"China in winter! Deloris, are you sure you want to do this?" This is what a lot of people said to me when I told them that Bob & I were going to China in January. I will admit that is was cold. The lows in Colorado during the time of our trip were the highs on good days in the areas of China that we visited, like Yinchuan. Beijing may not have been quite as cold as Yinchuan, but the wind-chill factor made it even colder.
Still, the brisk wind is the reason why some people recommend winter travel in China. It gets rid of the pollution, and it also cuts down on the size of crowds at tourist sites.
Our first trip to downtown Beijing was a bit disappointing because our group didn't know that The Forbidden City operates on a shorter time schedule in the winter. We did get to watch some of the military drill and crowds in Tiananmen Square. But it was cold and windy and we were definitely ready to get back to our hotel.
The Sino-Swiss Hotel was close to the airport and geared to European travelers. There were wonderful choices for breakfast (included with the room) but rather expensive lunches.
We had an unexpected adventure with the medical system in China. Bob had to go to the emergency room, and, thanks to our travel insurance, we were able to get into one with an English-speaking staff. His doctor had ties to Wisconsin and had been trained in Canada. Bob was treated well and even received a complimentary pedicure as well as a gorgeous bouquet of roses. One of my several trips between the hotel and hospital provided the only negative experience (not counting the cold) that I experienced. I let a taxi-driver overcharge me about 50 Yuan (around. $7).
I was irked, but, I guess it was really not a big deal.
Our group had to keep to an itinerary of going on to Yinchuan without us. So we wound up having to catch a flight two days later, which took some doing considering the heavy volume of travelers trying to get home for the Lunar New Year holidays. Our travel agent was also able to get us a driver to use on one of those two days, so we got to see more of Beijing and go out to the Great Wall. We hiked uphill and then took a gondola up as far as we could, and then only had a little more to go when the steep steps appeared nearly insurmountable. I wasn't sure my knee was going to allow me to do it. But then two young college-age kids from Australia came to my rescue, making sure that, after having already traveled such a long distance, I actually got to walk on the Wall.
It was chilly, but sunny and not very windy, and warm enough for us to have a picnic on the Wall next to a group that sounded like they were from the Netherlands. On the way back to Beijing, we decided to try to see the Olympic site.
After communicating our desires via cell-phone to our agent and thereby to the driver (who didn't speak any English), we were taken to the construction site for next summer's events, and saw the main ceremonial venue that is still being built. Then we returned to our hotel to pack for the next leg of our journey.
When we arrived in Yinchuan by plane, we were met by Jessie and Clemens.
These are their "English" names. Since we were helping with a workshop for English teachers, we all used westernized names for our students and the school staff. In Yinchuan we experienced our first really cold weather.
The cold was usually not a major problem except when we had sometimes had to walk to supper or go shopping. Since Bob and I arrived two days later than everyone else, we were given a bit larger class to team teach, freeing up the group leaders to coordinate our efforts. We quickly realized that we had an enormous range in skill levels among our students, who included high school and university students as well as experienced school teachers. I suggested we split them up, and I took the high schoolers. It was where I had spent 31 years, and I felt right at home. We learned a lot from each other.
During the week we worked on communication skills and pronunciation, and then on Saturday we had a special program emphasizing American cultural celebrations. We had presentations on customs surrounding our New Year's, Valentine's Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was great fun. In the afternoons we would sightsee or shop. Bob and I visited a Mosque with one of the more proficient college students serving as our interpreter. Our coldest adventure was out to the China west film studio. It was mostly outdoors with re-created sets of towns and scenes ranging from the Ming Dynasty all the way up to the present.
We enjoyed all sorts of different restaurants and regional foods. One of the more unique ones was called the Hot Pot. It was similar to fondue but used a broth instead of oil, cheese, or chocolate. One of the foods to dip was shrimp on a stick. The shrimp were still alive when we stuck them in. I managed chopsticks most of the time, but a few times had a fork or spoon given to me. We also ate in a Brazilian barbeque style restaurant, and even a pizzeria - twice.
Most of our meals were at the school, which was actually located in classrooms leased in a hotel building. Our quarters were in another hotel a couple of miles away, and we had a few meals there too. In the evenings before going to bed, we would be given warm soy milk. I learned to keep it in our refrigerator (the cold window sill) overnight, and then use it with honey or sugar for breakfast.
We were able to receive one English-language TV-channel, which kept us aware of the snow problems to the south of us, in Central and Eastern. Most of my friends and family had heard about this in America and were concerned that we had become snowbound. But, just like the US, China is a big country, and we were well to the north, where it was too cold and dry to have more than an overnight "dusting," and street crews dressed in orange vests and armed with straw brooms would clear it away in the morning.
Participants in the workshop and our Chinese hosts were so gracious and supportive. The school director even helped us bargain for goods when we visited a local bazaar.
We said our goodbyes on a Thursday afternoon, and early Friday morning we flew to Xi'an to see the Terra Cotta soldiers. The art work involved in creating them was amazing.
There are so many, and each one is distinct. It was interesting to find out that they were only discovered in the1970s by farmers digging a well. Some of these soldiers are being featured in an exhibition that is currently in Britain and will be coming soon to the US. It will be well worth the price of admission to see.
In the late afternoon we flew back to Beijing. All but Bob and I were flying out the next day back to the States. We opted to stay a few more days and were convinced by our travel agent to take up his offer to stay at a different hotel, which was actually part of a private club to which he belonged. It was purported to be nicer and closer to the clinic where Bob was supposed to be checked-out before returning to the US. It was nice, but rather isolated in an expatriate enclave catering to long-term foreign visitors.
But the beds were typically Chinese - hard. It's one plus was the restaurant was cheaper. On Sunday there was a church service for non-Chinese in the basement conference hall.
At the service we had a guest-speaker from (of all places) Aurora, CO. What a small world!
After we were settled into our new hotel, we set out to find the Ancient Beijing Observatory. We thought we had communicated the idea to both the travel agent & our driver. How ever, we ended up at the modern observatory. The nice thing is that we did get a better view of the Olympics venues, especially the hall for swimming. The driver did finally figure out where we wanted to go and took us there.
It was interesting to see the Chinese instruments that were used before Galileo. Sunday afternoon we headed out for the Forbidden City once more. This time we went early enough to tour it. We spent several hours and didn't see anywhere near everything there was to see.
Then we had our driver take us over to the Temple of Heaven, but it was just closing as we arrived. The next day we visited a former student of mine who is now living with her husband and kids in Beijing. She was a Swedish exchange student at Hinkley back in 1986. She took us to the Silk Market and used her great bargaining skills to get me some great deals on gifts for people back home as well as a silk blouse for me. We had a wonderful lunch with her and her husband. Unfortunately, the kids were off at school, so we never got to meet them.
We finished the evening back at our hotel, watching the preliminary New Year's fireworks and packing for the long flight home.
It truly was an adventure that I will never forget, and I would love to visit China again. But I must admit that I would only do it at a warmer time of year.