Xi'an and the Ceramic Soldiers

Errrrr.... I mean Terracotta Warriors.

So Liz, Ana and I took the over night train to Xian on Saturday and then did a full day of touring on Sunday. We saw the Terracotta Soldiers, the Somethingorother Pagoda, the City Wall and the old Mosque. It was all very beautiful and interesting. Though to be be honest, the Pagoda wasn't my favorite, it was really too big to appreciate since you had to crane your neck to look at it and frankly, I know nothing of Buddhism so I had a very limited appreciation for the artwork. But I did learn that I was born in the year of the Rooster.... SOLID!
See, it's huge.

WOW... what is this kid doing, swimming on the floor for kicks?
The Terracotta Warriors were a crowd pleaser! They really impressed me. The Chinese refer to it as the 8th wonder of the world, gee I thought there were only 7. However the Chinese also consider the Colosseum the 8th wonder of the world...interesting, it's my recollection that it had already solidified a spot in the top 7. Huh.....

This guy just might be my favorite

The Mosque was my second favorite because the architecture is just neat. Also it was a kick watching the Muslims come and pray. How come it's only dudes praying, what gives? Chicks can't go pray too? At any rate, it was pretty.
And the wall, well the wall got cut short because it was FIGGIN' HOT AS HELL standing on that thing. So we went up and then promptly went down.....so there's that.

Perhaps the best part of Xian is the food. They're not so into rice as they are into noodles. Also they make these amazing little sandwiches they call "Hanbaobao" which translates to hamburger. The meat is a bit shoddy, but it's still really good.
Then we hopped back on the train bound for Beijing. As per usual, it was good times had by all.

Have you heard?

Oh China.... it just gets better and better!



Have you heard.....The Olympics are in town. Indeed! In case you're curious if it's crazy here, no. In case you're curious if it's different around town, obviously yes. The biggest difference I've noticed is the presence of white people......and guess what, they ALL speak English, YAY! Other difference are sort of obvious, things like banners, lots and lots of police men lining the streets, etc.

ALSO in the event you were wondering if I am going to the Olympics, clearly the answer is YES. I made friends with someone who works at the embassy and he forwarded me a legitimate website selling seats to all events, so I picked some up :) And what will I be seeing you may ask??? None other than the MEN'S SPEED WALKING FINALS!! Oh and the decathlon which entails pole vault, hurtles, discus and something else very odd.

Oh wow.... happy go lucky Chinese people with Olympic pride.

Good times in Shanghai

To get to Shanghai from Beijing is easy.... sort of.

Liz and I left at 6am on Saturday morning, bound for the Beijing Capital Airport to board our 8am flight to Shanghai. As the responsible one, I made the travel arrangements (yeah right like I'd trust her with tickets to anything again!), plane, hotel and itinerary (thanks Sumita and Scott!). As we were driving along in the cab at 6:09 am I was looking at the tickets and noticed that they neither specified a terminal nor an airline name. WOW! Oh well, I called the ticket vendor and sorted it out. But honestly China, why wouldn't you print out the name of the airline when you issue an e-ticket....really!

And then there was the airport....the Chinese are all sorts of freaked out right now about the Olympics. Not only do they fear actual terrorism, but they fear that other nations fear they don't fear the fear... follow me? This of course makes them very paranoid. So the result is an airport in complete disarray with all sorts of added security measures that at the end of the day amount to nothing but a nuisance. You thought JFK was bad....hahahaha. At the airport they dumped out my carry on and had to clear m y USB memory stick with their manager before allowing me to pass. Let's see, it's neither sharp or a liquid....what gives?!?! Eventually though, after much turmoil we did board the plane on time and in a civilized manner. Chinese airlines are interesting. They are efficient because they don't give a damn if everyone is on or not and they feed you constantly! I have no idea what that thing I ate was, but hell it was free so I had two!

I was told that the hotel I reserved was at the "Bund", a touristy area in Shanghai. Cute, so cute. It was relatively near the Bund, but no....no, no, no it was not in the Bund. Actually it was next to this place, have a look :)

At least the neighbors were nice.

Despite the inconvenient location of the hotel and their rude staff, we had a great time in Shanghai. It is a city completely unlike Beijing. Where in Beijing you will see something out of the ordinary and unexpected at every city block, in Shanghai you get sort of a European reminiscent nostalgia coupled with bizarre Chinese behavior and practices. Regardless they are both worthwhile places to visit. Clearly my favorite aspect of Shanghai is it's contemporary sky line. While the old European buildings are lovely, intricate and nice to look at, the skyline across the river is a different sort of marvel. It is home to the world's 2nd and 3rd tallest buildings in the WORLD! See.....pretty :)
We walked all day Sunday seeing as much touristy stuff as we could, according to various guides. Here are some pictures.....

My happy place! Obviously.
Fruit on a stick is brilliant! Oh and costs roughly $0.16 Thanks China!

The Chinese are so concerned with their progress and stature in the world that they have an unusual obsession with architecture, I suppose because it is an obvious testimony to their wealth and success. At any rate, here I am at the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum in aw of how ridiculously big their city model is. Seriously China, you have crazy poverty and human rights issues and yet you find time to build something like this just for show....Impressive!

Awwww look at me getting along with the locals. I was enamored with this little boy because his outfit was so ridiculous. See below.
Seriously, the kid is wearing an apron, and check out his do!
Speaking of cute kids....
Well, not everyone can be so cute I guess.
There's Liz lookin' like a local. To shied their eyes from the sun and street debris, the Chinese wear visors. It is also a hand way to ensure they absolutely do not tan. Wouldn't want to look like a peasant!!
Oh China...a place of such enthusiasm
View from the bar in the Gin Mao tower.
Probably the best thing we did was take a boat tour of the architecture along the river. The info was bland, but the weather was great.
Swell, just swell.

Crazy Tea Pouring Chinese Fools! (in a good way)

Take a look at this, you'll love it!

China......strange and intriguing

Jiadong...err I mean James, like "Bond...James Bond" and me at the Tea House

Last Friday Jiadong took Liz and I to the most famous tea house in Beijing. Naively I expected a large menu with tea and some funky music in a dark room with small tables and foot stools with pillows. Ya know? At any rate, I was waaaaaay off. Not only did I get Chinese tea, I got delicious Chinese pastries and 8 classic Chinese performances. There was a stage at the front with shows ranging from traditional folk music to Shadow puppeteers, and kung fu to crazy tea pouring guys who treat tea pots like swords....very interesting. I tell ya what, as great as the Opera, Kung Fu and dancer chicks were, NOTHING and I mean nothing, compared to the crazy Chinese precision tea pourers. They mean business with that tea. Not only did they whip the giant tea kettles with 4 foot long spouts around like it's easy, twisting, turn and contorting the kettle around their bodies, but they also poured the tea onto each others kettles and even onto the head of their lovely tea lady assistant. So weird and so impressive! At any rate, the show went on for roughly 2 hours. It was well worth the 180RMB! (or roughly $23) As homesick as I get from time to time, it's seeing bizarre stuff like that, that makes this experience well worth it and unforgettable. Oh sure sure work is great, bla bla bla but what could be more interesting than this?

Happy Monkey from the Opera....actually it's a naughty Monkey that stole wine from the Emperor. It's fine though, the Monkey totally gets away with it!
Words just can't describe. When they say "a picture is worth 1000 words" this is EXACTLY what they meant! True story.....

One word is all you need

I heard it said that "the" is the most common word in the world. Yeah that may be true, but let's be honest it's really not all that helpful. Having lived in two foreign countries and still only able to speak English, I can say confidently that the most helpful word in the WORLD (translated that is)... the first word you should learn when you move to a country with a foreign tongue, no matter how weird and no matter how long or short is may be translated, is the word "this." Think about what you can do with the word "this"... you can point!! Point at food, point a direction, point at a map, the list is endless. Just the other day, I pointed at a bug bite in the grocery store (the mosquitoes out here are NASTY) and the lady showed me where the bug repellent is shelved. I know I know, you're thinking "Anne why didn't you just go look for it?" People, nothing is written in English, were I to trust my own intuition to buy a bottle of bug spray, I'd end up with hair removal or some weird perfume. Can you stand it? Do you love it! Once you master "this" only then are you ready to move on to such advanced words as "Thank you", "correct", "good", "hello" and "goodbye".

ZHEIGE is my saving grace. That is pronounced jayga. Simply amazing!

And just for kicks, here are some examples of Chinese translations gone awry :)

Really?

Astounding!

Actually Chinese Hamburgers do exist. It's called "hanbaobao" and it's DELICIOUS!

My morning commute...viva bicycles!!

The following is a video of my morning commute in Beijing. I don't bike THAT fast, so if you want to fast forward through parts, that's fine. In fact, it could make it funnier. Yes it is as ridiculous as it seems but keep in mind it's also WAY MORE FUN than it looks. Honestly, so great!

At any rate, I hope you get a kick out of this :)

The Great Steep Overgrown Wall of China!

Yup.... there I am, there it is....good times had by all!

So I was sitting at the pub a couple weeks ago drinking a lukewarm almost non-alcoholic Chinese fatty beer, when I looked up and saw a sign that read "Camping on the Great Wall"... first of all, I'm not a chick that likes to camp. But hey, for a fee, these people would move me, feed me and guide me along a decent chunk of the Great Wall of China. More than decent actually, a recently renovated not touristy section. Hmmmmm could be worth the camping part! At any rate, my friend Liz and I decided to do it, as clearly we are too lazy and too mandarin deficient to organize it ourselves. So we showed up at the meeting place (note the meeting place: Nan Jie BAR...hahaha that's how you know you're in good company!), met the tour guide and other campers and away we went. I should mention too, quite randomly, there was a producer who was shooting the entire trip for a short 5 minute film to appear on Current TV later this summer. He requested we sign waivers and appreciate. Now, with an ego like mine, I just couldn't help but participate. Besides, the camera was always in our face, how were any of us going to refuse. So we piled in the van and hit the road :)
Perhaps the most hilarious thing about this little jaunt was the unexpected work out we got from the very first step we took towards the wall. We literally rolled up along side it and hiked up the side of a mountain for 20 minutes weaving from one switch back to the next while carrying a tent, a sleeping bag and the bag with all our stuff in it. I was relived once I got to the Great Wall, thinking naively that it would get easier, only to find that the relief was a figment of my imagination and we were to trudge on up the rocks at roughly a 45 degree angle. A piece of cake!

I'm not joking around, I mean STEEP!

Not gonna lie, initially this part, which I believe was the steepest we did, intimidated me. How could it not! I was wearing my $20 keds from target, they're not exactly equipped for such terrain.
However once you're up there and you start to take in the view, you really do forget about your fatigue. The view of the mountains, as well as the wall, was spectacular and well worth the effort.

Clearly the hike took a lot out of everyone.... it was nice to see that I wasn't the only one out of breathe :) In fact, good for you China...because were I a Mongolian, I probably wouldn't have gone to the effort of breaching those walls. It was hard enough without being attacked by patrolling Chinese soldiers.

Out of breath, very out of breath

Note the awesome fake Armani hat.... China... love it!
I love not being the only one exhausted from hiking 15 minutes.
(FYI: This chick is my coworker)

After we threw down our stuff we were then told we were to hike up another 20 minutes to a vista point for the sunset. REALLY! But at least there was incentive. The tour guide brought along a bottle of wine to crack open once we reached the top. At that moment I knew I had made a sound choice in selecting this tour group in particular :)

SO PRETTY!

Once the sun had set, we went down the wall back to the van.

Nearly tumbled and rolled is more like it.

Next we went to a local farm for dinner. This was perhaps the best food I have had so far in China. You all know that when I arrived in Beijing, I was a bit Chinese-Food-Shy, to say the least. However in the past 6 weeks, after eating it about every day, I've really come to like it. Look at me growing up! And this food really was delicious. Beer and wine was also available, but I've never been so self-controlled with alcohol in my life.... call me crazy but I didn't want to get wasted THEN have to hike up the bloomin' Great Wall of China, tripping and stumbling as I go due to intoxication. Again, I'm really growing up. HA!

Mmmmmmm (never thought I'd be saying that when staring at Chinese food)

Believe it or not I was the first one up the next morning, at 6:18am. I guess it was the sun coming through the tent. OR perhaps it was the utter discomfort of sleeping on rocks! Either way, good for me getting up early and having first dibbs on coffee.

Once everyone was up and fed. Breakfast by the way, was impressive for a) China and b) camping. We had real coffee made in a french press, Chinese doughnuts (I don't really know how to describe these) and banana.

The Great Wall of China can also serve as a buffet table.

Next we hiked. And hiked, and hiked some more. The weather was great, not a cloud in the sky or a drop of rain in the air, a rarity for China this time of year. It was all good fun, be it up hill or down, stairs or slopes. The first part was the restored section of the wall. Oh and just because I refer to it as restored, is not to imply easy. By no means was the restored section any easier from the overgrown section. Well to be fair, at least the restored section didn't have weeds and saplings whipping at our legs as we walked, so there's that.

He took pictures of me... so I took pictures of him!

This is the part where the tour guide, Chandler, had to pull each of us up to the next part of the Wall because the gap was too big. He's something of a monkey, so clearly he did not need assistance. So essentially, I was hanging off the Great Wall of China by some dude named Chandler's arm.... clearly not your average day. Am I glad I don't have a fear of heights!

The group.....really really really tired at 11:30am after hiking for 4 hours. Nice!

The rest of the trip was pretty easy. We went back to the farm and ate sandwiches and then got back in the van Beijing bound. Once we arrived back in Beijing, the guide, Chandler, took us out for a complimentary "clearly you're tired and need a cold one" beer :) My kind of tour, what more can I say :)