Our "natural hike" on the Great Wall was exactly that ... extremely natural. Think scrubby branches, steep inclines, loose rocks, rugged terrain ... And that was just the first hour.
I'll admit the details were a little minimal. All we knew going in was that it was 180/pax, including the transportation and three to four hours along an unrestored stretch of the Wall. (The last thing we has wanted on this trip was one more Great Wall trip with throngs of people and lines of hawkers.)
I kind of thought we'd reach the Wall with minimal effort. Snap some pics along the brokenness, and relax above the tree line.
In reality we jumped in the back of a small Hyundai, stopped in a small village for a small man in padded pants and jacket with the requisite communist style blue hat of old, then carried on to a scrubby patch of land where the driver told the old comrade, "Jin tian bu mafan, ta men hui Zhong wen." (Today is no problem, they speak Chinese.)
The old man was our guide for the next four hours, the first two of which where extremely grueling. When we reached the rubble of the old wall, we caught our breath, chugged bottled water and took pictures. We gamely scampered up the crumbled stairs of the nearby watch tower, where our guidebook had mentioned they used to send smoke signals using wolf dung. The only smoke now came from the end of the Chinese manufactured cigarette our guide, whom we had learned was 76, was taking drags from - despite a stern no smoking order from a checkpoint along the way. The area north of Beijing is a dry tinderbox, and they are taking drastic measures (a smoking ban in China is a drastic measure!)
After about 10 minutes we indicated we were good ... We'd take a few more pictures and then would be ready to head back down the winding dirt path to our driver.
"Oh, no," our nearly-octogenarian guide communicated, "we still have very far to go."
The second hour was truely grueling: Mostly uphill, with tenacious wind, hot sun, and a precariously narrow and high path of Great Wall rubble.
At times we were literally on hands and knees. Our old guide, sure footed as a mountain goat, kept forging slowly ahead.
"Go slow, and we won't be tired." he said.
"Go slow and be safe"
Not once did he take a sip of water along the route... Simply a cig in the first hour and then steadily, sure-footedly, pressing onward.
The Wall eventually smoothed out. We climbed along a nearly flat surface at times. Some of the wall was in reasonably good condition for being Ming era (about 500 years old.) Other sections had become overgrown with trees or disintegrated so badly that we would slip off to a dirt path and rejoin the wall several hundred meters later.
It took us nearly four hours to return to the car. We dropped our patient old ye ye back off in his village, and returned to the hostel where the shower looked better than before. Our faces were filthy, a fine layer of dust filled the crevices between our fingers, and when we removed our socks and tennis shoes, even our toes were caked in fine dust.
We've cleaned up, and are going to settle down to a big plate of jaozi. Millie will drink a warm shui bi and I'll have a room temperature Yanjing. (Yanjing ... An official sponsor of China's lunar exploration program. And, for the record, you cannot see the great Wall from Space, although The Lonely Planet guide suggests you might be able to smell the bathrooms from there!)
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27 March 2012
A letter to home ...
Ni hao!
We arrived in BJ on Friday night, and spent a great long weekend with my Auntie Sharron in BJ. Millie caught up with an old friend from QD who now lives in BJ, and we hit the 798 Art area, the PanJiaYuan 'dirt' market and ventured out to a wonderful restaurant on the outskirts Shunyi district called the Orchard. Monday we went for foot massages, had a last lunch with Sharron and then put her in a taxi to the airport.
We then grabbed a taxi to BJ North train station, bought tickets for 6 yuan a piece for a 70 minute train ride to the Great Wall. At the train station we were the only foreigners, and we caused quite a stir as we schlepped our big suitcase thru the turn styles and groups of plastic bag schlepping Chinese passengers. Weathered faced countrysiders gawked openly at us, some even directing their children's heads with hands to look @ us while they loudly proclaimed the Lao Wei.
The train was fast and modern. It snaked its way out of the urban area, and out toward industrial and then ag areas. We passed what accounted to little more than shanty towns, with lurid trash; and piles of coal in sheds and open lots, a reminder of why the air felt so heavy and everything is grey.
Then suddenly it seemed, we could make out the silhouette of the mountains, as the orange sun cut through the palpable haze. A couple of stops later and we beheld the jagged majesty of The Great Wall.
The squalor we had whizzed by was not forgotten, but the reminder that The Middle Kingdom is a cacophony of sights and sounds ... Some beautiful and some less so and some, like the Great Wall, simply remarkable, served as a good reminder.
We checked into a courtyard style hostel where the dinner we ordered was the same price of the smoothie Millie had at lunch! It's cold and unheated in the common courtyard. Our room has two box springs running parallel with a headboard and covered with an uncooperative flat sheet. The thin walls make us thankful that for now it is only us and a pair of British pensioners staying here. Our shower is the less than desirable kind that is mounted above the toilet, and has no curtain (its the kind, if used, where one is sure to mind both the toilet tissue and the electrical outlets.) The tweenager feels squeamish and the mommala is trying to hold fast. We each popped a natural sleep aid, and had our longest, though perhaps not most restful night thus far.
We have scheduled a tour of a 'natural' section of the Great Wall this morning. We will travel about 30 minutes by car from the Ba Da Ling pass of the Great Wall, and spend a couple of hours clambering about an unrestored section if the Great Wall.
It all feels a bit like things are coming full circle ... Ba Da Ling was the first place we visited in BJ in 2006, with Baby Bea in a front pack carrier.
This evening we will head to Qingdao via a tour two car ride to Beijing Capital and a short one hour flight on to our old stomping grounds.
with love,
Jen & Millie
We arrived in BJ on Friday night, and spent a great long weekend with my Auntie Sharron in BJ. Millie caught up with an old friend from QD who now lives in BJ, and we hit the 798 Art area, the PanJiaYuan 'dirt' market and ventured out to a wonderful restaurant on the outskirts Shunyi district called the Orchard. Monday we went for foot massages, had a last lunch with Sharron and then put her in a taxi to the airport.
We then grabbed a taxi to BJ North train station, bought tickets for 6 yuan a piece for a 70 minute train ride to the Great Wall. At the train station we were the only foreigners, and we caused quite a stir as we schlepped our big suitcase thru the turn styles and groups of plastic bag schlepping Chinese passengers. Weathered faced countrysiders gawked openly at us, some even directing their children's heads with hands to look @ us while they loudly proclaimed the Lao Wei.
The train was fast and modern. It snaked its way out of the urban area, and out toward industrial and then ag areas. We passed what accounted to little more than shanty towns, with lurid trash; and piles of coal in sheds and open lots, a reminder of why the air felt so heavy and everything is grey.
Then suddenly it seemed, we could make out the silhouette of the mountains, as the orange sun cut through the palpable haze. A couple of stops later and we beheld the jagged majesty of The Great Wall.
The squalor we had whizzed by was not forgotten, but the reminder that The Middle Kingdom is a cacophony of sights and sounds ... Some beautiful and some less so and some, like the Great Wall, simply remarkable, served as a good reminder.
We checked into a courtyard style hostel where the dinner we ordered was the same price of the smoothie Millie had at lunch! It's cold and unheated in the common courtyard. Our room has two box springs running parallel with a headboard and covered with an uncooperative flat sheet. The thin walls make us thankful that for now it is only us and a pair of British pensioners staying here. Our shower is the less than desirable kind that is mounted above the toilet, and has no curtain (its the kind, if used, where one is sure to mind both the toilet tissue and the electrical outlets.) The tweenager feels squeamish and the mommala is trying to hold fast. We each popped a natural sleep aid, and had our longest, though perhaps not most restful night thus far.
We have scheduled a tour of a 'natural' section of the Great Wall this morning. We will travel about 30 minutes by car from the Ba Da Ling pass of the Great Wall, and spend a couple of hours clambering about an unrestored section if the Great Wall.
It all feels a bit like things are coming full circle ... Ba Da Ling was the first place we visited in BJ in 2006, with Baby Bea in a front pack carrier.
This evening we will head to Qingdao via a tour two car ride to Beijing Capital and a short one hour flight on to our old stomping grounds.
with love,
Jen & Millie
Location:Great Wall Courtyard Hostel
26 March 2012
Getting around the you know what...
I've resigned myself to no FB for the next 10 days, and figured blogger would be inaccessible as well. I've been making mental notes & taking pictures of our first 72 hours in country. There is a sweet and rich familiarity; a thrilling wonderfulness of being back. And we are delighted to be able to give play by plays on blogger ... (while it lasts!)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
We're back!
There is a sweet and rich familiarity; a thrilling wonderfulness of being back.
The chaos and filth are just as we remembered it. The language has not softened. The jackhammers have not ceased. And yet there is the delightful pleasure seeing a thoroughly padded toddler in sweaters and quilted split pants playing contentedly outside his parents kiosk. There are grandmas line dancing together at dusk to a battered cassette player in a local park. The trees in the capital are on the fringe of budding. Forsythia are spilling out adding contrast to an otherwise grey landscape ... Grey sidewalks, grey skies, grey concrete buildings, cars covered I grey dust.
Yet out of this grey is the vibrancy and tenacity we remember. And we are thrilled.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The chaos and filth are just as we remembered it. The language has not softened. The jackhammers have not ceased. And yet there is the delightful pleasure seeing a thoroughly padded toddler in sweaters and quilted split pants playing contentedly outside his parents kiosk. There are grandmas line dancing together at dusk to a battered cassette player in a local park. The trees in the capital are on the fringe of budding. Forsythia are spilling out adding contrast to an otherwise grey landscape ... Grey sidewalks, grey skies, grey concrete buildings, cars covered I grey dust.
Yet out of this grey is the vibrancy and tenacity we remember. And we are thrilled.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
23 March 2012
Beijing Bound ...
Had to say good-bye to these cuties this morning ... I watched from the front porch as they walked hand in hand across the street to school (sniff). I'm going to miss them! (and Mr Johnson too!)
This girl & I had club lounge passes from Mr Johnson ...
Finally on-board the 777 and bound for 中国！
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:O'Hare International
19 March 2012
The Bookends, Nature Girl, a Toad, and Unseasonable Warmth
The Bookends were at it. It's been warm and springlike and they have been fractious.
Maybe spending two weeks apart might help clear the tension. (The biggest contention being just how alike our first and third born are!)
Today was designated our photo-op day. We were lining up for our picture-a-month, which, like Chinese school that preceded it, is really no one's absolute favorite ... but also like Chinese school meiyou ban fa.
Bei Bei was literally in tears. She was anxious to play with her new volleyball (a pepto pink pre-birthday treat), and frustrated with her oldest jie jie.
Mr Johnson had the tripod out and ready (after snapping pics of the magnolia that is ALREADY bursting forth in partial bloom ... a full six weeks earlier than last year!), but our soon-to-be-seven-year-old literally had alligator tears on her pink sunkissed cheeks ...
And then, much to her amusement, a large toad hopped right out of his hiding space in the mulch below our feet. Bei Bei forgot about her troubles with MGJ, commissioned our fearless nature girl, EHJ, to grab the toad, and scrambled off to unearth a forgotten flower pot as a temporary abode for our newly discovered amphibian.
EHJ obliged. Bei Bei perked up. MGJ restrained herself. And, eventually we snapped a few family pics on this 80 degree March day!
{March 2012}
Sometimes tweenagers sport fake smiles.
{Yes, as hard as it is to believe, even during the perennially popular picture-a-month-project!}
And something just has to be done ...
We think this might have done the trick.
{Yes, as hard as it is to believe, even during the perennially popular picture-a-month-project!}
And something just has to be done ...
We think this might have done the trick.
14 March 2012
Buzzers Ready...
Doesn't our team have a cute team captain? {Middle seat}
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
11 March 2012
BBQ & Spring: a random post
Two posts in a day! Can you believe it? I just couldn't resist snapping pics of our reunited family @ a local rib joint tonight.
{FYI: tweenagers don't like their pictures taken in "chin to knee disposable, waterproof aprons"!}
What the Hickory House lacks in charm, it makes up for in flavour. We ordered four slabs of hickory smoked BBQ ribs, donned our plastic bibs, and made good use of our lemon water finger bowls.
Mr Johnson is now in a pork and jet lagged induced coma. We all went to bed a little early at the end of this full week and at the start of daylight savings in our part of the globe.
Being robbed of the hour doesn't seem so tragic when delightful signs of spring are everywhere: the tulips and naked ladies are popping up in the beds around the bungalow, and earlier in the week 贝贝 declared she saw, "a robin redbreast" ... which made our neighbor boys blush ... I think they just call them robins!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
{FYI: tweenagers don't like their pictures taken in "chin to knee disposable, waterproof aprons"!}
What the Hickory House lacks in charm, it makes up for in flavour. We ordered four slabs of hickory smoked BBQ ribs, donned our plastic bibs, and made good use of our lemon water finger bowls.
Mr Johnson is now in a pork and jet lagged induced coma. We all went to bed a little early at the end of this full week and at the start of daylight savings in our part of the globe.
Being robbed of the hour doesn't seem so tragic when delightful signs of spring are everywhere: the tulips and naked ladies are popping up in the beds around the bungalow, and earlier in the week 贝贝 declared she saw, "a robin redbreast" ... which made our neighbor boys blush ... I think they just call them robins!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Homecoming ...
Mr Johnson is home!
Bearing Germany candies!
{Haribo, Kinder & Ritter Sport}
He even saved his turndown service chocolate & surprised me with it on my pillow.
{He knows how much I love nice hotels, turndown & chocolates!}
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
09 March 2012
Universal with YaYa
Betty Boop
The Minions
@ Universal Studios
Horror Make-up Show
(much tamer than it sounds!)
Shrek, Fiona & the noble steed
The Lorax
"I speak for the trees" (Lorax)
"me too!" (Eliza)
Eliza Hazel
Age 10
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Our First Year in China
A while ago I was asked to present at our public library on our life in China.
I tried to think of a way to condense five years into 30 minutes. And I couldn't. It just doesn't work. So I thought first about our first year in China, and what it took to get there. I pulled together a video documenting our first months in the Middle Kingdom. If I'm emotional about getting to go back to China, creating this video might have been part of the reason.
It all came back when I looked at those pictures ... the fear, exahustion, and unknowns ... but also the thrilling wonderfulness of arriving and knowing things would probably be okay. It would work out. We would make it.
Here's a portion of the video I shared with 15 "Friends of the Library" tonight, while they munched on Chinese rice crackers along with Midwestern snacks:
I tried to think of a way to condense five years into 30 minutes. And I couldn't. It just doesn't work. So I thought first about our first year in China, and what it took to get there. I pulled together a video documenting our first months in the Middle Kingdom. If I'm emotional about getting to go back to China, creating this video might have been part of the reason.
It all came back when I looked at those pictures ... the fear, exahustion, and unknowns ... but also the thrilling wonderfulness of arriving and knowing things would probably be okay. It would work out. We would make it.
Here's a portion of the video I shared with 15 "Friends of the Library" tonight, while they munched on Chinese rice crackers along with Midwestern snacks:
Partially Packed ...
There's been a lot going on, but I haven't really been blogging, and now I'm not sure where to start to bring things sort of up to speed.
We've been traveling and planning travel and its exciting to pull out suitcases and passports. It's nerve wracking to wait on the Chinese embassy for visas. And wonderful when you see them finally glued into a whole page of those blue document books that declare our Americanness.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself ...
In mid-February EHJ and I flew to Orlando for four days for her 10 year old trip. We spent two full days at Universal and three nights at the Hard Rock Hotel Orlando. This will get its own post ... but can I just say how easy it is to travel with her, and just how much fun! And, we shared a little silent chuckle when the lady next to us on our flight home said, "thanks for not being one of those kinds of kids who scream." As if. And, anyway Orlando to ORD is nothing compared to PEK to ORD!
This week the dashing Mr Johnson is off again in Deutschland. Cruising down the Autobahn in a BMW (for real!) and Skyping us from a different hotel lobby every night. (He can never seem to get good wi-fi reception in his room.) We love using Skype video and making all kinds of silly faces while he sits in a foyer somewhere pretending not to notice and we tell him just to be quiet for a little bit so we can overhear German conversations!
In just two short weeks MGJ and I will be off on an international adventure of our own. We're heading back to the Middle Kingdom for two weeks, and I'm more excited and emotional than I thought I'd be. I Skyped my Aussie friend in QD, who blames her Scottish heritiage on why she's not really a hugger, and confessed my emotionalness. I think I had her thinking she'll have an emotional wreck on her hands ... and it's not that at all. It's just than when we finally finalized it, and I began booking hostels and nailing down our itineary, the wonderful richness of it all hit me.
We've also got tickets booked to Boston for late April. Which should be great, warm spring weather. We'll do the Freedom Trail and investigate the sites the girlies are learning about in their history texts, and get to spend time with our Boston besties!
And then there's Vancouver this summer ...
Sometime mid-Winter I panicked that we were too stationary, to grounded, to (gasp) repatriated. I scoured cheap tickets and thought longingly of friends. It didn't take much convincing on my part to get Mr J on board to. And, I think we are reliving for the next few months anyway, what it feels like to live partially packed.
And, for the record ... it feels wonderful!
We've been traveling and planning travel and its exciting to pull out suitcases and passports. It's nerve wracking to wait on the Chinese embassy for visas. And wonderful when you see them finally glued into a whole page of those blue document books that declare our Americanness.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself ...
In mid-February EHJ and I flew to Orlando for four days for her 10 year old trip. We spent two full days at Universal and three nights at the Hard Rock Hotel Orlando. This will get its own post ... but can I just say how easy it is to travel with her, and just how much fun! And, we shared a little silent chuckle when the lady next to us on our flight home said, "thanks for not being one of those kinds of kids who scream." As if. And, anyway Orlando to ORD is nothing compared to PEK to ORD!
This week the dashing Mr Johnson is off again in Deutschland. Cruising down the Autobahn in a BMW (for real!) and Skyping us from a different hotel lobby every night. (He can never seem to get good wi-fi reception in his room.) We love using Skype video and making all kinds of silly faces while he sits in a foyer somewhere pretending not to notice and we tell him just to be quiet for a little bit so we can overhear German conversations!
In just two short weeks MGJ and I will be off on an international adventure of our own. We're heading back to the Middle Kingdom for two weeks, and I'm more excited and emotional than I thought I'd be. I Skyped my Aussie friend in QD, who blames her Scottish heritiage on why she's not really a hugger, and confessed my emotionalness. I think I had her thinking she'll have an emotional wreck on her hands ... and it's not that at all. It's just than when we finally finalized it, and I began booking hostels and nailing down our itineary, the wonderful richness of it all hit me.
We've also got tickets booked to Boston for late April. Which should be great, warm spring weather. We'll do the Freedom Trail and investigate the sites the girlies are learning about in their history texts, and get to spend time with our Boston besties!
And then there's Vancouver this summer ...
Sometime mid-Winter I panicked that we were too stationary, to grounded, to (gasp) repatriated. I scoured cheap tickets and thought longingly of friends. It didn't take much convincing on my part to get Mr J on board to. And, I think we are reliving for the next few months anyway, what it feels like to live partially packed.
And, for the record ... it feels wonderful!
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