TravelStream™ news feed for member brookie on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/brookie en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:13:23 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192111500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192111500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192111500/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:13:23 -0400 Turchin Center= China 2007!!

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Beijing, China

We have arrived!

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Beijing, China

After checking into our Hotel, Beijing's' "Jun Wang Fu," a traditional courtyard style of construction dating back to the Qing Dynasty, Charles took us to a traditional dinner at the "Peking House Restaurant." The dinner consisted of a range of foods that we ate with curious excitement that included a beautiful summer fish, kung pao chicken, a wide range of vegetables cooked in many different ways, lotus flower, a variety of meats, chicken feet, Yanjing Beer and jasmine tea. We had so much food that we were barely able to leave the restaurant whose workers boisterously announced our every move and when new dishes were arriving. After a day of travel, we were all in bed by 7:00 pm! The weather is fantastic at 70's and sunny.

There are 12 million people who live in Beijing, 3 million cars, another 5 million who commute to the city every day and over 10 million bicycles!
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Xi'an, China

This morning came very early, as we were all packed, and check out of our beautiful hotel by 8:00am. After check out, we traveled to Capital Airport, checked our bags, when through security and sat down for a nice breakfast and coffee. The trip to Xian was very smooth and we arrived safely by 2:00pm. We checked into our very modern- fantabulous hotel just outside the city walls. Xian (Chang-an) is known for its City Wall which was revived and still remains around the original city. The wall and towers were built in the 1370's and you can now walk around the wall which is 18km high and 14km wide at its base, in a leisurely 4 hours. The wall is surrounded by a small garden and moat. We were able to venture a nice walk around parts of the wall.

The poverty is readily viewable here, as we are in a smaller city, but a poor one. After dinner, we came back to the hotel, where we obviously now have more convenient internet connections and relaxed and are preparing for leisurely trip to see the terracotta warriors tomorrow.

Today the weather is, again, beautiful and upper 60's and sunny. Athough the air is much more polluted here and you can feel it in your lungs much more. It is the dry season, so the dust is stirred much more by the wind.
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Beijing, China

Sadly- this is our last day in Beijing as the next leg of our trip sweeps us off to another location in China.

Today, although chilly in the lower 60's with very strong winds and sunny, we had a new twist on our sight seeing adventures. We began our day at 7:00am and visited a traditional antique street "Liulichang Antique Street" a long street with antique shops, art supply stores, tea rooms and many other treasures (mostly fake) to be found and had. We continued to Silk Street which is a large three story factory and showroom dedicated to the making of fine silks. The entire group learned how silk is made (all the stage of the silk worm), the different ways the silk is used to make thread or to make fillings for bed quilts. Then we ventured in the show rooms to view the wares that they had for sale. Obviously much too expensive for our tastes, but fascinating, nonetheless.

We took a short walk and visited a local restaurant )Beijing style food that was loud and full and very amazing again!

After waddling out of the restaurant, we traveled to the Pearl Market to test our skills at haggling and our newly obtained skills on learning how to buy pearls and knowing what you are buying. After an hour and a half, we returned to the hotel for a break then a short dinner and back to pack for tomorrows trip to Xian.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192633320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192633320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192633320/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:03:01 -0400 Turchin Center= China 2007!!

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Beijing, China

Wake up calls came early again by 7:30am. We have a full day ahead of us as we will spend on half a day with Xuewu, Xin Xin and their gorgeous 4.5 year old daughter, Shang. We were constantly entertained and enjoyed the day. The weather was a little chiller today at lower 60's with some nice strong winds.

We first visited the Red Gate Gallery (an Austrailian owned gallery located in a portion of the city wall). The Curators, and directors were gracious to host us, and give us a tour. We traveled from there to meet with the curator of collections at the China National Museum. We were able to tour the museum and view several shows including the Beijing 2nd International Calligraphy Exhibition including over 1000 works of scroll based calligraphy.

We were again treated to lunch at the Liu Family Restaurant that is well known, by locals only, for their traditional Beijing style cuisine which tends to be more sweet than what we have experienced already. It was located in a famous hutong which is a side street.

When we arrived back at the bus, Charles was waiting for us for the 2nd part of our day which included (try and guess,...) yep you have it-MORE SHOPPING!! ☺ We went briefly to the Silk Market- even more crazy than Yashou for a few hours and then back to the hotel for a brief rest. We then continued our day to the Guang Opera House (a great little café style opera house, where we enjoyed a performance of "Picking up the Jade Bracelet" and an astounding performance of "The Monkey King" while sipping tea and other refreshments. Followed by a brief, high energy dinner and many jokes told on the bus on our way back to the hotel.

A very long day today, but worth every minute!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192460340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192460340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192460340/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:02:16 -0400 Turchin Center= China 2007!!

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Beijing, China

Whew! Work is hard and tiring ;) As we entered our second day of work, the weather was cooler and windy today- around low 60's but sunny and beautiful still! We began our day fairly early arriving at the infamous Factory 798, which is a disused, massive, converted electronics factory that has been transformed into artist studios and galleries. This sprawling area still has a factory atmosphere with the exposed steam pipes, original roads and signs, and even machinery still left inside the spaces. The art community is, for lack of a better word- FEISTY! We traveled from here to BIAC (Beijing International Art Center) where we visited more studios and met artists, as well as running into the Director of a museum in Portland!

We were treated again to lunch by our hosts Xuewu and Xin Xin (his wife) at an amazing atrium restaurant who main vegetables come from their own garden located in the rear of the restaurant. The food- as always- is yummy!

After we rolled ourselves from lunch, we continued our studio visits. We were greeted with open hearts and minds as we visited the last studios. At the final space, a tea ceremony had been graciously prepared for the guests. We all sat around a special "tea table" and joined in the ceremony while we had what Tim wonderfully termed " a moment of civility." We sat, sipped amazing tea and talked about the artists and their works.

After the final studio for the day, we returned to the hotel and learned how to order from Papa Johns for dinner! ☺ The "drivers" don't actually deliver- you have to pay the cab fare for the "delivery person" to deliver the pizza. As it turns out- unbeknownst to us- shrimp is actually a vegetable! Who knew! After our western style dinner, we retreated to bed at 9!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192800900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192800900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192800900/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:12:01 -0400 Turchin Center= China 2007!!

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Beijing, China

Our first day of official work!

Tim, Joni, Luisa, Chang Li, and Naomi went off to shop!

Hank, Gayle, myself, Carrie, John and Peter went to view art and artist studios in the areas where our contact Xuewu has his studios called the Hubei Center and where factories are converted into artist studios and gallery spaces. We all spent the entire day going from studio to studio where we were greeted with amazing spaces, a variety of teas, artist conversations (with a translator of course), sharing of art, and simply looking at what each artist had to offer. The artistic language of the contemporary art in Beijing is astounding. We learned many facts such as there is only a 20% margin of women artists in the contemporary scene and view works in mediums ranging from traditional Chinese painting, to digital photography (as well as film photography), digital manipulations, sculpture, assemblage, and other mixed medias. After visiting with about 20 artists, we were able to give each artist an ASU T-shirt, a pencil and an ASU Flag! They were all very excited about the two time championships! Some of the artists took us out to lunch at a traditional Inner Mongolian "country cooking' restaurant, whose staff obviously has not seen too many foreigners. During our lunch, about 25-30 members of the staff stood at one end of our table and just watched us. It was very curious to all of us, but we were more curious to them! After a little while, we were all joking and having a great time with the artists and staff of the restaurant, while we discussed new words (it was a surreal moment when I realized that we looked like a modern interpretation of the "Dances with Wolves" scene where Kevin and the "local" chose an item and each learned the word in each respective language.)

After lunch we visited a few more studios and then came back to the hotel, where most of us chose to skip dinner on account of our exhaustion! We are all happy and ready for another day of art viewing and meeting artists at Factory 798! Bed around 9. Weather again has been beautiful with mid 70's and a great breeze!
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Beijing, China

We were able to sleep in until 7:30 on Sunday and began our day with the Panjiayuan Antique Market. We spent several hours here while everyone found treasures and bargained for their treats and gifts. Following the exhausting shopping, we visited the "Peking Duck" for lunch, whose signature dish is none other than Peking duck! MUMMMMMMM! After our filling lunch we then traveled through thousands upon thousands of visitors through Tiananmen Square (which happened to be closed - so we viewed it from across the street) and then onto Dongcheng, The Forbidden City. We took a few hours and roamed the multiple buildings, courtyards, bridges, halls and gardens. We returned to the hotel for a brief stay, where we were finally able to connect to the internet and off to dinner! We dined at the "Peking House" again in our very own room and enjoyed another delicious meal with great foods, fun and company. The weather was again an amazing high 70's and sunny! Back to the hotel for our daily dose of Chinese soap operas, and sleep by 10 pm for some of us.

Everyone seems to be having a wonderful time with little to no drama for the eleven people traveling in such close quarters! Now that we have gained access to the world via internet, we will now be able to up load pictures and exciting updates most days. We are all becoming very proficient with our new silverware! We'll be pros soon!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192800720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192800720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192800720/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:11:16 -0400 Turchin Center= China 2007!!

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Beijing, China

Wake up call at 7am! Another day of sightseeing and nonstop action! We began our first dreary day (a little cold and rainy by heading to the Great Wall at Badaling (the most famous tourist part of the wall.) Halfway there, we decided to detour, where we had the opportunity to visit a Cloisonné Factory (copper pots decorated with enamel.) We were walked through the factory, where we learned all about the cloisonné techniques (how they are made, fired, painted and polished) and we set loose in the factory's show room. After monies changed hands, we were on our way to the Great Wall again. Which proved to be absolutely, positively, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most impressive experience (at least to the moderator) that we have had in a long time. It was not only breath taking, but immense and humbling.

To take a completely different turn of events, we then let loose in the Sanlitun Yashou Clothing Market, where we had our first experience in the life and art of bartering. Joni won the shopping award and is now teaching us all how to bargain and pay the lowest price. The unreal thing is that the Chinese culture does this for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!! AGH! After a short dinner and more money spent, we attended a performance at the Tiandi Theatre, where we witnessed the death defying feats, contortions and the acrobatic skills of the China National Acrobatic Troupe! All performers were between the ages of 4 to 16! After that- bed again by 8. The weather was a little dreary and cold (similar to Boone) until mid day where it brighten up and stay in the 60's and sunny the remainder of the day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192800660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192800660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/brookie/china2007/1192800660/tpod.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:10:12 -0400 Turchin Center= China 2007!!

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Beijing, China

Wake up call at 7am! After a great nights rest, we were all ready for the days' adventures which included sight seeing and lots more food! We begin each day by learning new words and phrases that will assist in our travels such as:

Ni hao= hello and xiexie= thank you. We are all practicing our mandarin skills so we can astound you when we return.

On our sight seeing adventures we visited the "Fragrant Hills Park," the magnificent "Beijing Botanic Gardens," and "The Summer Palace." After spending hours walking around these ancient marvels, we ate dinner at a dumpling house. We didn't know you could put so many items into dumplings. Having Gayle and Naomi has been particularly fascinating as we get to try new and exciting dishes that are vegetarian. Many types of spices, mushrooms, bok choi, cucumbers, zucchini and many other delicious treats. After dinner, we endured a very special treat of visiting Wal-Mart-YES- we went to Wal-Mart in Beijing-, which in its own right was an experience. Back to bed by 7:30pm! The weather is fantastic again at high 70's and sunny with a slight breeze.
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