Getting to China turned out to be quite the adventure! But, what trip with me isn't? :) I spent the evening before travel taking the dog to the babysitter, changing money, and getting final accommodations set up. I had had apartments booked for Nanjing and Guangzhou, but still needed to get Hong Kong taken care of prior to departure. Once I'd finished with that, I arranged for my ride to the airport. Did you know the 24-hour shuttle services don't have anyone to pick up the phone at 2:30 in the morning? I didn't. After several calls to these shuttle services, I called a cab. The cab to the airport came early--while I was still packing. I tossed as much as I could into the suitcase I was taking. Good so far! Sped to PDX and arrived with plenty of time for check-in, breakfast, and everything.
The flight from Vancouver, BC to Hong Kong arrived an hour late--considering all of the weather delays across the US that was probably very good; However, it also meant less time between transfers in Hong Kong. Not good. The arrival gate was in the old part of the airport, an area I wasn't familiar with. After waiting for some 20 minutes for the only passenger ahead of me to get help at the ticket counter I'd been told to go to, I was sent to another counter. Here, I learned I needed to go to a different part of the airport for onward tickets after picking up luggage and going through customs with a pretty vague description of where I needed to go for this: 'outside' (the building?!) and to area 'K.' AND I'd better hurry because the ticket counter would close at 8 p.m. No maps anywhere. I raced in the direction I'd been pointed--through hallways, down escalators, and finally to the baggage claim hall. Cavern. No reader boards to tell travelers which carousel to go to--you must go up to each carousel for that information. Many, many carousels. I finally located the right one. And waited. And waited. No luggage. Well, at least, not my luggage. I ran through the hall to baggage claims. Slow doesn't even begin to describe the pace of the folks behind the counter. I finally got to the right person who told me my baggage had been taken off the carousel and placed alongside it on the ground--opposite from where I'd been looking for it to shoot out from the bowels of the airport! Back I slogged, located the luggage, sped through customs, screeching through immigration. And, down more escalators, through another hall, up an escalator to area 'K' just in the nick of time for my baggage to get on the plane (they had me sign a waiver that it was all right if the luggage came on the next flight). Hong Kong Air rocks. They personally took me through expedited searching in the employee area, and guided me to the gate! The plane was spacious and comfortable and the food was great too.
My guide met me at the airport and saw me to my accommodations. Great, warm, wonderful man who went above and beyond. His work is his passion, no question. Will always think of him fondly.
I rented an apartment at No. 9 Changjiang Place, in the heart of downtown--a really good location: walking distance to the upscale BHG shopping mall (pretty much like malls in America), across the street from local shopping and dinning areas, down the street from the Civil Affairs Office where I met Mr. Sweetness and Light, the Presidential Palace, the Brocade Museum, the Art Museum, a huge library (which I thought was maybe an auditorium), and probably a number of other things that I'm either forgetting or haven't seen yet. The ground floor of the building has a bank facing the main street. The entry for the apartments at the back of the building opens on a little avenue on the edge of some neighborhoods. Two keys: one for the elevator and one for the unit. Only my key doesn't work in the middle elevator. No one knows why, it just doesn't.
The night I arrived, there was only one unit left and the clerk felt I should have a choice. He was supposed to come up in the morning with an elevator key and show me some other units. When he didn't arrive and didn't arrive, I started downstairs--fifteen flights of them--to the lobby only to learn I needed to go back up to the sixth floor office. Fortunately, I didn't have to walk back up all those flights. Turns out they just gave me another room. I was perfectly happy with the one I had but they insisted. And they don't speak English so I can't argue too much. The old unit had a shower and a walk-in closet. The view from the window through the buildings sported a towering pagoda or temple in the distance.
The new unit is light, ultra modernish, has carpeting upstairs, a soak tub but no shower. No light in the downstairs bathroom but there's a window in the door so it really doesn't need it. No view of the pagoda/temple building. I had a time getting heat in the second unit the first night but got that quickly straightened out. Heat in the apartments is activated by remote control. Nice. But you have to know where to point the controller. Some minor problems with the toilet upstairs but got it taken care of right away. We never got the hang of extracting hot water out of the tub and believe me, we tried. It's not obvious and it's tricky. I had a rather cool shower. Not sure how Mr. Sweetness and Light's was since he worked things himself.
The building directly behind ours has a coffee shop, Costa Coffee. Nice little bistro with cute holiday decorations and sporting huge photos of different iconic world sites. Down the lane, is what I assume to be either a preschool or a daycare.
Traffic
Chaotic by our standards. Sidewalks are wider than ours would ever think of being. There's a reason for this: foot traffic, as well as bike/cart/pedicab/scooter traffic take up the sidewalk at times and even parking for said vehicles. No honking signs dot each intersection, ignored.
The street is set up for cars in the middle with separated side lanes for other vehicles. You have to watch all directions because traffic will come at you from everywhere even when it's not supposed to. Pedestrians are at the bottom of the food chain and crossing is very much like playing Frogger.
Air Quality
Just as you've heard, horrible compared to home. Clear skies the entire time but with a heavy haze. You'll notice it even in the close up pictures. Grime on everything from the air. People wearing masks everywhere. Reminds me of the photos taken of people during the SARS epidemic. My masks didn't make it into my baggage. I wish for one but neglect to ask about them. By the end of the week, air quality became oppressive. Despite this, people went on about their lives, walking their dogs (lots and lots of dogs), exercising, setting sausage out to dry, hanging laundry out, selling oranges, nuts, slippers.
Food
How I love Chinese food! What I found wasn't all that different from the dishes I'm accustomed to--lots of items we don't have as well. I watched a young lady making these guys in one of the grocery stores. Really admire her talent!
Down the street is a two-story fast food Chinese restaurant with a cafeteria style buffet. You point to the items and get charged by the dish, kind of like dim sum. Really good and super cheap. We ate several meals there. While we were eating, a young man approached us and spoke with Mr. Sweetness and Light. He explained that he had recognized us from our visit to Sun Yatsen's mausoleum. He asked Mr. Sweetness and Light who I was and my son replied, "She's my Hero." Wow! My heart swells so full thinking of that!
The 85 Coffee Shop was really nice too. Pastries, some familiar, others not. One of the ones I liked best had shredded dried pork on top and was kind of sweet and salty at the same time. The photo at left is from the Gansu Bakery near 85 Coffee Shop. I bought my young man's birthday cake here--a work of art! A really cool drink Mr.Sweetness and Light ordered for me had what seemed like marshmallows in it but were some kind of chocolate, yummy!
At the end of our time in Nanjing, we ate at a little place not far from the Confucius Temple. They had frogs and fish in tanks for the patrons to choose from. Mr. Sweetness and Light was transfixed!
Tours!!
We toured the Ming Tomb, Sun Yatsen's mausoleum, the Nanjing city wall, the President's Palace and the Confucius Temple.
The Ming Tomb is a gorgeous park where people stroll up the stone-paved and tree-lined avenue to enjoy the quiet and the beautiful carved elephants, camels, and other animals in the middle. There are vast grassy areas where people practice tai chi and picnic next to ponds and streams.
Sun Yatsen's Mausoleum: stairs and stairs, more stairs. Mr.Sweetness and Light initially was the only one who wanted to climb to the top. I assured him, if he went, I would go. Up we went. Huffing and puffing.
The view on a clear day must be amazing because it was great on a smoggy day! Mr.Sweetness and Light scared our guide and me a little after we got down from the monument: he propelled himself head long down the walkway with his crutch--so fast we feared he would stumble or not be able to stop on the uneven stones. He even scared himself a bit with that! He is amazing!
The city wall here is better preserved than the Great Wall and miraculously survived the turbulence of the past century pretty much intact. Other city walls faced destruction because they were viewed as relics of imperialism.
The part we viewed has several arches strung together with parts where soldiers could billet and others where gates could drop down to trap the enemy. For a couple yaun, visitors had the chance to test their skill with bow and arrows. Fun!
The Presidential Palace has a tremendous history. It has served as offices for Sun Yatsen, a meeting place, a temple, a garden. Very important to the history of modern China.
I found myself comparing the garden to the one we have locally at home. Because of the tours taken of our garden, I was able to recognize design elements and know their meaning. I also found some new ones to ponder. Mr. Sweetness and Light had me take his picture in several historical places. Good memories for him.
One area we didn't visit was the Memorial of the Nanjing Massacre. It is a very important part of local history; However, it pulls no punches, meaning it is fairly graphic. It is also called the Rape of Nanjing. The horrors committed against the Chinese by the Japanese in 1937 remains fresh in the minds of the province's people. I won't go into it more. I'll let you do a search on it, if you wish. Mr. Sweetness and Light needed reassurance no one would hurt him when we had a layover in Japan on the way home. It was the only way we could get home without going through Canada (he would have needed a visa from that government even to transit between planes) or a six-hour layover in Qatar (Single American woman in the Mideast? Probably not a good idea.).
On a Lighter Note
We also got to see some glitzy areas with upscale shopping malls and buildings sporting giant television screens several stories tall.
We've seen some of the more real urban Nanjing where people hang their laundry outside their windows to dry, merchants sell nuts, slippers, oranges and just about everything else on the street, and sausages and ducks swing freely in the air waiting for someone to purchase them.
We celebrated Mr. Sweetness and Light's birthday with a lovely cake ordered from a bakery down the street. The cakes, candy, and pastries there and in the mall grocery store all come highly decorated. What artwork! The bakery only had birthday hats in purple and lavender--not to our young man's liking. I had our guide explain to him that he did not have to wear the hat if he didn't want to (he didn't). We also had lunch at a nice restaurant in the neighborhood here. There were some familiar and favorite dishes as well as some new ones to try. Mr. Sweetness and Light really liked the kung pao chicken. Our guide explained to us that kung pao chicken is often called kung pao peanuts because they are cheaper here than the chicken so the dish is mostly nuts!
