Oct 27 Mon Trip to Chengde

The custom here is to reward people with a trip. Our trip is to Chengde which was a Summer Palace in the mountains for the Qings. They were Manchus and it reminded them of their homeland. It is about 3 hours Northeast of Beijing. Xianglei was our accompanying person. He had never been there before, so it was a good opportunity for him.

Xianglei arrived with the car and driver at 7 am, and off we went. The driver is an important part of these trips, because he has been there before and knows the ropes. When we got there we were met by a prearranged guide. She explained stuff to Xianglei, and then he translated for us. When we discovered that the signs did a good job we headed for them and read the stuff for ourselves. This made it much easier on everyone.

The palace is divided into 3 sections. 1. The actual palace part:

2. The Mountains. This was a shuttle ride. We took off like a bat out of hell and went screaming up a mountain. At the top, we all unloaded and climbed up to the highest point in the park. The rest of our group were friggin' mountain goats. We had a hard time keeping up. They also seemed to know where they were supposed to go. There were several stops. One included a musical interlude, by people in the costumes of the Qings. (Notice the shoes with the high posts - this made the feet seem to be as small as the bound feet. The Qings didn't do that.)

3. The Lakes. This was a calmer ride. We were the only ones in the shuttle. It did still involve some climbing on some very rough rocky trails. The rocks were supposed to be steps, but were very uneven.

We were able to get really close to a mother deer and her baby. I was surprise at how close she let us come.

After this we went to lunch. The driver knew just the place and I think he helped order, too. In China it is the norm to have the driver have lunch with you.

We had cabbage cooked in milk
Lamb with cilantro and cumin
Venison with peppers
And a soup.

After lunch we went to yet another temple.

The really interesting thing at this one was that the monks were chanting while beating drums, clanging cymbals and blowing horns (two types.) (If I had to be in this room with all of the noise, I would have a splitting headache in about 2 minutes.)





We all agreed that we could skip the two other temples in Chengde, which would be more of the same. We wanted to get back to Beijing (and the good roads) before it got fully dark. We did make it. We got back home at 7:10.

Since we had had a large lunch and it was getting late we decided to go to the 24 hour place across the street for just a small dinner:

Yup. That's what we had.

Oct 26 Sun Back to the Pandas & Boatride

The weather is still glorious. We decided to take the boat ride that goes from the zoo to the Summer Palace.

First, at the zoo we had to visit our friends the pandas again. They were feeding the little guys bamboo. (Chuck is convinced that we have our timings down pat.)

Then we went to find the boat. It was a little hard to tell if we were in the right place, but were shoved in the correct direction. The ride took about an hour and is a pleasant glide through a nice canal. On the way we came to a lock. Instead of riding through the lock, we all got out and transferred to another boat. (I guess the original boat goes back for the next load.

At the Summer Palace, one could buy an entry or just go someplace else. Our ticket included the Summer Palace. We had been there before, but enjoyed walking around and looking at things again.

For dinner we went back to WaHaHa. This was the restaurant that we had been to with Yuan and Xiaoyan. We had a coupon for 100 RMB off, so of course we had to use it.
We started with the little fishies again.


Golden shrimp were coated with a delicious hard crust.
This rib dish was spectacular:




The meat was sliced off the bone. Underneath there was a cooked cabbage with peanuts & hot peppers. We demolished the dish.



They said that these were mustard greens - I think not, but they were tasty anyway.

For dessert we had these "Japanese plum balls"

It was mochi around a soft marshmallow around a filling.

Oct 25 Sat. Lama Temple with Ken

Saturday, my blouses were supposed to be finished, so after breakfast, we went to the campus tailor to pick them up. Not ready so early - come back later. I showed him on the calendar that we would be back the next day at the same early time. That seemed to be OK.

Just as we were finished that exercise, I received a call on my cell phone. It was from someone who insisted in speaking Chinese. A lot of Chinese. I kept saying in English that I didn't understand. I finally said, "Cashmere?" Cashmere, cashmere, cashmere came the reply. It was the sweater shop. Since the only word that we had in common was cashmere, we decided to go there and see what was going on. There were two possibilities. 1. Chuck's sweater was finished early. 2. There was a problem with Chuck's sweater. Either way visiting the shop seemed like a good idea.

The good news was that the sweater was ready. Chuck and the ladies.

Views of the shop:
Then we went to meet Ken. He was going to show us the Lama Temple with a Guinness book of World Record"s Statue and a much quieter Confucius Temple. Then we were meeting a friend of his at a restaurant in his neighborhood. (His neighborhood is a whole street of only restaurants.) Chuck is a little envious.

Views of the day.

For dinner we had pork balls rolled in rice.
chicken casserole:

mushrooms and baby bok choy
spicy beans
fish cooked in oil (also spicy)

And sesame balls for dessert. (They weren't as good as the ones we get in L. A.)

The cab drivers have a hard time finding our hotel. Getting home from the Military Museum, I had to call the hotel on my cell and have them give him directions.

Tonight's made a mistake and gave us back 10 RMB from the bill - very honest.

Oct 24 Friday Moving Day

Today was moving day. I was getting tired of living in the same place and having to walk 30 minutes when we couldn't get a taxi on campus, so when there was a little problem with the hotel being full, I said that we should move out.

We moved a few blocks away to the Jade Palace. We had stayed here the last time that we were in Beijing. It is large and luxurious, with more services.


Remember this view. If the pollution gets bad again, I'll take the same view so you can see the difference.

For lunch we went back to the mall

and had the Tappen (sp?) restaurant. Shades of Benni Hana!

The difference is that the guy just cooks, he doesn't do any tricks.

Then we went to the Military Museum. It is a little strange. Lots and lots of tanks and planes, all with signs saying made in China.
We enjoyed walking around the part that showed the ancient wars.

That night we hosted a big dinner for the students and the members of the faculty that had been so helpful to us. Of course, we were back at the campus hotel. It was the easiest for the students to get to.

I was dignified and didn't take pictures.