Coming Home

So our trip is coming to an end. We had a free day yesterday in which we shopped, ate, visited some of our new friends and packed. We are sad to be leaving but very excited to be coming home.

We are visiting the Lama Temple this morning before we depart at noon. it should be an nice ending to our trip.

Summer Palace

Today we went to the Summer Palace by bus. The Summer Palace was used as a summer residence by China's imperial rulers - as a retreat from the main imperial palace now known as the Palace Museum (or 'Forbidden City') - a pleasure ground in the countryside, yet near to the city.


Brieg History - Later, the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan (Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368), who wanted to improve Beijing's water supply, ordered the construction of canals to transport water from the Western Hills to the Summer Palace. He also enlarged the lake (now called KunMing Lake) to act as a reservoir.
In 1750, Emperor QianLong (1736-1796) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) added substantially to the gardens of the Summer Palace. His appointed designers reproduced the styles of various palaces and gardens from around China. KunMing Lake was extended to imitate the West Lake in HangZhou.In 1860, the Anglo-French Allied Forces invaded Beijing and set fire to many of the buildings within the Summer Palace.
In 1888, Dowager Empress CiXi, with embezzled funds from the Imperial Navy, restored the grand gardens. The reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace continued for ten years. After completion, she renamed the gardens 'YiHeYuan' ('Garden of Peace and Harmony').
The Empress Dowager CiXi moved her administration to the renovated YiHeYuan in 1889 and the gardens that had long been an imperial pleasure ground became the primary Summer Palace.

We visited the Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha. We climbed many stairs to get the the tower. A statue of the thousand-handed Guanshiyin Buddha, cast in bronze and gilded with gold, stands inside the tower. The statue was breathtaking and we saw many people praying. We sat at the top and took in the breeze and the view.

In order to get to the Tower we walked in the long corridor. It is full of hand paintings depicting different scenes in Chinese Life. It is the longest, covering 728 meters and has over 8000 paintings.

We crossed the Kunming Lake by boat to get back to the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity. It was a spectacular day.

A visit to the Capital Museum of Beijing was on our agenda. The museum has many exhibits which reflect the history and culture of China. We visited exhibits on selected cultural relics, ancient porcelain,Beijing folk art, Buddhist statures, ancient calligraphy and ancient jade and bronze.

There was so much to see that it took us awhile to get through the entire museum. Some of the calligraphy and pottery dated back to 1100. Unbelievable!

We then ventured to an historic row of streets known for it's silk. It was exciting to see all the vendors and people bustling around, trying to persuade us to buy their wares. Rest assured, your children have been thinking about you as they were trying to find the perfect souvenirs.

Tomorrow we are going to the Summer Palace- it's supposed to be a hot day!

Bejing Zoo

We have had intermittent Internet so I apologize for the delay in posting on the blog. I know that you are watching it to see what your children are doing.

Friday we went to the Beijing Zoo. We ventured out on the subway, which was very efficient and CLEAN. Besides getting stuck in a severe thunderstorm for 20 minutes, the day was nice.

The zoo was fairly big and housed polar bears, panda bears, penguins, amazing tigers and more. The giraffe was the tallest any of us had seen. The scenery was very lush, green and peaceful.

After the zoo we had individual hot pots for lunch and back to the hostel for a nap. Later in the evening, the boys participated in a basketball game against some of our fellow Chinese students.

Today we went to Tiena men Square and the Forbidden city. We ventured over to the square after experiencing the Chinese subway. Much to our surprise it was very clean but very crowded. We stood in the square and just observed the sights and people.

We then took a city bus to a restaurant to experience Chinese hot pot. It was like having individual fondue pots with burners in front of each of us. We ordered the type of broth we wanted and the meat and seasonings. The plates of food were then brought to our stations and we cooked the food ourselves. IT was very filling and quite good.
On full stomachs, we walked back to the square to experience the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. For almost five hundred years, it served as the home of 24 emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. It now is named the Palace Museum and houses artifacts from the dynasties.

The architecture varies depending on which emperor had certain pavilions built however they all have yellow roofs which signify emperor. The grounds are over a miel ong with many things to read and see in each pavilion. The Imperial garden which is located on the North side of the City was beautiful. Everyone certainly enjoyed the day.

Peking Duck

I was remiss in mentioning that yesterday while visiting the Great Wall of China we went to a famous restaurant for Peking Duck. Most of us tried and and liked it very much. We tasted traditional roasted duck along with various other duck dishes.

WE DID IT. We climbed the Great Wall of China. It was amazing. Most of us made it to the top and became "real men" in Chinese cultures. The view and magnitude of the wall was unfathomable. How something like this was made without modern technology really blows your mind.

The view from the wall was unforgettable. You can see for miles, mountains and other parts of the wall. Some parts of the wall were quite steep and took a lot of energy to climb.

Some of us took the roller coaster cars back down and ended up in a flea market, zoo area where we shopped and had snacks.

We visited the Ming Underground Palace. It is a place where 13 Ming emperors are buried along with some of their belongings. It was intriguing.

Tomorrow we are going to the Forbidden City. History at it's best!

Xi'an

We have been without Internet for awhile and I apologize that we had no advanced notice to let you know that we are all OK. After spending the night in a less than desirable hotel, we finished our time in Xi'an and have made it to Beijing via airplane.

Our last days in Xi'an were spent going to the Shaanxi History Museum and walking around downtown Xi'an. The museum was quite nice -encompassing artifacts from the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties. We had the opportunity to see The Kneeling Archer, a 120 cm tall figure unearthed in 1977 from Emperor Qin Shi Huang's tomb a very large Buddah and pictures of people playing polo dating back to the Tang Dynasty.

While waiting to enter the museum, we got a chance to walk around a very lovely park surrounding the Giant Goose Pagoda. The park was home to Asia's largest water fountain which shoots water synchronized to music several shows per day. We visited street vendors, enjoyed the park and caught glimpses of the Pagoda which was repaired after damages (several times) due to earthquakes. It used to be a monastery for graduate students of the Tang dynasty.

We visited the famous Drum and Bell towers that are located in the central heart of Xi'an. The tower housed both the drums and bells to signify either morning or dusk during the Ming dynasty and it is believed the the Bell Tower protects the city of Xi'an from the dragon (earthquakes).

While in Beijing we checked into our lodging and met with students from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. We exchanged ides and answered questions about out country and our school.

We had dinner on our own and most of us are turning in early as tomorrow will be a long and exciting day at the Great Wall.

Today was a busy day. Some of us started out day with Ti Chi by the fountain. After breakfast, we visited the Banpo Museum, a site that is over 6000 years old. The museum houses a typical village of that time, discovered in the spring of 1953. Later, after five large-scale digs of excavation organized by Chinese Academy of Sciences, an area of approximate 10,000 square meter was excavated, covering one fifth of the total site area. Among the excavated finds are 45 house sites, 2 penned sites, 6 pottery-making kilns, over 200 storage pits, over 250 burial jars of adults and children, over 1,000 pieces of tools and utensils, as well as thousands of kernels, animal bones and rotten millets, It was very interesting.

We then traveled to an area where we learned about the makings of the terracotta warrior. We learned about the clay, molds firing of the clay and the method for drying and preserving the clay. We bought some souvenirs and headed for the real Terracotta Warriors.

The museum of the Terracotta Warriors was amazing. The warriors were discovered by a framer drilling a well in 1974. The site was excavated and the museum has been built over the site as well as the the village moving around the site to accommodate the museum. The museum is divided into three pits with each pit housing a different type and rank of soldier. We will all be very excited to share our pictures with you about the warriors.

We finished our site seeing by going to the the Qining Underground palace. The palace is situated near the First Emperor's tomb is located. It is an exhibit in miniature of how the city looked at the time. The basement housed a "small world" type display of dolls that are in settings similar to the era including a display of the emperors dragon shaped coffin.


We completed the day by celebrating Sean's birthday after dinner with a beautiful cake and the most awesome birthday candle we had ever seen. Some troopers then went to the University to experience Karaoke Chinese style while the rest of us called it a night.

Day 5

We arrived in Xian about 2:00 this afternoon after our 17 hour train ride through the mountains. We all got to sleep in the bunks and enjoy all the adventures the train had to offer.

Tonight we dined on some different cuisine including jellyfish, fish with the head and tail still intact, salmon with wasabi and pumpkin cakes to name of few. Everyone is enjoying themselves despite our long days.

Tomorrow we will visit the Terra Cotta Warriors and several other historic area around Xian.

So it finally arrived, the day we get to see the pandas. We traveled to the Chengdu Research base of the giant Panda Breeding. It was awesome. We arrived as the pandas were eating their bamboo. The base is laid out in sections were the panda are arranged chronologically. We saw an very old male panda and some 1 year old panda.

We watched one older panda strip the outer layer of the bamboo with his teeth and spit it out while he ate the inside green portion without ever putting the stalk of bamboo down. Some of us even paid to pet a panda and get our pictures taken with them.

We learned about the mating habits of panda and the very low chance of natural breeding due to the fact the women panda are very selective in their mates. Since panda live alone or in very small groups, it is difficult for mating to occur naturally. The breeding station has a very high success rate in artificially breeding. birth rate and babies that survive. They have won awards and continue to make improvements.

After our panda experience we had lunch at a very fancy restaurant. Needless to say, it was incredible. We then went to the Sanxingdui Museum. It is located near an archaeological site that dates to the Neolithic, Shang and Zhou periods. In 1988, this site was declared a National Key Cultural Relics Protected Unit, due to its scope, the wealth of its contents, and the rarity and precious nature of its excavated objects.

We got to see artifacts from the Shang-period where two sacrificial pits were unearthed with more than one thousand gold, bronze, and jade objects. Of all the objects excavated at Sanxingdui, the bronzes are the most fabulous and strange, with their high degree of historical, artistic and scientific value. We saw many masks. clay type bowls, pitures, cooking items and weapons. The detail and beauty of these items combined with the precisions of the shapes, especially circles was amazing. We all had a hard time taking in the magnitude of something 1000 years old since our country is only 200+ years old.

Tomorrow we are visiting the Sichuan University for a tour of the museum held within the university and having an exchange with students here. We then will travel via sleeping train to Xindu, approximately 19 hours away. The blog will be updated as soon as Internet access is locates at our next stop.

Day 3

Today we started out our morning by catching a city bus to People's Plaza. We feasted on fresh baked rolls from a street vendor with fresh pineapple and meat skewers while roaming around the park. The beauty of watching people perform their morning rituals, such as marital arts, dancing and ball room dancing took us all a little by surprise. The gardens were meticulous and the scenery unforgettable. We enjoyed tea by a coy pond while some of us had the Chinese chair massages.

We then walked to an ancient part of town from the Qing Dynasty called Kuan, Zhai and Jing Alley. These streets are filled with shops, restaurants, bars and street vendors. Everyone purchased items traditional to the Chinese culture and some ventured into some very unique food, bar-b-qued rabbit head.

After strolling through the alleys we were entertained in a tea house with several tea masters performing the pouring ceremonies for us. We watched in awe while a tea master swung a copper tea pot all around his body, literally, to pour tea into various cups. We sampled a gamut of teas while sitting around traditional tea tables. It was something we all appreciated and took very seriously.

We ended the day by going to a modern mall section of town to eat and shop before turning in.

Tomorrow we will be visiting the Panda Breeding grounds and leaving Chendu for Xiun by sleeper train.

Day 2 - Chengdu

Today we had a lecture at the University of Sichuan on Sichuan and Chengdu history. It was quite fascinating to learn about the city that was modeled after the Forbidden city and has a population of over 11,000,000. Chengdu is the capital of the Providence of Sichuan. Chengdu is nicknamed the Brocade city, but more importantly to us, ESF students, it is fast becoming the most eco-friendly city in China. We learned about the food culture, some of the history of the Three Kingdoms and about Chinese Characters.


We visited the Wu Hou Temple in hte Chengdu Wuhow Schrine Museum. This temple is dedicated to the emperor Liu Bei and his outstanding military strategist, Zhuge Liang (181-234). We saw beautiful gardens, the famous Tang Dynasty stele and Liu Bei's tomb.

Leaving the museum we then visited Jinli Street. This street was once the commercial heart of the old kingdoms. This ancient street has been fully restored in traditional Sichuan style. Picturesque, bustling, and cheerful, you can sample local arts and craft, traditional Chinese goods, food and delicacies. It is known for it's silk and Brocade.

As like every day here, the lunch was amazing and we all had plenty to eat.

We have a free day tomorrow to explore on our own. Several attractions we are considering include a People's park close to our dorm, the Tianfu Square for tea and the Chengdu's Tibetan District.

Day 1 - Chengdu

Arrived in Beijing Saturday afternoon after an all night flight. We got to fly over Siberia and closet to the North Pole. Pretty neat. We arrived in Chengdu around 9:00 pm and got to the dorm around 10:00pm. Everyone survived the flight and was tired.


Day one

Mount Qingeheng- the birthplace of Taoism.

We climbed the mountain using very little stairs towards temples, amazing landscapes and fresh mountain air. We visited three temples, breathed oxygen at the oxygen bar and took many pictures.

Lunch was a traditional Chinese lunch, family style. We all enjoyed the rice in a wooden bucket and our very small glasses of soda.

The day was rounded out by a visit to he Dujiangyan Irrigation System. This irrigation system is and engineering marvel, something we as a group truly appreciated. We walked through beautiful gardens, had an ancient Chinese foot massage and experienced the magnitude of the irrigation project.

Everyone ended the day tired but happy.

Tomorrow we have a history lecture and tours of campus.

2 days

Finally got home from work. 2 days and I think everything will get done.

3 days

OK- things are starting to get a little crazy. I got my passport back, my prescriptions and finished my TA responsibilities.

Getting excited to go now.

5 days

Went shopping today -got my mosquito net, laundry soap, a hiking type travel towel, personal items, batteries and a new toothbrush.

Started packing and finalizing what to bring.

Finishing correcting papers and billing for work tonight after dinner and a movie with my sons.

Got the blog

OK- so now I have let most everyone know how to follow this thing.

7 Days and counting

OK- so it's really happening- I leave in 7 days

So many things to do... take care of the to do list for home, to do list for work, to do list for school, take out the trash, feed the hog, I still have some homework ( stole that line from Christmas Vacation)

anyway- I feel like I will never get it all done but it always works out.

Tomorrow- looking for travel laundry soap, mosquito netting, DEET and batteries for my camera.