Believe me, I had my doubts on going to China, apprehensive. Would I like the food, would the kids be good for grandma and grandpa.....China???? My parents had gone 25 years ago, and I did write down on my bucket list to see the Great Wall (never thinking it would really happen). Kevin's work made it possible to check that one off of my list....
We made several stops along our journey. Salt Lake to San Francisco was first, then on to Tokyo, Japan. This picture is of the California coast and the ocean....
Oh, what a sight!!! We flew over Alaska and the Bering Sea. It was so beautiful. When we saw ocean again, it had ice floating in it....Just like the "deadliest catch".
Airport in Tokyo.....Our first adventure on trying to figure out the different languages and where to go....Thank goodness they had English captions!!
We arrived last on Saturday May 1st....we lost a day in our travels. We had been up 24 hours, getting a couple of hours of sleep on the plane. China is 14 hours ahead and so we knew we were going to have to adjust!!!
At breakfast at our hotel in Beijing this couple was watching me try to use chop sticks....okay so no forks around, just a Chinese soup spoon and chopsticks. The couple would smile at me and then try to show me how to use the chopsticks. They were so sweet and at times they would just laugh at me!!
It was Sunday, May 2nd, so we decided we would go and find the church, the foreigners branch...So on the subway we went....
There were 15 of us all together.....8 students and 6 from BYU and me!!
After church we went to the Temple of Heaven....
The architecture was incredible!!! The detail of everything.....These buildings were built hundreds of years ago.....
Everytime I had to go to the bathroom I would look on the door to see if it was a sit down toilet or a squat.......not all bathrooms had sit down toilets, and you had to have your own tissue!!!!! I know it looks like a urinal, but it is on the ground and you gotta squat!!
This is also at the Temple of Heaven....
On Monday we headed to the Sacred passage to the Ming tombs.....the walk was lined with these statues, probably about 30-40 of them.
We got back in the Taxi van to take us to one of the 13 Ming tombs....
It was underground....people threw there money on the throngs and on the tombs.....which were just big red metal boxes.
Next we headed to an authentic Beijing lunch right next to the Ming tomb we had seen......
I was warned about this!!!!! Yep, a chicken head in the bowl of chicken!!!!
We ate some of the food, but not much......rice was good, did not like the bitter melon root, the cabbage was good, the pork was deep fried fat pieces with maybe a little meat, the greens were good, you get the idea....there were 16 different dishes and not many of them got finished....and that was with 15 people!!!
The Great wall was our next destination. It is about 2 hours from where we were staying in Beijing. We rode the gondolas up. There are many places you can stop and see, but this place is one of the most popular because you can see more of the wall.
It was a steep uneven climb up and down.....but oh so worth it!!!!
I was not disappointed at all.......
It was a Chinese holiday the day we went....thus all of the excess people!!!
The wall goes on for miles and miles and it is up and down and goes off into different directions......Just incredible...
Breakfast was my favorite meal.....this hotel had it more like a brunch of sorts.....always watermelon, always pot stickers, always sausage and always steamed buns.....oh yummy it was!!
The people in Beijing love to ride bikes, and they love their horns.....car horns and bike horns!!!
All kinds of bikes!!!
People riding to work!!!
Forbidden City!! Oh, I wonder how great it was in the day it was used for it's purpose!!!
Beautiful artwork everywhere.... I had to buy a book on this place as well as Temple of Heaven and Great wall......too much information for me to soak in and not remember.....
This is at the Summer Palace, where the Emperor would bring his concubines.
It was beautiful with a lake in the middle...huge...
The students took up a Chinese game of something like the hacky sack.....but it was like with something different. Some Chinese guys got involved as well!!!
We flew to Shanghai on Tuesday night.....our flight got delayed because of a thunder storm so our plane got in late.....lost a student thus our 2:30 am arrival in Suzhou where two of the students were interning. This sweet hotel staff stayed up for us to arrive (man is the manager and lady his helper). They were also waiting for us at breakfast at 9 am. To make long story short, I made an instant friend with the lady. She was so sweet and talked with me over breakfast in her broken English and my non existent Mandarin!!!!! I was teary eyed when we said good bye. I would have loved to stay in this city 2 more days!!
Shanghai.....where they are lots of people lots of action!!!
This is Kevin getting directions to one of his appointments.......
Beautiful architecture....
Sky scrapers everywhere.
We loved Shanghai.....we went to the fake market to barter....and to the pearl market as well. We only had 2 full days here, and both days had meetings so we were limited on what we got to do, but still loved it!!!
On Saturday morning, the 8th, we flew to Hong Kong.....talk about a lot of people!!!
This is one of the markets you can barter in.
We found a Cantonese branch on Sunday.....thank goodness for Kevin and his computer!!!
We had interpreters for us and it was the coolest thing to have happen. They were surprised we didn't go to the English speaking branch.....nope would not have traded this experience at all!!!
We also found the Hong Kong Temple!!!!
We took the ferry to Hong Kong, although the subway would take us to anyplace we needed to be!!!
More Sky scrapers!!
We went over to Aberdeen where the fisherman's village is. I loved the ambiance of it all, although the sky scraper are all around as well now...
We found a Chinese garden. I was quite happy about that since I was unable to go to the ones in Suzhou!
Hong Kong at night!!
We took the Victoria's Peak tram up the mountain to over look Hong Kong. It was a foggy day and the clouds rolled down the mountain.....followed by the rain!!!
Having no umbrella and walking in the rain.....actually it was great. The weather was always in the 80's, humid (which I love).
We arrived home on Wednesday, May 12th....exhausted and excited over what we had done!!
We loved our trip. I took so many pictures...these are just a few of the highlights!!!
Thanks mom and dad for taking the time to watch our kids.....I know it must not have been easy at times, but we so appreciate it. The kids said they had a good time with you and memories were built.....after all.....isn't that what life is all about???
