A Trip to China

On May 22, 2007, Kent, Deb, Reed and I left for China. We flew from Salt Lake to Los Angeles, from Los Angeles to Seoul, and from Seoul to Beijing. We had a tour guide by the name of "Kitty" who stayed with us for the duration of the trip. We also had city tour guides in each location. There were only 6 of us on the tour and we traveled in a small bus to see the sights within the cities. After spending 3 nights in Beijing, we flew to Xian and stayed there 2 nights. We flew to Chengdu and spent 1 night. Then we took a train through the countryside to Chongqing. We boarded our Yangtze River Cruise Ship, upon which we spent 3 nights. We disembarked at Yichang and flew to Shanghai, then took a bus to Suzhou. We stayed there 2 nights and then traveled back to Shanghai by bus for the final 2 nights. We took the high speed Shanghai Maglev to the airport for a terribly long flight back. We arrived home June 6th.

FAVORITE THINGS:

1. THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

awesome just to be there, see the scope of it and climb it

2. THE TERRACOTTA WARRIORS

absolutely amazing subterranean army

3. 400 MILE CRUISE DOWN YANGTZE RIVER

interesting sights and gorgeous scenery

LEAST FAVORITE THINGS:

1. THE FOOD

awful and disgusting (Reed says 'spicy and different')...would rather have eaten at McDonalds or KFC

2. THE RESTROOMS

smelly, no toilet paper, holes in floor (squatter toilets)

3. THE BEDS

as comfortable as a sheet of plywood

4. PEOPLE, PEOPLE EVERYWHERE, AND BIG CITIES

no personal space. I am a country girl at heart. The cities we stayed in were all larger than NYC.

OTHER PLACES VISITED AND ACTIVITIES:

Tiananmen Square
Forbidden City

Rickshaw ride to Hutong neighborhood

Ate in home of Hutong family

Beijing Duck Dinner

Beijing Opera

Spirit Way

Furniture Factory

Jade Factory

Pearl Production Center

Drum Tower

Temple of Heaven

Beijing Olympic Sites

Museums

City Wall

Gardens

Parks

Boat Rides

Giant Panda Breeding Research Center

Fengdu (City of Ghosts)

Three Gorges--Qutang, Wu, Xiling

Three Gorges Dam

Grand Canal

"Venice of the East"
Suzhou Silk Museum

Tongli

Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe

The Bund

Pudong
Shopping

Click on picture to enlarge.

TIDBITS

In restaurants it was hard to get a drink of water unless we were willing to pay. Sprite or Coke was available, generally not cold and never over ice. We would be allowed a small glass, maybe 6 ounces, and refills were pricey. This was hard because it was so hot and humid and we were thirsty! We could have had all the tea we wanted for free. Most people seem to ride bicycles. The pedestrian does not have the right of way. City traffic is incredibly congested with bikes and cars. I can't believe there aren't more accidents. Even in high rise buildings, clothing is hung to dry in the windows. I didn't see any supermarket grocery stores, just little 'hole in the wall' shops. There is only one time zone for all of China! When it is 7 a.m. in Utah, it is 9 p.m. in China. In other words, they are 14 hours ahead of us. I didn't see any fat Chinamen except the statues of Buddha. The Chinese are very superstitious. It accounts for many of their actions and is even carried over into their buildings. They have a lot of symbolism as well. Colors have meanings so they use or wear colors accordingly. They have a very long history of dynasties and emperors. The country of China seems to have quite a high-tech image yet they are really backward in many things. In the countryside you can find them doing farm work the way it was done over a hundred years ago. Hard, back-breaking labor is very common. We saw a dump truck being loaded by hand, one shovel at a time. There is a building boom. In the large cities there are cranes everywhere. Children do not wear diapers. They have slits in the crotch of their clothing. The Chinese people seem very artistic and creative. I expected to see lots of shopping bargains but didn't find many. Part of this might be because we were taken more to the 'tourist trap' shopping areas. We did get some ties for about $1.40 each. I don't know why we didn't get more of them...except we thought they were sort of ugly. Generally speaking, a married couple is allowed one child. If both the mother and father are only children, they are permitted two children. If a farmer has a girl for his first child, he is allowed to have one more child in hopes of having a son. Because of this law, many Chinese women are taking fertility drugs, increasing their chances of having multiple children from one pregnancy. We saw many twins. Oftentimes the grandparents are the ones who care for the children. A lot of people go to the parks and gardens to spend the day. We saw many Caucasians with Chinese babies they were adopting. Chinese children learn English in school. In some cities only the very rich live in the city center. The poorer classes of people live further from downtown. The huge Three Gorges Dam will be complete sometime next year. More than 1.5 million people will be displaced. I am glad I went to China, but even more glad to get back home. It is hard to beat the USA!