Discovery Educator Abroad -

Wrapping it up!

steve_dembo@discoveyr.com (Discovery Educator Network) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 14:48:03 -0700

Wednesday was our last full day in China. We decided to join up with two other ladies that we had met on the tour and visit a hutong. A hutong is a neighborhood area with many of the houses built around a small quadrangle. Once Beijing was full of hutongs but most of the hutongs have been ripped down to make way for skyscrapers, new apartment buildings and highways. We took a taxi to the Shichahai hutong.. At the hutong, we went over the pedicab stand. What is a pedicab? A pedicab is a cross between a bicycle and a taxi. The front of a pedicab has a single wheel and looks like a bicycle with a seat for the driver. The back of the pedicab has two wheels, a place for two people to sit with folding hood/roof/umbrella that goes over the top of the passengers. Why were we taking a pedicab? The streets of the hutong are very narrow and cars can not go down them. The hutong is fairly large and walking around is would take too long plus this looked like much more fun.
       Dr. Novak and I climbed into the lead pedicab and our friends hopped into theirs. Neither of our drivers spoke much English. Our lead driver would come to a special attraction and yell out the name and keep pedaling on. Some times other pedicabs or those ‘pickup truck style’ bicycles would swerve in front of us and our driver would have to put the breaks on. At a couple of spots, our driver had to get down and walk the bicycle up a steep incline.
            We came to a very rough part of the road and our driver motioned for us to get down. The four of us with the second driver took off on foot to explore some of the hutong. This driver took us to various shops. None of us really wanted to shop but there was little we could do. After some more wandering through the maze of streets, we got back to where the two pedicabs were. Off we took again only to have the chain break on our pedicab. This required another stop and even more time to ‘fix’ the chain.
            When we came near the exit of the hutong , our driver head off in another direction! All of us were getting a little worried and happy when they stopped about hundred yards down this narrow alley. We all realized what they were up to after we got out of the pedicab. THEY wanted more money because it had taken more than hour. We said ‘NO’ because they had wasted some of our time. They followed us down the alley yelling at us. I turned around and gave them each some more money. I don’t think I should of but I did.
          Our taxi ride back to near our hotel went fast as we all laughed about our experience and were very thankful that there were four of us not just two. The taxi dropped us off at Silk Alley which is not an alley but rather a big building full of shops. Dr. Novak and I need to get some gifts for our grandchildren and children. This was another one of those experiences that was both good and bad.
          As you walk down the corridor between the shops, employees try to lure you into their store by calling to you and some even try to grab your sleeve. Once in the shop, the price for everything has to be negotiated. The employees start with a high price that you should never take. You then go back with a price that is lower than what you think it should be. After much time handing back and forth a calculator with your or their price on it, you finally decide to either buy it or walk away. Even when you walk away, they still follow you shouting sometimes an even lower price. This all takes a great deal of time but some people think it is great fun. Dr. Novak and I didn’t and we were very tired when we walked back to our hotel.
            Our flight home was long BUT we got to Chicago an hour before we left Beijing. Yes, I was time traveling again. Do you remember when I mentioned I rubbed the turtle’s nose for good luck at the Ming Tombs and Dr. Novak didn’t? Poor Dr. Novak did NOT have good luck. The airline lost his suitcase and they still haven’t found it. Thankfully, all the present we bought were in my suitcase.
             I am very glad we went to China. It is a fabulous country and a great experience. Dr. Novak and I have talked about our trip a great deal. We both agree that we would go back to China sometime in the future but not really soon.

And The Winning Dino Name Is!

steve_dembo@discoveyr.com (Discovery Educator Network) — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 02:48:29 -0700

According to the poll results, the name Alden won. Dino Alden will be visiting schools having his photo taken with students that have produced outstanding China scrapbooks. These pictures and scrapbooks will be published on my website http://www.nashua.edu/novakc/ in the next two weeks. Yours, Mrs. Novak

The Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City

steve_dembo@discoveyr.com (Discovery Educator Network) — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 08:27:23 -0700

Tuesday morning, Dr. Novak and I were up early once again to board the tour bus. Surprisingly, my legs did not complain as I folded them up to fit into the tiny amount of space in front of my window seat. All the climbing up and down on the Great Wall had left no stiffness or pain. The bus slowly crawled down the exit ramp from the hotel into of the Beijing rush hour traffic.
            Our tour guide informed us that we were heading to the Summer Palace first and then after lunch, we would go to the Forbidden City. The drive to the Summer Palace was not long in distance (only about 10 miles) but took about 45 minutes. I was delighted that we went past the Beijing National Stadium which will be the site of the opening/closing ceremonies and main track and field stadium for the 2008 Olympics. It looks like a gigantic metal bird’s nest! Both Dr. Novak and I tried to get pictures but they all came out fuzzy because of the moving bus and window glass.
            The Summer Palace is where the imperial court went to escape the summer heat of Forbidden City since the 18th century. Our tour guide explained that there are three kinds of gardens in China. They are public gardens, private gardens and royal gardens. The Summer Palace is a royal garden and is very different in design to the private Yu Garden that we saw in Shanghai. It is much bigger and grander in design. Saying it is ‘grand’ just might be an understatement considering these facts. One emperor order 100,000 men to dig up the Kunming Lake and shape it like the West Lake in Hangzhou. The Summer Palace has the longest painted corridor in the world being 2,277ft long. There is a huge Marble Boat that the Empress Dowager Cixi ordered to be built. Yes, the gardens were beautiful but I enjoyed the Yu Garden in Shanghai much more. I think the best part of this visit was we got to go for a ride in a dragon boat across the lake. THAT was fun.
            After lunch we were off to Tiananmen Square. It is a HUGE concrete covered square outside the Gate of Heavenly Peace that is the entrance to the Forbidden City. The square was built in 1950’s. On one side is the Great Hall of the People which includes a football sized banquet hall. Directly across from the Great Hall are the museums of Chinese History and Revolution. In the center of the square is the giant stone Monument to the People’s Heroes that was built to honor all the people that died in revolution. Behind the monument is the Chairman Mao’s Memorial Hall. This is where you can go and see the body of Chairman Mao which is raised during the day from the freezer below. All of these details were told to us by our tour guide since we didn't not have time to visit these places.
            Over the Gate of Heavenly Peace hangs a huge portrait of Chairman Mao. From just about any place in the square, you can see Chairman Mao’s portrait. Chairman Mao stares out directly at the flag of China that is guarded by special green uniformed soldiers. Four soldiers stand straight as arrows and perfectly still at attention around the flag. One soldier walks back and forth. The guard is changed regularly because it is very hard work to stand still in all kinds of weather. When we were in the Forbidden City, we saw the relief guards marching out. The flag is raised and lowered at sunrise and sunset.
            To get to the Forbidden City you have to take an underground tunnel to the other side of the very busy road and enter through the Gate of Heavenly Peace. The complex of the Forbidden City is huge covering almost two hundred acres. It is very overwhelming as you walk through a series of four gates to finally arrive at the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Much to my disappointment, the Hall of Supreme Harmony is undergoing a major restoration project. The hall is shrouded in green mesh material that you can barely see the outline of the hall through. The sound of construction work echoes through the courtyard that has 16 layers of stone beneath the stone pavers you walk on. All of these layers of stone were to prevent possible assassins from digging into the Forbidden City.
            Our tour wound through the inner buildings of the complex with the names of each building told to us by our guide. It was hard to keep your mind on the names of each new building, take pictures and enjoy the experience of walking where emperors of China strolled for nearly 600 hundred years. Before leaving for China, I had watched the movie “The Last Emperor”. All I could think of was poor Pu Yi (the last emperor of China) and what it must have been like for a child of three in this overpowering, confusing maze of a palace. I know that this would be a scary place to get lost in.
            After looking at the royal bedrooms, we came out to the Imperial Garden near the northern end of the Forbidden City. It was a good place to rest both our bodies and minds. Some of the tall cypress trees are centuries old and one dead tree with a gnarled and bumpy trunk still stands tall. The pathways are made of small colored stones arranged in different patterns of animals and plants. Some of the stones are so worn it is hard to make out what they represent. Colorful koi fish swim in the ponds. Oddly shaped rocks are displayed with numerous surrounding the charming Pavilion of a Thousand Autumns with its cone shaped roof that looks like a hat above the lower many peaked roof. This was my favorite spot in the Forbidden City. More about our last day in China in another post. Yours, Mrs. Novak

The Great Wall and Ming Tombs

steve_dembo@discoveyr.com (Discovery Educator Network) — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 22:45:23 -0700

With sleepy eyes, Dr. Novak and I climbed aboard our Beijing tour bus. The bus had very cramped seating and my knees were very bent into the seat in front of us. I had not slept well the night before. More people in our tour group had got sick since leaving the cruise boat. This was a different kind of sickness being serious colds with much coughing going on. Both Dr. Novak and I had allergy problems from what I think was all the pollution in the air at both Xian and now Beijing. The skies at both places are shade of foggy tan. The cars and buses were covered with a redish dust.
      As we drove out of the city, the beautiful blue sky tried peaking through all the foggy smog. By the time we arrived at Badaling section of the Great Wall, both Dr. Novak and I were feeling much better. My allergy pills had worked wonders on both of us. We were ready or so we thought to attack the Great Wall!
      After exiting the tour bus, we went up to the central portion of the Great Wall. WE all stopped and had a group photograph and our tour guide told us we could go up either side. One side is called the 'Easy Way' which is very crowded and has many steps. The 'Hard Way' does not have as many steps, is less crowded but has VERY steep ramps of stone. We deicided to go up the Hard Way.
       At first the walk was not bad up the well worn walkways with steel pipe hand rails up to the first two towers. We felt very good about this and decided to reach the top tower which is the highest of the area. WHAT fools we were! The steep stone ramps got steeper and steeper and I had to drag myself up using the steel pipe rails. Then we had a series of stone step with each of a different height. These stairs were not like climbing stairs but rather a stone ladder. We were forced to stop several time to catch our breath and I soon decided NOT to look back down since it ws scary. We climbed and climbed and climbed and finally made our goal.
      Our tour guide had given us two hours and half hours and I thought that he had given us too much time. Boy, was I wrong! While the climb up was hard, the climb back down was worse since the steps were more slippery going down. The steep stone ramps and gravity wanted your body to go VERY fast down. My right hand got very tired grabbing the metal rail to stop my feet from just sliding down. I was very glad when we reached the two stone towers and the flatter section of the Great Wall. BUT I felt very elated that I had CLIMBED a small section of the Great Wall. One huge life long goal acheived and best of all, I didn't fall down.
       At the bottom of the Great Wall, Dr. Novak, another couple and I stopped into a tea shop and had cup of Chinese green tea. We were all revivied and ready to board the bus again for the Ming Tombs.
       While we didn't actually visit the Ming Tombs, we walked the pathway to the Ming Tombs. Huge statues of soldiers, horses, camels and other mythical Chinese beasts guard the pathway. The details of the carving of these ancient beast and soldiers was inspiring. I can only imagine how Chinese forefathers felt when the walked between these mythical beasts for the first time. I know how Dr. Novak and I felt when we each choose a statue to stop by. I choose the two horses with one standing and one laying down. I think you all know how much I love horses. Dr. Novak choose the elephants. I guess this shows what a strong man Dr. Novak has been during this whole trip.
       The sun was low in the foggy sky and everything had a golden hue. It was a rather magical moment when all the crowds of people are forgotten and you see things as others before you might have seen it. It was hard to leave the Ming Tombs and I patted the giant turtle's nose for good luck in the entrance gate. I knew I needed good luck to finish this trip. Dr. Novak did not pat the turtle's nose which I think was a small mistake which will be revealed later.
       I fell asleep on the bus on the way back. Dr. Novak gently nudged me awake as the bus drove up the ramp to the hotel. I think my mind was still back on the Great Wall or Ming Tombs or perhaps the terracotta army trying to process all the greatness of Chinese civilization that we had seen in so few hours. It was hard to return to the reality of eating dinner and preparing myself for yet another tour packed day. More later with many more phtos coming. Yours, Mrs. Novak

More Catching up!

steve_dembo@discoveyr.com (Discovery Educator Network) — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:49:41 -0700

The pace of our tour went from busy to hectic as we exited the cruise boat in Chongqing. Our only visit in Chongqing was to the zoo to see the giant pandas. On our walk to the giant panda compound, we passed the enclosure with red pandas. They are VERY cute. When we got to the giant panda compound there were NO pandas.....
      Our kind tour guide went over to the zoo keeper and asked him release the pandas to their outside compartment. You have to realize that giant pandas do two things really well being sleeping and eating. They slowly left their sleeping quarters and walked out to their feeding station. We got to see four ginat pandas. One young female was in a single enclosure. She climbed up onto a large rack covered in fresh bamboo and started to eat. A male and female giant panda were in the next enclosure. One of the pandas (male I think), was very slow to come out but he did come and join the other panda that was madly munching. The fourth panda was another female who stayed close to her sleeping quarters munching on bamboo.
     All of the pandas were big and round. Our tour guide remarked that many of the pandas in zoos get too fat because they don't exercise much. I could understand this since we had been eating very well on the cruise boat and hadn't much chance to walk about. THIS was all about to change.
       After seeing the pandas, we were back on the bus to the airport. We were flying to Xian. The flight was only an hour but it seemed much longer between the time we had to spend making sure our luggage arrived and our trip to the hotel on yet another bus. We were glad to get to our room and have a good nights sleep before off again in the morning.
       Early in the morning we were off to special museum about an hour and half north of Xian. This museum is for the terracotta army of the first emperor of all of China being Emperor Chin. Yes, this is the army of soldier that can NEVER die. Both Dr. Novak and I agreed that this was the most impressive thing that we saw on our WHOLE trip to China.
       I promise to download the pictures tomorrow. I have a huge number of them to go through since we were both so impressed and took way too many photos.  NO two soldiers look the same. It was fascinating to zoom down with our cameras taking pictures of the faces of the soldiers realizing that these 'faces' were well over two thousand years old.
       While at the book store, I purchased a book and DVD about the terracotta soldiers. I was very lucky and had the book signed by the man that discovered the terra cotta soldier in 1974.
        I kind of felt sorry for this old man in 80's who spends part of every day he feels well enough signing books for the thousands of vistors that come to the museum.  Even President Clinto has visited with him. He looked very sad and tired.  I realized even IF I come back to China again, he may not be at the museum. I feel very lucky that this kind man signed my book. Please feel free to ask more questions about the terra cotta army.
       After what seemed a very short time at the museum, we were back on the bus to the Xian airport for our flight to Beijing. Our flight was delayed and what was suppose to be short trip of less than two hours turned into a trip of almost five hours. All of the people on the tour were very tired, hungry and tad grumpy when we got to Beijing. We had to be up VERY early the next morning for our bus ride to the Great Wall. More about Beijing and the Great Wall in another post. Yours, Mrs. Novak

Catching Up: Happy Hangzhou

steve_dembo@discoveyr.com (Discovery Educator Network) — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 02:14:47 -0700

            What fun I hand talking to students Friday night! Skypeing worked perfectly and Jay and Phil did a great job on the other end. I think it was exciting for student not only to talk to me but to see on Google Earth exactly where I was staying.
            Historically, Hangzhou has had it ups and downs. Marco Polo found Hangzhou to be “the finest and most splendid city in the world.” back in the 13^th century when the population was over a million people. Most of the city was destroyed in 1861 to 1863 during the Taiping Rebellion. Many of the rebuilt monuments were once again destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Today hard work has gone into restoring and reconstructing things that were damaged in the past. The city is a thriving business center. It was hard to miss the car dealerships for Bentley, Porsche, Massarati, and Ferrari on the main streets of Hangzhou.
              Our hotel was on the shores of the West Lake. The West Lake is a soothing and peaceful setting with gently sloping mountains in the background. Just looking out the hotel window was calming after the hectic train ride and all the bustle of Shanghai. Keeping with the calming thoughts, the hotel concierge hired a taxi driver for five hours to take us around to the sights. He was an excellent driver and showed us were the tickets
              First we visited the Evening Sunlight at Thunder Peak Pagoda on the shores of the lake. It opened in 2002 and is a totally rebuilt pagoda that rises from a foundation built in 976. In the basement of the pagoda, there is a working archeological site. The original pagoda collapsed in 1924. The view from the top of the pagoda is marvelous as you look out upon the lake and mountains behind. Each of the five stories of pagoda has a display with my favorite being the carvings depicting the opera White Snake. I am sure you will enjoy the pictures we took of the fanciful figures flying through the air. I know I want to find out more about this opera.
            Next was Tea Museum of China were I learned a great deal about my favorite drink. I did not realize that black tea (what I drink) is made by fermenting the tea leave. We also learned about the nearby Dragon Well tea (Longjing) that some consider the finest in the world.
           Temple of the Soul’s Retreat was built in 326 and totally undamaged during the Cultural Revolution   It is a VERY crowded place as throngs of worshipers and tourists walk the path up to the Liugong Pagoda and Hall of the Four Heavenly Kings. The hall is very impressive with statues taller than 40 ft and at least 800 year old. The odor of burning incenses is every where in the court yard as people drop bundles of incense into the huge metal pots. Clouds of light grey smoke snake their way skyward from these pots. Other pots hold only smoldering white ashes awaiting the next offering from the worshipers.
         On your walk up and back, you pass the limestone Peak That Flew From Afar which is adorned with 10^th through 14^th century carvings. According to legend, the peak flew from a holy mountain in India to this special and sacred spot in China. Numerous of the carvings were damaged in the Cultural Revolution but repairs are under weigh. My favorite carving was the Laughing Buddha who many people were taking pictures of.
            Even though we were getting tired, we headed out to the China National Silk Museum. I was a bit disappointed since this museum is only big display cases and diagrams. No guides (like the tea museum) to answer your questions and no audio explanations like at other museums we have visited. The most exciting thing about this stop were the busy shops trying to sell you silk items.
            After a good nights sleep, Dr. Novak and I were off in the morning in our fancy taxi. Our taxi driver was a woman! She zoomed down the highway to Shanghai taking full advantage of ALL the lanes of the highway. I do mean all since once when three trucks were in all the lanes, she neatly went down the break down lane never slowing. We got to Shanghai and to our hotel in under two hours. More about the start of the Viking Cruise Tour in another posting. Yours, Mrs. Novak

The Cruise Ship

steve_dembo@discoveyr.com (Discovery Educator Network) — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:32:28 -0600

Hi all,
        I have written more stories and have taken many more pictures about our trip BUT the cruise ship computer will not 'talk' to either a CD I created or my thumb drive. SO some things will be on hold for a bit.
         I can tell you more about the cruise ship. The ship can hold 300 people in 153 cabins. On this trip we have 136 passengers and 158 staff members taking care of us. The room is fairly large. The bathroom is a little small. The best part of the room is the lovely balcony we have. It is the perfect place to sit while you sip on a cup of tea.
        The cruise ship people are keeping us very busy with tours to some great places. I will write more about the Three Gorges Dam but I can say it is an awesome sight. I must admit I was a little disappointed that the Chinese are months ahead of schedule and the water behind the dam has risen faster than they thought. Over 55 ft in one month according to our local guide. Why is this a disappointment? So much of the landscape up river from the dam is under water. I will try to show you some pictures of what it look like before.
       Our tour of the Lesser Three Gorges yesterday was fun. We took a smaller boat up what is NOW a deep river. We got to see the over 2,000 year old hanging coffins and some monkeys playing in the trees along the steep mountain sides. I was very surprised not to see more wild life on the mountains and we were told that other than the monkeys only wild goats live there. I did not see very many birds flying around at all. I miss their happy sounds. One of our friend with binoculars saw a couple of birds of prey fly high among the peaks. More pictures later.
       Yesterday numerous people on the ship got sick. I have my fingers crossed that Dr. Novak and I will be alright. We are working hard at eating very carefully, drinking only purified water and washing our hands many times a day. We have anti bacterial handwipes that we use when we are away from the ship. We DON'T touch our mouths with our hands. This is one way bad bacteria can get in your body and make you sick.
       Dr. Novak is off on a tour of the relocationed city of Fengdu. He promised to take plenty of pictures and tell me all about it. I decided to stay behind and see IF I could get the Internet to work. I am so glad I did this!
       After lunch, we are going to have a tour of the bridge of the ship. Do you know WHERE the bridge of the ship is? Do you know what they do in the bridge of the ship?  See if you can find out information on this.
     Tomorrow we are going to a zoo and we have been promised that they have pandas. After the zoo, we are flying to Xian. Hopefully, I will be able to catch up with all the pictures and stories. Yours, Mrs. Novak

Internet Problems

steve_dembo@discoveyr.com (Discovery Educator Network) — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:20:01 -0600

Hi all,

I have been having major problems with the Internet on the cruise ship. The first night I tried for 45 minutes to get to this webpage with no success. I have tried each of the following days with no success. All of the TV and Internet comes in via satellite.

DON'T worry I am still writing and will update you when I have a good connection in Xian. I will try to get more done today IF things hold. Yours, Mrs. Novak

A Train Ride to Hangzhou

steve_dembo@discoveyr.com (Discovery Educator Network) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 20:05:34 -0600

     Just for the record, train stations and train rides in China are not exactly like they are in the States and Europe. As our taxi driver arrived at the underground departure area, we were ‘attacked’ by a horde of porters trying to get our business. A crew of them went for a trunk as another crew went for the front seat. After paying the taxi driver, I had to go on the offensive and retrieve my luggage from the two vying groups and yell, “NO, only one!” as I am dragging the luggage off the second cart. The one group then took us to where we paid. They handed me a calculator with 100 on it. “No! No! Way too expensive” I responded “I do it myself” as I grabbed for the luggage. Suddenly the calculator came back with 80 on it. I turned to Dr. Novak and he agreed.
            Eighty RMB (about ten dollars) is almost twice what we paid for the taxi but IT was well worth the strong young man getting us through baggage screening, down the main part of the station to the waiting hall. He stayed with us as the departure time neared and brilliantly found a quick way through the ticket check in. I couldn’t believe it but he picked ALL our suitcases up and carried them downstairs to the proper car and helped us to our seats.
         This was no mean feat. You have to push and push and keep pushing to get on the train. I felt horrible when this lady tried to push in front of me with her elbow and I pushed back! She gave me a surprised look. I guess most Westerners don’t push back. I knew if I was getting on this train I had to push back. Dr. Novak followed in my wake with a surprised look of wonder on his face.
            The train was very nice and clean. Each person has an assigned seat but some people try to sit in the wrong seats. Dr. Novak and I had aisle seats. The train is not a high speed one and gently sways on the tracks as it goes about 40 mph. People selling food and drink are constantly walking up and down the center aisle hawking their wares. One of the official ladies walked up and down with a tea kettle of steaming hot water. Passengers would stick out their large clear plastic containers with green tea leaves in it and she would fill them. People and especially children are constantly moving about. It isn’t really noisy but I would have to be REALLY tired to go to sleep.
            As we neared our destination (Hangzhou), people started shuffling around. I quickly packed away my laptop and reached for my suitcase above. The kind gentleman sitting next to me gestured and took it down for me. Poor Dr. Novak was not so lucky. As he was trying to get his suitcase down a lady with a cart of food came up behind him. She started to rant and Dr. Novak got flustered and he loudly said “Go ahead and get off the train. I will try to follow!” I took off down the aisle, exited the train and waited on the loading platform. Just when I thought I needed to go back and rescue him, Dr. Novak appeared.
            Our next task at hand was climbing the many stairs to cross above the train tracks. It sounded like bump, thud, heave, bump, thud, heave as each of us dragged our suitcases with wheels up the stairs. All of sudden my suitcase got much lighter! A VERY kind man came up and took hold of part of the handle lifting the suitcase. Once again, Dr. Novak was left out of the unexpected act of kindness. Going down the stairs on the other side was much easier. Upon entering the train station, the attendant checked our tickets, showed us where the exit was and offered to pull one of my suitcases which I politely refused.
             I can’t believe how kind so many Chinese people have been. As we looked bewildered exiting the train station, an official came over and showed us where the taxis were. As we were standing in the line to get a taxi, a lady with a huge roll of something on her backed pushed past me and then got entangled with Dr. Novak and his suitcase. At this point, I could only laugh as I watched the two struggle since there was absolutely nothing I could do.
        Another official gave our taxi driver instruction to take us to our hotel and handed him the pieces of paper with the address on it. Off we took but it became apparent at about third traffic signals later that our taxi driver didn’t know where he was going. He rolled down the window and yelled at the truck driver next to us and I think asked for direction. I decided I better go into action since Dr. Novak was looking really STRESSED. I called the hotel on my cell phone and handed it to the driver for him to get directions. We arrived safely at the hotel.
            After getting the key to our room, the very next thing we did was ask the concierge about getting a taxi back to Shanghai instead of taking the train. I want things to be easy! More about Hangzhou in the next post. Yours, Mrs. Novak

Yu Garden, Old Shanghai and the Oriental Pearl

steve_dembo@discoveyr.com (Discovery Educator Network) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 03:36:49 -0600

            On Thursday, Dr. Novak and I decided to do some final sightseeing in Shanghai. We each selected one place. I choose the Yu Garden and Dr Novak choose the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. Personally, I think my choice was MUCH better.
            I love to garden and garden design is very important to me. Visiting the Yu garden was to experience a true classical Chinese garden. I was not disappointed. Rather than give you a small lecture on the design structures of a Chinese garden versus a classical English or European garden, I think you should just visit the pictures that I have added to photo gallery. I have not posted all of the many pictures I took but just a few of my favorites. Enjoy.
            After visiting the garden, we walked the streets of Old Shanghai. The streets were congested with sightseers and people trying to convince you to visit their stores. I must admit my dislike of crowds made me walk very fast. I was not unhappy when we hopped into a taxi and headed for the Oriental Pearl TV Tower back in the Pudong.
             The Oriental Pearl s is the highest TV tower in Asia. The views were spectacular of the Huangpu River and the Bund beyond. I am glad we went to the top but the lines were long and I was getting tired of the push of peoples as we crowded in for all the elevator rides (three up and three down). I was happy to return to the hotel, pick up our tickets for the train ride to Hangzhou and have a quiet dinner. Yours, Mrs. Novak