China Chapter 2

Well, today we had a great breakfast to start our day. We had poached eggs with spinach, bacon, chicken sausage, french toast, bread pudding, and these things called steamed milk buns that were to die for. We are also learning the skill of chopsticks. At least I'm learning how to eat slower.

After meeting the other 2 people on our tour (and yes, there are only 4 people in our group), we ventured out to our destinations for the day. Margaret and Tim, the other two people on the tour, are from California and Florida respectively, and so far they seem very nice. Both of them are really good friends.

Anyhow, we started off going to Tiananmen Square, where we saw the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum, the monument to the fallen, and Chairman Mao's mauseleum. We also saw Tiananmen gate. There were tons of people milling around the world's largest public square, and it is immaculately clean. It has been a beautiful day outside, and the sun has been shining all day.

We then went to the Forbidden City, where there also were a ton of people there. I shouldn't be so surprised considering there are about 4 times as many Chinese people than there are of Americans. Chinese people, I have found, are very assertive. They are assertive in driving (eegads....that is the only word to describe how they drive bikes and cars, or how they cross the streets as pedestrians). They are also very assertive in taking photos, and have no qualms about getting right in front of you to get that once in a lifetime shot. You learn fast. I was just as assertive. I don't think I made a couple people happy, but....at least MY photos turned out spectacular.

We saw the imperial treasures, with lots of jade, lapis lazuli, and tourmaline, and then were whisked into an are where we had the opportunity to buy all sorts of things. More about this later.

We also saw our first "made in America" product, which would be the Buick van Mr. Wong (our driver) is taking us around in. Our tour guide Annie has been very patient with us so far, and she seems like she's a newer tour guide. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Lunch was delicious, and we ate Northern/Mandarin/Beijing style cuisine. We had this beef and onion dish, broccoli, pressed breaded chicken, cabbage in beef broth, sweet/sour cabbage soup, fried shrimp, and these little bun things with a sweet cream that were to die for.

We then were whisked down to watch an oyster/pearl shelling demonstration, and had the opportunity to go in and purchase any pearl kind of thing imagineable.

We then toured the grounds and some of the buildings of the Summer Palace, Lake Kunming, took a boat ride, and learned all about how the Empress Dowager Cixi "the dragon lady" ruled the roost at this palace.

After we got done with that, we were able to stop at a chinese market so that mom could buy some eyeliner, and that Tim and Margaret could buy some wine or liquor. Well, as much as I pooh-poohed by learning of Mandarin from Rosetta Stone, I came to mom's rescue when the ladies behind the counter were pulling out all different colors of eyeliner, like maroon, gray, navy (all colors I didn't learn, mind you), and mom only wanted black. I then said she wanted black in Chinese (one of the 5 colors I learned) and we were able to get the right thing.

We then went over because we needed to have some beer or something before our Peking Duck dinner tonite. When they asked how many, I said 6 please. I feel like Rain Man.

The tour guide was sure shocked as hell.

So was I.

Anyhow, we're not relaxing before dinner, and looking forward to seeing the Great Wall tomorrow.

More soon!

China Chapter 1

This is the first entry of what is to be the great China escapade. I am not so sure if it's so much an escapade, or rather if it is a fiasco.

We started off our morning with getting to the bus stop at about 7:45 a.m. What a surprise it was to finde that Jolene, a dear friend of my mom's, was there at the bus station to greet us. I thought for a second, she was there to join us on our trek across China. Instead, she just brought us Chinese take out. It was really cute. She had stuffed the red Chinese take out boxes with candies and other assorted goodies, and wished us well on our adventure.

We managed to get to O'Hare in timely fashion, and after about 20 minutes through security, we managed to get through it without any hassles. Mom and I decided that we would stop at a local bar/eatery and grab a bloody mary, as we wanted to unwind from the stress of getting everything through security. They were tasty. The server was a peach, and even carded Mom. I thought this was kind of hokey, but apparently she had to card everyone that came in. A bit while later, a young guy sat down at a table near us, and ordered some mixed alcoholic beverage, and when we laughed about being carded, mom piped right up and said, "she even carded me!" The young guy, being the charmer, said "you don't look a day over 20."

I said, "how about try 20-ish, it's a lot more broad scope."

We ended up playing rubbernecker's airport version. It was pretty fun considering airports are a great way to people watch. And even more fun after you've had a couple of stiff bloodies in ya before noon.

The plane left on time, and a new feature that was a new experience was the fact that we had to get our visas checked before we could get on the plane. This makes total sense, but I think checking it about 4 times is a bit excessive. The other thing was trying to get everyone to pay attention and get on board. It's no better than being a cat wrangler.

The crew was quite entertaining on the plane. I would say that the food so far (and mind you, it's plane food) is best described as grim. During our beef/chicken/mystery slurkey extra-long noodle dish, one flight attendant came up and said, "would you like the recipe?"

It was funny.

I think the fish noodle dish was about the worst thing I've ever had on an airplane in my life.

The flight attendant continued her wittiness, by telling one of the younger male flight attendants (who didn't know how to exactly heat up milk) to just put the milk in one of the barf bags, heat it up, and no one will ever know the difference. Except for me that is.

We saw several movies, "Then She Found Me," "Baby Mama" (funny, and Tina Fey DOES look like Sarah Palin), "Hamilton" (stupid), and "Speed Racer" (which I watched in honor of my brother's love for that 70's cartoon).

Passengers on planes I have realized are really inconsiderate, especially the fartknocker that sat in front of me, who practically had his head in my lap from reclining back so far, and proceeded to break wind the entire 13 and a half hour marathon of a flight to Beijing. It smelled like kimchee.

At about 10AM China time, we were flying over the Sea of Okhotsk and the Gulf of Shelekhova, the later sounding more like being named after a famous woman tennis star, or a Russian assault rifle, rather than anything else.

We also managed to give our first nicknames while we were at O'Hare, "Nervous Ned and his wife Bunny." Nervous Ned had a hard time standing still, and Bunny, his wife, well...befit the name "Bunny." I'll let everyone figure that one out.

Well we got to Beijing just fine, and the airport is HUGE. I would totally have gotten lost, had it not been for the herd of people walking through the airport from our flight. We made it through customs, and went to baggage claim. I swear it was a free-for-all. I suggested that they speed up the baggage carousel a bit faster to REALLY give people a challenge. WOW! It (the carousel) really moved fast. It was surely not for the faint at heart, or for the timid.

We made it out of the airport, our guide, Annie, was there to pick us up at the airport, got us a taxi, and sent us off to the Renaissance Hotel in Beijing, in what looks like a financial/business district of Beijing. The weather here is very similar to Wisconsin, and what I really love is all of the deciduous trees that line all of the main roads and freeways. It really looks good.

The traffic....whoa. Our taxi driver certainly is assertive alright....man....I about crapped myself twice getting from the airport to the hotel.

Well, no more news to report, we have a HUGE day tomorrow, and after about an hour and a half total of sleep in the last 48 hours, I think it's about time for some shut-eye.

More soon!

Check Back For Updates

As you all know, I'm leaving for China tomorrow.  I hope to be able to post the "goings-on" of my trek through China. Hopefully I will be able to do it justice!

 

Check back periodically for details!

 

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