China: Summer Palace, Pearl Market, Temple of Heaven Park

[vanityfair00]

On day three of our trip we made our way out to the Summer Palace on the edge of the city. I should mention that anytime we went anywhere it took a long time to get there. We started off the week with all of these grand plans of seeing more than one sight in a day and quickly realized that was impossible with the travel times. The city of

Comments

[droxy]

I got pearls really really cheap in India. SO yes, great score!

At 6ft tall I was stared at in Japan a lot. =) They would be speakign Japanes and I would say in English " I know you are talking about me, do you want to talk to me? " That would 1- silence them in a fit a giggles or 2- they would speak. The elderly are so tiny, and they would look and nod and that would be it.

Awesome picspam. I am jealous. I would love to see the things you are seeing in china. You should do a induastrial area tour in Japan, just to do it. I saw the famous budda. I dound Japan hard to navigate due to the address system, shoot even the cab drivers have a hard time. LOL

[vanityfair00]

I find older Japanese people are very eager to talk to me...sometimes in English and sometimes only in Japanese. I don't usually mind the staring here because they associate my pastiness with beauty. haha...won't get that when I go back home! But it was more aggressive staring in China. They didn't care that I knew they were staring and that was really intimidating. It was such a relief to get back to Japan frankly.

I did tour the local Toyota plant awhile back. That was cool and I realized that my college car was probably built right here in Tahara! And the guys before me got to do a farms tour that I wish I could have gone on.

[droxy]

I have learned in traveling the east that the stareing has several meanings. Given my size I stare back and I stare back hard and try to engage them. I have has intersting conversations as a result of that. In India it's call eve-baiting or something like that, but to me, given my size and their size, it was joke. I will never understand the east's concept of paleness with beauty. The east is full of lovely looking people. I suspect if you are pale you don't toil in a field, which would be a sign of weath and stature that has stuck around. Don't let them intimdate you....LOL.

When my blond husband visited me..oh holy moses!!!!

[sigune]

The city of Beijing is roughly the same size of the entire country of Belgium!

Perhaps, but Belgium has more fresh air! I remember Beijing as a heap of buildings popping out of a thick cload of smog... Blergh.

Looking forward to the Xi'an pictures! I liked it much better there than in the capital :).

[vanityfair00]

Amen! Mom ended up with a horrible hacking cough because of the bad air quality.

We liked Xi'an better too. We all three wished we had spent more time there.

[chochajin]

So, it's true that China is so cheap? Two of my friends went there before they came visit me in Japan and they were telling me about how cheap everything was! They were shocked that Japan was so different XDDDD

Awesome and colorful photos!!!

Random, but I'm thinking about getting a flickr account. Would you recommend it? Also, do you know what the MB/GB limit is? <- important with my 23423569238472198347192374 photos XD

[vanityfair00]

It was very very cheap! Especially when compared to Japan. But it was also dirtier and people were much ruder. It was a relief to get back to Nagoya and then Tahara honestly.

I like it ok. I pay for a pro account because without it you can only have access to the last 200 pictures you uploaded. I'm not really picky about my photos but I like it better than photobucket.

[chochajin]

Thanks a lot for the info :) Good to know and that's exactly what my friends told me :)

Doesn't sound too good then. Thanks :)

[valis2]

Amazing pictures! This is so fascinating, as always. I love your musings on travel, too. ;) Can't wait to see the rest of your pics!

[vanityfair00]

Thanks!

That Sunday was the worst day of the trip. Culture shock and botched plans came together in a bad bad way.