Ten Days in China

We had a very interesting time in China and saw a great deal. We flew to Beijing first and went to Tiennamen Square. Several Chinese people asked to have their pictures taken with us and our guide told us this is so that they can go home to their towns and say, "I went to Beijing and had my photo taken with a Big Nose". Big Noses are us westerners. fabulous. Actually, there were not very many westerners to be seen, particularly in Beijing. The traffic was very crowded and the city seemed to go on forever. It was all very clean, though, and organized.

That's Mao's Mausoleum behind them.

Mao's picture on the front of the Forbidden City which is just off the Square. It was August and very very crowded. This is where he proclaimed the People's Republic in 1949.

You can get a sense of how crowded it was in the Forbidden City, where the emperors once lived.

Later that day, we found some food on our own. That's G eating tripe soup. yum. I couldn't tell what the food was, so I just pointed. She did like the cold green tea, though.

At the Temple of Heaven.

The next day, we drove north and saw the Great Wall of China.

This man joined us!

Hotel Jen, of course.

Henry's new friends from South Africa.

Showing us how to brew and drink Chinese tea - green and oolong, as well as pu'er tea which is packaged in cakes and you break pieces off.

Some Peking duck.

The Lama Temple, a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing.

Then, to the train station, for the train to Suzhou, 5 hours south.

Our nice meal at the Muslim-Chinese restaurant in Suzhou.

The Lingering Garden in Suzhou. This city was my favourite - it still has 11 million people - but there were lots of historical parts I liked.

Lotus flowers.

We did some lingering.

This seemed like the motto of Chinese gardens - people control nature to make it more beautiful.

Little rock worlds, with little pagodas and trees. There were also lots of bonzais.

On the boat ride in Suzhou.

Lotus flower seeds to eat. I tried it.

The Confucian Temple in Suzhou. Very peaceful.

On the walls were stele with Confucian sayings, I assume.

This was another garden near our hotel, called the Pan Gate.

We went to Shantang Street that evening.

and had a good walk around the old streets and shops.

The best thing for me was the dumpling house we went to.

Delicious pork dumplings with a vinegar sauce. We ordered them from a window with a little ticket.

More Pan Gate garden pagoda.

Tea garden near the Dragon Well village. Longjin green tea.

Best Starbuck's location in China - Hangzhou and the West Lake.

West Lake with the lotus flowers.

And then to Shanghai.

We loved the Shanghai Museum so that we could see celadon vases for example. There was a lot of Chinese porcelain.

Shanghai was a big city and we stayed in the middle of it.

Then, Charles and I went back to the Museum by subway to see more. We had tea in the museum.

One other great meal was the Korean BBQ place. Wow, they grilled the meat at our table and it was all spicy. Henry and his friend Amelie didn't love it.