Live from my Slow Boat to China -- the Amsterdam

It's been an enjoyable part of the mornings reading your accounts of this voyage. I do wish to take another Grand Cruise some day! I had forgotten how special they are.

I do hope you'll continue your posts right here in this thread. I will love reading about your time in China as it's my next destination. Your reports serve to whet my appetite!

Thank you so much for your reports, I will miss reading them at breakfast if you stop now. I do hope you continue to check in here.:)

Thank you for taking us on this wonderful adventure! We also hope the moderators will be flexible and allow us to follow you throughout China.

乾杯! [干杯! Gan bei! (Cheers/Good Health!) :D

Many thanks for your wonderful report. I especially has piqued my interest in cruising on my own "slow boat to China". The discription of your entry into Shanghai was awesome. Much appreciated.

Sue

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Yes, I hope you continue to report on your land trip too.

Thanks, thoroughly enjoyed reading your reports.

arzz,

I just found your blog and know I am going to enjoy reading it. I am looking forward to meeting you both on the HAL Amsterdam South Pacific Adventure next October 2015.

Please continue reporting. I am enjoying your daily posts. I don't see where it would be a problem if you continued to report here.

Terri

I agree with Terri. Very interesting. Keep it going and thanks!

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You asked for it so:

Slow Boat in China - October 22-21, 2014

Our Uniworld tour guide has an app on his smart phone that gives a numerical measure of the pollution in Beijing. Monday, mid day, the measure was over 200 - by evening it was over 300. Today, Tuesday, it was 60. For the first time we could see the buildings across the street from our hotel, and the air did not smell too bad. It was, however, cool and windy.

Yesterday we started our day at the Temple of Heaven - a pretty structure with painted roof and historical and cultural significance. The real attraction, however, was the park that surrounds the temple. The Chinese retire in their 50's. After that they help to care for the grand children and they spend their time in "the park" with the other retirees, and some also bring the grand children to the park. The park was teeming with old folks. They were all engaged in something.

There were groups doing Tai Chi, playing Mahjong, knitting, group singing, playing chess, playing cards, many playing games with hacky sacks, walking, using exercise equipment - you think of it there was a group doing it. One of the most interesting sections of the park was where the grandparents brought with them pages with written descriptions of children and grandchildren (both men and women) for whom they were trying to arrange a marriage. The papers were essentially a resume out for all to review in the hopes of finding a match.

From the Temple of Heaven we were driven to the Hutongs, the historic neighborhoods that grew up around the forbidden city. We then set off in pairs in rickshaws pulled by bicycles through the narrow stone streets where we could view the traditional homes that were built around courtyards, the lake and the bars and restaurants that have recently opened on the shore of the lake.

The rickshaw ride was an experience. Not just related to my feelings about being cycled around by a grey haired gentleman, but listening to the screech of the breaks when the column of vehicles needed to stop (there are 12 of us on this tour - so six vehicles), or watching the driver swerve to avoid cars, pedestrians, motorcycles and bicycles who all share the same narrow roads and definitely play chicken with each other.

Lunch was prepared by a retired couple who live in one of the homes in the hutongs. Our host family has lived there for generations - the young folks are gone, only grandma and grandpa remain. This home is a large one - it has three rooms: kitchen, dining room/living room/sleeping room and a third small room with a shower. The bathrooms are down the block and are shared. Our Uniworld guide, Kevin, explained that sharing bathrooms is not uncommon and that many of the high rises built as recently as the '60's and '70's were built with shared facilities.

We enjoyed a stupendous lunch with at least ten different dishes that were cooked up especially for us. So many good tastes.

After lunch it was back into the rickshaws and we were taken to a boat dock on the lake - the pollution levels were so high that we could not even see clearly across the lake. We were now split up into two groups of six, each with our own boat and Chinese musician who serenaded us with Chinese music that she played on a traditonal string instrument while we drank fresh jasmine tea, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and a candy made from the fruit of a tree they call the Hawthorne that has fruit that looks like apples but with a different taste. (as if any of us needed any more food)

After the boat ride it was back on the bus to the Beijing Zoo to see the Pandas. There are Pandas on our itinerary in Chongqing but Kevin says that they seldom arrive in Chongqing when the Pandas are awake - but when we got to the Beijing zoo were were able to see several pandas happily munching on bamboo and bamboo shoots, as well as a golden monkey (I think the name is correct) - a species thought to have gone extinct but recently rediscovered.

Back to the hotel for an hour - then off to a Peking Duck banquet. The twelve of us were seated in a private dining room where plate after plate of delicious food was served followed, finally, by the Peking duck which was beheaded and carved at the table then wrapped in rice pancakes with Hoisin sauce, cucumber and onion strips.

During dinner I learned that the Chinese traditionally believe the earth is square and the heavens are round which is why the Chinese chopsticks are square at the top and rounded at the ends.

Exhausted we returned to the hotel - no energy to blog yesterday.

Today we started at 8:15 and were bused to Tiananmen Square where unbelievable numbers of people were waiting in lines that snaked around forever to get in. We entered the square at a different entrance - no waiting. The square was decorated for special events that occurred in early October and the decorations have not yet been removed. We stopped and had a group photo taken in front of Chairman Mao's picture - huge prints were made of that photo and they were presented to us this evening in a commemorative book about China and Tiananmen Square.

From there we entered the forbidden city. We spent three hours walking through the courtyards to the emperor's private residence. It was like walking through the layers of an onion as we went through one courtyard to find, behind it, another, then another, then another.

Our guide, Kevin, regaled us with stories of the emperor, his wives and concubines and the eunuchs who lived with them. It seems that in the day it was an honor to serve the emperor as either a eunuch or concubine.

Young men volunteered and some were then chosen to become eunuchs. The chosen ones then had to come up with the money to pay to become eunuchs. The process by which this was accomplished was described to us in all of its gory details, but I shall refrain from sharing it here.

One of the eunuchs jobs was to taste all of the emperor's food before he ate it.

It was also competitive to become a concubine. The emperor made these choices himself, and the number one concubine was, of course, his wife the empress.

When a concubine was chosen she was assigned two female servants and a eunuch. Living among the women could be competitive for the honor of time with the emperor. The concubines were never allowed to remain with the emperor all night - 2 hours and done. We were told that a concubine's entrance into the Forbidden City was on a one way street. They were never heard from again.

Keep in mind that it was against the law for anyone to look at the emperor himself. If anyone's eyes strayed upon him, even by accident, they had to be killed. So all of this had to occur while everyone looked down.

It was well after noon by the time we were done with the Forbidden City. From there it was on to another spectacular lunch with many dishes to pass and many tastes to remember.

After lunch we were all given Chinese foot massages. The twelve of us filed into a room full of couches, rolled up our pants and set our feet into a bucket of herb infused hot water - the color of tea. While we soaked our feet we were given neck and shoulder massages. Each of us had their own therapist - the men were served by the women, the women by the men. Though there were 24 of us in the room, it was quiet save for the sounds of the rubbing, and occasionally slapping of the masseuses.

When our feet were properly cured, they were dried and carefully massaged for almost a full hour. It was surreal as we laid there and heard the sounds of the treatments change, not quite together as they started not quite at the same time, but in a sort of wave motion from one end of the room to the other. We thought we were all done when the masseuses disappeared from the room one by one - only to return carrying a hot damp towel and a pair of small rubber mallets. The final stage of the treatment was to cleanse the massage oil from our feet with the hot towel and then give each foot a sound thumping with the mallets. Again the room was quiet save the sounds of rhythmical thumping up and down the aisles.

The Kung Fu theatre followed our massages. There we witnessed an "eye candy" dance/acrobat/martial arts performance about a child who grows up to become a Kung Fu monk - who learns the discipline of being a monk and the art of Kung Fu. It was colorful, with very professional sets and lighting, and an absolute joy to witness what these performers were able to do with their bodies - leaps, jumps, and more.

Then - guess what - more food. Dinner. Again multiple plates of wonderful tastes, colors and textures. Each meal has been unique in its offerings and most of the offerings have been incredible.

And tonight I had time to blog.

Thank you so much for posting your reports from the Grand Voyage. I hope you continue to do so for your remaining travels. It is very enjoyable.

So glad you decided to continue on! And such a descriptive report, love it.:)

Oh, what a descriptive report! Thank you! The mental pictures were so vivid that I can't wait to see them for real myself.

Loving your land tour.

Wow what a fantastic sounding day you had. Thank you for continuing your report on your land tour portion.

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Fantastic! Thanks for taking the time out of you busy days to post.

Kudos again for a wonderful report. As a side note, my DIL is from China and her family is still there. She would not go back to visit with her daughter , our Grandaughter , until Emily was 5. The reason being she didn't want Emily exposed to the terrible pollution when she was very young.

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Phenomenal and entertaining information about your days in Beijing. You've done some things that I've never hear about before. Thanks for taking the time!!

In China - October 22, 2014

Today was our last day in Beijing - and it was our trip to the Great Wall.

The temperature when we left the hotel was in the forties (it warmed up to 50 by the time we actually got to the wall) - the pollution was not quite as low as yesterday but nothing like what we endured for our first few days here.

On the way to the Great Wall we made a short stop at a store where they sell silk carpets. Not unlike what many of us have experienced in Turkey and Greece we got the talk about how the silk is produced and how the carpets are made - as well as a discussion of the "Silk Road".

It was a sunny day on the highway as we passed between tall hills with sharp peaks and cliffs that were covered with trees. It is fall here just like it is at home and the fall color did not disappoint - still some green mixed in with large patches of yellow, oranges and reds. A delightful time of year to be here.

The wall itself was everything that we expected and more. I learned that the wall was actually rebuilt five times - and as we drove in we could see sections of the wall snaking over the peaks and cliffs in various stages of repair and disrepair. The wall's most recent attacks have been by the Chinese who "borrow" bricks from the old wall for their own homes.

The paths to and around the wall are paved with uneven, large stones - the slopes and staircases are similarly paved - somewhere between difficult and dangerous to navigate. Suffice it to say that DH climbed a lot farther than I chose to - but it was something that we will remember for a lifetime - and we have photographs to prove that we were there.

On the way back to the hotel (the wall is about two hours out of town) we drove through the 2008 Olympic Village and made a short photo stop at the "Bird's Nest" which was illuminated with an LED graphic of colored balloons falling against a white sky. Nice.

Then, it was over two hours in Beijing traffic from there to the hotel. We can definitely say now that we have experienced rush hour in Beijing.

Time to pack up for tomorrow.

arzz, do you mind sharing which specific Uniworld tour you are currently on? We want to take one of them in a few years and was just curious. Thank you!

Sppunk

We are on Uniworld's Grand China and Yangtze. Eighteen days from Beijing to Hong Kong. So far they have been fantastic - from picking us up at the airport to meals to everything. Our guide is very good and easy to listen to. If you have followed my blog so far you know I do not tolerate poor guides very well.

Let me know if you have more questions that I do not answer in my daily reports. I only hope that we will continue to have access to free internet.

Sppunk

 

We are on Uniworld's Grand China and Yangtze. Eighteen days from Beijing to Hong Kong. So far they have been fantastic - from picking us up at the airport to meals to everything. Our guide is very good and easy to listen to. If you have followed my blog so far you know I do not tolerate poor guides very well.

 

Let me know if you have more questions that I do not answer in my daily reports. I only hope that we will continue to have access to free internet.

Many thanks! When all is said and done after your reports (yes I've read them all!) I'll see if there's anything I need to ask. This is a distant trip, at least 5 years (probably closer to 10) down the road so details aren't as important as overall observations.

Thanks again for taking us all along for the ride!

Thanks for continuing your report here:)

We had so dreamed about seeing and walking part of the Great Wall.

Dreams don't always come true. Life happens.

In China - October 23, 2014

This morning and last night we faced the part of a land tour that I dread. Pack the bags, suitcases out of the room before 7 am - leave for the airport shortly thereafter. Our wake up call was set for 5:30! Ugh!

Then there was the drive to the Beijing Airport - immigration, security, delays, waiting, gate changes ...

Then we were finally in Xi'an. We were delayed because of the fog and smog in the early morning. Xi'an, like Beijing, is surrounded by mountains and is fueled by a large coal burning power plant (we passed it - there were six large cooling towers spouting steam).

By afternoon, however, it was sunny and seventies and clear. Xi'an is the ancient capital of China and has great history and meaning to the Chinese. It it a walled city - (well, at least the city center is a walled city today) - the wall is about 80 steps high - built of earth and covered with dark grey bricks and very medieval yet Chinese in appearance.

At opposite sides of the wall are two towers. One is the bell tower for announcing the new day, the other is the drum tower to warn all that the city gates will close soon.

We were welcomed into Xi'an in style. There are only 12 of us in our group of travelers. Our bus stopped at the north gate to the city - we piled out of the bus to stand in front of the closed gate doors. They were guarded by several "guards" dressed in ancient Chinese costumes. They read declarations in both Chinese and English, hung golden keys around our necks and presented us with a beautiful "visa" to the city (a small book decorated in pictures and Chinese characters - a nice trip momento.)

The gate then opened and the twelve of us were led into a courtyard surrounded by the city wall. Other tourists and locals lined the top of the wall while the ceremonies continued with more costumed citizens, more declarations, dancing and recorded music. Finally there was a group picture by the wall with the entertainers. By then several of those from the top of the wall were now down to our level taking photos of us and the gaily costumed artists along with the official photographer. I wonder where our pictures are going to end up! We, of course, were able to purchase the official picture in an album full of pictures and a translation of the Chinese content of our visas to Xi'an.

We were then free to climb the stairs and walk. The city wall extends 13 km and is set up for bicycles or walkers to circumnavigate the city and enjoy the views.

Finally a couple of hours at our hotel in Xi'an before dinner.

Our dinner was at the Tang Dynasty Theatre - where we were fed a small banquet followed by another incredible show. This one was all about history, music and costumes. The talent of the musicians, the opportunity to hear the ancient instruments and see the dances and costumes, was incredible. And, it was good to be there in an intimate group of 12 rather than with one of the large contingencies that filled the other tables.

On our way to and from the theatre it was dark and both the bell tower and the drum tower are dramatically lit up at night. Excellent photo ops.

On our way to the city from the airport our local guide shared wonderful information and history of Xi'an that I, unfortunately, am too tired to remember at the moment. I may fill some details when I have the time in the future. We are really looking forward to seeing the Terra Cotta warriors tomorrow.

Everything you are doing sounds so fantastic.