Forbidden Crowds

China is home to 1.4 billion people, 20%, of the world and Beijing alone houses 20 million of those people which doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands of tourist (mostly Chinese) in the city on any given day! This can only partially explain the crowds of people we encountered at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City early Sunday morning. Imagine living in a country where you are 1 in a billion, personal space is slim to none and nobody is going to help you find your way through the crowd. Pushing and shoving your way to the top, I mean front, is a way of life. Sorry, excusing me, opps, or pardon me do not exist in China, not in English definitely and although I don’t speak Chinese I’m certain not in Chinese either.

This is something I swear I will never ever be able to get used to as a Westerner. I can get past the food and the traffic (sometimes) and the clothing and the language (with some struggle) but the pushing and shoving, the standing right up against me and cutting in line will always be foreign to me. It’s amazing how much I learn about my own culture by visiting other cultures. Often I think about what amazing cultural history the countries have that I have visited and find myself thinking how cultureless America seems at times. But as I have immersed myself into these 3rd world, culture rich, countries over the past two years I have come to realize and understand that America is rich in culture, although it may not exist through sights like temples and statues it does exist in the people and how we interact with one another, we have so much social culture. Yes there are the exceptions, there are always exceptions to every generalization but as a whole I find we are friendly to each other, give each other space when walking through the streets or lining up, wait our turn, and say our pleases and thank yous.

Inside the Forbidden City

Now that I’ve ventured much further from my original topic then intended I regress back to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Mimi and I planned to arrive at the Forbidden City at 8:30am, opening time, to avoid what we were certain would be mass amounts of crowds. Well we weren’t the only ones with this plan. It seemed that half of China was thinking the same thing! The only comparison I can closely relate the crowds to is the starting line of the sold out New York Marathon. I’m sure everyone has seen the Chinese tourist groups in the US and other places with the tour guide carrying the flag and everyone on the tour in their matching hats or shirts, well multiply this times 1000 and you have sight seeing in China! It was un real!

I wish I could say that things got better once inside and we got to spread out and enjoy the sights of the Forbidden city quietly. Although the crowds continued throughout our time inside the Forbidden city it wasn’t unbearable. The sights and sounds were refreshingly new and unique to anything we’ve seen on any of our trips in the past two years. Everything was so uniquely China and designed just how you would expect it to be. As we walked around the Forbidden city and the streets of China we realize more and more that China towns at home aren’t quite as hokey as we had thought, it’s really how it is!

Front of Forbidden City

Next up the Great Wall… it was stunning more than I had imagined!

Yangshuo

The limestone hills just barely visible through the fog.

 The first 2 days in China were spent in a beautiful town named Yangshuo.  We had looked into renting bicycles, taking a hot air balloon flight, and rafting down the river while enjoying the stunning views Yangshuo had to offer... well it was rainy, cold and foggy the entire time we were there : (  Although we didn't get to do any of the things we had planned on doing our time spent in Yangshuo was not a total disappointment.  Most of the trips we have taken have been so rushed and hurried that we are exhausted the whole time (not a bad thing) but this time we were able to relax, drink some tea, and walk around leisurely.

The hills lit up at night.

Next stop Beijing!  Enough relaxing, now onto busy days and nights... 

Sleeper Bus

A little background...
Hong Kong was under a 100 year British rule until 1997 when the land was handed back over to China.  When the British lease of the land expired in 1997 they made a deal with China that things in Hong Kong would stay the way they were for 50 years.  So to visit Hong Kong there is no visa needed.  Many people actually apply for their mainland China visa while in Hong Kong.

Leaving Hong Kong and entering mainland China was much easier then either of us expected.  We jumped on the metro, took it to the end of the line where we literally walked across the boarder (a first for both Mimi and I).  We walked right to the bus station where we were off on our next adventure... overnight sleeper bus to Yangshuo.  As we were standing there waiting for our bus to arrive I wasn't sure what I had gotten us into.  Surprisingly it was MY idea to take the 8 hour overnight sleeper bus.  I thought I had remembered reading somewhere that there would be beds on the bus but as bus after bus pulled up with just normal charter bus style seats I began to second guess myself.    Shortly after loosing hope that we would have something semi comfortable to sleep in our bus pulled up and amazingly was full of beds!  It was surprisingly comfortable, each little bed pod had a pillow and blanket, it was clean (we had to take off our shoes before entering the bus) and there was safe storeage for my purse in a compartment under the matress.

We were pleasently surprised at how much we were actually able to sleep and if my memory serves me correctly there are the same style buses in Southeast Asia which we are looking forward to taking advantage of the overnight travel/accommodations this summer.

Mimi on the bottom bunk

Top bunk!

Land of Shopping...

Pretty much explains Hong Kong, We spent three full days walking the streets of Hong Kong ogling the high end stores and shopping the lower end stores and street markets. After two years in India, land of no western shopping we were definitely having trouble holding back and not buying everything and anything we saw that we liked.

Behind our hostel, Ah Shan, the streets were lined with sports stores filled with any and every kind of sneaker you could ever want! Next to that also in Kowloon, the neighborhood we stayed in, there were markets lining the streets.

I managed to hold back the first day didn’t buy anything. That of course didn’t last long by the second day we found a Roxy store and by the third day found our way into an H&M… JACKPOT!! I loaded up on some summer clothes for my trip this summer to Southeast Asia, pretty excited to get out of the same old clothes I’ve been wearing for the past two years in India.

The Taj

Mimi and I both had pretty low expectation when we started out on our adventure to see the Taj.  We have been in India for almost 2 years now and have avoided Delhi at all costs because of the horror stories we have heard and read about western women visiting.  Well I can't say those stories were all false, we had a few uncomfortable encounters but overall we had a surprisingly excellent weekend in Delhi. 

5:30 and we were up and out the door to catch a two hour train to Agra.  The train ride was suprisingly pleasent and involved beautiful views of wheat fields.  By 8:30am we arrived in Agra and were able to beat most of the crowds and within an hour or so the skys blued up to make a beautiful backdrop for the pearly white Taj Mahal.

After our Taj visit and a wonderful lunch at The Silk Route restaurant we thought we would try to change our tickets and ride home with Kate and Billie on an earlier train... well things didn't go according to plan.  Kate had accidentily booked a train ticket home for five AM instead of five PM...  Well long story short we got Kate and Billie a ticket back on our 8:30pm train and spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in a cool coffee house killing time.  10:30pm we arrived back in Delhi to a packed train station, Inida was playing Sri Lanka in the World Cup finals and before we were able to get an auto home the game had come to an end and India had won.  The streets went crazy, people cheering and chanting as they drove by on motorcycles and out windows of cars, dancing in the streets, and fireworks going off in each other's faces.  AND Billie slept the whole auto ride home!



The train station during the cricket game!

 The next day to be spent in Delhi was the surprise... we actually enjoyed our day and not just a little bit a lot.  Check out some of the sights we saw below.



The President's Estate



The India Gate.... facing the President's Estate.



Janta Manta... an old astrological measurement building using the sun and shadows.



The Lotus Temple

Olive Ridley

Every year since 1987 a group of volunteers have walked the beaches here in Chennai between December and April searching the beaches at night for turtle nests.  When the nests are found they measure the nest and collect the eggs.  The eggs are then taken to a fenced in, monitored, area where the nest is rebuilt (as close to the size of the original nest as possible) the eggs are placed in the nest and within about 45 days the eggs hatch.  When the turtles hatch they are released at night into the ocean.  This is all done in an effort to conserve and raise awareness of the endangered Olive Ridley turtle.  The adult turtles return to the beaches where they were born to lay their eggs but once the eggs are laid the turtles return to the ocean never again to return to the nest.  Along the beach these little unborn turtles have many predators but thanks to the volunteers they are given a chance to survive.

This past Friday night I spent a few hours at sundown on the beach holding some baby turtles and watching them be released into the ocean.  It was so special, they were sooo teeny, I couldn't believe it!  Mimi had arranged for her 1st grade class to meet there in the evening since they have been studying animals and the differences between mammals and non mammals.  The kids were so amazed by the turtles and so excited to be able to hold them.  At the time of the release the children lined up on the beach to watch the baby turtles find their way to the ocean.  As the first turtle made it to the water line the children all cheered and clapped, it was precious!

*For more information check out this website... http://sstcn.org/

There were 45 baby turtles in there!

My Birthday

The beautiful flowers I received from my mom/Mimi : )

My 28th birthday was on Wednesday and for me spending my birthday away from family is probably one of the toughest days to be living abroad away from my family.  It was such a wonderful day thanks to my friends, family and students though!  I started the day with flowers and brownies from my 3rd graders and their parents!  They were so sweet and so excited to help me celebrate my birthday, I couldn't stop smiling!  Then I had more flowers delivered from my mom, with the help of Mimi of course!  All day long I survived on brownies and sweets delivered from friends, including a homemade spice cake from Mimi, how wonderful!!  I ended the day at the House of Hope doing an art project with the kids and as I was leaving they each gave me a sweet card they had made for me... they are such wonderful children!

THANKS for all who made my special day so special!!!