Xuankong Si - The Hanging Monastery

Just 50 miles south of Datong is the Hanging Monastery dating back over 1,400 years. It is held up by poles driven into the cliff as well as being supported from below. It can all be toured although no monks have occupied it for several years. I have included it in my packaged tour which I call the Ancient Capitals tour but can be included in any private custom tour too. Between Datong and Taiyuan there are many sites to stop and visit such as the largest Wooden Pagoda in China, caves that people live in yet today, villages built semi-under ground, mansions once lived in by rich land owners and now open to the public as museums and much more. This is an itinerary that starts in Beijing, goes to Datong, Taiyuan, Pingyao, into Xian and over to Luoyang before going back to Beijing or on to Shanghai. Tours to China has been my business and passion for 25 years exploring and visiting the remote corners of this culture rich country.

Merry Xmas from Beijing and Happy Holidays!

(Courtesy of Four Seasons Courtyard Hotel, near Drum Tower)

It's not actually snowing here, cold and crisp but with lovely blue sunny skies. The ski slopes are open, the carol singers are singing and there are many chances to have Xmas lunches and dinners and drinks. There is some Xmas spirit ( and lots of love) in the air, but mainly in hotels and shopping centres.

Even the rickshaw driver has got the right festive colour for his rickshaw.

It seems Santa changes to riding a horse when he gets to China!

Interesting mix of Chinese and Western styles (Shanghai shikumen)

Smiling waitresses at a restaurant where Santa was serving "Angry Milk Tea"

Chinese knots with the 'fortune' character go well with Xmas tree decorations!

It seems that Tibetan Lama monks also go Xmas shopping.

Santa flying into a restaurant by parachute

Perhaps the Santa saleswoman is feeling a little cold selling ice cream!

On the other hand, this Santa must be feeling so hot cooking barbecue meat！

I guess you can read the Chinese here, offering super value lunches/dinner on Xmas Day  for just over USD2.

Santa was not a Prince with a royal crown.......

Nor did he have a castle............

.........Actually it was all for the Prince Charming - a foreign royal of course - and his Chinese "princesses".

 Lots of goodies are on sale for the kids.......chocolates, Xmas logs, puddings.....

If you want to spoil your only child why not buy him/her a big black Santa for a lucky 588 yuan or just over USD93 ( or about the price of 40 Xmas lunches at Macdonalds!). Expensive? Yes, but it is Xmas after all!

 Chrismas trees and lights were put up on the main shopping street of Qian Men

It's just a stone's throw from Chairman Mao's Mausoleum....I just wonder what he thinks about all this consumerism.

May I take this chance to wish you all a Merry Xmas and all the best for 2012. We will celebrate it quietly here, because of course the real New Year is not till Jan 23rd!

Welcome to our blog!

Hi everyone.  This blog will hopefully keep you all updated on what we are doing for our China preparations.  Obviously, nothing too thrilling is happening yet because we are still in the U.S., but we are frantically trying to learn as much as we can about Changsha, China (and China in general) before we go.  Some of the questions that have been asked by myself and my children are: 1) How many people speak English? 2) Will we be able to handle the spicy food? 3) Is it true we need to wear our sandals with socks? 4) Do they have forks?  5) What will we do without Facebook and YouTube? 6) What are the students like there? 8) How much attention will a family with five light-haired blue eyes kids get in China? 9) How will we get around while we are there (buses, taxis, etc.) 10) Where is the nearest Pizza Hut?  11) What are the bathrooms like? 12) How difficult will it be to practice our religion there?  13) What will our apartment look like?

Probably our biggest preparation right now is to try to learn as much Mandarin Chinese as we can before we go over there.  It is clearly one of the most difficult languages in the world with its tonal system, but we are hard at work with our Fluenz program (much better than Rosetta).  The kids are absorbing this stuff like sponges, but I'm doing ok too.  I have signed up for a beginning Mandarin class on campus next semester and it will be taught by a very sweet lady (Professor Xiao) who actually comes from the same university that I will be teaching at over there (Hunan Normal University).  Our feeling is that we will definitely not be fluent for a while, but whatever we can learn will be helpful.  I think it also shows a great deal of respect to the culture by at least attempting to communicate with them instead of just assuming everyone in the world should speak English and that there must be something wrong with them if they don't.  Anyway, we will keep you posted as we learn new things.

Shenyang Puppet Government 1930's

In 1931 the Japanese invaded China and set up a Puppet Government in the Shenyang area of north-east China. General Zhang and his son lived in the house below and were part of that government. Shenyang which is an industrial area of China with automobile factories although has modern buildings is still like China of the 1980's in many ways. Few western tourist go there and I stayed in the old Holiday Inn although a new one has just been built for mostly foreign businessmen to stay when working in Shenyang. The house was built at the turn of the century and was occupied by the Last Emperor who left Beijing after being driven from the Forbidden City and replaced by the first President of China, Sun Yet Sen about 1916. The house is fantastic to visit and all the furnishing are still there and original. Shenyang is also the site of the founding of the Qing Dynasty in 1644 and a small Forbidden City is still there and being well maintained as a tourist attraction although few people visit it each day. It may not be a major tourist city to visit but it has a great deal of history connected to it from the 1600's through the Japanese occupation with a beautiful memorial museum shown here. For more on Shenyang contact us.

Be Careful Booking Hotels in China

You need to be careful booking hotels in China. For my clients I do not book less than 3 star hotels except in very remote areas where it may be necessary. Trying to save money in China can be a disaster if you try to save it with hotels. Here is a typical 2 star or less hotel as an example. The photo with the t.v. is actually the lobby with a desk in the corner as a front desk. I stayed at this hotel in a small tourist town just outside Chengdu just to show people what a local 2 star or less hotel looks like. No western tourists stay here but it was the "best" hotel in the town. Yes, that is a Squat Toilet you are seeing in the bathroom. The shower with no hot water available was a shower head out of the wall and drained onto the floor which had a drain. Note the sink had no hot water faucet. Cost was $35 a night. Breakfast was not included. It did have heat but no air conditioning and this area becomes very hot and humid during the summer. I write this just to show what to expect from most 2 star or less hotels although some can be fairly clean. Tours to China has been my business for almost 25 yearss; but my real passion is the culture and the people.

people.

Marvels of Beijing Arts and Crafts

If you go on a group tour in China, you will no doubt be taken to a souvenir shop - sorry arts and crafts museum. They are of variable quality, the best pieces of course being in the Forbidden City and National Museum. I went to a place mentioned recently in Time Out near the Temple of Heaven, and grandly named as the Hundred Crafts Workshop and Museum.

The 4-storey building houses over 30 studios and over 100 craftsmen and their apprentices, dedicated to protecting hundreds of years of traditional handicrafts. They are there to explain their craft, work on pieces of art in front of your eyes, and of course to sell. I read on the internet an overseas tourism official who called it the Louvre of China. Well, when I got there, I was of course disappointed. There were indeed many, many different kinds of handicrafts on display, some of high quality. There were also hardly any visitors, which is a relief in Beijing, but also not much going on in the various workshops, and few artisans keen to explain what they were doing. Perhaps it was because it is low season now. 

Anyway I took some photos to show you some of the pieces on display. Some belong to one of the "Eight Marvels" of Beijing arts and crafts - jade carving, cloisonne, ivory carving, carved lacquerware, palace carpets, Beijing-style embroidery, inlaid filigree gold lacquerware and inlaid gold lacquer. Others are just fun items.

This is an example of cloisonne, which was brought to China in the 13th century from the West (Islamic culture), and became popular during the Ming Emperor Jingtai's time, especially using blue colours, so the name of this type of art in Chinese is "Jintai Blue". It then became popular in the 18th century in Europe.

A more modern piece commemorates the Beijing Olympics of 2008, with some traditional motifs around the border.

This studio caught my eye. I'm sure you haven't seen such figures before. They are carrying a bride to her wedding in a traditional sedan chair. Strings of firecrackers are carried at the head of the procession. Double happiness signs are everywhere, all in lucky red colour of course! But what are the delicate figures made of?

I had a close look and saw what they call "hairy monkeys" - complete bodies of cicadas which are cleaned up and given hairy bodies. It's supposed to be decorative but I'm not sure I'd want this on my mantelpiece in the sitting room at home!

The craftsman has created a birthday party with musicians.

Same musicians playing in a jazz band!

Something more traditional is papercutting, you need skill and patience to do this!

A popular character to hang up, especially at Chinese New Year time - fu, meaning fortune.

Unusual black and white one.

Beijing Opera face.

There are many differnt kinds of studio, and I nearly got a fright when I passed by these dogs - luckily they were just stuffed animals standing guard outside a studio!

Jade carving is one of the Eight Marvels, and a couple of pictures here are of some delicate jade pieces

This guy caught my eye, and I went in and saw many other funny figures

Nice gifts for newly weds

Not sure what these naughty boys are up to, but will leave it to your imagination!