China 2011 - Beijing

June 28 – July 2

After a week in Mongolia, we were ready to start the main part of our trip in China.  We began with four days in Beijing. The first day our guide, Qu Yi “Sally,” (who was great) asked each of us, a group of twelve, what our expectations were for the trip. For Paul and me, since we had already been to China twice, in 1982 and 1999, we wanted to see and learn ways that the country had changed over the years. We were continually astonished by the developments, which I’ll try to share.

Our stay in Beijing included some of the usual popular sites and we started with the Forbidden City, which we entered from the back (North) side to avoid the crowds at the main entrance off Tiananmen Square. The day was very hot, humid and polluted. There weren’t any notable changes to the City from our previous visits except that there were more tourists. This time, most of them were Chinese, as they are becoming increasingly affluent they are doing a lot more travel within their own country.

We left from the front of the Forbidden City, moving onto Tiananmen Square. It was full of people and tour groups. Some security guards were riding modified Segways. There was a very large red monument with a hammer and cycle denoting the 90^th Anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. It was celebrated on July 1. There were also two long video screens crossing the square that showed various things, like dancers and ceremonies. Mao’s Mausoleum was closed and we were told that there is now a wax Mao in it, anyway.

In the evening we had time to stroll around some local residential streets to learn how the former tenements have been turned into larger flats. One street had many food stands selling snacks for people returning home from work. There were skewers of everything from sugar coated fruit to water beetles, scorpions and other things we would not even consider eating, but are delicacies for the Chinese. The evening ended with the traditional Peking Duck dinner. That traditional dinner hasn’t changed over the years.

Other things have not changed for tourists visiting China, regardless of the size of the group. There are obligatory stops at government owned factories and artisan shops where one can see various products being made. At the cloisonné showroom we saw the various stages of production and then had a chance to try our skills at filling the sections with colored glass slurry. It gave us a better appreciation for the talents of the artists. As always, the tour ends in the showroom with many purchasing opportunities. I do believe that the quality of products in these shops is high and better than anything found for sale by street vendors. Throughout the trip these visits included silk carpets, embroidery, lacquer, and jade carving with one factory visit in each city we visited.

During our four days in Beijing we toured the Summer Palace, a Marshall Arts school, the Great Wall (at a section being refurbished by the Grand Circle Foundation so there were no other tourists besides our group) and the Temple of Heaven. During all the driving around the city and countryside, the things that amazed us most were: the amount of building taking place – vast numbers of apartment buildings and modern roads and other infrastructure, and how the people have changed from their black and white clothes in 1982 to being very style conscious and wearing the latest in colors and fashion.

July 2 we took the overnight train from Beijing to Xian. We had packed so that we had a minimum of hand luggage and the rest had been checked earlier. The sleeping car had already been made up with two upper and two lower births in each room. OAT had bought two births for each of us so that we only had to have two people per room. Since, with the exception of Paul, we were all ladies, it was like having a big slumber party. There were a few libations and Sally had brought “Fire Water” to share and we enjoyed getting to know each other better as the train rolled out at dusk and we watched the farming countryside roll by. At the end of the car there was a separate Vanity room from the potty room. I think we all slept, but in varying amounts. We were all ready to disembark at 8:00 am in Xian.

That's it for now. Grace and Paul