Day 3 Wednesday, October 23

This morning we got arose early, excited to be embarking on one of our major adventures of the trip, The Great Wall of China, one of the Eight Wonders of the World. Following a long drive in grid-lock traffic, we reach the Juyongguan section of the wall and stare in amazement at the winding miles of stone steps and wall climbing always upward. 

The Great Wall

We start out with great energy, stopping frequently for photos and water, and after reaching the higher ranges, start back down arriving at the bottom an hour and 30 minutes later. Our next stop was the Jade Factory where we saw the raw jade being cut into objects and checked out the jewellery. Ken choose a dragon and Karen a small jade ring. 

Karen on the Great Wall

The Changling of the Ming Tombs displayed the history of the royalty, clothing including headdresses and jade and porcelain objects. Our last stop before dinner was a drive by the Beijing Olympic Village including a photo stop at the Bird Nest before we enjoyed a traditional Peking Duck dinner, or at least Karen did. Ken appreciated his rapine with rice.

Ken on the Great Wall

Karen and Ken at the 2008 Olympic Site at the "Bird Cage"

Day 4 Thursday, October 24

This morning we had some free time to ourselves and this gave us the opportunity to explore the main shopping district of Beijing.  The centre stores were Apple, H&M, Chanel, Cartier, Hermes and every other high end store you can think of.  One thing we have learned in our four days is China's economy is booming and not poor, in fact the opposite, more Mercedes, BMW, Audi etc are on the road here.

At 12noon we are off to one of the Hutong Neighbourhoods, so what is a Hutong area anyway, it was how Beijing looked 70 years ago, these are like alleys with homes and shops, compact and rustic, as most of the homes do not have inside plumbing, so there are public toilets and showers every 100 feet and they are new and reasonable clean.  I should also mentioned that we travel through the Hutong on a three wheel pedal-cab, and the driver had to be over 70, thankfully the streets are flat.  We had lunch in someone home, and that was a pleasant experience.   

It is very important to realize that people in China are the most friendly I have ever come cross, and Canada could learn some manners from the Chinese.

After lunch it was off to the world famous Beijing Zoo and a chance to see Panda Bears, now these guy eat about 100kg of fresh (flown in by plane) bamboo, and are a bit messes when it comes to going  to the bathroom, so hence may not be a welcome addition to the Turtle Lodge.  There was also a Panda Bear couple in the middle to some heavy duty love making, and someone with a stop watch was taking time sample of each move and noting all the details in Chinese characters.  Lets hope this couple were successful, looked like a long process, but the female was enjoying it from one I could see anyway.

Panda's eat a lot of Bamboo, which is flown in from Northern China

I think every trip needs some Panada Sex - Live from Beijing !!

After all this intense love making at the zoo it was off to the Temple of Heaven which was used by the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasty, again the pictures will tell a better story then words.

Tonight we will board the 44 hour train from Beijing to Lhasa (or Lasa) in Tibet, this line was opened in 2006, and is the highest rail line in the world and reaches a point 5,046m high.  We depart at 8:00pm be arrive at the station at 5pm, always remember that there are 1.3billion people in China and lets say 50% want to take the train, do the math!  We have a sleeper car with four bunks, so we do not know who the other 2 people will be, more than likely they will be Chinese and not westerners.

As most things in China, this train departs on time and the ticketing is efficient and includes passport review etc..  To our surprise the other couple (David and Robin), both from Beijing and are heading to Lasa for a new job, Robin works for China News Network, and will be assigned to the Lasa Bureau for one year.  There english is very good and we hit it off the first night, mind you they were about 27 years old and had been married for about 10 months.  We talked a lot over the next 44 hours and I am sure that one day they will come to Canada and we will visit some more.

Day 5 Friday, October 25

Although somewhat apprehensive, we managed to sleep through the night on our narrow bunk beds. After bumping our heads a few times in the morning, we wound our way to the dining car for breakfast. We soon learned that there wasn't much difference between breakfast, lunch and dinner so we relieved on the few groceries we picked up before boarding the train. There was only one Western toilet for each of the other six China models so line ups could be long.

There were, however, two events that made the trip worthwhile. First, we shared out car with a young China couple, both reporters who spoke excellent english and second, the scenery was amazing. Different from anything we had ever seen before with wide stretches of grassy plains set against snow topped mountains. Deep blue mountain lakes with herds of wild yaks, sheep, donkeys. Nomads roamed across most of the open spaces. We passed through a major new city called Lanzou with 2.5 million people living in new high rises.   

We were in Car#5, she was the Conductor, for the entire trip, note the red carpet on the ramp plate.

 

Day 6 Saturday, October 26

We awoke to blue skies and hit an altitude of 5,048 metres with a light snow cover. Lau works for China News Service and is being sent to Lhasa on a one year assignment so she and her husband, who calls himself David, will are in the process on moving there on this train. We took turns sitting on the two seats outside the roomette to watch move scenery and sitting inside to eat our meals or read. Ken made friends with one of the conductors, even though he spoke very little English.

Somewhere in Tibet along the Beijing to Lasa Train Line

Meals were becoming somewhat monotonous so we supplemented with fruit from the cart. Due to inactivity, our appetites decreased. Repacking those large suitcases in the tight space of the roomette was a challenge. Although we enjoyed the train ride, we were all lined up ready to disembark when it pulled into Lhasa station just before 4 p.m. We were required to drag all our luggage across a large open paved area to reach the waiting friends, family, and in our case, the guide who had a sign with our names. It was with great relief that we arrived at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Lhasa about 30 minutes later.

We will always be grateful to Robin and David who shared out 4 person compartment with us on the trip from Beijing to Lasa.

The photo requires some Photoshop to improve the detail, this will be done on our return home.

Day 7 Sunday, October 27

After breakfast, we proceeded to the Potala Palace, one of the most famous landmarks in Lhasa and an impressive complex. This huge 13 storey building with its white stucco walls and winding staircase was the winter home of the Dalai Lamas. We slowly climbed the entire over 300 steps to the top and stood on a roof top terrace looking out over the city. The palace dates back to the 7th century A.D. with only about 60 monks now living there. By the time we reached the bottom of all those steps, Karen had to hobble back to the vehicle.

Potala Palace - Lasa Tibet

This place so large that it is very hard to appreciate the scale of the place 

Karen and Ken in front of the Potala Palace, our first full day in Tibet

Day 8 Monday, October 28

Monday morning, we started early threading our way through Barkhor Market to the Jokhang Temple, the most sacred temple in Tibet. Local Tibetan tribes make annual pilgrimages to light a candle and offer small and large sums of money to the buddhas and they were present in large numbers. The main statue was made by Buddha Sakyamuni and the people bow to it on their passed before giving their offerings. A great deal of praying and ceremony on all sides. In the afternoon, we toured Norbulingkha, the summer palace of the Dalai Lama set in a beautiful garden surrounded by ponds.

We returned to the Barkhor Market for some serious shopping with Ken purchasing a sandalwood and jade necklace while Karen purchased a delicate bracelet made of coral and jade with silver. After lunch, we toured the Sera Monastery which houses and educates between 500 and 600 monks every year. The highlight was observing the monks in groups of three engaged in lively debate in the courtyard. The monastery was founded in 1419 by Sakya Yeshe, who first sponsored that style of debating.

We are in winter clothing it is -3c in the morning and it snows overnight and sometimes in the morning, these are large doors at the entrace to the Sera Monastery.

Monks going through a question and answer exercise in the court yard of the Sera Monastery

Offical Trip Logo

This is my official China Logo which will be used on this trip, it was created for me any my Company (Gansel World Organization) back in 1988, it is a carved stone 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" marker and about 4" high, I will send a photo of the it.  In China it is very common to sign with a stone marker like this one.