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| Tiananmen Square - first day of our tour (L-R: Pete, Ret, Trish, Murray, Jenny, Peter) |
When we saw the 10 Day China TripADeal (see above) advertised with a price tag of $AUD599, we knew it ticked all our boxes. Within hours Jenny and Peter and my sister Ret and her husband Peter had signed on to join us. Return airfares alone from Australia to China are more than what we paid for everything. We thought perhaps the hotels might be on the lower end of the scale, but they were better than most hotels we have stayed at around the world. The buses were very modern, free bottles of water were provided on the bus and in each hotel every day, and the tour guides spoke English and were knowledgeable and entertaining. Chilled beer was sold cheaply on the buses and was often a lifesaver after touring in the heat. All in all, it was an amazing, unforgettable trip.
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| Forbidden City |
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| Peter with Ret and Murray behind |
Our first day tour was in Beijing - it was very hot, and given that our first outing was to one of the largest public squares in the world - Tiananmen Square (a place with no shade) - we were relieved to leave the square and walk through the ancient portals and enter the precinct of the
Forbidden City - named because no one was allowed to enter the grounds except for the Emperor's family, concubines and staff. The Palace inside was built by the 3rd Emperor of the Ming Dynasty between 1406 and 1420 AD. Over many years it housed 24 Emperors, was burnt, rebuilt and repeatedly destroyed: most of the buildings that remain are from the 1700's onward.
On our first day were all pretty bushed after a very late/early morning check-in to our hotel, followed by a full-on tour of Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City, but Jenny, Peter and I could not resist attending the Golden Mask Dynasty that night - a musical drama performed by 200 actors. It was a powerful production with a stunning set of dancing and gymnastic displays, capped off by a dance where the ladies hats were actually white peacocks, that flew off their heads as the finale, one after the other in choreographic precision. The short video on the left shows the peacocks flying off… While we were at the show, Ret, Peter and Murray enjoyed relaxing in the mineral hot springs at our Hotel.
GREAT WALL OF CHINA
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| Pink arrow shows the steps waiting for us. Murray, Pete, Jen, Trish and Peter |
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| An elated Peter and Murray |
On Day 2 we were up ready and waiting for our trip to the Great Wall of China. At the beginning of this year, I had no idea that I would be visiting China, let alone paying a visit to such a famous world heritage site. As tough as the climb was, as each step was a different height, it was amazing just to keep walking and get to the top. At this point I left Murray and Peter to continue walking along the wall, while I descended and joined the others from our group who had returned to a cafe to rest their quivering legs. Eventually Murray and Peter returned to join us - this photo (at left) taken of them shows how stoked they were to be up there on the Wall. Considering that in July last year Peter was diagnosed with throat cancer and went through gruelling chemo and radiotherapy, to see him lead the way to climb that wall was amazing. A side trip that got lost in the magnificence of the Great Wall was a side trip to a Jade factory on the way to the wall. We learnt how they carve the jade, and how to tell how valuable one piece was from another. Some of their creations were simply amazing.
On our last day in Beijing, we were taken to the zoo to see the giant pandas. Well, I'm sure it would be quite a sight to see them in their natural habitat up North, but in their enclosure in the zoo, they weren't too impressive to see. Out of about the 6 pandas that we saw, only 1 was awake and lazily eating cane. Here is a short action video for you to see for yourself. We then proceeded to the cafe to have ourselves a Panda Coffee.
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| Panda Coffee |
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| Soaking our feet ready for massages |
After the zoo and before leaving Beijing, we were given a presentation at Tongrentang, the Chinese Medicine institution that was used for treating athletes during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. After a powerpoint presentation, all 40 of us from our tour had an individual bucket of hot water (with minerals added) to soak our feet in before having a personal foot and calf massage. While that was in progress, a Chinese traditional doctor came along and sat with each of us, held our hands, felt our pulse, looked at our palm lines and at our eyes, and with the help of a translator, proceeded to describe the health ailments he assessed us to have. You then had the option to purchase his personally recommended herbal medicines. Several of our tour group walked out with bags of medications, so hopefully the remedies they purchased do the trick. Murray and I kept our credit card tucked away, as I already had my eye on buying some Chinese Silk! Next stop was the airport for a 2 hr 15 minute flight to Shanghai and our next stop Suzhou.
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| Taken as we went past in our boat |
Suzhou or 'Venice of the East', was a pleasant place to visit. We took a canal tour and heard how the '
Grand Canal' was commenced back in the 5th Century BC (hard to get your head around that) and as well as being the oldest canal in the world, it is understandably a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It was built to connect Beijing and Hangzhou over a total length of 1,794 km (1,115 mi), although not all of it is currently navigational. Suzhou itself dates back to 514 BC.
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| Sights along our Canal tour in Suzhou - washing day? |
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| Most cocoons housed two silk worms as in this photo |
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| Silk stretched over the metal dome - too strong to poke a hole in it |
Whilst in Suzhou we spent an enjoyable time at the Silk Spinning Factory. Firstly we were given a most interesting and informative presentation on the way silk is processed. From the silkworm cocoons being unwrapped to seeing the end product of silk bedding, as well as a whole floor of clothing items. We all got to test how long and strong the silk fibres were, and finally, the bit I was waiting for, we had the opportunity to buy our own silk products. Even before I walked in their front door, I had heard about the beautiful silk bed doonas, and fortunately my pocket money stretched far enough to buy a full bed set - free postage home - 4-6 week delivery time. 5 weeks have passed, so hopefully within a week or so, I will be sleeping like a princess with my prince!
We left Suzhou and after a 1 hour bus trip during which time we were kept laughing by the delightful and entertaining guide, Mandy, we arrived at the pretty city of Wuxi. After being in the bus for the hour, it was refreshing to walk beside Taihu Lake, the second largest fresh water lake in China, buy an icy pole and enjoy the view. On our return to the bus, we saw the 3 ladies below dancing gently to music.
PEARLS
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| 30 small pearls in this oyster |
From Wuxi we drove to Hangzhou. The information session we had on arrival at the Pearl Outlet in Hangzhou was interesting and illuminating. On our way there, Jen had told us that she was in the market for a pair of pearl stud earrings, and we were happy to help her in her quest - but we needn't have bothered…fate took a hand instead. As we all sat around the table to hear about pearls, we were shown a large oyster shell, and each one of us had to come up with a different number, but try to guess how many pearls were inside the shell. The lucky winner would win a pair of pearl studs. Jen guessed 30, and bingo, she was right. Oysters from shells that only contain one large pearl are likely to be used for jewellery, but in shells that hold numerous smaller pearls like this one, these pearls are crushed and used in medicines (including tea) and cosmetics. It mentions its uses in the poster above.
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| Tour guide Jacky at tea plantation |
To complete our tour trifecta in Hangzhou, we finished off with a visit to the Tea House at Meijiawu Tea Village. Very appropriate considering that Hangzhou is considered the tea capital of China! We stood amongst the bushes in the tea plantation and we heard how they are grown and the tender (most expensive and prized) leaves are hand picked to use in top quality tea. So many products are made from tea leaves! Listening to the talk on the benefits of green tea, apparently you wouldn't want to exist for one day without it!
Nowhere near as healthy as green tea, but Peter discovered a delicious treat as we were walking around an area near the 700 year old Hutongs (narrow lanes). The red things on sticks you can see behind us are huge, ripe strawberries covered in fine wispy toffee like a toffee apple. There were about 6-8 large strawberries - Jen, Peter and I made short work of his purchase! If I had seen them again somewhere else, I would have bought another one.
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| Ret and I in yoga mode - trying to help them sell their athletic wear - or not! |
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| Jen, Peter, Pete and Ret - eating like locals |
Whilst we saw lots of high density housing especially in Beijing and Shanghai, we were surprised by how impressive they looked - often surrounded by greenery and water features. The young people prefer the modern high rise buildings as they have their own bathrooms. Unlike their parents and relatives in the older type housing where the buildings have no bathroom, and residents have to line up and pay to use public bathrooms.
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| Density housing but beautifully landscaped |
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| Yes they even have Walmart in China! |
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| Photo taken with restaurant staff |
We had many interesting dining experiences in China, but one of the most memorable was at a restaurant in a beautiful new, multistorey shopping complex in Hangzhou. The head waiter spoke good English, but the others were lost. There were about 6 staff that hovered around our table just listening to our accents, and we were certainly a novelty in their restaurant. In fact, as we were leaving, the head waiter said that the staff were wondering if they could have their photo taken with us…see photo on left. Our guides warned us that it is not uncommon in China for locals to ask to have a selfie taken on their phone with us - it happened to me at the Forbidden Palace and at the Great Wall.
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| Jade carvings of a dragon and a hare - dating back from 13th Century BC |
On our last day in Shanghai we visited the Shanghai Museum. While we gave it a perfunctory once over (we were all pretty tired from the full-on tour), I did go back and marvel at these jade pieces. It was pretty mind-blowing to think that these were carved hundreds of years before Christ was even born. I just found it so hard to comprehend history on that scale...
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| Murray and Ret (right of photo) in Shanghai's premier shopping street - Nanjing Rd 5.5 km long (3.4 mile) |
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| Ret and Jen in our front seats - the cruise started at 6.30pm |
We took up the offer to do an optional tour which was a night cruise on the Huangpu River in Shanghai. Often it pays to do a bit of research, as I had read about the option to pay a few more Yuan to get access to an exclusive area on the main deck and be served beer and snacks. When you arrive, it is helter skelter with everyone racing up to the top deck to get the best vantage point. We had our eye out for the cordoned off area and were the first in…our seats and tables were right in the front. Those that came after us had no tables, and their seats were down lower. We were on what is probably used as a stage, so it provided us with a wonderful, uninterrupted view of the night lights of Shanghai. The cruise started at dusk, but one by one, buildings and boats became illuminated around us. It was dark by the time we returned an hour later.
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| Shanghai by night - me and Jen |
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| Our MAGLEV train pulling in |
Our flight home to Sydney left in the evening, so on our last day, we had a few last minute adventures. Firstly, we got to ride on the world's fastest train. The MAGLEV
magnetic-levitation train ride that we took from city to the international airport is the perfect metaphor for Shanghai according to this website - who am I to argue? The train reaches speeds of 430 km/hr (267 miles/hr), and the trip (30 km/19 mi) takes less than eight minutes. A ticket costs about $AUD13, but was included in our tour. We thought the Shinkansen bullet train that we took in Japan was fast at 224kph, but it is the 3rd fastest in the world, behind two Chinese ones.
Our final activity was to be let loose at a large undercover market where we ate one of the better meals of the trip and did some last minute shopping. It sure was an experience as we are not used to haggling. We walked out of many stores and had the sales people chasing us up and slashing the prices - often exchanging money for goods in the middle of the passageways - at a fraction of the price they started out with.
It was a whirlwind 8 days in the country, but we all agreed it was worth every cent. We did a lot more than I covered in this blog, but I need to get this finished. I'll leave you with a photo of one of the lovely gardens we walked past on our travels.
