More on China Trip

Previously on Quest for Fujingle…

A Slow Plane to China

Newark to Beijing

Sunday, April 1^st

Lisa (our good friend and freelance Mandarin translator) and Annika (her adopted daughter from Hunan, to the immediate west of Maddie’s province) hired a car and driver that picked us up in Mt. Laurel at 7:20 AM.  Susan and I had stayed up half the night before, shoving way too much stuff into suitcases for the 3-week trip to China.  We got to Newark airport at around 9.  Our big 747 sat on the tarmac for about 45 minutes and finally took of for Beijing at around noon.  About 14 hours later, we arrived in Beijing at 2 PM Monday afternoon.  The first 10 hours were rough but the last four were just the other side of a Mitt Romney concert.

 

Days to AJ: 7

Previously on Quest for Fujingle…

After landing, we checked into the CITIC Hotel near Beijing airport.  By the way, I take back all the stuff I said about Beijing Capital Airport.  It was totally remade for the 2008 Summer Olympics and it’s great.  Lots of glass and steel and no impenetrable smog cloud like when we were there for Mad in 2005.

Looking for trouble and a cheap meal, we stepped into a little hole-in-the-wall Mongolian hot pot restaurant in the neighborhood.  Lisa ordered about triple the food we needed off the Mandarin-only menu, including chicken foot soup. (They don’t really call it that.)  It was our 25^th anniversary. [Susan’s and mine].  Will try to celebrate a little more formally at a later date.

 Happy 25^th Anniversary, Babe.  Would you like chicken feet with that?

Susan and Lisa look on as our waiter adds some stock…

Beijing, PRC

Monday, April 2^nd

The geography of our trip…

Just in case you’re curious about where the heck we are, we’ve included this wee map of the Middle Kingdom.  The numbers mark the major stops.

Day 1 & 2: Fly into Beijing (#1), stay over to rest up before continuing south to Guilin

Days 3-5: Sightseeing and taking in the Karst in Guilin (#2)

Days 5-8: Back to Beijing (#1) for some non chicken foot dining and touring of the Summer Palace, Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

Days 8-13: GET AJ IN NANCHANG (#3)!!!  Do a bunch of paperwork.  Tour Maddie and AJ’s birthplace, Fuzhou/Linchuan (Linchuan is labeled on the map -- about 60 miles SSE of #3.  Say goodbye to Lisa and Annika as they leave to tour Annika’s birthplace in Hunan Province.

Days 13-19:  Fly to Guangzhou (#4) to get AJ’s medical exam (to make sure that she doesn’t have TB for her US visa), get AJ’s US visa and take her oath of citizenship.

Day 19: Take a train to Hong Kong (#5)

Day 20: Catch a plane to San Francisco.  Hang with Chuck’s cousins in Redwood city.

Day 21: Fly home to New Jersey

Previously on Quest for Fujingle…

Tuesday, April 3^rd

Beijing to Guilin

Gway-LEEN?

If you’ve been to very many Chinese restaurants, you’ve no doubt seen photos or paintings of Guilin, a city in southern China, located on the Li River.  Guilin is famous for its steep-sided limestone hills (tower Karst or mogotes if you’re a geo-geek) and caves.  People come from all over China and the world to take really crappy photos that do no justice to its incomparable beauty.  Not to worry, they’re coming…

We left for China four days earlier than all of the other Great Wall families just to see Guilin.  We were met at the airport by our guide, a nice young woman from Guangdong who goes by “Willie”.  Willie told us that we arrived at the beginning of the Bright Leaves Festival when many Chinese remember their ancestors by visiting their graves and burning incense, lighting candles and leaving food offerings.  She also told us that it’s been a little dry and windy, so there were many wildfires burning in the countryside.   The air was full of smoke and falling ashes when we landed and on the way to the hotel we passed a couple of areas where the fires were burning right up to the road.  Very exciting.  [Luckily, showers extinguished most of the fires by the next day].

That evening we strolled along the river walk and watched people fish and swim.  Mad and Annika found a playground where the impressed the locals with their athleticism.

This is the river walk just across the street from our hotel.  Watch as Mad and Susan annoy/crowd a fisherman as Lisa and Annika arrive to reinforce our position.  (Look for Elephant Trunk Hill, iconic landmark of Guilin, just above and to the left of the fisherman’s hat brim.)

Mad taunts the local boys by doing 5 chin-ups!

Days to AJ: 5

This is a photo of the Karst Hills from our boat, floating down the Li River in Guilin, China.

Inside Luti (Reed Flute) Cave, Guilin, Guangxi, PRC