Another summer adventure awaits us.....
China Highlights (17 days)
Hong Kong (4 days)
Vietnam (7 days)
6.30.2011
6.29.2011
.....just ask Sampson!
(he's the sleeping kitty in the back of the picture)
6.28.2011
Where have we been?
This blog was supposed to start 3 days ago. It seems the commies over here in China impose strict internet censorship on its citizens and foreigners. China has blocked our blogging website (among many others) and, unfortunately, we have no access to it. We have been scrambling to find a way around this little inconvenience.....and may need a little help from back home!
Also, we are locked out of our new Gmail travel account. So if you would like to contact us while we are away, I have created a new gmail email account - leonardandme13@gmail.com We have free WiFi over here.....of course, now we know why it's free. They block 90% of the internet sites we try and use from back home.
Good grief!!!
Good grief!!!
6.27.2011
6:45am - Breakfast!
Early start to our first morning in China! Gotta eat and be ready to hop on the bus by 8am. It seems they have "Americanized" breakfast for our tour group! Coffee. Hash Browns. Fruit. Omelettes. A great way to start the day....we don't have to eat any rice yet!
9:00am - Tiananman Square
We begin today visiting the largest public plaza in the world. It gained world-wide attention in April 1989, when a series of nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations culminated in the occupation of the square by protesters. Hundreds of thousands of citizens joined in the demonstrations. On June 4, 1989, tanks and troops stormed the square. Official casualties were put at more than 200 demonstrators and dozens of soldiers. Eyewitness reports suggest thousands of deaths. The government imposed a year-long martial law and executed several student leaders. Jenesa and I were not going to risk our lives.....but we were ready to protest all the umbrellas marching on the rainy plaza today! Mass chaos!
10:15am - The Forbidden City (Imperial Palace)
Just ahead of us at Tiananman Square, we arrive at the ceremonial gateway to the Forbidden City. Greeting us above the entrance is a large picture of Mao Zedong, the late Chinese communist leader and founder of the People's Republic of China. Known today as the Palace Museum, the Forbidden City is a construction comparable to the Pyramids in Egypt.....comprised of over 800 buildings with more than 9,000 rooms. The emperor certainly had quite the "crib" back in the day!
1:45pm - Lunch
This ain't your ordinary lunch, folks! I hate Chinese food to begin with....but it also comes with a twist. Meals are served "family-style" over here. In the middle of the table a large lazy susan wheel sits for the diners to rotate. Food is served on the wheel, and rotated around to each person at the table to share. Wait a minute......Corbett Leonard.....sharing his food? And, look at the size of my plate!!! A total of 8 courses are served in the center of the table and then divided amongst the group. I'm glad they served beer to go along with this fiasco!
3:30pm - The Summer Palace
The Summer Palace is a World Heritage site. It is "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value." It is a popular tourist destination but also serves as a recreational park.
During our visit, Jenesa and I attempted to tackle the Long Corridor. The corridor is a covered walkway with over 14,000 Chinese paintings on the wooden beams and ceiling. We had 45 minutes to tackle this 1 mile roundtrip adventure around the lake. Sounds easy enough, right? We're realizing quickly that nothing is ever going to be easy in China. It seems everywhere you go there are a BILLION PEOPLE. Ever try to walk down a crowded hallway? Multiply it times a billion.....and you get the point! Jenesa and I survived that little adventure.....but we know there will be plenty more to come!
We finished our day at the Summer Palace with a relaxing ride across the lake on a dragon boat!
6:30pm - Welcome Dinner
Our Gate1 Travel company hosted a welcome dinner for us tonight. Our tour guide dispelled the myth that Chinese people will eat anything with four legs....except tables. The big item on tonight's menu would be Peking duck.....and, that would be just the appetizer! Next came the fish with its head and tail proudly displayed at both ends of the plate. Somebody please send us a pizza!!!
6.26.2011
After only one day in Beijing, China....Jenesa and I can honestly agree on a few things that you have probably NEVER experienced in your life before. I like to call this You have never.....
* ...seen so much traffic in your life! According to our tour guide, they have traffic only once day and it lasts 24 hours. Beijing is known as the biggest parking lot in the world. It's insane!
* ...smelled death until you have walked into a Chinese public restroom. It is among the nastiest things we have ever exposed our noses to. No lie!
* ...witnessed little kids pulling their pants down in the middle of the street or sidewalks and just peeing in front of you. Watch your step!
* ...slept on a harder mattress! Our hotel is very nice, and after a long day of walking and touring Beijing we were hoping for a nice comfy bed to fall into. You don't want to fall on our bed....you'll literally break your back! It's a rock (and the Chinese people like it that way)!
* ...had a Chinese meal without a fortune cookie! It seems fortune cookies are only popular in the United States. Our tour guide said he experienced his first fortune cookie when he was 41 years old while visiting New York City. Hmmmm.....I think I smell a golden opportunity over here.....uh, never mind. It's just my nose playing naughty tricks on me after being tortured in public restrooms all day.....lord help us!
6.25.2011
This would definitely be one of the highlights on this trip. The Great Wall is the longest man-made structure on Earth, spanning nearly 4,000 miles of China's northern frontier. Some claim that it can be seen from outerspace....which is another Chinese myth!
We had two options: 1.) go left up the mountain and climb the Wall at a much greater incline, or 2.) go right across the mountain promenade with less of an incline, but further distance. It was basically a choice between "hard" or "harder".
We decided to play it safe and begin the morning with the easier option #2 route. Again, let me remind you, nothing is ever easy in China. It appeared that we would be able to tackle this Wall in under an hour and reach the top.....but we both started to struggle half-way up the mountain. Why? Look at these steps! Every step you took required your full concentration. Some steps were broken, missing, steep, small, warped....not to mention all the Chinese people coming at you from all directions.
To make a long story short...let's just say one of us made it to the very top. I got some great scenic pictures of the beautiful mountain passes, plateaus, and grasslands that surrounded the defensive fortification at the top. Now came the moment I had been dreading....marching back down the Great Wall.....one step at a time!
6.24.2011
It's "panda"-monium over here at the Beijing Zoo. They've got five giant pandas chowing down on 80 pounds of bamboo every day. We spent 45 minutes visiting the panda habitat.....and did you know?.....there are only 1600 pandas in the world today (approx. 300 in captivity). If the panda population falls below 1000, it will be an early warning sign of extinction for the bears.
Blog Trivia! What U.S. President was in office when the first two panda bears were delivered to the States? And, what were the names of the pandas?
6.23.2011
What's a hutong?
Well, today we hopped on a rickshaw and rode through the narrow streets and alleys that form a hutong neighborhood. These older neighborhoods have been protected from being demolished for larger roads in an attempt to preserve Chinese cultural history.
Our tour group "enjoyed" lunch at one of the local family residences. It was quite an interesting experience! We've been so hungry...that it's nearly impossible to turn away the crazy food they put in front of us. The fun part has been trying to eat everything with chopsticks!
Before leaving the hutong, we visited the drum tower. This building was originally built for musical reasons - later used to announce the time - and is now a tourist attraction. We had the opportunity to witness a drum ceremony on the top floor of the tower. One-by-one the drummers entered the room and stood in front of huge drum barrels. For the next five minutes (and half the afternoon) my ears were ringing to the beat of these drums!
On the way back to the bus...I couldn't resist jumping in with the local kids and playing hacky sack. A little different than the hacky sacks back home...these are made with feathers attached to coin-like weights at the bottom. Needless to say...I better stick to baseball!!!!
6.22.2011
I don't care how they spell it.....I can spot the "red roof" logo anywhere in the world! We both agreed that we just could not suffer through another rice and stir fry meal for dinner. Or tea. Or sprouts. Or tofu. So we marched 50 minutes from our hotel to the nearest Pizza Hut (located at the Viva Beijing Mall)! You know Jenesa must be hungry if she walked 50 minutes!!! :)
Unfortunately, the entire menu was in Chinese! But that wasn't going to stop us! I quickly pointed to the biggest pepperoni pizza pictured in the menu....and price be damned! We would've paid $100 bucks for that thing! I'm sure this won't surprise any of you....but Jenesa and I finished off that pizza in ten minutes.....and then ordered ANOTHER ONE! Pizza Hut....we love you in China!
6.21.2011
I know it's hard to believe.....but I made a new friend over here in Beijing! Check out his awesome t-shirt! I just love this guy!!!
6.20.2011
We arrived in Xi'an (shee-ann) today. I've just got to mention something about our flight before I continue this blog post. We boarded the plane in Beijing early this morning...and then sat on the runway for the next 75 minutes waiting to takeoff. Did you read that correctly? 75 minutes on an airplane...waiting to takeoff! And, to make matters worse, Jenesa was on the opposite side of the airplane. OK, it gets a little worse....they serve us rice pudding for breakfast.
One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city is one of the four great ancient capitals of China, having held the position under several of the most important dynasties in Chinese history, including Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, and Tang. The city is surrounded by a wall - which is the oldest and most complete wall that has survived in China.
Tonight we spent the evening at the Tang Dynasty Theatre Restaurant. It presented a performance of the Chang'an Music and Dance which originated over a thousand years ago in Xi'an. We also feasted (I use that term lightly) on the following menu: 1.) chicken delicacies with dumpling specialties, 2.) black mushroom soup, 3.) king prawns, 4.) baked tenderloin beef and fried rice, 5.) orange "surprise" with palm seed, and 6.) platter of assorted ancient imperial "Dim Sum". And we washed all of that down with some Jasmine tea.
6.19.2011
Early this morning we were taken to the local Xingqing Park. Filled with culture, this park is a hub of activity in the mornings. We had the opportunity to witness and participate in the following Chinese activities:
(Jenesa practices her tai chi skills)
(Leonard races the local kids down the stairwell on his butt)
(We practice using our Chinese fans with a local)
(Leonard "slaps the monkey"....laugh all you want....it was fun!)
(The Leonard's share a moment in the park to dance with each other)
6.18.2011
Today we visited the highlight of Xi'an....the life-size terracotta soldiers and horses that were discovered by local farmers in 1974. This archaeological site at the tomb of China's first emperor (Qin Shi Huang), features more than 8,000 warriors in three excavation pits.
6.17.2011
No doors on the stall. No toilet paper. No toilet. And no air to breathe!
It's trips like this that I thank God I'm a man. Jenesa, on the other hand, has obviously suffered a bit more than I have. But don't worry, she will soon be certified as a professional squatter by the Chinese bathroom gods. Our tour guide refers to these wonderful facilities as Happy Rooms......
.....please sing it with us note by note, don't worry...be happy!
6.16.2011
Tonight we were scheduled to partake in a dumpling dinner. * Picture an apple dumpling - midget sized! * Our tour group was taken to a famous city restaurant that specialized in dumplings. Dumplings come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and stuffed with different things. We had duck dumplings (shaped like a duck, of course!). We had walnut dumplings (shaped and colored like a nut). We had rabbit dumplings (can you guess what it looked like?). Chicken dumplings. Vegetable dumplings. Spicy beef dumplings. A total of 16 different dumpling courses were served to our table....with the final course being boiled into a dumpling soup!
Guess what crazy food we had for dessert? JELLYFISH (with carrots!)...mmmmmmmm!
If that sounds wild....this next surprise shocked both of us! While we were sitting at our table enjoying our dumplings....in walks a family that we toured South Africa with last summer! We just couldn't believe it! They are touring China this summer with a different tour group, and we hope to meet up with them again in Shanghai. What a small world!
6.15.2011
We sure aren't on Royal Caribbean, but we were pleasantly surprised to see our river cruise ship when we arrived in Yichang. We've got our own private balcony from our room. Our tour group has a private dining room for our meals. And, the ship has a small game room, lounge, and spa on the upper deck for its guests.
As we cruise through the Three Gorges, we've taken in some beautiful China scenery along the way. Our days on the river have been hazy, hot, and humid (almost 100 degrees) with lots of overcast skies.
One interesting feature of the Yangtze River is how the Chinese control the height of the water. To prevent flooding, the water level is lowered in the summer during rainy season, and then raised gradually in the winter. This is controlled by the Three Gorges Dam. You can see how high the water level gets by looking at the walls along the gorge. At this time of year, they lower the water level by 25meters - which is measured at various points along the river.
Also, all along the river banks you can spot Chinese fishermen. They will be sporting large fishing nets that they drag through the water in hopes of snagging their next meal. Every morning I sit out on the balcony and look through my camera, hoping to snap a picture of a successful catch. No luck yet....to be continued!
The Leonard's
