Beijing In Five Days

Silk Market

I stepped out from the airport with a huge smile on my face observing people, places and the beautiful climate, it was completely different from Singapore (was starting to enjoy 0 degree to -2 degree).  After dropping off my luggage at the hotel, Scott and I went for dinner and visited the Silk Market to buy some warm clothing to wear during my 5 day visit to Beijing.

How they market and price items for sale at the Silk Market made me laugh.  Everyone in the shop speaks English and eager to sell you something, just be prepared to be annoyed by the sales ladies and their persistence.

In the evening we stopped by the "Hard Rock Cafe" and enjoyed watching the Filipino band rock the house.  We also took the opportunity to enjoy a few great drinks.

                                                                                                                    

Summer Palace

I woke up early the following morning to meet my tourist guide and prepared for my 2^nd day trip.  My tour guide, Carol, planned a full day for me, with visits to 5 interesting places.  The first spot she brought me to was the “Summer Palace”.  If you are looking for a place for a walk to enjoy nature and history “Summer Palace” is the perfect place to visit.  This palace was more impressive to me than the Forbidden City.  The "Summer Palace" has varied scenery and a more natural feel with lakes and trees.  Nature is the function of this place.

We spent several hours in this park; the park is huge, with lots of temples and spectacular architecture.  Summer Palace is good for a day out with lots to do for every taste.  You can spend your time at the art galleries (ceramics, calligraphy, woodwork, jade-art and paintings are on display) or the markets and souvenir shops.

Forbidden City           

This is the place where the royals of ruling dynasties stayed. Forbidden City would give you an insight in to Chinese history.  Buildings are well preserved in contrast to the modern architecture of the remaining city.

 

There are really cool rock formations throughout the garden and it's quite a cheerful display of beautiful old cyprus and juniper trees. The atmosphere was really relaxed, with many of locals also enjoying the area.

These is the largest stone crafts inside Forbidden City as I observed that there's a lot of crafted rocks in this area (maybe one of the emperors loved rocks) but absolutely stunning.

3^rd place we visited was for lunch, Carol brought me to popular Chinese restaurant nearby Forbidden City. 

Pearl Factory

Although I’m not a pearl lover the pearl factory amazed me.  The pearls were absolutely beautiful.  The sales girl did an excellent job doing demo for me and my fellow tourists on how they get pearls using an oyster pearl.  Make a guess how many pearl inside?  It was a lot, around 10 to 15 pieces of pearls depend on the oyster pearl size.

She taught us how to identify a real pearl versus a plastic pearl by demonstrating that a real pearl gives you pearl powder when you rub two of them together but a plastic pearl does not, but a very slippery outcome.

Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven is on the 'must-see' for travelers.  If I remember correctly, it's a Taoist temple used for ceremonies to pray for good harvest. The park is huge and the temple is massive. 

Seeing the locals here is one of the great things about the park. You will find some talented musicians singing and playing folk songs, or dancing to music blaring from small portable speaker systems.

Carol told me that the temple of heaven front architecture represents earth and big pool on the right was sacrificing area during ancient times.

Tea House

For those tea drinkers, this house will make you appreciate the real goodness of tea and will let you learn the benefits that is right for you and good for your health,there were free samples to taste I tried tea, jasmine, oolong, green tea, and black tea.  I enjoyed the taste of Oolong tea, it was so smooth and sweeter after a sip or two. Unfortunately cameras are not allowed, so I took photos outside the tea house.

After visiting tea house she returned me back to my hotel and notice the time was 4:00pm, explaining why I was so completely tired.  I rested an hour to get ready again for my dinner and to take more photos.

             

Alien Street

We visited a weird place called “Alien Street”, well sounds very weird and the name makes me smile.  We checked the place after having dinner, but unfortunately we did not see anything weird (it was just a street name and shopping malls) except people staring at us tourists, LOL....So we sat down and grabbed some coffee and later returned back to hotel.

The following morning (my 3^rd day) I was very excited about my trip. Today I had 4 destination to check out, 1^st is “The Great Wall”, 2^nd Jade Factory, 3^rd Ming Tomb and lastly the Silk Factory.

I have been dreaming about seeing the Great Wall since I was 9 yrs old and learning world history. So this time I’m like a child, very excited to see the wall. It was about 1 ½ hour from my hotel, smiling with the 4 Bulgarian people looking at me.

 

It was very cold (-2) and windy when we reached the Great Wall. My tour guide told everyone to hold hand-rail going up to the Great Wall for safety; it takes a few minutes to go up but it is worth the walk.  After we reached the top I was amazed at what I saw (for the longest time I thought that it was made of bricks or hallow blocks) ...the wall is made of crafted stones!!!

Imagine the lives sacrificed to build the wall, people worked 16 hours a day without sufficient food or water, generation by generation wasted their lives to build the wall that protected their countrymen. It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall.

After 2 hours walking on top of Great Wall and taking some photos while freezing, I bowed down my head at the corner and spent a few minutes of prayer for the people who died there. “Prayer as a priceless gift appreciation”

Jade Factory

As we are prepared to see the 2^nd place, called “Jade Factory”, my tour guide was sharing things about jade.  I had always thought jade was only green colour, but I was wrong.  Jade consists of a variety of colours. Most emperors loved jade as they believed that jade represented long life, good health and beauty. Also that jade reflected your behaviour identity, most Chinese people know about this belief.  The clearer the jade you wore the purer heart you have.                 

The subjects on the following photos are made of pure jade.

If you think that the white wall in the middle is ordinary wall, nope you are wrong; this is white, yellow and green jade.

Green Jade

Jade Accessories

Statues made of jade

Jade table sets 

Green Jade, I think most ladies like the most, like I do.

I bought earrings for myself as a remembrance, with the character written on the middle is my last name in Chinese.  After checking the jade we went to restaurant to the 3^rd floor of the building to eat lunch.

Ming Tomb

I don’t know the history of Emperors in China. My tour guide Carol said that Emperor Ming was the friendliest emperor in China.  The Sacred Way was the walkway to the Ming Tombs area used by the Emperors. During the tour you will be dropped off at one side of this walkway and picked up at the other end. 

About half way through, stone figures appear on either side of the walkway, first, that of lesser animals, followed by the more important animals, followed by soldiers and then that of ministers - well, at least that was my observation. I thoroughly enjoyed this walk, with willow trees lining both sides of the path.

Asis Photo Trek

During my last two days in Vietnam I decided to stay in Saigon.  The plan being to see what interesting photos I could capture in and around the city versus traveling to a location outside of the city to take photos.

Although I tried to stay away for the tourist spots I did manage to stumble into the Reunification Place and snap a few photos.  Nothing too interesting; however, they do tell a story about the countries history, and I think including a little history lesson on every trip is well worth the effort. 

I also photographed some other interesting pieces of Saigon architecture at night, as they are very impressive with all the lights.

 

Opera House

 

City Hall

As the date for the Lunar New Year approaches (14 Feb) the city gets busier and more decorations get put in place in preparation for the big celebration.  It's too bad that I can not stay for the celebration, as I am sure that it would have been an incredible experience.

 

Lunar New Year Celebration Decorations

Golden Tiger - This is the year of the Tiger

The following series of photos are of the moped and how effectively it is used by the Vietnamese people to transport almost anything.  It really is amazing to see and an great example of the creativity of the people living in Saigon.  Needless to say, you would never see something like this in Canada, as we are way too wrapped up in driving huge SUVs.  I guess it would also be hard to haul a snowmobile on the back of a moped.

 

Moped and picture frame.  Just two ladies out for a day of shopping.  I wonder how many trips it takes to do a full day of shopping?

Moped and balloons.  I am sure they are just for the New Year celebration.  I watched this guy for a bit of time, and for some odd reason he was having a tough time with the wind.  I wonder why?

 

Moped and cooking oil.  I wonder if they are full cans?  Now that would be heavy.

Another picture frame.  I wonder who was the lucky one to carry the glass for that frame?

Moped and empty containers.  Can you imagine if they were full?

Moped and produce.  I am not sure, but I think this is the John Deere of mopeds ;-P

Moped and flowers.  I am sure this guy was just making a delivery.

Moped and ???.  Your guess is as good as mine.  Good use of packing tape though.

Moped and family.  I have seen up to 5 people on a single moped, so this one actually has room for two more people.

Moped and ...................wheel chair.  It took me until they actually passed by for me to figure out what was being carried.  Oddly enough I did not see any handicap parking decal on the moped.

Moped parking.  And this is just s small parking lot.  Mopeds can be found parking in pretty much every corner of the city, and even in the lobby of the hotel.

Moped and empty coke bottles.  I tried to get one of the guy hauling the full bottles; however, I was not quick enough with the camera.  I also tried to capture one of a guy hauling cases of beer.

So this ends my visit to Saigon.  My next blog entry will be from Thailand.  Although there are no stunning landscape, or sunset photos in my first blog postings the photos do hopefully provide some insight into what it is like in Saigon.  I wish that I had more time, as there are lots of other things to see and do in Vietnam, outside of Saigon.

Asia Photo Trek

I have been in Saigon for 4 days now and must say that I think the place is pretty cool....but not literally, as it is sunny and hot every day.  Yes, there are a lot of people, lots of traffic, poverty lurking around every corner; however, the city does have a certain appeal....after you get over some of the visual shock(s).  Anybody that has never experienced this part of the world needs to jump on a plane and see what they have been missing, especially North Americans that just do not appreciate what they have.

On day 4 of my trip I took a hydrofoil ride to the town of Vung Tau.  The trip in the hydrofoil takes 90 minutes and only costs 160 Dong ($8 USD).  The ride in the old Russian hydrofoil is pretty cool, fast and smooth compared to traditional boats.  A definite must if you visit Saigon.

My time in Vung Tau was only 4 hours, which really was not enough to check out all the sites.  However, it did give me the opportunity to check out a few interesting places and warrant me putting this destination on the list of places to come visit for a couple of days in the future.  Vung Tau is known for it's  beaches, which I did not visit as I not a big beach person; however, I do like to see take photographs of  that tell a story.  For example this photo of the fishing boats tell a story of hard working people.

In addition to the beach Vung Tau is known for the large statue of Jesus standing high on a  hill and looking out to sea.  To get to the statue take a short taxi ride from the ferry terminal. The cost for the ferry is very reasonable and a much better option than walking, as it too hot and way to far from town (at least on a hot day).

Unfortunately, upon arriving at the destination you will have to walk up a lot of steps to get close to the statue.  Trust me, the views from the top are worth the hike.  Hikers will also be rewarded with the opportunity to climb more steps inside the statue and out along one of the extended arms (inside) to yet another great view.

Day 5, and a side trip across the river to visit Thu Thiem.  This urban part of Ho Chi Minh has no beaches, fancy museums or large parks.  Words cannot explain the living conditions in Thu Thiem; therefore, I will rely on these photos to try and explain what I experienced after getting off the ferry from Saigon.

Note that Thu Thiem is only a 5 minute ferry ride across the river from Ho Chi Minh city, but the differences between the city and Thu Thiem are huge.

 

I tried to focus on good people of Vietnam and their humble lives rather than emphasize the living/environment within which they are forced to live.  I hope people see the beauty in the photos.  More to be provided in the gallery(s) that I will create and publish at the end of my trip.