Shanghai

We arrive at 3:00 pm local time the next day (don’t forget the international dateline!), 3:00 am back home, just about 24 hours from when we awoke.  We are met at the airport by our local tour guide, “Jessica.”  It’s off to the four star hotel to check in, grab dinner, and take a brief walk to familiarize ourselves with our neighborhood for the next three nights.  I purchase a 50 Yuan (about $6.60) phone card to call home from time to time, as cell phone calls on my network from China are extremely expensive.  The phone card (which must be purchased in China) is definitely the way to go.

Up at 7:00 to grab breakfast in the hotel restaurant.  Most of the breakfasts on the trip are “western-style” buffets in our hotels, including some cereals, fruit, eggs, bacon, and Chinese noodles and vegetables.  I grab some noodles and congee (a rice based soup), my daughter grabs noodles, and my son cereal and an omelet.  Then it’s off to our first stop, a “Children’s Palace.”  There, Chinese preschoolers and elementary schoolers take lessons in English (transportation “bingo” run by a Canadian imported to help with the language – “bus, helicopter,”), mathematical patterns, art, and music.  We are treated to a musical performance by several young prodigies, after which my daughter purchases a horse painting by a girl her own age to hang in her room at home.

We head out to the Shanghai Museum, where we have a whirlwind tour (less than two hours for the four floor museum).  We see ethnic minority arts and crafts, ancient Chinese jade, calligraphy, ceramics, furniture, ancient Chinese bronze, and sculptures. 

Lunch, like most of our meals, is a 10 course banquet to which the group was unable to do justice.   Too little eating from the younger set, even though the food was slightly Americanized and they are all used to eating some Chinese food at home.

Rain (actually a major downpour) greets us after lunch.  This would be one theme of the trip.  We wait it out in the shops in the mart where the restaurant was located, and venture out after the worst has past.  A short walk through a pedestrian area of Shanghai brings us to the next stop – a Chinese garden.  On the way in, my son slips on the stone steps, leading to a black eye and for the two of us to miss the tour.  We have the very pleasant company of the teacher and two security guards who stay with us to help make sure my son is OK.  Once he calms down and we are sure he doesn’t require hospitalization we make a mad dash through the garden to catch up with our tour group just before they leave.  Fortunately the next day will provide us with another chance to see a different garden in a more leisurely fashion.

From the garden we spend some time on the Bund, an area constructed by Europeans who controlled Shanghai early in the 20^th century.  Across the river is the very modern section of the city with the new higher and higher towers, including the TV tower ostensibly shaped as a string of pearls.  That was a second theme of the trip – lots of construction of taller and taller buildings, both for business and as residences.  After a short time for shopping it is off to dinner and an acrobat show.

The acrobat show, which included tumbling, balancing acts, table and pot spinning, Chinese yo-yos, and ribbon climbing, is the children’s highlight in Shanghai, although some of them have trouble staying awake due to the time change.  No so during the climax, when up to six motorcycles are added, one at a time, to the inside of a large see-through globe, where they whiz past each other in a dizzying display of precision timing.

Suzhou

Up early for the 90 kilometer trip from Shanghai to Suzhou, we are confronted with the third theme of the trip (particularly in the larger cities) – traffic.  China seems to have many, many more private cars than when I was there nine years ago to adopt my daughter.  Traffic jams are common at any time in Shanghai, and add considerable time to our trip to Suzhou.  We take the expressway (tolled, as are most of the expressways we take in the trip), and once clear of the city it moves freely.

Suzhou is the “Venice” of China, and the morning is to be spent on a canal boat trip.  The smaller canal is the most picturesque.  We float by businesses, restaurants, and many older style homes.  In addition to my own pictures I purchase (for $4 American) two sets of postcards and a pack of playing cards with scenes from the Suzhou area.

Lunch is a buffet in the American themed restaurant that is part of Silk Factory No. 1, which we are to visit right afterwards.  There we learn about the lifecycle of the worm and the process of manufacturing silk.  We start our tour with the offer to try some crunchy fried/baked silkworms (which taste a bit dusty and which most of the kids eschew rather than chew).  Some of the kids get their own silkworm cocoons as souvenirs (deemed unacceptable for silk processing as they have a hole in them).  We learn about the difference between single cocoons (used to create silk thread) and double cocoons (used in quilts due to the intermingling of the two silkworm threads).  We even get the opportunity to help stretch the double cocoon material in the traditional way (four people pulling the corners).

Suzhou, like Shanghai, seems to be a city under massive expansion.  As we leave we pass many construction sites for businesses, industry, and high rise apartments.  This area of China seems to be a big beneficiary of the capitalistic expansion going on in sections of the country.  We head back to Shanghai for our final night and our dinner banquet that will feature the famous Shanghai juicy buns.  We have an early wake-up call for our first Chinese domestic flight to Guangzhou and the long bus ride to the orphanage at Yangchun.

Guangzhou/Yangchun/Guangzhou

Today is the day we get to visit an orphanage, specifically the one from which four of the girls (but not my daughter) have come.  After a two hour plane ride we stop for a dim-sum lunch in Guangzhou (my contribution to the itinerary) before the four plus hour ride to the orphanage city.  The trip through the countryside takes us past rice paddies, farmland, mountainous areas, occupied and abandoned villages, and many water buffalo, which I vainly try to capture with my digital camera (lens a bit too slow).  The local tour guide, “Thomas,” explains that quite a few of the families in the region have either moved abroad or to the cities, leaving behind their empty houses.

We finally arrive at the city of Yangchun, population about 1.5 million, considered “rural” by Chinese standards.  This is the first time during the tour that we are greeted mostly with stares, although they seem more curious than hostile.  We are finally off the main tourist path.  We check into our hotel (the only three star one during the trip, with the rest being four star) and settle down to prepare for the orphanage visit the next morning.

After breakfast (complete with a couple of dim-sum items to please my heart) we are bundled into the bus for the short trip to the orphanage.  We are escorted by the orphanage director, who is clearly genuinely pleased to have us as visitors.  We first stop in her office, where she shows the children from Yangchun their orphanage folders.  It strikes me as a major shame that my daughter is unable to experience this, but she seems oblivious to what is going on, hanging out with her classmates.  Then it is up to the younger children’s room, where we see a variety of babies, some perfect, others with cleft palates and other minor deformities, and one with some mental delays.  We all get a chance to hold some of the babies.  Finally it is off to the older section of the orphanage to see some of the slightly older children.  One young girl comes to each of us in turn, craving hugs and attention.  Then, after too short a time, it is back to the bus for what the orphanage director says will be a special surprise.

The bus pulls over at the side of the road in the town, and we are told that this is the place one of the girls in the group had been found.  We stop at three additional places; each time another family gets to see where their story began.  There will be no such stop for my daughter, but she doesn’t seem too bothered.  The greater disappointment is mine that we don’t have this opportunity.

We stop at a local hypermart (food and all sorts of durable goods) for the group to buy items to donate to the orphanage.  We are not allowed to give cash directly, but the orphanage director helps pick out items they can use for the children.  Then it is on the road back to Guangzhou, where we will visit a jade/pearl/etc. shop (I wonder if the tour guide gets a kickback?) and then go to dinner.  At the shop my daughter correctly guesses the number of pearls that are in a particular oyster (15), and is rewarded with the collection.  She is quite proud of this, and at last feels special that day.  Then it’s off to the hotel for the night.  The hotel is the same one where my wife and I stayed the first night we went to China on our trip to adopt my daughter, and being there brings back memories of the excitement and disappointment of that first night, and the regret that my wife did not live long enough to make this trip back.

Guilin

A short one hour flight from Guangzhou takes us to Guilin, considered one of the most beautiful areas in China.  Near the end of the flight we are given a package of wet wipes.  I look at the name on the package, “Needless Wipes.”  Too bad, as I did have a need for one...

We start our day with a trip up Elephant Trunk Hill, overlooking the city and the Li River.  By the time I get to the top it’s as if I had been standing in the shower.  Philadelphia has nothing on China for humidity.  The view is spectacular, and I take quite a few photos (thank goodness for large capacity compact flash cards).

After lunch we visit the Reed Flute Cave, one of many limestone caves that dot the area.  Why the Chinese seem to need to embellish nature I don’t know, but the cave is lit with many colored lights that are used to highlight the natural shapes as various animals and objects (here a pig, there a city, a curtain for a theater, birds, dragons).  I wonder how it would look in natural light, but my companions seem fine with the transformations.  We leave the cave and brave the street vendors that descend upon us (a scene to be repeated time and time again).  I give in and purchase a photo book of the Guilin area for $2 (American money easily accepted and perhaps even preferred).  It previews some of the things to be seen the next day on our river trip down the Li River.

We finish the day going to a pearl museum and shop, where the girls spend most of their time spinning on the stools.  A few of them get their first strands of pearls, but it is the women in the group that seem the most enticed by the jewelry.

I wake the next morning excited about what I predict (correctly) will be the highlight of the trip for me – a trip down the Li River past the limestone hills.  The tour boat consists of one deck filled with long tables (at which we were to eat our provided lunch) and an upper deck to which I immediately retreat and claim my spot in front.  I will spend much of the next two hours taking pictures and video.  In some of the photos in the book I purchased the hills are described as “grotesque,” (most likely a mis-translation) but they are anything but.  Every turn of the river brings new beauty into view.  I vow to return to Guilin and spend at least a week exploring the area if I ever get back to China.

Cheng Du

We have arrived in the afternoon after a one hour flight from Guilin.  Since we are going to be here for two nights I rinse out some clothing items to get us through the rest of the trip.  I hope that they will dry in time, unlike the time I did the same during our adoption trip (still damp when we left China almost a week later).  Our activities here are to take place the next day.  For the time being we try to relax and take a short time to swim in the hotel pool.  After dinner we take in a show that includes Chinese opera, acrobatics, comedy, hand shadow animals, shoulder mounted puppets, and music, before the climax - the famous face changing (sequences of masks, some only on for a second or two).  We are not told the secret of the face changing – supposedly it is passed down from generation to generation within a family and is closely guarded.  (A review in slow motion of the video I shot gives us a hint, but I will not divulge it here.)

The next morning the kids are finally getting excited, as we are off to the Panda Research Center to visit the elusive creatures.  It’s so humid that even the video camera is complaining.  Its moisture sensor has shut it down before a single frame has been shot.  It won’t function again until it has spent some time back on the air-conditioned bus.  Fortunately the still camera is functioning.  For 300 Yuan (about $40) each we get to stand next to and “touch” a panda (wearing a plastic glove – us, not the panda! – “I shot an elephant in my pajamas…”) while getting our pictures taken with our camera.  My photos show a disheveled tall man in a soaked green t-shirt standing behind a disinterested panda who is munching on some bamboo.  I don’t even have on my trademark glasses as they had fogged up in the extreme humidity.  Nevertheless the pictures, and the glove I wore, but have already misplaced (I hope I find them!), are destined be my most personal souvenirs of the trip.  There are nine total photos of the three of us with the panda, so I hope we got our money’s worth.  Anyway, it’s for a good cause.

Before going into the Center, our local guide, Echo, has warned us against buying from the street peddlers.  She says the quality of goods in the Center’s own shop is much better.  We take her advice to heart and buy our two stuffed pandas (one per kid) at that shop.  By the next day each has split a seam.  Could the cheaper ones sold by the street vendors be any worse?

After the Panda Research Center we grab lunch and then go to a place where they make brocade the traditional way.  The worker directing the creation of the pattern sits high at the side of the loom and pulls varying strings that determine the pattern (from memory!) while his colleague sits at loom level pushing the shuttle through the threads that are to make up the cloth.  It is exacting and demanding work, 40 minutes on and 20 minutes off.  I wonder how little the workers earn for their efforts.  The shop shows off examples, including some that look like photos and some that are somewhat translucent two-sided versions with different pictures on the front and reverse.  Quite amazing.  The kids, however, are more interested in the Chinese version of a hacky-sack (more like a badminton shuttlecock) that the local tour guide, “Echo,” produces. My daughter vows to find one to bring back home. 

Later that afternoon we go to a tea in a public park in the city.  There we meet a man from Tibet who is trying to sell his remaining prayer beads and wolves’ teeth (he explains how to tell the real ones from plastic) to raise the last bit of money he needs to go back home.  He blesses the children by touching them on their foreheads with a carved stone he has hanging from his neck.  Sometimes the most interesting events come completely unplanned.

In the evening we have dinner followed by a “chocolate cake” (white cake with chocolate syrup drizzled on top) to celebrate the Fourth of July.  I guess the Chinese “don’t know from chocolate,” at least as far as this chocoholic thinks.  We had to forgo fireworks (only allowed in China during a few of their festivals, including that for the Lunar New Year).  The accompanying wine (a first for our trip, as the beverages were generally tea, beer, soda, and bottled water) was thoroughly undrinkable.  I think I will stick to our July 4^th celebrations back home.

In the hotel room I finally notice a plaque on the back of the door.  After the Chinese characters at the top, it announces boldly in English “Dear Guests, For your own safety please do not bring or open your room door to any strangers.  Thank you.”  I vow to only bring my room door to my friends.

Xi’an

We fly to Xi’an early in the morning, a flight of about 1 ½ hours.  Since it is too early to check into our hotel we head out for the main reason we have come here – to see the Terra Cotta Warriors of Xi’an.  On our way, the local tour guide tries to explain to us the difference between northern China (where we are now) and southern China (which we just left.  First off, we are told, the staple in the north is wheat rather than rice.  We are to get a glimpse of this in the outer wrappers at this evening’s special dumpling banquet.  Second, northerners are supposedly taller than their southern counterparts.  I keep my eye peeled for this difference while in Xi’an, but being 6’ 2” myself none of the Chinese look particularly tall to me.

After a 40 minute drive we arrive at the museum that houses the warriors and the excavation pits.  We’re in luck; our tour guide has managed (through connections) to get us VIP arrival status, meaning we get to drive much closer to the museum before disembarking from the bus.  We head into the museum grounds to start our tour at Pit number 1.  This oldest of the pits is the one containing most of the restored figures, and is quite a spectacle.  It’s more than two and one half football fields long and is estimated to contain more than 6,000 warriors and horses, although only a fraction of that number is currently in evidence.  Still, much less than half is filled with restored figures.  Pictures cannot do justice to the scope and detail – it has to been seen.  We stay at this pit for about 30 minutes, and then move on to Pit number 3.

This one is a bit different.  The first pit contained what is essentially the infantry, together with some horses.  The second pit seems to represent a command center rather than the battle formation of Pit 1.  It only has 68 warriors, four horses and one chariot.  Not nearly as many figures have been fully restored, and most are missing their heads.

After a short break in the gift shop and some time to grab some noodles from a food vendor, we finish up at Pit 2.  Larger than Pit 3 but smaller than Pit 1, it supposedly contains more than 1,000 warriors, 500 horses, and 89 chariots.  Here there are archers, infantry, charioteers, and cavalrymen.  This pit is thought to contain the reserve formations for the Terra Cotta army.  It is clearly in a much earlier stage of restoration and gives us a feel for how things looked when the pits were first discovered.  Off to the side are glass displays with some of the figures, weaponry, and the like, so that this pit feels more like a museum.

We then move into the museum building proper, but with very little time and even less energy to look around.  We do see the chariots, but it is quite crowded and hard to get a good look.  Back to the bus, and off on our trip into Xi’an to check into the hotel.  We then relax a bit before our dumpling banquet.

The dumpling banquet brings 18 courses of different dumplings, with most courses having the shape of some sort of plant or animal (fish, rooster, pig, lion, and flowers, among others).  I take pictures of each of the courses before the kids tear into them.  While good, many of the dumplings lacked distinctive tastes, perhaps due to the outer wrappers probably being pretty much the same (wheat based, with no rice in evidence).  The final course brings tiny dumplings to be put into a hot pot (soup); the number you get in your bowl is said to say something about you.  I have five, supposedly meaning that I will have a happy family.  The jury is still out on that one!

The next morning we go to the city walls.  We spend about an hour visiting the south gate tower area.  Some of the group travels the wall in rickshaws.  One of the rickshaw operators quizzes me in reasonable English about my daughter’s adoption – How much?  Why did we do it?  How long did the whole thing take?  …  He ends by remarking what a special thing we did for her, and I respond that it was a special thing we did for us.

Next up; a government owned jade factory.  While watching the workers I am most impressed by the construction of concentric jade balls (carved from one piece of jade, ending with three or more balls of decreasing radius, each within the preceding ball).  We are told it can take up to a month to do this type of work.  As always the demonstration is followed by free time to browse the shop.  Get those tourist dollars!

From the jade factory we go to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, built during the time of the monk Xuanzang.  Xuanzang spent 17 years traveling from Xi’an through 100 countries and into India, from which he returned with Buddha figures, sutras, and other relics.  He supervised 50 other monks in the translation of the Buddhist sutras from Sanskrit into Chinese.  As a result of this, he is a major figure in the spread of Buddhism to China.  We are also told the fanciful story of how the pagoda got its name.  At that time the Buddhist monks were divided into two branches – one that ate meat and one that was vegetarian.  One day the members of the former branch couldn’t find meat.  They watched as a gaggle of geese flew past.  Just then the lead goose broke his wings and fell to the ground.  The monks believed that goose fell as a result of their prayers.  They saw this as a sign, and so both established a pagoda where the goose fell and stopped eating meat.

Lunch is a “western” buffet.  Oh well...  Hopefully better food is yet to come.  We head to the airport to catch our flight to Beijing.

Beijing 

We arrive after dinner.  One member of our group, the only other father, has gotten quite sick in Xi’an, and the flight only adds to his discomfort.  On the way to the hotel he is dropped off and taken by taxi to a hospital.  There he is given intravenous fluids to make up for the dehydration caused by the illness and the travel.  Although he is out of the woods, he will miss almost all of the Beijing area tours.

The first morning in Beijing is devoted to a tour of the Forbidden City.  We get off the bus at Tiananmen Square.  Everything in China is said to be “largest” or “tallest” or “best” or “most grand,” but this is rightfully billed as the largest city square in the world.  The presence of Mao Zedong still hangs heavy over the square, with his mausoleum in the square and his portrait over the entrance to the Forbidden City.  There is no mention of the student movement so cruelly crushed here almost 20 years ago, but it is on my mind as we cross to the Forbidden City.

We cross the entrance bridges and pass through three gates, separated by large plaza areas.  The second of these supposedly housed the soldiers protecting the palace.  I doubt, however, that the basketball courts were there at the time.  Once through the third gate we come to the ceremonial section of the city.  We are greeted with the now familiar green construction sheathing on the main building, which we will not get to visit.  Further back are the residential areas, which we will see later.

This place is huge!  It definitely deserves to be called “City” instead of “Palace.”  Tourists are everywhere.  I doubt there was ever this mass of humanity present at any time while the emperors ruled.  We continue our way through the ceremonial section of the city, into the residential section, and out to the stone garden.  We finally exit the Forbidden City through its “backdoor,” the North Gate; scores of buildings and many, many footsteps later.

The waitresses at lunch are wearing some sort of traditional costumes, but I don’t get to hear the explanation why, if any is offered.  After lunch the kids stop in the shop near the entrance to the restaurant and spy some of the Chinese “hacky-sacks.”  After some bargaining with the shopkeeper over price, many of the girls, including my daughter, get one.

The early afternoon is spent at the Temple of Heaven.  It’s quite impressive in its own right, but it would probably have been much better to visit it on a different day, as it is a bit of an anticlimax in comparison with the Forbidden City.  Perhaps it is just I who is a bit jaded.  On the way out we go past a street peddler selling the “hacky-sacks” for 2/3 the reduced price we just paid.  Live and learn.

Before dinner we take in a show at the Red Theater.  This one is billed as a “History of Kung-Fu.”  It is a slickly produced spectacle about a child who enters a martial arts monastery, suffers a mid-life crisis (tempted by a woman), but finally endures many physical tests to return to the monastery and eventually replace the old abbot.  Some of the martial arts displays are exciting, but of the three shows we have seen it is the one that could be skipped.

We exit the theater to the thunderstorm we will experience each afternoon in Beijing.  It finally calms enough for us to get to our dinner.  Then it’s back to the hotel for a good night’s rest before the next day’s physical challenge.

On the road again, this time to the north and west of Beijing.  We pass the site of next year’s Summer Olympics.  The “Bird’s Nest,” where the opening ceremonies and track and field events will take place, is the most interesting in terms of architecture.  The “Watercube” or “Bubble Building” where swimming is to take place, is also quite impressive.  We go past the construction site for the athlete’s dorms.  After the games they are to be converted into apartments for Beijing residents.  We are told that, even though they are yet to be completed, they are already mostly sold.  The Olympics will start at 8:08 PM on August 8, 2008.  As a result, 8 is now considered a very lucky number in China.

First stop is a government run cloisonné factory.  We learn the process for making cloisonné and take a look at the items they have for sale.  My daughter wants a pair of “health balls,” but I demur.  I have bigger things on my mind.

Next up, the highlight of the day.  We have arrived at the Great Wall, and are going to take the major climb up a section that goes up the side of a mountain.  My son, who has been subdued all day, is feeling too ill to go on the climb with us and will stay on the bus with several others in our group who also don’t feel up to the exertion.  By now about one-third of our group is ill, although no one else has required medical attention.  I wonder when it will catch up with me.

The climb is exhilarating and simultaneously exhausting. My daughter and I get up most of the way, but fall a little short of where I hoped to reach.  The problem is more one of time than energy, as the part we don’t get to attempt is actually much less steep than that we have traversed.  Going down will actually be harder on my knees, and we have used up half our allotted time.  Nevertheless the view is well worth the effort, and the climb has made me appreciate the engineering effort needed to complete just this small section of the Wall, much less the entire length.

We stop for lunch at a restaurant attached to a government Friendship store.  We find the same type of “health balls” my daughter had wanted at the factory, but at a lower price.  I relent this time, and she comes away happy.

Back to Beijing, and a stop at the Summer Palace.  This was a retreat away from the Forbidden City for the Emperor and Empress, and only a little business was conducted here.  We walk along the man-made lake (supposedly created to help train naval officers) and through the palace.  We see the “house-breaking stone,” a Ming Dynasty era stone so large that it required the removal of a just completed gate to bring it onto the grounds, prompting an outburst from the mother of the family.  We walk along the “longest corridor in the world” (about ½ mile long) toward the Marble Boat.  We never get there, as our Beijing scourge, the afternoon thunderstorm, hits.  We need to quickly get to the dragon boat to get over the lake to the exit before they stop running.  Our group just makes it on before the skies open.  Oh well, a reason to come back some other year…

On our way to dinner we pass a subway station, surrounded by bicycles.  It brings to mind the movie "Beijing Bicycle" that I saw a few years back.  I guess the bicycle still has a large place in China's transportation system, although in more prosperous places it seems to have been replaced by electric scooters, and the automobile has become much more prevalent in the big cities.  Nonetheless there have been many times during the trip that I have seen bicycles being used to haul heavy loads of goods, and the subway scene tells me that it is still used by many in the daily commute.

Tonight is the special “Roast Duck Banquet” (aka “Peking Duck Banquet”).  We are taken to what is supposedly the best and most popular restaurant for Roast Duck in Beijing.  The duck, while quite good, is not that noticeably better than what we can get back home, except for the portions, which are huge.  It is a fitting end to an eventful day and an eventful trip, as we are scheduled to depart the next day for home.

Up for our noon bus ride to the airport, where we are to wait for a 5:00 flight to Chicago and our connection to Philadelphia.  Around 3:00 we are hit with the ubiquitous afternoon thunderstorm.  Although it calms down reasonably quickly the damage is already done.  The plane that is to take us to Chicago has been diverted to another airport.  The flight crew has already arrived and is on the clock, so FAA regulations would prevent them from taking off until the next morning.  Fortunately the airline offers to put us up for the night in a hotel.  They will also include a dinner in the package.  While it seems the hotel is not really ready for occupancy (some rooms lack hot water, dinner seems to be a quickly thrown together buffet, and they do not at first honor the three minutes international call voucher), it is better than staying at the airport and is also the only time during the trip that I get to sleep in my own room in a bed large enough for me.  There is even a tub for two (but alas, no one with whom to share it).

The illness I had dodged throughout China has finally caught me.  We get a four o’clock AM wake up call, which is followed by a bus ride to the airport.  Our flight is delayed a half hour for loading of luggage, leading to a missed connection in Chicago.  Luckily we get on the next flight as standby passengers and finally make it home.  I will spend much of the next two days in bed recuperating.  Still it was well worth it…