Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Our annual Christmas photo. Christmas Eve Eve 2008 - Santa Rosa, CA

Beijing Day 4: Hutongs, Tea House and the Beijing Opera

In case you were worried, no, we didn't leave China after only a three day visit! Although the photos from Day 4 have been uploaded for over a week now, work has kept me busy, and I haven't had a chance to give you any details until now...

This was the last day we would spend with Jane and Hong - a day exploring and experiencing some of the older neighborhoods of Beijing.

We began with a tour of one of Beijing's hutongs - the old traditional alleyways and courtyard homes which once covered all Beijing. This cycle rickshaw proved to be a great way to navigate through the old narrow streets.

Along the way, we stopped at a traditional family courtyard home - a building complex formed by four houses around a quadrangular courtyard. We were welcomed in by a lovely woman who gave us a tour of the layout of her home, and invited us into her art studio, where she and her husband do papercutting.

In the courtyard, there was a caged bird, who called out "Ni hao!" - hello, in Chinese!

Peppers drying.

With our hostess and the rice-paper cutting, affixed to a silk scroll, that we purchased. This dragon and a phoenix design - created by she and her husband - has exquisite detail!

We walked along some of these narrow streets and enjoyed the variety of doorways that we encountered - both old and new, simple and intricate.


Bicycles are, by far, the most common form of transportation. We were amazed by some of the things we saw - a parent with 3 children riding along with them - the variety of materials pulled on carts behind - and even someone peddling down the highway, with cars flying by alongside them.

And after a chilly morning of walking around - which included stopping at a Prince's palace and museum - we stopped at a Courtyard Tea House to experience a Chinese tea ceremony. Having personal tour guides was wonderful. This tea house stop was not on our original itinerary, but they were so willing to accommodate us in any way!)

After lunch, we were officially exhausted. Three days of waking up at 4am, with no hopes of adjusting our internal clocks, had taken its toll. We decided that an afternoon nap was in order before our evening at the Beijing Opera.

(Funny story here. There was construction going on just above our hotel room. We requested a move, and the only option was a room with 2 twin beds. I was absolutely NOT going for it, but Mark insisted that we needed the rest. Still, sleeping in separate beds for the remainder of the trip? Admittedly, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that these twin beds were extra wide. We managed to comfortably sleep together in one of them for the remaining few nights;)

The Beijing Opera was quite different from its western counterpart. The various scenes contained a mixture of heavily costumed performers, mime, acrobatics and stages martial arts, and singing in higher pitched tones accompanied by traditional Chinese instruments. Take a moment to share our experience.

More Beijing Day 3: Ming Tombs and Sacred Way

Before arriving at the The Great Wall on our second full day in Beijing, we stopped at a jade factory, where we watched artisans carve and polish jade before admiring the many pieces displayed in their showroom.

Amazingly, this is carved out of just one piece of rock.

Just afterward, we stopped for lunch at the Friendship Store, which contained a cloisonne art factory. Cloisonne is a technique used to create metal objects with enamel decorations - pieces of metal are soldered to a metal object such as a vase, where the metal rods form outlines of images. The spaces are filled with enamel paste, then placed in a kiln. Finally, empty areas are gilded.

Adding colored enamel to a vase.

Tuesday afternoon was spent touring the Ming Dynasty Imperial Tombs, in the foothills of the JunDu mountains. The site was carefully chosen according to Feng Shui principles - to ward off bad spirits and chilling winds from the north, this quiet valley full of dark earth and tranquil water was chosen as the resting spot for 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty.

The Great Red Gate

The Sacred Way - a 7km path lined with willows and carved animals and figures. This is one of the few areas where the Emperor had to travel on foot when paying respect to his ancestors. No animals were allowed to carry him along this path.

The animals include pairs of lions, camels, elephants and the mythical qilin.

Generals and civil officials also stand guard.

We visited one of the two of the tombs open to the public - ChangLing - located about 2 1/2 miles from the entrance way. We drove, rather than walk the entire distance:)

This sacred silk burner was filled with money, reminding us of a wishing well.


ChangLing Mausoleum

And another beautiful sunset.

Beijing Day 3: The Great Wall of China

With Jane, our wonderful tour guide.

Seeing The Great Wall was by far my favorite part of our trip to Beijing. The structure itself was absolutely amazing, and its history, equally so.

Built, rebuilt and maintained between the 6th century BC and the 16th century, the series of walls was intended to protect China from attacks from the north.

Constructed primarily along mountaintops to make it even more difficult to overtake, during the Ming dynasty, it was guarded by more than 1 million men.
In total, the Great Wall spans over 6,700 km, or 4,160 miles!
The section of the Wall that we visited is known as the North Pass, Badaling, the primary entrance point to China's capital, Beijing.

The views from the wall its watchtowers were breathtaking! Thankfully we visited on a clear and sunny day, with fantastic visibility.

A number of the sections were incredibly steep - we were definitely winded as we climbed and couldn't help but marvel that men had actually scaled the difficult terrain while building.

Standing atop one of the world's Seven Wonders - what an amazing and unforgettable experience.

Beijing Day 2: Silk Factory and Summer Palace

Did you think that our day was over after only visiting Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City?

We DID take a short break for lunch, and then proceeded to a nearby silk factory where we learned about two common methods of silk production.

Silk thread is made by dipping the cocoons of single larvae of the mulberry silkworm into boiling water before the adult moth emerges, in order to unravel the cocoon as a single thread. The silk filaments of 8 cocoons are wound together, which helps to strengthen the silk thread.

Spools of thread.

In instances were there are two larvae in a single cocoon, the thread cannot be extracted independently, and these cocoons are instead, gathered together and streached to make the soft andwarm filling for silk throws and comforters. Mark and I tried our hand at this technique, and quickly saw how delicate the process is.

Trying to stretech evenly.

We spend a bit of time perusing the silk factory (and making a few purchases), after which we headed to the nearby Summer Palace, the most celebrated imperial garden in China. Here, we enjoyed the beauty of dusk and a lovely sunset on the Kunming Lake.