Thursday, February 28, 2013

Mom comes to China!

My mom was here for three weeks and headed home to Canada last Friday.  The apartment seems rather empty without her here(the dishes are also piling up...just sayin'.) We had a very busy time while she was visiting with the proof being the numbers on the scale when I weighed myself at the end of the third week.  I imagine the four kg loss was due to the amount of walking we did and to the fact that we lived off of noodle cups, Subway and nuts for an entire week while in Beijing and Xi'an!

I hope that I was able to give her the China experience she was looking for!  I know that she said more than   once that it was an eye opening experience.  For your viewing pleasure, a tourists' photographic look at three weeks in China.

The Green Ram Taoist Monastery, Chengdu

Jinli Street, Chengdu

Giant Panda Research Base, Chengdu

Then off to Beijing to see...

Tiannenmen Square- The Monument for the People's Heroes, Beijing

The Forbidden City, Beijing





The Great Wall, Badaling





The Temple of Heaven, Beijing


We came back to Chengdu for a one day rest before we jumped on a plane for Xi'an.

The City Wall, Xi'an

The Terra Cotta Warriors, Shaanxi Province




While in Xi'an we also wandered through the Muslim Quarter but the day was so cold and miserable and we'd had enough of being tourists that I didn't even take pictures.

It was an exhausting week!  I found Beijing and Xi'an both to be more 'civilized' than Chengdu.  Many people spoke English and the streets weren't as chaotic but because more people spoke English I found bargaining to be much more difficult.

The trip to The Great Wall was pretty much a nightmare.  We stood in line for three hours at the train station and then had to run and fight for a spot on the train.  It was the same on the way back and my kids ended up sitting on flyers on the floor of the train much like many other people.

Seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors was pretty awesome!  Possibly more awesome than the Great Wall.  The City Wall was also pretty cool but it never ceases to amaze me that none of these 'wonders of the world' are actually even old.  The Great Wall was rebuilt in the 1950's and again in the 1980's.  Xi'an's city wall was also rebuilt in the 1980's.

In the words of Carl Pilkington from An Idiot Abroad "It's not really the Great Wall...  It's more like the OK Wall...It goes on for miles but so does the M6..."(If you haven't seen An Idiot Abroad: China, go download it right now!  It's hilarious!  And. So. True.)

If I had to leave tomorrow, I would leave content that I have seen everything I have wanted to see in China.  Next up:  Hong Kong in April!

Thank you Mom for coming to visit us!  Looking forward to seeing you in June!  xoxo

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