Soldado de Guea: CHINA (19.03.2005

Long since i wanted to create a blog where to include some pictures from China... (and maybe other trips..)

Here we go... after..mmm.. already 4 months of that wonderful trip to China. As I remind you, we were there for 2 weeks. The first one we were with a chinese friend that we met here in Bremen. We visited her hometown (Jinan) and Qingdao. The second week we had an organised tour for only the two of us visiting Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai.

Beijing
That one is at our first meal in Beijing just after landing. These friends from our chinese mate where waiting for us at the airport, took us downtown and let us try some delicious things.... Amongst them, the first Beijing Duck...but later on we had the opportunity to taste the genuine one at Quan Ju De...

Jinan

After a 11-hours flight and this short pause to lunch, we took the train to meet our chinese friend at her hometown: Jinan (4 hours away from Beijing).
There you see a picture of the next day, after sleeping at her parents´ (nice to meet a chinese family and experience a real chinese dinner at home). Lala (the chinese), her mother and Lou.

Jinan

This day we did some sightseeing around the city (around 8 million inhabitants)

Jinan
One of things that i most remember from Jinan was...our visit to the Foot Massage... Well, that's a popular thing in China (also in price) and people do it quite often. Although they call it Foot Massage sometimes is a whole-body massage.. and that's what we got: one-hour body massage....for around 8 euros..... impressive. I would do it every day if i lived there :-)

Jinan

Here you find some food of a very well-known place in Jinan....
If I don't remember wrong the place was known 'cause their fish soups. (and they were excellent!)

Jinan -> Qingdao
After 2-3 days at Jinan, we took the train to Qingdao, a beautiful coastal city, one of the most well-known seaside resorts in China and site for sailing events of the 2008 Olympic Games.

That train takes 7 hours from Jinan to Qingdao...it was crowded, smelly and loud but anyhow...as you see....our faces didn't reflect our actual thoughts...

Qingdao
A view of Qingdao... near our hotel. Here, in this street, we had our only bad experience with the food. At a muslim chinese place.. while our chinese friend left us alone for some seconds.....and what we got had a reeeally bad aspect. We didn't dare to try a lot and finally we did as everyone else in this situation would have done: stand up , go with the waiter to another table, point to the direction of the meal some others were eating and say: "this, please"... :-)

Qingdao
Like other cities in China, Qingdao is a city of contrasts between the poorest neighbourhoods and the most impressive skyscrapers and expensive shops in a few meters distance....
That one is the olympic games "zone" and had a totally occidental look

Qingdao
Oh..yeah...we had another delicious meal there. First I thought I was seeing Jamon Serrano ;-) but not... it is raw meat, very thin cut meat that you cook yourself on the boiling water (as a kind of fondue). Well, you cook everything there: the pasta, the mushrooms, etc...

Qingdao
We also had some fun these nights... Chinese also go out at night....get drunk and arrive late home...

We were at two differents pubs, owned by the same person, with great cocktails, good music, some people dancing (not much) and...both with spanish names: La Villa and La Luna. Even though, the owner thought (and still thinks despite our explanations) that the names were in french....

After some others excursions in the surroundings of Qingdao... we got back to Beijing where our organised tour should start. After our "difficult" experience with the train... we decided to take a plane from Qingdao, since it is not expensive ( i think we flew for 50 euros each ).

Beijing

We had a free day for ourselves before starting the organised tour so we asked at the hotel and we managed to go (not without problems and late) to the Beijing Opera...
Funny experience...

Beijing

The room at the Best Western Hotel that included our tour. While doing the check-in the receptionist told us:

- "Oh...everything is booked out.. Do you mind staying at the Business Executive rooms?
- " Err... well... no... no problem. We'll manage.."

:-)

Beijing

First day of tour... Temple of Heaven

Beijing

Afternoon visit to the Hutong's, the poorest and oldest spot in Beijing, a city within the city. There we took a rickshaw...of course..

Beijing

Although we didn't want it (and we insisted)... the tour around the Hutongs included the visit to a poor family to see how they live... and... "ask them whatever you feel like"......

( i did not take pictures of their home )

Beijing

Beijing has also big shopping malls, expensive shops, Pizza Huts, Starbucks and whatever you find in an occidental shopping area.... (plus other things... :-) )

That one is the most expensive shopping street in Beijing (Wangfujing Street).

Beijing

China is not China without neon lightning on their buildings.....

Beijing

That night we went to see acrobatics... ohh! God! That is one thing that I really recommend to do. Really really worthy.

Beijing

Of course, no trip to China without visiting the more than impressive Great Wall.

We were here near Badaling, where most of the tourists go because it is also the best preserved part of the Wall.

Beijing

Afternoon at the Summer Palace with this huge artificial lake behind us

Beijing

There are two "musts" in Beijing: climb the Great Wall and eat roast duck (Pekin Duck) at Quan Ju De. This is the most famous restaurant serving roast duck and has a history of over 130 years.. They have three locations in Beijing and where we ate was a 4-5-story building.

At Quan Ju De, ducks are roasted directly over flames stoked by fruit-tree wood. The chef cuts the meat in front of you into thin slices, each having a piece of skin. Then the meat is served with very thin pancakes, Chinese onions and special sauce. The way to eat it is to coat the thin pancake with sauce, slap on a few pieces of meat and roll up the pancake. Chopsticks are optional: it is much easier just to grab the thing with your bare hands.

Beijing

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City
behind us (now called Palace Museum).

Beijing

The Forbidden City was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Rectangular in shape, it is the world's largest palace complex, covers 74 hectares and has 9.999 rooms....

Xi'an

After travelling the whole night on the train (1st class beds, though) we got to Xian early in the morning.
One of the most important cities in the Chinese history, Xi'an was one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.

The Terracotta Army inside the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor was discovered in March 1974 . The army consists of more than 7,000 life-size tomb terra cotta figures of warriors and horses buried with the self-proclaimed first Emperor of Qin in 210-209 BC. With their burial it was believed that the Emperor would still have troops at his command. The figures are in several poses including standing infantry and kneeling archers as well as charioteers with horses. Each figure's head appears to be unique showing a variety of facial features and expressions as well as hair styles.

Xi'an