We could've gone all the way to the Great Wall of China

Going to China over our 5th anniversary was more happenstance than the plan - the schedule just worked out that way. When we first got married, I think I said something about maybe going back to the hotel in San Diego where we spent our honeymoon for our 5th. China was way better!

Our anniversary was on Monday this year, and we spent the morning at the Summer Palace. It’s a gorgeous and huge property, with a large man-made lake in the middle. It’s probably nicer in the summer, but still neat to see year-round. In fact, it was one of several places we saw on our trip with people doing morning exercise on the grounds. In this case, at least a couple of older men were doing tai chi in a sun warmed spot.

The Bronze Ox is keeping watch over the palace

Seventeen Arch Bridge

We elected not to explore the whole area, just so we’d have more time to explore our afternoon destination - The Great Wall! On the way, we stopped at a jade market to learn more about jade carving and found a perfect anniversary gift to ourselves.

Jade carving

Process of carving a Happy Family Ball

This photo doesn't do it justice, but we purchased a Happy Family Ball - The outer ball is a dragon (the husband) and a phoenix (the wife) wrapped around and protecting the inner balls (the generations yet to come). We wanted something with a dragon and phoenix for our anniversary from this trip, and finding this on the actual day was perfect.

Lunch was at a place at the base of the mountain with a view of the Great Wall! The food was alright, but that view was particularly neat! Some friends of ours who had previously been posted in Beijing with the State Department recommend we go to the Mutianyu section (there are several to choose from), which they said had better views and fewer people. Apparently it’s also our guide’s favorite section and he’d never had anyone request it before. Now that we’ve been there, we absolutely agree that it's the place to be!

There aren’t as many domestic tourists that come to this section and there were times we almost felt like we were alone on this wall.

We took a chair lift to the wall itself (though you can just hike up), and then hiked as many sections as we had time for. Some were practically ladders you had climb up! I bum-scooted back down that one and a kind fellow tourist looked at me, then back to Blake skeptically, and then asked if I wanted to hold onto his arm on the way, probably wondering why Blake wasn’t helping. I thanked him but just said it’s because I have short legs and it was easier this way. I promise Blake is a good helper and excellent husband!

Ultimately, we walked about 3 miles around the Wall and my Fitbit logged 91 flights of stairs this day!

As incredible as the Wall in the Mutianyu section is, it was almost as incredible to get down - by toboggan! We each took a sled 1.5km down the mountain, a ride that actually takes a few minutes! I learned about it after we had already chosen this section and our guide suggested it as well. You do have a handbrake to control your speed, and the slope is gentle. Definitely the way to go!

A little cold, but so worth it!

All told, this was probably the highlight of our whole Beijing leg of this trip. Such an amazing experience!

Dinner that night was Peking duck, beef, and vegetables. Lots more vegetables served with meals in China than in Japan, which we appreciate.

Duck on a duck shaped plate

Carving the duck

Here’s to five years of wedded bliss with an eternity to go!

Blake had try the Pepsi Blue, once available in the US, but now only in Indonesia and, apparently, in the Carrefour in Beijing. I tried the Green Apple Mirinda.

Everybody was kung fu fighting!

At some point while we planned our China trip, we learned about visa-free travel - if you’re on the mainland for less than 72 hours and coming from one country but leaving to another (essentially making China a long layover), you don’t have to get a visa. So we thought we might do that and go to Chengdu and then visit Taiwan or Hong Kong (technically part of China, but not for visa purposes) as well. But considering we’d be pushing it close to those 72 hours and then something might go wrong and keep us longer, we decided to pay the money to get visas. And then, since we were spending that money, we might as well make it worth it and stay on the mainland for the duration of our trip. If we never make it back, we figured Beijing would the best and most interesting city to visit in addition to Chengdu. So, we took our ideas and wishes to the on base travel agency and asked what they might be able to do for us. They quoted us a price that would let us do everything we wanted to do (including a few customizations), stay in a nice hotel, provide us with a driver and English speaking tour guide in Beijing, AND take care of all the visa work (instead of both of us traveling to and from the Chinese embassy in Tokyo at least twice) for around the amount we had budgeted for this trip. Could we have done our own travel and itinerary for less than that? Maybe? We do enjoying planning our own adventures, but considering how foreign and difficult it can be in China, we decided it was absolutely worth the convenience cost. Now that we’ve completed our trip, we still do not regret it. It really helped it feel even more like a vacation to let someone else take care of the details before and during our trip!

Our driver met us in the airport in Beijing, but our guide had been delayed, so we picked him up on the way to the hotel. He spoke great English, was very knowledgeable, and quite thoughtful and kind. We all got along very well and both the driver and the guide made our trip a breeze. We would have been a lot more tired and stressed if we had also been navigating or trying to decide on food. As such, we sat back and enjoyed a more relaxing sort of adventure. They dropped us off at our hotel and we chose to visit one of the hotel restaurants for dinner.
Breakfast was provided at the hotel each morning and featured a variety of local and Western foods.

Our first dinner in Beijing

Sunday morning, we had already decided that we wanted the experience of attending church on mainland China. We don’t usually go out of our way to attend church when we are traveling - it depends on how far away it is, how long we are in the area, how easily we can get there, etc. We like to attend at least the first hour (Sacrament) if we can, but don’t stress about it if it’s going to be much trouble. However, we decided that for this trip it would be interesting to attend church in a country that only recently, and partially, opened up to a freedom of religious beliefs, so we asked the travel agency if we could work it in. A English-speaking, international expat branch meets rather conveniently to the center of the city and, even though we didn’t ask for a specific amount of time, they scheduled the whole morning for it and we got to attend all three hours.

It was a lovely meeting, the lessons and discussions were both interesting and uplifting, and it was a great start to our day. At the very beginning of the meeting, they read a letter about how we must conduct ourselves in China - no interaction with Chinese national members of the church and no proselyting actively or passively to non-members. So, we had to be vague and general when our guide asked about our time at church, but that’s okay. Hopefully, this will help build the relationship of trust that will allow for future opportunities to be more open in that country.

After church, we went to lunch - our guide would order our meals (included in our plan) and then let us eat on our own. This lunch was a soup, peppered beef, sweet and sour pork, vegetables, and watermelon. Quite good!

Then, we went to a silk market. The Chinese have a long history of handicrafts and traditional arts - maybe even one of the longest continuing traditions in the world as it’s such a big country that has seen very little turmoil compared to others. They are making efforts to preserve these traditions despite the changing world around them and this was the first of several stops we made in Beijing to learn about this cultural arts. Here, I picked up a scarf and Blake a tie.

Silk fabric demonstration

Silk mattress demonstration

Following this, we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, seat of the Imperial Chinese Dragon Emperor from the Ming Dynasty through the Qing Dynasty, and only opened after the last Emperor’s death. I wrote a paper once - a short story - about the events in Tiananmen Square, but I can’t remember which class or grade I was in or even the contents of my story - just that it existed. It was still interesting to be there and the grounds of the palace, one the largest in on the world, were exquisite.

Then, we went to a tea shop and participated in a tea ceremony and tasting. We jointly agreed that the fruit tea was our favorite. You can even eat the fruit after brewing your tea!

Dinner that night was McDonald’s, due to time. But we made it worth it and got food we would only be able to find in China! Blake got a chicken with chili sandwich on black bun and I got a taco burger, complete with tortilla chips.

The reason we ate when/where we did was so we could get to our evening’s entertainment - a kung fu show! It was great fun, super high energy, and we really enjoyed it.

I got to take a picture with the cast because I had purchased a keychain. Blake was expressly not permitted to join me, so he was the photographer.

Ultimately, Sunday was our longest and most full day, but quite good. Next time - how we celebrated our actual anniversary!

Back like Szechuan sauce with my day ones coming on top

Chengdu is in the Sichuan province of China. Even though it’s relatively central if you’re looking at a map of the country, it’s pretty far west in the inhabited portion before the mountains take over. Sichuan (also known as Szechuan) is known, at the very least, for its spicy food and opera.

Opera costume

While it’s a sizable city, there isn’t a whole lot to do or see of major significance within the city limits. Many trip guides of top local attractions in Chengdu only list the pandas and a couple of other places and then start suggesting places two hours away or more. With only two full days here, and wanting to spend time with our friends, we knew those places wouldn’t work on this trip, but we still managed to have some pretty good days.

The panda base, even for me who loves pandas beyond reason, really only takes half a day. We were there for about six hours before heading out for our afternoon activity - Wide and Narrow Alleys (Kuanzhai Xiangzi) - which offered us the chance to see some interesting Chinese architecture, eat adventurous food, and browse a variety of shops.

When we arrived, we’d already walked something like seven miles and were ravenous, but trying to locate and identify food was a challenge. Well, mostly identify. We saw steamed buns and varieties of meat on sticks and then saw cooked rodent heads (later identified as rabbit) and some brain soup. We’re adventurous, but we’re not that adventurous. Eventually, we found some alleyway dive, pointed at some things and ended up with some beef rib on a stick, pork chunks on a stick, and some dumplings not on a stick. It was pretty good! We wandered up and down the alleys for awhile until we’d had our fill and then successfully navigated the metro for the first time to get back to the consulate, which is where our friends live. For dinner, we all went to a Tex-Mex restaurant that was surprisingly good. At the end of a 26,000+ step day, I felt no qualms wolfing down some cheesy enchiladas and a big German Chocolate ice cream dessert.

Even the graffiti gets into the spirit

Pollution

Wide Alley

Lunch!

Rabbit heads - not lunch

We were mesmerized by this guy whipping noodles

Caramel work

Sichuan Opera costume

Starbucks > Communism

On Friday, we started our day by navigating up to the Panda Avenue metro station, just to see how it was decorated and then went to a shopping area called Tai Koo Li for people watching, more panda decorative cuteness, and delicious soup dumplings and dim sum that our friends recommended. Nearby was a Buddhist temple - Daci Temple - which we also explored.

Don't miss the panda scaling the building behind us!

Afterward, we took a cab to Wangjianglou Park or Bamboo Park. The paid area has some historical buildings to explore and the open area features a few more, but also lots of people just going about their park business. And a run down children’s amusement park.

Dinner that night was at a place the Americans colloquially call Rabbit Restaurant. Everything is served family style and everything was delicious. This was probably my favorite meal of the whole trip. We had crispy rabbit (which our friend convinced her daughter was chicken for as long as she could and the look of betrayal when her daughter realized she had, in fact, eaten rabbit was all too clear), duck with crispy rice, eggplant (very popular in Chengdu), some vegetables dishes, some buns you scoop some pork and grain mixture into, and some sort of fried corn dish. Way more food than seven people could eat, but I definitely did my part and then some.

Afterwards, we relaxed and watched My Neighbor Totoro, which I had failed to see before then. I can now authoritatively agree that it is super adorable and it was fun to see and share things about Japan that make it even more meaningful. Apparently it was originally released as a double feature with Grave of the Fireflies, one of the most gut-wrenching films I’ve ever seen and also an anime film. I really hope they showed Totoro second.

Saturday morning, we relaxed with our friends (particularly the kids), had pancakes for breakfast, and did our laundry. Then it was off to the airport for a few days in Beijing!

The luggage carts had touch screens for airport info!

Karaoke booth! Sadly, we did not have time to try them out. 

Many thanks to our dear friends for hosting us in Chengdu!