Too good to pass up

I started a pen pal exchange between my chuugakkusei(Jr. high school students) and Lisa's elementary school kids in San Diego. Sorry to spoil the fun, Lisa, but some of the stuff my kids wrote are just too good to not post. Hehe. Once again, I hope nobody at school EVER finds my blog. I guess I'm not helping matters by blogging at school. Anyhoo, here's some stuff my kids wrote....

"Dear Derek,
Hello. How about you?"

"My favorite food is 'Ice Curam.' Do Americans also eat 'Ice Curam?'"

"I am only 149cm tall, don't be surprised. Don't ask me how heavy I am."

"I am the most interesting of all. And I like it very much."

"Do you have a boyfriend? I don't have a boyfriend....But!! I will give chocorate to my favorite boy. I will tell him frankly that I love you."

"I'm a B-boy, you know? I dance Hip-Hop, I go to a Hip-Hop club every weekend....I like dancing very much." (Btw, this is obviously from Alan, my Brazilian kid.)

My kids never fail to amuse me. They are so damn cute!

Oh, how Nihonjin amuse me!

K, so I taught one of my private English classes tonight....I mean, what private English class? ;-) Anyhoo, my students and I were talking about some of the differences between Americans and Japanese people. One lady made an interesting point about how Americans "dress down" when they go on a trip, ie) T-shirt, sneakers, waist pack, etc., whereas Nihonjin "dress up" to go on a trip! Seriously. They like buy nice clothes and such before they go traveling. Coincidentally, I found this excerpt from an article on "The Japan Times Online," which talks about how it's becoming more popular in Japan for "common people" to hire personal shoppers.

"Despite the 24,150 yen fee that Inoue charges for a two-hour closet inspection and 16,800 yen for a two-hour shopping escort, one client said she was happy to have Inoue's help. "It's really reasonable when I think about the time I might have to spend researching and browsing various stores," said a 31-year-old career woman in Tokyo who recently met Inoue in Ginza, which Inoue had chosen, to pick clothes for her upcoming sightseeing trip to Europe."

Um, so do they do twice the amount of shopping, b/c obviously you need to shop if you're in Europe! Clazy Nihonjin and their need to look good all the time! Hehe.

Also, another one of my students told me that when she was in the States for her honeymoon, her tour guide told her to carry at least $100 in her wallet, so that if she got mugged, the mugger would be satisfied, and won't shoot her! HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA.

China (Part II - Xi'an)

DAY 4 - BEIJING 北京/XI'AN 西安 (In Xi'an: Bell Tower, City Wall, Shaanxi Museum, and Christmas in Xi'an's city centre!)

Tour guide: Tracy (aka Anime)
Driver: Mr. Li

We had to get up at 4:30am in order to catch our early morning flight from Beijing to Xi'an. Omg, talk about lack of sleep! Lynn and Mr. Du picked us up and drove us to the airport. Lynn gave us each a box of Beijing dried fruits as a sort of Christmas present. Aww! We were sad to leave Cheeky Panda and Mr. Du! It's really interesting how you could feel close to complete strangers after spending only 3 days with them, especially since Mr. Du and I only exchanged a couple of greetings throughout the entire tour! Haha. Seriously tho, Jeff and I really became comfortable with these two. The four of us together in Mr. Du's car just seemed like a good fit! Haha. Sad that we had to move on to our next destination! Couldn't we just have had them as our tour guide and driver throughout? Aww.

Anyway, we arrived in Xi'an before noon. We were picked up at the airport by our new tour guide, Tracy. Tracy was born and raised in Xi'an. She is a college student and this is only her part-time job. We named her "Anime" because to this day, we still don't know what she meant when she kept repeating this word, which she pronounced, "animay," throughout the tour. She seriously said "anime" more than a dozen times throughout the tour, but we never figured out what she was referring to! It still bothers us to this day! Our driver, Mr. Li, was quite the talker in the car, which was a complete 180 from Mr. Du. He seemed nice enough tho.

Info. Xi'an is one of the most important cities in Chinese history, as it was the capital of 13 dynasties. The city has more than 3,100 years of history! Xi'an also marked the beginning of the Silk Road. Today, it is known as one of the major academic centers of China, as there are numerous universities there, second only to Beijing and Shanghai. Thus, there are many young people who live there, and the guys are hot! They all look like Rain's brothers! Mm mmm!

Back to our tour. We were first taken to our hotel to check-in. Then, we went across the street to a really nice Chinese hotel restaurant for lunch, which also happened to be owned by Tracy's parents! Um, Tracy's rich! We had some really yummy dishes while we were there...mm....so good!

Next, Tracy took us to the Bell Tower, which stands in the center of Xi'an, and inadvertently, the center of Northwestern China. It was cool to see how the four main roads facing north, east, south and west, all met at the point of the Bell Tower. Right away we noticed how Xi'an had a small town feel to it, even though it has a population of almost 8 million people. Wherever we went, people made small talk with Tracy, asking how she knew English, etc. I also noticed how much I enjoyed listening to the Xi'an accent. It was so cute every time Tracy spoke in Mandarin! The Beijing accent was amusing, but difficult to understand, as everything sounded like, "Zai JaRRRRR! Zai NaRRRRR??" I'm not kidding, you should really hear it for yourself!

Next, we walked along the City Wall, which was much wider than I had imagined. You could totally drive a car on it! We were walking along as people were making party preparations, as it was Christmas Eve that day!

The last stop of the tour for the day was at the Shaanxi Museum. It is a museum which displays the many relics of various Chinese dynasties in chronological order. It was definitely helpful to have Tracy there to explain Chinese history to us while we walked along, or else it would've just been us saying, "Oooo...pretty!" Hehe. We made a couple of amusing observations about Tracy's English. She was pretty decent for the most part, except that she kept saying "hire" instead of "hair." Though I think the most perplexing part was how she kept saying "wears" instead of "clothes." Hahahaha. Seriously! How does she not know the word "clothes" if she's giving English tours about Chinese history?? Hehe. Very interesting. Tracy seems like the sweetest girl, but the Chinese definitely came out in her at the museum, as she talked over many people as we scooted along, and she didn't seem to care that others were on tours/taking pictures as well. Hehe. Chinese people rock! My take on the Chinese is that they are very proud people....proud about being Chinese, w/o being arrogant. They are very confident and knowledgeable, and I'm not just referring to our tour guides.

I've decided that after learning about the many dynasties that ruled China, my favorite has to be the Tang Dynasty, as it was the most prosperous and progressive era in Chinese history. It was more of a peaceful era, as few wars were fought. The Tang capital in Chang'an (now known as Xi'an) was the most cosmopolitan city in the world at its time, whereby the Silk Road reached its golden age. Also, it was the only time in Chinese history where a woman, Empress Wu Hou, assumed the title of Emperor! That was over 1,300 years ago! And to think we still haven't had a woman serve as US President yet! Sad!

After the museum, Jeff and I got driven back to our hotel and we took a much-needed nap. We were happy that we got BBC World on our TV, but soon realized that although BBC World rocks, they play the same stuff over and over again!

We had a free night and it was Christmas Eve, so we decided to walk to the city centre and see how the Chinese celebrate Christmas. It was INSANE. Aside from the deafening fireworks, there were tons of people everywhere, many wearing blinking Santa hats, Mardi Gras masks, devil horns and some even had spray-painted hair?? Christmas in China is like Halloween, Mardi Gras, New Year's and Christmas all in one! Haha. Definitely a memorable Christmas Eve! We searched and searched, and finally ended up at a dai pai dong (open-air food stall....tho we ate inside...hehe). It was cool, b/c we got to eat mutton with these bready thingys and drink beer....it was all yummy! Xi'an has a huge muslim quarter, so the food options are more varied, so I assume. After our Christmas dinner, we walked around and ended up on a street vendor alley! Woot, more food! We got a fried red thingy with kurogoma (black sesame paste), poot zai gou (that's Cantonese, for these gou-like round thingys which I can't really describe, but just know that it was good!), and a mochi thing with red bean inside. Mmm.....I love street food!

We also bought 2 mini Christmas cakes (which we bought at the beginning and had to lug around with us for hours!) to take back to our hotel, b/c hello, we had to celebrate Christmas even tho we were in China! The two mini cakes from the bakery cost us less than $7! We ended up in our pjs, eating our Christmas cakes while blasting Christmas music from my awesome iPod headphones! Haha. What a memorable way to spend Christmas!

DAY 5 - XI'AN 西安 (Wild Goose Pagoda, Huaqing Hot Springs, Terracotta Army Museum, Xi'an Dumpling Dinner, and the Tang Dynasty Show)

We started our day by going the visit the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. The pagoda was built during the Tang dynasty and stands at 5 stories tall. It was pretty, as it didn't look like a pagoda that I'd expect to see in China, mainly b/c of its simplicity. I liked it a lot.

After that, Mr. Li attempted to drive us to the Huaqing Hot Springs. However, we were in the traffic jam of traffic jams due to the main highway being closed b/c of the fog. Xi'an must be the foggiest city in the world! Seriously...you can never see anything there! We were immobile in our car when Mr. Li had the great idea of telling Tracy to walk with us toward the Hot Springs and to hail a cab if we see one. Tracy then gave him this, "WHAAA...??" look that was just priceless. But since we really weren't moving an inch in our car, the three of us (Tracy, Jeff and I) got out and started walking towards our destination. I must say, it REALLY felt like we were in China during that 15-minute walk. It was awesome. We were already outside the city at that point, so there were just dirt roads with very modest homes along the way. We walked past some local Chinese people, who seemed to be very amused by Jeff. Chinese people, unlike Japanese people, are NOT discreet about staring! Haha. Along the way, Tracy decided to ask for directions from a 5-year-old boy on a bike! Hahahaha. He was, as you'd expect, clueless and unresponsive. Then, she asked for directions from a 7-year-old girl, who may have been the boy's sister! Hahaha. Luckily tho, the girl actually knew where the place was! Woot! We ended up only walking for about 15 minutes when we found a cab that took us directly to the Hot Springs. That whole experience was just great. Wouldn't have traded it for anything! Hehe.

The Huaqing Hot Springs served as a sort of winter palace for various emperors of China and their concubines. The most famous being Emperor Xuanzong, who had a notorious love affair with his then daughter-in-law, Yang Guifei! Chinese people often compare their love story to that of Romeo and Juliet. In a nut shell, Emperor Xuanzong fell in love Yang Guifei, thus the need to decreed his son and her divorce, in order to have her all to himself. He spent a lot of money rennovating the Hot Springs for her. Because of his excessive frolicking with her, he paid less and less attention to running his empire, thus allowing rebels to gain ground. In the end, he watched her kill herself b/c that was only way he could regain control of his empire. Um, I dunno about you, but that IS NOT like Romeo and Juliet!

Anyhoo, the Huaqing Hot Springs was beautiful! It was sooo peaceful and relaxing. It must've been so nice to spend the winter there back in the day!

We headed to lunch after the Hot Springs. At lunch, we were served these yummy honey-glazed potatoes, and Jeff broke his chopsticks while trying to separate them! Hahahahaha. It wasn't his fault tho; it was as if the potatoes were super-glued together! Really!

Next up, the Terracotta Army Museum. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but either way, this was definitely the highlight for me out of all the famous attractions we visited in China. (I had visited the Great Wall once before, whereas this was my first time to see the Terracotta Army.) Anyway, I was astonished by the amount of detail and work that it must've taken to accomplish this project! Here is some more info for ya. The Terracotta Army is a collection of 8,099 life-size terra cotta warriors and horses made over 2,200 years ago, for China's first Emperor of Qin. They were built to protect him in his after-life, and thus were buried with him. The figures were discovered in 1974 by local Chinese farmers, digging for a well. Each warrior's face is distinct! All had color painted on them, but due to time and exposure, only a couple are still left with a tint of visible color. It is believed to have taken 700,000 workers over 38 years to complete! Truly magnificient. Also, there are many still left undiscovered! They won't open the Emperor's tomb b/c technology isn't advanced enough whereby they can protect the area from exposure! How exciting would it be to open up the tomb?!

The Terracotta Army Museum area is HUGE, just like a college campus! With all the trees surrounding us, I thought I was at UCSD again! There are 3 pits open for viewing to the public. Pit 1 is the biggest, and houses the Emperor's main army. It was during this time that Tracy kept saying "anime." It definitely has to be a figure of some sort, as she said it like, "The anime were standing in front of/protecting? the general....." OMG....omg...omg! Could she have meant, "animals?!" Jeff, could this be?? Or had we ruled this out already?? Omg...I need to know what "anime" means!

Remember how I said Jeff and I hardly appeared to be the most enthused tourists throughout our tour? Well, that was certainly not the case when we arrived at the Terracotta Army Museum. We were just in awe of the thousands of figures and the grandeur of it all!! We were VERY intrigued by this part of the tour, to say the least. What a way to spend Christmas day!

Apparently, last year a German student put on a terra cotta costume and jumped in the pit with the other warriors! Security had trouble finding him b/c he was so well-hidden! They finally found him after a few minutes and took him away. The truly amazing thing is that he didn't really get into any trouble!

You MUST MUST visit the Terracotta Army if you ever get a chance. I think that this tourist site is right up there with the Great Wall and Angkor in Cambodia. Seriously.

After the Terracotta Army, we drove back to our hotel and took a nap. Hehe. That night, we had various Chinese dumplings for dinner, something that Xi'an is famous for. According to Jeff's blog, there are over 800 kinds of dumplings in Xi'an! We only had around 15 kinds tho. We had ones with fillings such as, walnuts, cabbage, almonds, red bean, spicy mushrooms, duck, pork, chicken, seafood, etc. It was soooooooooo good! I want some right now!! After dinner, we stayed at our table b/c that was where we saw the Tang Dynasty Show. I guess it was a sort of after-dinner theater? Anyway, while I was looking for the ladies' room, this random guy told me that it was on the other side....and he said it in Cantonese!! How the heck did he know I speak Cantonese?! RANDOM. Anyhoo, unlike the Peking Opera Show, the Tang Dynasty Show was really good! Haha. The background, dancing and choreography were all very impressive! I ended up taking a million pictures for no reason.

Just a quick note on tour guides and drivers in China. At first it felt really strange, but all of our tour guides and drivers opened and closed our car doors for us wherever we went. They were very attentive! (Well, there was an exception, which shall be written about later!) Anyhoo, I guess they were all working towards a good tip? It was unnecessary, but very nice of them! I also found the whole situation with the tour guides and drivers very intriguing. The tour guides were all petite Chinese women in their 20s and the drivers were all men in their late 30s to late 40s. (I'm just referring to our tours, btw.) It's just very strange, b/c they literally have to spend a big part of the day with one another, ie) during meals, waiting for us at the factories, etc. But yeah, the whole dynamic of the age gap and was just fascinating to me and Jeff. Um, anyhoo!

OK, that sorta ends our time in Xi'an, but not really, as we were about to run into some MAJOR airport drama the next day.........

DAY 6 - XI'AN 西安/GUILIN 桂林 (Xi'an Airport)

Seriously. That's where we spent our ENTIRE 6th day. Our flight was supposed to depart from Xi'an to Guilin at noon, but we left the hotel at 9am, just to be cautious b/c of the heavy fog. When we got to Xi'an Airport, we saw that almost every flight was either canceled or delayed due to the fog. Things were not looking good. Fortunately, our flight wasn't canceled. Tracy helped us check-in, thinking our flight might be delayed for an hour or so, but oh, if only. It turned out that instead of departing at noon, our flight was now scheduled for departure at 18:55!! BAAH.

We were then taken to an airport restaurant on the first floor, where we literally sat for hours. Then, we went upstairs again, and sat for many more hours. Tracy had another tour she had to pick up, and their flight to Xi'an had also been delayed, so she was at the airport the entire time we were. However, she managed to find every which way to hide from us. Hmm. Hahaha. She was still her polite-tour-guide-self whenever we saw her tho; we just found her allergic reaction to us very amusing. Hehe.

We finally went thru the departure gate, where no one seemed to know anything about our flight! It was ridiculous; we literally thought we were going to live in the Xi'an Airport for good! Finally finally, at 8pm, we boarded our flight. Woot.

We arrived in Guilin late at night, and we got picked up by our new tour guide, Ping. We actually didn't know her name was Ping that first night, b/c she never introduced herself! From the time she picked us up to the time we got dropped off at our hotel, she never stopped talking. It's true! She is like the MOST ADD person EVER! It was hilarious! She was soo full of energy; it was cute! She quizzed us about China, and by this time, we knew most of the answers! Yaay! It was quite amazing to see how much we learned from our first two tour guides. It was nice to actually know things for once! Hehe. Anyhoo, we arrived at our hotel in Guilin finally, and pretty much passed out. More about Guilin and Ping later, as this post is getting longer by the second!

All Things Chinese

K, so I've been really into anything China-related ever since our trip. It's as if I've discovered a country that's never existed before! Haha. Anyhoo, I've been learning some interesting stuff from people, and from the web. Apparently, my father is from the "Ng" village in Guangdong, China, where all 600-800 residents have the last name, "Ng," and are somehow related! My dad is already the 14th generation "Ng" from the village! Fascinating! Also, there are two other "Ng" villages nearby, totaling 1000 to 2000 people. Can you imagine how hard it'd be to distinguish one person from the next within the villages? Like, "I'm looking for 'Bob Ng.'"

China (Part I - Beijing) - Pictures

K, so we took a million pictures while we were in China. I've decided to divide the pictures by city. Here's the first part. Beijing. Enjoy!

China (Part I - Beijing)

I'm back from my trip to China! (Let's pretend I posted this right after I returned to Japan.) I can't believe two weeks went by just like that! I had an awesome time in China, I'm SO glad we went. I have never been more proud to say that I'm Chinese after spending 13 days in this amazing country. Seriously. China is magnificient. If you ever have the time and money, I'd definitely recommend booking a private tour, even if it does cost a million dollars. =)

DAY 1 - BEIJING 北京
Tour Guide: Lynn (aka Cheeky Panda)
Driver: Mr. Du

After a full day of traveling, we arrived in Beijing late in the evening. Our tour guide, Lynn, spoke amazing English. I was so surprised when she told us that she's never been abroad. We referred to Lynn as "Cheeky Panda" b/c of how Chinese she is, in a sneaky, but transparent way. This is all meant in a good way, b/c we really liked her! It was funny, b/c when she asked us where we were from, I said, "California," to which she responded, "But you look Asian..." In the car ride to our hotel, she asked if Jeff and I were a couple. She also asked if I spoke Chinese and I told her that I only speak Cantonese, which is a pretty useless language, to which she agreed. Then, while helping us check-in at the hotel, she said, "Two rooms, right?" seeing that Jeff and I were just friends. Oh, how the Chinese way of thinking amuses me. She also told us something very interesting. They have a saying in Chinese that if you want to see China from 5,000 years ago, go to Xi'an. If you want to see China from 500 years ago, go to Beijing. And if you want to see China from 50 years ago, visit Shanghai. We went to all of these places, plus Guilin! Woot!

Jeff and I noticed right away how HOT Beijing men are. The security guard at our hotel was HOT and so was the worker at the sketchy hole-in-the-wall conbini across from our hotel. Just an hour after arriving we were seeing HOT Chinese men! Things were looking good.

Anyway, we stayed in Tiantan Hotel, a 4-star hotel. Tours are great b/c you get to travel in comfort!

DAY 2 - BEIJING 北京 (Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Hutong, Temple of Heaven, Wangfujing)

We woke up bright and early the second day, which just so happened to fall on winter solstice. Our first stop was Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We were lucky b/c Beijing wasn't as cold as we had anticipated. That didn't stop us from using our 30 hokkairos (heat pads) though! Lynn was an excellent tour guide; she told us a lot about the history of these places w/o it being overwhelming. I do have to admit that I did zone out at some parts tho. =P She also kept us on our toes by quizzing us about Chinese history/facts every 5 seconds! Sadly, our answer almost all of the time was, "I don't know." Haha. It was a good thing that she asked us questions tho, as it helped us remember facts for the latter part of our trip.

Here is some info for ya. Tiananmen Square is the largest public square in the world and it can hold up to 500,000 people. Mao's mausoleum is also located w/i the square. The Forbidden City is located north of Tiananmen Square and it was the Chinese imperial palace during the Ming and the Qing Dynasties (I can't even remember how many times Lynn said "Ming" and "Qing" throughout our tour). It was built between 1406 and 1420, years before Columbus discovered America! It is the world's largest palace complex and it is surrounded by a moat and a 10 meter high wall. The original complex was said to contain 9,999 rooms (9 is a lucky number to the Chinese...don't cha know? =)) If the emperor were to stay in a different room for every day of his life, it would've taken him over 20 years to have slept in each room. He was also entitled to numerous concubines, some findings list as many as 3,000! Um, gross! Also, they've built a Starbucks w/i the Forbidden City...I kid you not. It's unfortunate, but sadly, we sort of wanted a drink while we were nearby! I guess it's a good thing Lynn didn't take us in that direction, or else we would've really been tempted. Sadness.

After visiting Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, we agreed to an optional tour to the Hutong area. Hutongs are narrow streets/alleys formed by traditional courtyard residences. We rode in rickshaws to tour the area, then visited a local family who lived w/i the Hutong. Because of the rarity of Hutongs in modern day Beijing, the owner of these residences can get up to 1/2 million dollars for it! That's a LOT of money, especially in China! However, the head of the household we visited wasn't about to sell his share, as his family has lived there for generations.

We had our first lunch thru the tour after the Hutongs. Little did we know that we'd be served 10 dishes for every meal from there on out. Seriously. The amount of food they serve on tours is ridiculous. I mean, if Jeff and I think it's too much food, then there's a problem! Haha.

After lunch we stopped by the tour agency to pay what looked like $1 million for our tour. We were also very Japanese in that we brought omiyage (souvenirs) for our sales agent, Crystal, and Lynn.

Our next stop was the Temple of Heaven, the place where the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties worshipped heaven and prayed for peace and harvest. It's a very nice and peaceful area. On this one path, we saw many senior citizens playing cards, Chinese chess, and even Chinese hacky sack! It was cool to watch as they were skilled!

During our car ride around the various sites, we asked Lynn about her opinions on Americans and the Japanese. She said that Chinese people think that Americans are good people, but that we just have a bad government. However, she really really dislikes Japanese people. Seriously. I knew that the two sides didn't get along, but it wasn't until China that I realized just how deep the animosity runs, since Japanese people are still very Japanese when talking about the Chinese, although it's obvious they don't like them either! Lynn said that Japanese people are in fact Chinese, or of Chinese decent, so I guess it doesn't seem right in her mind for Japanese people to think they're better than the Chinese?? I dunno. But yeah, apparently, her cousin does everything in his power to boycott Japanese products.

Lynn asked us what our zodiac signs were, a very transparent way of attempting to figure out our age. Also, she said that there's a joke they have in Chinese where they say Cantonese people will eat anything with four legs with the exception of a table and a chair. Hahahaha. Sort of true, I guess.

We had a free night so Jeff and I decided to go to the Wangfujing shopping area by ourselves. Taxis in China are cheap cheap. The base fare starts at a little over $1. We took taxis whenever we were on our own. We were trying to help the Chinese economy...at least that's what we told ourselves. Anyway, the city of Beijing really feels bigger than life. The streets are wide, the buildings are big, and the people are giants! We walked by so many people who were taller than Jeff, and that's not common in Asia! So yeah, the men in Beijing are tall and cute. Let's moving to Beijing right now!

At Wangfujing, we hit a DVD store and just decided to buy everything that caught our eye as CDs/DVDs are cheap cheap cheap in China! There's no real need to even find pirated stuff as originals are soooo inexpensive. We just walked around and explored the area. We even found a street vendor area. Unfortunately, the restaurant Lynn recommended was under rennovation, so we decided to eat at what looked liked a busy Chinese dumpling restaurant. Since the menu was in Chinese, we had a bit of an issue. I was just going to ask the waitress to recommend some dishes, but that didn't seem likely either as the waitresses there reminded me of ones at Sam Woo back in San Diego. Luckily, we sat across from a Chinese lady who spoke English! She asked if we needed help and offered to order for us in Chinese. Score! She then asked the waitress why our table wasn't clean and ordered her to clean it immediately. She said this in the MOST proper, yet bitchy way EVER. It was sooooooo funny watching her speak to the waitress at how things at our table were unacceptable. She ROCKED. Jeff and I did everything in our power to not burst out laughing at her proper/bitchy looks and remarks to the staff. Our meal was of course, yummy! (We later found out that Chinese people traditionally eat dumplings on Winter Solstice....so yaay to us for being all about Chinese customs! Hehe.) During our dinner, a transient came in and out of the restaurant for reasons unknown. One of the waitresses ordered him to leave, to which he responded by punching her in the chest and then running out of the restaurant! Chinese dramarama! Oh yeah, and how could I forget the Asian male escort we saw with his older-than-the-Great-Wall whitey "friend" on the street. Ah hem. Grossness.

DAY 3 - BEIJING 北京 (The Great Wall of China, The Ming Tombs, China's #1 Silk Factory, Furniture Shop, Peking Duck Dinner, Chinese Peking Opera Show)

Day 3 was a very active day. I say this b/c we woke up early again, this time to go to the Great Wall! The Great Wall of China is the longest man-made structure in the world, stretching over 6,700km. During the construction of the Wall, countless human lives were lost, many of which were buried inside the Great Wall. The Great Wall of China is a place you must visit at least once in your lifetime! It is truly amazing to see what mankind is able to achieve. I sound like a sales agent for a Chinese tour company. Haha.

Although this was my second time up the Wall, it was still amazing to see. We were given 2 hours to climb up to the highest point (in that section) and down. I am soo out of shape as I was huffing and puffing throughout the vertical ascent. I was happy to see that I was not the only one though, as all the other tourists there seemed to be gasping for air as well. We saw many people from various countries on our climb. It was cool to hear all the different languages/accents from people all over the world at this world-famous attraction. We made it to the top and got down w/i 1.5 hours. Woot! It wasn't as bad as I had remembered as it was snowing when I visited 5 years ago, which made everything a lot more slippery. However, there were still many people that couldn't make it to the top, so I was happy that we were able to.

We ate lunch at the Friendship store, a place that obviously caters to the many foreign tourists who visit the Wall. We were told that when China first opened up to foreign tourists, this was the only place where they could shop. Sad, as there was nothing we wanted to buy there!

Our next stop was the Ming Tombs. The Ming Tombs is the burial site of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty. You would've never guessed, right? =) We went thru the tour of the Ming Tombs w/o seeming very engrossed, up until the point when Lynn told us about the mysterious incident when all the the skilled artisans of the famous Ming blue-and-white porcelain were poisoned! Tum tum tummmm! The mystery was never solved, and up to this day, the skill in how to make the Ming blue-and-white porcelain has yet to be rediscovered. Sad!

We had extra time after the Ming Tombs, so we headed to China's #1 Silk Factory. This wasn't the first factory we visited. When you go on tours in China, you also go on factory tours, ie) pearl factories, jade factories, cloissone factories, etc., where you are encouraged to buy things. Jeff and I didn't buy anything from these factories b/c we didn't want to spend money on pointless clutter. We must've seemed like the cheapest people ever to our tour guide. Hehe. Oh well, we're smart for not being persuaded to buy things just b/c we are taken there.

Lynn had recommended that we go to the silk factory b/c she said we'd at least learn something by going. She was right. Jeff and I had trouble imagining how silk rugs (oriental rugs made of silk) were made when we saw them in the Forbidden City, as we've always thought of silk as...well, silk. When we arrived at the silk factory, we saw one lady who was hand-weaving a rug. That particular rug was custom-ordered, and there was a rush on it, so she was working after hours. A silk rug can take 2 to 3 workers up to 6 months to complete!! Isn't that insane?! Also, they only hire women workers, not b/c they have delicate hands for weaving, but b/c only they have the patience for such intricate and time-consuming work! I'm serious! Also, pure silk rugs reflect light, so when you turn them from one side to another, they change colors! Awesome! Lynn boasted about Chinese silk rugs and how they are of the finest quality in the world, b/c only China can provide the labor required to make these silk rugs and still sell them at affordable prices. That is so true. I'm not sure how much the workers at the factories get paid, but it's truly amazing that each rug represents a significant chunk of these workers' lives. Fascinating.

Our next stop was to a furniture shop. In this shop, we saw various pieces of furniture and were taught about how they are made. We also learned about the simplicity and comfortable design of Ming furniture, whereas Qing furniture emphasized detail and extravagance. This may sound boring to you, but it was actually a good bit of knowledge as we saw samples of the actual furniture during those periods in our stop at the Shanghai Museum later on our trip. We saw some interesting pieces of furniture that caught our eyes, but how would one ever transport it back home?! Not that we were even remotely serious about ever purchasing furniture in China. Who does that, anyway??

We found out from Lynn that it costs $10 to watch a movie in China. That is just ridiculous, considering the average annual salary in Beijing is just over $2000. Lynn said that she just downloads movies, which I would too considering the ridiculous prices they charge at movie theaters! Jeff and I never seemed too too giddy outwardly when Lynn guided us on the tour (not b/c we weren't interested, but b/c we weren't sure how to react other than by nodding and saying, "Wow" and "Interesting" every so often. How else should one respond while on a tour?) Anyway, we tried our best so hopefully our tour guides didn't think we were too ADD. Anyhoo, when it came to the topic of movies, we lit up. While in the car, we even made a list of movies we recommended for Lynn to download! Haha.

Mr. Du took us around the Olympic village area where we saw buildings under construction for the Beijing 2008 Olympic games. We saw the National Aquatics Center, aka Water Cube, and it looks like something from the X-Files movie, in a cool way. Also, we passed by the National Stadium, which is designed to look like a bird's nest; it's very creative and cool-looking! (Yes, cool-looking....see how living in Japan has improved my English?) Anyway, we were distracted on the ride b/c of an eye-catching ethnic park on our left, so Lynn had to yell, "Attention, please!" to get our attention so we could see the structures. Um, perhaps we CAN be ADD at times. Haha.

That night we had a Peking Duck dinner. It was yummy, but very greasy, as is Chinese food for the most part. I guess that it's a good thing Chinese people usually only have fruit for dessert, as it would've been near impossible, even for us, to eat REAL dessert after each of our Chinese meals. After dinner, we watched a Peking Opera show, not by choice really, as it was on our tour itinerary. My mom loves Peking Opera and I've never understood why. Sad to say that after watching a live performance, I still don't. At least now I can say that I've watched Peking Opera before. I suppose that's a check off the top ten things I most want to try in my life. ;-)

OK, that's it for day 3. I know that this may be the longest blog entry in the history of blog entries, so don't feel a need to read all of it. These posts will be VERY detailed because I didn't keep a journal while I was in China, so I am writing for you AND me, as I know I won't be able to remember anything that happened a month from now. So yeah, sorry for all the rambling, but there'll be more to come for sure! Muahaha.

I want to be a Japanese kid!!!

Um, so I was talking to two of my 2nensei girls today, and one told me she got 3 man (almost $300) and the other got 5 man (almost $500) for their otoshidama (New Year's money)!! UM, they are richer than I am! Seriously! Can't I be a Japanese kid....just for New Year's??? Ii naaa!!

Here's something amusing from class....

We asked some students, "If you were rich, what would you do?" Here are a couple of responses we got:

"I want to buy a lot of chocolate!" (Um, clearly that is MY kid.)
"I would buy a cake!" (Um, mine as well.)
"I want to buy a kotatsu (table with electric heater underneath)." And yes, that was me translating, not the student. Anyhoo, I hope this student isn't freezing to death at home this winter!

Another question. "If you are free this weekend, what do you want to do?"

"I want to go to North Korea."

I know you want to see more!

I know how you love pictures, so here are some more pictures of my time here in Japan, from Nov. and Dec. of 2006. Just click here. =)

As Promised.....

I know it's taken me way too long to post Taiwan photos, but here ya go!