• My flight involved a connection in Beijing both ways. On my flight from SFO to Beijing, I sat in an isle seat next to one empty seat, which was next to a Chinese guy sitting by the window.  I think he said hi when I first got on the plane and then he dozed off. On this eleven and half hour leg of the trip, he did not get up a single time!!! He slept through the entire flight skipping all the meals and beverages and only woke up when they turned on all the lights and tuned up the PA an hour before landing. I was wondering if he would ask to get out to go use the bathroom, but he didn’t. I was utterly impressed.

• My niece JiuJiu is almost three years old. She is a little shy in front of strangers, but she warms up to everyone quickly. I believe I’ve relayed this story to you before, but I think it’s so funny that it bears re-telling. It was before she turned two, one day her mom was showing her a nicely crafted hand-held mirror. On the backside was a photo of a beautiful young girl. Pointing to the photo, mom asked her, “Jiujiu, who do you think is prettier, your mom or this older sister?”  When Jiujiu was pondering the answer, mom continued, “if you say this older sister is prettier, mom will throw away the mirror.” Jiujiu contemplated for a little longer staring at the mirror and said to her mom, “okay, throw away the mirror.”

• A few nights ago, we, a big family of three generations, went to an upscale restaurant for dinner. On our way out, we all gathered in front of the elevator. There was a pretty receptionist waving everyone goodbye. While waiting, my sister, carrying Jiujiu in her arms asked, “Jiujiu, who is prettier, this older sister here or your auntie?” With only one second of pause, Jiujiu answered, “my mom is prettier.” Everyone laughed. My sister was not ready to let her off the hook and continued, “Yeee, that’s not right. I didn’t ask about your mom. I’m asking between this older sister and your auntie, who is prettier.” After another second of pause, Jiujiu answered, “I am prettier.” Another roar of laughs. I think Jiujiu should take up embassodor as her profession in the future.

• This morning, my younger older brother, my sister-in-law, and Jiujiu left for the train station directly from the hotel. I went to the train station with them in a taxi and saw them off. When I returned home (sister’s place), my mom was not there. Dad told me that one of Jiujiu’s overcoats was left at home. Although my sister told them last night that my parents should take the overcoat back to Shijiazhuang and get it back to Jiujiu, this morning suddenly my mom decided to take the overcoat to them before they leave. The only problem my sister had left for work and they didn’t know which hotel we stayed in. They got out any way and went from one hotel to another in the neighborhood to ask. At one point, my dad gave up and returned home and my mom carried on by herself.  Many hours passed before she returned home. It turned out that she somehow managed to get to the train station and found them.  As much as I did not understand my mom’s illogical action, I was secretly impressed that she managed to go around in a new and strange city without getting lost. 

When I was little (maybe twenty something years ag0), materials were not abundant. The New Year celebration had its extreme significance back then. That was the time when each of us might get one piece of new clothing, which most likely was made with needle and thread by my mom. The beginning of the new year always invariantly falls into the winter. That dinner on the eve was always something we looked forward to because for the most of the winter, we fed on cabbages, potatoes, and preserved tomatoes — green vegetables were scarce in the northern part of China. My dad would put a feast on the table after a few days of preparation. And the days before the new year were the days when people do extensive cleaning of their houses too.

The annual New Year’s Gala on TV was not missed by anybody. It was always broadcast on New Year’s Eve. It gathered the top talents in China to put together a non-stop breathtaking performance. That’s where you would see all the top singers, dancers, comedians, acrobats, magicians within the few hours. The performance would be something people kept talking about for days and weeks. But by midnight, everyone went outside with fire crackers. The entire city would explode with non-stop fireworks.

We went to bed knowing that next morning there would be a little red envelope under our pillows. A few RMBs made a little girl very happy in those early years. Although we stayed up late at night, everyone would try to get up early the next morning — the first morning in the new year. Kids ran outside to show off their new clothes to friends. Adults would also put on their best clothing and go door to door to greet each other and wish each other the best in the new year. Everyone smiled at everyone else. It was a time of abundant happiness.

So many years have passed. I have moved across the globe to another country. Busy with work and other things, I have not made any plans to do anything special to celebrate the New Year. But that’s okay. Remembering the celebrations in the old days brought a smile to my face.

Wish everyone a prosperous new year!

新年快乐！身体健康！恭喜发财！

Thursday, 9/20/2007: Arrive in Beijing, Laoshe Tea House

* Inside the airport, there are counters where people in uniforms try to sell tour packages and shuttle rides. Even though they seem to be affiliated with the airport, for all I could tell, they were just some businesses who rented space from the airport and target at making money off of tourists who have no clue how things work in China. The cheapest way to get to Beijing is take Airport Buses. They have buses on sixes routes that take customers comfortably to various destinations. We took Airport Bus to Beijing Rail Road Station located in central Beijing (16 RMB/person) followed by a 13RMB taxi ride to the hotel at Wangfujing. I heard that a taxi ride from the airport to central Beijing costs no more than 200 RMBs although some tourists have been charged 600 RMBs by those “Black Taxis”.

* We strongly recommend Laoshe Tea House. Programs every night include a variety of Chinese performances such as Peking Opera, Sichuan Face Off, Kou Ji, Chinese Music, Acrobat, Magic, etc. Prices vary based on where you sit. For example, it was 120 RMBs per person for us sitting at the third row. The tea and snacks included are just so so and they do not have any non-caffeinated teas. It’s better to reserve seats before you go (+86 10 63021717)

* We took a tricycle ride afterwards and the “driver” offered to take us to the Liuli Street. The allies were pitch dark at 11pm unlike what he earlier claimed to be “well lit and beautiful” and we refused to go in. I was almost ready to poke him with Erik’s crutches when he insisted on taking us into the dark allies.

Friday, 9/21/2007: The Forbidden City and Makye Ame Tibetan Restaurant

* The Forbidden City is full of artifacts and stories. An amazing tour but tiring even for someone who is healthy and in good shape (like me). Tickets cost only 10 RMB per person and you can also spend 40 RMB to rent an audio guide in English which automatically air the instructions into your earpieces based on your locations.
* We picked up Chris, a woman from Kansas, on Tian An Men Square who asked us for directions to the Forbidden City. She did the whole tour with us. A very interesting company.
* We went to Quanjude at 3, but they do not open for dinner until 4:30. So we went to Makye Ame Restaurant after a rest in our hotel instead. It’s a Tibetan Restaurant with live performance. We enjoyed the food, performance, and the artifacts in the restaurant. Make sure to ask for their guestbooks when you are there. They make an interesting read.

Saturday, 9/22/2007: The Temple of Heaven, The Great Wall (Mu Tian Yu Fortress), and Quan Ju De Peking Duck

* We reserved a taxi for the day for 700 RMB. I made the arrangement the day before when I found one taxi driver trust worthy. It was his partner who drove us around, but we had a good experience.

* We went to the Temple of Heaven the first thing in the morning. It’s a beautiful place. Popular with local residents and tourists alike. We saw hundreds of local residents doing morning exercises throughout the beautiful park. We also saw hundreds of guided tourists wearing the same red baseball hats flooding the wide paths in the park. Since Erik was still walking with two crutches, he was not walking too fast. When I stopped to take photos, I told him to go ahead and I would catch up with him later. I then lost him after that. Had to go to the Park office for assistance. Because their announcer could not speak English, they asked me to describe Erik so that their people could help me look for him. The description was simple — Lao Wai (a foreigner), and crippled on two crutches. He appeared before they were able to find him. It turned out we were running up and down along the opposite sides of the north-south axis of the park.
* We chose to go to Mu Tian Yu Fortress for the Great Wall because 1) it was known to be less crowded than the more popular Ba Da Ling Fortress (but it might not be the case that day because the highway to Ba Da Ling was being reconstructed), and 2) it has chair lifts up and down which was more friendly to Erik’s injured ankle. There are two companies that operate lifts there. One only has chair lifts up and down, and the other one has chair lift up and a slide down. We went for the latter (95 RMBs round trip per person). The slide was super fun. The food booths and little shops along the road are definitely not shy in ripping off the tourists. Our taxi driver paid 3 RMBs for a pancake with two eggs, while the price given to us was 15 RMBs for a pancake with only one egg.
* We went to Xiushui Market for silk shirts. Again, this is a place where the asking prices do not mean anything. It seems the young girls there could speak multiple languages fluently, and they know all kinds of tricks. First, they talk sweet (e.g. “you look so handsome in this shirt”), then they play guilt trips on you (e.g. “I have cut the price by so much for you and I am not making any money!”), and when they see you really want to walk away, they get nasty (e.g. “you are not nice! I have spent so much time with you and cut the price so low for you.”). Their tricks work very well on Erik. But we bought four shirts for him (definitely NOT at a good price) and he seems to like them, so that’s good. There, make sure you try the clothes on because the size labels do not mean much either. And make sure to check the clothes closely because many of them have major defects no matter how nicely they are packaged.

* We went to the famous Quan Ju De Peking Duck Restaurant. It sells its name, so food is expensive here. For example, they charge 160+ RMBs for a duck while many other places charge 40 RMBs. And they charge 10% service fee which they do not deserve. The food is just so so in my opinion. I did order wasabi duck webs without telling Erik what that was. That dish was not bad.

All in all, air quality is terrible in Beijing. My throat started feeling weird soon after we arrived because I could almost feel the particles I breathed in. We stayed in Nanjing Great Hotel at Wangfujing (700 RMBs/night). The breakfast buffet every morning downstairs is very satisfying.

Sunday, 9/23/2007: Arrive in Shijiazhuan and Dinner at the dumpling place.

* We almost did not make the train because we did not arrive at the train station until 15 minutes before departure, and Beijing West Train Station is a HUGE place. I should take all the blame because I took my time packing up and also totally underestimated the distance to the train station. The luggage assistance at the train station refused to help us because it was against their rules. We had to run (or walk fast due to Erik’s injured ankle) with our luggage, but we just barely made it!
* Shijiazhuang is the capital of Heibei Province, but it definitely looks very much undeveloped compared to Beijing and Shanghai. My parents live there. There are not many exciting tourists resorts around, but we got chance to wander around the city during our stay.

* Dumpings are quite delicious.

Monday, 9/24/2007: A coffee house near Jianshe Street & Dongfeng Road

* Missing coffee, we went in town and stopped at the first coffee house we saw. It’s more of a restaurant and the coffee is expensive. They put you in a separate room with soft couches. But people smoke in there so it was not really very enjoyable.

Tuesday, 9/25/2007: A walk around the neighborhood, dinner with the whole family.

* We walked around the neighborhood. I pointed out to Erik the apartment we used to live in before I went off to college and the school I went to right across street from the apartment.

* It was the Mid-autumn Festival today. My whole family in Shijiazhuang got together and went out to a restaurant near my parents place. It’s the nicest in the area, but hygine is not their forte. Erik was challenged to drink by my sister-in-law. It was comical.

Wednesday, 9/26/2007: Coffee buffet near People’s Department Store

* I was going to show Erik the giant department store in Shijiazhuang, but the trip was preempted when we saw a coffee house. This one runs in a different business model from the one we went to the day before — you pay only 18 RMBs, and you can just sit down and eat snacks and drink various coffees, teas, milk shakes all you want. And the coffee was very good too! The low price (<$3 each) for all that service and those choices is just amazing. It turns out that this was our best coffee experience on the entire trip.

Thursday, 9/27/2007: A Bathhouse, Massage, and Foot Massage

* I have heard of foot massage before and never had it. I don’t think it was popular when I was in China. We spotted this bath house two days ago, and since we are leaving tomorrow, we decided to give this place a try. The massage was very refreshing. Erik got a scrub because he did not know how to turn it down. Nobody speaks English there. The whole standard package including a 1 hour 45 minute massage costs only 95 RMBs per person. We paid extra to receive the service in our private room.

Friday, 9/28/2007: Arrive in Shanghai, Chenghuang Temple, and A Five Story Restaurant for crabs

* Parents saw us off at the Shijiazhuang airport (Guoyu gave us a ride).
* Sister picked us up two hours later and we went home to drop off our luggages and took a shower. Then we went to Chenghuang Temple area (aka Yu Yuan) where there are many shops selling good quality artifacts. You need to bargain there too but the asking prices were not too ridiculous.
* Afterwards, sister took us to a five story seafood restaurant. We had Da Zha Crabs along with other delicious sea food.

Saturday, 9/30/2007: Shanghai Museum, Urban Planning Exhebition Hall, and Modern Dance Performance

* We visited Shanghai Museum in the morning. Lots of artifacts and history. You can get automated audio tour there too. After a couple of days without coffee, the happiness on Erik’s face when he had a latte in the museum lounge was priceless.

* Outside of the museum, we bought a brass bowl from a tibetan on the side of the road for 100 RMBs (he asked for 600). When you move a wooden stick along the edge of the bowl, it yields a nice musical sound. We thought that was a good find.
* The Urban Planning Exhebition Hall has a giant model of Shanghai on the third floor, where all the buildings are shown as beautiful miniatures. Still, the magnitude of the city is, in Erik’s words, mind-boggling.
* At night, sis and Brother Jack took us to a modern dance performance at the Oriental Art Center. It was a beautiful performance, but I don’t know if anybody knows exactly what the dance means.

Sunday, 9/31/2007: Back to Museum, Starbucks Coffee, Hair Treatment (lunch), Fireworks

* Erik wanted to go back and look for that Tibetan man because he wanted to check out other authentic artifacts as well. However, there are discipline volunteers everywhere maintaining orders because it’s the day before the National Day. The tibatan man is nowhere to be seen. But we were able to sit at the Starbucks for quite a while. The coffee is just like what you get in the US. In the afternoon, sis took us for lunch and then a hair treatment. While sis and I are getting our hair treated, Erik got a lengthy head and shoulder massage after a hair cut. He was happy. It’s even more amazing that people here do not work for tips.

* At night, we went to Century Park (in Pudong) for the firework performance. Oh my god! There were so many people! We were a little late, so, it was a hair raising experience to battle the thick wall of people to get to our seats. The first short half of the performance was done by a Chinese company. The scale is quite impressive. The second long half was done by a company from Chicago. They got more boats, but in general, the fireworks are less impressive.

Monday, 10/1/2007: Fengjing Town, Roman Bath House (shower, Massage, Guasha, Dinner, Foot Massage)

* We drove to Fengjing, a little town with interwoven water ways. It is a beautiful town in that we are walking right along the same path where locals’ residents are located. It opened a window for us to the lives of the locals. We had a lunch with fresh fish and vegetables, but there again you can’t have too high of an expectation on hygine.
* It was a long trip and everyone was tired. So, a trip to a bath house was welcome by everyone. The magnitude of the bath house was amazing — six stories high and it was decorated with giant Roman statues outside. It looked more like a museum from both outside and inside. It was a luxurious experience. There are people serving you every corner you turned. We started with a refreshing shower. Then a 1.5 hour scrub and full body massage. Then we went upstairs for a nice dinner. After dinner, we went inside the movie theaters and got a foot massage while watching a Jackie Chen movie. The whole time inside the bath house, everyone has to wear their provided pajamas and slippers. Erik said he had never been so clean since he was born.

Tuesday, 10/2/2007: Xiao Nan Guo Grill for Dinner (recommend Ox Tail)

* We spent most of the day packing. Sis gave us a ridiculous amount of gifts. We were amazed when we managed to fit them into our luggages. My sister’s family’s generosity is almost overwhelming.

* After Brother Jack returned from the airport where he went 4 hours too early for his flight, we went to Xiaonanguo Grill for dinner. It’s a Japanese style grill. Xin Ran was busy cooking and serving everyone. What a little chef! The Ox tail was really delicious. We also had ox tougue but I didn’t care for it that much.

Epilogue:

Everyday when we were in China simply flew by too fast. I guess that happens when there are a lot of things to see and places to visit. Three places in two weeks. We were a little too busy. We both hope that next time we would be able to just spend sometime at one place and take our time to experience the local culture. My family are really generous to us and they went out their way to make sure our stay was memorable. Well it was indeed. Erik wanted to go back sometime soon. The only downside was we both picked up some bug (bacteria) in China and had upset stomach for a few days. I had to get antibiotics after I got back before the upset stomach would not go away on its own.

Part One:

so after a long flight and even longer wait in the airport for the rest of the crew to arrive, we finally made it to shenzhen, just barely in time to try to catch an overnight bus to yangshuo (our eventual destination). after running from bus station to bus station and almost taking out like 100 chinese people on the way, we rolled in at like 7:29 for the 7:30 bus, and were informed that there were no tickets for that night or for the following night. so we ended up stuck in shenzhen for 2 and a half days; john and shannon got out a day earlier on an overnight train, so alan, jake, jacob and i trekked all around shenzhen and saw miles and miles of useless crap. the entire city is one big trinket mall, and chinese are all about selling you whatever you will buy for whatever price they can get. everything is way over packaged, over processed, the english is funny and nonsensical (some cookies we bought had “overbalanced mouth feel” written on the package).. the banana chips make men more handsome and the tea makes women more beautiful.. and i’ve managed to retain about 5 words of chinese. never in my life have i had to work so hard to remember a language. also, jake bought some chinese liquor that looked like sake, that ended up being basically 112 proof refined petroleum. you could pour that in the buses and they would probably run. it definitely will kill any parasites.

we finally got in to yangshuo a few days ago, and climbed the last two days. it is WAY HOT. seriously- it’s probably in the 90s at least during the day and feels hotter due to the humidity. the climbing is good, and there is tons of undeveloped limestone, but it’s so hot that it’s hard to hang on and hard to maintain motivation. yangshuo itself is a total backpacker community- not as much chinese culture per se. and i swear it is impossible to find fruits or vegetables anywhere. if you want packaged chicken legs though, or sugary candied anything, it’s everywhere. the food is generally okay, not great, although i haven’t been eating any snake or starfish. shan was going to buy noodles at the store, picked up the package, and noticed roaches crawling around all over inside the bag. and last night alan, jake and jacob drank some liquor made out of dead lizards and snakes.

we’re going to try to go swimming today- it’s roasting!!

Part Two:

so since i last wrote, china has not cooled off but we are getting used to the heat. on one of the rest days we rode bikes out of town and went swimming in the river. okay, so first of all, riding bikes in china is ridiculous. any sort of transportation in china is ridiculous, seeing as there are no traffic laws, everyone passes everyone whenever they can, and there is just this chaotic mass of bikes, motor bikes, cars, buses, water buffalo, and people. we got tandem bikes and i almost bit it probably 30x on the way. having bad depth perception not working in my favor on this one. however, we made it and the swimming was great. and it was really nice to get out of the city.

we went climbing one day at moon hill, this amazing arch of limestone, and the climbing was super good. huge tufas everywhere. there was a nice breeze too which made the heat more bearable. john got some good pictures, i’ll send them out when he posts them. it was really beautiful up there. yesterday we tried biking to the riverside crag, which is literally right on the river, so we went swimming in between routes. which sounds nice, but it was so hot that even the river was too hot. after every climb you are covered in a thick layer of sweat, chalk and dirt. biking with heavy packs over bad roads was an experience.. especially because it rained and the rocks were really slick, so of course i was close to falling over most of the time. we rented these old bikes that ride like you are sitting in a chair, so pedaling uphill is pretty hard.

everywhere we go the chinese address us as “hello”- those are our names, we are all “hello” to them, and the chinese word for ‘foreigner’ which i cannot recall right now. still haven’t been able to pick up much chinese. and i still haven’t eaten snake but who knows what is in the dumplings. we made some friends at the local climbing shop, one of whom is from phoenix and speaks chinese, so he is helping us along and mostly helping us keep from getting ripped off at restaurants. sometimes when you sit down to eat, they give you your plates and cups wrapped in plastic (which makes you think they are sanitized even though they probably aren’t) and then they charge you for the use of the plates.

anyways that’s all for now- we’re going to check out white mountain today and it’s a little rainy, which is good, should cool us off a
little.

Epilogue:

the climbing was good and yangshuo is very beautiful. the cultural differences were difficult, but the country is in the midst of much change, and it’s always strange to be in such a different place. i was intending for it to be entertaining more than anything else. if you’d like to post my emails, can you add that the climbing at white mountain and moon hill is really really good, and make sure to go in october/november or march/april when the temps are nice.