We thank our friends Margaret and Eric for extending the invitation to us...while still in Australia....the extent of their research over the past eight months, in planning the route and sites and David Crichton for organizing the trip, giving awesome recommendations and planning with such an eye for detail. Bob and I would consider this to have been a perfect trip.
Ten of us flew direct from Toronto to Beijing on September 9th and our adventure began immediately.
We expected to be scrutinized at Custom's and Immigration however it was a breeze and extremely casual.
Beijing is astoundingly western ....entirely understandable with the olympics coming next year ...with bio-buses, new cars, clean and efficient subways, construction cranes everywhere (jokingly described by our guides as China's "national bird"), clean streets, no graffiti, ring roads in the cities, toll highways everywhere, electric bikes, high fashion, high speed trains, maximum usage of public spaces by the public and enormous TV screens hovering over the public spaces. CNN can be seen in most cities we visited and even North American sports are covered on the sports channel (we saw the Downy hit on the Sen's player both on CNN and the national channel). There are Chinese reality shows on television. The producers of these shows were warned by the government that they are becoming too western in their meanness and lack of respect for the participants....and if they continued in this direction, would be cancelled. Kind of refreshing don't you think??
I will not be making any political statements in the blog. We all know about the atrocities of Tibet and the current furor over the Dalai Lama's visit to Washington and I have personal opinions on these which I will keep to myself...unless asked to share. Surprising to me was that Burma was not a secret there and was covered on the Chinese National TV channel as well as CNN in Beijing. To be honest, we had to remind ourselves that we were even in a communist country it seemed so western.
There were contrasts to the ultra-modern of course with labourers sweeping streets with straw and tree branch brooms and hundreds of construction workers dotting the new buildings since cheap labour is not a problem.
Here are the images we are excited to share with you. We would recommend that those of you with an adventurous spirit, visit this amazing country.
(Note: Several readers commented in the past that the photo's were a bit small to see detail. Double click on the image and you will be able to view a full screen image).
TIAN'ANMEN SQUARE - World's largest public square
Photo's: Our group with our guide Julie; Julie's bag (she has more than one and they are apparently the real thing!) ; Bobby and me;Memorials rimming the square
Beijing , with a population of 14 million, has developed so rapidly in the last 20 years that it must be like fast-forwarding a video to the residents.
In the late '80's there were no personally owned vehicles, many of the streets were unpaved and traffic congestion was pretty much comprised of buses, trucks and bicycles. In 2000, there were 250,000 privately owned cars and 7 years later there are 4 million.
Above: Diane pondering how he can possibly balance that load let alone ride the bike.
Above: Any mode of transportation works in Beijing
Above: "Ah....just 5 minutes....that's all I need....5 minutes"
Above: No challenge is insurmountable when crossing streets in Beijing
THE ANCIENT
The Forbidden City (seen here being spruced up for the Olympics next year), built in the 15th Century and home to two dynasties; the Ming and Qing dynasties...also the location for the film "The Last Emperor". The courtyard will hold 100,000. The two urns are the firefighting water sources of the day. Women sweeping and weed-wacking. Beautiful architecture and lion (we learned how to distinguish female from male...male has a ball under it's paw, female has a lion cub) statue.
One sad tale (with a happy ending) of the Forbidden City was that a Starbuck's cafe was established there. Praise the Lord, it's gone due to protests from the public.
Above: Neat dragon
Above: Sacred Way - Ming Tombs
Below: Now where on earth would an emperor go in the heat of the summer in Beijing? Why, to the Summer Palace overlooking a lake of course!
The intricate and beautifully painted covered walkway above extended a kilometre to the edge of the lake. We boarded a boat to cross the lake and yes, spending summers at the palace would not be hard to take.
JUYONGGUAN GREAT WALL
Built and rebuilt from the 5th century (BC) to the 16th century, this is the closest section to Beijing. The most challenging part of the climb was the steps which ranged from a couple of feet high (Bob tells me it was nowhere that high so humour me...it felt like it!) to a few inches causing a lot of lurching on my part. I found it quite emotional, knowing what was involved in construction of this 6,400 km ancient wall (although not connected in all places) and that it is the largest human made structure in the world. Overwhelming!
Above: Our group about to begin the climb; I'm still smiling (and puffing); the views; lovers locks along the wall (not certain why!)
Below: This unit is two huge screens over a public square that accomodates concerts and provides an area for the public to hang out, shop and have a coffee or gelato. The long screen is turned on at night and when we first saw it from our bus, it was showing a program on ocean life which was absolutely magnificent. Unfortunately, we were unable to stop and take a photo at that time. Note the small screen TV station (City TV really is EVERYWHERE!).
Below: New buildings and lovely, immaculate and efficient subways
Below: Birds Nest Olympic Stadium - holds 91,000 spectators
Above: Public phones inside Lama Temple walls....aren't they cute?; a typical Chinese broom; incense (this must be the most lucrative industryin China) at the Lama Temple
Above: Clearing the streets following a downpour
Above: Jade carving....now that is a hunk of jade! You MUST double click on this one!
Above: Chef serving our Peking Duck dinner....yum, yum!
Above: Communal sinks at a Beijing restaurant caused a huge laugh. The wall in the women's cubicles were glass and we could see people entering the restaurant. Fortunately, those entering could not see us!
Chapter 2....Coming soon!
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