Monthly Archives: July 2009

Continuation from part 4.

We arrived Datong at 8:30 p.m. on the nuts.  Got out the station and started looking for a cab. There were a bunch of cab drivers and it’s all up to us to pick who we want. Bro was talking to one or two and there was another trying to ask me where we are going/staying. I haughtily told him, “Den it siah!” Cheh wah, speaking Putonghua, some more! But, he was a pest! Finally bro managed to get one who speaks a little English, very nice chap.

He was our driver and guide for the entire trip at Datong. He is very keen on learning English. A phrase he says a lot is “Becareful”. Too cute when he said it.

Anyways, we squeezed into the cab with all our luggage.  The trunk was not shut, too many luggage.  Really geng!  We told him to take us to a not too expensive hotel.  Both bro and I went in to check out the rooms first if it suits our liking.  We ok’ed it, unloaded and asked him to be our guide for the next day.  Agreed to meet him at the lobby at 7:30 the next morning.

The next morning was a full day for us.  Cab driver (CD) took us to Datong’s famous noodle shop for our breakfast of champion.  The noodles were not too bad, salty but edible.  From there we head on to the Kuan Yin Temple, look see for a while and then straight on to Yungang Grottoes.  It started to rain while we were waiting for the ticket booth to open.  So we had to buy raincoats, those cheap plastic cover.  It was cut throat prices for two, RMB10, and when it really poured the vendor jacked up the price to RMB10 each, instead of RMB5.

Entrance to the grottoes. Mom’s ticket was free because she is senior citizen. Again, another place where there are a lot of people wherever you turn to, but not as bad as when we were in Beijing.

This place is a marvel. There are carved statues on the rocks. Absolutely amazing handicraft. There were a lot of defaced statues, ,ust be during the Red Guards period, I guess, they were sort of destroyed them.

Some statues located higher up were still intact.

Here’s me with my RMB5 raincoat.  Rip off, but it did the job for mom and I!

This place is just awesome, hard to describe it coz I’m not good in describing things. Here is one picture I first saw, huge carving of a Buddha and carvings on the ceiling above it. You just wonder how the carvers got up there to carved.

And there are a few caves where cameras are totally not allowed. There were some “security” folks standing around and sometimes we do see them walking around the caves to catch those trying to take pictures. Well, I have to say, I did not heed the warning sign (pot is calling the kettle black!) but how can I not curi-curi take pictures (without the flash) when I see these carvings.

Many of these caves’ lightings are very dim where the “No Photography” sign is up. Thus, when you see the slideshow, these pictures are quite dark even after I doctered them up.

Some of the caves, the carvings have color on them, like the one below.  Well, actually a lot of them do have colors but not as significant as this one, all the way up to the ceiling.

Then we walked out to the other side of the grottoes and the caves on this side are more open, more day light.
The carvings are so delicate, so meticulously done.

In this picture, the group of monks, I have to say the camera they are taking pictures is a big ass DSLR. I was telling mom I should just be a nun and I get to carry a nice camera like them.

I saw this again, a boy with this type of pants. The first time I saw it was at the Summer Palace, and now here. It’s just funny, does the little kid really do his business as is when he is wearing this type of pants?

After the Yungang Grottoes, we headed to the Hanging Temples. It was about an hour’s drive from Yungang Grottoes. The occupants in the cab went to sleep except me. I was enjoying the scenery, mountainous and finally when we got to the Hanging Temple mountain, the sun came out.  We got our tickets (mom had to buy a ticket here coz they don’t believe she is above 65) entered, and we saw this:

The Hanging Temples still in one piece shaded against the sun.

Too damn impressive for words. Can you figure out how the monks built this temple high up against the mountain where a river used to run in front of it?

The temperature changes as we went up the stairs and once we got to the temple, the breeze was cooling, I didn’t feel warm. The wooden staircase inside the temple I still think is the original. The stone stairs are well walked on, the surface was smooth.  The first thing I did when I got up the first level…guess what I did?  Haha, I knocked on those skinny wooden beams supporting that particular structure and even shook it.  They were super duper solid wood. I saw others were doing the same thing too.  So, I guess it’s just not me wondering how solid and stable the beams are. The balconies are very narrow and the railings are not waist high, they are way below the waist, like up to my thigh. So you can imagine for a tall person, how it feels to walk the corridors. It’s quite scary.

We saw the room where the monks slept in. I think that’s where they slept:

There are rooms for praying where statues of Buddhas and other deities. These statues are the originals so most of them are protected by glass except for a few without any sort of glass protection.

This place is not for the weak heart. Bro’s gf is scared of heights, she said she feels her legs are shaking as she went up. Thus, she turned around, went downstairs and waited for us on the first level.

Here is a picture of how narrow the stone stairs are and far up we were.

Me, the higher the better! In some areas after the crowd behind me dispersed, the quietness was unbelievable. I could not hear the bottom construction going on, the people’s voices. Just breeze. What a place to build a temple! Just amazing that’s all I can say.

Some of the deities are placed in individual temples (?) like this one.

On this picture, you can see how narrow the corridor is.

After taking a ton of pictures here, by the way, I don’t have any pictures of me at this place coz I was busy taking pictures. My bro took some pictures of me with his camera but….nothing from him yet.

So after one last look at the Hanging Temples, we went for our lunch. I’m sure it’s the Shaanxi Province type of food. One special dish, picture below, was the hardest to swallow. The floury noodle (I think) was slimy, and soaked in a bowl of soup with a layer of oil. Damn hard to eat, but it was a good experience tho. CD just slurped it right into his mouth. He said it’s the best, very good dish.

AFter lunch, CD took us shopping for fruits and then stopped us at the many home grottoes in Datong. He stopped us at this man’s home. This man lives alone.

His home is so cooling and airy. I pity him during winter tho. There is no running water, but I think there is electricity. Water, well, he said he collect rain water. The slideshow will see the inside of his “free” home.

Getting closer to Datong city, CD stopped us at a very old temple. I have no idea what the name is. I took a picture of the stone and whatever was written on the board above door. Whoever knows Chinese, please translate. Thank you. This temple has not much to see, a lot of broken down stuff but damn old, like 3000 years old or something.

Next destination is “Jiu Loong Ti” Nine Dragon Wall (think I said it right in Chinese). This dragon wall is located right next to our hotel.

CD told us each dragon is different. It is if he didn’t tell me, you can see it on the slideshow as I took a pic of each individual dragon. He also said Datong and Pingyao dragon claws are different from the ones in Beijing. I have no idea about that coz I didn’t pay any attention to the dragon claws I saw in Beijing.

This group of girls are from Guangzhou. We first met them at the very first entry of the Hanging Temples. The girl in pink said out loud, something to the effect, “Kum kwai koh, wooi mhm wooi tit sei yan gar?” I had to laughed at her comment and that was how I found out they were from Guangzhou. We then met them at the Dragon Wall. Very nice bunch of girls. We asked them if they have been Pingyao and that was actually where they came from. We asked their opinion on how they like the city. They said if one likes antiques, old stuff, then it is a nice place.

The next city after Datong is Pingyao which we went by train.

Below is the slideshow of Yungang Grottoes and the Hanging Temple.

The next day, both mom and I got up early again to roam the streets, mainly to look for a hutong.  We need to check one out since we are already in Beijing.  I told my mom I think where we went for our noodle stop on our first night after arrival, is also a hutong coz I saw a sign that says Something Something Hutong.  It beats going to the old Beijing, wherever that is.

By the way, I didn’t doctor up the pictures for this post.  Thus, you will see not so bright pictures.  That day was also very hazy and humid.

We walked to one hutong and asked the lady if we could look inside.  She was smiling and invited us in to look see.   The houses within hutong are very depleted, dirty but yet there are people living in there.  The rooms are so damn tiny.  Those with money, they renovated their place.  I notice there a lot of folks in Beijing have dogs – Poodles and Pomeranians.

And then I saw these:

My mom told me they are coals. They burn much longer than the ordinary coal. My mom said my dad told her that during one of their China trips.

Along the way to another hutong, we saw folks exercising below their apartments.

Kinda neat to see the various kinds of equipment.

There is a market, too along the street. We assumed it was a hutong residence before but turned into a wet market. It definitely was a wet market coz the smell cannot lari wan!

There are all kinds of stores from noodle making shop, tofu, bakery, veggie and meat stops, fruits and weird looking stuff sold in that market. All the noodle shops we see do not sell rice noodles, except wheat noodles. Blek!

We walked all the way to Wangfujing Street. It was a waste the day was so gloomy, everything seems to have a smokey affect.

Once we got to this street, we were looking for Silk Market. We got the chinese words out from the tour book, the book my sis thinks we weren’t using!! If only she knew….. Anyways, we thought Silk Market was around WFJ street. Low and behold after asking around, it is quite far from where we’re at. We managed to ask 2 young guys (we purposely pick the young-uns coz they should at least know a little bit of English) and he told he we can take a cab to Silk Market instead of taking the subway. So mom and I hunt down a cab and it was a nightmare. The cab driver we flagged down said we need to cross the street to get a cab. We did, flagged another down and that fella said we need to get one from across the street. WTF, man!! That was the first thing I mumbled under my breath. We got back to where we came from and saw a lady taxi driver. We asked her if she can take us to the Silk Market, she said no problem.

Driving out of WFJ Street, I finally saw the WFJ Bookstore, supposely the biggest bookstore ever.

And after a lot of lights and jams, we finally arrived at Silk Market. The lady driver was so nice, she stopped right where the underground pass is and told us to take the pass to get across. She is one of the extremely nice taxi drivers we encountered.

I had an impression the Silk Market was an open air market place. It’s in a building and the stores are like those in Thailand. This is where we bought souveniers – t-shirts for hubs, sis, BIL and our biggest purchased was the silk comforters. We were the comforter store’s first customer of the day, so they gave us very good discounts. Morever, the “hoi kah” (opening prices) at this store were 50 times cheaper than the one we asked at WFJ Street. I bought a “summer” and “winter” queen comforter for RMB800 (somewhere around that price). My mom bought a “summer” single comforter for my sis at RMB100 or less. It cannot remember what we paid for the three comforters but they were damn cheap.

Happy we finally made our silk comforters purchase, we took a cab and got back to our hotel to catch the train to Datong. Got back to our hotel, pack up and freshen up. Mom and I went downstairs to the noodle shop along our hotel and had our lunch of noodles and “sui kau” and also bought some paus for our train journey, and bade goodbye to the shop owners. The lady owner is so nice, very friendly even though we could hardly speak except to tell them “less salt and no msg”.

All of us checked out of the hotel around 12:30 and the hotel managed to flagged two taxis for us to get to Beijing West Railway Station. (My bro and gf went to get the train tickets on the day we went to Summer Palace.) The cab ride to the station was slow and misty. It had started to rain and it made the atmosphere even hazier.

The above picture I doctered it up, it’s the train station. It’s so huge with i don’t know how many levels. Well, we got to the station, the people were like black ants. Humans everywhere we turned to. bro asked the station information booth for our gate number. We got to our gate where there were no empty seat available for us. Not even a minute we got there, we were approached by the gate conductress. She asked if we want to pay RMB5 to a VIP waiting room. We all said yes, followed her, paid our dues and went into a nice comfortable seating lounge with nice lounge chairs, not as crowded as the gate we were suppose to depart.

After 1.5 hours, bro went to ask one of the train officers and said we need to board the train first since we are foreigners. Wah, special priviledge for “wei gor ren”. I think i got it right! So we squirmed our way past the flock of humans and got to our coach. We loaded our luggage first since we were there first. That was the only advantage of getting on board first. Shortly after, the huge crowd came into our coach. The noise and the smoking was crazy. The noise I can tolerate, but the smoking was ridiculous even tho the No Smoking sign on the coaches were redundant to the smokers.

The train left Beijing right on time at 2:30 p.m. The ride was not too bad. Mom and I chatted throughout the journey amidst all the other chattering going on. It’s actually not too bad if one can ignore the smoking and the noise.  Bro was pissed coz it was too damn noisy for him. When he bought the train tickets, he didn’t get the tickets where the four of us will sit together in a way where we sit facing each other.  The tickets he bought were we sit two on one side and other two on the next aisle which is a three seater.  Mom and I were find.  We were hoping the train will be a little looser but hell no, it was packed, every seat taken up.  Anyways, the ride to Datong from Beijing takes 6 hours.  We got to Datong train station at 8:30 p.m. on the nuts.

Ok, it’s about time I get this going, continuation from here.

After our whole day walk at the Wall, Ming Tombs, Temple of Heaven and then to Wangfujing St, the next day my bro and his gf didn’t join mom and I to Summer Palace.  So, both she and I ventured out on our own by public transportation.  We asked the hotel receptionist to write “Summer Palace” in chinese for us and asked what bus to take.  Initially we wanted to take a cab but it’s way too far for cabs to get there.  They will but will cost a bomb.  So we took bus No 3 from where we were at to another stand, cross the street to catch No 83, 86, 89 or 93 to directly to Summer Palace.  Communication with the bus attendant was mainly limited, just showed her the chinese words of our intended destination, she says how much and we find a place to sit if we can find one since it was a work day and at 7:30 in the morning.  But i have to say, the Chinese folks really give great respect to the elderlies.  Some of them saw my mom standing, holding on tight to my arm and on to the railing, they got up and offered her the seat, on all bus rides we took.

The ride took us almost an hour or more, plus minus and dropped us off right infront of this.

Then we took a 5 minutes walk to the entrance, got our tickets (we always get the through tickets so we don’t have to buy tickets at that particular area we are at). My mom said it’s better to get those through tickets plus my mom received a big discount as she is an elderly, however, at the Summer Palace, they don’t accept senior citizen discounts. So we paid RMB120 for both of us.

An example of one of the many entrances of places of interests in the Palace grounds where a ticket is needed on top of the main entrance ticket.   This is the entrance to the temple where the Empress Dowager receives her guests, celebrate birthdays and where she goes for her prayers.

The pics taken at Summer Palace were really bad.  The sun was completely hidden for the day.  Only haze and more haze, or smog, whatever you want to call it.  The sun popped around noon-ish but soon disappeared.  So all these pictures I have to doctor them up to make them look a little brighter; damn tedious and time consuming job!

Again, this place has a lot of climbing of stairs and walk  till you drop that sort of tour.  Speaking of tour, there were tons of tour groups at the hour we were there.  What my mom and I did was we followed a specific group since we, kiam sup, we didn’t buy the map!   This was my mom’s second trip.  She wanted to come here this time around coz when she and my late dad came here the first time it was winter, and they arrived late and didn’t see much.  The Kunming Lake was frozen and a lot of skaters skating on the late.

Anyways, there were so many Halls as usual and side rooms inside a Hall.  Plus the gardens.  The interior decorations at the Summer Palace is just lovely – mixture of western and eastern.  Just love it.  To get a decent picture is damn difficult.  The among of people at this Palace were insane.  Wish I could just tell these people to move away so I can take a nice picture.

Here is where we need to climp up the steps to see where the Empress pays her respects at the Buddhist temple. The steps are narrow and a lot of them.  I keep thinking of the poor fellas who had to haul the Emperess on the sedan chair. 

This is my favorite building in the Summer Palace.
The temple where the Empress prays to the many Buddhas stored in there.  This temple sits on all rocks.  How the hell did these people built this temple is beyond me!  And the carvings of individual little Buddhas on the outside.  Before the Empress goes into the Temple, there is a hall with rooms where she changes to her prayers’ clothing.   The very top building with the Buddah carvings is where the Buddhas and dieties are placed.  No pictures were allowed in there.  The statue of the Buddha was humongous.

 The many many Buddhas carved onto the building and the 2 “Loongs” (dragons), I was awed.

 Another view of it.

We got here at around 9-30-ish a.m. Food and drinks here selling double the prices.  We didn’t bring much food with us, whereas most of everyone who came here brought along their own food and beverages.  It was here along the Long Corridor mom and I bought our instant noodle in a bowl, or the locals call it “fong pian mien”.  Damn convenient.  The vendors have the bowls in their store, you pick one, pay him and he will tell you open, put in the accompanying seasonings, and lastly using the hot water in a flask provided, pour the hot water into your noodles.  The one bowl of noodles is huge but that day, mom and I had one each.  And from that day onwards, the “fong pien mien” was our life saver!

We didn’t get out of the Palace till almost 5 p.m.  This Palace is huge.  We covered, I would say, 85% of the grounds; every nooks and crannies, gardens, halls, courtyards, we touched them.   The only remaining area we didn’t cover was the other part of the Palace gardens where the Marble is located.  There are more gardens and gardens, endless.  We finally walked out and took the No 93 bus back to the cities.  Long tiring day but so worth it.

Continuation from here.

June 16, 2009: Mom and I woke up earlier than the other pair (bro and “wife”) to get some food for our excursion to the Great Wall, Badaling section.  The driver actually called us at 7 a.m. letting us know he was waiting for us but our appointment was 7:30.  Good thing bro and wife were up and about before 7:30.  The morning was damn gloomy – rain and mist.  What a waste.  It definitely dampened our mood.  We rather have the hot sunny days.  Anyways, it was Mr. Lai’s brother who became our driver for the day.

Instead of putting pics up, here’s the slideshow of our wet visit to the Wall.  I didn’t take very many coz there were not much I could see.  However, my bro took more pics of me at the Wall. 

After the visit to the Badaling section of the Great Wall, the driver took us for lunch.  We asked him to take us to a restaurant where we can taste Peking duck.  We tasted duck alright.  It wasn’t what we wanted plus that restaurant was a cut throat.  I should have taken a picture of the restaurant, but I didn’t, just wanted to get out of that restaurant swarming with flies.  Yuck!

The next destination was Ming Tombs, the underground tombs.  Below is the slideshow of the pics I took at the Tombs, Temple of Heave, and some shots at Wangfujing Street.  I didn’t take a lot of pictures inside the tombs.  I was told not to, so, respect sikit la.  The experience of going down the tomb was a good one.  We had to walked down flights of steps, which seems like no end at all.  The walls, the entire tomb is made of marble.  The temperature as we were walking down were getting cooler and of course, damp.  The original tombs are gone but just the fake ones.  But there are some other marble fixtures, seats for the emperor/ress are still there and the big marble door which is the original main entrance to the underground tomb is still there.

After the tombs, we went straight to the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube.  What a waste of money for parking.  My opinion of the “Nest” is it looks much better from a far.  And the Cube, of course, it would be better if we were there at night.  Anyhoo, at least we can say we went there.

Next is the Temple of Heaven.  Another lovely place.  I kept thinking of how the fung shui folks works.  The temple definitely has great fungshui, built high up, facing the Forbidden City, it is a wonder.

From the Temple of Heaven, we walked to Wangfujing Street.  We wanted to take the cab, but for some reason, we walked and walked till I sure felt my feet, knees and thighs were coming off me!  Needless to say my mom and I slept like a log when we were in China.

Part 3 coming up: Summer Palace.

June 13, 2009: DB took me to the airport, found out my scheduled American Airline (AA) flight departing Minneapolis (MSP) to Dalls, Fort Worth (DFW)  was canceled.  Confirmed me on another flight departing MSP 15 minutes earlier to Chicago (ORD), ORD to Narita (NRT)  which worked out great with my other connecting flight from Narita (NRT) to Beijing (PKG) by Japan Airlines (JAL).

June 14, 2009: Arrived Beijing on time at 9:15 p.m. but all passengers were detained inside the plane for H1N1 check BS.  Didn’t get out to the Arrival hall till passed 10 p.m.  My mom, bro, and his “wife” were there to meet me.  I was so happy to see my mom again.  We all took a cab back to the hotel, Botai Hotel.  I initially booked a hotel at Wangfujiang Da Wan Hotel for 2 rooms and guaranteed them with my credit card, too, but they still let the rooms go after 6 p.m.  Have to make a note to T’ed them good.  Oh, and bro and mom noticed that the cab driver purposely took us the long way around to the hotel from the airport.  So, there, first day in China already kena ketuk good.  BTW, mom and gang arrived from KUL to Tianjin and took a bullet train to Beijing (30+ minutes).  They arrived at the hotel past 6 p.m.

 Botai Hotel located on this street

After  unloading  my luggage, we took a walk to hunt for food.  We wanted to go to Wangfujiang Street for food.  Walk, walk asked a lady who was collecting plastic bottles for directions.  She said to follow her.  She took us to a small alley and more small alleys and finally she said “you turn right, straight on and you will be at WFJ Street).”  Hahahaha, we walked and walked and finally said screwed it, we stopped at this shop for food since it was already past 11 p.m.  Btw, first impression of Beijing in the dark, it was hazy and damn noisy.  All the honking.

There were no empty tables  but the worker (with the cigi butt) told his buddies to move, cleared the tables filled with satay sticks, beer bottles, and glasses for us 4.  Sat down and that’s where the chickens and ducks started their conversation on what to order for food.  Asked for pork in our noodles and found out they are Muslims.  See the Arabic words on the picture??  Duh!!!  We had each a bowl of noodles with beef and  10 sticks of BBQed lamb which we didn’t finished.  The lamb sticks were too gamey smelling and laden with salt to the max.

June 15, 2009: Had our breakfast of champions (noodles and sui kau) at one of the little shops along the hotel area.  Then start of walking expedition to Tiananmen Square.  We walked and walked and my favorite phrase in Putong-hua: “Ni hui shuo ying wen ma?” were thrown at the locals for when we need directions.  Bro speaks better Chinese than I do.  Mom understands more than I do, too.  She said thanks to Astro!  We walked past this beautiful cathedral, the Wangfujing Cathedral. 

Then saw Bank of China, somewhere near Wangfujng Street, did some transactions there and asked a guy for directions to Tiananmen Sq just along the street where he parked his car.  After getting directions from him, that guy asked where else we are visiting in Beijing.  We told him (Great Wall) and he asked if we want him to be our guide.  We agreed and told him we will have him to take us to Badaling Great Wall, Ming Tombs and Temple of Heaven the next day for RMB400 the whole day and transportation another RMB700.  We didn’t book any tours for the entire trip in China.

This guide, Mr. Lai, I think that’s his name, then drove us to Forbidden City, the south entrance but still need to hop into one of those golf carts to the front entrance for tickets.   Finally, we saw this while walking towards the ticket booths.  We didn’t go in from the main entrance.  Too bad the entire day and all the days we were in Beijing were hazy.  Seeing the Tiananmen Square through one of those gates, I was happy.  A feeling of, wow, I’m now in the Forbidden City, imagination run wild on how the emperor and his entourage came the gates.

Walked in, got our tickets.  Walking into the cool, breezy passages of the gates were a nice relieved from the steamy temperature.

After walking past one big compound to another and finally to the Gates of Meridian and then, saw the main big hall, Hall of Supreme Harmony.  Finally!!  My mind went wild again with all kinds of images how the emperor was carried on his sedan chair along the middle path which is marble, btw and his soldiers all kneeling before him.  Grand feeling.

And the throne:

We walked almost the whole of Forbidden City, of course, we skipped some sections as they all looked the same!  We got there around 10:30-ish a.m. and didn’t get out of there till 4+ p.m.  We went from the middle, right side all the way to the end and then walked the left side of the city, see map.  There were Halls after Halls we saw.  Can’t even remember the names.  I know they don’t look the same, but to my eyes, they all look the same; mainly because we don’t know Chinese.  Then the rooms of the concubines, and back to the front where we came in.

Here is a slideshow of some of the pics I took while in the City, Tiananmen Square and finally the Ancient City Gate.

…from my vacation.  Arrived back home in Minneapolis yesterday night after a very, very long flight.  I am doing pretty good with the jet lag thingy.  I didn’t sleep much two days before my departure from Spore.  The eve of my departure, I was up the whole night.  Want to read more, go here and read it.    I’m too lazy to write since there is easy access to it!  I’m currently getting the China pictures on to Facebook.  It’s taking a long time to upload them.

I will get the pics and posts up on this blog later.  Just hang in there!