Success

We bought a wooden construction puzzle in Beijing, a model of the Temple of Heaven. Both Yasent and Lucas spent time on it. This past week Lucas finally completed the project which was fairly frustrating in that the pieces would not stay together. He dubbed it the "Leaning Temple of Hell" but he did finally see it to completion.

Another Chinese creation that we found was a cake topper shaped like a flower that opens with lighted candles on each petal, turns slowly, and plays Happy Birthday. However initially one must get the whole thing going with a fireworks-type flash. As you can see, it was a bit of a surprise.

After the excitement we settled down to chocolate raspberry mousse birthday cake.

Just too Cute

One highlight of the trip was a visit to the Panda Breeding Research Center. Pandas are every bit as cute in "person" as they are in the photographs. And they appear to be not in the least bit aggressive. They spend all of their time either eating their favorite bamboo or sleeping.

The panda below may appear to be doing some exercise but he is actually just reaching for more bamboo.

They are very adept at climbing - and at relaxing.

The center also had red pandas which do not look in the least like pandas. They reminded us of raccoons.

While I'm posting too cute things I had to include Maya dressed in all the finery that we brought back for her.

Major Construction Projects

The most obvious Chinese construction that comes to mind is the Great Wall. Begun in 216 BC with the joining of state walls and continuing for centuries, the wall eventually stretched across nearly 4000 miles. Its average height is 25 feet and its average width is 15 to 30 feet being wider at the base.

Tian An Men means "Gate of Heavenly Peace" so Tiananmen Square, at 99 acres the largest square in the world, leads into the Forbidden City.

Below is the "Monument to the Peoples' Heros" erected in 1958 in the middle of the square. Unfortunately more recently two enormous television screens have also been erected in the center.

As one walks through the 250 acres of the Forbidden City, one is constantly passing through gigantic gates and out onto vast squares where one finds buildings such as The Hall of Supreme Harmony, below. There are 9999 rooms in the Forbidden City, the number 9 being of special significance and reserved for the emperor.

The terra cotta army at Xin was made up of life-sized warriors, over 7000 of them plus quantities of life-sized horses, all buried to accompany Qin Shi Huangdi the first Chinese emperor who united China in 221 B.C.

The army was made up of soldiers, archers, charioteers, and officers and no two had the same face.

The wide and powerful Yangtze River completely divided China until 1957 when the first bridge was built over it. For years the Chinese wanted to build a bridge at the major city/former Capitol of Nanjing. American engineers were brought in but said that it was an impossibility due to the softness of the river bottom and the size of the river. Russian engineers began a design but quit and took their plans when the two countries had a falling-out. Consequently the 8 year construction was entirely Chinese and is a great source of pride. It was completed in 1968. Nine piers, each the size of a basketball court, support the double deck bridge. Each pier is 80 meters tall including the 30 meters that are sunk into the river bottom. The upper deck is a highway with a span of 2.8 miles and the lower deck holds a twin-track railway and spans 4.2 miles.

Stunning Chinese Art

We saw so many beautiful and varied forms of art that is was hard to limit myself to a few for this blog. As you will see, the Chinese artists seem to excel at everything. The first photo is of one we will enjoy forever as we purchased it at the gallery where is was made. It is entirely hand-sewn with silk thread. Click on the photographs to get a close-up view of the work.

This was the piece that drew me into the gallery. It took months to create, all of thread.

Chinese classic gardens are very carefully planned and laid out and some are centuries old. We visited one in Souzu that dates from 1140 and features many "framed" views as if looking at a perfectly balanced photograph.

This stone work was just part of the surface of a small courtyard in the garden.

We saw several theatrical performances where the costumes were breath-taking.

These furniture pieces were being offered for sale.

We had a birthday and two anniversaries that were celebrated with cakes. This one had fruit on the inside as well as on top.

Jade is a very important stone to the Chinese and they have been making objects from it for well over 2000 years.

Various Means of Transportation

The Chinese have a saying: "you can get there by number 11 bus". The 11 stands for your two legs so what they are saying is that you walk. We did lots of walking in China, more than 11,000 steps on some days. We know that because one of our fellow travelers wore a pedometer.
In the photo below we are taking the number 11 bus along the Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs near Beijing.

Our rickshaw ride was leg-powered but with a bicycle.


The dragon boat below was one we took on Kunming Lake which is near the summer palace in Beijing.

This much larger dragon boat met our boat on a three day cruise we took on the Yangtze River. Our ship was not as fierce but was brand new and very nice.

While on the Yangtze we took a side canyon that was too small for our big ship so we were taken up the Shennong Stream by these "peapod" boats.

One day we took a hike up the steep stone path to the mountain town of Long Sheng and the "Dragon Spine Terraces". I opted to be carried in a litter chair with a porter in front and another in back. In the first photo they are securing plastic wrap to the chair so that I will not get wet in the pouring rain. For the trip down the rain had stopped.


From Nanjing to Suzhou we took the bullet train. The speed showed on a panel in the train car. We reached speeds of 325 kilometers an hour.

In the pretty water town of Tongli near Shanghai we went for a gondola ride. All of the boats were propelled by women. Bill gave it a try and found it much more difficult than it appeared.


Not pictured were the various plane rides that we took around the country nor the many bus rides. In addition we took two aerial gondola rides, one to the top of the Great Wall.

Eating Adventures in China

We recently returned from a month of travel in China where we visited seven different provinces and at least 14 cities and towns. Over the next couple of weeks I'll try to blog some of the highlights. Many people have asked us about the food so I'll begin with some of the most memorable meals.

Various fowl often had the head served along with all the bones.


In the above photos we were having hot pot. Each of us had a steaming bowl of broth into which we put various raw meats, fish, and vegetables. Finally we put in a fistfull of noodles which cooked in the flavorful broth and were delicious although rather difficult to eat with chopsticks.






The above photos were all taken at an expecially elegant meal where every dish was given special care. Note especially the little raft with its cargo and little boatman. Below is the other end of the scale, a street vendor. This one has bamboo filled with sweetened rice that has been cooked on a grill.

Snow Candy

We had a new snow on Friday. The grandchildren and I were hoping for a new clean snow so we could make the snow candy we've been reading about in Little House in the Big Woods. When they arrived after school I sent them out with cake pans to fill with clean snow while I heated molasses and brown sugar to the right temperature. They thought the process was a fun idea but the candy not up to their expectations. However we did allow that if it were the only candy available, as in the story, it would be great.