OVERNIGHT TRAIN, and SUZHOU

Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011

Getting to and through the Beijing Railroad Station is always a chore, and last night was no exception.  Elaine later wished she'd had a video camera to record our single file "Long March" to the station.  Bryant had warned the group within an inch of their lives to pay attention, avoid distractions, guard their purses, and keep together while we made our way across the plaza from our bus to the main entrance to the station.  After going through security, we followed our guide and Bryant to the ticket taker wicket, and first down, then up escalators, lugging our backpacks, purses, and pulling our suitcases.  Once ensconced in our soft sleeper cabins, (we had 3, each in a different carriage) we checked in on the others, and settled down for the night.  Some of us slept, most didn't.  We arrived at the Suzhou RR Station to meet our guide, May, on the platform around 9:30 am.

Joyce and Ron on the overnight sleeper to Suzhou

Lighthouse group Suzhou

Silk worm cocoons, No. 1 Silk Factory

Pulling silk to make a silk quilt batt

Suzhou canal scene

Master of Nets Garden at dusk

Activites today included a walk to Panmen Gate, a stroll through the Master of Nets Garden, which was overrun by high school students, a cruise on the Grand Canal and smaller Suzhou Canals, a tour through the No. 1 Silk Factory, and some free time for shopping, ice cream etc.  We were all pretty exhausted when we crawled into a real bed at our hotel tonight.

SLOW DAY AT THE SUMMER PALACE

Monday, October 17 - Beijing  -
This morning we gathered all our luggage in the hotel lobby, got back our room key deposits, and climbed aboard our bus for an hour and a half trip to the Summer Palace, vacation spot of the empress CiXi and her family.  Our guide Ben assured us that because it was Monday there shouldn't be too many visitors there.  How wrong he was!  The Palace opens at 6 am daily, so when we entered at about 9:30 am, thousands of people, mostly Chinese tourists, were pouring out the gates having already finished their tour.  It was pretty much a scrum from start to finish.  The "Lighthouse" group, as we've been dubbed, had to gather in corners just to hear Ben's informative talk at each turn.  Chinese tour groups, led by guides equipped with portable loudspeakers, were everywhere.  We could barely walk without bumping into others.  The Palace is huge, with gardens, rocks, pagodas, arched bridges, and long walkways decorated with paintings of Chinese legends and fairytales.  Our Swallowtail cutout attracts lots of attention wherever we go, and is proving to work well in lieu of a flag or umbrella that most guides carry.

We had a delicious lunch at a local restaurant nearby, which turned out to be one of our favourites, especially when they brought the bill - $3. Canadian per person for a large meal.  And yes, we are eating very well and often, it seems.  The Lama Temple was next on our agenda,  and we appreciated the significance of Buddhist beliefs which have recently gained favour among many Chinese.  One of the special things was a framed picture of a buddha which had such incredible silk applique that it was hard to grasp the time and skill needed to complete the work.  The scent of incense wafted around the temple buildings as people worshipped in the courtyards.

After a light (?) supper, we headed to the Beijing Railroad station and boarded our overnight sleeper for Suzhou, a city of 7 million west of Shanghai.  We'll spend one night and 2 days in the area before heading to Shanghai.

Crowds at the Summer Palace

View across Kunming Lake, Summer Palace

Lighthouse Group, Summer Palace

Detail painting at Summer Palace

BEIJING- PANJIAYUAN, TIANTAN PK, HUTONG TOUR

OCT. 16, 2011 Sunday

EXCELLENT DAY FINISHES ON HIGH NOTE

Anneke and her "grandson" in the hutong

Singers at the Kiev Restaurant

Calligrapher at Tiantan Park

Lake Houhai, Beijing

The high notes - and low ones as well - were furnished by the Russian singers at the Kiev Restaurant in western Beijing where we were treated to a superb meal and top-notch service.  The restaurant is located off a busy street and was a favourite of ours during our Beijing years.  The singers are professionally trained musicians, many of whom may have sung in the Red Army Chorus. 

But our dinner was just one part of a great day, which was made even better by a perfect weather day of blue, blue sky and 20 degree C. temperatures.  We began with a shopping experience at Panjiayuan, also known as the Dirt Market, where on weekends anyone can spread out a blanket and sell their goods.  Many are so-called antiques, often made specifically to look old.  Permanent stall-holders sell jade, jewelry, wood carvings, Tibetan clothing, home decor items, books, leather puppets, ceramics, tea sets - and more.  Everyone really enjoyed this market, as the vendors are not aggressive and the atmosphere is much different than at the Silk Market.  Unfortunately, we were so busy shopping, we didn't have time for photos here.

Our next stop was a slow, informative walk through the Temple of Heaven complex, one of the largest green spaces in the city.  Richard gave us a complete history and we were able to see and hear retired common people singing, dancing, doing tai chi, knitting, etc. along the wooden covered walkway near the central temple which was built for the Emperor to worship the gods of nature. It is amazingly quiet in the park,  despite it being in the middle of the city of 20 million people.

A full lunch of Beijing special dishes preceded a walk through a reconstructed section of the imperial shopping  street near Qiamen Gate of Tiananmen Square..  Then it was on to our hutong tour.  Up near Houhai Lake to the northwest of the Forbidden City is an area of traditional old courtyard homes some of which date back to the Imperial times.  These particular ones have been protected by the city and there is a thriving business of rickshaw/pedicab tours with neighbourhood guides.   We were able to visit one such home where 8 people in one family have lived for over 100 years.  The owners do fine paper-cutting, which some of us purchased.

After dinner we headed back to our hotel, tired, but happy, to pack for our departure tomorrow afternoon.  We'll be on the train to Suzhou as you are getting up on Monday morning.

Group in Hutong

Dawn and Elaine at Tiantan Park

Tiantan Park temple, symbol of Beijing

TIANAN'MEN, MUSEUM, SILK MKT.

Oct. 15 - Saturday in Beijing

First, thanks to all who have written to let us know they are following our travels!  Everyone here says HI!

First stop - Tiananmen Square - along with about half a million other tourists!  Our guide Richard (note what he's using to lead us around the city!)  told us that the number of Chinese tourists has drastically increased over the past 5-10 years, and there were mostly Chinese tour groups at the square today.  The queue for Mao's tomb was nearly a kilometer long.  Lovely weather, though, so we spent about an hour there.  The group photos prove it!  Large numbers of street vendors bugged us to buy all kinds of souvenirs, but we didn't buy much.  We'd already walked quite a ways by 10 am, so had to sit along the sidewalk while our bus caught up to us.

Around 11 we got to the 5-year-old Beijing Capital Museum, a fabulous space with endless displays of cultural relics, models of old city life, porcelains, etc.  When we were near the entry Dawn caught sight of an older couple wearing flowers and a red ribbon in their lapels.  Turns out he and his wife were a calligrapher and painter and there was an exhibition of their work in the basement.  We had a photo taken of them with our group, and later Wendy discovered the exhibition, and got us all a souvenir of the show.  It is a huge museum, and by 1 pm we'd had enough, so set out for lunch at MacDonald's and the afternoon at the Silk Market.  MacDonald's fare tasted pretty good.  However, nothing could prepare people for the chaos, noise, and volume of goods at the Silk Market, especially on a busy Saturday afternoon.  Once we'd gathered in our bus at the end of the afternoon we had a grand "show and tell" of everyone's purchases.  Ce showed amazing restraint, but the same could not be said for Adele!  I won't tell tales out of school, though.

Dinner tonight was at AFUNTI, a Uighur minority restaurant which is very touristy, but had an amusing floor show  when we were last here 4-5 years ago.  Tonight the food service was less than satisfactory.  The dancing girls were good, but the sound was much too loud for most of these old ears. Just goes to show you that nothing stays the same for very long here. 

Richard leads the way with Swallowtail

Classic Group photo at Tiananmen Square, in front of Forbidden City

Street vendors selling tourist stuff

Time for a sidewalk rest

Busy Beijing Street

Beijing Capital Museum gawkers

Museum displays

GRAND MANAN HITS THE WALL.......Oct.14

Friday, October 14, 2011 - Beijing area

We started the day with an early breakfast, and boarded the bus under blue skies.  Mr. Niu, our driver, transported us through the city and into the countryside to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall.  Our guide, Richard, shared much interesting historical information about the construction of the wall, and the economic situation of the early times when the Wall was built.  We also had the privilege of the company of Yelin, the travel agent who arranged our tour.  

When we arrived at Mutianyu, our work was cut out for us - lots of uphill walking just to reach the bottom of the gondola lift up to the wall itself.  We had to run the gauntlet of aggressive vendors  selling T-shirts, postcards, and all manner of goods to the gullible tourists.  A short gondola ride took us up to the wall and many of us walked for 30-45 minutes from tower to tower.  Adele, Ron, and Joyce won the race to the furthest tower, but we all shared in the "pinch me" moment of actually being on the Wall.  Lots of school students and tourists from all over the world were enjoying the fine weather as well.

An excellent lunch in a "farmer's restaurant" awaited us after descending the Wall, and surrounded by a jungle of potted plants we savoured spicy fish, vegetable dishes, sweet and sour chicken, pork and vegetables, rice, and fresh fruit for dessert.  I think we counted 11 different dishes to be shared.  Best of all was a Western toilet!

At 2 pm we arrived at the village school, which we had expected to be a small country school.  However, it turned out to be a residential school for about 400 kids, grades 1-6 which was built only 2 years ago.  It seemed to be a demonstration school, with the latest in technology.  It was also the cleanest school any of us had ever seen!  We were greeted by the director and a grade 5 English class.  Their young teacher put them through their paces, and for the last 20 minutes of the class, we shared information about Grand Manan, introduced to them the song "This Land is Your Land", and answered a few of their questions.  Yelin explained that in the past few years the central government has put much more emphasis on education in rural areas, and thus the investment in the children of the Mutianyu area.  

The day ended with a huge dinner of Peking Duck, the traditional Beijing treat.  Sixteen dishes were on the table tonight, in addition to the duck, which we saw sliced at the table.  Because the restaurant was close by our hotel, we walked there and back, which was a good thing based on the amount of food we consumed!  Here are some photos of our day.

New buildings in downtown Beijing

Martha and Anneke board the gondola up to the Great Wall

The group minus Wendy.....she was there, just not in the photo

Joyce, Ann, Ce, and Elaine enjoy lunch at the Farmer's Restaurant, Mutianyu

Wendy climbs the virtual wall

Classroom at Mutianyu

Explaining what a lighthouse is

 

THE LIGHTHOUSE GROUP ARRIVES!

October 13 - Thursday-Beijing

While Bryant and I spent the morning doing odd jobs, and Ron and Joyce squeezed in another market trip, the remaining group members were winging their way from Toronto to Beijing.  Their flight arrived on time, and after about an hour of immigration and customs procedures, they appeared at the doorway to Exit B.  There were a few smiles when they spied our guide, Richard, holding up a cardboard replica of Swallowtail.  After a few  photos at the 9-Dragon Wall near Exit B, we boarded our 30-seat bus and headed into the city, beating the rush hour traffic by a half-hour or so.  After checking into the hotel, everyone had some settling in time before dinner at 6:30.  The Royal Hot Pot restaurant, just around the corner from our hotel, put out a great spread of meat, vegetables, and mushrooms which each person cooked in boiling broth.  Fresh fruit for dessert provided a light sweet taste to end our meal.  Yelin, our Beijing travel agent, dropped by to say hello to our group.  She will come with us tomorrow to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, and to a small rural primary school in the afternoon, north of the city.  More adventures to follow!

Ann, Ce, Adele, and Dawn spy Swallowtail

Our group (minus Ron and Joyce), at 9-Dragon Wall, Terminal 3, Beijing

The group ready to eat at Royal Hotpot Restaurant

Before trying to use chopsticks......

Chopsticks lessons

Pros by the end of the meal

BEIJING OLYMPIC PARK & YASHOW MARKET

What did YOU do today?  October 12, 2011 - Beijing

What a day!  After a breakfast of Chinese vegetables, steamed buns, and leftovers from last night's supper, Ron, Joyce, Bryant and I set out on foot to ride the subway to Olympic Park.  Though the subway station wasn't too far, once we got down into the system we did a lot of walking and had to transfer from one line to another twice.  Once at the Olympic Sports Center we got into the Bird's Nest and were overwhelmed by the size and design/construction of the huge building.  Not content with just a look-see, we opted to take a ride on the SEGWAYs they had for rent there.  What FUN!  We'd seen them on TV, and they looked a little unstable, but once our 'coach' had given us some  instruction we got the idea and rode around the Olympic track three times.  Then it was on to the Water Cube, which doesn't look like much from the outside, but is so light and airy on the inside. Within the last year they have added a water park, complete with wave pool, and everyone there seemed to be having a great time.  Again the design is pretty amazing.


Then it was on to the Yashow Market, in Sanlitun area, where Ron bargained hard for a nylon jacket and pants, and attracted quite a lot of attention during the process!  The market is a good one, offering most everything the Silk Market does, but with less aggressive vendors.  We ate dinner at Morel's Belgian restaurant, one of our favourites when we were working in China.

Martha and Bryant with Mickey at Olympic Park

Ron and Joyce in front of the Bird's Nest - in the smog

Ron surveying the track

Olympic Water Cube, Beijing

Bargaining at Yashow Market

Kids at heart, riding Segways in Bird's Nest Stadium