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| High Speed Train |
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| Fun at the apartment |
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| Tang Paradise |
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| Authentic Chinese buffet Restaurant |
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| Terracotta Army Museum |
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| Market Sights (Cricket store along the bottom row) |
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| Food Tour |
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Xi'an Pictures
Xi'an
On Sunday, we took the high-speed train from Beijing to Xi'an, which cruised along at a speed of about 300 km/hour (186 mi/hour). It was a five-hour ride, but we hardly noticed because the ride was so smooth and comfortable, especially from our first-class seats.
Since the forecast for Monday was "dust," with a big fuzzy cloud drawn on the weather map, and since we were tired from traveling and sightseeing in Beijing, we decided to just stick close to our apartment that day. The pollution problem here is real, and most days look like "dust" to me, even when the forecast doesn't mention it, so if they call it out, you know it's serious.
On Tuesday, we decided to visit Tang Paradise, which was essentially a large park, with a lake in the center. We had been expecting shows and parades and activities but had to settle for just a nice walk in the park and a look at the new year's decorations, which were still scattered throughout the grounds. It wasn't very forienger-friendly, so we may have just not understood what was going on, which was a problem that plagued us even before we arrived. We actually waited for quite a long time for a bus that never arrived and ended up just walking the three miles to the park. The best part about that, though, was that we got to have lunch at a truly authentic Chinese place, where the use of English wasn't an option. We ordered blindly by pointing to the table next to us, and we ended up with a delicious beef, noodle, dumpling, and green onion soup, which we ate with chopsticks. (Yes, we ate soup with chopsticks!) It was awesome! The owner was so happy to have us and was completely impressed with Weston's ability to count in Chinese. He then thought Weston ought to be able to act as a true translator for us, but eventually gave up chatting when he realized Weston couldn't get much beyond numbers. At the end of the day, we successfully caught the bus back to our apartment and decided to reward ourselves by going out to dinner. We went in the first restaurant we saw, which happened to be a real-deal (not Americanized) Chinese buffet. We had the option to fill our plates with cooked foods or raw foods that we could cook ourselves at our table. We got to try lots of interesting things, and we had a great time.
Yesterday was our day to go out and see the famous terra cotta army, just outside of Xi'an. We had much better luck with public transportation than we had the previous day and got where we needed to go in the amount of time we expected. It's the little victories! The museum was such a fascinating site, and we enjoyed seeing some of the 3000 warriors that have been excavated so far. Each one of them is unique, and the excavating process seems so interesting. We were very glad we made the effort to go and see it and definitely felt it was worth it. We got back to our apartment late in the afternoon and decided we just needed a break from Chinese food, so we took ourselves down to the Pizza Hut on the corner. We're all about adventure, but sometimes people just need something sort of familiar, that doesn't require chopsticks!
We were ready to jump fully back into the Chinese food scene this morning, which was great, because we had already booked a food tour with Lost Plate. Our guide met us at the subway station, and we crammed into two little tuk tuks and headed off to hit some VERY local joints and try some TRULY authentic local cuisine. Our first stop was at a tiny hole-in-the-wall, where the same family has been making the same "thousand layer pancakes" for over fifty years. There was one table in the middle of the room, just big enough for our group and two other people. The cooking station was literally just a couple of feet away. The pancakes were more like large dumplings and were filled with meat and onions and green vegetables, before being smashed between two griddles and cooked to perfection. They were fantastic--easily my favorite Chinese food, so far. Our next stop was at an even smaller place, where the line stretched down the block. There were no tables inside, but there were a few tiny tables with stools (think preschool classroom) scattered along the sidewalk and down an alleyway. There we had soup made with beef, potatoes, red carrots, cabbage, green onions, cornstarch, and plenty of anise. One version also had a spicy pepper sauce in it. After that we took some time to digest, as we walked through the market. Oh my! I'm not even sure I can describe it. It was wild! We saw everything you can imagine and probably lots of things you can't. All the usual foods were for sale, right alongside the home goods and underwear. We also saw several dentists, a chiropractor, and tables of sex toys thrown in for good measure. But, our favorite stop was a pet store specializing in one particular type of pet: crickets. I have never, ever been in a store like that before. There was one whole wall, filled with tiny cages, which contained the "singing" crickets. The special "fighting" crickets were kept on the counter in boxes. The owner tried to get a couple to fight for us but ultimately concluded that it was just too cold outside to get them riled up. I promise you, I am not making this stuff up! In addition to the critters themselves, there were also a great many accessories to make pet crickets comfortable, just like you would find in any pet store. When we had finished gawking in the market, we continued our food tour. (Because you know how looking at buckets of maggots and trailers full of raw livers will really cause you to work up an appetite!) Our next two stops were for true street food, in the market. We had stone bread, which is a sort of savory, flat cornbread, which is cooked under hot stones, that leaves it indented and pocked. Our guide told us this recipe is the oldest known Chinese recipe. Before we had time to finish those, we grabbed some persimmon cakes, which was the only sweet food we had on the tour, and which we were told is truly unique to Xi'an and dates back to the Ming Dynasty. They were very much like fried fruity doughnuts, but the method of frying them was pretty interesting. They scooped the dough into large metal ladle-looking spoons, which they then submerged in boiling oil for a couple of minutes. Our final stop led us to another teeny mom-and-pop place, where we were invited to participate in the noodle making with the proprietary family. While we made noodles, our guide went next door to order some dumplings, so that we ended up with sour soup dumplings and noodles with beef and greens. By that time, we were nice and stuffed, so we couldn't finish everything. When our tour was done, we received gift bags with chopsticks, spices, recipes, and postcards, and we got to keep our tea thermoses we received and used earlier in the day. It was such a fantastic experience! If you are ever visiting Xi'an and you're feeling adventurous, you must put this tour on your list of things to absolutely do.
I'm sorry for the long post and the massive brain dump (and the lack of pictures). Our internet here is atrocious, so I just had to throw it all out there in one giant session (though, truth be told, the internet has failed at least a dozen times while I've been trying to write this, and it has taken hours to get it posted). If you stuck with me through this, thanks. I know your time is valuable, and it means a lot to me that you are using some of it to be a part of our journey!
*Pictures here.
Since the forecast for Monday was "dust," with a big fuzzy cloud drawn on the weather map, and since we were tired from traveling and sightseeing in Beijing, we decided to just stick close to our apartment that day. The pollution problem here is real, and most days look like "dust" to me, even when the forecast doesn't mention it, so if they call it out, you know it's serious.
On Tuesday, we decided to visit Tang Paradise, which was essentially a large park, with a lake in the center. We had been expecting shows and parades and activities but had to settle for just a nice walk in the park and a look at the new year's decorations, which were still scattered throughout the grounds. It wasn't very forienger-friendly, so we may have just not understood what was going on, which was a problem that plagued us even before we arrived. We actually waited for quite a long time for a bus that never arrived and ended up just walking the three miles to the park. The best part about that, though, was that we got to have lunch at a truly authentic Chinese place, where the use of English wasn't an option. We ordered blindly by pointing to the table next to us, and we ended up with a delicious beef, noodle, dumpling, and green onion soup, which we ate with chopsticks. (Yes, we ate soup with chopsticks!) It was awesome! The owner was so happy to have us and was completely impressed with Weston's ability to count in Chinese. He then thought Weston ought to be able to act as a true translator for us, but eventually gave up chatting when he realized Weston couldn't get much beyond numbers. At the end of the day, we successfully caught the bus back to our apartment and decided to reward ourselves by going out to dinner. We went in the first restaurant we saw, which happened to be a real-deal (not Americanized) Chinese buffet. We had the option to fill our plates with cooked foods or raw foods that we could cook ourselves at our table. We got to try lots of interesting things, and we had a great time.
Yesterday was our day to go out and see the famous terra cotta army, just outside of Xi'an. We had much better luck with public transportation than we had the previous day and got where we needed to go in the amount of time we expected. It's the little victories! The museum was such a fascinating site, and we enjoyed seeing some of the 3000 warriors that have been excavated so far. Each one of them is unique, and the excavating process seems so interesting. We were very glad we made the effort to go and see it and definitely felt it was worth it. We got back to our apartment late in the afternoon and decided we just needed a break from Chinese food, so we took ourselves down to the Pizza Hut on the corner. We're all about adventure, but sometimes people just need something sort of familiar, that doesn't require chopsticks!
We were ready to jump fully back into the Chinese food scene this morning, which was great, because we had already booked a food tour with Lost Plate. Our guide met us at the subway station, and we crammed into two little tuk tuks and headed off to hit some VERY local joints and try some TRULY authentic local cuisine. Our first stop was at a tiny hole-in-the-wall, where the same family has been making the same "thousand layer pancakes" for over fifty years. There was one table in the middle of the room, just big enough for our group and two other people. The cooking station was literally just a couple of feet away. The pancakes were more like large dumplings and were filled with meat and onions and green vegetables, before being smashed between two griddles and cooked to perfection. They were fantastic--easily my favorite Chinese food, so far. Our next stop was at an even smaller place, where the line stretched down the block. There were no tables inside, but there were a few tiny tables with stools (think preschool classroom) scattered along the sidewalk and down an alleyway. There we had soup made with beef, potatoes, red carrots, cabbage, green onions, cornstarch, and plenty of anise. One version also had a spicy pepper sauce in it. After that we took some time to digest, as we walked through the market. Oh my! I'm not even sure I can describe it. It was wild! We saw everything you can imagine and probably lots of things you can't. All the usual foods were for sale, right alongside the home goods and underwear. We also saw several dentists, a chiropractor, and tables of sex toys thrown in for good measure. But, our favorite stop was a pet store specializing in one particular type of pet: crickets. I have never, ever been in a store like that before. There was one whole wall, filled with tiny cages, which contained the "singing" crickets. The special "fighting" crickets were kept on the counter in boxes. The owner tried to get a couple to fight for us but ultimately concluded that it was just too cold outside to get them riled up. I promise you, I am not making this stuff up! In addition to the critters themselves, there were also a great many accessories to make pet crickets comfortable, just like you would find in any pet store. When we had finished gawking in the market, we continued our food tour. (Because you know how looking at buckets of maggots and trailers full of raw livers will really cause you to work up an appetite!) Our next two stops were for true street food, in the market. We had stone bread, which is a sort of savory, flat cornbread, which is cooked under hot stones, that leaves it indented and pocked. Our guide told us this recipe is the oldest known Chinese recipe. Before we had time to finish those, we grabbed some persimmon cakes, which was the only sweet food we had on the tour, and which we were told is truly unique to Xi'an and dates back to the Ming Dynasty. They were very much like fried fruity doughnuts, but the method of frying them was pretty interesting. They scooped the dough into large metal ladle-looking spoons, which they then submerged in boiling oil for a couple of minutes. Our final stop led us to another teeny mom-and-pop place, where we were invited to participate in the noodle making with the proprietary family. While we made noodles, our guide went next door to order some dumplings, so that we ended up with sour soup dumplings and noodles with beef and greens. By that time, we were nice and stuffed, so we couldn't finish everything. When our tour was done, we received gift bags with chopsticks, spices, recipes, and postcards, and we got to keep our tea thermoses we received and used earlier in the day. It was such a fantastic experience! If you are ever visiting Xi'an and you're feeling adventurous, you must put this tour on your list of things to absolutely do.
I'm sorry for the long post and the massive brain dump (and the lack of pictures). Our internet here is atrocious, so I just had to throw it all out there in one giant session (though, truth be told, the internet has failed at least a dozen times while I've been trying to write this, and it has taken hours to get it posted). If you stuck with me through this, thanks. I know your time is valuable, and it means a lot to me that you are using some of it to be a part of our journey!
*Pictures here.
Saturday, March 05, 2016
Temple of Heaven
They say Disney World is "the happiest place on Earth," but I have been there, and this is a lie. (No offense intended to my Disney loving friends!) Today, we visited the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, and I believe the slogan would be much more accurate if applied to this lovely place instead. I don't know when I have ever been in a place that exuded quite so much positivity. It was a place filled with music, dancing, games, and people of all kinds in pursuit of physical and emotional well-being. And, I have never seen a display of community to match the likes of it.
The Temple of Heaven was originally built in the 1400s, as a place of worship for the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. And, while the beautiful temple structures are still in place, today, the extensive grounds, dotted with ancient trees, make up an incredible park, which is accessible to all for a small fee. We saw groups performing a variety of dances, playing unusual instruments, practicing Tai Chi and Bailong, flying kites, working on gymnastic moves, exercising, and playing cards, dominoes, Chinese chess, and Jianzi (Chinese hacky sack). Adults and children played side by side, and everyone wore a smile. We were invited to play and participate in any activity we showed an interest in. And, as a bonus, the weather was perfect! We enjoyed the day so much and would love to visit this inspirational place again in the future!
The Temple of Heaven was originally built in the 1400s, as a place of worship for the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. And, while the beautiful temple structures are still in place, today, the extensive grounds, dotted with ancient trees, make up an incredible park, which is accessible to all for a small fee. We saw groups performing a variety of dances, playing unusual instruments, practicing Tai Chi and Bailong, flying kites, working on gymnastic moves, exercising, and playing cards, dominoes, Chinese chess, and Jianzi (Chinese hacky sack). Adults and children played side by side, and everyone wore a smile. We were invited to play and participate in any activity we showed an interest in. And, as a bonus, the weather was perfect! We enjoyed the day so much and would love to visit this inspirational place again in the future!
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| Dancing, music, Tai Chi, Bailong, and gymnastics are just a few of the activities we saw int he park. |
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| There were people gathered everywhere to play games, and our kids were happy to get in on the action. |
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| There was a huge section of the park devoted to workout equipment. We were happy to get physical and gave it all a try! |
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| Some of the beautiful temple structures |
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| The center of my universe standing at the spot known as "The Center of the Universe" |
Friday, March 04, 2016
Beijing Zoo
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| The entrance to the zoo |
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| We came for the pandas, of course! Clay was a bit disappointed that we couldn't hug them, after seeing professional panda huggers online the other day, but he was impressed that each panda had its very own playground. |
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| Clay loves pandas! |
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| Hiding in a panda tree |
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| Clay also loves panda statues! |
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| For some reason this statue inspired push-ups (I think it was because the stones contained imprints of panda paws, of which the back paws look more like human feet and the front paws more like human hands, so Clay was just trying to match up.) |
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| I thought the feathery white beard made this great bustard look especially Chinese (like the kung fu masters of movies) |
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| Snub-nosed monkey |
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| There were many wolf statues, but Clay liked the one with babies the best. |
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| This polar bear was one big dude! |
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| Lionesses |
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| White Tiger |
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| Clay was so excited to have a seat by this friendly koala |
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| Elephant riders |
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| Max was just the right size to be an Emperor Penguin |
Thursday, March 03, 2016
The Great Wall and Hongluo Temple
When we first began planning our trip, we asked the kids what the places were that they most wanted to visit. Weston didn't hesitate to express his interest in seeing the Great Wall of China. (The other kids were also excited about visiting, but this was Weston's first choice of all the potential places to go.) Finally, the day arrived! We hired a driver for the day and made the hour-long drive from Beijing up to the Mutianyu section of the wall. It was a pretty smoggy day, but the weather was relatively warm and the sun did shine through the haze, so were were able to see the wall and the surrounding mountains pretty well. We also arrived early (and in the winter), so there was almost no one else visiting at the time we were there. We rode a chairlift up to the wall, wandered around on it for a while, and then rode the toboggan down. It was an amazing experience!
When we saw all we wanted to see of the wall and the surrounding area, we still had some prepaid time with the driver, so he recommended a Buddhist temple (Hongluo Temple) not far from the wall. We were game, since we have never visited anything like that before. Though the incense perfumed air was a bit strong and the deities were quite strange to us, the temple grounds were really lovely and interesting, especially since they were still decorated for the Chinese New Year.
PRO TRAVELER TIP: Public toilets in Beijing are generally squatty potties (basically, glorified holes in the ground) and toilet paper is not provided. Soap and hand drying equipment are also not provided. This seems to be an under-discussed bit of travel information that might be useful to others who plan to visit this city in the future. You may consider it your public service announcement for the day, and hopefully, it will save someone the shock and discomfort we experienced when we first arrived. Today, everyone carried his or her own stash of paper, and I slathered everyone liberally with hand sanitizer just about every time they turned around.
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| Watts at The Great Wall |
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| The Great Wall of China |
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| The kids didn't know about the toboggan ahead of time and were so excited to to learn that this was how were would be coming down the mountain. |
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| Some other interesting sights at the wall: Genghis Khan playing Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) and a lovely park across the street |
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| Hongluo Temple |
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| Hongluo Temple entrance, decorated for the Year of the Monkey |
Wednesday, March 02, 2016
Exploring Beijing
We had a leisurely morning and then headed out to do a little exploring. We are using public transportation while we are here, and I just want to say that the Beijing subway system is one of the easiest to use of almost anywhere we've been. All signs and announcements are in English, as well as Chinese, and the stations are clean and haven't been as crowded as I was expecting. Also, everyone insists that the kids sit when possible, so that has been nice. And, speaking of special treatment for the kids, the Chinese people have been awed by our large family and have been fawning all over our children, especially little Clay. He is like a celebrity! Everyone wants to have a selfie taken with him, which he allowed for a while but eventually got tired of and started just turning away when someone would approach him. He definitely prefers to have his picture made with statues rather than strangers! He has also received a special treat or two from vendors who just wanted to do something nice for him. Everyone loves him, which is, of course, no surprise to me.
Anyway, back to our adventures. We made our way down to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and Imperial Gardens, and eventually ended up at the famous Wangfujing Night Market (a.k.a Snack Street), where enthusiastic vendors tried to sell us everything from skewered tarantulas and scorpions to fresh fruit kabobs, and everything in between. We gawked and ate and had a blast! (If you're squeamish, you may want to pass on the pictures from the market that follow.)
Anyway, back to our adventures. We made our way down to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and Imperial Gardens, and eventually ended up at the famous Wangfujing Night Market (a.k.a Snack Street), where enthusiastic vendors tried to sell us everything from skewered tarantulas and scorpions to fresh fruit kabobs, and everything in between. We gawked and ate and had a blast! (If you're squeamish, you may want to pass on the pictures from the market that follow.)
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| Tiananmen Square |
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| The Forbidden City |
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| Statues, statues, statues! (Even Max got in on the action when we found the transformer/robot statues.) |
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| The Night Market If you look closely, you will find seahorses, crabs, snails, a variety of bugs, tarantulas, scorpions, centipedes, starfish, snakes, frogs, Peking duck, squid, and quail eggs, among other more recognizable things, though, of course, I took more pictures of oddities. Weston was the bravest among us, since he decided to try the squid. He did considered the centipedes for a while, before ultimately deciding against it. Thank goodness. |
Tuesday, March 01, 2016
Chillin' in China
After nearly a week on the train, our plan for today was nada. We wanted to let everyone sleep in, run around outside, chat with family in Texas, and just chill. And, that's just what we did. We chose this particular apartment on Air BnB because of it's proximity to a wonderful park, with walking trails, playgrounds, sport courts, and open grassy areas. The boys had a ball playing there most of the afternoon, and they even met some friends. I never ceased to be amazed at how well kids can get on at the playground with other kids they can barely communicate with. Hide-and-seek is universal. I think one of the great benefits of traveling is seeing that kids (and all other humans) are essentially the same the world over and are therefore easier to get along with than our close-mindedness and ignorance sometimes deceive us into believing.
One thing we didn't plan on was finding a Chinese market set up across the street this morning. That was an added bonus. We had so much fun looking at all of the beautiful, interesting, and, frankly, odd things in each of the booths, and we bought most of our groceries for the week, which included baby bok choy, cilantro, garlic, red peppers, corn on the cob, onions, bean sprouts, broccoli, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, quail eggs, duck eggs, chicken eggs, pork, rice, homemade noodles, grilled chicken skewers, fried chicken legs, and a variety of savory Chinese flatbreads. We passed on the hog's head, the live chickens, and the dental services. It was a great day and a perfect way to recover from our long train ride.
One thing we didn't plan on was finding a Chinese market set up across the street this morning. That was an added bonus. We had so much fun looking at all of the beautiful, interesting, and, frankly, odd things in each of the booths, and we bought most of our groceries for the week, which included baby bok choy, cilantro, garlic, red peppers, corn on the cob, onions, bean sprouts, broccoli, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, quail eggs, duck eggs, chicken eggs, pork, rice, homemade noodles, grilled chicken skewers, fried chicken legs, and a variety of savory Chinese flatbreads. We passed on the hog's head, the live chickens, and the dental services. It was a great day and a perfect way to recover from our long train ride.
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| The Chinese Market |
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| The vendor at the market cut the skin and off our pineapple and removed the eyes, leaving us with just edible fruit that looked like art. |
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| Lunch from the market: a sesame cake, a spinach/dill cake, grilled chicken on a skewer, and Chinese flatbread. |
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| Clay was so proud of himself for helping to shuck the corn. |
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| Clay says he "runs like fire" when he pushes the merry-go-round. |
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| Our boys made fast friends with a group of Chinese boys, and it was so fun to watch them all play together, just as if there were no language barrier whatsoever. (To be fair, the boys spoke a little English, and Weston was able to use some of his Chinese.) |
Pictures, As Promised*
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| Moscow Waterpark |
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| All Aboard! (The sign pictured on the bottom left says "Peking" in Cyrillic, if you're curious.) |
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| Russian Scenery |
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| Russian Stations |
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| Russian snacks purchased on the platforms |
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| Mongolia showed us yurts and lots of livestock including cattle, sheep, horses, saiga antelope, and camels (from top to bottom in the pictures). Clay also got his photo snapped with a statue of the only Mongolian cosmonaut, and we ate a nice meal in the beautiful Mongolian dining car. |
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| Changing of the bogies. (I love the instructions for how to put the train back together displayed in the shed!) |
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| China |
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