Leaving on a Jet Plane

The experience in China has been truly fascinating.  I have had the opportunity to see several cities and sights, as well as experience the local cuisine.  Also, I have met many interesting people from all over the world.  One of those included my coworker Bruce (Yi) Di.  He has shown me the finer points of Shanghai and the surrounding area.  With my time here coming to a close, Bruce booked a weekend at a Chinese resort in a neighboring city of Hangzhou.  Hangzhou is the largest of the “water towns” that surround Shanghai. 

Bruce swung by my apartment at 8am on Saturday morning for the weekend extravaganza.  I loaded into a minivan with far too many people and luggage, and headed out.  90 minutes later, we arrived at the resort.  Honestly, I had rather low expectations; however the resort was absolutely incredible.  It occupied several hundred acres and contained an Olympic-sized pool, spa, squash courts, table tennis, karaoke, and a bowling alley.  I took advantage of some of these activities, and learned to never challenge a native Chinese fellow to a game of table tennis…whoa…

Below are some photos of the resort.

Surrounding the hotel were tea fields similar to this one.

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The weekend concluded with a group photo, which was very nice.  All of the individuals there had significant-others (wives, fiancees, etc.) accompany them.  I would have been happy to bring my lovely wife, however she had departed China several days before.  Now…I know what you are all thinking and NO, the woman in front of me in the picture below was not my date.   Actually she is the mother of the young lady on the far left.  You see, the couple on the left is engaged, and the mother of the bride-to-be came along to insure the preservation of her daughter’s virtue until the wedding day.  She was a very nice woman, however she did not speak English which significantly limited our conversations.

Throughout this weekend, our Chinese hosts wielded control of the menus.  Though I have tried to refrain from any additional posts on the food, I figure it is okay because this is likely my final post.  So, below you will see a high-level overview of the cuisine for the weekend.  Please note that I ate all but the final one…for reasons you shall see.

Above we have some poultry.  What I did not realize was that it was actually duck stomach.  Though it was not totally repulsive, you will not be seeing this on the Seiler summer barbecue menu.

Turtle…if you couldn’t guess from the piece on top.  I am not sure how they prepared it, however it seemed as though they dropped the thing in a blender with some soy sauce, heated and served.  Again, not something I would recommend.

This one troubled me a bit.  It was a small (some would say “baby”) bird of some sort.   Believe it or not, after I took the photo Bruce (mentioned above) grabbed the head with his chopsticks and ate it.  It sounded like he was eating a handful of Doritos.  My appetite was limited following that…

The fish was great, though it is a bit unnerving having to look your food in the eye as you eat it.

Snake of unknown origin.  Fortunately the chef decided to have pity on the western guests and bathed it in batter and deep fried it.  All in all, not bad.

Soup.  You see, this is the very reason why I don’t clean my plate – because I can never be sure of what is at the bottom.  As the soup bowl came around to me, needless to say I was a bit shocked to find the duck floating at the bottom.  Fortunately it had it’s eyes closed…eesh.

Cow tongue…tastes similar to cat tongue…

Now comes the item that you’ve been waiting for.  Since my arrival in China, I have tried to be open minded and try – at least try – everything that was put in front of me.  This has exposed me to dishes ranging from jellyfish to pig skin, however nothing could quite prepare me for the entree below.

Pig brain…I’m still speechless.

See you all soon!

Emperors, Temples, and Palaces

Wow, it is hard to believe that my time here is coming to a close.  Therefore, I am going to pack everything that I can into the next few blog posts.  The past several weeks have been exceptionally busy from a work standpoint and have left me little time to update all of you on the happenings here…and there have been several…

First, let’s start with the final two installations of my visit(s) to Beijing.  As stated in previous posts, I have had the opportunity to tour Beijing on a couple of occasions.  I have posted previously regarding the visit to the Olympic Park and Great Wall, however that is only half the story.  While in Beijing, I was able to tour the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Summer Palace. 

The Forbidden City is absolutely amazing.  The sheer scale of the property is hard to comprehend even as you walk through it.  It was built in the 15^th century and occupies nearly 8 million square feet of property.  It consists of almost 10,000 buildings, a fraction of which are open to the public.  Tiananmen Square sits just in front of the Forbidden City.  It is massive in its own right and occupies almost 110 acres in the center of Beijing.  Put together, they are a magnificent sight to behold.  Lets take a photographic stroll through both…

Much to my surprise, there were these types of welcoming committees all over Tiananmen Square.  My tour guide told me that if I were to decide to reenact the 1989 protests or sport my “Free Tibet” t-shirt, these gentlemen would be happy to provide an all-expenses-paid trip to the Beijing International Airport, cancel my visa, and wish me a nice life abroad.

Here are a few photos from Tiananmen Square.

And just in case I had decided to wear that t-shirt…

The entrance to the Forbidden City lies at the north end of the Square.  Now, it is called the Forbidden City because for hundreds of years only the emporer and his cozy group of family and friends were allowed access.  This cozy group typically included the emperor, his wife, and his 3000 concubines.  The reason that it is referred to as a “city” is that all these girls needed places to shop so there were many storefronts that catered only to the emperor’s harem.  On the advice of my counsel, I will forego any concubine jokes for the duration of this post.  The following is a photo tour of the city.

At the entrace, we are graced with a large photo of a very robust-looking Mao Tse Tung.  Every three years this photo is repainted, including some modifications to his likeness.  My tour guide suggested that each time he appears to be “younger and lighter”.

Various photos of the tour of the city

I took a few moments to run some interactive workshops in the hall below…

Also, I spent some time at the Temple of Heaven.  This is a temple that the emperor used to pray for good harvest.  It was absolutely magnificent.

Oh, and if you get too hot during your day at the temple, feel free to use the method of the man below.  This was a routine sighting throughout the day.

All in all, the sights were terrific and I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to see them. 

As you can see, there are a few spots that are still forbidden!

The day following the visit to the Forbidden City, I visited the Summer Palace.  It was my favorite place in Beijing – second only to the Great Wall.  Again, it was restricted to the emperor and his…well…group of friends for years.  I will skip any additional commentary and let the pictures speak for themselves.

Let the Games Begin

As many of you may remember, the 2008 Olympic Summer Games were held in Beijing, China.  Official reports claim that China spent ~$15 billion dollar on the games.  However other analysis indicate that the country may have poured over $40 billion into the infrastructure and the production of the games, and much of that investment was seen through the incredible capital improvements that were made throughout Beijing (hotels, highways, stadiums, etc.).  The structures that housed the Olympic Games included the notable sports stadiums with very descriptive names such as the “Water Cube” and “Bird’s Nest”, where Michael Phelps and others made Olympic history.

I have had the opportunity to visit Beijing twice and make stops in the Olympic Village both times.  The real beauty of the village comes at night when they illuminate the buildings at night.  Take a look…



The water cube is now open to the public (admission fee required).  The facility has been transformed from an Olympic Pool to several lap pools and a children’s water park. 

The Bird's Nest is a fascinating structure.  It hosted the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 games and now is a popular concert and event venue. 

 

The Olympic Torch is an exceptionally large structure.  I would guess that it is about 40 feet tall.

A view from the Olympic Park.  You can see the Water Cube with the Pangu 7 Star Hotel behind it. 

Lastly, I could not possible leave a post without another shot of some fine Beijing cuisine.  Since I have had my fill of Asia's best organ food, I decided to pass...