We were scheduled to fly back to Guangzhou on a 4:50 flight out of Tianjin.  Tianjin is a city approximately 70 miles southeast of Beijing.  We were going to take a bullet train from Beijing to Tianjin, then a taxi from the train station to the airport.  This would not only be the most cost effective method, but also the most time efficient method.  The entire trip from our hotel to the Tianjin airport was supposed to take us less than 1½ hour, so on a normal day we would not need to leave Beijing until 2:30.  However we had been advised by numerous people that travel around Beijing would be hell that day, as they were rehearsing for China’s 60^th National Day.  National Day is the anniversary of China becoming the People’s Republic of China and is celebrated on October 1^st.  Therefore, we asked for a late checkout at 1:00 PM, giving us an additional 1 ½ hour to get to Tianjin. 

We still had a whole morning left, so we decided to go to the Temple of Heaven.  The Temple of Heaven was the complex that the emperor of China visited to pray for good harvest every year.  This is another ancient ground that is now widely used as a park.  There were people playing shuttlecock, badminton and Chinese chess, ballroom dancing and practicing tai chi, along with the tourists visiting the historic landmarks.  We spent a while walking around the complex, but once again found it so crowded that we could not get good pictures of most of the buildings.  The one thing that we did find at the Temple of Heaven that I did not find anywhere else was a souvenir shop that actually sold t-shirts. 

Upon leaving the Temple of Heaven, we were greeted by the traffic snarl, we were promised.  After days of finding a taxi in seconds, it took us a long time to hail a taxi.  We got back to the hotel, but could not use the elevator, as our keycards had expired.  The front desk clerk reinstated our cards and we went upstairs and collected our luggage and went back down to checkout.  We asked the front desk clerk about mailing postcards, as we had not seen a single post office the past couple of days.  She nicely offered to take our postcards to the post office tomorrow the next day, as she did not have to work.  We gave her $20 which was more than enough to cover the cost of mailing the cards, but she insisted on giving us change, after we told her how much it would be to mail each of the cards.  Again, tipping is completely discouraged. 

We went outside and tried to flag down a taxi and after 15 minutes, we were still unable to flag one down.  So, we walked to the main road and as we were approaching the end of the street, a taxi pulled up in front of us and the passengers got out and we got in.  The seven mile taxi ride turned out to the ride from hell, we were stuck in traffic for close to 30 minutes.  We got to the train station to find that the next train was leaving in 10 minutes, knowing that there was no way we were going to make that with the two kids in tow, we opted to wait for the next train, which was leaving in 40 minutes. 

We then went to the KFC and McDonalds in the train station and bought lunch for us and the kids.  Quickly ate our lunch and went to the train platform.  All luggage was placed by the back of the train car in an open area and all passengers were assigned seats.  The train ride was to take exactly 30 minutes and the train was expected to get up to 330km per hour (205mph).  The train ride was quick and efficient; the scenery went by with the blink of the eye.  I had never gone quite that fast on land before and the traffic geek in me was ultra excited with the ride on the train.  We did get up to at least 324kph; there was a nifty screen that showed the speed of train. 

Once we got off the train, we were greeted by a bunch of people offering rides to the airport for a set amount of money.  We quickly struck up a deal and were off to the airport.  The ride to the airport took us about 20 minutes, which was quicker than expected.  We got to the airport just in time to check in for our flight and sit for 15 minutes before we were to board the plane.  This was a nice change from the last plane ride where we were stuck at the airport for hours.

The flight was fine until the end; we were again given meals of rice with chicken or beef with noodles.  The gentleman next to me was rather large, he requested and was given two meals.  We arrived in the Guangzhou area on time, but had to fly around a while before we were allowed to land.  By the time we landed, it was close to 9:00.  We collected our luggage and went to meet Auntie and Wah.  They then took us to the usually noodle restaurant for a quick dinner and it was back to the same hotel we stayed at previously in Guangzhou.

Again, the check in process was simple, with the passports of all adults, the required deposit and we were given room 3223.  This room was slightly smaller than the last room, but was fine, as we were only staying one night.  The bathroom was clean and the bathmat was not moldy this time.  The kids and adults fell asleep quickly after a long week of walking and sightseeing.

The next morning, we woke up and headed to 7-11 for what I consider a normal breakfast for me, a can of coke and a bag of Doritos.  The kids got a kick out of having chips for breakfast.  We caught a taxi again and headed to the Forbidden City.

While I was in Guangzhou, I had been warned that since the last time I went to Beijing was in 1985, I would find many things very fake.  I wondered how that could be possible.  We entered the Forbidden City and I found that the amazing stairs between all the buildings now have metal plates over them to prevent wear and tear on the original stone.  The signs over the buildings have all been replaced by bad replicas (they are all written in simplified Chinese).  Also, as the last time we were there, travel within China was not easy, so there were hardly people at all these places.  Now, it seems that all one billion people in China visited on the same day.  There were some areas that were so packed that we couldn’t even get close to the door to take a picture.

The Forbidden City though is still an amazing place to walk through and I am still in awe of it.  There are 999½ rooms in the Forbidden City, apparently in the old days a room consisted of four columns and there 3,998 columns, hence the ½ room.  There are no words to describe seeing something like the Forbidden City, Great Wall or even something like the Summer Palace, as it is astounding what people were able to do before computers, the planning that must have gone into these projects.

We walked starting from the front gate, starting at what was considered the front palace, where the emperor would hold court every morning.  Through to the back palace, where the emperor and his family lived, the only outsiders allowed back here were maids, eunuchs and doctors.  We got to see the rooms where the emperor and empresses lived and the emperor’s study.  We then exited the palace through the back gate and walked to BeiHai Park.

BeiHai Park was originally the imperial garden attached to the Forbidden City.  The park is now separated from the Forbidden City and the entrance is a short walk away.  By this time, it was about 1:00, so we decided to eat in the park.  In the front of the park, there were a number of small restaurants competing for business.  We chose the busiest looking one and quickly ordered some dumplings, noodles and a dish of vegetables.  I expected an order of dumplings with 6 or 8, like we usually get in the U.S, but when the dumplings came to the table, we were greeted by a plate of 20+ good sized dumplings.  However, it turned out to be a good thing that there were so many dumplings, as the other food was once again too spicy for us.  Thank goodness my kids like white rice. 

After the quick lunch, we started walking around the park and one of the first things we saw was a man practicing Chinese calligraphy with a giant paint brush and a bucket of water.  He obligingly wrote out the kids’ Chinese names for them.  We continued to walk and saw many people selling various toys, such as miniature kites.  Similar to the Summer Palace, there is also a huge lake in the middle of Beihai Park, which technically means North Sea Park, so once again you can rent a boat to ride from one end of the park to the other.  We walked around the lake and saw people practicing tai chi, Izz got into the action and practiced her tai kwon do form.  At the north end of the park is the Nine Dragon Screen, this Nine Dragon Screen is one of three in China and is unique in that there are dragons on both sides.   As we were leaving the park, we saw another man with a paint brush and a bucket of water, but instead of Chinese calligraphy, this man was drawing pictures of people.  Without asking, he drew pictures of both of the kids.

There is a Chinese saying, “You have not been to Beijing if you have not visited a Hutong.”  As we were leaving BeiHai park, we were approached by a number of people advertising a rickshaw (these are now powered by people of bicycles) ride through a Hutong.  A Hutong is a series of old narrow streets, which connected a bunch of old courtyard houses.  These narrow streets hide many treasures that are no longer seen in newer neighborhoods.  Once again, we quickly struck a deal with one of the guys and he quickly went off to find a friend as we would need two rickshaws. 

The hutong we were taken through was approximately 400 years old and was the main area of residence for the palace eunuchs.  There was a huge (now abandoned) building, which used to house the eunuchs’ members.  Eunuchs were extremely protective of their removed members, as Chinese people believed that a corpse should be complete and these parts were put in their coffins with them.  This hutong was also the location of the imperial ice house the elementary school that Jet Li went to.

After the hutong tour, it was still early enough to head north and visit the 2008 Olympic Village.  We took a city bus to the area closest to the bird’s nest and started walking. We got there as it was starting to get dark, so we got to see the bird’s nest with and without the lights on.  We were however too late to go inside of the buildings, so we just took pictures from the outside.  We then walked over toward the ice cube and got some pictures of that.

At this time, it was fairly late and when asked what they wanted for dinner, one kid promptly replied KFC, while the other answered McDonalds.  We decided that we would head back to the hotel and see which was closer and get that.  Upon return to the hotel, we were told that KFC was a 15 minute walk, while McDonalds was a 10 minute walk; however McDonalds delivers 24/7.  We went upstairs, called McDonalds and were eating in our hotel in about 20 minutes.

As a part of the hotel deal, we got three free breakfasts, one per night we stayed there.  We went to the coffee shop down the block to redeem our coupons and were told to help ourselves to the breakfast buffet.  There were eggs, bacon, sausage, congee, breads, sandwiches, fruits and various drinks.  The breakfast was good, since it was free, I probably wouldn’t pay out of pocket for it.  We ate quickly and headed out for the day.

There are three sections of the Great Wall near Beijing open to the public, Simatai, Badaling and Mutianyu.  Badaling is the most crowded as probably a hundred public buses go there each day and it is the easiest to walk.  Simatai is supposed to be hardest to walk and the most run down.  Mutianyu is supposed to be in the middle.  Additionally, Mutianyu has a toboggan ride down, which I figured would be fun for the kids, so that is where we were headed.

We went to the bus terminal for Badaling, figuring that we could find a taxi there.  My research told me that I should expect to pay around 600RMB ($90 US) for a taxi to take us there.  We got to the bus area and there were tons of taxis standing there.  Most of them did not want to go to Mutianyu, as it is further from Beijing than Badaling.  One driver finally agreed to take us for 500RMB ($75 US).  The ride there took about one hour.

The driver parked in a lot near the ticket office.  We walked over to the ticket counter and there were two sets of windows, the ones on the left sold tickets for the cable car (one-way and roundtrip), this would take us to tower 14 of this section of the wall.  The windows on the right sold tickets for the ski-lift and the toboggan which are located at tower 6.  My mom is afraid of heights, so we bought me and Kathy one-way tickets on the cable car and my mom a roundtrip ticket, we also bought the two of us trips down on the toboggan.  The kids were still free!  We walked up a hill to get to the cable car and along the way, there were dozens of stalls selling various souvenirs.  We got to the cable car area and found a spot for my mom to wait later.  We had a breathtaking view of the mountains on the way up and about ¾ of the way up, we could see the towers of the wall.  We got to the top and while we were taking pictures, Chubba spotted some sort of animal in the trees, we think it was a donkey, since we could only see the back. 

We walked up to the tower and there were two ways to go, up to Towers 15-20 or down to Towers 13-6.  My mom took some pictures with us and headed back down for her ride on the cable car.  The four of us started our hike to Tower 6.  I had the kids walking the whole way with the promise of an imitation ripstik at the end of our trip.  The walk was not really bad, it was fairly warm, but there were a lot of stairs and some were steeper than others.  The view was breathtaking at most of the locations. 

The hike to Tower 6 took us over an hour.  When we got there, we were given quick instructions on the toboggans (think the Alpine Slide at Action Park (is Action Park still there?)).  Chubba was going to ride with me and Izz was going to ride with Kathy, Izz wanted to control the thing all the way (ie, no braking).  The ride down took less than 5 minutes and it was a lot of fun.  There were a couple of dips and some nice turns.  Izz says that this was her favorite part of the trip.

After returning to the bottom, I went back to find my mother, but was told that the ticket I bought was only good for one admission into the area.  So, I went back down to find the kids and Kathy, so she could call my mom.  As we were waiting for my mom to show up, we were approached my numerous vendors trying to hawk their wares.  One lady approached me with a bunch of T-shirts and told me that they were 10RMB ($1.50 US) each.  I looked through her shirts and the kids each picked a shirt.  We were then told that she would sell them to me for 400RMB ($60 US).  Huh?  Apparently, her argument was that these shirts were 100% cotton and the one she showed me in the beginning was Polyester, everyone else is selling the shirts for 285 RMB ($43 US) each (yeah, right).  We started to walk away and the prices she was offering started getting lower and lower.  Kathy then said 100RMB) $15 US for the four shirts.   Her price continued to go down, while we held steady.  Finally, she agreed to the 100RMB.

We got back to the taxi and he agreed to take us to the Summer Palace, which is located northwest of the Beijing proper.  We drove along for a while and then the driver pulled along side of the road to inquire which direction we should go.  We were then informed that this was the first time he had been to Mutianyu.  We got side tracked for about half an hour and then had the hour ride to the Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace was built by the emperor QianLong for his mother.  This place is currently a park, where one can fly kites, ride on boats and just spend hours upon hours walking around.  A temple built is located on the grounds and was used as a private place of worship by the Dowager Empress CiXi during the Qing Dynasty.  The first thing we did when we arrived at the park was take a boat ride across the pond. The boat looked like something out of an old movie, with a dragon head.  After the short boat ride where we saw people flying kites and rowing or peddling their own boats, we came to a dock.  We walked down the “Long Corridor”, which was build so that the CiXi did not have to endure the sun and rain and could always walk under cover.  After the walk, we decided that we were quite hungry, since we didn’t eat lunch that day, so we headed out of the park to go for a Peking Duck dinner!

We caught a taxi outside of the Summer Palace, and after riding for about 10 minutes, we hid mad traffic.  I started looking at a map and saw that we were right next to a subway stop.  So, we got out of the taxi which had not moved at all and went to the subway.  The subway cost 2RMB (30¢ US) and it is per ride, no matter how far you go, similar to the New York City Subway.  The subway was crowded, but people gladly gave up their seats to the elderly and to people with children.  After the ride, we came back above ground at Qian Men, which is the front door of the Forbidden City.

We walked over to QuanJuDe, which is the original Peking Duck house.  The Qian Men store is the original store, which started in the 1800s and the oven used to cook the ducks have been running since.  There are now numerous QuanJeDe stores in Beijing and even in other cities.  We got there at 6:00 and were told that there would be a one hour wait.  We waited outside for a bit, then headed inside, where they were calling number 82, we were number 141.  As we waited, we watch the chefs expertly cook the ducks in the ovens.  I was drooling as they were cooking.  After the close to one hour wait, we were finally called.  We ordered a whole duck with all the fixings, a dish of veggies and a couple of bowls of rice.  The duck came quickly and was expertly sliced in front of us.  We asked for the carcass, so that we can finish the meat off the bones, since only a small part of the meat is served for a peking duck.  We gobbled down all our food, The duck was excellent, the meat was juicy, the skin was crispy and it was so tasty. 

While at QuanJuDe, I got another taste of old meets new.  Toilets in China have historically been holes in the ground.  One would squat over the hole to relief themselves.  These squat toilets are still preferred by most people in china, with “western toilets” starting to become a bit more popular.  At QuanJuDe, I found automatic squat toilets!!!  I was totally speechless.

The next morning, a taxi driver called to tell us he was waiting for us downstairs.  We went down, checked out and boarded the taxi.  We asked the driver to drive us to the Chinese Hamburger place for breakfast.  Then we asked him to take us to a post office, so we could send some postcards out.  We drove around for a while and could not find a post office!  We finally found a post office and went into what I thought was the post office, it however turned out to be a bank.  Apparently, the China Postal Service, in order to keep afloat due to the decrease in mail has started its own bank!  The bank portion of the post office opened at 9:00, but the mail division did not open until 9:30.  We drove around for another half an hour with a tour of the Ancient City Wall that surrounds Central Xi’an.

We found another post office after 9:30 and Kathy and I went in to mail the postcards.  I was told the postcards would cost 4.50RMB (68¢ US) to mail.  I asked to buy an bunch of stamps, but I was told I could not do that because the largest denomination stamps come in is 80¢ RMB, so I could need at least 6 stamps to mail the postcard and I would not have enough room for the address.  I would have to go to the post office each time, so that they can just print a stamp label for the postcard. 

The taxi driver then took us to the mausoleum, we got there and saw the admissions price and decided against it.  So, we had the driver take us to the airport an hour early.  Airports in China are not clearly separated like airports in the US, where giant signs tell you where the ticket counters are.  The ticket counters are separated by sections and numbers, depending on the size of the airport, you check the monitors and look to see where you check-in.  For example, if you are checking into China Southern Airlines, you have to go to Section A, counters 17-21 or something like that.  The airport in Xi’an is relatively small, we quickly find the counter that we need to go to and get checked in.  As we check-in, we are told that I flight had been indefinitely delayed.

We go through security and find out gate and take a seat.  While we were waiting, Mun called Kathy and we were informed that there was a typhoon in Guangzhou.  The rains started the previous day and had not let up since.  After a bit of thought, we come to realize that the plane that we were supposed to take to Beijing should be the one that we had taken from Guangzhou, hence the delay.  Around noon, the airline provided each passenger with a boxed lunch, drink and fruit because of the delay.  We were finally told that our flight should take off around 2:30, which would be an approximately two hour delay.  The plane finally came in and after boarding, it was smooth sailing to Beijing.

We finally got out of the Beijing Airport close to 5:30.  We caught a taxi that took us to our airport for approximately 94RMB ($14 US).  The Luxury Serviced Residence was a bit hard to find, it was on a little private driveway on a small street between two major streets. 

This hotel is similar to a Residence Inn, where the units have kitchens and some have bedrooms.  I had booked us in a one-bedroom unit.  The front desk clerk asked if we had five people because we might be a bit cramped, since there was one king bed and a small sofa and if we wanted to upgrade.  I didn’t think we would need more room and the last time I was asked if I wanted to pay to upgrade anything, I was upgraded for free because they didn’t have what I reserved.  Well, it turned out that they did not have any one bedroom units left and had to upgrade us to a two bedroom unit.  The delay at the airport turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  The two bedroom unit had two levels, there was a kitchen, living room, one bedroom with a queen bed and a half bath downstairs.  The second level was a loft with a huge closet, a bedroom with a king bed, a full bath and a desk in the actual loft area. 

After settling down, we went in search of food.  The first place we came to was a dumpling restaurant.  We ordered a steamer with 10 dumplings, but these dumplings were closer in size to buns and were filled with meat.  We also ordered a couple of veggie dishes and some congee made from millet.  The meal was nothing special, but it was enough to keep us filled.

We stopped at the 7-11 across the street from the hotel and got some rolls for the kids’ breakfast the next day, as we knew we would want to get an early start for the great wall.

The driver called us around 7:45 and announced he was waiting downstairs and we could head out at any time.  We were just about ready to go out, but had not eaten breakfast yet.  We asked the driver what he could recommend and he took us to this little dive that sold Chinese Hamburgers (Ru Jia Mo).  Ru Jia Mo is very flavorful pulled pork in what is similar to a very thick pita.  We also ordered some rice noodles in soup, which was also very good.  The kids however did not enjoy the rice noodles in soup, but thought the Ru Jia Mo was OK, which was a total surprise to me. 

During the drive to breakfast, we asked about the price for a ride to the airport the next day.  We were told that it would be 250RMB ($37 US) for him to take us and if he found us a taxi, it would be 100RMB ($15 US) with a stop at HanYangLing (Tomb of Emperor Liu Qi) .  We felt the taxi would work better for us, so we asked him to find a taxi for us.  He had a taxi lined up for us before we finished breakfast.

The driver took us to a museum which housed Banpo Village, a 6,000 year old village, the old architecture was extremely interesting and you could still see the fireplaces and post holes.  The most interesting part was actually the burial ground.  You could see that each person was buried in perfect alignment.  There were some people who were buried on their sides and in disarray; I would imagine those people were killed for various reasons.

After the quick stop at the Banpo Village, we were taken to a jade store.  As the driver was a registered tour guide, he could make commission from any items we purchased at this and another store he would take us to.  Additionally, he would get a cut if he bought our admissions tickets.  We took a 2 minute walk through the place and did not buy anything.

He then took us to Lai Mountain, which houses a Toaist monastery.  The monastery is set high in the mountains surrounded by pomegranate trees.  There were pomegranates everywhere.  We stopped and took a look at all the different halls, those of us who were more religious (meaning not me) light incense.  After which we left and went for a look at HuaQingCi from the top of the mountain.  HuaQingCi is a bunch of hot springs where the Tang Emperors used to bathe.  This site is also famous as this was the spot where the Legendary Lady Yang of the Tang Dynasty was given permission to bathe even though she was not an emperor and there is a statue erected of her.  Lady Yang was known for her extreme beauty and for causing the decline of the Tang Dynasty.  The emperor fell in love with this beauty and lit the emergency torches causing the army to come protect the king (talk about crying wolf) thinking he was in trouble, but he just wanted Lady Yang to smile.

Next we stopped at a factory that makes replica terra cotta warriors.  This place also made some really cool tiles.  We walked through the place again and got back in the car for our next destination.

The driver then took us to a restaurant for lunch; we ordered a plate of scrambled eggs with veggies, sweet and sour chicken and greens with mushrooms.  The lunch was quite good, but the prices were quite high, as this was more of a place for tourists.

Finally, after lunch we were taken to the only place we really wanted to go, the home of the terra cotta warriors.  The driver suggested that we hire a tour guide, as the place was really big and it would be easier for us to navigate the place with the guide.  We bought our admissions tickets and went into the main area, where we were told we could either take the 45 minute walk up to the area where the warriors were or we could pay 5RMB (75¢ US) per person for a ride in a golf cart.  We paid the additional 15RMB ($2.25 US (kids were free) and rode up.  We went to see dig site 1, which is where Old Yang started digging a well in 1974 and dug up the warriors instead.  We were told that they have pretty much stopped all digging as they could not figure out how to preserve the warriors in its original form.  Most of us know the warriors as these dark gray figures, but apparently when they are first dug out, they are painted in many colors and the paints disappear soon after the figures are first unearthed.  We do not actually get a close look at the figures either; they are located about 50 feet from the guardrails that stop us from walking any further.  There is a special VIP area that allows you another 25 feet closer.  We were then asked if we wanted to go see Old Yang and get his autograph.  You can pay for a book about the warriors and he will autograph it for you.  He will only autograph an item bought at the store.  Next, we went to see dig site 2 and then dig site 3.  The views at these two sites were even worse.  Overall, the whole terra cotta thing was a bit of a disappointment to me.

Upon walking out of the museum, we were told that there was no ride down to the parking area.  We had to walk the 45 minutes down.  By this time both kids were extremely tired and were taking turns on my shoulders.  A man approached our tour guide and asked if we wanted a ride down for the price of $30.  We quickly got into his beat up old car and took the ride down.

Next we were taken to the museum of Chinese medicine.  The kids and I had absolutely no interest in this; we spent a better part of the tour playing with a grasshopper we found outside. 

We then headed back to City Center of Xi’an and the driver took us around for some brief views of other places including the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Bell Tower and the City Wall. 

We had a bunch of leftovers from lunch and some stuff from the previous night and since we were all pretty tired, we decided to eat in the hotel room.  There was a Malaysian/Singapore restaurant connected to the hotel, so I went down, got a couple of containers of rice and we ate in.

Auntie and Mun came early the next morning to take the four of us and Kathy to the airport.  We were going to fly to Xi’an today.  This is where the history major in me takes over…  Xi’an has a long historic past; it was the capital for a number of different dynasties in Chinese History, including the Qin, Han and Tang Dynasties.  The Qin Dynasty was the first dynasty where all of China was ruled by one Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, he is the guy that decided he needed company after he died and had a whole terra cotta army made.  The Tang Dynasty is extremely significant in Chinese History; so much that Chinese people still call themselves Tong Yun (Tang Ren in mandarin) meaning person of Tang.  Technology, literature, medicine and science flourished during the Tang Dynasty and were way ahead of other countries at the time.

I was extremely surprised at the differences in security and procedures at the airports in China.  First, we HAD to check-in at the counter because there are discounted tickets for children and since they discount the tickets, they must see the children to make sure they are children. At check-in everyone had to show their IDs.  We checked one of our suitcases, the rest were left behind in Guangzhou at Auntie’s house.  We were allowed and it is actually recommended that you lock all suitcases.  Again we had to show ID and boarding passes at a security check point.  Our bags were put through an x-ray machine, we kept our shoes on and walked through a metal detector and we were then checked again with wands.  We then walked to our gate, which turned out to be a bus stop.  We waited at the gate, as we had some time before our flight was to board.  Smoking is still allowed everywhere in China and cigarettes are all over the place, including the airport.  As lighters are not allowed through security, they have cigarette lighting machines/water machines at the gates.  Soon, the buses started arriving to take us to the boarding area for our place.  We waited for the crowds to thin out and ended up on the 3^rd bus out.  The ride to the plane took almost five minutes. 

A little while after the plane took off, we were offered beverages.  I thought that all we were getting during the flight was the drink, so to my surprise, the food cart came out next and we were offered noodles or sweet dim sum.  The noodles and dim sum came in little aluminum trays and we were also given cardboard boxes.  Inside the cardboard box, I found a plastic bag with a spoon, fork and napkin, a tangerine and a package of cookies.  We were offered a second round of beverages after the all the food was handed out.

We arrived in Xi’an after a 2½ hour plane ride and it was pouring out.  The Xi’an airport was extremely small compared to the other airports that we had visited during this trip.  There were less than 30 gates and we quickly got to the baggage claim and collected our luggage.  The first thing we saw upon walking out the exit was the Airport Shuttle; the bus ride was $25 per adult (kids under a certain height were free) for the trip into the center of Xi’an, which has THE Bell Tower as a landmark.  My research told me that I could get a cab for around 150RMB ($22US) to 200RMB ($30).  However, the cabs were located across the road and it would be easier to just get on the bus, so, on the bus we went and we would just catch a cab when we got into the city.  The bus ride took about 45 minutes.  We were standing by the bus stop when we pulled out the hotel information to get an address for a cab, when I looked up to see that the street we were looking for was right there.  So, we walked in the rain about 1,000 feet to the Citadines Hotel.  Citadines is a hotel with a bunch of suites, kitchen and all.  I reserved a studio, which actually had a sliding door to separate the living room with a pull out couch and the bedroom with a queen size bed.

Check-in was relatively painless, the guy at the front desk did try to sell a car on us for the next day to go see the Terra Cotta Warriors, and we were quoted a fee of 350RMB ($52US).  We decided to wait until we had a chance to see what our options were, so we told the guy at the desk we would let him know.  Another front desk clerk took us up to our room on the 12^th Floor (room 1206), the hotel elevator was glass and we could see the center of the hotel from the 3^rd floor up.  The front desk clerk not only took us and our luggage up to the room, but he set up the pullout couch, brought us extra towels, soaps and pillows and explained how to use everything in the room.  FYI – tipping is not required in most of China, as a tip is considered to be a bribe.

We then headed downstairs to find some food, after looking at a map; it looked like KFC was quite close to the hotel and we just wanted something quick.  We went downstairs and asked the front desk where KFC was and were told down the street, to the left.  We walked out of the hotel when one of the other front desk clerks was talking to a man outside.  The front desk clerk told us that the man was available for hire for the next day for 350RMB ($52US) to take us to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.  We told them we would think about it and started to walk off.  As we got to the corner, the guy caught up with us and told us that if we wanted, he could take us for 260RMB ($39US) the next day, if we met him at that location instead because he wouldn’t have to give the hotel a commission.  In the end, we agreed to pay him 240RMB ($35US) and he would meet us at 8:00 AM the next morning at that corner.

KFC ended up being further than we thought it was and it took us a while to get there.  We quickly ate lunch and decided it was too late to go to the Shaanxi History Museum and we opted to go to the Little Wild Goose Pagoda instead.  We tried to flag down a taxi in front of KFC, but we were told to go across the street because taxi drivers did not like to circle around the city.  HUH?  We soon found out why taxi drivers did not want to circle around, it was because taxis start at 6RMB (90¢ US) and each time the meter goes up, it went up by 1.50 RMB (22¢ US) and the meter barely moves.  We went about 3 kilometers and the meter went up once.  So, for a taxi driver to make more money, it is just easier for them to get as many fares as they can instead of driving around.

The Small Wild Goose Pagoda is not quite as famous as it’s big brother the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.  The Small Wild Goose pagoda was built in the early 700s and is 15 stories high.  We paid the 30 RMB admission, thinking it was pretty expensive for the smaller of the two pagodas, then found that the ticket included admission to the Xi’an Museum.  We got to the pagoda and my mom saw the steps and decided she did not want to climb up it.  Kathy, the kids and I started climbing up and after the first flight of steps, the kids decided they wanted to head back down.  After taking the kids down the stairs, Kathy and I started back up again and Izz decided she was up for the trek, so she came along.  As we started up the stairs, we noted that the windows to the outside as well as the ceiling got lower and lower.  By the time we got to the top level, the window was about half the size of Izz.  We trekked back down after looking at the view from the top, however because of the rain, we couldn’t really see too far.

We then headed to the museum, which had this really cool tile map of the area in the atrium.  Additionally, there were some really amazing scale models of old cities.  We also saw some historic pottery and models of carts from the Qin Dynasty.  The museum was OK, but not overly interesting.

As we left the museum, it was still raining and we decided it would be easiest to take a cab again, since it was so cheap.  We stood on the street for about 15 minutes trying to flag down a cab and people in front of us would either get to it before us or someone would be in the cab.  We finally decided to walk down to the bus stop to see if we could figure out where the bus went.  As we approached to the bus stop, a cab drove up and the passenger got off, so we quickly go on.  The cab took us back to our hotel and my mom and the kids decided they had enough, so Kathy and I went out in search for food to bring back to them.

We headed to the main drag, as the guy at check-in told us we could find some authentic Xi’an food across the road.  We went in and were told that they did not have any take out.  We them walked further down to find what is supposed to be a very famous dumpling restaurant a little further down.  We went in and they had on display a number of very pretty looking dumpling dishes.  There were dumplings in the shape of frogs, turtles and flowers.  However, we figured that these dumplings would not be good if we took them back to the hotel.  We saw a busy street back the way we came, so we headed over to see what they had.  The street was located right behind this huge imposing drum tower.  The Bell Tower and the Drum Tower were both previously used for defensive purposes.  This street was full of vendors making all sorts of kabobs.  There were noodle kabobs, I asked for one that was no spicy and my mouth was burning when I tried it.  We also saw lamb and beef kabobs, as well as chicken kabobs and all sorts of giblet kabobs.  Note that I did not mention any pork, it turns out this street was in the Muslim Quarter of Xi’an, so pork was forbidden.  We finally walked into a somewhat clean looking restaurant and ordered what is called Pow Mor.  Pow Mor is rice noodles in broth with slices of beef or lamb, additionally, a piece of flat bread comes with it and you rip the flat bread into pieces and put it into the soup to soak up the fat from the broth.  I enjoyed the noodles and the meat, but did not care for the bread.  These two dishes were a little spicy, so I ordered some wings to bring back to the kids.  The wings came out and there were hot chili peppers everywhere!  I tried a piece of what looked like french fries from the top of the dish and my mouth was on fire from just biting into it.

I was pretty much done with my meal at this time and it was getting late, so Kathy continued to stay behind and finish eating while I went to get McD’s for my mom and the kids.  I went to the McD’s and tried with my broken Mandarin to order two Happy Meals and two McChickens (which I was told was not spicy).  Order kids’ meals seemed to always cause confusion, I don’t know why, I was even pointing to the English/Chinese menu at the time.  I was finally able to get my order and begged for four extra packets of ketchup (getting ketchup from these people is like pulling teeth).  I brought the food back to my mom and the kids and my mom promptly told me that the McChicken was spicy. 

Let me back track a bit here.  When we were planning the trip, I was trying to decide what hotel to book in Guangzhou, my mom had previously stayed at the 63-floor Guangzhou International Hotel, which had a rotating restaurant.  The Asia International Hotel is a building with 45 floors; which also has a rotating restaurant on the top floor.  This added to the confusion while making reservations. 

My mom wanted to eat at the rotating restaurant, which makes one circle in 2½ hours.  This morning Auntie, Uncle and Hang Hang came to the hotel to meet us for breakfast.  We went up to the rotating restaurant, but Auntie and Uncle quickly ushered us out, as they felt the 68RMB ($10 US) breakfast buffet is too expensive.  Their mentality is that it is all about the food; ambiance is not worth a penny.  We went downstairs to the Chinese restaurant and had dim sum instead. The dim sum was not spectacular and again overpriced in their opinion. 

By this time, all of Auntie’s family was waiting for us to go with us to Pan Yu for lunch.  Didn’t we just eat breakfast?  One of Auntie’s sons-in-law works for the government in Pan Yu, so he knows the area very well.  Today he reserved a bunch of fresh seafood for us for lunch.  We arrived at the restaurant located across the water from what is one of the most well known landmarks of Pan Yu, the gold statue of Kuan Yin looking at the sea (to protect those at sea).  Again, we had a couple of pounds of giant shrimp and some small shrimp, we also had the usual veggies, some delicious deep friend spare ribs, roast pig, goose and the dish of the day… waterbugs!!  Did I try the waterbugs?  Yes I did!  I was instructed on how to eat them, pull off the legs, pull off the head, pull off the wings and proceed to eat.  Out of the new things that I tried, this was the hardest to swallow.  I chewed a little bit and then drank a nice big gulp of soda to wash it down.  I was able to talk both kids into trying them too!  And, they did not enjoy it any more than I did.

Afterwards, we were taken on a quick tour of a couple of ancestral temples in the area.  These old temples were pretty interesting in architecture; the first one had beams that were completely carved. 

Then we were taken to eat again!  This time we had dessert, we had double skin milk, which is sort of a custard made with buffalo milk.  The taste was OK, it was not very sweet, but it was very thick.  There is a plain version and a version made with ginger, additionally various toppings can be added to it.

We got back into the car and when we stopped, I found us at yet another restaurant!  I was totally stuffed at this point.  Luckily, we only had a couple of dishes of veggies, the main item for this meal were the biggest steamed roast pork buns (cha siu bow) that I had ever seen.  These buns were probably 3 times as big as the usual buns and they were very delicious.  The only problem was I was so full from the earlier meals, I could only eat one.  L

We had a late start this morning and we were going to take it easy for the most part, as we would have a late night.  We were going to the Chime Long International Circus today.  The circus is run by the same company as the Zoo.  Additionally, the same corporation runs an amusement park and a water park in the area.

Per Izz’s request, we went back to the noodle shop for more noodles for breakfast; we then went to some stores to look for martial arts weapons for Izz and myself.

We then went to have sushi for lunch.  Wow, was the sushi cheap, two pieces of sushi averaged about $7RMB ($1.05), with 20% off if you get a membership card.  We had sushi, fried calamari, grilled calamari, jellyfish and eel.

We had a somewhat relaxing afternoon, just walking around various shops; afterwards it was back to Auntie’s house to wait for the rest of the family for our evening’s activities.  We were going to the Chime Long Circus.

The last time I went to a circus was probably about 10 years ago.  I don’t remember them being all that great.  However, I really enjoyed our evening at the circus, even though we were sitting in 90 degree heat and it was also humid.  As, the Chime Long Circus and the Xiang Jiang Safari Zoo, the animals that were in the circus were extremely amazing, there are lions, tigers, kangaroos, monkeys, bears, giraffes and many more.  There was a high wire act, motorcycles in a ball, acrobats on spinning rings, bareback horse riders.  I was amazed at the entire show and after days, the kids are still talking about it. 

After the circus, we were driven to a little dive of a restaurant in Pan Yu (I think we ate at least 1 meal a day in Pan Yu).  This particular restaurant specializes in snake congee.  Congee or jook for those who do not know is rice porridge, think really thick rice soup.  All we ordered were a couple of vegetable dishes, goose, and two huge pots of congee (one snake and one frog).  The frog (which I have had in the past and really like) was really good.  I tried a couple of pieces of snake and again found it chewy and there was not much meat.  I am not sure that I would order snake on my own…

Today, my mom’s friends were going to take her to dim sum.  The kids and I tagged along.  Mun came to pick us up this morning and we were going to sneak away from our mom’s today for what is the first of many interesting meals to come.  We got to the dim sum restaurant where the friends had booked a private room.  The kids, Mun and I sat at a separate small table, so we would be able to do as we pleased.  We planned on sticking around for a little while and then leaving to pick up Mun’s sister (Hung), Wah and Kathy and go eat lunch.

At this point, I had come to realize that people in China never really seem to work.  They get three hours for lunch!  This is a drawback to the day when most people used to ride bicycles and would ride home of lunch, take a nap and then ride back to work.  Although these days most people no longer ride bicycles, they still get three hours for lunch.  Additionally, most of the people that I have met that are still working (retirement age is 50) attend multiple meetings every day.  So, Mun, Hung (who works next to the restaurant), the kids and I went to pick up Wah, then Kathy and we headed for the outskirts (at least it was the outskirts to me) of the city.  I still have no idea how the streets in this city work.

We drove and we drove until we got to this area under a bridge.  We drove under the bridge for a bit and came to this clearing.  Mun pulls into this clearing and there was a building with a bunch of tables inside and outside.  We sit at the table outside and they start ordering food while I take the kids to see what we are eating today. 

They waitress brings out a cart with a bunch of raw stuff on it; chunks of emu meat, slices of emu gizzards, pieces of emu intestines, emu meatballs and some emu vegetables (OK, so it was just plain lettuceJ).  They then brought out a pot of hot soup and put it on a burner and we started cooking everything in the soup.  When the soup started to boil back up, I had my first bite of emu gizzard and emu meat.  And wow, was it good!!!  Does emu taste like chicken?  No!  I felt that the meat was more like a tender steak than poultry.  The kids ran around freely in the area around the restaurant and would not eat when I told them that we were eating a friend of one of the emus that we saw in the pens.  However, after some negotiations, they both agreed that if they got to run around, each time they came back to the table, they would have to eat one piece of meat.  Both kids tried the emu and thought it was really good too.

As we were heading back to city center, the others started discussing a trip to Macau.  They were planning on going to Macau on the 18^th, the day we were scheduled to return from Beijing.  I had always wanted to go to Macau was never had the chance to.  So, we decided that we could go to Macau on the 19^th of September and head to Hong Kong directly from there.

That evening we went to a restaurant in Pan Yu, which is an area in the outskirts of Guangzhou.  Pan Yu is surrounded by rivers that branch from the Pearl River (Zhu Jiang). The food in Pan Yu is more interesting that the food that one gets in the city.  The restaurant we went to today had tanks and tanks of fresh seafood, fished daily from the waters surrounding the restaurant itself, talk about fresh.  The taste test item for me at this meal was snake.  The snake had a chewy texture (no, it did not taste like chicken), there was really little meat on each piece of snake and there was more bone and spine.  Additionally, we ordered 3 types of shrimp, fish, eel and goose.  The three types of shrimp ranged from tiny river shrimp, medium sized shrimp (what we would usually get at a supermarket) to large shrimp (about the size of a crawfish).  The shrimp was totally amazing and yes, I was stuffed.  The eel was the smallest one available and it weighed closed to 5 pounds.

The beds at the hotel were extremely firm, as a lot of Chinese people still sleep on wood boards.  Since I was sharing the bed with one of the kids, I found myself sleeping on my side a lot and during this night, I woke to find that I had a bruise on my right hip L.

Mood:  surprised

I suppose at this time, I should introduce another person, who has been pretty prominent in our adventures; he is Hang Hang, Kathy and Mun’s son.  Hang Hang is a 2½ year old little boy, who quickly made friends with Izz and Chubba, even though they have no idea what the other person is saying.  This morning, Auntie, her son-in-law (Wah), Jessie, her son (Ga Ga) and Hang Hang came to pick us up at the hotel for our trip to Xiangjian Safari Park. 

Wah took us to a noodle shop for breakfast.  We were told that the noodles and wontons at this place were really good.  Really good is an understatement.  In addition to shrimp and pork, these wontons had a little bit of roe in it.  The noodles were the best consistency and the soup was really good.  Izz and Chubba shared one bowl of plain noodles and I had my own.  My mom had noodles with shrimp roe, which I found a little strange.  After breakfast we were on the road to the zoo again.

At this time, I noticed that there was a strange smell in my nose.  After smelling the air in China for a couple of days, this weird stench is now stuck in my nose. 

Kathy ordered tickets for us on-line.  She found a place that sells group tickets to people who don’t have enough people to form their own group and charge less than the regular admissions price, but more than the group price.  A representative meets you at the front gate and you wait for the entire “group” to be present before you enter the park.  We were to meet the rep between 10 and 10:30.  We got to the parking lot around 10:15 and did not see the rep.  After some phone calls, we found that we were at the wrong entrance.  We drove over to the other entrance and found that we were still missing two people.  The other two people showed up a little while later and we entered the zoo.  Admissions into most places in China are based on height and not age, at the zoo if one is less than 1.2 meters tall (47 inches) admission is free, as long as there was one paying adult.

As soon as the rep got us into the park, she left.  We had to walk to the other entrance of the zoo to get to the safari (similar to the one at Six Flags Great Adventure).  We started walking around the zoo and it seemed like any normal zoo in the U.S.  We saw monkeys and flamingos and cows, then we walked a little further and there was an area where one could take pictures with parrots, vultures, eagles and toucans (pictures with vultures, eagles and toucans?  This zoo is starting to get a little interesting).  We didn’t stop for the pictures, as one of us (thanks to Alfred Hitchcock) is scared of birds. 

We continued to walk and came to this area where people were getting their photos taken with a baby Bengal tiger and lion.  (OK, now this zoo has become very cool).  Apparently zoos are much more interesting and cool when you can take pictures, ride and feed animals.  As we continued through the zoo, we found an area where we could buy peanuts to feed monkeys.  Auntie brought a bunch of bananas with her and we tossed a couple over to these monkeys (I have no idea what kind they are) and apparently only the alpha male was allowed to eat these special treats.  The kids then got their photos taken with a baby chimpanzee!!  Then it was onto the lions and tigers (big ones in cages this time) and giraffes.  Even giraffes turn more interesting when you can feed them.  There was a little stand next to the giraffes selling leaves for the giraffes.  Izz went around and picked up a bunch that other people had dropped on the floor and started feeding one of the giraffes.  Next, we went to see Koalas.  I don’t remember ever seeing a koala before.  Unfortunately, koalas are nocturnal, so we saw a bunch of them sleeping. 

We then stopped for some ice cream as it was close to 100 degrees that day and it was humid (Is it possible that there is some place worse than Orlando?).  After this quick break, Wah and I took Hang Hang, Izz and Chubba to see the elephants, while the others continued to sit and rest.  Oddly enough, they were selling bananas to feed the elephants.  Peanuts for monkeys and bananas for elephants?  Weird.  We fed the rest of the bananas that Auntie brought along to the elephants and a bit further down, there were people riding on an elephant!   Across from the elephant ride was a small amusement park for kids.  However, as attendance was extremely low that day, the amusement park was closed.  We then went to see the pandas.  This was a first for the kids, however with the excitement of taking pictures with and feeding the animals, the pandas could not hold their own.

We then went to the safari area of the zoo.  We caught the “train” about 2 minutes before it started.  This part of the zoo was rather disappointing, as it is very similar to the safari at Great Adventure.  However, for everyone else, this seemed to be the highlight of the zoo.

We went back to the same noodle restaurant for late lunch after the zoo.  Izz said these were the best noodles ever and she could eat them every day.

After eating noodles again, we left to head back to City Central.  Congestion in Guangzhou has gotten to the point where it takes forever to get anywhere.  We drove around the city for a while, picking up various members of Auntie’s family to head for dinner.  By the time we got everyone there, it was close to 7:30.  Dinner tonight included the usual chicken, goose, veggies, beef short ribs (beef tends to be rare (as in hard to find) since cows are usually used for farming and tend to be tough by the time they are slaughtered for food, as well as what will become a norm at every meal shrimp.

I will try to add pictures to this post soon.

ABC