Around the World in 365 Days – Part II – China

October 29^th-Nov. 2^nd, 2019

Day 12/13 October 29^th/ 30^th: In typical California style, from Bakersfield we took the 99 to the 405 (got to use the HOV lane, so not too bad) to the 110 and got to Harbor City in decent time. We met our friend Anthony who was a fellow traveler on a tour in Egypt in 2015. He shares our love of adventure and travel, and lives in the Long Beach/ Harbor City area. He drove us around the beaches as we caught up on life. Manhattan Beach has a Cheesecake Factory with one of the best views from any CF anywhere (definitely not the location I typically think of for a Cheesecake Factory). I appreciate the calorie counts, so I stick to the “Skinnylicious” menu. Since we were planning on some liquid dessert, we had to forgo the cheesecake. The boardwalk boasts beautiful views and bars that take advantage of them. Just before sunset we enjoyed watching the sun lower itself as we sat in a local brewpub,

then headed down to Redondo Beach for another great night spot near the beach. We arrived just after sunset, so got a few nice pictures of the Redondo Beach pier.

A little wine and great conversation, then off to our last spot a little further inland to another brewpub run by a friend of Anthony’s (and shame on me – I forgot to write down the name). The pub area is in the back of the brewery itself, so offers a good backdrop for photos, and they can prove their cleanliness. Unfortunately, the day had to end and John and I were off to the airport at 10PM – LAX still had a traffic jam. Our tour operator changed our flight at the last minute – the plus was that we now had a direct flight to Beijing instead of going through Shanghai, the minus was that they failed to tell us we were on a different airline. After over 30 minutes in line one, we had to go to line two – which was much shorter. The 13-hour flight wasn’t too bad, both John and I had aisle seats, with modern screens in the back of the seats and a good variety of movies. I managed to sleep about 4 hours, watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Men In Black International, and The Book Club. Charlie was the best of the three. No problems in customs, and we met “Alice” at the airport from UTO – our tour operator. All of the Chinese tour guides adopt western names so we tourists don’t butcher their real names into something that might be offensive.

Day 14: October 31^st:  Luckily, we were able to check into the hotel early (it was only 9AM). The hotel itself is absolutely beautiful – the Rylinwon Hot Spring Resort, but there is nothing near it and absolutely nothing to do there that does not cost additional money – even pool table use costs about $8/ hour. When the bus brought us o the hotel, we saw a grocery store and group of restaurants about a mile from the resort entrance so we hiked the 1 ½ miles (the resort has a long driveway) to the store. The variety of goods was amazing – especially the produce. They had at least 8 varieties of eggs!

And beer cost 2 yuan (about 30 cents). We also found a Hot Pot like in the Anthony Bourdain show from Beijing where he tortured his French chef friend with the spicy local fare. In this restaurant you load your bowl, they cook it, and then you can spice it to taste. The locals made sure we saw the little line of additions we could use, and made a point to bring us the peanut sauce – which was so good! We brought our snacks and beer back to the hotel and took a long nap. We wandered the hotel grounds, and we found three stations with English, one was showing some of the worst movies ever (including one where a town was being terrorized by the Maine River Crocodile).

Day 15: November 1^st: (Ladies, one note about travel in China has to do with bathrooms – most areas, including the large tourist ones, only have squat toilets without toilet paper. Wide stance, deep squat and always bring tissues.) We met many of our fellow tour group at breakfast and on the bus for the optional Beijing day tour (which cost almost twice as much as advertised in our tour info because they “added” some stops.) Once the tour started (after almost leaving behind two of the group), the first stop was Tienanmen Square. It was the last day of the month-long celebration of the Revolution – and the highlight of the square was a large “flower bowl”

which attracted a lot of photographers and people getting pictures of their children.

The square was full – it was originally designed to fit a million people – so not that many on a Friday, but school groups and locals lined up to see Chairman Mao in his crystal coffin where he lies in state in perpetuity, as well as to get pictures in front of the Chairman Mao painting on the wall.  After the square we were off to the Forbidden City.

It has been rebuilt many times over the last 600 years since the majority of the buildings are made of wood. Again, there were so many people there it can become overwhelming – and the one area I really wanted to see – the gardens – was the section we were rushed through since it is one of the smallest and at the end when more pressed for time.

We followed this with a bus ride to the historic area and lunch at a family’s home – the husband was charming and in addition to being a skilled musician, had a trick for using a water bottle to open a beer bottle. I sat with the vegetarians since trying to explain my dietary restrictions can become bothersome, and it provided my first opportunity to chat with fellow travelers, so getting to know them added fun to the meal. For the afternoon it was off to the Summer Palace. We walked over some tranquil bridges, and saw one of those signs where I could not stop laughing – “Mind the Hilly Road”

for a set of very steep stairs. The last stop was the Bird’s Nest from the 2008 Olympics – John and I found a Burger King – no Impossible Whopper but they had chicken – and actually the fries there were better than the ones in the US. Finally, it was back to the hotel – where Tina had arranged for massages for us for $35 “including tip” per person in our rooms. The masseuses arrived within minutes of us returning to the hotel. It was a good massage, interesting in that much less time was spent on the back than I am accustomed to. At the end we paid what we were told and they seemed dejected. We did not know why at the time.

Day 16: November 2^nd: An early start and off to the Great Wall! But first, of course a “shopping spot” at a jade factory for an hour. At the very end of the stop I did find a nice pair of earrings for $40, prior to that all I saw were $1000 bangles. Then we finally got to the wall. Tina strongly recommended the “easy way” – which is still very steep, but from the parking area appeared to have the better views, so John and I opted for that. Once we got up high enough, we did see that the “hard way” (which has a grade of close to 45 degrees) did go much higher for those fit enough to get there. We made the “easy” way round trip in under an hour with lots of photos and catch our breath rest breaks on the way up and knee rest breaks on the way down. We were rewarded with breathtaking views.

A real Chinese buffet lunch was also fairly guilt free after so many stairs. You will not find General Tso’s chicken on a real Chinese buffet. But, although we should have been finished for the day, we had one more stop – the Chinese Medicine Academy – we were given a “free” 20 yuan (which is just under $3) foot massage (required tip) and a one minute consultation with a Chinese doctor who diagnoses all your ills by taking your pulse on each side with 3 fingers. I have decided not to say anything else on this, I do have a strong opinion, but it’s like religion, others have strong beliefs and there is no winning those arguments. John and I hoped to get back to the Hot Pot restaurant, but we also had arranged for another massage and we barely arrived at the hotel by the 6:30 appointment. We found out why the other ladies were so dejected – since the night’s masseuses were younger, when we paid, they asked about the tip – so we found out “tip included” does not mean the worker is actually going to get a tip.

In the morning we are off to the Shanghai area!