Our itinerary has been packed from dawn to dusk each day. China is an interesting place… there’s so much to see and do and the culture is so different from what we experienced in Japan. Beijing itself is a huge sprawling city with smoggy skies. Some of us were reminded of Las Vegas in a strange sort of way. The downtown streets are abnormally wide (even by Utah standards) and there are extravagant hotels and government buildings towering over the sidewalks. The city isn’t as clean as Tokyo… but it’s not especially dirty either. The Chinese people tend to keep to themselves more than the Japanese… and the influence of 60 years of communism seems obvious.
Our accommodations at the China World Hotel in downtown Beijing were first-rate. The hotel itself was lavish, the rooms were clean and comfortable and the beautiful lobby had a pleasant aroma. On Thursday morning some of the spouses were having breakfast together at the hotel buffet and spotted a celebrity… Donald Trump’s (Don Jr. from the TV show The Apprentice) was sitting at a nearby table. Although our accommodations were fantastic, we really didn’t spend too much time at the hotel… our tour guide, Vivian, kept and busy from dawn to dusk each day. Vivian spoke excellent English and made sure we got to see all of the key sites in and around Beijing – we were blessed to have such a wonderful guide. Here are some of the things we experienced in and around Beijing…
THE SILK MARKET
After checking into our hotel we spent two hours at the famous silk market located just blocks from our hotel. Most of us were unprepared and surprised by the aggressive selling tactics used by the street vendors (most of them are Chinese girls in their late teens). The girls speak surprisingly good English and drive a tough bargain… all of them seem to use crazy hard-sell tactics (think of an aggressive used-car dealership and multiply by 50). If you don’t buy they will grab your arm and beg… or play a guilt card on you. The silk market was a crazy experience… much more like playing a game than actually shopping… but there were deals to be had… designer Jeans can be purchased for just $15, fake Rolex watches for about $30, and silk ties for only $3. Most of us purchased some things… some, like Shayne and Lindsey Howell, loaded up a few bags.
CHINESE FOOD
The food here is spicy and flavorful… some of it is like the typical American Chinese that we have back home… some of it is not. Meals are served on a round table with a lazy-susan… anyone can choose to have as much or as little as they desire. One night after finishing dinner we decided to sing a few songs to our Chinese servers… it turned out to be an interesting (and mildly embarrassing) experience singing “popcorn popping on the apricot tree” to some bewildered Chinese folks. One Chinese girl really got into the song and started to dance around while doing the popcorn popping motions with her hands… when Kelsey Ruse “took and armful to make a treat” she misunderstood and gave Kelsey a giant bear hug… it was a LAUGH OUT LOUD moment for those who saw.
SUMMER PALACE
A beautiful place located on a man-made reservoir near the outskirts of Beijing. For many of us it was our 2nd favorite spot in China (next to the great wall). The palace had some unique structures and beautiful bridges. A few of stopped near the end and dressed up in traditional Chinese dress for photographs.
BUSINESS VISITS
We had some good business visits in Beijing including Daimler, GE Healthcare, and the US Consulate. Daimler was a very interesting contrast compared with Toyota (who we visit in Japan). On the whole, most of us seemed far more impressed with the operations at the Japanese plant. Daimler was a much lower volume operation and the workers seemed more distracted and less organized. The US consulate office was an interesting visit… we didn’t have a tour of any sort, but the Q&A session focused on doing business in China and most of us found it rather interesting. GE Healthcare was also an interesting visit, we toured a production facility for high-end medical scanning devices.
TIANANMEN SQUARE AND FORBIDDEN CITY
On Friday we had an enjoyable visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden Palace. Tiananmen Square is a unique place… it’s big, beautiful, and stately… and also a shrine to communism and the late General Mau. There are soldiers and lots of people walking along the square. Many of us have recollections of the Tiananmen Square incident that occurred in 1989… but (as expected) we didn’t hear or see anything about the 1989 situation and our tour guide (Vivian) knew very little about what happened.
Forbidden City was spectacular… almost too spectacular. There were probably 50 good photo opportunities in the Forbidden City… we would take pictures and make our way through a gate or palace to find that a bigger more spectacular building was on the other side. Thank heavens for digital cameras… anyone could easily burn through 3-4 rolls of film in that place. Definitely a must see.
THE GREAT WALL
On Saturday we had a wonderful time at the Great Wall of China… most of us had never been to the Great Wall… and we were able to check it off of our list of things to see in serious style. The weather was fantastic as we visit a mountainous region about 90 minutes North of Beijing. The wall exceeded our expectations… the Chinese built it up on the very top of a rather intense mountain range and the size and scale of the wall is absolutely amazing. We walked about ½ mile down (on the wall) then took an alpine slide to the bottom of the mountain. The manpower required to build the great wall is almost unfathomable… you don’t realize it until your actually there to see it in person.
UPDATE: So we arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday afternoon and we've been enjoying the sites and sounds of the big city for a couple days. Internet access at our hotel is still not great and we haven't had a whole lot of time... but look for another update and some new pictures very soon.
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