XiNing, QingHai, PRC, Day 9, August 2, 2011

Slept in and missed breakfast in the hotel.  No great loss as it turned out.  The girls wanted to go swimming so we got out the hotel directory and found what we thought was a pool.  Turns out it was a public bath!  Our hotel apparently specialized in its spa.  According to the directory, there was a Sports Center Foot Massage room.  So, since I've unsuccessfully been trying to get a pedicure and foot massage since arriving in China, I decided to take a leap and attempt it in XiNing!!!  Great plan.  Poor execution.  I started out by taking the elevator down to the 5th floor, where, according to the elevator directory, the Foot Center was located.  Well, the elevator would not stop on the 5th floor.  So I got off on the 6th floor.  A very nicely dressed young lady met me and made it very clear, in Chinese, that I was in the wrong place!  Yeah, I could tell, but I could not figure out how to communicate with her.  Finally, I got her to follow me to the elevator and pointed out the 5th floor Foot Massage Center - she then took me down to the lobby, across the lobby to the "womens' sauna area."  I had to swap my sandals for a pair of their flip flops and another woman took me through the sauna to another elevator that did stop on the 5th floor.  Once there, I was taken to a room with several recliner type chairs and a tv.  They handed me the remote control and pointed to the tv.  Then they seated me in one of the chairs.  There was an ottoman in front of the chair.  After about 5 minutes, a young woman came in carrying a big wooden bucket full of HOT water.  It was way too hot!  She went back out and brought in a pitcher of cool water to add and it was tolerable.  Then I got a GREAT foot massage!  It lasted about 45 minutes and was wonderful.  However, once she was done, I could not get her to understand pedicure!  So, after refusing to accept a tip, she led me back downstairs to the place where I left my shoes.  I was given a ticket and directed to the lobby desk to pay for the massage.  It was about $11.00 US.   Once I had paid, they brought my sandals back to me.  So, I told the girls when I got back into the room, I did not see Sports Center and as far as I know, I was not on Sports Center, while I was getting the massage.  Surprisingly, there were no English speaking tv channels in the Sports Center Foot Massage room.  (We were able to watch tv in Beijing - CNN or BBC only; nothing after that).

We decided to have noodles for lunch from the convenience store.  Then, Tim came  and picked us up and we took a cab to a shopping center in the downtown area.  The ground level was filled with markets.  Sarah and I had yak yogurt at one; Samantha had an ice cream cone at another.  We found several great souvenirs there - including a prayer wheel for Samantha.  Sarah was shopping for bracelets and found many different kinds.  There were lots of Indian things in the market and some ethnic clothing.  We walked from one end to the other and then Tim showed us that there was a mall underneath the street.  We walked from one end to the other of it, tried on shoes in one store, looked at handbags in another, and realized that we would have a hard time finding any clothes for the girls.  They appear to be between sizes in China.  The kids things were too small and the adult clothing was too large.  So we headed back up to the street and looked for a cab to get us back to the hotel.  Before we found a cab, we found a KFC!  Decided dinner would be KFC and went inside to get a to go order.  A little different than I expected, but the girls enjoyed the french fries!  They actually had ice in the drinks, but no Coke products, only Pepsi.  I ended up with some nasty tea.  But at least it was ice cold!

Chengdu to XiNing, Day 8, August 1, 2011

Today was our day to split from the group.  Many of the other families also left at this point to visit their childs' orphanage.  We were skipping Guilin to go to Sarah's hometown.  I heard that Guilin was very beautiful, but we did not have enough time to do both.  So, after breakfast in the hotel, we had to bring our luggage down to the bus.  We were splitting after lunch, so we had to gave our stuff together before we left for our morning tour.  Our tour today was to Huanglongxi, and old village in Chengdu.  It turned out to be a great little place, with lots of vendors and shops.  They had a place where you could try on "Imperial" outfits and have your picture made.  I wish I had figured that out sooner, I would have had the girls do it. Samantha got a lollypop made out of burnt sugar; Sarah got some skewers of chicken (extra spicy)!  It was pretty tasty.

Another group dinner on the second floor of a restaurant in town, and we were pulled away from the group to take a taxi to the airport.  We had a pretty short flight (less than 2 hours) to XiNing.  Our guide Tim, met us there and got us to our hotel.  He told us that we had the next day free and would go to the orphanage on Wednesday, August 3.  He offered to take us shopping the next day if we called him.

We got into our room and discovered that there was no wireless internet.  I went downstairs to ask the front desk about it and, surprise!, no one speaks English!!!  Gotta love it.  The people at the front desk ended up calling Tim, our guide, to get him to translate over the phone!  It was pretty funny.  Anyway, turns out we had wired internet, not wireless, so the maintenance guy came to the room and got us hooked up.  Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.  Never did figure out if the government or the hotel was playing with us!  We were a pretty easy target since I'm sure I was the only caucasian woman within a 500+ mile area.  We did get some looks.  Samantha was very uncomfortable with it.  I tried to explain that the people were just curious.  Everyone was very friendly.  The difference in XiNing than the other cities was that there is a very large Muslim population there.  We even passed a mosque - I missed taking a picture.  Really wish I had gotten it!

Since dinner was on our own the first night, we walked down the street about 3 or 4 spots and found a little convenience store.  We ended up with noodles, oreos, beer, orange soda, and some peppercorns to bring back for a friend.  Total cost;  about $5.00 US.

Chengdu, Day 7; July 31, 2011

Dumplings are on the bus by 8:30 this morning for the long awaited visit to the Panda Reserve.  This was Samantha's whole reason for taking this trip!  She wanted to hold a baby panda.  Well, turns out that you have to be dressed in scrubs, including a mask, go into a private area and stand next to the baby panda.  And it costs 1000 RMB (approx. $165 US).  And I would have to pay that for each of us to go back to see her!  Same price whether you touch the panda or not!  So, I had to break her heart and tell her that I could not justify paying $500 for us to do that.  Instead, we just did the regular tour, saw the adult pandas and visited the gift shop for a panda hoodie.  Seems to have made her happy.

Sarah's favorite panda, the Red Panda!  Looks like a bigger raccoon.

We were able to send some postcards to PaPa and Katie while at the Panda Center, the postcards arrived home about a week after we did!  We left the Panda Reserve and headed out to another group lunch!  Yet another flight of stairs!  There is no such thing as a 1st floor restaurant in China and none have elevators!  

Since Chengdu is in Sichuan province, we had Sichuan food!  Very spicy!  Not enough beer, not enough cold beverages.  We survived and continued on to a Tea House for the famous Sichuan Face-Changing Show.  It may have been my favorite event!   The Tea House was open on the sides, had paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling and rows of chairs with very small benches for the tea in front.  The tea servers had tea pots with very long spouts to reach down the aisle to refill cups.  According to our guide, the servers were expert at pouring tea from the odd pots and apparently, if tea was spilled in the process of pouring, you don't pay.  Any way, we were also offered the chance to have a back massage for a few dollars.  I had been looking for that, so I jumped at the chance!  I had to leave my seat in the aisle and go over to the outside edge of the pavilion.  There was a bamboo/rattan chair for me to sit on.  Then a man came over and started rubbing my neck and back - it lasted 15 minutes or so.   It was great.  I felt so much better when he finished and slept like a baby that night!   Then the show started.  It appeared to be the typical Chinese variety show, singing, instruments, dancing, and then there was a couple that came out and acted out a scene that looked to me like something from "I Love Lucy."  The gist of it was that the wife ran the house and that the husband had done something wrong and she was giving him a hard time about it and he was making excuses and asking for forgiveness.  No subtitles at a live show!  Anyway, the facial expressions and sounds from the audience were pretty funny.  The face changing part came at the end.  These people with fancy costumes came out and danced around, masks on their faces.  Then, the masks would change in an instant!  Then their costumes changed instantly!  You could not see how it was done!  It was terrific!  The girls loved it!  They all stayed awake for this one.  It was a great day.  We got back to the hotel and crashed, so we'd be ready for the next day and next city, XiNing.  Time for us to split from the group and go to Sarah's hometown.

Xi'an to Chengdu, Day 6 (Saturday, July 30, 2011)

Since we were so late getting to our hotel the night before, we were able to sleep in today and had an extra hour to check out of the hotel and be at the bus.  (9  instead of 8 am!)  (We'll have to get back home to rest!)  We took off on the bus for the Xi'an Ancient Wall.  Back in the day, all of China's cities were surrounded by walls.  The wall in Xi'an is the best remaining example.  It is huge and splits the city in half.   There are towers every 100 meters or so for the soldiers to fire upon intruders.  The girls were able to ride bikes upon the wall!  The bikes were big, while Samantha did not have any trouble getting her long legs on one, Sarah needed a boost.  She and Samantha rode the bikes with the other kids and had a great time!  Sarah figured out that she needed to ride up close to the wall to get off of the bike and had no problems at all!  I enjoyed watching all of the children ride up and down the length of the wall.

After we left the wall, we got back on the bus and ran over to the Wild Goose Pagoda.  The Pagoda is a functioning Buddhist temple.  We saw a few monks and were able to spend a few minutes checking it out before getting back on the bus to head to the airport and on to Chengdu.    We arrived in Chengdu and had the evening to ourselves.

Beijing to Xi'an, Day 5 (Friday, July 29, 2011)

Flight to Xi'an was delayed by storms.  We sat on the tarmac for at least an hour with the wind blowing the wings and the rain pounding on the plane.  Once it slacked off enough to take off, the flight to Xi'an was uneventful.  However, due to the delay, we did not get to check in our hotel.  Instead, we had lunch at a restaurant at the airport (?!) and then we were taken directly to the Terra Cotta warriors exhibition.  The girls and I had seen it before, so we did not take as much time with it as before.  The place was packed with people looking at the warriors.  We went into all 3 buildings, then saw another one of the farmers who discovered the warriors site in 1974.  He was signing books, we did not buy one this time, got it the first time!  The warriors are still an unbelievable site!  It is mind-boggling to think of the amount of time, energy and craftsmanship that went into creating this army.

After the Terra Cotta warriors, we got back on the bus and headed to a dinner theater  - Tang Dynasty Show with Dumpling Banquet.  The dumplings were unbelievable!   There were 19 different kinds and they were shaped to look like the food inside!  We had cabbage dumplings, corn dumplings, pork dumplings even duck dumplings.  The Tang Dynasty Show included music, singing and dancing.  The show went on forever and we finally got to check in to the hotel around 11 pm!  We were all exhausted - I thought we had it tough in Beijing, but the Xi'an trek, while not as hot, was just as long and tiring.

Beijing, Day 4 (Thursday, July 28, 2011)

We were up at on the bus again this morning at 8 am!  This morning we are headed for the Summer Palace.  I've never been there and really looking forward to it.  The Summer Palace is the last palace built by the Qing Dynasty (Empress CiXi).  It is very beautiful, with a lake, shady trees, and several pavilions.  There were people playing various musical instruments in one of the pavilions and people sat around to listen.  We walked around the lake on one side and rode a dragon boat back to the beginning of the park.  Once again, we were surrounded by vendors, selling the usual stuff.  This time, I finally broke down and bought a Mao watch.  Who could resist when they only wanted 30 RMB (approx $5.00)?  Fans were another big seller, but the girls already had one.

There were some old men writing Chinese characters with a big calligraphy brush on the slate walkways.  They offered the brushes to the girls to to try their hand at it.  Several of the older girls wrote some characters on the slate.  Sarah got up her nerve and wrote her Chinese name on the sidewalk.  It was very beautiful and the man was very happy to see her work!  She received many compliments on her beautiful handwriting!

After the Summer Palace it was off to the bus and to another group lunch!  This time, a Thai restaurant!  Once again, family style, lazy susan in the middle of the table, way too much food and not enough cold beverages!   After lunch, it was off to CCCWA and BLAS to meet some of the people that worked on our adoption files, maybe even matched Samantha and me!