China: Day by Day

Pre-Day 1 (Feb 5th)-Left Wonju in the evening for Seoul where we had to stay in a hotel so that we could make it to the airport on time.

Day 1 (Feb. 6th)- Awoke at 5am after a fitful nights' sleep and caught the shuttle bus. Arrived at the ICN airport with no passport or tickets and hoped our travel agent would show up (she did). Landed in Beijing around 11am and started our tour from there.
We had a group of about 20 people, mostly English teachers but also a Korean family (our travel agent's family. Her husband is a fellow Minnesotan who just happens to be a professor in Seoul, but more on that later).
The group ate a nice Chinese meal and then headed to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. The tour moved way too fast but we got the general idea and took some nice shots of the area. Next we went to a tea house where we had a demonstration and then they wanted us to buy their goods (govt regulated tour stop; all tours are required to visit). After no one bought any tea, we moved on to an acrobatics show, which was incredible! The things they can do were unbelievable. After dinner, we went to our hotel to get settled in. Being that it was Lunar New Years Eve, B and I hit the streets looking for some night shots/excitement. All the locals were in the streets lighting fireworks (some of which reminded us of bombs) and having a grand time. We retired to our hotel around 11.15pm.

Day 2: The Great Wall
We headed to the most famous spot for foreigners in China. About 8 people from our group climbed to the top, including us, but we also ended up holding up the bus. We didn't feel too bad after we realized we were being ushered to more govt sponsored tourist traps (we encounted six in all). After the Wall, we visited the most famous Ming Tomb, where a famous emperor is buried. He was responsible for building the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, and his tomb was huge! For dinner we had "Peking Duck" which is THE food of Beijing. It was quite tasty. Next to our restaurant was the new stadium for the 2008 Olympics, so we got to drive around that and snap some shots. It was cool to go to the area where the Olypmics will be.

Day 3: Temple of Heaven
This temple is special because it's round, and this is odd in China. Not only did we see the temple, but there was a big Spring Festival performance going on, so we got to watch that as well. It was outside, though, and the wind was SO cold that it must have been horrible carrying those flags for so long. Next we moved on to the Summer Palace, which was re-designed 200 years ago by a powerful empress so there are some very interesting things there. The only problem: the complex is huge, and there were thousands of tourists there. We lost track of our group and spent precious time searching for them. Thus, we weren't able to enjoy it as much as we hoped. After dinner we headed to a kung-fu show. By then it was dark so B and I took a cab to Tianeman Square to get some night shots. The funny thing was that it was so brightly lit up it was as if we were in sunlight (almost).

Day 4: Last Day (Feb. 9th)
We awoke at 5am so that we could catch the sunrise from a park overlooking the city. A guy from our group also joined us, and he's full of information and we had a fun time chatting with him. We caught the sunrise and then headed to the Lama Temple, home to the biggest Buddha carved out of wood. This Buddha stands about 60 feet in the air, and is covered with a layer of gold. We had to rush back to our hotel so that we could check out by 10.30, and of course we had an incident. Our taxi was trying to merge right and another car was merging left and they bumped each other. Yes, we were involved in a car accident in Beijing. It wasn't serious, but our driver was seriously upset. We handed him some money and jumped in a different cab so we could make it on time. As it turns out, two lazy guys in our group didn't wake up until 10.30 anyway, so the whole group sat waiting for them on the bus!
The plane trip back was smooth, and our bus ride to Wonju was also uneventful. Our apt was at 15d C again, and we didn't think it would be a problem as it warms up quickly enough. We realized, however, that we're without hot water. We're hoping that the pipes will warm up b4 morning, as I don't want to take a cold birthday shower! We're meeting friends for a nice meal and bowling tomorrow, which will be fun.
Our trip was fun and informational and we wish we could have stayed longer.

PS- China does not allow blog or independent news sitess, so we were not able to blog while there.