China "Summary"

How do you summarize a 2 1/2 week trip to China? I'll do the best I can.

(FYI, captions are BENEATH the photos)

LOS ANGELES

I got to spend a little over 24 hours with my BFF Laura in Cali. She and hubbie Maynrad were awesome hosts!

And I got to meet super cute Carlo for the first time. Pictured above: Carlo knows where the iPod is, and loves to boogie!

SHANGHAI
The USA seriously needs to get themselves some of these bullet trains.
My mom met me at the Shanghai airport, and we took the bullet train to meet my dad and the BYU Chamber Orchestra in Hangzhou.

They were super nice inside.

And they go 350 mph.

HANGZHOU

First stop in Hangzhou was with the BYU Chamber Orchestra, who was just finishing up their tour in China. We went to a mansion from the 1800s. Here are my parents in the mansion garden.

Most mansions have these elaborate "gardens". Here's the BYU Chamber Orchestra!

Servants' clothing

Traditional kitchen from the 1800s

Hangzhou is known for its beautiful lakes. This is West Lake. The orchestra took a boat ride across the lake.

" Three Pools Mirroring the Lake" is one of the most beautiful areas of West Lake

Typical Chinese rock sculptures: the more porous the rock is, the more beautiful it is.

Look closely, the one yuan bill has the three stone markers on it that are seen in the lake. This is a very famous spot!

TONGLI

We took the bullet train from Hangzhou to Suzhou. While Hangzhou is known as the city of beautiful lakes, Suzhou is known for its beautiful canals as is considered the Venice of China. This is actually a tiny city called Tongli outside of Suzhou. It is a miniature Suzhou, or miniature city of canals. We loved Tongli because it was remote and didn't have a lot of tourist traffic.

All of the doorways in old China are like this. The idea is to keep the good spirits in the house, and keep the bad spirits out. It is not very wheelchair friendly.

Another one of those typical "gardens" in a mansion. Puts our backyards to shame!

Close up of the roof on the ancient theater. It is so awesome!

Imagine the price for a boat ride in Venice; this cost us $10. This little lady took us on a canal tour of Tongli.

Beautiful Tongli.

I love how the laundry is out for all to see on our canal tour.

SUZHOU

This is Tiger Hill, one of the oldest and most popular tourist spots in Suzhou.


The leaning tower of Suzhou - it is over 1,000 years old!

Our canal trip around Tiger Hill. The woman in the back is Effie Okeson who lives in Suzhou and who graciously let us stay with her and her family. My parents "chaperoned" her daughter, who is a flute major at BYU, in China in Tianjin last summer.

Suzhou Canals: The Pretty View

Suzhou Canals: A real view of China living. I don't think most people got this part of the canal tour.

This is Lion Grove, another one of the most favorite tourist places in Suzhou. It is a rock garden of stairs and caves and winding paths.

Every single person in Suzhou was at Lion Grove that day. Notice all the people in every rock crevice.

The Okeson Family in Suzhou, minus 3 kids. They are the tallest family I know, all towering over 6 feet tall. The Chinese love them!

SHANGHAI We only got to spend an afternoon in Shanghai, but that was fine with me. Think New York City plus 20 million more people. We walked down the Bund. On one side is Pu Dong, the modern Chinese side (note the "can opener" building just right of center)...

And on the other side is the European concession area. In the late 1800s the 8-Allied Forces invaded China and each of the eight countries were granted concession areas. The French Concession area is the most famous in Shanghai.

TIANJIN Oh my gosh, this picture just makes me laugh. Of course the accordion would be in a band, right next to the oboe player! They have accordion majors at the universities in China!

And this is the "Sachs Quartet" with some helpers. Black pantyhose with jean shorts is extremely popular in China.

I got to attend church two Sundays in a row at the Tianjin Branch. The nationals are not allowed to attend church with foreigners, so the branch is comprised mostly of Americans, Koreans, and Taiwanese. What I love so much about my church is that it is exactly the same no matter where you are in the world!


BEIJING: TIANAMEN SQUARE AND FORBIDDEN CITY

Lea arrived on Monday, and on Tuesday my mom, me, and Lea took the bullet train to Beijing. Here I am at Tianamen Square. Directly across the street is the entrance to the Forbidden City.

The entrance to the Forbidden City. Note Mao's portrait in the middle of the building. The Forbidden City was built in the 1400s and was used by the imperial families. It is "Forbidden" because no males were allowed to enter into the back area of the palace where the wives and concubines lives. All of the servants were eunuchs (or castrated men), and diplomats could only enter halfway into the city.

Forbidden City is HUGE! There is an equal amount of buildings on the right side as there are on the left. This is looking at the City from the back entrance, and this is where the women lived.

Map of Forbidden City (which the Chinese call the Imperial Palace). Starting at the bottom of the diagram is the front entrance gate, and each line represents another huge building or "gate". Diplomats would only be allowed to enter as far as the center building.

This is one of the "gates." Imagine 5 of these in succession.


As you get farther into the Forbidden City, you will see more gargoyles on the rooftops. These are to ward off bad spirits, and the more gargoyles you have the more prominent the person stationed in the house. The Emperor gets the most!

Cixi had this opera house built for herself. Cixi was a concubine to one of the last Emperors, and upon the death of her husband, her son was appointed to become Emperor. Rumor is Cixi had her own son killed, and she appointed two further successors, young boys that she controlled. She pretty much ruled China until her death in 1908.

Imagine wearing this on your head! This crown was worn by an Empress in the 1500s.

The Emperor's Throne. Only the Emperor and Empress could wear yellow.

My dad had to do a rehearsal and couldn't come with us girls. :(

After the Forbidden City we took a rickshaw ride through Da Hutong. Hutongs are the super narrow alleyways in the traditional neighborhoods. Although the alleywalls are narrow, immense courtyards can be hidden behind some of these doors. On the other hand, immense poverty can also be hidden. Our poor rickshaw bicyclist was a super good sport about having to pull all three of us.

Hutong

Our rickshaw

Looking down on Forbidden City. What do you think--do I look like my mom?

Empress Lara and Empress Lea. Totally worth the $1 to wear these outfits and look over Forbidden City.

BACK TO TIANJIN

For $1.50 this man offered to draw our portraits. I was proud to have drawn a crowd of about 4 people as he drew my picture. But then Lea sat down...

and 20 people flocked around to see him draw a portrait of the curly blonde! (I was only a little jealous of all the attention she got!)

Gu Lou Drum Tower had an inside museum. This is a one-room dwelling common during the People's Revolution. Yes, an entire family would live in this one room.

TIANJIN: EASTERN QING TOMBS AND THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

Every Emperor and Empress knew where they would be buried (think Egyptian pyramids). This is one of the tombs from the Qing Dynasty. Each year the Imperial family would make a trip to their tomb and offer sacrifices to their ancestors.

This is in Cixi's ancestral building and shows Puyi, the last Emperor, being controlled by Cixi who is behind the screen.

In the tomb of an Emperor. It was nice and cool underground, and the walls were elaborately engraved. Not pictured is the Emperor's tomb along with his concubines' tombs. I'm not sure if these particular concubines were buried alive with the Emperor, but it was a great honor to do so.

Here lies Cixi...

This is on the main "Spirit Way" of the Tombs. We spent this day with the 7 BYU students doing an internship under the guidance of my parents at Tianjin Conservatory. They really liked to take jumping pictures.

Here is the map of the tomb lay-out. Notice that each Emperor/Empress gets their own tomb, which is really a series of buildings, kind of like in Forbidden City. The long path leading to the individual tombs is the "Spirit Way" that we are jumping on above.

Here we are at the beginning of the Great Wall.


Stationed along the wall are many fortresses. If you look closely, you can see me, Lea, and the 7 BYU musicians.

I love this picture of my dad!

Note that the wall ends once it hits the mountain. It begins again on the other side, so contrary to belief, it is not a continuous wall. You an also see here the poor quality of my camera compared to Lea's and my dad's SLR cameras.

Savilles on the Great Wall

My mom going up on the renovated part of the wall

My mom coming down on the older part of the wall

Initially there was nobody on the wall with us. It was the most perfect day, 75 degrees and no clouds or smog. Then I started to smell body odor and see lots of spandex, and it turns out that 2 days later there was a Great Wall Marathon. All of the participants had to walk the wall before the big race on Saturday. I really wanted one of these T-shirts, but definitely did not want to do this marathon!

BEIJING: SUMMER PALACE

Taking the Beijing Subway. Yes, we are as tired as we look.

Map of Summer Palace. This is a huge area, with most of the tourist attractions in the top part of the area.

The Summer Palace was built as a "vacation home" for the imperial family in 1400s. When the 8-Allied Forces invaded in the 1860s (I think), they destroyed a lot of the Summer Palace. Cixi rebuilt it in the 1880s (I think), because of course she couldn't do without her summer home!

The Phoenix on the left represents the Empress. The Dragon on the right represents the Emperor.

Lea and my mom practicing their Beijing opera moves.

Overlooking the lake at Summer Palace.

I love this building!

BEIJING: TEMPLE OF HEAVEN

The Temple of Heaven is where the Emperor went once a year to fast and offer sacrifices to the God of Harvest. He even had to abstain from his many women for weeks. Poor man!

Lara and Lea in front of the Hall of Good Harvests

I wanted my picture taken in front of this really, really old tree. This Chinese girl really wanted a picture with me. She just jumped right into my picture and had her boyfriend snap the picture. This happened to me more often in 2004, and I was a little flattered it still happened again in 2011.

BEIJING: PEARL MARKET

My mom at her favorite pearl store: Ru Pei Pei. They love my mom at this store. She lacks self-control when it comes to buying beautiful jewelry at cost.

My dad also has a reputation at Pearl Market. I heard many storekeepers referring to him as their "Best Friend" and as "Buddha Belly" (yes, as they would reach over and rub his belly). He is also known as being a very good bargainer. He has even caused a storekeeper or two to call their managers to get his low price approved. He usually wins.

A few more posts to come: Chinese Bathrooms, Signs, and How to Make Silk...

And anyone who wants to see all 1,000 pictures, just let me know!