Overview of Aunt Karen & Uncle Chuck’s Visit

April 11-23, 2013-

We just LOVED, LOVED, LOVED having Aunt Karen and Uncle Chuck come visit us here in China!  It was so much fun getting to show and share with them all the things that we love about China.  Oh, and getting to show them all the quirky, weird things you only get to see in China.  They only had one-and-a-half weeks here – and we packed every day to the gills with activities and sights.  There just is never enough time to see and do it all!

Here are a few photos from their trip:

A quick visit to Beijing on Monday:

At Tiananmen Square facing the entrance to the Forbidden City.

A failed (!!!!) attempt to see the Forbidden City -which is just a bunch of buildings you can't really enter anyway…so not a big loss BUT STILL!  How dare they close this on Monday afternoons?  Okay…I'm not really upset as I'm sure they have a lot of maintenance to do but there were very many other upset tourists who missed their only opportunity to visit this attraction.

Well, what should we do now???  We had several tries communicating with our driver (he was supposed to wait for us at the exit of the Forbidden City complex in a few hours).  Finally, with the help of Mark's Chinese co-workers we were able to communicate with him.  He swooped in, picked us up and we tried our luck visiting one of the hutongs just a few blocks away from the Forbidden City.

Hutong:

Aunt Karen and Uncle Chuck in the hutong. This hutong had lots of interesting boutique shops and restaurants.  We found an interesting Tibetan restaurant that served real ginger tea and yummy, interesting food.

Eating dumplings at DinTaiFeng on April 17 in Tianjin:

What's not to love about these dumplings??? Some of the dumplings have a more soup-like filling. I'd love to know how they make those without having them fall apart while cooking!

We all zoomed south to Shanghai for a quick weekend visit via the bullet train.

Aunt Karen and Uncle Chuck with the famous Oriental Pearl Tower in the background.

Trying out different kinds of Chinese tea in a tiny tea shop:

Mark was interested in buying more Chinese tea but wasn't sure which one to get…so we got to try them out! It's neat watching them prepare tea in what I assume is the Chinese traditional way.

A stroll through YuYuan Garden in Shanghai:

 See that roof-top dragon?  They weave a path through-out YuYuan Garden.

View from the 46th floor of the JW Marriott in Shanghai:

Do you see that tall building with the two points sticking out from it? That building houses the hotel we stayed in on our previous Shanghai visit. That's People Park down below.

The amazing night view from the top floor of the hotel:

The blue lights are a lit up bridge. I love the red and white ribbon. Can you guess what those red and white lights are? I am SO GLAD we're not stuck in that traffic!

It started to rain overnight….and it continued to rain for the entire rest of the day.  Thank goodness it didn't rain the previous day!

April 20:

Breakfast in JW Marriott on the umpteenth floor:

The breakfast buffet in the JW Marriott was truly outstanding. They even had an ice cream bar!!!!

After we enjoyed our breakfast we ventured out and met with one of Mark's high school friends that lives and works in Shanghai with his family. Do you remember last year when we went to Shanghai??? We met this same family for lunch last year as well…in the same excellent restaurant. I just love the breakfast burritos!!!!  Mmmm Mmm! 🙂

After lunch with our friends we sent Aunt Karen and Uncle Chuck off on their own adventure: to Xi'an.  (home to the terracotta warriors and banpo museum)

We boarded the bullet train and headed back for home:

See that woman standing behind Ava? She was the train's trash collector and she also could NOT stop messing with Ava! She stood behind Ava and messed with her hair… honestly, it got pretty irritating. You can see Ava clutching Shasta (her toy). Yikes. However, since we're guests in this country I didn't want to make an angry scene (and it would only turn into a failed attempt at communication). Thank goodness the woman lost interest after a while.

I truly wish that westerners weren't such an unusual spectacle here in China.  There were a few other Chinese that stopped and stared at us while we were on the train.  Friends on Facebook suggested that we start singing …that way at least the attention is warranted.  Ha ha! I'm not so sure about that….

(giggle)

April 22:

Aunt Karen and Uncle Chuck returned to Tianjin on Monday afternoon.  They shared with us their adventures they had while in Xi'an.  

April 23:

On Aunt Karen and Uncle Chuck's last remaining day in China we drove to Beijing (sans the girls & Mark).  First stop –

The Pearl Market:

Ready to go shopping??? Ready to haggle? Uncle Chuck was able to get a great deal on lots of laser pointers and Aunt Karen bought some very nice souvenirs for their grandchildren.

After a quick lunch in Starbucks (which is located inside the market) we ventured across the street and checked out The Temple of Heaven:

I just love looking at this building! It's so colorful and cheerful….even on a day when the air quality was AWFUL.

After the Temple of Heaven visit we drove Aunt Karen and Uncle Chuck to their last destination, the Hilton at the airport.  It made more sense for them to stay overnight in the hotel since they had an early morning flight back to the States.  Good Bye!!!  :-(  

Mr. Li drove me back home…alone.  

We really enjoyed having family come visit us!  We really hope that other family members will also take an opportunity to come visit us!!!!!  :-)