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Day 9
Thursday Feb 15
We missed
the breakfast buffet due to a slow start. We deserved it.
The slow start, I mean, since we had been hustling a lot & the
delayed flight from Xi'an was misery.
We aimed
the taxi toward Tian'anmen Square. We meandered & did
our photo duties of this famous place. In reality, it's just a big
paved square with a bunch of tourists wandering around taking pictures of each other
standing in front of the distant buildings. But, you have to do
it. We skipped the pickled guy. The access tunnels around
Tian'anmem are well thought out for avoiding traffic crossings on the
surrounding roads.
Then, guidebook
in hand, we wandered to the hutongs south of the square for some
shopping. Dazhalan Lu is a good destination. They have
billboarded the sidewalk on the west side but take one of the inlets
(2nd maybe?) & it funnels you down. The 3rd (?) is Dazhalan
Lu. A tourist shopping Mecca with cheap silk, cloths, jade, cloisonné
& all varieties of tourist take home. Buy the trinkets for a
fraction of the factory outlets costs - and you will still be
overcharged! Have fun bargaining & beating them down, it's all
part of the fun.
This goes on for several blocks & peters out as the road widens past
a big street (?) where it kinks south. Of course, if you've gotten
that far & your arms aren't hurting from carrying all of the crap
you've bought, turn around & do it all backwards.
With
energy flagging & arms getting tired (I was bag boy), we headed
north & hit a KFC for a late lunch. No original recipe here,
just the crunchy stuff with an extra zip. We gobbled. btw
Coke is a different formula in China too. Sweeter, but it doesn't
matter if you mix it with enough rum. A taxi took us back to the
Royale - shopping 1/2 done.
The
younguns were back in Beijing, so we arranged to go out with them again
for dinner. Pizza Hut was their choice. Not ours, but
theirs. I dipped into the attached Carrefour while we were waiting
for a booth (PH is a tad more up market in China) but my search for
Moutai was stymied by the hoards. Carrefour only seemed to have
expensive decorative sets but I couldn't get close enough to tell for
sure. How do people shop this way? I was ready to run out
screaming after 5 minutes . . .
We
collapsed.
Day 10
Friday Feb 16
Our last
full day, so the shopping panic was on. I don't know if you or
your spouse is responsible for your travel shopping panic
episodes. These occur as the trip starts to wane & the 'travel
shopper' realizes that they haven't bought enough crap to take home to
give out to all of the people you left behind. You know, all the
entirely useless crap that they don't want anyway & will never
use. I told my wife that we could just buy it all at home in an
Asia mall since its all from China anyway. She didn't understand.
I did however,
have my sights set on one last monument, so we taxi'd to the north
entrance of Temple of Heaven & Tiantan park. Another bright &
cool (but not cold) day. I really enjoyed wandering this large
site. You can buy a ticket for just the park, or park + the
monuments. Each of 3 admittance points tear off a section so keep
your ticket handy.
The park
was being use for Tai Chi & a small orchestra was wailing in one
secluded section. A group was huddling around the long corridor to
the east. I imagine in the summer that it could be a busy
place, since it is such a nice relief from the bustle around. The
guidebook says that many consider the Temple of Heaven buildings
to be some of the best examples of Ming architecture. I certainly
liked them.
We exited
at the south. Watch the taxis here & make sure you get a
metered one. Some were pitching us with a seriously inflated flat
rate. We went back towards Dazhalan Lu for shopping
roundup. We walked quickly thru as I was aiming towards Liulichang
Jie & its collection of stores. Not as clothing/silk oriented as Dazhalan,
I found the stores had 'more authentic' stuff if that is possible.
One store had real art quality goods but the prices were in USD. You
pay for the real stuff as always.
After a
couple of hours, we (I) had had enough. So I dragged B away &
back to the hotel for lunch & a rest. We were done. We didn't get to the Summer Palace, but since it
was winter, it seemed a little pointless. Other things had been
left out too. But I felt that we had
seen the sites we wanted to & there is always next time since it seems inevitable
that we will be returning. We have use of a condo in Beijing &
the bride's uncle insisted that we use his condo that is somewhere on the coast for
a future trip.
A
farewell dinner had been arranged for this last night. The groom
was heading home with us, so the bride's mother & aunt had come by
car from Handan for a sendoff. Jin Shan Cheng near
the China World Trade Centre was chosen again as a suitable
eatery since our duck was so good there. After a discussion with
the staff about tables & attempted corkage fees etc we were seated
at a hotpot table. Hotpot is was. This time, rather than the
usual indescribable broth, they brought cauldrons with a fish floating
around. Yum, yum. The peanut dipping sauce solved any issues
& we had a nice meal. The ladies really liked heaping stuff on
our plates. Interestingly, they always included the pool driver in the meals even though they tend to be pretty
non-talkative.
Day 11
Saturday Feb 17 - Departure Day
Packing
& milling around is always the routine on departure day. The
mother & aunt & driver & younguns & us all piled into
the van with far too much luggage for the haul to Beijing airport.
The ladies were all going back to Handan to celebrate New Years
that night.
Of course
our flight was going to be 5 hours late leaving. After a tearful
sendoff, we went in & hung around the executive lounge since my
Aeroplan status got us in. Not too fun, but the Scotch was free
& the seats were comfy.
A spectacular
flight home. Really. Since we left around 8 PM on the
Chinese New Year, the fireworks were starting as we left. It was a
clear night over northern China & for the 1st 1 1/2 hours, we could
see all of the towns celebrating as we flew over at 30,000 feet.
What a show. The pilot even shut off the AV system & told
people to look out their windows. Later, I also got a great view
of Alaska, the Yukon & Canada's North West Territories. Better
than a book or the terminally stupid movies you can't really see &
hear properly.
Arrival
in Toronto & Canadian Customs was uneventful.
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