Beijing, China

Finally after almost 18 months of living in China we have now visited Beijing which is so rich in history and cultural importance.  We hired a local guide recommended from friends and what a great job he did the entire time with our family.  Of course our first stop was Tiananmen Square and I cannot explain how excited we were to be experiencing it all.  I guess the excitement stems from all the events in Chinese history or from the 1989 pro-democracy protest that took place.  The square is named after the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City.  The Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City was built in 1415 during the Ming Dynasty.  The Tiananmen square was designed and built in 1651, and has since enlarged four times its original size in the 1950s. 

We strolled through the square, passing through the Tiananmen Gate and arriving in the Forbidden City.  The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty.  For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government.  Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of a mind boggling 980 buildings and covers 7,800,000 sq ft!  It was a fascinating visit and I actually took a brick from the ground (already loose of course) as a memento. 

Next we headed to the Temple of Heaven.  This was a place visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest, constructed from 1406 to 1420.

To close our first day in Beijing we went to see the Beijing Chaoyang Theater Acrobatics World.  This show presented world-class Chinese acrobatics including juggling, martial arts, balancing, group bicycling and so much more.

For our second day we were unfortunately met with rain.  However this did not dampen our sense of adventure.  We started by visiting the Summer Palace, which contains Longevity Hill and surrounded by Kunming Lake.  Longevity Hill is about 200 feet high and has many buildings positioned in sequence with halls and pavilions.  It was used for royal families to rest and entertain, later becoming the main residence of royal members in the end of the Qing Dynasty.

Following the Summer Palace we made a brief stop at the Beijing planning exhibition hall.  This is located beside Tiananmen Square which features miniature model of the entire Beijing metropolitan area.  This was a great way for us to see everywhere we had already visited and also planned to see in the coming days.

Of course what would a visit be without a dinner experiencing Beijing Duck!  We stopped for a rest and enjoyed dinner at Beijing Bianyiang Roast Duck restaurant with our guide.

To end the day we went to see the Legend of Kung Fu show.  This was a great way to explore the real Chinese Martial Arts & culture.  We found that it had great story, stage design, and absolutely amazing professional martial arts actors!

Our third day was planned with perfection.  Knowing typical China weather and pollution which hampers visibility, we knew that a preceding day of rain would lead to blue clear skies the following day.  Thus we set forth for The Great Wall of China!!  Our first stop on the way to the wall was to a Cloisonné factory, where we learned how the art was hand-made with such amazing detail.  Of course we had to buy a vase that was created by a master artesian.

The moment we had all been waiting for....  A visit to the Great Wall of China, Mu Tian Yu location.  What amazing weather we had for our visit and something we will always remember, hoping that one day the boys will return with their children someday.  The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall is connected with Jiankou in the west and Lianhuachi in the east. As one of the best-preserved parts of the Great Wall, the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall used to serve as the northern barrier defending the capital and the imperial tombs.  I think our pictures summarize what a great time we had!  By the way, climbing (yes I did not say walking) along the Great Wall is an exhausting but well worth it experience!

Next we visited the Ming Tombs, from the Yongle Emperor onwards13 Ming Dynasty Emperors were buried in this area.  It is located on the southern slope of Tianshou Mountain and chosen on the feng shui principles.  According to these, bad spirits and evil winds descending from the North must be deflected; therefore, an arc-shaped area at the foot of the Jundu Mountains north of Beijing was selected.  A seven kilometer road named the "Spirit Way" (Shéndào) leads into the complex, lined with statues of guardian animals and officials, with a front gate consisting of a three-arches, painted red, and called the "Great Red Gate".

 

Finally before heading back to the hotel we stopped at a Jade Factory where Natalie bought a beautiful bracelet, she is becoming Chinese I am afraid ;)

Our last day was finally upon us.  We started our day by visiting the Hutong area.  A Hutong is a type of narrow streets or alleys, most commonly associated with Beijing, China.  In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences.   We explore through a Rickshaw ride and even visited a local family who greeted us into their home with open arms. 

 

Right within the Hutong area we visited the he Beijing Bell Tower.  This provided the correct time in Yuan, Ming, Qing dynasty and it is one of the most important construction systems at that time. At past, people use the drum and bell to telling the time, so the drum and bell has very important part to the people to help them live and work regularly.  We also viewed the Drum Tower from a distance.

 

Next we headed to the Lama Temple and monastery of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism.  It is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. The building and the artworks of the temple is a combination of Han Chinese and Tibetan styles.  It is here we saw a statue of the Maitreya Buddha carved from a single piece of White Sandalwood. The statue is one of three artworks in the Temple which were included in the Guinness Book of Records in 1993.  As we left the temple my comment to Cooper was, "we sure have seen a lot of Buddha here in China"!

 

We continued on to the Olympic area, home of the 2008 games.  Here we got a chance to see the Bird's Nest stadium and also the Water Cube.

 

Finally we concluded our tour with a visit to Snack street.  This is a fun must when you visit Beijing.  It is here you can find traditional Chinese street food and the sights/photo-ops are amazing.  It never even entered our mind to buy anything and eat it, however we just enjoyed the sights...  But certainly not the smells ;)

 

Well that concludes our visit to Beijing, cross off another beautiful city and also a visiting to another Natural Wonder of the World!

Henan, China

Our family has a membership in the Nanjing International Club which comprises of expat families living in our city.  The main purpose of the organization is for social gatherings and maintaining community relations for international individuals such as ourselves.  It has approximately 500 members and over 32 countries are represented which makes it very interesting and a great way to meet people in the same situation here in China.  Our trip this time was focused on exploring Henan Province, China.  This is located in the central part of China requiring us to take a speed train approximately 5 hours to our final destination.  The name Henan means “south of the river”, as the province is located near the Yellow River with over 5000 years of history and having a population of over 94 million! 

The first city we visited was Luoyang, boarding the capital city of Zhengzhou.  It is here we explored the Longmen Grottoes which is home of Chinese Buddhist art.  There are literally tens of thousands of statues of Buddha and disciples carved into caves which were excavated from limestone cliffs.  The scenery of the areas was incredible as we were surrounding in all directions by beautiful mountains.  Through our tour we learned there are as many as 100,000 statues within the 1,400 caves, ranging from an 1 inch (25 mm) to 57 feet (17 m) in height.  This is classified as a World Heritage Site as “an outstanding manifestation of human artistic creativity.”  The carvings began in 493AD so I could go on and on about the history of this site however I will instead share some of the pictures we took as we toured along the mountain side.

Next we were off to the city of Dengfeng, known for being a spiritual center within China.  Our focal point was the Buddhist Shaolin Temple which was founded in the fifth century, most famous for the association with Martial Arts (Shaolin Kung Fu).  We quickly moved our way to witness a Kung Fu exhibition which was amazing.  The Shaolin Kung Fu is known for leaps of strength, force and weaponary so it was a real treat to watch  We saw some amazing feats of strength and pain endurance clearly displaying the reputation of the ultimate Buddhist Warriors.  Some of us may remember the television series "Kung Fu", well David Carradine's character was a Shaolin Monk!

Following the Kung Fu show we took time to explore the Temple further wandering from building to building learning about the Buddhist statues contained within.  Interestingly I discovered that Shaolin Kung Fu practitioners can be detected by the use of one arm or hand to represent respect in comparison to the two hands (best way to describe is when your hands are put together in front of our chest for prayer).  This is due to a Buddhist teacher in the temple who cut off his right arm to prove his sincerity to the teaching of Buddhism. 

Next within the Shaolin Temple we tour the Pagoda Forest which is 228 brick or stone pagodas built from 791 AD.  There are a variety of styles and shapes which give you glimpses into the various dynasties in China. 

Lastly in the evening we went to see the Zen Music Shaolin Grand Ceremony.  It is described as a real-scene musical extravaganza featuring dance, light and Shaolin Kung Fu.   The stages is located at the foot of the Daxian Valley with hills standing vertically as backdrop which was just beautiful!  This was a great way to end our day!

On Sunday we had one last stop before heading to catch our train back to Nanjing.  Our visit was to the Shaolin temple Xiaolong Martials Arts School.  This was a boarding school for K through High School where kids got an formal education and also mastered Kung Fu, having training over 78 national champions.  We quickly were assigned a teacher who spent a few hours with us showing us a routine which he made look so easy.  As we trained (and rested…) we were amongst all the students who were gathered in various areas within the campus.  It was here the students were practicing flips, weaponry, hand to hand combat or what I assumed to be skill testing as their fellow classmates watched and cheered.  We had the opportunity to meet the Head Master who spoke about as much English as I know Mandarin, however it was apparent he was a very kind person as he spent the morning with us.  At the end of our visit our instructors showed us some of their skills and posed in a picture with us for a memory.  It was a great morning and a way to witness something I had only seen in movies, kids learning Kung Fu at such a large scale.  A great way to conclude a fun trip and explore another part of this country which is so rich in history!

Chengdu, China

Our latest vacation was spent partly exploring more of China.  We traveled to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China.  Our choice for visiting this city was to see China’s National Treasure, the giant panda.  One of the rarest animals in the world, of those living in the wild 80% of which are in Sichuan Province.  We decided to visit the Panda Breeding Research Center in Chengdu which is a unique opportunity to see the Panda in an environment that mimics their natural habitat.  The center leads the world in research into the rearing and breeding of Pandas.  We signed up for volunteering at the Center by cleaning a Panda cage, washing them down, and best of all feeding them.  It was great experience.
 

Within the same day we visited Antique Street with a history stretching back to the Qin Dynasty around two thousand years ago.  Walking through the street you see many handcrafts and antique items for sale.  Finally we stopped on Jingli street in the evening, it is recorded that as early as the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC).  As we walked down the streets we saw stores selling handicrafts, etc.  It was a very happening place to visit as the streets were very crowded as we casually walked around and stopping at a few select shops here and there.

The following day we went to see the “Big Buddha”.  We traveled to Leshan to see the biggest Buddha in the world and the longest reclining Buddha in the world.  The Buddha is situated at the Lingyun Mountain where the Minjiang and Dadu River meet, east of Leshan City.   Created in the Tang Dyansty it is the biggest stone stature in the world at present.  Historical documents show that the carving was begun in AD 713. According to legend, there was a river monster that lived on the confluence of the rivers. The monster often caused floods that capsized passing boats. Believing that the statue would protect boats travelling up the river, Master Haitong, a Buddhist abbot of the Lingyun Monastery, initiated the project by raising the necessary funds.  It was really a great site to see!  Aside from climbing down the mountain side we also took a short ferryboat ride along the river to get a better view of the statue.

In the evening we went to see a Sichuanese Opera which originates back to the 1700's.  Sichuan opera is more like a play than other forms of Chinese operad.  The traditional opera we witnessed had a combination of dancing, stunts of face changing, sword-hiding and fire-spitting.  This was a great experience and a great way to end this trip within China.

Singapore!

Our next vacation stop was the island of Singapore, known as the world's fourth leading financial center and it's port is one of the five busiest in the world.  We stayed at the Shangri-La Sentosa Resort which is one of the only beach front locations within Sentosa island and a popular resort.  Our hotel was beautiful as expected with great views of the China Sea and the boats awaiting port side. 

On our first day aside from relaxing poolside, one of our first adventures was the MegaZip ride.  It is located at the top of Mount Imbiah and is one of the longest and steepest zip wires in Asia.  Interestingly it was on the sixteenth season of The Amazing race. 

Lastly we visited the Night Safari which is the world's first nocturnal zoo.  The Night Safari is an entire open-air zoo within a tropical forest that is only open at night.  It is divided into eight geographical zones which we explored on a tram ride.  We witnessed cultural performances after the tram ride such as fire eating and a Creatures of the Night Show.

The next day we started with a visit to the Merlion statue.  This is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish, used as a mascot and of Singapore. Its name combines "mer" meaning the sea and "lion". The fish body represents Singapore's origin as a fishing village.  The lion head represents Singapore's original name Singapura meaning "lion city".  Following this we went for a luge ride down a long winding path, we all had a blast racing down the hill.  It was a self-steering, gravity-driven three-wheel cart which we sped down a hill over a course of 650m ending at the Siloso Beach.  At the end of the luge, there is the Skyride we took back up to the top enjoying the views of the island along the way.  Next we went on the city’s Cable Car which gave us a bird’s eye view of the city, taking us from Sentosa Island to Mount Faber.  After arriving on the main island of Singapore from our Cable Car ride we took a taxi over to the Singapore Flyer.  This is a giant Ferris wheel that reaches 42 stories high, with a total height of 541 feet making it the tallest ferris wheel in the world, taller than the London Eye!  We chose to ride the Flyer in the evening as it is located near the shore of Singapore's Marina Bay with an amazing view of the city. 

On our last day we took a tour to Legoland which was a highlight for Cooper and Brady!  The park was a two hour bus ride into Malaysia where we then had a great time on rides and looking at the many Lego displays.  The park was not crowded and we even had a complete roller coaster all to ourselves for several rides.  It was a great day for the family and a perfect way to end our vacation.

"Malaysia Truly Asia"

Our latest adventure landed us in Kota Kinabalu which is the capital city of Sabah, Malaysia.  The city is located on the island of Borneo facing the South China Sea.  For those of us living in the Asia Pacific region we are all very familiar with the Malaysia tourism jingle repeated daily on television. "Malaysia Truly Asia, the best time of your life....".  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLHcgJEyl2I&sns=fb).  Let me tell you whoever created that song deserves a Grammy as we all have come to know and love that song!  More importantly the song rings very true, we had the time of our life!

The island was just beautiful as it is home to many tropical rain forest.  From our resort we had an amazing view of five islands in the distance; Gaya, Sapi, Manukan, Sulug and Mamutik.  The resort itself had everything you could ask for including a wonderful water play area for the kids (complete with slides) and the main pool had reclined benches in the water where you could look past the infinity pool off into the distance and see the islands.

On a sunny morning we decided to visit Mamutik Island which was reachable by a short 15 minute boat ride.  The island had white sandy beaches and clear crystal water.  It is here we enjoyed the warm clear water by swimming, snorkeling, searching for shells and also went parasailing. 

One day within our trip we visited an Orangutan Rehabilitation Center that aims to assit this endangered species in Sabah. The Center is located on the grounds of the other Shangri-La resort wihtin the island.  The Nature Reserve has been established in collaboration with the State Wildlife Department and has a 64 acre ecological space.  The center takes in injured or orphaned Orangutans, as well as those that have been confiscated from the illegal pet trade.  They are then nursed back to health and released into the reserve.  They spend most of their day in the forest however the center feeds the Orangutans where we were able to watch from several platforms.

Another day within our trip we visited the Mari Mari Cultural Village.  Here we went on a tour visiting the different homes of Sabah tribes.  Each home was built by descendants of the tribes they represent and offered us a genuine experience of how these people lived back in time.  While on this tour we were treated to demonstrations along the main houses in which daily activities of old times came to life.  For example the boys witnessed how to start a fire (from Polod tree) without the help of a lighter.  We also witnessed native dancing, received tattoos symbolic of the tribe, shot a blow pipe and also learned about food preparation.   Cooper was even selected as our leader, representing us as we visited the local tribes.  It was a great way to spend an afternoon in the rain forest. 

Of course our trip would not be complete with shopping.  On every country we visit we try our best to bring back some authentic art work or things representative of the people in the region.  This way we will have a great reminder of our trip.  Without fail we were able to find some great artwork which we will proudly display in our Michigan home upon return.

In summary this was another wonderful vacation for our family and a terrific opportunity to learn about another culture!