China Highlights

Well, I really don’t know where to start. There were a million things to see. All the tourist attractions: Tian An Men Square, the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, and the Grand Canal. We were treated to the best of everything. The hotels, buses, and tour guides were first rate.

Since this is a Chamber of Commerce expedition, we toured to endless “factories”: pearl, jade, embroidery, silk, furniture, cloisonné, and rug. Also the Chinese Medicine Institute for herbs and a tea plantation. At each of these we were given a short demonstration of the skill and techniques involved in making these precious cultural treasures and then directed into a large showroom full of helpful salespeople to encourage us to buy, buy, buy.

Our last night in Beijing we found an alley way full of little stalls. It’s mostly meant for the Chinese tourists, we were the only American tourists there. We ran the gauntlet of vendors shouting, “Hello, hello, you buy?” and grabbing at our arms. This was not part of the “tour” and we felt free to be mingling in with the population unguarded. Although we found out later that one person in our group was mugged that night.

In Shanghai we were taken to a secret “knock-off” shop, through a back alley and up a stairway into a warehouse full of Rolex watches, Chanel purses, and all sorts of high end reproductions.

Certainly the highlights for me were the trips to the “real” China. We watched the monks’ service inside the Buddhist Temple, rode rickshaws through the back alleys, ate lunch in a family’s home, and explored a ghetto market beside the Grand Canal. These touches of seeing real people living in their own environment I found fascinating.

We no longer find Asia intimidating. Once you become proficient at chopsticks and squat toilets, it’s a piece of cake. I’m thinking Thailand next.