Back from China -- School Starts Tomorrow

Helloooooo!

Butterfly Head

                                                                      Yes, we are back in Qatar and have spent the last week doing the new school year Hokey Pokey.  Put your bulletin boards up, then run to a meeting…. and you turn yourself about, put on a big smile and learn all the changes…. and you turn yourself about ---- you get the picture.  We have really enjoyed getting to know some of the new teachers and we feel much more prepared to start this year.  I came back from China with a cold, so we have just been lying low trying to start the year healthy.  We will start back to swimming next week to maintain our mental health.  The weather has been quite nice since we got back.  Humidity is down and the temperatures have stayed just over a 100 – the new teachers are getting a whole different welcome than we got last year.

Koen's Tooth-fairy

China was a great trip.  Not only because it was new and something very different from what we have experienced before, but also because it was a trip with just the two of us.  On the day we left, the extended forecast showed the weather as rain for all but 2 days of our trip.  When we got off the plane in Beijing it was raining with standing water in the streets.  After an hour ride in a taxi we arrived at the hostel and the rain had stopped – it never came back until our last day on the drive to the airport.  It was in the high 80’s most of the time we were there with very high humidity.  Casual dress was accepted everywhere so we were in shorts and t-shirts most of the time. 

Forbidden City

We were staying in one of the older neighborhoods along a chain of four small lakes.  There were boardwalks around all of them that we could ride bikes or walk.  The Chinese are very big into exercising and there were multiple parks with circuit training equipment along the paths – people from 2-100 on them all day long.  The chain of lakes led down to the Jingsing Park that has a man made mountain (material from building the the Forbidden City) that overlooks the Forbidden City.  We rode bikes down and then walked the park.  They were having a butterfly exhibit while we were there that was amazing with over 100 of varieties of butterflies in a tented area.  For some reason the butterflies were attracted to Missie’s hat and my shorts and kept gather on them.  Before long, we had about 50 Chinese photographers following us trying to get a picture of the silly white people covered in butterflies.  One man actually asked us to pose with Misse taking a picture of a butterfly on a flower, me taking a picture of the butterflies on her hat and him taking a picture of both of us – who knows, maybe we will make the cover of some Chinese photo magazine.

Tienanmen Square

We stayed in Beijing for 4 days and saw all the common sites.  Tianamen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace and sever other smaller palaces and gardens.  I’m not sure I can really describe them to you other than they were unbelievable.  Not only the immense size of all the features, but the design, layout, and brilliant colors make them overwhelming.  The balance of buildings with gardens and water features makes them places where you can feel the peacefulness.  That really felt strange especially since they were just packed full of people and the pollution of the city is very high.  Inside the palaces it seemed to completely keep out the city – there is something to be said for 200-foot walls, 50 foot thick.

Oh yeah!  We just had to shop at Walmart - cheap prices too!

While in Beijing, Missie and I met one of her second cousins for the first time.   She had been in contact with him last year about international teaching and she was giving him some ideas on how to apply for teaching positions.  A couple weeks before we left, she made contact with him again and found out that he was teaching in Beijing.  Brain is 24 and teaching English to kindergarteners at a local school – better him than me!  Once we connected, he went with us to the Summer Palace and took us to the Night Market (where you can buy anything!)  We had wanted to go to Xian to see the Terra Cotta Warriors later in the week, but then decided that if we went earlier, he could go with us to the Great Wall when we returned.  So, that is what we did.

At the great wall.

We decided to take the train to Xian for both the experience and to save a little money.  It was a night train so we didn’t get to see much of the landscape, but we did share a sleeper with a Chinese English teacher that sat up half the night giving us a history lesson - I should have brought more beer cuz he drank half of mine.   We arrived at our new hostel at about 10 in the morning, had a little breakfast and then went to explore the City Wall.  Xian is the oldest city in China and it has a huge wall that used to surround the city (since been out grown).  It is also about 10 stories high and over 100 feet thick at the bottom.  Unlike the great wall that is made of bricks and cut stone, this wall is completely cut stone.  We finally found an access to the top and rented a tandem bike to ride around.  Now they rent the bikes for 110 minutes and then tell you it takes at least two hours to ride around it – I felt a challenge.  It was just over 20 kilometers on stone pavers, but we whipped and spurred that bike around the wall in 105 minutes – really not much to see since the pollution was about three times as bad as Beijing, but we got our exercise!

On the great wall!

The Terra Cotta Warriors were very interesting and certainly an amazing site to visit, but I am not sure the experience was worth the time and cost.  China is certainly becoming aware that they have huge tourism potential that has not been capitalized on yet.  While most of the sites are protected and secured, the building of visitor centers, restaurants and hotels is still growing.  We had to drive in a bus for 3 hours each direction for a tour that lasted 2.5 hours and could have been done in one hour if the guide hadn’t talked so much – we would have rather just read the signs and inscriptions.   Then it is the game of them taking you to their families restaurant and trying to trick you into eating (thinking it is included and then telling you it is not) and then off to the junk sellers (also family) where you can buy originals (rrriiiiggghhhtttt!!!) for only 5 dollars.  I guess what I am saying is that I could have watched a video of that portion of the trip and been just has happy – there was much more I would have liked to see in Beijing – like two full days at the Summer Palace.  We flew back to Beijing the following day and scheduled our trip to the Great Wall.

Unmaintained Section

 

While we were gone, it had rained for two days in Beijing – the skies were absolutely blue and beautiful when we arrived.  We spent that day going back and taking pictures of things again with some blue sky in the background.  The next day, Brian came to the hostel and we boarded a bus again at 6 am.  Another 3 hour ride out of town to a much more secluded section of the wall.  The section in Beijing where most people go has over 20,000 visitors a day – guaranteed to have 100 people in every photo.  Once again, the tour guide was on hyper speed and only gave us about 3 hours to hike what we could (as it turned out, that was plenty in a day).  We decided to take a gondola up to the wall to have more time on the wall verses time on a trail getting there.  Blue skies once again and it was awesome.  You could see it running for miles and miles along the ridges of the mountains simply fading off into the clouds.  The enormity of it is indescribable.  Some parts were flat and easy walking; while other sections were stairs that were so steep it was like climbing a ladder – big rungs! The sections near the trailhead and gondola were re-built and in pristine condition.  As we got further and further out, there had been less and less maintenance where it was in original condition.  We had a great day of taking pictures with beautiful weather.

Drying ginger next to our hostel.

 

That night, we decided we needed a last hurrah meal.  We found a restaurant specializing in Peking Duck with a balcony overlooking the lake.  What an amazing meal!  The whether was perfect with a colorful view of the lake, cold beer and way too much food.  Not knowing better, we ordered too many items along with the duck (not knowing it came with 10 dishes) and we sat there until it was ALL gone.  Then the bill came – holy molly it was a whole $80 USD.  That is a lot there, and we had gotten into the mindset that we should eat for $10 or so, but it was well worth it.  When you get used to buying beer for about 80 cents on the street, you really think you are getting robbed when the ultra fine dining establishment soaks you for a $2 beer – all perspective I guess.  Either way it was a great night.

Loved some of the funny signs.

 

We ended the trip by returning to the Silk Market the last day and buying gifts and souvenirs.  The Silk Market is a well know section of town were tourists go to buy cheap clothing, jewelry, silk, and electronics.  Much of it is real stuff, just that it is coming out of factories illegally.  Other stuff is knock offs if you really need LV or Gucci or Prada.  We bought some shirts and jackets and local stuff, but the fun is the bartering.  For an item that is worth $5 (a tie or t-shirt) they always start out at about $50.  You just have to just crack up – then they decide to give you a very good deal and knock off 70% -- you laugh again – then they ask you for a price – I tell them $5 – they laugh and tell you that you have hurt them.  We had fun with it, some of them laugh the whole time and tease you (they were the ones we made deals with) then there were others that got angry and they didn’t get our business.  We were buying a toy for Koen and the lady said 380 Yaun.  I laugh and said 50 – she laughed and handed me one of those silly play cell phones and said I could buy that for 50.  I push a button and it rang – answered it and acted like I was talking to someone.  I handed the phone back to the lady and told her they said it was a good deal at 50 for the toy – she laughed and eventually sold it to me for 50.  We had fun.

Rickshaws on the wall in Xain.

That night we got on the plane and headed back to Qatar.  The 8 hour flight seemed like a short ride, but we were still 5 hours behind.  So in the early morning hours in Qatar, standing at the luggage carousel as everyone else had gathered their bags a left the building, we realized ours had not made it home.  I had decided to throw both of our backpacks into a single duffle bag at the last minute vs. carrying them on – oops!  After 20 phone calls and frustrating answers, they were delivered to the school 3 days later in good condition with all in tact. 

We begin our school year Sunday – we have the same kids, so the year should just be a continuation of where we left off.  We know the routine and are settled in – we are really trying to keep positive.

Lesson of the Week: China has a lot of great things to see – but you better get there quick – it’s changing fast!

Love to all,

Doug and Missie