Now that our travels are over, I’m starting a Volcano Video blog.  Here I’ll write about any lava adventures we may have (yesterday, for example), highlights of other active volcanoes around the world, interesting volcano tidbits and the occasional quiz with prizes.  Hopefully it’ll be fun for me and for any readers.  Come check out:

http://volcanovideo.wordpress.com

Enjoy!

-Cheryl and crew

We’re having an appreciation party tonight for all the volunteers who helped out with the children’s program and the kids are putting on a little play beforehand.  Jack and the Beanstalk, set in New York.  Both Emma and Mara play two roles.  Emma has a great time being both Jack and the strange old man selling magic beans.  She does it with great gusto.

I’ve added some photos and a few last entries for China and Taiwan.

Can’t believe we’ll be home tomorrow!!!

Have I mentioned how much we love the crew of this ship?  They are wonderful. Remarkably friendly and helpful.

-c

It is now 3pm and we are on our way.  Should reach Taiwan tonight and hopefully be off ship in the morning.  Our last stop before Hawaii!  I can’t believe it.  We are planning a few days in a nice hotel near Taroko Gorge National Park, a supposedly beautiful area (it’s only a coincidence that an amusement park is nearby).  We shall see!  Everything is kind of last minute – we didn’t know anything about Taiwan, really.  Hopefully it will be warmer than Mainland China.

Last night Ken and I had a “special occasions” formal dinner with John and Juliana, in honor of my almost-birthday.  Delicious and great fun, though I ate way too much.  We also had a little get-together in Juliana’s cabin, which is even smaller than ours.  Very friendly. Along with some of the other faculty down in our corridor, we’re calling ourselves the “4th Floor Odds.”  We’ve decided that this whole experience is a bit like glorified summer camp.

The kids groused a bit about missing the fancy dinner, but got to go treat themselves to another pool deck dinner, then buy popcorn and watch a movie. Not so bad.

We eventually found Nanjing Road and started down it.  It was mostly higher-end shops and indoor malls (we didn’t recognize them as malls at first).  A few blocks down the road turns into a pedestrian mall.  Pleasant, but crowded.  We investigated several restaurants, looking for something interesting, but eventually I gave in and we went to Pizza Hut.  That turned out to be surprisingly interesting as it is.  Kind of fancy.  Two floors, a full menu, with appetizers, soups and salads, main courses (beef filet?), smoothies, beer and wine, and lots of desserts.  Oh, and pizza, too.  The pizza was familiar, at least.  The frozen mocha drink was quite nice.

We wandered around a little more after lunch, but were rapidly running out of time.  I had hoped to go across the river to the skyscrapers, since the kids have never been up one, but didn’t make it.   Ended up in some little discount store spending our last yuan on little souvenirs (and remote-controlled helicopters).  Caught a taxi back to the pier and lined up to get back on ship.  Enjoyed watching the lights of Shanghai – especially the Bund – as we sailed off that evening.

We were just about at one end of the Bund, with its shopping and colonial buildings, and right across from the Pudong area, where some of the tallest buildings in the world are located.  The tallest looks like a giant bottle-opener and the Pearl Tower looks, well, sort of space-agey.  Very glitzy and modern.  We were glad to get back to the ship to unpack and get cleaned up, get our laundry together and all that.   We were planning to go explore Shanghai that evening and find a restaurant, but discovered when we tried to leave the ship that we had to have our passports “processed” again, which would take several hours.  Alas, we ended up eating dinner on the ship.  Bummer.

Emma doing kung fu

Buffet breakfast and off to visit a kung fu school.  It was an hour or so drive to the north.  The advanced students put on a show for us, with music and everything.  Very impressive moves: some flying, some breaking things with various body parts, one old guy wrapped a metal bar around his neck using the students as leverage.  After the show we got some instruction in some basic routines by the students.  Of course we memorized them perfectly.  Some of the guys went off to play basketball with other students at the school.  The Americans had a definite height advantage.

We headed next to a Jade Market (ugh, another tourist buy-stop!).  We watched someone carving jade (no mask, dry carving, eek) but skipped most of the spiel this time to just wander off.  Again, all expensive stuff, though Mara bought herself a little pendant and I got some earrings.  Upstairs was our lunch, another Chinese feast.

Finally…. Finally! … it was time to head for the Great Wall of China, the top site on our list of sights to see.  We headed out of Beijing and into the countryside.  It grew more hilly, then mountainous (though small mountains).  At last we started to catch glimpses of the Great Wall, way up on top of the mountains.  A wonderful sight.  Fortunately for our rather out-of-shape selves, there was a gondola to take us up on the Wall.   First, of course, we had to run the gauntlet of the sellers.   If you tried putting one off by saying “maybe when we get back” they’d always say, “I will remember you.”  We had no doubt that they would remember us.  Even that short road was fairly steep, so Ken broke down and bought one of those retractable walking sticks, which turned out to be quite a useful thing.  Except that Mara kept stealing it, of course, or wanting to be towed up hill with it.

The gondola ride was fun but short – some nice views.  I imagine the area is quite beautiful in the summer when the trees have leaves.  We were just thrilled to walk on the Great Wall.  This was probably the only stop we made where we weren’t surrounded by other tour groups, which made it even more special.  The Wall itself was smaller and less flat than I expected (after the Xi’an City Wall), but still extremely impressive.  On these steep mountains I imagine the wall didn’t need to be as high (though they are quite high).  The Wall sort of contours the ground, going up and down with the terrain, so most of it is stairs, or sloping floors.  All sloped for drainage, too.  Watchtowers are spaced regularly along the wall.  We were at the Mutianyu section, which has been pretty much reconstructed.  Some of the canons used were in place along the wall as well.  The kids were having fun with all the up and down (well, the down parts anyway, fun to run).  Every few hundred feet or so there were also drink and snack sellers.  It seemed a little bit like those refreshing stations in a marathon, except that they had beer and snickers and a few little knickknacks.  One brought his donkey up on the wall.  We walked a mile or so on the Wall.

My experience was almost ruined, however, by one of our idiot students.  I had gotten a little behind the rest of the family, taking pictures, when I passed by two of the students from our bus.  One of them was scratching her name in one of the bricks of the Wall.  When I asked her what she thought she was doing, defacing a national monument, her reply was “well, others have done it!”  Can you believe it?  In what possible universe is it OK to vandalize the Great Wall of China???  Some of these students are self-centered beyond belief.  I was too angry to deal with that situation any further; fortunately, I ran into Robyn soon afterward and let her deal with it, as group leader.  Supposedly they removed the graffiti.  It took me a while to calm down, but eventually the sheer magnificence of the place took over.  Ken and I were a little annoyed at the beginning that we didn’t have much time here – we could’ve spent a lot more – but the kids had about enough and were excited to do the toboggan ride down.  And admittedly, the wall got pretty steep beyond the point where we stopped.

To get down, you could choose from a chairlift or take the toboggan – I think everyone in our group took the toboggan.  It was basically an alpine slide – a very long metal track with individual sleds that have a brake, so you can control your speed.  Mara wasn’t allowed to go by herself, thank goodness, or she might have flown right out of it.  Ken thought they went plenty fast, but she wanted more.  I enjoyed it very much, but was a little leery of its safety – at one point it shot over a rickety bridge, with no railings or anything. This was definitely China.  They had people placed along the track to tell you to slow down in the more dangerous spots.  Quite a long ride.  At the bottom, two Mongols in full regalia were waiting to take photos with us.  Only 5 yuan!  Ok, so we take our picture, then find out, oh, it’s 5 yuan EACH.  Eye-rolling time.

Made it back through the selling area without purchasing too much, then back to the bus to head back to Beijing.

Beijing is a huge city – obviously, with its 17 million people.  Huge office buildings, hotels, apartment buildings everywhere.  In some ways, it looked like driving through the downtown of a big American city, except that it just kept going and going.  Traffic was pretty bad – lots of people now have cars here.  And the light-shows they put up on the buildings….  Didn’t see the factories and power plants right in Beijing like we saw in Xi’an – I gather they got cleaned out for the Olympics.  Plenty on the outskirts, though.  The city was surprisingly clean, too.  The air was hazy and you could certainly find garbage, but nothing like India.

Dinner was – surprise – Chinese food!  Again, very good.  We really had to rush, though, because we were late for the Acrobatics show.  We hurried through the streets and piled into the theater just as the show had started.  It was very impressive.  We’ve seen the Chinese acrobats that come to Hilo several times, but this was a whole show, with music and wild costumes and special effects and plenty of physically ought-to-be-impossible acts.  I’ve decided that the Chinese really like their spectacles.  Even the kids at the orphanage did a fan dance with pink sparkly fans and loud music.

There were tons of tour groups all over the place, mostly Chinese.  Entering the Forbidden City it got very, very crowded.  Chinese people are very pushy. Apparently this is a holdover from the starvation days, when you had to push your way to the front of the line to get any food on handout days.  We all had to practice our elbow blocks.

The family in the Forbidden City

The Forbidden City itself is still very impressive (and it is amazing it survived the communist purges, too). The first main courtyard is very large, you go up the stairs, through another gate and there is the main Imperial Palace, looking very dramatic (I was trying to get the kids to remember the scene from Mulan where they visit the Imperial Palace).  At the palace building we tried to get up close enough to see the throne room, but I couldn’t push hard enough and was worried about Mara getting crushed.  We did get a side view.  Then we sat off to the side waiting for the rest of the group.  We were immediately swarmed by young Chinese women wanting their photos taken with the girls.  Pretty funny.

Emma and Ryan and their panda hats posing with random Chinese child

Posing on the steps of the Imperial Palace

Later we headed off to the side passages and entered a warren of smaller courtyards, buildings and gardens – it would be easy to get lost in here.  Visited a concubine’s house – the one lived in by the last Dowager Empress Cixi.  It had a nice courtyard – probably very pleasant in the summer, though a bit chilly this morning.  They had some of the furnishings in the house (glassed-off), though most of the treasures were removed to Taiwan with the last Emperor.  We then headed to the Imperial Garden, which was very rock-centered.  They had cemented large rocks together into strange shapes, implying meanings a little beyond us.  Still, I liked the effect.  It probably will look different when the trees have leaves.  The house there was the tutoring house of the last Emperor, Pu Li.  We made a couple of bathroom stops during the day– here Mara first had to use what was being called the “squatty potty.”  She kind of got into it after that, much bolder than the rest of us.

We marched our way out of the other side of the Forbidden City, crossed some streets (a little nerve-wracking, even in a large group) and met our buses again for a short ride north.  We transferred to trishaws (one parent, one kid this time to spread the weight) and were driven into a “hutong” area.  These are the old parts of Beijing, with narrow, crowded little streets built along courtyards, shared by many.  We sort of expected a shanty-town, but this area had been renovated and was quite charming.  There were little restaurants and bars along the lake front (yes, there was a lake), then we walked through the narrower streets and into a home.  I wish I could remember the name of the couple whose home we were in.

Mara learning to fold dumplings

Somehow all 30 of us crowded into the small rooms and around the usual round tables.   We met the couple feeding us – they spoke no English, but through our guide he explained how he had retired from his job and how they enjoy having visiting groups in for meals – he likes to show off his wife’s cooking.  She was an excellent cook – this was some of the best food we ate on the whole trip, I think. Shy, though.  Her husband demonstrated how the dumplings are made.  Mara gave it a try.

After lunch we found our trishaw drivers waiting and hopped back on.  It is a fun way to ride around.

After this we went to visit the “Bird’s Nest” and “The Cube” at the Olympic Village. Ken took Emma – Mara had fallen asleep on my lap.  Of course, as soon as everyone left she woke up and wanted me to sing lullabies to her.  So I did, for a long time.  She never went back to sleep.  Meanwhile, Ken and Emma took a quick tour through the Olympic Village and stadium and met the strange mascot creatures.

A “silk market” was next on our itinerary.  We were shown how silk is produced and were horrified to learn that the silkworm pupa is killed – steamed to get the silk from its unbroken cocoon.  “Tasty snack!” we were assured. We passed on the chance to taste it.  We were also shown how silk blankets are made from the cocoons that can’t be unraveled, just stretched.  Takes many, many to make a blanket.  Prices were very high here, though you can see why.  Across the road was the “Pearl Market” an unscheduled shopping stop.  Apparently only some of the pearl shops are authentic.  Our guides took us to the “real” pearl shop, but there were many floors of people selling cheap knock-offs of lots of stuff, even pearls.  I half-heartedly tried to buy a new SD card (since Ken left ours on the last plane, along with the case and spare battery), but gave up.  Just didn’t trust that it would work.  I could’ve bought one of the new iPads, too!  Think it would be genuine?

As I think I’ve mentioned, I hate bargaining.  Emma, however, is very into it.  She got herself some boots for cheap.  I did get Mara a little shirt, but I’m sure Emma could have gotten a better price.

We got back on the bus on time and found ourselves waiting for Jessica.  She eventually showed up – she’d gotten locked in the elevator when it was turned off for the night!  She looked a little flustered.  Very few students returned with us – they went off on their own for the night.

Dinner that night was great: real Beijing Duck (along with plenty of other tasty dishes).  You take a little tortilla/pancake thing, put in some duck slices dipped in plum sauce, add a slice of green onion, wrap it up, and devour.  Heavenly.  Emma is now on a no-bird diet – expanded from chicken only –  so she didn’t try any, nor did Mara, still eating mostly rice.  Sad.  She has now discovered sprite in addition to fanta.  The hotel that night seemed better – not as cold and not as stinky.