Hello All,
After a most pleasant 14 hour flight nonstop from Dallas to Beijing, we have arrived into Beijing, staying in a spectacular room at the Waldorf Astoria. Amazingly, I slept seven hours on the plane ride and still struggled to make it to 9:30 p.m. last night…..but then I slept until 7:00 a.m. Good to go! Here’s a peek at our suite and private terrace.
My sweet John gets a really big gold star for this suite and terrace — wow — what a nice way to spend four nights in Beijing!!!
We unpacked and walked four blocks to our favorite Chinese fast food restaurant — Din Tai Fung — soup dumplings, noodles and green beans — all great! Then John needed to change money and there was an ATM a few buildings down. The machine ate his card and gave him no money. He punched lots of buttons to no avail; punched the help button to no English. Finally I talked to a woman who helped us — had to go back in the morning to get the card…..but still no money……I guess he was frustrated!!!!!! But he did pass a bride on his way back….as well as a Mercedes 600 Maybach — not made in the US.
The next morning our guide William began our day at 10:00 am at our request…..and we were off. First stop was the UCCA (Center for Contemporary Art) in the 798 Art Zone. The first exhibit was by Matthew Barney, husband of Bjork. It was “out there”.
And the next exhibit was entitled Society Guidance and included a lot of different things:
Burnt newspapers
We then went on to the Olympic Park to see the Bird’s Nest and the Ice Cube. Notice what a beautiful clear day it was! On the way we took some random pictures.
Notice the Olympic Rings at the top. China has just been awarded the right to have the 2022 Winter Olympics. On this site China hosted the 2008 Winter Olympics. The site will be used again together with a northern winter site for the 2022 Winter Olympics. It will be connected to the northern site by a newly-built high speed rail system .
The building above houses an IBM office and Bill Gates has a unit; the building is called the Dragon.
It was time for some lunch so we stopped at Mr. Shi’s and way, way over-ordered with the help of William, our guide. But fun to try things…..
Refreshed, we were off to the Silk Market — one of two HUGE markets in the city. We were looking for a wallet for a friend — scored! But then we managed to shop for ourselves: three pair of glasses for John, one for me — three caftans being made for me, one nice wallet for John and a Japanese BaoBao purse for me — lots of fun! We had now worn out both our guide, our driver Mr. Yu and ourselves. We asked William to cancel our nice dinner. After wading back to the hotel in heavy, heavy traffic we relaxed for a bit, then shared a cheeseburger/fries in the hotel lobby bar! Perfect…
In the morning (Tuesday), we set out with our driver and guide for the Temple of Heaven. We had not seen that on our first trip and we really enjoyed the experience — very beautiful…..and an amazing place that locals visit just to enjoy the park, meet friends to play cards or play with their children.
All was going well until we reached the entrance — no scooters allowed — they would provide a wheelchair. So I was pushed by poor William.
We posed for pictures in front of the actual Temple of Heaven. John then climbed to the top.
An out building at the Temple of Heaven:
Afterward we stopped at the Pearl Market to look for a few more trinkets. We followed that up with a truly great lunch at Lost Heaven — wonderful, wonderful food in a beautiful setting.
We then took some “along the way” pictures. October 1st was the celebration of 70 years of the Peoples Republic of China. There were lots of celebrations and some of the decorations still remain.
After lunch we visited Nanluoguxiang Hutong. It is a walking shopping street housed in the old traditional Chinese houses. It was fun and interesting.
I was amused by the display above with her rotating face!
In the evening we ventured out to the Chinese Opera in one of the oldest, most famous opera houses….quite an experience. We were seated at a premier table, one level up from the floor in the center. Before we entered, there were some items shown in a wall case that were worth looking at. Before the show , we were able to watch a man being made up. And then the show. First act was an old man who rowed people up the river and a woman was pursuing her man.
The last act was about a woman defending her city from the male attacker — she was successful!
On Wednesday our first stop was at the National Museum of China which features contemporary and modern art. At least that’s what we thought; instead it was all kinds of Chinese history — but not so much to our taste. Our clue should have been the absence of any white faces! The building itself, on the other hand, was spectacular!
On to lunch — this time to Schezuan Restaurant. Another wonderful meal, but too much food again. Interestingly, the building is the former residence of Xiao Ping, second in command to Mao.
Tea, beer or water….or all three?
Great noodles and famous for their King Pao Chicken.
The woman on the electric bike, while not a great picture, is an example of the wind blocker that many use to block the cold wind.
Next was a visit to the Lama Temple, the largest Buddha temple outside of Tibet. It was quite beautiful and full of people praying and burning incense.
The more gargoyles there are, the more important the building.
Then we were off to an amazing experience, if not a truly pleasant one. I had pulled a muscle in the restroom of the plane, then the next day, I rose from my seat after watching a movie in the UCCA museum, became unsteady, went to sit back down but my seat had gone up and I ended up on the floor on my bum!!! Three people in the audience raced to help me up — showing how kind people are all over. But the long shot is that the pain was increased after two days so I went to get acupuncture. It was quite interesting in that my pain is in my right butt, but he pushed and pulled only on my front then did the acupuncture from the front. The results are still out, but I’m hopeful!
I spared you the most unflattering picture of me lying on my back in the examining room waiting for the doctor.
That is all for Beijing. On to the next part….
Beth
It looks so lovely there. You two are looking good as well. Hope your butt is feeling better. Love Lesley & Terry
Hey there, this looks like a really fun trip for you both. I want to see some photos of what trinkets you found at the pearl market!!
As to your bum, it will probably take more than just one acupuncture treatment to work. I know I have used it before and it took three treatments but after the third one, it was like magic, no pain!!