Saturday, June 30, 2018

Central Beijing

 Jingshan Park

Adjacent to the Forbidden City, a hike up the central hill in Jingshan Park provided us with stunning views of the Forbidden city. Fortunately the pollution wasn't too bad the morning we visited. Throughout the day, we watched the smog roll in. 

Tianamum Square

Prior to visiting Tianamum Square, I watched the video from the 1989 student protests of the man who stood up against the tank. I was a jr. in high school at that time and sad to say, I don't remember this modern history at all. Today, people linger under umbrellas, snapping pictures and stand in lines for hours to file past the preserved body of Mao. The "Tianamum" or Gate of Heavenly Peace is a national symbol of China in the center of the city. Through the gate is the Forbidden City.

Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is one of the top things to see in Beijing. The former Imperial Palace of the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty consists of 980 buildings packed into 180 acres. It was hot and we were tired of crowds. It felt like more of the same architecture we've been looking at for the past three years. The Palace museum is located here, but in Taipei we had the National Palace Museum which housed all the Chinese artifacts that China sent there for protection during the war. I really believe we made it through in record time. We zig-zagged our way around the crowds, seeing the less visited areas.

  

Friday, June 29, 2018

Exploring the Great Wall of China


During Elena's Sr. year, we wanted to do a girls trip to China but found it was very difficult to get visas from Taiwan. Our attempts led to our passports being lost in the mail and many hours on the phone to get them back - without ever receiving the visas. Earlier this year, China instated a 144 hour transit visa allowing us to start in Taiwan, spend up to 144 in Beijing before continuing on to a third country. This was the perfect solution for us as we PCS'd out of Taiwan. I was honestly a bit nervous waiting in the very small line that this was not going to work and we would be stuck in the airport for six days. Fortunately, we only needed to fill out a simple form and show our departure tickets. They stamped everything multiple times and we were on our way to our adventures in China. 


The main thing we wanted to see in China was the Great Wall. It's really unfathomable to imagine. But I didn't want to just see the Great Wall with a million other tourists, I wanted to experience the Great Wall. To hike it for hours letting the greatness of it all sink in. We hired a guide who picked us up from our hotel bright and early and rode 3 hours to where the road ended. After walking thousands of stairs through the jungles of Taiwan, I didn't expect dirt paths and forests in China. (Silly, I know.) We hiked up hill for an hour before reaching the wall. We found over the two days that our guide was a bit funny with photos. He had a nice camera with him and would have us pose for every single photo. We would try to tell him that we just wanted a nice one of us standing in a certain spot, but no, there must be a pose of some sort. So we began the wall with a picture of us touching it.


The air was crystal clear for the two days we were hiking the wall. I've read news stories about the extreme pollution in China but a wind had come from the North blowing the pollution away. (Probably to Taiwan where they complain about the smog rolling in from China as a wall of filth polluting the island.) Lucky us because we had stunning views our entire hike. In fact, at one point we could even see the city of Beijing in the distance.
The wall is actually three walls built at different times in history. The Quin Wall, the Han Wall and the Ming Wall. Construction began in the 5th century BC to establish boarders between waring states. In 221 BC the First Emperor demolished the interior walls between unified states but kept the north and northwestern boundary walls and linked them together. Construction continued until 220 AD. These original walls have mostly been taken back by nature. When we talk about the Great Wall, we are referring to the most recent wall from the Ming Dynasty built from 1368-1644. 


Our hike the first day began along the Jiankou section then changed into the Mutianyu section. This was the oldest section we hiked. It has not been repaired or restored in any way. Our guide gave us a map of China showing the Great Wall. He then highlighted the sections we would hike. They looked like two small dashes on a very long line. The Great Wall is 8,851 kilometers long. (That's approx. 6,000 feet or the length of the US boarders between Mexico and Canada!) It really is hard to imagine the length of this wall and the amazing feat in building it until you have walked for hours on it snaking up and down and back up again. The non-restored sections are crumbling and overgrown with vegetation. We didn't talk too much as we were walking. I think we were all absorbing how ancient and desolate the structure we were walking on is. We encountered very few people that first day. 
The construction of the wall is amazing. Our guide claimed that slave labor was not used in the construction, rather as part of your military service you built 3.3 meters of the wall during 2 years of service. Of course you didn't work alone. A company of 153 soldiers worked together to build 500 meters of wall. The rock was quarried near the wall. Each block weighs 2 tons and was moved with crowbars on rolling logs. The terra-cotta bricks, 24 lbs each, were made in the valleys and passed up the mountain hand to hand. As the wall moves up and down the mountains, the bricks follow the curve of the land rather than being horizontal. It begs the question of how did they get the bricks to stay in place while waiting for the mortar to dry? The Chinese were very ingenious by using sticky rice. This was the most expensive part of the building process. They ground and mixed the glutenous rice then immediately stuck a brick onto the wall. The rice mortar held like super glue and is still holding 500 years later. It's amazing.

By the end of the day we were wiped out. It was a lot of difficult climbing up and down the crumbling steps. Our guide took us to a restaurant where we enjoyed a traditional dinner of many foods we were already accustomed to. We drove for an hour or two to what had once been a small farming village where we stayed in an old home converted into a hotel. It was clean and quaint and had we not been exhausted we would have enjoyed walking along the river a bit.


Day 2 we awoke early to see the sun rise over the wall. The sun had just peaked out when we arrived. We found a quiet spot to enjoy the early morning rays. Tucked on one of the decks of a watchtower, we enjoyed the breakfast the hotel had sent along. We were rewarded with another beautiful day for walking. We had driven to the Jinshanling section of the wall. It was immediately clear that this was a much more used and repaired section. The wall dipped and fell creating long climbs up and then down  again. My sore muscles screamed at me for not having better prepared for the trip. The long, even, flat sections that were filled with tourists but easy to walk. Gone was our quiet connection with the wall. Soon we were back in the van giving a last wave to the wall. 
Spending two days walking the wall was the highlight for each of us on this trip. We will always share the memories of the hours we spent walking, eating, and huffing and puffing together. (Well, maybe I'm the only one with huffing and puffing memories!)



Tour company we used for our two day hike. Great Wall Hiking

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Our Little Beijing Neighborhood

Hutong

A hutong is simply a narrow street or alley. Beijing used to be divided into different neighborhoods consisting of hutongs. Most have been torn down, replace with tall apartment buildings. But there are a few left and we were able to stay in one during our time in the city. Tucked amidst the entrances to homes, a door off the alley took us to a little lobby. Beyond that there were a few rows of traditional style rooms. In the photos above, the girls are standing by the red door and wall of our room.  We enjoyed being part of a typical neighborhood. Each morning we purchased our breakfast from the neighborhood fruit stand. We moved over when bicycles came and smiled at people walking the street. Typically common bathrooms are shared in the hutongs. Fortunately, we had a bathroom in our room! 

Monday, June 18, 2018

Dragon Boat Racing


There are three important holidays in Taiwan - Chinese New Year, Tomb Sweeping Day, and Dragon Boat Festival. For three years I got to be part of the AIT women's Dragon Boat team. I think it's been my favorite activity that I've participated in during my international travels. It's one thing to be in a country and stand at the edge watching a local parade or festival. It's quite another thing to be a participant and to spend months in preparation. It's a feeling of belonging - of home. 

Start
The first two years Elena and I woke up every Saturday morning and rode our bikes along the river to the practice site. For an hour we were on the water learning to bend, twist, and stroke together as a team. It looks easy from the shore, but even with three months of practice, we couldn't come close to the beauty that a year-around team has. It had been 25 years since I'd participated in a team sport. I'd forgotten the fun of working together, laughing and cheering one another on. I loved the dynamics we had in our boat - singing (thank you coach!), chatting and team mates yelling "Come on ladies, push harder!" There were stretches of peace when we just paddled to the beat of the drum. All the stress of work, lists of groceries that needed to be bought, emails that needed to be written all faded to the background as I bent and dipped my paddle into the water in rhythm with the drum. Just the team, the boat, and the river.

Racing
This year I was on my own for many of the practices. It was one of the unexpected dynamics of the empty nest. Not only do the kids have to learn to do things on their own, but I did too. It added so much to my Saturday mornings when both Maddie and Elena were able to join the team after they arrived home from school. 

Leaving the boat as a team after the race.
 Race day is always a lot of fun. Friends come out to cheer us on. Nerves are high until we get into the boat, then you can feel a quiet focus come over the team. We paddle to the starting area, get in position and wait for the gun. Three hard strokes and 10 fast strokes get the heavy boat moving. Our drummer yells out when to paddle harder or faster. Every year we seemed to go a bit faster on race day until this year where it turned a bit frantic. The flag catcher leans over the dragon's head and grabs a flag as we cross the finish line. We gave it all we had and placed third in our heat by just a smidgen. The first two places go on to the next round. 
I'm going to miss getting on the river every Saturday morning next year. I'll be cheering my team on through Facebook with warm memories of past races.  Good luck ladies!

Monday, June 4, 2018

Xiao Liuqiu Island

 
Memorial weekend - our last chance to enjoy the beauty of Taiwan before the big move rush began. There's an island off the south west coast of Taiwan that we had been wanting to visit. I'll be honest, we dragged our feet booking a visit because we don't speak Chinese and knew it could be a challenge to really enjoy ourselves with only charades. Fortunately, our friends joined us which made the whole adventure that much more fun!

Getting to the island is an adventure it itself. Our transportation included the mrt to the train station, the high speed rail to Kaohsiung, a 40 min. taxi ride to the coast, then a boat to the island. Once on the island, the means of transpiration is your feet or a moped. 

Thanks to some great recommendations we booked a hotel that was walking distance to town and the beach. The whole "theme hotel" is a very Taiwanese thing so we embraced the ship shape of our lodgings knowing that at least we had a good landmark to charade to someone should we get lost. 

The appeal of this adventure was to swim with the sea turtles. There was a little beachy area by the boat docks and our hotel. We didn't know exactly where the best spot to see the turtles would be, so we started there. There is a difference in the way Asians and Westerners travel and enjoy the world. The right hand side of the beach was full of groups of tourists. The were wearing long water suits, life jacket, mask and a snorkel. The proceeded into the water up to their knees holding on to a rope with a guide at the front and another at the back. Most groups didn't go any further. The just laid there in waist deep water looking at the broken coral and maybe a turtle or two. Some groups proceeded in chain fashion to the right for a decent distance, around some rocks and up some steps to the safety of dry ground. That is the Asian experience that we opted not to do.


We came equipped with our own masks. We looked like aliens, but I have to say these masks are amazing. They don't fog up, you have this great, wide view and the snorkel doesn't let water in. Our views were crystal clear. We headed out into the ocean which we had to ourselves. We spent hours just floating, gazing at the turtles. Some were huge and ancient. They slowly pulled and chomped on sea weed with no other care as to what the day may bring. Their shells were thick and covered in allege.  Others were younger, smaller and more colorful. The swam through the deep waters with gentle grace.

We did the 45 min. drive around the island. While trying to find a beach on the map, we stumbled across a small abandoned marina. We walked around to the coral and once again had the ocean to ourselves. What a hidden gem! We put our faces in the water and pushed off. It was some of the most beautiful and undisturbed coral I've ever seen. Small tropical fish darted in and out of their hidey-holes. Brilliant coral colorfully created a dazzling world under the protection of the sea.

I wish it hadn't taken us so long to visit Xiao Liuqiu Island. It's the sort of place you can return to again and again.





Ship House Hotel:    https://www.booking.com/hotel/tw/ship-house.en-gb.html?aid=356980;label=gog235jc-hotel-XX-tw-shipNhouse-unspec-us_mi-com-L%3Aen-O%3AosSx-B%3Asafari-N%3AXX-S%3Abo-U%3AXX-H%3As;sid=c36968375414e393cbb3467030609af2;dist=0&sb_price_type=total&type=total&