The Great Wall of China (the real one)

Beijing- Chengdu - Shanghai (Tried to post in China but turns out did not get through the Great Fire Wall of China so posting this from Thailand.)

The Great Wall (the real one)

After Xian we flew back to Beijing for a visit to the Great Wall, Tiananmen
Square and the Forbidden City then on to Chengdu, we find ourselves in Shanghai.
We've found food including donkey meat, fried pigeon and frog on a plate. An editorial in the 'Daily China' English paper included pros and cons on eating dog. Pro arguments included that fact that the author had pet goldfish yet still ate fish and that people had pot belly pigs as pets so should we stop eating pork.

In terms of the 1.8 billion (!) people in China and visiting with them at tourist sites the time to visit China is winter. The crowds we read about, even with tips to walk linking arms to stay together, have not transpired. We found many sites we've been able to have total peace - the Summer Palace in Beijing, The Minorities Nationalities Museum (the Asels, the kids and I and one other couple were the only ones there!), Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City
did have people but the lines for tickets were only about ten people long.

A visit to the Great Wall, in the snow, gave us space on the wall enough to take pictures with just us and at times with just people in the distance. (see "The Great Fire Wall of China Post" for picture.) It was incredible. The Great Wall, begun over 2,000 years ago as an earthen wall and built on mountain ridges to take advantage of natural geography, must have been an unbelievable site for a traveling merchant or advance soldier to come upon and try to figure out how to get around. The wall undulates through the Chinese landscape for several thousand miles in a long but fairly narrow strip.

Arriving at the wall ticket area we found the temperatures had plummeted compared to Beijing and we started with the merchants lining the walk on a buying frenzy. We had come to the wall with a friend who does business in China and he needed gloves. Next a hat and scarf for Amelia and a XL sweatshirt for Ben to go over his fleece jacket, windbreaker, t-shirt and long john shirt - it was cold! The merchants, with their many outdoor stalls were ready for us. A gondola took us to the top and after an hour or so of walking along the top of the wall we walked the long winding path down the mountain rather than take the open air chair lift down.

Chengdu - Pandas and Giant Buddha

The day of our plane trip to Chengdu started with finding six inches of snow had
fallen over night - in a city that doesn't get much snow. So arriving at the airport we found our flight delayed. Then ended up sitting in the plane on the run way for several hours in line for deicing. But really who can get upset about waiting for that - really want to get a good deicing done! We made it to Chengdu - and, among other things - went to the Panda Reserve and saw about 15 pandas including 4 pandas 18 months old and 5 pandas all less than one year old.
Having our incredible pandas at the National Zoo in D.C. and their new enclosure
I enjoyed the pandas but with the cold was ready to move on.

Leshan

In the afternoon we drove about two hours out Leshan, home of the Giant Buddha,
largest sitting Buddha in the world towering 71 meters above the ground. Hand carved more than 1,000 years ago. (Everything in China is old - 1,000 years old here, 3,000 there! Talk about culture.) First you have to climb the mountain to the Buddha's head - almost 400 steps up. Then you get to the head and take the cliff steps down along the side of the Buddha to his feet. The cliff walk is a one way path - wide enough for one person - and only down (up is a different path). The cliff wall leans towards you so you are tipped toward the bent, rusty, metal railing and I went from being a tiny bit blasé about the pandas in the morning to being totally terrified on the walk down the Buddha path to the point, I admit, of almost tears in my eyes. Where was my peace and enlightenment - at the end when we lived through it. Nothing refreshes the mind like a near death experience. (Though probably seeing the 80 year-old woman jauntily going down
the trail in front of Paul would have given me a different perspective :o))

China and its contradictions

On our drive from Leshan we saw farmers bent over in their cold muddy fields on
their hands and knees as we sped along on the four land highway (and Ben downloaded a book on Kindle). Then a flight brought us to Shanghai, the home of the second fastest train in the world reaching speeds of 400 km an hour (number one is in Japan). We rode the train just for fun.

Added note - Thailand

In case anyone is wondering - the house where we are staying in Thailand is about the same distance outside Bangkok as Alexandria, Virginia is from Leesburg, VA - about 45 minutes away from the city.

Peace and love to all,

Jackie