BEIJING:
Steve's Birthday in Beijing



Peeking over the edge of the Great Wall

A view from one of the towers

On the lookout for invaders

A quiet moment on the steps of the Great Wall

Because Kareem did not speak the language, he had to learn how to express himself without words


All packed and ready to go home! This looks like an ad for Kelty.

The rest of my pictures will be going up later today if all goes well. Cheak back soon!

YANG SHUO continued...
Biking through the countryside
Taking a break from biking to pose on a bridge. Note that Janet is already bleeding.
Kareem and his precious watermelon
Getting ready to climb. Kareem is thinking: "Steve, I hope you know what you're doing."
Hello Kareem!

Hello Steve!

The whole gang and our climbing guides. Shirtless Man was quite friendly and funny and nice, but alas he had a girlfriend.

Steve and Janet in front of Moon Hill

On top of Moon Hill

In a deep, dark place. Someone looks a little frightened

Wading through murky waters in the cave

Mudding

Eating street food

Typical breakfast of steamed buns

On the train for 27 hours going back to Beijing from Guilin. Notice the watermelon, the noodles, and the cards. Enough said.

Pictures!!

Pictures up to 8/4 are one Steve or Kareem's camera, so this is all I have so far. Thank you for your patience. Enjoy!

SHANGHAI
At the train station playing Eucher


YANG SHUO

Kareem and Steve interacting with the local people


View from our balcony


In front of our Hotel


The whole group in front of our Hotel

China Finale

Pictures from my (Janet's) camera will be up tonight if I have the strength. I promise I'll try my best.

8/6
Today was a painful day. We rented bikes from our hotel and went biking around the countryside in Yang Shuo. After getting off the main road, the path wound over bridges and through rice paddies and became bumpy and sometimes narrow. It wasn't long before our first accident. We'll spare you the grusome details. Luckily, we didn't bleed... much... After a few hours of biking/falling around the countryside, the injured took a break and Steve and Kareem continued biking for the afternoon. At one point, they were biking through a tunnel that was so dark they had to keep one hand on the wall for guidence while trying to avoid getting hit by trucks whizzing by. They returned in time for dinner carrying another watermelon (#3) which we ate on our balcony, spitting the seeds over the edge. We met with a woman from a local climbinb-rental place and negotiated a deal to go rock climbing for the next morning. By the way, Steve's technique for negotiating is waving his arms around and Kareem's technique is to smile and giggle (his words).

8/7
We went climbing today. Most of us hadn't been before, so we had varying levels of success. But all of us made it up every cliff we started, so that was good. We took the rest of the day off and went shopping, hung out, and had wontons and street food for dinner.

8/8
Biking again. We were sore from climbing so we took a slower pace. We rode to a local famous mountain called Moon Hill, so named because it is shaped like an arch which someone thought looked like a moon. We just think it looks like an arch. It was ok, but after climbing up and down Yellow Mountain, none of us were very impressed. Afterwards, we took a tour of a cave which was very cool. The first part of the tour took us deep into the cave, wading through pools, and literally wriggling on our stomachs through a small crevice. The second part of the tour involved jumping in a huge pool of mud. I thought this was a little gross and did not partake. The rest of the travelers did and it was extremely fun for them. We biked back to the hotel, went shopping, had dinner of more wontons and street food, and called it a night. We also tried to watch Harry Potter on our DVD player, but alas, it was in Chinese.

8/9
Sadly, it was our last day in Yangshuo. Kareem bought a palm leaf fan that you have to see to believe from an old man for only 2Y, then we got a bus back to Guilin and picked up our last set of train tickets. We purchased yet another whole watermelon (#4) at this point and caught the train back to Beijing in the evening.

8/10
After traveling the whole day, we arrived back in Beijing at 11pm.

8/11
Today was Steve's birthday! Happy Birthday Steve! He turned 24! This is young according to Janet (age 24) but very old according to Kareem (age 22). Anyway, Janet thinks Steve is like a fine wine while Kareem is more of a cheap beer. After spending the morning at the Antique market, we set out that afternoon in search of a place to celebrate Steve's birthday. Oddly, this is the first time in his entire life that Steve has celebrated his birthday BEFORE his twin brother who is 2 minutes older than Steve because it was still the previous day in the US. Yes I know. Whoa. For some reason, we were unable to locate a suitable bar, or even any bar as we walked around Beijing. Once, we saw something that looked like a bar, went in, and then found out that it was only the waiting room for a Karyoke club. Another time, we ending up in some sort of online gaming room. We were about to give up when we saw a promising-looking club called KK. When we went inside, they gave us a gift certificate for Y200! It turns out that the club had just opened and was trying to promote itself. It was like China gave Steve a birthday present. We had a great time. Kareem may have met his future Chinese wife, but sadly, he was unable to get her number or even her name.

8/12
We had a late start getting out to see the main attraction of China: the Great Wall. We walked to Tiananmen Square, took the subway, then took a bus all the way out to the most famous stretch of the wall. Almost as impressive as the wall was the number of people that were there. The wall was not as high as we thought it would be, but it was incredibly long, so we hiked a bit, and took a lot of pictures. We hit traffic coming back since everyone was leaving at the same time, but we stood patiently in a long line for the bus and made it back.

8/13
Another late start. We went shopping.

8/14
Today we went shopping. Again. But this time it was special because we went to the famed Silk Street. It was quite fun because we had an agenda to buy the rest of our gifts for our family and friends, but exhausting and we had to take a break after a couple hours. We finished in time for dinner, then went back, packed everything up, and got ready to go back home.

8/15
After having our last lunch in China, We took a shuttle bus to the airport. There we tried to no avail to change Kareem's itinerary. He was getting stuck in Toronto overnight. Steve left at 5:30pm, I left at 6:30, and Kareem left at 7:30. Steve was supposed to beat us back to the States, but after getting delayed in Toronto, I beat him back by about 20 minutes. Poor Kareem didn't make it back to WV until the next morning.

All in all, it was an eventful trip. We saw a lot of cool stuff, ate some good food, bought some convincing knock-offs, and met some interesting people. We find ourselves once again back in the Motherland a little older, a little wiser, and a lot tanner.

Welcome home!

Fondly,
Janet

China Part 2

Dearest Friends, Family, and Lovers,

Many apologies for the long delay. Our blog was blocked in China and internet access was spotty, so this is the long awaited summary of the remainder of our trip. I supposed the ending is a little spoiled because clearly at least one of us made it back to the Motherland alive.

Still, pictures are coming, so stay tuned!

7/29
Today, we went to the Summer Palace and looked around. It was pretty cool. We had to take the subway and then we were supposed to take a bus, but we had some trouble finding the stop so we had to take a cab the rest of the way. It was a pretty cool place, but the weather was hot as blazes once again. We hiked around the grounds, saw some nice views, and a boat made out of marble. Coming back, we had our first Beijing bus-riding experience. Let's just say that it is not for the faint of heart and leave it at that. When we got dropped off at Tiananmen Square, we were a little disoriented because we knew which direction we had to go, but the sky was so hazy that we couldn't see the sun. We asked about 10 people for directions and many of them told us that it was impossible to walk so far and advised us to take a bus. Clearly they underestimated our walking prowess because we got back in about 20 minutes after figuring out directions.

7/30
This was a big day. The fearless travelers began an epic eleven day journey through China by train. We each packed a backpack and left for Huang Shan at noon.

7/31
Arrived in Huang Shan. We got right down to business and caught a bus to the Yellow Mountain, bought some food rations at a grocery store, and then took a car to the beginning of what is known as the Eastern Steps. We probably hiked up about a million steps for about 4 hours until we reached the top. After taking a short breather and lining up a hostel room for the night, we hiked a little more and found a great lookout spot to watch the sunset. We were literally perched on a cliff and we probably weren't supposed to have climbed up there, but we did anyway due to our reckless natures. Afterwards, Kareem was quite excited to purchase a whole watermelon which we (even Steve who hates all incarnations of melons) promptly devoured after a feast of bread and jerky.

8/1
We woke up at 5 am to watch the sunrise. This was a very romantic and good idea, but unfortunately every other person on the mountain had the same idea, so we didn't get as good a spot as we did to watch the sunset and we did not have any privacy or peace. It was very disappointing. But we began our downward descent down the Western Steps pausing every so often to finish off the watermelon. This path was even more scenic and exciting than the Eastern Steps. At one point, we were hiking between a narrow crack between two cliffs with a rock perched overhead. Near the bottom we were accosted by wild monkeys who tried to steal our bread and jerky! Thankfully, we fended them off and made it to the bottom after a mere 8 hours or so. We got a bus to a small town called Tunxi where we picked up our train tickets and found a nice hotel and purchased Watermelon #2. We rock-paper-scissored for who got to take the first shower and who got to use the big bath towels. Then we got some late lunch and inadvertently ordered $200 yuan eel. The bill for this meal was more than our hotel room for the night. That night, we had a nice dinner at a small restaurant where we picked our dishes from fresh ingredients on display in the fridge then walked down a place called Old Street and did some window shopping. This would be the first of many days where we went shopping...

8/2
We printed out some nice pictures of our trip so far at a little printshop to use as postcards. We returned to Old Street where a brown T-shirt caught the eye of Kareem. After negotiating for a while, Kareem bought his first new shirt in years!Now you must understand that if you are a T-shirt, belonging to Kareem is a great honor due to a rigourous selection process. We left for Shanghai that evening.

8/3
Arrived in Shanghai and went out in search of a hotel. We met a woman who showed us a hotel that was basically pretty awful. We became discouraged and went shopping in a touristy part of town after lunch. After buying some Rolexes, it started raining and we begain our hotel search again in earnest. We found a place close to the train station and went out for dinner and Janet bought a tiny carton of ice cream which cost 35Y (about $5 US).

8/4
We got up bright and early to catch our train. When we got there 15 minutes before boarding, we discovered that there are TWO train stations in Shanghai and we were at the wrong one! We missed our train by about 10 minutes after taking a subway to the correct station. However, the office was able to fix this problem quite easily and we were put on a train for that evening. Since we were spooked about missing the train, we spent the day at the station just to be sure we wouldn't miss it. We were able to get into a enclosed, air conditioned VIP area for 1st class ticket holders and spent hours playing cards. We were introduced by Kareem to the wonderful world of Eucher, a mysterious card game we had never heard of involving winning 'tricks', a complex point system, and left and right bar trump cards. Janet we discovered is quite bad at all manner of card games or even anything involving some level of thinking.

8/5
We arrived in a town called Guilin in the afternoon and went straight to a place called Yangshuo. We found a hotel called the Bamboo House quite easily where we stayed on the very top floor with a fantastic view of the city. This is a very touristy place and we decided to go shopping down the main street.

That's all for tonight. The rest of the update should be up tomorrow and there also may be pictures up as well. Good night/morning!

Even More Pictures

The gang is away for 12 days. Here are some more pictures to enjoy

More Pictures

We are catching a train shortly and will be gone for a week or so. If we get internet access, we will provide an update. In the meantime, enjoy some more pictures.

Dear viewers,
We first like to apologize for our delayed posting. China is a very big country with many people, yet they have a limited number of webspace available. Unfortunately, this website is not currently available to us directly. We are using a 3rd party person that has generously agreed to assist us with the postings. We will try our best to get as many postings out, so stay strong and visit often.
As for China, we got a late start. Our plane was delayed 2 hours in Toronto due to a mechanical problem that was miraclously fixed. However, our plane had to stop in Vancouver to "get some gas" as a result of the mechanical problem, and the 13 hour plane ride turned into 18 hours. But, once we got to China everything went smoothly.

Day 1
July 21
Arrived in Beijing too late to do anything but go to bed. Poor Janet had to wait at the Chinese airport for 8 hours, but her dad showed up and took her to lunch. Lucky for us, Janet is a patient woman.

Day 2
July 22
We went to a place called the pearl market where Steve bought out the Northface jacket store. He bargained his way down to a fair price. Kareem almost had a concussion after he hit his head on a pole crossing the street trying to avoid a woman who wanted Kareem's half-full bottle of water. He made us promise to take him to the hospital if he lost consciousness and he wanted us to check his pupillary light reflexes just in case. Lu's grandmother applied a magical ointment to the bruise on Kareem's forehead and it magically disappeared after only 3 days.

Day 3
July 23
Forbidden City
We went to the Forbidden Palace and walked around. A lot of places were closed because of renovations for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. We hiked to the top of a mountain behind the palace and got a great view and some great photage. Kareem was able to dress up like a Chinese emporor and we took turns posing as his concubines.

Day 4 - 6
July 24 - 26
We left that day for the countryside where Lu spent all of her childhood summers. It was about a 3 hour ride there and we were promtly and warmly welcomed by dozens of aunts, uncles, neighbors, great-somethings, and cousins. We spent a lot of time eating and toasting each other and hanging out at a milk shop where one of Lu's relatives worked. While there were many warm bags (not bottles) of milk there, we didn't really drink that much milk. But we met lots of cool milkmen and milkwomen. They were really quite taken with Steve and Kareem and taught them Chinese and learned English from them. They asked us to stay an extra day so we did. This was the hilight of the trip so far.

July 27
We left the countryside at 5:30 am to get to the bus station where we just caught the bus pulling out. After getting back to Beijing, we rested then took a leisurely stroll through the Temple of Heaven which is pretty much the best park any of us have ever seen.

July 28
Today was a very special day. We took care of all of our tickets for traveling around China. It was a long and arduous process like you would not believe. We got back, had lunch, and then took a cab back to the Forbidden City where it took us about 2 hours to find a place to rent bikes. The Lonely Planet told us about a place across the street from a peking duck restaurant and next to a hotel. Oddly, we found a place that fit this description, but it was only a bike parking lot. After another hour, we realized that we had been walking down the wrong street. We biked around the Forbidden City and historic parts of the city called Hutong for about 2 hours.

That's all so far. We're leaving Monday for Huangshan and we'll try to post pictures as soon as we get to Guilin, but no promises.

Love,
Kareem, Janet, Steve, and Lu

Back in the Motherland

Hello!

Well, the weather in Chile took a turn for the worse and to make a long story short, all three travelers are back in the USA. Kareem is in WV, Steve is in NC, and Janet is in TX. Thanks for reading about our adventures! We're leaving for Beijing, China in a month so we have a lot of planning to do!

Janet, Steve, and Kareem