Rain, rain, don’t go away, I’m going to shop anyway. Since it was raining what better way than to take the bus to Hongquiao Market and go shopping inside the 7 story market outside of The temple of heaven. The prices aren’t as crazy as the Silk Market. You still need to haggle. I feel there are more visitors here, because it’s right next door to a destination(Temple of Heaven). Lots of people had their suitcases with them. The Silk Market is just easy to get to at a subway stop, mostly the visitors are on lunch from a conference at a nearby hotel.
We ate at the food court in the lower level, bypassing McD’s and Subway. The rest of the places you order your food you get a ticket to pay at the one cashier stand then go back for your food. Only 1 place sells drinks, we bought fancy drinks, I tried a kumquat lemonade. Yummy. My meal was a bowl of cold noodles with cucumbers and watermelon radish and chicken and sauce. The sauce pictured was a different one I’ve had cold and expecting. What I got was a peanut butter/seasame sauce. Still good, just not what the picture showed. Mine was 16 yuan, and I could only eat half. The kids didn’t want kungpao chicken that comes over rice. No, my kids want a different chicken and rice, which they won’t do as a combo like the kungpao. Costs twice as much separate. Oh well, they ate it all. The bathroom by the food court had an automatic toilet paper machine. You had to stand with your face in front of it for 3 seconds and it would spit out 4 squares of 3 ply tissue.
The higher the level the fancier the jewelry was. But we decided to take the escalators all the way to the top. I’m glad we did, we were rewarded with a garden terrace. The rain had stopped and we got an amazing view of Tiantan! Since the floor had a layer of water on it, the boys were re-enacting the Kungfu Panda scene!
Got some cool things, more breakables I need to carry. The problem is you can’t buy too much from one vendor, they give you a good price on one or two items(which you can buy multiple of), but that third item they don’t want to budge on their price. I guess they feel you will cave after they give you two of your prices.
Saturday, July 14, 2018
Friday, July 13, 2018
Chinese Ethnic Culture Park
Our last week’s forecast is all rain except for today. So we went to the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, it is right below the Olympic Park. We got off at the subway stop right by the park with the lest amount of walking, since I knew we would be walking a ton inside. They must’ve expanded on the exits out of the subway since on-line it said to exit D2. In reality it said to exit F. Which we had to walk around the corner to the entrance finding a closer exit of A right outside. When we went back in via the closer A exit we could see it used to be the D2.
The park is rather expensive. They left me get kid tickets so it was 300 yuan for the 4 of us. Cheap. For an American park, but expensive for here. This Park is about how the normal people lived, trying to preserve their history and implements. Versus every other place you visit is about the rich, royalty, and emperor.
All the signs are in English and Chinese. They gave us a Chinese map and English map, there is also a map on the ticket. The three where not consistent on restaurant locations. I was expecting a food court to sample all the different types of food. We couldn’t find any restaurants, except 1 right before we left and no one was there.
Because the park is so big they lock “museum” sections until they do a show in that section. Now the show guide was only in chinese. I found a show guide on line, but it was too hard to chase them around and see the 20 min show. Mostly if we heard music we followed it and lucked out seeing a show. We stopped trying to stress ourselves with finding it. The park is just too big. That is the only instance in which you need to have a Chinese speaking/reading person with you. This park would not be good for older people. Too big, too much walking and climbing. Didn’t appear wheelchair friendly.
This is definitely recommended if you have time though, to see so many of the 56 Chinese cultures represented is amazing. Plus there are never a lot of people here, so you can actually feel alone for once in Beijing.
Lots of family
Sunday was our scheduled family day. The twins were to arrive around 11ish. I think they might’ve spoken English? Both twins had daughter’s with English names. Bella and Sophia. The twins could’ve been identical if they had their hair in the same hair style. They were only interested in talking with my twins. That’s fine. Amazingly Wensen took the lead this time in talking. The twins were in their 30’s , their kids younger than mine 5 & 7.
We went to lunch at a dumpling restaurant across the street. I remember going there once 5 years ago. It was good. Then they walked us back to our housing complex entrance before departing for their ride. After they left we got ice cream.
I tried to clarify how they were related to Ma. They kept telling me they were my sister, the kids sister. I am a huge no on calling relatives I don’t know and am not close to my sister. They were saying you are grama to the twins kids. NO. I am only a grama when my three boys have kids. I thought it was my mother-in-laws mother’s sister’s child. But it could be further removed as a cousin to my mother-in-law’s mother’s sister.
Ba was telling me know one of the twins is close to him because he introduced her to her professor when she went to university........chest puffed.....That’s why my husband has never met them before in his life. Never mentioned twins before to us? I’ll never understand how they think of family.
As evening rolls around my father-in-law went out and it was almost 5 when the cousin who went to Japan would be picking us up. He called my mother-in-law to let us know he has arrived, he did drop them off at out house before. She is trying to tell him where to pick us up. And starts freaking out about WeChat. I open my WeChat and she watches me asking about location. I’m thinking I know where we live to get us home. No she wanted me to send my location to him. He knows where we are. No get the kids to ask me to open WeChat, which she watched me open again. Ours look different so I must not be opening the right thing.
She tells us to go out the front entrance and walk left we should see him. We go out the front and walk left cross the block and I think this is too far. Luckily the cousin sent me his location so we could find him. We should’ve went out the back entrance and left or front entrance and double left. But we finally found him.
Because it was rush hour we went a round about way through parking lots and a different part of the city than I haven’t seen before. Considering the ride home was on normally travelled high ways I recognized. The dinner was a Mongolian themed restaurant. Outside they had yurts, goats, geese, trampoline, swings and other stuff for kids to play on. We had a room inside with A/C, which was working hard against the huge soup pot with a full fish and broth. There was a buffet of snacks from edemame, kettle corn, and other rice crackery things. All the cousins where there to see us again. The oldest with out his wife and kids, but he brought one of his pals with his son. The son wants to study what 2 of the cousins have studied so he came to talk with them. Our chauffeur’s wife did not come. The motorcycle cousin brought his wife. And the girl cousin and her husband came. Their smiley happy daughter was staying her summer vacation at her grandparents. We got to FaceTime her to see her.
The boys got to play outside every time someone went out to smoke. The dinner was really good, besides the main meal of fish and tofu in broth, they put corn muffins on the side of the pan to steam(they needed salt to me, but I’m sure were authentic this way). We got the best fried mushrooms. A dish of candied sweet potato slices that you had to force off and into a bowl of water to stop the sticky. And a plate of fried sweet potatoes coated in a sugar salty mix. The decore was traditional pictures made out of fish skins! Some were a flat design, other’s puffed and stitched like pillows.
There was much laughing. Much eating. The cousins are very nice, even if I can’t understand them. They would love it if we stayed, they wanted me to learn Chinese and get a job teaching English. I wonder how often they actually get together. They seem like a good group to be friends with. Japan cousin stood up for me that I can speak Japanese too. And Spanish(very rusty) I said. Luckily they didn’t know a lick of that. I said I can’t hear the tones of Chinese. And then they went through the tones, all sounding the same to me. Then into a discussion of the Beijing ”murr”. I still need to figure out what this “murr” is, a Beijing thing from what I understand. I did learn why people make a certain hand gesture when taking pictures. It represents the bottom of a heart!
We didn’t get home till 11 and the kids needed a shower from all the running around. So you can imagine how sleepy they were the next morning!
We went to lunch at a dumpling restaurant across the street. I remember going there once 5 years ago. It was good. Then they walked us back to our housing complex entrance before departing for their ride. After they left we got ice cream.
I tried to clarify how they were related to Ma. They kept telling me they were my sister, the kids sister. I am a huge no on calling relatives I don’t know and am not close to my sister. They were saying you are grama to the twins kids. NO. I am only a grama when my three boys have kids. I thought it was my mother-in-laws mother’s sister’s child. But it could be further removed as a cousin to my mother-in-law’s mother’s sister.
Ba was telling me know one of the twins is close to him because he introduced her to her professor when she went to university........chest puffed.....That’s why my husband has never met them before in his life. Never mentioned twins before to us? I’ll never understand how they think of family.
As evening rolls around my father-in-law went out and it was almost 5 when the cousin who went to Japan would be picking us up. He called my mother-in-law to let us know he has arrived, he did drop them off at out house before. She is trying to tell him where to pick us up. And starts freaking out about WeChat. I open my WeChat and she watches me asking about location. I’m thinking I know where we live to get us home. No she wanted me to send my location to him. He knows where we are. No get the kids to ask me to open WeChat, which she watched me open again. Ours look different so I must not be opening the right thing.
She tells us to go out the front entrance and walk left we should see him. We go out the front and walk left cross the block and I think this is too far. Luckily the cousin sent me his location so we could find him. We should’ve went out the back entrance and left or front entrance and double left. But we finally found him.
Because it was rush hour we went a round about way through parking lots and a different part of the city than I haven’t seen before. Considering the ride home was on normally travelled high ways I recognized. The dinner was a Mongolian themed restaurant. Outside they had yurts, goats, geese, trampoline, swings and other stuff for kids to play on. We had a room inside with A/C, which was working hard against the huge soup pot with a full fish and broth. There was a buffet of snacks from edemame, kettle corn, and other rice crackery things. All the cousins where there to see us again. The oldest with out his wife and kids, but he brought one of his pals with his son. The son wants to study what 2 of the cousins have studied so he came to talk with them. Our chauffeur’s wife did not come. The motorcycle cousin brought his wife. And the girl cousin and her husband came. Their smiley happy daughter was staying her summer vacation at her grandparents. We got to FaceTime her to see her.
The boys got to play outside every time someone went out to smoke. The dinner was really good, besides the main meal of fish and tofu in broth, they put corn muffins on the side of the pan to steam(they needed salt to me, but I’m sure were authentic this way). We got the best fried mushrooms. A dish of candied sweet potato slices that you had to force off and into a bowl of water to stop the sticky. And a plate of fried sweet potatoes coated in a sugar salty mix. The decore was traditional pictures made out of fish skins! Some were a flat design, other’s puffed and stitched like pillows.
There was much laughing. Much eating. The cousins are very nice, even if I can’t understand them. They would love it if we stayed, they wanted me to learn Chinese and get a job teaching English. I wonder how often they actually get together. They seem like a good group to be friends with. Japan cousin stood up for me that I can speak Japanese too. And Spanish(very rusty) I said. Luckily they didn’t know a lick of that. I said I can’t hear the tones of Chinese. And then they went through the tones, all sounding the same to me. Then into a discussion of the Beijing ”murr”. I still need to figure out what this “murr” is, a Beijing thing from what I understand. I did learn why people make a certain hand gesture when taking pictures. It represents the bottom of a heart!
We didn’t get home till 11 and the kids needed a shower from all the running around. So you can imagine how sleepy they were the next morning!
Changes in 5 years
I was so worried about the bad pollution that I had bought us all masks before we left. But we are either here at the right time or it’s changing for the better. We haven’t used the masks. The streets are so much cleaner. You see the street sweeper out all the time, even under the underpasses there isn’t the garbage. Less poo too. I still see some people not picking up after their dog, but most are now and I’m not seeing much from the 2 legged variety either. Or maybe it was just down the street to the preschool, we only rode by it not walked the street this time.
The bikes are seeming to make a come back. Not as many private pedal bikes, but tons of bike rentals that you can leave anywhere. A lot more bike delivery vehicles. I feel less people are riding the buses too. Maybe we are just traveling at different times since the kids aren’t in school we are more free to choose our own schedule. But I feel more people start off at the bus station and then call a DiDi(China’s Uber) and are whisked away. You can even do ride shares.
Less cash. Everything is pay with the phone app. WeChat or Alipay primarily. WeChat is like Facebook 100.0. You can call, send voice message, text message, share pictures, pay all through this app. It’s kind of nerve wrecking not carring cash around, just in case. All the little carts and sellers all allow payment with one or the other. My father-in-law says he never carries cash and if he needs money he will find someone who will give him the money by using their personal WeChat to scan. Even beggars have a WeChat!
Things cost more now than what they used to. Especially the haw on the stick is now 10-15 yuan, 5 years ago it was 3-5 yuan. Clothing isn’t as cheap. Most people buy everything and anything on-line. It helps my mother-in-law she doesn’t have to leave the appartment. But it’s a bit ridiculous. Because of every restaurant allowing on-line to-go orders sometimes the people dinning in suffer as they wait while the one floor worker deals with all the to-go orders before the in-store people.
What I noticed the first day is the change in cleaner. I only smelled the toxic cleaner once or twice over the 5 weeks I’ve been here. It used to be a constant smell that made me feel sick. My guess it really was toxic and they finally figured it out.
They also have some smoking laws, I’m not sure what they are, but there is a lot less smoking. None in restaurants except for the workers smoking in a back room or back doorway. People sneak a smoke in the bathrooms wherever they are.
The driving has gotten better due to the metal divides creating lanes for bikes on both sides and 2 way traffic. This keeps traffic moving. They still drive a bit more crazy in Beijing than in Shanghai. But as my father-in-law’s brother-in-law told me today Beijing is a city with a lot of poor people still living in terrible conditions. Shanghai has less poor people and better living conditions.
In Shanghai I didn’t see any guards with machine guns outside banks. My first time here almost 15 years ago everyone wore their backpacks on their fronts. The crime must be better, only a few people wore them on their fronts and I really had to look for people doing this over the few days we visited.
The poor housing development, Hutong, shanty towns are disappearing as the need for sky rises are needed for the ever growing population.
They got rid of all the poor country people coming into town selling their wares in the subway tunnels and in the under street cross walks.
The bikes are seeming to make a come back. Not as many private pedal bikes, but tons of bike rentals that you can leave anywhere. A lot more bike delivery vehicles. I feel less people are riding the buses too. Maybe we are just traveling at different times since the kids aren’t in school we are more free to choose our own schedule. But I feel more people start off at the bus station and then call a DiDi(China’s Uber) and are whisked away. You can even do ride shares.
Less cash. Everything is pay with the phone app. WeChat or Alipay primarily. WeChat is like Facebook 100.0. You can call, send voice message, text message, share pictures, pay all through this app. It’s kind of nerve wrecking not carring cash around, just in case. All the little carts and sellers all allow payment with one or the other. My father-in-law says he never carries cash and if he needs money he will find someone who will give him the money by using their personal WeChat to scan. Even beggars have a WeChat!
Things cost more now than what they used to. Especially the haw on the stick is now 10-15 yuan, 5 years ago it was 3-5 yuan. Clothing isn’t as cheap. Most people buy everything and anything on-line. It helps my mother-in-law she doesn’t have to leave the appartment. But it’s a bit ridiculous. Because of every restaurant allowing on-line to-go orders sometimes the people dinning in suffer as they wait while the one floor worker deals with all the to-go orders before the in-store people.
What I noticed the first day is the change in cleaner. I only smelled the toxic cleaner once or twice over the 5 weeks I’ve been here. It used to be a constant smell that made me feel sick. My guess it really was toxic and they finally figured it out.
They also have some smoking laws, I’m not sure what they are, but there is a lot less smoking. None in restaurants except for the workers smoking in a back room or back doorway. People sneak a smoke in the bathrooms wherever they are.
The driving has gotten better due to the metal divides creating lanes for bikes on both sides and 2 way traffic. This keeps traffic moving. They still drive a bit more crazy in Beijing than in Shanghai. But as my father-in-law’s brother-in-law told me today Beijing is a city with a lot of poor people still living in terrible conditions. Shanghai has less poor people and better living conditions.
In Shanghai I didn’t see any guards with machine guns outside banks. My first time here almost 15 years ago everyone wore their backpacks on their fronts. The crime must be better, only a few people wore them on their fronts and I really had to look for people doing this over the few days we visited.
The poor housing development, Hutong, shanty towns are disappearing as the need for sky rises are needed for the ever growing population.
They got rid of all the poor country people coming into town selling their wares in the subway tunnels and in the under street cross walks.
Saturday, July 7, 2018
Incredible
The boys have been wanting to ride the double decker bus since we got here. So today we rode the bus and even got the front seats in top level! Not being able to see the driver or the nose of the vehicle below us, it felt like we were on an amusement ride. After arriving at Qianmen I convinced the boys to go across the street to the Center City shopping mall. It was a market, mostly beauty supplies like hair, nails, salon attire taking up at least 1/2 of the space. There was a toy aisle and the kids got another car. Most of it is so cheap they won’t let you bargain any less. I did get 2 pairs of shoes. The boys said I have a problem, too many shoes. I reminded them the large suitcase filled with their shoes. They said they didn’t buy it, Nainai did, so it doesn’t count.
We walked a side street to get into Qianmen where they had display cases outside filled with clay people each a foot high. I asked my mother-in-law later what they were, she said everyone used to have one of those figures in their old house. So I guess they took them after they tore the houses down and put them up for display? I don’t know.
We walked down the food street to the east this time and found meat on a stick 3 for 10 yuan, further down 4 for 10 yuan. You can guess we ate a lot of meat on the stick that day. We did not find any cheaper haw. We also got some small fried potatoes tossed in a spicy sauce. Very good. We walked down to the tower taking more pictures. I filled my phone with pictures, so now I have to use the other phone. I told the boys we could eat here for dinner and see the lights. Then we called home to tell them our plans. No. Come home I make wonton. Make being frozen, heat it for you. Not wanting to leave we dragged our feet and went to a few clothing stores. Found my shirt from 5 years ago that I love, but I didn’t like the color, so I didn’t buy another.
We walked down a Hutong street on the way back to the subway station passing guys washing down thin brick face. I can’t tell if it was taken off of somewhere and they are cleaning to reuse.
The next day is raining, the whole last week says it’s going to storm or rain 5 out of 7 days. The boys ask Yeye to take them to a movie. He buys us tickets calls a taxi and sends us on our way. We arrive 10 min late, but see Incredibles in 3-D. After we go to Burger King for a snack. Most of it is the same as McDonalds. They have a tuna fish spread on a burger. I’ll pass. I try the spicy whopper Jr. All they did was swap ketchup for a prickly ash bbq like sauce. Good thing I can figure out which busses will get us home.
We walked a side street to get into Qianmen where they had display cases outside filled with clay people each a foot high. I asked my mother-in-law later what they were, she said everyone used to have one of those figures in their old house. So I guess they took them after they tore the houses down and put them up for display? I don’t know.
We walked down the food street to the east this time and found meat on a stick 3 for 10 yuan, further down 4 for 10 yuan. You can guess we ate a lot of meat on the stick that day. We did not find any cheaper haw. We also got some small fried potatoes tossed in a spicy sauce. Very good. We walked down to the tower taking more pictures. I filled my phone with pictures, so now I have to use the other phone. I told the boys we could eat here for dinner and see the lights. Then we called home to tell them our plans. No. Come home I make wonton. Make being frozen, heat it for you. Not wanting to leave we dragged our feet and went to a few clothing stores. Found my shirt from 5 years ago that I love, but I didn’t like the color, so I didn’t buy another.
We walked down a Hutong street on the way back to the subway station passing guys washing down thin brick face. I can’t tell if it was taken off of somewhere and they are cleaning to reuse.
The next day is raining, the whole last week says it’s going to storm or rain 5 out of 7 days. The boys ask Yeye to take them to a movie. He buys us tickets calls a taxi and sends us on our way. We arrive 10 min late, but see Incredibles in 3-D. After we go to Burger King for a snack. Most of it is the same as McDonalds. They have a tuna fish spread on a burger. I’ll pass. I try the spicy whopper Jr. All they did was swap ketchup for a prickly ash bbq like sauce. Good thing I can figure out which busses will get us home.
It’s a Balancing Act
Tonight we are going to see an acrobatic show. Last night Ba told me how to get there and then from there to the restaurant. I was worried why he was telling me, when my mother-in-law was to be coming with us.
Well most mornings I let the kids eat first while I get ready and then I come eat and clean up. Well someone must’ve woken up on the wrong side of the bed because there is a lot of yelling between the adults and geared toward my kids. Normally they put lots of bowls out filled with baoza, fruit, fried egg, left over dinner and let us choose what we want. Well today they wanted to decide what the kids eat and they must’ve wanted quiet as he kept telling the kids to “shut up”. Mama bear getting really upset I go and can tell someone is power tripping(having an adult tantrum) over trying to get a kid to eat part of an egg he is gagging on. The kid goes to throw up, is crying. There is so much yelling, I take my plate and all of us are in my bedroom to get away. He comes in to yell at the kid before storming out to take the trash. I pray the kids didn’t understand whatever he was saying.
I go to clean up and throw out that egg. He comes back, sees no egg, looks in the trash and starts yelling at my mother-in-law. I say “I threw it out. Really all this over an egg? He eats everything else and is gagging on one egg. He doesn’t need to eat it.” I’m shaking and tell the kids grab your stuff we are leaving now. We will be home before 3 in time to leave for the show. Nainai tells the kid to apologize before leaving. Later I explained how even though he didn’t do anything wrong, the other person was clearly not rational and you may need to apologize to calm the other person and diffuse the situation.
When we get ready to leave it’s been decided we will take a car and Ba will visit his sister and we can meet them at a different restaurant than we discussed the previous night. Okay. When we get to the theatre, the parking lot is packed with busses. I feel a sense of dejavu in this craziness as we are standing on the steps, waiting for our tickets. Then it’s lots of tour groups and people pushing down a hallway into a different entryway until we are let in and a mad scramble for seats as you pay for a section but not assigned seats. One of the workers grabs my ticket and points to the front middle seats marked VIP. We ended up in the 5th row!
After we sit down my, two guys sit next to us. They are from Argentina and just got here today. He asked how much we paid for our ticket, they worry if their ticket is real. I advise my father-in-law bought them discounted on-line, so I don’t know. But if their ticket was fake they would not be inside. Most likely the person who sold them the ticket got it at a discounted price and had them pay full price. But not knowing how to get a discounted price or at the window he wouldn’t paid full price anyway. He told me their horror story the classic scam of being told the Forbidden City is sold out and being taken to tea. Luckily they bought the tickets from said scammers already and had no other cash to be taken advantage of. I gave them some tips and where they should go and don’t get into any rickshaw. Good luck guys.
The show has umbrella balancers, a yo-yo act, jugglers, spinning in the air on a double wheel, 6 bikers in a ball. It was really good show putting the kids on the edge of their seats. After we took the bus to meet at the restaurant we meet Gu Nainai at. Only Ba shows up, the others are too tired. We have Peking duck again! A good ending to the day.
Well most mornings I let the kids eat first while I get ready and then I come eat and clean up. Well someone must’ve woken up on the wrong side of the bed because there is a lot of yelling between the adults and geared toward my kids. Normally they put lots of bowls out filled with baoza, fruit, fried egg, left over dinner and let us choose what we want. Well today they wanted to decide what the kids eat and they must’ve wanted quiet as he kept telling the kids to “shut up”. Mama bear getting really upset I go and can tell someone is power tripping(having an adult tantrum) over trying to get a kid to eat part of an egg he is gagging on. The kid goes to throw up, is crying. There is so much yelling, I take my plate and all of us are in my bedroom to get away. He comes in to yell at the kid before storming out to take the trash. I pray the kids didn’t understand whatever he was saying.
I go to clean up and throw out that egg. He comes back, sees no egg, looks in the trash and starts yelling at my mother-in-law. I say “I threw it out. Really all this over an egg? He eats everything else and is gagging on one egg. He doesn’t need to eat it.” I’m shaking and tell the kids grab your stuff we are leaving now. We will be home before 3 in time to leave for the show. Nainai tells the kid to apologize before leaving. Later I explained how even though he didn’t do anything wrong, the other person was clearly not rational and you may need to apologize to calm the other person and diffuse the situation.
When we get ready to leave it’s been decided we will take a car and Ba will visit his sister and we can meet them at a different restaurant than we discussed the previous night. Okay. When we get to the theatre, the parking lot is packed with busses. I feel a sense of dejavu in this craziness as we are standing on the steps, waiting for our tickets. Then it’s lots of tour groups and people pushing down a hallway into a different entryway until we are let in and a mad scramble for seats as you pay for a section but not assigned seats. One of the workers grabs my ticket and points to the front middle seats marked VIP. We ended up in the 5th row!
After we sit down my, two guys sit next to us. They are from Argentina and just got here today. He asked how much we paid for our ticket, they worry if their ticket is real. I advise my father-in-law bought them discounted on-line, so I don’t know. But if their ticket was fake they would not be inside. Most likely the person who sold them the ticket got it at a discounted price and had them pay full price. But not knowing how to get a discounted price or at the window he wouldn’t paid full price anyway. He told me their horror story the classic scam of being told the Forbidden City is sold out and being taken to tea. Luckily they bought the tickets from said scammers already and had no other cash to be taken advantage of. I gave them some tips and where they should go and don’t get into any rickshaw. Good luck guys.
The show has umbrella balancers, a yo-yo act, jugglers, spinning in the air on a double wheel, 6 bikers in a ball. It was really good show putting the kids on the edge of their seats. After we took the bus to meet at the restaurant we meet Gu Nainai at. Only Ba shows up, the others are too tired. We have Peking duck again! A good ending to the day.
Wangfujing Street
It’s so hot, the kids energy is zapped over the struggle of the A/C battle. The boys have been getting bloody noses due to the heat. They seriously have had less candy here and only 1 chocolate ice cream a day. Only my room stays cool all night with my single room a/c unit. Every night my mother-in-law wakes up and turns the A/C unit in the living room off and then the fan off and then the covers on the kids. Apparently besides it not being healthy for the kids to be cold. The A/C must leak something that after being on for a while doesn’t make her feel good so she turns it off roasting my kids. Instead of closing their bedroom door. Even if she did turn the A/C off for a while. Leave the fan on and the blankets off! So I am getting up during the night, turning it all on, she turns off. Repeat, every night. Then when it’s starting to get cooler (79) outside, I just open the window since I know she’ll turn the fan off. Nope she shuts the window! You can’t win.
My father-in-law took each of the older boys out by themself to go food shopping at the store, he wanted to buy them a gift they pick out. But when it came time for Aidan to go, he insisted the older brothers come to help. Don’t get it.
Today we are going to Wangfujing Street. I don’t remember coming here. I looked it up, 2 bookstores on this street. Once we get to the part of the street for people only we only get half a block for our whole visit. First stop bookstore. They have a food court in the basement and we see Subway so we eat there, free drink refills! Not as much meat on my spicy Italian sub, but it’s actual salami not chinese salami so I’m good with that. They only had a table of 8 chairs as their sitting area. Another foreigner sat for their lunch. A German who’s lived here 11 years, has a Chinese wife and a dog. I told him I was amazed how well the dogs behave not being on leashes. He said many run away because they are not on leashes.
After eating we venture into the book store. It was either 6 or 7 floors, I realize I have been here before, but I remember always going to a different bookstore. Kids books were on the 2nd floor. We spent hours there. I couldn’t find as many books with Chinese and English in them as I was hoping. But I found a few and a few Chinese painting books and picture quilting books. If you buy in Chinese it’s so much cheaper. I saw a few quilting books in Chinese that I’ve seen back home for $20-25, they have for about $6. The imported books are expensive, the ones not wrapped in plastic are well worn, the covers all bent and pages all wrecked.
There is a whole floor for calligraphy. The books, brushes, paper, ink, everything you would need. If you are looking to study English you can find cheaper books that have both Chinese and English in them or a set of books one in English one in Chinese that are cheap. They just happen to be older books not for kids.
Finally we left the bookstore which started to fill up with people sitting everywhere reading. And then I remember 5 years ago going to a bookstore on a rainy day and it being packed, people everywhere reading to get out of the elements. Then we stepped out side into the heat.
A few paces we could see down a side street with a big fancy gate, where all the people were. I thought it was shopping like Qianmen. But it was mostly food. I did see meat on a stick 2 for 10 yuan. They had live scorpions on sticks wriggling about wanting to strike, the vendor waiting to fry it fresh for you. Besides the scorpions on a stick, they had snakes, sea horses, and starfish on a stick! When you thought you were standing next to an outhouse, you found the stinky tofu aka fermented tofu.
As most of the stores when you want to buy something, you need to take the slip to the cashier, once stamped paid you take it back and trade it for your item. Well if you buy over a certain dollar amount they swipe it from the cashier so you have to follow them to the jewelry counter at the back of the store where they give you a free gift(scarf or bracelet) and a scratch off coupon. Well I got the big discount 900 yuan off whatever I wanted in the cases. They showed me now others normally only got 300 off. I did see a peach and white agate looking bracelet. They told me it was jade and have the laminated certificate proving authenticity for each items in the cases. Well after my 900 discount it would still be 400 yuan. Naw, can’t spend that much. I say 200. No. No. No. Okay. They showed me the receipt book of others paying only getting their 300 discount. Too bad. I’m sure I still overpaid for them, but I liked it. At another store I was also the lunch 900 off winner again. I told the boys I’m sure it’s rigged, that I got a big discount. I didn’t buy anything here, but I saw pretty necklaces, jade with a gold overlay like we got in Korea enroute to Japan.
We walked around a few back streets from here and found the famous rickshaw statue and took pictures there. Saw another older German visiting family and talked with them a few minutes. After we got home I got a call from a cousin to make plans for this weekend. I said we are free anytime Sunday. Okay he will let me know. I let my father-in-law know we have plans on Sunday. I am not free all day Sunday, of course they made plans for us and didn’t tell us. The twin girl cousins will meet us in the morning for lunch and bring their children. Each has 1 daughter. It would be good to meet them because......(they are family and you’ve never met them and they are twins. Is what I’m thinking. No.). .....because they both have a good job and maybe in the future they will need to ask you for something or you will ask them for something. Huh.
My father-in-law took each of the older boys out by themself to go food shopping at the store, he wanted to buy them a gift they pick out. But when it came time for Aidan to go, he insisted the older brothers come to help. Don’t get it.
Today we are going to Wangfujing Street. I don’t remember coming here. I looked it up, 2 bookstores on this street. Once we get to the part of the street for people only we only get half a block for our whole visit. First stop bookstore. They have a food court in the basement and we see Subway so we eat there, free drink refills! Not as much meat on my spicy Italian sub, but it’s actual salami not chinese salami so I’m good with that. They only had a table of 8 chairs as their sitting area. Another foreigner sat for their lunch. A German who’s lived here 11 years, has a Chinese wife and a dog. I told him I was amazed how well the dogs behave not being on leashes. He said many run away because they are not on leashes.
After eating we venture into the book store. It was either 6 or 7 floors, I realize I have been here before, but I remember always going to a different bookstore. Kids books were on the 2nd floor. We spent hours there. I couldn’t find as many books with Chinese and English in them as I was hoping. But I found a few and a few Chinese painting books and picture quilting books. If you buy in Chinese it’s so much cheaper. I saw a few quilting books in Chinese that I’ve seen back home for $20-25, they have for about $6. The imported books are expensive, the ones not wrapped in plastic are well worn, the covers all bent and pages all wrecked.
There is a whole floor for calligraphy. The books, brushes, paper, ink, everything you would need. If you are looking to study English you can find cheaper books that have both Chinese and English in them or a set of books one in English one in Chinese that are cheap. They just happen to be older books not for kids.
Finally we left the bookstore which started to fill up with people sitting everywhere reading. And then I remember 5 years ago going to a bookstore on a rainy day and it being packed, people everywhere reading to get out of the elements. Then we stepped out side into the heat.
A few paces we could see down a side street with a big fancy gate, where all the people were. I thought it was shopping like Qianmen. But it was mostly food. I did see meat on a stick 2 for 10 yuan. They had live scorpions on sticks wriggling about wanting to strike, the vendor waiting to fry it fresh for you. Besides the scorpions on a stick, they had snakes, sea horses, and starfish on a stick! When you thought you were standing next to an outhouse, you found the stinky tofu aka fermented tofu.
As most of the stores when you want to buy something, you need to take the slip to the cashier, once stamped paid you take it back and trade it for your item. Well if you buy over a certain dollar amount they swipe it from the cashier so you have to follow them to the jewelry counter at the back of the store where they give you a free gift(scarf or bracelet) and a scratch off coupon. Well I got the big discount 900 yuan off whatever I wanted in the cases. They showed me now others normally only got 300 off. I did see a peach and white agate looking bracelet. They told me it was jade and have the laminated certificate proving authenticity for each items in the cases. Well after my 900 discount it would still be 400 yuan. Naw, can’t spend that much. I say 200. No. No. No. Okay. They showed me the receipt book of others paying only getting their 300 discount. Too bad. I’m sure I still overpaid for them, but I liked it. At another store I was also the lunch 900 off winner again. I told the boys I’m sure it’s rigged, that I got a big discount. I didn’t buy anything here, but I saw pretty necklaces, jade with a gold overlay like we got in Korea enroute to Japan.
We walked around a few back streets from here and found the famous rickshaw statue and took pictures there. Saw another older German visiting family and talked with them a few minutes. After we got home I got a call from a cousin to make plans for this weekend. I said we are free anytime Sunday. Okay he will let me know. I let my father-in-law know we have plans on Sunday. I am not free all day Sunday, of course they made plans for us and didn’t tell us. The twin girl cousins will meet us in the morning for lunch and bring their children. Each has 1 daughter. It would be good to meet them because......(they are family and you’ve never met them and they are twins. Is what I’m thinking. No.). .....because they both have a good job and maybe in the future they will need to ask you for something or you will ask them for something. Huh.
Beijing Zoo
Today was supposed to be a cooler day than the past week, and it’s not a weekend, so lets go to the ZOO! If you take the subway line 4 get off on Beijing Zoo exit B you will come up in a mall. From the mall going up to the stairwells out ot the street there were vendors selling water, starchy corn, and umbrellas. Now the boys finally got to see what used to be everywhere 5 years ago.
I was totally prepared to buy 4 adult tickets because the kids are all over the height restriction. But I was surprised when they gave me 3 kid tickets. Great saved me some money. We got the combo ticket of zoo plus panda adult 19.5 yuan, kids 9.5 yuan. Ethan wanted to wait to see the panda. I recall the option of being able to go back in the day to see the panda last time, but I could be wrong. Now it’s a ticket, one time only if you leave that area.
We saw the bird pond, so many different types of birds on an island, lots of swans and pelicans swimming in the water with ducks. The orangutan was particularly pathetic, fat and in a small cage. I recommended not seeing the elephant due to last time it was heart wrenching. It took two passes before the pandas moved. One of them was giving us a show walked around their cage and then sat pretty getting Oohs and aaah’s from the crowd. Then we went to see the Polar Bear, also taking 2 passes for them to get moving. One left to go to inside the other went swimming in the green algae water. The kids were done, they saw what they wanted to see, we walked so much at the end of the day the kids said their feet hurt and we didn’t see everything. The zoo maps are not precise and there are so many paths you may want to go one direction but end up somewhere else. Or thinking you are leading from one section to another and you are off in another direction. Several buildings have now closed too. The buildings appear to have been shops, non-animal enclosure, etc. We didn’t have time to go to the aquarium. There is a string of shops that closed at 5, other stores at 5:30. Not as much shopping as the Toledo Zoo, OH.
For lunch we got cup-o-noodles. Big steaming hot bowls on a hot day, we were already sweating, now we were swimming. All around the zoo they have smoking spots and in the food seating area at every seat it says “No smoking” in English and Chinese and with the picture for those who don’t know how to read. We found the guy who must’ve been blinded by his phone as he smoked between 2 non-smoking signs. Then the rest of his party showed up who also started smoking, leaning against the signs to cover them. The worker came over and pointed out the signs.
For our drinks we tried a bubble tea place, we all tried a different flavor, kiwi with bursting bubbles, squash or melon we weren’t sure with bursting bubbles, strawberry cream shake and I got rose! It had real rose petals in it, it was so yummy, even the kids thought mine was the best.
I was totally prepared to buy 4 adult tickets because the kids are all over the height restriction. But I was surprised when they gave me 3 kid tickets. Great saved me some money. We got the combo ticket of zoo plus panda adult 19.5 yuan, kids 9.5 yuan. Ethan wanted to wait to see the panda. I recall the option of being able to go back in the day to see the panda last time, but I could be wrong. Now it’s a ticket, one time only if you leave that area.
We saw the bird pond, so many different types of birds on an island, lots of swans and pelicans swimming in the water with ducks. The orangutan was particularly pathetic, fat and in a small cage. I recommended not seeing the elephant due to last time it was heart wrenching. It took two passes before the pandas moved. One of them was giving us a show walked around their cage and then sat pretty getting Oohs and aaah’s from the crowd. Then we went to see the Polar Bear, also taking 2 passes for them to get moving. One left to go to inside the other went swimming in the green algae water. The kids were done, they saw what they wanted to see, we walked so much at the end of the day the kids said their feet hurt and we didn’t see everything. The zoo maps are not precise and there are so many paths you may want to go one direction but end up somewhere else. Or thinking you are leading from one section to another and you are off in another direction. Several buildings have now closed too. The buildings appear to have been shops, non-animal enclosure, etc. We didn’t have time to go to the aquarium. There is a string of shops that closed at 5, other stores at 5:30. Not as much shopping as the Toledo Zoo, OH.
For lunch we got cup-o-noodles. Big steaming hot bowls on a hot day, we were already sweating, now we were swimming. All around the zoo they have smoking spots and in the food seating area at every seat it says “No smoking” in English and Chinese and with the picture for those who don’t know how to read. We found the guy who must’ve been blinded by his phone as he smoked between 2 non-smoking signs. Then the rest of his party showed up who also started smoking, leaning against the signs to cover them. The worker came over and pointed out the signs.
For our drinks we tried a bubble tea place, we all tried a different flavor, kiwi with bursting bubbles, squash or melon we weren’t sure with bursting bubbles, strawberry cream shake and I got rose! It had real rose petals in it, it was so yummy, even the kids thought mine was the best.
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Sunday Flea Markets and Strolls
My father-in-law wanted to take us to a Green Tea Restaurant for lunch today. He knew I wanted to go to the park so he said we could go early, like 11. Well after spending the morning doing laundry and reading. We had to wait for my mother-in-law to wake from her nap to go. So we didn’t leave the house till noon.
We rode the bus to the mall we used to buy cake from 5 years ago. It is a fancy mall but reminds me Japanese Malls with all the little shops in the open areas. I’d rather walk around this fancy mall than the new mall we went to last week.
The Green Tea Restaurant had a lot of unusual foods. Green tea fish(yum), green tea chicken, green tea BBQ(mostly pork fat but good), cauldron potatoes(spicy and yummy), green tea cakes(filled with perhaps some type of bean paste and rolled in seasame seeds). Their specialty was this sweet bread. It was basically a square loaf of bread with the inside cut out and sliced, buttered and cut into cubes then put back into the loaf box and toasted so the inside warm and melty and the outside toasted then they put a scoop of ice cream on it. It was very good and the kids have asked to go back.
We left them to hop on the subway, at this time it’s past 2:30 P.M. I’ve decided we’ll go to the Panjiyuan Market aka Panjiyuan Flea Market aka Panjiyuan Antique Market. It looks like some places are already closing. They open at 4:30 Saturday and Sunday. There are shops open M-Th but on the weekend are the free vendors the more local “flea market” guys who set up under umbrellas on blankets. We walked around, up and down aisles. So many things to see, lots of walnuts, paintings, books, a building for stamps and coins and memorabilia, clay tea pots, beads, and stone stamps(hanko). We didn’t get too much and the haggling wasn’t always optional. But the prices were more reasonable so you didn’t have to. I got some agate that I didn’t recognize. We got 2 shadow puppets. 3 tea pets, Wensen is the only one who didn’t find one that called to him.
We walked 2 long blocks down to Longtan Park. Stopping along the way for drinks and ice cream. In the river outside of Longtan Park they had a few places where steps lead down to the river and we saw people going in to swim. When we got to Longtan Park it was about 6. Gone are the tourists. Here are the locals who come to walk or exercise. It was cloudy or hazy so we couldn’t even see any pretty sunset. It was a bit of a disappointment this trip as lots of construction, lots of parts closed off. They had several rides and even though adults had to go on with small kids. It was for the toddler sized kids only.
We ended up jumping busses halfway home so we wouldn’t have to walk at the end. Wensen has been asking for a burger all week. Instead my in-laws get chicken sandwiches, then ground pork because the market doesn’t sell ground beef. So I take them to McDonalds for dinner. You can still order at the 2 token registers they have left, but are encouraged by signs everywhere to order at the 6 kiosks and then choose if you want to pick it up yourself or have it delivered to your table. There is an English button to make it easier. The only drinks that can come with a value meal is sprite or coke, else upgrade to milk tea, some fruit teas or jumbo drinks. They all order normal stuff we can get at home, outside of letting them get coke. I went for something we don’t have a French shrimp and beef patty sandwich, upcharged to soccer ball hash browns and jumbo coke because they put lemon slices in it.
So funny they put slurped tops on liquid drinks to make it look bigger then give you the give bubble straws. As soon as I smelled my sandwich I knew it was bad, the shrimp didn’t smell good and the sandwich didn’t look fresh. The beef was tough. I took a bite and spit it out. I took it up and used charades to mime the smell(they didn’t think it smelled bad). My interpreters didn’t know how to say it was bad/old, just that I didn’t like it. They respond but you ordered it. I hand it over and walk away to order myself a new sandwich at the kiosk. The manager comes over to stop me and brings the menu for me to point to a sandwich I want. Thank you.
After waiting for 20 minutes the kids are done, my sandwich still not arrived, we order desert. They have a matcha sauce Oreo cone and at night it’s buy one get one half off. So I order, but we pick up at counter this time. The manager sees me and I shake my head no, she knows I didn’t get my sandwich and asks the other worker who couldn’t be bothered. She apologized. I thanked and ate it. The matcha sauce wasn’t that good, I wouldn’t get it again. We decided we wouldn’t not eat there again. Except maybe for one of their teas.
We rode the bus to the mall we used to buy cake from 5 years ago. It is a fancy mall but reminds me Japanese Malls with all the little shops in the open areas. I’d rather walk around this fancy mall than the new mall we went to last week.
The Green Tea Restaurant had a lot of unusual foods. Green tea fish(yum), green tea chicken, green tea BBQ(mostly pork fat but good), cauldron potatoes(spicy and yummy), green tea cakes(filled with perhaps some type of bean paste and rolled in seasame seeds). Their specialty was this sweet bread. It was basically a square loaf of bread with the inside cut out and sliced, buttered and cut into cubes then put back into the loaf box and toasted so the inside warm and melty and the outside toasted then they put a scoop of ice cream on it. It was very good and the kids have asked to go back.
We left them to hop on the subway, at this time it’s past 2:30 P.M. I’ve decided we’ll go to the Panjiyuan Market aka Panjiyuan Flea Market aka Panjiyuan Antique Market. It looks like some places are already closing. They open at 4:30 Saturday and Sunday. There are shops open M-Th but on the weekend are the free vendors the more local “flea market” guys who set up under umbrellas on blankets. We walked around, up and down aisles. So many things to see, lots of walnuts, paintings, books, a building for stamps and coins and memorabilia, clay tea pots, beads, and stone stamps(hanko). We didn’t get too much and the haggling wasn’t always optional. But the prices were more reasonable so you didn’t have to. I got some agate that I didn’t recognize. We got 2 shadow puppets. 3 tea pets, Wensen is the only one who didn’t find one that called to him.
We walked 2 long blocks down to Longtan Park. Stopping along the way for drinks and ice cream. In the river outside of Longtan Park they had a few places where steps lead down to the river and we saw people going in to swim. When we got to Longtan Park it was about 6. Gone are the tourists. Here are the locals who come to walk or exercise. It was cloudy or hazy so we couldn’t even see any pretty sunset. It was a bit of a disappointment this trip as lots of construction, lots of parts closed off. They had several rides and even though adults had to go on with small kids. It was for the toddler sized kids only.
We ended up jumping busses halfway home so we wouldn’t have to walk at the end. Wensen has been asking for a burger all week. Instead my in-laws get chicken sandwiches, then ground pork because the market doesn’t sell ground beef. So I take them to McDonalds for dinner. You can still order at the 2 token registers they have left, but are encouraged by signs everywhere to order at the 6 kiosks and then choose if you want to pick it up yourself or have it delivered to your table. There is an English button to make it easier. The only drinks that can come with a value meal is sprite or coke, else upgrade to milk tea, some fruit teas or jumbo drinks. They all order normal stuff we can get at home, outside of letting them get coke. I went for something we don’t have a French shrimp and beef patty sandwich, upcharged to soccer ball hash browns and jumbo coke because they put lemon slices in it.
So funny they put slurped tops on liquid drinks to make it look bigger then give you the give bubble straws. As soon as I smelled my sandwich I knew it was bad, the shrimp didn’t smell good and the sandwich didn’t look fresh. The beef was tough. I took a bite and spit it out. I took it up and used charades to mime the smell(they didn’t think it smelled bad). My interpreters didn’t know how to say it was bad/old, just that I didn’t like it. They respond but you ordered it. I hand it over and walk away to order myself a new sandwich at the kiosk. The manager comes over to stop me and brings the menu for me to point to a sandwich I want. Thank you.
After waiting for 20 minutes the kids are done, my sandwich still not arrived, we order desert. They have a matcha sauce Oreo cone and at night it’s buy one get one half off. So I order, but we pick up at counter this time. The manager sees me and I shake my head no, she knows I didn’t get my sandwich and asks the other worker who couldn’t be bothered. She apologized. I thanked and ate it. The matcha sauce wasn’t that good, I wouldn’t get it again. We decided we wouldn’t not eat there again. Except maybe for one of their teas.
Friday, June 29, 2018
Heating up JIngshan & Beihai
Last night I finally figured out how to use “du” the Chinese version of google maps to figure out bus transfers. I need the visual map to find my locations. Then it gives me alternatives of bus vs bus and subway to reach my destination based on where I am. There is a different bus app, but it doesn’t show any maps, you can only pull up the bus#/bus stops in chinese. So not very helpful for me. If only I would’ve figured it out 2 hours sooner! My plan was to go to bed early.
I was up at 7:20 and while I was showering my father-in-law takes Ethan out to get breakfast. We waited till they got back and by then time everyone ate then got through the single bathroom it was 10 A.M.! I grabbed us drinks to go with the packed snacks before we headed out the door. We were finally ridding a different bus. We(I) used to ride this bus all the time going into town. I have taken the bus this same route, so once I had a visual it seemed familiar. We got off at a certain stop, walked back to the perpendicular street and had the option of riding 2 different busses to the stop we were looking for, at the back of The Forbidden City and the front of Jingshan.
These 2 busses were both available from stops with the same name but located 100 meters apart. My thinking is they have too many busses for one stop so they basically split the stop in two. Course both busses we were looking for, were at the different locations of the same name. We missed the first bus we were looking for, we went to the wrong bus stop of the same name.
The Forbidden City is packed, as is this area, so much traffic on the road and streets right here. A mishmash of busses, taxis stopping in the middle of the road to pick up a fare, cars pulling U-turns or 3 point turns right in the middle of the packed 4 lane wide road, besides people darting across and the bikers thinking it’s safer than their people clogged bike lane.
Once we enter Jingshan it’s all blocked out and peacefully quiet. Jingshan is known for their peony gardens and the 5 temples along a small ridge, the middle one being the highest. We got more drinks, it’s already too hot. When we reach the top that has the best view of The Forbidden City and city skyline its 101 degrees out! This is the only part of Jingshan that is every packed with people. Everyone wanting to take their picture in front of The Forbidden City. So we follow suit. The rest of the small mountain is covered with little walkways and seating pavilions.
Coming down the other side of the mountain and out of Jingshan we cross the street and walk 3-4 minutes down a road that houses a few Hutong and people trying to get you into their rickshaws. No thank you, this is one of the scams in the city. Outside the east gate I buy cheap water from someone selling it out of their packs and stand behind the person already getting tickets. She leaves and someone just walks up and cuts in front of me. It’s a short line, just me standing there. Hello! After she gets her tickets another lady tries to do the same thing and cut me. Still only me in line. I swipe my hand down to stop her as I hear the ticket takers at the door behind me laugh. She was like huh?
Once inside we were met with a beautiful scene, the walk onto the island and up to Baihai’s white dome as well as the moat filled with pink waterlillies and old fashioned single long oar/rutter boats. The kids have been wanting to get out on the water, so we check it out. 40 yuan for half hour or 60 yuan for a full hour. I figure we’ll be too hot for an hour. So we take the half your, are joined by two other ladies and off we go. So nice and leisurely, especially when someone else is rowing. They had already closed by the time we got back, due to a storm coming. We got on the last boat of the day!
We climbed up the billy goat paths to the center of the island and the white monument at the top, where you must buy another ticket. The boys said don’t bother someone asked if you can get inside it and the ticket seller said no. If it was not worth it for the Chinese to visit, not worth it for us either. Getting down took a lot longer. We wanted to walk down a different path, that resulted in lots of dead ends and paths stopped for construction. The souvenirs being sold here weren’t as nice as at the Summer Palace.
More drink and icecream stops as we walked to the North side of the park. We could see the storm coming and the rain falling in the distance. We decided to leave forgetting about the 9 dragon screen wall! But we made it to the subway just as the rain drops started to fall. Instead of taking the subway all the way home and ending up having to walk 2 very long blocks in the rain, we switched to the bus and took the same bus home. The rain felt great on our hot red faces from temperatures getting up to 103 today. The rain shortly dropped it to 87. Once it stopped raining it dried quickly and was back up 93.
I was up at 7:20 and while I was showering my father-in-law takes Ethan out to get breakfast. We waited till they got back and by then time everyone ate then got through the single bathroom it was 10 A.M.! I grabbed us drinks to go with the packed snacks before we headed out the door. We were finally ridding a different bus. We(I) used to ride this bus all the time going into town. I have taken the bus this same route, so once I had a visual it seemed familiar. We got off at a certain stop, walked back to the perpendicular street and had the option of riding 2 different busses to the stop we were looking for, at the back of The Forbidden City and the front of Jingshan.
These 2 busses were both available from stops with the same name but located 100 meters apart. My thinking is they have too many busses for one stop so they basically split the stop in two. Course both busses we were looking for, were at the different locations of the same name. We missed the first bus we were looking for, we went to the wrong bus stop of the same name.
The Forbidden City is packed, as is this area, so much traffic on the road and streets right here. A mishmash of busses, taxis stopping in the middle of the road to pick up a fare, cars pulling U-turns or 3 point turns right in the middle of the packed 4 lane wide road, besides people darting across and the bikers thinking it’s safer than their people clogged bike lane.
Once we enter Jingshan it’s all blocked out and peacefully quiet. Jingshan is known for their peony gardens and the 5 temples along a small ridge, the middle one being the highest. We got more drinks, it’s already too hot. When we reach the top that has the best view of The Forbidden City and city skyline its 101 degrees out! This is the only part of Jingshan that is every packed with people. Everyone wanting to take their picture in front of The Forbidden City. So we follow suit. The rest of the small mountain is covered with little walkways and seating pavilions.
Coming down the other side of the mountain and out of Jingshan we cross the street and walk 3-4 minutes down a road that houses a few Hutong and people trying to get you into their rickshaws. No thank you, this is one of the scams in the city. Outside the east gate I buy cheap water from someone selling it out of their packs and stand behind the person already getting tickets. She leaves and someone just walks up and cuts in front of me. It’s a short line, just me standing there. Hello! After she gets her tickets another lady tries to do the same thing and cut me. Still only me in line. I swipe my hand down to stop her as I hear the ticket takers at the door behind me laugh. She was like huh?
Once inside we were met with a beautiful scene, the walk onto the island and up to Baihai’s white dome as well as the moat filled with pink waterlillies and old fashioned single long oar/rutter boats. The kids have been wanting to get out on the water, so we check it out. 40 yuan for half hour or 60 yuan for a full hour. I figure we’ll be too hot for an hour. So we take the half your, are joined by two other ladies and off we go. So nice and leisurely, especially when someone else is rowing. They had already closed by the time we got back, due to a storm coming. We got on the last boat of the day!
We climbed up the billy goat paths to the center of the island and the white monument at the top, where you must buy another ticket. The boys said don’t bother someone asked if you can get inside it and the ticket seller said no. If it was not worth it for the Chinese to visit, not worth it for us either. Getting down took a lot longer. We wanted to walk down a different path, that resulted in lots of dead ends and paths stopped for construction. The souvenirs being sold here weren’t as nice as at the Summer Palace.
More drink and icecream stops as we walked to the North side of the park. We could see the storm coming and the rain falling in the distance. We decided to leave forgetting about the 9 dragon screen wall! But we made it to the subway just as the rain drops started to fall. Instead of taking the subway all the way home and ending up having to walk 2 very long blocks in the rain, we switched to the bus and took the same bus home. The rain felt great on our hot red faces from temperatures getting up to 103 today. The rain shortly dropped it to 87. Once it stopped raining it dried quickly and was back up 93.
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Silk Street Market
After getting all our FaceTime in to loved ones back home it was too late to head out to a park today. The boys told me they wanted to go shopping! It was more about staying out of the sun. We would start at Silk Street Market at Yongali subway station(and that’s as far as we got!). We took the subway there and I was expecting the same awe inspiring site the vendors pouring out of the Market down the halls into the entryway of the subway.
Gone, no more are you colorfully treated with shopping treasurers before you reach the market. Instead you see a revolving door as an entrance to an empty hallway where they stuck a massage chair and fresh squeeze orange juice machine. Up the empty stairs where I had last bought DVDs and CDs.
Through the door into the Silk Market, the first floor filled with their bread and butter my most hated floor, silks and scarves and purses. “Hey Lady”, come look.....All trying to get your attention. I see a few scarves I would love to buy, but I hope I will find elsewhere or at least figure out a good price before I try to haggle with them. We quickly walk around this floor so the boys can hear this experience of being called to their wares.
Then head upstairs, the stairs inside the Silk Street Market are filled with vendors and I quickly see a vendor I can’t wait to buy from. Someone who paints inside of glass beads and glass bottles. I buy some beads not as cheap as what I got last time but I got him down cheaper than when I saw them at the Forbidden City this time. So I was happy. The boys each got one and he painted their Chinese name inside of the bead while we waited. They choose a panda bead, dragon bead and Great Wall bead. The guy had not seen Aidan’s “dan” spelling before, so he looked it up thinking these foreigners are wrong. He was surprised, saying the first time he had used it.
The next floor the boys read “toys” on the sign and were extremely excited. They thought it was so cool, but really it wasn’t a whole floor dedicated to toys like I’ve seen at other places. It was only 6 or 7 stores in part of an aisle. However we spent a lot of time in that part of the store. There were no repeat stores selling the same items here to try and get the better price. It all came down to good old fashioned haggling.
I need to stick to my guns better so I get the better price, but I did really well. My boys would easily have caved in overpaying. Online it says to start bargaining under half the price they tell you. No way too much money, they jack the prices up here way more than you’d find elsewhere. Indifference helps when you really don’t care if you have the thing or not, you stick to your guns because you really don’t want it and you do the walk away and be called back dance. They say you aren’t serious, they can’t do it for that price, a little more, we are talking don’t walk away, I want to sell to you. Fine they will sell to you at your price, they look mad. The greatest actors ever. Just smile and don’t take it personally. If they really don’t want to do business with you they will turn around and talk to someone else.
One store had Chinese legos with titles called Space Wars(Star Wars), Fast(Speed), My World(Mine Craft). I did get a big Tiantan(Temple of Heaven) lego set for the boys. Before Tao left he looked it up and I knew the price I could get online so I did stick to my guns and not get it for more. I also found a few more vendors of glass bottles with painted scenes in them but no beads. Original price 800 yuan. I choose two. If my memory recalls correctly I got my one last time for 120 yuan. So I bargained for 2 for 230 yuan! The boys were impressed.
Sometimes you just have to know what you’d be able to buy it for at home and get it less than that. The deals aren’t as good anymore as they once were. You just need to know where to look, and that takes a lot of effort of window shopping!
Gone, no more are you colorfully treated with shopping treasurers before you reach the market. Instead you see a revolving door as an entrance to an empty hallway where they stuck a massage chair and fresh squeeze orange juice machine. Up the empty stairs where I had last bought DVDs and CDs.
Through the door into the Silk Market, the first floor filled with their bread and butter my most hated floor, silks and scarves and purses. “Hey Lady”, come look.....All trying to get your attention. I see a few scarves I would love to buy, but I hope I will find elsewhere or at least figure out a good price before I try to haggle with them. We quickly walk around this floor so the boys can hear this experience of being called to their wares.
Then head upstairs, the stairs inside the Silk Street Market are filled with vendors and I quickly see a vendor I can’t wait to buy from. Someone who paints inside of glass beads and glass bottles. I buy some beads not as cheap as what I got last time but I got him down cheaper than when I saw them at the Forbidden City this time. So I was happy. The boys each got one and he painted their Chinese name inside of the bead while we waited. They choose a panda bead, dragon bead and Great Wall bead. The guy had not seen Aidan’s “dan” spelling before, so he looked it up thinking these foreigners are wrong. He was surprised, saying the first time he had used it.
The next floor the boys read “toys” on the sign and were extremely excited. They thought it was so cool, but really it wasn’t a whole floor dedicated to toys like I’ve seen at other places. It was only 6 or 7 stores in part of an aisle. However we spent a lot of time in that part of the store. There were no repeat stores selling the same items here to try and get the better price. It all came down to good old fashioned haggling.
I need to stick to my guns better so I get the better price, but I did really well. My boys would easily have caved in overpaying. Online it says to start bargaining under half the price they tell you. No way too much money, they jack the prices up here way more than you’d find elsewhere. Indifference helps when you really don’t care if you have the thing or not, you stick to your guns because you really don’t want it and you do the walk away and be called back dance. They say you aren’t serious, they can’t do it for that price, a little more, we are talking don’t walk away, I want to sell to you. Fine they will sell to you at your price, they look mad. The greatest actors ever. Just smile and don’t take it personally. If they really don’t want to do business with you they will turn around and talk to someone else.
One store had Chinese legos with titles called Space Wars(Star Wars), Fast(Speed), My World(Mine Craft). I did get a big Tiantan(Temple of Heaven) lego set for the boys. Before Tao left he looked it up and I knew the price I could get online so I did stick to my guns and not get it for more. I also found a few more vendors of glass bottles with painted scenes in them but no beads. Original price 800 yuan. I choose two. If my memory recalls correctly I got my one last time for 120 yuan. So I bargained for 2 for 230 yuan! The boys were impressed.
Sometimes you just have to know what you’d be able to buy it for at home and get it less than that. The deals aren’t as good anymore as they once were. You just need to know where to look, and that takes a lot of effort of window shopping!
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Shanghai Disneyland
I’ve been to Tokyo Disneyland, Florida Disney and now Shanghai Disneyland! We didn’t tell the kids until we left for Shanghai. We took DiDi to get there, got in line where they have posted all over you must get your tickets through their app. So Tao gets the tickets through the app we get in line. No these won’t work the kids are over the height limit of 1.4 meters, they need adult tickets. Everywhere the “kid” size restriction is 1.1- 1.3 or 1.4. Well all my kids are over this height, so they are not considered kids, but require the adult ticket at any attraction or restaurant.
It was another hot day, we brought umbrellas as it was forecasted to rain. Several had 2-3 hour wait times, so we bypassed those. We went to the Stitch Encounter. We fondly recalled the 4-D experience in Florida and how one was a bit too young and had to leave midway. Well when we got in line they tried to stop us saying it will be in Chinese. Duh. It was not the experience we were expecting that is for sure. Nothing 4-D or 3-D about it in fact. There was a host and then the screen would talk to people as the host went to them with a microphone. That was it. Sorely disappointing. But we got out of the heat.
Saw a penny press machine with a Star Wars penny in the mad rush of going into the next attraction; Buzz Lightyear Blaster. This was the same as we expected and enjoyable. But by the time we exited I forgot about the penny press. The whole Star Wars area was closed, the boys super bummed.
Lots of waiting in line and not doing a whole lot. We didn’t see the parade as we were waiting to get on a ride. They stop rides for events. I thought that was the smart time to get on a ride as everyone should be watching the parade or some scheduled activity. Nope not here, you’ve been waiting in a long line and there is some guest appearance we must not let anyone go on the ride and just wait for 10-15 minutes.
One of the kids realized he lost his GPS watch. Great, we knew exactly where it was lost in the Marvel building. But it went from raining to downpour and it’s filled with rows of people sitting on the floor all around the walls. We keep calling it and calling it not able to get a pin point location. We know it’s somewhere in this building, it’s not moving. But whether it got kicked under something, stuck in the trash or picked up we don’t know. Tao asked all the workers. I’m looking at all the people, under all the nooks and corners. Some lady with a small child gets my attention and wave the watch at me. Thank you! Tao had put an alert on the phone and it came up with a scan button that either got their attention or they could no longer play with it. I’m just thankful it was only the watch we were looking for and not anyone attached to it.
Several more attractions closed due to the weather. After trying to stay dry and the rain stopping we got to the Shipwrecked Pirate part and the boys got into a big water cannon battle. The best part of the day. Another bummer, we tried to go on a really cool attraction(I forget the name), but after standing in line they told us no sandals. Really? It’s not listed under the Do Not’s list. All the kids had closed toe sandals too. I was really mad.
I really wanted to get the Star Wars smooshed pennies for the boys. Cheap souvenirs! Nope. Someone vetoed that awesome idea. So as we are walking out at 6:30 for a 7:30 pick up we hit the lego store and the boys got some create your own mini figures. Cost more than back home, don’t know if that was Disney or China. Their Disneytown shopping is outside of Disneyland. So anyone wanting to pay for parking can walk over there to shop and eat in Disneytown.
Beijing Roasted KFC
Lunch was wontons again. Hot soup on a hot day is not my idea of good eats.
Another boiling day, the kids have been pretty good being cooped up, but we need to get out. My father-in-law suggested a new market across the street from the Carrfour. I told him it looked expensive. No, no he hadn’t been there, but it has many prices.
Well it’s too hot to go to a park, we need to be inside, so walk around a big mall we will do. It was 2 basement levels and 7 above levels. We find the kid level and walk around there first. Not really kids my age, but 5 years ago age. All types of stores for “kids” to get there energy out via kungfu classes, dance classes, gym classes, music classes, learning abc, roller skating, race track time, baby to young toddler clothes, and 2 toy stores with a few legos.
I did peek at a few stores prices and as I expected expensive. I was right this was a mall not a market. (Market implies it’s where you go to haggle or shop cheap). We went up to the food court levels 6 & 7. Huge open area, possibly considered art. We walked around and got some DQ. Several super cute restaurants I would totally love to eat in, Japanese cute decor is the only way I can describe it. Boys vetoed it. One place said “The Okinami Experience” with a picture of a tanuki. But it wasn’t open, and I couldn’t tell if it was on it’s way out or in.
I didn’t see any need to keep walking around this mall. On the 2nd level it said the glass had electric shock to deter you from reaching over to look down to the basement levels. We walked half a block to Carrfour. The boys wanted the good rotating sushi place but said it was too early to eat. So we walked around a bit. Now there was a line at the rotating sushi place. So we went to KFC, Aidan wanted to try their Dragon wraps. The Dragon wraps ended up being KFC’s version of Beijing Roasted Duck(Peking Duck). They had fried chicken instead of duck, but same sauce, cucumber and onion all in a wrap. Definitely not as good as the real deal.
We picked up icecream on the way home. I got mango this time, very good.
Shortly after bedtime but before sleep, one had a waterfall of a bloody nose. He said maybe too much chocolate? He did have 2 chocolate ice creams today. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner with all this heat.
Another boiling day, the kids have been pretty good being cooped up, but we need to get out. My father-in-law suggested a new market across the street from the Carrfour. I told him it looked expensive. No, no he hadn’t been there, but it has many prices.
Well it’s too hot to go to a park, we need to be inside, so walk around a big mall we will do. It was 2 basement levels and 7 above levels. We find the kid level and walk around there first. Not really kids my age, but 5 years ago age. All types of stores for “kids” to get there energy out via kungfu classes, dance classes, gym classes, music classes, learning abc, roller skating, race track time, baby to young toddler clothes, and 2 toy stores with a few legos.
I did peek at a few stores prices and as I expected expensive. I was right this was a mall not a market. (Market implies it’s where you go to haggle or shop cheap). We went up to the food court levels 6 & 7. Huge open area, possibly considered art. We walked around and got some DQ. Several super cute restaurants I would totally love to eat in, Japanese cute decor is the only way I can describe it. Boys vetoed it. One place said “The Okinami Experience” with a picture of a tanuki. But it wasn’t open, and I couldn’t tell if it was on it’s way out or in.
I didn’t see any need to keep walking around this mall. On the 2nd level it said the glass had electric shock to deter you from reaching over to look down to the basement levels. We walked half a block to Carrfour. The boys wanted the good rotating sushi place but said it was too early to eat. So we walked around a bit. Now there was a line at the rotating sushi place. So we went to KFC, Aidan wanted to try their Dragon wraps. The Dragon wraps ended up being KFC’s version of Beijing Roasted Duck(Peking Duck). They had fried chicken instead of duck, but same sauce, cucumber and onion all in a wrap. Definitely not as good as the real deal.
We picked up icecream on the way home. I got mango this time, very good.
Shortly after bedtime but before sleep, one had a waterfall of a bloody nose. He said maybe too much chocolate? He did have 2 chocolate ice creams today. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner with all this heat.
Found: Haw on a stick
The boys and I walk down to the subway station and take a straight shot to Qienmen Street shopping. First we are walking up the main drag, a wide street with trolley tracks in the road. Many bathrooms. We go in a few stores, but I’m not really seeing what I’m looking for.
Ah, a break in the alley to the side streets where the real shopping is. And first thing we see is Haw on a stick! I knew if I was to find it anywhere it would be here. 2 of us get the haw, 2 strawberries. 10 yuan a stick! 5 years ago they were 3-5 yuan each.
We go into several 10 yuan stores, think dollar store, but it’s more like $1.65. Aidan got a giant colorful slinky, I got a few hair clips(I’ve been waiting to buy them in China), they each ended up with a spinner. Ethan is good at being the interpreter, we haggled and I feel won.
Aidan really wanted rear wheels for your shoes, they told us 85 yuan for 1. How many you want to buy. None really, but gee I have 3 kids, so 3. She tells me 180 for 3. No. 160. No. 120. No. 100. No. I want them for 90. Ok. Sometimes you just gotta think what are you willing to pay for them. I didn’t want them, so I was only willing to throw away $5 each and hopefully they break in the next 3 weeks. Plus sometimes you get a better deal if you buy more.
We also found meat on a stick. Not at any street vendor cart anymore, but form a restaurant with a walk up window. 12 yuan each! 5 years ago 5-6 yuan each. Maybe the price of rat meat went up? We ended with another haw on a stick because I don’t know if I’ll find them again. Knowing we are going to come back here to get another one before we leave and do some more shopping. The boys enjoyed it.
After we went home and told our tales of the best haggle we went out for dinner. Big steamy bowls of wontons in a steamy little restaurant on a steamy day. Uggh, I feel like a slug.
Ah, a break in the alley to the side streets where the real shopping is. And first thing we see is Haw on a stick! I knew if I was to find it anywhere it would be here. 2 of us get the haw, 2 strawberries. 10 yuan a stick! 5 years ago they were 3-5 yuan each.
We go into several 10 yuan stores, think dollar store, but it’s more like $1.65. Aidan got a giant colorful slinky, I got a few hair clips(I’ve been waiting to buy them in China), they each ended up with a spinner. Ethan is good at being the interpreter, we haggled and I feel won.
Aidan really wanted rear wheels for your shoes, they told us 85 yuan for 1. How many you want to buy. None really, but gee I have 3 kids, so 3. She tells me 180 for 3. No. 160. No. 120. No. 100. No. I want them for 90. Ok. Sometimes you just gotta think what are you willing to pay for them. I didn’t want them, so I was only willing to throw away $5 each and hopefully they break in the next 3 weeks. Plus sometimes you get a better deal if you buy more.
We also found meat on a stick. Not at any street vendor cart anymore, but form a restaurant with a walk up window. 12 yuan each! 5 years ago 5-6 yuan each. Maybe the price of rat meat went up? We ended with another haw on a stick because I don’t know if I’ll find them again. Knowing we are going to come back here to get another one before we leave and do some more shopping. The boys enjoyed it.
After we went home and told our tales of the best haggle we went out for dinner. Big steamy bowls of wontons in a steamy little restaurant on a steamy day. Uggh, I feel like a slug.
Ta Ta Tao
My in-laws had breakfast delivered. They would rather get it delivered than go fetch it from a nearby restaurant not even half a block away. I really want the street food breakfast sandwich, but they feels it’s better to find from a restaurant(more clean or healthy).
The boys pile on daddy, getting ready to miss him. I chose not to see him off to the airport since we were just there a few days ago. We sent him off outside the apartment complex and came back up to get our stuff and head out. It was another hot one high 90’s.
We rode the bus to the Carfour(I always pronounce Carefour), not too far away. It’s a big department store. Be prepared to pay more here(in China) if you plan on buying Hot Wheels, legos, Transformers and Star Wars.
This time I scoped it out if they allow payment via WeChat or Alipay. Nope, their app or cash. Forgot to grab the cash, so we only bought a few books that all had pin yin in them with the Chinese characters. We will probably return here as I could buy a few more books here.
We had lunch at KFC. They have a “chizza”, a fried chicken fillet they use as a small pizza base with cheese and peppers on top. Their only pop is Pepsi regular, no diet, that comes in the combos. Otherwise you can buy alacart a few different teas, coffees or a 9 alive orange drink.
We could only find 1 bathroom on the 3rd floor. I don’t know why they bother hiring anyone to stand there to clean it. Apparently cleaning it only means picking up the stuff that didn’t make it to the trash basket. Remember no flushing toilet paper. Every toilet I’ve used has a big gob of spit staring you in the face (squat toilet) or that you have to walk over going into a stall. Really you couldn’t use the toilet less than a foot away for that?
Wontons were requested for dinner.
The boys pile on daddy, getting ready to miss him. I chose not to see him off to the airport since we were just there a few days ago. We sent him off outside the apartment complex and came back up to get our stuff and head out. It was another hot one high 90’s.
We rode the bus to the Carfour(I always pronounce Carefour), not too far away. It’s a big department store. Be prepared to pay more here(in China) if you plan on buying Hot Wheels, legos, Transformers and Star Wars.
This time I scoped it out if they allow payment via WeChat or Alipay. Nope, their app or cash. Forgot to grab the cash, so we only bought a few books that all had pin yin in them with the Chinese characters. We will probably return here as I could buy a few more books here.
We had lunch at KFC. They have a “chizza”, a fried chicken fillet they use as a small pizza base with cheese and peppers on top. Their only pop is Pepsi regular, no diet, that comes in the combos. Otherwise you can buy alacart a few different teas, coffees or a 9 alive orange drink.
We could only find 1 bathroom on the 3rd floor. I don’t know why they bother hiring anyone to stand there to clean it. Apparently cleaning it only means picking up the stuff that didn’t make it to the trash basket. Remember no flushing toilet paper. Every toilet I’ve used has a big gob of spit staring you in the face (squat toilet) or that you have to walk over going into a stall. Really you couldn’t use the toilet less than a foot away for that?
Wontons were requested for dinner.
Sad Saturday
Tao is re-packing his suitcase. So glad I insisted on 2 full sized and a carry-on size. He filled a large one with the clothes he brought, winter clothes his parents bought for the boys, a few small souvenirs and some stuff his mom wanted to give us. Plus Tao bought a huge chinese chess and go board. As it was he had to borrow a carry-on to carry the rest.
Since he wanted to rest before his long day of travel, I took the boys and walked 2 blocks down in the heat to the other small shopping mall with a different department store in it. It was a disappointment. 5 years ago it was all new, every store filled. Now it was under construction, only a few restaurants and the department store was missing a floor. When we went to pay we discovered they do not accept payment via WeChat or Alipay directly. You must use their app or cash. Wasn’t carring much cash, so we put a few things back. Apparently you could set up their app to pay through your WeChat or Alipay but I wasn’t going to go through all that trouble. I just don’t plan on going back there.
While there we did walk through the abandoned hallways due to construction, the only people there possible were the construction worker’s family? We say a guy straddling the top of a ladder and walk it over with out getting down. It didn’t appear to be tied to his feet either.
We took umbrellas with us. Not because of any rain. There was none. But to give us a bit of shade from the sun, it was just too hot. It doesn’t look silly here. Heck they even carry their umbrellas up walking in the shade.
My in-laws said that shopping complex was oringally owned by a British company, now by a Chinese company and on it’s 2nd construction since the change.
Tonight we DiDi it to meet Gu NaiNai and Gu YeYe for dinner. It’s Gu NaiNai’s 85th birthday, so her son and wife are there too. The private room has a seating area so those arriving first can visit and have a snack of melon and tomatoes and some bugle tasting crackers with powder sugar on them. The son arrived before us to order the meal. Then us. The guests of honor were last to arrive.
I commented on the velour or velvet on the chairs and walls. My mother-in-law said that it’s cheap in China, no big deal. But to me it was a fancier restaurant. They had a picture that Jackie Chan had dinned there in the entry way. It was in a hotel. Ironic that the rooms have no smoking signs but I find a burn hole in the table cloth. The plates were huge, the food on them small. Always family style on huge lazy Susan’s. I tried almost everything. I know I don’t care for the vat of pork fat so I skipped that and the bony smoked fish.
I have found the dish I will learn to make this trip: Suan Cai Yu. Szechuan boiled fish soup with pickled vegetables. I am quite surprised I loved it. At first I only took the fish out, but the buttery looking broth begged to be tasted. So I ladled some into by bowl. It did taste buttery to me, along with chicken bullion, spicy fresh red peppers, some capers on a vine, udon noodles, enoki mushrooms and what I thought was hot perperochini(later I found out was pickled mustard greens).
I came home and started trying to find the recipe. Which is hard when you can’t fully access the internet and it goes so slowly. When we get home I look forward to trying my hand at it. My husband thinks I should love more foods so I will want to cook more chinese dishes.
Since he wanted to rest before his long day of travel, I took the boys and walked 2 blocks down in the heat to the other small shopping mall with a different department store in it. It was a disappointment. 5 years ago it was all new, every store filled. Now it was under construction, only a few restaurants and the department store was missing a floor. When we went to pay we discovered they do not accept payment via WeChat or Alipay directly. You must use their app or cash. Wasn’t carring much cash, so we put a few things back. Apparently you could set up their app to pay through your WeChat or Alipay but I wasn’t going to go through all that trouble. I just don’t plan on going back there.
While there we did walk through the abandoned hallways due to construction, the only people there possible were the construction worker’s family? We say a guy straddling the top of a ladder and walk it over with out getting down. It didn’t appear to be tied to his feet either.
We took umbrellas with us. Not because of any rain. There was none. But to give us a bit of shade from the sun, it was just too hot. It doesn’t look silly here. Heck they even carry their umbrellas up walking in the shade.
My in-laws said that shopping complex was oringally owned by a British company, now by a Chinese company and on it’s 2nd construction since the change.
Tonight we DiDi it to meet Gu NaiNai and Gu YeYe for dinner. It’s Gu NaiNai’s 85th birthday, so her son and wife are there too. The private room has a seating area so those arriving first can visit and have a snack of melon and tomatoes and some bugle tasting crackers with powder sugar on them. The son arrived before us to order the meal. Then us. The guests of honor were last to arrive.
I commented on the velour or velvet on the chairs and walls. My mother-in-law said that it’s cheap in China, no big deal. But to me it was a fancier restaurant. They had a picture that Jackie Chan had dinned there in the entry way. It was in a hotel. Ironic that the rooms have no smoking signs but I find a burn hole in the table cloth. The plates were huge, the food on them small. Always family style on huge lazy Susan’s. I tried almost everything. I know I don’t care for the vat of pork fat so I skipped that and the bony smoked fish.
I have found the dish I will learn to make this trip: Suan Cai Yu. Szechuan boiled fish soup with pickled vegetables. I am quite surprised I loved it. At first I only took the fish out, but the buttery looking broth begged to be tasted. So I ladled some into by bowl. It did taste buttery to me, along with chicken bullion, spicy fresh red peppers, some capers on a vine, udon noodles, enoki mushrooms and what I thought was hot perperochini(later I found out was pickled mustard greens).
I came home and started trying to find the recipe. Which is hard when you can’t fully access the internet and it goes so slowly. When we get home I look forward to trying my hand at it. My husband thinks I should love more foods so I will want to cook more chinese dishes.
Summer Palace
Our last big outing before Tao heads home was to the Summer Palace. We take DiDi(the Chinese Uber), of course it was supposed to rain, but thankfully it was only a few sprinkles. Otherwise it could be dangerous walking as you have to do a lot walking/climbing over slippery stones. It is a very cool place, earning lots of picture taking. We tried more flavors of tea, this time lychee and perhaps grapefruit? The boys really wanted to rent a boat to go out on the lake, but it required a big cash deposit we didn’t have with us thanks to the ease of paying via phone on WeChat or Alipay. So we settled for a ferry ride across the lake. We did a lot of walking and the boys did really well. Most likely due to keeping them hydrated with drinks, ice cream and snacks.
It’s always funny to watch people just stop walking and start asking Tao about having 3 kids and a foreign wife. A few left their tour group to find out.
Next time we come to the Summer Palace I told the kids we should just walk around the lake and not do any of the climbing stuff. Then we would be able to go over all sorts of cool looking bridges.
There is a huge bridge that boasts 500 lions carved into the bridge to a small island. After we left the island I say we should’ve counted the lions. Ethan is game, so the others were told to sit and rest. Well we started out with good intentions to count and realized we couldn’t possibly figure out where the lions were due to deteriation of the bridge. Was that round thing a lion or a ball or something else? We decided to give our count at 498, 2 ran away. We started back to find them, not sitting but getting ice cream! WAIT.....Just in time! We got some too and drinks. I was glad I brought my sweat towel with me. It was so hot and it wasn’t even sunny today.
I wonder why you don’t see more people use the little sweat towels or handkerchiefs like you do in Japan. It seems like a really good idea. You want to brush at your face but use the towel so you keep your hands off your face. No hand dryer use the towel. So many uses.
Tonight we tried the rotating hot pot restaurant across the street. My father-in-law went with us. It was a buffet that included drinks from Pepsi to green apple pop to blueberry juice drink. Make your own sauce bar with everything unnamed and left up for guesses. I didn’t venture into the unknown and stuck with thinned tahini(sesame) paste, green onions, cilantro, black vinegar, chili oil and soy sauce. Besides the rotating items they bring each person 2 shrimp, 2 pieces of lamb and beef. So many options on the rotating line up, eggs, tofu, several different noodles, different greens, meats, tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon, snacks to grab, water pictures to refill your personal hot pot. The problem is they only give you one tongs to grab everything with. So I grab the ones next to me to use on the tomato, cucumber and watermelon. Then I worry no one else is using 2 tongs to get the tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon. Better throw the tomatoes and cucumber into the pot to kill any cross contanmination. I watch most people grab the watermelon with their hands and pray I’m safe not throwing that into the pot but I don’t eat any more just to be safe. They even had ice cream for desert. Good now we don’t need to stop on the way home. No green tea flavored, but they boys were happy for chocolate. Well the chocolate turned out not to be the chocolate they were looking for. They told me it tastes bad, maybe it’s coffee, and please try it. I smell it first since I don’t like coffee. Nope not coffee. I try it. It’s chocolate, but China chocolate that tastes like tootsie roll chocolate not real chocolate. So I get all their icecream. I put it in my pop and make a float. It tastes just like a chocolate soda.
It’s always funny to watch people just stop walking and start asking Tao about having 3 kids and a foreign wife. A few left their tour group to find out.
Next time we come to the Summer Palace I told the kids we should just walk around the lake and not do any of the climbing stuff. Then we would be able to go over all sorts of cool looking bridges.
There is a huge bridge that boasts 500 lions carved into the bridge to a small island. After we left the island I say we should’ve counted the lions. Ethan is game, so the others were told to sit and rest. Well we started out with good intentions to count and realized we couldn’t possibly figure out where the lions were due to deteriation of the bridge. Was that round thing a lion or a ball or something else? We decided to give our count at 498, 2 ran away. We started back to find them, not sitting but getting ice cream! WAIT.....Just in time! We got some too and drinks. I was glad I brought my sweat towel with me. It was so hot and it wasn’t even sunny today.
I wonder why you don’t see more people use the little sweat towels or handkerchiefs like you do in Japan. It seems like a really good idea. You want to brush at your face but use the towel so you keep your hands off your face. No hand dryer use the towel. So many uses.
Tonight we tried the rotating hot pot restaurant across the street. My father-in-law went with us. It was a buffet that included drinks from Pepsi to green apple pop to blueberry juice drink. Make your own sauce bar with everything unnamed and left up for guesses. I didn’t venture into the unknown and stuck with thinned tahini(sesame) paste, green onions, cilantro, black vinegar, chili oil and soy sauce. Besides the rotating items they bring each person 2 shrimp, 2 pieces of lamb and beef. So many options on the rotating line up, eggs, tofu, several different noodles, different greens, meats, tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon, snacks to grab, water pictures to refill your personal hot pot. The problem is they only give you one tongs to grab everything with. So I grab the ones next to me to use on the tomato, cucumber and watermelon. Then I worry no one else is using 2 tongs to get the tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon. Better throw the tomatoes and cucumber into the pot to kill any cross contanmination. I watch most people grab the watermelon with their hands and pray I’m safe not throwing that into the pot but I don’t eat any more just to be safe. They even had ice cream for desert. Good now we don’t need to stop on the way home. No green tea flavored, but they boys were happy for chocolate. Well the chocolate turned out not to be the chocolate they were looking for. They told me it tastes bad, maybe it’s coffee, and please try it. I smell it first since I don’t like coffee. Nope not coffee. I try it. It’s chocolate, but China chocolate that tastes like tootsie roll chocolate not real chocolate. So I get all their icecream. I put it in my pop and make a float. It tastes just like a chocolate soda.
Rain, rain, go away!
So our final full day in Shanghai and we are stuck inside! From our room on the 15th floor it looks like sprinkles. But from the ground it is a steady downpour. The pool of course is closed. Finally after noon I can get the boys up and out the door. We go into the small indoor market within 2 blocks of the hotel, not much. We go to a bigger 4 floor market, mostly jewelry, 1 floor tea and traditional medicines. Nothing there either. Boys all whiny over nothing to look at and wet out. Fine lets go back. Tao says lets try that last market. It wouldn’ve been the mother load, but can we(meaning me) enjoy it(meaning shop), no! Whine, whine, whine......So instead of being able to do easy shopping right next door to the hotel we retreat to the boring indoors and stupid iPads.
It finally stops raining around 4ish but no one wants to go out. Finally for dinner we walk many blocks away to the big lit up street with the modern stores. We look for bathrooms and end up eating bad sushi from a rotating sushi restaurant. The only bright spot in the day was DQ! I got a matcha blizzard with chocolate in it.
It finally stops raining around 4ish but no one wants to go out. Finally for dinner we walk many blocks away to the big lit up street with the modern stores. We look for bathrooms and end up eating bad sushi from a rotating sushi restaurant. The only bright spot in the day was DQ! I got a matcha blizzard with chocolate in it.
Yu Garden
We walked around the Yu Garden Shopping Mall, seeing smoking ice cream drinks. It’s all theatrics. Blue water with dry ice put in a big cup, nest a smaller cup with 2 inches of tea inside and stick a lid on top with soft serve ice cream. So many food stores, but no meat on a stick or haw on a stick. Tao reminded me it’s not haw season and we are too far south for them.
We saw lots of traditional crafts like hand/finger painting, silk thread paintings, calligraphy several different ways, I like the dragon calligraphy turning your name into a dragon. Some stores had supposed lowest prices, no bargaining sign on their doorways.
I feel every food place sold crab. Fried crab on a stick, crab dumplings, crab soup dumplings....We went into a few toy stores, still not what I’m looking for. They might’ve held more official items due to the prices of Star Wars, Monchichis, Tottoro, lots of personal fans, Ultra Man, grown-up figurines(maybe they’re anime ones?), and Pokémon cards(but I could tell they were the fake ones).
Wandering around the corrdoors we came to the Yu Garden. I can’t remember if I was there before or not, I know I was outside of it for sure on the walkways over the water, I remember eating large soup dumplings outside in the sun. Today we went in the garden and it was so beautiful, every building had a different roof, there were dragons, storks, warriors, tigers.... So many walk ways and little doorways to go through to other courtyards. I took a ton of pictures here, I couldn’t resist. People love feeding the giant coi. The boys tried dipping their fingers in the water, but the fish were smarter, they knew it wasn’t food and didn’t even try to nibble on them.
Never fun shopping with Tao, his shopping is walking past the store 10 feet from the door. I like to window shop by walking though seeing what different stuff they have.
For dinner we came back to the shopping mall with Tao’s parents and went to a huge food court. You grab a tray, choose your food and then pay. I choose a cold chicken dish, noodle dish and mochi pears filled with custard. Some of the other things chosen were big soup dumplings, small soup dumplings, crab on a stick, and so proud my kids each picked out a veggie dish on their own!
We saw lots of traditional crafts like hand/finger painting, silk thread paintings, calligraphy several different ways, I like the dragon calligraphy turning your name into a dragon. Some stores had supposed lowest prices, no bargaining sign on their doorways.
I feel every food place sold crab. Fried crab on a stick, crab dumplings, crab soup dumplings....We went into a few toy stores, still not what I’m looking for. They might’ve held more official items due to the prices of Star Wars, Monchichis, Tottoro, lots of personal fans, Ultra Man, grown-up figurines(maybe they’re anime ones?), and Pokémon cards(but I could tell they were the fake ones).
Wandering around the corrdoors we came to the Yu Garden. I can’t remember if I was there before or not, I know I was outside of it for sure on the walkways over the water, I remember eating large soup dumplings outside in the sun. Today we went in the garden and it was so beautiful, every building had a different roof, there were dragons, storks, warriors, tigers.... So many walk ways and little doorways to go through to other courtyards. I took a ton of pictures here, I couldn’t resist. People love feeding the giant coi. The boys tried dipping their fingers in the water, but the fish were smarter, they knew it wasn’t food and didn’t even try to nibble on them.
Never fun shopping with Tao, his shopping is walking past the store 10 feet from the door. I like to window shop by walking though seeing what different stuff they have.
For dinner we came back to the shopping mall with Tao’s parents and went to a huge food court. You grab a tray, choose your food and then pay. I choose a cold chicken dish, noodle dish and mochi pears filled with custard. Some of the other things chosen were big soup dumplings, small soup dumplings, crab on a stick, and so proud my kids each picked out a veggie dish on their own!
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Shanghai Noon
Beep! 3:45 A.M. is too early. But thank goodness we were already packed and clothes picked out the day before. 7 people to get through the single bathroom. Throw the toothbrushes in the suitcase and our ride awaits us outside. Not much traffic out this early. Only when we get close to the airport does the road get busy. When you enter the terminal they group you in 7-10 people swab your hands and bags then run it through a machine before letting you further into the airport.
I don’t think they allow any liquid on their airlines(not counting drinks bought enough inside the airport). I had a 1oz in my purse and ended up thinking I’d better put it in check-in. No carry-on travel sizes here.
Once we got to our gate my mother-in-law broke out the baozas they bought the night before. We had to take a shuttle bus to the plane on the taramac. The first bus left it was dry. When we got on the bus we stood there for 20 minutes due to a storm. Then we had to run for the plane once it arrived at our plane. They were passing out tissues for people to dry off with. Since it is only supposed to be a 2 hour plane ride they don’t carry a lot of blankets. Those ran out.
Then due to the storm, it was thunder and lightening, we sat there for 3 hours before we took off. They brought breakfast on and had a movie play. Being more of a commuter plane they had a screen for every 5 rows. Breakfast was corn and rise gruel, chicken hotdog with whole pieces of corn in it(very sweet), a tea egg, melon fruit, a sweet bread and yogurt. They went through a few times with drinks. I saw olive juice, so I tried it. Ick, not good, but I’ve had worse. I mixed a bit of the kids orange juice and sprite. It didn’t mask the flavor much.
We had a car scheduled to pick us up in Shanghai. So they called and said they saw the delay and will be there to pick us up. The plane ride went without delay. A bit of sleeping. Instead of getting to Shanghai at 9 A.M., we got ther at noon! As soon as we landed the ride called. We get luggage, go the bathroom and try to find the pick-up location. That is where all heck broke lose. He said exit 7. There are only 4 exits in the terminal. We go out and see the 7-12 in the parking garage across the street, but to get there we must exit through the 2nd floor of the terminal. Back inside we must go, need to be reswiped, then put all our luggage through the security scanner to get back in and up the escalator and out to the parking lot. There must have been some type of music or production crew coming in, lots of long hair foreign roadies carting gear. There are several fancy sports cars that were used by Asians with tattoos. Wensen was happy to see a McLaren and Ferrari.
We find our driver, they always include license plate numbers. But he doesn’t want to drive us now. My father-in-law jumps in his front seat and they have a screaming match, he refuses to drive us. Now this is already pre-paid for on-line. After and hour we call another car and take the guys pics and pics of his vehicle to report to the company later. Such drama!
Finally we get to our hotel and checked in and relax it’s after 2 P.M. We have food delivered and the old people take naps, I take the kids to the pool. An indoor infinity pool on the 21st floor. It’s quite warm, but the hot tub is very hot, my legs are tingling hot. After that the pool felt a reasonable cool. I can’t believe they let kids go into the hot tubs. Under age 2!
We finally go out about 7 to get dinner, we walk around, the few places Tao wanted to try didn’t have enough seating. So we walked around down by the water. Saw the boats lit up like a light parade, the 200 plus people riding the ferry over to the other side. The Pearl and other tall buildings all lit up.
We end up going back to the hotel and get food delivered. Tao ordered from one he wanted to eat at. A wonton shop. He was happy, the bowl had several different flavor wontons, you don’t know which you’ll get. Good Happy Father’s Day. Because it was way to early this morning to remember the cards I left in Beijing. Uggh.
I don’t think they allow any liquid on their airlines(not counting drinks bought enough inside the airport). I had a 1oz in my purse and ended up thinking I’d better put it in check-in. No carry-on travel sizes here.
Once we got to our gate my mother-in-law broke out the baozas they bought the night before. We had to take a shuttle bus to the plane on the taramac. The first bus left it was dry. When we got on the bus we stood there for 20 minutes due to a storm. Then we had to run for the plane once it arrived at our plane. They were passing out tissues for people to dry off with. Since it is only supposed to be a 2 hour plane ride they don’t carry a lot of blankets. Those ran out.
Then due to the storm, it was thunder and lightening, we sat there for 3 hours before we took off. They brought breakfast on and had a movie play. Being more of a commuter plane they had a screen for every 5 rows. Breakfast was corn and rise gruel, chicken hotdog with whole pieces of corn in it(very sweet), a tea egg, melon fruit, a sweet bread and yogurt. They went through a few times with drinks. I saw olive juice, so I tried it. Ick, not good, but I’ve had worse. I mixed a bit of the kids orange juice and sprite. It didn’t mask the flavor much.
We had a car scheduled to pick us up in Shanghai. So they called and said they saw the delay and will be there to pick us up. The plane ride went without delay. A bit of sleeping. Instead of getting to Shanghai at 9 A.M., we got ther at noon! As soon as we landed the ride called. We get luggage, go the bathroom and try to find the pick-up location. That is where all heck broke lose. He said exit 7. There are only 4 exits in the terminal. We go out and see the 7-12 in the parking garage across the street, but to get there we must exit through the 2nd floor of the terminal. Back inside we must go, need to be reswiped, then put all our luggage through the security scanner to get back in and up the escalator and out to the parking lot. There must have been some type of music or production crew coming in, lots of long hair foreign roadies carting gear. There are several fancy sports cars that were used by Asians with tattoos. Wensen was happy to see a McLaren and Ferrari.
We find our driver, they always include license plate numbers. But he doesn’t want to drive us now. My father-in-law jumps in his front seat and they have a screaming match, he refuses to drive us. Now this is already pre-paid for on-line. After and hour we call another car and take the guys pics and pics of his vehicle to report to the company later. Such drama!
Finally we get to our hotel and checked in and relax it’s after 2 P.M. We have food delivered and the old people take naps, I take the kids to the pool. An indoor infinity pool on the 21st floor. It’s quite warm, but the hot tub is very hot, my legs are tingling hot. After that the pool felt a reasonable cool. I can’t believe they let kids go into the hot tubs. Under age 2!
We finally go out about 7 to get dinner, we walk around, the few places Tao wanted to try didn’t have enough seating. So we walked around down by the water. Saw the boats lit up like a light parade, the 200 plus people riding the ferry over to the other side. The Pearl and other tall buildings all lit up.
We end up going back to the hotel and get food delivered. Tao ordered from one he wanted to eat at. A wonton shop. He was happy, the bowl had several different flavor wontons, you don’t know which you’ll get. Good Happy Father’s Day. Because it was way to early this morning to remember the cards I left in Beijing. Uggh.
Cousin Time
Tonight we got together with all of Tao’s cousins from his mom’s side. There are 5 of them including my husband. 4 boys and 1 girl. We were meeting at a meat stick restaurant. I didn’t know what to expect, just meat on a stick that’s for sure. When we arrived at the location it was in a run down “mall” where the escalator no longer moved caked with a thick layer of cigarettes, debris and dust. We walked up the broken escalator to the 2nd floor to a rinky dink looking elevator and took it to the next floor. The doors opened and it was like stepping into the twilight zone. The restaurant was full of life, clean, colorful, full of people, and good smells. The opposite of the outside.
We were directed to our room and most of the cousins were already there. The boys were bestowed gifts; mini electric fans by 2 cousins and a lego set. I was given an old fashioned hand powered fan. It immediately went into my purse for the next hot outing!
I recognized the oldest cousin as the one who first picked us up on my first trip to Japan after we were engaged. It was memorable because it was very late and he ran every red light. He could do that, because they didn’t have that many cameras and they didn’t have a way to look up out of state license plates. He said they can’t do that anymore, too many cameras. His wife and 2 daughters age 19 and 13 live in Singapore so the girls can study English. They said their school is mostly Chinese and other south Asians. The oldest is going into college and the younger is in 7th grade. They have been living in Singapore for 6 years and miss the cold. Their summer break is about a month long so they came back to China to visit. So they basically go year round to school, but their school days end at 1:30. Besides learning English mostly they also learn 4 other local dialects too.
My huband is the next in line. Tao enjoyed getting to get her with his cousins, they haven’t gotten together since my first visit to China 14-15 years ago.
3rd in oldest I didn’t get to talk to, he sat on the very far end of the table, he drove a motorcycle and wore a sleeveless shirt. When we went to leave he pulled out sleeves to cover his arms. These separate sleeves are very common, though people normally don’t wear at night. They usually were when out in the sun, cooking or gardening to protect the arms. Before they were always cotton type. Now they have a lot of athletic material type sleeves.
4th oldest is the cousin who drove us to the Great Wall, who went to Japan. His wife was here tonight. She also speaks some Japanese so I got to speak with her too. But unlike the rest of the adults she also knew some English. But we didn’t sit closer until the end of dinner.
The youngest, we had already met at the Great Wall with her daughter and her husband came too. The mom and daughter are so genki, you can’t help not smiling at them. The daughter wanted to play with the boys again.
It was so nice seeing the boys talking and playing whith their cousins. Plus if they couldn’t understand each other the older girl cousins translated for them. This was the best family time of all of our visits. The kids are old enough, not acting shy and using their Chinese.
The food! There was so much of it, you order sides separate like for hot pot. We were in a separate room and a table long enough to have 3 cooking pits. After we ordered they brought in the charcoal and put it in the bottom of each pit. Then the food started to arrive. Skewers of meat, bread, cut enoki mushrooms rolled up in bacon. It was on metal skewers with a little wheel at one end that you line up in the slots on the cooker so they rotate by themselves. Some stuff they brought already cooked liked more meat sticks, eggplant, more mushrooms, clam shells, rice pyramids(spicy and fried) and cold dishes like vegetables, edamame, boiled vinegar peanuts in the shell, cucumbers, a cold mushroom dish. The table overflowed with food and it kept coming. They had a Korean BBQ sauce(sweet and med spicy) and 3 different levels of dry dipping seasoning. I ate the whole time. Sitting between watching the kids interact, asking the girls a few questions and watching all the adults talk. So I ate. And ate. And ate. At the end I ate a piece of raw daikon it was like a carrot. But it gave me heartburn. Too much or not enough sauce on it to stop the heart burn.
It was after 9:30 when finally left all smiles and promises of seeing each other again. This is what family is supposed to be like. This felt normal to me.
Kids home and in bed by 10:30P.M. Poor us we need to get up at 3:45A.M. the next morning!
We were directed to our room and most of the cousins were already there. The boys were bestowed gifts; mini electric fans by 2 cousins and a lego set. I was given an old fashioned hand powered fan. It immediately went into my purse for the next hot outing!
I recognized the oldest cousin as the one who first picked us up on my first trip to Japan after we were engaged. It was memorable because it was very late and he ran every red light. He could do that, because they didn’t have that many cameras and they didn’t have a way to look up out of state license plates. He said they can’t do that anymore, too many cameras. His wife and 2 daughters age 19 and 13 live in Singapore so the girls can study English. They said their school is mostly Chinese and other south Asians. The oldest is going into college and the younger is in 7th grade. They have been living in Singapore for 6 years and miss the cold. Their summer break is about a month long so they came back to China to visit. So they basically go year round to school, but their school days end at 1:30. Besides learning English mostly they also learn 4 other local dialects too.
My huband is the next in line. Tao enjoyed getting to get her with his cousins, they haven’t gotten together since my first visit to China 14-15 years ago.
3rd in oldest I didn’t get to talk to, he sat on the very far end of the table, he drove a motorcycle and wore a sleeveless shirt. When we went to leave he pulled out sleeves to cover his arms. These separate sleeves are very common, though people normally don’t wear at night. They usually were when out in the sun, cooking or gardening to protect the arms. Before they were always cotton type. Now they have a lot of athletic material type sleeves.
4th oldest is the cousin who drove us to the Great Wall, who went to Japan. His wife was here tonight. She also speaks some Japanese so I got to speak with her too. But unlike the rest of the adults she also knew some English. But we didn’t sit closer until the end of dinner.
The youngest, we had already met at the Great Wall with her daughter and her husband came too. The mom and daughter are so genki, you can’t help not smiling at them. The daughter wanted to play with the boys again.
It was so nice seeing the boys talking and playing whith their cousins. Plus if they couldn’t understand each other the older girl cousins translated for them. This was the best family time of all of our visits. The kids are old enough, not acting shy and using their Chinese.
The food! There was so much of it, you order sides separate like for hot pot. We were in a separate room and a table long enough to have 3 cooking pits. After we ordered they brought in the charcoal and put it in the bottom of each pit. Then the food started to arrive. Skewers of meat, bread, cut enoki mushrooms rolled up in bacon. It was on metal skewers with a little wheel at one end that you line up in the slots on the cooker so they rotate by themselves. Some stuff they brought already cooked liked more meat sticks, eggplant, more mushrooms, clam shells, rice pyramids(spicy and fried) and cold dishes like vegetables, edamame, boiled vinegar peanuts in the shell, cucumbers, a cold mushroom dish. The table overflowed with food and it kept coming. They had a Korean BBQ sauce(sweet and med spicy) and 3 different levels of dry dipping seasoning. I ate the whole time. Sitting between watching the kids interact, asking the girls a few questions and watching all the adults talk. So I ate. And ate. And ate. At the end I ate a piece of raw daikon it was like a carrot. But it gave me heartburn. Too much or not enough sauce on it to stop the heart burn.
It was after 9:30 when finally left all smiles and promises of seeing each other again. This is what family is supposed to be like. This felt normal to me.
Kids home and in bed by 10:30P.M. Poor us we need to get up at 3:45A.M. the next morning!
Saturday, June 16, 2018
The Forbidden City
We walked down two blocks to the new subway line station and made a couple of line changes to get to Tian’anmen. Recommend not to go on a weekend. But it couldn’t be helped. We were herded about a block through to the security check. Luckily I had pictures of our passports and visas on my phone. So many people! All moving through the few front gates until you can buy tickets. Thank you cousin for the tickets!
Another security check and we are still surrounded by so many people. My husband wonders why I take so many pictures of the same thing he knows I took a picture of last time. I can’t help it, I love pictures of the tiles and doorways and rooftops! All the red paint on the buildings are actually lacquered on. Verses the red walls are painted. Lots of walking in the hot hot weather. So glad we went early in the morning. We brought us each a drink and some snacks, the water went fast. The dried fruits snacks were all salty and only 1 got a eaten by me.
The last restroom before you buy tickets you have to pay for toilet paper. And you pay with your phone app by scanning the toilet paper spindle. All the other bathrooms we used inside had the 1 economy toilet paper at the entrance you can grab as you pass by.
We went into the Hall of clocks. Which was pretty cool, clocks from the 1700’s from china up to the 20th century from England and France. Some pretty cool clocks. I can’t imagine how they must’ve sounded in use. Some had singing birds, a little person that would ding bells, a person that would write, keep track of constellations, seasons, moving clocks and moving parts. Most clocks were at least 1 foot up to 3 plus feet. Ethan told me, I didn’t think clocks would be so interesting. They had 2 movies going inside. If there weren’t so many people we may have stayed to walk. One showed the gears moving inside of a highly animated clock. I would have loved to see the clock moving on the outside. We enjoyed the clocks more than the Treasure gallery.
The Treasure gallery had some old jewelry, silver and gold ware. Way more people trying to cram in and see it so we didn’t spend that much time in there. One of the neatest things was a golden constellation globe using pearls as stars.
I did get to see a section new to me, either under construction before or we didn’t go that way. The rose garden! It smelled so good. The boys were resting in the shade and missed out in my opinion. By the time we got to my favorite spot the Imperial Garden at the very end, the boys had had enough walking. Too hot, whiny and grumpy. I just got a quick view nothing to savor as we walked to the end. I welcomed the mini van “uber” ride home. As all the kids slept back to the house to rest.
Another security check and we are still surrounded by so many people. My husband wonders why I take so many pictures of the same thing he knows I took a picture of last time. I can’t help it, I love pictures of the tiles and doorways and rooftops! All the red paint on the buildings are actually lacquered on. Verses the red walls are painted. Lots of walking in the hot hot weather. So glad we went early in the morning. We brought us each a drink and some snacks, the water went fast. The dried fruits snacks were all salty and only 1 got a eaten by me.
The last restroom before you buy tickets you have to pay for toilet paper. And you pay with your phone app by scanning the toilet paper spindle. All the other bathrooms we used inside had the 1 economy toilet paper at the entrance you can grab as you pass by.
We went into the Hall of clocks. Which was pretty cool, clocks from the 1700’s from china up to the 20th century from England and France. Some pretty cool clocks. I can’t imagine how they must’ve sounded in use. Some had singing birds, a little person that would ding bells, a person that would write, keep track of constellations, seasons, moving clocks and moving parts. Most clocks were at least 1 foot up to 3 plus feet. Ethan told me, I didn’t think clocks would be so interesting. They had 2 movies going inside. If there weren’t so many people we may have stayed to walk. One showed the gears moving inside of a highly animated clock. I would have loved to see the clock moving on the outside. We enjoyed the clocks more than the Treasure gallery.
The Treasure gallery had some old jewelry, silver and gold ware. Way more people trying to cram in and see it so we didn’t spend that much time in there. One of the neatest things was a golden constellation globe using pearls as stars.
I did get to see a section new to me, either under construction before or we didn’t go that way. The rose garden! It smelled so good. The boys were resting in the shade and missed out in my opinion. By the time we got to my favorite spot the Imperial Garden at the very end, the boys had had enough walking. Too hot, whiny and grumpy. I just got a quick view nothing to savor as we walked to the end. I welcomed the mini van “uber” ride home. As all the kids slept back to the house to rest.
Friday, June 15, 2018
The Great Wall
Today we are off to the Great Wall! This will be my 4th time and the kids 2nd time. Tao has been looking into how we should get there for the past few months. 5 years ago we took the train there and it was supper easy and convenient. This time the stop we took is under construction and he didn’t know where we could get on it. We debated a tour bus, hiring a driver for the day or borrowing a family members car. In the end the same cousin we visited with at Tiantan would drive us, but it was the day his license is not allowed with in the 4th ring or rather with in the city. So we took “uber” out to the 5th ring and then we drove packed in like sardines 4 in the back of his car for almost 2 hours.
After parking we used the public toilet before getting on to the shuttle bus. As I was standing in line, a rude person walked right in front of me. Which I know is very typical from past experiences, but I think they are trying to correct that as a whole because they put a lot of ques up for waiting all over the place.
Another cousin(girl) and her child age 6 met us there too. We have our tickets and we are climbing the north side of the wall. The weather is sunny and hot, we’ve got a larger party to occupy everyone. Some of the legs between towers are quite scary. The wall rises higher on one side than the other. Think it’s so steep you are practically doubled over so the short side at knee height doesn’t appear so bad. But stop and stand up and look out that side. Woah, instantly I feel off balance. I wouldn’t even walk next to it. Only the middle. And if I had to stop I’d sit down. The high side was about shoulder height with jutted lookout windows and was where you walk down by it since you are upright. The floor of the wall ranged from steps from a few inches to a foot in height with no consistency. Plus add to that all the wear over time and usage that the steps were worn and sloped. Other times it was a flat surface at a steep incline. Ethan and the guys decided to take the passage down at the 4th tower.
The rest of us continued on. Aidan was a mountain goat, we’d find him waiting at the next tower. We stopped at tower 7 for water and icicle pops before heading to the highest tower to the North the 8th. After that the rest of the towers slope down the mountain. We kept getting calls from below on when we were coming down. So we took the passage down. Thank God because I did not want to retrace my footsteps down the wall! The down passage is at the base of the Great Wall and was made later with tourists in mind as the steps are consistent, the slopes not as steep and several stops with information and lookouts. I’ve never went down the passage down on my previous trips to the Great Wall, but it’s a real time saver, plus you get to see some other stuff you wouldn’t see hidden under the trees. You could even cheat and go up the passage down and walk up into every tower.
The parking lot was getting sparse by the time we made it back to the car, we’d spent several hours there. Tao drove back with his cousin and her daughter and me and the boys drove back with the cousin who drove us. We were all going to meet for dinner at Big Pizza, a pizza buffet place. It was nice I got to practice my Japanese, as this cousin used to live in Japan. Yeah!
It was so nice the kids had a cousin their own age, she was so adorable and they all got along well. At dinner my in-laws also met us there. I did have a few pieces of pizza, because it’s pizza and you have to try it. But it was eh, most didn’t have sauce. So I just stuck with the rest of the choices like cumin crusted lamb on a stick(love it!), something called new product(didn’t even try it), cherry tomatoes right next to the chocolate fountain(left that for the kids). But it was the most delightful day, my best visit to the Great Wall and got some time getting to know family. Bonus we were all so tired we slept till 7A.M.
Thursday, June 14, 2018
Tiantan Solo
Today was our first day of sightseeing. Everyone was up before 6 A.M., I feel it gets light really early here. I went with the boys to get breakfast today. We tried to go to the bread store, but it opened at 7 and there was a line waiting. We ended up getting made to order soup dumplings from a restaurant, then got the soy milk and yotel. This time they got fresh tofu with some brown sauce on it. I knew I wouldn’t like it, but I was a good sport and tried it anyway. Yuck. Apparently some kind of bean sauce, but it was brown and looked like it had mushrooms in it. An acquired taste I’m later told. I prefer my fresh warm tofu with jam on it. Now that is yummy!
My husband is not a fan of public transportation. We “ubered” it to Tiantan(The Temple of Heaven) and met his cousin there. On the way there we went past several places I went 5 years ago. This was a park my husband used to play a lot in as a child. It’s a lot walking to the various relics, everything is fenced in to keep you off the grass and out of the buildings, letting you just peek inside. Since people aren’t allowed in, 1 particular building was getting a lot of attention from the sparrows flying around it like bats.
I totally forgot most public bathrooms don’t provide toilet paper! Thank God I have boys. Some places will have 1 roll at the entry to the bathroom where you can grab some to take in with you. Lots of squatter toilets. You also are not to flush the Kleenex/toilet paper you use, but put it in the garbage can inside every stall.
The echo wall I think used to be the coolest part of The Temple of Heaven. But since you can’t get close enough to actually use it, nor is it quiet enough with all the tourists. This park doesn’t have any water or a lot of flowers. Mostly long grass you cannot walk on and lots of different pine/cedar trees. We did get my favorite tonghulu(haw on a stick). This time they were packaged and frozen. Maybe we can start to find them back home now?!??
We could here some massive thunder so I opted to go shopping right after since the Pearl Market is right outside the entrance. I also remember Toy City being close by. That place has since closed in the last few years, so the cousin led us to a mall close by, we did bus it 2 stops. The toy floor of this mall we went to was more geared to figurines from Pokémon to anime to
Transformers to wildlife. A whole floor of shop windows filled with shelves of figurines. It was like walking through a museum but not what kids think of as a toy store. This mall reminded me of bein in Japan, so many floors (9) and all rather small just around the elevators.
We went to the food court on the top floor. We got several small bowls of yummy side dishes with rice. Garlic scapes and pork, Beijing style spinach and peanuts, marinated cucumbers. After I went to the bathroom there and saw a worker washing their hands. Lovely a no soap bathroom! Thank goodness I was already done eating, sometimes you just can’t think about it or you’ll be sick.
We walked to a different mall a block away to watch Star Wars: Solo! Their regular popcorn was carmel corn. The boys were so happy to finally watch it. Han Solois the best! But I was hoping it would have Harrison Ford in it. They boys were like no mom he(Han) is dead. Well it could’ve been his life flashing before his eyes as he died. As soon as the credits started they shut it off and turned on the lights....leave now.
My husband is not a fan of public transportation. We “ubered” it to Tiantan(The Temple of Heaven) and met his cousin there. On the way there we went past several places I went 5 years ago. This was a park my husband used to play a lot in as a child. It’s a lot walking to the various relics, everything is fenced in to keep you off the grass and out of the buildings, letting you just peek inside. Since people aren’t allowed in, 1 particular building was getting a lot of attention from the sparrows flying around it like bats.
I totally forgot most public bathrooms don’t provide toilet paper! Thank God I have boys. Some places will have 1 roll at the entry to the bathroom where you can grab some to take in with you. Lots of squatter toilets. You also are not to flush the Kleenex/toilet paper you use, but put it in the garbage can inside every stall.
The echo wall I think used to be the coolest part of The Temple of Heaven. But since you can’t get close enough to actually use it, nor is it quiet enough with all the tourists. This park doesn’t have any water or a lot of flowers. Mostly long grass you cannot walk on and lots of different pine/cedar trees. We did get my favorite tonghulu(haw on a stick). This time they were packaged and frozen. Maybe we can start to find them back home now?!??
We could here some massive thunder so I opted to go shopping right after since the Pearl Market is right outside the entrance. I also remember Toy City being close by. That place has since closed in the last few years, so the cousin led us to a mall close by, we did bus it 2 stops. The toy floor of this mall we went to was more geared to figurines from Pokémon to anime to
Transformers to wildlife. A whole floor of shop windows filled with shelves of figurines. It was like walking through a museum but not what kids think of as a toy store. This mall reminded me of bein in Japan, so many floors (9) and all rather small just around the elevators.
We went to the food court on the top floor. We got several small bowls of yummy side dishes with rice. Garlic scapes and pork, Beijing style spinach and peanuts, marinated cucumbers. After I went to the bathroom there and saw a worker washing their hands. Lovely a no soap bathroom! Thank goodness I was already done eating, sometimes you just can’t think about it or you’ll be sick.
We walked to a different mall a block away to watch Star Wars: Solo! Their regular popcorn was carmel corn. The boys were so happy to finally watch it. Han Solois the best! But I was hoping it would have Harrison Ford in it. They boys were like no mom he(Han) is dead. Well it could’ve been his life flashing before his eyes as he died. As soon as the credits started they shut it off and turned on the lights....leave now.
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
We made it
The night before leaving we ate at Mandarin in Toronto. It’s been a while since I went to a restaurant with a time limit. It is a buffet, reminded me of Rainforest Cafe in their decor, each room had different animal themes, we were in the bird room with 2 huge fake birds hanging down from their ceiling, they had a bird enclosure with real birds. All good food, though I was looking forward to green tea ice cream and they didn’t have that.
We flew Hainan Airlines. What I didn’t like was on-line it allowed us to change our seat assignments that morning, but they wouldn’t acknowledge it at the airport, even though it took our old seats away, so now we weren’t all sitting by each other. Fortunately people traded with us so we could sit together. When we were boarding I got my first reminder of the screaming Chinese person. You are never too old to ack like a toddler and yell at service workers because you are upset. Definitely a more diverse movie selection. I watched an Italian movie with English subtitles called “Look Up”, a strange movie about the rooftops in Rome. And a funny Japanese movie with English subtitles about a girl who gets fired from her job and then finds a job as a promoter/office woker with a wrestling company and her out of work actor boyfriend gets jealous. The best part of dinner was the roll and chocolate cake. I always travel with sea bands, and thankful I bought them for the kids too. Still had 2 get sick on the descent, don’t think they got enough sleep. First time I actually ever say them spraying the chemicals on the floors, they had on masks and gloves. What can you do?
Once arrived, a friendly kiosk fingerprinted us, picked up luggage and stood in the short line of foreigners with only 1 customs official refingerprinted the adults and facial scans of everyone. I didn’t remind them they didn’t scan my face! Then we can exit and look for Yeye. We easily find him. There was some miscommunication on where our driver would be that caused an embarrassing distraction. And then I sleep the hour ride to their home since it was dark out. Woke up 2 blocks from their house and it has changed a lot, lots more fluorescent lights around the businesses. We arrived 10:30P.M., there are still families walking around. Had dinner, watched some TV and went to bed. They still have Boonie Bears on! This episode had a polar bear with antlers.
The kids were up around 5. I was up by 6. Yeye took the boys to get fresh soy milk, yotel and baoza. Ethan said I think I need to have soy milk everyday now. I chose boxed yogurt drink. It was plain but very sweet. The kids wanted to explore the garden area then we walked up 26 flights of stairs to look out the roof. The roof has been locked and we can not access it. The stairwells are well used, there was a desk set up out there among other storage.
Today was all about getting things done, making sure electronics, phones, bank cards got set up. My husband insisted I upgrade to his old iPad. I am not happy, it’s set up with all his apps and I can’t get the ones I used to work like they did on mine. Including how to add pictures to this blog. So that is forthcoming. Kids crashed at 4, woke for a light dinner and were back out until 4 the next morning.
We flew Hainan Airlines. What I didn’t like was on-line it allowed us to change our seat assignments that morning, but they wouldn’t acknowledge it at the airport, even though it took our old seats away, so now we weren’t all sitting by each other. Fortunately people traded with us so we could sit together. When we were boarding I got my first reminder of the screaming Chinese person. You are never too old to ack like a toddler and yell at service workers because you are upset. Definitely a more diverse movie selection. I watched an Italian movie with English subtitles called “Look Up”, a strange movie about the rooftops in Rome. And a funny Japanese movie with English subtitles about a girl who gets fired from her job and then finds a job as a promoter/office woker with a wrestling company and her out of work actor boyfriend gets jealous. The best part of dinner was the roll and chocolate cake. I always travel with sea bands, and thankful I bought them for the kids too. Still had 2 get sick on the descent, don’t think they got enough sleep. First time I actually ever say them spraying the chemicals on the floors, they had on masks and gloves. What can you do?
Once arrived, a friendly kiosk fingerprinted us, picked up luggage and stood in the short line of foreigners with only 1 customs official refingerprinted the adults and facial scans of everyone. I didn’t remind them they didn’t scan my face! Then we can exit and look for Yeye. We easily find him. There was some miscommunication on where our driver would be that caused an embarrassing distraction. And then I sleep the hour ride to their home since it was dark out. Woke up 2 blocks from their house and it has changed a lot, lots more fluorescent lights around the businesses. We arrived 10:30P.M., there are still families walking around. Had dinner, watched some TV and went to bed. They still have Boonie Bears on! This episode had a polar bear with antlers.
The kids were up around 5. I was up by 6. Yeye took the boys to get fresh soy milk, yotel and baoza. Ethan said I think I need to have soy milk everyday now. I chose boxed yogurt drink. It was plain but very sweet. The kids wanted to explore the garden area then we walked up 26 flights of stairs to look out the roof. The roof has been locked and we can not access it. The stairwells are well used, there was a desk set up out there among other storage.
Today was all about getting things done, making sure electronics, phones, bank cards got set up. My husband insisted I upgrade to his old iPad. I am not happy, it’s set up with all his apps and I can’t get the ones I used to work like they did on mine. Including how to add pictures to this blog. So that is forthcoming. Kids crashed at 4, woke for a light dinner and were back out until 4 the next morning.
Friday, June 8, 2018
5 years later
It’s the eve of our return to China, 5 years later. This time for 5 weeks. I was not keen to give up so much of my summer to this trip. And I’m not ready. Too many things on the burners, too much to do to adequately get my mind wrapped up in this trip.
The kids went to bed late. All day I’ve been gathering stuff to take. Knowing I will forget something. It’s 11 pm and I just located my camera! I’m still not fully packed. And need to do at least 2 loads of laundry. Though I’m sure it will all come together.
The kids have been looking forward to going back for several months. Mostly to eat. I think we will be on a grand dining excursion. We had planned only to be in Beijing and recently added Shanghai to our itinerary. When my mom asked what there was to do there. I said it’s the biggest city, like going to New York City or Tokyo. But we will definitely eat soup dumplings! Hopefully this trip will give good memories for my kids aged 10, 10, and 8. I don’t know how much they actually remember from when they were aged 4 and 5. So here starts another journey back to China!
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