Category: China

On our last day in Beijing our tour guide, Vincent, took us to see ‘The Cricket Fighter.’  I have done more planning this year than most would want to do in a lifetime, so I left our schedule in Beijing up to a travel agency. I guess Kalinda thought that kids would like crickets, and so we found ourselves on a side street displacing ‘The Cricket Fighters’ friends to have a seat on his patio.

And I am so thankful that Kalinda made our schedule because I would have never thought to include an informative session on cricket fighting. But the man above was not only a famous cricket trainer (believe me, he showed us dozens of magazines that feature him), but he was also an entertainer. He taught us about cricket fighting before letting (or making?) us hold some of his crickets.

In an odd turn of events, Ethan refused. And so Logan agreed to hold the crickets.

Above is the face I make when a cricket chomps down on my hand and then continues gnawing on it as I attempt not to fling the prize-winning cricket across the alley.

But, of course, we had the most fun with Matthew.

Above is a park we passed nearby the crickets. I have said it previously, but I love the parks in China. Above is an area with a game tournament. Nearby was an area full of older adults with toddlers running everywhere.

We then headed to Lama Temple, where the above photo and following three were taken.

Last we visited the Summer Palace (below). It was started in 1750 for the royal families.

It has the longest corridor in a Chinese Classical Garden. Vincent told us that it was the longest corridor in the world, but I just looked it up, and the internet disagrees. Either way, we were happy to see that after almost a year of travel, our children still get along.

Above is the Marble Boat. The original structure, which had wood on top of marble, burnt down. Empress Dowager had it reconstructed in  1883 using a Western design (and funds embezzled from the navy).

And, of course, there were older Chinese enjoying the surrounding park. Above is just one of those writing on the ground with water.

And there were many flying kites.

While in Beijing we visited the Great Wall at Huanghuacheng. We chose this section because it was less popular (and Connie’s sister recommended it, thanks!), yet still we were surprised to walk some sections alone.

Inside the Great Wall.

The last photo is my family attempting to imitate the walk of the Shelby brothers in the show ‘Peaky Blinders.’ If you have seen the show, you will know they are doing a dreadful job of it.

After a month in Yangshuo, we headed to Beijing for a few days of vacation. I will admit that I was going to skip visiting Beijing and The Great Wall. However, my family informed me that we were going. And I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Beijing felt less chaotic and had more parks and trees than I had imagined.

Our first stop was the Forbidden City (15th century, Ming Dynasty).

The emperor was carried in a sedan-chair over the marble ramp above. The 123 ton stone was pulled over 70 km on an ice road constructed during winter.

Above is Tiananmen Square. Our guide, who was too young to remember 1989, said that he knew of the protests but that they never speak of it. So we watched videos to fill the kids in on the details that he didn’t cover (all of them).

When Matthew sent the above photo my way, he remarked that he was sad it was our last photo with a random Asian tourist. Now that we are in Romania, no one wants our picture.

The Temple of Heaven (1420) was visited by Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties to pray for a good harvest.

Just like every other park we visited in China, the one surrounding the Temple of Heaven was full of elderly playing games, exercising, dancing and singing. From what we witnessed, China is the best country to be elderly, at least if you live near a park.

Above is a short clip of a group singing in the park surrounding the Temple of Heaven.

Above is Xianggong mountain on a day with fair visibility. It rained in Yangshuo quite a lot, and some days the karst were hidden in haze.  Luckily, we stayed there for over a month so we could watch the weather and choose when to take side trips.

We chose a good day for our cruise on the Li River. It is one of those places that is hard to capture in photos as the karst surround you as you flow past.

Ethan’s idea, of course. Logan was very kind to play along.

In Yangshuo old town.

Ethan is making the love sign the “correct” way, according to the advice we received from young Vietnamese and Chinese.

The photo above is from a hike near our condo.

The supermarket where we shopped was a mile from our condo. As a bonus, it had a show for Chinese tourist in the mornings, so we saw bits of it a dozen times or so.

The two photos above show the views from our condo. It was rarely this blue, but it was a great view.

From Yangshuo, we took a two-day trip to see the Longji rice terraces. They were beginning to fill up with water from Spring rains.

The first day we headed to Jinkeng terraces and walked through a local village (house below).

We then took the cable car up to a viewpoint, ate an interesting lunch, and took off on a hike to our hotel. I will post pictures of the meal when I post photos of Chinese food.

Our walk meandered through villages and forest.

Our hotel is pictured above in the center. For some reason, it gave me an uneasy feeling from a distance. And, although we had a great stay, it was oddly deserted and felt ripe for murder (as I imagine would be in The Shining… which I have never seen). It was rather empty, perhaps because the only way to reach it is to hike. It didn’t help that lock to the room didn’t function.

The next morning we hiked down the terraces, this time, in the rain.

There is tons of construction in each village due to increasing tourism. The wheelbarrow above zoomed up and down to one of them, avoiding the steep climb.

We then drove to Ping’an to hike up to the rice terraces there. Unfortunately, the clouds had rolled in, and you can’t see the lush mountains in the photos that we glimpsed when the clouds would part.

Our first week in Yangshuo the kids and I took a brief language class at Omeida Chinese Academy. I finished it with a lot of notes and the feeling that I still could not pronounce anything correctly. Although, Ethan did remember how to say, “stop, stop, stop” one day when the taxi passed our destination. So, it was worth it.

The next weekend we tagged along with the real students from the school to visit a tea plantation.

We were all given hats, and baskets to collect our tea.

It was a pleasant place to relax while picking a few tea leaves.

Where’s Waldo? Or Ethan in this case. They oddly look a lot alike these days.

Matthew managed to skip the hat and basket.

When we finished picking the leaves, we learned how to dry them before ending the day with a tea tasting.

I didn’t get around to posting much while in China, so I have a bit of catching up to do.

Xingping is an ancient town north of Yangshuo, and it is nice. But as with everything near Yangshuo, the real draw is the views.

We planned on taking a public bus to Xingping. When we arrived at a bus stop that we thought possibly could have a bus heading there, we stared blankly at signs we could not decipher. Some locals offered to help us figure out the route, which was lucky because we did not encounter many English speakers in Yangshuo. They spoke to a few others at the bus stop and one of those waiting offered to drive us there, which seemed odd because it appeared he was waiting for a bus. I knew the bus prices and his price would get us there for about the same, so he fetched his car and drove us. Then we gave a speech to the children about how they should not hop in random vehicles with people when they are traveling alone.

The streets of Xingping. In the background is the peak we climbed to see the karsts.

We were told there are more than 20,000 karsts in Yangshuo County, which is believable.

While traveling in Asia, we were impressed by the dedication to selfies and posing that we lack. We liked this photo, but as a parent, I kept worrying one of the teenagers (or what they appeared to be to me) was going to topple off.

Perhaps the fact that I had already read the numerous warnings on our ascent increased my anxiety.

Our first few days in Yangshuo it sounded like explosions were everywhere in the hills and we didn’t know why. We later discovered it was during Qingming Festival. Locals told us that families visit ancestors graves and make offerings. They also shoot off lots of firecrackers. These are some of the tombs we passed on this climb. We saw many more on our walks around Yangshuo.

The area is also famous for having the view on the 20 Yuan note. You have to take this picture. It is almost a requirement.

We arrived in Yangshuo, China two weeks ago. It is a small tourist town nestled between rivers and surrounded by karst mountains. Thanks to Hongying for recommending the area!

We are staying a condo two miles from the tourist district in town, but we walk there every few days.

A few days ago, the kids and I passed through Yangshuo park, which is one of the liveliest, non-tourist parks that we have seen while traveling. Every table was full of older people playing cards, there were multiple groups doing exercise dancing or Tai Chi, and every 40 feet or so there was someone loudly singing into a mic with speakers.

We hiked up a karst (or lumps as we call them) to a pavilion for the view below.

We are not doing a lot of classes here. I tried to talk the kids into Tai Chi, but they were not interested. So we took one course of Mandarin and one class of pottery. I bought them a basketball so that I can send them out to the court in our apartment complex.

Below is the view from our apartment.

We spent a night in Hong Kong on our way to Yangshuo, which gave us enough time in the morning to visit a viewpoint and take a walk.