China IV: from Beijing to Shanghai and more

Monday, March 23, 09 Yesterday we arrrived in Shanghai and drove immediately to Suzhou, about a 30-minute drive. Lots of new buildings, construction, etc. in what used to be all farmland district.

Went to Tiger Hill, very lovely large pagoda with history.

Quoting from Lonely Planet's China: "The Hill itself is artificial and is the final resting place of He Lu, founding father of Suzhou. He Lu died in the 6th century BC and myths have coalesced around him--he is said to have been buried with a collection of 3000 swords and to be guarded by a white tiger."

The Cloud Pagoda, built in the 10th century, stands atop Tiger Hill. It is an octagonal, 7-story pagoda, which began tilting over 400 years ago, and currently is about 7 feet displaced from perpendicular at its highest point.

The park grounds are large and very beautiful with extensive gardens and some of the many canals that thread throughout Suzhou, which is known as "the Venice of the East".

The largest Canal in China, the Grand Canal, lies just outside Suzchou, and is linked to the city's canals. The Grand Canal, begun in 486 BC, originally was meant to link the Yangzi and Yellow Rivers and the (then) southern and northern capital cities. It remains the world's largest man-made waterway, although the altered course of the Yellow River has reduced the Grand Canal's use for major transport. Its 1,112 miles do, however, link Beijing with the south all the way to Shaghai and Hangzhou.

The photo of the Cloud Pagoda above doesn't show it well, but there are over 300 steps leading to the base, for which Rainbow set off with some of the group. Several of us opted not to climb them, and Carol, Mike and I and Harry, a co-traveler from Bus 2, decided to take the horse and carriage ride that goes halfway around the park and back. We saw some lovely scenery along the way.

Took a horse and carriage ride with Carole and Mike rather than climb 330-plus steps! Blisters hurt like hell!

When we finished the carriage ride, Carol, who loves horses, had to have her picture taken with the horse. Some Chinese tourists had already boarded the carriage for the next ride. The horse remained calm while Carol was standing there, but as soon as she walked away, he began to buck and prance around, I'm sure giving the passengers a fright. I'm also sure the carriage driver, who took a while to get his horse back under control, was not happy with the "foreign devil" who spooked his horse!

I included the pictures below for several reasons. I like the red lanterns that lined the walkway, and also I have no idea where we were going when I took this picture--or the one below it. Possibly on the way to lunch???? The trouble with a trip like this is you go so many places so quickly and some resemble each other. You take a lot of pictures, thinking, "I'll remember this when I get home"--and you don't! I've got several more pictures like these, very nice, but no clue as to the subject matter! Next time I'm going to keep a picture notebook as well as a journal

The picture below is definitely a Suzhou canal. Many families live and work on the canals. Tourist boats ply the larger canals, and we were headed for one later in the day.

After Tiger Hill we went to a marketplace--crowded, noisy, colorful, disturbing.

We took a walk through a local marketplace, essentially a long street lined on both sides with vendors selling everything from clothes, fruits and vegetables, prepared foods, and foods "fresh on the hoof", so to speak. One of those was these eels below.

I took a couple of other pictures in the market but they were very blurry because I kept getting jostled. It was crowded and I didn't want to lose sight of the SB3 sign! Some of the sights in the market were disturbing to many of us. Live caged animals for sale is one thing. Geese flopping about on the pavement because their feet are wired together is something else. I had to keep reminding myself that I was the foreigner here and their ways are not our ways.

Here we are ready to board the boat for the canal ride. You can tell it's become dark, and you can also tell poor Rainbow is just about beat! Rainbow called this canal "The Baby Canal" to distinguish it from the Grand Canal.

It was pretty dark for a picture but you can tell how beautiful the canal is.

Then to dinner at a very nice restaurant and back to the hotel exhausted. Only here 1 night, so very little unpacking. Breakfast at 7 and on the bus at 8:15 headed today to Silk Factory and Hangzhou.

I'm going to stop again here, since it's taking about 3 hours per post. Will continue tomorrow.

ChinaIII Pearls and More

We woke up well ahead of the wakeup call (Sat. March 21st). I took a shower and washed my hair and organized my purchases in my luggage. In a few minutes we'll head out for the Pearl Factory (Shoot me now!) and on the way we'll see the "Bird's Nest" Olympic Stadium. This afternoon a rickshaw ride to a large privately owned home in the Hutong District for dinner. should be interesting. (Hutong is the Chinese word for alleyway.)

We did a drive by of the olympic stadium, (the "Bird's Nest"--and yes, it does somewhat resemble a bird's nest)) but the picture isn't very good, even after enhancing. It's set well back from the road, the picture was taken through the bus window, and there was quite a bit of haze in the early morning air. Beijing is noted for its serious air pollution problems, but most days it wasn't too bad. I had brought along a filtered mask just in case, but didn't need it.

Early Sunday March 22. The Pearl Factory was very nice, and yes, I bought pearls!

This lovely young Chinese woman showed us how the pearls are harvested from the fresh water oysters grown at the plant. She was typical of the local guides at the places we visited in that she spoke a precise English with a similar accent (were they all educated at the same school?) and was attractive and sophisticated. I expect these are plum jobs for young women in China.

While ocean oysters produce only a single pearl, fresh water oysters produce multiple pearls of various sizes and colors within the same oyster. The guide explained that the young oysters are injected with what she called "meat" (a protein based irritant) to promote development of the pearls. There were 36 pearls in this particular oyster. I think the guide's black nail polish contrasts nicely with the pearls.

We went to the Summer Palace, which is on a lake and very beautiful, and since it was Sat., also very crowded with local and Western tourists.

Quoting from "Eyewitness Travel, Beijing & Shanghai": " The sprawling grounds of the Summer Palace served the Qing dynasty as an imperial retreat from the stifling summer confines of the Forbidden City." The book goes on to describe how the grounds were remodeled several times through the centuries, most notably by the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), who is remembered as one of China's most powerful women.

One could easily spend an entire day roaming the huge area, but we saw only a small part. We did see the Long Corridor, a 2,288 foot covered walkway decorated with over 14,000 scenic paintings.

The Long Corridor. Note the Chinese guide in the left background with his own group of (Chinese) tourists.

Our guide took the group walking down a portion of the Long Corridor, but since by this time I had developed two painful blisters on my right foot, I chose to sit on a ledge at the site where they entered the corridor. She explained they would exit further down and then return on the adjacent sidewalk. Staying on the ledge turned out to be a serendipitous choice!

As I was sitting on the ledge I noticed sitting near me, also on the ledge but facing inside the corridor, a young family with a little boy. I grinned at him and said "Ni hao" (hello, in Chinese). His eyes got big and he turned to his father, who said, (in English) "Say 'hello' to grandmother." The little boy said hello and grinned back at me. Then the father said, pointing to the name tag dangling from my neck, "Is this your name?" I replied, "Yes, it is." He said, "Is it 'Vennie'?" I answered, "Yes, Vennie". He smiled broadly and pointed to the little boy, "That is also his name--Vennie!" ( I don't know how he would have spelled it in Pinyan, the Western alphabet phonetic spelling of Chinese characters, but he definitely pronounced it the same as my name.) I was astounded! "Oh my goodness!" I said. Then to the little boy, "May I take your picture?" The father said something to him in Chinese, and the little boy nodded. Here is his picture.

Note the Nike cap and Osh Kosh jacket! What a cutie! I wanted to give him a dollar, but I refrained. He was playing with a small toy, and Chinese custom dictates if someone gives you a gift, you must give one in return. I feared he might feel he had to give me his toy, and I didn't want that. I thanked him and his father profusely, and just about then, the rest of my group arrived, straggling up the sidewalk. First time in my life I was ever happy to have blisters!!!

Anna, our Beijing guide, is wonderful and keeps track of all of us, especially those of us who have some difficulty walking or climbing in rough areas.

This is our Beijing tour guide, Anna, another lovely young Chinese girl, age 26. Because of the angle she's holding it, it's hard to see the "SB 3" sign. "SB" stands for "Santa Barbara", which was our designated group name for the trip. The entire group from California was divided into 3 buses, and ours, bus 3, was the smallest group at 21. Each bus had its own tour guides in both Beijing and Shanghai. These folks are very knowledgable about their areas and their English is excellent, if occasionally a little quirky.

We returned to the Pearl Factory for lunch at the restaurant next door. This lunch was buffet style and adequate but not lavish like our hotel's breakfast buffets.

After lunch we went to the Chinese Medicine Institute. A lady spoke for a few minutes about Chinese medicine...

...and then in came a veritable hoard of Chinese doctors and interpreters. They took our pulses, had us stick out our tongues, and attempted to sell each of us several hudnred dollars of Chinese herbal medicines! No one in our group took the bait. I had a coughing spell and asked if they could give me something for my cough--nope, only several hundred dollars worth of herbs etc. for my liver and kidneys. I'd give a lot for a bottle of Robitussin! I took the last of my cough medicine today, but I still have cough drops. The cipro I brought along and starting taking is helping but I'm still hoarse and occasionally have a bad coughing bout. I feel fine (other than the blisters on my toes!) so it's more an annoyance than anything.

This was the only part of the trip I did not enjoy. It became pretty clear on the first day that we were in for one long shopping trip, but no one seemed to mind. The places we visited were interesting and the things available for purchase were reasonable--and no one put any kind of pressure on us to buy. I enjoyed the lecture about Chinese medicine, but the "hard sell" for the Chinese herbal medicine was irritating to say the least.

After leaving the medical institute, we went to a place where we were met by several rickshaws--one for each two of us. Along the route to meet the rickshaws we passed a lot of sidewalk vendors.

Here is a shot of some of the sidewalk vendors from the back of the stalls. Most of these were food vendors, and as it was near suppertime, many people were buying and eating on the go.

Peter and Bill, two younger men with our group who were more adventureous than most of us, bought some odd foods on a stick. This is Peter eating deep fried scorpion. I kid you not! And he did actually eat some of it.

Barbara and I in our rickshaw. It was surprisingly comfortable. We were told to recall the number of the rickshaw and get the same one on the return trip.

Barbara and I hopped into ours, which was #137, and enjoyed the ride tremendously! The rickshaws are bicycle powered now rather than pulled by a runner, but the rider must be very strong. We drove into the Hutong District to an old but luxiourious (by Chinese standards) home...

At a point we had to abandon the rickshaws and walk the rest of the way to the house. As you can see, the streets are narrow, as the Hutong District is in a very old part of the ceenter of the city. The Chinese faces you see in this picture are "mosquitoes", the Chinese term for the roaming sidewalk souvenir sellers.

A note about the Chinese street vendors. I had read and we were warned again by Anna, but boy, are they aggressive! They surround you wanting to sell choposticks, scarves, wallets, knock-off Guggi and Rolex watches, etc.

The shot below was actually taken in Shanghai later, but you can see how aggressive the vendors are. These two women were both selling scarves and I thought they were going to come to blows because someone in our group bought scarves from one instead of the other.

The girl in the background in the blue jacket holding the stick with the sign that says "SB 3" is Rainbow, our Shanghai guide. Anna carried a similar sign throughout Beijing. In a crowded street, sidewalk or square, believe me, you did not want to lose sight of that sign. We all checked on each other to be sure everyone in our individual parties were always in sight. Since there were six of us who knew each other--Carol and Mike, Barbara and I, and Bob and John--we looked out for one another. At 6'2'', Mike was pretty easy to keep in sight!

I kept saying "Bushi yao!" which means "I don't want it! in Chinese, but they barely backed off. After dark it was a little scarey just because they jostled us while we were trying to negotiate uneven streets and sidewalks. But we all survived intact!

Back to dinner in the Hutong District...

They divided our group of 21 into 2 rooms, each with a large oblong table and tiny stools to sit on.

A relative of our hostess brought in dish after dish and served us beer or sida. It was a delighful meal!

The other half of our group joined us after dinner and the lady of the house gave a little speech of welcome and information about her home, interpreted by Anna.

Our hostess in the Hutong District. She seemed happy to have us.

Although single story the house actually crosses a street and sprawls out into many small rooms; 19 family members live there. The room we were in was her son's room, and had a small refrigerator, a rather large new flat screen TV, a computer, a stereo system, nice (if unmatched) furniture pieces and a bed. The room was cluttered with odds and ends of knickkacks and the walls were covered with soccer posters.

Our hostess told us a bit about the house and also showed us a medal her husband had been awarded. It was for being an "outstanding worker" and she was obviously very proud of it. Anna told us this house is worth "over $6 million"! The house itself is nothing much special and parts of it, like window sills and doorways are actually shabby. But the property it occupies in the heart of Beijing is no doubt what makes it so valuable.

After returning (again by rickshaw) to our bus, we went back to the hotel at 7:30. Some of us, including Barbara and me, had arranged for massages again! Ahhhhh! How relaxing. 90 minutes of bliss for $30. After that we went right to sleep as our wake up call was for 4 am! (I'm writing this on the flight to Shanghai, so it's a bit bumpy.) Our plane left Beijing at 7:30 am and now almost an hour and a half later we are starting to descend.

I can't buy much more in Shanghai or I'll need another suitcase! Only small, lightweight stuff!

(Yeah, right!)

From the Shanghai airport we will go to Suzhou and then what? Not sure.

Here ends part 3 of the China trip. Part 4 will probably be posted on Monday, since tomorrow is Easter and I'll be spending it with my Mom.

Happy Easter, Everyone!

China II Beijing continued

Journal Continued:

Saturday, March 21st- Yesterday was wonderful! We started out by going to the Jade Factory. Very interesting and awesome amounts of beautiful objects, including jewelry. I shopped! Bought a bangle and a ring and earrings and earrings for Mom, got Kim a horse, got myself a dragon, bought some additional gifts, and got a free "family ball", an intricately carved series of balls inside balls carved from a single piece--got that for being a "big spender"--ha!

This ferocious jade cat carving graces the lobby of the jade factory.

This woman is carving a jade piece. The size of items ranged from tiny ornaments to huge sculptures. Jade is a semi-precious gemstone, revered in China for centuries. Originally used for tools in Neolithic times because of its hardness and strength, later jade appeared on ornaments and in funerary treasures. Pure white jade is the highest prized, but the stones vary in translucency and color, including many shades of green, brown, and black.

So many beautiful things! It was a shopper's paradise. Prices were surprisingly reasonable. (My daughter tells me that's because the stuff is "made in China". LOL!)

Then we went to the cloisonne' factory. My gosh, who knew how intricate this process is! We toured the factory, had lunch there, and of course, SHOPPED!

This sculpture was in the lobby of the restaurant adjacent to the cloisonne' factory. Not a Buddha, but another revered Chinese figure whose name, sadly, I did not write down.

This worker is soldering individual metal cloisons to enamelware. The lines of cloisons form separate designs which eventually will be inlaid with various colored enamels.

This woman was our local guide in the cloisonne' factory. Here she's pointing out the details of a partially painted vase. The items are fired after each application of enamel, painted, fired, painted, fired, etc. then finally polished to a high gloss. Large items can take months from start to finish. Cloisonne' is one of several traditional Chinese arts.

Such beautiful items! So many choices! Picked up gifts and a small vase for myself--all carefully wrapped and boxed and ready for my suitcase.

Pictures just don't do it justice. The shopping area was huge and filled with these dazzling works of art. The largest piece I saw was a vase that must have been 6 feet tall!

This sign in "Chinglish" attempts to explain something about Cloisonne' to English-speaking visitors. It is typical of signs we saw in other localities illustrating that literal translations are often just not possible.

In the afternoon we went to the Great Wall. What an awesome sight! Something I've seen in pictures and heard about, but actually standing here is a special experience.

Group picture! This is one of several that were taken during our China trip. Most of the travelers were from Solvang, CA or nearby, but I was there from Illinois, Barbara from San Diego, and Bob and Mike from Malibu. I'm in the center in the red jacket. Carol is on my right and her brother Bob is on my left.

Carol and I have been planning for months to "dance on The Great Wall". And here we are, along with Barbara! Notice who is out of step.

I climbed the first set of steps, took lots of pictures, and came back down. The stairs are treacherous and I figured better safe than sorry.

A few sections of the thousands of miles of the Wall have been restored and are open to the public; however most of its length is in various stages of crumbling ruin and is too dangerous for visitors to climb. Originally a series of unconnected earthen ramparts built by local chieftains to protect their own states, the Great Wall was created only after the unification of China in the 3rd century BC. Watch towers were spaced two arrow shots apart to leave no part of the wall unprotected. The towers also served as signal towers, forts, living quarters, and storerooms for provisions. Many parts of the wall were reconstructed during the Ming dynasty (1468-1644). Those Mings were busy guys.

The section we visited, I believe, was called Juyong Guan, a quieter section than the more frequently visited Badaling section. Apparently in the summer, all the public sections of the Wall are overrun with tourists.

Impressive as The Great Wall is, the myth that it is the only man-made structure that can be seen from "outer space" is just that, a myth.
As it snakes and twists, crawls and climbs over the mountains, deserts and plains it is not distinct enough from the surrounding terrain to be seen from space stations. The Wall can be seen from a low earth orbit, but so can many other man-made structures, including wide freeways.

Despite its impressive battlements, The Great Wall was ultimately breached several times, most notably by the Mongols in the 13th century and the Manchu in the 17th century.

Of course, there was the ubiquitous series of gift shops near the Wall. I got a cup of coffee, a sweatshirt that says "I climbed the Great Wall of China", and some gifts for friends.

It was in one of these gift shops that a Chinese lady nearly had a meltdown because I paid another clerk for my purchase with a $50 bill (USD) that had some kind of small mark on it. She fussed and followed me out of the store hollering about "No good money!" The place didn't take credit cards, and at this point in the day, I didn't have enough cash with me to exchange the bill. I offered to give back the sweatshirt and other items, but she changed her mind and decided to keep the $50 bill. Since it came from the bank in Carbondale, I knew it was OK, but it was funny to see how the Chinese hate "dirty money"!

This is as good a time as any to tell you about Chinese toilets. This one was cleaner than many I saw, but is typical of most of the women's toilets in public restrooms. More enlightened businesses and restaurants are gradually adding conventional sit-down toilet stools, and many places there would be 1 or 2 "sitters" along with a half dozen or more "squatters". The women in our group quickly divided into two camps: those who could and did mange the "squatters" and those who held it until they could access a "sitter". Fortunately most of the time I was able to manage the "squatters", so I seldom had to stand in line very long to use the facilities.

Another interesting point about Chinese bathrooms is the toilet paper, or lack thereof. Most public restrooms simply had no paper. You brought your own or did without. Occasionally there would be a tp dispenser on the wall just outside the bathroom so you could get some before you went in--which is fine, as long as you know how much you're going to need for that visit! Forewarned, I had prepared several small plastic ziplock bags of pre-torn and folded strips of tp, complete with a light spray of perfume applied to each. (This suggestion came from a friend who lived in China for several years and knew that many public restrooms were less than pleasant regarding odors. She suggested holding the perfumed paper under your nose until you were ready to apply it to the other end. It works.) If you note the wastebasket in the picture, it explains why some of the toilets were malodorous. In many areas Chinese plumbing simply cannot handle paper along with the other "stuff", so if you see a wastebasket, you're meant to put your used paper in it to avoid plugging up the works when you flush.

Happily, all our hotel rooms had "regular" and in some cases spacious and well appointed bathrooms, so the more discerning women only had to deal with the "sitter" problem when we were out and about.

After leaving the Great Wall we set out for an unusual but interesting experience combining relaxation, a meal, and entertainment.

We went to a facility that is part Chinese medical treatment complex and part restaurant and entertainment center.

We got neck, back, and foot massages while enjoying Chinese beer--about 15 of us all in a big room with recliners, foot basins, and foot stools. A "legion" of Chinese practitioners swarmed in and we all got delicious massages at the same time--for an hour! I could get used to this!

I don't know where the rest of the group went who chose not to get massages--and I didn't much care!!

Two beers and a massage...I may never go home again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After that we went to dinner, which was a buffet and dinner theater--Chinese acrobats--very good and entertaining. At 8:30 we returned to our hotel and collasped into bed exhausted.

It was a little difficult to eat and watch the performers at the same time, stopping often to applaud, but we managed.

Here ends Part II of the China trip, to be resumed on tomorrow's blog.

China and other thoughts

Whew! It's been a while. Water under the bridge.

I guess the biggest recent news is my trip to China, sandwiched in between 2 trips to California. (When I travel, I don't mess around!)

I kept a daily journal on the China trip, and I've got my photos on my computer, but I had some trouble with Kodak EasyShare, so I hope I'll be able to post them....(sound of teeth gnashing). Aha! I figured it out! So here we go with the journal entries in italics and my additional comments in regular script.

MARCH 17 TRAVEL DAY! Carol and I are busy doing last minute laundry and packing.

Carol Lesher Peterson is my friend from Solvang, CA who told me about the China trip. I'd been staying with her and her hubby Mike for 5 days.

My big suitcase weighs 27 lbs so I know the smaller one is OK, too. The weight limit is 40 lbs per bag. I expect most souvenirs I buy will be small and lightweight (Was I WRONG!) and I'll use up some items as we go, such as shampoo, soap, etc. We meet the bus to LAX at 5 pm and the plane is scheduled to leave at 1:40 am 3/18--a very long day. I hope I can sleep on the plane.

Thursday, March 19 7:30 am Beijing standard time. After a long wait at LAX and a 14-hour flight (during which I slept over half the time!) we have arrived at our hotel in Beijing at 8 am. The hotel is new and extremely nice. Barbara (my roommate, who is from San Diego--we met through Carol) is taking a shower while I fiddled with the wide screen TV and got CNN in English. Our room is very luxurious with all kinds of amenities. Time for a shower and a short nap and off to lunch.

This fella was in the lobby of the restaurant where we had lunch.

Lovely restaurant on the 7th floor in a ballroom-like setting. BTW, Wednesday got lost in the flight. (But the following week we got "2 Thursdays", so it works out.)

This was our lunch the first day, and is typical of most of the lunches and dinners on this trip. Breakfasts were all buffets, with many choices of Western or Asian food.

Friday, March 20. 2nd day in Beijing. Yesterday after lunch we went to the Forbidden Cioty and Tian'an Men Square. Impressive.

This is near the entrance to the Forbidden City, the former residence of Chinese emperors and their extensive families and court attendants. Completed in 1420 this huge palace complex was the ruling site for 24 emperors for over 500 years. Open to the public since 1949, it consists of a series of peripheral structures consisting of guard towers, living quarters, offices, storehouses, and gates all of which surround multiple other structures, including temples, bridges, and ornamental "halls" including the largest structure, The Hall of Supreme Harmony, which you can see rising on the hill over the crowd in the center.

Scattered throughout the interior of the Forbidden City are huge bronze cauldrons, which were filled with water in case of fire. The mostly wooden structures were extremely vulnerable to fire.

Considering that most of the structures are wooden, the Forbidden City is amazingly well preserved. This historical site is a national treasure and a source of pride at the heart of Beijing.

These unusual rock formations, found in most large Chinese ornamental gardens, come from the same lake, Tai Hu. These are inside the Forbidden City. We saw many others in other gardens we visited.

Typical of the many structures inside the Forbidden City, this illustrates classical Chinese architecture of platform, post-and-beam timber frames, and non-load-bearing walls. Often mistakenly referred to as "pagodas" these buildings often feature the upward curved "flying wings", which frequently are tipped in carved figures called "water dogs" (spirits to protect against fire).

Thresholds are elevated 4 to 8 inches to keep out evil spirits, who were apparently thought to travel close to the ground. I found it interesting that outside the parks and shrines and historical sites, we saw fewer of these archtypical Chinese structures than I expected. Beijing has been transformed into a modern city in many ways.

This is the Tian'an Men Gate, entrance to famed Tien'an Men Square, a huge open concrete space, familiar to most Westerners as the site of the bloody student protests in 1989. Chairman Mao's Mausoleum is a focal point within the square, and his portrait, also familiar to many Westerners, looms over the street opposite the gate.

Today's Chinese continue to respect Chairman Mao. However, political repression appears to be waning. One of our guides told us, "When I was young, my parents tell me no one can speak bad about the government. Now, today, no one much cares what we say." This is truly a revolution!!

The Great Hall of the People in Tian' an Men Square, the seat of the Chinese legislature, the National People's Congress.

Mao's Mausoleum is the low building at left center. Our tour passed through the middle of the square from one end to the other, so we were not closer than this to the tomb. Visitors are permitted, but we didn't have enough time.

My back hurt, so I stayed on the bus (after we left Tien'an Men Square) rather than do the final 50 minutes at the Temple of Heaven. (Carol's brother Bob told me, "You didn't miss much.")

Carving the Peking Duck. Yummy but very greasy!

Last night we ate at a lovely restaurant (on the 3rd floor--no elevators, thank you) and had Peking Duck, among many other delicious things. So far I have enjoyed all the foods I've tried.

Me with the "Peking Duck" who stands outside the restaurant where we ate some of his family.

After returning to the hotel at 7 pm we had a quick shower and then 2 massuses came to our room and Barbara and I each had a 90-minute massage for $30! OMG! It was wonderfl! Afterward we went right off to sleep. I got up to the bathroom at 4 am. Barbara got up, turned on the lights, etc. She'd thought she'd heard my alarm go off! We laughed and went back to sleep. Lovely buffet breakfast this morning with some of the best coffee I've ever tasted. In a half hour we'll be off to see the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall!

I'm stopping for now. To be continued on tomorrow's blog.