Valley of Light

The Tibetan Buddhist Monastery named Songzanlin is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan and one of the most famous in the region. The monastery was constructed in 1679 and looks like a Kasbah – with houses stacked on top of each other on a hillside. Approximately 700 monks live in those houses in this monastery community. The halls were colorful and ornate – and the Buddha statues were enormous!

The monastery was located near the fabled town of Shangri-la China.  A beautiful part of the country near the border of Tibet.  Yaks graze as the morning light paints the valley.

View more photos from Shangri-la China

Twist and Turn – the Great Wall, China

November is quickly coming to an end – and so the cold winter is beginning.  However I have fond memories of my fall in 2007 spent in China traveling with my father.  We explored this section of the Jinshanling Wall.  It undulates through the steep mountaintops, and it is approximately 8 miles from Jinshaling to Simatai via the Great Wall.  It will take anywhere from 4 to 7 hours to complete it depending on your fitness, and your knees! The two sections of the wall connect and there is a woman at that connection taking tickets to move on to the next section – if you don’t have a ticket, then you can ‘tpass through to Simatai.

We had a beautiful day to hike, and for photography.  View my photography of the Great Wall.

If you’d like to see more travel photography – check out Briefcase to Backpack’s Photo Friday and be sure to check out my post from this week on photography with a wide angle lens.

On Display

Xi’an China

Home of the Terra Cotta Army.  This one was protected and encased in glass.  I thought it would be really interesting to see the scene through his eyes.

View more Xi’an photogrpahy

View other Travel photography at Delicious Baby’s Photo Friday

A lonely path

Photo: Take this path, and don’t wander off of it!
I felt like I was always playing the role of the ‘western tourist’. Being taken to the tourist sites, the tourist shopping, the tourist part of town. It was as if the Chinese people/government were trying to contain the tourists to a certain path else they would have a China Syndrome on their hands. The few times I was able to break away from the tourist track and explore on my own within the local areas, it was rewarding. I felt accomplished for getting out of the normal path that everyone wanted us to see, and to finally see on my own. Maybe this was a product disciplined tour choreography was simply preparing them for their influx of visitors for the Olympics, maybe it was a form of control, or maybe it was a product of the tour companies that I decided to travel with – I’m not really sure.

After having the opportunity to spend 4 weeks in China in various regions, I have put together a few of my observations that seemed to stand out to me. These are the strange things that I will remember about China long after I’ve left.

A Hard Day’s Night
After touring and hiking around all day, all you wanted was a good night’s sleep. I’d get into my hotel room, take off my backpack, and flop on the bed in exhaustion…yet as I flopped down, my ass was greeted to a bed as hard as bricks. Granted, I was traveling on a budget, so my hotel expectations weren’t very high, however sleeping in China was like sleeping on a bed of plywood. The mattresses were HARD. Add that to the fact that the rooms weren’t heated and many of the areas I visited had frost filled mornings. If it weren’t for the electric blankets on the planks they called beds, I probably would have been covered in frost myself!

So you Think you Can Dance?
The Chinese love to dance….who knew? Every time I came upon a town square, a wide open space, or a simple highway underpass, there were groups of people dancing. No, not like a rave…there were no glow sticks or pacifiers. Instead it was adults and elderly doing what looked like country line dancing. It was organized groups, dancing slowly in unison. While in Shangri-la, the Tibetans loved to dance. Every night they would gather out in the town square and show off their moves. Or maybe they were simply dancing to stay warm. Not a bad idea considering their homes had no heat besides a bucket of burning coal.

Bank Statements
Considering that small cities in China are big cities to most people in the world, there were always plenty of tall buildings around, even in the smallest of cities. I came to realize that most of the large buildings were banks. In fact, I started to amuse myself by counting the number of different banks I saw – each one slightly different than the other – some of my favorites:
Agricultural Bank of China
Agricultural Development Bank of China
Bank of China
Bank of Communications
Central Bank of China
China Construction Bank
China Development Bank
China Merchants Bank
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
Industrial Bank Co.
The Export-Import Bank of China
The People’s Bank of China
I think there is a type of bank for each type of person. I kept searching for my bank, ‘The Unemployed Bank of China’, but I could never find a branch office when I needed one. Truly though, after seeing the myriad of bank names and large buildings, I decided that maybe all of the banking mergers in the US weren’t so bad after all!

Lending a helping Hand
Where-ever you go in China, you will always have someone around to assist you. A restaurant, train, bus, or crossing the street. Everyone seems to be employed. From my perspective, there was always an army of workers around whether it called for it or not. The street crossing had 5 to 6 officers directing traffic, pedestrians and bikes. Restaurants had an army of staff to assist your every need. Hotels had 5 people behind the front desk…when clearly 1 to 2 people could have done an efficient job. But then again, efficiency never seemed to be a concern. Keeping people employed seemed to be more of the concern. And maybe that’s a good thing when you have a population of 1.3 billion people. But to my Western eye, it seemed inefficient and pointless. Working on a corner all day be a crossing guard for bikers – didn’t really seem that necessary – especially when there were 3 other people there doing the exact same thing.

What is China known for? Fakes
Considering China seems to be the manufacturing plant for the world – it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see a bunch of brand name items in markets with prices too good to be true. China is the land of fakes – purses, coats, DVD’s, jewelry, watches, pens, clothing…if it is manufactured in China…then it can also be copied and sold in China. I constantly came across some of the nicest looking Northface jackets and backpacks that you could imagine…for bargain basement prices…all fakes – but damn good ones. I couldn’t tell the real vs. the fake stuff apart unless of course it was a Coach purse as I’ve been trained to spot fake Coach…I think they taught us that on our first day of work there. If you want a bargain on a name brand – go to China and be prepared to negotiate. I honestly think many of the items were high-jacked on the way to the shipyard. The strange thing is that I never could figure out if the government condoned it or fought it. If they fought it – it was a passive fight, and they were definitely losing.

Even though these themes remain in my head when I think of China – I also have visions of the amazing landscape of the country (when it’s not engulfed in smog). The Great Wall and the Southwest mountain ranges were completely stunning, but changing fast. It’s worth a visit to see for yourself. Just make sure that you bring some warm clothes, a good pillow, and your dancin’ shoes!

Tibetan Prayer Flags sending the prayers to the heavens

For all photos of Deqin and the Snow Mountain – click here!

For the 4 days we spent in and around Shangri-la we had the unique opportunity to experience the 4 seasons…one each day. The bad news is that my suitcase wasn’t really outfitted to experience the 4 seasons, and the Chinese concept of heating was an electric blanket – herein lied the problem.
Photos: The Four Seasons in Four Days – click to enlarge

We left the town of Shangri-la and started our 6 hour climb into the mountains towards the Tibetan border and to the town of Deqin (a great scrabble word…a q without a u – take note!) We never did cross into Tibet – however we did get close to the ‘border crossing’ – within picture range. The whole thing was rather confusing to me since Tibet is actually China, I was baffled on why they even had a ‘border crossing’ into Tibet – and to top it off – you needed a special permit (basically you need to pay more money) as a foreign tourist entering Tibet. In my opinion – this was the Chinese government’s way to milk the last little bit out of the tourists – play on their Tibetan sympathies.

Even though we did not get to cross over into Tibet – we did get to experience their culture. The town of Deqin is 80% Tibetan and is bustling with little stores and markets full of hearty locals. In this area of China – the people are hearty – mostly Tibetan hilltribes – therefore the concept of a hard life among the elements and yaks is their norm. However – for me, yaks and life among the elements was quite a leap away from spas and sushi delivery.

We drove through the pass leisurely stopping along the way for various photos. As we climbed up the bends the road deteriorated into cobblestone, and I popped some Dramamine. All of a sudden I started seeing them – dotting the landscapes with color and movement. This wasn’t some hallucination from the Dramamine, it was prayer flags. Now I knew I had entered another region of China as these were the first prayer flags I had seen. Prayer flags are found mainly in Tibet high in the Himalayas. They are traditionally used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown upward as offerings to their deities and will bring benefits (such as happiness and good health) to all who hang them, as well as their families, loved ones, neighbors, and all people throughout the world including even enemies. The flags build up all year long – until they seem to be practically choking the structure they are hanging on (trees, temples, poles), they become discolored in the sun, start to unravel at the ends in the wind, but they remain there for a year. They are removed annually during the Tibetan New Year. At that time they are burned as a sign of respect.
Photos: Prayer Flags – click to enlarge

I found the flags intriguing (as evidenced by all of the photos I took of them!), they were hung like garland – the higher up the better. I entertained ideas of hanging them in my apartment window and stringing them to the light pole on my corner in NY. I wondered how long it would take for someone to tell me to remove them. One of the strange things about the flags is that even though there were thousands of them, I never once saw anyone in the act of hanging them. I started to wonder if they did it under the cover of night or something.

We neared Deqin and the weather became noticeably cooler – probably because we were now at 3,350 Meters (aprox. 11,000 ft). This is where my suitcase started to fail me. We were told by our tour company (Backroads of China) that it may get to 0 degrees Celsius in these areas – so Cyndi and I tried our best to pack our warmest Singapore clothes…my heaviest coat being a rain coat was a little worrisome – but I really didn’t think that it would be that cold! After about 8 hours of driving (and stopping for photos) we finally pulled up to our hotel that had an amazing view of Snow Mountain just in time for sunset.

The hotel was 2 star – nothing fancy and that was fine. However after stepping out of the car with the cold wind hitting me and shredding through my little rain coat with no lining I decided to ask Jonathan if this hotel had hot water and heat. These seem like ‘no-brainer’ questions…all hotels should have hot water and heat especially when the temperature is below freezing. However – I’ve come to learn that you really can’t have expectations about anything when traveling on a budget. Jonathan cheerfully answered “Yes they have hot water and heat! They have electric blankets.”
Hmmmm, I felt like I needed to dig a little deeper…
“Jonathon, is there heat in the room, or is it just electric blankets?”
Jonathon answered, “There are electric blankets.”, tilting his head with a confused look on his face.
“Just electric blankets?” I questioned once more.
“Yes, electric blankets.” he said with a big grin as if this was a posh selling point.
I looked at my sister, put my one and only scarf around me and took the luggage upstairs a little unhappy about the fact that I was such a wuss about freezing to death when apparently the locals thought that this was completely normal.

To top things off, the hotel did not really have any enclosed areas – it was all open – the doors opened us directly outside, all of the windows were open in the common areas – there was no concept of insulation. When we arrived at the room, the door was wide open and the window in our room was also wide open – letting the brisk mountain air flow in and cool the room. Wonderful if it were 80 degrees…or even 70…but not when it’s 32 and the sun is going down for the day. The room was ice to two Singaporeans (ok I’m an honorary Singaporean…regardless – I had become soft). The thought of a shower was inconceivable – however I did consider running hot water in the tub and simply standing the hot steam of the bathroom for the night. Instead – we bitched to each other a bit, and started to get out every layer of clean (and some dirty) clothing that we had and put it on. I had 4 layers on under my rain jacket, a stocking hat, mittens, scarf, jeans, wool socks and boots…and yet – I was still a chilled.

Cyndi came up with the idea to ‘bake’ our pajamas. Since the only heat we had in the room was our blankets – we took out all of our pajamas and sleep sheets and put them between the electric blankets….safely baking in a warm little oven. I always wanted an Easy Bake oven when I was a little girl – who knew that I would find just as much enjoyment in an electric blanket baking my clothes decades later.
We went down to the common area to have dinner with our group. We all sat bundled up around a table in our winter gear, drinking beer and shivering. Finally they brought us our salvation…no, not tequila…a bucket of coal. Burning coal buckets was the preferred way to heat rooms in this part of China. They placed it under our table and we all loosened up a bit as we felt the warmth at our toes. We continued to drink beer, and play cards until our coals ran out and we were forced back up in our rooms. We all lamented about how cold our rooms were, and laughed about how we had all left our electric blankets on high in the hopes that it would warm the place a bit. Cyndi piped in with “The best thing that could happen to me is Sherry’s bed catching on fire. I would just sit there and warm my hands.” Sisterly love is harsh sometimes.

Photo: Mingyong Glacier
The next morning we woke to beautiful blue skies. The sun was out and trying to warm the frozen mountains. Meili Mountain, also called Snow Mountain, is Yunnan’s tallest peak at 22,000 ft. This peak has never yet been conquered…hard to believe in this day and age – but that’s what I was told! Snow Mountain holds an important place in Tibetan culture – it is one of the eight sacred mountains that they worship. Legend says that that Snow Mountain is a god guarding Tibetan Buddhism. Dropping from this tall, ominous peak is the Mingyong Glacier – dropping to from 18,000 ft. to 9,000 ft. You can hike up to a vantage point around 9,000 ft to see the glacier ‘up-close’ – and that was our itinerary today.

Bruce, Cyndi, Jonathan and I took the 12k walking trail while the rest of our group took horses up the more traveled and smelly horse trail. As we started off on this picture perfect trail surrounded by colorful leaves and streams trickling under bridges and slowly climbed in altitude. Leaves crunched beneath our boots and I was transported into a lovely fall day. I actually started picking up colored leaves along the way to give to my nieces in Singapore since they don’t ever see fall any longer living next to the equator. The climb gradually became steeper and steeper until we were left with tons of steps to climb. Just when you thought you had reached the end, you turned a corner and had another 10 flights to go…rather disheartening, but we pushed on. At the top we were greeted by the huge glacier – so mammoth that your brain couldn’t really comprehend. Unlike in New Zealand – you couldn’t climb on the glacier, so it was difficult for your brain to get a scale. We relaxed up there for quite some time, taking in the views. The bottom of the glacier (where we were) was gray and dirty from rocks and sludge, but the top near the peak was crystal white, like powdered sugar.

That night we were back to the deepfreeze, baking our clothes, breathing in the coal fumes, drinking beer, and playing cards. Strange that it could be so pleasant and autumn like that day and so bitter and cold at night. Yet the next morning held the biggest surprise yet…snow. We woke up early as we all planned to take off early to get the long drive through the mountain passes and back down to Shangri-la completed early. Mother Nature had other plan for us that day. We were stuck…at least for a couple of hours before we could get out on the roads. We sat in the common area of the hotel, at the worst breakfast I’ve ever had was put out before us. Granted – the staff was working with what they had available to them…which I concluded was rice, water, and flour. We slurped up hot water and rice – a rice congee of sorts – but with absolutely no seasoning. Cyndi and I tried dumping a little of our instant coffee packets into the mixture to give it some flavor…not the best idea – it was like lumpy coffee. The bread was flour and water baked…and it tasted like a big glue brick as you would expect. I realized that this is how the locals ate all the time though – they probably would have thought this bland meal was just fine. We instead sat there all thinking what Cyndi finally said “I don’t want to eat like I’m poor anymore!” True – we had certainly witnessed a different culture – one that was hearty, simple, and content. The Tibetan women could carry anything on their back – multiple babies, lumber, corn…and the cold didn’t seem to bother them in the least.

Finally we received the ok from our drivers that it was time to leave. We had a 6 to 9 hour drive ahead of us through mountain passes that rose to 15,000 feet, with hairpin turns, terrifying drop offs, a narrow cobblestone road without any curb rails, in the snow. This was the kind of road that you had to beep your horn before rounding a corner to let people know that you were coming – so move over! I honestly would have rather sat there and ate more rice water and glue bread than get in that car. A little known secret about me…I am pretty uneasy of driving in cars – and I’m terrified in these conditions. I have this terrible feeling that it will be a car crash that will end my life one day…and I really didn’t want it to be today. We started off and made a stop in the town of Deqin for supplies and snacks. After we left Dequin we started climbing into the mountain passes and the roads became worse and worse as the surrounding snow was deeper and deeper in the higher elevation.

My nervousness was growing as we pulled around a corner and fishtailed about. The driver asked for another one of us to move to the back seat for more weight on the rear wheels….joy. I started thinking that it was a good idea that Cyndi and I were in separate cars…we were going to ride together in the morning, but decided to stay separated in case anything happened. We came around another corner and immediately hit the breaks as there was a big back up of cars in front of us. I was a bit relieved to see other crazy people out here making this drive. My imagination ran wild thinking a car had gone over a cliff ahead of us. The driver, Jonathon and Rebakah exited our car to see what was going on with the stopped cars and Julia and I remained in the car – I was too scared to get out and felt it was better if I stayed in denial. All was ok – a few cars were stuck trying to get up the climb and everyone had to get out and push. The whole convoy of cars started slowly moving again and we fishtailed out of our resting place and started climbing again.

Jonathon tried to ease our fears with smalltalk telling us the driver had chains in the back of the car and we could use them if we needed to. Rebekah and I looked at each other and said “Why in the **#%! don’t we have them on!!!” This was the beginning to our meltdown in the car and Jonathan trying to communicate our concerns to the driver and the driver communicating back to Jonathan that he knew what he was doing. We of course were two women that were cold, hungry, had to pee, and were scared – a.k.a. bitchy – not what you would want to be trapped in car with! Jonathan and the driver tried to ease our fears by telling us that there were only two slippery bends that we had to be worried about. I’m not really sure that it was a good idea to give us this info – as I think it incited me even more. Now I was worrying about which two bends they were and what he really meant my slippery. At some point I believe “We want the chains on NOW!” was said (and it wasn’t me surprisingly enough!).

We went around another bend and saw yet another line up of cars stopped, everyone out pushing one at a time around the slippery bend with no guard railing. We came to a stop – it was going to be a long wait this time, but Jonathon and the driver got out to start helping the other cars push again. We all stayed in the car this time, but we all had to pee terribly bad! I sat in the back trying to devise a way to pee in somewhat privacy. That would be hard since there were tons of cars – everyone out roaming around – but I had a big pashmina…like a blanket. With the help of the girls – we used the pashmina for cover like an outhouse and peed along the side of the road. We knew we would never make it to Shangri-la (another 5 hours) without a toilet…so we put vanity aside and took care of things. Feeling rather proud of myself for devising such a plan, I stayed out in the snow and walked around a bit and took photos.

Finally, all of the cars ahead of us were pushed around the bend, and the driver and Jonathon came back and put on our chains…the bitchiness must have finally gotten to them…transcending all language barriers. With the chains – we drove through the slippery bend slowly without much of a problem. We stopped and then the guys got out to push our other car through the bend. The next 1 ½ hours were terrifying – I couldn’t watch as we climbed and descended the passes – I just put my head down and fingered my prayer beads (a new purchase from the monastery). Jonathan knew that we were all terrified – so he started telling us about how the driver is the best in Lijiang and he was the only non-smoker. He went on to tell us that he had a daughter in college and she was at the top of her class. She was even attending med school. I appreciated Jonathon’s attempt at calming us by letting us know that the driver valued his own life and had something to live for….at least that did make us feel better!

Finally – as we started to come down through the last pass, I started to look up at my surroundings outside the window – the snow was lighter, I could see the road again, there was visibility….we were through the worst of it! I looked behind searching for my sister’s car ensuring that I wouldn’t have to raise her kids…and her 4X4 came around the corner…joy!
Photo: Cyndi and I

We made it into Shangri-la after about 8 hours of driving – relieved and in awe that it was nice and warm and spring like in Shangri-la. That night, we had our last group dinner together toasting the fact that we all made it back here in one piece. The drivers were really excellent, very responsible, and very patient to deal with all of our nerves. My trip through Yunnan was full of adventure – some expected and some unexpected – but that is what makes a trip successful – a little of the unexpected…and of course living through it to tell your story!

Photo: Backroads of China Travel Group

Yaks grazing in Shangri-la

For all photos of the Shangri-la area – click here!

Before coming to Southwest China, my sister and I were out one night with some of her Singapore friends and they wanted to know where we were going on our pending trip to Yunnan. We rattled off a few places including Shangri-la. There was an immediate ooooohh around the room as someone started talking about how lovely Shangri-la was – wonderful food, great service, nice spa, comfortable beds and the list went on. We were a bit confused by this at first and then it hit us…”No, we aren’t going to the hotel, we are going to the town of Shangri-la!”

Photo: Looking at the Tibetan Monastery in the valley – supposedly Shangri-la
Shangri-la’s association with utopia began when James Hilton described a fictional town in his novel Lost Horizon. In the book, Shangri-la is a mystical, harmonious valley, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. It has since become synonymous with any earthly paradise (hence the 5 star hotel chain) a mythical Himalayan utopia – a land of permanently happy people isolated from the outside world. One would think that since the book was fiction and presumably Shangri-la was also fictional, that this would be the end of the story…but not quite. As human beings, I think we have to grasp on to the idea that a perfect place exists – therefore many real places try to claim that they are the ‘real’ Shangri-la and capitalize on tourism and capitalism…the very thing that would kill a true utopia…but I digress. The Chinese government also wanted to get in on this potential tourist money maker and officially renamed Zhongdian Country in northwestern Yunnan to Shangri-la County.

We traveled by car into the county they call Shangi-la. We climbed high into the mountains and popped out in this lush, yet cold, valley dotted with villages and fields of yaks. This was my first yak sighting – signaling that I was entering the hearty Himalayan area. One where the bovine needed to grow more hair to survive the harsh weather. A yak is not a buffalo or a cow…it can’t even moo, it grunts instead – living in the harsh mountain conditions staying warm with their coats of long hair. The further you go into the cold region, the longer hair they have – adapting to their surroundings. Yaks are the main source of meat for Tibetans and this part of China – as well as a source of milk. Yes – I did eat yak meat as well as have the famous yak milk tea that is served in this region. Yak milk tea is a main staple of the Tibetan diet made of yak butter, black tea, and salt. I can safely say that the yak tastes like beef and the yak milk tea tastes like melted butter….and yak intestine tastes like a rubber hose.

We came across a heard of yak along the side of the road and I asked for our driver to stop so I could take some photos before the sun set. I watched the yak herders round up the yaks from the field (I have no idea how they figured out which ones were theirs), and walk them across the road stopping a bus in it’s track. The yaks stood in tall fields of golden grass reminding me of Kansas or somewhere in the Midwest of the US.

Photo: Giant prayer wheel at dusk in Shangri-la
As we entered the town of Shangri-la – I have to admit, it didn’t seem like anything special or any more different that the other Yunnan towns we had stayed in. Granted, there were yaks roaming the streets as if they were cows in India, and it was quite a bit colder – but other than that – it was the same tourist store shit. After eating our yak hot pot dinner and having a few beers to wash it down – we walked around the town square to watch the locals kick up their heels and dance the night away. I wasn’t necessarily expecting to see a bunch of Tibetans in leisure suits ‘stayin alive’, but one could hope. Instead it was circles of Tibetan and some mixed in tourists dancing around the square in a ‘line dance’ style. The movement of the hands and arms were much more complex and there was a bunch of hopping involved. Since I was high on yak…I decided to try and join them…plus the alternative was to stand around and freeze – so movement sounded like the best option. I tried to pick an older local lady who looked graceful to follow along and mimic. All I can say is THANK GOD no one had a video camera in our group! I was pretty pathetic and 4 steps behind the group most times – but I was getting warmer and warmer…thanks to the embarrassment of eyes on me laughing! We went back to our chilly little hotel and tried to stay warm in a common area with a pot of coal for heat. We sat around the table and played cards, sipping tea before we went to our cold rooms.

We started off very early the next morning to see the Tibetan Buddhist Monastery named Songzanlin. This was the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan and one of the most famous in the region. The monastery was constructed in 1679 and looks like a Kasbah – with houses stacked on top of each other on a hillside. Approximately 700 monks live in those houses in this monastery community. The halls were colorful and ornate – and the Buddha statues were enormous! We turned the prayer wheels, and went to the roof to look around at the view. When we came back down in the hall there were some monks that had arrived to chant…if you can call it that. The monks chant was guttural – loud and amplified grunts rang out through the halls…and a bit shocking at first. I looked at Rebekah and said that the monk could easily be signed to a record label to produce electronica music! I could easily see a DJ pick up great tracks from this guy!

I get the feeling that there was more to see in this Shangri-la…but we ran out of time and needed to be moving along to higher and even colder ground. It was a perfectly nice town, full of ethnicities, culture, and old world charm. But Shangri-la……..weeelllll…I’m not so sure about that. Personally, I’ve been to many ‘Shangri-la’s’ during my travels – for me it’s a state of mind – finding the untouched, and simple lives, the co-existence of many religions and cultures – feeling remote. I’m happy to say that you can find little pockets of that all over the world!

Photo: My travel group trying to stay warm playing cards – scarfs and beer!

For the ‘best of’ Yunnan, China Photography – click here!

For all snapshots of the Tiger Leaping Gorge hike – click here!

One of the main reasons why Cyndi and I decided to come to Yunnan was to hike in the Tiger Leaping Gorge – a deep canyon on the Yangtze River. It is actually one of the deepest river canyons in the world. It received its unique name from an ancient story about a tiger who was running from a hunter and leaped over the gorge (and presumably to his freedom) at the gorge’s narrowest point (about 25 meters wide).

The 15 km trail is full of ups and downs and local village life (a.k.a. people and goats). We started the two day hike by making a very important decision – hiring a horse to carry our bags. We couldn’t leave our travel bags in the car for two days – so Cyndi and I decided to split the cost of a horse to carry our 27 kg of luggage for two days…we aren’t wimps, and we aren’t stupid. I watched as they strapped up my backpack carrying my most prized possession, my laptop, to a horse that I hope and prayed was nimble footed. Carrying daypacks our group took off up the ridge of the gorge. Immediately you were struck by awesome views as we climbed higher and higher. The horses were always in front of us, you knew this by the pleasant jingle of their bells. Yet I was a bit fearful that I would hear one of those nice bells roll down the side of the gorge.

We stopped at a very small village with a hostel that served lunch. It was a good break as we were quickly approaching the dreaded bends. We sat and had a very tasty lunch and had a short rest. Julia – our German traveler convinced us to have beer at lunch…I wasn’t too sure if that was a good idea as the afternoon climb was killer – but she mixed it with Red Bull and it was a strange upper and downer in one drink. As we looked around the outdoor establishment, we posed for pictures by the wall of corn. I told Cyndi that we had to have a picture so I could send it into our Nebraska Alumni Association and see if they would publish it in their next monthly magazine with a title of “Where are they now? Two alumni sisters – jobless and hanging out in corn.” We also noticed that the eating establishment had another fine vegetation growing in addition to corn…hash. There was a large plant of wild marijuana growing in the courtyard. Apparently this area is known for it’s wild marijuana and ‘happy’ pancakes. No wonder why it was a popular trek among backpackers!

/>After lunch, lit up on Red Bull and Beer, we took off up the most strenuous part of the trail…the 28 bends. A bend is simply a switchback on a mountain trail – normally used to ease the steepness of a climb. A long, slow, painful trek up the pass – back and forth for hours. After about bend # 14, I started to slow down considerably – sucking in the thing altitude mountain air. I caught up with Julia who was taking a break (I guess the beer and red bull didn’t work too well for her either), and she had just at that moment figured out what a bend was! Halfway through the bends and then she understood the meaning…what a great follower!

Pretty soon I heard the horse bells stopped. I was a bit worried at first, thinking maybe one of the horses took a stumble over the side – yet I didn’t hear any fleating horse bell go by me. Instead – I realized the horses had stopped for a rest as they had reached the top…yippee – no more bends!!

As I rounded the last bend there was a lady at the top welcoming me and pointing for me to go out on a ledge to see the gorge-ous view. As I happily went that direction, the lady stopped me and told me that I would have to pay 5 yuan to go see the gorge-ous view. I stopped – wait a minute – why do I have to pay to look at a view and take pictures on a trail? This is certainly not the thing you want to hear after you just huffed and puffed your way up 28 bends! I went out onto the overlook area anyway – trying to ignore the lady and her absurd rules. We took pictures and had to start Had to pay for photo at the top – the lady claimed the top of the gorge somehow. As Cyndi and I were leaving she stopped us and demanded money – we were both extremely annoyed with this greedy way to make moey. However Cyndi stopped and paid her 10 yuan for both of us and yelled at her saying if she ever came to our country that she would have to pay us if she went to the grand canyon or even looked at the statue of liberty! I cracked up at this comment – but it was a good description of the absurdity of the charge. I much rather would have had her just beg for the money than demand it for looking at a view.

We started a bit of a wet descent through a heavily wooded area and a nice path. As we came to a small clearing – we all noticed a miracle…a beautiful double rainbow on the other side of the gorge. We all stopped and watched them grow brighter and brighter for a while, until we started to get chilled and had to move along. We got into our hostel/camp for the night right before sunset. This camp had a nice courtyard area, plenty of beer, and milk tea – we were set. It was a bit chilly up at this camp – so they set out pales of burning coal to help warm our common areas. That night Cyndi and I taught the Canadians, the German, a Chinese guide and the Aussie how to play card games. This was the beginning of a card game marathon for the next few days. Our game was so loud and boisterous the horse guys even had to come inside and see what we were playing!

After a good nights sleep and many pancakes (no happy ones – yet there were ones with ‘dried mint’ that was a bit suspicious), we took off to finish our trek the next day. We stopped at more villages again for tea and beer and tried to soak in the last of the remaining views. Our trail the last day followed the ridge line , narrow and rocky, passing through waterfalls and herds of goats. One group of goats were precariously balancing on a steep rockface – which made my fondly remember my Moroccan goats who climb the trees. I must admit – I even stopped and talked to these ridge goats – telling them about their amazing Moroccan cousins. They weren’t nearly as impressed about it as I was.

One of the many things that I enjoyed about this trek was the fact that you trekked through villages and everyday life on the side of a mountain. We came across farmers, families, herders, rock quary workers, goats, and cows. We came across one family with 3 generations working in a field hoeing away. It was all very simple – reminding me that life doesn’t need to be complicated to be happy.

The day was long and hot, but eventually we made it down in time for lunch and a frightful drive back through the gorge with rockslides everywhere. I think I felt safer hiking the trail as opposed to driving through the area! Regardless – it was all well worth it to see the Gorge-ous views!!!

Man cooking duck

When you go out for Chinese food in the US (and I’m willing to bet, most of North America) – what is the one thing that you are always guaranteed at the end of the dinner – fortune cookies. It’s a symbol of Chinese cuisine – not to mention the source of a lot of fun. However – to my astonishment I’ve been in China now for 3 weeks and I have not been served one fortune cookie. Not only do restaurants not serve them, but the Chinese people I’ve talked to have no idea what they even are! They look at me as if I have lost my mind…why on earth would anyone put paper in a cookie and bake it? I try to explain to them that I’m not crazy and that in San Francisco they even have a factory in China Town where they manufacture fortune cookies…still a blank stare is all I get. We’ve all been duped, punk’d, cheated, lied to!!!! I can’t believe that Americans have been led to believe that fortune cookies are Chinese food, when no one in China knows what they even are! It would be akin to coming to China and seeing everyone eat with forks and spoons – as if chopsticks never existed. Rest easy…we have not been fed lies about chopsticks – they are alive and well in China – and all over Asia. I’ve even become quite adept at using them too, just the other day I learned how to twist noodles with chopsticks! But there has not been one fortune cookie sighting much to my disappointment.

Instead of fortune cookies we finish our meal and the waiter brings out a plate of watermelon and little tomatoes for dessert. Quite a let down when you were expecting a fortune cookie – however the tomatoes are surprisingly good as dessert! Actually – most of the time there is no dessert. In fact, I haven’t really figured out if Chinese people have any sweet fetishes. They love to use every part of an animal – and I mean EVERY part of the animal – but apparently they don’t like to finish their chicken feet or yak stomach meal with a little after dinner chocolate.

I’ve pretty successfully tried to stay away from the chicken feet and intestines so far during my china travels – but generally I would eat whatever was put in front of me. This meant that I did eat yak…which is just like beef. I also drank yak milk tea – which tasted as if you were drinking melted butter…I’m sure that was low calorie! Mainly though I ate a lot of veggies ad bean curd– which they have in great supply. We mainly ate at local establishments where no English was spoken, but our tour guide did all of the translating for us. The restaurants we went to did not have menus – instead – they had baskets of fresh vegetables, bean curd, and live fish placed on the floor outside their restaurant. You would simply walk over to this live ‘menu’ and look at what they had to offer and point at what you wanted. Five minutes later it a plate would come out of the kitchen with that vegetable on it and some sauce piping hot.

The one thing that you need to become comfortable with in Chinese eating is that everyone simply eats meals family style – around a large table with a little ‘lazy susanne’ in the middle of the table rotating around the food so everyone can easily get to it. This also means that everyone takes their own pair of chopsticks and reaches into the family style plate….leaving hygiene behind – everyone continues to pick out of the plates with their chopsticks. Each family style meal is served with a huge bowl of plain white rice, and a little rice bowl where you put your own serving of rice. You hold the bowl with your hand, reach your chopsticks into the communal dishes in the middle of the table and place it in the bowl with your rice – then you begin to scoop it all in your mouth holding your bowl close a few inches from you mouth. I don’t think they have a translation for ‘no double dipping’ in Mandarin as it wasn’t something that concerned them. This was a bit confusing to me as on the other hand you still saw people walking around outside with surgical masks covering their face hiding from the germs of the outside world.

Overall – the food has been good and what I was expecting – yet two weeks of straight Chinese food can be enough to make me swear it off for a month of so! However – I have concluded that my sister and I should open up a fortune cookie shop in China simply to sell to the tourists. All we have to do is hire some local Chinese people, employ them in the store, put all of the prices and the signs in Chinese and the tourists will happily continue thinking that fortune cookies are a typical Chinese dessert – we can make a fortune!

All dolled up to butcher a pig

For the ‘best of’ Yunnan Photography – click here!

For all snapshots of Lijiang click here!

For all photos of the Lijiang Market – click here! (WARNING…not for vegetarians!)

Photo: Dr. Ho
We were in the town of Lijiang– a tourist town of canals, tourist shopping, and red lanterns. We went on a painful (at least for my ass) bikeride after arriving that took us through some small villages. Along the way men were working in the field plowing with water buffalo….it sort of made me feel like Laura Ingles…just call me Half Pint. The village streets were not croweded, but often a man with a pig or cow would walk down the dirt street as if he were taking his pet for a walk. We also stopped to see a local doctor who was famous. I’m not sure what Dr. Ho was famous for, but he sure was talkative…telling us about his appearances on National Geographic, International Newpapers and books. We also climbed up to the tallest point of Lijiang to see the rooftops of the Old City….a gray, drab collage of roofs. That night we walked around town to see various people dancing in the square – not tourists, the local village people…no, not thee Village People…
Photos: Village life – click to enlarge

One of my favorite places to visit while I’m traveling is local markets. The more remote the better. There’s always something there that never ceases to amaze me….it’s better than watching a movie or television because in addition to the fascination and newness of it all – it is accompanied by smell, touch, and sometimes taste. We asked our tour guide, Jonathon, to take us to the local market that morning before we left town as we had heard that it was a bustling assault to the mind, and eyes – the type of market I love – the kind where you have to get up at the crack of dawn to see all of the real activity. It was a chilly morning and the streets were empty from tourists at the early hour of 7AM. We wound around the canals of the old city recreated for tourists and eventually popped out to an open area free from red lanterns and full of people bustling about with produce and carts. This was it – the local market.

I armed myself with my camera, and opened up my mind and my eyes. There was a large covered area filled with women hawking their fresh produce. A potato aisle, a lettuce aisle, a root vegetable aisle – whatever was in season. Nothing was shipped in from larger cities – this was the food that the locals grew – picked the day before and carted to town to sell. Fresh.

The colors were fantastic – a kaleidoscope of green leaves, orange carrots, brown potatoes, yellow squash, white onions, and red tomatoes. The The bean curd was steaming in their large pales shaped like wheels of cheese. They were being carved into smaller, sellable chunks that looked like bricks. People horded around small trucks delivering more tofu and veggies – auctioning their harvest. The people looked at us, we looked at them – looks of confusion, of happiness, of surprise – a cultural exchange of sorts. I was once again reminded at how powerful a smile is

After passing through the colorful vegetable and bean curd area, I turned to catch up with the rest of our group who had moved on to the meat section – and I was enveloped by a pinkish red hue. My first site was of Chinese ladies placing bright red cuts of meat out on the table. Cuts of meat in China has a different meaning than cuts of meat in the Western world. In China it means the intestines, the stomach, the kidneys, the liver, the head, the hooves – every imaginable part of the animal had been dissected and was for sale. Rebekah pointed out a lady that was busy cutting up and displaying a large side of pork – about half her size. It was quite a site to see as the woman was dressed in nice clothes and painted with makeup – as if she were going to church on Sunday – yet she was butchering up a pig with a pearl necklace around her neck. It was a strange twist on a 1950’s commercial with a lovely dressed housewife hawking a bottle of Palmolive or toilet cleaner.

There was a lot of activity and noise at one end of the meat market so I smiled at the meat ladies and walked ahead. Apparently I was walking the wrong direction in this market – because I was walking deeper and earlier into the butchering process with every step. Soon I came to the noise I was following – a man with a hatchet chopping away at a horn on a cow head. Apparently they don’t eat the horn – one of the few items that aren’t used. Little did I know, but a horn is actually pretty hard to cut off of a large cowhead – as this man was hacking away at it for quite some time without making much progress. Yet he did take the time to look up at me and smile – probably because I was standing there with my mouth wide open in grossed-out disbelief! I looked around and realized that I was surrounded by every imaginable cow part. Next to me in a big wagon was a whole, huge rib cage – reminding me of a dinosaur museum that I went to as a kid.

As soon as the cow was butchered they separated all of the parts and the ladies sold them….heart, stomach, hooves, and head. As I kept walking I was struck by another new noise…a blowtorch sound. I once had a friend give me a little crème brule torch for my avid cooking, but I turned to see a torch about 20 times larger and instead of crème brule – they were torching a cow head and hooves. I don’t even think the French do that! They torch these parts to burn off the fur/skin and then can sell these parts to lucky customers. I was disappointed to not see crème brule – however now I know yet another use for my little torch at home…for when I find a cow wandering around the Upper West Side and I decide to butcher it…you never know.

I left the pork and beef area and moved on to seafood. I had to hurdle over groups of people gathered on the ground scaling fish and then I hovered around a lady that was taking an eel/snake, poking it’s head through a nail on a board – then slitting it’s body and removing the inards…I of course stopped and watched this site for a while. The woman’s hands were covered in deep red blood – straight out of a horror movie. All of a sudden the man next to her pulled out a live eel/snake, took two hands and held it high above his head and then swished it down cracking the snake’s head on the pavement with a mighty force…yep…it’s dead now. Julia and I were a bit shocked and stunned to see this chain of events as it was a bit startling when you aren’t expecting it. The man just looked at our faces and laughed He proceeded to show off his snake execution for us and the bloody snake woman next to him just laughed at our reactions.

Finally Jonathon rounded us up from the market (he basically had to drag me away) as we were late for breakfast. I honestly didn’t have too much of an appetite after our market trip, but I managed to cough down a few steamed pork buns…thinking about how fresh the meat was. I love markets – the grosser and more thought provoking the better. The Lijiang market was one of my favorites in my travels…and one of the freshest!

Cyndi in over her head in a game of Chinese Checkers

For the ‘best of’ Yunnan Photography – click here!

For all snapshots of Dali – click here!

My sister and I were in search of a hiking trip on southern China. After much searching on the internet, I finally located a company called Backroads of China. Who seemed to cover much of the Yunan Provence in Southern China as well as included a fair amount of trekking that would challenge us. Plus – the company seemed very much about cultural exchange and simple travel through the region – which is my preferred way to travel as opposed to a big tour bus (just kill me). We signed up to travel with a small group and a Chinese guide for 8 days throughout the Yunan province. The group consisted of a couple from Canada, (Bruce and Margaret), a woman from Germany (Julia), a friend of mine from Australia (Rebekah), and my sister and I.

We started our Yunnan adventure in Kunming, a small Chinese town of 4 million people. Next we went to Dali via a local bus and found out that it’s normal and acceptable in China for people to be late for their bus, and the driver will wait for them if they call him and ask him to. We were 30 minutes out of Kunming when we had to pull over on the side of the road and wait for 4 passengers to be taxied out to the bus since they were late. Every ounce of my western upbringing was boiling inside, however my laid back India personality took over and said – ok – whatever – I will just take some pictures and wait for these losers to show up. Luckily there were plenty of dead ducks to photograph as we waited. The irresponsible people showed up, I attempted to give them shameful looks as they got on the bus – but they walked right by with no remorse in their faces and not one ‘sorry’ to the other 25 people that they made wait around for 30 minutes…you gotta love Asia. After we started up again – we had the standard mechanical troubles which slowed us down even more, but we eventually made it to Dali only 1 ½ hours late.

The Old Town of Dali is lovely, beautiful fountains, a restored city wall, cobblestone streets, surrounded by mountains and a lake (Lake Erhai) the size of Lake Tahoe. We were there to hike in the mountains that surrounded Dali and luckily the weather cleared up just in time for our hiking. We rode an old chairlift up to the hiking trail over hundreds of graves on the hillside overgrown by weeds and tall grass. We arrived at the top and started out for a 10k hike along a flat and beautifully groomed trail of cobblestones. It was a chance for the group to get to know each other as the walk was not strenuous or technical – so you could just stroll and talk. After 13 months of travel with various people and groups – I feel like I have been very blessed as I’ve always had wonderful travel partners. I wondered if this was where my luck would run out, but not a chance. I was still lucky to be placed in a group with adventurous, outgoing, normal people. I am starting to believe that there is a certain personality type that enjoys traveling and roughing it a bit – and maybe that’s why I’ve always been able to get along with my travelmates because we have the same outlooks about travel.

Trekking is like running, you have a lot of time to contemplate things – life, love, happiness. Therefore I also used this time to contemplate what I was going to do with the rest of my life (as I do with all of my free time these days) – but I won’t bore you with that insanity….as I never really have any answers. However , during the hike we came across a little sign near a stunning view, it read:

Patron Saint for Mt Canyshan
The founder of Ming dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang sent his senior general Mu Ying to march on over Cangshan Mountains to conquer Dali. When passing the Horse Bathing pond, the general was struck by the idea of leading a secluded life to take off the armor and return to the farm. Perhaps that was because he was deeply moved by the marvelous rock here which is now a patron god in the hearts of many Bai ethnic people.

Photo: Cyndi and I standing next to the Mu Ying sign
I looked at Cyndi and said…see – even in the 19th century people were fed up with their jobs and decided there was a simpler, better way to live. Mu Ying is my hero!!! We joked around about it for a few km’s – but honestly- the story did really amaze me. Human beings are frightenly similar at times – and everyone when put under stress needs to get back to basics at some point. I felt like I was on my Mu Ying journey this year – leaving my job to travel was the best thing that I have ever done.

I continued walking on my little Mu Ying high, happily strolling along. At the halfway mark we stopped for lunch at a little open air shack on the hillside. Had you transported this establishment to a city setting – you would never ever go inside of it to eat…the dirt floor, sheet metal roof, ‘bush’ toilet, and dirty tables would make you immediately avoid it afraid that food poisoning was eminent. But when you are on a mountain – you really don’t have a choice – plus – the smell coming out of the shack was amazing. They had a large wok and a bunch of coal to heat the fire beneath, and from that they produced some of the best food I’ve had in all of China – it was astonishing. As we were waiting for our food, I was surveying the big 3 gallon bottles of liquid on the table. It had a bunch of fruit floating in it and a yellowish color. I asked Jonathon what it was and he told me it was fruit wine followed by “Do you want to try some?” I hesitated for a second and decided – what the hell – it looked interesting and since it was alcohol it had to be hygienic! He brought me out a large juice glass full of the yellowish thick liquid. There were some fruit and spices floating in it…different for wine – but I was game to try it. I took a whiff – as you would do with any wine – and I knew right away as I choked down the alcohol smell filling my sinuses that this was not wine…this was grain alcohol. I tried a sip gingerly and sure enough – I could feel it go down my esophagus as if it were lighter fluid with a slight fruit taste. Obviously the translation for wine was a bit off – and now I had this huge juice sized glass of booze in front of me…it would be a long afternoon. Normally after drinking a bit of pure alcohol you eventually get used to it and it goes down a bit smoother – but not this stuff – it was as rough the last sip as the first. I tried to pass it around to have other’s help me with choking it down – but the glass always seemed full no matter how much people drank! Needless to say – I was a bit tipsy by the end of lunch…but this really wouldn’t pose a problem as the hiking was easy and pleasant – I could weave down the path without a problem.

We packed up our stuff to leave and continue our hiking, but instead of taking the little cobblestone path, we start climbing. In my ‘wine’ haze I asked Jonathon where we are going and he points to a sign that says something about a waterfall with 7 wells. Shit…I wasn’t legally sober to drive – let alone do any walking around a steep waterfall! Yet – up we went – I just tried to focus on following my sister up the steep rocks with little footholds as the water was rushing by us. We kept following the trail of footholds and eventually got to the top where we had to cross over the water and then come back down the other side. I wasn’t too steady on the water – but made it across to the other side. The next obstacle was making it back down. I hate descending when I’m sober – this wasn’t going to be pretty. We came to an area that had washed away the steep trail and we were forced to gingerly scramble down the slippery rocks on our butts one at a time with Jonathon’s help. Each foot had to be placed gingerly on a ledge and each step had to be planned out carefully. While we were descending we saw a Korean tourist slip and fall into the waterfall – luckily he only slid down into one well and not over the cliff side – regardless – I think my heart was pounding from that point on! It looked terrifying and extremely cold! We made it successfully and slowly back down to our lunch spot where we could continue our easy strolling trail. The waterfall area was beautiful, but a bit frightful after a juice glass full of moonshine.

Phot: Self Portrait
We rode the cable car back down to Dali and I winced from a slight headache and presumably an oncoming hangover and altitude adjustment. We went out for a dinner of dumplings that night after walking around the old town wall. Jonathon once again asked me if I wanted another glass of wine, but I wisely decided to stick to the local beer for beverages from now on. I toasted Mu Ying and dug into the dumplings!

Photo: Geocaching – all you need is a GPS and an adventurous spirit!

Calling all travel geeks!!!!! There’s a treasure out there that is waiting to be found all over the world and all you need is a GPS and an adventurous spirit.

I am traveling with a small group through the Yunnan province in China. The group is made up of an Australian, a German, and a couple of Canadians – plus my sister and me rounding out the international map. The couple from Canada has introduced us to a new traveling past-time – Geocaching – www.geocaching.com The tagline for the website is “The sport where YOU are the search engine”…very clever.

Armed with a GPS unit – you can locate geocaches all over the world – a treasure hunt of sorts. The ‘treasure’ is called cache (pronounced cash, but it’s not greenbacks). Instead the cache is simply a little notebook and pencil (to write a message), maybe a little trinket from the area, and normally a geocoin. A geocoin is a metal or wood token used in geocaching. Geocoins can be a signature item used by geocachers, left in geocaches to be found by others, kept as trophies or traded. Geocoins are often minted with the name of their state or country of origin, a given geocacher’s name or handle, or anything else. They can be either trackable on the internet (you can see the history of where it’s been and who has it) or untrackable. Trackable Geocaching.com geocoins are imprinted with unique codes and tracked via the geocaching.com website. So I guess if you can’t find time to get away from your job and travel, then you can send your coin to do it for you! See – I told you that this was a bit geekish…but I have to admit – it’s fun!
The process is rather simple – you enter the name of a city or a country on the website to determine if there are any geocache’s in that area. You get the coordinates of the geocache on the website, get some additional clues from the website, turn on your GPS unit and start hunting. When and if you find the cache, the rule of thumb is that ‘if you take an item, leave an item and write in the logbook’.

While traveling through Yunnan Bruce and Margaret, the Canadians, were looking for a geocache. Out of curiosity, Cyndi and I decided to join them, along with our guide Jonathon who also served as our group translator. We walked through the streets of the town at night with our GPS unit and flashlights hunting for the cache. Granted – no one (except for the Canadians) really had any idea what the cache even looked like, except for the fact that it was usually in a small Tupperware container. They had an additional clue that they got off the internet indicating the cache was guarded by water dragons on someone’s personal property and you would need to reach high to get it. Hurray – it looked like we would be trespassing to find the cache…hopefully Jonathon would be able to talk our way out of any trouble that we found ourselves in.

We followed the cache coordinates to within 19 meters that first night – but we had to give up due to the lack of light and the fact that it appeared we would need to go through someone’s yard or house to get it and thought that may be a better idea to do during the daylight. I don’t think it would be good to spend the night in a Chinese jail.

We went back the next day – excited to try to find the treasure. We all decided that the clue about the water dragons could mean that it was one of the establishments (bar, shop, or restaurant) on the road we were on the previous night. Maybe it even had that in the name somehow. Sure enough we came across a bar that fit the description, the only problem was that it was 4PM and it wasn’t open yet. We took our chances and rang the bell and sure enough a young Chinese woman answered the door. Bruce and Jonathon explained that we were on a ‘scavenger hunt’ and a clue led us to their establishment. The GPS unit said that we were within 9 meters of the cache…it had to be the right place! The girl looked at the 5 of us and said “I’m the waitress here – but you can come in and look around.” As we walked into the place – I knew right away what I had walked into – a hash bar. This town was a backpacker town, and where-ever there are backpackers, there is hash. The place was littered with bottles of empty booze, newspapers, chips, lighters, and a layer of dust that was beyond disturbing. The owner came out and introduced himself and once again we tried to explain why we were there. He said – in complete stoner fashion – “Sure – ahhhhh, look where-ever you want” and walked away in a haze. We combed his backyard, upstairs, bathroom, bar area, and any other corner that we were brave enough to look in. He in turn, just went about his business in his backyard as we walked all over his place peering into every crevice. I thought to myself – this guy must be completely baked to allow a bunch of strangers with a GPS to poke around his home like this! As people were scouring the establishment for the cache, I was looking at the décor in disbelief wondering who in their right mind could live like this?! In the bar area they had a wall mural with pictures and molds of caverns looking out onto the neon colored solar system. There were black lights, the couches had dirty blankets thrown over them to hide whatever hideousness lied beneath. There was also a big pit area with a projector. I felt like I had just stepped back in a time machine to my college days – peering into a dirty fraternity house after a weekend party. Oh….I could just imagine the typical night here watching Rocky Horror Picture Show and smoking.

Photo: Bruce (right), Jonathan, and the owner opening the cache
Just as we were about to give up and walk away – Bruce found the Tupperware cache! We all gathered around it as it was opened up – even the owner came out of his smoky haze to join us. I’m absolutely sure that he thought that we had uncovered a real buried treasure in his home. I personally expected to find a freshly rolled joint in the Tupperware cache with a lighter…but unfortunately it contained a small notepad, and a geocoin. Bruce and Margaret logged in the book, and took the cache coin and put in some new ‘goodies’ for the next person to find. We thanked the owner profusely and went away with a sense of accomplishment promising him we’d be back for a drink when he opened later that night.

We wandered back after dinner and the bar was transformed into a functioning place instead of a pig pen – I was rather impressed. However –I do always believe that there’s a reason why bars are darkly lit – you really don’t want to see them in the daylight – else you will just be disappointed and mainly grossed out. The darker bar lighting was definitely an improvement for this place! We ordered some beer and celebrated a successful cache hunt under the blacklight and glowing planets on the wall.

Do not Touch! The Terracotta Warriors

For the ‘best of’ Northern China Photography – click here!

For all snapshots of Xian – click here!
For all snapshots of the Terracotta Soldiers – click here!

My last stop on my tour of Northern China was the small town of Xi’an. Of course – small in China is a population of 8 million people. Most people fly from Beijing to Xi’an, however we decided to take another route…the train. When I booked the overnight train to Xi’an, I really didn’t know what to expect. I actually enjoy taking overnight trains – it’s a good way to see a different side of a country, interact with some locals, and see the countryside. The Beijing train station was massive – making Grand Central in NYC seem like a toy railroad set. Luckily our guide, Roseanne, helped my father and I through the maze of the station and confusing overhead boards which only displayed information in Chinese. She took us all the way down to our train and made sure that we were on the right car. Sure – we could have done this ourselves…but my lord, it would have been full of stress and second guessing! She waved goodbye to us and we were off to Xi’an.

Photo: Young boy that loved my camera!
The train was amazing…clean, comfortable, spacious, and modern. It was all about the numbers…it was an 11 hour ride to Xi’an, each car had about 10 sleeping compartments. The sleeper cabins had 4 bunks and each bunk had a little head set and their own individual flat screen TV at the end of the bunk. Each train car had 2 bathrooms on each end (one western, and one squatty potty). Finally, there was 1 attendant per car so help you with anything you needed and to ensure that the car was clean. The linens were clean and comfortable – this train was pristine. This was the first thing that really exceeded my expectations in China – and to top it off it was a bargain. About $60 for a ticket…that was my hotel room for the night and my transportation. I would highly recommend this mode of travel between these two heavily touristed cities.

We met our new tour guide and driver at the train station the next morning after a good, comfortable night’s sleep. We had a free day today and we were looking forward to some down time after our 3 days of hiking. Our hotel was an older, business hotel – but large and very nice. After a lazy morning, we talked to the concierge and got a map of the city – or course it was all in Chinese – so he had to translate for us. There was a large park nearby that we could walk to – so we decided to get out and stretch our legs. As we started walking down the street I had a funny sensation sweep over me. This was really the first time in 5 days that we were really let loose in China with no tour guide/translator or driver – and I felt alive again! In my travels I’m not used to being driven around everywhere and having everything planned out so well. I have become accustomed to spontaneity and freedom in my travels – and I guess I didn’t realize that I was missing that until I set out on the sidewalks of Xi’an. As we walked down the street there was not another Caucasian person within eyesight. This was not a touristed area, it was simply a local neighborhood, finally – I was seeing the real China! We found the park entrance and went in enjoying the brisk fall air and breeze. Once again, visions of pumpkin pie danced in my head – I just couldn’t shake it! The park was large and had a variety of areas. There was an amusement park, a number of pagoda’s and lakes with little paddle boats and plenty of benches and lovely trails. It was full of energy and couples with kids as well as university students and businessmen. Once again – there was not one Caucasian in the park besides us. We walked around and simply observed – my favorite past-time. I had my camera so we were able to capture some nice shots of the picturesque park and lakes. We sat around a pagoda for a while, just watching people coming and going when we noticed a man with a kite. As my eyes followed him, he went to talk to some other older men sitting on a bench. I noticed they were all looking up, so I followed their gaze. Up high in the sky was a small little dot. As my eyes focused in on it I realized the dot was a kite – flying high up in the stratosphere. Photo: Look very closely – you will see two little black dots in the sky…those are kites! I never imagined that kites could even go that high – it looked like it could be in a jet stream it was so high! There wasn’t just one up in the sky, there were about 3 of them – all being controlled by the men on the bench. We sat and watched these men fly their kites with the skill of professionals. More men came to join them and we were able to watch them launch more kites up into the jet stream as if there was no such thing as gravity. They would ask others in the park to hold the kite and then they would run off and get good winds signaling the ‘helper’ to let it go and up it went. My father and I kept getting a little closer to the action. I think my dad secretly wanted to be a ‘helper’ and launch a kite. My father is a retired engineer and all things having to do with physics of course draw him in. The Chinese men were aware of us watching with intent and some of them even tried to strike up a conversation with us…in Mandarin…which quickly deteriorated into charades between us as none of us could communicate with each other!

I went off to take a few more pictures of the park and the lake and left my dad mesmerized by the kites. When I came back 10 minutes later I saw him with the old Chinese guys and they had given him a kite to fly. I have no idea how this exchange happened – more charades no doubt, but it made me very happy. When you travel, you learn how to break down barriers and incorrect stereotypes and it makes you realize that we are all just people trying to get along and find happiness…no matter where you live. I was happy that my father was a part of this process. After an hour we finally moved on from the kites and the skillful men. But this experience had hooked dad. He talked about how he had enough room around his home in South Dakota to fly a kite – so from then on out we were on a mission to get dad outfitted with a kite and reel that would send a kite into the jet stream of South Dakota. We made a few more stops in the park to listen to locals perform music and soak in the non-tourist atmosphere. As we were walking back to our hotel a young girl about 6 yrs old saw us on the street and as she passed us she said “hello”. The first English we had heard from someone in the last 3 hours. The younger generation is learning English in school, and apparently are the only people we could find to communicate with! The afternoon in the park was probably my favorite day that I had in China because I felt like it was the first time that I would get a real feel for China, the people, and their everyday life.

The next day we were back on the tourist trail to see the Terracotta Army – a relatively recent discovery in 1974 dating back 2,000 years. The ‘cliff notes’ to this archeological wonder is that the Terracotta Army was buried with the Emperor of Qin in 210 BC. Their purpose was to help rule another empire with the Emperor in the afterlife. Consequently, they are also sometimes referred to as “Qin’s Armies”. Three pits of soldiers have been discovered all in different forms of disrepair. The thousands of soldiers were buried deep underground in the standing position yet over time they fell over creating a domino effect in many areas. All I could think about as I looked at some of the rubble was the story of Humpty Dumpty! The largest pit was basically covered by a big aircraft hanger where some of the soldiers had been unearthed , some were left buried, and some were in an area in the back where they were being put back together just like Humpty Dumpty. The sites of the soldiers were amazing to see. Each soldier was different and represented an actual man in the army. Each spent years of their lives creating a terracotta army for the Emperor – and were presumably a little bitter about it – therefore when the Emperor died, the peasants actually tried to destroy much of the underground army, but they didn’t succeed. The strangest thing to me about this site – was how in the world it actually stayed a secret for 2,000 years before it was discovered by a local farmer digging a well? I honestly can’t believe that a huge secrete like that wasn’t let out somehow.

We walked around the 3 pits and fought our way through the thousands of tourists all crowding around the same 3 pits and were able to get some photos. I loved the site, however I hated the huge tours bus crowds – it was definitely a test in extreme patience for both my father and I. Make sure you take the time to look at the pictures…I worked hard for those!!

On our way back to Xi’an, my dad found a place to satisfy what had been gnawing at him since the day before. He bought a kite. Now, we just had to find a heavy duty kite reel and long string to launch is into the stratosphere. We decided that our hotel Concierge, Jerry, was so nice and helpful the previous day (plus he spoke very good English!) that we would stop by and see if Jerry knew where we could find the other crucial pieces for our kite. He wasn’t sure exactly where we could find what we needed, but he did direct on a short walk to a local market that sold fishing supplies and many other little things. I asked him to write a note in Chinese for what we were looking for so we could use it to communicate. This is a tactic that I learned while traveling in Asia…when traveling in a country that doesn’t use the Latin alphabet, always have them write down what you are looking for as well as your hotel name and directions in their subscript!

So, we took off with a hand drawn map by Jerry, a note that said “We would like to buy a kite reel and string” in Chinese and Jerry’s business card with his mobile number in case no one knew what we were talking about, he said that they could call him and he would explain. Now this was service…I was impressed! We followed the map and I tried to match the Chinese characters that he wrote down for the name of the market to the characters on the outsides of buildings. I felt like I was a part of the Amazing Race, following some cryptic messages! Eventually we came to the right market, and I started going into stores and handing people the piece of paper with the Chinese characters on it. They would read it and know what we meant and they would try to direct us to another store…presumably one that sold kite string! After following some pointing directions from about 5 different people, we came to a man, handed him the note and he smiled …he had what we were looking for! We looked around the market a bit longer and then went back to the hotel to thank Jerry profusely for his help!

Photo: Fish on a skewer…ready for grilling
We completed our time in Xi’an touring the city wall which was completely in tact, going through the Wild Goose Pagoda, and visiting the old Islamic area of town and the town mosque. The town of Xi’an was lovely – I guess I really can’t call it a town – it was larger than Manhattan – but it was rich in history. Dad and I finished our time shopping for souvenirs and enjoying some local street food…my favorite! I was completely surprised by my father’s interest in shopping. This is the man that I would have to go out and do his shopping during December because he hated shopping so much. However – he loved the market – I personally think it was because he loved the process of bargaining. I couldn’t believe some of the deals he bargained down to…a true hard ass. But he always did it in such a way that everyone had fun – even though they would try to tell us that they weren’t making any money on the deal…they’d still always run after us as we left finally agreeing to his price. Finally, we had one last dinner with Rocky and our driver before we got back on the overnight train for Beijing. A feast of meat and beer!

Traveling with my father was rewarding. I’ve never traveled alone with him before – and I don’t know that I will have that many opportunities to do it again. Given the opportunity I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was fun to see his enthusiasm for other cultures, his love of new food, and his energy for travel. For me it was like putting together a puzzle of my psyche and what has driven me to travel the world…a puzzle as confusing at times as the terracotta army was to put back together. It’s funny and a bit scary at times to realize that as we get older we do actually morph into our parents. Hopefully we’ve morphed the things that we’ve liked and admired about them! I believe in this case…I have. I’m sure this winter I will be out in the South Dakota landscape trying to help my dad get that damn Chinese kite in the air…just another new adventure. Beware FAA!!

Jinshanling Great Wall

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For all snapshots of the Jinshanling/Simatai Great Wall – click here!

This is one of the main reasons I came to China, to hike this section of the Great Wall – Jinshaling and Simatai. One of the most breathtaking sections of the Great Wall is Jinshanling. It undulates through the steep mountaintops, hence – my knees wouldn’t like me for days after this hike! It is approximately 8 miles from Jinshaling to Simatai via the Great Wall – but it will take anywhere from 4 to 7 hours to complete it depending on your fitness, and your knees! The two sections of the wall connect and there is a woman at that connection taking tickets to move on to the next section – if you don’t have a ticket, then you can pass through to Simatai. Dad and I had signed up for trekking on Jinshanling the first day which included walking to the beginning of the Simatai section and then turning around and coming back. Day two we would drive over to the Simatai section and hike that to the steepest section of the wall. In hindsight – I would recommend to simply pack a lunch and do the trek from Jinshanling all the way to the end of Simatai instead – it would be much more satisfying since you go from point A to point B. Regardless, we still had a great time focusing on one section at a time.

We started out taking the cable car up to the wall again. This cable car was rather old though, and we were the only ones on the long 18 minute ride that morning. It was a good sign….not many tourists. This was a famous section of the wall and a popular hike for trekking enthusiasts. However – most of them drive out from Beijing that morning so we beat the trekking crowd by staying in our bug infested hotel in Jinshaling…I knew the suffering would be worth it!

Once again we were blessed with a picture perfect fall day. The leaves were changing providing a colorful palette of backdrop for photos. There were a few photographers at the wall when we got off the cable car taking sunrise shots with large lenses that made me envious…yes – I had bad case of camera envy! The only other people at the wall at this time in the morning were the hawkers. Hawkers are the local villagers and farmers that climb up to the Wall and attempt to sell their tourist goods. This can range from books, to cold water to beer and postcards. I must admit, the views were amazing, but having hawkers glued to you was about enough to give you trekking rage! They pretty much forced themselves upon you whether you wanted them there or not. I think their sales strategy was that you would pay them to leave you alone…which I suppose was rather effective! They followed you…just a few steps behind – nimbly jumping down steps and running circles around you reminding you to ‘be careful’ with every step. Their English consisted of “Please buy from me” and ‘be careful”. I’ve been traveling long enough to know that this is just how things work in the world of tourism – people try to sell you things any way they can. So, when we had two hawkers attach themselves to us I was prepared to deal with it. We were like big dollar signs to them – plus, since my dad was older they wrongly assumed that he would need assistance up and down the steep inclines and crumbling stairs. After a while though, I did try my best to communicate that we wanted to walk alone and eventually they stayed about 100 ft. away from us and allowed us to walk in solitude. It was like having a restraining order on a stalker!

The walk was very different from the previous day. It was definitely more of a trek than a walk. The wall was crumbling and every step had to be planned out. The towers on the wall originally existed for a way to send smoke signals of an impending Mongol attack as well as a place to store weapons; however now they were crumbling down. The modern day uses for the towers seemed to be for hawkers to sell their goods (there was even a guy selling opium there!), and they were a perfect place to stop and rest before moving on to the next steep climb! We decided to pass on the Opium, yet it might have made my knees feel better. The wall was much steeper than the previous day because in many spots you were forced to use your hands as if you were climbing a ladder and you were forced to descend on your butt! My dad plodded along impressing everyone (fellow trekkers and hawkers) along the way. The most common questions besides “Where are you from?”, was “Do you mind if I ask how old you are?”. He made all kinds of friends along the route. He was the ambassador and my role was the pack mule…I carried everything – which was a fitting role for as daughter to play I suppose. The pack provided another level of difficulty to the trek as you were constantly trying to figure out your balance as you descended, ensuring the weight of the backpack didn’t take you too far in one direction…namely tumbling down!

Photo: Our lunch spot – photo taken by our personal hawker…at least they were good for something!
After 2 hours of hiking, we arrived at the Simatai ‘ticket booth’ (basically a lady standing in the doorway asking for a ticket or money). We congratulated ourselves for making it and then we had to turn around and face the same route back. This was a daunting task as most of the route there was uphill, which was challenging – but that’s ok because I am a climber. I love to climb…I hate to descend. The thought of descending down that steep, crumbling route was rather terrifying to me. I did fleetingly consider how much I would have to pay a hawker to transport me back! Instead we sat in the shade of a tower and had a snack and some Gatorade looking back over the stunning view of what we had climbed.

For all of you out there that complain that I don’t put photos of myself on the site – well – here’s your chance see many photos of me….thanks to my dad. I swear he thought he was Ansel Adams. I hadn’t been photographed this much in my travels to date…I tried to suck in my stomach and ensure that I didn’t have sweaty pits…but after a while I stopped caring! So – check out the photos – not only will you see spectacular photos of the wall in its fall splendor – you will see me – in my sweaty splendor!

We took our time descending back to the cable car – with our stalkers…I mean hawkers still dutifully following us 100 ft. away. Finally at the end I sat down with them and bought a book from them – it was cheap and they actually did leave us alone most of the time as I had requested…so I suppose everyone got what they wanted. It’s weird to pay people though for staying away from you…but that’s tourism sometimes. Their stamina in following you is as infuriating as it is impressive.

The next day we woke early and drove to the Simatai section of the wall. This is where our weather luck ran out – the smog had started to settle in. As we rode the cable car up to the Simatai section, the mountain was enveloped in a yellowish haze. Roseanne, our guide, decided to accompany us on this section. Unlike the other sections we had trekked, the cable car did not actually take you all the way to the wall. It took you near the wall, but it was still a good 30 minute trek straight uphill to get to the tower and onto the wall. It was quite a wake-up call to my sore body and my aching knees! This section was fairly well preserved, but once again it was quite steep. We climbed it upwards until we could go no further. The section called the “Heavenly Ladder” was in front of us, but off limits hikers. This section of the wall was treacherous and very narrow. In fact – it was just a wall with really no where to walk – hence they called it the ladder.

We found a great little place to sit on a rock and gaze out over what we had accomplished over the last 3 days. The wall was impressive, but even more impressive was my dad. He did a great job of climbing and was inspirational to those around him – the locals and the tourists…as well as me. I always said that one of the reasons I took this around the world trip was because I didn’t want to wait until I was 70 to do things like climb Kilimanjaro or the Great Wall as I would never be able to do it at that age. But he proved me wrong. So – maybe when I’m 70 I will go back to Kilimanjaro and finally summit it!

Photo: My father on one of the steepest sections…taking a well-deserved break!

Photo: The Great Wall of China – Mutianyu Section

For the ‘best of’ Northern China Photography – click here!

For all snapshots of the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall – click here!

The Great Wall of China – yet another site that I never really expected to see in my life – but when you do – it makes it all that more special and amazing. Thousands of years ago, the various Chinese emperors, mainly the Ming Dynasty, built the Great Wall to keep the Monguls (Mongolians) out. It was actually rather effective. As I would marvel at the wall construction on steep mountainsides I wondered not only how they got materials up there to build it – but what Mongolians could make it up there to attack?! It looked like an impossible place for any human to go. Yet my father and I took off for 3 days of hiking on the Great Wall.

Photo: Yes – it is steep!
I was a little wary of taking my 71 year old father on a 3 day trek on a steep and crumbling Great Wall – but he seemed up for it – and I promised him we would go slow. Little did he know how out of shape I was – so going slow was for my benefit too! It is the longest (4,000 miles) and largest human-made structure – and after hiking on it for 3 days, it pretty much felt like it! We had planned to visit 3 separate sections of the Great Wall so that we could get a feel for the various types of construction as well as the different terrain that it was built upon. Plus – I really wanted to try to get to the less visited sections of the wall as I didn’t want to be elbow to elbow with busloads of tourists groups – therefore I had to choose sections that would be a little more challenging to weed out the ‘normal’ people! My dad was up for it – so we were off!

However – the first adventure was the drive out of Beijing and to the Wall. This was my first chance to really get a feel for Northern China besides the wide concrete roads and tall buildings of Beijing. It shouldn’t have surprised me that in a city of 14 Million people where 600 new cars are added to the roads every day – there would be gridlock. We sat in traffic for quite some time, our first test of patience. I have to admit – I was impressed that my father was patient about it. I still remember him being disgusted by the lines at Disneyworld and refusing to stand in line for the ‘good’ rides if they were too long – which pretty much subjected me to the “It’s a Small World” ride multiple times. However – we were trapped in the car, couldn’t speak the language, and had no idea where we were – he could hardly get out of the car and walk away – yet I’m positive the thought crossed his mind!

The other thing I noticed as we were trying to leave Beijing at a snail’s pace was that there were tons of police officers at every corner. This didn’t seem to help with the grid-lock – but it did intrigue me for a while – watching them each do their boring, mundane job – it made me feel a little better about sitting in the car not moving. In China it seems like everyone has some type of job…no matter if it’s needed or not. It’s as if they have to make up jobs for people. There were people out sweeping the roadways with a small household broom…at that rate they would make it about 500 feet a day! As for the policemen – I learned from Roseanne, our guide, that the different uniforms they wore meant that they were from different backgrounds and had different responsibilities. The men in the blue were policemen – and they tended to be in the middle of an intersection on a little box direction the vehicle traffic. Sometimes you would also see people in green uniforms – which were the military…I honestly have no idea what or who they directed. Finally the people dressed in Gray uniforms were ‘security officers’ and they seems to carry red flags, stand at each corner and direct the bike traffic and pedestrians. There were normally 6 to 9 various officers at each corner…just standing there…not really effecting the grid-lock from what I could tell – but who knows what it would have been like if they hadn’t been there! I can safely say that I wouldn’t describe China as being efficient. Whether you were talking about traffic, mundane jobs, or pollution control – efficient is not a work that comes to mind.

As we continued to drive out of the city and to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, I found myself surprised by Northern China – it didn’t seem to be like it’s Asian neighbors. This last year I have traveled through much of Asia – in fact there are few Asian countries that I haven’t been to – so I thought I had a feel for the continent. Yet China was proving me wrong – my expectations were being shattered. I found myself wondering how in the world China turned out so different from it’s neighboring countries. My only explanation is that after years of being closed….they developed their own way. Most other Asian countries had busy/crazy traffic – but it was mostly made up of either cars (Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia) or bikes/motorcycles (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia) – but China was a mix of both…huge 5 lane highways with tons of vehicles – and bikes intermixed. It was a strange and dangerous mix of vehicles – trucks spewing black fumes, bikers, cars, mopeds, motor scooters, and little 3 wheel trucks sputtering down the highway with as much power as a lawn mower engine! The vehicle traffic wasn’t the only thing that set China apart from it’s Asian neighbors – there were many other things such as good roads, cleanliness, not many stray dogs, not many visible poor and destitute, no rice fields (up north), no major religion, and a myriad of basketball courts. All of these things were oddities to me and based on what I had come to know about Asia. It was kind of like bizzaro Asia…everything opposite.

We finally broke through the traffic and arrived at Mutianyu Great Wall. This was about 2 hours drive outside of Beijing and not too heavily touristed. When we stepped out of the car, I looked around and much to my disappointment; I didn’t see any sign of a wall around. I scanned the hilltops – but I saw nothing but trees. That’s when I learned that you have to take a cable car to the Great Wall…and buy yet another ticket for the cable car! Sure – you could skip the cable car – but you would expend all of your energy and a few hours getting to the wall by foot. I didn’t think that would be a wise decision for my father (let alone me!) so we took the cable car ride. Finally – I was able to get my first glimpse of the wall…and it stretched out as far as my eye could see like a long serpent among the green treetops. It was a sunny, yet brisk autumn day – perfect for hiking. This section of the wall was rather well preserved and renovated. Dad and I took it slow and stopped often for water or to simply enjoy the view and take a myriad of photos!

There was one very steep section of this wall…most people skipped it…at least most people over the age of 50 skipped it – but not my dad…he climbed it and at times we had to use our hand and feet it was so steep. That brought us to the final restored tower at Mutianyu. The wall went on from there, but it was not safe to hike apparently. We turned around and went back towards the cable car stop remarking how green and lush it was. We probably hiked for 3 hours total – a good introduction to the Wall.

We traveled on to stay in Jinshanling that night. As we drove deeper into the mountains, it changed seasons – it became autumn and I was ecstatic. For the last 14 months I’ve only traveled in hot weather – sometimes to the extreme. The cool air, the red and orange leaves…it actually made me miss the US for a bit. All I could think about was how much it looked like home outside the car window. I kept on expecting to see some pumpkin patch and corn maze along the side of the road – or a little café that served pumpkin pie…or maybe I was hallucinating from the altitude we were climbing into. What I wouldn’t give for a slice of pumpkin pie with cool whip!

Jinshanling was a less touristed part of the wall, a little more remote, but the most spectacular section of the Great Wall – the perfect combination if you ask me. There was only one hotel in the area and it was at the base of the cable car station. Once again – you couldn’t not see the wall anywhere around you from the ground and it was reachable by cable car.

Our little hotel was rustic to say the least. It actually was a room straight out of a horror movie. The room was dark, eerie, and dank. Only half of the lights worked leaving it encased ina yellow glow. The bathroom was a disaster with only one flickering light that was very dim, and the floor was constantly wet from the shower that was simply a shower head hanging on the wall. I expected Norman Bates to come at me with a large knife whenever I entered it – which was as few of times as possible. The heater plodded along noisily and never seemed to get the room warm enough, there were only Chinese channels on the TV, but the worst part were the bugs.

It was the time of year for the Stink Bug to come out in full force. Like me – they apparently liked fall and cool weather. I think they are the Chinese national bird. They weren’t necessarily a creepy, slimy, fast bug – in fact they were relatively easy to catch and dispose of – but they were the true definition of a pest. They were out in mass on the Great Wall. They fly around like they are a giant bomber…slow, loud, lumbering along until they fly into something with a thud and then simply stay there. As you were hiking on the wall, you’d hear this loud buzzing noise, then it would come into view as it wove back and forth trying to key in on it’s target as if it were drunk. Then it would fly directly into you – or a wall…kind of bounce off, stunned that it hit something, and then land there. This meant that you were constantly flicking them off your clothes while hiking. You’d flick them off into the air and they just keep on flying. This didn’t bother me while hiking – we were out in the open – but in my hotel room was another story. They were everywhere – in the bathroom (but you could barely see them in the dark!), on the curtains, on the bedspread, on the headboard, under my sheets, on the tv, climbing on my suitcase and even a few that ended up on me. My Dad would kill them (it is great to have a male around at times!) but they don’t call them a stink bug because they smell good. When you squish them, they emit an odor and stink…joy. Needless to say – that night I slept in my little sleep sheet tied up over my head like a cocoon around me with my fleece, scarf, and wool socks on to stay warm – and my dad laughing at me of course! At least I know that I’ve become older and wiser – because if I had been in this situation as a child with my father – I would have been in tears…I was now just mildly annoyed. I think my dad was amused either way.

Needless to say – I didn’t sleep to well – even after I tried to inebriate myself with Chinese Whiskey at dinner. We had a big day ahead of us the next morning – a 5 hour hike on the wall and no doubt – many stink bugs to join us.

Photo: Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium surrounded by smog and construction

For all snapshots of the Olympic Buildings and smog – click here!

In less than a year the whole world will be introduced to China through their TV sets and a finely tuned production of the Olympics in Beijing. China, the largest populated country in the world will finally have a chance to show off to the world – but what will the world think? China is most definitely putting 1.3 billion people to work preparing for these games – at least that what it feels like as you wander through the concrete jungle of Beijing.

I am happy for them, I am happy that the world will get to see their country – a country that is a bit confusing to the westerner views, yet it actually is more western than one would think. This is not a backwards country that is impoverished or dirty. Instead, it is a country of skyscrapers, and construction cranes, of tradition, and superstition…and also of factories and power plants. The latter has an adverse effect – smog. The smog makes you feel as if you are inside a snow globe that has been constanly shaken up so that all of the particles are in the air above you – never really settling down into a clear view. I had never really experienced smog like this, and neither had my respitory system. After being in China for a few days I developed this hacking cough – I wasn’t sick – instead I was just reacting to the fowl air quality. All I could think about was all of the Olympic atheletes…how would they ever prepare for this? It certainly didn’t make me feel like going out and running.

We went by the newly constructed Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium…the crown jewel of the Olympic buildings. It is nearly complete – however the area surrounding the stadium is torn up and home to a sea of hard hats – all busily working at getting the Olympic Village constructed. A short distance from the Bird’s Nest is the Water Cube – another architectural pleaser. This is the venue for swimming and diving events. I have no worries that China will complete construction in time – they are pro’s at construction and I have to believe that it is the industry that employs the most people in China based on the amount of half completed building I witnessed.

The Olympic marketing machine is also at full speed. The mascot is selling like the cabbage patch doll of the 80′s…and they look about the same too. The Marketing Olympics are bombarding you as soon as you get off the plane on the jetway – to your taxi, to the Forbidden City…signs everywhere, ads everywhere.

Photo: Beijing covered in a layer of smog…an everyday occurance
I am looking forward to seeing the final product of all this hard work next year – on the TV. Even though I enjoyed Beijing – there is no way I would want to be there during the Olympics…too crowded! Plus – by watching it on TV – I get to see all of the sappy stories that the television producers will spin. However – I really look forward to seeing how they will report about the air quality – it may be a more popular subject than doping…which is actually a welcome thought.

The countdown continues…

Guard in front of Tiananmen Square

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When I was about 12 years old, I was treated to my first memory of international cuisine…Chinese food. I will never forget going to a Chinese restaurant in Peoria for the first time. It was darkly lit, with big round tables and little cups for tea. I was fascinated with these cups because they didn’t have handles – pretty unconventional for the Midwest! Regardless, the tea flowed endlessly. My dad ordered some dishes for our table – sweet and sour pork, wontons, egg foo young, and pork chow mein. I remember being that awkward age that hated eating anything that I didn’t know, but wanting to try new things. I had no idea how to use the chopsticks in front of me – they seemed as confusing and impossible as solving my rubic’s cube. From this first experience with Chinese food, a tradition started to form in my family – Chinese food was something I did with my dad. Whenever my mother went out of town and my dad and I were left to fend for ourselves, he would always take me out for Chinese food at Chan’s. Chan’s was in a ‘bad’ part of town – and I have no idea how my father knew about it – but for me, it was my place I went with my dad. Therefore, it seemed fitting that my dad accompany me to China on my around the world journey.

My father is 71 years old, fit, and he enjoys adventure. Therefore I was pretty confident about putting together an active China itinerary that included Northern China. We had 8 days and planned on spending time in Beijing, hiking on the Great Wall, and seeing Xian and the Terra Cotta Warriors. We arrived in Beijing late at night in darkness. When I opened our curtains the next day I was surprised at what I saw outside of my window- Buildings as far as the eye could see. Granted, I expected buildings in Beijing…duh…but I never expected to be able to see clearly for miles. China has the reputation as ‘The World’s Factory’ and every time I told someone I was visiting China I would always get the same reaction – the smog is terrible! Therefore, my expectation when I looked out the window was to see the yellow haze lingering about – but instead I was greeted by clear, blue skies. One might say that we were lucky…or one might say that China was welcoming us…I like the latter.

I must admit – planning this trip to China wasn’t easy. First off – I wasn’t just planning it for myself. I was planning it for my father, someone that I knew very well, someone that I felt responsible for pleasing. Granted – I had traveled with many different people in this last year of ‘around the world adventure’ – some people that I knew very well, and some people that I didn’t know at all, but formed new friendships with. However – I knew my father better than anyone I had traveled with previously – and I wanted to make sure that he would enjoy himself, yet at the same time be able to experience a small part of what I had experienced in the last year of travel. There have been countless times this last year when I’ve been in a country and thought to myself – ‘I wish my father could see this – he would love it.’ So here it was, my chance to finally realize that. Not only did I have to figure out an itinerary that both my father and I would enjoy, and would be appropriate for a 37 yr old and 71 yr old could both enjoy – but I had to deal with the China travel agent maze. China isn’t like the rest of the world – you can’t simply research on Google and book your own itinerary which I had become so accustomed to. You can’t just ‘wing it’ through the country too easily. You can’t even book a domestic air ticket easily. China is tightly controlled and so is their travel industry. Therefore the first step was to find a good travel agency in China that you could communicate with (harder than you would think) and could be flexible. Once you found one that actually returned your emails, and understand that you were looking for a customized experience as opposed to a huge tour bus full of blue hairs and matching baseball hats – then you still had millions of emails back an forth to get it all worked out. The icing on the cake is when they don’t take a credit card online for payment…and you are forced to fax credit authorization info to them. However – once you are able to work through this long process and feel comfortable with an agency – you can move forward and actually book a China trip. I chose Beijing Xinhua Tour Company since we were mainly focusing on the Northern China area and Beijing was our ‘base’ – plus Betty, the sales agent, understood English and answered my emails in a timely basis.

Our young guide, Roseanne, was a petite, young woman with flawless skin that looked like porcelain – looking at her made me wish I had worn more sunscreen in my youth, as well as put on a second coat presently. She was bubbly, kind, and knowledgeable. She took care of us in a wonderful manner. I think it actually beneficial to be traveling with my father since most Asian cultures have a deep rooted respect for their elders…therefore Roseanne and my father got along famously. We had a full day planned in Beijing as this was really the only day that we were in the city to see the sights. We went to the 3 major sights that day – the Summer Palace, Forbidden City, and the Heavenly Palace. We were also supposed to stop and walk through the infamous Tiananmen Square – however the National Congress was meeting that week in government buildings surrounding the square…therefore it was closed! We were dejected a bit – but didn’t lose any sleep over it. We could see it from a distance.

The skies were picture perfect – a stunning blue, a cool brisk breeze…I found myself having deja-vu…for fall. I missed Fall last year because I was in New Zealand and South Africa traveling on the other side of the globe in a different hemisphere experiencing Spring. I stood in the Summer Palace learning about the Dragon Lady that bullied her way into ruling China during the Qing dynasty, yet I was mesmerized by the feeling of Fall. I sucked in a deep breath – one that made me think of pumpkin pie, Central Park, and the NY Marathon. I wrapped my pashmina around me and enjoyed the memories floating through my head. The sites were interesting to see – an ancient world that was hard to understand and imagine – a world of opium, concubine, great beauty, and unrest. A land where they didn’t record things based on years – but on Emperor’s reigning years. According to this I would have been Sherry, born on the 12th day of the 2nd lunar month of the Nixon Dynasty.

Beijing was surprising to me – it wasn’t exactly what I expected – a city of 14 million people was a bit mind boggling to me. The traffic was a stand still, much worse than any commute I had seen in NYC. As I sat in the car stuck in traffic I was stunned by the number of construction cranes I saw surrounding me. This city had the most construction in progress than I had ever witnessed. The cranes were as plentiful as the trees. They cranes were all lording over newly formed apartment high rises and business buildings. I looked around at my landscape and thought to myself that Beijing resembled NYC, with it’s numerous, tall buildings rising into the stratosphere. However – it was as if someone took the island of Manhattan and stretched it out as if it were silly putty. The buildings were spread apart, the roads were wide, and the sidewalks were big. This was the definition of ‘sprawling’. The spaciousness of it all made it feel a bit cold and stand-offish.

After a day of touring, we went to a Kung Fu show and finally back to our hotel to have a couple of much needed beers, peanuts, and spring rolls. We reminisced about our old trips to Changs on Main St. in Peoria…our special “mom is out of town’ activity, my first real international experience. It was so vivid to me – I was no longer 37…I was 12 again – simply enjoying spending time with my father. It was a good start to our time in China. I think we struck a good balance of what I was looking for and what my father would like….or maybe the beer at the end of the day was the key. Regardless – my dad and I both felt lucky that China welcomed us with blue skies, a great tour guide, and old memories.

 Shop and Purchase: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

This book was recommended to me by Keith and Jaqui from South Africa – it was wonderful! This is a true story about three generations of women in China. It covers a vast amount of Chinese History from their family perspective and stories. It spans from 1909 to 1978 from life among the warlords, various wars, Chiang Kai-shek, Communism, Mao, the famine, and the Cultural Revolution. I was spellbound by this book. When I started this book, I knew nothing about China except that I liked the tea, the food, and an occasional fortune cookie – I was completely ignorant of it’s torrid history, communism, and most importantly – Mao. Not only did the book tell the story of women’s role in China, it was a story about family ties, and tradition. Jung’s grandmother was concubine for a war lord, Jung’s mother was a senior Communist official, and Jung was brought up in the middle of the Cultural Revolution. The book really gave you a great glimpse into Communism – the fundamental ideas behind it, and what happens when the wrong person has all of the power. For about 80% of the book – I was in disbelief that these things really happened – most of it was absolutely unthinkable to me. The only downside to reading this book is that it makes you want to go to China! Of course that’s one of the few countries that’s not on my itinerary this year! So – I have already decided that I will have to come back and do China for a month or so! If you want to learn more about Chinese history, wrapped among a touching story about family – then pick up this book…it was a great read!

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Suffering will make you a better Communist”

“Father is close, Mother is close, but neither is as close as Chairman Mao”

“As a child, my idea of the West was that it was a miasma of poverty and misery, like that of the homeless “Little Match Girl” in the Hans Christian Anderson story. When I was in boarding nursery and did not want to finish my food, the teacher would say ‘Think of all the starving children in the capitalist world!’ In school, when they were trying to make us work harder, the teachers often said ‘You are lucky to have a school to go to and books to read. In the capitalist countries children have to work to support their hungry families.’”