Katie's Day Off

Suzhou boasts well over a hundred gardens. Some are said to be among the most beautiful and history-filled gardens in the world. I've lived here for over two years and have been to one. ONE! As with the Beijing trip, I took advantage of the fact my parents were here to play tourist with them and visit one of the more popular gardens.

The girls also talked me into letting them each take a day from school to spend with Mimi and Papa. Katie snagged the first day. At first, she wasn't that enthused about going to a garden, but since she was able to choose the location for lunch and the promise of souvenir shopping, she perked up a bit.

The Humble Administrator's Garden was built in 1513 and is the largest of the Suzhou gardens. Wang Xiancheng, an Imperial Envoy and poet of the Ming Dynasty, had it built as his retirement home. After only a few minutes, we renamed it the Not-So-Humble Administrator's Garden, with its 48 different buildings, some for his lady-friends, others for contemplation and meditation. The grounds were spectacular and every turn presented a picture-perfect moment.

We spent over two hours leisurely strolling through the pavilions, stoned paths and covered walkways. There were plenty of people, but we never felt crowded or rushed...well, maybe a little as Katie moved us along towards the end of the second hour. On the way in, we'd passed plenty of little shops and she was more anxious to explore those than the ancient history of Ming Dynasty.

Sure enough, as soon as we'd exited the tranquilty of the garden, we were bombarded with the tourist-trap vendors. Katie spotted a silk purse she had to have. She negotiated down to 10RMB. Frankly, I wish I'd picked up one or two for that price as it's really quite cute.

Since Katie'd decided we'd had enough Chinese culture for one day, we went to TGIF for lunch and then back home for a game of cribbage.

"Not a bad way to spend the day from school", I reasoned since she did have a bit of a home-schooled history, finance and numeracy lesson.

Beijing, the Walking Tour - Part 1

With my parents visiting, I knew my chances of getting to Beijing would greatly increase. Larry had already "been there and done that" and lobbied to go south for the holiday. The opportunity to have a family photo on the Great Wall won.
We boarded the high speed train Saturday morning and we all were pleasantly suprised with the ease at which this occurred. The train was not crowded and the first class section was really quite nice. I'm not sure, though, there was that much difference, but being able to walk around without difficulty and stretching out in the expansive seats was a treat. The ride was smooth and even though the view was hindered by the field-burning smokey haze, we couldn't help but enjoy the pastoral landscapes that whizzed by. The train's top speed reached 299km/hr. Since the crash, which occurred over the summer, the trains' speed were reduced from 350 to 300.
Five hours later we were in Beijing. Shanghai used to overwhlem me. Not anymore. Beijing is mammoth and we saw only a tiny fraction of it.
Our plan was to go to the most popular tourist attractions...during the country's National holiday...in the country's capital. To be perfectly honest, I say this after the fact, I was fearful we'd made a colossol mistake.
First stop was Tiananmen Square. We figured we'd try the subway. On the map, the station looked like a short stroll from the hotel. Wrong. We walked...and walked...and walked...and walked. Finally, our little chinese friend, Carrie, asked a passerby how much further. He told her about ten minutes. So, we walked some more. We get to the station and as we board the subway, we had about five minutes of pure terror when we couldn't find Sarah. The car was so packed, we couldn't see beyond a few people. I was 99% sure she'd gotten on the subway, but that 1% gripped my insides and buckled my knees. At the next stop, enough folks got out so we could see her with Carrie.
The stop at Tiananmen was closed because of the holiday, which meant we had to get off 'a few'' blocks away. So, we walked...and walked...and walked. Larry had warned us all how huge everything was, but even the warnings didn't fully prepare us. My mom with her fake joints was about ready to call it quits before we'd gotten to the Square, but by God, she toughed it out.
Once again, here we were in the center of the birthplace of Communism during the holiday and the star attractions were the girls. Carrie said some people asked if they were movie stars. Sure, why not.
Since we'd spent all morning walking we were all hungry, even though the Forbidden City was just across the street. So, we started walking...and walking...and walking...and walking until we reach...wait for it...Walking Street. We found the first distinguishable restaurant, KFC and made a beeline for it. Everyone else in the city did, too. This place was way overcapacity, but we didn't care.

After resting for a bit and wrestling with whether or not to continue with our walk-a-thon, we figured the chances of making it back to Beijing were slim and chose to go back to the Forbidden City. So we...wait for it...walked...and walked...and walked.

The place is unbelievable. So much history and SO BIG. We walked through one courtyard into another courtyard into another courtyard. The pictures don't begin to show its expansiveness. We wanted to see it all, but we just couldn't walk any further. We stayed until the closing announcements mainly so we could rest up, not knowing how much further we would have to walk to find an honest taxi driver, which wasn't as easy as it seemed.

Larry and I loaded everyone into a van bound for the hotel and chose to explore a bit further. We walked back to the other end of Walking Street, where a bunch of food vendors had set up their wares. They had everything from yummy dumplings to not-so-yummy sheep testicles. The little vendor swore by their masculine-enhancing abilities, but Larry said he was fine in that department. I tried a couple of different dumplings and Larry had some skewered crabs. While looking for a taxi, we met a family from Atlanta, Georgia. They currently live in South Africa and were moving to Dubai and vacationing in Beijing. Larry was wearing a baseball shirt with Georgia on the front, and they practically ran over to us. Such a small world.
Upon return to the hotel and relief to everyone, we chose to stay in dinner as we assumed more walking was in store for us the next day.

Where There's a Will, There's a Way

China's National Day starts the country's week-long holiday. What better way to get into the spirit of the birth of Communism than to go to the capital? We'd planned on taking the high speed train to Beijing. The circus that ensued while trying to purchase the tickets can only be described as a comedy of errors.
In order for any expat to buy tickets or travel anywhere in China, one needs a passport. With the girls on their 'China Week' trips, their passports were safely packed with their teachers. Uh oh, how were we going to purchase train tickets? We had scanned copies for the girls and hoped those would work. We went to Larry's office to pick up the copies and Larry's assistant, Carrie. She'd agreed to come with us to Beijing in order to help with the language issues as they arose.
Next stop was the bank to exchange money. Quite conveniently, we spotted a China Construction Bank branch right across the street from the train station. Quite inconveniently, they'd never, ever exchanged money. We spent close to an hour as the clerk inspected each bill at least a dozen times, ran each one through the counting machine, checked it again and then rejected about a third as they had little creases, pen marks, or specks of dust on them. Then, she wouldn't let either me or my father sign the paperwork because our passport name didn't match our chinese visa name. Huh?! Evidently, we are listed in the system as M. Whitfield or D. Libby but our passports have our full name... or was it the other way? An hour later, Carrie had to sign the paperwork.
Certainly, buying the tickets wouldn't be as difficult. The downtown station is huge and though the lines were long, at least they seemed to be moving. After walking a half mile to the right ticket line, Carrie stopped suddenly and her faced dropped. She immediately ran to one of the security guards. Dear lord, were all the tickets sold out? I mean, it was a holiday. No, still plenty of tickets for sale...just not advanced tickets. Those tickets were sold at the downtown ticket office. Wait, I thought that's where we were. No, we were at the station, there is another ticket office in Old Town. Another hour down.
We found the ticket office and climbed the stairs. Mom stayed in the car. As we neared the window, I realized I didn't have Larry's passport. "Oh, S*#t!" Carrie tried to talk the agent into letting us purchase one ticket without the passport. Nope, not gonna happen. I texted Larry to tell him Mr. Liu was on his way back to get his passport. His response was...colorful to say the least. By now, we were all fuming and starving. We walked to the closest, least scary restaurant we could find. Can't go wrong with KFC...well, you can, but we were all so hungry we would have and probably did eat rat. An hour and a fifteen minutes later, Mr. Liu returned with Larry's passport. I exchanged it with a sandwich as he hadn't eaten either.
Back at the ticket counter, a bit of an arguement occurred. The copy of Katie's passport was dark and the agent couldn't read the last couple of numbers. I tried to show him the number was located elsewhere on the copy, but he preferred to aggravate me. Again, after some begging from Carrie, we FINALLY left with first-class high-speed train tickets for all of us to Beijing.
We dropped off Carrie at the factory and then sped to one of the apartment complexes to meet Katie upon her return from Yangzhuo. Of course, we arrived at the same time I received a text saying they were going to be late. No problem. Well, no problem unless you have a replaced hip and knee and you have to go to the bathroom in a chinese toilet. Without unnecessary details or an emergency trip to the hospital, my mom returned unscathed.
Six and a half hours later, we sat at the kitchen table with our glasses of wine and hoped our trip to Beijing would be worth the headache we'd just endured. We joked that the day wasn't a complete bust since Mom did master the 'squatty potty'.

Visit from Abroad

The last time my parents came to visit, the weather was horribly cold and we'd only been in China for a few months. Thankfully, they were able to return when not only the weather was cooperative, but we actually had a bit of a clue as to what was going on around us.

I'd tried to plan some local day trips to places I thought they'd enjoy, while the girls were away on their respective class trips and at school.

First stop was to the tailor's. Dad wanted a new suit and Mom wanted a winter coat. I joined in the fun and got fitted for a red jacket for the holidays. It's hard to walk into the shop and not come out with something. After three more trips before my parents left, we had a suit, two pair of pants, two jackets and a coat between us.

Another tourist stop is Sheng Tang Street along the narrow canals. Souvenirs abound in the little shops amidst the ancient architecure-styled homes. We went early in the day and there were hardly any other folks (tourists) around. There were, however, plenty of scooters that came barrelling down the narrow street. We got beeped at a few times. I tried to talk them into trying some stinky tofu, but since I've never tried it and really have no desire to do so, I didn't push the issue. Instead, we went to Singa Plaza and had a nice semi-authentic chinese lunch at Hot Chic.

With all three girls away, Larry and I wanted to take my parents to a Korean BBQ. We're big fans and thought Mom and Dad would like it as well. Wrong! As you can see by the photo, they were not impressed. Ok, duly noted.

I also took them to MuDu, another scenic little town along the ancient canals. This is where I stock up on nuts. Almonds, walnuts, macademia, pecans...you name it. Dad and I planned on making granola since the gigantic batch he'd made and brought over was disappearing at an alarmingly fast rate. Again, we appeared to be the only tourists except for one group with matching ball caps. The hustle and bustle of the locals filled the streets with plenty of activity and people-watching.
We managed to go somewhere new almost every day. Whether it was to Pearl City to buy some baubles or just to the neighborhood center to pick up some fresh veggies and fruit, I was determined to keep them on the go.

I also made sure we were home most evenings by 5pm. Happy hour took place with a focused diligence not often seen in my household. When the girls arrived home, they were more concerned about what was being served as an appetizer that evening rather than what their homework was. They were lucky. The weeks before and after the holiday break were pretty light in that department.
All in all, Suzhou hopefully kept them entertained. I did make them walk an awful bit, but those little jaunts were nothing campared to what I put them through when we went to Beijing.

More to come...