Japan/China 2010

We are in Chicago waiting to board our next flight. Our Foosball trophies are a popular item at security checkpoints worldwide.

We are on our flight bound for Chicago. We spent last night in a capsule hotel to complete the Japan experience. We’ll be in Ohio’s around 6 PM. It’s about 4 PM Japan time right now. But I think the flight is a bit more than 2 hours….

We are back in Tokyo on our way to see a J-League soccer match between Tokyo FC an Kyoto.

China and Japan are two completely different worlds. China was definitely an interesting experience overall, and definitely worth a second visit now that we know what to expect. We hardly got to see Shanghai and we missed some big parts of Beijing because we ran out of time.

The Great Wall was incredible. It was a two hour cab ride there and 3 hours coming back. The extra hour was because of Beijing rush hour, which was entertaining. Driving in Beijing is chaos, but somehow the cars, bikes, rickshaws and pedestrians manage not to collide, though I’m not sure how. It’s a shock at first, but after a few days we got used to it.

Anyway, the cab driver dropped us off at the Jinshanling section of the wall and drove to the Simatai section where the end of our hike took us. Our cab driver said this is one of the best sections of wall to hike because it’s less restored and less crowded than the other sections near Beijing. The first half of the hike was very foggy/smoggy, which was pretty disappointing at first. But the pictures still came out pretty well, and the smog cleared for the last 2 hours of the hike.

There’s no better way to end a trip to China than a 5 hour hike along the Great Wall. I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

We’re all geared up for the Great Wall hike tomorrow. We found this great description of the wall that I thought I’d share: http://www.simataigreatwall.org/travel_notes.html

Pictures. Click to enlarge.

This one is for you, Aunt Debbie.

Yesterday’s earthquake occurred in the Tibetan region of China, over 1,000 miles away from Beijing. We are OK.

Yesterday we went to two different markets. The first had a mix of furniture, statues, and small souvenir trinkets. Most of it was junk but we found some gems. Bargaining is is fun but can get a bit tiring. The dance goes something like this: They offer a ridiculous price, you counter at 1/10th of the price, and you close in from there. You have to have a set price in your mind that you’re not willing to go over. If you can’t get them to come down anymore, you start the walk-away. It almost always works, they will give in to the last price you offered.

The second market we went to was a lot more intense than the first. The Hong Qiao market is where to go for all your fake goods. Fake iPods, PSPs, video games, name-brand clothing, soccer jerseys, hats, North Face jackets, purses, etc. etc. Some of it really is low quality (we saw some pretty odd looking soccer jerseys) but occasionally you can find something decent. We picked up plenty of souvenirs here. The bargaining here get really exhausting. As you walk buy the hundreds of shops, people are in your face, offering you shoes, belts, purses, shouting at you, grabbing you and trying to pull you into their store. It’s crazy.

To answer Hilary’s question, I do fit in the doors better in China. This is the home of Yao Ming, after all. By the way, the NBA is huge here. I’m not kidding. We can catch a live feed of a game in the mornings on a giant TV screen in the most popular shopping district in Beijing.

Today we are going to the Temple of Heaven and another round of shopping. Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall. We are going to hike between the Jinshanling and Simatai sections, which are much further out than the more touristy sections. The wall is less restored there but it should be worth it. It’s a 3 hour car ride from Beijing and the hike is about 10km with serious elevation change. I hope Dustin can keep up with me.

Happy Birthday Aunt Debbie!

We started today with the Forbidden City. It was a cold but clear day in Beijing, and it was perfect for pictures. The Forbidden City is a massive complex of buildings that is very well maintained. It was very busy, mostly with tour groups. One problem with Beijing is all of the people trying to get you to buy things, or trying to scam you. We thought it was bad in Shanghai, but it is much worse in Beijing.

After walking the Forbidden City we gave into temptation and ate lunch at McDonalds. I had a Big Mac meal with fries and drink for $3 USD. Unlike Japan (and the U.S.), there’s no line at McDonalds, it’s essentially just a free-for-all. Whoever can push their way to the counter is the one that orders next. Today we really began to notice the staring, which the tour books warned about. As we were walking down the stairs at McDonalds a large table of people just stopped what they were doing and stared at us. It’s not a rude thing to do in this country, it’s just a general curiosity of foreigners.

After lunch we went to Jingshan park, which is a man-made hill that gives an excellent view of the Forbidden City. Once we were satisfied with photos there we went to Tian’anmen Square and took some more. We didn’t find Tian’anmen Square particularly interesting.

On our way to dinner we walked down a large and famous road where street vendors sell exotic foods. We watched someone eat cooked scorpions! They also had starfish and centipedes. Sounds delicious.

I have some great photos but Picasa stopped working on my phone, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to upload them again. Picasa is the only website I’ve found that is consistently blocked by the great firewall, and it’s very inconvenient.

Tomorrow it may rain so our plan is to visit the silk market and do some shopping.

First item on the agenda today was to buy a large suitcase to store all of our foosball trophies. What better country to get one in than in China? We got some good bargaining advice and had fun haggling with the merchant to get a decent price. Basically you can get a product for about one fourth of their original asking price.

Lunch and dinner today were both noodle dishes. A large bowl of noodles and beef costs about $3 USD. Tonight’s dinner in Beijing at a sit-down restaurant: bowl of noodles and beef, bread, and 600ml of beer cost $5 total.

After that we headed to the Hong Qiao Airport for our flight to Beijing. The flight was an hour delayed due to weather, but overall I was impressed with Eastern China Airlines. I had more legroom on that flight than I’ve ever had on any U.S. flight.

Beijing and Shanghai are drastically different cities. My first impression is that Beijing is larger, nicer, and cleaner. The roads are wider, the shops are larger, and there’s more people out on the street. There are tall buildings everywhere, and it looks very nice all lit up at night. My opinion might be a bit skewed by the fact that we had some very poor weather in Shanghai and the fog/smog was thick. The skies are clearer here (for now). Our hotel is right next door to the Forbidden City, where we plan to go tomorrow. It’s alot colder here, but it’s supposed to warm up by the end of the week.

Our hotel was overbooked due to a large tour group’s flights being cancelled, so we agreed to take a room at the hotel next door for tonight. Despite the inconvenience they were very polite about the whole situation, and promised to give us an upgraded room tomorrow. This hotel is just as nice as the other, so it wasn’t a big deal.

No pictures today, but we should have some good ones tomorrow!

We started today by walking down to the river. There was a dense fog (smog?) so the skyline was barely visible (see picture). After that we headed to the Big Bamboo for the 2nd day of the foosball tournament. Dustin and I finished 1st in Open Doubles and Dustin also took first place in Open Singles. Dustin also got 3rd place in the draw-your-partner. We now have a total of 7 trophies that we have no idea how to get home. Luckily, we got the low-down on how to negotiate for fake goods in China, so our mission tomorrow is to go buy a suitcase at a good price. Should be an interesting experience.

Tomorrow afternoon we fly to Beijing. Our stay in Shanghai was much too short. We had a great time at the foosball tournament and met all sorts of interesting people from around the world. But we did not get to see much of the city and the weather has been nothing but rain since we arrived.