And it all blurs together like this....(01/07-08/11)

I'm sitting on a plane right now on the way home from Japan, and by home I mean some other local point in the United States that isn't Memphis. I'm pretty sure we're flying into St. Paul or Minneapolis or something like that. You may be wondering why after posting daily for the past two weeks, I decided to put these last two days together since I never really slept in between and they have just started to run together anyway.

We started the day like any other: breakfast, chatting, hoping on the bus to head to the next tourist attraction, which, this morning, was a little stop off at a park area to watch all of the locals get their exercise on. It was really cool to see how people worked out there and that, even though it was cold, they were out workin' up a sweat.

That's Kevin showing us his mad skills.

Next stop was The Temple of Heaven. It was a Taoist temple that the emperors came to when it was time to pray to the gods for a good harvest. They were the only ones allowed in and it was supposed to be used as a place of harmony, peace and worship. This building was highly respected and cared for by the emperors until the British took it over in the Second Opium War, later continuing occupation for a year during the Boxer Rebellion. (I know you don't know what any of that means; go look  up your world history!) Unfortunately, the British didn't care for it very well and left it desecrated and in ruin. Then, to make matters worse, the Japanese occupied it in the Second Sino-Japanese War and turned it into a biological warfare center (didn't know that when I got there, wish I had... lol.) During the 50s and 70s it was resorted to its former brilliance and then in 1998 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Now people from all over the world come to check out how awesome it is. Let the photos commence:

Now, on to my favorite part of the day: getting to ride in a rickshaw! We got to pick our drivers (Vendula and I rode together) and ours was AWESOME! He was so into racing the other carts and cutting off the other drivers. It was cutthroat! I'm serious. But the even cooler part about riding in a rickshaw was that they took us to eat lunch with a local family in an older part of town where we learned how to make dumplings! You know, one of my favorite meals from this whole trip? I got to learn how to make it! Yay! The lady that taught us was so nice and welcoming. She showed us a model of their house that her son made, told us about her husband who is a painter (We got to buy his art! Yes, I bought local. ;) ) and told us about the feet binding process that her grandmother went through when she was younger. I even got to see a replica of the shoes they wore. It was a great meal spent with great company. It was nice to eat somewhere so informal for the first time since we got there. We were used to fancy dishes and table clothes, but this was just: here's a table cloth on a plastic table, wooden chopsticks and looooooots of delicious food. 

That's our rickshaw driver! Doesn't he just look eager to get goin?

Shannon and Laura enjoying the ride.

At our hostess' house

Sitting down to eat

Boss Lady making dumplings

Voila! Little tiny baby dumpling. ;)

Shoes for feet binding

Me with the hostess (bad photo, don't judge)

After lunch was over we had to leave, which was sad because we had so much fun and she was so kind. But there was more of Beijing to conquer and as out last day went, we had to make it count! So....we headed to the Silk Market. Now, this is not a market that just sold silk, but rather a 6 story building that had floor after floor teeming with merchants who just really wanted to snatch up your money and convince you to buy everything in sight, if they could. Unfortunately, I'm not a very good negotiator, which was the whole name to this purchasing game. BUT! Fortunately, I am a quick learner. So even though I didn't get some of the deals that some of the other students on the trip got (Conrad was reeeeaaaally good at it), I did make out with a few bargains of my own. Thankfully, for my sanity, I somehow missed the basement, which was full of nothing but shoes.... Why yes, that would be my personal hell. But I did leave with some jewelry for my friends and a panda backpack and hat set for my brother. It turned out well. And the great thing is, I don't think I spent more than $30-50 there. I ended up getting most of my gifts there. That's one of the nice things about shopping in China, for the most part, everything is cheap, cheap, cheap!....Even if haggling with the store people is really intimidating and stressful, but the rush of pushing the boundaries with the salesmen. 

Fast forward to our last supper. What do you think it would be? A compilation of everything that we'd tried so far? Or maybe some new exciting dish that we haven't even tried yet? But no. Unfortunately, my last dinner was similar to what you would get at Texas de Brazil. I was sooo disappointed! All I could think about the last night I was there was how much I wanted one last Chinese meal, but I guess I'll have to live without it. I didn't eat much at the restaurant, maybe just a plate, no desserts. Nothing look appetizing. I couldn't help but think about all the food I was going to have to eat when I got home and all the food I would be missing. Either way, I was sad when I sat down to dinner and I was sad when it was time to leave. It was our last night in China and didn't get my Chinese food....But I made up for it... I was going to live it up.

That evening, when Vendula and I got back to the hotel, we decided that we had waited long enough. We were going to go out to a dance club in China and have the most fun that we could. We threw on our sexiest clothes (well, sexiest that 23 degree weather would allow), hailed a taxi and set off to have a good time. Kevin told us about some good clubs, and we took full advantage of his knowledge. Within minutes of hitting the door we were treated like superstars. We bought some drinks and these nice guys from New York came up to us, struck up a conversation and then offered to buy us drinks again. That's pretty much how the whole night went, we would dance for a while, go to the bar to get a drink, get hit on, have drinks purchased for us, and then do it all over again. I think my favorite part of the night was meeting this really nice guy from Austrailia! I'm even his Facebook friend now. Awesome! :)

Interior of the club. You can see why we stood out just a little...

The night ended with us back at the hotel showered and ready to hop on the bus to get to our plane. Did I mention that we hadn't slept at all at this point and that we were supposed to be downstairs to get to the airport by 4:30 am? Yeaaaaaahhhh...let's just say that the ride to the airport was short because of my nap and getting through security was a nightmare, but because I was in such a bad mood. I took a quick nap while we waited for our plane, then slept on the ride to Japan. But at the Japanese airport things worlds that were closed to me for two weeks were suddenly opened again. I ate McDonald's! I read magazines! I checked my FACEBOOK! It was wonderful. I didn't realize how much I had missed it until I had the chance to check it again. 

Ultimately, my day ended a lot better than it started and we all got where we needed to go safely and without a hitch. I won't forget the time I spent here. I'll miss the people I met, the food, and the company I kept with all the people on the trip with me. I think it was an amazing opportunity to explore a country that seems very misunderstood around the world, but that is so full of generous, giving people who want to show the world what the new China is made of...and their attitude..?

No Holds Barred.

Whitney

The Pilgrimage (01/06/10)

To whomever decided to put Holiday Inn Express in China--I love you.

Ok. So something I haven't really been writing about since we got here is the hotel accommodations, which may seem a little out of place, since my major is hospitality management and the hotels we're staying in are key players in the industry I'm studying. We've been sleeping--and I say sleeping because we've been running around too much to do anything else but sleep in them--in nothing less than a three-star hotel. Let me clarify, three star hotels in China are nicer, probably more so than they would be in America. The rooms feel a little cleaner (aside from our first room), they have nice amenities and haven't decided to start curbing in-room toiletries like some hotels in the U.S. have, so that's nice. But one of the things I couldn't believe about Chinese hotels is that the beds are just unbelievably hard. It feels like you're sleeping on planks (at least the ones we stayed in.) I don't think it has anything to do with quality; I think it's just a cultural difference, because when I brought it up with Dr. Kung, he mentioned that he liked his beds firmer. Whether you like your bed firmer or not, it's something to get used to. The reason I thank the person who decided to put in a Holiday Inn Express made my life a better place with their beds that are just a little bit softer...soft enough to notice.

Enough about beds and hotels! You're not all hospitality majors, so you probably don't care about stuff like that. So, today we went to see the Olympic Park in the morning. It was very peaceful, again, cold, but nice to see to see the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. Now, I watch the Olympics in my spare time when it's on, but I'm no avid watcher. More striking to me is how hosting the Olympics in 2008 pushed China further into its quest to become a leading world power and prompted it to demonstrate its improving and ever expanding persona of expansion and growth. We learned a lot about the steps Beijing took to decrease automotive travel on city streets, build up its railway systems and to decrease overall pollution (focusing mostly on air pollution.) If you forgot, Beijing once looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

I think they can really call this their claim to fame: Bluest skies in all of China.

After walking around here for a while (it was soooo cold here, too), we made our way over to a jade factory where we saw them cutting the jade into small gifts called happiness balls. I bought stuff--surprise, surprise. Then we transfered to a pearl museum, which is owned by the same people, where Vendula picked the right number of pearls in the clam, so she got to have the biggest one out of the shell. I bought stuff--surprise, surprise...again-- and we were finally on our way to what I had been wanting to see since I heard we were going on this trip...dun, dun, dunnnnn: THE GREAT WALL!! 

The trip was long, the winding roads winding, the wind piercing, the climb arduous, but the view and the photo ops....worth every moment. My trip to the great wall doesn't need words, even though they could probably describe it. Rather, I'm going to let my photos do all the talking:

From a distance

At the beginning

View from beginning

Not even a third of the way to the top

Making some progress

But, obviously, not enough

Little bit further

Hardest, most uneven stairs to climb ever. If you need a heart rate boost, then give these bad boys a try

View from the top

Balancing myself on this rock for a fabulous photo opportunity

Tower's window view

......

What you will look like after climbing the Great Wall. :) Thanks, Shannon, for the great photo!

Climbing to the top of the Great Wall was breathtaking and moving. I don't know if I'll ever have another chance to do it, but I'll carry that memory with me for a lifetime. It was, honestly, better than I ever imagined....

And then we ate! :D What did I tell ya?? It's what we do best! But this time the specialty was Peking Duck, which goes through this process almost as tough as climbing the Great Wall. You can google it, because I won't write it here, but let me assure you, it's not for the faint of heart or those with no time to spare for prepping food. It was DELICIOUS! I know I say it every post: best food in China. I would eat it every day if it didn't make me obese... 

Cutting off as much as he can

Looks soooo goooooood!!

I'm salivating from the memory alone.

I'd say it was a good end to a long day. But now time for bed and our last day in China that doesn't involve an airport. I don't want to go home yet! Can't we just stay for a little while longer...?

Whitney

Cleanest Skies in All of Dynasties / Welcome to China Air, pt. 2 (01/05/11)

Dear readers,

I never. Ever. Ever. Want to ride over the mountains that separate Xian from Beijing ever, ever, again. Do you read me, captain? Ever!! It was the bumpiest, scariest thing I have ever experienced. And I don't know how many of you know about my fear of flying, but...mayday mayday, my flight related hypertension was in full swing. There was no salvaging my sanity on this one, but, somehow, poor Tremaine's knee lived to tell the tale of it. I told Dr. Kung when we landed that I never wanted to fly China Air again, and he responded with, "I guess you don't want to come to China again, then." But I'm telling you, here and now, dear reader, that I will be coming back to China, but I will be taking the long and arduous route by bus...or moped...or motorized bicycle....or even maybe by canoe. I don't care,  just as long as I don't feel like I'm going to fall out of the sky every 20 minutes and know that my pilot does indeed plan on stopping my airplane.

All right! All of that aside, here is our new tour guide, Kevin:

What a great sport. :)

He was so much fun to be around right from the very beginning. He was a great tour guide, full of information, but not so much that he was boring. He had a fun-loving atmosphere about him that made him really personable and he knew Dr. Kung from previous trips, so he kind of knew what to expect (in some ways) with the group. It wasn't long after we got on the bus that we were on our way to do what we do best (besides shop and take group photos... ;) lol): EAT! Beijing food is the closest thing to American Chinese food that we've hit on so far, not to say that I haven't been loving what we've been eating (I think I made it very clear that I love the food here.) Rather, this is more of what we are familiar with at home. Kevin explained that it was a mixture of a lot of different foods from all over China and so it had the most "melting pot effect" conceptually. I didn't care, I just wanted to eat as much as I could, even though they had already fed us on the plane... (yeah, stick me in a wheelbarrow and roll me away, why don'chya?) Funny story involved with lunch: Street peddlers are so hard out after the tourists in Beijing (or maybe just in the part of the city that we were in) that this guy selling panda hats waited outside the restaurant for us to finish eating so that he could prod with his wares. Kind of ridiculous... really entertaining.

The Forbidden city was the first stop on our agenda for the day, and let me tell you, it was cold. However, it made seeing everything so much easier, because a) it wasn't unbearably hot b) it wasn't unbearably crowded, which then leads to... c) we could spend as much time in each area as we wanted to. It was hard to keep the battery in my camera charged, since it was so cold, but I think I got enough photos to show you the gist of it (note that we toured the whole property.) For more information on the actual rooms and items housed there, check online. Until then, here are photos:

Entrance

They say rubbing the knobs lets you make a wish. I rubbed and then leaned...that gives me even more luck, right?

Rock formation

Where the emperor rode his bike through the streets

This dragon held a ball that hung over the throne of the emperor. It's said that if anyone but the emperor sits in the chair below the ball, it will fall and crush them. Someone claimed to be emperor for a few months after the real one went into hiding around WWI, but he made sure to scoot his chair back just a few feet from underneath the ball. Guess he was superstitious after all....

Kevin being silly

View from atop the stairs. The wind would cut you like ice up there. We were like..."Yeah, ok, Kevin! We've seen it. Very nice! Let's go!"

With that said, we warmed up for a brief minute in a tea shop not usually available for tourists, but open to us because Kevin knew the owner. We sipped tea and talked until we could feel our toes (even though it wasn't a planned stop), but then realized that we were running late to see Tiananmen Square. We didn't make it before it closed, but I took a picture from afar and we left to get ready for dinner (always with thi ridiculous obsession with food! **Name the movie reference and you get cookieeeees!! :D )

Tiananmen Square from across the street. You wanna push the armed guards into letting take a look after hours? I. Didn't. Think. So...

So...we ate. What's new? Then went to see The Legend of Kung Fu show, which sounds kind of cheesy, but it was actually like watching acrobats perform. The story line was about this kid who is scared to leave his mother to go off into Kung Fu training, ends up being the best fighter around, gets seduced to the dark side by this vixen of a dancer, and then eventually realizes he can't do everything alone, reunites with all of his friends and becomes the next Kung Fu master...telling his story to all the new kids who are afraid to leave their homes and mothers... Awwwwww. Sweet story, little bit of drama, little bit of romance, LOTS OF BUTT KICKING KUNG FU ACTION! Oh sorry...should I have mentioned a spoiler alert there? Well, you'll still have to see it in person since we couldn't take photography or video of the performance--I would know, I almost got mine snatched (sorry security!) Also, you get to take a picture with the stud-muffin main character (or any other one you want) after the curtain falls and they come back out on stage...you know....if that was every a fantasy of yours... ;)

Beijing, you are already my fave. Keep the good times coming.

Whitney

Little Tiny Baby Dumplings (01/04/11)

Wow, y'all! 

Today was jammed packed with all sorts of amazing and fun things. Even though the city Xian isn't my favorite place, it showed a large part of its exciting and compelling history. The city itself has been the capital of China through 12 different dynasties, which is a huge deal since there's only been about 23 (as far as I remember and as well as I can check facts against wikipedia... :/). Aside from this little nugget of info, we also learned about the Terra-Cotta Warriors at a terra-cotta factory where they told us how terra-cotta is made (and how to tell the good stuff from the fake stuff). Then we went to tour part of the lacquer area where they made these absolutely beautiful pieces of furniture. 

If I were an emperor, I would look like this. Small head. I know.

Headless warriors. They get their heads later. It makes them unique. Cool, huh?

This is an example of some of the ceramic work we saw. It was lovely.

After we went through the factory and shopped around (the thing we do best besides take group photos) we went to the actual museum for the Terra-Cotta soldiers. Now, let me take a little time to do some back story logging on this excursion. I know I haven't done too much of that so far, but this place just made such an impact on me that I really want to share what it means and the significance of this find with everyone. 

So back in 210 BC, this emperor (the first one, mind you) who went by the name of Qin Shi Huang, decided that he needed a vast army of terra-cotta soldiers made of "twenty households" to watch over his burial site. Now, the cool thing about this is: to this day there are still only about 20 villages in the vicinity--interesting! The other cool thing is that each of the soldiers was made to look like a different individual. They have on relatively similar clothing and poses which signify their rank, but every face--all 8,00 of them--were made to look different from the next. Now, the whole point of having this huge army buried with him was so that the emperor, who was kind of a control freak, could continue to rule in the afterlife. The site that now houses the all the soldiers was unearthed in 1974 by local farmers. Over the past 30 years, archeologists have spent a great deal of time excavating that site and three others near it.  Something else I found extremely interesting was that all of the soldiers on the outside lines face the wall, as if to stave off invaders from all sides. Our guide mentioned that the emperor was really only worried about invaders coming from the east, so he set up this army about a mile away from his tomb to the east to protect him against anyone who dared to challenge him, even in the afterlife. Crazy, right? Especially since later, pillagers came and burned and trampled most of the soldiers, shattering them to pieces. Presently, archeologists have been working diligently to piece together the soldiers, even though they have yet to touch other areas of the largest vault.

Referring to rebuilding the statues, I think it’s important to point out how much the Chinese really respect the work of their ancestors and respect how important it is to distinguish work done centuries ago, versus work that can be done now. These scientists could reform many of the statues with missing pieces by making parts that blend evenly into the original work of the statue, that way no one is any wiser as to what is real and what is rebuilt. But, rather than masking their work as the original, they make it a different color so that their work stands out against what was part of the first statue…amazing. Here are photos of the site…I’m pretty proud of them, actually:

This was a statue in the museum. Look at that detail.

Photos of all the different soldiers. See how all of them are different?

Small replicas

Biggest chamber of soldiers

Close-up shot 

Close-up shot. Some are missing heads...it's kind of creepy

They look like toys in this picture, but they're life size and some are almost 6' 5" tall if they were lucky enough to be classified as a General.

Protector of an outer wall. He just looked so lonely. :(

Please let me explain this next picture. I'm telling you now it was one of my favorites, not because there was anything too special about this statue other than that it retained some of the original coloring on its back. I like this photo because of what's going on in it. If you look closely, and I blew it up so you could see it in detail, the statue is looking off in the distance; the guy in front of it is looking up in awe; it looks like the statue has a ghost form of a hand on this guy's shoulder and it looks like the guy behind the glass is reaching up to take the statue's outstretched hand. How cool is that?! I don't think I could have planned it if I tried!

Cool camera trick

After all of the excitement about the museum and seeing the soldiers, we went to eat dishes that are special to the region. The meal was all about some dumplings. Every kind of dumpling you could imagine! Pork dumplings, duck dumplings, carrot dumplings, fish dumplings. We had 14 different dumplings for dinner and they all came in (pretty much) the shape of the meat (or vegetable) that was in them. Check out the picture below. Can you tell what it is??

I stole this from Conrad's photos. It was a duck!

Everything we ate was so delicious; all this right after I didn't think the food there could get any better. Then to top off the whole meal, the last dumpling set was a soup. Now, this soup is magical. It has little tiny baby dumplings in it and depending on the number of dumplings you got in your soup, the better your luck would be. I don't remember exactly what the stipulations were for the whole thing, but I got two of them in my soup, which meant I was going to be a pretty lucky lady this year... Let's hope that pans out. The funny thing about the whole situation was that we tried to ask our waitress to clarify what the number of dumplings signified, but she didn't seem to understand. So the only answer we got out of her was: "Little tiny baby dumpling. Bring good luck." It was precious. :)

Then we watched a dinner show about the Tang Dynasty--photos to ensue:

Emcees

Instrumentalist. Look at that head piece!

Ribbon dancing

I wish I could show you all what their sleeves did. It was really neat how they were able to manipulate them to flow like ribbons.

Male dance. Lookin a little demonic there, but that's all right.

Three princesses dance

I think I just really liked her costume... lol

And the queen bee! Also, check out that crazy head piece! It looks like it weighs a ton!

Well, everyone.... with a full belly and a truly entertained mind, I bid you goodnight. May all your tiny baby dumplings bring you good luck and lots 'o joy. :)
Whitney