Memories of China and Mongolia.

This is the diary of my trip to China and Mongolia in the summer of 2009.

I'm writing this posting just a shortwhile after having returned to the US. At the moment, I'm sitting at the departure gate at La Guardia airport. My connecting flight back to DC has been delayed by who knows how long thanks to a really bad thunderstorm hovering over Long Island.

It has been an extremely long travel day and I really, really just want to get home. Luckily, I have my computer and all the photos I took on this trip to help me pass the time.

As I scroll through the pictures, I'm still amazed by all the experiences I had on this trip. I had a phenomenal time from start to finish.

Things in China are of scale and scope that is often hard to fathom. Current day China has a largest population in the world and it seems like all of China was visiting the same sights I was.  Everywhere I went, I was surrounded by masses of people.

And, if Beijing is not already the largest city, geography wise, in the world, it soon will be. The size of its airport is most certainly daunting as one terminal is more than a mile long!  Unlike DC, where we only have one highway that encircles the city, Beijing has 5 and I was told there would soon be a sixth Ring Road.  Unbelievable!!

Eatin' the day and night away.

I

love to eat which explains why I am not and will never be a skinny Minnie. And of all the food cultures in the world, Chinese cuisine is one of, if not THE (okay, a little bias on my part) most varied. I have eaten Chinese food since the day that I was born and I rarely go for long stretches without it. So, I have been in foodie heaven since I first stepped foot in Shanghai.

Lama Temple.

O

n my last afternoon in Beijing, I went to see the Lama Temple.

Formally known as the Yonghe Temple , "Lama Temple" is a Tibetan Buddhist temple located very near the Hou Hai Lake area.

Can you get any cuter than this?

P

andas epitomize cuteness. I don't know of anyone who will argue with that statement :-) The sight of these fuzzy, black and white, roly-poly four legged creatures will instantly melt my heart. We're lucky that we have three pandas at the National Zoo in Washington, DC but of course, I'm in China, homeland of the panda so I must see one before I leave. I found out that they have a few juveniles at the Beijing Zoo so I arranged with one of my tour guides to make a quick pit stop at the zoo on the way to the Summer Palace. Yes, I bought a ticket to go to the zoo to just see the pandas :-)

A rainy day in Beijing.

I

woke up this morning to gray, overcast skies. A whole day of rain was forecasted. Luckily, I had not planned to do any sightseeing today. Instead t was going to be a day dedicated to shopping....to the Silk Market in the afternoon and in the morning, to a newly built shopping plaza nearby Tiananemen Square that I had seen on our taxi ride back from Olympic Park.

I have bad kidney chi :-(

Iwent to see a Chinese doctor today for a health check. How did this happen? Well, because as part of one of my local tours of Beijing I was offered the opportunity to visit a pearl necklace. I am not a pearl girl so I asked if they could arrange for me to visit a Chinese doctor instead. Of course, they obliged. Why did I want to see the doctor? Well, I'm unfortunately reaching that stage in a woman's life where my body is undergoing changes and I wanted to make sure all was okay.

Houhai.

H

houhai is the name of a Lake in Beijing and the area that surrounds it. I love this part of town. It has that wonderful mix of urban/suburban, new/edgy, and old/traditional that so appeals to me.

Cabbing it old style.

B

eijing is a thoroughly modern city. Although bicylces are still a very popular form of getting about town, town is so spread out that it's easier to get from point A to point B by car, bus or subway. But many of the hutongs are too narrow to accomodate for even the smallest of cars so in these neighborhoods, bicycles are still the preferred form of transport.

Beijing hutong. The 'hood gone by.

L

ast night when I got back to my room there was a message waiting from me from someone named Ekco. Who? The note read to call her back with regards to my tour for the following day. So he/she was my local guide for the next day. I returned the call and made plans to meet in the hotel lobby the next day.

Cookin' up a storm.

T

he past three days I’ve been on my own to explore Beijing. While there are times that I miss being with my tour mates, I must say it is nice to just be able to do what I want and when I want.

Months ago, when I was planning this trip, I decided that I would probably be tired of sightseeing once the tour was over so I deliberately some non-sightseeing activities for myself. To start with, I signed up for hutong cooking class, a trip to see a Chinese doctor and of course, there was ample time for shopping :-)

Today was my cooking class and despite all my years of cooking and eating Chinese food, I must say that I walked away with some new cooking techniques and an deeper appreciation of Chinese cuisine. I had a really fun time!

Buh bye!

T

onight I had to say goodbye to everyone at dinner. It was our last night on tour and it's always a bittersweet moment for me. Over the course of three weeks of galavanting around China with this merry band of travellers, I had really grown fond of each them. Of all the tour groups I've travelled with in recent years, I will miss this one the most - lots of fun times and lots of laughter. Fortunately, I know I will still keep in touch with a few of them thanks to Facebook and email and thanks to this blogs, I have preserved many fond moments that I can look back on in the years to come.

Temple of Heaven.

A

fter spending quite a bit of time *people watching* in the park that surrounds the complex of Temple of Heaven, we strolled over to visit the buildings that comprise the complex.

People watching.

T

oday would be our last day touring as a group. I’ve made some friends on this trip and it will be sad to say goodbye to them though I know we will keep in touch.

The day started as all the other ones had before us by meeting in the lobby of the hotel. Today, we would be visiting the Temple of Heaven in the morning and Haohai Park in the afternoon.

Hiiii Yaaaa!

W

e're in China where various forms of martial arts have been practiced for probably centuries. When Jenny asked if we would be interested in seeing a show, you could see the guys go "WOW" with their eyes....the girls, not so much. But, we're in Beijing, our last stop on China, so why not?

Summer Palace.

H

appy 4th of July!! I’m the only American in the tour group so it’s a quiet celebration for me. The sightseeing plan for the day is to visit the Summer Palace in the morning and then we would have free time in the afternoon.

THE Great Wall!

T

oday’s the day I finally get to see the Great Wall…..a lifelong dream!

Breakfast was to be on our own this morning and I had so much dinner the night before, I really wasn’t hungry. I met up with the rest of the group in the lobby and we all got into a van for the 3 hour ride to the Simatai section of the Great Wall.

Got a craving for roasted scorpion?

D

inner our first night in Beijing was....of all things, pizza. Not surprisingly, the *western* dinner turned out to be one of our more expensive meals and for me, not very satisfying but it kept everyone else happy!

....and the Olympic gold medal goes to....

J

ulee Khoo! Okay, you'll never, ever hear those words but for a brief time today, I got to imagine what it must have been like to be an athlete at the Beijing 2008 Oylmpic Games! I got to go to Olympic Park!!

Forbidden City.

E

arly this morning, we arrived into Beijing. The train conductor started wandering the corridors around 5:30a to rustle everyone awake. There was a bit of queue for the washroom and toilet so I patiently waited my turn.

We soon pulled into the train station and got off. Jenny had written the name and address of the hotel down on paper for us so Bernd, Jan and I got into a cab and headed off. Once everyone arrived, Jenny went to get our rooms but only a few were ready. Jan and Miread were sharing the room so their’s was ready but mine was still not.

Riding the rails.

I

love riding the train and overnight train rides are a very efficient way to go. First off, you save one night on a hotel and second, you leave one and wake up in another....no time lost.