Pre Korea Family Photos

I found these gems on our camera and thought I d put them on the site for those who haven't seen them.

Airport: Nana and Sophea

Airport: Belinda and Josiah

Airport: Josiah and Dad

Airport: Mum

Airport: Pauline and Dion

Farewell Night: Josh and David

Aleisha, Josh, Josiah, Belinda and Simon

Cheryl and Mum

Pauline, Nana and Melisa

FINAL DAY CHINA DAY 5

Xian City Wall. South Gate.

Bus load of tourists being greeted by relentless pedlers at South Gate.

Xian City Wall side entrance towards the North Gate.

Biking along Xian City Wall.

Dion biking on the wall.

Melisa having a pit stop.

Day 5 Xian City Wall.

Frances and Mr Wong took us to the old part of Xian where the old city wall is. The walls are high and are in the shape of a square with people still living their daily lives inside it. We drove to the South Gate to take photos and then drove to the North Gate to climb up onto the wall. We hired bicycles and biked over 13kms around the whole wall. It took an hour of biking and it was hot and difficult in places but so much fun. There were rickshaws up on the wall giving tourists the lazy option of seeing it but we thought biking was more fun. In the centre of the walled city is a bell tower and outside of the wall is a moat. Afterwards we went to have lunch at the airport before flying out. Our plane from Xian to Beijing was delayed and we had to sit in the plane on the tarmac for over an hour. We finally got to Beijing and because the pilot had flown higher than normal we were able to catch our connecting flight from Beijing to Korea. We said a sad farewell to beautiful China and flew back to hot humid Korea.

CHINA DAY 4

Guide Frances and Driver Mr Wong.

General Dion at The Terracotta Army Factory.

Dion in front of Emperor Qin at The Terracotta Army Museum.

Inside Pit 1 the biggest pit and display of some of the 8000 Terracotta figures and horses.

Melisa and The Army.

Dion by a photo opportunity display of the different ranks of the army.

Pagoda at Huaqin Hot Spring Park.

Huaqin Hot Spring Park.

Dion and Melisa by a Drum Prop used in a performance at Huaqin Hot Spring Park.

Day 4 Fly to Xian and visit Emperor Qin's Terracotta Army, Huaquin Hot Spring Park and Chinese Opera.

We left Beijing and took a small plane trip 2 hours south to the centre of China to Xian. This is one of the oldest cities in China and 8 million people live there. The number 1 reason tourists travel there is to visit the famous Terracotta Warriors. They were found by local farmers in 1974 who were drilling for wells. The site was proved to be one of the biggest burial pits of Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang. There are 3 pits of over 20,000 square meters and nearly 8000 terracotta armoured warriors and horses found. They recently found a 4th pit and are working on it. The warriors and horses are over 2000 years old. All the warriors have their own unique expression on their face and have different ranks and uniforms. We met Frances our friendly bubbly guide and Mr Wong the calm silent driver. We arrived in the afternoon and Frances said we were to go straight to The Warriors Museum which was really exciting. First we went to a Terracotta Factory to see how the warriors were made and to watch some of the workers. The factory also did tri colour glazing on porcelain horses and camels. They were so beautiful but too big and expensive to cart back to NZ via Korea. The factory also made beautiful lacquered furniture with colourful paintings on it. There were 2 huge shops to buy souvenirs in which we did indulge in a bit. Afterwards we drove through the countryside to The Terracotta Museum. Frances told us to buy from the factory as locals make terracotta figures to sell to tourists but the quality is not very good. We noticed loads of side stalls and shops selling warriors. Xian is so different from Beijing and it was interesting to see rural life in China. We got to the carpark at The Warriors Museum and like The Great Wall it was crowded with bus loads of tourists. We walked 20 minutes in the heat of the afternoon to get to the 1st pit but it was worth it. The place was huge and The Terracotta Army all stared up at us with ghostly expressions on their faces. It was so amazing to see them. We could only view them 3 metres away as there was a barrier but it was still worth the effort to travel to Xian. We walked around the pit and took photos from various angles and then went to pit 2 and 3 which were smaller. We spent awhile there and then we took a horse and carriage ride back to the car park. After that incredible experience we went to Huaquin Hot Spring Park and walked around the beautiful grounds. The Emperor had pools made for his concubines. One of the best ones was the star pool which had a view of the mountain and no roof so you could sit in it and look up at the stars. We drove back to Xian and went to a restaurant and had a dumpling banquet. Dumplings are a speciality in Xian and were very tasty. After that we watched a Chinese Opera. The clothes were so colourful and the musicians played traditional Chinese instruments. It was fun to see. We finally rolled up to our hotel to book in and crash.

CHINA DAY 3

Dion and Melisa in Tiananmen Square

Dion and Melisa outside The Forbidden City's First Gate

Dion outside The Forbidden City's 3rd Gate.

Melisa in The Forbidden City by one of The Emperor's Lions.

Dragon Boat on the man made lake at The Summer Palace.

Dion and Melisa on a Dragon Boat about to go out out on the lake.

Summer Palace. The Empresses Marble Boat where she held parties.

A river running through The Summer Palace.

Beijing Cranes. The Chinese have to stop building by the end of this year because of the Games, so they are really busy 24/7. The Beijing skyline is littered by monstrous cranes.

Day 3 Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace and The Silk Market.

We were off at 8.15am with Uncle Benny zooming us 5 minutes to Tiananmen Square where he dropped us off to walk around. The square is the biggest city square in the world and as we were walking towards the middle we were attacked by swarms of tourists and peddlers trying to get us to buy their souvenirs. Wendy taught us the Chinese words for "no" and "I don't want it" which we used a lot. Chairman Mao's Mausoleum was closed for renovations so we walked through the square and then walked to the First Gate of The Forbidden City. There are 3 Gates before entering The Forbidden City and we finally reached the third gate and passed through into a huge courtyard. The place was packed but we easily walked the 1.5km through the city to the back gate and then along the river to where Uncle Benny patiently waited. The Forbidden City was interesting because of its history and it was home to the Emperors. After that we went to a Pearl Factory where the guide told us about Chinese Pearls and then encouraged us to buy jewellery. We got a small momento then ate lunch next door. It was a relief to sit down and drink and eat before crossing the road to The Summer Palace. One of The Emperors built The Summer Palace for himself and The Empress to spend the hot summer months there. We were pleasantly surprised to find it one of the most beautiful places we'd visited in Beijing. There was a huge man made lake with a beautiful 17 arch bridge over it. Tourists could hire small boats to go on the lake or cross the lake past the Palace on a boat with a dragons head on it, which we did. It was so refreshing on the lake and we sat with a bunch of singing Iranian Tourists who entertained us. When we reached the other side we saw The Marble Boat. One of the powerful Empresses had it built especially for her dinner parties and also because she wanted to be remembered forever. We continued walking through The Summer Palace grounds past a winding river until we reached the back gate. We went on another tour to hear about Chinese Medicine before being dropped off at The Silk Market. What an experience. It was a building which had 5 gigantic floors of fake labelled clothing, handbags, souvenirs, shoes and various items. We had a rough idea of what to pay for things and were determined not to get ripped off. We ended up visiting 2 floors before getting tired. The first floor was mens clothing where we bargined hard for a t shirt and winter jacket. Then we went to the handbag and shoe floor where Dion bargined a good price for some shoes and Melisa bought a wallet but she missed out on a handbag by leaving the stall too soon. Everywhere we walked the sellers were saying things like "Wanna a bag lady ?" and "we have Louis Vuitton, Prada..." and then they would shove a bag catalogue in our face. Some sellers even grabbed our arms and pulled us into their stalls. It was a really good experience and an eye opener. Finally after having enough we left without even visiting the other floors. It was a busy day and time to hit the hay.

CHINA DAY 2

The footpath towards climbing the Great Wall.

Melisa amidst the sea of tourists.

The steep steps up the wall.

Across the valley the wall keeps snaking over the hills.Close up of a turret on the wall.

Across the valley where the wall continues is a moat.

Morning climbers up the Great Wall.

Dion by an Eagle made from Jade at The Friendship Store

CHINA Day 2 Great Wall of China at Juyongguan Pass.

Day 2 weather was perfect for wall watching. The sky was cloudless and bright blue and the weather was hot and dry. We left the hotel at 8.30am and drove north for an hour past the 6th Ring towards the mountains where the Great Wall of China was built to keep out the Mongolians. First stop was a Jade Factory where the guide showed us around and told us about Chinese Jade. We watched the workers carving jade figures and then went into a massive store where all the tourists were buying up large. Melisa brought a Jade Bracelet made from different colours but we were itching to get to the wall and the beauty of our trip was we set the pace. The other tourists in large tour groups were not so lucky. We saw them throughout our trip slowly getting around the sites waiting for others. There are a lot of places in Beijing being renovated for the Olympics and closed to the public. The Great Wall at Badlings is one of these places and where Wendy usually takes her tour. We were to go to The Great Wall at Juyongguan Pass instead which is still a good place to visit and very important because it is the closest to Beijing. We reached Juyongguan Pass and saw the beautiful wall along the ridge of the hill and across the valley. It was unbelievable thinking we were going to walk on this amazing structure. First Uncle Benny had to get us into the crowded car park where everywhere there were huge tour buses and crowds of people. He found a good spot and already it was 10.30am and Wendy said there would be more people coming so we'd better start climbing. First we had a professional photo taken in a prime spot which came with a beautiful book on The Great Wall. Then we set out to walk on the Great Wall. The day was hot and the sun was relentless beating down on our backs as we took our first steps up the wall. The stone steps were very steep in places and you had to take one step at a time because of the person in front. We got up quite high and took photos of the beautiful view. We had plenty of time to walk up to the second tower and back, get some good photos and look at the markets. It was a great experience climbing some of the wall. We had lunch at The Friendship Store where Wendy took us on a quick tour where the workers were making exquisitie Ming Vases and paintings. After lunch we looked around the huge store at all the souvenirs. We continued onto the Ming Tombs where one of the Emperors is buried and then drove an hour back to Beijing. A full on day of walking and sightseeing.

CHINA DAY 1

Our Guide Wendy and Driver Mr Bien who we called Uncle Benny the man who gets you places fast.
Uncle Benny getting the car ready for us to go out in. Luxury in Beijing.

DAY 1 Beijing

We arrived in China to find very hot dry pleasant weather after leaving a hot humid rainy day in Korea. We met our guide Wendy and Driver Uncle Benny and were surprised and happy to find the tour in Beijing was only us and them. We got to drive to all the tourist spots in a sleek well air conditioned car and watched the hundreds of tourists pile on and off their packed buses. We ate incredible Chinese Cuisine throughout the tour. Day 1 we left the camera at the hotel so we got a throw away one which is why there are no pictures of what we saw. We went on a rickshaw with the driver pedalling a bike not running. He was extremely fit biking us through the Hutongs which are the narrow alleyways in the centre of Beijing. That was fun sitting back and watching the locals going about their daily routines. Next we went to visit The Temple of Heaven. This was where the Emperor used to visit and pray for a good harvest. The temple is a circular shape and is a famous landmark for Beijing like Paris with the Eiffel Tower. Outside the temple courtyard was a park where locals buy tickets to go and relax in. After that we went and tried some different teas in a Chinese Tea Ceremony. In the evening we went to an incredible Acrobatic Show with acrobats ranging from 8 and 18 years. They performed balancing acts and were amazing to watch. We brought the dvd to take home. We found Beijing a beautiful clean city with lots of colourful flowers and green trees. The architecture of the buildings were well designed and breath taking. The city is well mapped out with the centre being Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. There are 6 Circular Ring Roads. The first Ring Road is in the centre and is Called 1st Ring and then they go out further until the 6th Ring. Its great because if you live in Beijing and tell people where you live you can say something like 5th Ring East and people will have an idea where you live. Our Hotel was between the 1st and 2nd Ring. We visited a lot of Factorys on our tour. The level of english spoken by the guides in the factories was really good. Our guide Wendy also spoke good english.