New Years Eve in Shanghai
Ok, so the arrival into Shanghai wasn’t the best in the world, but I still thought that the train was a fun way to travel. Once everyone emerged from their sleep-in we went to grab some lunch at a nearby yummy Australian restaurant. With 3 and a half out of 6 of us facing gastro-issues, it was a wise choice for some familiar food. Jasmine and I were the only ones of the group who were feeling 100%! Neil was still getting over his gastro as was Dave. Amber and Mark were both facing it in a big way and as some of you can probably imagine, the discussion for most of the next 2 days focused around gastro issues, ailments and medicines. Joy of joys. I won’t delight the rest of you about the finer details of these conversations – those who know Neil in Manila can imagine his excitement to find 2 more guys eager to talk about the subject . . .
Anyway, it was a relaxing day where we just caught up with everyone, went to get massages and of course got ready for New Years. Out of everyone it was poor Mark who didn’t quite make it to midnight with everyone – he was looking pretty pale through dinner and went home. We ate dinner at an average Korean-type restaurant and then taxied it over to a great bar in the French Concession area called ‘Face’.
Face
Face was an old British colonial building that was once an opium house or something like that. Drinks were very much at New Years prices but the ambiance was very nice and realistically the price of an average Australian bar drink anyway . . . We stayed there until just after New Years when Amber and Dave left to go home.
Dave and Amber
Jasmine
Andy and NeilEmily and Dave on the dance floor
The rest of us headed over to a huge Mexican place called Zapatas. Fully of ex-pats and Chinese the place was definitely in party mode, and after another drink or too Jasmine and Neil joined in the festivities on the bar tops. Finally at the respectable hour of 3am we headed home and crashed.
You should be dancing . . .yeah!
One last goodbye
As can be expected with 2 sick people, 2 half sick people and 3 half hung-over people, New Years Day was a quiet affair with McDonalds, videos and a massage.
Last day in Beijing
Entrance to one of the hutongs outside the Lama Temple leading to the Confucian Temple
Unfortunately again Neil woke up feeling pretty sick so on our last day in Beijing I headed out alone to the Lama Temple and the Confucian Temple. At first I was expecting the Lama Temple to be something different from what it turned out to be, and I was initially a little disappointed at it looked as though it had much of the same architecture as many of the other temple type places in the Forbidden Palace and Summer Temple for example. But just walking around the area outside the entrance to the temple was very interesting as there were stores selling Tibetan products, incense and other Buddhist offerings.
I went into the Lama Temple amidst a few tourist groups and went through the complex coming out pretty amazed. While the outer architecture is pretty typically Chinese, inside the series of temples was very Buddhist. There were huge statues of Buddhist deities with multiple hands and big scary eyes. There were some beautiful hanging cloth adorning the temples. And there was a small museum with a large collection of Buddhist deities describing who they were – along with a freaky life-like monk sitting on a 3 tiered alter type thing in the middle. Perhaps most interesting was that the Temple is still a place of worship for many of Beijing’s Buddhist and people were lighting incense and making prayers all throughout the courtyards and the temples. The temple buildings got larger and larger as I progressed through the complex until the last building - it housed an enormous gold gildered standing Buddha.
Lama Temple -
This part of the temple houses one of the tallest Buddha statues in the world
Lama Temple - still used by Buddhists
I then quickly headed over to the Confucian Temple nearby for a look. Down one of the hutongs the Confucian Temple was a good contrast to some of the other major sites around Beijing as it was under serious repair and showed what most of the temples must have looked like before undergoing major restoration work. They are fixing up many of their main tourist sites getting ready for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Mr Confucius with a temple under repair in the background
I had a great taxi ride back with a very jolly and vivacious (drunk perhaps??!) taxi driver to meet Dad and Neil for lunch again at Happy Duck. This time the place was absolutely packed with people, and again we ordered heaps and heaps of food. The same yummy fish as our first lunch, beef, fried rice, some fried potato/sweet potato dish and a delicious stirfried celery and lotus flower. Of course I had to stuff myself because it was so yummy and it was our last lunch in Beijing!!
Neil headed back to the apartment while dad and I went back down to the Ladies market where dad bought me my Christmas present – a jacket. We had a bit of a look around and then dad went back to work while I went back home to pack.
Later that evening after saying our sad goodbyes, we took a car down to the Beijing train station where we were totally confused as to where to take the train to Shanghai. Fortunately the sign pointing to the ‘tourist ticket office’ turned out to be the waiting room for the train and at 6.30 we boarded our ‘deluxe’ compartment for the overnight trip down to Beijing. After our initial excitement of our first overnight deluxe sleeping berth train ride, I suffered a little train sickness, dinner turned out to be a little dodgy, we found out that they didn’t sell any water on the train (they had beer though!) and Neil suffered a sleepless night that he shared with me on and off throughout the night. Arriving at 6.55 am wasn’t much fun either – I would have been happy if the train took a few hours longer so we could have arrived at 8 or 9 . . .
But eventually we ate a McDonalds breakfast and got in a taxi over to Jasmine and Mark’s house, where we promptly joined everyone else in sleeping in late.
The train from Beijing to Shanghai
Mao and Markets
The next day Neil stayed home sick while I went back into Tiananmen Square. Turning in my belongings to a nearby storage area I joined a large queue of Chinese lining up to see Mao in his mausoleum. It was a very surreal experience walking along marked lines and stopping outside the mausoleum for people to buy flowers. Quickly pulling out 1 yuan to purchase the official pamphlet on the mausoleum on the way into the entrance. Seeing the large entrance hall where there is a large statue of Mao where the flowers are placed. And being ushered through the mausoleum room where you see Mao and try to work out if that really is him or a wax figure. But you can’t pause for too long or the guards will tell you to hurry up! That was it. Over in a minute or two. It makes you want to line up again just so you can get a second look! But I couldn’t be bothered of course and probably spent more time looking at the souvenir stores at the back exit before grabbing my belongings and walking around Tiananmen a little. I then caught the underground subway down a few stops to Paul’s restaurant where I met Neil and Dad for some lunch. For consistency purposes – I’ll let you all know - I ate a chicken sandwich – tee hee.
Mao's Mausoleum in Tiananmen Square
After lunch we went to the Silk Market – another one of dad’s favourite shopping places where we bargained for some souvenirs and browsed the clothing market. Poor dad had to go back to work, but Neil and I caught the train back to Wangfujing street – a large pedestrian mall for a browse around.
Emily at the pasalubong and tea shop
Neil on Wangfujing Street
Neil was able to purchase some super-cheap antibiotics (24 pills for $1) and I bought some expensive Chinese tea (although in fairness it was 6 decent boxes for about $20), and some funky food to take back to work. Neil soon got tired and caught a taxi back to the house while I continued to walk around for a while before joining him.
That night we went to see the Shaolin Warriors. Neil seemed to enjoy it, but the highlight of the evening for Dad and I was when they got Neil and a couple of other audience members to get up on stage to do some kung fu. Perhaps even funnier was having Neil tell the story that he had been leaning forward in his seat and avoiding the eye contact of the Shaolin warrior as he walked through the empty theatre as he was trying to control his gastro problem – going up on stage he was a bit scared that he would present the audience with a terrible addition to their night of entertainment! Despite seeing Neil on stage, I think I would rather have gone to see the acrobats . . . Afterwards we got some late dinner at a semi-ritzy restaurant called the Pavillion. Run by ‘westerners’ the place had a pretty eclectic menu and was pretty yummy. We ate spring rolls, fish and chips, chicken and bacon salad and chicken wings. I had some red wine and dad had a Kilkenny. Yummy. Thankfully I was doing a lot of walking during the day . ..
Dad being silly with his Chinese porcelin dolls - they're really nice!
Great Wall
Fortunately Neil was feeling a little better the next day as we had booked a tour bus out to the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall. Even though I’m not a huge tour fan, the tour group leader was pretty entertaining and it was an easy way to get out and see the Wall. Fortunately for us we were the last people to be picked up at 9am (the poor first people had been picked up at 7!) so at least we didn’t have to sit through too much Beijing early morning traffic.
We headed out north to the first stop, the Ming Tombs. Not quite what we what we were expected, but semi-interesting none-the less, as the main tomb is of Zhu Di, a prominent Ming Emporor who you may of heard about if you have watched the National Geographic Special on the Adventures of Zheung Hue (recommended), or have read the book
1421: The Year China the Chinese Discovered the World. It’s a very interesting piece of history which shows that huge Chinese boats sailed around a lot of the world back in 1400s with very advanced technology for the time. However, due to some decent laws prohibiting the excavation of any of the Ming Tombs until technology can preserve them better (a couple of tombs were recently excavated whereby many of the delicate writings, paper and buried materials quickly were destroyed when exposed), people are unable to actually visit the tombs themselves. Instead we saw a large temple building with some of the preserved artifacts, and the tomb stone of Zhu Di.
Zhu Di himself inside a large temple
The tombstone of Zhu Di - we were surprised to see this man bowing to an Emperor from some 600 years ago!
Of course, next on our stop was to the jade factory with over-priced jade materials. Impressive however was the huge jade boats and carvings on display. We saw how jade was carved, how to tell the difference between real and fake jade (personally, I don’t mind fake things too much as I’m a bit of a stinge) and heard the romantic story of jade bracelets – the Chinese equivalent of the wedding ring. It really made me want to buy some jade and I looked around for some rings like the one Melissa had bought me – but fortunately I guess the prices were all too much for what I was willing to spend (did I mention being a stinge!!)
Next was lunch at the ‘Friendship Store’ which conveniently had a huge array of touristy items available for purchase. Fortunately the food was pretty decent and we (well I – Neil was nursing his sore stomach a little) pigged out again. We washed the lunch down with some Mai Tan, or Chinese rice wine which smells like mentholated spirits and tasted like paint stripper. But at least it warmed us up!!
Finally we were off to the Great Wall – another 20 minutes or so away through some barren, frozen landscape. Approaching the ‘Badaling’ section of the Great Wall we were able to see parts of it on the hillsides of the approach. Pretty impressive. We arrived and walked past tourist stalls where we started to ascend the Wall. It was amazing. We could see parts of the wall stretching into the distance even despite the foggy conditions.
Starting to climb the wall - see it in the distance
We headed to the left – the steeper section, but apparently the way with the more impressive views. Walking along the wall was pretty amazing. Every few steps you could see a different view of the wall in front of you, behind you and into the distance.
Again - you may just be able to make out the wall in the distance. An amazing photo really because there are no people in it! Just the bin. . .
An older, unrestored part of the wall contrasts starkly with the great work done restoring the wall.
The wall stretches approximately 6,700 kilometers. There are more than 10,000 watchtowers and beacon towers that were used to house troops, store weapons and send signals in case enemies were seen approaching. Smoke signals were used in the day and fires were lit at night to communicate with other military outposts along the wall. The views from all along the wall are really amazing.
Walking down we had to pass through this group of police cadets (?) getting their photo taken. An impressive site really.
While waiting to leave on the bus, a man and his camel happened to stroll down the main street.
Amazing stuff. We arrived back in Beijing tired, but happy.
Summer Palace
Neil woke up feeling unwell but rallied to head northwest to the outskirts of town to the Summer Palace.
Originally called "Qingyi Garden" (Garden of Clear Ripples), it was know as one of the famous "three hills and five gardens" (Longevity Hill, Jade Spring Mountain, and Fragrant Hill; Garden of Clear Ripples, Garden of Everlasting Spring, Garden of Perfection and Brightness, Garden of Tranquility and Brightness, and Garden of Tranquility and Pleasure). Like most of the gardens of Beijing, it could not elude the rampages of the Anglo-French allied force and was destroyed by fire. In 1888, Empress Dowager Cixi embezzled navy funds to reconstruct it for her own benefit, changing its name to Summer Palace (Yiheyuan). She spent most of her later years there, dealing with state affairs and entertaining. In 1900, it suffered again, being ransacked by the Eight-Power Allied Force. After the success of the 1911 Revolution, it was opened to the public.
View of the Summer Palace from across the lake
A man writing calligraphy with both hands on the pavement
Entering the huge complex we headed straight to the main lake which frames a lot of the Palace. It was a chilly, overcast morning but was still a very impressive view. We spent the next hour exploring the southern part of the palace. It was very cold but Neil’s sudden urges to rush to the bathroom began to explain some of his grumpiness.
Neil had to try out the frozen river
One of the longest covered walkways in the world - beautifully painted
After eating some instant noodles for lunch (I alone) Neil decided to head home. This left me to explore the rest of the Summer Palace which was absolutely huge! Highlights included one of the longest roofed walkway in the world with some beautiful coloured painting and exquisite detail, a huge marble boat, beautiful views despite the overcast weather of the lake and surrounding areas, a large golden Buddha on the top of the mountain, numerous pretty hidden pagodas along the walkways, the back part of the Palace with buildings looking more Tibetan than Chinese, a small street of tourist type stores selling Chinese bits an pieces straddling a small frozen river, and exploring the large living quarters of the Empress. Not so flash was spending most of the afternoons looking for the entrance to the biggest temple of the Summer Palace. It was undergoing restoration and I’m still not sure if it was actually open or not!
The large marble boat
The back side of the Summer Palace took on more Tibetan looking architecture
This little street - Suzhou Market Street - was close to empty - the tourists must come in the summer. It was pretty nonetheless
Across the lake from the main Palace complex this little island linked by the bridge in the photo provided beautiful views
Forbidden City
The 26th we headed out to see some of the main city sites. We caught a taxi to the Forbidden Palace with dad’s trusty book of destinations. Because not many people speak English, including taxi drives, there are a set of cards with major Beijing destinations written in English, Pinyin (Anglosiced Chinese) and Chinese. Most Chinese can’t even understand Western attempts at speaking Chinese because it is so tonal and we are basically useless! So the set of cards come in very handy!
So, we arrived at the impressive north end of the Forbidden City, took some pictures around the moat to find someplace to eat and enter from the front gates (to the south) bordering Tiananmen.
Emily at the north west corner of the walled Forbidden City
We found a great little restaurant near the eastern gate and again ordered up big! Noodles, rice, bamboo and spinach, chicken and beef! It was way too much food but very delicious. This gave us the energy to continue walking along the beautiful hutongs (traditional narrow streets) down towards the entrance with a couple of divergences into an art gallery and a pretty little park.
One of the nice little art galleries along the side of the Forbidden City
Neil being a lion
Emily in front one of the nice little gardens
Walking up to see the front gate of the Forbidden City with Mao’s large portrait hanging at the front was very impressive. And looking south across Tiananmen was also awe-inspiring. It is one enormous square framed by impressive large buildings; the National Museum to the east, the Great Hall of the People to the west and Mao’s mausoleum in the middle looking south. We took in Tiananmen for a few minutes and then went over to enter the Forbidden City through the Gate of Heavenly Peace. We purchase entry tickets and got the Roger Moore audio guide describing some of the main elements of the Palaces.
Neil with Mao's portrait on the Gate of Heavenly Peace
After a not so quick bathroom stop for poor Neil we started going through the huge Palace complex - it was huge and there was so much to see
The first courtyard of the Forbidden City
Off limits to commoners for 500 years, the Forbidden City is the largest and best preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China. Home to the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the rest of China was governed from here until the 1911 revolution. Originally built between 1406 and 1420, most current buildings are actually from the 18th century. Made mostly of wood, the palace has gone up in flames many times in its history. During the 20th century there have been 2 main lootings of the Palace - by Japanese forces and the Kuomingtang. Apparently there are a large number of old Palace relics in the National Palace Museum in Taiwan - some say that this was not necessarily a bad thing as the subsequent Cultural Revolution destroyed much of China's artwork.
One of the middle courtyards of the Forbidden City
Apparently there's a permanent restoration team moving around the City repainting and repairing the place. It is estimated that it will take about 10 years for a full renovation by which time it will need to start over again! The place is definitely huge!
Some detail of one of the City temple buildings
Neil starting to feel a little tired at the back end of the City
Neil at the back end of the city - where we both started and ended the day
Christmas Day
Christmas day was fairly quiet. Dad worked a bit in the morning, we made some calls home and then we went out to lunch at a café called Bellagio. It was a more up-market type of trendy Chinese restaurant/café with some great food. We ordered yummy noodles, chili chicken, pepper beef and broccoli with rice. I had a snow pear juice to drink. It was all delish.
Dad with the Bellagio food
Afterwards I ordered red bean ice for dessert thinking it was quite small – when checking the menu I realised it was supposed to be a ‘small snack’ in and of itself! It was huge! Well – there was our Christmas cake!
One of the waitresses serving the red bean ice
Silly dad trying the red bean ice. Neil and I liked it . . .
We then did some DVD shopping before heading home for some r&r and then heading out for a couple of beers at one of the ex-pat local bars. Of course we then ate again at an Italian restaurant which again had some great food -–are you beginning to see a pattern of our activities in China?!!
An interesting photo taken by Neil from Dad's office
Temple of Heaven Park
On Christmas Eve Neil and headed out to see one of the famous Beijing sites – Temple of Heaven Park. Here we met up with Piers, an AYAD based in Manila who was also on holiday in China visiting his sister and her family. The Temple of Heaven Park is a huge place. As we walked through the western gate we came across local Chinese ballroom dancing, latin dancing to Chinese folk music, Chinese playing hackey sack, twirling colourful ribbons, practising tai chi, playing paddle ball, playing checkers and chess, playing musical instruments and singing. It was pretty amazing, especially because it was so cold!
Emily at Temple of Heaven Park with women practising with their ribbons in the background
We wandered around the park viewing many of the major sites. Unfortunately the main Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest was closed undergoing renovations, but we were still able to see the impressive buildings of the Round Alter, Hall of Fasting, Echo Wall and Imperial Vault of Heaven.
A huge park of about 267 hectares, the temples are interesting in that most of them have round rooves with square bases. Apparently this is a pattern deriving from the ancient Chinese belief that heaven was round and the earth was square.
View back over some of the Temple of Heaven temples
Piers in front of one of the impressive gates at Temple of Heaven
After spending a couple of hours wandering through the park we walked out of the Park and around the corner to eat at a dumpling house. Unfortunately we discovered that it was closed, but found the Quanjude Duck Restaurant right next door. At first it looked a little tacky as it had pictures of all these famous people who had eaten there – like George Bush Senior, Yassir Arafat, Yanni etc., and the guide book didn’t give it the best review in the world, but it turned out to be pretty good. We ordered Peking duck – which the carved at our table and which was the nicest duck I’ve ever eaten, plus snow peas, beef, some dumplings and rice. It was a pretty yummy meal.
Chef carving the delicious Peking Duck
Piers and Neil with our great lunch
Piers then headed up to Tianamen while Neil and I went over to meet dad at the Pearl Market – one of his favourite places in Beijing. It has heaps of pearls as well as some clothes and touristy stuff. Of course we made some purchases, including one of the beautiful Beijing China porcelain dolls that dad is collecting and got into the local bargaining spirit a bit. I wanted to buy one of the dolls too as they are beautifully decorated and very colourful – dad maybe a present for the birthday if you can send one home!!
That night we went out of town a bit to the house of one of Dad’s colleagues for a Christmas Eve party. There was so much food there (all American type stuff – the chili was pretty good!) – and lots of Americans!
A strange site - view down one of the alleyways off the main road
Jasmine
You should be dancing . . .yeah!
