Beijing and Beyond

The six of us from Shanghai arrived at the Beijing Airport on the evening of May 19th where we were met by our guide, Mike Ma (Ma Xiao Jian), who had arranged transportation to our hotel. The hotel was very impressive; it had originally been a Buddhist temple, but it was entirely rebuilt and had been open for less than a year. The next morning we met the rest of our tour group at breakfast, and then Mike herded us onto a tour bus for a visit to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

The Forbidden City is the largest and best-preserved group of ancient buildings in China. It was the home of the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties between 1420 and 1912 when the last emperor, Pu Yi, abdicated. After the abdication, he was permitted to live inside until 1924. It is so called, Forbidden City, because it was off-limits to all common citizens for the almost 500 year period. Its 178 acres are completely surrounded by walls and moats. It opened as the Palace Museum in 1925 and it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. We spent several hours exploring many of the 77 buildings and courtyards before leaving through the “Gate of Heavenly Peace” which leads directly into Tiananmen Square.

Tiananmen Square, the largest public square in the world, can easily, and has held over a million people at one time. On the west side of the square is the Great Hall of the People, home to the Chinese Parliament. Across the square is the National Museum of China, which was undergoing a renovation at the time of our visit, and at the south end of the square is the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall which contains his mummified corpse displayed in a crystal coffin. No pictures are allowed inside the building.

Following our visit to the square, we journeyed to a local restaurant for lunch, then, since the majority of our tour group had just arrived after long flights from the U.S., the remainder of the afternoon was free until dinner, which featured, appropriately enough, Peking Duck. That day was also Betsy’s 60th birthday, and so, with the help of our guide, Mike, the restaurant served a birthday cake which was shared by all of us.

The next morning, Thursday, May 21st, we visited the BinBin Cloisonné Factory in Beijing. Cloisonné is enamel artwork that predates the Ming Dynasty (1420 AD). In the process, copper vases, dishes, etc. are cast, and then covered with patterns formed by copper wire welded to the castings. The designs are then inlaid with enamel and glaze, and then placed in an oven to cure. Once cured, the pieces are polished several times before they are finished. We were able to watch all phases of the process, and then try our own hand at applying color to a pattern. Ro, our Hawaiian artist, won first prize, of course. Finally we were given the opportunity to shop in their large factory store before heading out on a drive to the Great Wall.

Our bus took us out of Beijing to Badaling, about 50 miles out of the city, to an unrestored section of the Great Wall. The total length of the wall is over 4,000 miles, or about the distance from Washington DC to Denver. The latest construction occurred around 1368 during the Ming Dynasty, although sections of the wall were built over 2,000 years ago. The wall in the Badaling area has not been restored, nor have any tourist facilities been built in the area, so we were the only tourists there. We transferred to small vans to get over the dirt roads that led to the wall, then walked about ½ mile before we reached the wall, itself. To celebrate our visit, Mike had brought a bottle of “Great Wall Red Wine” for us to try. It didn’t reach the standards of Sonoma County wine, but the thought and effort were great. We then climbed onto the wall and headed up the steep stairs that make up the walking surface. Since the wall hasn’t been restored, workmen have built wooden steps on top of the stone rubble to facilitate the climb. We climbed to a hilltop lookout to see the wall stretching along the ridge lines as far as we could see. Then we went back down the steps, which was more hair-raising than climbing them in the first place, and returned to our bus for a short ride into a village where we were welcomed into a private home for lunch. That was a special treat, and one of several that Overseas Adventure Tours arranged, which added significantly to our understanding of Chinese life and culture.

On our way back to our hotel, we were able to see a number of the Olympic venues from last summer’s games, including the “Birds Nest” Stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies were held. That evening we took an optional evening tour to a dinner and acrobatic show. We’ve all seen Chinese Acrobats on TV or in person, and this show was excellent as was the dinner.

On Friday morning, we hopped on our bus and visited the “Beijing No. 1 Silk Carpet Factory”. It seems like lots of things are “No. 1” in China. In a factory demo, we watched weavers tying individual silk threads onto the warp (vertical threads) and cutting them to length. The work is incredibly detailed and the production of a medium-sized carpet can take up to three months to complete, depending on the design. After watching the weavers several of our group got to try tying and cutting. I’m sure that the weavers took all of our work out as soon as we left the room.

From the carpet factory we journeyed to the Beijing Municipal Opera School, where for an hour or more, we observed classes and individual instruction in various aspects of opera and theater skills. The school is primarily a high school for performing arts, but it includes core classes as well. We watched several dance classes, theatrical sword work, proper fan work (you know, the folding kind in widespread use throughout Asia), and other theatrical skill building activities. The instructors seemed to be searching for perfection, because they stopped student routines for the tiniest correction. Glad we didn’t have instructors that picky in school.

After lunch, we chose to participate in another optional tour, this one to the Summer Palace of the Emperors, followed by dinner and a Chinese opera performance. The Summer Palace is about 8 miles from the center of Beijing, and is the largest and best preserved royal garden in China. During the Jin Dynasty (AD 265 – 420) an imperial palace was built at this site. Most of the grounds and buildings were destroyed by warfare, then redesigned and rebuilt. The Palace and grounds today are about the same as in 1903. Kunming Lake, which encompasses about ¾ of the park, was hand-dug under the orders of Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century. He reportedly marshaled 100,000 laborers to complete the work. A number of Buddhist temples and other buildings dot the shore, many connected by the “Long Corridor”. Paddle boats can be rented for excursions on the lake, but our group rode on a dragon boat to explore the sights around the lake.

Those of us on this optional tour agreed that the Summer Palace should be included in the tour itself, rather than as an add-on. It is an exceptional site to visit and one that no one should miss. We expressed that thought in our trip evaluation questionnaire, and we’ll see if changes are made on future trips.

Once back in Beijing, we traveled to a theater for dinner and a Chinese opera performance. Before the performance began, we were able to go backstage and see the costumes, props, and the actors applying their stage makeup, which when seen up close, looks rather garish. The performance itself was very entertaining, and it was all in Chinese (and actually in some historic dialect). It was great that our guide, Mike, had given us a brief synopsis of the different plays. Once the performance was over, we scurried back to our hotel after what everyone agreed was, “another very big day”.

Saturday was a “getaway day” but it was full of activities before departure, so we had to have our large luggage packed and out of our rooms, and we checked out of the hotel before proceeding with the day’s tour. Our first stop was the “Temple of Heaven”. This temple was built between 1406 and 1420 by the same emperor who built the Forbidden City. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temple underwent extensive restoration prior to the 2008 Olympics, and the surrounding park is very popular with local citizens who practice tai chi, dance, sing, and otherwise gather for leisure activities. There is another “long corridor”, similar to the one at the Summer Palace, but this one was chuck full with people entertaining themselves and others.

From the Temple of Heaven, we traveled a short distance away from tourist must-see sights and shopping malls to visit a Hutong. These old residential neighborhoods consist of many low, flat-roofed buildings crisscrossed by narrow lanes or alleys and are home to perhaps a quarter of Beijing’s population. While many hutongs have disappeared to be replaced by high-rise condo and apartment buildings, about 2,000 still remain. A common feature to these dwelling and shopping areas is that there are no private bathrooms for visitors and residents alike. Instead many public restrooms are found in the hutong.

After walking through a hutong shopping street, we were welcomed into the home of Madame Wong and her niece for lunch. She demonstrated how to make filled dumplings, and then invited us to try our hand at dumpling-making, which we achieved with varying degrees of success. Her dumplings, on the other hand, were well made, and a delicious part of an excellent home-cooked lunch. After finishing lunch, her niece demonstrated her skill as an artist. She paints pictures on the inside of small glass (“snuff”) bottles which are sold for very high prices at stores around Beijing.

We walked back through the hutong, and then toward the Drum Tower, which was the center of the old capital. The drums were beaten to mark the hours of the day. Most of our group continued to the Drum Tower, while we were distracted by a kitchen store. We purchased a Chinese cleaver that Debbie’s sister had asked us to buy for her. We also stopped to purchase wrist watches for ourselves, since we hadn’t brought them, and we realized that we needed to know the time so we didn’t miss the bus! We then scurried to catch up with the rest of the group for dinner.

After dinner we took our bus to the Beijing Railroad Station to catch the night train to Xi’An, our next travel stop. It was about a 12-hour trip, but we had sleeping accommodations aboard the train. Each compartment had 4 berths, but each couple had a compartment to themselves, so the upper berths were a good place to store clothing and our carry-on luggage for the night. Our big suitcases had been transported to the train station and loaded in the baggage car, and we wouldn’t see them again until we reached our hotel in Xi’An. It was an enjoyable ride, and we, at least, got a pretty good night’s sleep.

Xi'An and the Terra Cotta Warriors will be the next post published, in a couple of days, I hope.

Off to Shanghai

Shortly after lunchtime on Thursday, May 14th, we boarded a big United airliner with our friends, Betsy & Andy, and took off on a 13-hour flight from San Francisco to Shanghai, China. It was the start of a 26-day adventure in China, traveling in a small group of 16 adventurers. “Overseas Adventure Travel”, a Boston-based Travel Company, offers the trip, which included many highlights in China, including Tibet and a cruise on the Yangtze River.

Our five-day stay in Shanghai was an optional pre-trip extension of the main trip which began in Beijing. Another couple, Mike and Ro, who live in Hawaii, joined us for the pre-trip.

Our arrival in Shanghai late Friday afternoon (we’d crossed the Int’l. Date Line) was an adventure in itself! Before arriving, everyone on the plane had to fill out a health questionnaire, because China had mounted an all-out campaign to keep H1N1 (Swine) flu out of the country. We were told to remain in our seats after the aircraft stopped at the gate, and several “moon-suited” officials came on board, equipped with remote-read thermometers, and proceeded to check everyone for above-normal temperatures. That process took most of an hour, and then we were permitted to get off the plane and proceed through a health screening line to turn in our health questionnaires. We then went through a customs and immigration line before being allowed to pick up our baggage. The whole process took about two hours, and when we finally exited from the baggage area, we couldn’t find the tour company representative who was to take us to our hotel. Fortunately, Betsy had equipped her cell phone with an International Plan, so she was able to contact OAT in Boston and we got the OK to catch a taxi for the 45 minute ride to town and to submit the taxi receipt to OAT for reimbursement.

Once at our hotel, we were greeted by the brother of a friend of Betsy, and his wife. He is an architect working for an international architectural firm at their Shanghai office. They took us to the Cotton Club, a jazz club owned by an American “expat”. The music was great and a cold beer or two made us forget we’d already been up for over 24 hours. Finally around midnight, we took the short taxi ride back to the hotel and flopped into bed.

Saturday morning, our OAT guide, Jackie, loaded us on a small bus and took us to the “Bund”, an area of art deco buildings along the Huangpu River, where the British first established an international settlement in 1842. From there, looking through the smog, we could see the development in Pudong, across the river, which is home to many skyscrapers and is the international financial center of China.


After a walk through a major shopping area on East Nanjing Street, we then headed for the Yuyuan Gardens, a beautiful quiet place in the middle of the hubbub of the City. It was founded in 1557, and took 18 years to complete. Following our time at the garden, we enjoyed a Mongolian Barbecue lunch at a local restaurant.

During the afternoon’s “free time”, Jackie suggested that we visit the “Jade Buddha Temple”, one of Shanghai’s few active Buddhist monasteries. We viewed several Buddha statues, including a splendid Laughing Buddha. Here we are, with our new travel friends, Mike and Ro, rubbing Buddha for good luck. We also participated at a tea ceremony at a tea house in the monastery before returning to our hotel for dinner and an early turn-in to catch up on our sleep.

Sunday morning we traveled by bus to the village of Zhu Jia Jiao, about an hour southwest of downtown Shanghai. The village is over 1700 years old, and is built around canals that are reminiscent of Venice. Many old bridges, built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, span the canals and connect the many shops and restaurants that line the canals. We hopped on a boat, powered by a sweep oar similar to an Italian gondola, and took a short ride on a canal. We spotted a 400-year old arched stone bridge that is the earliest and longest in southeast China. We visited another formal garden, established during the Ming Dynasty, and then enjoyed a fabulous lunch in a canal-side restaurant before returning to Shanghai.

Monday morning we joined the Shanghai commuters on the subway and made our way to the railroad station where we caught a bullet train to the city of Suzhou, about 45 minutes away. The train was as modern as any I’ve seen anywhere, and it zipped along at about 125 mph. In Suzhou, a 2,500 year-old city of more than 5 million, we started our tour with a visit to the Ou Garden, a beautifully landscaped garden begun in the 6th century. From there we traveled to a silk factory to learn about the flourishing silk industry that has existed in the area since the 14th century. Of course, there was a large quilt and silk clothing shop attached, which kept the ladies occupied for some time.

We also took a short boat ride on one of the canals in Suzhou. The city found itself to be strategically located on a major trade route, the Silk Road, and also on the “Grand Canal” system that linked the Yangtze River with the Yellow River, some 1,100 miles north. Construction began around 495 BC and was completed in about 609 AD. It is no longer navigable throughout its length, but about half of it is at least seasonably navigable, and is used primarily for tourism.

Our final stop was the Dinghui Temple said to be built around 220 AD. From there, a short ride took us back to the train station for our trip back to Shanghai, and another ride on the subway to our hotel.

Our last day in Shanghai included a visit to a neighborhood Community Center. The neighborhood encompassed about 30,000 dwellings and 90,000 residents. The center serves as primarily as a Senior Center, but offers programs for all residents as well. Activities include music, dance, a library, a large computer room as well as areas where residents can gather for talk and for games. From there we traveled a short distance to the home of Madame Yee, where we enjoyed an excellent, home-cooked lunch and a chance to absorb some local culture. Although she spoke no English, communication was surprisingly easy, with the help of our guide, Jackie.


After lunch, we spent some time at the Shanghai Museum. Built in 1994, the museum has many galleries, including those devoted to Bronzes, sculptures, calligraphy and furniture from the Ming and Qing Dynasties.



Later that afternoon, we headed back to the Shanghai Airport and our 2 ½ hour flight to Beijing to meet the rest of our travel group and begin the main tour.

Family Time

From the Seattle area we took U.S. Hwy 2 over Stevens Pass through the Cascade Range to Leavenworth, a quaint Bavarian town, then to Wenachee, the apple capital of Washington. Summer was late here, too, so only the earliest apples were on the market. We, of course, purchased a few, but we’ll have to wait for most varieties. From Wenachee, we continued east on Hwy 2 through thousands of acres of wheat fields. While most fields had been harvested, and even some fields plowed and maybe even planted with next year’s crop, there were still a number of combines busily cutting grain. Interesting stuff for a California couple.

We reached Spokane around 3 PM, and headed north for 15 miles or so, to Deer Park. Debbie’s Aunt Alice and Uncle Skeet from Silver Creek, WA were camped with their long-time friends, Keith and Francie, in a beautiful RV & Golf Resort just east of town. They all enjoy playing golf, so this was the perfect spot. The weather was finally sunny and warm, which we really were looking forward to after all the rain and clouds we’ve had. While neither of us are golfers, just sitting in the sun was a great pleasure.

The RV Park is large and the individual campsites are huge! The concrete RV pads are about 14 feet wide and 100 feet long, with a wide patio at each site. A nice lawn surrounds the pads, and they allow guests to wash their RV’s and cars, so we were able to get the coach and the car reasonably clean in a day. We made several shopping trips into Spokane during the week, but we spent most of our time enjoying the park.

After a week in Deer Park, we packed up and followed Alice and Skeet to O’Sullivan RV Resort just south of Moses Lake, WA, about 125 miles from Deer Park. Their friends headed back to their home in Salem, OR. We spent four nights in Moses Lake with Alice and Skeet, and we were joined for the weekend by Debbie’s Aunt Ann, also from Silver Creek, and her son, John and his wife, Lory from Post Falls, Idaho. Their adult kids, Jennifer and John also joined us for the weekend, so it was a real family reunion. We haven’t seen any of them for at least five years, so we had a really good time visiting with all of them.

On Sunday morning, September 14th, we left the family still having fun at O’Sullivan, and headed south through Bend, OR to La Pine State Park, just south of Sunriver, OR. Our Holiday Rambler RV Chapter had held their first campout of the fall in Red Bluff the previous week, and a number of them continued north to La Pine for a week of camping. Our fellow Alaskan travelers were there when we arrived, so we had a great time catching up with them and all of our other camping friends.

A number of the ladies went to Sisters, a small touristy town about an hour north of La Pine one day, while several of the guys spent some time at a fish hatchery near La Pine. One evening we had a excellent potluck dinner to which everyone brought their own meat to grill and a side dish to share. Good food and fun!

On Wednesday, about seven motorhomes from our group packed up and headed for Salem, OR and an annual rally for diesel motorhomes. Tom is on the Board of Directors for this chapter which specializes in technical seminars on diesel-powered motorhomes. A number of our other RVing friends will be at this rally and another one, sponsored by our motorhome manufacturer, Monaco Corp. which will follow the diesel pusher rally.

We’ll have more to tell you soon.

The Lower 48

It rained all day Thursday in Vancouver, limiting our activities somewhat. We did make a trip to the grocery store and fruit/vegetable stand, as well as celebrating our last day in Canada with an excellent dinner at The Keg Restaurant.

Friday morning saw us heading east and south to the US Border crossing at Aldergrove. After satisfying the US Customs Service that we were neither terrorists nor wetbacks, we traveled to Lynden, WA, about 5 miles south of the border. Lynden was founded as a Dutch community, and many unusual rules established by the founders are still in effect. For example, no business can be conducted on Sunday, not even mowing the lawn or hanging out the laundry. Also, no dancing is allowed, except for the traditional Dutch clogging. Surprisingly, there is a liquor store next to the post office, but we’re told that the State requires it because of the size of the town (12,000). We walked the downtown and had a very good ‘comfort food’ dinner at Dutch Mothers.

Saturday morning we packed up and traveled about 15 miles west, to a farm where we met our friends, Pam and Karl. They spend several months each year at Karl’s Aunt Myrne’s farm, cleaning, repairing, mowing and other farm chores for his 96 year-old aunt. They took time off to show us around the area, including the Peace Arch Park at the Canadian border in Blaine, WA. The border runs right through the large arch, and there is a beautiful park on both sides of the border. In this area, a ‘secure border’ is a joke, since there is a community of homes on the Canadian side with no physical restriction to an adjacent park on the US side. We just walked across and back. Hmmm!


They also took us to Bellingham for lunch, then back that evening for dinner. Sometimes it seems like all we do is eat! The next day we picked a large bucket of wild blackberries on the farm and quickly froze them for cobblers & stuff at a later time. We’ve motorhomed with Pam and Karl, and also cruised with them. We last visited them at their new home near Albuquerque last fall and it was great to get together again.

On Labor Day we packed up and headed back to the Seattle area. We stayed at Lake Pleasant RV Park in Bothell, just north of Seattle. We’d stayed there for three days on the way north in May. Friends from Santa Rosa, Ron & Sue, came by just after we’d arrived and traveled with us (or more appropriately, we traveled with them) to Seven Cedars (Indian) Casino in Sequim, on the Olympic Peninsula. Longtime friends, Mike and Carol, were playing in a band at the casino that afternoon, and we thoroughly enjoyed their music, as did a large contingent of other folks who obviously love to dance to a live band. Their music covered the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and was great to listen and dance to. The band’s schedule didn’t allow much time for visiting, so we’ll come back one of these days to catch up with Mike and Carol.

Monday morning we drove over to Ron & Sue’s new home in Sammamish, a suburb just east of Seattle. After Ron retired from the City of Santa Rosa, they decided to move closer to their two daughters and their families who live in the Sammamish area. They also motorhome, so now that school is back in session, they’re about to head for their other home in Indiana so they can spend time with Sue’s mother and catch up on the second home’s chores. They’ll leave their motorhome in New Mexico and return to spend time in that area when winter arrives in Washington. Tom and Ron worked together at the City, so we really had a good time catching up with them. We had lunch at the beautiful Newcastle Golf Club near their home.
We then went to Snoqualmie Falls, a gorgeous spot that Tom had visited about 45 years ago, but that Debbie has never seen. There are two power plants at the falls, one built in 1898, and the other in 1910. Snoqualmie River drops 270 feet, 100 feet higher than Niagara. We finished the day with dinner at a Japanese restaurant and enjoyed some sushi as we usually do when dining with Ron and Sue.

From Seattle, we headed to Deer Park, WA, near Spokane where we’ll spend about 10 days with Debbie’s Aunt Alice and Uncle Charles, AKA Skeet. We’ll tell you about our adventures with them the next time.

Around and About Vancouver

It’s Thursday, we’re still in Vancouver, and it’s still raining!! Actually, the days have been OK, except for Sunday, but we’ve had rain almost every night.

Monday we headed for Whistler Mountain, BC’s prime ski area and the venue for the alpine events during the Winter Olympics in 2010. It’s about 60 miles north of Vancouver, and at an elevation of almost 9,000 feet, it gets lots of snow. The village is a lot like Squaw Valley or Mammoth with about 10,000 year-round residents. Almost the entire length of road between Whistler and Horseshoe Bay just north of Vancouver is being widened and straightened for the Olympics. The signs say it’s a $600 million project, but it looks more expensive than that to us.

While at Whistler, supposedly named for whistling marmots in the surrounding area, we wandered about town, had a nice lunch, and found a brewpub to wait in while the ladies shopped. There’s a tremendous amount of construction in and around the village, too, all geared toward the Olympics.

Returning from Whistler, we stopped at Shannon Falls, which plunge 1,100 feet and are the third largest falls in BC. A short walk brought us to a viewpoint with a terrific view of the falls.

After a rainy Monday night, the day dawned mostly clear and sunny, so we packed up our bikes and drove across the Lions Gate Bridge to Stanley Park where we rode the 7 km seawall trail completely around the park. It was a fun ride. From there, we drove to Granville Island and its huge public market. We had lunch in a nice restaurant and then spent a couple of hours checking out the stalls and shops in the market. We headed back to the RV Park in commute traffic, but it wasn’t too bad. It sort of reminded us that we’re headed back to areas with too many cars, very different than what we’ve seen in the past three months or so.

On Wednesday we headed back into downtown Vancouver to see Chinatown, the 3rd largest in North America, after San Francisco and New York City. The markets are filled with stuff that we’ve seldom seen, and the smells are different, too. We had a nice lunch and visited the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. From there we walked to Gastown, the historic commercial district in Vancouver. While no longer the commercial center of town, it’s filled with interesting shops and restaurants, and it's also the home of an antique steam-powered clock.
What we didn’t realize, though, was that between Chinatown and Gastown is a run-down area full of the homeless. It was depressing and a little scary walking through that area, so on our way back to the car, we detoured way around it.

Wednesday night was rainy again, but we cooked Thursday morning breakfast on the outdoor stove under the awning. It wasn’t cold, just wet, so everything worked out just fine. We had all sorts of ideas for sightseeing in the Vancouver area on Thursday, but it didn't stop raining all day, so aside from a trip to the grocery store, we just watched it rain.

It's now Friday, and we're back in the USA again. LaVan and Louise have headed out on their own, since they've got a small fuel tank leak and they want to get to the Monaco repair facility in Harrisburg, OR on Tuesday to get it repaired. We, along with Bob and Diane were able to get our motorhomes road-ready and the cars hooked up before it began to rain again. We left Vancouver mid-morning for a 50 mile trip back into the states. We crossed the border at Aldergrove, BC, which took most of an hour because of border-crossing traffic. We're now in Lynden, WA, a beautiful little town with a strong Dutch influence. It's been raining here, too, but right now the sun is peeking through the clouds. We'll spend the night here, then travel a few miles to Ferndale to visit with our friends, Karl and Pam for a couple of days before moving on. We've got lots more visiting to do in Washington, so we won't leave the state until mid-September.

That's it for now. Have a great Labor Day weekend. There'll be more of our adventure in a few days.