Beijing, part one

We arrived in Beijing at about 8:30 am and made our way to our Hotel. After we checked in (we each had our own room) we met up with some of the people who were attending the workshop with Wade and Leah. The workshop is for English teachers that work in the same way as Wade and Leah. We had a very yummy lunch and then went shopping and got water and some other items to get us going for the week. The afternoon was spent relaxing and visiting with new friends. Wade and Leah went on a date and I joined a large group and we had dinner together. Many of the people there were around my age and it was fun talking with them and hearing their stories of living in China. Wednesday the first day of the workshop. I headed out to see Beijing by myself. I was told what bus to get on and to get to the subway. All the things that I was planning on seeing by myself were close to subway stops. But, I got on the bus the wrong way! I was able to get a taxi and I got over to the subway and was on my way! I went to the Forbidden City first. It was the Palace of the Emperors during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was built in 1406-1420 and covers 7,800,000 sq ft. It is called the Forbidden City because it was only for the Emperors and was forbidden to the common people. I spent over 3 hours looking at everything! I got the automated guide and it gave me information, stories and History about each place and building inside. It was fascinating to hear all the stories and the history surrounding the Forbidden City. There were hundreds of other people there and at times it was hard to get to different places because of all the people! It was pretty cold that day and the sharp wind in Beijing did not help things any! After I finished with that I went across the street (well actually under) and went to Tiananmen Square. I walked across one end of it and headed off to the subway again. I then headed to the Hostel we had stayed at on our way to Harbin to see about the Great Wall tour. I got the information and decided that it was not going to work. It was fairly expensive and I was going to have to be at a subway stop to be picked up at 6:30 am! I was going to see what Leah recommended when I got back to the Hotel. I then got a bag of peanuts for lunch at 3:00 (I know, not the best choice) and headed off to the Ancient Observatory. The Ancient Observatory is the oldest collection of star reading devices in history. They had been observing the stars and time for 500 years before it became an attraction sometime in the last 50 years. There was much information and I had a good time looking at the old Instruments. By the time I was done looking at everything I was ready to head ‘home’ to the Hotel. I got back on the subway, took a taxi back to the Hotel and arrived tired and HUNGRY! We went to dinner with one of the families and the food was really good! I had a noodle soup of sorts. Leah helped me find a tour to the Great Wall and we got that set up for Thursday. Some of us played a game and then I hit the sack.

Thursday, I got up and headed to the lobby to wait for my tour guide. He was about an hour late, (not unusual for Chinese) and we headed off. There were four of us in the group. Besides the tour guide there was a couple from Finland. We all knew English so we were able to enjoy talking and sharing different things from each of our countries. The first place that we stopped was a Jade carving factory. We briefly saw how they carve Jade and then got to shop in the store as well. I did not get anything…it’s super expensive! There were some amazing carvings though! We finished there and headed off to the next stop, which was the Ming Tombs. The Ming Tombs is where 13 Emperors of the Ming Dynasty are buried. The park was mostly closed off so we did not get to see much. They were at the base of the mountains and I enjoyed seeing the mountains. We took a few pictures and headed off to the Great Wall. It was so cool seeing the Wall! I had imagined it would be pretty cool and it was even better than that! It was hard to believe that this structure was over 2100 years old and still intact for the most part. Yes, they have done some work on it where the tourists go but it’s still a lot of the original work. We got our passes to get in and headed off the climb the wall! We climbed slowly up-it was very steep! We took breaks to look around and rest our legs. Some of the steps were tall! A few of them came almost up to my knee! I wanted to go all the way to the top but the Finish couple got tired before I did. We almost made it to the top and by that time I was getting hungry and we still had to get back down! So we headed back down and were off the wall about an hour and a half from when we started. Lunch was in a restaurant at the top of a huge Porcelain shop. The food was so good! (Maybe because I was starved?) We had dumplings, a pork dish, a chicken dish and a beef dish, several veggies including corn and cucumber cooked together, cauliflower, peppers and onions cooked together, rice and tea. After lunch we shopped around again in the Porcelain shop and then headed off to the next stop, which was a Silk Factory. We were shown how they make silk blankets. It was really cool! Again, there was shopping to do but the prices were very high! The silks were so beautiful and I did wish that I could have gotten something. We once again headed off to the next stop. This stop was a Tea House. We went here for a tea party! It was really fun! We were able to taste at least four different kinds of tea. It was really neat how they did the whole process, and the tea was good too! Our last stop was driving by the Olympic Stadium to get a picture. Then finally we headed home! I was dropped off at my Hotel tired, but happy after a very fun day! Wade and Leah were busy with the workshop and we did not have time to go get a real dinner so Leah and I went down to the store and got enough things for me to make PBJ! We also got a salad from Starbucks. I went back to my room and ate the salad and my sandwich while hanging out my window watching the fireworks. They were setting a lot off close to our hotel and I could see them and it was great fun! After I was done eating I went and talked for a while and then went to bed! I was tired…climbing the wall made my legs tired and I still had two more days in Beijing! To be continued….

Harbin, The land of cold and ice.

We had quite an adventure getting to Harbin! Wade purchased our tickets to leave on Wednesday. One of Wade and Leah’s friends Tom offered to take us to the airport. He picked us up and we drove over to the airport and discovered that the flight was for Thursday not Wednesday! So…we went back home and waited for Thursday to come so we could leave! The good thing was….we did not have to pack on Thursday! We left with no trouble on Thursday and arrived in Beijing at about 9:30pm. We hurried over to the train station to see about getting the 11:00pm overnight train but they were sold out. So we got tickets for the next night at 9:30pm. We spent the night at a nice Hostel and hung around for a while. After a couple of hours of doing nothing I talked Wade into going out with me and at least tromping around for a bit. We ended up going to the Olympic Stadium.

It was pretty cool! We got tickets to get into it and to go skiing. It turned out that inside the Bird’s Nest was a huge Snow World. There was no skiing but we did go sledding! We took out time looking around and finally found the skiing area…outside the Bird’s Nest and it was a small slope with lots of people on it. So we opted out and just wandered around the area. We headed back in time to grab some dinner and walk across the street to the train station to head to Harbin. It was an air-conditioned train and it was very warm! I had a middle bunk and slept really well! I met a couple of girls that were from Harbin and we enjoyed talking about it and the things to see there. We arrived in Harbin at about 8:30 am and it was cold! I’m not sure how cold it was but I think it was not even 15F! We got to our Hostel and settled in, got showers and lots of layers on to head off to see the city and get some food. We went to the main street in Harbin and found a nice Russian restaurant. It was built in 1901 and it still seemed so very old inside. The food was wonderful! I had Borsch and Cabbage Rolls. We then went down to the river. Which was frozen solid…all the way across! We looked at some of the ice sculptures, went ice-skating on the river and had fun walking and talking. It was cold and so we had to keep moving to keep warm. After a while we got hungry again and because of the New Year we had trouble finding a Chinese restaurant open. So we went to Pizza Hut! I eat out at more American places when I am not in America than I do when I am in America! After a yummy and filling dinner we decided to walk along the river for a bit. We bought some fireworks and decided to go back to the Hostel instead. Leah and I played cards while Wade did some things on the computer. We were tired so we headed to bed pretty soon after that. On Sunday we went and ate at KFC and then went and got our train tickets for Monday night back to Beijing. In the afternoon we met with a couple for Services and that was so wonderful! They are from Oklahoma and it was so nice to sit and talk for a while. We had dinner with them and then headed out to the Ice Festival. The Ice Festival was a huge park with a wall around it and many buildings inside…all made out of ice! They cut the ice from the river and then put lights in them and stack them up. It was pretty cool! We were there about an hour and a half. There were fun things to do…sledding and ice ramps that you slid down…standing up if you could! We had a good time! It was 0 degrees F where we were there! After we were done there we headed back to the hostel and went to bed. Monday, we checked out of our room and then sat in the lobby and waited till time to leave at 9:30 PM. Leah and I went to Wal-Mart and got some food. We had PBJ for lunch and lots of fruit. Finally, after I finished my book and we had watched some things on Wade’s computer we headed off to the train station. We set off our fireworks along the way, boarded the train and were off to Beijing once more.

Here are some pictures of places and things that I have seen in Changde. There is the Poem wall, a wall that has a lot of poetry on it that runs along the riverfront. There are some pictures of some boats that we saw on the river as well as a man repairing his nets. The food and meat pictures were all taken at Wal-Mart. Yes, you can get all those things here in China at Wal-Mart! There is one picture of a huge garden. It is a cabbage garden. There are over 200 different kinds of cabbage here in China. We went hiking with one of Wade and Leah's friends here and one of his friends. It was very foggy and you could not see much but it was still a fun day. We ate some delicious food afterwards and had a fun time visiting. I have enjoyed the last week here in China. We have not done much, we met with some of Wade and Leah's coworkers. One man is from England and another from Scotland. It was really neat getting to talk to them.

We are leaving to Harbin on Wednesday and from there we will go to Beijing and be back here after a good long trip. See you then!