The Jade Factory & Hutong Lane

Our next stop on Friday was the jade factory.  Jerry had given us a great talk about the significance of it, and then when we arrived we were given an educational tour.  The silk tour we went on Saturday did the same thing, and I will admit being knowledgeable about the products makes you want to buy them more, but also it helps us to understand China more.

The maroon statue is a pixu, or money dragon, made up of parts of various animals (that Uncle Bunky is a plagiariser!).  People like to have the pixu in their homes because it helps save money because the pixu eats "but never poo poo".  So, money goes in but never leaves :)

The boat, which is made from one piece of jade, took 3 workers 2 years to make.  Very big and very impressive1

We heard a lot about the 2008 Olympics.  Here is a picture of the jade that was inlaid on the medals.  It was very important to China for the medals to have a piece of Chinese culture on them.

Here is our guide "Andy" showing us the family ball.  It was what the worker were working on in the first few pictures.  From right to left shows the 4 stages the jade must go through.  When complete, the ball has 2 spheres, one inside the other, yet it's still made from 1 piece of jade.  It symbolizes the strength of the family.  We bought a smaller version, and it's the only thing we bought in the showroom.  Real jade is quite pricey!

Here are some pictures of other items for sale, all made from single piece of jade:

The Terra Cotta Warrior (which we will be seeing the real thing this week!) was $53,500, and the table was a whopping $480,000!

The most expensive kind of jade is jadeite, and it's the kind that changes color when you wear it.

Oh, we also had lunch on the second floor of the jade factory, which was served family-style via the biggest lazy susan you've ever seen.  However, our plates were the size of salad plates.  (The next day at another family-style lunch, our plates were saucers.  It's pretty clear to me why our country has an obesity crisis.)

Next we passed the Olympic Village, the veniew for tennis (I think?), the water cube, and the bird's nest (where the opening and closing ceremonies were held).  I failed miserably at a picture of the bird's nest.

So, we still were not done with our Friday outings.  Our next stop was Hutong Lane, the old downtown...or as my mind immediately characterized it: "the have nots".  We rode rickshaws (Spelling?) through this area.  I quickly noticed public bathrooms on pretty much every block; most people in this area do not have their own "wash rooms".  We rode down alleys, where we narrowly avoided hitting cars, other rickshaws, people, etc. 

This excursion was also the first time we were hounded by vendors, who followed us on our tour.  We stopped at the below house for Jerry to explain to us.  This door way is in far contrast to everything else we saw in this area.  Notice the 4 posts above the door - those indicate that the house behind was owned by the highest ranking people.

We stopped at a house to meet some local people.  I immediately noticed they had 2 posts above their door.  The inside was as tiny as it looked.  We entered through a dining room (the kitchenette was to the right), then passed into the sitting room.  It had a very large flat screen TV, but no couch only stools.  This family had a private washroom, and very steep stairs led up to 2 bedrooms above us.  Turns out this guy is a kung fu master, and his older son lives in Houston, TX (he gave us all a card on him).  It was an extremy interesting experience.

Doug and I had been awake since 1:30 am, so we were barely capable of talking on the bus ride back.  After room service, we were in bed by 6 pm.

Notes: On Saturday we went to orientation in the hotel and had lunch, then went to Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the silk factory.  I will post this at some point, but the laptop battery is getting low, and none of the adapters have a 3-prong plug.  I'm hoping I can borrow one from the hotel, but I'm saving the battery for the much-awaited AnnHelen posts.  I am typing this at 4 am Sunday morning, and we are leaving Beijing today for Xian, Shaanxi at 8 am.  TODAY IS GOTCHA DAY!!!

The Great Wall

We left our hotel Friday morning in the rain to travel 1.5 hours by bus to The Great Wall.  Our tour group was made up of 3 other families;

• Eric, Kathy, Bonnie (Kathy's mother, who has relatives in Pheba, MS!), and their 3 bio children; Julianna, Lawson and Preston
• Kevin, Lynette, and Eileen (Lynette's mother)
• Dave and Lori (left their 3 bio tween girls home)

Jerry, our guide for Friday and Saturday, told us so much about Chinese history and culture on the way there.  I see now why one of the recommended items to bring was an audio recorder; wish I had listened. 

Jerry is the first generation in his family to fall under the 1 child rule.  He told us that since his girlfriend is also an only child, that when they marry they will be allowed to have 2 children.  He also explained about the different ethnic groups.  He is of the majority (Han), which comprises 90% of the population.  Our driver represented one of the ethnic minorities.  If I understood correctly, the ethnic minorities are descendants of former emperors (prior to Han dynasty).  You could definitely tell a difference in their physical characteristics as well as a man we met later in the day (more to come on him).

When we arrived at The Great Wall, Jerry explained that there was the flat path and the climbing path.  I immediately said, "I want to go UP!" 

We were glad to see it was not raining when we arrived, but it was very foggy/misty.  Before turning us loose, he cautioned us many times to be careful.  Doug, Dave, Lori and I started the trek up, and we quickly realized why.  The surface of the stones was very uneven from settling.  But the worst part was the inconsistency of the height of the steps.  No joke, the height varied from 2 inches to 2 feet.  You would be climbing along and be taking tiny step, normal step, normal step, BIG step, etc.  The closer we got to the topmost building (yep, we climbed all the way to the one you can see at the very top), the more you could feel the change in atmosphere.  We huffed and puffed and sweated through our clothes.  But it was awesome. 

One thing we noticed was the insanity of the shoes the Chinese women wore.  There were women climbing in heels.  It was tricky enough in tennis shoes!

 I was actually a tiny bit disappointed, but I think it was because I was expecting to be able to get a panoramic view of the wall stretching for many, many miles.  The mist made it hard to see very far off.  However, it was worth arriving a day early for this experience.

Next up, the jade factory...

The Endless Travel

We woke up at 12 am on Wednesday, June 27, and left our house at 1:20 am to drive to the MEM airport.  We were operating on less than 3 hours of sleep at that point, not to mention I've been having trouble sleeping in anticipation for about a week.  We had a smooth drive to Memphis, arriving at the airport at 3:40 am, obeying orders to be there 3 hours in advance.  You might want to note for your own good that the signage for long-term parking there is confusing.  If you know you want the Economy lot, do NOT follow the long-term parking signs.  I think it's a trick ;)  Anyhoo, as I suspected, no flight counters are open at the time of morning, but us and the other obedient passengers waited for ~30 mins to get checked in.  You will notice a pattern of hurry up and wait, much like this entire adoption process, ha.

We flew out of MEM at 6:30 am.  I had started getting stuffy the night before, and I was determined to take an Advil Congestion before the flight.  Unfortunately, a lack of sleep makes me nauseated, so I could only get down 2 nabs to take the medicine.  Not a great combo, resulting in me not having sinus issues on the plane but being very queasy.  I actually slept for the whole 1.5 hour flight. 

We arrived in Chicago at 8:30 am, and thankfully my system had leveled out.  Y'all, ATL really has a leg up on so many airports when it comes to terminal-to-terminal transport.  We were driven across the "airplane parking lot" in a shuttle.  It felt like we were a ridiculous pawn in a board game.  We also saw a plane being towed in accompanied by emergency vehicles.  You can imagine Doug's response.  Once settled in the international terminal, we used the 3.5 hour wait to get in a good bit of walking in anticipation of the sitting to come.  I also had to purchase a 2-pack of ink pens since (cross fingers that this is the only thing) I forgot to pack one.  The price ensures I will never make that mistake again.  The ridiculous thing is that I removed an entire handful from the backpack that Leigh-Ann lent us.  Shaking head.

I knew that we were in the second to last row on the plane from Chicago to Beijing, but I refrained from telling Doug until the last minute.  He's a little like Elliott in that I have to sometimes strategically tell him things ;)  I did feel bad that he somehow missed the last 6 months of conversation about the price of plane tickets, and he thought we were not in Economy.  Then he kept trying to convince me that surely the seats were somewhat biggger (they are not).  The back of the plane had its advantages (near 2 lavatories and some extra space for stretching) and disadvantage (felt the takeoff, landing and turbulence more), but overall it was a great location.

Our seatmate (window) was a nice man who only once violated my arm rest space.  I, on the other hand, (middle) may have accidentally violated his space more than once.  Doug (aisle) only elbowed the flight attendant's rear end that one time (giggle).  Erica thought we should wear compression stockings, much to the disgruntlement of Doug.  Can't you just see us pulling those on in the gate area in the Chicago airport?  :)  She also stressed, as did a faculty member I work with, the importance of moving around on long flights.  I'm pretty sure Doug never wants to hear me say, "Get up and stretch your legs," ever again.   

I really thought that as tired as we both were that we could get some serious sleep on this plane.  Wrong.  Doug slept maybe an hour near the end.  I never slept more than an hour at one time, but I had the advantage of his shoulder.  He never could get into a comfortable position.  I wish I had a picture of my grasshopper legs in nearly every position I could imagine.  The man next to me was surprisingly limber as well.  Doug, not so much. 

We mainly passed the time watching movies on our seatback screens.  Just for a historical record, Doug watched 21 Jump Street, Hunger Games, and Sherlock Homes.  I watched The Devil Wears Prada (finally) and This Means War.  And surprisingly I didn't even finish one book on my Kindle.  Every time I tried to read my eyes would betray me, and the one-hour nap would begin.  We very much enjoyed watching the map of the plane's progress throughout the flight.  I (and the NE couple we've since met) assumed we would fly as the crow does straight across the Pacific from Chicago to Beijing.  Instead we arched up through Canada, over Alaska, and back down.  Imagine a semicircle because that's exactly what we did. 

I must say the food was pretty good on the flight.  They fed us a hot lunch (beef pot roast ala slightly elevated frozen meal, salad, roll, and brownie) about an hour into the flight, a snack (lemon cookie, pop chips, and a mini HERSHEY BAR!) about halfway through, and another hot lunch (melted turkey sub, chips, cookie) two hours before landing.  They also provided water pretty frequently, which we always partook of - I'm all about some hydration!

We landed in Beijing at 2:20 pm local time on Thursday, June 28, but our bodies were on 1:20 am Central time.  We were able to navigate to Immigration easily, then to baggage claim.  Yes, there is English signage.  As told, our guide had our names on a piece of paper just through the security exit.  It was us and a couple from NE, very nice people.  Our guide was Woo, and he looked like a Chinese Doug! :)  I also had the pleasure of seeing a Chinese mullet!  It took ~40 minutes to arrive at our hotel, Beijing Novotel Peace.  Very nice.  We were all pleasantly suprised at how much vegetation there is in the medians and along the roadsides.  And though yes it is a big city, we all also commented that the traffic isn't as bad as we thought.  Doug pointed out the Guatemala City was worse. 

Our guide not only helped us check in but also saw us all the way to our rooms.  One odd thing: one room key goes in a slot just inside the door to activate the power.  I guess this cuts down on wasting electricity? 

We knew we needed to stay awake to stave off the jet lag, but we were so mentally tired.  We went to the lobby bar/lounge area and enjoyed the view of the street outside and people watching. But my eyes started drooping, and  I was convinced that since we were so behind on sleep that we could go to bed at 6 pm local time since we needed to get up at 5:30 am to get ready for our Friday tour.  Well, I woke up intermittently afraid we would oversleep.  But we both have been up for good since 1:30 am.  Oh well, surely hiking The Great Wall will prepare us for a good night's sleep tonight?!

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

Preparation

Getting ready....