Beijing - Last Day in China (and last blog entry)

Our last full day in China. The weather is over 40 degrees! Because of weariness and the weather we actually cancelled a visit to the zoo. Most of the day was spent visiting two 'religious' sites in Beijing.

First a Confucian site which was the home of the Imperial College. The brightest people got to train here for government service.

Confucianism is not strictly a religion. It is a set of moral codes. The Emperors accepted Confucianism, as one of the moral codes is to obey the civil leadership.


The Academy is undergoing major renovation to be ready for the Olympic Games. Most of it was either closed or covered with scaffolding. But I got a couple of pictures.




The second stop is the Yonghe Gong Tibetan Buddhist Lama Temple. The largest Tibetan temple in China. Yonghe Gong means Place of Harmony and Peace. It was converted to this use in 1725.

On entry there is a bell.


and the required Lions for protection. The male steps on a ball and the female on the cub.




Some of the Buddhas are female.


When one prays, you light a specific number of incense sticks to open the path to the Buddha.



We then had lunch in a great Muslim restaurant. The only restaurant we went to in Beijing that was not approved for Foreigners. We had a delicious Hot Pot meal.

After lunch we were taken on a rickshaw ride. We went through some of the residential alleys. They took us to a 'typical' apartment. It was anything but typical. The number and size of rooms and the kitchen appliances are not standard in China. I refused to take any pictures. If you visit a 'typical' apartment in Beijing during the Olympics do not be duped.


Our final stop was at our request to a cloisonne factory. After much debate Marsha and I agreed on a vase for ourselves.

After resting we went out for our last dinner. Of course we went for Peking duck. It was cooked in a brick oven and the duck was carved at our table. While similar to Peking duck in Chicago it was still different.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventure.

Bejing - Imperial Way

Our last Tuesday in China turned out to be a spectacular day. We began by visiting Tiananmen Square and ended with a visit to the Western medical section of a Chinese hospital. But I get ahead of the story.

Tiananmen Square is enormous.

It can hold one million people. We visited Tiananmen Square on the 18th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre. Unlike the US there was no one selling tee shirts celebrating the event. The Square is situated at the center of the ancient city. The north-south meridian connects many major sites in Beijing, very much like the Capitol – White House line in D.C. At one end is Mao’s mausoleum at the other end is the Great Hall of China [where Bush lost his lunch]. The nicest sculpture were two larger than life tributes to the Great March.

Continuing down the meridian we reached the Forbidden City.

At the entrance is a gigantic painting of Mao. It is replaced every three years, so it will never look faded.

The first several gates and squares are the military and political portions. While the buildings are nice I quickly got tired of beautiful golden roofs [the temperature was 36 degrees and sunny]. The back portions which were the living quarters and the back gardens were much nicer.

M & M under the Tree of Eternal Love in the back garden of the Forbidden City.

After lunch, we went to the Summer Palace of the Ming dynasty. As you might expect, the Summer Palace is somewhat cooler and has a better breeze. The trees and lake make for a nicer experience on a very hot day. We walked a good portion of the Palace, but actually took only one of three available tour routes. We ended with a pleasant ride across the lake on a dragoon boat.

The main entrance.

A female lion is always displayed with a cub under her paw.

The summer pagoda.

Relief, we are going for a ride on the lake.

With our guide, Tom.


Our trip back to the hotel was too adventurous. Our driver plowed into a car stopped at a red light. Fortunately he cursed and braked hard before the crash, giving us time to brace ourselves. He hit hard enough to break the car radiator. No serious injury but after 10-15 minutes we were stiffening up in our neck, shoulder and, for Marsha, wrist. To not take any chances we took a taxi to a Western medicine hospital in downtown Beijing, around 30 km from the accident site. The care in the emergency room for foreigners is as good as anywhere we have seen. We were seen in around 10-15 minutes, had x-rays taken and read within an hour. And made it out of the hospital in less than three hours. Total cost for the two of us, 3,000 Yuan [under $400]. While we are taking some topical cream to keep the muscles loose, we are okay.

Things to note about the Peking Union Medical Center.

-Foreigners are not treated like locals. A separate section with experienced nurses. It is overstaffed by US standards. At 3:30 PM when we arrived, there were gigantic lines at the local side.

-For X-rays there are no safety shields placed on the body. Also there are no hospital gown.

-Sanitation does not seem as good. E.G. An empty soap dispenser in bathroom, and no sign of doctor washing her hands.

-All service is paid for before service is given. Pay for evaluation, pay for x-rays and pay for medicine before each service. The costs were paid for by the local travel agent.

More unusual were telephone calls by the driver and the car rental company expressing regret. The local travel agent manager came to the hospital to make certain we were happy with our care and apologizing for the agency. Also our personal guide was most helpful. We were very happy for all this help in a foreign land.

The next day, Wednesday, was a planned off day. We used it to recover and to pack for the trip home.

Beijing - World Wonders

Today is our first full day in Beijing. We are off to see some of the wonders of the world: the Tombs of the Ming dynasty and the Great Wall of China.

The Ming Tombs are a distance out of town. We leave during the morning rush hour and get caught in some nasty traffic jams. The drivers seem more courteous than the drivers in Guangzhou do, less horn blowing and less multi-lane changes. Bad luck, our car cannot restart after the tollbooth. The toll booth workers push our car to a safe spot. An hour later a replacement car and a new driver arrive.
The Ming Tombs have burial areas for ten Emperors. Each one has underground chambers over a vast area. Each Emperor starts building his mausoleum early in his reign. Slave labor is used to build the biggest one that they can.
To get to the Tombs you walk down the Sacred Way.

The Sacred Way is two miles long. It is a straight path guarded by stone animals and officers paying homage to the dead Emperors. On each side of the path are the same statues: sitting lion, standing lion, sitting camel, standing camel, sitting elephant, standing elephant, sitting unicorn [very different from the European unicorn], standing unicorn, sitting horse, standing horse, military general and highest ranked official. Quite a walk in 35 degree heat. Each sculpture is at least life size.














We then drove to one of the burial hills. Nearly all of the Tombs have not been entered since the death of the Emperor. We then drove to the one Tomb that has been entered; many of the artifacts are in a museum above the original site.







Next we were taken for lunch at a government-approved restaurant for foreign visitors. Throughout our stay in Beijing we are only taken to government approved restaurants for foreign visitors. This arrangement was not visible in other cities. To get to the restaurant we had to walk through a maze of jade. The jade is very beautiful but we made it though the many persistent sales people to the dining room without any purchases.

After lunch we went to the highlight of the day, the Great Wall of China. We only saw one very small segment of the Wall, which was 10,000 KM in length. Each of the kingdoms before the first Qin dynasty had a wall around it. Qin connected the walls. His wall was only 6,000 KM long. Two extensions were made over the centuries that brought it to its full length. The Wall is very impressive and is built at the high points of the hills and mountains. Every 100 meters there is a structure for the archers. We purposely hiked up a portion that has very few visitors, in the other direction than the bus loads of people that were hiking. As we walked down and then up, we realized why most people went the other way. Some of the steps are over a foot higher than the previous step!











On the way back to the car, I got a case of fear of height, so I took a few of the larger steps on my butt. [Marsha was a real trooper today. She did all this with a weakening case of stomach distress.]

Xi'an

Next to last stop and we are getting a little travel weary. We are starting to think about home.


Xian, the west capital, was the first capital of China, during the Qin dynasty. Qin Shi Huang was the first leader to unify China. During his reign he defeated the other kingdoms, connected the various kingdom walls into the Great Wall, made Mandarin the language of China, developed unified units of measure for China and built his own burial chamber.


We come to Xian to visit his burial chambers. Seventy thousand slaves worked for the better part of two decades to create his final resting space. In previous ages, the concubines who did not give birth, slaves, musicians and a small army would be buried with the Emperor to protect him and make his time more enjoyable in the afterlife. Qin Shi Huang's general convinced him that the troops were still needed here on Earth to keep China unified and he would be protected equally well by ceramics of his troops in the afterlife. Today we visit the results of that decision, the Terra Cotta Warriors.


The entire burial area is the size of a small city. A peasant farmer discovered the site in the 1950’s. Five farmers digging a well found some fragments, for some reason they thought it might be Qin’s army. The brought it to officials who had the find tested. [For finding the Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World, the farmers were given a letter of commendation and three days off from work. After a visit by President Chiric of France, the farmers were given jobs in the Museum as signers. One has the job to sign books bought by foreign tourists, another to sign books by Chinese tourists, a third, signs books for Chinese officials and the fourth signs for foreign VIP’s. The fifth farmer is dead. In addition, their families were also given free education.


When Marsha was here twelve years ago, there was only one pit of soldiers. Today there are three pits. Only a small percentage of the entire army area is excavated. What is excavated is mind blowing. Line upon line of bigger than life soldiers; archers, sitting and standing; lance men; Calvary with horses; officers and generals. Each image is different; each sculpture is a different soldier. Each sculpture is found in very many pieces, then reassembled by archaeologists and then placed in its appropriate spot. Looters caused the damage soon after the death of Qin's’s son.














In Xian we also visited the city wall and a pagoda. The city wall is the width of a three-lane highway. It is quite long and impressive.




I found the pagoda less interesting.