Day 19

I can't believe what a whirlwind trip we have had.  Our "mid-trip excurtion" took us through four cities in five days.  We have traveled by plane, car, van, taxi, pedal-cab, boat, bamboo raft, gondola, tabogan, chair-lift, and train.  We have seen so many things that they started to blur and yet when I remember one particular experience it is clear as day.  We have been exposed to China's culture from the Advanced Metropolitan City to the authentic Chinese villages to it's history..  We have eaten food we never knew existed (I am SO proud of my wife for being a troope and not wimping out) and made friends we will never forget.  We have seen things we never dreamed we would actually be fortunate enough to see.  I learned so much about the Chinese and their culture and history on this trip.  Determination is a way of life for so many of them.  They are determined to survive.  Hard work and "waste not want not" are rules of life they follow closely. So today, as I sit waiting for Mr. Luo to take us to the airport I find myself in an emotional turmoil once again.  After seeing how so many here live I find myself so gratefull for what I have back home.  I find their friendship touching, their kindness moving.  This is a culture I would love the oppertunity to explore further.  It is interesting how so much structure from the communist party keeps order and peace.  I guess everything comes with a price. I am so gratefull to Diane and Pete for opening their home to us and showing us their life over here.  They are truly kind people.  Without them I would never have been interested in coming to this country in the first place and certianally would not have had the experiences we have shared here opened to us And now that my interest is peaked I find myself wanting to return.  Spend more time in some of the places we have seen and find new experiences to explore.  I do believe we will return again and I look forward to that with anticipation. And so as I write this - my final blog of our trip - I find myslef not wanting to say "good-bye" to China.  I find myslef instead saying "wǒ huì xiǎng nǐ China, bùjǐu jiàn".

Day 18

Wow!  Sunday already!!!  It is amazing that so much time has passed so quickly.  Today I decided to treat myself and go to Head To Toe one more time.  I mentioned I was going to do this yesterday and decided "absolutally" today.  First I got out of the house early 'cause we had bought a "special" present for Di for doing so much for us.  I tried to pick it up last night but they were out of them at the storein Pudong and had to ship it in from Puxi.  Got there at 9:30 and it was all ready for me.  Then off to Head To Toe I went to visit with Clare.  She is about 5'6", about 120 and nothing but muscle.  She worked me over for 90 minutes including walking on my back!  It was AMAZING!!! Then I met Diane, Di, Pete, Nick and Taylor for lunch.  After that Diane and I went into Puxi to get my shirts from the fabric market and then to the "Deal Market" as I call it to just buy some extra "stuff".  We did this all on our own and didn't get lost once!  We are becoming such natives!!! Met Di, Pete and Nick at the market and headed home.  Di made Lasagna and we all had a nice dinner together.  Diane and Di just left for Head To Toe to get their hair done and a foot massage.  I think I will have to join them for the last part - is that greedy???

Day 17

So I got up this morning and caught up on the blog.  Sorry I couldn't keep up when we were on the road but we never really found a place with wireless. This is kind of a "catch up" day.  Both Di and I are still a bit sore from our "encounter" (and I don't think we have hit the worse of it yet).  We headed out to the antique area again.  There is something there that I want to ship home but the store was closed so I think Di is going to have to do me one more favor and get it for me later.  Oh well. We stopped by the fabric market to pick up my other shirt and I decided to order a couple more.  I can't resist because of the cost.  They will be ready tomorrow.  Lunch at KFC and back home.  We talked for a bit and then Diane and I went for a walk after which Diane and Di went for their nail/pedicure thing and Pete and I went to the Man Cave place here at Vizcaya.  It is a wood paneled, leather furniture adorned bar where you can go and drink beer and smoke cigars - my kind of place! Met Kim and Mike for a nice Italian dinner and then bed.  Big day tomorrow - Scotty's venturing out on his own!

Day 16

The Great Wall Of China. We started our two hour journey to the Great Wall at around 7:15 a.m.  It was suppose to be about a two to two-and-a-half hour drive but Di had hired Mario Andretti as our driver and we made it in about an hour and forty minutes!  Getting out of the van we are first greeted by the vendors of course.  And the excuse of "I don't want to carry it with me all day" doesn't really work, they are way ahead of you on that one.  "Ok, you come back!  I remember you!"  and trust me - they do. In the interest of time we took the tram up to the top area.  We actaully rode in the one that was just before the one Bill Clinton rode in - yes, they keep track of that stuff here.  At the top we were greated with two thousand years of history.  The Wall is amazing.  It has been restored in some areas and others they haven't really done much work on.  There are only eight areas on the Great Wall that you can actaully (officially) walk on.  The rest is closed to the public because it has decayed so much it just isn't safe and given China's safety standards that is saying quite a bit.. We walked for a while and then Di hung back (she had done this before and knew what was ahead) and Diane and I hiked up to the "20 Tower".  I can't really tell you how steep it is in some places.  Here's an idea:  Imagine if someone was standing about five feet in front of you and their feet were at the level of your head.  That will give you a pretty good idea of the angle we hiked up for about 4,300 stairs.  The Great Wall is not flat contrary to some beliefs.  I actually think there are more stairs than flat spots.  But it is an amazing view and a wonderfull experience.  We were fortunate enough to have great weather too.  Sunny and warm with a little breeze.  Since we were there in the morning it didn't get too hot but I bet by two in the afternoon it was COOKING up there!  We ran into some tourists ('cause we look so native you know) who wanted to take pictures with us.  It was funny to see all the old guys wanting to have their picture taken with my Diane.  "Oh, I take picture with hot american blonde!".  We stayed on the wall for a couple of hours and then decidced to go down in style so we took the tabogon ride down.  It is a metal trough with absolutally"zero" safety features to it at all.  You sit on an ABS tabogan that has a lever in the middle.  Forward is "go", back is "brake".  They have the turns banked and you lean like on a motorcycle into them.  I am not sure but if I had to guess I'd say it was probabally a mile long with all the twists and turns. Now, I am going to tell you the following in three parts.  First I will tell you my Diane's story.  Then Di's story.  Then Mine.  All are the truth, just three different perspectives. My Diane's version: The guy ahead of her kept stopping.  He said his tabogan was broke but there is nothing mechanical on these things to break - he just didn't know how to use it.  So this guy was stopping and starting and around this one corner he just simply stopped.  Diane stopped behind him and let him go to get a little ways ahead of her.  I stopped behind Diane.. Di's version: She came around the corner and saw Diane and I stopped. (You can see where this is going huh?) My version: I was stopped behind Diane and heard a noise like a jet airliner behind me.  It was very quick and I knew exctally what was about to happen.  I had enough time just to say "oh shit" to myself. Regardless of the version the result was the same.  Di came screaming around the corner.  In her behalf she DID try to brake but there was no way in hell she was going to stop in time.  She drilled me full speed.  My tabogon shot right out from underneath me and folded up in front of me.  I shot up in the air and landed right back on the track..  Di went off one side of the track and her tabogon off of the other.  Sunglasses were all over the track.  Crash site. We both picked ourselves up as quickly as possible and tried to gather our stuff before someone else came flying around the corner.  Looking back on it now it is really quite funny.  Actually my Diane can't tell the story without wetting her pants but in reality it is really amazing that neither of us was seriousally hurt.  Just a couple of bumps and bruises.  By the time we got down the guy ahead of Diane had about thirty people backed up and not really happy with him.  He kept insisting that his tabogan was broke but that's crap. We finished the ride and decided to do it again.  It was not expensive and we really wanted the full experience instead of being behind "grandma mosses" the whole way.  This was Di's idea and a brilliant one it was.  The second time was a blast.  I did have one mis-fortune - I was banking into a turn and was as high as I could possibally go on the side without going over.  I was leaning as far as I could and I started feeling my arm on the metal trough.  I could actually feel the friction from the speed and the heat of the metal burning my skin but I couldn't do anything about it untill I came out of the turn - if I hit the brake I would have crashed and if I tried to lean the other way I would have gone over the side.  "Ride it out buddy" but I kept feeling the metal searing my skin!  "Only a few more feet" I thought as I started to smell the oder of burning flesh.  Wisps of smoke were coming out from behind my elbow.  Then suddenly I shot out of the turn and finished the ride (after being told by three spotters along the way to "SLOW DOWN!!!"). Ok, well maybe it wasn't EXCTALLY like that but I do have a nice rug burn and quite a few blisters on my forearm.  Lost some skin too.  It cooked me pretty good. After the ride we left the Wall and went to lunch and then to the Summer Palace.  We didn't have a lot of time there so we walked part way down the lake and took a boat to the opposite side.  There is a boat there that the Empress had built a long time ago.  It is quite big, probabally forty feet or so and has three decks.  It is made from Marble.  Yes, Marble.  It has never sailed.  Why you ask? Well, because it is made from Marble.  Marble is rock.  Rock sinks. Now, somewhere along the line when they were building this thing someone HAD to have been thinking "you know, this thing is never going to float" but given that had they pointed this out to the Empress and it may have been taken as insulting to her intelligence (well, "if it walks like a duck and swims like a duck....") they probabally would have been executed they probabally thought it best to just keep their opinion to themselves and build the boat made out of Marble. Hopefully some day they will find the time, funds or desire to restore it because I really think it would be quite beautifull if it were taken care of. Even if it doesn't float. On the way to the airport our driver took us past the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube that were built for the Olympics.  I'm not sure what they are doing with the Cube but my understanding is that they are already remodeling the Bird's Nest into something other than a staduim.  Either way it was cool to go past them and see them. At the airport Di checked us in and gave us a special treat.  She upgraded all three of us to First Class for the ride back.  What an awsome treat!  And given how sore she and I were by then (remember the crash?) it was more appreciated than ever!!! Mr. Luo picked us up at the airport and we got back to the house about 11:00.  Don't even remember my head hitting the pillow.

Day 15

So, not a lot this morning.  Got pscked and had time to run to McDonalds for coffee (those of you who know how I feel about Starbucks coffee will understand why), then grabbed a taxi and off to the airport.  We left Pete (he had to get back to Shanghai) and boarded a plane for Beijing.  We arrived at our hotel - The Novatil - checked in and headed for Tinamin Square and the Forbidden City.  It is an interesting place, the forbidden city.  There are three "Recieving Rooms", one behind the other, where the Emperor would recieve you.  His priavte chambers were at the very back of them and depending on your status he would see you in the appropriate room,  if your status was low you would be seen in the room farthest away from his chambers, if your status was high he would see you in the room closest to where he lived. There were also quarters for the Empress and individual Concubines (mistresses) of which he would have around a hundred at a time. After we left there we went back to the hotel.  Di had to do a phone meeting so Diane and I went to dinner.  Diane tried my Duck and actually LIKED it!  She's becoming such a big girl!

Day 14 - Part II

So today we made the first stop Starbucks...Scotty needs his coffee you know!  Then off to the Warriotorium.  This has been a huge anticipation for me.  After about an hour's drive we arrive.  It is difficult to believe that just 35 years ago this was all farmland.  It is now buildings and parking lots.  I will say that it is really very tastefully done - they have tried to leave the surrouding area as natural as possible. Diane hired an English speaking guide and we were off.  Our first stop was a movie about the history (and ultimate destruction) of the statues, the discovery of them and the building of the Warriotorium.  Not exctally "Oscar" material but very informitive none-the-less. Next we entered the pits.  Now I promised myself I was not going to write about this part simply because if I start I will not be able to stop.  I will say words like amazing, incredible, unreal, wonderfull.....they don't even scratch the surface.  I did a ton of research before we came to China on this.  It interested me so i wanted to know something about it before we got here.  Trust me on this:  Whatever you have read about this place or seen on television....it doesn't hold a candle to being in the presesce of the real thing.  Two thousand years of history.  A different time, a different culture.  I was filled with so many different emotions - excitment, sorrow, amazement, wonder...awe. They call this the most historic archaeological find of the 20th century and the 8th wonder of the world.  Before seeing this in person I was like "yeah, whatever.  Nice marketing guys".  After being there in person I think I can say they are correct on both accounts. We left the Warriotorium and stopped by one of the factories that make the soldiers for purchase in today's market.  They actually follow the same process used two-thousand years ago!  They also make some incredible 30 layer, hand rubbed laquor furniture.  Beautifull stuff. On the way back we stopped by Dayan Ta or "big Wild Goode" pagoda.  My wimpy companions were like "oh, not more stairs!!!" and didn't want to climb it.  Fine.  I left them at the bottom and did it myslef!  Babies. We stopped by a resturant for lunch and headed back to the hotel.  A little "break" in the day (my companions had to rest - did I mention I am the OLDEST IN THE GROUP???) and we headed to the Xi'An wall. The Wall around Xi'an was built around the old city to protect it.  Since "the day" the city has expanded ouside of the wall's confines but they still keep it in good shape.  It is probabally forty feet or so wide with battlements on both sides.  The deck is very rough.  You can rent bikes and ride around it which we did.  Takes about an hour.  Diane and I were laughing at the fact that our street bikes would never have made it up there.  The stones are so rough and the gaps between them are wider than the tires on our Cannondales.  No doubt our tires would have caught in them and we would have been pitched over the side and landed 30 feet below.  It is about 14 kilometers around the wall which is about ten miles and it took about an hoiur to do.  You can see most of the city from there but you can't really see across from one side to another.  One reason is the pollution but the other is that the city is growing so much that there are just too many buildings in the way. Another famous site in Xi'an is the Bell Tower and that was next on our list.  There is a huge bell, probabally twelve or fifteen feet tall, on the corner and for ten Kui you can ring it.  So Di (not my Diane, the other one.  That probabally has been a bit confusing during these posts huh?  Should have thought about that sooner - sorry) was up first.  Next to the bell is a log suspended by a rope.  You pull the log back and swing it at the bell striking it on the side and making it ring.  Someone probabally should have told Di that you really should "swing" the log at the bell rather than hold onto the log as it hits the bell's surface............think about this - you'll get it. My turn was next.  I told Pete that I would give him five bucks if he stood up inside the bell while I was ringing it but he wasn't interested.  He "gets" things pretty quickly. We hit the local Starbucks for re-fueling and then went off to our next site. The Drum Tower is another "must see" in Xi'an.  Therre are big drums on their sides lining all four sides of the tower and again, for ten Kui you can strike one of the really big ones.  The guy told me to hit it really hard and I gave it everything I had. The bell was funner.  There is a resturant in Xi'an that is famous for it's dumplings and that is were we had dinner.  Our first course was interesting.  There were cold pea pods (they were actually very tasty), something wrapped up in something (it was "ok" but the pea pods were better), a goose gizard patte' (wasn't that great) and something that looked like brownish, clearish, yellowish gelatin (after seeing the expression on Di's face when she took a nibble I decided to pass.  I'm adventurous but I'm not stupid).  I was beginning to be a little worried about what the rest of the dinner ws going to be like but then the dumplings came.  And came.  And came.  And they were WONDERFULL!  They make cute little shapes out of some of them too like the duck ones look like a duck.  We had probabally ten trays of dumplings brought to us, all different kinds.  They brought four of each so everyone gets one of everything.  And I have to tell you again, my Diane was a trooper!  She ate like a native and tried all sorts of new things!  And to her surprise (and ours) she found she liked a lot of them!   After dinner we walked a bit and did some last minute shopping.  We were in a store buying some diet Coke and water and I saw a guy shoplift an Ice Cream.  Of course my natural reaction was to yell at the owner "hey, that guy just stole from you" but of course he didn't speak any english and just smiled.  With my Diane telling me to leave it alone and the fact that I was in a foriegn country where people get executed for pick-pocketing I curbed my instinct to grab the guy and lay him over the counter untill the police came.  It did surprise me though, in a society where Honor is held so high that even I would see something like this.  Oh well, you find the scum of the earth everywhere I guess.

Day 14

Yesterday we landed in Xi'An (pronounced "shed-on") and had a one hour memorable cab ride to the hotel.  I won't bore you with the details of the road- let's just say Diane whispered to me " I'm never going to get used to the way they drive here" to which I responded "god I hope not!!!".  We checked into the Citadines Apart'Hotel" and found our room quite nice - more of a mini-suite.  It has two bedrooms and two baths so we are all stating in one big "apartment" sort of.  The beds are getting softer too.  By the time we get to Beiging they should be just like "Grama's feather bed" ! Uh huh. We headed out to walk around and get a bite.  It was late but we wanted to get in what we could.  The Muslim  quarter was amazing. It is streets with vendors down both sides and the middle which makes for very thin isles, pedestrians, cabs and scooters.  During the evening they fly kites.  Not the big Chinese kites you might be thinking about but these liuttle kites maybe about the size of a big dinner plate.  The thing about these is that they string about a hundred together and you have this long "line" of kites in the air.  It is really pretty cool looking.  At night there are a few guys who bring telescopes out.  Big telescopes. Like ten feet long telescopes.  They bring them on trailers and set them up and for ten kui you can look at Saturn.  We went to a place Yang Li (or "Jenny" as we know her), my Manderin mentor suggested for a dinner of tradional Mutton stew.  I thought it was pretty good but wasn't crazy about the bread they break up into it.  The place is very famous for it's Mutton stew and it was pretty packed.  Di kept pissing off the waitress because she kept ordering stuff they were out of - like that was our fault!!! Back at hotel we went to bed anticipating our date with the Terra Cotta Soldiers in the morning.