July 27, 2009: Our first stop in China was Beijing, where we spent 4 days. Once we arrived, we checked into our hotel and headed to KFC for a quick lunch. Then we took our tour bus to a hutong, where we got on pedicabs for a tour of what a traditional neighborhood (hutong) looked like.


This area had its own lake, and people enjoyed renting boats and going out on the lake.


The view down a typical street.


We got to go inside a traditional family home. This home belongs to the family of a former Red Army officer. In the courtyard, they had birds and fish, and grew an assortment of vegetables.


Aurora does not look excited about biking Mama around!


After our tour, we stopped at an area with many small restaurants, shops, and bars. While Albert, Amy, Isaac, and Elena went out on a paddle boat, the rest of us wandered around. There were lots of giant lotus flowers growing on the lake. Wai Pao bought a small caramel suger rat on a guord for Aurora. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few hours before it broke.


Aurora meets the mascot to the Peking duck restaurant we ate at that night, and gets close to a "duck boat".


Elena and Aurora get into a gigglefest during dinner. I love the look of pure joy on their faces!



July 28, 2009: We toured Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and The Winter Palace/Bei Hai Park in the morning. The first photo is Elena in front of one of the old city gates.


Walk through the arches under Mao's portrait, and you enter the Forbidden City.


Entering the Forbidden City.


A brief shower popped up, and so did everyone's umbrellas.


One of many many lions we would see on this trip. By the time we left China, Aurora learned to recognize lion statues and would growl when she saw one (imitating the sound a lion makes).


It was really crowded! I guess we were there during Chinese school vacation, so many families were visiting Beijing with their kids.


Some shots of family members and the architecture of the buildings.


Everywhere we went, people wanted to take pictures of Aurora. And not just family members. We had complete strangers take photos and videos of Aurora - and some even asked to hold her. One lucky woman at our Beijing hotel got her mid-poop. I think she got used to being carried up and down stairs like a princess in her sedan chair!

Video: Aurora gets the "royal treatment".

In the Palace Garden.


Outside the "back" of the Forbidden City, looking at the the part where the private quarters were located.


At Bei Hai Park, the lotus flowers were huge and the plants covered a good portion of the river.


We had a Ming Dynasty luncheon at the park.


A view of the lake at Bei Hai Park.


After lunch, we headed over to the Temple of Heaven. Here Aurora demonstrates how comfortable she already is riding a bus on her own! Yes, we know she is not in a car seat, but it's hard to attach a car seat when there aren't any seatbelts!


There are several pavillions and an outdoor altar at the Temple of Heaven.


Hey Aurora! are you dreaming about your first trip to China? Don't you find all the history fascinating?


Inside each pavillion, there are special tablets the Emperor would take out and carry to the altar a few times a year. Of course, there was a line at each pavillion, so we didn't get to see the actual tablets. Good thing Jon was there to help the Chinese figure out how to hold up the Temple of Heaven!


Afterwards, we stopped at a tea house for a tea demonstration. Here Aurora is trying a rose and fruit tea. The second photo is of a "blooming tea ball".



July 29, 2009: Our favorite day of the whole tour! We went to Mutianyu and climbed the Great Wall. Resting up for the big hike!


Here is Michael, our tour guide, and Dad taking the ski lift up to the Great Wall.


Too bad it was hazy (a perpetual state in China). But the views were pretty spectacular anyway.


Aurora and Jon are ready to hike up part of the Wall.


You can stop at each turret, and climb to the top of a few. You can also get a cold beer, soda, or snacks from vendors stationed near each turret. Very surreal to see brightly colored "Nestle" unbrellas and ice cream carts on the Great Wall. Doubt those are from ancient times :)


Yea! Mom and Dad made it to the next turret!


Mom and Dad decide they had enough, but the rest of us continue to hike along. Lots of up and down stairs as we go from turret to turret. One thing we noticed was that the "ground" was sloped to one side. Turns out it was planned that way, for rain drainage! Those ancient Chinese sure were clever!


We checked out the top of one turret.


Family picture!


All in all, I think we went to 7 or 8 turrets before turning back. On the way back, we let Aurora walk on the Wall too.


Of course, she finds the holes in the wall to be the most intersting part!


Regardless of where or who you are, everybody poops. I'll bet not many people can say they've had their diapers changed on the Great Wall of China though!


Dad, Jon, and Aurora take the ski lift down. Jon then took it back up by himself so he could go down the alternate way too.


The alternate way was via alpine sled! Here are Julie, Amy, and Elena at the start of their trips, and Jon at the end of his. It was fun to compare notes with everyone at the end of the trip, to see who was going very slowly, and who was going so fast the people operating the sleds told them to slow down!


We went to "Dumpling House" for dinner that night. Besides the dumplings, Aurora really enjoyed trying to buckle herself into her highchair!

Video: "You did it!"

Back at the hotel, Wai Pao, Amy, Jon, Kathy and Aurora took a walk around the basement recreation area. Aurora really liked the stairs up to the pool entrance!
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Video: version 2


July 30, 2009: We started the day with a tour of the Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium.


They were in the midst of getting the stadium ready for an exhibition soccer match between two Italian teams. Here we are standing on a small uncovered portion of the Olympic track.


Giant Olympic mascots for people to pose with. And then go buy smaller versions in the gift shop (which we did). In fact, Wai Pao bought Aurora a small green panda, but Aurora kept trying to grab a bigger one.


We walked through the grounds of the Summer Palace next. Unfortunately, it was so hazy that day, the magnificent views were largely obscured.


There's nothing like a small kid to keep things real. Aurora's favorite part of the Summer Palace? Eating a banana for snack.


Photo ops in front of a big rock, and a marble boat.


We took a dragon boat ride back to the entrance of the park. Here Aurora is checking out the front of our boat.


We had lunch at the White Family Restaurant, a Qing Dynasty garden and home. It was quite a good meal!


After dinner that night, our hotel room key card wouldn't work. After Jon went down to the front desk twice to get a new one, they sent up a whole team to try to let us into our room. No one's card would work, and the hotel locksmith had to be called. It took a total of 45 minutes to get into the room, and they still hadn't completely fixed the problem that night. While we waited, Aurora pushed her stroller around the hallway.



July 31, 2009: The next morning, we were off to Xi'an. Here Wai Gung and Aurora enjoy the plane ride together.


At the Hyatt Regency in Xi'an, we were waiting for our bags to arrive when we turned around and Aurora had climbed up into the armchair by herself, and she was quite proud of her accomplishment!


We then toured the Shaanxi Provincial Museum. Here we are with more stone lions. (Aurora says "grr grrr")


In front of Big Wild Goose Pagoda.


Fancy dumpling dinner - each type of dumpling was uniquely wrapped, and often shaped to indicate what the filling was made from (ie - walnuts or chicken). We sampled at least a dozen different varieties of dumplings. As we were leaving, Aurora and Wai Gung found the Grand Golden Dumpling!



August 1, 2009: The real reason we are in Xi'an...the terracotta warrior factory! (Just kidding about the reason, not where we are.) We learned how the soldiers were constructed and got to see life sized models. It was interesting to see how the way each figure was dressed, from his armour to his mustache or hairstyle, indicated the person's rank. As you can see, Aurora was just fascinated by the process. At some point this fall, a one-third sized terracotta kneeling archer should show up in Newton. (Jon really wanted a life sized one but couldn't justify the cost, or come up with a good place to display it at the current house).


This is the "real McCoy" - foot soldiers in formation. It was pretty cool to be in a museum that was also an active archeological site.


Horses that were pieced back together, looking down into one of the (mostly headless) officer stations, and into a pit currently being excavated. Using ground penetrating devices, they can now tell exactly where to excavate, better preserving the walls and roofs of the structures.


The back of an excavated kneeling archer. You can still see some of the original paint on his armour.


Chinese noodle pulling demonstration at the restaurant we had lunch at.


Xi'an City Wall. It had become quite run down until the City decided to renovate it and turn it into a series of parks around the city.


One of the challenges of traveling with an infant is making sure she gets naps when needed. At some of the stops, Aurora was asleep on the bus so one of us would stay behind with her while the other joined the tour group. Here are Jon and Aurora looking out for the Lius to return after a visit to a museum that collected famous stone tablets with carved writing or pictures.


That night, we went to the Tang Dynasty Dinner Theater show. Aurora loved it! Whenever there was singing or dancing on stage, she was mesmerized. She even clapped at the end of the musical numbers.


Dad, on the other hand, did not enjoy the show nearly as much as Aurora did.


Whew! Wai Gung, I'm exhausted!



August 2, 2009: Another day, another plane trip, and another hotel. We stayed at an awesome hotel, the Hotel of Modern Art (HOMA), in Guilin. This is the HOMA lobby.


The rooms were all slightly different. My parents stayed in a Japanese style room with a sloping roof (there was grass growing on the outside of their roof). Our room was like a cave. By this point, Aurora was so used to entering and exploring new hotel rooms. She'd try to open drawers and cabinets, check out the phones, and climb up onto anything she could. And yes, there was a large picture window from the living area into the shower (and from the shower to the outside)!


We took a golf cart tour of the extensive grounds.


The owner of HOMA, a Taiwanese real estate billionaire (he made his money selling cemetery plots), invites artists from all over the world to come to HOMA and stay and create a piece for the sculture garden. These are guest cottages.


You can interact with several of the pieces.


This piece of granite weighs over 1000 pounds, but can easily be pushed in a circle.


The unfortunate part about this hotel is that we were just about the only guests on that Sunday night. We literally were the only ones in the hotel restaurant. We were sad to be there for just one night. Here Wai Pao and Aurora play "clap hands, tap knees" during dinner.


The hallway to our room.



August 3, 2009: We checked out of HOMA and headed for a day-long cruise down the Li River, one of the most scenic spots in China. Along the way, we stopped at Crown Cave and got to explore inside a little bit. The odd thing is that every morning, all these boats head from Guilin to Yangshuo loaded with passengers, and they return in the afternoon empty. Why don't they run cruises in both directions?


Inside Crown Cave. We walked up a huge staircase to get to the cave entrance. While inside the cave, we walked, took a short train ride, a short boat ride, and finally an elevator back to the surface.


Here is a shot of the elevators.


Here is Mom on the train ride, and Jon and Elena on the boat ride. The train ride was mostly in the dark, with significant structures lit up. The boat ride was entirely in the dark, and each passenger had a small flashnight to use.

The second half of our cruise.


We stayed at the Paradise Hotel in Yangshuo. Here Aurora demonstrates how she relaxes, with slippers and a fan. How Chinese of her!


After relaxing for a bit, we headed out for a tour of the surrounding countryside. There are lots of different types of boats headed down the Li River, from single passenger rafts to 100 person boats.


Can you see the camel here?


This is where all the rafts come ashore and get loaded up on trucks.


Half-moon rock.


We had to cross a small bridge to get to the hotel from the main street in Yangshuo. Here is a McDonald's picturesquely reflected in the water.


Aurora explored the small garden outside our hotel room. She crossed the bridge and began to furiously wave her right arm around. It took me a minute to figure out she was indicating all the goldfish in the water!



August 4, 2009: Off the Shanghai for a day! Some of the crazy buildings in Shanghai. The pink one is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. The one that looks like it has a bottle opener on the top is the World Financial Center.


A private garden in the old section of Shanghai. Aurora loved the fish in the pond.


The architecture was quite unique.


Each piece of furniture is constructed from a single banyan tree root.


Outside a rooftop teahouse. Aurora poses in front of the building named after her (it's the gold one). And she has attitude!


Aurora shows Baba some of her attitude.


Aurora plays at the restaurant while we are ordering our final group meal in China. This was taken at the Howard Johnson's, which was much fancier than the HoJos in the US.


Video: Animals
Video: Up and down with Elena

Yawn! It's been a busy 2.5 weeks! Wai Pao and Wai Gung sure know how to pack each day full of activities!


After dinner, Amy, Jon, Kathy and Aurora took a short walk on the pedestrian shopping street a block from the Central Hotel where we stayed that night. The building with the UFO on top is a Radisson. The second photo is of Tomorrow Square and what I think is a Marriott.


Can I sleep here tonight? (no).



August 5, 2009: Our last day in China. Actually, we had to leave for the airport before 6 am. This is the view from our hotel room window at about 4:45 am, then at about 5 am, and finally at about 5:30 am.


The streets are deserted before 6am! That will soon change as people start heading to work.


Because we left so early, the hotel provided us with bag breakfasts. Aurora enjoyed her yogurt and banana very much.


Video: Eating on the go

At the airport, Aurora passed out at the gate. In fact, she slept most of the way from Shanghai to Detroit!