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China

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Cover page for China

After a very long flight, we finally arrived in Beijing.

After going through the process of customs and collecting the luggage, we finally arrived at the hotel.

Our hotel was the Sheraton Hotel Beijing.

This was the dining room just off of the lobby.

This was the way out to the swimming pool area.

This gazebo area was so pretty. I love the Asian feeling.

After a much needed rest to get rid of some of the jet lag, we started out on a tour of the city. Even through the smog, you could see the McDonald's sign.

The thing you notice immediately is that the people use bicycles for everything.

As you walked down the street, you noticed that it was probably lunch time.

I think this bike belonged to a cleaning person, but it was hard to tell.

It was easy to tell this man was hauling food products.

WOW...........he must have had some incredible balance!

Here is where you got parts for you bicycle.

Another place to get some lunch. No, not me, just the locals.

Is this someone's supper, or is the chicken just eating from the garbage!

I loved this photo. It looked like she was heading to school.

This man was a street cleaner. You could see his straw broom inside the cart.

The water storage on top of a house.

You may have noticed that most of the bicycles are very old.

This is one of the major streets in Beijing. One of Beijing's major problems is the smog. Also, it is only on these larger streets that you see nice cars. No bicycles.

This is the Beijing Panda Zoo.

This is the big yard where the pandas can play.

Chomping down on bamboo leaves, their favorite food.

I had never seen pandas before. They are just so cute.

I walked over to get another angle, and he was still just sitting there.

Lunch is over and he just starts wondering around the play area. I was surprised how clean they are. Their eyes.....so adorable.

He finally decided it was nap time.

This street, except for the main highways, shows pretty much what most of the areas look like. Lots of bikes, lots of walkers.

You could probably make a lot of money if you could open a bike shop around here.

What do we have here? MORE BIKES!

I am on my way to Tiananmen Square, the largest city square in the world.

This is the walkway leading to the square. I just love the trees.

There were several "barbershops" along the walkway.

I made it to the Square. Thousands of people visit every day. In fact, it can hold one million people for public celebrations.

He has quite a job keeping the place clean. However, I never saw him move very fast! = )

There were so many families there.

I'm standing in front of the Great Hall of the People. The Square is definitely a "must see" when you visit Beijing.

This is the China National Museum. Inside you will see a large number of cultural relics illustrating the long history of China from 1,700,000 years ago to 1921 when the last emperor left the throne. The museum was built in 2003.

Some more cleaners of the Square. I wonder how much they make.

This man was cutting across the Square to deliver his boxes somewhere.

There is a significant police presence at the Square. Police and military patrol in vans containing a squadron of forces ready for immediate action. Even with the Chinese army guards walking around everywhere, I was totally at ease.

I watched the changing of the guard......but it was only one guard.

Saw another "barbershop" on the way out.

I'm getting ready to take the Beijing Hutong tour. It's a fun tour that takes you through the old alleyways and traditional courtyard residences. It's a real cultural learning tour.

Hang on because it's going to be a wild ride! It was!

We also got to walk around and see street scenes like this. Lots of kids were playing soccer.

This was one of the typical homes we saw.

Most of the kids seemed used to seeing tourists around.

It looked like they stored a lot of stuff outside in their courtyard.

Speaking of courtyards!

This is the man who lived in this house.

His close-up shot! When I look at this picture, I think of the song, "Red and Yellow, Black and White." He definitely looked yellow!

This was the stove in one of the houses.

The tour is over.......time to tip the drivers! = )

When I was growing up, I heard about this place called the Forbidden City in China. It sounded so scary. That is where we are heading next.

Walking over to it, there were lots of people sitting around just "chillin."

I couldn't tell if she was happy I was taking her picture or not.

To get to the Forbidden City, we had to go past Tiananmen Square. The Square used to be the entry way to the Forbidden City.

This really is exciting. I think I was thinking, "Wow, I'm really here."

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty. For almost 500 years it served as the home of emperors and their households. These are the gates to enter the city.

You crossed over many gates like this one.

Behind me is the Gate of Heavenly Purity. The whole Forbidden City has over 9,999 buildings! Whew! A person could get so lost in this place!

The Forbidden City covers 178 acres, and although it once had over 9,000 buildings, there are only 980 surviving ones. It has been the home of 24 emperors. The whole city is surrounded by high walls and a moat, which were mostly for defense.

Now we are at the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the largest of all of the buildings rising 98 feet above the courtyard. It was the ceremonial center of imperial power, and it's the largest surviving wooden structure in China. In the middle is the ceremonial ramp which was part of the Imperial Way.

Frankly, at this point, I needed a rest!

This is one of the honor guards.

I love this photo of the couple. They were posing for someone else, so I took advantage of it. They are so classic!

To me, this would be a teacher's nightmare keeping all of these kids together so they didn't get lost!

This little guy was holding the flag of the People's Republic of China.

How cute was she!

Still walking! Now we are going into the inner court where the Imperial concubines lived.

Inside of this gate, called the Gate of Great Benevolence, are five hundred ancient Chinese bronzes.

This is one of the eighteen bronze burners on the terrace of the Supreme Harmony Hall. Each one represents a province in the Qing dynasty.

These bronze bowl were seen throughout the complex. Since the buildings were made of wood, these bowls were kept full of water to help put out any fire.

All the roofs were beautifully decorated. The unicorn on the top was to keep evil spirits away, and guard the entrance to the Emperor's Garden.

This is part of the Emperor's private garden. It was used exclusively by the imperial family to sip tea, play chess, meditate and generally relax.

This is the exit from the Forbidden City. That tour was amazing, but boy, am I pooped. It took all day, and we only saw a part of it, but it's a must see for Beijing.

Just a block away from my hotel is the Beijing Hard Rock Cafe, so, of course, I have to go.

I'll have to say that I have NEVER seen this on the front of ANY Hard Rock Cafe!

Now we are heading to the Summer Palace, which is the largest imperial garden in the world. The construction was started in 1750 by Emperor Qianlong as a birthday gift to his mother. It took fifteen years to complete.

The gazebo located next to the Kunming Lake.

There were a lot of little kids visiting here, too.

I thought he was an interesting character.

I think she was the last man's wife.

These are the awesome boats that took us across the lake and over to the Summer Palace. There must have been forty or fifty of them taking tourists around.

I'm sitting in what is called the "Long Corridor." It is a covered walkway that was built so the emperor's mother could enjoy a walk through the gardens and not get rained on.

This is the marble boat that was first built in 1755 during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. It was supposed to be a symbol of stability of the Qing Dynasty. There is a big mirror on each deck, and it is said that the emperor's mother often enjoyed the scenery while she had her breakfast and dinner in front of the mirror.

Here we are at the Temple of Heaven, built in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty. It covers 667 acres and is four times larger than the Forbidden City. Emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties used to worship the heaven and pray for rich harvests in this temple.

Above where I am standing is the courtyard, surrounded by a wall 633 feet. The wall is the famous "Echo Wall." If someone whispers into the hall, another person who is standing at the wall within a distance of 328 to 656 feet, can hear the speaker clearly. Wild!

This is the inside of the temple showing the altar where the emperors would pray for favorable weather.

Caught this cute little guy as I was walking around.

These guys were so cute that I just had to take a picture of them.

Next to the Temple of Heaven is the Tiantan Park. If you come here in the morning, you can enjoy the Chinese exercising or singing their cultural songs.

In the afternoon, there are so many men playing games and enjoying their musical instruments.

I don't know what he was thinking, but I liked his interesting face.

I loved watching them play these games.

I thought they were playing checkers, but someone said it was chess.

So many of the men had these hat on.

It was fun going from one musician to another.

A few of them could speak English, so it was great talking to them.

The following day, our guides took us to the large Chinese stores where you could buy the nicer things. This man was printing my name on a very small seed.

I bought this beautiful vase and she was wrapping it up for me.

The next stop was a factory where we could watch the girls making pottery.

Their work was so precise and intricate.

These girls were putting some type of finish on the vases. The smell was so strong that I wondered why they didn't wear masks.

Here is what I have been waiting for. We are driving to see the Great Wall of China.

It took a couple of hours to get to the wall from Beijing. Once we started seeing it, the excitement was almost overwhelming.

There are several places you can go to climb the wall. This sign shows two of them.

We could tell we were getting closer after we went through this arch.

After we get through this town, we will be there.

THERE IT IS!

After we got off of the bus, this was the first gate we came to. So beautiful.

This was the walkway that took us to where you could begin the climb.

I don't know what this building was used for, but I thought it looked like a freaky face!

Here it is....the beginning of the climb. It was really cold out, so you didn't have to worry about a lot of tourists being around.

I saw this little girl with her family, and asked if I could have my picture taken with her.

Wow....I thought I was in fairly good shape, but believe you me, these stairs were hard to climb.

After a rest, I got up and started climbing again. What made it hard was some steps were low and then the next one would be high. I don't know how many times I tripped! = )

Oh my gosh! It was so cold when I started out, and now I'm so hot from the climb. And I've got a long way to go yet.

While I was resting a bit, I took this picture of how far I still had to go. Oy vey!

But I also turned around to take a picture of how far I had come.

What I am sure was an hour later, I stopped and took a picture of the top.....it felt like I had climbed Mt. Everest! I never dreamed it would be this hard.