The China trip is fading fast from my memory & we've visited a new place in Korea to blog about, which is what this is really all about, right? So I'll try to sum up China in this post.
We never left Beijing during our tour. All the sights we saw were in the city, except for the Wall, which wasn't a long drive. I'll start at the beginning though. Airport: HUGE. I don't have much comparison to go by, the biggest airport I've flown from is Dallas (if you're going by size of the building), and the Beijing airport is probably 10 times bigger. There are at least 5 terminals and the terminal we left from had 62 gates. I don't know about the rest. It felt like I was in an indoor football stadium when I walked into the entrance. It's really that big. And very clean. I was impressed.
Beijing is lacking in one thing that Korea has: smells. I didn't notice any smells in the city while we there, and another couple and I did strike off on our own a couple of times so we weren't always in the tourist areas. Beijing also has it's own 'Chinatown', no kidding! We just drove through it; it was a very commercialized looking place.
(SOAP BOX ALERT!) During our time in Korea and (so briefly!) China I am amazed at how many people speak English. So many know at least enough to effectively communicate what you need to know. In Korea they start learning in preschool. A Korean mom told me they are obsessed with teaching their kids English. From what I understand it's like this in most Asian countries. It's kind of humbling to think how influential America must be for so many people to try to learn English and be so eager for their children to learn it. I mean when was the last time you gave any thought to trying to learn anything about another language? I think it really boils down to one fact though: the power of the dollar. Even with our 'sunken' economy we are still so amazingly rich.
But back to the topic at hand. The rest of the trip is honestly a blur. We saw so much in such a short period of time that it's hard to really take it all in. The tea ceremony: way to much effort for a single cup of tea. Let me brew up a pitcher and pour the sugar in! (Can you tell I'm from Alabama?) The jasmine tea was indeed very good, but not good enough to make me want to change my ways! We also saw an acrobatics show, which fascinated the girls. Carrie was especially awe struck. ("Mommy she's standing on her head!") It's is supposed to be based on the history of the area of China that was struck by a severe earthquake a few years ago, but the translation didn't make a whole lot of sense to me so I can't explain. It just seemed like a normal entertaining acrobatics show to me! We kind of ran through Tienanmen Square; most of the pictures I took were while I was walking. Same thing in the Forbidden City. And the Forbidden City really is a city; it's huge! You think you're walking through the exit gate and BAM! There's more! The area around the Summer Palace was beautiful, but since it was winter everything was dead and the small streams and such all dried up. We didn't go into the palace, I don't know if you can. There's so much more there that we didn't see; it should really be called a city as well. The Temple of Heaven: what can I say? It's a temple complex very different from what we've experienced in Korea, although that's probably because it's not Buddhist. It also is very large, and required much walking, though it didn't change much from one part to the next; the buildings just got a little bigger.
After a while all the pagodas and other buildings begin to kind of run together. It's beautiful architecture but it doesn't vary much from one to the other, at least not to me! And of course there are people everywhere which also translates to traffic congestion, but I honestly didn't think it was bad at all considering the population size. Of course, I wasn't the one doing the driving.
We ate at Chinese restaurants every meal, although I question how authentic they were. For example, they all had large 'gift shops' and the food was just like what you'd get at any Chinese buffet in the states. After a while some of us were sick of it, so at one time we saw a McDonald's and ate there, and another time we set off and found a Mexican restaurant, which was fantastic! I also had the best cappuccino ever from a Starbucks. (For the record I am not a Starbucks fan, but this one was great!)
Interesting note: censored internet. One of my tour groupies had brought his laptop & was telling us how some of the ads are blocked & there is no access to Facebook & MySpace. You hear about this but it's so much more profound to experience it yourself (or at least vicariously through someone you know!). And their version of Tienanmen Square is much different than ours; namely no mention at all of anyone getting killed. I remember staring at our tour guide as she was telling us the Chinese version of what had happened and thinking "Is she serious?". Then I wondered if she had any clue that there was a different version out there. They make it sound like a government support rally and not any kind of protest. (On a side note: they 'hawk' Mao Zedong watches in the square. You too can enjoy checking 'big brother' for your local time!)
Overall I had a good time and am so glad I went. My favorite part: definitely the Great Wall. It's awe inspiring. And learning that I can travel quite well with 2 little girls alone may inspire many more trips!
Addendum: Hindsight makes me realize how arrogant it is to presume everyone learns English solely because of America's international impact. There are other English speaking countries that influence the world as well, and I am now slightly humbled in my opinion and more conscious of their contribution to global society. However, I still maintain that America has the biggest impact.
No comments:
Post a Comment