Shanghai and Mighty (Days 15-18)

We started our explorations on Sunday, July 13 by patronizing the Guinness World Record Highest Library on the 60th floor of our hotel, the JW Shanghai Marriott. Over the next week, I tore through Dr. Paul Brand's part-biography, part-medical history Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants, a great find off the shelves of the 757½-foot high library.

Sadly, 'Garfield Shoves It In' was checked out.

In the library, as if we were part of a spy movie or ghost story, a host showed us a secret hidden bookshelf panel that swung open to reveal a door to the hotel's outside observation deck. 

We took in the view of the city looking out over People's Square on, looking back now, one of the few days where the pollution was "bad." Our first and last day in Beijing were the only other noticeably smoggy days where one could taste and smell the oily air and visibility was limited. Otherwise, pollution was virtually a non-factor throughout the trip.

It burns!

That afternoon we enjoyed one of the most lavish meals of the month on the 30th floor in the Marriott Café; an international buffet with a variety of dishes from India, Japan, China and beyond. We had our fill of oysters, crab, shrimp, sushi, pâté, lamb, beef, vegetables, pasta, desserts and bottomless glasses of champagne for the adults. The service was impeccable and the view was lovely, so we milked it for all it was worth and decided to not regret spending almost US$400 for a meal like that once a decade or so. 

After another visit to the pool (where we went through our usual routine of begging the kids to stop jumping in and out of the water, quit throwing kick boards and cease yelling at each other before the staff inevitably joins in), I set out alone into the hot and smoggy night air in search of a grocery store.

This posting near the hotel pool offered both  emergency preparedness and a new nickname.

On the advice of a bellman, I hopped on the subway for a few stops and then took a short walk to a Carrefour, an old friend from Europe and the main department store in Shanghai. The shop I found was a multilevel Walmart on Chinese steroids. Over all, it was a somewhat confusing experience; I had to check my backpack in a locker, where I needed assistance to understand the ticketing procedure, found the maze of busy aisles oddly organized and had to ask for help finding broccoli. I decided to take my time to explore every corner of the store and see all of the merchandise. Just about everything considered edible is available including bullfrog, pigeon and live turtles, and one can buy everything else from hiking gear to house paint. 

Kids' bikes from US $32 to $92, luggage for $36 and fabric softener for $4.

Bottled water and beer: sold everywhere in China, available in bulk at Carrefour.

At the checkout line, while waiting to pay for some semi-familiar food and beverages to take back to our kitchen I watched a store manager and young couple shout at each other for about five minutes. I was glad to get past the cashier without committing whatever offense had made the manager so irate. (It was one of a number of times we witnessed a loud verbal sparring match between various Chinese citizens. A couple of times I was able to take a photo or video but I failed to capture The Grocery Conflict.)

These guys were about to throw down by the Bund but they kept it to a heated staring contest.

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On Monday the 14th (day 16, the halfway point of our journey), we woke at 3 o'clock in the morning to watch Germany's World Cup final victory over Argentina. The play wasn't as exciting as some of the early round matches but we enjoyed seeing the championship atmosphere. It became a sports morning when we switched to MLB.TV to catch an Angels victory over the Texas Rangers. We are excitedly following the Halos' chase of the Oakland A's for the best record in baseball and I may or may not have used my brief forays into Buddhism and Shintoism to give our favorite teams some extra karma. 

Thanks to us the Colts are Super Bowl bound.

Not coincidentally, that afternoon the kids and I visited Jing'an Temple, a Buddhist temple on the eponymous West Nanjing Road, one of the busiest in Shanghai. The temple was first built in 247 AD and then moved to its current site in 1216. Soaring glass, concrete and steel now surround the temple, which has crumbled a couple of times but was rebuilt over the centuries until taking its final form during the Qing Dynasty. Further changes took place when the structure was converted into a plastics factory (!) in the early 1970s during the Cultural Revolution. Fortunately, traditionalists in 1983 led a charge to eventually return the structure to its original purpose. According to the back of my ticket (kids were free, mine was ¥50 / US$8), "since 1998, a large-scale reconstruction work had taken place in the monastery area, the main facade, bell and drum terraces...the Dharma pillar...Thai Buddha Hall, Golden Buddha Hall and so on had been continuously completed." 

That's their way of saying renovations are ongoing as there are always improvements to be made. The stone exterior and the woodwork, while built with ancient techniques, felt "new." However the temple and grounds instilled a deep sense of spirituality with artwork, idols, altars and offerings that provided direct links to the past.

Make an offering, touch the idol,  be a musical prodigy.

Make an offering, bow to the idol, be a fruit-stacking sensation.

Offerings have been generous enough for the admission ticket to congratulate the "enormous number of Buddhists (who) have shown their devout faith of the Dharma. Their donation has accomplished the sterling silver Buddha statue weighted 15 tons for the monastery."

The glow of sunlight hitting a thin layer of tarnish made the silver look bronze or gilded that afternoon.

The 8.8-meter, or 28.9-foot, statue sits in a structure made of dark Burmese teak supported by 46 columns; the Precious Hall of the Great Hero. Surrounding the Buddha are prayer banners, wood and metal statues, elaborate paneling and three intricately carved and painted wall hangings depicting scenes from the Buddha's life.

Detail with facial expressions.

Today, the devout can gain potential admission-ticket immortality by donating to "the following project of making a solid gold Buddha statue weighed 2 tons (that) is currently in its fundraising process." Count us in.

Our following project involved exploring a mall adjoining the Jing'an Temple subway stop. It was filled with pricey shops and restaurants but we eventually found the busy, less expensive basement food stalls. Our senses were quickly drawn to a bakery with such an irresistible array of breakfast, lunch and dessert buns that we ended up contributing to their fundraising process multiple times over the remainder of our Shanghai visit.

The mall price of acute inflammatory arthritis is too high but the mascot is adorable.

"Yippee!" yelped the youngsters upon the  yielding of yuan at yummy Yamazaki.

After another swim and upon Betsy's arrival, we walked to a bookstore that we found online in our effort to find some Mandarin DVDs and instructional materials. The shop was in a five-story building and  pretty much felt just like any other large book chain - only everything was, of course, in Chinese. Quinn was able to ask the sales lady for guidance and we left with a bulging bag of mostly Disney movies and workbooks for vocabulary and character reinforcement. (As if the land of Chinglish is the place to turn for such things!)

Do these street vendors know they're offering rejected parts?

On the way back to the apartment, we stopped at a small street-side food stall that offered about 20 different bowls or platters of various local foods. I chose two dishes, ordered some steamed rice from room service and proceeded to disrupt Kung Fu Panda with my enthusiastic enjoyment of the garlic-and-ginger-infused crunchy fungus and chewy tofu skins.

Just like mom used to make.

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The next two mornings, we were up early to watch live English broadcasts of the MLB Home Run Derby on a rainy Tuesday the 15th and then the All Star Game, featuring MVP Mike Trout, on Wednesday the 16th. The other Tuesday highlights were avoiding the persistent downpour by sticking to the indoor pool and using the subway for our second bakery visit for some egg and meat sandwiches, breadsticks and chocolate pies. 

We had to get out on Wednesday so the kids and I decided to check out the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. We discovered animal exhibits, space and communication technology, medical displays and a ping pong robot that humbled both boys. All of the descriptions and guides were in Chinese and several of the video stations and interactive opportunities were out of order but the museum had a nice flow and the displays were generally user-friendly.

This is what happens when  science meets technology.

Sadly, these and three toy souvenirs were the only pandas we saw on our trip.

Our favorite parts were the rooms with dozens of stuffed and mounted animals from all around the world, the pathology displays with examples of real arteries, veins and organs and the space equipment including satellites and rockets. After a 2½ -hour visit, we wandered around the adjoining subway area where we found a shaded garden and one of the area's several fake-goods markets, complete with aggressive merchants enticing passing shoppers and tourists into every store. 

Our choice of eateries won out over a nearby competitor, which lost - or maybe gained - a point for promoting this entree on their front wall:

While a bargain at just US$2.60, we deemed this R-rated dish to be unsuitable for minors.

After the waitress told me which chair I was to sit in (so I could be in a better position for them to serve me all the dishes for distribution she said, when asked by Xander)  we finally ordered some duck to go with some wide noodles, a big bowl of eggplant and our favorite, sword beans. We would be advised later that we should have had the famous Peking duck of Beijing but we agreed the meat and sauce were pretty tasty - once we picked away the thick, rubbery skin that is included here with poultry dishes.

A major theme of this trip: Pretty Tasty.

Hope you're enjoying. There's still more to come covering our last three days in Shanghai and our week in Tokyo.

The Greatest of Walls (Day 4)

Wednesday, July 2 was a special day for the Hughes on the Loose crew. Our guide, John Jiang of China Adventure Ltd., and his driver picked us up at our hotel in a large van that we had all to ourselves. John studied English and Chinese history and provided an informative tour of a long section of the Great Wall of China.

After about an hour’s drive from Beijing, we began our hike with a steep ascent that included 1400 stair steps.

They can build a wall visible from near-Earth orbit but can't build a chairlift?

Two local women joined us at the entrance gate, led us on the ascent, pointed out several interesting details on and around the Wall and even helped make sure we didn’t slip on the steep parts. 

She has multiple layers, we were roasting.

John said they do this every single day in an effort to sell as many t-shirts, books and chopsticks to tourists as possible. Today we were their primary target and it was impossible to say no to these two incredibly fit and sweet women. 

I picked up this boastful beauty mostly because it was dry. John probably has a couple dozen at home.

We started at a more weathered part of the Wall than the most frequently-visited, renovated area to the west at Jin Shanling where we would make our descent about two hours later.

As you know, the Great Wall of China was built as a defensive fortification against nomadic invaders over the course of centuries beginning as early as the 7th century BC. It has been maintained and enhanced for thousands of years but the majority of the existing structure is from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The barrier stretches about 5,500 miles and includes man-made walls and trenches as well as natural defensive formations such as mountains and rivers. The earth, stones, wood and, later, bricks and tiles were quarried or gathered from the surrounding region and carried up by workers.

It was fascinating to imagine the life of the soldiers guarding the wall, ever watchful for approaching invaders. There was evidence of their activities such as ceilings charred black from fires and names carved into the stone. 

Either that or an ad for the new Transformers movie.

Still intact are the many archers' windows as well as holes near the base of the wall through which rocks or boiling liquids could be released. We also learned about the various signal towers, barracks, stables and armories we saw along the way. 

The views were simply breathtaking. The winding walkway rolls with the terrain into the clouds as far as the eye can see in either direction. We marched almost non-stop and only covered about a mile and a half but still felt like we saw a tremendous variety of construction and conditions. 

Your new desktop image.

As we neared Jin Shanling, the appearance of the Wall changed dramatically. This is the area where most tourists and visiting dignitaries climb up, walk a few hundred feet in either direction and then climb down. The pathway, gates and walls here have been completely renovated to provide a look at the Wall in its original form. 

After the descent, John took us to a local farmer’s clean and comfortable hostel, the "Yu Jie Hotel," where we had a very memorable meal. The farmer and his family built the rooms themselves to provide lodging and food to visitors. If you desire to spend more than just a day exploring the Great Wall, this would be an great place to stay overnight. But, at the very least, we’d recommend making a lunch stop here part of your journey. 

As I write this a week later, it is still the best food we’ve sampled so far thanks to the fresh, traditional home-cooked ingredients and, perhaps, by the appetite we’d built up on our long, hot hike. Email the hostel owner directly at wangyujiejsl@aliyun.com and/or our guide at johnjiang@chinaadventureltd.com for more information.

Our new favorite Chinese restaurant.

All in all, it made for a perfect last day in Beijing. Tomorrow, we’re off to the airport for flight number three on our way to beautiful Guilin, where we’re looking forward to a cruise up the Li River on the 4th of July. Not a bad way to commemorate our 11th anniversary!

I may not be able to set up the typical celebratory fireworks she's come to expect but this will do.

Arrival, Sunday in the Park and New Friends (Day 1)

Finally in Hong Kong with unrestricted internet access! 

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We arrived in Beijing at 10 p.m. on Saturday, July 28 and quickly found the car Betsy had arranged to take us to our hotel. Though sleep on the long plane flight was tough to come by, it was 10 a.m. Minneapolis time when we reached the Crowne Plaza Wangfujing so we stayed up and watched some World Cup action (Brazil over Chile) before we finally settled in for a long nap.

On Sunday morning, we set out by foot to wander in the general direction of the Forbidden City, just a half-mile from our hotel. It was a quiet morning in Beijing; families strolled with their children and/or dogs as we delighted in the new sights and avoided some of the new smells. The kids and I bought some pork buns for breakfast and we stopped for a taste of authentic Chinese food.

They didn't have any ketchup.

We strolled around a bit of the exterior of the Forbidden City but with plans for a visit on Tuesday, we opted to explore a park immediately north of the former palace. 

Jingshan Park encompasses 57 beautifully maintained acres dating back 1000 years and featuring a 150-foot high hill made of material hauled over from construction of the moats and canals in and around the Forbidden City. That and four other similar, smaller peaks are all topped with centuries-old, elaborate pavilions once used by officials for gathering and leisure. A climb to the top of the Wansui (Long-Life or Ten-Thousand Year) Hill gave us our first glimpse at locals worshipping and afforded a wonderful bird’s-eye view of the Forbidden City.  


In what will be a running theme in the blog, we also delighted in our first lost-in-translation Chinglish. Enjoy along with us, won't you? 

Since it was Sunday, many people weren’t working and instead were gathered in groups singing songs accompanied by traditional instruments (though we did hear a rousing accordion version of “Roll Out the Barrel” from one corner), doing tai chi, dancing or engaging in some other form of exercise. One popular activity is kicking around the jian zi, a cross between a hacky-sack and a badminton birdie. Many ladies twice my age were more adept at keeping it aloft than any of us will ever hope to be but we bought one of our own so we can start practicing. In fact, most of the people relaxing at the park seemed to be “grandmas and grandpas” as Quinn says. We figure the weekend is their time for themselves as the grandparents usually take care of the kids on weekdays while mom and dad are working.

We were initiated into celebrity life as we could hardly walk a few steps without being asked to have a picture taken. Walking around with the kids here is like being with Tom Hanks. Heads turn everywhere we go and people nudge their companions to share the sight. If they don’t ask us to take a picture with them or their kids, they have one sidle up on the sly and then snap a photo. It’s unusual to see blond hair, let alone a family of five. Of course, when the kids open their mouths to say hello in Mandarin and then respond to questions, the crowd really picks up. So far, they mostly enjoy being ambassadors of goodwill, happily answering questions and posing for photos. Betsy says she usually gets the same amount of attention but people are less likely to approach her or ask her to come over when she’s by herself.

One highlight of the day for us and some locals was when one offered a large paintbrush so the kids could try their hand at writing characters on the sidewalk. I doubt anyone expected Quinn to write her Chinese name and the characters for “Chinese” so beautifully! Each of the kids had a go as the people around us beamed.

They quickly dispersed after she wrote some controversial statements on Taiwan/China relations.

It is extremely humid here this time of year with temperatures in the high nineties so we beat the midday heat with the first of our almost daily visits to a hotel pool. After cooling off, we entered the heat again to meet up with some wonderful new friends that Xander's 4th-grade teacher, Lixia Shi, electronically introduced us to prior to our visit.

Sun Miao picked us up from our hotel and drove us to her office on the grounds of the Zhi Hua (Wisdom-Attained) Temple, a 600-year old Buddhist construction. The complex contains one of the only wooden structures and group of buildings from the Ming dynasty to remain intact in Beijing, and provided our first close-up view of traditional, nail-free Chinese architecture. It’s amazing to imagine the artisans assembling the hand-hewn pieces like a giant three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle and to see it standing strong after all these years. Thanks to our hostess and her friends, we gained access to the second-story of the main temple too view more of the rarely-seen 10,000 gold leaf-covered Buddha statues and had all of our questions about the history of the temple answered. (Photography is not allowed in side the temples.)

We fondly remember tossing around a football (American) with some friends of the Miao family after the tour and a spot of tea. We taught a father and son to throw spirals and when Abu caught a tight one from his dad on a slant route, we all raised our hands in triumph! 

They were flagged for holding but it was still a nice play.

Sun, her husband and seven-year-old son Bo Han then welcomed us into their home where Sun's parents had been working all day to prepare a tremendous home-cooked meal in our honor. 

This was an amazing opportunity to see the daily life of a Beijing family with some gracious and inquisitive hosts. We enjoyed dumplings (jiao zi) and noodles (mien tiao) along with other delights and great conversation as we compared and contrasted home, school and work life in the U.S. and China. Bo Han got out his English workbook and read some passages for us. 

“Banana starts with B. Yellow is the banana.” Direct quote.

It was tremendously eye-opening to see how this happy family of five shares a living space about half the size of our basement. A small apartment in the city can easily run the equivalent of US$1600 per month. The meal they produced was even more amazing when we saw the kitchen (with a single sink and no dishwasher) where two people could barely fit side by side. 

A meal worthy of a fine dining establishment is cooked every day right here.

The rest of the apartment is a main living/dining area that also has three beds, a single separate bedroom, a thin balcony and a bathroom. The bathing area consists of a shower curtain and a stack of five basins on the floor. Our hosts accepted us proudly into their home and we felt the warmth, friendliness and comfort of a family that lives, loves and laughs together. It was a night we’ll never forget and some day we hope to return the favor in some way. 

Until next time, friends…

Who's bad? Here are three candidates.

And We're Off

Packing for five people for Asia while preparing the house for a month alone is really quite an experience. There is far less trepidation than last time thanks to having done it before; we know better what to bring and what to leave behind - and the kids are all two years older!

July, 2012

June, 2014

We're enjoying a well-earned, relaxing visit to the Delta Sky Lounge and preparing for 17 hours in the air. Stay tuned…next stop: Beijing.

We’re Packing Our Bags Again!

This weekend , we begin a month-long journey through China and Japan that will include two world capitals, eight separate flights, as much dim sum as possible, the Great Wall, rice paddies, the Forbidden City, street food, Japanese baseball and maybe our second international Disney visit. 

WHERE?

• 5 nights in Beijing
• 3 nights in Guilin
• 3 nights in Hong Kong
• 11 nights in Shanghai
• 7 nights in Tokyo 

WHO?

We are a family of five from Edina, Minnesota. Brett is a stay-at-home father and writer, Betsy is a mother and businesswoman, Xander (10) is a fifth grader, Vaughn (9) is a fourth grader and Quinn (7) is a second-grader. All three kids have attended Xin Xing Academy, a Mandarin Chinese immersion program, at Eisenhower Elementary School in Hopkins, MN since preschool. 

WHY?

Betsy travels internationally several weeks a year as Director of Market Intelligence for St. Jude Medical. Her work has taken her to exciting locales such as Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, and Sydney; the kids and I accompanied her to Brussels, Paris and London two years ago (see previous blog entries) and now we’re ready to join her in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo for our second Family-Trip-of-a-Lifetime.

We’ve been researching, packing and preparing for this trip for some time and will feature all the highs and lows with lots of photos and videos on this interactive blog throughout the trip. We’ll be checking the comments frequently for your questions and suggestions and make them a part of our explorations.

Share in the adventures and misadventures of family travel in a foreign land: 

• Find out what it’s like for American kids who can speak and read Mandarin to visit China and speak the language in real-world opportunities.

• Learn along with us about the history and people of the places we explore. We are excited for two visits to “host families;” one coordinated by Xander’s fourth grade teacher, Lixia Shi, and another by Xin Xing second grade teacher, Yin Wang.

• I will attempt to incorporate my new Google Glass (sponsored by Armaverse Armatures) into our travels. If I can marry it to my iPhone and hack a couple of travel apps in time, the Glass could immensely augment our experience - or I could be arrested by the Chinese authorities for espionage. 

• It’s a blog with suspense!...Will They Survive? After submitting a phonebook-thick stack of paperwork to our local Chinese consulate and securing our visas, we spent a morning as pincushions at our local Travel Clinic in an effort to ward off typhus, hepatitis A and B, avian flu, tetanus, and more! We also hope to avoid getting bitten by mosquitos and contracting malaria or dengue fever. We’re prepared for the crowds and shoving in elevators and lines; we have our respirator masks for the pollution; we’ve packed toilet paper to carry with us at all times and I’ve got my sneer ready to repel the tourist scammers. 
  
  

  Paper holders and toilet bowls not included.

• We will, however, eat as many delicacies and unusual foods as we can safely sample and share the results. 

We'll just save the fugu for the last night.