CHINA - day 5 Xi'an

Last night was a bad night for sleeping. Laura's cold hit full force, lots of drainage. We were up most of the night because she couldn't seem to lay horizontal to sleep. We tried our beds, her bed, holding her, propping on a pillow, etc. No luck. But we survived. We decided this trip was 3 days too long for a toddler.

First, this morning we went to see Wild Goose Pagoda. Jim really liked this place. I spent a lot of time from here on out entertaining Laura, so I didn't really focus too much on the history or stories about the place. Anyway, it was pretty cool and there's a wholes story about how it got its name since there aren't wild geese in China, but you'll have to ask Jim. I think it has something to do with the man who brought Buddhism to China. I really liked the bell tower and drum tower, which seemed to be all over Xi'an. They would ring the bell in the morning and hit the drum at night before there were clocks.

After this, we headed to the Terracotta Warriors factory. This is where they make replica warriors in the same manner the originals were made so you can buy them as souvenirs. It was kind of strange to go see the fake ones first and then later to see the real ones. A little downer for me, but it was still cool. Anyway, we bought some souvenirs and took a few pics:

Another interesting sign...notice the sign on the sign thats not for recycling points out, as opposed to the recylce sign that points in. It other places, they just wrote "unrecycle" for all the garbage bins that weren't recycling.

Now, on to the REAL Terracotta Warriors! This was Jim's biggest interest on the trip and the reason we came to Xi'an instead of just going to Beijing. The museum is the actual excavation sites where they found 4 pits of 3000 terracotta warriors. Apparently they all used to be very brightly painted, but it all faded when the oxygen got to them. Its pretty impressive to see them all. Each warrior and horse has different facial features and different expressions. There are different ranks of soldiers. There are archers, infantry and cavalry men. Very cool.

They were discovered by 3 farmers digging a well in the 80s. I actually got to see one of the farmers. He was signing books at the museum. They said he's a grumpy old man who won't let you take his picture or talk to anyone, but he nodded at me! I felt so silly, but excited when he acknowledged me. He holds a fan in front of his face so you can't take his picture. He got a whole US$5 from the government after he discovered the statues.

We had lunch at the museum where we got to have Chinese noodles. I was beyond excited because I had watched a show on Chinese noodle making weeks earlier and was really interested. There are all kinds of ways to make them and the chefs go to years of training to learn. These chefs were young boys and were still learning, but it was fun to watch! One was called Flying Dagger noodles where you slice noodles off a hunk in your hand and they're supposed to land in the boiling pot of water (this guy missed just as I was taking the picture and I got a glare for that!). And the other one is pulling nooodles in one long strand. After they cut the ends, they willl have 4096 noodles from this one strand. And they tasted delicious. I keep looking for a book on how to make them, but no luck so far. In this part of China, they only eat noodles, no rice, and their food is much spicer. I think I like this food better than in Beijing. Here's a video of the guy pulling the noodles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlUzeu_SAvA

When leaving the museum, you walk through this market of really pushy vendors. They tour guide even warned us that if we didn't plan to buy, don't even bother to look or bargain because the vendors make this huge ordeal and argue and get everyone upset. So we just kept walking. I don't know why its like that here, it just makes us not want to buy anything.

Next we went to a Hot Springs Palace. It looked a lot like all the other palaces and we were tired by now.

Here's a video of Laura running down a ramp:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUw2BWrieh0

After dinner, Jim, Laura and I took a taxi back to the hotel while everyone else went to see a show. I'm so glad we went back. They didn't get back until 10pm. Laura would have been miserable! And it was nice to be in the taxi in Xi'an. We went through smaller streets and were down on the street level instead of being in the big bus. It was cool to see the smaller shops and restaurants where locals shopped.

Eskimo Joe's and Hennepin County

Here's a picture of Laura with the baby Jesus statue in the park across the street. I asked her to go stand by the statute since you aren't supposed to get on the grass and I figured the security guard wouldn't yell at a baby. After taking the picture, I realized that about 20 people sitting on benches in the park were also taking her picture with their cell phones.

A few weeks ago, I bought a book from a kiosk in the mall. I took it out of the bag the other day to start reading it, and looked closer at the old labels on it. Check it out:

Hennepin county is in the St Paul, MN area. Pretty crazy.

I saw someone with a Joe's shirt on at the mall. He wasn't too interested to talk to me, but said he hadn't ever been to Stillwater.

While looking for Christmas gifts, I saw a Play-doh Sushi kit. It had cookie cutters for fish, sushi, sashimi, etc. Pretty funny.

We went to Jim's company's Christmas party last night. It was lots of fun and had great food and music. Everyone was really nice and I wished I could have had the chance to spend more time with them throughout our time here. Laura did really well, especially for being up so late. She and I left early, and missed Jim's skit where he played Santa Claus. He said the hat was too small and just sat on top of his head.

CHINA - day 4 Beijing to Xi'an

I actually teared up a little when I realized that this wouldn't be a day of rest. The only thing on the itinerary was a flight to xi'an. I was so tired and even more worried because I knew laura was tired. But we got up at 6:00 to make our flight and after laura slept the entire two hour flight, I somehow felt refreshed too. The food on the airplane was scary. A huge hunk of skin in my chicken that looked like it had been gathered up and tied or something. It was also very spicy food. Then we ate again ate the airport in a restaurant that was ok.

After the airport, we drove 45 minutes to the city of Xi'an. On the way, the tour guide pointed out these mounds, which are man made and the tombs of ancient emperors and their wives and officers. How cool is that? Just these huge tombs sitting on the landscape looking like innocent hills. I think most have been opened, but at least one, the one by the Terracotta Soldiers hasn't even been opened yet because when you open them, all the beautiful colors on the painted sculptures and pictures fade away within hours because of the oxygen. And because they items get stolen so easily. Its hard for me to understand how those reasons can stop the entire world from finding out whats inside these tombs, but its an interesting display of respect.

We took a bus to the North Gate of the City Wall. This turned out to be my favorite thing on the whole trip and I'm not exactly sure why. Its a huge wall that goes all the way around the city, almost as wide as it is tall. Its in really good condition and very impressive. I think there are still only four exits from the wall and there's also a moat (a moat!), which is now called a canal. Even though the city has grown up around and outside the wall, its very easy to imagine what it was like centuries ago. Just below the North Gate, there is a large courtyard with an emperor's chair that you can sit in to have your picture taken for money.

A video of Laura at the North Gate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-7VjiWTLcA

Xi'an was the capital of china for 13 dynasties while Beijing (current capital) only spanned 4 dynasties. I'm not sure the length of time of each though. The city actually looks a lot more like I imagined communist china than beijing did. Beijing had definitely been spruced up for the Olympics. Most of the buildings in xi'an looked like very drab, ugly apartments built in the 60s and not touched since then. Easily a quarter of them were literally falling apart. I wondered if the people living in them were cold all the time or if they even had electricity. But jim and i both still liked it better than beijing. The cool thing was that interspersed with the decaying buildings, there were very beautiful ancient Chinese structures. Palaces and towers and pagodas and the city wall. That part was cool. In Beijing it was almost all modern unless you were specifically in an historical site.

Mercifully, they then took us back to the hotel for 2 hours of rest! As soon as we walked in, Laura turned on the TV, jumped on the bed and laid back on the pillow. It was so out of character for her that we just stared for a minute. Pretty funny.

Today we realized we had lost Laura's hat. Bummer. It was a good, Smartwool hat. Oh well, she borrowed mine and I used a scarf I had bought in Beijing.

Then we went to dinner. Laura devoured the soup and some ice cubes that someone had asked for. Now, she's still addicted to ice. They had a big aquarium with a huge turtle in it. With some help, Laura named it Shi-Shi (means thank you in Chinese) and talked about it all night long.

Back at the hotel, I sent postcards and got on the internet for 15 minutes. We bought lotion because Laura's cheeks were so dry from the cold and wind.

The hotel here was all decked out for Christmas. Very pretty:

A Chinese snowman:
Sculpture garden at the hotel:

CHINA - day 3 Beijing

Ok, so this morning we started at a jade factory. Jade is very popular there and we got to see people carving and polishing. Pretty cool but not really our thing.

Next we drove by the Olympic area. It seemed like it was about two miles long. Saw the stadium and aquatic center from the bus.

Then the Great Wall. Did you know that its very very cold and very very windy at the great wall? At least the little part we went to. So cold that laura stuck her head down in my jacket and refused to come out. She slept there the whole time. Anyway we drove quite a bit to get to a section that wasnt quite as crowded as the first part we saw. Then we took a cable car ride (swinging in the wind) to one tower and walked along the wall to the next tower. It was so beautiful and so powerful to stand and see it creep over the mountain tops as far as you could see. It was a big moment for me as this was my goal for coming on this trip. (although a wall in Xi'an becomes my favorite site later). It was an incredibly steep walk up to the tower. I held on to the railing all the way up and down.

We ate lunch at a sad little buffet near the wall. But they had the best little sesame seed dessert balls! Between the three of us we must have eaten 10.

Then we went shopping at a "bargain market". We were expecting like little souvenirs and food or a flea market or something but it was more like just another mall. Lots of clothing that is too small for us. Some souvenirs but not many. Plus all the vendors are soooo pushy and jim and aren't used to it. Made us mad. After buying a few things We went back to the bus early and waited for everyone else.

This morning jim had felt sick and this afternoon I felt sick, so it was a relief that dinner was good. We went to the original and most famous place to serve Peking Duck. It is like little tacos of duck with onions and a sweet sauce. It was delicious. And laura loved it too! We couldn't believe it. But she just kept on shovelling in the duck and she still asks for Peking duck because it makes us laugh. Its so strange that she likes it because she won't eat any other kind of meat. Maybe a bite of chicken now and then but very rarely. As we were leaving, a man with us proudly stated that the duck was raised similarly to how they raise the geese for foie grois. Well that stinks. Ruined a perfectly good meal! The restaurant was huge: 5 stories tall and as big as a small hotel. Think of how many poor ducks. But it sure was yummy.

Laura was as big of a hit in china as she is in Manila. Honestly I'm looking forward to coming back to the states and blending in. No more people crowding around laura, touching her, demanding that she smile or tell them her name. I'm so grumpy now when people won't leave us alone. Its really irritating. I have a small appreciation for what famous people go through and I can definitley how hard it would be to be recognized everywhere you go. Jim and I both decided we have no interest in ever being famous.

That night we went to an area that seemed a little like times square, but was more a shopping district. We actually found more things here that we wanted than at the bargain market, and also some dairy queen! Yum. We went to a department store, a chopstick store, and a tea store. There was a Chinese kids toy store, but we ran out of time.

On the bus home, laura very deliberatly took her shoe off and then stuck her nose in and took a deep breath. Jim and I burst out laughing. No idea where she got that idea but it sure cracked us up.

Our tour guide in Beijing told us a few things about china as we drove around town. For example he explained the one child per family thing better. There are exceptions to the rule: if both parents are only children then they can have two and if they are minorities they can have as many as they want. But for most families, if they have more than one child, they have to pay the equivalent of US$15,000. If they don't pay the fine then they have to pay a ton for the kid's schooling, they don't get a stipend for the kid's food , and the kid can never get an ID card later in life, therefore no job. Also he said there was a lot of discrimination against young women in the workplace because employers didn't want to pay for maternity leave. So many young couples are chosing not to have any kids at all. I have no idea what the abortion rate in China is, but my guess is that it must be staggering. How much pain many young families must be in! I know we have incredible population problems on this planet, but there has to be a better way. I didn't mean for this to be an editorial, but I hadn't ever given this rule much thought and it hit me kind of hard to think about its repercussions, both for the babies and the surviving families. I wonder how the culture is going to be affected by this and by only having single child families. Again, I actually have no idea what I'm talking about, just imagining.

On to happier things-its so quiet in Beijing! Something jim and I both noticed. Compared to honking and loud cars and noises on the street in Manila, beijing is so nice and quiet. Still lots of smog but at least the cars are quiet. The tour guide said that, except for BMWs, mercedes and Audi, all cars have to be made in china. So we saw a ford and a buick which I guess were made in china. Didnt realize those American companies had plants in china. But there are also lots of bikes. The tour guide said there weren't many because it was winter and because many people are now commuting from residential neighborhoods to work, but it looked like a lot to me! Women and men, business clothes, elderly, all kinds of people on bikes. Some electric and some motorcyles, but mostly the same exact model of one-speed with a basket on front and either a luggage rack or child seat on back.

After we got back to the hotel, we saw that the maid had even set up Laura's bed for us. How nice!

bugs

Came down to the playground/pool area to write more about china, but I emailed away the time and i have to go soon so jim can go back to work so I'll write about bugs instead. As I was coming down the stairs, on the floor below us, I saw my first Filipino cockroach. 3 inches, no kidding! I was wondering where all the bugs were. The apartment owners have sent in pest control twice with icky stuff to kill cockroaches but I hadn't ever seen them. We've only had a few smaller bugs. I did have to move all our food into the freezer and fridge about a month ago because our pantry cabinet was infested with little flying things and when we got back from china, we found that the ants had moved in in our absence. But they are just really tiny ants that are literally everywhere, in every room and don't seem to swarm too badly, which is what really bugs me. So I've been trying to keep it relatively clean to keep it relatively bug-free considering what I was expecting when we moved in. I can deal with little bitty ants for one more week. But that cockroach! 4 inches!

wi fi!

I just found a free full strength wi fi at laura's playground on the sixth floor of our building! Ok so its really just someone who didn't put a password on their wi fi.

A little about our time since we got back before I continue the china stuff. We got back lasts Wednesday night. Laura had some drainage the last couple days in china. That stopped when we got back to Manila so I thought that the humidity here took care of it. Then Friday laura and I both came down with a cough. By Saturday we both felt like we'd been hit by a truck. Literally the worst I ever remember feeling. We both went to the doctor on sunday because we weren't getting any sleep due to coughing and just plain body aches. Anyways they did blood work and gave us some drugs and we are still a little weak but much improved.

Before it got really bad, on Thursday I think, laura and I happened upon a dora the explorer shoe at the mall. It was people in costumes singing and dancing. Laura was in heaven! She sat on my lap for a whole hour and cried when we had to
leave at the end.

Saturday, in a moment of lucidity from my sickness, I got a pedicure and manicure! That felt great and was very cheap.

Other than that, we've mostly been vegging on the couch watching tv, which is almost unheard of for us during the day. Laura and I never watched tv, but we have discovered a few good shows in the morning. You've got to check out wonder pets on nick jr. Its great. I gotta say that laura's not too great at vegging. She's way to wiggly even when shes sick. I hope I don't teach her to be good at vegging.

puny

Major delay in journalling...laura and I caught a crazy china virus. Guess all the people glaring at us for not forcing laura to leave her hat on were right afterall. Jims been a great nursemaid but since he had to go to work today, L and I dragged ourselves to the mall for some lunch. Think we'll treat ourselves to a cab ride back the four blocks. Don't worry. We are on the mend the doctor gave us 4 different drugs and said that it probably wasnt bird flu. Ha ha. Seriously I am feeling better today and so is laura. Too bad jim is starting to feel icky. I'll continue the china stuff when I can. We go back to states next week! Yea!

CHINA - day 2 Beijing

This morning, after a delicious breakfast that included milk for Laura (yea!), we started out in Tian'anmen Square. How cool was that? To actually be in Tian'anmen square was pretty crazy. Really, its just a huge huge open square with some big buildings around it and a statue in the middle. It was completely crowded, mostly with tour groups like ours. With the leaders carrying around the little flags and groups of 10-20 people following. And there were people trying to sell hats and gloves to stupid people like us who weren't prepared for the cold. Most of the hats had olympic embroidery on them since the olympics will be in Beijing next year. Actually, olympic stuff is everywhere in Beijing.

Anyways, here's Jim and a family picture in Tian'anmen square:

There's a huge picture of Mao on one of the buildings that is actually an oil painting that gets repainted every year by the same family. It weighs 1 ton. Its kind of hard to tell in this picture how big it is, but I Jim's work computer doesn't have the right software to crop it and zoom in. Believe me, it is big.

Next, we went through the tunnel under the big painting of Mao and into the Forbidden City. This was a city that commoners couldn't go into, only high ranking officials and the emperor. It was huge, with tons of small buildings that all look alike. Laura and I's favorite part were the big cauldrons that were everywhere. They used to hold water to use for putting out fires since they used to use candles everywhere and the buildings were made of wood.

The toilets on this trip were a big deal. Always an exciting event to find one that actually had a seat, but you learn to use the "holes in the ground" quickly. So glad Laura's still in diapers so we didn't have to worry about getting her to a bathroom all the time! Thought this sign was funny:

After the Forbidden City, we went to lunch, I think. Then to the zoo to see the Giant Panda exhibit. I hate to say it, but it seems like the pandas in San Diego, are happier than the ones in China! In China, they were pacing back and forth in front of their doors to the inside and didn't have much interest in anything in their habitats. In San Diego, they were always up in the trees sleeping or eating and just seemed very comfortable and secure. Oh well, maybe its just the cold weather in China. Although, since that's their natural habitat, shouldn't they be comfortable in the cold? Anyway, Laura enjoyed it.

Jim and I enjoy funny signs:

Then we headed to the Summer Palace. Its a palace on a lake where emperors would spend a few months in the summer. Very pretty, but it looked a lot like the rest of the palaces and Laura was getting bored.

Ahhh...the sweet potato. Without a doubt - my favorite food on this trip. Outside the Summer Palace, there were sidewalk vendors selling baked sweet potatoes. It was delicious. Laura devored it too! I was a little bitter about sharing it with her...ha ha. but there really wasn't much at the meals that Laura enjoyed, so I was excited to see her eat something besides the crackers we brought for her as snacks. I wish we would have run into more of these vendors, but most of the places our tour took us were too upscale to have something like this. But we thoroughly enjoyed it this time.

Dinner was a western buffet. I think that just meant they had a salad with Thousand Island dressing. Nothing else too western about it, but it was good.

Here's another shot of the Mao painting in Tian'anmen Square when we passed it on the way home. Very big.