I had so much I wanted to accomplish today in Hong Kong, and just not enough time to get it all done.
Cultural Kaleidoscope
The first thing I knew I wanted to do today, was take a free class in Tai Chi, which is organized by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. The bummer is that the class was at 8:00 in the morning, meaning another early wake up call. For about 10 minutes I lay in bed, smacking the snooze button, but eventually did get up all motivated to make the most of my day.The class was quite fun, in a lovely location by the Hong Kong Museum of Art, overlooking the Hong Kong Harbor. (Here, quite foggy, but still a lovely view.)
After an hour of light exercise, and learning about the history of Tai Chi, I caffeine loaded with a quick stop at Starbucks and then head out to my favorite part of Hong Kong, taking a ferry across to Hong Kong island.
I headed out to test out the Hong Kong mid-levels escalator, a half-mile system of escalators and moving walkways that is reportedly the second-largest escalator system in the world. The system takes you through some cool and funky areas in Hong Kong, eventually dropping you in a mostly residential district, a 20-minute walk from the Zoo & Botanical gardens. Despite walking nearly 35 minutes, I'd gotten so turned around that I never found the zoo, so eventually I headed back for my down hill trek back to the harbor. (The walkway only goes one direction.)
I walked through some very cool neighborhoods, and only wish I had more time to explore. My one emergency bathroom stop, ended in a public restroom, which I was concerned about. But, Western bathrooms in this building were plentiful, and the place was clean to boot.
Running short on time, I took the ferry back across to Kowloon, knowing the afternoon would be spent in pursuit of higher arts education. Wednesday's are free admission days to all of Hong Kong's museums.
First I stopped at the Science Museum. With the whole math major thing, I just can't pass up a science museum. It was pretty well geared to children, but I still found myself spending more time here than expected. Of particular fun were the numerous brain teaser puzzles. I spent nearly an hour trying to figure them all out, much to the delight of one Chinese docent, who followed me around to see which puzzles I could complete. She was quite thrilled, and actually applauded me when I got some on the first try. (If only she knew that many of those puzzles were standard fare in my math classes.)The photo, here, is of a Chinese sailing ship, which is used at the museum to demonstrate the principals of wind force on sail boats. Quite a cool demonstration.
Hong Kong History Museum
At the suggestion of Lilly, the guide we had on yesterday's city tour, I then went to the Hong Kong History Museum. I'm not so much a museum person, I find many of them tiring after about the first hour, but not so for this museum.
I would go so far as to say that this should be a MUST SEE part of everyone's Hong Kong itinerary. I spent hours here, and could have easily stayed longer. Every room had life-size recreations of true life situations in Hong Kong's past. From the pre-historic age, to modern day Hong Kong, the recreations included life on a Sampan, a recreation of a 1950s tea house, an herbal medicine shop, just to name a very few. Here you see a recreation of a Chinese wedding.This museum took you step by step through Hong Kong's colorful history, and truly made learning fun. (I know I sound like a spoiled kid, but the place was amazing.)
Now approaching 5 pm, I decided to head back to the hotel for a short rest. I'd been on my feet since nearly 8 this morning, and was starting to feel the burn. At the hotel, I just couldn't resist having an ice mocha and a chocolate truffle cake from the hotel lobby and carrying it to my room. The cake was so very yummy.
The weather had cleared a little bit, and I was able to snap this lovely view shot from my hotel room, while inhaling the chocolate cake.Despite all that sugar and caffeine, I took a nice long nap, and really only woke up around 8 pm. I'd been toying with the idea of taking a harbor cruise, as I'd wanted to see the Hong Kong night time light show, but my concierge had recommended against it, telling me that the fog might preclude having a great view. At any rate, my nap kind of took care of that.
My plan was to go to Temple Street that night, to enjoy the night market and the open-air food market, but at 8:00 pm I no longer had the energy or the desire to set out on a new adventure. Instead I wandered around my neighborhood, stopping at a chain restaurant known as Maxim's.
Here I enjoyed a delicious final dinner, which included a BBQ platter (roast crispy pork, and roast goose) followed by a steamed crab stuffed with glutinous rice. (No that isn't gluttonous, although with as much as I ate, it probably should have been.)
Despite my desire to extend my final night, I pretty much crashed out right away.
The following morning I woke up raring to go, but with a 9:50 pick up time, there wasn't much for me to do, but try to fit all my Disney merchandise in my luggage and head over to the airport.
The trip has been an amazing one, and I just can't believe it is already time to go back. I'm already counting the days until I can return to Asia and do it all again.
(Of course I'm also looking forward to coming home and getting started on my Sake research.)
After breakfast we departed for our half-day city tour. The first stop was at Victoria Peak, normally the place to ooh and aah over the fabulous Hong Kong skyline. Due to the fog today, my photos look pretty similar to the ones I took at Mt. Fuji last week, but still the photos around the peak gave us a pretty good idea of what we were missing.
Our next stop was at the bustling (okay I do realize that I am resorting to using cliche's here) Aberdeen Harbor. As I've enthused repeatedly, my childhood upbringing at an Eastern Canadian seaport has caused me to have a permanent love affair with all harbors. 
After that, I was off to Disneyland park. The park is surprisingly easy to get to. A short (less than 30 minute subway ride) and I was at the main gate. The final transfer is from the main subway line, to the Disney only line, serviced by special Disneyland rail cars, complete with Mickey windows.
Of course the very first thing I did was get on my most favorite of all times ride, the one, the only, the incomparable Space Mountain. A mere 10 minute wait for the ride, which was a dream come true.
I stuck around for the fireworks, which was a kind of combo of Anaheim's Fantasmic and the Fireworks show. I think it was a little shorter and not quite as stunning, but still quite enjoyable. What was totally fun was that almost every single person in the park held up their cell phones to try to capture pictures of the fireworks. It looked kind of like that commercial where everyone in the stadium uses their cell phone to light the stadium.
Despite the rain and humidity, I quite enjoyed Guangzhou.
Here’s a statue of a female lion, playing with her cub. This is where the guide explained to me his version of life and how gender roles are supposed to work. I don't think we quite had the same opinion about that.
My guide tells me that Guilin is known for four things, mountains, water, caves and rock terraces. She promised we would see all of them today, and we did. We were working on a shortened schedule (due to the change in flight time, I now only have one day in Guilin instead of the day and a half scheduled.)
The cruise itself was a leisurely four hours. It wasn't completely a meditative experience, as there were always about 50 people on the sun deck jockeying for the three best photo spots. 
However, the scenery was unbelievably amazing. Great poets and presidents have used better words than I could come up with to describe it's beauty, so I settled for eating up digital camera battery time.
Speaking of waving, the weirdest and coolest and just all around fun experience were the boat loads of Chinese tourists traveling in the opposite direction. They would all stand on the deck of the boat waving at us, and as soon as one of us would wave back they would all jump up and down and cheer and just go crazy. We soon started to wait for the Chinese tourist boats to go by, just so we could hear them cheering.
Of course there were the requisite vendors selling numerous products along the river as well. All of these guys would paddle by on these super narrow rafts (usually just five bamboo poles wide) that didn't seem very stable. Water would slosh through the poles, wetting their feet, which were bare anyway. However, bare feet and all, most of the guys also wore some kind of suit jacket. The haggling from upper sun deck to raft was a hoot to watch, and became almost as fun as searching for Chinese tourist boats.
So my guide was correct in telling us that some of the best scenery did happen during the lunch period. In fact, ultimately I ended up skipping lunch, as during this time, there were only two or three people on the sun deck. 
The first peach blossoms were blooming, and in addition the rape seed flowers were blooming in the fallow rice fields. My guide, worried that I might starve (if only she knew my eating schedule, but luckily she can’t see this blog, as it is blocked in China), stopped at several roadside farm stands to buy me some fresh oranges and pomelos. Oh gosh, such sweet fruit off the vine.
Next we got to explore one of Guilin’s largest caves, the Reed Flute Cave. This place was huge underneath, so large in fact, that my guide told me that they often hold special events and dinners inside. There were so many carvings and shapes, but my favorite scene was this one shot outside of the reflecting pool. Kind of resembles a miniature cityscape, no?
After the cave, it was on to Fu Bo Hill (sigh, more steps) which offered a really delightful view of Guilin City. At the top, I made a new friend, who’s entire English knowledge consisted of “Los Angeles, Very Good” and “You Very Beautiful.” I’m such a sucker for flattery. By the way, too bad my thumbs up in this picture, as it is hiding my newly acquired jade pendant.
Our final stop, on this adventure-packed day was a stop at the Guilin University Art Gallery. The University is the home of most of the most famous watercolor, oil painting and waterink masters in China. Many of them are professors at the university, and many of their works are on display at the art gallery. (Can you just hear my wallet crying out.)
Our first stop today was at the Shaanxi Museum. I think I've ODed on China history today. I finally had to buy a book (notice the emphasis on HAD TO) covering China's history and civilizations. No way I was keeping all the details straight otherwise.
After the Museum, we enjoyed lunch at the most amazing dumpling restaurant in the world. They kept bringing steamer basked after steamer basket to my table, each one featuring four or five different types of dumplings. 
Guilin seemed lovely upon site, although it was already dark upon our arrival. The airport had a lovely little light display welcoming guests.
This morning was completely dedicated to visiting the world-famous Terracotta Warriors of Xian. Here I've shown a picture of part of the entire arena (which is large enough to house three soccer fields), just to give you an idea of the immensity of this place.
However, he was a bit of a megalomaniac, and among using and abusing his manpower (on building the wall, forming his armies, and having them search for the source of eternal life), he spent much of his national income building his "underground palace" which is the Chinese-ism for tomb. 
Anyway, shortly after his death, the peasants formed a giant uprising against the out of control harshess of his rule (and his son's rule) and staged a giant revolt. They found the underground pit of the terracotta warriors and smashed every single statue, stealing the weapons the figures carried for their own uprising. Here you can still see some of the warriors that have not yet been righted. 
By the way, the farmers were each given 6 yuan (less than $1) for finding the pit. Now, though, the one farmer works at the museum signing autographs in the official Museum Catalog. A little cheesy, no? However, I guess it's better than farming, even if he is the whole reason the catalog sells. By the way, yes I did buy one of the catalogs and had to pay extra to have my picture taken with the guy. But heck, I look at it this way, I paid him more for my photo, than the Chinese government paid him for finding the pit. :)
By the way, did I mention that one of the specialties of the area is home-made noodles? Lunch today, was in the Xian Terracotta Museum area. 
Originally my schedule called for an early departure tomorrow morning to Guilin, but since I'm traveling off season, there are no early morning flights to be had, which means an extra half-day in Xian. As a result we spent the afternoon visiting some more of the historic aspects of Xian, including the city wall. This was a lovely area, surrounded by red lanterns, and very peaceful. It was a gorgeous day to watch people flying kites in the plaza below.
After the city wall, we visited the Goose Pagoda, which includes a type of "Art Park" surrounding the Pagoda. In each of the historic buildings there is a different kind of artist, with displays ranging from papercuttings, to waterpaintings to wood carvings. I managed to resist spending any money here, except for the 5 yuan (50 cents) I needed to ring this bell and make a wish. I figured 50 cents was a healty investment into my wish for a rich husband.
Tonight we enjoyed a VERY delightful dinner show which included an hour-long traditional Tang Dynasty show. The Tang Dynasty in China was one of the most prosperous (and might I saw one of my favorites, as the larger size person was looked upon favorably. This is the time that Buddhism was introduced into China, which is why most of the Chinese Buddhas are the plus size beauties they are.)
For my final morning in Beijing, we were able to enjoy a pedicab tour of Hutong, considered the old city. Hutong is this charming part of Beijing with narrow streets, and all the buildings are in the old style—one story with grey tile roofs.
Our first stop on the tour was to meet a local family, pictured here. Mr. Wu and Mrs. Wang. I was able to take a peek around their house and courtyard, which nosy me really enjoyed. They live in one house on a courtyard, while the other two houses in the same area are occupied by their sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren. Their entire courtyard area would originally have just made up the (rear) daughter’s courtyard of the original nobleman’s house.
After our chat with the Wu Family, our next stop was at a kindergarten school. While it was fun to see the children, I actually found this place kind of sad. Many of the children (aged 2-5) stay at this school all week long, only going home on weekends. Some of the kids are even long-term boarders and don’t go home for a month a time. 
The final stop on the tour was a visit to the Huton Bell Tower. I think my Hutong guide was hoping I’d want to skip the climb to the top, but no way, I’m not missing a thing. So up we went, on what turned out to be a steep, but not difficult climb. The view was quite nice from the top, and here you see a photo of the roofs of Hutong in the foreground and New Beijing in the background.
After lunch it was time for me to head to the airport. May (pictured here) and my driver, Mr. Su, knowing how much I enjoyed the Chinese 56% rice wine had bought me some loose tea and some rice wine as a present for being such a nice guest. I really enjoyed traveling with them, and wish they were heading on with me to my next destination.
Today I climbed the Great Wall of China. It almost feels like I don't need to say anything else, that one feat seems so incredibly huge to me. The wall is as impressive and breathtaking as anything you could possibly come up with in your minds.
Here's an image of one of favorite (not) staircases, a steep difficult climb to the next guard tower. I was bound and determined to make it to the highest point, even though my guide kept pointing out that no one back home would ask if I'd made it to the top part, only if I'd been to the Wall.
The Wall is about a historical site as you can imagine, but it has these odd, eclectic modern touches thrown in. Directly next to the wall is a huge construction site, that May told me was likely going to be a super-sized advertising billboard. Sad. Also there are cable cars going to the summit, but with the winds up there the cars were nearly tilted on their sides. (Not a chance in heck you'd get me on one of those babiles.) And for the semi-intrepid trekkers, the ones who've made it high enough and have no desire to climb back, the wall also offers this roller coaster ride back to the base.
Ultimately I did make it to the highest point, amid cheers of good will from the others that had made it before me. It felt remarkable. At the top was this banner, with a saying from Mao Tse Tsung that basically translates to "No one can be a Great Hero until they've made it to the Great Wall."
And for your viewing pleasure, I'm enclosing a picture of the walk I've just completed. About two-thirds of the way down on the left side of the picture, you can see a little white-green downward sloping line. That's the roller coaster ride, which is located about half way up the climb, to give you a frame of reference.
This afternoon, we stopped at the Ming Tombs, a gigantic area housing the tombs of 14 of the Emperors of the Ming Dynasty. Many tombs have not been excavated due to concerns of grave robbers, as well as other logistical issues, but the area was huge and impressive. 
Finally, my whole reason for being in China, an evening of Peking Duck. Tonight I was invited to a lovely dinner by the Manager of the China arm of Pacific Delight Tours. We went to an outstanding restaurant, known as Quanjude, one of the oldest restaurants in Beijing, and the home of Peking Duck.
It didn’t really hit me, how exciting this was, until I was standing directly under Mao Tse-Tung’s picture, hanging on the entrance gate to the Forbidden City. Then all the books I’d read, the images I remember, suddenly accumulated in a meeting place in my brain, and that’s when I truly realized, “I’m actually here.”
Tiananmen Square is one of the largest (if not the largest) city squares in the world. Today was particularly impressive, as it was the end of the National People’s Congress, a meeting of the officials from around the country. Because of the meeting, security was really stepped up in the area, making it an impressive visual. Across from the People’s Hall there’s a huge sign (sponsored by Omega Watches) is a giant billboard counting down the days and minutes until the start of the Olympics.
After Tianananmen Square, we entered the Forbidden City. So cool. What I learned is that Mao Tse-Tsung never entered the Forbidden City. He was the first leader to declare China a People’s Republic, and among the establishment to help do away with the Feudal System (and the Emperor system.) He wanted nothing to do with the Feudal System, didn’t want the old ideas tainting the new way of life, so did not ever visit the Emperor’s residence.
Of course, at the Forbidden City, I was most interested in the way of life of a concubine. Even made May take me to see their quarters. (Pictured here is May with another colleague from Pacific Delight Tours. Working very hard at their jobs.) I could talk for hours alone about the things I learned about their lifestyle. But by the end of the tour, I realized, I really wanted the life of Empress Dowager Cixi, an infamous “ruler” here in China, who is generally known as “The Voice Behind the Throne.” 
Her life is legendary, and among some of her exploits, she would enjoy 120 courses for her meal. The cost of one of her meals alone could have employed 5,000 people for one day. 
Our next stop was the Summer Palace, where the Emporer’s family would spend the summer months. Here, is where I really wanted to become Empress Dowager, as I certainly could see myself living here.
So wearing my fancy new pearls, I then had the opportunity to catch the world famous Chinese Acrobats in action. This picture shows my favorite act, the lions, each of which was made up of two guys doing acrobatics in complete unison. Here you see four of them balancing on the ball.