CHENGDU Friday 21 October

River flows past Dujiangyan Dam, outside Chengdu

Painted trim at reconstructed lookout, Dujiangyan

Negotiating the rocky footbridge, Dujiangyan Dam

Ancient dam construction techniques, Dujiangyan

Arrived in Chengdu mid-day after an uneventful flight from Shanghai.  Our guide, Sophia, and our driver picked us up, and we headed straight for the ancient dam at Dujiangyan outside the city.  Traffic jams were terrible, and the air was thick with smog.  A light drizzle fell as we walked from one end of the dam to another, and over 2 footbridges that rocked a lot when encouraged by many of the Chinese tourists.  The weather put somewhat of a damper on the day, but the bridge was interesting.

SHANGHAI Thurs. 20 October

Shanghai city planning hall model of inner city

Lighthouse group at site of first Party Congress, Shanghai

Looking down on the Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai

100 stories up in Shanghai

Barbers use special dyeing comb to dye hair near Yuyuan Garden, Shanghai

Dragon's head, Yuyuan Garden

Crowds near Yuyuan Garden

Dawn and Adele on the Bund, Shanghai

Looking toward Pudong, Shanghai New City

Shanghai Acrobats

Shanghai Acrobats

Glad to hear that we have so many faithful followers!  Please understand that we will do our best to post daily, but due to technical problems, exhaustion, too many photos to edit, etc., we may not be able to do so.  Everyone sends their best to  Grand Manan and elsewhere in the world where folks are reading this.  We are having a great time.   
Take care,

The Lighthouse Group


SHANGHAIED
Oct. 20, Thursday

This is one incredible city!  We began the day with our guide, Jenny, whose English is excellent, and is very easy to understand.  First off we went to the Shanghai City Planning Hall Exhibition Center, where on the 3rd floor is a huge model of the 650 sq. kilometer inner city (one tenth of the whole city of Shanghai).  Lighting made the Huangpu River look rippled, with its many barges.  The model is on the scale of 1:500, and is 10 years old, so it included last year's EXPO pavilions as well as residential and commercial buildings.  The elevated walkway around the model's perimeter made it easy to get a grasp of the size and complexity of the area. 

Next stop - Shikumen and the renovated Linong area.  The Linong (similiar to Beijing's hutongs) area has been Yuppified and upscale bars and restaurants line the walking streets.  Shikumen is the site of the first Party Congress in 1949.  Then it was on to the Global Financial Center Tower, the tallest building in China, financed by a Japanese company.  Ask any tour female about the Japanese toilets there!  We took the elevator to the 95th floor, then two escalators to the 97th, and another elevator to the 100th floor observation area, with glass floor and spectacular views out over the city.  This experience was especially meaningful having already seen the model of the city earlier in the morning.  We ALL went up to the 100th floor!

After lunch it was the Yuyuan Garden, a large classical Chinese garden, with recently added shopping area.  We certainly recognize that China has an active  market economy based on the many renovated shopping streets in every city.  Our guide offered to get tickets for a Shanghai Acrobats performance after dinner, so we took her up on the offer and enjoyed a great performance from balcony seats.  Then it was back to the hotel to try to jam more purchases into our suitcases, which for some meant throwing out some unneeded goods to make room for new.  Off to Chengdu in central/west China tomorrow morning.

"SERVE YOU WITH SMILING"

100 Bed Museum, Wuzhen

Wood carving on building, Wuzhen

Wuzhen street

Indigo cloth

View from canal boat, Wuzhen

Mops hang out along Wuzhen canal

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

"Serve You With Smiling" it said over the toll booth as we drove from Suzhou to the small water village of Wuzhen.  Because this area of China, just west of Shanghai, is near the mouth of the Yangtze River, there are several such "water villages", each claiming to be the Venice of China.  We chose Wuzhen because of its reputation as a center of indigo dyeing and woodcarving.  Near the entrance to this old town (e.g. tourist area) was the best public toilet we've run into (no pun intended) so far on the trip.  As we entered the building, we were physically nudged toward a bank of about 20 Western toilet stalls in a separate section.  Chinese women were sent to the squatter section.  Signage was priceless.

Visits to the "100 Bed Museum" and a collection of old wood carvings impressed us with the workmanship and beauty of the furniture and decorative items.  We saw an abbreviated demonstration of the preparation of indigo for dyeing, dyed fabrics hanging from 15-20 foot high drying racks, blowing in the breeze, and then headed toward the official shop to make some purchases.  The village itself is lovely, with white buildings with dark trim hanging over the narrow canals.  Small wooden boats ferry tourists back and forth through the town.  A market section sold tourist souvenirs and everyday items for the inhabitants.  Interestingly, there is no hotel or inn there, but there are restaurants where we had lunch.

Then it was off on the bus to Shanghai.  We entered the city about 2 hours after leaving Wuzhen, but it took nearly an hour to get to the hotel using elevated highways and ring roads.  Amazing sights (especially compared to Grand Manan!) to be seen, with hundreds of skyscrapers in Pudong (East/New Shanghai - developed from farmland in the last 20 years) and in West (downtown) Shanghai.  The city seems to stretch indefinitely in all directions, (over 20 million residents) although it is much more concentrated than Beijing.  Many, many residentiall buildings are more than 30 stories high.  We arrived at our hotel and were very impressed with both lobby and our rooms.  Beds seem SOFT after what we've been used to so far!  Unfortunately our computer wasn't very useful so thus this late post.

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