Cool China

For Taylor's graduation we wanted to take a last trip together as a family, especially since he will be leaving on his mission soon.  He really wanted to go to China so after much pleading and begging Tom, we were finally able to see this amazing country.  China is very big, nearly as big as the United States, so we didn't actually see all of it, just the highlights.

Tiananmen Square

Forbidden City

A courtyard in Forbidden City

We started out in Beijing.  While there we covered the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Tiananmen
 Square and of course, the Great Wall.  Of all the places we visited in China our whole family loved the Great Wall the best.  We were able to hike from a section that has not been restored through to a section that had been fully restored.  It was so neat to see the difference.  We hiked for approx 6 miles.  It was very rough and overgrown at first.  I was panicked that the little boys were going to fall off as it is about 100 feet tall.  After a while I saw that the kids did not really have a death wish and it became a lot easier to enjoy the scenery.  Once we got to the restored section there was a high wall that prevented the kids from going over but they could still look out through the crenelations.  At the end we flew down the wall in an alpine slide. OK, we tried to fly but the Chinese are very cautious and did not go faster than about 1 MPH.  They got bumped by every single one of the Rasmussens.  None of us thought they would be going THAT slow.  Hmm, only in China would you have an alpine slide adorning your ancient cultural relic...

Mock up of the Yangtze at the Summer Palace in Beijing

Summer Palace - man made lake, dug out by slaves back in the day

After Beijing, we flew to Chongqing and did a short cruise down the Yangtze River through the three gorges.  The scenery was beautiful and it was nice to spend some down time just sitting on the ship rather than walking around like we had the previous few days.  We saw the crazy hanging coffins placed by ancient Chinese in an attempt to prevent their dead from being taken by evil spirits.  We also stopped in several places where ancient temples had been constructed.  It was very weird, all of the ancient temples had actually been updated so they were actually only a few years old.  I think this was because during the Cultural Revolution (50 years ago) all of the ancient religious stuff was destroyed by overly zealous youth.  The Chinese government is just now realizing what a cash flow tourism can bring in to see these ancient sites so everything is being restored.

The first of the 3 Gorges

My view from the bottom bunk on the train. Bunks were 3 deep.

After our Yangtze cruise we took an overnight train to Xian, home of the Terracotta Warriors.  The Terracotta Warriors were absolutely amazing.  A picture does not begin to convey the scope of the burial ground.  The emperor Qing, who built it was one crazy dude.  I suppose he just figured he would continue to be supreme ruler of the universe even after death and needed all the help he normally had at his disposal in life.  He originally wanted to have all of his alive army buried with him but lucky for them his advisers managed to talk him out of that idea.  Only part of the site has been excavated.  The tour guide told us that further excavation was being held in hopes of finding a way to prevent loss of the paint that is present on the warriors after they are dug up.  Evidently they are very brightly colored but after a few hours to days in the modern air the pain begins to peel and fade and now all that we see is just the color of the clay.  When you see what has already been found and then realize that there is even more it is positively mind boggling.  The same emperor who built the Great Wall also made the Terracotta Warriors.  He clearly had a bug for building.

While in Xian we were able to visit the walls that surrounded the ancient capital.  Xian is actually the first/last stop on the silk road.  The city walls were very high and thick and wide.  They put any city walls that we have seen in Europe to shame.  The walls were so wide that you could rent bicycles to ride around.  Unfortunately, Nick and Isaac were too young to rent the bikes so we did not do this but if they would have rented to us, we would have done it in a second.

On top of the city wall in Xian

After Xian we took an airplane to Hong Kong where we checked off the last Disneyland on our bucket list.  This Disneyland was very small, 2 days was more than enough time to fully see the park.  We also saw downtown Hong Kong and rode the Star Ferry around the harbor.

Hong Kong skyline

There were some hiccups along the way, mainly with the language barrier.  Hardly anyone spoke English, especially taxi drivers.  I made liberal use of Google Translate along with an international data plan I bought from Verizon before we left, it was a lifesaver.  This trip was very difficult to plan due to the language barrier and poor knowledge on my part of China in general.  As tour groups refused to accommodate our family due to our young kids we were forced to go it alone.  We still managed to see everything on the list and did not lose any kids along the way.  I will do a separate post about the crazy things we saw.  To end this one, I am so glad that I have the opportunity to travel with my family and create memories that will last their entire lives.  I will miss Taylor when he leaves on his mission.  I hope he looks back on our many travels with happiness and gratitude.  The world is just so cool!  They are in the middle of building Disneyland in Beijing so we will definitely be going back to China someday.  Also, there is a marathon and half marathon along the Great Wall, now that would be an AWESOME race.  (Do not pay any attention to Tom shaking his head over in the corner!)