I recently went to to China during the Chuseok(Korean Thanksgiving) holiday. I went with a tour group of 21 other English teachers from near where I teach in Korea. I am glad I decided to take a tour as I only had 4 days and there is no way I would have seen even half of what I did by myself in that amount of time. However tour groups allow you to see a lot quickly, but you just get to see things quickly and its a very commercialized version of china that you get to see, except for the times when we broke away from the group and got to see some of the real sites.
On the first day we left from Daegu International Airport in the morning, I went with 2 of my friends who also teach in Gumi, Mike (known as Chicago Mike, there are a few Mike's in Gumi, he prefers Michael but...) and Jenny. We also had 2 of our friends who were on the same flight with us Traci and Beard, they had a whole week off and were going without a tour group, but they were on the same flight with us, very random. Our flight was 2 hours late getting to Beijing because it was 2 hours late leaving Beijing, which I am told is fairly common. So when we arrived we were already behind schedule. After clearing customs, getting our bags and finding our entire group we were another hour behind schedule. Let me tell you that the airport in Beijing was insane, there were thousands of people outside the security area waiting for people, I have flown many times but this was something I have never seen before. Our tour had to meet but it was impossible to find people and there was nowhere within hundred feet of the gate were you could even stand let alone get a group of 22 together. Eventually we all found each other in front of a KFC and I was also able to get a double espresso from Starbucks and a mozzarella panini, go capitalism! We were suppossed to see the Temple of Heaven on this day (Sunday) but because we were late their was no time so we went straight to dinner. We always ate at very commercialized Chinese family style places that catered to large tour groups like ours, don't get me wrong the food was good and authentic enough, but I prefer to find the whole in the wall local places when I travel and being a vegetarian I was usually not very well taken care of, but this is life in a meat dominated world, you get used to it. I was lucky enough because Jenny is a vegan so she had it much worse and at least I had company in my food misery. Also one interesting thing is all the restaurants had lazy Susan style turntables in the middle so the dishes could be shared by all 8 -10 people at a table easily, very efficient! We then went to an acrobatic show, it was amazing, it was a school were they trained the next generation of Chinese acrobats and it was impressive. They had one kid who did things on a tight rope, like walk non his hands and push off into flips and land back on the rope, he also had a routine where he balanced on a ladder on the rope and jumped off of it, there were a ton of talented young kids who will no doubt end up in acts like Cirque de Soleil. After the show we went to our "4" star hotel(more like 2 1/2), it was clean and nice enough. The area of town we were in didn't have anything to do, but Mike,Jenny and I walked around our area and located a convenient store to get some supplies and alcohol, we also ate some KFC, which is everywhere in China, I saw 2 Mc Donald's and 20 KFC's during my trip. We had a drink and went to bed early, well not really it was probably 1am.
The next morning we left the hotel at 7:30am, breakfast at the hotel was good, it was always the same for breakfast a large western style buffet with some Asian items thrown in, which was perfect for me, I needed a solid meal where I could get food I can eat. On Monday we visited the Temple of Heaven, which we were suppossed to see on Sunday. It is a very large temple where they would sacrifice animals and have royal ceremonies back when china had royal families, before the communist revolution. It isn't a religious temple, but rather a royal one. After the temple we went to the Forbidden City where we saw where the Chinese emperors used to live, it was stunning, and gigantic. I took lots of inappropriate pictures here and everywhere, I am sure they will offend any Chinese who look at them, but I love to defile sacred places in my journeys, I try to be respectful of religious places, but the Political(Royal in this case) are fair game. We saw among other things the rooms where the Emperor kept his 1000 concubines! After the forbidden city we crossed the street and went to Tienanmen Square, it had all sorts of Olympic propaganda in it, but it was still a amazing site, I could just imagine the 1000's of college protesters there when the tanks came in to remove them, it's huge, like everything in Beijing, they build to impress and they do! After this we headed off to the airport where we hopped a flight to Xian. We arrived in Xian Monday night, its only a little over an hour by plane from Beijing. Our guide in Xian was a women and she was much more accommodating than our guide, Wally in Beijing, but Wally was a hoot! He was an ass, but funny. We got massages in Xian, she took us to a great place, I got a 2 hour full body and foot massage, some of our group went to a dance show instead, some did 1 hour of the dance show then 1 hour off massage, I opted for 2 hours of massage, I love massages! It was the best foot massage I have ever gotten. Our hotel in Xian was great, huge rooms and true 4 star quality.
Tuesday morning we went and saw the famous Terra Cotta Warriors
archaeological site. They have built 5 huge buildings around the dig site, its very impressive to imagine a emperor who had 10,000 life size clay warriors,horses and weapons built to take with him in the afterlife, vain, but impressive. After this we went to his tomb, the Qin King Tomb, its the largest tomb in the world, it seemed more like a park and palace than a tomb, the mound was hundreds of feet tall and it seemed like a mountain not a man made tomb. Then we went to the Huaqing Hot Spring, its a beautiful hot springs palace used in the summers by the emperor, his family and his top 100 concubines. There were separate hot springs for all 3 groups plus one for the staff, the water here was amazing, it felt like lotion when you touched it, it was so soft, i have never felt any water like it before, it is also very clean and can be drank. It's built on the side of a mountain, it would be a great place for a vacation home. After this we went to the airport and flew back to Beijing where we met up with Wally again. Wally was a funny guide, but as I said before not very accommodating, but he would always say follow wally(sounded like faw wow waaall wee), he was fun and entertaining although it was more us laughing at him, but it worked.
The next day we went to the Great Wall of China, it really isn't something you can describe with words, its infinitely huge, it appears as far as the eye can see, it is also very steep, at some points the steps were so steep you were using your hands to climb up it not walking. There were also so many people selling things there, they were quite annoying. Then there were the hordes of Chinese with their red hats, I don't know why but all the Chinese groups wore red hats and it was like a red sea when you saw them, there were easily 10,000 of them within sight when we arrived. It was an experience I will never forget. Of course there was also a large Olympic sign on the side of the mountain here. After the wall we went to a Peking Duck dinner, the famous meal in China, which I cant eat of course, it was delicious I'm sure. Then to a Kung Fu show, were we saw people break steal with their hands, heads and do all sorts of amazing feats. Then off for another 2 hours off massages. Then Mike and I walked around the neighborhood for a bit.
The last day we flew out of Beijing, our flight was 1 1/2 hours late leaving china, again. So we arrived 1 hour late, hopped in bullet cab(called this because they make a 40 minute trip in 25, its best to close your eyes) and went back to Gumi. I had to teach an hour after I got home. It was a great Chuseok Holiday!!!
