Sorry for the long delay in posting to my blog I've just been on a dead run ever since we came back from our great trip this first picture was the start of our trip, during our 4 hour layover in the Seoul airport waiting on the flight to Shanghai. Cheryl on left Margee in Middle and Barbara on the right. We arrived around 4am and the airport was almost deserted, but the airport was very clean and the chairs were nice and padded so we stretched out and caught a few winks. We met up with the rest of our group that had flown in from the east coast. Flight to Shanghai was only one an half hours. After arriving in Shanghai we took a short tour of the city down along the waterfront and the Huangpu River and then to our hotel the Crowne Plaza Fudan Hotel. This hotel was a five start hotel, very very nice. The next morning Barbara walked over and took the picture of Chairman Mao, there was a major university right across the street from our hotel. The next day feeling much better after a good nights sleep we headed off to the Yu Yuan Garden, then to the Shanghai Museum where we viewed ancient Chinese art and artifacts. In the evening we went to a Chinese acrobatic show. These acrobats were amazing, the show was excellent.
Then off to Beijing to see the ancient city. First we visited Tienanmen Square, the largest public square in the world. I've never seen so many people in one place. However, we just watched the inauguration of our new president and I believe there were more people there in the Washington Mall than the Square there in Beijing.
Then off to Beijing to see the ancient city. First we visited Tienanmen Square, the largest public square in the world. I've never seen so many people in one place. However, we just watched the inauguration of our new president and I believe there were more people there in the Washington Mall than the Square there in Beijing.
We drove by the Olympic grounds and saw the Birdcage stadium, the water cube and several other venues. It was very clean, not allot of people around. We didn't get to stop. We stayed at the Capital Hotel in Beijing, it was nice, but the beds were hard, hard, hard. We had to call housekeeping and ask for an extra comforter to put on the bed, even then it was still hard.
The next morning it was off to the Great Wall, what a thrill. It was much steeper than I thought it would be. But we had a beautiful day and we all climbed as high as we could. Barbara went much higher than I did. She got some awesome photo's from the top. (not really the top who could make the top, there's 4000 miles of wall). In the afternoon we headed to the Summer Palace. This is a former royal retreat of the Empress Dowager, which is now a lovely park.
The next day it was off to a Hutong Village. To get there we paired up and boarded a rickshaw (by bicycle) to tour the small narrow old city streets within the hutong. We went to a small family home and had a local lunch in the family home. Then we went to another home and the husband put on a show for us with his crickets that he raises to fight. He was very proud of the crickets and showed us numerous articles about his wins. We were all dully impressed.
Later we went to the Temple of Heaven, that was quite the experience. We got up early and arrived at the park around 8am, the seniors were all at the park exercising. There people were doing Tai Chi, dancing, playing badmitton, and any other game you can think of. It was awesome to watch, most of us tried some of the activities, needless to say the Chinese were much better than us.
Our last stop was at the Forbidden City which is now know as "the Palace Museum" I kept looking for a sign saying Forbidden City but finally gave up and realized that was the American name, and not what the Chinese call it. What an incredible place. It's much better and grander than I had imagined. The Chinese have done a very nice job in preserving the Palace, and placing signs in English so we non Chinese speaking tourists can understand what we are looking at. We only had about 3 hours in the Palace but I could have spent several days wandering around if I was on my own. We spent only a few minutes in each area, before moving on to the next area.
In the evening it was off to the Chinese Opera, it was a shortened version. Our guide Joy said sometimes the Opera lasts for 5 or 6 hours, ours was only about 1hour. the tones are so high pitched I don't know how you could stand 5 or 6 hours. Next day we're off to Xian.
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