In June we decided that we should see some of the items on
our bucket list, especially those in
China.
So we chose a tour with Overseas Adventure
Tours (OAT) who we used last year.
Our
trip began on Monday, July 27 but we drove to
Houston on Sunday and stayed at the airport
hotel since our Monday flight left early in the morning.
OAT routed us through
Minneapolis,
Minnesota to
Tokyo
to
Beijing – a
long, long day of flying.
We arrived in
Beijing around midnight
local time Tuesday night and were taken directly to our hotel where we turned
in immediately.
Wednesday was our first full day in
China and after
breakfast we met with the rest of our group and our OAT tour leader, Danny Xu,
who would remain with us the entire trip.
We also met our local
Beijing
guide, Stone.
It seems that many
Chinese, especially all those in the tourism business, take an American name
that sounds similar to their Chinese name.
By 9:30 am Danny and Stone had us on our bus heading to the
Forbidden City.
First
impressions of
Beijing
were that of a very crowded city with slow moving traffic, modern buildings,
and nice landscaping.
There was a
constant haze over every city in
China
we visited (except
Lhasa)
which we were told was fog and not pollution.
Sure.
We entered the Forbidden City at the North Gate by
Coal Hill Park and visited many gardens and rooms with unusual
names such as
Palace of
Complete Happiness,
Palace of Compassion
and Tranquility, Gate of Heavenly Purity, and the Halls of Preserving Harmony,
Complete Harmony and Supreme Harmony.
After a long while we walked across the
Gold
Water Bridge
and through the Meridian Gate and Upright Gate into
Tiananmen
Square with the large portrait of Mao gazing over the masses.
We took a group photo in
Tiananmen
Square and walked around to view the Monument to People’s
Heroes.
Rita and I were approached by
young people who wanted to practice English and some older people who wanted us
in their photos with their families.
Danny said that the people in
Beijing
were now used to foreigners but people from the outer provinces are still
surprised to see us and want to practice their English with Americans.
It was fine with us and we enjoyed the
friendly people.
Our afternoon was free
and we rested up then exchanged money at a nearby bank before dinner.
Our food was generally good with a few exceptional meals but
after three weeks we were tired of Chinese food.
We always had a western breakfast with eggs
and sometimes bacon or sausage.
Sometimes the beef, pork, or chicken would have more fat or gristle than
we eat and sometimes we had unidentifiable food as well.
We had plenty of vegetables and rice and
watermelon with each and every meal – even breakfast.
In
Tibet I tasted yak as it was served
at most meals and we had yak butter tea there, too.
Thursday morning our bus took us north of
Beijing about 50 miles on the Badaling
Expressway.
First we stopped at a
cloisonné factory for a demonstration of how it is made.
We were led to a workshop where we could
paint our own pieces and I won second place for the best-decorated bowls.
I won a set of cloisonné chop sticks.
Then we were taken to their sales room with
promises of large discounts.
Back on the
bus we headed to the area called Badaling but we did not go to where most of
the tourists go.
OAT has contributed a
large amount of money for restoring part of the Great Wall so we went to that
section where we had exclusive access.
Very nice since I understand it can get quite crowded with tour
groups.
The weather was hot, humid and hazy but we started our trek
up the many steps of the Great Wall anyway.
About half way, eight of our party of fifteen gave up while the
remaining seven climbed to the summit where we could not venture further.
The wall did continue further and higher but
Rita and I made it to the limit of the safe area which was tiring enough.
After photos all around, we climbed back down
and drove to a nearby farmer’s restaurant.
The food was good and the beer was cold which was most important.
We drove back to
Beijing and our hotel for an afternoon’s
rest.
Rita and I opted out of the optional trip to see Chinese
acrobats.
Instead we dined at our hotel
restaurant which turned out to be a very good meal.
First our hotel restaurant was packed with a
Chinese school group so they put us in a private room all to ourselves.
It was strange dining alone at a huge table
for about ten.
And the menu was
intimidating.
It was more of a book than
a menu.
There were many strange items on
the menu such as sea cucumbers, turtles, goose heads, chicken feet, etc.
We ordered beef steak which came cut up in
small, tender strips with a spicy sauce, garlic green beans, a pot of mixed
vegetables and a bowl of noodles along with a couple of large beers (can’t
drink the water).
It was delicious and
one of the best meals we had on the trip.
While we ate, a thunderstorm struck outside with strong wind, heavy
rain, thunder and lightning.
Friday was Rita’s birthday and while I promised not to
organize or say anything, our guide, Danny, who had access to her passport,
confirmed it was her birthday.
I said
yes so he said he would arrange something for lunch.
The first stop of the day was a visit to a
carpet factory.
There was a weaving demo
and Rita actually had the opportunity to sit at a loom and practice before we
were taken to a showroom with a sales pitch.
Next we headed to the Olympic areas and saw the so called “Birds nest”
Stadium and toured the Swimming Cube where the swimming and diving events were
held.
Then we went to a restaurant where
Rita was surprised with a nice birthday cake and everyone singing “Happy
Birthday”.
In the afternoon we headed out for an optional tour of
the Summer Palace
northwest of Beijing. It was crowded with western and Chinese
tourists. We started at the East Palace
Gate and saw the Bridge of 17 Arches, Dragon Lady Courtyard, Long Corridor,
Pavilion of the Incense to Buddha and the Marble Boat before heading back via a
dragon boat ride across the lake. Next
we drove to the Peking Opera or what is really a dinner theater made to
resemble the Peking Opera since the real opera lasts several hours. Ours lasted a little over an hour with a
backstage tour before dinner started.
The first short opera was a love story and the second was an action
filled kung fu play about the Monkey King defeating several other gods in battle. The costumes and makeup were quite
elaborate.
Saturday, August 1, was a long day, checking out of our
hotel after breakfast. Our bus took us
to the Temple of Heaven which is surrounded by a park
where thousands of Chinese descend on weekends to do all sorts of social
events. There were groups doing tai chi,
waltz dancing, karaoke, folk dances, and several individuals all doing
performances much like our street people but not asking for money. It was all fun and games. After a while we did visit the actual Temple of Heaven and surrounding square. Then we drove to one of the old city
neighborhoods known as a hutong. There are few hutongs remaining since most are torn down to make way for high
rise buildings. Arranged ahead by OAT, we went to a lady’s modest home in the hutong to see how she lived and to get a
dumpling-making lesson. I volunteered to
make a dumpling which turned out well.
Then we were served a very nice lunch in her small house.
After lunch we walked past the Drum
Tower and Bell
Tower to the Back Sea Lake.
There were many bars and restaurants in this area and we had free time
to walk about and sit down for a beer or two.
We crossed the Silver
Ingot Bridge
and boarded two small boats for a row around the lake just as a storm with
heavy rain, thunder and lightning broke out.
Rushing back to our bus most of us were soaked through and through and
were then taken to a restaurant for dinner where we finally dried out somewhat. After dinner we were taken to the train
station where we pushed through great crowds to get to our platform and
overnight train to Xian.
The train ride was strange.
It could have been very nice if Rita and I could have had a cabin to
ourselves. The train was modern and
clean. Apparently the Chinese will not
let two people pay for a four berth cabin and all the cabins are for four
people so we had to share a cabin with people we had just met four days
previous. Tom and Betty were nice people
but none of us felt comfortable enough to change into pajamas. We all slept in our clothes – men in the top
berths and women in the bottom. Nobody
slept really well but I slept better than I expected. We left Beijing
about 9:15 pm and arrived in Xian about 9:00 am. A bus met us and took us to a very nice
hotel, the Xian Garden Hotel, where we had a late brunch then went to our rooms
for a good shower. After cleaning up we
all met for a tai chi demonstration on the hotel grounds.
Midmorning the bus took us to the Wild Goose Pagoda which
was nearby. We did a walking tour of the
pagoda with a study of Buddhism and especially the monk who built this
pagoda. Rita and I sat down for a while
to eat ice cream in a food area and were approached by several children and
their teacher who wanted to practice their English. They were fun and the boys mainly wanted to
talk about basketball, the NBA, Yao Ming, and Kobe Bryant. Next our bus took us to the Shaanxi History
Museum for a nice viewing
of artifacts uncovered in the Xian area.
Xian was the capital for many of the Chinese Dynasties and the museum
had excellent items from the Xia, Shang, Chou, Qin, Han, Jin, Sui and Tang
Dynasties. It also had some of the best
pieces of the famous terracotta soldiers and horses. Finally we went to a restaurant where we ate
Mongolian hot pot and basically boiled our own food at our tables in individual
cookers. It was fun and the food was
okay. We turned in early after a long
day.
Monday we woke to a steady rain that lasted nearly all
day. First we stopped at a lacquer
furniture company before driving a distance out of town to see the terracotta
soldiers. The unearthed warriors were
impressive and one of the highlights of our trip. The rain did not hamper us today since the
terracotta warriors are in three huge covered pits. We visited all three pits plus a 360 degree
movie and a special reconstruction of two beautiful war chariots. The 6000 plus life-size terracotta figures
are arranged in vaults at the entrance to the tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi, the
first Qin emperor who also started the Great Wall. Before driving back to Xian we had a good
buffet lunch at a restaurant on the grounds.
Back in Xian we stopped at a Chinese herbal medicine market. There were many items such as ginseng in many
forms, turtle shells, dried lizards and snakes, dog penis, deer penis and much,
much more. I tasted a drink of Chinese
firewater (40% alcohol), ginseng, goji berries, other herbs and deer penis that
is supposed to be good for one’s kidneys.
I haven’t died yet.
The bus took us back to our hotel for a short rest before
taking us out to a nice dinner at the Sunshine Grand Theater. It was one of our best dinners in a very
pretty setting. We had 19 different
dumplings filled with fish, shrimp, chicken, ham, walnuts, beef, tofu, and
veggies of all kinds. This was followed
up by a very nice show titled “The Tang Dynasty Ode” which was a large-scale
production of dances with lavish costumes and sets. Electronic subtitles in English on both sides
of the stage kept us aware of the story line but sometimes the grammar and
spelling were so bad as to be funny.
Tuesday we checked out of our Xian hotel and drove to a
local jade factory with demos of jade carving and explanation of what is good
jade and what is a fake. All this was
followed by a salesroom visit once more.
Then we drove to the 600 year old city walls and walked on top of the
West Gate. Following this we drove to a
pedestrian street area and our lunch, a local Xian lunch called pao mo.
We were given small wafer type bread that looked like an English muffin
but tasted like a bagel. We crumbled
them up into our soup bowl and then had a choice of beef or lamb soup on top of
that. It tasted very good and came with
several other dishes as well.
After lunch we drove about 50 miles southwest of Xian
to the peasant farmers turned artist village
of Huxian. First we walked the old village which was
about 100 years old and visited some of the houses still inhabited. Then we walked across a road to the newer
village which is about 10 years old. We
were taken to our guest house and met our host, Mrs. Yang. Tom and Betty were once more teamed up with
us but in separate bedrooms this time.
Mrs. Yang was a widow and spoke no English. The ice was broken somewhat by her two granddaughters
aged three and 14. Alice,
the 14 year old, spoke good English and we had a short conversation with Mrs.
Yang through Alice. Conversation came to a halt once Alice had to go to her
home. Then dinner time came and we were
told we would probably be asked to help our host with dinner. Betty had a headache so Tom, Rita and I
helped Mrs. Yang by rolling out her dough and chopping noodles out of it. Rita helped cook a sort of fry bread in a pan
and scrambled eggs. Our meal was okay – big on bread, noodles, eggs and vegetables and little
meat. After dinner we all walked up to
the little town square where most of the village’s women meet every night for
dancing. When we arrived the ladies were
dancing the “Cotton-eyed Joe”. They
progressed to the “Hokey Pokey” and “Macarena” before putting on the Chinese
music. Dozens of teen-aged kids came to
practice their English with us. It was a
fun evening for all.
The village
of Huxian became famous
during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.
One of the farmers tried his primitive style of art which became famous
and copied by several other farmers.
Today they are farm owners – no longer farmers – and hire laborers when
the harvests are ready. Their art has
been exhibited world-wide including the USA.
Our rooms at Mrs. Yang’s were Spartan but had air
conditioning and were clean. Our beds
were very hard and our pillows were buckwheat kernel pillows. Our shared bathroom was very basic and the
shower was just a pipe with a shower head run up along the wall with water
falling over a floor drain. We did rate
a western toilet. Other people on our
tour said their bathrooms were the same and nobody admitted to showering the
next morning. Breakfast was unusual –
tea, cauliflower, cucumbers, flat bread with greens stuffed in between bread,
boiled eggs, a bean type soup, and a sweet sugared fried bread.
Wednesday morning we walked to one of the more famous
artist’s studio for a chance to purchase some of his art works which were
modestly priced. Then we told our hosts
good bye and headed to the Xian airport on our bus. We caught a 12:15 pm flight to Wuhan, arriving about
1:15 pm where we met a new bus and driver.
This bus drove us for about five hours on the Chutian Expressway to the
city of Yichang. Along the way we saw a flat area dotted with
rice paddies, wheat fields, corn, water buffaloes, carp ponds, and lush
greenery. Yichang had been created a
few years ago for the laborers on the Three Gorges Project. This project is the construction of a large
dam across the Yangtze River in the Xiling
Gorge and it is almost completed. We
spent the night in the Yichang International Hotel where we actually had a
double bed and a PC with Internet access in our room. The hot shower felt so good!
Thursday morning we had a leisurely breakfast with our
fellow travelers in the hotel and checked out about 10:30 am with a local city
guide, Allen. Much of this morning’s
activities were to kill time we thought.
We went to a group of buildings with aquariums showing the Chinese
government’s efforts in saving the endangered Chinese sturgeons and Yangtze
crocodiles. Seeing as the white Yangtze dolphins are
already extinct, I don’t have much hope for these other creatures. Then we went to a Yichang Municipal
Museum to see items
recovered during the Three Gorges Project but it was a miserable museum. Finally we hopped on the bus and drove west
for about two hours past the Three Gorges Dam to the village of Zigui
where we boarded our boat, the “Victorian Queen”. The Three Gorges Dam is supposedly the
world’s largest dam, measuring 606 feet high and 6500 feet long, although it
doesn’t look imposing.
Our boat is part of a series of boats owned by Victoria
Cruises, an American company. Our
captain was Chinese but the cruise director was an American, Greg Hinton. Greg’s father was Foreign Service so we had
lots to talk about. Greg is married to a
Chinese woman, teaches at a high school in Alexandria, Virginia,
but works for Victoria Cruises during his summer vacations. He speaks fluent Chinese and while he’s
working on the cruise boats his wife and children get to visit her
parents. The cruise boat was not the
nicest vessel we’ve been on but it was clean, relaxing, and the crew was helpful
and cheerful. There were many activities
we could (and did) take advantage of over the next four days. There were also shore excursions which kept
us busy. The first night we boarded the
ship around 4:30 pm which was four hours before the rest of the passengers
(mostly Chinese but some Europeans and Americans) boarded. We had a very nice dinner in the huge dining
room all to ourselves and with our first imported wines. The Chinese wines we sampled prior to this
were not very good. We sat around the
dinner table talking for a long while then went to our cabins to turn in. Around 9:00 pm we heard the other passengers
boarding.
Friday morning we went to the Yangtze Club, a bar, where we
could get early coffee which was very good.
We watched the boat’s physician, Dr. Liu, lead a small group in tai chi
then went down to the dining room for a nice breakfast buffet. Our small tour group had a tour of the Three
Gorges Dam but Rita and I opted out and went for full body massages instead. I believe we had the better of that
deal. Lunch was another large buffet
affair and while we ate our cruise boat pulled away and headed down the Yangtze River and through the Xiling Gorge, first of the
three gorges and the most dangerous in the days of yore. At 3:00 pm we watched Dr. Liu’s demonstration
of acupuncture and afterwards listened to our river guide, Jeff Fu, on a talk
about the three gorges. We went on deck
and saw the wide Yangtze River, the world’s
third longest river. About 5:30 pm we
entered the Wu Gorge, the most beautiful of the three gorges. Shortly afterwards we docked in the city of Wushan for the night. At 6:30 pm there was the Captain Yingjie’s
welcome reception and another big dinner buffet. After dinner the ship’s crew entertained us
with a show called the Chinese Dynasties Show.
There were costumes of the different dynasties, folk costumes and folk
dancing, and a face-changing show put on by one of the bartenders.
We woke to the sounds of river traffic on Saturday, still
docked in Wushan. After breakfast our
tour group boarded a smaller boat that took us up the Daning River,
a tributary of the Yangtze. This was
billed as a tour of the Lesser Three Gorges – the Dragon-gate Gorge, Misty
Gorge, and the Emerald Gorge. The views
were quite spectacular and we also saw rhesus monkeys and three hanging
coffins. The hanging coffins are
associated with the Bo people of this area and are from 400 to 2500 years
old. At the Madu River
we boarded small sampans and took another short trip up the river. Eventually we returned to the Victoria Queen
and had our buffet lunch. Our ship
departed up the Yangtze River and about 2:00
pm we entered the Qutang Gorge, our last major gorge. Around 3:00 pm Rita and I went to get foot
massages which were so comfortable I fell sound asleep. During this time the boat docked in
Baidicheng for an optional tour of the White Emperor
City which we declined
and where those who went said we didn’t miss much. Our OAT group met again for dinner – same two
tables every night - and after dinner there was another show by the ship’s crew
with magic tricks and Chinese dances with audience participation.
The boat traveled slowly all night and Sunday morning we had
another shore excursion after breakfast.
Our OAT group went into the city of Fengdu, built especially to relocate farmers
and families flooded out by the Three Gorges Project. We visited the home of a relocated family and
were allowed to ask them any question we wanted. Basically they told us they did not want to
relocate at first but after the government paid them to have a new, better
house built they have come to like their new surroundings better. Next we visited the Fengdu open market where
our guide, Danny, gave each of us five Yuan to see who could get the most
produce. There was no actual winner but
we had fun shopping in the market that had much strange and new produce. We combined our money and bought bean
sprouts, green beans, tomatoes, spinach greens, peppers, egg plant and
squash. We all gave our produce to the
bus driver as his tip for the day. Rita
found a fabric store and drew a crowd while she tried to explain that she
didn’t want to make a dress but just wanted one meter of material. Danny came to her rescue and she ended up
with the material she wanted. We
re-boarded our boat about 10:30 am and cast off. We relaxed on our cabin balcony for a while
and went to a meeting with Danny where he explained the political situation and
history of the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1959. We had a farewell dinner with an address by
the Captain and after dinner settled up our debts.
Monday morning we woke up in Chongqing, packed our bags, had breakfast and
departed the boat about 8:30 am. Our bus
took us through the huge city of Chongqing, 33
million people in surrounding area, and to the airport where we caught our
flight on China South Airlines to Lhasa,
Tibet. We were met in Lhasa
by our local guide, Pemba, who did the typical
Tibetan greeting of putting a white welcoming scarf around our necks. The airport is about an hour out of Lhasa and the bus ride into town was exciting as the
driving is about as chaotic as the Middle East. We saw farmers harvesting barley by hand and
piling it into stacks. We arrived at our
hotel, the Shangbala, and checked in.
This was probably our seediest hotel on the trip but the location was
good. We were now a little over 12,000
feet and warned to take it easy at first, drink plenty of fluids and rest. A local Tibetan lady, Cindy, came to the
hotel and gave us a short rundown of Tibetan culture and religion. Then we had dinner about 6:00 pm which
started out with yak butter tea which is quite salty. Rita could only down one swallow but I
managed to drink my whole cupful. We
also were served yak meat at dinner which was very chewy and tough. After dinner a few of us walked a short
distance to the Barkhor Bazaar and Jokhang
Temple. We saw many pilgrims circling the temple and
some prostrating themselves in prayer.
The Jokhang
Temple is 1300 years old
and has a 7th century Buddha statue that Buddha himself was supposed
to have blessed. We were struck by how
much the Tibetans look like North and South American Indians. We walked around the temple clockwise as the
pilgrims were doing and when the rain started to fall we headed back to our
hotel.
I woke up Tuesday morning with a terrible headache and
low-grade fever, having not slept well at all during the night. I had a solid case of altitude sickness. If we weren’t going to the Potala Palace
I would have stayed in bed. But I took
some of Rita’s medicine for altitude sickness, Diamox, had a little breakfast
and started to feel better as we headed outside. The Potala Palace
dates back to the 7th century and was the winter home of the Dali Lamas plus it is the burial place of most
of the past Dali Lamas. Surprisingly the
Chinese did not damage anything in the Potala
Palace when they took over Tibet. We climbed up steep stairs once more and were
impressed by the gold used on the Dali Lamas’ tombs. One tomb had over 2300 kilos of gold on
it. There were also many revered statues
of Buddha. No photography was allowed
inside the palace and we could only photograph the outside. We were crushed by hundreds of Tibetan
pilgrims and overcome by the smell of rancid yak butter candles plus an
overload of incense. Still, it was an
impressive experience and we are happy to have witnessed it. After we finished our bus took us to the
Tibetan Steak House where we had a mediocre lunch. Back at the hotel, Rita and I napped as we
didn’t feel well enough to attend the orphanage that was scheduled for the
afternoon. We had dinner in the hotel
and turned in early for a good night’s rest.
I slept well for over nine hours and felt much better
Wednesday morning. We started out about
9:30 am and walked to a nearby souvenir and carpet shop in the Barkhor Bazaar
adjacent to our hotel. We had free time
until 11:30 am when we all met in front of the Jokhang Temple
once more for a tour inside – again with hundreds of Tibetan pilgrims. This temple is the most holy temple among the
Tibetan Buddhists. Again we were crushed
by the hoards of pilgrims and overcome by the smells of yak butter candles,
sweet incense and body odor. We were
happy that we didn’t have to take off our shoes and that nobody yelled
“fire”. If they had we wouldn’t be here
today.
We had more free shopping time before lunch at Snowland
restaurant which was not much to brag about.
Some of the tour group went to the Sera Monastery but we opted out of
that for people watching in the bazaar.
The Tibetan people are extremely friendly, smile at you a lot, and don’t
ask for money if you take their photo.
We couldn’t help notice the heavy Chinese military presence. Each little walkway in the bazaar had a tent
with soldiers which we were warned against photographing for fear of their confiscating
our camera. About every 15 minutes, five
of the soldiers would march around with one carrying a fire extinguisher, one a
shotgun and one a metal briefcase. We
suspect that the briefcase has the shotgun shells. We walked to the High Summit Coffee Shop for
chocolate cake, cappuccino, and hot chocolate which was fairly good. We also checked our email there which was the
first time in quite a while. At 6:30 pm
the bus took us to the Crazy Yak restaurant for questionable Tibetan food (yak
again) and a Tibetan floor show of folk dances.
The local Tibetan beer did not taste very good. Yak piss?
Thursday morning we woke to beautiful, clear skies, checked
out of our hotel and drove to the airport where we caught our nice China Air
330 Airbus for Chengdu. I had a window seat and had great views of
the Tibet Plateau and Himalayan
Mountains with snow-covered
peaks and glaciers. I may have seen Mount Everest and not realized it. We arrived in Chengdu,
capital of Szechuan Province, about 2:30 pm and checked into the Ane
Grande Hotel, a nice upscale hotel, especially nice after our hotel in Lhasa. Chengdu
is supposedly the home of hot, spicy food and girls. Our hotel was located in a pedestrian-only
area and we had free time to walk about downtown Chengdu.
We were surprised at the number of American food places – McDonalds,
KFC, Dairy Queen, Swensens, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, Starbucks, Burger King and
others. So we went into Hagen Daz and
had nice, cooling ice cream that tasted very good. We located the 1914 Brocade Street or Arcade
and we walked through the big Japanese department store, Ito Yokado. We walked back to the hotel and rested up for
a short while. At 6:00 pm our bus took
us to the Green China Hotel for our dinner and afterwards to a theater where we
first had a strange massage. There were
15 chairs in a circle, one for each of us, with a massage therapist behind each
chair. We all sat down and had neck,
shoulder, back, arms, and leg massages with all our clothes on. That lasted about 45 minutes then we walked
next door to the theater to see a Chinese variety show. There was a love opera, a juggler, a comedy
skit, Chinese violin (erhu) player, puppet show, shadow show, and finally the
changing faces finale. We especially
enjoyed the violin player and changing faces parts of the show.
Friday, August 14, we checked out of our hotel and drove
north of town to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. First we walked to an area of the reserve
that had about four giant pandas that were about three years old. After that we saw a baby giant panda about a
week old in an incubator but we were not allowed to take photos. Then we walked to the red panda enclosures
and learned that they are not really of the panda family, which is of the bear
family, but were of the raccoon family.
They even looked like raccoons in the body but foxes in the face. Finally we saw the fully grown giant pandas
that were locked up behind bars eating their bamboo leaves. We drove back into Chengdu
and had a hot, spicy Szechuan lunch then to the airport where our flight to Hong Kong was delayed about an hour. We finally departed about 5:00 pm and arrived
in Hong Kong about 7:30 pm where we met our
local guide, William and went through customs as if we were in a different
country. It took another hour to get to
our Jen Hotel where we checked in and crashed.
We had a nice shower and a good breakfast and I felt
comfortable in Hong Kong once more. My first visit to Hong Kong was in 1970 when
I was working in Saigon and we revisited as a family in 1983 when I worked for
the Aramco Oil Company in Saudi
Arabia.
I’ve always liked Hong Kong and feel
that it is a special place. After
breakfast we had a city tour which showed me how much Hong
Kong has changed over the years.
We started in the Central District, saw the old Government House, the US
Consulate and stopped in the SoHo District that was not even there the last
time we were in Hong Kong. The tour took us to a Chinese temple that we
had seen years ago so Rita and I had an iced mocha at Pacific Coffee
instead. Next we drove to Aberdeen where we boarded
a sampan for a ride around the Jumbo Floating Restaurant and around the harbor
of fishing boats. Driving back to our
hotel the tour stopped at a jewelry factory but we didn’t buy anything. At the hotel Rita changed clothes and we
caught a taxi to Kowloon
through the Western Harbor Tunnel which didn’t exist when we were last
there. We arrived at the Peninsula Hotel
just minutes before their high tea began.
We didn’t have to wait long and had an excellent long lunch with plenty
of tea and plenty of good foods in their beautiful lobby restaurant. There were finger sandwiches, quiches, snacks,
rich desserts, and raisin scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Yummy!
Afterwards we walked along Nathan Street then back to Heritage House
and the Star City Shopping Mall. There
seems to be constant construction in Hong Kong and Kowloon and it is difficult to walk some
places. We made our way to the Star
Ferry Terminal and took a ferry back to the Central District piers and a taxi
back to our hotel. Most of the tour
group went on an optional night tour up to Victoria Peak
and to a Thai (?) restaurant. We opted
out, having seen Victoria
Peak at night
before. We were too full to eat dinner
anyway. We walked to Des Voeux Road where we caught an
electric tram that traveled west along roads to Causeway Bay
and North Point. We climbed upstairs and
sat at the front of the tram for great views and people watching as the evening
began. It took us about an hour to
traverse Hong Kong and then we departed and
caught another tram back to Whitty Road Terminal where we began. Finally we went to our hotel’s rooftop bar on
the 28th floor for a drink and great views of Hong
Kong before turning in.
Sunday was our last full day in Hong
Kong and a free day. I had
never been to Macau and decided it was a good
time to go. Three others of our group
asked if they could go with us so the five of us left at 10:15 am and arrived
in Macau an hour later, taking the Turbo Jet fast hydrofoil. We caught a free hotel bus to the Sands Hotel
which is one of the biggest casinos in Macau. It was sparkling clean and huge, with crowds
of gamblers. We mostly walked around and
played slot machines for a short time losing HK$ 13 which is about $2 US. We took two taxis to the historic Senado Square with
beautiful old Portuguese buildings and churches. We took pedestrian streets to the ruins of St. Paul church then turned
around. We took time to eat some fresh Portuguese
pastries called Pasteles de Natas, an
egg custard tart that is delicious. Then
we took two taxis again through scenic back streets past the Moorish Barracks
and to the ferry terminal. We caught the
2:15 pm ferry back to Hong Kong. We relaxed at the hotel bar with a beer
before going out as a group at 6:00 pm for our farewell dinner. We walked a short distance to Treasure Lake
Seafood restaurant for our last Chinese meal for a while.
Monday we had to wake early to get to the airport for our
8:20 am flight along with most of the group.
We said our good byes to those who were taking a later flight and to our
guide Danny Xu. We retraced our steps
with flights to Tokyo then Minneapolis where we had a five hour
layover. We found a good restaurant
called Ike’s and had delicious hamburgers with fries and chocolate malts. We arrived in Houston about 9:30 pm, picked up our car and
checked into the airport Hampton Inn for a luxurious king size bed and a good night’s
sleep. It was a long, long day.
Tuesday we drove home to Wimberley where we were happy to
see all was okay with our home. It was a
busy, informative trip that at times may have been a bit uncomfortable but in
the end it was all worth it. Highlights
would be the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Xian terracotta warriors and Lhasa, Tibet. We’re glad we did it and we’re glad to be
home, too.
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