China diaries, pt. 1

It's almost kinda maybe a homecoming since, you know, I've never set foot in China, but my forefathers/mothers have. Initially I hadn't planned to go, but decided to make the trip to China after all. Luckily, Lark travels all the time and suggested I sublet my place while I'm away. Subletting was definitely a sound financial decision as it helped pay for most of the airfare.

To make a long story short, China has breathtaking natural and man-made sites to see, the food was disappointing, greasy and sometimes unidentifiable, and the air is smoggy. I took daily pictures and brief notes daily on my beloved iPhone and this is what I ended up with:

Day 1 - Fujian Province/Xiamen

SFO to Hong Kong to Xiamen. Flying into Xiamen, I could only see the peaks of the tallest mountain tops—everything else was hazy at best. From the airport my sister and I were picked up by my aunt and grandma who had arrived a week earlier. With them were a van-load of distant relatives. The first stop we made was to a restaurant in a small town where my grandma grew up. We ended up eating shellfish I'd never seen before and I swear I ate tubeworms.



Touching down in Xiamen


Family grave site


Neighbor's cow

Day 2: Beijing

Flew into Beijing hoping that the air would be clearer and was disappointed. It was also nutshrinkingly cold. Thank god for thermal underwear. Our tour guide, or Anh Cua ("uncle") took us for a walk around Tiananmen Square area for a bit. The Forbidden City was closed so we kept wandering. Street vendors sold starfish, scorpions, pupas on stick. As tempting as that was, we ended up eating at palatial restaurant where we had a Peking duck with its own serial number.


Crikets and scorpions


Peking duck restaurant where the servers just stood around waiting for patrons


Balconies of the hotel we stayed at; the colors were constantly changing and must have been real fun at night for the building across the street

Day 3: Beijing

We went to the Great Wall where the memory card in my camera stopped working. I was completely bummed out and gave up climbing the extremely steep wall. I had to start using my aunt's horrible Panasonic point-and-shoot which was better than my iPhone (or nothing at all). There were lots of vendors at the Great Wall, all of whom were extremely aggressive and tried to sell me things in Chinese which I didn't understand. Our driver made me nervous so I couldn't watch the road while we were in the car. I learned that lane markings were to be used as a rough guide and by no means mandatory. After the Great Wall we drove to the nearby tombs of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. The tombs were deep, deep underground and there were LOTS of stairs.

Late in the afternoon we made it to the Bird's Nest, which was pretty crowded. Huge screen TVs played bits of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.


Shot of the Great Wall of China


Posing at the Bird's Nest


We also made a stop at the Summer Palace

Day 4: Beijing and Xian

For some reason it went from really cold to pretty warm in Beijing the next day. It might have been because we hiked the Forbidden City from beginning to end. It was a massive walled city which housed Mao's mausoleum. MASSIVE. The architecture was definitely beautiful, but it got repetitive after the third or fourth building.


Tiananmen Square


One of the buildings in the Forbidden City


Dragony turtle