ON THE YANGTZE RIVER

Here we are, floating up the Yangtze River in China, and how I can have internet service seems simply amazing. I often think we are in a time warp here; I look out the window and see primitive housing, famers tilling fields by hand, an occasional oxen, and then I see a block-style cement home, no windows, yet a satellite dish on the roof.

Then there is the BIG city that we float by. Most of the cities on the Yangtze are "new old" - meaning they have been built in the last ten years. The Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze, which is the largest construction project in the world, caused 1.3 million people to be relocated from their farms and villages and put on higher ground. When Tom and I were on this river in October of 2002, we were the last boat tour that went down the river before the dam was completed.

My, how things have changed since then! The water level rose 15 feet a day once the dam was finished - the dam is 1.4 miles across. It took just under TEN YEARS simply to pour the concrete for the dam, and that was working non-stop, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. That is an awful lot of concrete.

So, many of the villages and cities that we saw in 2002 are now under water. Each city has to be completely torn down - all buildings demolished and most trees cut down so navigation on the river won't be compromised. There is a great deal of shipping on this river - mainly coal.

Tomorrow we arrive in Chonquin, which is the largest city in the world, with 33 million people! I will definitely NOT try to find a taxi there.

I will have lots of photos very soon - we arrive in Shanghai tomorrow, September 1 and fly home on September 2.

Today Tom and I are celebrating our 9th anniversary onboard this very different river cruise ship. Last night Tom was part of the "act" - they wanted passenger talent, and our Track and Field group put Tom up there to tell his jokes and stories. He was good.

More later. I apologize for no photos now, but my internet connection is very, very slow.

After all, I am on a SLOW BOAT IN CHINA.

Carol

IN SHANGHAI

Greetings from Shanghai, a city of 18.5 million people and traffic that you just wouldn't believe. We are on our post-Olympic tour with 37 people from our large group in Beijing, and Tom and I are the tour escorts.

That, in itself, is scary.

Today some of us took a side tour to what we thought would be a quaint town offering "a glimpse into the past," as we read in a newspaper article.

Well, let me tell you, with 1.3 billion people in China, I have decided there is NO little town anywhere and if there is, I want to have green tea there.

The bus ride to Suzhou, which is only about 45 miles away, took one and a half hours going and two hours and twenty minutes returning! Not fun for us, but certainly not fun for our bus driver. These are the guys who deserve gold medals.


This city of Suzhou has a 2,500 year history and there is an "old" section with a web of canals and cobblestone streets, but this old section now has 1.1 million people. Our tour guide said it is a "mini-sized city" and even the modern part of Suzhou, which has 6 million people, is considered "tiny" by Chinese standards.

On one of the canals - we spent most of our day in two "famous" gardens - one which was copied exactly by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Something we all noticed along the way was LOTS of construction everywhere. China is building huge, high-rise apartment buildings in this area west of Shanghai, because many high-tech firms have located here and want workers to live close to the factories so they can walk to work. I'm talking about hundreds of tall buildings in various stages of construction.

More later from the Yangtze River.

Here is the link to my latest photos, and when it opens just go to the TOP and select SLIDESHOW.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ecker.carol/SHANGHAICHINA



Carol

The Games Are Over !

Today is the last day of the Olympics - with the Closing Ceremony tonight. I would like to share with you something from the CHINA DAILY Newspaper, which we get everyday in our hotel. I was really touched by this piece:

"It is almost as hard for friends to meet, As for the morning and evening stars. Tonight then is a rare event."

"But meet they did for the Olympic Games as Beijing kept its date with history. The lines by Du Fu, composed centuries ago, are truer than ever in this materialistic world where it has become so difficult for true friends to meet.
Tonight, friends will gather at the National Stadium (athletes, sport officials and journalists) and those across this wide expanse of planet we call our home will get a second glimpse of what China, its people, history and culture are all about.
Some medals are still to be won and the celebrations are still on. And no matter what Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and Chinese soprano Song Zuying sing tonight, the words will mean Amigos para siempre or We'll be one.
But the parting has to wait. Not so soon. China had to wait more than a century since first expressing its desire to host the world Games. It had to prepare for seven long years for 17 days of joy, with its 1.3 billion people rising as one to turn that dream into sweet reality. So when the dark cloud ultimately shrouds Beijing tonight it will not be without a silver lining."

Tom and I have been truly touched by this experience. We have been moved beyond words by the spirit and enthusiasm of the young people who are volunteers for these games - young men and women whose eyes just shine when they meet you and say: "Can I help you?" There is a lot of talk about a new, open China and a Beijing with a resolve to keep its air cleaner in the future. My hope, for the sake of these young people, is that this will all come about because of the big Coming Out Party which was called the 29th Olympiad.

We have been moved by the huge effort that went into putting these games on and by the sheer beauty of the venues; the whole city is manicured and for over two years, people in Beijing planted 1,000 plants or trees every day just for these 17 days.


I really get the feeling that China wants to promote peace and harmony, and that is what their slogan "One World, One Dream" was all about. I hope we can all live to see this happen.

I want to share my experience of two days ago. I had a day "free" so I went off alone to the Beijing Zoo, which is in the heart of downtown. Actually, all of Beijing seems to be downtown, as this is a city of 17 million people.


I had a wonderful afternoon with the pandas and tigers (see my photo album) - but when I left the zoo at 5:15 p.m. and tried to hail a taxi outside, I found myself out of luck. There I was in the heart of the city with 17 million other people trying to get taxis.


After 15 minutes in the hot sun, I decided to walk somewhere and try to find a nice hotel, which could hopefully get me a taxi. I only got as far as the first corner, where four young volunteers were standing. As I approached, one of them said, "Can we help you?" I said, "I can't get a taxi."

They said, "Oh, we'll help you." And help me they did. It took them ONE HOUR to locate a cab, but the boys all stayed with me the whole time, walked me a long way through a tunnel to a hotel, and gave the cab driver one of their cell phones to call our hotel for directions.

I LOVE these boys!


The ride through the stalled traffic in Beijing was exactly one more hour. I could never deal with the conjestion here on a daily basis, and everyone tells us, "Oh, this is GOOD. Half the cars are off the road now for the Olympics". They use an odd/even license number rule to determine who drives on which day.


OK, more later. We leave early in the morning for our post tour with a flight to Shanghai, on Wednesday we go to Yi Chang for a transfer to a boat on the Yangtze River and on Sunday we arrive in Chongqing, after the river "cruise", and fly from there to Shanghai and home from there.

Here is the link to my latest photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/ecker.carol/ATTHEBEIJINGZOO


More later,



Carol

I told Tom that I am tired of all this walking in Beijing - it is just too much for me. So, being the inventive kind of guy he is, here is his solution to our problem.

Now, today, getting to the Olympic Green won't be so hard on us.

Greetings from Beijing,

Carol

Current Events

I have been very delinquent with this blog, and I do apologize. We have been SO on the go that I haven't had time to even look at a computer. This going to Olympic events isn't for sissies.

Today we went to the Great Wall and I thought Tom said we were going to the Great Mall of China. I was in for a shock when all I saw was mountains and trees and rocks and a glimmer
of a big wall through the clouds.



Guess what else I saw:






We had a nice day in spite of the rain, and while Tom and I have been here twice before, the others in our group were eager to climb the steep steps on the wall. That is, after they paid 45 yuan or $6.75 to get in the entrance. We also had to put bags through a security belt, so things have certainly changed since the days of the Ming Dynasty. Wouldn't these emperors be shocked to come back in time and find women yelling "Hello, buy my hats" and see the hotels and gift shops at the Wall's entrance? I think so.



We have gotten to see some wonderful events at the Olympic Green: three world records broken in track and field (the 100 meter dash, the 200 meter dash and the women's pole vault), some exciting water polo between rivals the U.S. and Australia (women) and yesterday we went to synchronized swimming.



The late Jim Hay, Tom's dear friend from New Zealand, always said that the people who need to be drug-tested are the ones who watch synchronized swimming. Well, there we were yesterday, watching 12 pairs of beautiful women do their routines and they were stunning. Russia won the gold medal, with Spain and Japan next, and the U.S. women fourth.



More from me later - now I will go to work on my photos, which can be viewed at: http://picasaweb.google.com/ecker.carol/ChinaSights and http://picasaweb.google.com/ecker.carol/THEFORBIDDENCITYBEIJING
AND http://picasaweb.google.com/ecker.carol/OUTANDABOUTINCHINA (LATEST)

When these open, go to the top and choose SLIDESHOW.




Carol

Here are some tidbits of information I have recently read:

Beijing is built on strict cosmological principles, with the Forbidden City the center point of a north-south axis, known as a dragon's vein. The construction of Olympic Park, on the outskirts of the city directly north of the Forbidden City, adheres to the idea of an "axial template".

To China, hosting the Olympics is an affirmation that it is a modern nation, ready to sit at the table with the other major countries of the world. The gamble to bulldoze some of Beijing's historic sites to make way for glass and steel symbols of "modernization" has been controversial. But, the gamble will shape the city's character for decades beyond the Olympic Games.

After the torch is extinguished, the Olympic Green with it's fabulous facilities and beautiful grounds, will become a huge urban-use area for the Chinese to enjoy forever.

Beijing is constructing the world's largest Ferris wheel, which will stand 682 feet high when it opens in early 2009.

The 92,000-seat stadium, designed by Hertzog & de Meuron, is nicknamed the Bird's Nest because it resembles a Chinese delicacy.

In late 2007, Fendi (whomever that is) hosted the first catwalk fashion show on the Great Wall of China. We go there in a few days; will I see skinny models on the wall? I doubt it.

Space is at a premium in crowded Beijing, so many older residents keep crickets or songbirds in cages as pets to keep them company as they pass the time in the city's parks. We were told that the men take the birds out so they can get away from home for awhile (away from their wives).

Today's paper says that China will not suffer from a "post-Olympic recession" because of the scale and potential of its economy. "The fundamentals propelling the country's economic development over the past 30 yers will remain even after the Games".

We feel that no one will ever be able to top these Olympics.

Carol

The Air is Still Clear

Greetings from Sunday, August 17 in Beijing. Even with clouds today, we could tell that the air was clear. The sun came out just before sunset, and a headline in today's paper read: "August enjoys best air quality in decade." It went on to say "Beijing reported yesterday was the second consecutive day of Grade 1, or excellent air quality, marking a decade-long high for the number of such days in a summer month in the city.

What they are doing seems to be working.

Yesterday we had a very busy day; we took a subway ride for the first time (they are so crowded), we walked to a huge market, we took a taxi back to the hotel, then we walked our legs off at the Olympic Green in the evening. I have never been so tired!



We had a wonderful evening of track and field, but Wendy and I also had a wonderful evening of shopping at the huge SuperStore. It is as big as two football fields - and they are running out of shirts and certain items already. I tried to get some shirts for my brother, for his August 27th birthday, and found that his size was sold out. And this is China, where everything is made! I couldn't believe it - but the Chinese were in there buying like crazy.





Tom wouldn't go shopping, but Wendy and I walked a mile and a half just to get to the store (right next to a huge McDonald's). We had to wait in a long line just to get in the door, then wait some more just to get in to the shopping area! We missed two hours of track for this, but got to see Usain Bolt set the World Record in the 100 meter dash (this race was at 10:30 p.m. and the store was closed by then).


I can say that not one person was sitting down for that race!


There is lots going on here - more tomorrow.


Carol

Selling Tickets and Other Adventures

When I left you yesterday afternoon, Tom and I were headed to the Olympic Green for track and field.

This is the Media Center at Olympic Green........ those black spaces are huge TV screens.

Well, we made it to the stadium area, after a long bus ride due to heavy traffic, but decided to sell our tickets instead of going to the first night of track (boring, according to Tom.) We didn't want to be there until midnight - which is when the bus takes us all back to the two hotels, so Tom pulled out our two tickets and sort of, lamely, held them up.

One man (American) looked at them and said, "Too much". We were only asking the face value of the ticket - and another man looked at them and said, "Too late" (whatever that meant).

So, we moved on a little, and I said, "Let's get off to the side here, out of the way of everyone." So, we moved over a little, and Tom put the tickets up again. LOOK OUT, ECKER! We were bombarded with Chinese men - about twelve of them. When they found we had two tickets, they literally attacked us. Two men were grabbing at Tom's wrists, one man grabbed for the tickets, and one man pulled at my shoulder. There was lots of yelling going on.

Then some bolder person leaned over everyone, covering the tickets and part of Tom, and said, "I will buy your tickets." We sold them to him, and had to take a taxi back to our hotel (about an hour due to traffic and the driver got lost).

We were both pretty shocked at how desperate the Chinese are to get inside the Birdsnest - they really want to say they have been there. Wendy went in for the evening and she said the couple who bought our tickets was not the least interested in what was going on. The woman was on her cell phone a lot, they were taking pictures of themselves from about 30 angles (so says Wendy), and they were not watching track and field.

Our taxi driver was THE MOST aggressive driver I have ever seen. He drove down the shoulder of major highways at 70 MPH and he cut in and out of traffic going about 75 or higher. He narrowly missed people walking across streets, and we were wondering why he is still alive.

So, it was an exciting evening. We are off now for another adventure - heading to the stadium for another evening of track, but this time, we will go inside.

A Sunny Day in Beijing

Greetings on August 15, the first day of track and field. These events are the ones all of our group has been eagerly awaiting, and we will be going to the stadium in a few minutes for our first event and our first view of the Birdsnest.

The main thing I want to report today is CLEAR AIR! The heavy rainstorm yesterday really did the number on the pollution, because today is beautiful.

This is a view from our hotel, and it is the first time we have seen the sun here. Hurray! I am sure the athletes will also be happy because one of the events tonight is the 10,000 meter race for women, which takes about half an hour to run. This race doesn't start until 10:45 p.m so it will be a long evening!

Wish us well, and Team USA also.

More tomorrow,

Carol

Xi'an and the Warriors

Greetings from Beijing! At last we are here! We just arrived yesterday at noon, and checking into our hotel and getting settled in took all afternoon (we are a large group now - 650 people who all arrived yesterday. ) I have not had computer access until now, and no free time on top of that!

Yesterday we flew in from Xi'an, the Ancient Capital in the central area of China. Our group was thrilled to see the famous site where over 7,000 terra cotta warriors were discovered by a farmer drilling for water (in 1979). Tom and I were rather shocked when we walked in; we have been there twice before, and it seemed to us that over half of the warriors were gone!

We asked our guide, and she said, "Oh, yes, they are touring all over the world". So, the site was not so impressive to us, but our group didn't know the difference and we didn't say anything.

Tom's daughter Wendy bought this warrior, the one she is cuddling up to on her right. The museum, which is part of the site, has beautiful and authentic items for sale, for a price. She is thrilled with her new "friend" and the purchase price includes shipping, which is lucky because our suitcases are already overweight and stuffed to the gills with just clothes! Plus, this guy weighs a lot!

Airlines in China charge for overweight bags, and so far most of us have left them with plenty of extra yuan.

Backtracking just a little:

I would like to say a few words about the wonderful opening ceremony on August 8th. China is so proud, and they should be. There were 15,000 costumes in 47 different styles (that means 47 costume changes), and there were 20,000 performers out on that field at one time. Four billion people were watching around the world.

The movable-type portion of the ceremony took ten months of practice with 900 performers involved, and when you saw the dove of peace you were seeing the result of 13 months of practice for one short portion of the show. All costumes were lighted.

Two hours worth of music for the show was done by 18 composers, there were 92,000 people in the audience, and the huge globe that Sarah Brightman and the other singer stood on took 12 months just to design. It weighs 16 tons.

We, of course, couldn't go because we were in Hong Kong, but we are going to TRY to get tickets to the closing ceremony. The Chinese people have got the dibs on the majority of tickets to all events, so it is very hard for anyone else to get tickets now. I had breakfast this morning with a nice couple (Tom and Carol from California) who arrived here August 6th, just hoping they could get Opening Ceremony tickets. No luck.

Yesterday was a sad day for the gymnastic team from the U.S. - we saw this on TV last night. We get a HEALTHY dose of TV covering only the Chinese athletes, and the only language is . . . . guess which one? We get re-runs and then more re-runs, and then some more of the same.

Another word about Hong Kong: the city is an island of 400 square miles, and much of it is reclaimed land from the sea. The only way to grow is UP, so buildings are very tall, as I hope you saw earlier. We saw a triple-decker driving range, and passed by the barracks of 3,000 Chinese Liberation Army police who are in Hong Kong "unwanted"; they can't come out of their barracks. They don't use "one drop of Hong Kong water" or one item of food, according to our guide. Everything they use comes from mainland China - and why they are there is unclear to me, as they really aren't welcome.

I will close now, and edit the photos I just took on my tour of the Forbidden City here in Beijing. That will be my next post.

Greetings from a very rainy Olympic City.

Carol

All is well with Tom, his daugher Wendy, and me. They are all ready for our tour today, so I have to rush off and do the same.

More later, Carol

Guilin, China

Greetings from a very scenic part of China. We left Hong Kong last night at 5 p.m. for a bus ride to an airport, a wait for a flight, and a short one-hour's flight to Guilin, a VERY beautiful, lush area with towering limestone outcroppings everywhere. We arrived in our hotel at 11 p.m. and were "treated" to a very nice dinner, and I can't believe that our fellow travelers could eat at that hour.

I was cross and cranky, thirsty, hot and sweaty, and no food tasted good to me at that hour. After a short night of sleep, we were hustled off this morning for an all-day boat ride on the Lijang River. I stood outside most of the day, on the upper deck of this rusty can of nails, and took almost 150 photos.

Since I don't want anyone to faint or breathe too quickly, I will say that I am going to edit them tonight and put them up on my AOL site later.

Tom and I are enjoying the translations from Chinese to English. The brochure for today says: "Between Guilin and Yangshuo, Lijang River travels 83 kilometers (almost 50 miles) exactly like a jade ribbon winding among thousands of grotesque peaks."

Here is a FAMOUS poem from the Tang Dynasty about this area:

The river winds like a blue silk robbon,
While the hills erect like green jade hairpins

I will leave you with this wonderful poem, go edit my pictures, and tell you that it is hot and humid here like I never thought I would experience.

Also, I hope you all got to see the Opening Ceremony on NBC - we watched from our hotel in Hong Kong and it was spectacular. More on that later.

Carol

Touring Around Hong Kong

We finally got to see some of this city of 7 million people. Yesterday we had an all-day tour, and the weather cooperated but it was hot and humid. Today it is raining, and we are off in a few minutes for a "Heritage Tour" - which our travel brochure describes as: "Hidden away among high-rise apartment towers and busy highways, the past lives on in the New Territories ... a living museum shaped by the rise and development of the so-called five great clans of Hong Kong (the Tang, Hau, Pang, Liu and Man).

I do know that yesterday, several in our group of 65 were motion-sick, as our two huge buses were winding and dipping and swerving around many curves as we toured the hills surrounding Hong Kong and Kowloon. The sights are beautiful.

We toured the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter, which is the area where thousands of people live their entire lives on boats. They aren't allowed on land, according to our guide, but the rules have recently changed which allow descendents of these outcast people to live on land if they want to. None do - and the kids don't go to school - they only know how to fish and of course, these people can't read or write.

I will post more photos on an AOL site later today - this tour was fascinating and I have many photos to help you "see" what we saw. I was here in the late 70's for the first time, and nothing has changed in this boat/shelter area, but the city has certainly grown! An architect student would have a heyday here. The world's largest building is being built here, it will be 112 stories high. Right now, the tallest building in Hong Kong is 73 stories high and it is built to sway with the typhoon which we had day-before-yesterday. A 3,500 sq. ft. apartment in this building costs $13 million, U.S. money.

Of special interest to me was the 9-hole golf course in Hong Kong, which is the ONLY golf course around. It has only 300 members, and you have to wait for someone to die to get in, OR pay $11 million to join. There is currently a 20-year waiting list. However, if you want to really play golf, you can drive for two hours into mainland China, where you can play on the world's largest golf course - 216 holes (24 nines as I count). I think it is called Mission Hills if anyone wants to Google it.

OK, we are off for our tour today. More later,

Carol

Hong Kong is Alive and Well

When I last wrote you, I had not yet packed my suitcase for our departure to China. Well, I managed to get it packed on Sunday afternoon, but during the night as I was sleeping, that strange suitcase did some very strange things. It got smaller. At 6 a.m. on Monday morning, with our ride due at 7:30, I tried to close the green suitcase. It didn't close. I kneeled on it, I stood on it, and I worked mightily to get it to snap shut, but no go. So, off I ran to our basement, got a much larger, black suitcase, and re-packed with a vengeance.

And at the Cedar Rapids airport at 7:45 a.m. is when our adventure began. We waited for our Untied flight to take off for Chicago, and we waited some more. And then we waited again, until at 11 a.m. they said, "Flight canceled". Tom took off like the true sprinter he is and made it to the ticket counter, second in line with about 75 people behind him, and we were lucky to get re-routed on another airline, through Minneapolis, to Tokyo and then on to Hong Kong.




This 747 did a nice job of carrying us across the waters to Tokyo, and then on to Hong Kong (on a different 747) . The flight had NO good movies, but I was one happy woman because I got to listen to Phantom of the Opera music every minute that I wasn't sleeping. Tom slept and kept himself entertained by talking to the flight attendants.



This sign greeted us in Hong Kong, and these are the (strange) mascots for these Olympics. Signs reminding us that Beijing is hosting the 2008 Olympics were everywhere. The equestrain events will be held here in Hong Kong, starting Friday.

Speaking of this vibrant city, right now it is holding us "captive" in our Regal Kowloon Hotel. Tropical Storm Kammuri is raging outside, with a typhoon 8 warning flag flying, telling everyone to stay inside, away from windows, and to "avoid flying debris". Our all-day tour was canceled, which makes sense, since schools and government offices are closed and people have been told to stay home.








Gale storm winds ! I only ventured outside our hotel.







More later, after the winds die down and we hopefully can see more of this city.

Carol and Tom

Good Sunday to you all! This photo is from earlier this summer, and our friend here doesn't know how lucky he is to live in Iowa, not China. He could be Peking Duck tonight if he lived where we are going.

Things are in a frenzy around our household, at least for me. Tom is all packed, suitcase by the back door, and I haven't begun packing. I have gotten the outside of our house ready for a month of neglect - at least I think I have. By outside, I mean my plants and my garden, which are quickly eroding while we are HERE. This erosion is caused by deer, racoons (one dumped out one of my planters this morning), slugs, bugs and Japanese beetles (a big invasion again this year).

But, I won't be worrying after tomorrow. I will be worrying about which movies are showing on the long (almost 16 hours) flight to Hong Kong.

More later, from "over there",

Carol

Getting Ready for China

Today Tom and I are packing, and is this our least favorite activity, or what? It was made easier for me today because I played a round of golf here in Cedar Rapids in the morning, and golf always "makes my day." It makes Tom's day, too, because it gets me out of the house.

OK, I have to be truthful. Tom is fully packed for our Monday morning departure to China for the Olympics, but I haven't packed one item yet.

Today is Saturday, August 2, 2008, by the way.