My first China trip, in 2013. After a rendezvous in
the capitol with my then-girlfriend/now-spouse Kelly we went on to Xi'an
to see the terra-cotta warriors; afterwards, she returned to her home town
in southern
Guangdong, and
I went on to Shanghai. Note that all images here are thumbnails; click
to zoom.
Beijing
June 25
Picked up at the airport by Kelly and friend, we drove into town. I could see huge buildings through the smoggy air and expressed my assessment: "Beijing
is a mighty city." Our hotel, very traditional, in Yien Dai Shie Jie,
"Cigarette Bag Leaning Street" or
Yan
Dai Xie Jie, "Slanted Tobacco Pipe Street", the wutang alley area near
the Drum Tower (seen in the background here, with Kelly wearing backpacks
fore and aft). We go out this first evening to several places.
June 26
After a Dou Fu Nao breakfast (very soft tofu in a watery soup) accompanied Kelly shopping for cell-phone chips. Began noticing these fellows; you see 'em marching around the central city in squads of four, six or eight; two abreast. Probably hit the ceiling if they noticed my photographing them.
June 27
Beihai Park morning,
where we watched people dancing, then transition to another hotel south of the Forbidden City. Tianenmen Square in the afternoon, and finally, Lamb Hot
Pot dinner.
Hanzi writer in the park, using a brush kept wet
from a small water tank on his back.
Dancing in Beihai Park, with video!
Lamb Hot Pot restaurant
In Tiananmen Square, where I received smiles from the locals by whistling "The East Is Red" as I strolled about.
Note the bright red
fire extinguisher. A few others were off in the distance, just sitting
there ready in case someone tries a self-immolation, or so I was told. And
at the right edge, that soldier is standing vigil, at attention for hours,
under the umbrella.
June 28
Room too small and noisy, that
hutong courtyard
hotel, so we moved on to this very nice
King's
Joy. Then, the long march past Tienenman into the crowds of
tourists awaiting entry into the Forbidden City. Finally inside, Emperor
This, Emperor That; yeah, yeah; Old China becomes tiresome, and this
City spans much too large an area for walking. I wanted my bicycle for
getting around, like Peter O'Toole. Somewhere in there was a Hall of
Mental Cultivation, "delightfully dilapidated", according to Lonely
Planet. Pictured are some strangely stunted trees for the Emperor's
amusement and a fearsome attack turtle. I ran out of steam early,
so back to the hotel for naps and internet. Later the first subway
rides of the trip, to/from Olympic Park (the Birds Nest and Water
Cube!) Amazed to see the subway tunnels lined with screens animated
such that commercials seen through the windows keep up with the train.
Tourists waiting to get in to the Forbidden City
June 29
Buffet breakfast, downstairs at the hotel, then shopping, first
along Wang Fujing (where I bought my Mao hat) then the even bigger
Xidan. After purchasing
our Xi'an plane tickets and an internet break, back out to Tiananmen to
see the flag lowering ceremony and the new domed Centre for Performing
Arts, followed by a beef with bok choy dinner and food purchase for
tomorrow, along the way walking back to the hotel.
June 30
Bus ride out to the Great Wall today. So foggy, couldn't see
much - visibility near zero, but this meant few tourists, glad we
went. Access via chair-lift; unfortunately the Alpine slide to get
back down was closed. Bought a little red book (in English)
at one of the many souvenir stalls down below.
Xi'an
July 1
In Xi'an after high-speed express train ride through deserted countryside
with stops at new high-rise cities. Now in a 27th-floor apartment, an internet
friend of Kelly's with two other women relatives including an ancient,
silent grandmother who stares at me, wondering no doubt what this oafish
lauwei is doing in her apartment. Across the street that evening,
I have my first taste of that specialty of Shaanxi Province:
Rou Jia Mo "hamburgers".
July 2
Xi'an is surrounded by a massive, rectangular city wall, still in great shape;
we even enjoyed a bit of tandem bike-riding up there today. Later,
walking in the Muslim Quarter, and then a kind of dancing waters show,
the Musical Fountains in North Square.
July 3
Day-trip today,by bus,
in the rain, out to see
the Terra
Cotta Warriors. I remember reading about their discovery in this 1978
National Geographic. The site has grown into a complex of several
buildings, the main 'dig' roofed over like an airplane hangar.
Like Beijing, Xi'an also has a Drum Tower/Bell Tower pair. Posing here
with the Bell; Drum to the right.
July 5th
Afternoon and evening spent at
Tang Paradise Gardens. Lots of statues of the poets amid
rugged terrain, cast from concrete to look like natural stone, with hanzi carved into, and painted. At dusk, the illuminated Lake
Show, with such cavalier spraying of coherent light! I doubt that lasers
pointed at the audience would be allowed stateside, even if feeble, even
with curtains of water in-between.
July 6th
My flight out of Xi'an delayed, Kelly's was on-time and now I'm a solo traveler again. Eventually, Shanghai. Subway ride from the airport where a friendly passenger getting off at my stop pointed me towards my destination in a
side-street, this very nice loft room at the
Bee Home Hostel, which seems to be closed now, alas.
Shanghai
July 7th
Walking around in the French and International Concessions, at last.
Tree-lined streets, and buildings with art deco details. Also, the pagodas
of Old Town, mostly a market for tourists where I noticed storefronts
decorated with these little reed geodesics, each containing a cricket.
July 8
Bund in the morning, walkng along the river, watching the dancers;
then to the Shanghai Museum, and a return to Old Town (for the
animal and insect market, with the live crickets seen here).
Out past Century, later, to the Carrie-Four mega-super-market
and an Aji-Sen ramen supper nearby. Earlier today, at the train
station, booking tickets for tomorrow's day-trip to Nanjing, at
the English-language Ticket Counter. Also stumbled upon
a museum devoted to
obscure, local uprisings of armed workers there in the 1920s.
July 9
Nanjing
High-Speed Express train to Nanjing, by way of Suzhou. Walking around this
former capital, clueless, feeling out of it in China without
Kelly. Saw the wall and central gate in Nanjing, but didn't pay to
go in and up. Lunch was a sandwich at a weird bakery where the girls
all wore these curious breath deflectors I thought of as iMuzzles.
July 10
Back in Shanghai, exploring the Jing-An district, where I had a curry lunch. Later, more
fun at dusk hanging out on cosmopolitan
Nanjing Road and the Bund. Here's a 360° pan of the Bund waterfront, beginning and ending
at the green-pyramid-topped Cathay Peace Hotel, with the skyscrapers across
the river in Pudong at mid-point as
the Custom House chimes play "The East Is Red."
Changchang, mascot of the Shanghai Metro.
This concludes my first mainland travel report. In 2016, we went back,
to her hometown; then Hanoi, Vietnam for a couple nights; and on to
Yangshou, Chongqing, Chengdu and Hong Kong.
Day-trip today,by bus,
in the rain, out to see
