Sunday, March 23, 2014

2014 March, 2 weekends, 2 capital cities in China




Greetings all!
As I write this the sun is shining brightly, it's  a cool crisp morning and we think that Spring is on the way! Yesterday Rod and I rode our bikes in the park for the first time this year and it was so nice to get outside and just ride.
March has been a short travel month..as the title of the blog entry implies...2 weekends, 2 capital cities..1 short weekend in Beijing and 1 long weekend in Nanjing.  Our nieces came to visit on part of an organized tour, so we went to Beijing to meet them and stayed 1 night in the same hotel.  We didn't visit all of the normal spots in Beijing with them as we had already visited the forbidden city, the summer palace and the Great Wall..so we just enjoyed some time with them, then on our own in Beijing.  Here are some pictures of that short visit!
We left Shenyang on the high speed train to Beijing...4 hours with a few stops.  This time, we made sure we had a 1st class seat!
Rod with Elizabeth, Taylor, and Victoria as they arrived in Beijing, just off the bus from the airport

The family portrait just before the evening meal

Breakfast at the hotel with the hostess

Rod and Sarah in a mall in Beijing with 2 girls from Guizhou province (the greenery in the background is tea bushes, as this is a big part of the economy in that province.  The terraced hillside you can make out on the photo behind her is tea bushes..they also have mountains terraced like this with rice fields...it's on my 'to see' list!

The music and tea caught our ear and eye!


A Christian church service in Beijing (in Chinese)

Rod and Sarah on the main shopping street in Beijing
We had a short visit, but very nice to see our family on this side of the Pacific!  They have now arrived safe and sound back in Florida with memories that will last a life time!
The next weekend, I had a 4 day weekend off from work, so we (me--Sarah) looked at the map of China to see where we (I) wanted to go..very few criteria...warmer than Shenyang, nice hotel with a conceirge, not too far to fly and something to see once we got there...so I picked Nanjing.

Nanjing, like most cities in China has a long history...I'm not going to go into it here,but suffice to say it's been around since about 500 BC!  It was the home of the 1st Ming Dynasty sometime in the 1300's and stayed the capital of what would become mainland China until sometime in the 1600's before the Qing's took over and moved it to Beijing.  Between 1911 (when the revolution against the emperor system) and 1927, the capital moved back and forth between Beijing and Nanjing several times.  It was a period of Chinese history where there really was not one government over the country , but several waring factions. In 1927 the  Kuomingtang, lead by Chiang Kai-shek  (a group fighting to establish the Republic of China ROC with a free economy) brought the capital back to Nanjing.  In 1937, the Japanese invaded and occupied Nanjing (the capital was then moved to Chongqing) and eventually, after the end of WWII in 1946 the capital was brought back to Nanjing.  That didn't last long because the People Liberation Army (PLA)  conquered Nanjing in 1949 and established the Peoples Republic of China  (the communist P.R.C  China) with it's capital in Beijing.    Chiang Kai-sheck fled Nanjing in mainland China with the Kuomingtang and established the Republic of China (ROC China) in Taiwan.  The PRC China and the ROC China have kept their respective captials ever since.  In the grand scheme of time, looking at their history, it's just a drop in the bucket! 

So much for the much condensed Chinese history lesson!   Obviously it's not the purpose of this blog...if you want to get a better Chinese history lesson, start with Wikipedia..and follow as many links as you like to learn more!

Anyway, our trip to Nanjing started with selecting our hotel...the Intercontinental Hotel located in the top floors of the 10th tallest building in the world with a nice view over the city.

The 10th tallest building in the world and the tallest building in Nanjing, China.  We stayed on the 65th floor







A view of the city of Nanjing from our room
 After getting settled and getting some travel advice from the concierge of the hotel, we set out on Saturday to explore the city.  We found out that the plum blossom festival was going on, so we headed up to the tomb of the 1st emporer of the Ming dynasty.  It is a large park located on a mountain in the city of Nanjing (which meant we could take a taxi to the park and take the metro back!)


Sarah in the plum blossoms

Plum blossoms on the hillside of the Ming dynasty tomb

Rod and Sarah in the plum blossoms

A pagoda on top of the plum blossom hill

A view of the many plum trees on the hillside from the Pagoda

The walk of the protective animals on the way to the tomb

Rod beside one of the animals

Rod climbing the steps to Sun Yatsen's memorial ...lots of steps...at least he didn't have the load the lady next to him had!

A view from the top of the Sun Yaten memorial

Sarah on the top of the memorial steps and hill
 After a full day exploring the Plum blossoms , Ming Tomb and and Sun Yatsen memorial, we were tired...but still wanted to see the city at night...so off we went to go to the old section of Nanjing around the Confuscious temple area.   Given the name of Confuscious,  I was expecting a peaceful garden with old architecture...well, I was wrong! There was some old architecture (all rebuilt after WWII), but mostly it was touristy shops with lots of lights and bling!  We were recommended to go to the river and take a boat ride,  (after a long day walking, anything riding sounded good to us, so off we went!

Confusious temple in Nanjing at night!

Bling on the riverside

Dragon lighted wall in Najning on the canal

Riding the boat on the riverside in Nanjing
 After a full day, we were pooped out and took a more liesurely approach to our next day, so we started with the memorial to the Nanjing massacre.  This is a somber place...in a period of 6 weeks, it is estimated that 300000 people were killed in Nanjing by the Japanese.  There was a pit where > 10000 corpes were found and on this site a memorial was established.  Some of the bones still in the ground are exposed to be seen and keep the momory alive.  I read the book The Rape of Nanking which give me a whole new insight into the battles in Asia of WWII.  I was either not paying close enough attention in World History class (surely the case) or it wasn't covered (pretty sure of this too), but in any case, after living here, I have a different outlook on WWII from the Asia perspective.  Below are some of the photos from this memorial.
The large statue of a woman holding her small child, reaching to the sky at the entrance to the Memorial museum

One of the statues as you walk into the memorial
The pit of 10000 corpses lies below the rocks

Rod and Sarah in the Garden of Peace at the Nanjing Memorial
 After the memorial, we were not in the mood to explore, so we came back and rested and went again to the river area that night..this time we played around and got our picture taken in the Chinese costumes...
Rod and Sarah playing around in  Chinese costumes in Nanjing
Rod and Sarah at the river area in Nanjing

The last day, we only had the morning to explore, so we made the best of it and started early!  We started at the city wall entrance at the lake, took a riding tour around the area, then walked on the city wall to the temple at one of the other wall entrances. 

One of the Gates through the city wall in Nanjing

Walking on the City wall in Nanjing (much easier than the Great Wall of China!)
One of the park areas around the lake in Nanjing

Another with Rod and Sarah on the City Wall of Nanjing

 At one of the city gates,there is a big buddhist temple, so we went in to visit and look around.
The buddhist temple in Nanjing

On the city wall, there is a dispaly of cannons, here's Rod beside the cannon with the temple in the background in Nanjing

The center of the temple at Nanjing

Always good to go to the buddhist temple shopping area...got a blessed necklace!

We lit the incense sticks at the buddhist temple
After walking around the city wall, and temple we went back to the hotel area and noticed a little pagoda just peeking out over a wall, so we stopped to explore one last thing before we left the city...so glad we stopped!




The little pagoda area across from the 10th tallest buidling in the world in Nanjing!

Rod and Sarah at the Pagoda..the hotel is in the background

The pagoda garden, so peaceful in a big city to find this little gem!


So that's about it for our travels in China for this weekend. Blessings to you all andThank you for your continued prayers and thoughts as we near our 4 year anniversary of living here...yes, 4 years...amazing how the time has gone by!

Rod and Sarah, the dynamic duo living in Shenyang, China!







Sunday, March 2, 2014

2014 March, "if ya got it, flaunt it" Harbin international ice festival



2 March 2014
Greetings all from North East China!

The winter this year in Shenyang has been tame compared to the Polar Vortex in the US!  For a little winter fun, I went with a dear friend up to Harbin (Rod didn't want to go but encouraged me to go with Julie).  Harbin is a city a little further north just..always cold in the winter...so to not forget the cold and have a little empathy for our US friends and family, we went!   You may have seen pictures of the ice festival at this city on CNN or other news networks as it really is a spectacular display of lights and ice together to make one bling ice snow.   It was really the end of the season, so we did notice a few rounded edges...but it was still stunning!  Harbin is a city that has alot of Russian influence in it's architecture...but no one goes there in winter to admire the architecture (well, maybe the cathedral, you'll see at the end of this post)

There are 2 main areas to enjoy the ice and snow..the snow sculptures and the ice structures.  The snow sculptures are best seen in the daytime and the ice is best seen in the night due to all of the neon lights encased in the ice.
Here are just a few pictures of the snow sculptures
Sarah in front of the large lady Shiva (a little strange for me to see a Hindu God in the land of Buddhist!

Large elephants in the snow

The year of the horse comes in Harbin with horses airbrush painted in a snow canvas
A large 'ginger jar' airbrush painted with the blue motif

The phoenix flies in snow!

Horses gallop in in snow...look at the size of the people on the right side!  This thing was huge!
After a nice stroll through the park looking at the snow, we went to the ice park and had a nice hot tea, then we walked around in the park at dusk for s unique look at the ice structures at sunset.
An ice temple at sunset

Sarah holding an arctic fox..just had to do it!

Sunset at the ice festival in Harbin

Ringing the buddhist bell at Harbin

The Buddhist prayer area at the ice festival..all of these red ribbons hold a prayer for a loved one..living or dead.
After sunset of course comes the dark...and the lights come up and the temperatures go down!  But of course the show is the ice and lights...
One of the central towers at the ice festival in Harbin, Feb 2014

The view from the top of one of the ice towers...yes there are steps, and yes, they are slippery..but they are accessible!

Having fun on the ice slide!

An other view of the snow and ice

Tower of power on ice

Arches, lights and ice...always a favorite!

Not really sure what structure this is, but nice to look at all the same!

The lighted ice moon bridge over an ice pathway

More arches and ice

  
An Ice buddhist temple in Harbin, PR China, Feb 2014

Looking out on a 'lake' of ice..notice the small detail in the ice ballister!

Tunnel of ice love!
After a full evening of fun in the ice, we headed back to the hotel and had a great big Chinese dinner...we ordered alot and we ate alot!  The next morning we headed out to the Siberian tiger park.  There is also one of these parks in Shenyang, but this one was bigger..and more cats!  Rod and I had visited the Shenyang park in the summer..so I thought it would be nice to see the siberian tigers in the snow..so out we went!
Tigers in the snow covered woods playing!

Tigers sunning themselves after breakfast...which I didn't see!

A leopard at the tiger park...hmmm..cats on the prowl!

White tiger coming our way!

A beautiful cat the white tiger

Sarah having fun at the tiger park

Tiger in the snow at Harbin

Cats comfortable in the snow!

And not to be outdone, the Jaguar poses in the tree...what a beautiful cat!
After the tiger park, we strolled up to the Temple of Eternal Heavenly bliss...now with a name like that, we just couldn't miss it!  Not sure it was eternally blissful for me...but it was interesting and we say some beautiful copper clad artwork.
There it is eternal heavenly bliss!

Sarah with the buddhist metal carving prayer stations

MOre of the metal prayer stations

No trip to the temple would be complete without stopping by the official gift shop..now, here is what I thought was a Hindu Shiva in the Buddhist gift shop..I guess I'll have to study up on my statuary more.

Close up of several of the many hands on this statue..notice the eye in the thousand hands behind the 2 big ones..I'm sure this has a meaning, but I didn't get it!
 After the temple of heavenly bliss, we went downtown to a more traditional Christian religious building the Saint Sophia Cathedral.  It's beautiful architecture, but sadly it is no longer a functioning church.
Sarah in front of the St. Sophia cathedral
Afterwards we went for a quick stroll down the pedestrian street, then headed back to the high speed train that took us back to Shenyang...3 hours later we were getting in our cars back to our Shenyang homes.  Thank you Julie for going with me...I had a great time!!

So, that's about all for Harbin...worth the trip...even in the -0 weather!

Next time, who knows from where!

Sarah & Rod