Trip Report!! ABD Enchanted China 6/4-15/2017 Update 8/11/18! Day 10 - Shanghai à la Carte

Your trip report is bringing back great memories of our trip to China, just a few weeks after yours. It was such a surreal experience to actually be standing on the Great Wall. I had to pinch myself several times and remind myself to savor every moment of the experience. Glad you were okay after falling. That had to be scary! At least every time you see the scar on your arm you will be reminded of the Great Wall and your trip to China.
That's a good word for it. Surreal. It really was. Awe-inspiring, but you really have to stop and go "OMG, I'm *here*! I'm on the Great Wall of China!" :) The fall was scary. In that split second where I felt myself falling, until I'd stopped & realized I was OK. Your brain goes into hyper-drive and you imagine all sorts of things until you know what the situation is. I don't remember who it was, but someone on the trip said "You just wanted to leave a little bit of yourself on the Great Wall." :) But you're right. I do think about China every time I see the scar!

Your great wall pictures are amazing. I love all the different perspectives. I am sorry you fell, but intrigued by your rolling technique. It sounds like it avoided what could have been a bad injury. It's going to be a lot of years before I make it to China, so I am really enjoying visiting vicariously through your report.
Thanks! So glad you're enjoying the pictures! The perspective really did change as I walked, and I just kept taking pics hoping at least one of them would show what it was like there. :) I think a few of them together, do! As for the rolling technique, I wish I could remember who taught me that move. They've saved me from more than one bad injury!

Amazing photos! It looks like everyone was having such a good time. Worth the wait :)
Thanks! I think everyone did have a good time. It was a great group, and great Guides, and a great itinerary!! Couldn't have asked for more. (Except maybe cooler weather in Hong Kong! ;) )

Sayhello
 
Omg, sayhello, your fall story reminds me of my Italy trip. I climbed the leaning tower of pisa, the dome at st. Peter's, the dome at the Florence duomo, giotto's bell tower, the bell tower at the palazzo vecchio, and the clock tower and terrace of st. Mark's. No trouble. Everyone said before I left for Italy, "don't fall!" I was so pleased I made all those treacherous climbs with no trouble. Then, on my second to last day, in a Milan post day, I fell and chipped my tooth following the guide at the cathedral. On flat ground. Just tripped over a cord.

Fortunately it was no biggie. But I feel your pain.
 
Omg, sayhello, your fall story reminds me of my Italy trip. I climbed the leaning tower of pisa, the dome at st. Peter's, the dome at the Florence duomo, giotto's bell tower, the bell tower at the palazzo vecchio, and the clock tower and terrace of st. Mark's. No trouble. Everyone said before I left for Italy, "don't fall!" I was so pleased I made all those treacherous climbs with no trouble. Then, on my second to last day, in a Milan post day, I fell and chipped my tooth following the guide at the cathedral. On flat ground. Just tripped over a cord.

Fortunately it was no biggie. But I feel your pain.
:eek: Definitely sounds like something I'd do!!

Sayhello
 


Great pictures of the Wall! I like the story of the guy carving your name into the stamp. A couple of hours down to 5 min... classic!
Country Kitchen looks great. We've got 1 month before our China ABD. Getting excited. It will be nice to see Hong Kong in the Fall. The summer was indeed brutal.
 
Great pictures of the Wall! I like the story of the guy carving your name into the stamp. A couple of hours down to 5 min... classic!
Country Kitchen looks great. We've got 1 month before our China ABD. Getting excited. It will be nice to see Hong Kong in the Fall. The summer was indeed brutal.
Thanks! :) Glad you liked the pics! It was hard not to laugh when the guy suddenly changed his tune!

I'm so interested to hear about you guys' trip. And whether Hong Kong in the Fall is any better. I've heard it's humid pretty much all the time.

Sayhello
 
Thanks! :) Glad you liked the pics! It was hard not to laugh when the guy suddenly changed his tune!

I'm so interested to hear about you guys' trip. And whether Hong Kong in the Fall is any better. I've heard it's humid pretty much all the time.

Sayhello

Hopefully it will be a bit cooler. Unfortunately today the high was still 96 (low 81). That's hotter than Houston right now. Painful. Still have one month to go. Google says the average high in Oct is 82 (low 73) which I can deal with. Fingers crossed!
 


Hopefully it will be a bit cooler. Unfortunately today the high was still 96 (low 81). That's hotter than Houston right now. Painful. Still have one month to go. Google says the average high in Oct is 82 (low 73) which I can deal with. Fingers crossed!
:scared1:

I'll keep good thoughts for you guys!

Sayhello
 
Just catching back up. Love the photos and the trip report! Makes me even more excited about doing this trip next year!
 
What an amazing adventure! I'm so glad you didn't get more injured than you did on those steps! I've always wanted to visit Beijing and the Great Wall of China but don't think I'd have the stamina especially to climb those steps. Your pics are amazing!
 
Day 6: Beijing Pedi-cabin’ the Hutong & on to Chengdu

So today was an interesting mix, as we actually had activities all morning through lunch, and then were flying out to Chengdu after lunch. It was nice, because it wasn’t a normal rush to the airport type of day.

Suitcases had to be out for pickup before breakfast. Then, after breakfast, we headed out to the area of Beijing called the Hutong. We were dropped off by our bus by a beautiful Gate, where we met a local Guide who was to help us navigate the morning’s activities.

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We walked back to where seemingly hundreds of Pedi-cabs were sitting waiting for customers. We were shepherded into Pedi-cabs in twos.

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Once everyone was situated, and the requisite photos taken, off we went, on our way through the Hutong.

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The Hutong in Central Beijing is made up of centuries-old homes set in small courtyards along narrow alleyways. I have to admit that I had some big misconceptions about this. From things I’d heard, I’d somehow imagined the Hutong to be slums, and that we’d be winding through narrow, bedraggled areas of the city. It totally wasn’t true. The areas are old, and the roadways in some parts *are* narrow, but it’s a beautiful, bustling and well-maintained area. In fact, it’s going through some gentrification right now, and according to Joe, it’s one of the most expensive places to live in Beijing.

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As we wound our way through the roadways of the Hutong, my amazement (and embarrassment) grew! Some of the homes were downright opulent, and it was all quite pretty. So much for pre-conceived notions! (This is one of the things I love about traveling. Having those notions knocked away!)

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We finally stopped, walked a bit further, and ended up in the first home where we would be doing one of our crafts set up for the day. But first, several of us needed a potty break. It took us a bit to get the man who was guiding us to understand, but once we conveyed what was needed, a rather desperate group of us were led through the roadways to a central area, and the community bathroom. Boy-oh-boy. These folks must *really* get to know their neighbors well! Because apparently the homes in the Hutong do not have their own bathrooms. They all share a common bathroom for each little courtyard community. The bathroom had squatty potties only, no doors, and walls about 3 feet high between each potty. At this point, modesty went out the window, and we just took care of business.

When we got back to the home we’d been led to, we were split into two groups, and would rotate which activities we’d be doing. My group found ourselves in a room with two large, round tables, with paper, ink and long brushes set out.

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A very patient young lady, with the help of Ralph, showed us how to properly hold the brushes, and how to draw some Chinese characters.

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Some of the characters they taught us were the evolution of a word, I believe it was “Home”. It was way difficult! I’m sure after a while you get used to how to how much pressure to use, etc. I don’t know that I did that well (I doubt what I wrote was actually what it was supposed to represent!) But it was fun trying, and fun seeing who actually *did* have the knack of it!

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When we finished with our calligraphy lesson, we gathered our sheets up, and went on to the next house. There, we learned the art of paper cutting. The first ones we did were not too hard, because the lines were drawn on the paper for us.

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The next one, however, she just gave us step by step instructions, and we had to cut our figures out of a blank piece of paper! That was definitely more of a challenge!

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When we were done, we were given a very intricately cut paper design.

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This was the woman who taught us paper cutting. I’m assuming this was her dog? But with the way the Hutongs are, it could have been a neighbor's dog, or a community dog, too.

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Next up, was knot tying. This one was way more complicated than I’d thought it would be. It was hard to see what it was we were making.

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But then, suddenly, it took shape. Pretty cool!

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The fun part about all these activities, besides the fun of trying something new, and using your hands, was that the teachers told us things about their lives in Beijing, and in the Hutong, as they were teaching us their traditional crafts. I really loved this morning’s activities!

After this, we walked to a Park, where we saw a woman giving haircuts out in the open.

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For our last activity, the whole group was reunited in the park, and taught the Chinese yo-yo. Man-oh-man, was that *HARD*! Some people took right to it, but I barely managed to get it to even spin, let alone any tricks like throwing it in the air.

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Honestly, just getting it to spin felt like *quite* the accomplishment to me!!

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After we’d all had some time to practice with the yo-yo’s, and Ralph & Joe got a group shot, we turned in our yo-yo’s and walked around the corner to the restaurant where we were having our lunch, the Noble House Restaurant. It was another pretty place, with a ton of very delicious dishes served family style. You’d think by now that we’d all have learned to take it easy and only try a few dishes, but of course, we hadn’t, so most of us left totally stuffed, but happy!

During lunch, one of the women in the group decided to go back out to the park, and get her hair cut by the woman we had seen when we walked in. She got a really cute haircut! That woman really knew what she was doing.

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After lunch, we walked past a lake and along a portion of the Grand Canal that cuts through Beijing, on the way to our motorcoach.

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We were then driven to the Beijing airport, to catch our flight to Chengdu!

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Our experience at the Beijing airport was not great. It was not any better flying out of there than it was arriving. For me, it started out badly, because something about me or my personal item flagged as suspicious going through security, and the guy made me pull all sorts of things out of my bag so that he could look through them, and re-run my bag through the scanner. Things like my makeup bag and my travel umbrella. This was, unfortunately, a circumstance that only got worse as the trip progressed. Once I *finally* made it through security, the airport itself was insane. I don’t remember all of the issues we had, but recall it was not the best experience, especially as our flight ended up leaving an hour and a half late, and much of that time was spent sitting on the plane waiting for our turn to take off. Apparently this is pretty typical for the Beijing airport. It’s just too small for the amount of air traffic that goes through it. They’re building a new, MUCH bigger airport; hopefully that will help once it opens.

I can’t recall if this was one of those days where we landed, and went straight to dinner or if we checked into the hotel first. It was another nice meal with lots of yummy dishes served family style. There were a lot of really nice vegetable dishes with this meal, plus an opportunity to try the Szechuan mouth-numbing pepper. I didn’t try it, but apparently it’s not that it’s so hot it makes your mouth go numb, it just has some sort of numbing property. It made for some entertainment watching people try it!

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This was right outside the restaurant.

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After dinner, we headed to our hotel in Chengdu, the Ritz Carlton Chengdu. The hotel is way up on an office building. I think it started on something like the 23rd floor. The hotel had some spectacular views of Chengdu.

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It was a very nice hotel room (although you know you’ve stayed in some fabulous hotels when you describe the Ritz Carlton as “very nice” or, in some cases, as “OK”!)

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The “highlight” of these rooms was, believe it or not, the toilet. When it sensed you entering the room, the lid raised and lights came on. It was also heated. It had all sorts of controls next to it for all the various functions it was capable of. It was a novelty for about the first 15 minutes, but was more of an annoyance than anything, because I had to keep the door to its little enclosure closed or else it would do its thing whenever I entered or exited the bathroom.

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The next day was another activity I was really looking forward to – PANDAS!!

Next up: Chengdu Panda-monium!
 
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I enjoyed riding along in the Hutongs. The neighborhoods were very pretty. I was awful at the arts and crafts activities, but we didn't have calligraphy. Can't quite remember what we had instead, but I'm pretty sure whatever it was, I wasn't very good at it. :)
 
I enjoyed riding along in the Hutongs. The neighborhoods were very pretty. I was awful at the arts and crafts activities, but we didn't have calligraphy. Can't quite remember what we had instead, but I'm pretty sure whatever it was, I wasn't very good at it. :)
I was really bad at the calligraphy! The paper cutting and especially the knot tying were a lot more forgiving!! :)

Sayhello
 

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