1.23.2012
8.26.2008
Da 5th and last flight
We love Hongkong! From scented pillows to delicious dim sum, our time
here has exceeded our expectations. We've had perfect weather which
has been ideal for our daily shopping excursions. In an effort to get
back on US time, we have enjoyed Hong Kong's vibrant night life. Our
flight boards in 10 minutes and our fervent hope is that we sleep the
majority of the 12+ hours :)
here has exceeded our expectations. We've had perfect weather which
has been ideal for our daily shopping excursions. In an effort to get
back on US time, we have enjoyed Hong Kong's vibrant night life. Our
flight boards in 10 minutes and our fervent hope is that we sleep the
majority of the 12+ hours :)
This will obviously be our last entry, and we hope you've enjoyed our
adventures as much as we have!
Sent from Alden's iPhone
8.23.2008
Flight KA997 has been delayed
High: There is so much to be high over. Sweet soccer, air conditioning, green tea pound cake, Wu Jao, bags that aren't over the flying weight limit, Mao, massive quantities of Olympic merchandise, beef flavored potato chips, Internet, hot flashes, Jen & John Mayer breaking up, Chels & MarkyMark, world peace and most especially, without doubt, really getting to know the Beijing airport.
Low: We love it so much we couldn't think of leaving...so we won't. We left our hotel around 6...and as we write this, we've been here for three and a half hours. At 6 hours, our travel insurance kicks in, but we're not exactly sure what that means.
AHA: The Olympic Green built for this year's games is over 14 square kilometers and the largest one in Olympic history. We discovered just how big that is first hand, along with at least 500,000 other visitors [see below].
We'll tell the tale of today in reverse chronological order. Why? Because we can.
21:38 > We find ourselves killing time at Beijing Int'l Airport's business center. Yesterday's Typhoon Nori seems to have caused a bit more havoc then expected and consequently our flight to Hong Kong has been delayed. We're currently scheduled to leave at 23:55, which will put us into our hotel around 4am.
12:00 > Kick off! Today's football game (Nigeria v. Argentina) was awesome! It was an Olympic "rematch" as the two teams last met in the 1996 Atlanta games. This was our only event inside the Bird's Nest, and today's game filled the stadium to capacity with 89,201 in attendance. Although our seats weren't awesome, we were sitting 10 rows from the track and when the action was at our end of the field, we could even hear the ball being kicked. Thankfully, our seats were shaded, but temperatures on the field reached 107 degrees (34 C)! Alden was fortunate enough to get some essential playbyplay commentary and rulage from Amy. It turns out that the game is much more enjoyable if you understand what in da heck is going on. The Argentinian players celebrated their one to nothing victory by falling to their knees and simultaneously throwing their hands up in elation.
11:31 > Power walking [see below].
10:12 > We gleefully entered the Olympic Green, eager for another day of spectating. Since our soccer event didn't begin until noon, we thought we'd mosey on over to the China Post and get some postcards "officially" stamped & sent. We sauntered around the Bird's Nest, dodging umbrellas & small children, but soon realized that our quick trip to the post office was going to take a little longer then expected. Thirty four minutes later, with sunscreen in our eyes and our clothes sweaty and damp, we finally spotted the post office...right beside the mecca of all McDonalds. Walking the length of the entire Olympic Green is no easy feat, but the treasure that awaits you is plentiful. The months Alden spent here in 2003 were full of wonderfully conterfeit goods, but it seems the times have changed and Olympic merchandise is only available in a few official Olympic stores. One of these stores was near the post office, so we waited in line for 20 minutes to be allowed to shop. (Please note, this and the airport immigration line, are the only times we've witnessed Chinese people actually standing in line.) Because of our time crunch we pulled a "Supermarket Sweep" shopping manuever and were in and out in record time.
9:06 > Yesterday we discovered this incredible French bakery. Its delicious chocolate chip pasteries and esspresso were so good that we had no choice but to return. SO GOOD. Today's visit was enhanced by sitting next to the parents of Canada's diving silver medalist AND by meeting the designer of China's athletic outfits! Will it ever stop?!
[stop the rewind, enter the present]
22:45 > Why are we still here?
Low: We love it so much we couldn't think of leaving...so we won't. We left our hotel around 6...and as we write this, we've been here for three and a half hours. At 6 hours, our travel insurance kicks in, but we're not exactly sure what that means.
AHA: The Olympic Green built for this year's games is over 14 square kilometers and the largest one in Olympic history. We discovered just how big that is first hand, along with at least 500,000 other visitors [see below].
We'll tell the tale of today in reverse chronological order. Why? Because we can.
21:38 > We find ourselves killing time at Beijing Int'l Airport's business center. Yesterday's Typhoon Nori seems to have caused a bit more havoc then expected and consequently our flight to Hong Kong has been delayed. We're currently scheduled to leave at 23:55, which will put us into our hotel around 4am.
12:00 > Kick off! Today's football game (Nigeria v. Argentina) was awesome! It was an Olympic "rematch" as the two teams last met in the 1996 Atlanta games. This was our only event inside the Bird's Nest, and today's game filled the stadium to capacity with 89,201 in attendance. Although our seats weren't awesome, we were sitting 10 rows from the track and when the action was at our end of the field, we could even hear the ball being kicked. Thankfully, our seats were shaded, but temperatures on the field reached 107 degrees (34 C)! Alden was fortunate enough to get some essential playbyplay commentary and rulage from Amy. It turns out that the game is much more enjoyable if you understand what in da heck is going on. The Argentinian players celebrated their one to nothing victory by falling to their knees and simultaneously throwing their hands up in elation.
11:31 > Power walking [see below].
10:12 > We gleefully entered the Olympic Green, eager for another day of spectating. Since our soccer event didn't begin until noon, we thought we'd mosey on over to the China Post and get some postcards "officially" stamped & sent. We sauntered around the Bird's Nest, dodging umbrellas & small children, but soon realized that our quick trip to the post office was going to take a little longer then expected. Thirty four minutes later, with sunscreen in our eyes and our clothes sweaty and damp, we finally spotted the post office...right beside the mecca of all McDonalds. Walking the length of the entire Olympic Green is no easy feat, but the treasure that awaits you is plentiful. The months Alden spent here in 2003 were full of wonderfully conterfeit goods, but it seems the times have changed and Olympic merchandise is only available in a few official Olympic stores. One of these stores was near the post office, so we waited in line for 20 minutes to be allowed to shop. (Please note, this and the airport immigration line, are the only times we've witnessed Chinese people actually standing in line.) Because of our time crunch we pulled a "Supermarket Sweep" shopping manuever and were in and out in record time.
9:06 > Yesterday we discovered this incredible French bakery. Its delicious chocolate chip pasteries and esspresso were so good that we had no choice but to return. SO GOOD. Today's visit was enhanced by sitting next to the parents of Canada's diving silver medalist AND by meeting the designer of China's athletic outfits! Will it ever stop?!
[stop the rewind, enter the present]
22:45 > Why are we still here?
8.22.2008
Badabing, Badaling!
High: After 10 days in China, we finally got into the Olympic Park! Seeing all of the venues up close rather than from outside the gates was great, and seeing them all lit up when we left diving at 10 pm was even better. The fountains were keeping time with the music, and there were kids of all ages enjoying the water. Adding to the atmosphere was the moon, sitting low in the sky, waning, and a beautiful bright orange.
Low: We didn't get to be on the Today Show. Alden has been dying to get on since we arrived, and with the timing of our events and the fact that you can't get in the Park unless you have a ticket for that day, it simply wasn't possible. We were, however, momentarily on the jumbotron at diving tonight, and Amy has been unsuccessfully trying to convince Alden that it's pretty much the same thing.
AHA: There was a typhoon in Hong Kong yesterday, which had us momentarily a bit concerned, but we were informed by some helpful Hong Kong residents today that typhoons there are common and that the weather should be just fine by Sunday. We remain dubious.
Well, as we discovered last week, the advantage of braving pouring rain one day is that the weather tends to be beautiful the next. We woke up to blue skies (a rarity in Beijing) and gorgeous sunshine, which was perfect for our day of outdoor touring. We made a quick stop at the Ming Tombs this morning before heading to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. The news that we were going to the Badaling section was a bit disappointing, as it is by far the most touristy and congested area of the Wall, and Alden had confirmed with the tour company ahead of time that we would be going elsewhere. But we were with 6 other people and it was too late to change plans, so we headed out and hoped for the best. When we arrived, our guide informed us that we would be able to take picture of the bears after we finished hiking...
Bears? Really? But there they were -- four small outdoor cages chalk full of black bears that were greedily eating the massive amounts of food being hurled at them by tourists. Really weird. Our guide gave us the option of taking the "slider" most of the way up and then hiking the last 25 minutes or so to the top, which sounded good to us. The slider turned out to be a train of individual cars -- the kind you see on rollercoasters, complete with shoulder restraints (which weren't necessary on the way up, but their function became quite clear on the way back down). When we reached the top our guide turned us loose to hike the rest of the way up and back down to the slider at our own pace. The section we were hiking up was the first part of the Wall to be restored post-1911, and it bordered the course for the Olympic bike races. There was a nice breeze as we started up the Wall and things were looking good for about the first 5 steps until we hit our first guardhouse. These are intermitent along the wall and unfortunately create serious traffic jams between the people going up and those coming down. The situation is by no means aided by the fact that as we mentioned earlier, Chinese people simply don't believe in lines. So we hurled our way forward and things dramatically improved on the other side...until we got to the next guardhouse and did it all over again. That said, the views were spectacular and trying to imagine how the Wall, which can be seen from space, was constructed by hand was mind boggling. Walking along something with so much history was quite an experience, and likely a far more comfortable one for us than for the woman we saw in 4-inch hot pink stilleto heels near the top. Amy commented while waiting for the slider ride back down that she was surprised they hadn't turned it into a roller coaster to make the ride its own attraction. Turns out, they basically have, though as near as we could tell there was no warning to the effect of, "this thing goes down much much faster than it goes up -- enjoy."
We got back to the hotel just in time to rush back out again in order to make it to men's diving on time. It turns out that somewhere along the way we got confused about our tickets. We thought that we had tickets to the diving finals, but it was actually the diving preliminaries. And we thought we had tickets to the men's soccer semi-finals, but it's actually the finals. Oops? So the diving tonight lacked the intensity of a final, but being inside "The Cube" was still very cool and our seats were great so we saw all the action up close. The two Americans did well, and we found ourselves sitting amongst a lot of friends and family of the 30 divers and their enthusiasm was contagious.
As our last night in Beijing comes to a close, we wonder when and if we will return. But for now we're excited about soccer tomorrow afternoon and a trip to the bird's nest.
Low: We didn't get to be on the Today Show. Alden has been dying to get on since we arrived, and with the timing of our events and the fact that you can't get in the Park unless you have a ticket for that day, it simply wasn't possible. We were, however, momentarily on the jumbotron at diving tonight, and Amy has been unsuccessfully trying to convince Alden that it's pretty much the same thing.
AHA: There was a typhoon in Hong Kong yesterday, which had us momentarily a bit concerned, but we were informed by some helpful Hong Kong residents today that typhoons there are common and that the weather should be just fine by Sunday. We remain dubious.
Well, as we discovered last week, the advantage of braving pouring rain one day is that the weather tends to be beautiful the next. We woke up to blue skies (a rarity in Beijing) and gorgeous sunshine, which was perfect for our day of outdoor touring. We made a quick stop at the Ming Tombs this morning before heading to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. The news that we were going to the Badaling section was a bit disappointing, as it is by far the most touristy and congested area of the Wall, and Alden had confirmed with the tour company ahead of time that we would be going elsewhere. But we were with 6 other people and it was too late to change plans, so we headed out and hoped for the best. When we arrived, our guide informed us that we would be able to take picture of the bears after we finished hiking...
Bears? Really? But there they were -- four small outdoor cages chalk full of black bears that were greedily eating the massive amounts of food being hurled at them by tourists. Really weird. Our guide gave us the option of taking the "slider" most of the way up and then hiking the last 25 minutes or so to the top, which sounded good to us. The slider turned out to be a train of individual cars -- the kind you see on rollercoasters, complete with shoulder restraints (which weren't necessary on the way up, but their function became quite clear on the way back down). When we reached the top our guide turned us loose to hike the rest of the way up and back down to the slider at our own pace. The section we were hiking up was the first part of the Wall to be restored post-1911, and it bordered the course for the Olympic bike races. There was a nice breeze as we started up the Wall and things were looking good for about the first 5 steps until we hit our first guardhouse. These are intermitent along the wall and unfortunately create serious traffic jams between the people going up and those coming down. The situation is by no means aided by the fact that as we mentioned earlier, Chinese people simply don't believe in lines. So we hurled our way forward and things dramatically improved on the other side...until we got to the next guardhouse and did it all over again. That said, the views were spectacular and trying to imagine how the Wall, which can be seen from space, was constructed by hand was mind boggling. Walking along something with so much history was quite an experience, and likely a far more comfortable one for us than for the woman we saw in 4-inch hot pink stilleto heels near the top. Amy commented while waiting for the slider ride back down that she was surprised they hadn't turned it into a roller coaster to make the ride its own attraction. Turns out, they basically have, though as near as we could tell there was no warning to the effect of, "this thing goes down much much faster than it goes up -- enjoy."
We got back to the hotel just in time to rush back out again in order to make it to men's diving on time. It turns out that somewhere along the way we got confused about our tickets. We thought that we had tickets to the diving finals, but it was actually the diving preliminaries. And we thought we had tickets to the men's soccer semi-finals, but it's actually the finals. Oops? So the diving tonight lacked the intensity of a final, but being inside "The Cube" was still very cool and our seats were great so we saw all the action up close. The two Americans did well, and we found ourselves sitting amongst a lot of friends and family of the 30 divers and their enthusiasm was contagious.
As our last night in Beijing comes to a close, we wonder when and if we will return. But for now we're excited about soccer tomorrow afternoon and a trip to the bird's nest.
8.21.2008
VolleyBALLLZZZ!
High: We didn't realize how meaningful it would be to cheer for an American team playing for an Olympic gold. Watching the American women win this morning filled us with a profound sense of national pride that was stronger than either of us expected. Amy joined Alden in crying the entire way through the medal ceremony. Not to mention, it was a kick-ass game.
Low: This blog has been a great way to summarize our adventures to friends and family, but unfortunately we spend so much time trying to keep up with the blog that we haven't been able to maintain the level of personal emails that we would have otherwise. We miss you!
AHA: Things are never as soft as they appear [shudder]. This includes beds, chairs, and really all furniture in China. Don't let it fool you, as it has both of us on separate occasions. Flashbacks include (but are not limited to), Amy flinging herself exhausted onto a rock-hard mattress and Alden mistakenly slamming her heels on the concrete-like surface of an ottoman.
So you think this year's Opening Ceremony was innovative? Well, so did we, BUT the incredible show we witnessed in Yangshuo demonstrated that Zhang Yimou's talents extend to the "natural" stage. The outdoor show had over 400 performers and an enormous amount of wattage, as 5 of the surrounding limestone peaks were lit up and created a majestic background. And by the way, the stage was a body of water, so most of the performance took place on boats.
Do you ever wonder how the other half lives? We now know. When we arrived back in Beijing yesterday afternoon, we returned to the same convenient hotel near the Bird's Nest. By the grace of some holy Olympic spirit, we are coming to you live and in living color from the bird's eye view of said bird's nest. We know, because we can see it from our private balcony which is attached to our expansive living room, which is between our separate living quarters with private baths. This is unexpected. (Everytime we come home, we hold our breath as we pass the reception desk and fully expect them to graciously inform us that we have been packed and relocated.)
"You don't eat no meat?" Through a partner at Amy's mother's firm, we were fortunate enough to meet and have dinner with a young Chinese lawyer, Cao Yu. He took us and three of his visiting American clients to an amazing vegetarian place called Pure Lotus. We were extremely overwhelmed by the range of meat-less wonders available on the menu, but as a traditional Chinese host, he ordered for the table. His "clients" were only slightly older than us and we ended up going out with them after dinner.
Why did we stay up that late? Six AM comes awfully early when the night ends at a Mexican restaurant...in China. It comes ever earlier when it's pouring down rain. Those of you who watched the women's beach volleyball events will appreciate that we are not exaggerating when we say, it rained...the entire time. This time we remembered our raincoats AND borrowed "Big & Tall" sized umbrellas from our hotel. Of course they confiscated our umbrellas at the game's security check, which we weren't that upset about until we began to realize that magically everyone else still seemed to have made it through with their umbrella. Insult was added to injury when we walked into the stadium to hear the Rihanna's song, "You can stand under my umbrella...ella..ella...aye aye aye." So we got wet, and by wet we mean soaked to the skin, pruney feet, "isn't this rainjacket supposed to be waterproof" wet. However, the event was nothing short of phenomenal.
How many of Beijing's top ten things to do can you accomplish in one afternoon? Mercifully, the rain let up for the majority of the afternoon allowing us to walk Tian An Men Square and see the Forbidden City. Next we did the obligatory Wangfujing Night Market, most famous for exotic foods not limited to starfish, scorpions & snake -- on a stick. :) We had to eat something, so we opted to glazed fruit on a stick, by far the most civilized option. Our final stop for the day was horrifyingly awesome. Six sweet floors of dongshi [stuff] that "fell off the boat." With Alden's shopping savvy & Amy's hard-driven bargaining, we left with more bags than we came with.
Low: This blog has been a great way to summarize our adventures to friends and family, but unfortunately we spend so much time trying to keep up with the blog that we haven't been able to maintain the level of personal emails that we would have otherwise. We miss you!
AHA: Things are never as soft as they appear [shudder]. This includes beds, chairs, and really all furniture in China. Don't let it fool you, as it has both of us on separate occasions. Flashbacks include (but are not limited to), Amy flinging herself exhausted onto a rock-hard mattress and Alden mistakenly slamming her heels on the concrete-like surface of an ottoman.
So you think this year's Opening Ceremony was innovative? Well, so did we, BUT the incredible show we witnessed in Yangshuo demonstrated that Zhang Yimou's talents extend to the "natural" stage. The outdoor show had over 400 performers and an enormous amount of wattage, as 5 of the surrounding limestone peaks were lit up and created a majestic background. And by the way, the stage was a body of water, so most of the performance took place on boats.
Do you ever wonder how the other half lives? We now know. When we arrived back in Beijing yesterday afternoon, we returned to the same convenient hotel near the Bird's Nest. By the grace of some holy Olympic spirit, we are coming to you live and in living color from the bird's eye view of said bird's nest. We know, because we can see it from our private balcony which is attached to our expansive living room, which is between our separate living quarters with private baths. This is unexpected. (Everytime we come home, we hold our breath as we pass the reception desk and fully expect them to graciously inform us that we have been packed and relocated.)
"You don't eat no meat?" Through a partner at Amy's mother's firm, we were fortunate enough to meet and have dinner with a young Chinese lawyer, Cao Yu. He took us and three of his visiting American clients to an amazing vegetarian place called Pure Lotus. We were extremely overwhelmed by the range of meat-less wonders available on the menu, but as a traditional Chinese host, he ordered for the table. His "clients" were only slightly older than us and we ended up going out with them after dinner.
Why did we stay up that late? Six AM comes awfully early when the night ends at a Mexican restaurant...in China. It comes ever earlier when it's pouring down rain. Those of you who watched the women's beach volleyball events will appreciate that we are not exaggerating when we say, it rained...the entire time. This time we remembered our raincoats AND borrowed "Big & Tall" sized umbrellas from our hotel. Of course they confiscated our umbrellas at the game's security check, which we weren't that upset about until we began to realize that magically everyone else still seemed to have made it through with their umbrella. Insult was added to injury when we walked into the stadium to hear the Rihanna's song, "You can stand under my umbrella...ella..ella...aye aye aye." So we got wet, and by wet we mean soaked to the skin, pruney feet, "isn't this rainjacket supposed to be waterproof" wet. However, the event was nothing short of phenomenal.
How many of Beijing's top ten things to do can you accomplish in one afternoon? Mercifully, the rain let up for the majority of the afternoon allowing us to walk Tian An Men Square and see the Forbidden City. Next we did the obligatory Wangfujing Night Market, most famous for exotic foods not limited to starfish, scorpions & snake -- on a stick. :) We had to eat something, so we opted to glazed fruit on a stick, by far the most civilized option. Our final stop for the day was horrifyingly awesome. Six sweet floors of dongshi [stuff] that "fell off the boat." With Alden's shopping savvy & Amy's hard-driven bargaining, we left with more bags than we came with.
8.19.2008
We love Beer! Natural Beer! And other musings...
High: Free internet!
Low: Free internet has a price -- copious amounts of 请到撇酒 ("Natural" Beer) ! We just finished our 2nd large bottle, so this is going to be short.
AHA: Alden had thought that perhaps her slightly emotional reaction [read: immediate tearing] to watching sports would not follow her to Beijing -- unfortunately, this is not true. At every photo finish or endearing commercial break -- so flow the tears from Alden's eyes. If an athlete cries, Alden cries. Even with the Chinese commentary, she cries.
We actually have blessedly little to report today (I know those of you excited to read our epic posts will be seriously disappointed). After we wrote yesterday we made our way back downtown in Guilin to the pedestrian street, created in 2001, and wandered for a while peering into the numerous shops and stalls. We eventually made our way to "the coffee shop," which was actually an outdoor bar with a huge tv showing women's soccer and then a lively game of table tennis (the Chinese really love their table tennis). Two funny things, 1) Amy didn't know ping pong was an Olympic sport and 2) Table tennis players spit on their balls before they serve. A nice young man was kind enough to create a cut-out of Amy's profile, complete with glasses and a rather oversized chin. This, of course, occurred totally without her knowledge until it appeared in front of her face and he promised to sell it to her for a very good price -- truly flattered, she politely declined.
This morning we woke up early to meet our guide for the short ride to the dock, where we met our boat for the day. The boat was like a small version of a Mississippi River touring boat, and had two levels with a large outdoor deck on the second level and an air-conditioned cabin on the first. There were about 100 people on board, so it was full but not terribly crowded. The views along the Li River were spectacular, and our hundreds of pictures won't do them justice. (Darren -- Alden was bird-watcher woman today and thought of you). We were on the boat for about four hours as it made its way from Guilin to Yangshuo, where we are now. Yangshuo was originally a fishing village, but attained some popularity when Zhang Yimou (who directed the opening ceremonies) created a show depicting life of minorities in the area (Fact: China has over 56 minority groups). We're going to see the show in a few hours, and will report on that tomorrow.
When we disembarked in Yangshuo, our guide, Jenny, suggested that we walk to our hotel. There was a car option, but it was 10 yuen (a little over a dollar) and hardly seemed worth the money, as she said the walk would be about "20 to 20 minutes." Five minutes later it began to rain, but the real challenge came when we actually put on our raincoats, since it is over 90 degrees and at least 100% humidity. Red-faced, sunburned, and exhausted, we arrived at the hotel about 45 minutes later.
We saved ourselves a whole dollar though.
Granted, it is definitely the nicest hotel we have stayed in thus far and it's a shame we're only here for one night. Tomorrow we're back to Beijing and the adventures of the big city! And events, finally!
Low: Free internet has a price -- copious amounts of 请到撇酒 ("Natural" Beer) ! We just finished our 2nd large bottle, so this is going to be short.
AHA: Alden had thought that perhaps her slightly emotional reaction [read: immediate tearing] to watching sports would not follow her to Beijing -- unfortunately, this is not true. At every photo finish or endearing commercial break -- so flow the tears from Alden's eyes. If an athlete cries, Alden cries. Even with the Chinese commentary, she cries.
We actually have blessedly little to report today (I know those of you excited to read our epic posts will be seriously disappointed). After we wrote yesterday we made our way back downtown in Guilin to the pedestrian street, created in 2001, and wandered for a while peering into the numerous shops and stalls. We eventually made our way to "the coffee shop," which was actually an outdoor bar with a huge tv showing women's soccer and then a lively game of table tennis (the Chinese really love their table tennis). Two funny things, 1) Amy didn't know ping pong was an Olympic sport and 2) Table tennis players spit on their balls before they serve. A nice young man was kind enough to create a cut-out of Amy's profile, complete with glasses and a rather oversized chin. This, of course, occurred totally without her knowledge until it appeared in front of her face and he promised to sell it to her for a very good price -- truly flattered, she politely declined.
This morning we woke up early to meet our guide for the short ride to the dock, where we met our boat for the day. The boat was like a small version of a Mississippi River touring boat, and had two levels with a large outdoor deck on the second level and an air-conditioned cabin on the first. There were about 100 people on board, so it was full but not terribly crowded. The views along the Li River were spectacular, and our hundreds of pictures won't do them justice. (Darren -- Alden was bird-watcher woman today and thought of you). We were on the boat for about four hours as it made its way from Guilin to Yangshuo, where we are now. Yangshuo was originally a fishing village, but attained some popularity when Zhang Yimou (who directed the opening ceremonies) created a show depicting life of minorities in the area (Fact: China has over 56 minority groups). We're going to see the show in a few hours, and will report on that tomorrow.
When we disembarked in Yangshuo, our guide, Jenny, suggested that we walk to our hotel. There was a car option, but it was 10 yuen (a little over a dollar) and hardly seemed worth the money, as she said the walk would be about "20 to 20 minutes." Five minutes later it began to rain, but the real challenge came when we actually put on our raincoats, since it is over 90 degrees and at least 100% humidity. Red-faced, sunburned, and exhausted, we arrived at the hotel about 45 minutes later.
We saved ourselves a whole dollar though.
Granted, it is definitely the nicest hotel we have stayed in thus far and it's a shame we're only here for one night. Tomorrow we're back to Beijing and the adventures of the big city! And events, finally!
8.18.2008
Dumplings & Toilets, but not in that order
High: The mystery of Alden's one-day knee pain has been solved. The culprit is the squatting toilet. Specifically, squatting over a toilet while on a midnight train to Xian that is swerving violently. Also, this may or may not be too much information, but while Amy and I were in neighboring stalls and talking to each other, the following coversation took place:
Amy: [wearily] "I am not going to miss kneeling over a toilet."
Alden: [alarmed] "Umm, you are KNEELING?!"
(Amy wasn't kneeling but let this be a lesson to you all, no good can ever come of toilet holes.)
Low: Speaking of toilets, what we have discovered while using bathrooms all over China is that Chinese women simply do not believe in waiting in lines. Ever.
(From Alden -- "But it's MY birthday")
(From Amy, reminiscent of looking up at her mother in tears from the playground slide line, "but, when is it my turn?")
AHA: The advantage of traveling outside of Beijing is that we have the same guide for the entire time that we are in a city. This is giving us a chance to both get to know the guide and get a better sense of regional culture. We spent our lunch today discussing marriage in China. Traditionally, the financial burden of the ceremony falls on the man's family (no, Rob, Amy is not moving to China to get married). Also, there is no notion of a proposal -- once a couple has been dating for what is deemed an adequate period of time the parents simply say, "you should get married."
Since we last spoke, we've had quite the adventure! We had the most amazing dumpling feast in Xi'an -- Amy had vegatarian dumplings made especially for her. We drank beer and white rice wine, but not in the same copious amounts as the Chinese men sitting at the 3 tables around us! It was a time of great celebration, and so they were taking shots of their beer! Chinese power hour. Gong bei ["Bottom's up"]! We retired in our room de fish and enjoyed CCTV's coverage of the Olympics.
Early yesterday morning, we were startled awake by an insistant pounding accompanied by the shrill sounds of our doorbell @ 7.15am. "Hallo? You check out today!!!!!!!" <-- dear, sweet Jesus. I thought there was a fire or something was terribly, terribly wrong. Note: We weren't supposed to meet our guide until 9.30 and certainly weren't planning on being awake before 8.
Our breakfasts thus far have been in our hotels. They are buffets with a lot of Chinese elements including fruit, noodles and steamed bums....they also have had a random assortment of "American" additions like french toast, fried pototaoes, and something hard that was called a pancake. It's not our favorite meal of the day, but we're certainly not starving!
Most of our day yesterday was spent at the Terra Cotta Warrior Museum. Our guide, Nina was once again full of information as we toured all 3 pits where the clay men were discovered. If you don't know anything about this, google it. In short, briefly and to the point, the story is: 1974 man dig well to find water, pulls up strange clay head. He think this is god and put on tree to pray to. Jounralist from Beijing visit, see head, report to authorities. Fast forward through bureaucracy -- more than 7000 life size clay warriors, their horses, weapons & charriots were discovered and unearthed. The ruthless first emporer of the Qin Dynasty [600 AD] -- also creator of another world wonder, the Great Wall -- ordered the construction of the soldiers so that he would have an army to protect him in his next life. It took 4 decades and over 720,000 people to harvest, mold, fire & paint the clay men. The majority of the warriors have been uncovered but excavation is still clearly underway. What makes the warriors particularly amazing, is that they all have different facial expressions and armour. They also have a varitey of hairstyles and body positions, indicating their rank.
Our plane trip to Guillin was entriely uneventful save one small incident involving a muffin. Close your eyes (after you read this) and try to imagine.... Girl gets plate of delicious airplane food. Plate has some sort of chicken-rice dish, small salad with mystery meat, sanitary towel and inocuous looking brown muffin wrapped in airtight package. Girl is so hungry for delicious looking muffin. Muffin looks so soft and moist. Girl finish dinner and ready to enjoy muffin. After carefully opening challenging package, girl hold muffin close to face -- smells so good. But slippery muffin leaps from pinched fingers and flies toward girl's unopened mouth. Hit girl hard in nose. Girl not ready for leaping muffin.
Meanwhile girl number 2 patiently reading her book, sees leaping muffin out of corner of eye. This is strange. Such big muffin for one bite. Why is other girl throwing entire muffin into her mouth?
[We will now accept your guesses on which girl is muffin face and which girl is not.]
Also note, the muffin was the worst. muffin. ever.
Here we are in Guilin -- a city in the Guangxi province that has about 730,000 people and is most famous for its picturesque scenery. Staggering limestone mountains, 2 rivers, lakes and caves make up the face of this humid city. Today we visited Elephant Trunk Hill, FUBO Hilll, and Reed Flute Cave. We wish we could upload the pictures from our cameras, but are having some technical difficulaties and hope to do so when we return to Beijing (Aug 20). This is most definately our hottest day. HOT! AND HUMID!! Which made the cool temperature inside the cave most welcome. Rob -- Amy thinks the cave is the above ground version of the Blue Hole in Belize. It has huge stalagmites and stalagtites and one of the "rooms" was so vast that they hold concerts and banquets there!
[Congratulations, you made it. Thanks for reading :)]
Amy: [wearily] "I am not going to miss kneeling over a toilet."
Alden: [alarmed] "Umm, you are KNEELING?!"
(Amy wasn't kneeling but let this be a lesson to you all, no good can ever come of toilet holes.)
Low: Speaking of toilets, what we have discovered while using bathrooms all over China is that Chinese women simply do not believe in waiting in lines. Ever.
(From Alden -- "But it's MY birthday")
(From Amy, reminiscent of looking up at her mother in tears from the playground slide line, "but, when is it my turn?")
AHA: The advantage of traveling outside of Beijing is that we have the same guide for the entire time that we are in a city. This is giving us a chance to both get to know the guide and get a better sense of regional culture. We spent our lunch today discussing marriage in China. Traditionally, the financial burden of the ceremony falls on the man's family (no, Rob, Amy is not moving to China to get married). Also, there is no notion of a proposal -- once a couple has been dating for what is deemed an adequate period of time the parents simply say, "you should get married."
Since we last spoke, we've had quite the adventure! We had the most amazing dumpling feast in Xi'an -- Amy had vegatarian dumplings made especially for her. We drank beer and white rice wine, but not in the same copious amounts as the Chinese men sitting at the 3 tables around us! It was a time of great celebration, and so they were taking shots of their beer! Chinese power hour. Gong bei ["Bottom's up"]! We retired in our room de fish and enjoyed CCTV's coverage of the Olympics.
Early yesterday morning, we were startled awake by an insistant pounding accompanied by the shrill sounds of our doorbell @ 7.15am. "Hallo? You check out today!!!!!!!" <-- dear, sweet Jesus. I thought there was a fire or something was terribly, terribly wrong. Note: We weren't supposed to meet our guide until 9.30 and certainly weren't planning on being awake before 8.
Our breakfasts thus far have been in our hotels. They are buffets with a lot of Chinese elements including fruit, noodles and steamed bums....they also have had a random assortment of "American" additions like french toast, fried pototaoes, and something hard that was called a pancake. It's not our favorite meal of the day, but we're certainly not starving!
Most of our day yesterday was spent at the Terra Cotta Warrior Museum. Our guide, Nina was once again full of information as we toured all 3 pits where the clay men were discovered. If you don't know anything about this, google it. In short, briefly and to the point, the story is: 1974 man dig well to find water, pulls up strange clay head. He think this is god and put on tree to pray to. Jounralist from Beijing visit, see head, report to authorities. Fast forward through bureaucracy -- more than 7000 life size clay warriors, their horses, weapons & charriots were discovered and unearthed. The ruthless first emporer of the Qin Dynasty [600 AD] -- also creator of another world wonder, the Great Wall -- ordered the construction of the soldiers so that he would have an army to protect him in his next life. It took 4 decades and over 720,000 people to harvest, mold, fire & paint the clay men. The majority of the warriors have been uncovered but excavation is still clearly underway. What makes the warriors particularly amazing, is that they all have different facial expressions and armour. They also have a varitey of hairstyles and body positions, indicating their rank.
Our plane trip to Guillin was entriely uneventful save one small incident involving a muffin. Close your eyes (after you read this) and try to imagine.... Girl gets plate of delicious airplane food. Plate has some sort of chicken-rice dish, small salad with mystery meat, sanitary towel and inocuous looking brown muffin wrapped in airtight package. Girl is so hungry for delicious looking muffin. Muffin looks so soft and moist. Girl finish dinner and ready to enjoy muffin. After carefully opening challenging package, girl hold muffin close to face -- smells so good. But slippery muffin leaps from pinched fingers and flies toward girl's unopened mouth. Hit girl hard in nose. Girl not ready for leaping muffin.
Meanwhile girl number 2 patiently reading her book, sees leaping muffin out of corner of eye. This is strange. Such big muffin for one bite. Why is other girl throwing entire muffin into her mouth?
[We will now accept your guesses on which girl is muffin face and which girl is not.]
Also note, the muffin was the worst. muffin. ever.
Here we are in Guilin -- a city in the Guangxi province that has about 730,000 people and is most famous for its picturesque scenery. Staggering limestone mountains, 2 rivers, lakes and caves make up the face of this humid city. Today we visited Elephant Trunk Hill, FUBO Hilll, and Reed Flute Cave. We wish we could upload the pictures from our cameras, but are having some technical difficulaties and hope to do so when we return to Beijing (Aug 20). This is most definately our hottest day. HOT! AND HUMID!! Which made the cool temperature inside the cave most welcome. Rob -- Amy thinks the cave is the above ground version of the Blue Hole in Belize. It has huge stalagmites and stalagtites and one of the "rooms" was so vast that they hold concerts and banquets there!
[Congratulations, you made it. Thanks for reading :)]
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