The Itinerary - Day 4 - The Great Wall & The Ming Tombs

24 September 2013, Tuesday

Just to recap, on Day 3, we visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Beijing Opera.   

On Day 4, we visit a jade factory and the Great Wall of China.  Returning from the Great Wall, we have lunch at a cloissangé factory and shop, and then on to the Ming Tombs, ending the day with Beijing Roast Duck.

Jade Factory & Shop
China is very famous for its jade.  Jade everywhere.  What to buy?  And where to buy it?  How do you know you're getting a good deal?  On leaving our hotel, we're going to stop at a jade factory and shop.  If you're looking for jade, this is the place to buy it.  Prices are quite good.  Make sure you get whatever you buy securely wrapped.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is the "longest" structure on earth stretching 6,350 km (3,950 miles).  It's the only man-made structure that is visible from space.  It's actually a series of walls constructed during different periods of China's history with the longest continuous part being 2,400 km (1,500 miles).  The Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Lake in the west along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. A comprehensive archaeological survey using advanced technologies has concluded that the Ming walls measure 8,850 km (5,500 mi) in total length.   This is made up of 6,259 km (3,889 mi) sections of actual wall, 359 km (223 mi) of trenches and 2,232 km (1,387 mi) of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.  Another archaeological survey found that the entire wall with all of its branches measure out to be 21,196 km (13,171 mi).

Cloissangé Factory & Shop
For lunch we travel back towards Beijing but then down a back road in the middle of the country to a cloissange shop.  Cloissange takes sheets of copper, and transforms them into copper vases.  Thin strings of copper are affixed to the vases and then heated.  The heating fuses the copper strings to the vase.  The vases are next painted with ceramics, fired, and then polished to perfection, clearly revealing the intricate patterns created by the copper strings and the ceramic paints.

The Ming Tombs
After lunch, we travel to the famous Ming Tombs, where the emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) are buried.  It is located 40 km NNW of downtown Beijing on the southern slope of Tianshou Mountain (originally Mount Huangtu).  The site was chosen by the third Ming Dynasty emperor, Yongle (1402–1424), on feng shui principles.  Yongle moved the capital of China from Nanjing to its the present location in Beijing.  After the construction of the Imperial Palace in 1420 (the Forbidden City which we saw on Day 3), Emperor Yongle selected his burial site and created his own mausoleum.  From Yongle onwards, 13 of the 15 Ming Dynasty emperors were buried in this area.

Since only 13 of the 15 Ming emperors are buried on this site, where are the tombs of the first and second Ming emperors?

The tomb of the first Ming Emperor, Hongwu (1328 to 1398), is located near his capital city of Nanjing.  The second emperor, Jianwen, was overthrown by Yongle and disappeared without a known tomb.

The "temporary" Emperor Jingtai (1449 to 1457) was also not buried here.  Jingtai came to the throne after his older brother, Zhengtong (later called Tianshun), was captured by Mongols.  Jingtai ruled for 8 years until his brother was released by the Mongols.  Zhengtong then resumed the throne (hence the reference to Jingtai as being a "temporary" emperor).  However, Zhengtong refused to allow Jingtai's burial in the Ming Tombs as Zhengtong considered himself to be emperor even during his capture by the Mongols.  Jingtai, the "temporary" emperor, is buried west of Beijing. 

The last Ming emperor buried at the Ming Tombs is Chongzhen, who committed suicide by hanging on 25 April 1644 due to the capture of Beijing (and the end of the Ming dynasty) by Li Zicheng, the first of the short-lived Shun Dynasty.  Instead of being buried in his own tomb, Chongzhen was buried in that of Tian, his concubine and consort.  This is why Chongzhen's tomb is much smaller compared to that of the other Ming  Emperors.  Tian's tomb was later declared as an imperial mausoleum by Li Zicheng, the emperor of the short-lived Shun Dynasty (1644 - 1645) who ruled between the Ming and the Qing dynasties.

During the Ming dynasty the tombs were off limits to commoners.  In 1644, as part of their march into Beijing, Li Zicheng's army ransacked and set many of the tombs on fire before advancing and capturing Beijing in April of that year, thus ending the reign of the Ming Dynasty.

Presently, the tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties are designated as World Heritage sites, some of which are located in other parts of Beijing and elsewhere in China.

Beijing Roast Duck
Duck has been roasted in China since the Southern and Northern Dynasties (386-489).  A variation of roast duck was prepared for the emperors in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).  The dish was mentioned in the Complete Recipes for Dishes and Beverages manual in 1330 by Hu Sihui, an inspector of the imperial kitchen.  The Beijing roast duck that came to be associated with the term was fully developed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), which by then, was one of the main dishes on imperial court menus.  The first restaurant specialising in Beijing Duck, Bianyifang, was established in the Xianyukou, Qianmen area of Beijing in 1416.  By the Qianlong Period (1736–1796) of the Qing Dynasty, the popularity of Beijing duck had spread to the upper classes which inspired poetry from poets and scholars who enjoyed the dish.  One of the verses of Duan Zhu Zhi Ci, a collection of Beijing poems was, "Fill your plates with roast duck and suckling pig".  By the mid-20th century, Beijing duck had become a national symbol of China, favored by tourists and diplomats alike.  The dish is prized for the thin, crisp skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat, sliced in front of the diners by the cook.

Ducks bred specially for the dish are slaughtered after 65 days.  For the last 15-20 days, they are force-fed four times a day until they reach a weight of 5–7 kg (11–15 lbs).  After being slaughtered, cleaned, and eviscerated, air is pumped under the skin through the neck cavity to separate the skin from the fat.  The bird is then par-boiled in water and then hung up to dry.  While drying, the meat is glazed with a layer of maltose syrup and the inside rinsed once more with water.  After hanging for 24 hours, the duck is roasted in an oven until it turns shiny brown.  Beijing duck is traditionally roasted in either a closed oven or hung oven.

The closed oven is built of brick and fitted with metal griddles.  The oven is preheated by burning Gaoliang sorghum straw. The duck is placed in the oven immediately after the fire burns out, allowing the meat to be slowly cooked through the convection of heat within the oven.

The hung oven was developed in the imperial kitchens during the Qing Dynasty, adopted by the Quanjude restaurant chain.  It is designed to roast up to 20 ducks at the same time on an open fire that is fueled by hardwood from peach or pear trees.  The ducks are hung on hooks above the fire and roasted at a temperature of 270 °C (525 °F) for 30–40 minutes.  While the ducks are cooking, the chef may use a pole to dangle each duck closer to the fire for 30 second intervals.

The meat is eaten with pancakes, scallion, and hoisin sauce or sweet bean sauce.

The two most notable restaurants in Beijing which serve this dish are Quanjude and Bianyifang, two centuries-old establishments which have become household names.

Tomorrow on Day 5, we visit the Summer Palace and the Imperial Garden built in the Qing Dynasty.  We then take a rickshaw ride to visit the Hutongs - the narrow streets and alleyways of old Beijing.

The Itinerary - Day 3 - The Beijing Opera

23 September 2013, Monday Evening

In the evening of Day 3 (after a long day visiting Tiananmen Square and all the sights there, and then visiting the Forbidden City), we end the day at the Beijing Opera.

The opera is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics.  Beijing opera was born when the "Four Great Anhui Troupes" brought Anhui opera, or what is now called Huiju, to Beijing in 1790 for the birthday of the Qianlong Emperor.  It was originally staged for the court and only made available to the public later.  In 1828, several famous Hubei troupes arrived in Beijing and performed jointly with Anhui troupes.  The combination gradually formed Beijing opera's melodies.  Beijing opera is generally regarded as being fully formed by 1845.  The form was extremely popular in the Qing Dynasty court and has come to be regarded as one of the cultural treasures of China.

Beijing Opera presents dramatic plays and figures mainly by infusing four artistic methods: singing, dialogue, dancing, and martial art.  Singing is utilized to intensify the appeal of the art by all kinds of tones.  Dialogue is the complement of singing which is full of musical and rhythm sensations.  Dancing refers to the body movements requiring high performing skills.  Martial art is the combination and transformation of traditional Chinese combat exercises with dances. 

Beijing Opera

The opera was initially an exclusively male pursuit.  The Qianlong Emperor had banned all female performers in Beijing in 1772.  The appearance of women on the stage began unofficially during the 1870s.  Female performers began to impersonate male roles and declared their equality with men.  They were given a venue for their talents when Li Maoer, himself a former Beijing-opera performer, founded the first female Beijing-opera troupe in Shanghai.  By 1894, the first commercial venue showcasing female performance troupes appeared in Shanghai.  This encouraged the creation of other female troupes which gradually increased in popularity. As a result, theatre artist Yu Zhenting petitioned for the lifting of the ban after the founding of the Republic of China in 1911. This was accepted and the ban was lifted in 1912 although male Dan continued to be popular after this period.

After the Chinese revolutionary war ended in 1949-1950, Beijing opera became a focal point of identity for the Communist government by bringing all art into line with Communist ideology, and "to make art and literature a component of the whole revolutionary machine".  To this end, dramatic works without Communist themes were considered subversive, and were ultimately banned during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976).  The use of opera as a tool to transmit Communist ideology reached its climax during the Cultural Revolution with Beijing opera being denounced as "feudalistic" and '"bourgeois".  It was replaced with 8 revolutionary "model operas".  The "model operas" were considered one of the great achievements of the Cultural Revolution and were meant to express Chairman Mao's view that "art must serve the interests of the workers, peasants, and soldiers and must conform to proletarian ideology".  After the Cultural Revolution, these transformations were largely undone.  

Beijing Opera

During the second half of the 20th century, Beijing opera witnessed a steady decline in audience numbers.  This was attributed both to a decrease in performance quality and an inability of the traditional opera form to capture modern life.  The opera attempted numerous reforms in response to sagging audience numbers, including improving performance quality, adapting new performance elements, and performing new and original plays.  

Whew!  That's been quite a day!  Time to get some sleep and rest up for our visit to the Great Wall of China.  

The Itinerary - Day 3 - The Forbidden City - Palace Museum

23 September 2013, Monday Afternoon

In our previous post, we noted that Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the centre of Beijing that was named after the Tiananmen Gate (Chinese for "Gate of Heavenly Peace") The Gate is located to the North of the Square separating the square from the Forbidden City.

Lying at the city center and called "Gu Gong" in Chinese, the Forbidden City was the Imperial Palace for 24 emperors over 500 years during the Ming (1368–1644, 276 years) and Qing (1644-1912, 268 years) dynasties.  Built betwen 1406 and 1420 during the first 14 years of the reign of Emperor Chengzu  in the Ming Dynasty, the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 7.8 million square feet. 

The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palace architecture and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere.  The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. 

Ancient Chinese astronomers believed that the Purple Star (Polaris) was in the center of the heavens and that the "Heavenly Emperor" lived in the Purple Palace on the star Polaris.  Hence, the palace for the emperor here on earth was called the "Purple City".  Since it was forbidden to enter without the special permission of the Emperor, it was also called "The Purple Forbidden City", or simply "The Forbidden City".

Now known as the Palace Museum, it is located to the north of Tiananmen Square.  Rectangular in shape, it is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares.  Surrounded by a 52-meter-wide moat and a 10-meter-high wall, the Forbidden City has more than 8,700 rooms.  The surrounding wall has a gate on each side. Opposite the Tiananmen Gate and to the north is the Gate of Divine Might (Shenwumen), which faces Jingshan Park.  The north-south distance between the Tiananem Gate and Shenwumen Gate is 960 meters.  The distance between the east gate and the west gate is 750 meters.  There are unique and delicately structured towers on each of the four corners of the curtain wall.  Looking inward, these towers provide a unique view of the palace.  Looking outward, they provide a good view of the old city.

Panoramic View Of The Forbidden Palace

Since 1925, the Palace Museum has been responsible for the upkeep, maintenance and administration of the Forbidden City.  This includes curatorial responsibility for the extensive collection of artwork and artifacts from the Ming and Qing dynasties.  (Part of the Museum's former collection is now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei in Taiwan.  Both museums descend from the same institution, but were split after the Chinese Revolution of 1949).

After dinner we visit the Beijing Opera

The Itinerary - Day 3 - Tiananmen Square

23 September 2013, Monday Morning

We've got a busy day today - Tiananmen Square in the morning, the Forbidden Palace in the afternoon, and the Beijing Opera in the evening.  But first, Tiananmen Square.

Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the centre of Beijing, China.  It's named after the Tiananmen Gate (Chinese for "Gate of Heavenly Peace") which is located to the North of the Square.  Tiananmen Gate separates the Tiananmen Square from the Forbidden City.  The Square is the third largest city square in the world (109 acres - 960 yards by 550 yards).  Built in 1651 to complement the Tiananmen Gate (built in 1415-17), Tiananmen Square has been of major significance in marking major events in the culture and history of China. 

Outside China, the square is best known in recent memory as the focal point of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, a movement which ended on 4 June 1989 with the declaration of martial law in Beijing and the death of a large number of protesters. 

However, the significance of Tiananmen Square began long before the protests of 1989.

Tiananmen Gate, the entrance to the Forbidden City, was built in 1415 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).  Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, heavy fighting between Li Zicheng and the early Qing emperors damaged or perhaps destroyed the gate.  Tiananmen Square was designed and built in 1651.  In the 1950s it was enlarged to four times its original size. 

Near the centre of today's square stood the original "Great Ming Gate", the southern entrance to the Imperial City.  It was subsequently renamed "Great Qing Gate" during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912).  With the advent of the People's Republic of China in the late 1940s, the gate was renamed the "Gate of China" and subsequently the "Gate Of The Nation". Unlike other gates in Beijing, the "Gate of China" was purely ceremonial as it had three arches but no ramparts.   

As the entrance to the Forbidden City, the Tiananmen Gate normally remained closed except when the Emperor passed through it.  Civilian traffic was diverted to the two side gates at the western and eastern ends of today's square.  This diversion gave rise to the busy Chess Grid Streets marketplace, a large fenced square to the south of the original Tiananmen Gate.

Panoramic View Of Tiananmen Square From The North

British and French troops invading Beijing in 1860 pitched camp near Tiananmen Gate and briefly considered burning down the Gate and the entire Forbidden City.  However, they spared both and burned down the emperor's Old Summer Palace instead.  The Qing emperor eventually agreed to allow foreign powers to establish barracks there.  Later on, diplomatic missions were allowed resulting in the "Legation Quarter" immediately to the east of modern-day Tiananmen Square. 

The Boxer Rebellion of 1900 badly damaged the office complexes and several ministries were burnt down.  In the aftermath of the rebellion, the Legation Quarter became a space for foreign troops to assemble their armies and horses.

In the early 1950s Tiananmen Gate (by this time known as the "Gate of China") was demolished to allow for the enlargement of Tiananmen Square, the objective being to transform the area into a national gathering place for major ceremonies.  It was the vision of Mao Zedong to make the square the largest and most spectacular gathering place in the world with the capacity to hold over 500,000 people.  In November 1958 a major expansion of Tiananmen Square started and was completed in August 1959.

Tiananmen Square From The North - Early 1900's

In developing Tiananmen Square into this vision, a large number of residential buildings and other structures were demolished.  In their place, a number of new monuments were built as part of China's "Ten Great Buildings" program to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.  On the southern edge of the Square, the "Monument to the People's Heroes" was erected.  On the western and eastern sides the "Great Hall of The People" and the "Revolutionary History Museum" (now the "National Museum of China") were built. 

The year after Mao's death in 1976, a Mausoleum was built near the site of the former "Gate of China" on the main north-south axis of the square.  At the same time, the square was increased in size to become fully rectangular with the capability to accommodate 600,000 persons.  Tiananmen Square was further altered in the 1990s with the construction of the "National Grand Theatre" in its vicinity and the expansion of the "National Museum of China". 

Structures of Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Gate
At the north end of Tiananmen Square is Tiananmen Gate.  Initially built in 1415-17 during the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), the Gate was the front door to the Forbidden City. Its most important use in the past was to declare ascension of the new emperor and empress.  Until 1911 when the last feudal kingdom was over, no one could enter the Gate except for the royal family and aristocrats.

Tian'anmen Gate

Monument to the People's Heroes
Built in 1952, the granite "Monument to the People's Heroes" is in the middle of Tiananmen Square and is the largest monument in China's history.  A poem, "The People's Heroes are Immortal", written by Chairman Mao Zedong, is engraved on the monument.  Eight large relief sculptures show the development of Chinese modern history.  Two tiers of white marble railings enclose the monument.

Monument To The Peoples' Heroes

Great Hall of the People
Erected in 1959 on the west side of Tiananmen Square, the Great Hall of the People is the site of China's National People's Congress meetings, the equivalent of our Canadian Parliament and particularly our House of Commons.  It provides an impressive location for political and diplomatic activities.  Twelve marble posts are in front of the Hall.  The Hall is grouped into three sections - the Central Hall, the Great Auditorium, and a Banqueting Hall.  The floor of the Central Hall is paved with marble and crystal lamps hang from the ceiling.  The Great Auditorium behind the Central Hall seats 10,000.  The Banqueting Hall seats 5,000 persons.

Great Hall of the People At Night

Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao
Located on the south side of Tiananmen Square, the "Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao" is further divided into three halls.  Always surrounded by fresh bouquets of various flowers and grasses, the body of Chairman Mao Zedong lies in a crystal coffin in one of the three halls.  Mao Zedong was a key player in the Chinese revolution and was Chairman of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China from 1943 onwards.  He was Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from 1945 until his death in 1976.  The history of the Chinese revolution is a separate story in itself with Chairman Mao playing a major role in the history of China's struggles from the 1920s to the mid 1970s.

If you want to know more about China's political and economic evolution in the 20th century, we recommend you read "Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China" by Ezra Vogel.   

Memorial Hall Of Chairman Mao

National Museum of China
Built in 2003 and located on the east side of Tiananmen Square, the China National Museum consists of two museums - the Chinese History Museum and the Chinese Revolutionary Museum.  Housing a large number of cultural relics, the Chinese History Museum illustrates the long history and culture of China from 1.7 million years ago to 1921 when the last emperor left the throne.  Through numerous material objects, pictures, books, dioramas and models, the Chinese Revolutionary Museum shows the development of modern-day China.

National Museum of China

National Flag-Raising Ceremony At Tiananmen Square
The national capital of every country has a daily ceremony to commemorate its history, tradition, or significant events.  For Ottawa and London, it is perhaps the "Changing of the Guard".  For China, it is the raising of the national flag of China - the Five-Star Red Flag (the Chinese national flag) - over Tiananmen Square.  The raising of the flag is a must for anyone visiting Beijing.  However, you have to get up very early and arrive at Tiananmen Square before sunrise as crowds of people attend the ceremony every day.  The flag-raising takes place between 05:40 and 06:10, depending on the time of the year.  The reviewing stands flank Tiananmen Gate on the west and east sides of the Square.

National Flag-Raising Ceremony At Tiananmen Square

Continuing with Day 3 of the itinerary, we will go to the north end of Tiananmen Squre and visit the Forbidden City!

The Itinerary - Day 1 & 2

Preface
This book is being provided to you for your own personal use and enjoyment.  When your tour guide is standing at the front of the bus as it bounces along to your next sight, it's kind of difficult to get an appreciation of what you are about to see.  The objective here is to give you a better understanding of the sights and sounds that you will be seeing on your trip and therefore add to your enjoyment.  This book is not to be used for commerical purposes as I hold the copyright.  Your itinerary may be different from ours so you will have to adjust your sights accordingly.

My suggestion would be to print these pages off on your printer, take them to your local Staples or stationer's store.  Make additional copies for your personal use (your spouse or partner might like a copy).  (Print the front and back pages on white cardstock if you have any.)  Then have the Staples people add a clear plastic cover to the front and back and have them coil-bind the pages into a book.  During your tour, read and digest what you'll be doing the next day so that you are familiar with what you'll be seeing.  It will add to your enjoyment and appreciation.  Take your book along with you so that you can make notes in the margins.  Be sure to take lots of photos.

When you arrive at Beijing Airport, your challenge will be to get off the plane, pick up your luggage, navigate your way through customs and immigration (make sure you have your passport and visa handy!) and make your way out into the arrivals area.  The arrivals area will be crowded!  Your job is to look for signs and coloured flags that shout "Sinorama" at you.  Once you've found your Sinorama guide, you can relax.  Your tour is about to begin.  You'll be guided every step of the way.  Your challenge will be to always keep in sight of that Sinorama flag.  And listen up!  If you lolly-gag along the way, taking your time to shoot that perfect photo, you're going to get lost.

Throughout your trip you will have two types of guides.  You'll have a national guide who will be with you throughout the whole trip.  And for each locality, you'll have a local guide.  Get to know them and their names.  And make sure you read our last post first.  It has some very important tips on health, eating, and information on bathrooms and toilets.

In spite of all our caveats and cautions, you are about to take off on the adventure of a lifetime.  Your are going to see two types of China - old China which is over 3,000 years old, and new China which is only 30 years old.  You are going to see why and how China has come so far so fast.  And you will get some insight into what the future of China will be.

Enjoy your trip and have fun!

Saturday & Sunday, 21 & 22 September
For Day 1 and part of Day 2, we'll be in the air flying from Ottawa to Beijing.  Our flight departs Ottawa On Saturday, September 21st at 06:00 with a 4 1/2 hour layover in Newark New Jersey - 331 miles away.  From Newark, we fly non-stop to Beijing 6,817 miles.  This will be a 14-hour flight.  All-in-all, it will take us about 20 hours from the time we leave the airport in Ottawa until we land in Beijing at 13:45 local time.  Arriving in Beijing, we've got about half a day to get settled into our hotel, unpack our bags, recover from the jet lag, and perhaps do a bit of a walk-about around the city.  Or maybe just recover from the jet lag.

Our Hotel - Ramada Beijing North
For the next several days, we'll be staying at the Ramada Beijing North, 319 Changping Road, Changping District, Beijing, 102208, Beijing.

Ramada Beijing North

Just so you'll recognize the distance we'll have travelled just to get from Ottawa to Beijing, here's a map of the route. 

Ottawa To China & Back

The adventure gets underway late in the afternoon when we have a welcoming dinner and get to meet the folks who are going to be on the tour with us. 

Tomorrow things get underway early in the morning when we visit Tiananmen Square.  

Who Was Marco Polo? Why China?

Who Was Marco Polo?

Marco Polo (1254 - 1324) was an Italian adventurer from the State of Venice whose travels did much to introduce the western world to Central Asia and China.  As a young teenager growing up in Canada, I recall a CBC Radio program which chronicled the travels of Marco Polo as if the listener was personally on the trail with him.  Even back then in the late 1950s, people knew very little about China.  What was known was either very old history or China under communist government rule - Chairman Mao, "The Great Leap Forward", the Red Guards, the "Cultural Revolution".  Our knowledge of recent history focused on the incidents of June 4th, 1989 in Tiananmen Square, cheap goods "Made In China" and a population of 1.5 billion people. 

Throughout our tour, we heard our tour guides mention "Old China" and "New China".  Chinese history goes back over 3,000 years but recent Chinese history is less than 35 years old.  While our Sinorama itinerary gave us an idea of what we would be seeing for "Old China", we weren't prepared for what we saw about "New China"

"Old China" - "The Era of The Dynasties" & "The Era of the Republics"
The China that Marco Polo visited was in the midst of what I call the "Era of the Dynasties" (my term).  It starts about 3,500 years ago with the rise of the various dynasties - the Qing (pronounced "Ching") (1644-1911), the Ming (1368 - 1644), all the way back to the Zhou (770 BC - 221 BC) and Han (206 BC - 25 AD) dynasties and even further back.  This "Era of the Dynasties" includes the struggles of the Chinese people against western imperialism in the late 1800s and early 1900s - the demands by European powers for shipping rights in Shanghai, Canton, Hong Kong and Macau; the Opium Wars of 1839 - 1842 and 1856 -1860 when the Chinese rose up against the import of opium into their country by the Europeans; the Boxer Rebellion of 1899 - 1901.  It ends with the overthrow of the last emperor of the Qing dynasty in 1911 by rebel forces led by Dr Jiang Zhongzheng (we know him as Dr Sun Yat Sen).  It was this part of the "Old China" that we got to see on our itinerary

With the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911, there begins a second era that I call the "Era of the Republics" - the Republic of China (1911 - 1949) and the Peoples Republic of China (1949 - 1976).  It begins with the rise of Dr Jiang Zhongzheng (we know him as Dr Sun Yat Sen), revered by the Chinese as the father of modern China, and the establishment of the Republic of China.  It continues with the struggles for power after Dr Ziang's death in 1925 between the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists led by Mao Zedong.  It includes the invasion of China by the Japanese which required the Kuomintang and the Communists to lay aside their differences to fight a common enemy.  However the struggles resume in the late 1940s, and the ultimate establishment of the Peoples Republic of China on October 1st 1949 under the leadership of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist party. The "Era of the Republics" ends with the death of Mao Zedong on 09 September 1976 and the era of "New China" begins. 

 "New China"
"New China" starts in 1978-79 when the central government decided to modernize China's economy so as to raise the living standards of its people.  How this was done is outlined in the book "Deng Xiaoping And The Transformation of China" by Ezra Vogel.  This is a must-read if you are planning to take this trip in order to understand how China has become the economic powerhouse that it is today.  As we travelled throughout China, we could only marvel at the towering skyscrapers in cities like Shanghai, the ring roads that circled outwards from the centre of Beijing, the modern airport terminals, the bullet trains, the row-upon-row of factories, and the electrified railways.

Sharon and I were fortunate in having read Ezra Vogel's book before we left on our tour of China so it came as no surprise to us to see the modernity that today is China.  Several times, I was asked by our fellow travellers how China had been able to finance all of this infrastructure and industrial expansion.  It would take me too long to explain but I would refer my readers to a second book, "China's Superbank - Debt, Oil and Influence - How China Development Bank is rewriting the Rules of Finance" by Henry Sanderson and Michael Forsythe.

As China entered the late 20th and early 21st century, it emerged as a new economic powerhouse - the second largest economy in the world with a GDP of $8 trillion versus $16 trillion for the United States.  Trade between China and the western world reached unprecedented levels.  This trade opened the doors for westerners to travel to this previously unfamiliar country.

For Sharon and I, our trip to China in the fall of 2013 was another one of our international adventures that we eagerly looked forward to.  From September 21st to October 13th when we returned home, we embarked on a 3-week whirlwind trip that started in Beijing, over to Xi'an, down to Shanghai and Souzhou, a cruise on part of the Yangtze River from the Three Gorges Dam to Chongquing, over to Guilin and Yangshuo, and on to Macou and Hong Kong before heading back home.

While we hardly followed the path of Marco Polo (much as we'd have liked to!), we got a good idea of what the country looked like, how the people live, and what makes China such a dynamic place in the 21st century.

On Saturday, September 21st at 03:15, our adventure began!!

So let's get started with Day 1 and 2.  But before we do, here's some basic Mandarin Chinese phrases we should learn in pinyin.

Some Lessons In Mandarin Chinese
"Pinyin" is the official phonetic system for transcribing the sound of Chinese characters into Latin script in China, Taiwan, and Singapore.  It is often used to teach Standard Chinese and to spell Chinese names in foreign publications.  It may also be used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into computers.  The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s based on earlier forms of romanization of Chinese characters. It was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and and has been revised several times.  The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as the international standard in 1982.

Mandarin Chinese Phrases In Pinyin
Hello...	Ni Hao		The Numbers:
Thank you.....	Xie Xie		1...	Yi
Good -bye....	Zai Jian		2...	Er
Sorry.....	Dui Bu Oi		3...	San
My name is …	Wo Jiao ...		4...	Si
It's delicious....	Zhen Hao Chi		5...	Wu
Good night....	Wan An		6...	Liu
How are you?....	Ni Hao Ma?		7...	Oi
I am good....	Wo Hen Hao		8...	Ba
Guide....	Dao You		9...	Jiu
Welcome...	Huan Ying		10...	Shi
Yes...	Shi		20...	Er Shi
No...	Bu Shi		25...	Er Shi Wu
Correct...	Dui		100...	Yi Bai
In-correct...	Bu Dui		250...	Er Bai Wu Shi
How much is it?...	Duo Shao Oian?
Too expensive...	Tai Gui Le

Certain pinyin consonants require special pronunciation.  These are:

x = "sh"

q = "ch"

c = "tr"

So let the adventure begin!