China Trip

China 2008

On June 9th we were able to join Richard and Tiffany on a 12 day trip to China. Richard and Julie gave Tiffany the trip as a high school graduation gift and they asked us to go along. It was awesome.

I didn't know what to expect, but it was nothing like I imagined. The Chinese people were wonderful. They seemed to love American's and enjoyed practicing their English on us. We started out in Beijing for 3 days. There was a 13 hour difference in time so we were ready to go when we got there. We had a full day, as they warned us we would realize the time difference in the next day or so. We went to Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace, Great Wall and the Ming Tombs while we were there. The Great Wall was a test in endurance. I went to the first station and there I sat and waited while Rick, Jim and Tiffany bounded off to see how far they could go. Of course, Tiffany zoomed on ahead while Rick and Jim proceeded with caution. They all made it 12 sections, which was no easy feat. You can see Tiffany and Rick celebrating the last one with some others. I think Jim said that he counted 2700 steps. I had done the ruins in Mexico, so figured I could have done it if I wanted to. Why wear myself out.

This is our guide talking to a man     This lady was making slippers to
that was writing poetry with a           sell in her shop. They were beauti-
water stick on the sidewalk.               ful.

Richard and Tiffany are on the covered walkway at the summer palace. The colors and designs were beautiful and had meanings of wealth or happiness.

This was the most amazing site, claimed to now be one of the great wonders of the world. It is the Terra Cotta Warriors found by a peasant farmer in XiYang village in 1974. He was digging a well when he came across them. They are now in 3 covered pits to protect them and excavation is still going on. Emperor Qin believed that he would be emperor after death, in the next world and he was taking his army with him. I wonder if he was disappointed when he got there?

We visited four other cities including Xian (ancient capital), Hangzhou(Marco Polos most beautiful city), Suzhou ("Venice of the East"), and Shanghai. All were beautiful with their mix of old and new. We, also, toured a silk factory (and bought a silk quilt-did we really need that??) and a silk rug-we did need that,a jade factory, a lacquer shop, a cloissine jewerely shop and The Wild Goose Pagoda along with many other pagodas. The shopping was fun. But we couldn't get over the fact that everything had a tag on it "Made in China". How strange.

We toured around the 2008 Olympic site by bus, but were not able to go inside as they were finishing the landscaping etc. for the Olympics which are to start in a few weeks. And as you can see only 3 fast foods were available when we were Chinesed out. Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonalds (of course) and Papa John's. Oh that pizza tasted good by the 10th day. Again, thanks Rick and Tiffany for including us. It was a wonderful, fun trip. They are both fearless on venturing out on our own and talking to everyone. Where next?????? Oh and last, but not least did I say that no matter where we go Abbott is always there. On the 20th,we were on a plane headed back to reality and jobs.