China Part 2 - Finally!!!

12/29/07 - hi there all...sorry this has taken me so long to update....blah, blah, blah....i would like to dedicate this update of my blog to my grandmother who passed away today....she was one tough lady....died at 97....and i am not sure she really wanted to go....but i guess when your number has been called....its your turn....she loved getting postcards from wherever i went and she was one strong woman....so here's to her.....happy new years all...and all the best in 2008!!!

this first shot is of cynthia and i....she was my traveling partner for the china and tibet trip....this is the train we took to get from beijing to xian....it was a very swanky train and we brought some beer for the ride...gambey - or cheers, in chinese....i am sure my spelling is wrong....

this is cynthia and i and our wonderful guide andy....we was one smart cookie and got everyone a shot of chinese fire water...so they would fall asleep better on the train ride....this is us toasting and prepping for the overnight ahead of us....this train was so much nicer than the train i took from perm to ulan bataar....it was mind boggling....
this is the hotel we stayed at in xian...it was beautiful....and it had peacocks roaming around on the grounds...it rained a good deal of the time we were here...so their feathers were constantly wet...we didn't have the best view though as we were put into the corner room on the ground floor facing a wall.....i guess no one puts baby in a corner...but as for dani and cynthia...no one gives a damn :)
the building above is the drum tower along the city wall of xian...the city wall goes around the inner part of the city and is nine miles long....it is surrounded by a moat...and if you choose, you can walk the entire length of it....we went and visited it, but it was raining again, so we didn't walk the nine miles....

one of the places we visited was the chinese herbal market in xian....we found many interesting and strange choices for medicine there...the one above, pictured with margaret, is deer penis....it is used for arthritis ands rheumatism....i'll try it after you do :)

in this picture there are lizards, i am not sure what they cure....a huge piece of fungus...and some turtle shells....no, i have no idea if these are endangered species...i didn't ask...i didn't want to get in trouble....but i didn't buy any either :)

what you see above is human placenta....and yes, you eat it or make tea with it for what it cures...at this point i can't remember what that would be...but when they were explaining what this was i was a bit intrigued and had to take the picture.....very interesting....

this is our awesome guide andy and his parents...he actually took us all to meet them and wanted to show is his apartment....it was very nice....and they even gave us snacks...such a lovely time and it was cool to see how the chinese live....ones like andy anyway....

xian is known for hot pot cooking and one of the nights we were there we had this....this is a hot pot and you cook your own food in it....its boiling water....you throw in what you want to eat - including the amazing noodles - another thing xikan is known for...let it all cook and then pull it all out with chopsticks...create your own sauce and eat....i loved this style of eating....and there were tons of veggies...plus, i could make it as spicy as i wanted....a big plus for me :)

after dinner we took a walk around the muslim part of the city...and went to the muslim market...if you look at the sign closely, you'll see arabic above the artwork....we had some amazing walnut candy, peanut candy and i had candied carrots....yummy!!!! it was fun even if it was pouring rain that night....it was the land of food on a stick...anything you wanted, you could've gotten kebab style....it was cool....
this is the majority of our group at our hotel with a tai chi master...this man was incredible...his face radiated with peace...it was fun taking a quick class with him and then getting our picture with him....
now you have come to one of the most amazing places i have ever been in my life - the terra cotta warriors...first off, did you know they were created by the same emperor who built the great wall...he had so much labor at his fingertips, it's mind blowing....and each of these warriors that you see was modeled after a real person, and made by a true artisan....in the picture above, this is one of the archers that was found in the third pit - not the main one which you will see below....the most amazing thing in my opinion is that you can still see the color on the bottom part of his chain mail piece....they all had color!!!!!!

this is a section from the first pit that was discovered....about three years after this entire work was finished and sealed in the ground, a nation that was at war with china found it...and they broke in and smashed everything to bits....in this picture this is after the archeologists have out this warrior and the horses back together...in other words, its a HUGE jigsaw puzzle that people are literally piecing back together....incredible if you ask me.....

in this shot you can see how each is different from the others...and there are thousands of them...they were created to protect the emperor in death...even though his tomb is about a mile away and no one has been inside of it, as it has many boobie-traps set up for would be tomb raiders....you can still see the hill of the tomb....but many wonder if there are more warriors guarding him all the way to his grave...they have yet to be found if so....

here i am with the warriors...you can see many of them in the background and that raised section is where they are piecing them all together...the sheer size of this is wild and really is something you should see....the pictures just don't do it justice.....

this picture and the next i have put here so you can appreciate the size of this one pit....they have now uncovered three in total...although one is about a fourth of the size of this one...the third found pit is the SAME size as this one...and is said to hold archers and jugglers and courtisans and others....
this again is for size...and is the first pit, looking across the front row of warriors...you can see some are missing their heads, as they were not found or have not been put back together...plus all of the weapons are gone, as they were stolen by the people who destroyed what was in these pits...and much of the handles and such were made of wood, which has fallen apart over time....i loved this place and could have spent even more time here....but i am hoping that i will return someday and explore it even more.....it just is HUGE and overwhelming...go here!!!!!!!

i decided to include the "chingrish" sign from the exit portion of the terra cotta warriors, because it cracked me up....you see signs like these all over the place...and sometimes you can figure them out....and other times....who knows what they are saying....any guesses here????

the last night at the hotel in xian we had dumplings, which xian and shanghai are known for, and we had a performance that was a show that had been shown to the emperor and empress of the time...so i guess in other words we were treated like royalty.....i loved this shot for her sleeves alone...it was a fun show and the dumplings were tasty!!!!!

from xian we went outside of the town to a painting village - also known as a farming village....although these days most folks work at the computer factory located here...we did a home stay with a family....four of us...the wong's...and mrs. wong and her mother-in-law, taught us how to make noodles...it took a lot of work and its something they do on a daily basis....these noodles were my finished product....not bad for a non-chinese, italian american, if i do say so myself :)

this is our crew having dinner....the only member of the family who ate with us was mrs. wong...although in this picture you see jack - their older son - who loves american basketball....his room was filled with posters....and he is learning english in school and is a wicked good mah-jong player :) the mother-in-law and mrs. wong....we also have maxine, regina and cynthia...the women i was in the home stay with....it was a wonderful night and i am sooooooo glad i brought my mandarin dictionary...it was REALLY helpful here....althought their english on the whole was excellent :)

here i am with mrs. wong and her two sons....some of you may wonder why they have two sons, with the one child rule in china...but if you come from a farmer town or a minority group of china - meaning you are not han chinese - you are allowed to have more than one child - farmers so they can work their farms and have labor from within their families...and the minorities, so they don't disappear among the billion or so people there.....

the painiting village is so named for the painting that happens there.....it is quite amazing....and this woman is the most famous painter there....she did this painting in under five minutes...just incredible....

my last shot in this set is me with a potato like thing that we ate on the bus we took to get to the yangtze river cruise...to me they looked like evil mustaches...and therefore i just had to take a picture like this.....or something like i am saying "elementary my dear watson"....too funny, at least in my mind.....

okay....that's china part 2...i will return again with the third and final part of the china trip from this summer...i am amazed how long this is taking...but it is fun reliving all of this summer's travel...as it was an amazing and incredible trip...hope all of you are well and happy and i wish you all the best in 2008!!!! love ya gram...peace be with you :)

China Part 1

11/18/07 - hey there all...getting a chance to update my blog...woo-hoo...here are the first set of pictures from china...its shanghai through beijing...i had a few days by myself and then joined a tour of americans...i know...not my usual....but in the end it was a wonderful trip, especially because i was traveling with my good friend cynthia...you'll see her in here somewhere :) on in the next two sets...we hung together with this tour for an entire month...it rocked...i took the train to beijing, then flew to shanghai and then joined the rest of the folks there....below is just the beginning...enjoy....

when you come in by train from mongolia, they need to switch the gauge wheels, as they are different from mongolia to china...china's are the weird ones...and they aren't going to change them...so in the picture above the train, with us on it, has been lifted, the wheels have been removed and you can see one of the workers making sure everything goes smoothly...it was a cool experience...but very hard to photograph from the inside of the train....

this is jay from canada...we met on the train from moscow to ulan bataar and then were on the same train from ulan bataar to beijing...we found it hilarious that you could buy budweiser and pabst blue ribbon once you crossed the border in china...we just had to take the picture....

here is shanghai at night from my hotel room...it was at the end of the strip where there was a pedestrian walkway...and man, shanghai is all lit up every night :) its a very cosmopolitan place...i really liked it even though i would be dripping wet from the humidity in a matter of seconds there....yuck!

this is the waterfront of shanghai, also known as the bund...and the big funky looking building is a TV tower that we went up...but the weather didn't really cooperate..it was still really cool...

this is a section of shanghai refered to as chinatwon...which i think is really funny...but it has an incredible water garden within it...this guy was cleaning the water from this boat and feeding all of the coy fish in the pond...he was amazing at keeping his balance...lots of practice i guess...

here's another section of the garden outside of another water garden in chinatown...i love all of the architecture and care they put into the statues and design of the garden...it all has to do with feng shui...an interesting and important concept in all of china....

this is the great museum of chinese art in shanghai...also known as the big dumpling cooker...as this is what a dumpling cooker looks like in china....the museum had an incredible selection of things to look at and read about....as chinese history is long and huge....

welcome to the tourist tunnel...this is actually what you can take between one side of the bund and the other to get to the tv tower...we also took the metro that was clean, easy and efficient...amazing....this tunnel was crazy and cynthia and i laughed the entire way across...hilarious!!!!

here is the marriot of shanghai...my favorite high rise building...i loved the points and the sphere at the top...and there were so many cool buildings to choose from...but this was my favorite...

outside of shanghai we went to a water village known as zhu jia jiao...which was like stepping back in time...i am so glad i went here...we had incredible food, walked through all of these twisty and turning, small retail streets and took a sanpan ride...and the guy rowed us and everything...it was super cool :)

this was one of the only times i actually saw a chinese person wearing one of these hats...although you can get them at all the tourist shops...when i came in on the train, i saw many farmers with them on...but no where else really except this water village...

in this same village there was an amazing garden...the garden of mr. mah...i loved his doorways and waterways...i especially like this one....

outside of shanghai we also went to suzhou...and in order to get there you needed to take a bullet train...my first!!!! at times we were moving so fast that it almost made me sick to try and watch things out the window...the speed was incredible....it was quite comfortable and quite crowded...

while in this town we visited a silk factory...here is a machine that is helping wind the strands of eight silk worms together to make a stronger more durable strand....these are used for silk rugs and it was cool to watch how fast the machine worked after the worker set it up to go....

the fisherman's garden in suzhou was simply stunning...probably one of the best we saw...in gardens the goal was to use all four elements of the earth for perfect feng shui...water, air, rock and light...this one did that quite well i thought :)

this was one of the cool side garden terraces in this fisherman's garden...i guess the main fisherman who owned this used to sit out here and read....

while in suzhou, we went on a sanpan...and here is a great example of chingrish...a funny combination of english and chinese....these signs were all over the place...this one was extremely memorable...can you figure out what it says???

now we are in beijing...a crazy city that is obsessed with getting ready for the olympics..i was there for one day by myself where i went to tianan park...and this is part of that park...beautiful flowers and amazing temple style buildings...unfortunately it was closing when i made it there so i couldn't go in...but i liked this shot anyway :)

here's the main olympic countdown clock...they are starting the olympics next summer on the 8th of august, the 8th month, in 2008, at 8:08 pm....can you tell that eight is an important number...just amazing...you can find these clocks in a few places in the city...but this one is right across from tiannamen square and is the official one...

this is mao's masoleum...which was under construction...and put lenin's masoleum in red square moscow, to shame with size...they are making it visitable for the olympics...like many things in beijing...its actually quite sad, as they are knocking down all of the historical hutongs and replacing them with high rises and hotels for all of the visitors expected....

here i am with the current picture of mao at the front of the forbidden city...they put a new picture up each year of the chairman...we were told in this one he was made to look 20 years younger than the last one and the pink was added to give him a softer look....hmmmmm

welcome to the forbidden city...which is simply beautiful...and HUGE!!!!!! the colors are amazing and much of it is under construction for the olympics...of course...but still its just mind blowing to observe and walk through...while we were there the starbucks within the walls of the city was asked to close...people felt it wasn't appropriate...i was shocked there was even one inside of the walls to begin with....but in beijing alone there are over 40 starbucks...its just insane...

this was the gate that women were not allowed to pass through to get back into the city of beijing...it could only be used by men...nice to see that has changed :)

outside of beijing is where the great wall is located that you most frequently see in pictures and where most tourists go to see it...we were really lucky and went to two sections of the wall...the "wild" wall, that has been left the way it has become...and that is what you see in the picture above and below...it is falling apart and really steep....

no fears though...i made it...it was definitely a hike...but completely worth it and the "wild" wall blew away the "tourist" section where it has been made smooth and is really crowded...if you go, see if you can get to this part of the wall...as it feels more authentic....it was waaaaaaaay cool!!!

here i am on the "tourist" part of the wall...it took forever to take this picture with as few people as possible...it was way crowded the day we were there...and i am really happy we went to the other section first so we could truly appreciate what we had been to....so much better than this, but you have to do this one too...just to say you have :)

one of the really cool visits we did was to a family who lived in a hutong and they showed us how to make dumplings, as those are a specialty of shanghai...here i am with my finished dumpling...but i couldn't eat most of them, as they are usually filled with meat...the chinese don't really understand vegetarianism...they consider it to be only for poor people not to eat meat...it was an interesting experience....

in beijing we also went to the dragon lady's summer palace...she lived here by herself...well, with lots of servants...but her emperor husband never came here...and it was swanky!!! she had a marble boat as you can see above...you can't ride in it today, but i guess she did when she lived here...i was suprised it wouldn't sink...thank goodness for water displacement :)

i love this picture from the summer palace...as it is a crane statue, with a real dragon fly on the end of its beak...it was a perfect shot...dragonflies were everywhere in china where there was water...it was really neat to see so many of them....

this is a ceiling of a covered walkway along the shore of a lake at the summer palace...it was the only place of the palace where we could find a breeze...i guess she walked along this walkway when she needed a breeze too...beautiful artwork was found throughout this palace...but i loved the ceiling of the walkway the most

one of the other cool places we stopped in beijing was a kung-fu school...these kids, both boys and girls, went to this type of school so they could go into martial arts and film...they all wanted to be the next jackie chan or jet li...they put on a show for us and then took pictures...it was neat to meet them and talk to them about what they wanted to do....

one of my last stops in beijing was the lama temple...a working buddhist temple in china...that caters to chinese, tibetans, mongolians and indians...its the only one in the city...and it was beautiful...the buddhas in the temple were stunning and the temple itself was also quite amazing...

i figured i would end with a picture of me at the cloisonne factory, they gave us these bowls to practice the craft...it was interesting and used wet sand and metal to create the masterpieces...it was fun, but i didn't win for the most beautiful...oh well...guess its not for me....

okay...that's the start of china for me....this was only a third of the trip...it was amazing and i saw and did so many amazing things...i should get more pictures on here soon from the other two parts and then will post tibet as well...hope all is well and happy thanksgiving to those who celebrate...