Our first guests

It was so much fun to have guests here. It makes it feel a little more like this is home. My dear friend that I went home to surprise for St Pat's Day in Regina, Patty, came with her sister Trina, to visit her daughter Amy in Taiwan. Amy has been teaching English near Taipai. They were in Taiwan for 4 days and then came here to visit for 4 days. We had a ball. Then I joined them for 4 days in Beijing. What a whirlwind.
When I knew they were coming I started to "do" what I thought they might enjoy. Even did research! I find the tourist stuff is not user friendly. Directions, entrance and exit even. What we ended up doing was vert different from my list.
We did do the Night Safari, which I had sussed out. It really is terrific. But a labyrinth to get to , and find your way around. But the animals are very visible, very close, very healthy, very calm, and it is a great lesson in the importance of saving endangered species. I wrote about Tim's and my trip there, but we girls went later at night. The lighting was perfect to see the animals, and people were very good about not using flash. If only the non-english-speaking would be quieter so we could hear the guide. We were in a tram car, and got out half way to go to the bat caves. IN the bat caves. Big ones (2' wing span) little ones (6 " wing span) flying all around us. Not one got in our hair! Saw lion, tiger, hippo, giraffe, elephant, all in beautiful health. It really was terrific.
We did a day spa in Indonesia! Mother's Day we went to the ferry at 7 a.m., one hour later picked up at the ferry dock in Indonesia by the spa, and went for three treatments and lunch. Back to Singapore by 7 p.m.. Fantastic. We went to Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling. The hotel is gorgeous, old and every colonial. The drink is no where near as good as the buckets of Singapore Slings my neighbours made for our going away party, though. We went to Sentosa Island, a play park on a man made island off the shore of downtown Singapore. All man made. Universal Studio, water slides, resort hotels, trapeze (Amy did that) 4 D movie, python (I did that!), and all sorts of family fun stuff. It was stinking hot so we only stayed a few hours. The cable car ride over from a hill top in Singapore was amazing. The view, the engineering (it goes through THROUGH a building),  must be amazing at night.
We did the hawkers for dinner. At the beach that we look out at, there is a food court filled with "hawkers" food stalls, selling the most delicious food, satays, Indian, seafood, noodles, probably 50 stalls. The first night we were there in time to find a table. The next night it was later, so we just brought it home. It is so great to have such good food so close by. Not driving, walking distance is important.
We four girls then headed off  to Beijing. I had been before but in 1978, just a few years after Mao's death and the Gang of Four and the Cultural Revolution. So the China I saw was like the moon compared to now. Beijing is 20 million people. (What is the population of Canada?) and it takes 1 1/2 hours to get anywhere, through dense traffic,along 16 lane STREETS, and past constant high density apartment buildings. The city is vast.  Our guide Jerry met us at the airport, and we had him and a driver and a van, for the 4 of us for our stay there. Couldn't have done so much in so fe days any other way. A decent hotel, and busy busy days.
First day lots of walking Tianemen Square, Forbidden City, vast public spaces. When I was there it was empty but for soldiers in olive green. We all have the image of the young man standing up to the tank. When we were there it was filled with tourists. Thousands- many Chinese, many northern Chinese (that Tibetan Mongolian look). 80% of the tourists in China are nationals. All in huge tour groups, wearing matching baseball caps following the tour guide with a flag. They were everywhere. I could go on about the Square and the Forbidden City, I was jotting down facts in the van from our guide. But I will spare you. The grounds surrounding the area are very beautifully landscaped now, (China is doing  a very conscious greening of the country, planting trees. Of course Mao said they were to be removed, they were bourgeoise, and people were given the job of denuding the country (effectively making much of it a dust bowl). The palace had no trees for security- could hide in the trees! The Forbidden Palace is huge. 99,999 rooms. One less that the celestial palace at 100,000. Each of two Emperor's bedrooms had 5 beds for security. Intruder never knew which bed he was in. Concubine (one of 3,000 chosen by lottery so no favourites) was rolled up in a silk rug like a spring roll and delivered to him every night. Of his many sons, the next in line would be by contest. Who was brightest, smartest. So there was no in-fighting and murders of next in line.
The Empress was a real bitch. Called Dragon Lady. Well Jerry didn't call her a bitch, but it seems that is what she was. Awful. But she built this Summer Palace which is about an hour out of the city. She might have abused her power and been very cruel to her subjects but she had amazing taste in gardening. The Summer Palace is lush with plantings, trees, flowers. She had a spring-fed lake built by hand, and a canal from the Forbidden Palace so she could travel by boat. The lake, being spring fed, supplies China with fresh water pearls. They are the leading fresh water pearl supplier in the world. There are covered walkways around the lake, all painted with beautiful scenes- pre photo albums, scenes recording their activities. She built a marble boat, huge, symbolic, that could not be sunk. It was already on bottom.
We went to a pearl factory after. We went to a silk factory. Actually I just think these are immense government supported retail that tourists are taken to. A short explanation and then in to the retail, where a staff attaches themselves to your hip and has the utmost pressure to get you to buy something. Some things are lovely, but much of it is cheap stuff for tourists. That really urked me about the tour. The pestering to find you something to buy. Lay off, go away, I'm just looking. But I did buy silk bedding. It cost a fortune. I figured the currency wrong. Tim flipped when he saw the amount. Oops. And I bought a silk jacket, not to wear but to hang on the wall. It too was way more than I thought it was. Oops again. Sorry Tim.
We were fed lunch in huge banquet hall restaurants filled with tourists. Many from Russia. The food could have been better. Sorry Patty, I really thought it could have been better. But the volume of tourists and the difficulty getting around, I can see the logic in what they do. One night at out hotel we went for dinner and  they said with hand signals no go away. We told Jerry so the next night he took me with him to tell them to serve us. They said no, no communication. Jerry said you have pictures of what you serve and you have a calculator. So he set us up to go eat there later. But we didn't want to go where we were not wanted. A very interesting feeling for a white wasp Canadian.
We went by the Olympic Bird's Nest, vast, the Bubble , vast and got stiffed by guys. We were let off by our driver to go to an overpass to take photos of the Olympic site, and at the top of the stairs of the overpass there were Minnie and Mickey Mouse. We thought how cute and got photos with them. Then they asked for money. We had none because we had only taken our cameras with us. They were not happy and followed us to our driver when the van came to pick us up. And got paid!
We got stiffed in the Beijing Airport too. We went to Xi'an for the day ( a two hour flight) to see the warriors. We didn't have any baggage because we were to be back that night. This "very nice fellow" came to help us check in at the Chinese kiosk. We thought how nice. Then he asked for money. There were airline personnel 3 feet away to help those at the kiosks! WE ended up giving him some money. Then watched him go up to other suckers within seconds!
The terra cotta warriors in Xi'an were breathtaking. The emperor wanted to be protected in his afterlife so he had 700,000 workers take 38 years to make 8,000 terra cotta life size soldiers. And horses. And weapons. And chariots. They were discovered in 1978 by a farmer digging for a well. The museum is amazing. The statues gorgeous. EVERY one is different. Different face, different build, different suit of armour. Each one unique! AMAZING! Displayed wonderfully, some as found in pieces, some restored as they would have been. It was very moving. Really seeing history.
The flight over to Xi'an was beautiful. Mountains outside Beijing, then a dramatic line where the desert started, then a line where the mountains started again. The terraced hills, and agriculture of the region was beautiful. It was a huge day though. A 4:00 start and bcd to the hotel at 1:30 a.m.
I will post some photos separately.
So much.
Good night all.