Liaoning, 2013 - prrrrl
Musings, events, observations and (mis-)adventures of a travel-holic fleaing the summer heat of Beijing. Daring RJ was brave enough to come along on the 'seat of your pants flying' ride!

In no particular order... Today's events
Beijing, China
Why do we take pictures? To remember an event? To document atrocities? To sustain awe of beauty? Why did the fluent English-speaking Chinese gentleman clandestinely take mine after helping me decipher which subway stop would bring me close to the wholesale tea market? Surely with his language skills he had talked to foreigners before. If only he had silenced his smart phone I would have never known.
written by  prrrrl on September 25, 2013 from Beijing, China
from the travel blog: Liaoning, 2013

When not to discuss WWII?
Beijing, China
I had a nice discussion with my two hostel roommates on various China travel destinations. They brought up Japanese atrocities against the Chinese. I brought up how the US ended WWII. Oops! They're German.
written by  prrrrl on September 25, 2013 from Beijing, China
from the travel blog: Liaoning, 2013

I amuse easily
Shenyang, China
Cities in China can be very crowded. Qing palaces on holidays can be crazy crowded. How to not get separated from your travel buddy? "Marco!" And I wait for the, "Polo!" How appropriate to play that in China! And I find that highly amusing.
(The Mukden Palace is a smaller but beautiful complex of buildings with not only dragons for decoration but wonderful cranes, too.)
written by  prrrrl on September 25, 2013 from Shenyang, China
from the travel blog: Liaoning, 2013

Not From Your Chopsticks, I Won't!
Beijing, China
Free taro! The hostel sells bottled water for 5 quai. The convenience stall just steps away sells the same for 3 quai. I'm accustomed to speaking Chinese when shopping so even though the people ther know sufficient English to sell to us White Ghost, they'll speak Chinese with me. The old lady gets a kick out of the fact that I can speak her language, so much so that this morning when buying my day's h2o supply she offered me pickled vegetables from her bowl with her chopsticks. Um... I waved the offering off. But then she offered me a whole, unbitten taro root. That I happily accepted with much gratitude. It was the size of an egg - a good sampling size. I like tubers.
written by  prrrrl on September 25, 2013 from Beijing, China

Priceless scene!
The child had run into traffic of the foot kind in the very crowded morning market. Vegetables, fruits, dentistry, clothing, fabrics, cookware, goldfish, salted fish, dried fish, fresh fish, breakfast, socks, gloves, hair pins, shoes and much more being hawked in the narrow alley. The mother reached out to pull her young one from trampling danger. The feet the child had run in front of? A tall white ghost [caucasian], an uncommon sight in these parts. The mom glanced up, her eyes widened in amazement. Or was it amusement? She half smiled. Child was safe. White ghost moved on.

I'll take the one at the back, please.
I was once surrounded by a dozen water vendors. The ones that pressed in close were animated and loud, waving the bottles in our faces. The ones at the back were quiet. I chose a vender at the back. Succumbing to the pushy tactics breeds more pushiness. It's like rewarding a puppy when they are well behaved rather than punishing them when they are naughty. On a similar note, I like to find the shop that is out of the way and not on the main drag. Those back shops appreciate their customers, are friendlier and tend to give better prices.
Yesterday I learned there was a wholesale tea market. How did I not already know that?? Even with a time crunch of having to get my buddy to the airport, I made a side trip to the tea market. The shop I selected was the last one behind down a short alley and not even visable from the street. The two women were very friendly and poured me lots of tea. I bought $100 worth of tea! It's enough to last me a while, though. It's definitely a neighborhood & shop I'll be returning to.

My Fault!
Shenyang, China
It would have been my fault. I would have rear-ended the car in front of me. The thing is, I wasn't driving. I was walking. The traffic was so bad the cars had taken over the bike lane. The "parking lot" was the side walk. So where do I stroll? I'm walking in the bike lane, distracted. I look up just in time to not walk into the car in front of me. Ssssllllooowwww traffic!
written by  prrrrl on September 26, 2013 from Shenyang, China

Hiqh Quality
Xingcheng, China
"Please be careful to wet up and down steep slopes," read the sign. Chinglish at it very best!
[Sign posted at the entry ramp to the ancient city wall of Xingcheng, one of only four remaining Ming Dynasty walled cities.]
written by  prrrrl on September 26, 2013 from Xingcheng, China

Spider Wall
Xingcheng, China
I was so excited to see large argiope spiders in three consecutive battlements of the Ming Dynasty wall! I took many close up pictures! Then I kept walking... and counting... and there were about 20 consecutive battlements with argiope spiders. Must be favorable winds facing south. Spider Row!
written by  prrrrl on September 26, 2013 from Xingcheng, China

Chaoyang bound?
Xingcheng, China
We were at the Xingcheng train station ticket window having just bought our soft seats for Chaoyang [only $10!] when the Drama began. I attempted to make a follow on request for two tickets to Beijing from Chaoyang. Having been told by a nation-wide reservation service that no hotels in Chaoyang were cleared for accepting foreigners, we intended to choo choo in & out on the same day. But all soft seats were sold out! My western sensibilities would not tolerate a hard seat for 13+ hours. Now what? Back to the hotel where Internet access will help us scheme. There we contrives plan B. back to the train station to impliment it. Stand in line again. Get to the same ticket agent again. Show her plan B. No go. Rinse and repeat. After our third round trip still no ticket! On the knowledge that there are buses and the nation-wide reservation service could be wrong, we choo choo to Chaoyang the next morning, no firm, guaranteed plan in hand. Seat of my pants travel!!!
written by  prrrrl on September 27, 2013 from Xingcheng, China

Wow! Talk about living up to its name!
The first time I passed that corner I thought, 'Open sewer?' The second time I thought, 'Industrial spill?' The third time I paid attention to the recorded sales pitch blasted endlessly to passers-by: "Chou Dofu!"
Stinky tofu!
I'll pass!

Timing
Raining! They seeded the clouds too late. Usually they engineer a bright sunny day for Oct. 1. (By mid-afternoon it was beautiful out.)
written by  prrrrl on October 1, 2013 from Beijing, China

Argh!
The tall building has three elevators but today only one is working. It's on the eighth floor. I wait for it to descend. The doors open and I see three people, one with a dolly of boxes, one just standing there and one on a full size motorcycle. I back up to let the motorcycle back out but when he's clear the door closes without me on! The sole elevator then goes all the up to the 32 floor giving me time to hunt and peck this message! Argh!
written by  prrrrl on October 1, 2013 from Beijing, China

My new job?
It's the national holiday so all offices are closed. Fortunately for me shops are open. I'm at one warehouse and only the owners are here. The phone rings and it's their customer in London. Poor Wu is confused - he does not speak English. He hands the phone to me. I act as translator conveying Brit's question, then Wu's answer; brit's complaint, then Wu's solution. What's my hourly rate??? (Brit said, "You sound American.")
written by  prrrrl on October 1, 2013 from Beijing, China

Santa National Day?
"Did you have a good National Day?" I asked smelly, Brit-sounding gentleman who had not left (for more than a day, anyway). The memorable answer did not come from him but from the desk clerk eavesdropping. He said, "Not really." "Of, course! You had to work!" I assumed out loud. "No, since I'm grown up, it is not special." Would the average American adult say that about the Fourth of July? Is the Chinese National Day the equivalent of Santa Claus?

Get a whiff of...
Lights back on! Yea!!
Men and smokers don't think their jackets need washing. They are everyone-else-is-plugging-their-noses wrong. I once sat behind a young man at the ballet in Raleigh Fanning my face constantly to dispel his outerwear's rankness. At the hostel I'm currently at, I complained at the front desk that the room smelled. I was wrong. The British-sounding Chinese man's clothes reeked. He said he was moving out the next day and I was looking forward to the smell's departure. His English is like my Chinese - we sound better than we comprehend. He did indeed move out though when I ran into him in the lobby the next morning he said he was staying. I thought he meant that he was staying somewhere else (as in different city) for the next week which would match our first conversation (pre smell diagnosis) that he was heading out of town for the Chinese holiday. Well, he's back (it's been one day). I enjoy talking to him but I sure hope he's staying in a different room!
Jan

Darkness
Today is their National Day, their 'Fourth of July'. Yet I got lots of work done visiting 3 vendors and picking up longer pants from the tailor. But I just returned to the hostel and there is no electricity to my room. This leaves all six residents in the dark. And it's their National Day - electricians are not working! The desk clerk can call the manager. But can the manager call a repair person? Doubtful. I asked for a flashlight and they quickly obliged. Could be an interesting evening!

Fossils!
Chaoyang, China
We made it! After first heading to the bus station to buy tickets out of town (next day, as the last bus would not allow sufficient time to see the fossil museum necessitating an over-night in a city we were told we could not over-night) we hired a pedicab (no longer an applicable name as they are all electric or gas now) to get us to bus 15, the vehicle that can take us to... FOSSILS!!! The pedicab takes back to the train station. We thought that was fine until we learned that bus 15 does not pass by the train station. A very kind chaoyang-ian says she'll ride (a different bus) with us and take us to the correct bus stop. That's why I love the Chinese! A long city bus ride later she points us to the unmarked bus stop. We get off and wait. It takes a while but Bus 15 finally comes and we make it to fossil paradise!
But we don't have same day tickets out of town and we don't have a place to stay in this foreigner-forbidden city. What to do? I had a plan all along. At the ticket counter I tell the 5 ladies behind the counter (and only me and RJ in front - read that, "almost no visitors, way over staffed") that we need a hotel for they evening. Sure enough, these very helpful ladies call around and find us two, TWO!, hotels that will take 'outsiders.' One one cheap and near the train station, one is expensive and not. To the great Surprise of all who know me well, I chose the latter. 'Near the train station' is code for filthy. Read the next post for how the day ended!
written by  prrrrl on October 2, 2013 from Chaoyang, China

Dig it!
Chaoyang, China
Fossil blog
The Bird Flower-rock (fossil) National Geological Park is 60% kitsch, 30% awesome. They have the actual pit where some of the first fossils were found. They have a long, deep trench showing the sediment layers. This is not open air but in a modern building resembling an ankylosaurus. They have a museum showing scores of fossils pulled from the site, including a turtle visitors can touch, the famous feathered Dinosaur and a specially lit main feature: two small Dinosaurs caught in the act of creating new little Dinosaurs. The hokey parts are the animatronic T-Rex and others since the animatronics is hokey and these Dinosaurs were not found in Liaoning. The petrified Forest is disappointing in how pieces were poorly glued together in columns of their original growth. I'd prefer to see them the way they were found. Also very hokey is the fake and unimpressive in size Volcano.
But still worth the trip for the fossils, dig site and trench. Ahhhh...
written by  prrrrl on October 2, 2013 from Chaoyang, China

Hot Lap of Luxury
Chaoyang, China
Guilded lions outside, huge elaborate lobby modeled after French aristocracies of the 17/18th centuries, shiny everything! And only 499 ren min bi per night ($80).
The room had the usual western amenities of soap, shampoo, conditioner and lotion (but in an embossed leather box), a blow dryer, big screen TV, iron and board, not free mini bar and plush towels, and the Chinese amenities of slippers and an electric kettle. But it also had a safe, a mini fridge, two bathrobes, a scale, wall panel push button bed lamps, wall panel push button nightstand lights, wall panel push button vanity light, wall panel push button over toilet light (which never turned off), wall panel push button do not disturb light, wall panel push button entry light, wall panel push button shade over the jacuzzi up or down (there being a huge window between the bathroom and the main room a shade comes in handy) and two full-face gas masks. Did I mention jacuzzi? Oh, you were focused on the gas masks. Yes, we found that odd, too.
For all this luxury there was one little flaw and one huge flaw: big, ugly stain on the carpet and the AC did not work. Hands down the fanciest place I've ever stayed but no AC?
written by  prrrrl on October 2, 2013 from Chaoyang, China

I tried, I really tried
Errand list:
Buy hats for Jensen
Pick up black ball gown
Pick up dance skirts
What I accomplished:
Bought a wrist watch

Spotty Chinese
One word (bian3) came back to me without me thinking the English first. Yea! I'm actually not sure of the English translation. I just know how to use it in Chinese.
Another word (hao3 mi3) I knew I should know just wasn't there till I asked the stone vendor. The frustration of long language breaks

Thanks for the work out, Google Maps
My friend's House is east of the outlet mall. I know that now because I GM sent me northwest of the outlet mall. I'd been to SZ's House before via subway and remembered it being close to the mall. Unfortunately I wasn't sure of the direction. I trusted GM. I walked 2+ kilometers in the wrong direction then had to taxi back to the mall then beyond. So much for saving money by using public transport. At least I was not trying to arrive fresh. I had already had a long day tramping (a Kiwi term for hiking) about the city.

Where white cats are gray
The drum Tower hostel has a very laid back resident mouser. It should be a black and white cat but not in smoggy, dusty beijing. It's black and several shades if gray. Can cats get smog balls?

Not dining alone
Ah! The pick your own restaurant! A refrigerator case with baskets of veggies, meats, mushrooms and organ meats on skewers makes it easy to get what you want. I went for almost one of each veggies, tofu skin, fish and shrimp balls and a couple mushrooms. Once I fill my basket I give it to the cook and he/she (though I've never seen a 'she') boils it for me. My cooked selections are brought to the table with a sesame dipping sauce. Hot pot made easy! Though this qualifies as a hole in the wall establishment they have nice mostly matching china and elaborate embroideries under the glass table top. The waiter brought me complimentary just boiled tea (and yet another compliment on how good my Chinese is). So nice! Then another visitor dropped in - a cock roach fell, feet up, between my tea cup and the bowl of dipping sauce. The supine position gave me time to select a napkin to squash it with. The tea being so pleasant, I've extended my stay so I can enjoy it at a drinkable temperature. Cock roach, schmock roach - I'm enjoying myself

Chicken foot snack pack

BeiLing Tomb

Lily pads

Where's the driver?

Can he see?