Our friends, Shell, Clint, Alex & Kate, stopped by our neck of the woods in China while on heading to New Zealand from the USA. Our awesome friends had rented our home in Potosi for the past three years while we've been living in China. Clint works at Deere and they were expats…in the USA. Exactly like us!!!
They've finished their assignment and now they're heading back to New Zealand BUT not before stopping over in China.
A brief tour of the fruit and veggie market….which also happens to have a stall selling alcohol. Interesting! Fruit, veggies, meat and alcohol!
By the way….eeeewwwww!!!! I accidentally drank some of that alcohol (I assumed incorrectly that I was drinking a bottle of water when in fact it was alcohol from this place….and I promptly spit it out in the sink. The girls laughed at me but it was YUCKY!)
We're off to see Ancient Culture Street…these two cuties are obviously soooo excited! (Darn jet lag!)
We also invited Annika's friend, Mimi, on our trip through Ancient Culture Street. And apparently we were quite the show as people kept asking us OVER and OVER if Ava was cold (leng bu leng?). Not our crazy Ava! At least, not that she'd ever admit to anyone. 😉
Clint sampling tasty street food (jian bing). This is one of my favorite street foods!
Shell and Clint selecting their red clay teapot from a vendor at ACS:
Kate showing off her butterfly mask she picked out at ACS:
Mmmmmm….hot pot lunch at Haidilao. Yummy, yummy, yummy! A perfect meal for a cold day.
How to Use Chopsticks, Kate-style:
Playing cards & games at our house:
Friday morning we were off to Beijing. Our friends had two requests on things to see in China…the Great Wall and the terra-cotta warriors in Xi'an. We're in Beijing to knock off the first one on their list.
However, the Great Wall will be a day trip and since we have time to kill on this fine and "cloudy" day, Shell and I headed off to the Pearl Market:
Where we didn't find a single thing to buy. While they cleaned up the market I'm thankful it wasn't slaughtered altered like the Yashow market (which is unrecognizable from its previous state). I'm glad it's the same and I'm glad I didn't want or need anything.
Shell and I also walked over to the Temple of Heaven to get this glimpse of the Hall of Prayer of Good Harvest…which, oddly enough, isn't a temple at all.
At night we walked out to see Wanfujing Night Market …
Welcome to 2016…the Year of the Monkey!
Hustling and bustling food stalls. I remember the first time we saw this market several years ago – it had lots of stalls selling unusual and bizarre foods (scorpions? spiders? sheep testicles??? check, check, and check). This trip we only found ONE stall selling them. Honestly, there wasn't a lot of good looking food. Most of it made me slightly nervous.
Kate trying a big (potato) chip:
Potatoes are good! I also got a deep fried banana on a stick. Mmmmm….highly edible!!!
Our hotel in the Beijing hutongs:
Our absolutely gorgeous room!
Kate and Annika are busy drawing:
This is quite the impressive bed! Sadly, the heater in our room didn't work as well as we would have liked and we were quite cold on our first night. I even slept with all my clothes on and it took me FOREVER to warm up.
This morning I saw a flock of what must have been homing pigeons circling the same route over and over and over again. I thought it was kind of odd for a flock of birds to be flying the same path but once I realized they probably belonged to someone it all made more sense.
Here's the outside of our hotel room.
Today we're at Mutianyu. Can you recall back to our very first trip the Great Wall four years ago? This is the same section we visited then. (The Great Wall has different "sections" that you can go visit. The one closest to us, known as the Tianjin section or Huangyaguan, is the section that we go to quite frequently but we wanted to do something a little different on this trip.) Mutianyu has cable cars that take you up the mountain. 🙂
At the top of the cable car drop-off…should we go left or right??? How about left this time? Since it took several hours to drive out here let's get our legs good and stretched out.
One way to stretch our legs is by walking very steep steps!
Picnic lunch on top of a watch tower:
Ooof! Those stairs are becoming harder and harder to walk on!
Yikes! Those are some steep steps!
And these are even steeper!!!
Kate was the first to get up those steep steps….so she (and her brother) got to pick out this lovely medal (courtesy of her mom and dad). Way to go, Kate!
Cheers!!!!
A VERY cold and "cloudy" day in Beijing. We started our day with a basic and quick breakfast at the hotel and then headed over to Tiananmen Square (which is across the street from the Forbidden City):
Shell went to stand next to this guard for a photo but he made a very quick get-away. Hahahaha!
Outside the Forbidden City with Chairman Mao watching over us.
It took some time figuring out how and where to buy entrance tickets to the Forbidden City. I swear they change it every single visit I've had here! On this trip we changed things up a bit when Clint hired an official guide (for around 400RMB). That was a worthwhile investment! It made the trip more interesting and enjoyable. Plus, we got the Quick, Quick tour (we had the guide for 1.5 hours). That means the kids didn't have time to get bored with any one thing as we kept moving.
Brass pot that stored water for fire prevention (as the Forbidden City buildings are made of WOOD):
Lots of attention to details:
Honestly nothing special about this gentleman but for some reason I'm drawn to this photo:
More details in the flooring:
Kate getting a ride on her dad's shoulders:
Here's our lovely guide. Now, this was my third time to the Forbidden City but my first time using a guide. I must say, I'm glad we did! She was able to answer our questions and help us understand the importance of the different places in this national treasure. Thank you!
While Mark and the girls drove back to Tianjin, the rest of us flew to Xi'an to check off the next bucket list item…the terra-cotta warriors.
Now, this is my third time to see these statues and I'm still blown away by the epic-ness of this place. I mean, can you imagine just how absolutely bonkers crazy Emperor Qin must have been to build this vast army to protect him in the after life. He must have made some pretty powerful enemies if he thought he needed this kind of protection after his death.
Coming here on a Monday during the winter was brilliant! There were relatively few tourists and there weren't lines to see or do anything. Actually quite perfect for a family with little ones that are still a little jet lagged.
Posing for photos!
Our guide, Michael, told us this one character has the most strokes out of any Chinese character: FIFTY FIVE. Yikes! He said that teachers would punish students by making them write this character over and over again. So, Astrid, how is this relevant? Well biang happens to be a local noodle specialty.
And at the little restaurant Michael has selected we've ordered two different kinds of these noodles- one plain and one spinach. I can't wait!
I'm loving these well loved bowls:
Patiently waiting for food to arrive:
And check out that noodle! Nearly impossible to eat but really yummy!
Here the waitress is holding up one of the spinach noodles so that you can see how long it is. I think she felt sorry for us and helped dish out the noodles into our bowls. Thanks!
Seriously yummy food!
Now we're on the City Wall that surrounds the old part of Xi'an. Unfortunately the air quality was BAD. I mean really REALLY HORRIBLE. We didn't stay too long.
Watching some folks playing games down below:
Remember the homing pigeons we saw in Beijing? Well, here is a guy on a roof-top (he's holding a red flag) exercising a huge flock of birds. They kept doing the same pattern and route over and over again. He was definitely using the flag to signal to them.
On this trip to Xi'an I asked if we could visit something I've not seen before…the Big Goose Pagoda. I'm still not sure what this place has to do with geese but it does make for an interesting name! Apparently the person immortalized by this statue was a Chinese (monk?) that walked all the way to India to study Buddhism. He traveled back to China carrying important scrolls/scripts that are now kept elsewhere. Our guide said that at one point in history, if someone wanted to learn about Indian Buddhism this was the best place to come. I can't verify that…it's just what he said.
A golden Buddha statue (all the buildings/rooms have unique Buddhas/Bodhisattvas watching over you):
The sun was setting on us during our visit to this pagoda. We opted not to pay extra to climb inside the pagoda. Michael made a good point that with the heavy smog we wouldn't see much. That's okay. I think this is a lovely view anyway.
Across the street from the pagoda was a large shopping complex which boasted the largest LED (???) or LCD (???) screen in the world… it's the ceiling of the complex. We watched several interesting animations including these ocean creatures move across the screen:
One last photo with Michael, our Xi'an guide. Thank you Michael for yet another excellent trip to Xi'an!
If you ever need a guide in Xi'an I'd highly recommend Michael. This is the third time we've used him (personally my second time). I will say that while you don't need a guide to visit to Xi'an it does help – especially getting around the terra-cotta warrior museum. Guides are good at knowing where to go and when…especially when it comes to uber popular touristy spots!
I walked around the Muslim Quarter at night. I thought since it was cold and dark the place would be shut down for the winter. Well, I was WRONG. I don't think this place ever shuts down!!!!
We returned to Tianjin after our brief visit to Xi'an. Sadly, due to the nasty air pollution there I have to admit it wasn't too soon. I really do hope that Xi'an has a blue sky day this winter.
We spent the morning in Tianjin at the People's Park. It's always fun to come here and people watch. We watched couples dancing, ladies performing dances, one gentleman playing an instrument, people strolling and walking, and this guy:
He's writing Chinese calligraphy using a giant brush and water. Yes, water. I wonder what he's written.
Ava and I along with our friends took the bullet train to Shanghai. I'm kind of glad we left a very cold Tianjin for warmer Shanghai!
We're staying at the JW Marriott in Shanghai. It costs a fortune and the service is questionable and their pool is in a horrible location (I mean, who seriously wants to walk on cold stone flooring down a cold and dark hallway to get to a pool that is only of barely tolerable temperature???? Plus, the staff at the gym weren't what I'd call polite.) So, why do we stay at this annoying hotel? For the high rise views! (Hey JW Marriott, FYI- this will be my last stay at this hotel!!! Especially since you couldn't be bothered to get my name correct. I think I can find a different hotel to drop a wad of cash on a spectacular room.)
Anyway, the room was nicely set up with a king size bed in one room and a sofa bed in the attached living area….where Ava has made her fort:
We're off to visit YuYuan (Yu Garden)…which we've seen before. I do love the architecture of these buildings!
Mark and Annika joined us Friday night. On Saturday we paid a brief visit to the Bund:
On this visit we wanted to do something different so we decided to go across the river and head to the Pudong district. But….how cross the river? We were too far away from any subway lines. We didn't want to pay the outrageous fees for the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. What options are we left with? Well, we just happened across this ferry that goes back and forth across the river….and I think it cost maybe 5 RMB per person (the tunnel would have cost around 70 RMB per person!!!). Brilliant, fast, and cheap!
Here's a closer look at the Pearl Tower:
Now off to the Shanghai Aquarium….
and apparently EVERYONE else in Shanghai is here too. Yikes. Too many people!!! I only took this one photo while we were there of Ava and Kate with their hands in a tank of skin-nibbling fish.
I didn't take any other photos as it was either too dark or there were too many people. Ugh.
We took the subway across the river…and were in search of Boxing Cat Brewery for dinner. After much walking around we finally found it. While the beer was good I would not say this restaurant had good service as it took waaaay too long to get someone to take our order in the first place. We tried it but I don't think I need to return here especially considering that are hundreds (maybe even thousands) of restaurants to try here in Shanghai.
Upon returning to the hotel our friends gathered up everything and made there way over to the airport – lucky them – they get to fly to beautiful and clean New Zealand. With fresh air.
Shell, Clint, Alex, and Kate – thank you so much for stopping by on our way back to New Zealand! I'm so glad we got to visit with you and we look forward to seeing you in the future!!!