Here goes...

So, because I was unable to update my blog while on "vacation", I'm going to summarize my trip to China over the next few entries. I hope you enjoy this succinct presentation and the photos. Let me know what you think.

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December 24, 2005

Today’s menu:

Tian An Men Square














The Palace Museum
The Forbidden City


Vegetarian Restaurant

Jingshan Park
Beijing Museum of Natural History

Qianmen Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant

Today’s highlights: Eating world famous Peking Duck at a restaurant frequented by such illustrious historical figures such as Castro, Bush Sr.; exploring the sprawling Forbidden City with our very helpful guide, Hu Chunlin.

Lowlights: Getting up assed early to stand in the freezing cold to watch the flag ceremony in the Square, along with hundreds of other suckers; encountering the man with no eyes in the City.

December 25, 2005

Today’s menu:

Great Wall of China: Badaling Area




Ming Tombs

Highlights: Climbing the Wall without suffering a heart attack and getting my certificate of completion when I reached the top; calling home on Christmas Day to say “yeah, I’m going to climb the Great Wall now, what are you up to?” and hearing my sister say “aww man, I’m going to Sharon’s”.

Lowlights: Teresa feeling like shite the whole day (though she was a starr and climbed most of the wall), missing the craziness of xmas day in the Narh household.

December 26, 2005

Today’s menu:

Summer Palace
Yuan Ming Yuan Park
Beijing Railway Station to buy train tickets
Pizza Hut

Highlights: Visiting the Summer Palace was amazing (see excerpt from travel journal below); finding the pizza hut and taking it back to the hotel where we feasted on it on Mel’s towel.

Lowlights: Going to the railway station (see excerpt from journal below); having our last day with our fab guide, Hu Chunlin.

Today was a bittersweet day. We had our last day with Hu Chunlin and visited one of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen. We started the day by visiting the Summer Palace, and even in its winter squalor, it was still magnificent. The bridges, the barren trees, the temples and pagodas – all of it was stunning. I am beginning to clearly see the marked differences between Japan and China, well, from what I’ve seen anyway. Chinese architecture and cultural artifacts are much more colourful and loud, while Japan is more monochromatic and subdued, like the food. While Japanese culture is stunningly beautiful in its subtlety and quiet calmness (to me), China is more stimulating for the visual, audile and olfactory senses.

Strollling on the grounds of the Summer Palace, which was not completely devoid of pushy merchants, was the most peaceful thing I’ve encountered since landing here. Especially promenading with Hu Chunlin. He was so shy and accommodating and sweet. It almost burns my eyes to think of him for reasons I will explain shortly.

After walking around for 3 hours (the area was immense), we stopped for lunch, which as usual became a long winded, somewhat frustrating affair. But when our food finally came, it was exquisite. I had fried pork and Chinese vegetables which were seasoned to perfection. I ate almost everything (without rice).

After begrudgingly removing ourselves from the toasty restaurant, we drove to Yuan Ming Yuan Park which was all but totally bombed out during the Second Opium War by French-English Allied Forces. It was quite sad actually, but the walk after the large meal was refreshing.

With the end of a large cultural day, we had to think about dinner again. We suddenly got a hankering for pizza and wine, and with the help our trusty guide, we got both and more. We went to a sexy “supermarket”, which actually turned out to be more of a department store and stocked up on sweets and food for the train ride. Oh, before that, we went to the Beijing Railway Station to pick up our train tickets for our trip from Beijing to Hong Kong. This station was a fucking zoo with the crush of humanity surrounding us. If we didn’t have Hu Chunlin, all would have been lost. Just complete madness.

Anyway, we found our pizza, our wine and something to look forward to. We also knew it would be the last time seeing HCL so we decided to put together some $$ to thank him for all of his hard work. BAD IDEA. He was so embarrassed and immediately returned the money after much protest. We didn’t want to insult him at all, just thank him, but he refused to take it. I actually started crying because of his sweet heart. I ached at his humility. I feel hopeful for mine. God, is it possible to fall in love with a person’s spirit after such a short period of time? His moral fabric and his soft demeanor, at least from the very limited part I’ve seen, makes me want to be more in my own life. People touch you in the most unexpected ways. It makes me want to love more and worry less – put everything in God’s hands and just let go. So much beauty in a short period of time. Blessed am I.

To be continued...