Chapter 41 - Beijing

Beijing Blog
Hello Again Everybody,
So my time here in china is quickly winding down and before I know it I
will be on the plane flying over the Pacific Ocean returning home.
But for now I am doing my best to enjoy every second while I am in
china because soon my time will be up here in this beautiful
country!
Well the train from Xian to Beijing was great! I slept like a baby
and it was cool to fall asleep in one part of the country and wake up in a
whole new world of china. Time well-traveled while I was fast asleep
the whole time, now that’s traveling!
Beijing has been loads of fun! It’s sad that this is my last night in
this wonderful city! I have learned so much from here and I hope that
someday I can return and finish touring it. 4 days in Beijing
isn’t it enough to see everything. We got to see quite a bit but it
was quickly rushed through and made for some really long days!
Through all the sore feet, the late nights and early mornings, for
all the subway rides and ALWAYS standing, this has be a trip of a life
time. Every place has its own story but I cant tell the story of each
so I will give you the place and a short description about and how I
experienced it.The Temple of Heaven- very nice and a very big park/garden. Sort of
reminded me of the rose gardens back in Boise. In fact there was a
rose garden section that had roses of every color. VERY BEAUTIFUL!!
This place also had people playing hacky sac, singing and live
bands. This one big group of people were all singing this song and
there were like 100 or so people singing, it was really cool.
The Summer Palace- this place was awesome! It was this park that had
a huge lake right in the middle of it. There were buildings that
had ancient furniture, and they even had this huge Buddhist temple
that overlooked the whole lake and it was amazing! It was overcast while I was there but was still beautiful with a grey sky.
The Great Wall- Overall I think was my favorite out of all
the items in Beijing. We got a cable car up to the wall and walked
down the ridge and the wall for like 2 hours. Stopped and I had a
very nice well packed lunch (thanks to our ward president’s maid). I
had a p & j sandwich, pretzels, an apple, oreo’s and to wash it all
down with a cherry coke. What an experience to have such a great
lunch in such an amazing area! Very peaceful moment on the wall.

After that I was still up on the ridge of the mountain following the
wall. Well there are 3 ways to get down back to the base of the
mountain. Walk, chairlift of a toboggan! Of course everyone knows
what I chose to get down. Yep that’s right I chose the chairlift...
NOT!!! The toboggan was so much fun!!! It was sort of like the one
at Park City in Utah but it was a riot! Afterwards I got a few shirts
in their market and that was pretty much the end of day at the Great
Wall of China!
Tiananmen Square- This is the plaza just in front of the Forbidden
City. There are serious buildings surrounding the whole area. There
are like 3 museums of China, a government building, a huge pillar that
is a monument, and the best part is a massive flag pole. At the base of
the flag pole are always 4 guards standing there. These guards hardly
ever move! They stand the way I was taught by the one police in one of
my earlier blogs about the chinese police. So they stand there in
that uncomfortable position all day. But when it gets around sun
setting time that is when the excitement happens. Around that time
the color guard for the chinese military come marching out of the
Forbidden city, walk across the blocked streets directly to the flag
pole. The walk in such unisons it looks like 24 guys were only 4
guys. Their flag ceremony is a little different. Like they don’t
fold the flag like we do and it like the military are above the normal
people watching. Like in the states I didn’t get that feeling. Like
the flag represented all of “US” but to China the flag represented
“the military”. That is just my own personal feeling but it was so
cool to see the chinese color guard!
The Forbidden City- It would be very bad to be in Beijing and not go
to the Forbidden City! It took us awhile to actually get into the
place because we went there the first day and we got there too late so
we decided to do it another. The second day our earlier plans were
pushed longer than expected and we didn’t have enough time. Third
time we were actually able to get in. It was a very nice place. Huge
place tons of walking. But got to see so much and learn a lot about
this majestic place. It was good to finally after 5 months be in the
place that most people think of when they think of China.

Beijing has been a great place and I’m sad to leave it. I was
expecting American food once in America but my first meal in Beijing
was a nice green salad (with REAL ranch), 2 hot rolls with BUTTER, and
finished by some very yummy enchiladas! Our church President has
been so helpful in letting us stay at his house and helping us get
back into normal day living in a way. Hahaha Like today I was walking
through a supermarket and was able to read all the labels and know
what I was about to buy. Its weird how my have grown use to little
things that I didn’t have back in my little town of Huayuan. I miss
it dearly and it will always be in my blood and in my heart. My
little Huayuan!
Love from the China boy
Jordan

Chapter 40 - Xian

Hello Again Everybody,
Well I am no longer at my little town in Huayuan anymore! It’s the
last 2 weeks of my time in china and these next weeks are going to be
crazy! With seeing so many amazing sights, meeting new people and
traveling by trains. In fact at this every second I am writing this
blog laying on my bed on the very top of the sleeper cabin. I will go
to sleep and when I wake up I will be in Beijing. This is the
2nd train I have been on. The first was the one that got me to
Xian!!!
Xian has been a WONDERFUL place! It has so much to offer and since my
time there was short every day was filled with fun filled adventures.
So instead of breaking this blog into 3 days I will make it 3 long
paragraphs about each day. Also in our room at the hostel our
roommates were Gary and Joanna! The first day we decided that we
should explore Xian together and from there the friendship grew and we
ended up spending everyday together laughing and having a great time!
The first day Joanna, Gary, Lee and I decided to hit up the
Terracotta Warriors! This was AWESOME!!!! Its was amazing to see
over 2,000 clay warriors all standing in a line! I learned so much
about this place and I was astonished with every new fact! It was
crazy how many statues there were and how many people were coming to
see them. The first place was were majority of the soliders were in
Pit #1.
And we also got to see the place where the soldiers were put
back together piece by piece. Because most of the statues were broken
due to the fact that were made out of the clay/dirt found in that area
know as Terracotta sand/dirt. So there I got to see statues at
different stages of the building process.
Now the finding of the
warriors was in 1974 by a farmer who was digging a well trying to find
water. Well he found a head of the warrior and its said that if he
would have dug 1 to 2 meters (3 to 6 ft) in any other direction they
would of never found them! It was really cool because that farmer is
still alive today! And he was at the museum the day we happened to be
there. I got a Terracotta Warrior Book full of pics and the
discoveries and I even got the farmer’s signature in my book. Also
got to shake his hand! It was really neat!
After we got done with the warriors we headed back to town.
Well a big part of the city of
Xian is barricaded with walls from the Qing Dynasty. It had huge
walls and even a moat that went all the way around. Well we rented
some bikes and got to bike on top of the wall around the barricaded
city! It was so cool! And it was right during the sunset so it was
beautiful weather, the chinese were out in the plazas dancing and I
thought I would never say this but the smell was wonderful! The bike
ride had finished our day and we headed back to the hostel where we
got a good nights rest.
The second day in the morning we all were still very exhausted from
the prior day! So this day we took it more relaxed and saw some more
relaxing sights. Within the walls of Xian are two towers. One is the
bell tower and the other is the drum tower. The bell tower was
awesome! It had this huge bell the was over 15 ft tall and in the bell
tower there was a performance. It was really cool to see all the
different instruments they used and how they sounded! Next was the
drum tower. This was sweet! They had these huge drums that were
like 15ft and they sounded awesome! We weren’t supposed to drum on them
but Gary gave us a pretty good show. Hahahah
After that I got see the a true Chinese market! Got to work on my chinese and get ready for Beijing and Shanghai. Then we went to this square where it
has these fountains that dance and do this cool show (sort of like
the Beligio fountains in Las Vegas). But due to electrical problems we
didn’t get to see the show but it was really cool just being in that
environment with that many chinese people and also many travelers.

The next day was sort of out of the blue. It was supposed to be a
relaxing day and getting everything ready for the train ride to
Beijing. Well the prior night Joanna and Gary started asking me about
the Huangshan mountain. Now my pics will not give this mountain
enough credit! So look it up on the web and you will see this is no
normal mountain hike. We decided to do the easy way which is a cable car
to the base of the mountain then start the climb from there. Which is
the first 600 meters it was difficult. Climbing up these super steep
stairs. The stairs were carved out of the mountain and then a pole with
chains were what you used to pull yourself up each and every step!
There were parts where the pathway turned into a 2 ft board on
the edge of the cliff and chains about eye level for you to hold on
to! It was so crazy and such a riot! Wasn’t able to reach the tip
top but I guess that will have to wait til next time I come to Xian! We
had to hurry down the mountain so that I would be back in time to
catch my train to Beijing. That’s why I wasn’t able to reach the top.
But as high as I got up was totally worth it and it has brought
endless stories for me tell. I got back in time to shower, get in a
taxi and get on the train, where I am now writing everyone.
My body is very sore but I am loving every second! I know that I will
be coming back to Xian in the future because 3 days in Xian wasn’t enough time
to spend in this beautiful city! I WILL CONQUER that mountain before
I die! I hope everything is going great for everyone.
Love Jordan

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