The Great Wall of China. I'm speechless.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
The Forbidden City
Okay, so the duck was pretty good. It tasted like the dark meat on a Turkey at Thanksgiving. I love dark meat, so even with my nausea, the ducky wasn’t yucky.
Day 2- The Forbidden City
I didn't know anything about Chinese History before my trip. Here are a few things I learned:
Emperors for centuries have lived in the Forbidden City with honor, until Mao, the Chinese military and political leader who led the Communist Party of China to victory in the Chinese Civil War, and was the leader of the People’s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976 refused to even visit the honored s
ite. He was afraid it would throw off his Feng shui.
Here’s a little more about Mao. (I just have to include it because I didn't know who Mao was until I visited China)
Mao is regarded as one of the most important figures in modern world history, and named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Mao is still a controversial figure today, over thirty years after his death. He is generally held in high regard in China where he is often portrayed as a great revolutionary and strategist who eventually defeated Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese Civil War, and transformed the country into a major power through his policies. However, many of Mao's socio-political programs such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution are blamed by critics from both within and outside China for causing severe damage to the culture, society, economy and foreign relations of China, as well as the deaths of 44.5 to 72 million people.
(Reference: Wikipedia)
After visiting the Forbidden City we shopped. I don’t like to shop and I hate to bargain. I bought one thing: a Chinese Chess set for 50 dollars. My friend walked in after me and bought the same thing for $15. Slap. You see what I mean? I don’t like to shop. I left with a huge headache, but the day wasn’t over.
That night, we went to a fantastic Chinese Acrobat Show. Amazing and lot’s of fun. Even though the theatre was filled to capacity and had no A/C it beat shopping, which is what one of the ladies in our group opted to do instead.
Day 2- The Forbidden City
I didn't know anything about Chinese History before my trip. Here are a few things I learned:
Emperors for centuries have lived in the Forbidden City with honor, until Mao, the Chinese military and political leader who led the Communist Party of China to victory in the Chinese Civil War, and was the leader of the People’s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976 refused to even visit the honored s
ite. He was afraid it would throw off his Feng shui.Here’s a little more about Mao. (I just have to include it because I didn't know who Mao was until I visited China)
Mao is regarded as one of the most important figures in modern world history, and named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Mao is still a controversial figure today, over thirty years after his death. He is generally held in high regard in China where he is often portrayed as a great revolutionary and strategist who eventually defeated Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese Civil War, and transformed the country into a major power through his policies. However, many of Mao's socio-political programs such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution are blamed by critics from both within and outside China for causing severe damage to the culture, society, economy and foreign relations of China, as well as the deaths of 44.5 to 72 million people.
(Reference: Wikipedia)
After visiting the Forbidden City we shopped. I don’t like to shop and I hate to bargain. I bought one thing: a Chinese Chess set for 50 dollars. My friend walked in after me and bought the same thing for $15. Slap. You see what I mean? I don’t like to shop. I left with a huge headache, but the day wasn’t over.
That night, we went to a fantastic Chinese Acrobat Show. Amazing and lot’s of fun. Even though the theatre was filled to capacity and had no A/C it beat shopping, which is what one of the ladies in our group opted to do instead.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Peking Duck
A friend of mine that lives in my building was organizing a trip to Beijing. She invited me to go and of course, I hesitated. I was a bit “traveled out” and didn’t want to leave the tight ship that I run. It just so happened that this friend and the organizer of the trip is from Taiwan and speaks Chinese. Jim told me I just had to go; it was the chance of a life time. (I find we say that a lot to each other these days.) With his optimistic encouragement, I took a deep breath, told her I was “in” and then walked away with “buyers remorse” (a trait all of my sisters and I have) wondering why in the world I had committed myself to this trip.Day 1:
The night we arrived, we went for Peking Duck (a famous Chinese dish of duck roasted in an open flame). In our search for the restaurant where we had reservations, we turned off down a dirt road, a kind of side alley. The uneven road sloped this way and that and the neighborhood consisted of small cinder block houses with tin roofs. It was dirty and reminded me of the time I had spent in the Dominican Republic. Eventually, I noticed spray painted stick figured pictures of ducks on one of the cinder block walls. I gulped and winced. We certainly weren't planning on eating here??? I noticed a puddle of “something” on the ground, that couldn
’t possibly be water. "Ew", I thought to myself, wondering how I was going to get out of this hole. I’d been in some pretty scary places in my life and I wasn’t about to eat here. I just happened to say that out loud and every one in my group seemed to be oblivious to our surroundings. They completely ignored me and walked in. I admit, I felt a bit uncomfortable. 
Yes, I ended up eating there. Believe me, I ate very cautiously. Surprisingly, no one got sick and the place was full of foreigners. Posted all over the particle board walls, kind of like make shift wall paper, were pictures of famous people who had eaten there. Does it surprise anyone that Al Gore’s picture was there?
**All of my pictures of China are from Mindi Morris, a friend and fellow traveler. Thank you Mindi!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Out to Lunch?
During the past few weeks I have gained 15 pounds. I eat constantly--even during the night. Unfortunately, I have not been able to enjoy my "binge". I have been nauseated and absolutely exhausted.To you, my loyal readers, who have stayed with me through my "timeout"--I have an announcement to make: We are expecting our sixth baby on December 30th! Yeah! Thanks for staying with me.
Kind of a bummer I've gained half of my "allotted" pregnancy weight in the first six weeks, huh?
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