China 2010

I know a lot of people have been anxiously awaiting my China post, but I've been procrastinating it. If I must be honest, China, you disappointed me. Yes, the Great Wall was breathtaking and I liked all your really, REALLY old history, but when comparing you to Japan there just isn't any contest. In general I found the people to be not as friendly and nothing like the Japanese. Actually, the Chinese were a lot more like Americans in that regard. The country is still developing and while the tour we took (with guides who work for the Chinese government) tried to show us the nice historical parts of China, we also saw poverty, a roadway system with complete and utter disregard for any traffic laws and a feeling of complete God-lessness. That was the first thing I noticed....I could feel the lack of the Spirit in this country where agency has almost completely been taken away. I felt so sad for our guides who want more children but because of the one child law can't (or else they loose their jobs and have to pay a huge penalty). The were astounded that we had four and one on the way (yes, I was pregnant, but lost the baby at 10 weeks). Literally they were in awe of our family size.

Overall, I'm glad I went to China to check it off that bucket list I have, but I have no desire to go back. Now Hong Kong I would like to see (being stuck in the airport for 5 hours was actually pleasant after being in China). There were some things I did like about China....It really wasn't all bad. I guess I had just built it up so high in my brain that it didn't live up to the grandiose expectations I had. Here are some highlights:

This is Tiananman Square (with the Forbidden City in the background). What do you know about Tiananman Square? Probably the image comes to mind of a young Chinese college student standing in front of a tank in the 1980's, right? Well, all we learned about T.S. was that it was the largest outdoor public square in the world. When I asked about the tank bit I got zero information. The guide (who didn't speak good English at all and who works for the government) couldn't/wouldn't answer my questions about that or any other "controversial" Chinese questions I had. It was really frustrating and I felt like I had to come home and look everything up on the Internet to get the real scoop. Isn't going to an actual historical place supposed to answer any questions about said place? No in China, land of the "keep information from the masses".

Chinese solider. They were everywhere. Rob even got yelled at by one because he leaned against a lamp post in front of the Russian embassy.

In Japan we have shisa dogs donning every entrance. One is a boy and one a girl. In China they have sorta the same thing, but each thingy (I'm not sure what they are called) is pretty cool. The boy has a ball under his foot and the girl has a "child" under her foot. I thought it looked like the female was trying to crush and eat the child, but she's really supposed to be playing with it.

Inside the Forbidden City. It rained and was EXTREMELY big. It could have it's own zip code, seriously. It went on and on and was very crowded. Anything noteworthy to see was closed off, poorly lit and had hoards of tourists all trying to take a picture. I wish we could have had a guide that could speak English better and tell us about it.


Ahhhhh...the Great Wall of China. It really is like the movies, except with tons of tourists. We decided to walk to the top. The higher we went the less people there were. So, on and on we went. I stopped just shy of the top thinking it was just going to go on forever. If I had just gone 100 meters more I would have reached the end. Rob went all the way. It took just over 1 hour of STRAIGHT stairs upward to get there and about 20 minutes to get down. It was very peaceful and I couldn't help but think of Huns invading China. Again, I wish we could have gotten a history lesson, but our guide had a fear of heights and as I've mentioned no less than twice, a lack of English skills.

Is he not the most handsome husband EVER???? I love that sweater on him too. This was inside one of the guard (?) posts.

This picture doesn't show it, but I was a stinker climbing up. As much as I love being outdoors and at the top of mountains, I hate climbing them when I'm not in shape. Rob had to put up with my orneriness and I am forever grateful for his patience.

This shows the last little distance that I didn't climb, but Rob did. Seriously ever bend had another 100 meters that looked like this and after 7-8 of them I just said that's it. It was really breathtaking, though.


Does anyone recognize this? Yes, it's the Olympic stadium for the Beijing 2010 Olympics. Oh, yeah, did I mention this is all in Beijing?

The swimming cube for the Olympics. I remember this being lit up at night on TV. They are right next door to each other.

This is the spread of food we got our first night there. The video is from our first lunch. The lunch was the best and although we got tons of food every night it wasn't the best. We had a dumpling extravaganza one evening. I think we tried 18 different kids of dumplings. Interesting, but not very tasty in my opinion.


The next city we went to was Xi An. Our favorite guide was here and he spoke pretty good English! The famous thing in Xi An are the Terra Cotta Warriors. 30 years ago, this farmer was out digging in his field when he discovered this archaeological goldmine. Buried under his farm was a tomb-like shrine to some past emperor. Apparently this emperor wanted this huge shrine and it took years and years to build. He was there on an inspection when he dropped dead. Then, through the years invaders ruined a lot of the statues, but it was still pretty dang cool. I'm sure I'm butchering the story, but that's the gist.

Here is the farmer signing books. The sad thing is since no one can own land in China (another appalling discovery thanks to the communist system) this poor farmer has national acclaim, but no monetary compensation for his amazing discovery.

Here's the first of 3 vaults. Click on the picture to enlarge. When they started excavating most warriors were broken into many pieces. These have all been pieced back together.

Another vault.

Xi An wall. It reminded Rob of Samuel the Lamanite (...high on a city wall...). It surrounded the city center.

We went to this dinner theatre and saw a cool play about some old emperor and then had that dumpling buffet.

After spending the night in Xi An we flew to Shanghai the next morning. The World Expo was in Shanghai and we wanted to see it rather than shopping for 3 hours (the schedule cannot be deviated from according to our third and super annoying guide). We saw this garden which reminded us of the Chinese Garden in Naha.


Yuan Market (I think that's what it's called). It was CRAZY busy and taught me that China really does have a billion people living there.

This is on our layover in Hong Kong. Can you see Victoria's Peak in the distance???

So, I feel bad dissing China. I'm sure I just had a bad experience and that the whole country isn't horrible. We did stay in the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in while in Shanghai. It had scented pillows and tons of cute extras like that. All in all it was great to get away from real life. We have to give props out to Rob's sister, Amy, who flew all the way from California to watch our little monkeys so we could go play. It was great to just be together. Oh, and I have to mention that Rob doesn't feel the same way I do about China. He had a nice time and liked all he saw. That's it. Now I can check this blog off my mental to do list and move on with all the other things we've been up to lately.