Last Post Tibet and the Yangtze

My impressions of this fast away land is that it is lovely. But I spent much of it wardimg off a constant altitude headache. Even with the altitude pills it was still difficult. So slowly we walked breathing through our noses and out through our mouths. Yoga breathing. My oxygen level went from 74% to 79% so there was some improvement over the 4 days we were there. There was talk butter tea, yak meat  and yak cheese. It all has a pungent smell that one eventually gets used to. Lhasa is a vibrant city and is growing. 

The Himalayas are their western border with Nepal. The cultural revolution failed to eradicate the Buddhist religion for from Tibet and has brought benefits such as medical care to the region and mandatory education for everyone. But I see the Tibetan language and culture being quietly eroded  Only Chinese is being taught in school. 

We visited a monastery where we saw the monks in heated debate with each other. The big draw is the 13 story climb to the top of the potola palace. Home to the Dali lama. Of course the 14th Dali lama lives in exile in India. Nevertheless the climb is not for the faint of heart. And with the altitude already at 13000 ft you go slowly and stop along the way to get your heart to stop racing 

We left Tibet and flew to Chongqing. Another busy city and it is here we we boarded the Victoria Jenna river boat for a 4 cruise along the Yangtze River.   We met with a women who was relocated when the 3 gorges damage project was going to be built. She was quite the fireball and incredibly tiny. We enter the gorges tomorrow then disembark a day later and head to Hong Kong. There will be no more posts as we will be home in less than a week. I'll be posting photos then.

A day in the life of Donghan community

One of my favorite parts of our travels is when we spend a day with locals in their home. The Donghan village was constantly flooding. This is the same land their ancestors had lived on for 600 years    the government came in and have them new land right next to their old land but was on higher elevation.  Only the government owns the land v so each resident was responsible for paying to build their own home.   They play no taxes on their home but they cannot sell it either.   It has taken 25 years to get all the homes built. But still there are several families that only have the shell of their house up and are waiting to raise more money to complete the interior.

We stopped at a local market to pick up some veggies to cook for our lunch. Of course E could only ask the vendors for it by its Chinese name. What a riot that was. We were not allowed to write the names down. Finally we ended up with eggplant and Cucumber. Only the Cucumber was wrong. It was morning glory leaves.

So we cooked together chopping and on the wok. Barry was in charge of cutting up the meat. Then we rolled the dough for the dumplings and finally lunch was ready. After lunch we spoke with our hosts about life in the village before and after the move.  To end the day we were taught paper cutting and cutout a wedding symbol.

In the evening we were trying out a western style restaurant for the company. Let's just say, the food when we got it was good but they still serve it Chinese style. Everything at one time. Our ice cream dessert came out before the main course. We laughed and advised our trip leader not to put it on the itinerary.

We leave for Chengdu by train in the morning to see the Pandas before we head to Tibet

Terracotta Warriors

This is the highlight of a visit to Xian. The size of the archeological site is immense. The warriors were discovered quite by accident when Mr Yang, a farmer, uncovered fragments of pottery when drilling a well in 1974. There was no  historical record of them or an underground army. They stated underground untouched for 2200 years  

More than 2000 warriors and horses have been excavated from three different burial sites. It is estimated there are 6000 still buried. No two figures are exactly alike. Each has a unique facial feature and style. They are of different rank and were buried in battle formation

China's first emperor Qin Shi Huang wanted to live forever. He spent a Hugh amount of resources building this underground empire. It covers an area of 56 kilometers

The Chinese government, upon the discovery, exercised it's right to eminent domain and moved the entire village from the location and moved them several miles down the road. As part of compensation they are allowed to sell souvenirs at the site. 

It was quite the site to see. The warriors used to be in color but have faded since being unearthed. They are trying to find a way to colorize the warriors again 

It was a balmy 100 today and sunny. 3.61 miles of walking the site we were happy to get back to the a/c on the bus

Tomorrow we will be spending the day in a village and will be jointly making lunch and learning to make dumplings with our host family.

Xian

We left Bejing this morning and flew to Xian. We have learned that the Chinese do not know about personal space. For instance if you are driving and you leave a safe distance between car in front of you, they will cut in front of you. Same things goes for standing in line. If you leave space between you and the person in front of you they will cut in line. So as we waited for our plane at Bejing airport to board and we watched people line up while others cut in line where there was space. Being polite Americans we walked to the back of the line.

There is no zone boarding here. You get in line and get on. Quietly and quickly you store your things and sit down. None of the chatter we are used to on American planes. The ride took just an hour and 40 minutes. But it took 40 minutes after boarding to take off.  And can you believe it, we were served a hot meal along with a bottle of water and then later hot tea. No  charge. The plane was new, clean and plenty of leg room.

My first impressions of Xian, like Bejing, is that everything is a minute old. Since 1990 that had been a concerted effort to move China forward.  Tall, tall buildings everywhere you look and sleek and elegant architecture. Xian is a more beautiful city than Bejing. But don't tall anyone I said that. It has a softness to it that I did not find in Beijing. Flowers for one are beautifully planted in the center of the city. Bejing has beautiful parks as well but thete is something about Xian that appeals to me more for its warmth and beauty

Xian is where the silk road began. Still intact is the 9 mile city wall. We walked up to the wall today. Thete were people renting bicycles and rising the entire wall. I even spotted someone in a Siesta Key beach t-shirt. Others were jogging and still others were just enjoying the beautiful Vistas of the city.

Last night we wandered into the Muslim quarter. Think walking street with food vendors and shopping stalls and literally  hundreds of people walking shoulder to shoulder enjoying the smells and sounds. There was a noodle stand where a man was rolling a giant noodle like throwing pizza dough.  Fried squid on a stick  as well as octopus. Barry and I plan on doing dinner there tomorrow.

Did I mention how hot it is here. 100 degrees -103.  My socks in my sneakers were soaked with sweat. I have never sweated so much in my life

The day was completed with a Tai Chi class, Chinese calligraphy class and a dinner show of traditional dances from Tang dynasty. On to the Terracotta Warriors tomorrow

Bejing in the rain

 Today was our free day to explore outside our hotel. We decided to turn right out of the hotel as we did yesterday and explore the area. We came across sidewalk sweepers who used what looked like a broom made from tree branches, a children's hospital, a pharmacy and a variety of eating establishments.  We stopped to look at the food choices. Of course they were all in Chinese but some posted pictures.   The sidewalks and streets were very clean and totally waterlogged.  It has been raining non stop since we arrived.  By the time we returned to the hotel about an hour and a half later we were thoroughly soaked inspite of having umbrellas and raincoat. Think tremendous downpour during rainy season but it continues all day.  We hung out clothes to dry. Our socks needed to be rung out and our shoes dried with the blow dryer.

During our walk we did see something of interest on the back of a car which I will post separately as I am having difficulty adding it to this post.

Six of our traveling companions arrived today from a week in Mongolia. We will be joining them for dinner with our trip leader Ken who will take us to a dumpling house near Tiennamin Square. It is left when you leave the hotel. 🙃

Arrived in Beijing

We have never flown first class before overseas so this was a first.  What could possibly be different f in 1st from business?  To start with we were the only ones in 1st class. That in itself was both wonderful and eerie. Sitting side by side we each had our own attendant to tend to our every whim.  The beds were wider than in business class. We got pajamas to sleep in and we each had our own bathroom.   A pair of Base headphones and a TV screen and we were comfortable for our 15 hour flight from Houston (where it was raining) and Beijing (where it was raining). There was a wall that slid upward between our pods so we wouldn't disturb each other.

I had pre ordered a vegetarian meal. The report at Air China gave me 4 choices when I called. Each one was a bunch of letters. She had no idea what they were. So I chose the one that made sense  RAW. And that is exactly what I got for dinner and breakfast. Raw veggies and a few steamed  ones. The fruit and macarons were an added bonus.  But the best part was the Oolong and Pur teas.  I drank so much tea that I was glad for the private bathroom. Barry on the other hand got the luxury meal and enjoyed it thoroughly.

We arrived in Beijing at 4:30am. When we got through customs our driver was waiting for us. Know that every foreign national needs to be electronically finger printed before you get to a customs officer. And then I was  fingerprinted again. Barry on the other hand wasn't fingerprinted at all.   Guess under 70 they still consider you a threat

The ride from the airport was very interesting. First off the airport is humongous and quite modern. We drove almost 10 minutes before we got out of the airport. And there was very little traffic. What I noticed first was how clean the roads were. The city was modern with lots of high rise buildings and some very interesting architecture.

Our driver spoke no English. We just had to hope he was taking us to the right place. A little Google translate gave us some reassurance. Finally we seemed to drive to an older part of the city and the driver turned down a narrow entrance behind an old wall. We were hesitant when he stopped in front of a building and took out our suitcases. It looked more like a museum and it was dark inside. So we went in and woke the front desk people. It was  not quite 6am. Check in is at noon. So here we sit in the lobby waiting for the rain to stop and the 9am desk clerk to arrive.

So I will leave you for now and do a bit of knitting. The rest of our traveling companions arrive tomorrow. Today we'll just rest

On the road again...

ni hao  你好

The Sukoneck's are off to another adventure.  This time we are going to China and Tibet.  The bags are packed.  Well actually they have been packed for several weeks as Jess and Pam came to visit and only went home on Wednesday.

Our journey will take us to 5 cities in China.  Bejing, Xian, Chendu,  Lhasa, Wuhan and a cruise on the Yangtze River to the three gorges.  There will be several home visits.  One in Xian and one in Lhasa.  Of course there is the hike up to an ancient section of the Great Wall and a visit to the Terracotta Warriors.  Lots of small villages along the way.  No school visit this time as school is not in session.

Ken, our guide, advised us to get a VPN app before we go.  As you may or may not know, China regulates its end of the Internet keeping their citizens unaware of much of the outside world.  Facebook is a no no.  Of course those in the know, of which there are many (we saw them in SE Asia), will purchase the app on their travels.  So I am hopeful that I will be able to update you daily on our adventures.

Talk to you from the other side of the world in a couple of days.

zài jiàn  再见