Clock Teacher

One good thing about swine flu: redirecting cruises to Canada

 So my parents go on a lot of cruises and they are pretty much all good deals.  In this case, after the scare about traveling to Mexico, a lot of cruise ships diverted up to Canada at the last minute.  For the people who had already booked, they offered half price tickets on their next cruise.  Then to fill up the spots they had some great tickets available, so this time my older sister Cindie and I went along too.  7 days from Long Beach to Vancouver and back.  We stopped by in Astoria, Oregon and Victoria, British Columbia.  We were on the Carnival Splendor and I ate a lot of food...a lot. Thankfully they had a gym on board that I used every day I didn't spend walking miles around cities, so that defrayed a little of the eating.  Anyways, here are some of the pics of the ship.

 

 

Here is more info on the ship if you want to see more. The first night I had a vegetarian Indian plate, really.  It was delicious! Here are some pictures of the food. 

 

 

mmmm yummy.  Next stop...Astoria.

The land of the rising sun...in pictures.

IMG_8544, originally uploaded by cjunk74.

Well, after taking months to upload all of my China pictures, I decided to just throw all my Japan pics on Flickr. I'll get to writing more descriptions when I can. http://flickr.com/photos/cjcrane/sets/72157607536785037/

I am still learning a lot how to use flickr and how to tie it into the blog here. Hopefully as I get the hang of this I will be able to upload photos faster and more often. Enjoy.

China: the best for last

   This will be the last post on China.  Since it only took me 3 months to post all of these, I have no idea if I will ever put up picks from Japan, probably, just some best of shots.  So I told you that the forbidden city was the number 1 thing that I wanted to see, with the Olympic aquatic center being number 2.  This is actually the most impressive thing that I DID see.  The summer palace was built by the "Dragon Lady" empress Cixi.  Here is the wiki article if you are interested http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Dowager_Cixi

Some things that I noted from our tour guide: she never wore the Emperor's clothes, but maintained power through her dowager status.  She continued to chose young Emperor's to maintain her power, though it wasn't proved that she had a hand in them dying young as well.  The palace was rebuilt after it was destroyed by the British during the 2nd opium war.  She used money that was meant for the Navy to pay for it while the common people starved (this was what was told to me by our tour guide, Professor Jensen noted that after seeing this, you can see where so much of the anger toward the ruling class came from and why Mao's revolution was successful.) What do you think?

In Chinese palaces, emperors are represented by dragons and empresses by the phoenix.  Since this palace was rebuilt by the Empress Dowager, it is the only one in China where the phoenix has the central position to the dragon.

Something else interesting to me, this was the first time that I have ever been able to go out and walk on a frozen lake.  Remember, I am from a desert; cold has not been my companion.  Well, bum leg or not, I was going to walk on a frozen lake, and it was terrifying, mostly because I was afraid of hurting my knee more if I slipped(which didn't happen). So here I am on the lake, and of course no walk on the lake would be complete without a sign telling you not to walk on the lake, brilliant.

   

One of the reasons this was so impressive, is that you walk through the opening gates, then along the first pavilion until you get to a path.  The path purposely curves back and forth so that you do not get a view of the lake until you are right there, and then you see this massive building built into the side of the mountain.  It's one of those movie moments, when you see something that at first your mind says can't be real. 

Also I have to say, I think it's cool that both Korea and China have hobbit doors, very cool. Then again, Middle Earth, and the Middle Kingdom, coincidence? I think not.

 

See, they sell goguma(sweet potato) in China too.  These next set of pictures are from the walkway that goes along the lake.  It is one of the longest walkways in the world (I don't remember if it was the longest)  It is built so that in any weather (rain or shine) that one can walk along the lake and view both the water and the mountains.  Along the way there are 8000 unique paintings on the inside, so there is always something to look at.  I think it spans more than 1km if I remember correctly.  However I do have in my notes that most of the pictures are very similar in style and content, just variations on a theme. 

In the middle, we went into a little gallery.  I'm not sure if it was a store or an exhibit, but I really liked the art, here are a few pictures and a few last random ones to end it.  So as you can see, pretty impressive, this was the place that I would like to go back to most as there was so much that we couldn't see. 

China: Beijing at dawn

      Yeah, I know I am way behind on these, but I figure I might as well just post them up.  The final morning, me, Heather, and Brandon got up early to go to the shrine that sits on top of the hill in the middle of the city.  It overlooks the forbidden city and gives you a panorama view of all of Beijing.  It is also a major destination for health classes and tai-chi followers. We raced up the hill to beat the sun.  We made it literally by 1 minute. Here are some of the shots.

 

I have to point out that I found this sign very interesting.  Just because I don't think it is often that a tourist sign says "the place where the emperor hanged himself".  So I did a little searching about Chongzhen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chongzhen_Emperor  He was the final emperor of the Ming dynasty.

Afterward, we took a taxi to one of the largest Buddhist shrines in Beijing.  As we were waiting for it to open we had the chance to see a regular street.  We also got lucky and found a super-market to buy some stuff.  While it was amazingly helpful and convenient to be on a tour, the downside is that you often miss what actual life looks like in the places you tour, so for me, this was just as interesting as the palaces and temples.

    

As we were walking around, I saw a line of people outside a window. From the delicious smell coming out of it I knew they were buying something to eat.  I decided to try it, waiting in line and then ordering one of...whatever it was.  It looked like a form of crepe, and looked delicious. It is called Giembe (I asked our tour guide) and it costs 2 Yuan which is about 30 cents or 300 won.  Man it was good.

 

I am going to save the temple pictures for another post that I am working on comparing Chinese, Japanese, and Korean temples and shrines.  So I will end this with a little adventure that happened on the way back to the hotel.  While we were a few blocks away from our hotel, our taxi got in an accident.  Now, I don't know Chinese swear words, but I am pretty sure I heard some of them that morning.  I was riding in the front seat, and I saw the car moving towards us as our driver was merging left.  Clearly the two drivers did not see each other as they proceeded to merge right into one another.  The first shot is taken from inside out cab, where my door was blocked by the other car.  Thankfully it was just a fender bender and nobody was hurt.  The drivers got out, took pictures, exchanged information, and they were off.  We got another cab.

And lastly, something that I just thought was funny.  Pabst Blue Ribbon water.  For those who might now know, Pabst is pretty much the cheapest beer you can get, the Velveeta cheese of beer.  Anyways, evidently they make water too, in China.

China: The silk road, Final dinner, and Kung-Fu Show

OK, almost done with China(2 more posts after this one).  Sorry it has taken me so long.  I have absolutely no idea how these bloggers do it, putting on updates everyday.  I have an even greater respect for them.  Chances are, if you talked about shopping in China, you have heard of the Silk Road.  As the name would suggest, it began as the road where many silk merchants sold their wares(along with the larger version that represented the overland silk trade between Asia, the Middle East, and Europe).  It grew into a larger marked with other types of vendors, and of course spread out.  There are now many many MANY shopping centers in Beijing.  The one we went to was about 6 stories tall packed with everything from luggage to knick knacks. Sorry I don't have a lot of shots of the building, I was too busy bargaining to take pictures, which gets me to my next point.  Here, you HAVE to bargain, a lot, and it is an Olympic sport. No w, pretty much all the vendors here speak English, and not just simple conversation, but confrontational persuasive English.  Seriously, the level of verbal sparing that I heard was quite impressive, especially after coming from Korea where you can try to talk to someone that has studied English for  years, scored high on the standardized tests, and can't carry a conversation to save their lives(certainly not everyone here, but a lot of people I have met are like this).  So, some guidelines, as you walk into the building you see a large sign that has a list of phrases that "should" be used and a list of forbidden phrases that "should not" be used. Warning: There is some bad language on the list.  Lastly here are some of the things that I bought there.  The backpack I got for about 20$ and the plate was less.  Now if you enjoy the thrill of bargaining, this is your place.  I was amazed at the English ability of some of the sellers because they have mastered the art of banter.  These folks are NOT shy.  "Hey, I remember you from before, would you like one of these nice shirts, look really good on you handsome man"  OK, that doesn't even begin to do it justice.  They can also be quite aggressive.  One of my friends stopped to look at a shirt, and the girl running the shop grabbed her and tried to pull her in, she tried to pull away but the grip was strong, so I go over and take her hand and pull the other way. So then the girl an the booth next to us comes over and with a big smile on her face starts pushing ME into the shop too, crazy.  Anyways, it really showed me why I don't like to bargain.  Not only do I not enjoy the confrontational aspect, it takes you sooooo long just to buy anything, and here, as I said you HAVE to bargain.  "How much is that shirt? 200$? oh, I'll give you 5$ for it" and you go from there, seriously.  As a side note, I also bought a pair of brass swords that I had seen in China town in Korea, and for a much cheaper price.  I showed them off to the people on the bus and they oo'd and ahhh'd.  They were pretty nice, and I got both of them for around 20$ or so(it was a package buy).  But I don't have them now.  You see, Korea does not allow you to bring in any knives of any sort.  I'm not talking about just the checked luggage, not at all.  This was a fact that I wish the Koreans on the bus would have told me as they oo'd and ahh'd(It was especially annoying later when they said "oh you couldn't bring the sword's in? I was worried about that, I didn't think they would let you) I could have really used that information back in China, where I could have just sent them to the US nice and cheep.  Anyways, to protect Korean national security, you cannot bring in a knife, but you can buy them at any convenience store, market, and on many street corners throughout Seoul. I've been told it was to protect against Japanese Yakuza bringing in their assassin daggers, whatever. 

Then it was off to our final dinner and the Kung-Fu show. 

The show was amazing, and absolutely worth the extra ticket. They did some amazing acrobatics and dancing.  They also broke a lot of metal and wood over their heads which was quite interesting to see.  you can see the spent pieces in two pictures bellow.  They had a couple that did a dance while clinging to a cloth drape hanging down to the stage.  I can't really describe it, but the things they did were absolutely stunning, and all without wires or nets.  I have a DVD of the show, so when I get back home I can show you what I mean (or when people come over to my place here for you Korea based folks).  It was a really good production, and of course was totally geared towards tourists, with English and western music (thank goodness). 

   

China: Land of..pearls?

Our next factory trip was, in my opinion, the most underwhelming, a pearl factory.  The three most interesting points were that the freshwater oysters(triangular in shape) have many pearls inside(ours had 11), they had some very very big and very very expensive pearls, and the cafeteria next door that we ate lunch at had a buffet with a very interesting attempt at pizza.

China: The Temple of Heaven

      OK, seriously, this turned out to be one of the best times to go to Beijing.  It wasn't crowded, the weather may have been cold, but the air was cleaner, and while not all of them were finished, a lot of the preparations for the Olympics were done, like the new paint job for the Temple of Heaven.  Oh, and the prices weren't 10x normal, as they will be during the Olympics when you are required to book even the smallest hotel room for a MINIMUM of 2 weeks. 

Now, on to the Temple.  It was rebuilt 3 times (the latest in the 1700's).  The rare blue roof is round to symbolize Heaven.  The Emperor worshiped here 3 times a year to pray for bountiful harvests and blessings.  The Temple was only for men, and the large doors in the middle of the gate were for the emperor only.  Even now we went in through the side doors.  The temple grounds are now a park and they are even larger than the Forbidden City.  The grounds are very popular for older folks doing exercises and Tai Chi, along with playing games.  As we walked along the entrance corridor, we saw many groups playing chess(the Chinese version of course), and a game much like Hacky Sack(which is in Korea too).  The view truly was spectacular, and with the fresh paint, it was much easier to imagine being there in the heyday.  Wendy also stated that while the Great Wall is the symbol for China, the Temple of Heaven is the symbol for Beijing.

On the day we were there, they had a parade showing the many standard bearers of the Emperor.  It was pretty crowded but we managed to get some spots.  The tricky part was that not only was it very cold, but windy as well. This posed two problems, my fingers(even in my gloves) were so cold from holding up the camera that I could barely feel them, and the wind almost blew over some of the guys in the parade.  The large round standard tops had an especially difficult time, all to the crowds amusement of course. 

 

Afterward we saw more of the complex, including the echo wall.  If you stand on one end of the wall, you yell into it, and it is supposed to be heard on the other side.  So I walked up and tried a nice "Hello", but I didn't hear much.  So I figured since it was a Chinese wall I should try "Ni How!" and as I listened I heard a "Ni How!" come back, but it was female, followed by another "hello", then I turn and look about 10 meters down see a Chinese lady smiling at me.  And that's my experience with the echo wall.   

The final stop was the center of the Universe, or, the stone representation of it.  Unfortunately we couldn't stay long to take a lot of pictures.  One of the things I thought was quite interesting was the guy writing on the stone with a brush and water.  I saw that again at the summer palace.

China: A night at the Opera

OK, here is something that is new to everyone.  As I mentioned before, there were some itinerary changes from what we were told in Korea to what we actually saw in China.  Again, mostly due to a lack up updating from the China Airlines Korea branch.  One of the items was a trip to the Beijing Opera.  What had actually happened is the trip to the opera was dropped from our tour due to a normal lack of interest.  Here is a brief sample to see why. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9PxDPt0aWk   For many western ears, not the most melodious of sounds.  So, our tour guide talked instead about the possibility of seeing a Kung-fu show that many people have said they liked (that's because it rocks, but that is for another post).  The catch is that it is not covered in the basic price of the tour.  Also, that night a number of people had ordered a room massage, so most folks were ready just to get back to the hotel and rest.  Wendy announced to the group that if people wanted, they could go and see the Beijing Opera, which was included in the price, or go to a Kung-Fu show that was not included(and cost about 20$).  Also, if we wanted to go to the opera, it would have to be tonight and the Kung-fu show was every night. So, a number of people said they were interested in the Kung-fu show and they wanted to go the next night.  So that was decided.  Now, while the opera was not one of the things I really needed to see in China, three things were bouncing around in my head.  One, it was part of Chinese culture, and did have elaborate costumes and makeup.  Two, it was already paid for and I had nothing else to do that night. And three, from the brief bit of Opera I had watched on TV the night before, it was going to hurt my ears.  However, the first two won out and I asked Wendy about the possibility of me going to the Opera.  She called another tour guide with the company and found out that there were some people from his tour going, and I could hook up with them and he would have my ticket.  The catch was that I would have to get there and back to the hotel on my own via taxi.  A quick note on Taxis in Beijing.  The drivers don't speak any English, and the price is very reasonable.  So armed with a piece of paper with my destination written on it, and the hotel card that has a map and says in Chinese "Take me to this hotel" that I use on any taxi driver (seriously, the hotel cards all just have maps and phrases written in Chinese that we are supposed to just show the taxi drivers, that's how people get back to their hotels), I waved goodbye to my fellow travelers, and stepped off the bus by the side of the road not having a clue where the heck I was. 

    So I flagged down a taxi, showed him the piece of paper I had where Wendy had written my destination, and headed out.  My instructions were to be in the lobby of the hotel where the theater was at 7:20pm and talk to a guy in jeans and a black northface jacket.  That's what I had to go on.  Well I got to the hotel just fine, and walked into the lobby with 2 minutes to spare.  I looked around and saw... nobody fitting that description.  I didn't have any phone number or any other way to contact...pretty much anyone, so I just waited.  I saw a guy I thought may fit the description, I couldn't tell if his jacket was northface or not, and I walked up behind him and was just about to ask him if he knew Wendy, when he started talking Korean to the person in front of him and I backed away as nonchalantly as I could.  Show-time was at 7:30  and I was getting nervous that I missed him.  I was thinking about just buying a ticket myself, but I wasn't really thrilled with that idea.  The lobby was clearing out as people were taking their seats and I was just about to head out and just take a taxi back to my hotel, when in walked a guy fitting the description to a tee, followed by a small group of tourists.  With 2 minutes to show-time, we got our tickets, he said his farewell, and walked in to the theater.

The theater had tables for dinner dining up at the front, and a VIP section in the middle, from half way up it was regular seating.  The place was not crowded, but wasn't empty either.  There were chairs right up to the curtain  where we walked in, and as we did so we of course stopped and looked around to see where we wanted to sit.  For some reason, a guy had decided to sit right there and we were blocking his view as there was nowhere else to stand, so he looked very upset with us.  Why in a half empty theater you would want to sit there, I don't know. Sorry to ramble, but I just had to share that.  OK, so we took our seats and I sat right in the front of the regular seats on the left side.  I asked and we were able to take pictures, just with no flash(one of the things I loved about China), so this was a good spot.  This hotel was built around the opera theater, so this was clearly made for tourists.  This is very important because on each side of the stage, there were large moving message boards that showed subtitles for the whole thing(while there actually was not that much to read, it was VERY nice to at least know the basic story points).  Also, the introduction speech was in English, explaining the history and some of the aspects of Beijing Opera.  Don't worry, I am almost done talking, but this is the important part.  Beijing opera, it turns out, is MUCH more than just the unique singing.  It is a combination of dance, acrobatics, music, and costumes.  The program at this theater actually rotates each night, so I don't know if I just got lucky, but what followed was nothing like I was expecting, and was an amazing time.  Here is some more info on the Beijing opera in general. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_opera

   The first act was called "The crossroads" and it was about a general who is sneaking through enemy territory to meet with a higher ranking general.  He stops at an inn, and the innkeeper looks a bit shady to him.  So at night he closes all the windows and blows out the candles in his room making it pitch dark.  His suspicions appear correct as the innkeeper comes in with his sword and tries to attach the general.  The sword fight that ensues is supposed to take place completely in the dark(while of course we can see everything) and was extremely fun to watch.  In the end, the higher ranking general comes in and reveals that they are all on the same side. The two combatants quickly make up and they all decide to go in back and have some tea.

It was a great show that used the table, the whole stage, and two very fast swords.  Plus there as absolutely no singing during the whole thing.  The next performance was the main act, it was a love story between a traveling scholar and a river nymph that fell in love and defied the laws of Heaven.  As a result the armies of Heaven come down and do battle with the river nymph's forces.  So turtles, fish etc. fight the sky soldiers.  The costumes were amazing, the choreography was great, the river nymph made Xena look like an amateur.  The highlight was when she took on a group of soldiers by herself and they where throwing their spears at her and she was juggling them back at them...with her feet.  As the spears were bouncing under her and around her, she would kick her leg back and around and with the bottom of her foot, hit the spear and send it back to the soldier that threw it.  Honestly I thought it was just as impressive as the acrobatics show that we had seen the night before.  I felt bad though because I was the only one able to see this.  It was really undersold and I am sure there were plenty of people on the tour that would have liked it.  Then again, as I said, I don't know if I just got lucky and saw some very good performances.  I tried to capture the action as best I could, so use your imagination and enjoy the pictures.

 

I can't help it, I still want to call it Peking duck.

So you can't go to Beijing without trying the world famous duck(unless your vegetarian, even then you have to go to the duck restaurant).  For me though, I grew up calling it Peking duck, and even though the name of the capital has changed to Beijing, it sounds strange to me to call it Beijing duck.  Oh well.  As I said before, the number 2 thing I wanted to see was the new aquatic center.  I was fully prepared to take a taxi there myself if I had to, luckily the restaurant where we had our duck was right down the street from the Olympic stadiums.  There was still a lot of construction in the area as they are building a cultural park there for all the tourists in the summer.  While it wasn't opened yet, we still had some nice pictures by the front gates.  I also thought it was interesting that on the doors to the restaurant, they had Mikey and Minnie mouse, while just inside, they had two other  smiling rodents that I would like to assume are the Chinese equivalents.  I just thought that was interesting.  The place itself was another shrine to Chinese tourist culture.  The waitresses dressed up, the rooms were extremely ornate, and a gift shop was always available.  The food again was quite delicious. 

Now, on to the duck.  The Beijing white duck is on average 3 kg. When it is prepared, they use no spices or sauces, just oil on the skin as it slowly cooks for 40 minutes.  The wood used is a mixture of fruit trees and leeche nuts, allowing the smoke to infuse the duck with flavor.  The duck is cut into around 120 pieces, each piece having some of the outside skin on it.  To properly eat it, you place some pieces on a small flour pancake along with some vegetables and a thick sauce that was quite strong. You wrap it up much like Korean barbecue and then eat the whole bundle at once.  The flavor was a little oily, but I thought it was quite good, especially with all the fixings that smoothed out the flavor.  The royal family would eat the duck with white sugar.  Nobody prepares Beijing duck at home, it is always eaten at specialized restaurants.  An average family of 3 would spend about 150 yuan(about 20$) on a meal in a regular duck restaurant, much more of course for the fancy places. 

China: The Ming tombs

The third Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Yongle, moved the capital from Nanking to Beijing(Peking).  In Chinese, Nanking is "south capital" and Peking is "north capital".  He constructed the forbidden city and laid out the plans for much of Beijing, including the area that now houses 13 royal tombs.  The only tomb that has been excavated is of Emperor Ding Ling.  Yes, that's the real current romanized spelling of his name.  Here are some pictures of the museums and artifacts from his tomb.  You will also notice the piles of money offered in some shrines and at the feet of Yongle's statue. For more info, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Tombs