Grand Monuments and Great Moments

Our day started with a visit to one of the wonders of the world and ended with a wonderful bit of traveler's good fortune. We started the day at Tiananman Square before heading into the Forbidden City - the home of China's Emperors for over half a millenium. This jewel is located in the center of Beijing, because the "center" is always the best place to be if you are the Emperor. It has survived over 600 years of emperors, dynasties, wars, political movements and the elements. Recently renovated for the upcoming Olympics, this treasure literally sparkled. We have another fabulous guide named Joanna (Wang Meng) who really gets how we like to travel and is teaching us many fascinating things about the Ming and Qing dynasties and the more recent days of the Republic and the current leadership. Wang Men's husband is also into anime, so this makes her a big hit with Jesse! Our favorite story of the City is how the paranoid emperors built the brick city floor 15 layers deep (!) so enemies couldn't tunnel up to attack them from below! See some highlights from the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven here (includes a few photos from my last trip, which actually was a sunny day!).


After an amazing "imperial court" lunch (see favorite restaurants), we visited the equally beautifully restored Temple of Heaven that was completely overhauled by restoration experts all with graduate degrees (photo above). On the way out of the vast Temple park, we came across a caligrapher who was demonstrating the differences between traditional characters and new simplified ones by drawing on the sidewalk pavement with an oversized caligrapher's brush dipped in water. He seemed pretty excited to see our family and offered us an exchange. If we take a picture of him with our family and send it to him by e-mail, he will give us a stunning caligraphy of the character hu (tiger). We seal the deal and have a wonderful end to a historic day (or maybe a historic end to a wonderful day).

Ting Ting: Our New BFF

We have been fortunate to have a few great guides on our China journey, but the task in Xian may have been the most demanding. Xian (formerly Changan) is the cradle of Chinese civilization. Our amazingly learned, kind and funny guide Jessica (a.k.a. Ren Wen Tin or Ting Ting as her mother calls her) made our short trip to Xian feel like a journey all by itself.

She took us to the Wild Goose Pagoda, the Old City Wall (which the family is walking through in this photo), the Drum Tower, the Terra Cotta Warriors archaelogical site and the wonderful and comprehensive Xian museum. She taught us about every Chinese dynasty through 2500 years of history on the grand scale and current Chinese wedding traditions on the personal scale. She even gave us a very valuable Chinese expression that is roughly comparable to "so-so." It is "ma ma hu hu" (literally "horse, horse, tiger tiger.") Check here to see some of the amazing sites of Xian.

Most importantly, Jessica kept Taryn as cool as possible under her umbrella as Cookie was feeling a bit under the weather during a 96 degree day. Jessica is our new BFF (Best Friend Forever).

One Big Game of Chicken

OK, I mentioned the traffic in an earlier post but I don't think I gave a clear enough picture. Traffic here is downright scary. Until recently China was not a very wealthy country. Most people got around by bicycle. Many people are still on bicycles or scooters, but now there's a rapidly growing middle class and the first thing many people do to show off their new status is buy a car. Don't forget, this is a big place - the "smaller city" we visited had 6 million people. Now add all these new cars to the multitude of pedestrians, buses, and the construction that seems to be everywhere, and what you've got is a hot mess.

Being on the street is one big game of chicken. Scooter vs. bus, pedestrian vs. car, no one yields to anyone. They just keep going until one of them stops, usually before a collision, sometimes after. And the bit about pedestrians not having the right of way even on the sidewalk? Sometimes cars will ease up onto the sidewalk to get around traffic. And it's not unusual for a hotel or restaurant to have their parking spaces on the sidewalk in front of the building. So, not only is crossing the street an adventure, you can't even relax once you've successfully made it to the sidewalk.

I'm sure there are traffic regulations, but I think the philosophy is "just go!"

Heaven on Earth

The people of Hangzhou will tell you of the old Chinese saying, "In paradise there is heaven... on earth there is Hangzhou." Hangzhou's heart-beat is West Lake, a pearl of a lake that has long been the primary destination spot in China for young lovers, newlyweds and local tourists of all stripes. The country spent hundreds of millions of dollars renovating the lake-front when China's tourism industry suffered from the SARS epidemic and now it sparkles even more. It was a capital of the Song dynasty nearly 1,000 years ago and it's surprising the dynastic rulers ever left. The lake is surrounded by Chinese practicing Tai Chi, ball-room dancing, riding in dragon boats, enjoying tea, and taking pictures of their loved ones in front of monumental lotus flowers.

We had a wonderful guide named Joe for one of our two and a half days there and were able to enjoy our "vacation from our vacation" thanks to his great advice. Our adventures included: a powered boat ride around the lake as well as a self-powered row. We walked the lake (one of us even biked around part of it), explored the neighboring botanical garden, visited a nearby tea plantation, and watched an evening water-spectacle directed by China's premier film director Zhang Yimou. Parts of the show will be featured in the opening ceremonies in Beijing in just a few weeks. To catch a glimpse of what we saw around China's earth-bound piece of heaven, visit our West Lake slideshow on Flickr.

Traffic, Chicken, and More

WARNING!
Randomness ahead:

Traffic: Traffic in China is, in a word, beserk. Whether big city or smaller city, it's pretty crazy. Based on my observations, I'd say the rules of the road include:
* traffic lights are guidelines to be heeded at each driver's discretion
* right turns and left turns can be made from any lane on the road
* if riding a bicycle against traffic on a 4 lane road be sure to ride between the middle two lanes so everyone will see you
* pedestrians never have the right of way - not even on the sidewalk


Chicken: We've now had 3 meals with chicken dishes that included the head and feet. One is the Hangzhou traditional dish, Beggars Chicken, a whole chicken doused with chinese wine and stuffed with spices then wrapped in a lotus leaf and cooked for many hours. No, we did not eat the heads or feet, but the dishes sure were tasty.

Potato chips: Potato chips here are awesome. Forget the Vinegar and Salt or Sour Cream and Onion varieties. How about French Chicken, Italian Red Meat Sauce, Salty Prawn, Barbecued Steak, Braised Pork, or Red Wine Chicken? All are available in traditional style or Pringle style chips. No we did not eat these - the ingredient labels were in English, so given what we learned we decided against it. But, if I can figure out a way to get some home without having them end up pulverized, I'll invite any willing parties to a chip tasting festival.

Paparrazzi: I knew our family was likely to get a few looks around here, since I guess the local folks don't see an enormous number of visitors that look like us. But dang! People stop and stare, but they also lean out their car windows, follow us and take pictures. I guess it's some kind of weird karma given all the pictures we've taken of random people.

New City; Old City

China and Singapore have partnered to build a brand new city adjacent to the old city of Suzhou. The new city (which you can see pictured here from our hotel window) is comprised of high-rise after high-rise and multi-national factory after multi-national factory. The development actually reminded me of Singapore, because it was crisp, clean, and on a massive scale. It included many public spaces and giant whimsical sculptures. Shopping malls dot the spaces between the buildings with an array of restaurants from Thai to Korean to Japanese to many styles of Chinese. The buildings have been adorned with elaborate light systems to create psychedelic light shows after the sun goes down.

The old city, just a few minutes away is comprised mostly of old brick, stucco and tile-roofed structures. It is surrounded by a centuries-old moat and the government has maintained a ban on high-rises within the old city limits to maintain pristine views from the world famous gardens. Ten years ago, the new city didn't exist.

Suzhou is a smallish city by China standards with "only" 8 million people. In little over a decade, the city has constructed a massive new place for many hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of them to work and live. The construction crew lives on site and works well into the evening every day of the week. This is how the new China has come to be.

Bonus Post! Shanghai Acrobats

A few nights ago, we saw the Shanghai Acrobats. It was a Cirque du Soleil-esque performance, but less focus on artistry and more focus on insane acts.
There were two groups, a male group and a female group. The men did a lot of fast paced acts, such as jumping through hoops in ever-increasing intensity and hat juggling while stacked on each others shoulders. The acts the women did were slower, but (as anyone who's attempted similar feats would know) most likely more physically taxing. They performed things such as twirling plates on sticks while walking over each others heads, or holding themselves up by one arm and doing "aerial ballet."

And the grand finale:
THE BALL OF DEATH
So, to come up with that last act, the guy (or gal) pitching it must have sounded something like this:
"Y'know what's really freakin' cool? Motorcycles. You know what people love? HAMSTER WHEELS! Made of chainmail. That are actually spheres. And you know what's cooler than ONE motorcycle in a ball of death? FIVE MOTORCYCLES!!!
And to top it all off? The five are in the Olympic colors to advertise for the '08 Beijing Olympics. Pretty sick.

Singin' in the Rain

This is the rainy season in this part of China, but we've been pretty lucky avoiding the worst of it... until today. But we couldn't think of a better place to get caught in the rain than the tranquil canals and gardens of Suzhou. A boatman took us on a casual spin through Suzhou's canals with the fish-tail motion of his lone stern-mounted oar. The rain pattered all around us as we passed homes and slid under bridges that were as many as hundreds of years old. To cap it off, he sang a song in the local dialect that celebrated the beauty of Suzhou. This moment was one of the more memorable of our trip to date.

Suzhou is also famous for expansive gardens with fanciful names and we enjoyed three of them today (Lingering Garden, Humble Administrator's Garden and Master of Nets Garden). It was raining there too, but it only made them feel softer and more alive. We learned that Suzhou is proud of its "softness." "The water of our canals, our dialect, our gardens, even our weathered rocks are 'soft'," said Ya our local guide. Soft and wet in Suzhou... the ideal place to spend the rainy days of June.

2000 Years and a Decade

The Shanghai skyline on the east side of the Huangpu River sprouted up over the last 10-15 years. It's almost incomprehensible. Many of the scuptures on the ground floor exhibition hall of the Shanghai museum have been around for 2000 years.

Our last day and half in Shanghai included: a trip to the beautifully arranged sculptures, porcelain work and scroll-painting of the Shanghai museum, a walk through the French Quarter, an hour long $6 foot massage at the blind foot massage school and another couple of great meals at restaurants with the rhyming names Yin and Lynn. For more old and new images of our Shanghai journey visit the Shanghai Old and New set on Flickr.

Something Old and Something New

Shanghai is a study in old and new. An elderly man practices the art of Tai Chi on an uber-modern retail strip. A guy on a bike hauling a small cart with about a dozen cases of soda piled high passes a sparkling Bentley dealership. On the Bund -- the waterfront promenade -- you look west and see a row of stolid, grey turn-of-the-century bank buildings. You turn around to face east and you're gazing across the River upon arguably the most futuristic skyline in the world. This is Shanghai. The old and the new are tripping all over each other (see some of the "old stuff" here and be sure to click on "slideshow" mode).

It's fascinating and energizing. Today was a day for many of the city's most popular sites thanks to Zhang Fan (Rebecca) our wonderful, all-business local guide. The sites included: the jade Buddha temple, Yu Yuan garden, the Bund, the Jin Mao Tower and Chinese acrobats, but the highlight was having lunch with old friend Pete (David's college buddy), who just happened to be flying through Shanghai today. The Xiao Long Bao (small steamed pork buns) fit the theme of the day. They're an old Shanghai standby, but new to us. Perfect!

Write If You Can Hear Us

Yesterday we arrived in Shanghai, and are beginning to experience all things China. We had a great Shanghaiese dinner last night, rode through crazy traffic and are (we think) experiencing censorship. Yes, we're experiencing censorship. While writing the previous post about the Celtics game, we discovered that although we can write entries, we can't access the blog to read them. We tried going to links to other blogs we read and could not reach any of them. We can access Yahoo, newspaper sites and retail sites but no blogs - including our own.

So if you can see this post can you send us an email (a regular email, not a comment to the blog please) to let us know? Just curious to see if this is a technical glitch, or whether it's just a funny coincidence that we can no longer read any of the blogs we had no trouble accessing until we got to China. We'll keep you posted (we hope!)

Editor's Note: Once we left Shanghai, we didn't experience this problem again.

The Layover from Heaven

When we booked our Kanazawa-to-Tokyo-to-Shanghai flights, we grimaced at the four hour layover in Tokyo's Narita airport... turns out, it was a gift from above. It just so happens that these were the EXACT four hours that the final game of the NBA championships was being played back in Boston and it was broadcast on a giant flat screen TV (with Japanese commentators) as we stepped off the plane into the terminal. David got his first Celtics championship in 21 years, with a 39 point blowout of the hated Lakers and could hardly contain himself. The Chinese media (this image is from Yahoo! China's sports page) seemed more concerned about Kobe's failure than the Celtics triumph! We're not sure exactly what the purple headline is, but we're going with something like "Crushed!" or "Dumped!" or "Ouch!"

Sweet Dreams

The confection museum in Kanazawa demonstrated how the locals have crafted gorgeous and elaborate creations from sugar for centuries. It took us a while to realize it, but the tree and birds in the presentations shown here are actually candy.

Kids 'n Castles

A visit to Kanazawa Castle today provided a glimpse of how these stout structures were designed and built since the Edo period. Complex diamond-shaped joints supported these massive wood and stone structures.










A class of straw-hatted pre-schoolers provided some comic relief. A visit to the intimate, hidden Nishida-ke Garden Gyokusen-en was the perfect counterpoint to the massive castle.

It's a Small Small World

Kanazawa has been full of surprises. Looking for a break from sushi and soba, we ducked into "The Cottage" for lunch today and enjoyed the lunch of many nations. We had pizza prepared by a Brit named Tony, who had Irish roots and therefor Irish ballads playing on his stereo. His exuberant wife Momo, (pictured here as Carla's new BFF), is Japanese and ducked out mid-lunch to pick the shitakes we had on our pizza. We got sight-seeing recommendations from a local Japanese woman at the bar who is married to an Aussie. The Americans couldn't have had more fun.

Tall Guy Taking Photos in Garden

Here's proof that DAR is actually OTT (on this trip). This lovely photo was taken by Taryn in the one of the rarest of gems in Kanazawa that is Kenrokuen gardens. The iris and bridge, on the other hand, were shot by the tall guy. We learned from a local guide who we met at lunch that Kenrokuen was so named because of the six attributes of the perfect landscape: spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, watercourses and panorama. With that in mind, I think I'm going to have to re-do our Bonita Avenue garden (on the roof).

Geisha Life

Now in Kanazawa, on the west coast of Japan, we are enjoying a remarkable window into the country's past. The Higashi-Chaya District is home to Geisha houses that still stand close to 200 years after their establishment. Impeccably restored in some places, aged beautifully in others, you can still feel the spirit of the skill and artistry of a Geisha. Here's a peek into this wondrous world.

To Each His (or Her )Own

You can't always get what you want... except today where everyone goes their separate ways and gets EXACTLY what they want. Jesse spends a day at the anime, manga and video game living shrine that is Akihabara.

Taryn spends a day shopping in Shibuya with Mom. David visits a 17th century shrine (Toshogu) in Ueno Park and adds a bunch more JPGs to the pile.

Shaken and Stirred

A few moments ago, our room on the 32nd floor of our Shinjuku hotel started to rock back and forth. Makes sense. There was a 7.0 earthquake in Honshu (northern Japan). We are fine, but a bit shaky.

Celtics Fans are Everywhere

The rabid Celtics fan in our family got his fix last night at the Legends Sports Bar in the Roppongi district of Tokyo. There's nothing like cheering on the men in green in the NBA Finals with an ex-pat Canadian gym teacher, a Japanese American licensing expert from LA, and a Tokyo sports junkie with a penchant for high-fiving his bar-mates. We watched the Celtics storm from behind and come back from 24 points to win to take a 3-1 series lead. I'm not sure what was more fun, out-cheering the Lakers fans or being offered a plate of nachos ("a real Japanese specialty!" according to our Tokyo host).

There's Treasure Down Below

The best advice anyone can give you about a visit to Japan is to go to the basement of the train station. The big stations are usually home to large department stores which have an amazing breadth of extraordinary prepared foods on the basement level. Forget Andronico's, Whole Foods and Macy's Cellar - this place makes them look like a 7-11. Not only is the range of foods (and drinks) mind-boggling, but each beautifully packaged offering looks better than the next.

Today, we never made it to a restaurant for a meal, but rather assembled and enjoyed a late breakfast, mid-day snack and dinner from the cornucopia of treats in the market. These included: sesame-chili chicken wings, yakitori (skewered roasted meats), maguro sushi (tuna), three kinds of gyoza, fried rice in a minuteman-hat-shaped paper bag, tonkatsu (pork cutlet), roast chicken, and a range of breakfast and dessert pastries to satisfy even our sweetest of sweet tooths. The star of the pastry set was Taryn's strawberry mousse confection decorated to look like a pig. And that doesn't begin to capture what's available - it just captures what we managed to eat!

It's All About the Clothes

It's Thursday and we're ready for action. We wake up to pouring rain, but no matter since we all want to go to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which provides a remarkable window into the history of Tokyo (formely Edo). This place is so amazing that the kids are actually excited about going - they've seen it once before and are psyched to go back. No higher praise in my mind. In addition to the stunningly beautiful historical exhibits (especially the recreations in miniature of centuries-old life in Edo), there was a special exhibit of the designs of Kansai Yamamoto. He's a whimsical clothing designer who created a lot of the Ziggy Stardust-type outfits for David Bowie, and very cool stuff worn by John Lennon and others. His designs are based in traditional Japanese culture, but blown out to the creative, colorful max. We had a quick lunch at the museum, of rice curries and tempura.

Then we went to Harajuku, the teen/young adult fashion mecca of Tokyo. Cookie is deeply into the Sweet Lolita look, while her brother is into J-Pop/punk looks. We spent many hours in this area, and both kids were successful in their shopping.

Later, we ate at Shibuya restaurant, which offered an eclectic sampling of soba, sashimi, steamed tea duck, fatty tuna and tofu, and fried chicken. We barely made it back to the hotel before all succumbing to the J lag and passing out.

Arrival

After 11 shockingly comfortable hours on a ANA fight, we arrive in Tokyo. The local time, is 3pm and we're so happy to be here our bodies are tricked into thinking they haven't been up all night and are ready to go walking and exploring. One surprise so far - I guess security is tight everywhere, as we are all (except for the Cookie), fingerprinted and photographed once we go through customs. The weather is warm and a bit steamy but still comfortable. Even though we're not exactly coming from a rural area, the excitement of the city - bright lights, sounds, crowds - is really energizing. We fumble around, grab a quick shabu shabu dinner in the hotel and suddenly realize we've all hit the wall. Off to bed and to more adventures tomorrow.

Flip am and pm, add 4 hours

First a word of introduction. We're on a 3.5 week journey through Japan and China. In the old days we used to keep journals, but now blogging seems the way to go. So rather than "treat" you with a painful slide show when we get back, you can hear about our travels (in painful detail) as they happen (and only if you want to!). BTW, the title of this post refers to how you convert CA time to Tokyo time (and add a day, by the way), which is what our bodies are desperately trying to do right now. I think the excitement of being here has gone a long way in helping us adjust. So that's it for now, read further posts at your discretion.