China, We've come to visit. Day One and Two

March 12, 2008: Bob and I boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 002 from Los Angeles to Shanghai, via Tokyo. We were lucky enough to fly business class, and therefore, sleep most of the way. I have to say NWA provided great service and some of the best food we ever ate. We arrived at the Narita Airport where we had a couple hour layover. Not much to report about the airport, but the bathrooms. Along the toilet seats, there was a panel of buttons to push; one was a button for the sound of a flushing toilet. I pushed it a couple times, just to see what it did, and sure enough, the sound of a flushing toilet faithfully responded. What will these Japanese think of next? Crazy stuff. When I got home, I asked Chrissy, who is living in Nishinomiya for a year, and is my beloved sister-in-law, what this sound effect was for. I was guessing to help with stage fright. That, and to cover other sounds, she says. What sounds could those be?

Day 1:

Anyway, back to Shanghai, where we landed about 8:30 p.m. on the 13th of March. The international airport that we used in Shanghai is called the Pu Dong airport, or West of the River. The customs and baggage collection went extremely and impressively quickly, and we were met by Tim and Saimiya. The women's bathroom (no, I don't have a thing for bathrooms, they are just so foreign to our style of bathrooms, that it bears noting) had a sign saying "Mind your step." Rightly so. These 'squatty potties' as I have come to know them, aren't the most sanitary of toilets.

Tim and Saimiya took us to Pu Xi, which means East of the River, (Pu, being River and Xi meaning East,) where Tim lives in Xian Tian Di. Xian Tian Di is a great little neighborhood, full of night life, shopping and good eats. It is clean and was safe to walk around late at night. It is kinda reminiscent of Europe, with the cobblestone and little streets. But just in that area. Shanghai is mainly a very modern city, with many high rises.Shanghai has the second tallest high rise in the world (1614 feet), one in Taipei is a bit taller (1671 feet). They both have 101 floors.

Tim took us at about 11 p.m. to get a Chinese Massage, at the Jade Palace. No, it is not that kind of massage place, but a legit massage parlour. We were politely asked to take off our shoes, where we left them in a little cubby in the reception area. They gave us bamboo slippers, and were directed up stairs to the massage rooms. Bob and I had a room together. Once we were all ready, they came in our room and gave us a massage that put us to sleep almost instantaneously. We woke up refreshed and relaxed. This cost us 200 yuan, which is about $28. We got the special oil massage. If we had a regular massage, it would have only cost $14 for an hours worth. Well worth it.

Day 2.
The next morning, Tim, Saimiya, Megan, Bob and I got on an airplane to go to Beijing. It was a short flight. We arrived and took a bus to the last stop it went to, which took us only part way to our hotel, which was located very close to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. When we got off the bus, there were a bunch of pedicabs waiting for passengers, as well as Taxis. Offhandedly, I said that I wanted to ride the pedicabs, which are like the rickshaws of old. Saimiya, ever ready to please, arranged for us to go in the pedicabs. One passenger each to a pedicab, and off we went to the hotel. I had wanted to ride a rickshaw, but evidently, they are out of fashion in Beijing.

It was a fun ride, over very quickly, but no where near our hotel. The drivers told Saimiya that it was all the closer they could get, because there was a street that was barricaded to any traffic other than foot traffic. They told us it was only a 5 minute walk further on, and motioned towards the way it was supposed to be. We started dragging out suitcases, all 5 of us, walking along the street, which was a nice broad street with many designer shops lining it. At the end of the street, Saimiya asked the directions to the hotel, and the Chinese police officer motioned down the other street and Saimiya relayed to us, again, another 5 minutes walk. Well, we walked and walked and walked, and the Evoy brothers were starting to get a little upset. It was an awfully long way, and we were all hungry and thirsty. And no hotel in sight. Finally, after about 20 more minutes of walking, Saimiya yelled, 'there it is!' and there it was. None too soon, for the Evoy brothers were boiling by then.


We checked in and went directly back downstairs to go to the Forbidden City. Our hotel was located very close to the Forbidden city and Tienanmen Square. We had a view of it right outside our window. The Forbidden City is across form Tienanmen Square. There was some government meetings going on in Tienanmen Square, which gave rise to the necessity of many guards, soldiers, police and officers. They were all very grave looking and ominous. I dared not take any photos of Tienanmen Square, lest the confiscate my camera. Therefore, no pictures of Tienanmen Square do I have. Probably stupid in retrospect, as most things I do are, but at the time, I was overtaken by my imagination.

The Forbidden City spreads out over many, many acres, with building after building, which looked like temples to me. A moat surrounds it. Most of my photos of the Forbidden City, and most of China, are of architectural details. I always wanted to pretend to be an architect. Without boring you with the details of the Forbidden City, which you can all research on the Internet yourself, you will see that I took tons of photos of the roof lines. (I will post a few pictures with this blog, and a link to all the Chinese Photos.) Along each roof at the corner, are little statuettes. The number of the statuettes denote the status of the building. Minor buildings have 3 or 5, and major buildings have more. None could have more than 10, however, during these Imperial times. The Hall of Supreme Harmony was the only one allowed 10 little creatures on the roof.

Also, glazed yellow tiles composed most of the roofs because Yellow was the color of the Emperor. There were a couple of exceptions to this, one being the library, which had black roof tiles, black being associated with water, and thus fire-safe; and the residence of the Crown Prince, which had green tiles, which represents wood, and growth. I didn't get any photos of these buildings, sadly enough. While we were in Beijing, the entire city was preparing for the 2008 Olympics. Within the Forbidden City, many of the buildings had repairs and construction going on for the tourists that will be visiting then. In fact, the city had purchased all new taxis, and shut down the coal burning facilities in order to clean up the air for the upcoming Olympics. Here is a picture of Beijing outside the walls of the Forbidden City. You can see how smoggy and polluted the air is. As I mentioned, Beijings' air has been cleaned up a bit. The pollution was many times worse in Xian and Shanghai.

Here are some architectural details of walls and buildings that I liked:

I didn't know these facts at the time we were touring the Forbidden City, although I should have. We had audio guides, but they didn't work too well. They would automatically sense the place we were at and launch into the explanation of that particular building. We either didn't walk by every sensor, or they just missed alot, and not once did I recognize what they were talking about at the spot I was at. Some of the things I did learn, however, were quite interesting. Every door way has a high threshold to step over. About 12". This is to keep the good luck in and the bad luck out. You had to step over it for that to be true. If you stepped on top of it, which I unwittingly did several times before I was warned, then you break the way for the bad luck to get into the building. Sorry for all the bad luck I let in, I didn't know.

The Hall of Supreme Harmony, the largest building within the Forbidden City, has ramps leading up to the building, and is the largest surviving wooden structure of China. These ramps have bas-relief stone carvings of dragons, carved from one stone, for the northern ramp, or two stone pieces, if it is the southern ramp. That is amazing when you know that their dimensions are 16.57 meters long, 3.07 meters wide and 1.7 meters thick! That's just for one of them. Amazingly enough, these bas-reliefs were carved far away from the Forbidden city. The trick was getting them from there to here. They were unable to move these large stone carvings, and other large logs used in the building of the structures the conventional ways, as they were too cumbersome and heavy. Instead, they dug wells along the roads, and in the deep of winter, poured water from the wells on to the roads to form

an ice passage. Everything could thus be easily transported to Beijing. How innovative those Chinese were. And still are today.