Holiday in USA (2)

In my last blog I covered the first part of my trip from LA to Iron Mountain to New York City. Now we left the heat of NYC by coach to go to the heat of Washington DC, but with great blue skies. Here I am at the US Capitol building, just like the one in Havana...well almost.

Cuba's is smaller for sure! I was lucky to be there 6 years ago.

We met this funny guy ( I mean the one on the right) who wanted to join the other clowns in Congress!

We enjoyed a slow walk down the National Mall, which will look really good when the renovation works are finished. Of course we stopped off at some of the great Museums along the way.

The National Gallery of Art is in a beautiful building and the new wing by I. M. Pei was also wonderful to walk around in. He really likes triangles, doesn't he? He used them in Beijing (Xiangshan Hotel, Bank of China building) as well as in Paris.

I was so happy to see the 12 animal signs of the Chinese zodiac. Here I am beside my animal sign, the rat. That gives away my age now. 

 

 

I got a great photo of the White House at dusk. I waved to President Obama but I didn't see him wave back. We left DC just in time before the thunderstorms which cut off electricity for several days. Just imagine what it was like with no air con! That never happened to us in Beijing so far, though we did have problems with flooding of the roads.

Our next stop was Miami, such a famous tourist resort but we came during the hot off-peak season. The Hispanic influence is very strong here, and we treated ourselves to a great Latino barbeque buffet.

 

At Miami Beach, there is a mixture of different beaches for different interests, (we even had a peek at the nude one but no photos sorry) and at South Beach, a large collection of art deco buildings. Some in this style remain in Shanghai but none in Beijing.

I guess it's a fun town when all the tourists are here, but quite expensive. Saw some party glasses.

 

Do you think they suit me?













There were lots of seafood restaurants....

cheap cocktails especially giant sized mojitas....

and all kinds of bar entertainment, such as this drag show.

We then went on to our last stop Fort Myers to see some old friends who had travelled with us a lot in China and now it was our turn to see how they lived. A big thanks to y'all who made our trip so enjoyable.

We got a very warm welcome, and saw that our friends lived as a very close family, just like in China. We tasted all sorts of yummy home cooked and southern restaurant food. It was also mango season there so we had lots of those.

Here's a typical brunch.......

We went to see the historic centre of Fort Myers, which looked quite new and modern to us, but that's because anything over 100 years old is called historic there. We also went to an art collectors home......

and admired lots of "historic" goodies, including several Chinese pieces....

 

.....and a pair of Foo Dogs, which we call stone lions, just like outside any important person's home in China, including the emperor's (have you seen the ones at the Forbidden City or Summer Palace?). Mind you these were not carved out of marble or cast in bronze......but the male and female were in the correct place on either side of the main door.

Visiting Minority Peoples in China

The majority of Chinese people are Han Chinese comprising over 90%+ of all Chinese people. The rest belong to 57 different minority groups and many sub groups. The most diverse groups live in South China and especially Yunnan province where it is easy to visit many different groups in one province. Here you see Mosuo women dancing at Lugu Lake near LiJiang. They live around a beautiful lake high in the mountains and do not marry. The Zhrung and Yeo people, with some shown here with their long hair that they cut only once in their lifetime, can be visited outside of Guilin near the rice terraces of Longsheng. The Tibetan man singing is from the area of Shangrila high up in the mountains in northwest Yunnan a half day's drive from LiJiang or a short flight from Kunming. Each minority group has their own dress and customs some of which are very unusual to us. The Hani men retire when they get married and the women do all the work and earn the family income. If there is a divorce later however the women gets everything and the man gets the clothes on his back. I am sure he treats her well! An extra week of travel in China for this area will be very interesting or as a second or third trip to China you may spend more time in this unique area. Xishuangbanna in the very south of Yunnan province is semi-tropical and has the only airport in southern Yunnan. Botanical Gardens and 13 minority peoples live in this area which is also a good place to visit during the late Fall, winter or early spring. For more information on the Minority peoples of China let us hear from you. Email us at interlak@eskimo.com

Visiting Villages in China

When visiting China it is often difficult to decide what you want to see in the few weeks you may have to tour the country. China is as large as the U.S. A private tour put together by a specialist in China is the best method and can often be less expensive than a group standard tour. Of course most want to see the popular sights such as the Forbidden City, Great Wall, Terra Cotta Warriors and others. These are located in the large cities but many people want to also see the traditional sights of China but do not know where to go. Small villages are the best places to see the real China such as the photos here taken by a young person on her recent trip to China with her mother. She visited this village where she was adopted from. I like to select villages to visit based on three types. 1. Villages that cater to tourists with shops. 2. Villages that have shops but with products for local people's needs    3. Villages with no shops but interesting to see as they go about during their daily lives. I have such places that I have visited over the past 25 years and send my clients to these according to their interests. Even short visits perhaps only to Beijing, Xian and Shanghai; there are interesting villages not far from Shanghai that you can visit in one day. For more information on visiting China continue to read my blog as I try to write often keeping readers informed of the latest travel information on ever changing  China.

  I am always glad to answer questions or help and you may contact me at interlak@eskimo.com     My friends refer to me as ChinaDave  .

Buying A Train Ticket in China

For tourists it can be confusing to buy a train ticket while in China as the policies have changed with the addition of the new FAST trains. Prior to this year one could only buy a train ticket 4 days in advance of the departure and then only from the city you were in to your next destination. You could not buy tickets for your entire trip from one location. This has all changed now but still not uniform in all cities. Here is a direct quote from my Chinese Associate Partners when asked about purchasing train tickets in China. "Most train tickets can be purchased 10 to 12 days in advance EXCEPT during the Chinese New Year season when the tickets are sold only 5 to 7 days in advance. Each city may have a different policy. One can buy tickets for most cities ONLY on the internet or by telephone but not at the ticket offices or agents. For the new FAST trains one must show their ID card or passport to get the tickets since the railway launched a REAL-NAME SYSTEM. For some very popular destinations, train tickets can be difficult to purchase through the normal channels." Confusing? Yes, even the Chinese public is often confused. One of the real reasons is to help stop the "Scalping" of tickets which has been the case often with popular routes especially the Fast trains in which Chinese businessmen will pay to get those tickets at the last minute. For tours we are able to buy tickets for tours without any problems in advance as tourists are important to their economy. For more up to date information contact us at interlak@eskimo.com

Holiday in USA

I went on a long trip for a few weeks round USA in June and had a great time visiting friends and relatives. Sometimes it was quite like being in China, other times quite different.

Our first stop was Monterey Park, Los Angeles, which is called "Little Taipei" and is one big Chinatown full of Chinese from not just Taiwan, but also Hong Kong and
mainland China.
                          

We attended a birthday celebration for some relatives, Chinese food of course, with traditional Chinese and Western features. Banquet food is much cheaper in USA, and we stuffed ourselves almost everyday in LA, and had more lobster in one week than in several years in Beijing! Over 45 people attended, so you can see what a big family it is, since there are even more than that not in the picture who are left behind in mainland China.

                              

Four generations under one roof and at one dinner!

Traditional Western Cake, no room for candles, since two 80yr olds and one 90 yr old! Guess which is which!

Traditional Chinese longevity peaches, not as sweet as cake but healthier perhaps

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Newest family member Alex was a popular star, and he enjoys eating as much as we do.

Then we moved away from the big city to spend a few days in the country, a place called Iron Mountain....ever heard of it? People asked why were we going there, it is not on the usual tourist track, but we had good friends from Beijing who had been there 15 years. The air fare was surprisingly expensive since our destination was a small town, and you have to pay extra for meals and check in baggage. That's quite different to China!

Our friends had worked hard to realise their American dream by opening a Chinese restaurant, .....raise 2 kids, build their own house, own cars and even a boat, go fishing and golfing. If one buffet meals costs USD 7.95, you can imagine how meals they had to sell to have their present lifestyle. They took us out fishing, my first time, and I even caught some fish! The sky was so blue! I hope one day Beijing will be like that!


We had a delicious meal with steamed fish that night, Chinese style!

We had wanted to take our friends out, but there really were no restaurants doing good food in the whole town, just lots of fast food burgers and pizzas.

Next stop was New York, and it was either rainy or really hot there. 

We visited the Twin Towers site and saw the new 1 WTC rising fast. The 104 storey skyscaper is already taller than the Empire State building and will be the tallest building in the West when completed next year. I am happy to say there will be a China Centre on floors 64-69. Also it is interesting that the building is octagonal in shape...it seems like Western architects also like the number 8 which is considered lucky in China.

We Chinese like to eat well, preferably 3 cooked meals a day (and not fast food!), so we take a big interest in the local markets. This one in NYC had a huge variety of fruit and vegetables, all in such good, almost perfect condition. I hope for that price they really taste a lot better than what I usually buy in my local market.

 And cakes are something I cannot buy in my local market!

 Times Square, and again I was happy to feel at home again when I saw the adverts and pictures coming from Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.

Something I have not seen in China is the Gay Pride parade. It was really interesting to see so many people on 5th Avenue cheering the participants on their 3 hour parade. Even a state governor, police, international groups all showed support....I don't know how many years we have to wait for such a parade to happen in China.

 The variety of dress and uniforms was amazing, almost as colourful as the Carnival in Rio.

The last stop was the Stonewall Inn where it all started in 1969. Wow, 43 years ago and the US has made much progress, but gay marriage or civil unions are still not recognised. I hope we don't have to wait so long in China!