The beginning of our China Adventure with China Spree

 

The very beginning of our adventure began with my sister and her daughter flying out to stay with mom so we could have our adventure in China. They arrived from North Carolina Saturday night and we left Sunday morning. We flew to LA for our flight from LA to Beijing. I had read some reviews about China Air having crappy planes, crappy seats, crappy attendants and crappy TV's. We were on a new plane that had the individual screens with lots of movies, TV shows and games. Sean did comment on first class as we passed through. "Why can't we sit here, this looks much nicer." Yes, son I would 100% agree with you and if I could afford to go to China first class we'd be sitting there. Back to coach we went. The plane was nice, the food was OK. 

The food wasn't bad. Each meal consisted of a choice of beef and rice, pork and rice or chicken and noodles. 12 hours is a long time to ride in a plane. I don't know why Sean complained about not being in first class, he stretched across all three rows and slept. Looked pretty first class to me. He is such as excellent traveler. Always a trooper. I flew in what I will refer to as pharmaceutical first class. I went to my family doctor and told him we were going to China and my hips couldn't take the trip. I was flying high in the sky and in my brain. We flew over Russia, that was fun because I could say "I saw Russia from my window."

Don't drink the water, don't drink the water, don't drink the water. They tell us that all the time. They don't have drinking fountains because you can't drink the water. We did drink from this drinking station.

We made it to China! Let the adventure begin.

Don bypassed the Internet censor in China by putting a VPN on my computer. I needed to access google for work. We were also able to check facebook with the VPN. It cost $9 for a month pass on a website called Pandapow.

Crazy busy day

 

We woke up at 4 a.m. The hotel is connected to a mall. A really big mall with an ice skating rink. When we woke up we walked around the empty mall for awhile. We got back a little before six and they let us eat breakfast a little early. Then off to our days adventure.

 

I had to take a picture of the Chinese Resteraunt where we ate lunch. It just looked so authenic. Oh wait, it was. So authenic in fact that the soup crunched becuase it had bones or beaks or something in it. Not sure what it was, not sure I want to know. The food was different the U.S. Chinese food but we liked it.

Sean's BFF in China. Her name is Ella and she is six. She is from San Diego. Her parents are Chinese so she speaks Chinese. Ellia and her two year old brother Joshua are the only other kids in the tour group. Sean and Ella really hit it off. They are very cute together. Unfortunatley Ella was only on the tour one day. The rest of the time they visited her mom's friends in Beijing. She and Sean said hello every morning at breakfast.

The 2008 Olympic Bird nest.

Nasty Squat pot. I have to admit I was intrigued. Mostly I wondered how a toilet at the Olympic village that was frozen could smell so bad. I was wearing a mask to boot. Funny thing in China. They have so many bathroom attendents yet so many of their bathrooms are nasty. At one of the bathrooms a lady cleaned the toilet between each person.

Tienanmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tienanmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tienanmen Square is the third largest city square in the world (440,000 m² - 880m by 500m or 109 acres- 960 by 550 yd). It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history.

Nothing says Beijing like a surgical mask. The air wasn't too bad today. We wore mask because we were freezing our faces off. We will dress a little differently for tomorrow adventures.

Just can't get enough of those squat pots. This is a very nice pot. I can pee in them pretty good but not so sure about managing any other business. Sean was very intrigued by them. He slipped and I thought he was going to get really up close and persona.

The Forbidden City was HUGE! I didn't have any expectations but it was overwhelming. There were just palaces after palaces built in the 1400's. Home to emperor's their concubines and their eunuchs.

Amazing architecture. The color yellow was considered royal and only the emperor's could use them.

A ceiling in the imperil chambers at the Forbidden City.

Sean has been playing lots of Mario. The doors looked like something Bowser was going to jump out of. Sean reminded me "Mom, Bowser isn't real." True but I still wouldn't have been surprised if Bowser didn't pop out and we got sprinkled with Fairy dust.

Sean took this picture from Don's shoulders.

Sean got to have his name written in the snow on a bench in the Forbidden City in Beijing. I thought that was a fun memory.

An alley to the living area of one of the forbidden cities.

The spring garden. Didn't look very springy because we were freezing our feet off. I'm glad Sean had the extra Iron Man hat packed otherwise I would have been freezing my head off. Actually I would have bought a hat from the stalking wendors. (Vendors but Jim our travel guide can't pronoune V's he calls them cwazy winnders and tells us to stay away from them "they will pock your pickets." Jim said "China has faces and books but no facebook." He's a regular comedian. He spends all his time counting us to make sure he hasn't lost any one in the group and telling jokes. It was so icy today people in our group kept falling. Don carried Sean around on his shoulders. That made me nervous because if he went down Sean would crack his crown.

This may have been a part of the slipping on ice problem. This is Chinese idea of snow blowing. They have these brooms that are thatched together and they move the snow around. At least four people from our group fell. It was COLD and snowy. I wore my walking shoes which are really thin and near about froze my feet off. Tomorrow, thicker shoes and a couple of pairs of sock. Live and Learn! I guess if that was the case it wouldn't be much of an adventure.

A white out behind us at Tienanmen Square.

There are huge copper vats all around the forbidden city. I am sure setting your kid in one is forbidden but we did it fast so no one yelled at us.

The massage

On the bus returning from a long day of walking in the cold our tour guide suggested massages. A one hour massage was $25 in your hotel room. Don's back hurt from carrying Sean on his shoulders so he ordered a massage. I was laying on Sean's bed while Don had his massage. When Don's massage was done she asked if I wanted one. Sure, why not. Don seemed to enjoy his.

My massage was a little different. Usually a masseur ask if you want the massage, light, medium or hard. This lady spoke no English and didn't read body language. She was definitely in the hard category she popped all my fingers and even my toes. I spent the entire massage grimacing in pain and laughing. At one point she had me sit up, grabbed my hair and shook my head back and forth. I don't think this woman trained at the Utah school of massage therapy. She soaked my feet in a bag of water. Don's water wasn't scalding but mine was so hot I could not put my feet in it. The sadist tried to force by feet in the water but I kept pulling them out eventually she put cooler water in the bag. Our trip was all about adventure and the massage was an adventure. I laugh every time I think about it. I wish I had a video of her shaking my head.

Don's feet soaking in a bag of I don't know what

The tooth

We figured Sean would lose his first tooth in China. Don looked up Chinese tradition for lost teeth. If the tooth is a top tooth you bury it so it will grow up straight. If it is a bottom tooth you throw it on a roof top so it will grow up straight. We talked to a couple of Chinese people who had never heard of this tradition. WHAT, we read it on the Internet how can it not be true. Oh well, we liked the idea so we went with it. Sean now plans to bury or throw all his baby teeth. It's a much cooler concept then a fairy sneaking in your room and slipping money under your pillow. That's just scary.

Sean went to sleep with all his teeth but when he woke up one of them was missing. His tooth was literally lost. We looked through all his blankets.

Eventually I found his tooth on the floor next to his bed.

We didn't have a roof to throw the tooth on as we are staying in a high rise hotel. We were at the Buddhist Temple in Beijing and Sean threw his lost tooth up on an alter. It made for a unique lost first tooth experience. I'm not sure how the monks would feel about us paying homage to Buddha with a lost tooth but it seemed like the thing to do.

I bet no other kid in Centerville got to do that. Pretty cool stuff.

Sacred Way of Ming Tomb's

The Ming Tomb's was chosen by the Ming Emperors as their resting place because it is situated in a valley. There are mountains on the north that cradle the tombs on three sides, opening to the south and protecting the dead from evil spirits carried on the north wind. The burial ground is over 400 years old. China has so much ancient history. I still can't get over the wall being started B.C.

Everything in old China is positioned in a symbolic way. Even the way the bedroom faces determines if a boy or girl sleeps in the room. Gardens only have four elements (or maybe five I can't remember).

I'm guessing there is a rule against setting your child on top of the 400 year old statue.

Sean holding up the elephant.

The Great Wall of China

 

I looked at the wall and was just amazed that I was standing on the Great Wall of China. It was not a place I thought I would ever visit. So awesome.

Seeing the Great Wall was really a wow moment. The Wall was begun in the 5th Century BC to keep out foreign invaders. (The Chinese do not have a lot of nice things to say about Japanese). Construction went on for centuries. The wall is over 3500 miles. That is one huge wall. Chairman Mao once said "You haven't walked on the Wall, you haven't been good Chinese."` With the wall being that long it seems like most Chinese should have the opportunity to walk on it. They used a lot of prisoners to build the wall. If you died while building it they just threw you in the wall and buried you. I guess that was their idea of an employee benefit. It had to have been miserable work because China is COLD in the winter. Seriously cold. I've always thought pictures of little Chinese kids in the quilted clothes were cute. Now I know it's not about being cute it's about not freezing your kids butt off. 

 One side of the wall is taller with cut outs in the rock so soldiers could guard the wall. If enemy was approaching they would build a number of fires depending on the number of enemy.

 To say it was windy on the wall would be an understatement. It was lots of fun though. It was a steep climb. I couldn't believe we were really climbing the Great Wall of China I kept thinking how cool it was.

Sean was hyper he ran way ahead of us. He could have kept going and going but he had to stop and take a picture of me laying on the steps.

 Yep, I had to lie down for a little break. Seriously my calves were burning!

 What a view. It was breathtaking. (figuratively and literally)

When we got to the top of the area we were climbing we saw a roller coaster that would take you down the mountain. It looked like fun and Sean really wanted to do it. The big question was where does the coaster leave you? We asked at the ticket counter and they said "on the other side of the mountain, only ten minute walk to coffee shop." Hm, that doesn't seem likely but what the heck,this trip has been about adventure. We took the ride down the mountain. There were bears in cages and lots of vendors or as our guide calls them "winders." We walked around for awhile trying to figure out how to get back to where we needed to be. There was a guy with a camel who wanted to charge 12 yen to have your picture taken on the camel. A Chinese teenager with really good English was telling everyone the guy was a crook. The teenager wanted to have his picture taken with Sean, I told him it would be 12 yen. Ha, ha! He had his picture taken with all of us. It cracked me up people wanting to have their picture taken with Sean. He is a super cute kid but he has brown hair and brown eyes. He's doesn't look that much different than a Chinese kid.  The first time someone grabbed him for a picture it really scared him after that he got used to it and didn't care.  We asked the teenager how to get to the other side of the mountain and he told us it was a long way back. Bummer, of course there was a taxi willing to take us back to the coffee shop and our tour bus for 200 yen. At that point I was freezing and tired and didn't care how much it cost. We made it back to the coffee shop with about 30 minutes to spare.

Panda's and acrobats

We went to the panda zoo in Beijing. We learned a lot about Panda's. They are super lazy and eat 20 pounds of bamboo per day. If they have twins they just throw one out because they don't want
to take care of two. At least that's the assumption humans make because panda's don't talk.

Taking a rest in a simulated panda house.

Sean liked the panda skeleton.

Sitting next to bamboo. They grow a lot of bamboo. If you have to feed bamboo to a couple of hundred pandas every day you are going to have to grow a boat load of bamboo.

We went to a Chinese acrobat show one evening. The acrobats were very talented but I kept thinking about a video I saw on Youtube of how abused Chinese children are when they are being trained as gymnast. One of the performers dropped his hats during a juggling act. He did it three times. At first I thought it was part of the act but it became obvious he just dropped the hats over and over. Eventually he just bowed and walked off the stage. I hope they didn't beat him or fire him after the performance.  I had a hard time enjoying the performance because of how the performers were treated as children.

The things these acrobats could do were amazing. Sean was entranced the entire performance.

Sean really enjoyed the show.

The little traveler

It is fun to watch Sean travel. Seeing the world really expanded his horizons and gave him a sense of confidence. He knows three sayings in Chinese, hello, thank you and Happy New Year. It's cute to see the response he gets when he speaks Chinese to Chinese people. They are so amused, you would think Sean had spoken full sentences. They just think it is so amazing that this little American boy can speak any Chinese. They always smile and touch him. If they are with other people they turn and tell them what Sean said.

 Sean also made friends where ever we went. This little boy is named Roland and his mom works at the Pearl factory we visited. When Sean walked in the door this little boys eyes just lit up. The next thing you know he and Sean were in a back room playing with cars. Roland taught Sean how to count on his fingers in Chinese. They don't use two hands to count to ten they do it all on one. This was the highlight of Sean's day.

 This little boy lived in the red door district. We ate lunch at his parents house. He and Sean played Thomas the Train.

Sean at the prayer wheel.

The most remarkable experience was Sean at the Lama temple. It is a Tibetan lamasery located outside of Tibet. Because it was a temple we couldn't take pictures inside the buildings but it was amazing. There was a 55 foot high statue of Maitreya (the future Buddha) carved from a single block of sandalwood. It was a sight to behold. Sean is very interested in religion. I find that strange for a five year old. Sean wanted to know who Buddha was. In one to the temples there were 200 monks chanting. It was surreal. The temple has open walls so it was freezing. The monks sat at tables in heavy robes with little green lights over their books and they chant. At first Sean was scared. Don told them what they were doing and why they were doing it. Sean said his teacher told him there was only one God. Don told him lots of people worship lots of different Gods or powers. Sean said that the God in his heart was not Buddha. How insightful is that for a five year old.

Sean watched many locals pay homage to Buddha by burning incense and bowing. It was one of those moments that I was glad he had the opportunity to experience. He could watch it on TV or read about it but it wasn't the same as actually smelling it, hearing it and watching it.