China

Completely breaking tradition, my family went to China for Christmas this year.  To be completely politically incorrect, it went something like this.  Discordant Christmas songs, roast duck and all!

My parents, brother and I went to visit my sister who is doing a year-long study abroad in Chengdu.  You can read about her experiences on her blog!  Her most recent post was an excellent overview of the cultural differences we experienced.  Fortunately we all knew how to use chopsticks and rarely had to use squatty potties.  The most shocking thing to me was the pollution.  I knew it was bad, but not to the point that we would all be coughing by the end of our 2 week trip.  Look here and here for some shock of your own.  The smog in Beijing actually made the New York Times and Washington Post this week!  Yikes!  The good news is that it sounds like the government and news agencies are at least acknowledging it now and changing their tune a bit.

We started in Beijing, then spent 1 night in Xi'an, followed by a week in Chengdu.  Like most people in the U.S., I had not heard of Chengdu before, but it is a huge city!  Its population of 14 million follows Beijing's 20 million on the list of most populous cities in China.  Xi'an, by comparison, has "only" 8 million people, equivalent to the population of New York City, the most populous city in the U.S.  The number of people in China is mind boggling to me.

We saw A LOT, so I won't recount everything, just my 4 favorite things:

1. The Great Wall

We got right down to business and headed for The Great Wall on our first day in Beijing.  We went to the Badaling section, which was an important point for guards to protect Beijing.  We spent about an hour hiking "up" the wall, with continuous beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.

2. Terracotta Army

We stopped in Xi'an for one night to see the army of warriors and horses guarding the tomb of the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang.  The amazing thing about this, to me, was the fact that these figurines were only discovered in 1974, after have being buried for over 2000 years!  I didn't realize how much active archaeological excavation was still going on, and that the actual tomb has yet to be uncovered.  The tomb appears to be a hermetically sealed space the size of a football field, and there are concerns about the preservation of whats inside if it is opened.

they only let VIPs down in the pit with the warriors;)

3. Pandas

The Chengdu Panda Base was my favorite place we went in China.  I find it fascinating that these cute and clumsy animals have persisted for millions of years despite their strange diet and reluctance to mate.  We picked the perfect time of day and time of year to visit because the pandas were very active!

young pandas having breakfast

red pandas

4. Food

Now, you have to know what to eat, or you may end up eating intestines, brains, insects or other "parts," but fortunately we had Sarah to guide us!

Beijing roast duck for Christmas dinner - YUM

Hot pot - essentially a lot of spices and oil - my favorite!!

La Jao - makes everything delicious!

A few things we did not try...