inconvenience and plus we can't speak the language to figure out where or how to get a taxi. Finally a Chinese girl who speaks very good English assists us. Helps Janeen with her bag and gets us a taxi to the train station. Overall, the Chinese are pretty helpful and interested in Westerners. The taxi driver drops us off where he thinks we should be, still not able to communicate in Chinese, we go into the wrong security, putting our cases thru security only to have to collect them and go back outside to find the right spot for the train going to Hong Kong. Enter again at a different entrance, thru customs and immigration and to board the train to Hong Kong. We finally board the train in cabin #8, beds 7 & 8. There are 3 beds stacked on each side of the cabin and lucky for us, we're the only ones in the cabin. I put my case down on the bed number Janeen has on her ticket and she starts bitching. This starts an argument which makes the whole trip back to Hong Kong tense. I bitch, she bitches, we change sheets for her from one of the other beds and I get a low berth because we have the car to our selves. I buy a beer, write some and take a nap. Wake up write some more and walk the train to get some dinner, which is terrible. The beef is all fatty and bony and horrible. Finally go to sleep and sleep well and wake up it's morning of June 17th and raining. Go to breakfast on the train and that is terrible too. If you ever find yourselves doing this trip, bring food with you!!!! Janeen and I are still at each other. I am trying to write in my journal and my pens are horrible. Leave them on the train. We're into Hong Kong and I'm not ready. Get my stuff together and almost forget my shoes. Thru customs and get a taxi back to the hotel.............back in Hong Kong and the Chung King Mansion......