I thought that many of you might be checking here about anything I have heard about my friends in China due to the earthquake that occurred today. From what I have heard from David and the news, the earthquake epicenter was about 60 miles away from Chengdu in the Sichuan Province. It was though felt all over the country to even Shanghai and Beijing. I sent David an email this morning as soon as I heard about the earthquake to see how the school and him faired. This was his email response to me:
"Oh man! It was horrible! I had lessons just now at 2:15. But the land was dancing at the monent! Chengdu is not the center of earthquake, We are about 91 kilometers from the center and the center is in Wenchuan. We are safe here and I just call Dr.Zhao. She is FINE with her family! We were evacuted to the playground till 8:40. And All the students are backing to family! The city is safe and 45 people died and few injured!
Today it is my first time to have those experience!
So,thanks for your concern!
We are OK but tired!
Keep in touch!
David
I am of course very happy to hear that everything is ok with my friends on the other side of the world. I am also quite grateful that we were back in the US during such a tragedy. Thanks for all your prayers and concerns!
Love to all, Christy
Monday, May 12, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
I'm Home!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello everyone! I just wanted to post real quick before I head to bed that I arrived home safely this morning. All is well, I'm just quite tired. I will try and post later about my last few days in Beijing. Thanks everyone for all your support, thoughts and prayers while I was away. It was an awesome experience that I am sure I will remember forever.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
A Life Long Dream Fulfilled in an Interesting Way
The Great Wall here we come! We booked a tour of the Ming Tombs and Great Wall with our hotel. We had to be outside at 7AM! Quite an early morning. Our tour group included the four of us, another couple from our hotel and then two Japanese girls we picked up from another hotel. Our first stop was the Ming Tombs. This is where the Emperor’s from the Ming Dynasty are buried. We toured the largest of the tombs. It had a lot of replicas of artifacts that were found in the tombs. Such beauty in Jewels and clothes! The tombs themselves are actually closed off to visitors, but you can see the buildings and area around them.
After the Tombs, we visited a Jade Factory. There we learned about the different types of jade and how to tell if it is real or fake. Then of course, they have to make their money somehow; we “toured” their rows and rows of jewelry counters. Beautiful pieces ranging from couple thousands dollars to about 20-30. Once we left the jade factory, we had another “quick” stop at the Chinese traditional medicine place. There we learned about the history of Chinese medicine, and how the doctors can diagnose what is wrong with you by checking your plus and looking at your tongue. We then got the chance to be diagnosed ourselves. I was a little worried about what the doctor would say about my tongue. For those of you who know me well, know that my tongue is…shall we say, sort of special. So this is what is wrong with me, my stomach is too hot? And there is also something wrong with my liver, which is causing the “spots” on my face. It was quite interesting. We also learned that in each season you should pay more attention to specific organs in your body. In the winter you pay more attention to your stomach and eat more meat. During the spring and fall, you eat more vegetables and pay attention to your heart and in the summer your liver and eat more fruits. As a part of our tour, we were served lunch here at the Medicine Center.
As we were leaving the center, we saw that it has started to rain and had been storming. Now we were headed to the Great Wall…in the rain! We arrived in the pouring rain, and were given “the choice” of walking all the way up the wall or riding up in the slide car halfway and then walking the rest of the way. Our wonderful tour guide Linda strongly recommended due to the rain that it was quite unsafe to walk up the wall. All of our tour decided due to the torrential downpours we would ride up. So our adventure began. We got out of our bus, with our umbrellas in tow and bought some ponchos to attempt to fight off the rain. This though was not as easy as it seemed because the wind was blowing so hard we couldn’t keep our umbrellas open and our ponchos kept ripping. By the time we made it to the slide car to go up the wall we were drenched to the bone and already numb for the cold. But we pushed forward! We rode up in the slide cars, which sort of looked like little roller coaster sled cars. Once at the top, we were met with more rain and some gale force winds. We walked slowly but surely up the wall. Since it was so windy, we gave up on the umbrellas and even keeping our hoods on. At this point, I looked like I walked out of the shower. I attempted to take as many pictures as I could, but it was a bit tough with all the rain. The stairs and pathways are all stone, so it was quite slippery. Our goal was to get to one of the towers, but right before we were told that they had closed it off due to the heavy winds. We quickly decided to turn around and headed back down. On the way down, I slipped or more slid down one of the little hills, but luckily I was right next to the railing and caught myself without completely falling down. Finally we made it to the sled cars to head back down the wall. This one though was a bit different than the one going up, and we literally slid down in what really felt more like a roller coaster. It probably would have been more fun if I could have felt my fingers. Eventually, we made it back to our bus for the longest bus ride ever. I was shivering for the two-hour ride home from my soaking hair wet and very uncomfortable jeans. My shower when I got back to the hotel was more amazing than words can describe. I know have a better understanding of what frostbite would feel like. When I got to the bus, I was having a hard time using my fingers they were so numb. So, overall this was definitely not how I pictured my long awaited trip to the Great Wall of China. But, nevertheless, I have a cooler story now, because not only did I go to the Great Wall of China…but I did it soaking wet. ☺Enjoy the quick slideshow of the few pictures I did get of the wall.
After the Tombs, we visited a Jade Factory. There we learned about the different types of jade and how to tell if it is real or fake. Then of course, they have to make their money somehow; we “toured” their rows and rows of jewelry counters. Beautiful pieces ranging from couple thousands dollars to about 20-30. Once we left the jade factory, we had another “quick” stop at the Chinese traditional medicine place. There we learned about the history of Chinese medicine, and how the doctors can diagnose what is wrong with you by checking your plus and looking at your tongue. We then got the chance to be diagnosed ourselves. I was a little worried about what the doctor would say about my tongue. For those of you who know me well, know that my tongue is…shall we say, sort of special. So this is what is wrong with me, my stomach is too hot? And there is also something wrong with my liver, which is causing the “spots” on my face. It was quite interesting. We also learned that in each season you should pay more attention to specific organs in your body. In the winter you pay more attention to your stomach and eat more meat. During the spring and fall, you eat more vegetables and pay attention to your heart and in the summer your liver and eat more fruits. As a part of our tour, we were served lunch here at the Medicine Center.
As we were leaving the center, we saw that it has started to rain and had been storming. Now we were headed to the Great Wall…in the rain! We arrived in the pouring rain, and were given “the choice” of walking all the way up the wall or riding up in the slide car halfway and then walking the rest of the way. Our wonderful tour guide Linda strongly recommended due to the rain that it was quite unsafe to walk up the wall. All of our tour decided due to the torrential downpours we would ride up. So our adventure began. We got out of our bus, with our umbrellas in tow and bought some ponchos to attempt to fight off the rain. This though was not as easy as it seemed because the wind was blowing so hard we couldn’t keep our umbrellas open and our ponchos kept ripping. By the time we made it to the slide car to go up the wall we were drenched to the bone and already numb for the cold. But we pushed forward! We rode up in the slide cars, which sort of looked like little roller coaster sled cars. Once at the top, we were met with more rain and some gale force winds. We walked slowly but surely up the wall. Since it was so windy, we gave up on the umbrellas and even keeping our hoods on. At this point, I looked like I walked out of the shower. I attempted to take as many pictures as I could, but it was a bit tough with all the rain. The stairs and pathways are all stone, so it was quite slippery. Our goal was to get to one of the towers, but right before we were told that they had closed it off due to the heavy winds. We quickly decided to turn around and headed back down. On the way down, I slipped or more slid down one of the little hills, but luckily I was right next to the railing and caught myself without completely falling down. Finally we made it to the sled cars to head back down the wall. This one though was a bit different than the one going up, and we literally slid down in what really felt more like a roller coaster. It probably would have been more fun if I could have felt my fingers. Eventually, we made it back to our bus for the longest bus ride ever. I was shivering for the two-hour ride home from my soaking hair wet and very uncomfortable jeans. My shower when I got back to the hotel was more amazing than words can describe. I know have a better understanding of what frostbite would feel like. When I got to the bus, I was having a hard time using my fingers they were so numb. So, overall this was definitely not how I pictured my long awaited trip to the Great Wall of China. But, nevertheless, I have a cooler story now, because not only did I go to the Great Wall of China…but I did it soaking wet. ☺Enjoy the quick slideshow of the few pictures I did get of the wall.
Some Days Last Forever
The train ride was long, and uncomfortable but we made it safe and sound just a bit exhausted. When we got out of the train station, we found and hired a van to take all four of us and our tons of luggage to our hotel. We were all quite grateful we did not have to carry it very far. At the hotel, we checked in quickly, and headed straight to our beds for a nap until noon.
After our nap, we got some lunch at the KFC right next to our hotel. We then ventured out on our first expedition in Beijing. We took the bus and then train to Tian Na Men Square. There we toured the Forbidden City. It is the former palace of the emperor’s of China. The place is huge, and over 500 square km. Outside I was approached by this lady asking us if we needed a tour guide. We asked her, her price and decided that it would be worth it to have a tour guide, because we had no idea what was interesting or not. Her name was April, and she turned out to be terrific and well worth the money. The palace was quite beautiful, and it was interesting to see where the Emperor, his wife and over 40 something concubines lived. By the time the tour was over, we could hardly stand we were so hot and exhausted from all the walking. The trip back to the hotel seemed to take forever and when we got back to the hotel we took much needed showers and enjoyed our dinner at the hotel. I had some wonderful spaghetti that I enjoyed quite a lot.
Sunny Shanghai
Our second day in Shanghai can be summed up with three words: overpopulated, pushy and hot. The first stop was a long walk through what ended up being not the best part of town. It looked like the easiest route on the map. We accidentally walked through this market and were attacked by all these people wanting us to look at their “great bags and sunglasses.” They ended up following us about 4 blocks and then into the McDonalds. They then waited for us to eat and followed us some more and finally gave up with us ignoring them and they turned around. We made it to the train station, and took the train to the tourist bus station at this huge football (soccer) stadium. We ended up walking all the way around the stadium and finally found the bus station. But then we found out that only Chinese tours were available so we decided not to do it. Luckily, we ended up stumbling upon a little street festival for the Chinese holiday that weekend. It is Chinese Labor Day. We saw some street performers and a little dragon dance. We walked around a bit and then got back on the subway and headed downtown.
We landed in People’s Square, the heart of Shanghai for tourists and shopping. Our plan was to go to the Shanghai History Museum but there was about an hour and a half wait and our plans changed again! After walking up and down the street a bit we found the Art Museum and went in for some much needed AC. The art museum had a special exhibition of One Hand One World. It featured paintings of each country in the world painted by Chinese artists. Walking through the museum and seeing all the different countries was sort of like taking a short tour of the world. A lot of the countries I had never even heard of! After going through the art museum we made our way down East Nanjeng Street. It is the most famous shopping street in Shanghai. It was also packed with people. And when I say packed, I mean New York City Times Square on New Years Eve. We started walking and then all of a sudden! My flip-flop broke! Luckily Nette came to my rescue with a safety pin and we pinned it back together. More down the road, we stopped and went to one of the markets for some last minute souvenir shopping. I have gotten quite good at my bargaining skills, everyone should be proud.
After shopping, we headed straight back to the hotel for quick showers and packed ourselves up and headed to the train station. Our initial plan and what we believed we bought was soft bed tickets for our overnight train to Beijing. As we walked up the entire train track to our car we discovered that there were no beds only chairs. I knew it was going to be a long night…
We landed in People’s Square, the heart of Shanghai for tourists and shopping. Our plan was to go to the Shanghai History Museum but there was about an hour and a half wait and our plans changed again! After walking up and down the street a bit we found the Art Museum and went in for some much needed AC. The art museum had a special exhibition of One Hand One World. It featured paintings of each country in the world painted by Chinese artists. Walking through the museum and seeing all the different countries was sort of like taking a short tour of the world. A lot of the countries I had never even heard of! After going through the art museum we made our way down East Nanjeng Street. It is the most famous shopping street in Shanghai. It was also packed with people. And when I say packed, I mean New York City Times Square on New Years Eve. We started walking and then all of a sudden! My flip-flop broke! Luckily Nette came to my rescue with a safety pin and we pinned it back together. More down the road, we stopped and went to one of the markets for some last minute souvenir shopping. I have gotten quite good at my bargaining skills, everyone should be proud.
After shopping, we headed straight back to the hotel for quick showers and packed ourselves up and headed to the train station. Our initial plan and what we believed we bought was soft bed tickets for our overnight train to Beijing. As we walked up the entire train track to our car we discovered that there were no beds only chairs. I knew it was going to be a long night…
Friday, May 2, 2008
From the Top of the World
Our first full day in Shanghai was rather eventful but yet not too exciting. Our first stop was the train station to buy our train tickets for Beijing on Friday. We made our way to the train station via 2 different subway lines. Finally we found it! It was of course very crowded and full of crazy Chinese people pushing and yelling as usual. We found the English line and stood in it for about 20 minutes. Finally we were at the front. There we discovered that we could not take the day train to Beijing on Friday like we planned, instead we had to take an overnight either on Friday night or Thursday night. We decided on Thursday night because we had more to see in Beijing than we did in Shanghai. While purchasing the tickets, this old Chinese man who only seemed to speak 2 English words "I'm 70" and tried to push everyone else over. Arghhh...annoying people.
After the train ticket excitement we made our way to the tourist area where the river and creek meet. There we decided to go to the Aquarium. Not really sure why...since we knew it wasn't going to be as good as Atlanta, but it was still fairly interesting. After the aquarium we walked around a bit and then bought tickets for the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower. This tower said it was the tallest tower in Asia and is on the Haungpu River. We bought the extra expensive tickets to go all the way to the top, about 450 meters. The view was pretty cool, but it was quite foggy so we could not see a whole bunch. I kinda of feel like if you go up one of these, you've been up them all because from the top it looks about the same. The tower has three different little spherical globe viewing stations. The top one is very small and only viewing. The second one is the main viewing area and has a revolving restaurant. The Third one was really neat, but sort of strange and unexpected. It was a little space museum with little random ETs everywhere. Then you could go downstairs, and learn a bit more about space exploration. There was also a 3-D movie but it after waiting until 6:00 we discovered it actually wasn't showing until 7. We then walked down a bit and discovered there was a roller coaster! In the tower! It was as you'd expect, quite short, but I think it was the highlight of our day. At the bottom of the tower there was a Shanghai history museum. It was full of these life size statues that looked extremely real. It was also had little replicas of the city. It was a very interesting little museum, that gave us a better understanding of the change of Shanghai since its beginning over 800 years ago.
After the museum, we walked around the corner and had one of my favorite meals so far in China. Italian!! It seems like we've had a lot of Italian here if we aren't eating Chinese. I had a really good pasta dish. Once dinner was over, we took the Bung railway car through the tourist tunnel back across the river. It was this little car that was all glassed in, and we rode through a tunnel under the river. It had all sorts of pictures and a laser show. Quite touristy but still fun. We then walked back to our hotel quite exhausted and hit the sack.
Well, I will try and update about our second day in Shanghai later on. We are now actually in Beijing...more about that later. Love to all!!!
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