Between our SEA trip to Xi'an and Luoyang and our weekend trip to Seoul, we spent a couple of days in Shanghai. This gave Elizabeth a chance to pick up the glasses and sunglasses shehad made at the eyeglass market and the leather jacket, trench coat, and tops that she had made at the Fabric Market. In addition, we did some shopping for Lululemon, purses, shoes, and such at the Fake Market.
Fortunately, Peter saved some time to spend with us in between our trips, as well as dinner with Peter and the kids at Johnny Moo's for Elizabeth birthday. He even took us to see a local temple in our neighborhood that I had seen many times but had never been to. Elizabeth got to see some of the local JinQiao sights including the recycling bicycles and the chair guy.
We had a wonderful time with Elizabeth and it was so great to have her here for an extended time for her visit. Ten days went by very quickly, even though we try to fit a lot into the time. At this point, we are hoping that all three of our girls will be coming to visit us here in Asia for Christmas this year, although we'll see how things pan out, especially in terms of our house in Illinois. But, until they come back to visit us here again, it's great to have so many pictures and warm memories of their visits.
We had about 2 days at home in our Shanghai apartment before we flew out to Seoul, South Korea. When Elizabeth decided to visit for her birthday, she asked that we travel outside of Shanghai and, preferably, outside of China. We discussed Tokyo, but decided that we might upset her sisters if we went to Tokyo, as we'd definitely want to visit Tokyo Disney and we couldn't go without Samantha and Miranda. So, when we looked at the options, after the trip to Xi'an and Luoyang, we decided to go to Seoul, South Korea.
We flew into Seoul on Thursday, arriving mid-day, and took a taxi to our beautiful hotel, the Westin Chosun. Elizabeth was able to use her SPG points to get us two beautiful suites in the Westin. After checking in, we had lunch at the Italian restaurant in the Westin, given that it was so far past lunch time already. Elizabeth ordered the BLT salad pizza, a pizza with salad on top. Unusual, but good.
After lunch, we walked around the pedestrian mall area where our hotel was located and were surprised to see a seemingly endless number of cosmetic stores and coffee shops. The weather in Seoul was beautiful - warm and sunny and such a nice change after the rain in Xi'an. We had tickets to see a show on Thursday afternoon, one recommended by Nickle from her trip to Seoul. The show is call Nanta and is a chef/restaurant show similar to a Blue Man/Stomp show - lots of drumming on pots, pans, plastic buckets and chopping blocks. It was a really good show and very funny - we really enjoyed it.
After the show, we met Chris's colleague, Charlie, who took us to enjoy Korean BBQ. Unfortunately for me, it seems that Korea uses a lot of nuts in their food, so I was faced with the ability to eat the plain meat and lettuce, but not much else. Chris and Elizabeth seemed to enjoy all the vegetables, sauces and condiments, though. I really liked the beautiful stone tables - like a big slab of granite with rough edges and a hole in the middle for the grill. Korean BBQ seems to be of the same type of meal as Hot Pot, Fondue, and Raclette - a cook on your own, while enjoying a leisurely conversation meal. I guess these types of meals are popular in many cultures.
On Friday, we had arranged for a guided tour of the DMZ - De-Militarized Zone - on Friday morning, so we got picked up early and headed about an hour north. Unfortunately, our tour guide wasn't very informative, unless we wanted to know how long we'd be at each spot and when to be back on the bus. I was a little confused at the beginning, but I think we figured out that there is a military zone both on the north and south of the DMZ. In the military zone in South Korea, there are farmers living and farming the land. The guide pointed out a "propaganda village" in the military zone on the North Korea side.
In the actual DMZ, there is nothing but wildlife. At least, theoretically. However, the South Koreans have found 4 tunnels that the North Koreans have dug under the DMZ. While they have only found 4 - mostly due to defectors - the South Koreans estimate that there are probably more like 40 or 50 of the tunnels. We walked down the 3rd tunnel. The South Koreans built an access ramp, a long ramp, down to the tunnel. We put on our hard hats and walked down the ramp, through the tunnel and to the barrier wall. Once there, all we could see was a small window in the wall showing a small window in the second barrier wall and a third barrier wall. Along the tunnel, we saw the fake coal dust the North Koreans put inside the tunnel to claim that it was part of an old coal mine instead of a military tunnel.
They claimed that the tunnel was 2 meters tall, but Chris can attest to the fact that it is not - we kept hearing when his hard hat hit the roof. After we left the tunnel, we went to the observatory and looked out over the DMZ toward North Korea. Finally, we saw the train station where South Korea plans to have trains go from South Korea to North Korea and eventually to Asia and Europe, once the countries are reunified. There was a lot of talk of reunification, but our guide stated that, although 89% of South Koreans are in favor of reunification, they don't want it now - not for 10-30 years.
North Korea is in no financial position to reunify - people are starving, have no electricity, no infra-structure. South Korean men must serve 2 years in the military when they turn 18. North Korean men must serve 10 years in the military when they turn 16. When we seemed surprised by that, our guide said that at least when the North Korean men are in the military, they are getting food and shelter, whereas they might not have that otherwise.
After returning to Seoul after the tour, we had lunch in Pattaya, a Thai restaurant in Itaewon, the center of international food in Seoul. We saw Bulgarian, American, India, and all types of international food. In fact, as an American Expat in Asia, I was surprised by the number of American restaurants in Seoul. We saw Taco Bell, Popeye's Fried Chicken, Outback Steak House, Dunkin' Donuts, Krispy Kremes, and all kinds of American franchises - even Yankee Candle! The U.S. Military has made such a lasting impression on Seoul that the city is very friendly to Americans and English-speakers. One of our taxi drivers even showed us a laminated sign he kept in his taxi thanking the U.S. for our military help and saying how much he loved the U.S.A.
After lunch, we made our traditional stop in a local grocery store and picked up some Choco-pies, a traditional local treat that is essentially just a moon pie. Chris even brought some of them home for Peter & Nickle's kids.
Later Friday evening, we were picked up by two of Chris's Korean colleagues for another dinner with Charlie at a great Italian restaurant. While Charlie wanted us to eat Korean again, I was glad for a chance to be able to eat things without nuts. He was very kind to arrange for a birthday candle and song for Elizabeth, because Friday was her 24th birthday. Dinner was delicious and a lot of fun, but I know I was starting to get pretty tired from all of our "vacationing."
On Saturday morning, we slept in a little bit before heading out to catch the hop-on, hop-off bus around Seoul. Unfortunately, the traffic in Seoul is so terrible - every day at every time - that the bus tour wasn't a great idea. Also, Seoul doesn't have a lot to see from a bus tour like this because the city was pretty much destroyed during the war and has been re-built since then, not leaving a lot of historical and pretty
sights to see. We would have been better off to hire a private tour guide to take us to the specific sights we wanted to see via the subway. Perhaps some of the traffic was because President Obama decided to visit Seoul at the same time we did, but I think it's always like that.
We hopped off the bus after 2 hours, not even 1/2 way through what was supposed to be a 2-hour loop, so we could meet Elizabeth's friend Yeina for lunch. Yeina and Elizabeth were friends in their last 2 years of high school in Frankfurt, Germany, but hadn't seen each other in a while. Yeina took us to a different Korean BBQ restaurant and then for some delicious Korean ice cream, which is essentially shaved ice covered in a sweet milking mixture and fresh strawberries. I really liked it.
We parted company with Yeina to head back to the hotel to check out and catch a bus to the airport. Unfortunately, we only had a short weekend in Seoul - definitely not enough time to see Seoul. There are many sights we would like to go back to see another time. Seoul has a lot to see and a lot of restaurants to try (as well as an incredible amount of coffee shops, if you're a coffee drinker), so we'll have to try and find time to go again in the future. But, I think Elizabeth enjoyed her birthday trip, getting a chance to see Yeina, and getting to see a new country.
On Sunday afternoon, April 20, we left Xi'an and took a train to Luoyang for an additional part of the SEA tour. At this point, it was just the 3 of us and one other SEA tourist, Marion.
The train was only about 1.5 hours, so it was a quick trip. We were met in Luoyang by our new tour guide, Charles, a tall, funny, young Chinese man. He was funnier, in a sarcastic way, than most of the Chinese we meet or, at least, his English was good enough that we were able to understand his sarcasm and dry humor.
Charles and the new van driver picked us up at the train station and took us to the Longman Grottoes, which are one of the four most famous Buddhist grottoes in China. Over 100,000 Buddha figures are carved into the stone in more than 23,000 niches on the hill. The Longman Grottoes are listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
While making our way to the grottoes, we passed through a large crowd of Chinese. We saw nearly no other Caucasians and were approached by a large number of young Chinese school children who wanted to practice their English on us, asking us to write our names and take photos with them. While it significantly slowed down our progress, the children were polite and sweet.
The grottoes were very crowded - one of those instances where the people in line behind me literally pushed me forward. But, fortunately, it wasn't raining for a change and the temperature was nice. We walked to the end of the main viewing area and then caught a boat ride back to the parking area and headed off to our hotel.
Once our driver got to the hotel, Charles informed us that he was not going to be our tour guide for the following day. Even though the Country Tours itinerary listed him as our only guide in Luoyang, Charles said that our guide for Monday would be Winston because we were going to the Shaolin Temple and, given that Winston had worked there for 10 years, he knew much more about the Temple. Also, Charles said that Winston had much better English, although Charles English was so good, it was hard for us to imagine.
We asked Charles for dinner recommendations and walked around the food court and restaurants in the mall across the street, but ended up eating in the restaurant in the hotel that night before turning in.
On Monday morning, we met Winston after breakfast and headed out to the Shenzhou Peony Gardens to see the famous Chinese peonies. Apparently, the peony is the symbolic flower of China and Luoyang is the center of peony gardens because the soil there is perfect for peonies. They are beautiful and fragrant flowers, but it was disappointing to see that the peonies were somewhat past their prime when we got there to see them.
Winston, who didn't say much for a guide who was supposed to be so good with English, did manage to say that there had been a hard rain for three days before we got to the garden, so most of the peonies were somewhat worse for the wear. He also got lost in the garden and was impatient with the amount of time it took Marion and I to take pictures, although that is one of the main reasons we wanted to go to the peony gardens.
After the peony gardens, we piled back in the van with Winston and headed off to the Shaolin Temple. Shaolin Temple s a Chán Buddhist temple on Mount Song, near Dengfeng, which was apparently Winston's hometown. The temple was founded in the fifth century and is famous for its association with Shaolin Kung Fu,
Winston said he had worked at Shaolin Temple for 10 years and helped translate many of the signs into English, although we found the translations quite amusing. We especially liked this sign on a trash can that was supposed to indicate you could through biodegradable waste in it, but instead said it was for "organisms." The other choices were "retrievable" or "unretrievable." I got a lot of pictures for my file of Asian signs.
The first thing we did at the temple was to take a bus ride to the vegetarian restaurant in the Temple for lunch. The only protein was peanuts, which I try not to eat (due to kidney stones and a positive allergy test) and Elizabeth is allergic to, but the vegetable dishes were very good.
Shaolin Temple is the home of Zen Buddhism in China - according to Winston - it is where it began. It's a lovely temple with, also according to Winston, the best ladies bathroom in the entire Henan province. I don't know
about that, but my standards have changed, so this ladies room ranked very high because there were actual toilets, with toilet seats, there was toilet paper, and the sinks worked and had soap. There were no paper towels nor a hand dryer, but this is China, after all.
After lunch and the restaurant, we toured the temple, which is peaceful and just lovely. We saw a plaque in honor of a famous Chinese kungfu master and his students, which included Robert Downey, Jr. and several other celebrities. We got to see the monks working in the "pharmacy" where Elizabeth bought some reflexology sandals - hopefully they will help her clear her spleen, or whatever.
Winston spent much our our day talking to the driver and checking his phone but not talking to us about the sites we saw as we drove to Shaolin Temple. We thought he was saving his commentary for the temple, but he never did tell us much.
We walked down through the Forest of Pagodas, 228 stone or brick pagodas dating from 791 AD during the Tang Dynasty. The pagoda forest in Shaolin stands at the foot of Shaoshi Mountain and is one of the largest pagoda forests in China, named a National Scenic Spot in 1996. The Pagodas rangefrom
one to seven stories, less than 15 meters (42 feet) high – much smaller
than pagodas for Buddhist relics – all carry the exact year of their
construction and many carvings and inscriptions.
We were supposed to have a Kungfu lesson, but instead opted for the show put on by the students of the Kungfu school. Apparently, there are about 30,000 students, from all over the world, who attend this school. We got to see large numbers of them out practicing, in the rain. We would have enjoyed having even more time to watch the practice, but Winston kept moving us along.
The show was interesting in that it was not filled with crazy circus-like acrobatics but was truly the students showing what they've learned. I'm not sure how the one student put a hole in a plane of glass with a pin, but overall, the stunts were real and believable. We truly enjoyed the show and were very glad to have paid 20 RMB (about $3.50) for seats, rather than piling in with the masses and standing in the aisles. We were also glad there was no fire, as we never would have made it out of that theatre.
The worst part of our day, and our trip overall, was after leaving Shaolin. Winston was going to take us somewhere for dinner but couldn't find the restaurant he was talking about. So, given that we had lots of time before our 9:55 p.m. flight, we said we'd get food at the airport. The drawback was that, although promised by the tour company, there was no water available to us in the bus and we finished the drinks we had with us.
We took a long (about 1.5 hours) drive to the airport only to realize that Winston brought us to the Zhengzhou airport, instead of the Luoyang airport, where we were supposed to be. When we realized this, we asked him and he said it was a 2 hour drive to the Luoyang airport. He made some calls, although unfortunately, not to Country Tours, and told us that we had to drive to the Luoyang airport, although we assured him we didn't have time for security, baggage check, etc. He insisted, so we piled in the car for what he now said was a 1.5 hour trip. We had no food, no water, it was dark and the driver who had been with us since 8:30 in the morning was barreling through the Chinese countryside.
None of us were happy about this and Chris made a call to Annie, our emergency contact at Country Tours. She talked to Winston, but he didn't tell us much of what she said. The next day, she said she wanted to change our tickets to go out on the earlier flight at Zhengzhou airport, but Winston never communicated that to us. We kept checking on the trip via Google Maps, and it told us it was a 2 hour 10 minute drive, although Winston now said it would only take 1 hour.
Of course, it took 2 hours. Winston's boss quickly checked us in but we could not check any luggage, so Chris's large suitcase and Elizabeth's large bottle of face cleanser had to go through security - which they were holding for us. They were also holding the plane for us, so we literally had to run through the small (thank goodness) airport to catch it. Again, no food, no water, no toilet break. We got on the plane and then had to sit on the runway, so we didn't get back to Shanghai until after 1 a.m., still hungry and thirsty and quite unhappy.
It's a shame that a bad tour guide with outdated flight information could put such a damper on our trip, which was otherwise interesting, fun, and beautiful.
On Friday, April 18, we flew from Shanghai to Xi'an, home of the famous Terra Cotta Warriors. We signed up for a 3-day Country Tours package trip sponsored by the Shanghai Expatriates Association (SEA) which included an option additional day in Luoyang. There was a mother & daughter on the 3-day part of the trip and a single woman doing both parts, all 4 days, with us. Although not many people, it was a nice group for the tour.
When we first arrived in Xi'an, our tour guide, Kristy, picked us up at the airport and took us
for a quick lunch at Pizza Hut in the airport. Pizza Hut is a much nicer restaurant in China than it traditionally is in the U.S. After lunch, we headed to the Hanyang Tomb, a tomb of the 4th Emperor of the Western Han Dynasty and his Empress. We got to see a museum of the tomb and the excavation done there, as
well as to practice some excavation of our own.
Unfortunately, it was a rainy, grey day in Xi'an and, given that it was a rainy Friday afternoon, the traffic was horrific. We inched our way to the lovely Westin hotel in Xi'an, but by the time we got there, the Qujiang Museum of Art in the hotel was closed. Chris, Elizabeth and I settled into our room and then headed out for a nice, hot pot dinner at Haidilao in Xi'an. Hot pot is similar to a fondue restaurant, where there are two wells of broth into which we dunk our vegetables, meat, noodles, etc. Haidilao is a chain - we've been to the one in Shanghai before - so we figured it would be a great place to take Elizabeth, who wanted to try hot pot. There weren't any other caucasians in the restaurant, so they had trouble finding an English-speaker to take our order. A kind young woman came to help us, although we realized she wasn't a waitress, so she must have worked in the kitchen or somewhere else. She stayed at our table the entire time, helping us to order, cook our food, and do everything we needed, so it was excellent service, especially considering my allergies. We stopped at Dairy Queen for a quick ice cream on the way back to the hotel, but declined to try the green tea and red bean blizzard.
On Saturday morning, we headed out to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, with a quick stop at a factory where they are making replicas for people to buy. One of the women on our tour ordered a custom-made one with her face, which they will ship to her in Shanghai. We bought a small one for our apartment and go to see how big the typical ones were as compared to Chris.
From there, we went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. They are impressive, to be sure - especially the scale of the tombs and the fact that there are about 8,000 warriors, each with a different face, each there to protect Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife. Emperor Qin Shi Huang not only orchestrated the building of the Terra Cotta Warriors, he also started the construction of the Great Wall of China, and unified the money and characters (writing) of the newly unified China. We learned that they haven't opened the Emperor's personal tomb because he is believed to be surrounded by a river of mercury and they haven't quite figured out how to do that safely.
We couldn't help but think that the whole site would do better with some more explanatory exhibits, at least in English. It would be great to start out with a movie that included pictures of the discovery and uncovering of the tombs, the ways they restore and preserve the statues, more about the Emperor, etc. It just seems like China is missing the boat a bit in getting this information across well, especially to the English-speaking tourists. We did get to "meet" one of the farmers who originally discovered the Terra Cotta Warriors while digging a well. The farmers now "work" in the gift shop, signing copies of a book about the site.
Part of what hurt our impression of the Terra Cotta Warriors, as well, was the huge crowd, pushing and shoving their way to the railing and front of the "line." We were told that part of the reason that Chinese people don't stand in line like westerners do is that there is no rule that requires it. The Chinese are very good at following the rules, so we just wish there was a rule about standing in line. It has improved a lot since we were here in 2005, but it's not what we're used to in the U.S., for sure.
Don't get me wrong, the Terra Cotta Warriors are impressive, no doubt. The displays just left us with the feeling that it could have been so much more.
After
the Terra Cotta Warriors, we headed back to Xi'an to tour the Great
Mosque and the Muslim Quarter. The Mosque is fascinating and beautiful,
the combination of traditional Chinese designs and traditional Muslim
designs, as well as the juxtaposition of Chinese characters and Arabic.
The Mosque is the oldest and one of the most renowned mosques in the country, founded in 742.
After touring the mosque, we also toured the home of typical nobleman's family and walked the Muslim Quarter. Everyone else tasted many different types of street food typical to Xi'an and the Muslim Quarter, including sticky rice and small hamburger-type sandwiches, but, of course, I couldn't try anything. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, though.
For dinner, we went to a traditional Xi'an Jiaozi restaurant. Jiaozi are Chinese dumplings, similar to potstickers in the U.S. The restaurant we went to, "DeFaChang," is famous for their shaped Jiaozi, which were beautiful, as well as delicious.
The dumplings arrive in baskets on your table in an endless
stream, and you need to gobble them down quickly before they get cold. The only problem came when the waitress said one batch was filled with walnuts and peanuts, even though our guide, Kristy, had assured me that there would be no nuts or seeds. Once she found out, she gave the restaurant manager a piece of her Chinese mind, at full volume, and we later learned that there weren't actually any nuts, the waitress just didn't speak enough English to understand that. I was just lucky that there weren't any nuts, as the jiaozi were delicious.
After dinner, we all headed to a traditional Xi'an show, which involved a lot of music and dancing typical of the Tang Dynasty. This theatre production includes a live Chinese-style orchestra and a
vocal choir which accompanies a dancing, acrobatic, and kungfu
performance. The vocalists and instrumentalists are excellent and there was a special floutist who played a tradition, ancient mouth flute that sounds a lot like a bird song. It's a little high-pitched and sometime screechy, but very unusual and entertaining. All-in-all, it was a great day in Xi'an.
On Sunday morning, we had breakfast in the hotel, which - much to Beth's pleasure - included scallion pancakes. Apparently, scallion pancakes are one of her favorite breakfasts, which one of her Chinese-American friends in college used to make for her. She enjoyed them both mornings that we were in the Xi'an Westin.
Afterwards, we headed over to the Provincial History Museum for a brief visit and exploration of Xi'an history. Xi'an was originally called Chang'an and was the Chinese capital for something like 2000 years. The museum contains murals, paintings, pottery, coins, as well as bronze, gold, and silver objects in chronological order, covering local development over time.
Last, but not least, we took a trip to the Xi'an City Wall, another monument built by Emperor Qin Shi Huang. The wall is huge and wide and obviously worked, as Kristy told us the city was never attacked, once the wall was built. We walked a built and then rented a single bike for Elizabeth and a tandem bike for Chris and me. The wall is a somewhat tricky place to bike ride, as it's bumpy, uneven, and often pock-marked with missing bricks. But, the view is great.
Xi'an is a beautiful city into which the Chinese government has poured approximately 9 million RMB over the past 5 years or so to revitalize. The parks, fountains, plazas, and tourist areas of the city are beautifully maintained, clean, well-planned, and quite lovely. (The traffic is lousy, though.) We didn't have nearly enough time to see everything we wanted to see, even if it was raining much of the time. Kristy says Xi'an doesn't have many days of blue sky, and the air quality isn't supposed to be very good there due to the surrounding sandy area (although we didn't experience air quality problems because of the rain), but the city is pretty and deserves a longer visit.
