China Chronicles: Closing Statements

My best attempt at offering a picture that alludes contemplation of China while in China.

     Alas, in an attempt to make the blog current, I will make an even more feeble attempt to close the books on China by offering some closing thoughts.  Throughout this post I may or may not clutter and disrupt fluid reading with random pictures of China to keep/gain the interest of the reader(s).

      In order to justify some of my/our (Kelly's) opinions of China, I must first admit assumptions of China prior to our visit.  China is one of the bigger countries in this world and therefore holds a lot of mystery and beauty (i.e., rich history, beautiful landscape and interesting people).  China is like America in the sense that the country is so big and there are vastly differing landscapes and scenery which directly affect those who live in those areas.  People who live in the woods of the Pacific Northwest are different than those of the swamps of Georgia.  The same goes with China. Those who live in the Himalayas (i.e., Tibet) are different than those of the Southeast (i.e., Hong Kong).  In China, however, these differences are considered more extreme.  For example, the booming cities of Bejing, Shanghai and Hong Kong might make the ignorant traveller believe that China is a booming economy that can't be stopped.  However, 200-500 miles inland, China is considered a third world country comparable to Nigeria or Ethiopia where 500 million Chinese do not have access to clean drinking water.

     I/we have also always been raised on fear and/or resentment towards China.  We as Americans are aware of the fact that most of the things we possess are "Made in China" and we have built up resentment for that.  China, to the average American, is considered cheap.  

     The scare of communism has also been beaten into the lives of every American, especially the Christian American.  Not only is Communism, from America's standpoint, the worst form of government everywhere, it also outlawed religions.  When Mao was in power he outlawed all religion and inacted a state religion.  Religions such as Christianity were outlawed and things got nasty over there (note: this is not current China).

     So, with all of these things considered, the scare of Communism (our first experience in a Communist nation) and the violent history of China, our defenses were naturally up.  We have been to a few different Asian countries this past year, Korea the obvious, and we noticed some big differences between Korean and Chinese cultures.  

     Another factor, and this was a large factor, the Chinese language was uncomfortable.  The writing and characters are beautiful but the spoken language is ugly.  Not to say that Korean is much prettier, but when the Chinese speak, it is a much more violent, erradic, staccato and to the foreigner or tourist, comes across as angry.  Plus, the Chinese are more prone to wear their emotions on their sleeves and speak louder, getting into more confrontations (we've been in enough subways to make this generalization with relative accuracy.).   

     We also could not trust the Chinese as much.  For the select few who have been able to stay in Korea and experience the true culture, you know that it is a very trusting culture.  In China, however, people CONSTANTLY try to rip you off.  It was a place where you had to be on guard.  We didn't like that feeling of mistrust all the time (note that we realize there are nice Chinamen out there, and we certainly met some, but for the average stranger trying to push some product on us or give us a "deal", we had our guard up).

With that being said, we loved being in China.  China possesses beautiful landscape...

Beijing

Hong Kong

Fascinating old history....

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Great Wall, Beijing

Temple of Heaven, Beijing

Forbidden City, Beijing

And amazing cities....

Shanghai

Shanghai

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

While there is always more to see in China, we are glad to have seen what we have seen and can, with confidence, close the books on China.  If  we get the opportunity to go someday, we will gladly go. But we have now officially marked China and many of its wonders off of our bucket list.  We now have other destinations to fulfill...TIL THEN!

China Chronicles: Beijing

I will have to apologize for the sudden influx of blogs for this month, there have been several happenings since mid-July (many of which have gone unnoticed).  While Beijing is coming out of turn compared to the other events that have occured these past couple of weeks, I thought it only fitting to add Beijing to the China Chronicles.

To preface our trip to Beijing, I will first need to note as to why we decided to go when we did and the reason for the duration of our stay.  Our good friends and roomates throughout college Devin Foley and Brooke Foley have been planning a week trip to South Korea since April.  It was nearly a year ago, before we left for Korea that the four of us sat in Rochester fantasizing about adventures abroad.  We toyed with the idea of Brooke and Devin visiting us and flirted with going to China (Beijing) while they were in Asia.  Since Seoul is less than a two hour flight from Beijing, this was a practical and relatively inexpensive idea.

Devin, Brooke, Regina (tour guide), Kelly and myself at the bottom of The Great Wall.

So here we find ourselves in Beijing.  Devin and Brooke flew to Beijing on Friday and Kelly and I met them on Saturday.  We arrived at the Beijing airport at approximately 10:00 am.  After we got off the plane, we had to take a bus taxi to the main terminal.  While we were driving on the tarmac, I noticed an airplane with "Koryo Arilines" on it.  That name sparked my curiosity as I have never heard of that type of airline before.  I soon found out why.  As I observed the airplane further I noticed the North Korean flag painted on the tail wing of the plane.  I quickly and eagerly shouted to Kelly, "Hey Kelly! That plane is from North Korea!"  While I was not surprised by the presence of the plane (as we know that North Korea and China have a close relationship), I was curious as to who would be on that plane.  As Kelly and I proceeded down some long hallways to arrive at China immigration, I stepped in line behind a man of whom I assumed was Korean.  I noticed that he dropped his immigration paper and I saw the last name "Lee" on it.  My assumptions were correct, as Lee is a very common last name in Korea (somewhat like Johnson or Smith in America).  I picked up the paper for this nice man and gave him a head nod.  He seemed indifferent and took it from me with a slight head nod (common gesture for Koreans).  As I stood behind this man I remembered the North Korean airplane and begun to put two and two together.  For the next 10 minutes I patiently waited for him to reveal his passport.  Then finally, I saw his passport.  Sure enough, his passport said "Democratic People's Republic of Korea."  I can't believe I just had had a small exchange with a North Korean.  This trip was starting out just right.

After about two hours, we finally arrived at our hotel near The Forbidden City.  Devin and Brooke were waiting patiently for us and we were overjoyed to see them.  We checked in, ate lunch at the hotel and around 1:30pm, Regina picked us up for a trip to The Great Wall.  We went to a somewhat secluded area of the Wall called Mutianyu.  It was great.  Although it was raining, it stopped at certain intervals allowing the perfect amount of exposure to the wall.  It was also great to keep the heat down and keep us cool.

We hiked around this mighty long wall for about 3 hours.  Towards the end of our time on the wall, as you can probably gather from most of our pictures from The Great Wall, we were virtually the ONLY people on the Wall, something that is very rare.

The Great Wall tops as one of my all-time greatest experiences I have ever had.  Devin, Brooke and Kelly would also rank The Great Wall as their top 5.  The particular mountainous terrain we were at was amazing.  It was so fascinating how they built this wall across this terrain, and that the wall is 10,000 km long!  It was exhausting just walking the 1km section we were at, let alone construct it!  It made it even better that we were the only ones who were on the wall, too.

We bought shirts.  "I climbed The Great Wall."

Following our trip to The Great Wall, all four of us went out to dinner to have the world famous "Peking Duck".  It was pretty dang good.  The restuarant had some pretty interesting selections of food.  I'd repeat some of the entrees, but I figured I'd save you the upset stomachs. 

After dinner, Brooke and Devin, who were in Beijing a day before us if you'll remember, wanted to take us to Olympic Park to see the area at night.  We were overly pumped to see this place, (especially lit up at night) however, we were too late and got there after the park closed.  Fear not my friends, Kelly and I went back the next day.

After a depressing farewell from our friends Brooke and Devin, Kelly and I went to bed that night for a very long, action packed Sunday in Beijing.

Our "12 hour sprint" in Beijing first consisted of visiting the "Temple of Heaven."  Since the taxis are very cheap in China (not Hong Kong) we decided to take taxis everywhere since they were easy and quick.  We took the taxi to Temple of Heaven and were awestruck by the vastness of the surrounding area.  The Temple of Heaven has a massive wooded park (like Central Park in New York City) and had this cool palace thing in the middle.  We enjoyed ourselves.

Following our 1 1/2 hours at Temple of Heaven, Kelly and I went to a massive pearl market nearby.  There are several main exports China is known for.  Silk, Jade, China and Pearl.  We decided to spend some $$ and buy some real pearls from China.  Booyah.

After our trip to the Pearl Market, Kelly and I then took a taxi to "Tian'namen Square."  This is the main square in central Beijing.  Here we were able to see the massive vastness of the square, as well as government buildings and the ever so popular, "Forbidden City."

The entrance of The Forbidden City.

Wavin' Flags

Inside the Forbidden City

One of the many "gates" within the city.

The Forbidden City is absolutely massive.  We have seen some big palace grounds here in Korea, but The Forbidden City is larger than many small cities in the US.  We did not buy an audio tour, but what we do know is that many Emperors dwelled within these walls and it was Forbidden for any common person to come within the walls for over 500 years.

 

After The Forbidden City, we went back to our hotel to pick up a bag of ours that we had stored there so we wouldn't have to lug it around Beijing.  We then departed to Olympic Park to see "The Birds Nest" as well as the "Water Cube."

The Birds Nest is huge.

Olympiads

The Water Cube.  Cool structure.

Following our visit to Olympic Park, we boarded the subway to the airport.  We left Olympic Park around 5pm and got to the airport around 7pm, just in time for a 9pm departure.  Overall it was a great stay.  It was sad to say goodbye to our friends, but we had a great time.

I'll write one more "closing thoughts" blog on China so I can finally close the books on China.

Stay thirsty my friends.

China Chronicles: Hong Kong part 2

Forgive me for my time of leave, these past 3 weeks since the return from our epic China trip have been busy (stay tuned for it).  After our time at Stanley Bay, we returned to the city life where we found it apropos to enjoy a stellar night view of the city.  We ventured across the bay near the Avenue of Stars for views such as this.

 After we stayed at this very spot for nearly two hours, mostly consisting of me taking roughly 100 pictures of the same skyline, we decided to go find some dinner.  However, since it was raining, we thought it to be a good idea to see the hit movie "Inception".  This task proved to fail us this night, however, our resiliency was too great for the ticket box of any Hong Kong theater to deter us from seeing this movie.  We saw it the next evening.

The following day we decided to take the highly recommended Victoria's Peak Tram up a mountain side for other stellar views of Hong Kong.  To miss Victoria's Peak while in Hong Kong would be like missing the birth of your first child (so they say...for the purposes of this blog).  The first thing we did that morning was to ride the tram to the peak.  We were a little nervous because the previous day, as noted in part 1, was a torrential downpour for nearly the entire day.  The morning looked promising for us and we decided that rain or shine, we would take our chances.

Upon arrival to the summit of Victoria's Peak, we realized that while the view was still amazing, it was not what we were anticipating.  While the day prior to Victoria's Peak was filled with a typhoon too great for even Storm to conjure, this day was filled with dense fog.  There was a point where we could not even see 5 meters beyond the observatory.  Despite the heavy fog, there were moments of clarity where we could truly grasp the coolness of the peak.  We consider it a success.

After Victoria's Peak we went to eat lunch.  This was no ordinary restaurant, however.  The name of the restaurant was "Modern Toilet" and as you can see from the picture above, the theme was a bathroom.

Shower heads lined the walls.

Tastily placed toilets as seats.

Porcelain urinals as "specialty drink" holders.

 Very excited to eat here.  It was great!

After our delicious lunch, we went a few hours outside of Hong Kong to the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car to see a large Buddha.  This cable car ride was the real deal.  A one way trip lasted about 30 minutes and offered awesome views.  We went over oceans, mountains, cliffs and waterfalls.  Jaw dropping views to say the least.

The ride could not have been long enough.

On the way to the Buddha, we opted for a slightly more expensive, yet luxurious glass bottom car.  

After the cable car ride, we arrived in a small village-esk tourist town dedicated to this guy perched on a mountain top.  There was a very long stairway leading up to him and there offered excellent views of the area.

The surrounding area.

After our trip on the Ngong Ping 360, we made it back to our hostel around 8:30, just in time for some dinner and a 9:45 viewing of "Inception" (resiliency).  The movie was fantastic and needs a blog of its own.  A blog I will not spend the time to write.

The next morning we parted ways with Miss Holly Schoephoerster and toured Hong Kong alone.  The day started off with seeing the Jade Market, where Kelly was able to buy a jade ring and I was able to buy a jade piece of something.  Jade is one of China's biggest exports and something unique to China.  Naturally, I'm going to buy some of it then.  

After our trip to the Jade Market, Kelly and I wanted to visit a beach.  The weather in Hong Kong was really nice the last couple of days, and it was incredibly hot our last day.  We waited for a ferry and took a 1/2 hour ferry ride to an island called Lamma Island.  It was a sweet looking island where there were no cars.

We did not exactly know where to go for a good beach, as we concluded from Lonely Planet that there were a plethora of beaches at this island.  We decided to walk a direction where the thought necessary to find a beach.  We walked about 40 minutes on a path like the one above.  We were amazed by how cool this island was.  Finally, after nearly passing out from a heat stroke, we stopped at the first beach we saw.

We decided to settle at this beach, but only for a dip.  This was not to be our final destination and sought after another, more popular beach.  However, the water did feel great.

Now here is where our trip to Lamma Island took an insanely quick decline.  After gulping down a bottle of water and a brief conversation with an island local, we learned that the good beaches were in the opposite direction from which we came.  Shoot.  So we began our trek to where we came from.  While this news was disappointing, we still had high spirits of the prospect of a great beach to come.  HOWEVER, almost immediately starting our walk Kelly noticed a spider.  

I cannot explain to you what emotions this particular spider elicited in me.  This spider was enormous.  It was roughly the size of a fully out stretched hand.  The web itself was big enough to bring down birds, probably even airplanes.  Seeing this spider sent a vehement shudder down my spine and I put my hand on the small of Kelly's back and quickly urged us to move on without hesitation....here is where our perils increase 10 fold.

The saying "ignorance is bliss" could not prove to be more true in this instance.  The first time we walked the path for 40 minutes we were completely ignorant of the deadly spiders presence.  We joyfully and merrily skipped along the path like two lovers with a childlike sense of adventure.  Our return trip, however, was torture.  It turns out that Lamma Island is notorious for housing these spiders.  These spiders are known as the  "Golden-Orb" spiders or "Nephila" and are monstrous.  They have been said to be highly venomous and their bites are similar to those of the Black Widow (although not quite as potent).  In a span of 20 minutes ON THE SAME PATH as before, we counted 15.  They. Were. Every. Where.  They were also massive.  My manhood was put into question when my wife observed me ducking my head and running in sporadic movements along the path out of pure fear.  It did not help that these things built their webs above the walking path, 2 feet above my head.  After we walked for an hour, trying to find a beach, we saw so many of these spiders that I couldn't take it anymore.  I wanted off the island.  It would have been one thing to see one or two of these spiders, but I did not have to look for more than 5 seconds to find another one of these things.  It ruined my experience on the island.  We did meet a very outspoken Hong Kong kid of 7 or 8 named Kenneth who thought it necessary to follow us for the next two hours.  Don't worry, he was afraid of the spiders too.  I had someone to bond with and something to hate with Kenneth.  He also likes Michael Jackson and showed us his moonwalk.  

I show you this picture again for reference of how narrow our trail was compared to the growth surrounding the trail.  These spiders were dwelling everywhere.  Even in this picture there are several of them lurking in the shadows.

Click here for a Youtube video of these spiders.  *Note, this isn't' my video*

Despite living in fear, we finally left the island around 4:30 and toured the comfortable, spider free city of Hong Kong.  We stayed at the harbor for a while and walked around Hong Kong for a bit longer.  The following day we had some Dim sam and the took the journey back to the Hong Kong airport to go home.  Immediately upon arrival at the Seoul-Incheon airport, we met Kelly's parents who actually beat us to Korea.