Spring Break in China!

Finally...

Together again, and finally in Ruth's corner of the world!

I had been waiting for this day ever since we thought there might be even a remote possibility that we move anywhere in Asia.  My fabulous friend, Ruth, from waaaaay back in the days of Webster Jr. High in Waukegan, has been living in China for more than 15 years.  It was top of my list to visit her and her family, and we finally managed it!  And reconnecting with her and watching our kids get along so famously was worth every penny, yen, yuan, and RMB.  I'm just sorry it took us so darn long, Ruthie.  

[And by the way, what is the US government doing to China to cause them to charge $200 per tourist visa for American citizens?  That is crazy-making.]

It was tricky to find a good time to make the trek to China - when the kids were out of school and the weather wasn't either too hot and humid or too freezing cold in China.  This haruyasumi (spring break) was our chance.

We left at the crack of dawn, hailed a taxi to Haneda airport (I am still surprised how amazingly easy it is to find a taxi at incredibly odd hours in the middle of our very residential neighborhood), and our adventure began!  We flew through Seoul (which is a very nice airport, by the way - they even had interactive cultural arts and crafts activities and the boys both did a Korean ink-rubbing, though I wondered at the sign that clearly stated "for foreigners only").

Uneventful flight and arrived in Shanghai to a very rainy day.  Decided to take a taxi to Ruth's house, and was immediately reminded that we're not in Japan anymore.  No black-suit, white-glove wearing taxi drivers with pristinely clean GPS-equipped taxi cars.

We gave the taxi driver the address and directions in Chinese that Ruth had sent to us.  He got us in the general neighborhood (though we had no way of knowing that) but he did not really seem too interested in getting us to the right place.  It wasn't until he realized that we weren't getting out of the cab until we were in the right place that he opened the glove compartment, took out his glasses, and decided it might be helpful to actually read the address we had given him.  Ummm... yeah... that's a good idea.  And of course, our language skills were zilch.  Anyway, we made it to her housing complex, but he dropped us off at the completely opposite entrance than taxis are supposed to, such that our directions to Ruth's apartment were also completely opposite.  And, as luck would have it, it started pouring down rain just as we got out of the taxi.  We looked like drenched rats by the time we found Ruth's house and she barely believed we had come by taxi.

Just as I had expected, seeing Ruth was just like old times.  Decades, years, weeks, days - it all seems to fade away in the presence of of a true friend.  We settled into Ruth's place for a little bit, hoped for better weather, and since her family was gone for the day, we ventured out to explore with Ruth as our Fearless Leader!

Shanghai

First stop was Lujiazui, the financial district of Shanghai - supermodern and funky and new skyscrapers seeming to appear by the day.  Nearby is also the river bank area, called the Bund, on the Pudong side of the river.  It was a bit cloudy and misty which made for an interesting ambiance as we walked around before dinner.

The "Oriental Pearl" Radio and TV Tower - and yep, it's really called that!

We walked along the Huangpu river - with old Shanghai seemingly showcased on the other side of the river and modern Shanghai at its finest on our side of the river.

We then headed to Kevin's favorite place, Din Tai Feng, to eat Shangai dumplings (called xiaolongbao).  These are the little dumplings with a thin wrapper and the most delicious steaming soup inside.  We watched them make the dumplings - each one by hand - which only added to our appreciation for the absolute deliciousness.

We arrived home just as Gerie and the kids were getting home - and thus began the weekend of joy that was my kids playing with Ruth's kids.  Though how in heavens I manage NOT to have a picture of all the kids together is beyond me. It is my only regret (though it's a big one) of the entire trip.  Benjamin, Fianna, and Olivia - thank you so much for such a wonderful weekend!

The next day was Sunday, and again Ruth was our spectacular tour guide! [Ruth also helped me remember all that we did for this blog since so much time has passed and my memory has failed me.] 

Today was all about the Old City area of Shanghai.  We took the metro down to the Yuyuan area – drank some sugar cane juice – walked around the area near Yu Garden but didn’t actually go in.  We then walked through across the zig-zag Nine Turn bridge to the super-old and super-traditional Huxinting Tea House. If I remember correctly, Ruth told us that the legend goes that one should cross the nine turns of the bridge so that evil spirits could not follow.  After crossing the bridge, I turned around, but Kevin and the kids were still there - no such luck for me.  Just kidding.

We fed the fish swimming below the bridge, and then ate some surprisingly yummy shengjian (the dumplings with the thick fluffy breadlike wrappers and a little soup inside) and some spring rolls from a random street stall. They even gave us a straw to slurp the juice from the dumplings.  

Then we walked by the Temple of the City Gods and through the streets of the Old City, down the food stall street eating some other snacks. We walked to the Bird & Flower (and Bug) Market. Then over to Xintiandi - the upscale, trendy neighborhood - just perfect for an afternoon snack and a little time to rest our weary feet. 

Ryan takes a little "Opa Gangnam Style" dance break in the market

The Chinese seem to have a thing for pet crickets -
which is amusing as I am listening to the not-so-quiet-chirping of 100 crickets in our living room as I write this.
All for the love of Lizzy (and Ryan).

After a post-snack energy boost, we headed to the Confucious Temple. I quite loved this temple and garden and we were practically the only ones there.  

Ethan taking a book break as the rest of us explore the temple grounds...

By this time, it was time to meet Gerie & kids at a Taiwanese restaurant, complete with Shaved Ice Mountain and Mango ice.   We were pretty pooped by the end of this day, so taxi home! 

The next day was Monday, so Gerie and the kids headed to work and school and we headed out for our last day of exploring Shanghai with Ruth and Olivia.  We went down to the Bund and got a great view of the modern Shanghai skyline on the other side of the river.  It was so pleasant just to walk along the riverwalk, chat with Ruth, and let the kids explore on their own.  

Exploring the Bund - view of the Shanghai skyline
(Ruth took this photo - cool, hunh! All the good photos are courtesy of Ruth)

After leaving the river area, we happened upon a super-duper hole-in-the wall eatery with an old guy making shengjian in the window.  Our crew didn't take much convincing and sure enough, only minutes later, Ruth and I were inside ordering dumplings for everyone.  Plus, we couldn't bare to end our streak of eating dumplings almost every meal (and often between meals as well, but who's keeping track?).  Of course, after sitting on steps of some random establishment (might have been a bank) to have our dumpling snack, we were in search of a place to eat (again).  

We strolled along the fancy pedestrian shopping street of East Nanjing Road, and if I remember correctly, we ate dumplings AGAIN!  Ruth then pointed out an egg tart bakery and I immediately just haaaaad to have some - it was my favorite street food treat on my little rendezvous in Macau with Sandy - so I had to relive the experience.  Delicious!

We headed home to pick the kids up from school, which was quite interesting in and of itself.  Kids played on the playground at the school before we headed home and ate our last meal together - at a local neighborhood beef noodle place.  We also finally tried the "stinky tofu" that we had heard a lot about.  It was ok, but not something I'm gonna wake up in the middle of the night craving.

Beijing-Bound

After making it to our train with approximately 60 seconds to spare (and much to my dismay, no time for a real good-bye to Ruth and Olivia), we climbed aboard and at 302 km/hour, made our way to Beijing.

So, so, so many adventures in Beijing:

• Wandering through our hutong, the alley neighborhoods of old Beijing
• Tiananmen Square
• Seeing Mao's embalmed body
• The many, many questions from Ethan about communism
• The Forbidden City (imperial palace)
• A cool urban park with a magnificent view of the mind-blowing expansiveness of the Forbidden City
• Temple of Heaven (Tian Tan), built in 1420 as a place to pray for good harvests
• Chinese acrobatic show (sorry no photos of this)
• Making dumplings with Angela, the woman from our hutong courtyard guesthouse 

Goofing around at the guesthouse...

Just exploring our neighborhood - a few blocks from our guesthouse

Entrance to the Forbidden City at night

After exiting the rather odd viewing area to see Mao's embalmed body - quiet, eery, just follow the line of people and be quiet - type of experience.  Of course, I did tell the kids the legend that Mao's ear had fallen off during the embalming process and they had to sew it back on, so that gave us something very specific to look for.  That said, we couldn't really tell if his ear looked sewed or not...

Tiananmen Square, looking towards the Forbidden Palace

Entering the Forbidden City, under the watchful eye of Mao and lots of guards

Starting our exploration of the Forbidden Palace - it seemed to go on and on forever - and clearly a symbol of power and wealth for the very few.

Hiking up the hill across from the Forbidden City 

View of Forbidden City from atop a hill / park across the street

Temple of Heaven - this was our favorite temple - and was the site of annual prayers for good harvests

It was also the site of many, many people of all ages playing park games - a Chinese version of hackysack complete with feathers and bells, paddle ball, etc

And lots and lots of card games! We spent quite a bit of the day playing around in this park...

Back at the guesthouse, learning to make dumplings

Our finished product!

Great Wall of CHINA

I loved our time in Beijing, and I especially loved our journey to the Great Wall.  We headed to the Mutianyu section of the wall, a little bit further afield and less touristy with the added benefit of a toboggan slide down the mountain.  We had been warned of how crowded it would be and we were very pleasantly surprised - sure, there were people there but it was far from crowded.

I was all set to navigate random mini-buses and local buses and some bus changes on random road corners to make the trek out of Beijing to the Wall.  Because that's how I travel.  That's how I roll.  Until Kevin's level-headedness entered the planning and we just booked a car to drive us there instead.  Yeah, I gotta admit, that was waaaaaaay easier and allowed us to spend our time and energy and kids' good graces at the Wall itself.

Having done a little Great Wall research, Kevin was armed with some entertaining factoids for the kids.  Did you know...

• that the length of the Wall is the same distance as from Japan to California?  5,500 miles.  It is also the longest man-made structure on Earth.
• that it was built over many, many years across several dynasties to protect China's northern boundary from invaders?
• that it's not one long continuous wall? (and thus the Mongol invaders and Genghis Khan were able to easily go around it until extensions were built much later by the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644)
• that is was called "the longest cemetery on earth" because so many people died building it? Some day more than 1 million people died building the Great Wall.
• that the Chinese invented the wheelbarrow and used it often during the construction of the Great Wall?
• that there are more than 10,000 watchtowers along the Great Wall?  The section we explored was 24 watchtowers and still took us several hours to hike end to end.
• that the mortar was made out of rice flour?

We took the cable car / ropeway up, which I must admit was a rather odd feeling to be riding a ski lift up to the Great Wall of China.

And at the top, we were amazed by the sight of this phenomenal structure... on and on and on...

With each watchtower seeming to have a different architectural style...

We trekked and trekked and trekked some more.  Up and down, steps and stones, guard towers and watch towers.

 And we were pleasantly surprised by the sight of cherry blossoms (especially since we were missing the prime cherry blossom season in Japan).

 Ryan was the motivator to keep going.  As we looked faaaar into the distance, Ryan was the one who insisted that we could make it to the end of the Mutianyu section - 24 watchtowers later.

 Getting closer, but not quite there ...

Are we there yet?

WE MADE IT!

And our reward for a job well done? A ride down the toboggan slide, of course!

This was one of those days that I will look back upon and smile and revel in the wonder that is exploring new places and being in the moment with my favorite people on the planet.  I only hope that Ethan and Ryan will do the same.

Chinese Street Food, more street food, and then some more!

Let your eyes feast, my friends!  China is heaven for street-food lovers of all persuasions...

The start of street food street extraordinaire!

I've never seen such a HUGE wheel of bread!

One of our varied breakfasts at the guesthouse

Eels for breakfast, anyone? Fresh and squirmy...

Thanks to a tip from Ruth, we discovered these ceramic jugs of cold, fresh yogurt sold on the street everywhere.

Enjoying our yogurt - we ate at least 1 everyday!

Rice in creative shapes and colors

Same with dumplings...these are crab, I think.

Some freaky fruit drink that gives off vapors???

Snacks of the creepy-crawly variety... starfish, lizards, beetles, scorpions, seahorses,,,

I kid you not, those bugs' legs were running in full force while skewered to a cabbage...

Crab...

And lots and lots of intestines!

Some very, very cool sugar art - how can one eat that? [Of course, most people might say that about a scorpion too.]

A special treat - carmelized fruit - that's healthy, right?

More sugar art - too bad our poor, deprived children could only look from afar...

Very Japan-like - with all the food cuteness.

Do we have these in America?  Because if not, I think it'd be a fabulous carnival / state fair food.
What's not to love about a spiral potato chip on a stick???

Another guesthouse breakfast - LOVED them!

Favorite Random Scenes in China

More laundry...

Here's one of those kid "claw" games on a small little village-like shopping street in Shanghai - the thing is if you look closely, you can see that one can win a stuffed animal OR a pack of cigarettes.

Fresh meat!

Pedestrian bridges

Reminded me of Africa - it's amazing what can be hauled when it needs to be.

Gourds hanging from a storefront in Shanghai

Another street food snack - that big contraption spits out some pretty tasty popcorn!

The popcorn man

No words really, just a chuckle.

Ahhh, the painful truth

Well-manicured neighborhood walkway - apparently close to lots of housing built for the Beijing Olympics - much of which now sits empty.

Bike parking in Beijing

One of my favorite signs in all of China - in Beijing, close to our Hutong neighborhood

More fresh meat... and a bicycle, of course.