China
Trip Report 2007: Do not drive tiredly.
Beijing Redux
Day 9 Thursday Feb 15
We missed the breakfast buffet due to a slow start. We deserved it. The slow start, I mean, since we had been hustling a lot and the delayed flight from Xi'an was misery.
We aimed the taxi toward Tian'anmen Square. We meandered & did our photo duties of this famous place. In reality, it's just a big paved square with a bunch of tourists wandering around taking pictures of each other standing in front of the distant buildings. But, you have to do it. We skipped the pickled guy in the mausoleum as the lines looked daunting and that is more of a Chinese thing anyway. The access tunnels around Tian'anmem are well thought out for avoiding traffic crossings on the surrounding roads.
Then, guidebook in hand, we wandered to the hutongs south of the square for some shopping. Dazhalan Lu is a good destination. They have billboarded the sidewalk on the west side but take one of the inlets (2nd maybe?) and it funnels you down. The 3rd (?) is Dazhalan Lu. A tourist shopping Mecca with cheap silk, cloths, jade, cloisonné and all varieties of tourist take home. Buy the trinkets for a fraction of the factory outlets costs - and you will still be overcharged! Have fun bargaining and beating them down, it's all part of the fun. This goes on for several blocks and peters out as the road widens past a big street (?) where it kinks south. Of course, if you've gotten that far & your arms aren't hurting from carrying all of the crap you've bought, turn around & do it all backwards.
With energy flagging and arms getting tired (I was the bag boy), we headed north & hit a KFC for a late lunch. No original recipe here, just the crunchy stuff with an extra zip. We gobbled. btw Coke is a different formula in China too. Sweeter, but it doesn't matter if you mix it with enough rum. A taxi took us back to the Royale - shopping 1/2 done.
The younguns were back in Beijing, so we arranged to go out with them again for dinner. Pizza Hut was their choice. Not ours, but theirs. I dipped into the attached Carrefour while we were waiting for a booth (PH is a tad more up market in China) but my search for Moutai was stymied by the hoards. Carrefour only seemed to have expensive decorative sets but I couldn't get close enough to tell for sure. How do people shop this way? I was ready to run out screaming after 5 minutes . . .
We collapsed.
We missed the breakfast buffet due to a slow start. We deserved it. The slow start, I mean, since we had been hustling a lot and the delayed flight from Xi'an was misery.
We aimed the taxi toward Tian'anmen Square. We meandered & did our photo duties of this famous place. In reality, it's just a big paved square with a bunch of tourists wandering around taking pictures of each other standing in front of the distant buildings. But, you have to do it. We skipped the pickled guy in the mausoleum as the lines looked daunting and that is more of a Chinese thing anyway. The access tunnels around Tian'anmem are well thought out for avoiding traffic crossings on the surrounding roads.
Then, guidebook in hand, we wandered to the hutongs south of the square for some shopping. Dazhalan Lu is a good destination. They have billboarded the sidewalk on the west side but take one of the inlets (2nd maybe?) and it funnels you down. The 3rd (?) is Dazhalan Lu. A tourist shopping Mecca with cheap silk, cloths, jade, cloisonné and all varieties of tourist take home. Buy the trinkets for a fraction of the factory outlets costs - and you will still be overcharged! Have fun bargaining and beating them down, it's all part of the fun. This goes on for several blocks and peters out as the road widens past a big street (?) where it kinks south. Of course, if you've gotten that far & your arms aren't hurting from carrying all of the crap you've bought, turn around & do it all backwards.
With energy flagging and arms getting tired (I was the bag boy), we headed north & hit a KFC for a late lunch. No original recipe here, just the crunchy stuff with an extra zip. We gobbled. btw Coke is a different formula in China too. Sweeter, but it doesn't matter if you mix it with enough rum. A taxi took us back to the Royale - shopping 1/2 done.
The younguns were back in Beijing, so we arranged to go out with them again for dinner. Pizza Hut was their choice. Not ours, but theirs. I dipped into the attached Carrefour while we were waiting for a booth (PH is a tad more up market in China) but my search for Moutai was stymied by the hoards. Carrefour only seemed to have expensive decorative sets but I couldn't get close enough to tell for sure. How do people shop this way? I was ready to run out screaming after 5 minutes . . .
We collapsed.
Day 10 Friday Feb 16
Our last full day, so the shopping panic was on. I don't know if you or your spouse is responsible for your travel shopping panic episodes. These occur as the trip starts to wane and the 'travel shopper' realizes that they haven't bought enough crap to take home to give out to all of the people you left behind. You know, all the entirely useless crap that they don't want anyway and will never use. I told my wife that we could just buy it all at home in an Asia mall since its all from China anyway. She didn't understand.
I did however, have my sights set on one last monument, so we taxi'd to the north entrance of Temple of Heaven and Tiantan park. Another bright and cool (but not cold) day. I really enjoyed wandering this large site. You can buy a ticket for just the park, or park + the monuments. Each of 3 admittance points tear off a section so keep your ticket handy.
The park was being used for Tai Chi and a small orchestra was wailing in one secluded section. A group was huddling around the long corridor to the east. I imagine in the summer that it could be a busy place, since it is such a nice relief from the bustle around. The guidebook says that many consider the Temple of Heaven buildings to be some of the best examples of Ming architecture. I certainly liked them.
We exited at the south. Watch the taxis here and make sure you get a metered one. Some were pitching us with a seriously inflated flat rate. We went back towards Dazhalan Lu for shopping roundup. We walked quickly thru as I was aiming towards Liulichang Jie and its collection of stores. Not as clothing/silk oriented as Dazhalan, I found the stores had 'more authentic' stuff if that is possible. One store had real art quality goods but the prices were in USD. You pay for the real stuff as always.
After a couple of hours, we (I) had had enough. So I dragged B away and back to the hotel for lunch and a rest. We were done. We didn't get to the Summer Palace, but since it was winter, it seemed a little pointless. Other things had been left out too. But I felt that we had seen the sites we wanted to and there is always next time since it seems inevitable that we will be returning. We have use of a condo in Beijing and the bride's uncle insisted that we use his condo that is somewhere on the coast for a future trip.
A farewell dinner had been arranged for this last night. The groom was heading home with us, so the bride's mother and aunt had come by car from Handan for a sendoff. Jin Shan Cheng near the China World Trade Centre was chosen again as a suitable eatery since our duck was so good there. After a discussion with the staff about tables and attempted corkage fees etc we were seated at a hotpot table. Hotpot is was. This time, rather than the usual indescribable broth, they brought cauldrons with a fish floating around. Yum, yum. The peanut dipping sauce solved any issues and we had a nice meal. The ladies really liked heaping stuff on our plates. Interestingly, they always included the pool driver in the meals even though they tend to be pretty non-talkative.
Our last full day, so the shopping panic was on. I don't know if you or your spouse is responsible for your travel shopping panic episodes. These occur as the trip starts to wane and the 'travel shopper' realizes that they haven't bought enough crap to take home to give out to all of the people you left behind. You know, all the entirely useless crap that they don't want anyway and will never use. I told my wife that we could just buy it all at home in an Asia mall since its all from China anyway. She didn't understand.
I did however, have my sights set on one last monument, so we taxi'd to the north entrance of Temple of Heaven and Tiantan park. Another bright and cool (but not cold) day. I really enjoyed wandering this large site. You can buy a ticket for just the park, or park + the monuments. Each of 3 admittance points tear off a section so keep your ticket handy.
The park was being used for Tai Chi and a small orchestra was wailing in one secluded section. A group was huddling around the long corridor to the east. I imagine in the summer that it could be a busy place, since it is such a nice relief from the bustle around. The guidebook says that many consider the Temple of Heaven buildings to be some of the best examples of Ming architecture. I certainly liked them.
We exited at the south. Watch the taxis here and make sure you get a metered one. Some were pitching us with a seriously inflated flat rate. We went back towards Dazhalan Lu for shopping roundup. We walked quickly thru as I was aiming towards Liulichang Jie and its collection of stores. Not as clothing/silk oriented as Dazhalan, I found the stores had 'more authentic' stuff if that is possible. One store had real art quality goods but the prices were in USD. You pay for the real stuff as always.
After a couple of hours, we (I) had had enough. So I dragged B away and back to the hotel for lunch and a rest. We were done. We didn't get to the Summer Palace, but since it was winter, it seemed a little pointless. Other things had been left out too. But I felt that we had seen the sites we wanted to and there is always next time since it seems inevitable that we will be returning. We have use of a condo in Beijing and the bride's uncle insisted that we use his condo that is somewhere on the coast for a future trip.
A farewell dinner had been arranged for this last night. The groom was heading home with us, so the bride's mother and aunt had come by car from Handan for a sendoff. Jin Shan Cheng near the China World Trade Centre was chosen again as a suitable eatery since our duck was so good there. After a discussion with the staff about tables and attempted corkage fees etc we were seated at a hotpot table. Hotpot is was. This time, rather than the usual indescribable broth, they brought cauldrons with a fish floating around. Yum, yum. The peanut dipping sauce solved any issues and we had a nice meal. The ladies really liked heaping stuff on our plates. Interestingly, they always included the pool driver in the meals even though they tend to be pretty non-talkative.
Day 11 Saturday Feb 17 - Departure Day
Packing and milling around is always the routine on departure day. The mother and aunt and driver and younguns and us all piled into the van with far too much luggage for the haul to Beijing airport. The ladies were all going back to Handan to celebrate New Years that night.
Of course our flight was going to be 5 hours late leaving. After a tearful sendoff, we went in and hung around the executive lounge since my Aeroplan status got us in. Not too fun, but the Scotch was free & the seats were comfy.
A spectacular flight home. Really. Since we left around 8 PM on the Chinese New Year, the fireworks were starting as we left. It was a clear night over northern China and for the 1st 1 1/2 hours, we could see all of the towns celebrating as we flew over at 30,000 feet. What a show. The pilot even shut off the AV system and told people to look out their windows. Later, I also got a great view of Alaska, the Yukon and Canada's North West Territories. Better than a book or the terminally stupid movies you can't really see and hear properly.
Arrival in Toronto and Canadian Customs was uneventful.
Packing and milling around is always the routine on departure day. The mother and aunt and driver and younguns and us all piled into the van with far too much luggage for the haul to Beijing airport. The ladies were all going back to Handan to celebrate New Years that night.
Of course our flight was going to be 5 hours late leaving. After a tearful sendoff, we went in and hung around the executive lounge since my Aeroplan status got us in. Not too fun, but the Scotch was free & the seats were comfy.
A spectacular flight home. Really. Since we left around 8 PM on the Chinese New Year, the fireworks were starting as we left. It was a clear night over northern China and for the 1st 1 1/2 hours, we could see all of the towns celebrating as we flew over at 30,000 feet. What a show. The pilot even shut off the AV system and told people to look out their windows. Later, I also got a great view of Alaska, the Yukon and Canada's North West Territories. Better than a book or the terminally stupid movies you can't really see and hear properly.
Arrival in Toronto and Canadian Customs was uneventful.
End Note: The bride and the groom separated just over 3 years after this trip. We have not seen her since.