China, The Final Blog

OK, now my final blog about our China trip. This is a hodge podge of pictures that didn't fit into the themes of my previous posts....enjoy!

we went to a park that had quite a few rules/restrictions...I'm still trying to figure out what a few of these are :)

The Summer Palace:

the Marble Boat (exclusively for the head concubine)

We went to a show that was akin to the Cirque du Soleil productions that most people are familiar with. It was very impressive, and they did not mind if you took photos during the show.

This man was supporting two contortionists: one with his feet and the other with his hands...AND he was rolling across the floor, from back to stomach to back, etc. As he transitioned from lying on his back to lying on his stomach, he had to do some flexible maneuvers with his shoulders that almost made it look like his arms were coming out of socket. Surreal.

11 people riding on one bike....doing tricks

OK, back to some classical Chinese architecture:

the Temple of Heaven - constructed with interlocking beams, without the use of nails

We visited the Lama Temple:

18 meter tall Buddha carved from a single piece of sandalwood

On our last day, we had a few more hours to kill, so we headed to the drum towers. They used to ring a bell in the morning and beat a drum in the evening to signify the time.

Amanda cautiously navigates up the extremely steep stairs to the top of the drum tower.

The view from atop the drum tower shows the juxtaposition of the nearby hutong (narrow alleys) and the modern city skyline in the distance.

original drum in the tower against the daylight flooding in through the paned windows

a troop of volunteers re-enacting the playing of the drums...I only wish they would let me play too :)

Well, this concludes the plethora of pics from our second China trip. With how fast the country is growing, I am sure it will be much different the next time we go to visit. If you ever have the chance to visit, I highly recommend taking full advantage of discovering all the sights and culture that China has to offer. There is a passion for prosperity that can be found throughout, and the respect and continuation of thousands of years of tradition is unparalleled in any other land on Earth.

China 2012: Great Food and Street Markets

One of the best parts about traveling is experiencing the local cuisine, and this is exactly where China shines as one of my favorite places in the world. The food is tasty and cheap. On our first trip to China, I gained 5 pounds in 11 days...no joke! It is just too good to pass up on seconds... and thirds.

If you go to Beijing, you must order Peking Duck, as it is the national food, and it originated there centuries ago. The chef prepares Peking Duck right at your table - his skill is evident in how fast and precise he carves the bird.

The perfectly carved pieces of Peking Duck fit together on the platter in a herring bone pattern; the crispy skin literally melts in your mouth. My advice: take small bites and spend time to savor the experience....because there is nowhere else in the world that they do Peking Duck this well.

crispy rolls in edible baskets

Of course, even in China, Emily found a Starbucks! Her resolve is unweilding.

We hit up a few local street markets to get some unique culinary experiences. The variety of food is so tempting, yet you need to be careful of what you eat due to differing tolerances of microfauna when traveling to new regions. I was untrusting of anything that could have been washed with tap water, so I figured that the high temperatures employed in deep frying would make these items OK for me to eat. Besides, deep fried foods are what street vendors are famous for!

a crowded local street market: one of my favorite stops where ever I go

lizards, centipedes, locusts, grubs, scorpions....now were talkin'! Yeah, I'm getting pretty excited to try some new foods here.

My choice for an afternoon snack: 3 scorpions on a stick. I grabbed the stick and was ready to chop down on it, then the vendor motioned for me to give the stick back to him. Apparently he still had yet to deep fry and season them!
Rule number 1: raw scorpions look exactly like fried scorpions.
They didn't have much substance to them, just really crunchy, but I'm glad I can say I tried it.

OK, on to some more "normal" foods at the street market:

bao and dumplings of every type you could imagine

...more dumplings and several kinds of tofu, including my favorite, "stinky tofu" (fermented tofu whose stench can be smelled blocks away, but it tastes amazing). It is very hard to find stinky tofu in the USA (a few places in San Francisco sell it), so I had to jump on every opportunity to enjoy this culinary delight while in China.

roasted birds of all types

and for dessert: sugar glazed fruit kabobs
...however, as good as they looked, we were too afraid to eat the fruit, fearing it was washed with unclean water :(

China 2012: Pandas

Of course, no trip to China is complete without a trip to the zoo to see the famous Pandas, right Emily and Amanda? :) I gotta admit, the Pandas did live up to their reputation of being lazy yet playful. It was fun watching them roll around and play on a sunny day. They wouldn't let Emily bring one home as a pet, so she had to settle for the hat.

China 2012: The Great Wall

One of the highlights of our Beijing trip (besides the great food) was visiting the Great Wall. At almost 4000 miles long and snaking up and down steep mountains, it is an engineering marvel.

I was amazed at how steep some of the sections were....this part had stairs, but some sections were steep ramps that required good traction...I would not want to climb some of these when it is wet.

China 2012_Part II: Modern Buildings

The great part about Beijing is that it houses some amazing architecture, both old and new. This blogpost features my favorite modern buildings of the city:

the IBM building

here we are with Mike and Amanda at the National Stadium, aka "The Bird's Nest", built for the 2008 Olympic games

the National Aquatics Center, aka "the Water Cube", also built for the 2008 Olympics

the 250 X 30 meter LED screen ceiling outside of The Place (hotel and shopping center) is pretty impressive and definitely worth a visit

In my quest to see the best sights the world has to offer (which is what it's all about, right?), I had to revisit the Olympic buildings at night to see them in their full glory. They are much more beautiful at night:

the Bird's Nest at night

the Water Cube at night (my favorite)

China 2012_Part I

Back in February (I know, I am really behind with blogging), we went on a trip to China with our friends Mike and Amanda (Amanda was Emily's college roommate). We spent the entire trip in Beijing, discovering all that the city and surrounding areas had to offer. We had a really great trip, made even better by getting to spend it with such good friends.

my favorite building happened to be next door to our hotel!

Emily and Amanda

Emily and I at The Great Hall of the People (where the National People's Congress meets)

as the best Mandarin speaker in our group, Emily took over as tour guide :)

Tienanmen Square

inside the Forbidden City

We had a nice sunny day while visiting the Ming Dynasty Tombs, which included a long walk amongst the many sculptures of mythical animals and statues.

the gate at the sacred walk

(...many more China pics to follow)