Month: October 2025

Today was one of the most anticipated days of our tour.  We are headed to The Great Wall of China!  We went to the Juyongguan section of the wall, which is one of the best-preserved (and most visited) sections of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The many sections of wall, built over several centuries, cover 13,000 miles as it protected the northern border of the Chinese Empire.  The section we visited is around 600 years old.  While it appears that invaders could top the wall using ladders, the important part to recall is that their horses could not!  Invaders without horses were not as scary apparently.

While visiting the wall is certainly bucket-worthy, we were envisioning taking a nice stroll across the top, acting like we were taunting hopeful invaders, “Stop, or we will fart in your general direction!” Or maybe, “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”    Nope.  Approximately 1,363,847 uphill steps later, Dave had (almost) made it to the 12^th Tower.  Kathy had abandoned him at the 9^th Tower.  Nowhere in our tour company’s brochures did it mention burning quadriceps or lung-searing climbs.  It’s as if the ancient Chinese had never heard of mobility-impairments or accessibility!  When did they invent gondolas anyway??  Well, regardless of our physical limitations, sitting and looking out over the vast forests from atop one of the most famous man-made objects in the world was amazing.

Then, came the descent.  Ugh!  Going up is definitely hard on the lungs; going down is hard on the joints.  Dave was following a couple of Chinese ladies going down who were taking their time.  This provided Dave with a good cover story for why he was taking his time.  And, when they plopped down on the steps to take a break, Dave did likewise – much to their amusement.  Dave spied a helipad way down below and wondered what it would take for him to need that. We both made it up and down fully intact, although we knew it would be a night for “vitamin i” (aka, ibuprofen).

Next stop was a visit to a jade exhibition.  The creations were definitely impressive, but we were glad we purchased our jade Buddha figurine in Hong Kong after seeing the prices here!  Last on our itinerary for today was a visit to the Olympic Park, and its famous Bird’s Nest Stadium.  As usual, the park was enormous and intended to impress.  Fortunately, it was not packed with crowds for a change.

Back at the hotel four of us decided to try our luck at a Chinese restaurant across the street.  (Aren’t all restaurants in China technically “Chinese restaurants”?)  We were ushered into a booth and given menus with no English writing, but at least it had pictures.  With Google Translate assisting us, we passed on things like chicken feet and goose lips.  Kathy looked for something that did not require life-saving interventions.  Dave’s attempt at charades to ensure this did not quite land appropriately we don’t think.  But, Kathy did get some kind of chicken dish and Dave got sweet and sour pork.  Dave’s dinner was fabulous, while Kathy shared her chicken wings chopped up and thrown into a salad bowl with Sue, our new friend from England.  We’re not sure if Simon, also British, ever determined what his dish was.  But, these are the kinds of things that make international travel so much fun.  We had a grand old time and did not die.

The next morning, we had a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel before the group boarded the bus for Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Our guide, Jimmy, advised us that these areas are especially busy and the lines to enter start very early.  He also advised us that he would not be able to answer any questions with a political bent, since you never knew if the person next door was a tourist or a government worker in plain clothes.  When we got near the area, we could see buses lined up for miles and miles.  We got off the bus and got in the queues which stretched for miles and miles.  And, of course, there were so many people scurrying around, over, and through us trying to get closer to the front.  We had to show our passports a few times and each time was a long wait in a line.

Once we finally broke free and entered the Square, we took deep breaths.  Not only because we were finally not being cattle-driven through the entrance, but because we finally had enough space to fully expand our lungs!  Ahhhh…  Tiananmen Square, like everything in China, is on a scale unimaginable.  A few years ago, they started limiting the amount of people allowed into the area on a daily basis to 60,000.  This was after one day when 110,000 people entered the square and several were trampled to death by the crush of humanity.  Dave calculated that 110,000 people is more than the population of all the previous towns he has lived in since college… COMBINED!

We were fascinated by the enormity of the square, which at 4.7 million square feet is one of the largest public squares in the world.  We saw the Great Hall of the People where the National People’s Congress meets and where foreign dignitaries meet the Chinese government.  We saw the Monument to the People’s Heroes, a huge obelisk commemorating those who died in the service of the People’s Republic of China, especially those from the Boxer Rebellion and World War II (with emphasis on those who suffered at the hands of the “Japanese Aggressors”)  The square also houses the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, the first leader of the PRC.

Of course, no writing of Tiananmen would be complete without a mention of the pro-democracy movement that occurred here in 1989 and was crushed by the Chinese Military.

After walking for miles and miles, we next entered the Forbidden City, home to many Chinese Emperors, including the last emperor who was cast from power in 1911.  After his dethronement, warring factions started fighting in China and the emperor fled to Manchuria.  He later sided with Imperial Japan which used the excuse of “saving the reigning emperor” to invade China.  After a brutal colonization, Japan was tossed out after World War II.

The complex is huge (imagine that!) with over 1000 buildings and 9,999 rooms (9 is a lucky number in China!)  We would walk for miles and miles, and then pass another temple or building, only to see the complex go on for more miles and miles.  The complex only ended due to a man-made hill which was created by the digging out of some land to make a canal.

We then got bused to the summer palace.  This was a beautiful, peaceful place with a tree-lined, man-made lake (and accompanying man-made hill made from the leavings of the lake.)  It was not as crowded as the rest of the places, so it felt good to just relax and unwind a bit. In the lake, Dave spotted some beautiful multi-colored ducks, called Mandarin ducks. He took photos, but the ducks were so beautiful and the water a milky white, that the photos look fake.  Fittingly, after touring the Summer Palace, the group was taken to a restaurant where we had Peking Duck (and some assorted other Chinese dishes.)  All in all, it was a nice, if exhausting day.

Everything today seems to be multiplying. We originally started out with six on our tour……today our tour group is now almost four times bigger, multiplying to 22 people on the tour.  This meant not only multiple people, but multiple issues, personalities, and, of course, multiple times we are counted. Twenty two seems small though in comparison to the 1.2 billion people in China. While we were informed that Beijing is not the largest city in China, it sure did feel like it (but it only really has 25 million). The ever present sounds of city life abound around our hotel, from the vehicles to the people just chattering away. What a great place to people watch!

After breakfast at the hotel, we boarded a bus for a tour of the Temple of Heaven.  This is a religious complex from the Qing and Ming Dynasties.  We walked through a temple, then another temple, and behind that was another temple, which led to another temple.  They multiplied like rabbits (which we actually saw a statue of!)  Or, they multiplied like Chinese people since there are 1.2 billion of them!  And, a large percentage of them were also at the temple complex, all vying for a photo of the inside of the most important temple (which, when we finally squeezed our way to the door to peer inside, had but a single chair.)

After the Temple of Heaven, we were taken to a Chinese Medicine Center where we learned the difference between Chinese medicine and western medicine.  In China, western medicine is used for emergencies like surgeries, while Chinese medicine is used to keep you healthy in the first place.  We all received a foot massage and then were evaluated by a Chinese medicine practitioner.  He looked at our hands and our tongue, asked a few medical history questions, gave us a diagnosis, and said we could buy some herbal medicine from them for $120 USD to cure us (for 90 days). We don’t discount the benefits of Chinese medicine, but we needed to do some research to see what it is they wanted us to take, the science behind it, and whether it would interact with the western medicines already prescribed to us before we decided to add some herbs.  Of course, our tour guide regaled us with stories of how past tour guests called him after taking the medicine, crying at how it saved their life.

Our guide also told us of how in the 1960’s and 70’s, Chinese people were poor and had little to eat. Instead of greeting people with, “How are you today?” their standard greeting was, “Have you eaten today?”  Then, in 1978, came economic reform.  Prior to that, all businesses were owned by the government.  Now, 98% of all businesses are privately owned. He said that taxes today run from about 2% for the poorest people, to around 50% for the wealthy.  Today, China does not have a homelessness problem, he said, and we have not seen any homeless camps in Beijing.  He described the government as no longer communist, but socialist.  We do see a lot of Mercedes-Benz cars and nice clothes.  Just as the US is not a true capitalist country, China is not a true communist country.  Our countries have a lot more in common than they do tremendous differences, at least economically.  Our guide also talked about how due to the “birth control policy” (not the “one-child policy” as we often refer to it in the US), many Chinese children were adopted by American families.  He said that they thought that the children would at least grow up without poverty. However, he proclaimed, they were not happy to find out that 50% of the children adopted by Americans were used solely to harvest their organs!  We guess that “fake news” is not the sole domain of the US government.

Back to the tour, we enjoyed a rickshaw ride along a tree-lined canal and tried our hand at the traditional Chinese art of paper-cutting.  This was done at the home of a private Chinese family. By now it was about 2 pm and Dave is learning that Chinese guides in Beijing do not believe in lunch.  Fake News yet once again!! We sneaked into a small shop and quickly bought a couple of cookies to quiet Dave’s stomach so that we could hear the guide again. Of course, immediately upon rejoining the group, the guide said we are now free to explore the area on our own for the next hour.  We went down some side streets and found a place that sold some kind of doughy food that the vendor assured us had beef inside.  She tried to explain something to us via charades, but we were unsure what it was.  We found a place to sit on some steps at tried to enjoy our lunch.  After a few bites, Dave discovered what it was the chef was trying to tell us.  He took a bite and scalding hot liquid came squirting out!  Kathy took a few tentative bites and saw nothing but meat that was red inside.  We quickly ditched the “beef” and bought a box of the cookies we had tried earlier.  Yum!  The two cookies were multiplied into a full lunch!

 

When we returned to the hotel after the tour, we decided to try Taco Bell once again.  This time, Kathy had downloaded AliPay and set it up.  Score!  We ate our three tacos and two drinks happily.  Some of the other tour members sat at a restaurant across the hall from us where the food goes around on a conveyor belt and you sit at the counter, picking off things you want to try.  It looked like fun, but with Kathy’s allergies, we didn’t want to multiply the amount of Benadryl in her system, so we played it safe.  Pretty sure Taco Bell doesn’t serve shellfish, even in China.

10/14/2025 – Welcome to Communist China

We got up in the morning, had breakfast and were off to the airport to catch our flight to Beijing, the capitol of mainland China.  This will be our first time visiting a communist country, so we are interested in seeing how things are different.  We had originally obtained our tourist visas to enter China back in 2019 when we were planning our Round-the-World trip, which was aborted due to COVID.  Fortunately, we had obtained 10-year visas back then, so they are still valid today.

Things at the airport in Hong Kong went well, with no issues getting through security and boarding the plane.  We arrived in Beijing on time and the process of going through the immigration process, getting our luggage, and getting through customs went very smoothly and efficiently.  The only minor issue was the dates on our visas.  Because the visas were attached to our passports 6 years ago, the dates were not as pristine and clear as they were originally.  But that hiccup only delayed us by a minute.  Then, we were met by our driver at the terminal exit and he whisked us away to our hotel.  We met up with our guide at the Doubletree by Hilton who helped us check in and gave us the low down for tomorrow.  We dropped our bags off in our well-appointed room and went in search of din din.

Finding a place to eat is always tricky for us when we travel due to Kathy’s allergies to shellfish.  We decided to play it safe and easy our first night and went to the attached mall to look for food.  We weren’t hungry enough to try the buffet at the hotel.  Taco Bell doesn’t serve a whole lot of shellfish, so we started there.  A little language barrier was resolved quickly and we ordered some good ole tacos.  Paying in China is going to be a pain point!  Many places to do accept credit cards and we had left our cash with our passports in the hotel room.  But – we had planned for this and had downloaded both AliPay and WeChat onto our phones, after researching about it online.  Unfortunately, we were not able to get either app to work.  Even the nice young lady at Taco Bell couldn’t get it to work.  Best laid plans…

Back to the hotel we went and bellied up to the buffet.  Instead of the $8 USD dinner we had hoped for, we ended up with a $75 USD dinner. “Eat up!” Kathy implored, “We are getting our money’s worth from this meal!”  Dave tried some German pork, German potato dumplings, and some German potato pancakes.  You can take a Bauer out of Bavaria, but you can’t take the Bavarian out of Bauer.  Of course, sometimes you can’t take a German dish out of Bavaria, either.  We don’t know why, but the potato pancakes tasted like orange peel!  Do oranges even grow in Germany??  But, the dinner was very good, and the desserts even better.  Fat, dumb, and happy, we retired to our room satiated.

Back at the room, we tried the wifi.  Google does not work in China.  That means no kathyanddave.com, no Bills or Sabres updates, and no Gmail!  Our first communist snag!  Oh, well, tomorrow is another day.

 

Life here started pretty much the same way as yesterday: slowly rolling out of bed, breakfast, a short walk, and then we were off. Today we were off to visit the largest Buddha statue we have ever seen. The bronze statue is on the island of Lantau and is only accessible by taking a very long cable car ride up to the site of a monastery. The gondola ride is considered one of the top 10 in the world, and we would agree. Quite an event it was! It wound around the island, across the Victoria Bay, and up the mountain to find the Buddha. Along the way Dave got to add a bird to his life list when he spotted a crested-serpent eagle flying among the trees and keeping pace with our gondola. The bird, we were sure, was mocking us saying, “I can fly! Why don’t you break free from your tether and come play with me?” Needless to say, we just continued on the preordained path and did not veer from the cables. No playing with eagles today.

Finally at the top, we wandered around the Ngong Ping Monastery. The monastery was guarded by statues of twelve generals who each had a two hour shift through the day. The generals were aided by an animal helper which was a member of the Chinese Zodiac sign. Needless to say, the debate was what animal do you want on your head? The ox maybe…maybe the horse, rat, dragon, monkey, tiger, rabbit, or pig? Which one would you want on perched on your head for all eternity? Kathy would pick the serpent; at least she won’t get a headache from the weight. Dave used to like monkeys, until he got robbed twice by the vile primates on successive vacations. After walking past the gauntlet of generals, we arrived at the initial monastery which includes Buddha statues representing the past, present and future. The initial area was beautiful and amazing. Walking around, we soon arrived at the recent (last thirty years) monastery room of 10,000 Buddha’s. The Buddhas are a shining gold and alleged to be worth so much that they don’t want photos in the area. Apparently we did not get the memo, as we took some pictures at the urging of our guide.

Next on the list, the walk up the mountain – and according to our guide it is 268 steps – to reach the base of the Buddha. Seeing it live and in person was pretty amazing. The tranquil spot (if you can tune out the tourists chatting away) gave us a 360° view of the area, including several islands in the sea. We walked around the Buddha and then ventured in to climb inside his ample tummy which is so large that it fit a museum and a couple gift shops. (It does make Kathy wonder if Dave has squirreled away some treasures?) Clambering down the never-ending steps, we wandered back to our meeting point to begin the journey back to our hotel, or not. No journey to Lantau Island is complete unless you stop at the luxury outlet mall that sells HIGH END retail for not so cheap prices. We did manage to stop and have a sandwich and enjoy something to drink, which for Dave included a cup of hot  milk (okay, not what he was expecting… at all). We skipped the shopping (except for a bottle of pop and, interestingly enough, a strawberry Snickers Bar).

Finally back at the hotel Dave is napping off his warm milk while Kathy attempts to not kill the internet as it keeps sputtering out while trying to check into our flight for tomorrow. Took so long, Dave is now awake.
Time to go find a castle. Since our first day here, we noticed a rock formation high up on a cliff behind some large buildings. There appeared to be stairs and railings along a trail in the area which piqued our curiosity. We asked our tour guide about it and he thought it might have been part of a castle. (Dave thinks he is daft!) We have tried to figure out how to get on this trail, but have not found a way as of yet. However, on our morning walk after breakfast, Dave spotted a pedestrian bridge across the busy road which appeared to meet up with this trail. Now – we are gonna find out. A quick walk down the street and across the bridge, and we started up some stairs. All along the stairs, though, were dozens and dozens of what appeared to be small Budda and Buddha-affiliated statues, along with burning incense. We even passed a small structure with lit candles inside. Then, we came to an abrupt halt as we found a locked gate along with a “No Tresspassing” sign from the government department of public works. Bummer! So, we headed back to the hotel for our last supper here in Hong Kong.

We learned yesterday that many of the small restaurants in this area do not take credit cards, nor do they take the Chinese payment apps of AliPay or WeChat. So, we have eaten dinner at the hotel. Tonight, Dave had spaghetti Bolognese, while Kathy opted for the fried rice. Ever mindful of her allergies to shellfish, she asked the staff if shellfish of any type was used for this dish. “I could die.” She told them. “No,” advised the staff, “There is no shellfish used in these meals.” When the dish came out, there was a very noticeable piece of shrimp atop the mound of rice. She alerted the staff who brought over the concierge who had taken our order. She pointed out the shrimp pieces in the meal. He said, “Oh, you mean you can’t eat ANY fish??” We’re pretty sure our eye rolls were audible at this point. They took her plate back and brought back another plate several minutes later. Or, was it another plate, or the same plate just de-shrimped? Dave asked Kathy if the meal tasted fishy at all. Nope. She took several bites and remained asymptomatic. Hurrah! We finished our meals and went to pay. That is when Kathy started feeling flush. We rushed her back to our room and Dave gave her 50 mg of Benadryl. He also readied the EpiPen and the albuterol. It took almost 30 minutes for the Benadryl to fully kick in, but we did not have to administer anything else. Thirty minutes later, Kathy fell asleep, the final therapeutic effect of the Benadryl working.

Tomorrow we head to Beijing. Hopefully, being inland will make it easier to avoid shellfish for a while.

Yes! We managed to arrive in Hong Kong even though the federal government is in the midst of a funding shutdown. Yes, TSA was fully staffed. Yes, air traffic controllers manned their stations. Yes, we managed to sleep a bit on our almost 15 hour flight. Yes, Kathy did need a glass of wine on the plane to help her doze. Yes, Dave did watch an entire season of 30 Rock. Yes, Kathy did finish two books. Yes, Kathy still managed to almost finish watching a movie. Yes, the food was actually pretty good on the plane. Yes, we finally got to the hotel.

Phew! Is the word “no” not in our vocabulary? Well, we can try……. Yes, we went to bed as soon as we arrived at the hotel. Yes, we managed to get in a short walk after breakfast. Yes, we went on our tour. Yes, we did lots of cool things, like taking a cable car up to the tallest hill in Hong Kong (Victoria Peak – 552 meters tall!), taking a tiny boat ride a round Victoria Bay past the dozens and dozens of mega yachts, walking to one of the many beaches in Hong Kong (and then taking refuge from the torrent of rain under a Buddhist Temple!), and finally walking through a narrow row of shops looking for trinkets (where we bought a statue of Buddha made out of solid jade). Yes, we met the other four people on our tour. Yes, we found a pastry shop. NO, Kathy does not like their oatmeal cookies in Hong Kong! There you have it folks: the first “no” in the initial 48 hours of our trip, and all because of some cookie.

We did learn a bit about Hong Kong while on the tour. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It is made up of many islands and has a population of 7.5 million residents, making it the 4th most densely populated city in the world. In 1841, it was a fishing village which was colonized by the British for its strategic location. Eventually, the British signed an agreement with China whereby it would lease Hong Kong for the next 99 years, after which it would turn the area back over to the Chinese. Twenty-eight years ago, on July 1, 1997, the lease expired. (By the way, the People’s Republic of China is celebrating its 76th anniversary this year!) Not much has changed for the residents in these past 28 years that it has been a part of China again. Hong Kong still has its own currency (the Hong Kong Dollar versus the Chinese Yuan), its own language (Cantonese Chinese versus Mandarin Chinese), and its own tax structure (they are taxed around 16% versus around 40% in mainland China). Hong Kong has grown into a wealthy city where condos overlooking the bay sell for $5 million USD! Mega yachts abound. There are thousands of banks here as it has become a financial hub for the world. It has become an area with one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world. But not everyone is wealthy. To combat homelessness, they have government-owned apartments where people can pay a reasonable rent if they have a lower income. These government properties are very small (around 100 square feet), but they do provide most people with a roof over their heads. When Britain turned the area back over to China 28 years ago, Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of the PRC. This SAR is to last for 50 years, after which it will become a regular part of mainland China. No one really knows what will happen 22 years from now when Hong Kong is fully assimilated into China. We would presume that things like currencies, languages, and taxes will be the same across all of China, which will be a big change for the residents of Hong Kong.