Our China Air plane in San Francisco - Raining, who cares?
Terminal in Beijing after our arrival. HUGE!
Outside the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests at The Temple of Heaven
Outside the National Stadium - The Bird's Nest
View from inside The Bird's Nest
Roofline of The Bird's Nest - way up high! 
The Aquatics Center and The Bird's Nest
Sculpture of Mao outside a gallery at the 798 Art District
Interior of the National Performance Center where we saw a Chinese Opera11/22
It’s early in the morning Sunday, Nov 22 here in Beijing and we’re getting ready to head out for our first day in China. This should be quite interesting to see how everyone reacts to the jet lag. The hotel we checked into last night was really nice. The Marriott Courtyard Beijing is centrally located and is within walking distance of all the “major” things we will want to see in Beijing itself. The Smartours folks have told us we can fly to Shanghai early on Wednesday to meet up with Bob Roche and his family for a Thanksgiving dinner the day before Thanksgiving. We were a little concerned that Smartours would object to our leaving the group but they were fine with it.
This morning we plan to get up and have our breakfast (included each day with our hotel room) and then walk over to the Temple of Heaven. This is one of the main old architectural sites and is in a large park. We will see Tai Chi and what life is like for locals on a Sunday morning.. Last night it was 26 degrees and it’s supposed to be in the 40’s later today. The only other scheduled event is the Peking Opera later this evening at “The Egg”. Connie just said “I’m excited to see it”.
Day One is over – we got a LOT of things done today and Connie may have been excited to see the opera but my goodness……….
After a fine breakfast – a mix of Chinese and “Western” fare we were off for a walk to the Temple of Heaven Complex. It was pretty brisk when we hit the streets at about 8:00. A 30 minute walk got us to the Temple of Heaven (or Tian Tan, which is more correctly translated as The Altar of Heaven). An entry fee of 30 RBM (Yuan) gets you an “all access” pass into the park and all of the buildings. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests “has become to symbolize Beijing almost as much as Tian’ an Men” according to our guide book”. The circular tower topped by a conical roof of dark blue tiles and a gold knob is perhaps the most beautiful building in the entire city. This temple was the place where earth, symbolized by the square shapes including the base of the enclosures, communicated with heaven, signified by the rounded top. One of its many claims to fame is that it was constructed without a single nail. Lots of people out doing morning exercises, ballroom dancing, singing, flying kites, etc. Even a couple of guys snapping off bull whips. Go figure!
After a little extra walking (the guidebook showed a subway station where it wasn’t) we headed over to the Olympic Green. Pretty cool! We were able to enter the National Stadium (The Bird's Nest) and walk around and see it from every angle. We could not go into the Aquatics Center (The Water Cube) but we walked all around it and stopped in their souvenir shop for a few trinkets. It felt pretty good to actually walk around where the Olympics had been.
We then had quite an interesting cab ride to an area called 798 Art District which consists of a lot of artists studios and galleries. Ben got him to take the 5 of us in one cab and off he went. U turns galore – seeming indifference to traffic signals (Ben said that’s how the Chinese drive). We had some lunch and browsed the art before heading back to the hotel.
We rested about and hour and headed back to the subway to the National Performance Center (The Egg) for our nights performance of Peking Opera. The kindest thing I can say is that it’s an acquired taste! Pretty hard to follow (all Chinese of course) and very stylized. Connie read that there are 18 classical Chinese Operas and a performer does one part for their entire career. This wasn’t one of the 18, it’s more modern. We mercifully left after the intermission – I literally could not have stood another minute of it! They had made us check our cameras at the door but we were able to get some images of the building after we “escaped” the performance. After we escaped we stumbled on to a display of the Magic Flute which was being performed in another portion of the building. Maria said that the Mozart cleansed our palates from the Chinese opera. The building itself is incredible – the images can’t begin to do it justice. I hope to get some outside images tomorrow when we go to Tienanamen Square and The Forbidden City. Sorry I haven’t been updating as much as I’d like – the hotel charges a pile of money on a daily basis so I’ll update as often as possible. All is well with us and I think we’ve done a LOT of things in a single day. More later……
It’s early in the morning Sunday, Nov 22 here in Beijing and we’re getting ready to head out for our first day in China. This should be quite interesting to see how everyone reacts to the jet lag. The hotel we checked into last night was really nice. The Marriott Courtyard Beijing is centrally located and is within walking distance of all the “major” things we will want to see in Beijing itself. The Smartours folks have told us we can fly to Shanghai early on Wednesday to meet up with Bob Roche and his family for a Thanksgiving dinner the day before Thanksgiving. We were a little concerned that Smartours would object to our leaving the group but they were fine with it.
This morning we plan to get up and have our breakfast (included each day with our hotel room) and then walk over to the Temple of Heaven. This is one of the main old architectural sites and is in a large park. We will see Tai Chi and what life is like for locals on a Sunday morning.. Last night it was 26 degrees and it’s supposed to be in the 40’s later today. The only other scheduled event is the Peking Opera later this evening at “The Egg”. Connie just said “I’m excited to see it”.
Day One is over – we got a LOT of things done today and Connie may have been excited to see the opera but my goodness……….
After a fine breakfast – a mix of Chinese and “Western” fare we were off for a walk to the Temple of Heaven Complex. It was pretty brisk when we hit the streets at about 8:00. A 30 minute walk got us to the Temple of Heaven (or Tian Tan, which is more correctly translated as The Altar of Heaven). An entry fee of 30 RBM (Yuan) gets you an “all access” pass into the park and all of the buildings. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests “has become to symbolize Beijing almost as much as Tian’ an Men” according to our guide book”. The circular tower topped by a conical roof of dark blue tiles and a gold knob is perhaps the most beautiful building in the entire city. This temple was the place where earth, symbolized by the square shapes including the base of the enclosures, communicated with heaven, signified by the rounded top. One of its many claims to fame is that it was constructed without a single nail. Lots of people out doing morning exercises, ballroom dancing, singing, flying kites, etc. Even a couple of guys snapping off bull whips. Go figure!
After a little extra walking (the guidebook showed a subway station where it wasn’t) we headed over to the Olympic Green. Pretty cool! We were able to enter the National Stadium (The Bird's Nest) and walk around and see it from every angle. We could not go into the Aquatics Center (The Water Cube) but we walked all around it and stopped in their souvenir shop for a few trinkets. It felt pretty good to actually walk around where the Olympics had been.
We then had quite an interesting cab ride to an area called 798 Art District which consists of a lot of artists studios and galleries. Ben got him to take the 5 of us in one cab and off he went. U turns galore – seeming indifference to traffic signals (Ben said that’s how the Chinese drive). We had some lunch and browsed the art before heading back to the hotel.
We rested about and hour and headed back to the subway to the National Performance Center (The Egg) for our nights performance of Peking Opera. The kindest thing I can say is that it’s an acquired taste! Pretty hard to follow (all Chinese of course) and very stylized. Connie read that there are 18 classical Chinese Operas and a performer does one part for their entire career. This wasn’t one of the 18, it’s more modern. We mercifully left after the intermission – I literally could not have stood another minute of it! They had made us check our cameras at the door but we were able to get some images of the building after we “escaped” the performance. After we escaped we stumbled on to a display of the Magic Flute which was being performed in another portion of the building. Maria said that the Mozart cleansed our palates from the Chinese opera. The building itself is incredible – the images can’t begin to do it justice. I hope to get some outside images tomorrow when we go to Tienanamen Square and The Forbidden City. Sorry I haven’t been updating as much as I’d like – the hotel charges a pile of money on a daily basis so I’ll update as often as possible. All is well with us and I think we’ve done a LOT of things in a single day. More later……
11/21
We're here! It's 10:30 in the evening on the 21st and we've checked in to our hotel after transfer from the airport with NO problems. The flight was 12 hours and wemt off like clockwork. When we got to the airport and met up with the Smartours guy (Owen) he told us he saw Maria's son (Ben) at the Mariott! So, we knew that Ben had gotten to the hotel and we went out for a meal at a noodle place after we checked in. Pretty tired now - up at 6:0 tomorrow and off to the races! Much more to follow.........
How wonderful! too bad you couldn't just see the Magic Flute ... super Mozart Opera for sure! Enjoy
ReplyDeleteI told you that you would leave at half time.
ReplyDelete