Interesting plant 'about' to flower

Here's a small plant I noticed in the woodline around the Royal Tombs in Seoul. It was just about to bloom. It reminded me of 'Bleeding Hearts' but I can't remember if the foliage of Bleeding Hearts looks like this. I wish I could have found one of these that was already blooming. It was really pretty.

Royal Tomb lotus image

Hmmm...another idea for a letterbox stamp? Some of the decorations on the underside of one of the outbuildings at the Royal Tombs in Seoul.

Royal Tomb outbuilding

This was a small 'outbuilding' at the foot of the hill to one of the 'happy mounds' at the Royal Tombs in Seoul. I like how this 400+ year old building is surrounded by 'high rise' office buildings. It's neat to see that they spared these old traditional buildings.

Flowering tree

Another beautiful blooming tree. The contrast of colors is really what I like. Brilliant. Of course, I'm an idiot and have no idea what type of tree this is. The leaf reminds me of a magnolia but the blooms remind me of a cherry/birch of some sort. Anybody who recognizes it, please let me know. Obviously, I need lots of help in this arena!

Royal 'Happy Mound'

This is Seolleung--the 'happy mound' burial site of the 9th Monarch of the Joseon Dynasty. It's surrounded by various statues of animals and 'courts' hands.

Royal Tombs in Seoul

We decided to cap out April with a visit to the Royal Tombs in Seoul. These are known as Seolleung and Jeongneung. Seolleung is the tomb of King Seonjeung the 9th Monarch of Joseon Dynasty. Jeongneung is the tomb of of King Jeungnung the 11th Monarch of Joseon Dynasty. They ruled between the 1400s and the 1500s.

Our 'new' baby...

Our newly 'adopted' geocache in Seoul

We spent the early morning seeking out a geocache in southwestern Seoul. It was the Marriott Hill cache and we found it--again sans GPS. We took the 'canvas the entire hillside gently' approach and found it fairly quickly once we located some major clues revealed within the cache's online log comments. This one was in danger of being 'deadlined' on the database so we offered to adopt it for the next year or so (while we'll be 'local'). It was nice to find something in Seoul--even though it wasn't a letterbox. This was our second 'actual box' geocache--we've found several 'virtual' caches in Asia but not many 'boxes' as they go missing so often.

Trip to the grocery store

Something else I try to do every where we go is visit a local grocery store. On our final night in town, we found a 'supermarket'. It was so cool to explore the aisles of products available in the store. We must've spent a couple of hours in the store. It was so neat. Here are a couple things we found. First, the choco/cheesecake rolls we found in Xi'an--we actually found them in bulk at the store. Second, we found blueberry flavored potato sticks. Um, interesting! They weren't sweet--just savory with a hint of blueberry. Who knew?

I think we left with 4 bags full of groceries and other amenities and spent maybe $12? Money went really far in the grocery store. 3 Reach toothbrushes for about $1. A large tube of Crest toothpaste for less than $0.50.

Church in Beijing

I'm posting this picture for my mom. We didn't see many 'churches' on our trip to Russia back in the early 80s. I actually saw one in Beijing. It was beautiful--unfortunately, there wasn't much sunlight left and the photo didn't turn out as well as it looked in person.

McDs in Beijing

Guess where we ate???

Every place we travel we try to visit the local McDs to see what the 'regional item' is. Korean McDs offer kimchi and rice, while McDs in Hawaii give you slices of pineapple. We weren't sure what to expect in China. So, here was our visit to find out. We didn't see anything 'unique' on the menu apart from chicken and beef 'triangle' sandwiches. We ordered one and it turned out to be a tortilla sandwich folded into a triangle that contained thin slices of beef, julienned cabbage, carrot and root vegetables with a sweet plum, hoisin sauce. It was really good! What we don't know is if this is a regional entree or if it is one of those seasonal/rotating sandwiches around all McDs? I'd order one again--it was that good!

Interesting appetizers...

We found a row of kiosks along a Beijing street that sells delicacies. By row, I mean some 30-40 different vendors all selling forms of the same thing. Something akin to what you'd see on reality television--Fear Factor or Survivor. These are scorpion, grasshopper, centipede, sparrow, silkworm, snake and other interesting 'buggy' kebabs! They weren't very cheap, either. The scorpion and centipede ones were about $2 a piece! I didn't have the 'guts' to try one out. I did my best just to look at them closely. ;)

The smell wasn't all that pleasant, either. ;(

big shoes...

trkr found some big shoes on the streets of Beijing...

Not so mobile rickshaw...

After our trek to Mutianyu, we hopped in a cab and set out to explore Beijing. This is one of the geocaches we set out to find--a not-so-mobile rickshaw! ;)

Dog tired...

Nothing like a great day of hiking on the Great Wall! Gotta love its after effect on rnrB!!!

Zoooooommmm!!!

It ended WAY TOO soon. :(

Huh?

One of the signs on the toboggan run we didn't see.... ;)

We take the 'fast way' down!!!

Ok, so we 'cheated' on the way up. We spent about 3 hours hiking around the wall. We thought it only fitting to 'cheat' on the way back down, too. ;) This really was the reason why we chose to come to Mutianyu. It had nothing to do with the Great Wall we'd been studying in history class! ;)

What a blast this toboggan ride was! Woo hoo!!! I think the kids might start to like us again after our recent opera experience. ;)

Guess what???

Hee hee hee...

What goes up must come down!!!

I LOVE physics!!!

Old wall--can you see it?

It hugs the ridgeline and in parts is just barely visible.

Danger--old wall

Here's another view of the old wall. The point we were at was a 'junction' between an inner wall and an outer wall forming sort of a 'T'. The signs prohibit folks from hiking out along the wall as the drop off on either side of the wall is around 5m or so (in the low sections) and up to 8m or so (in the high sections). Quite dangerous!

unrestored section of the Great Wall

This is what we were really looking for. We wanted to see what the Great Wall would look like today. We actually found it on the southern stretch of wall at Mutianyu. This stretch, built during the Ming Dynasty, hadn't been repaired--so it was neat to see the missing stones/bricks and all of the bushes, shrubs, trees and grass growing on parts of the Wall. I guess this was the 'romantic' image I had of the Great Wall in my head.

More details...

Some of the 'gargoyles' on the eaves of the fort on the Great Wall at Mutianyu.

Hide n Seek in the tower

Marco....



Polo...

Hanging out with the 'gun'

We came across a couple of 'guns' along the Great Wall. The kids had fun with them. They were completely set in concrete and filled with concrete. Wonder if that had anything to do with treaty verification? ;)

Dangerous section!

Well, since we 'cheated' taking the chair lift up to the Wall, we knew we were in store for 'something'. Guess it was coming...

minutiae

More close up shots. This is one of the eaves on the tower. I like the details in the bronze eave 'cap'. Typically, they're pictures of chrysanthemums or the double happiness symbol.

Details...

One of the portals to a watchtower on Mutianyu's Great Wall. This is quite unique for the Great Wall. Mutianyu boasts two unique 'forts' built into the wall. Very different from what we saw in Badaling.

One of the towers...

Even more steps...

lots of steps

What we missed out on with the chair lift, we made up for during our trek about the wall. Lots of steps, everywhere!

Distant peaks

Every turn provided a new and interesting view of the adjacent mountains. It was a lovely day!

lonely Great Wall

We really hit the jackpot during our visit to Mutianyu! We had the wall to ourselves. We did start out fairly early, so I think we just beat the rush. It was awesome!

Through the Great Wall Watchtower

We eventually reach the top after our difficult climb and find these wonderful views of the region from one of the watchtowers.

Mutianyu Great Wall from the chairlift

A great 'big picture' of the Great Wall to the North as seen from our 'chair lift'. ;)

Really cheating...

Still sweating it out on the way to the top. This was soooo much more difficult than our climb at Badaling a few days ago. ;)

We cheat on the way up!

Heading up the Great Wall! Boy, were we tired at the top! ;)

We found the Mongolian Hordes...

We'd been searching for these guys our entire trip and finally found them at the base of Mutianyu. Who knew this was where they'd been hiding out? ;)

Market at Mutianyu

Found some awesome 'snack food' at the base of Mutianyu. We controlled ourselves and only left with a bag of dried strawberries. They were incredible!

trkr at Mutianyu

We found these nifty hats at the base of Mutianyu. Doesn't trkr look cool?

Mutianyu Great Wall Trip

For our final full day in China, we decided to head to Mutianyu which is about 150km Northeast of Beijing so we could explore another stretch of the Great Wall.

This turned out to be a wonderful experience! This stretch of wall was less crowded and completely different from where we first climbed it in Badaling. It was high in the mountains and offered many breathtaking beautiful views of the surrounding peaks, flowering trees and adjacent villages.

Plate twirlers...

Another interesting feature of the acrobatic show. Of course, our picture doesn't do it justice. These are just a few of the plate twirlers. Actually during the big part of this scene, there were a couple dozen plate twirler/contortionists twirling plates in all sorts of poses and balancing acts. It was awesome!

One thing I noticed. The first evening we saw the show, we did not see a single mistake. It was so perfect that I started to doubt how 'realistic' the events really were. On our subsequent performance, a couple of the artists made mistakes. One lady even dropped her plates. I thought that was really neat because it proved to me how difficult the feats were and that it was legitimate. I only think the few mistakes we saw on our second show really added to our experience--showing us how difficult the various feats were. I'm doubly amazed!!!

Acrobatic Show, again!

Here's a part of the show we missed the first time around. These are 'dogs' balancing on a giant ball. The dogs are actually two men/each. I can't believe they were able to do the stunts they did--balance on the ball ON TOP of the teeter totter!!!

Beijing Acrobatic Show, Again!

Chaoyang Theater--acrobatics macrocosm & 'opera'

We went back!!!

This is the theater where both the acrobatic show and the opera are performed. It was across the street from our hotel. Wonder why the opera isn't 'highlighted' on the marquee out front...

Tea House Time

Tea House 'boy'

We visited another 'mandatory' tour today. This time it was the tea house. We sat through a class on various types of tea. We learned about the different teas, how to brew them, how to drink them, what their benefits are, etc. I learned a whole lot! I also learned that if the opera didn't kill me, 'gurgling' the oolong tea probably would! Somehow I nearly drowned while whistle-gurgling the oolong tea (as it's supposed to be sipped--think about one of the funnier wine-tasting scenes from the movie Sideways).

Anyways, the biggest hit with the kids at the tea house was not the tea but rather the 'pee boy'. You see, tea water should be exactly 95* F to properly brew tea. How do you test to see if the water is exactly the right temperature? Well, this little clay 'boy' will test it for you. You simply soak him in cold water. Heat your tea water. Once it's hot, pull out the clay boy and pour some hot water over him. If he 'pees', then your water is the correct temp. The kids LOVED it!!! Even tested it at least a dozen times!

We departed the tea house with a supply of Golden Green tea. Good!

Hanging out in the rickshaw

Something we don't get to do back home! I don't think the kids enjoyed this one bit!

What do you think?

McDs in the Hutong

Again, McDs is EVERYWHERE!!! Even in the hutong! As seen, from the rickshaw! ;)

Hutong Host

Our host in the hutong was so gracious and kind. We really enjoyed our time with him and the tour of his home!

Kitty in the Hutong

While touring the small inner rooms of the hutong, the kids came across a kitty in the bedroom. Love at first sight!!!

Another interesting hat in the hutong

We got to have tea with a family who resides in a hutong. We enjoyed conversation, fruit 'leather' type candy, peanuts, sunflower seeds, etc. We discussed all sorts of things--comparing our backgrounds, families, hobbies, etc. The host, retired, is a tai chi master instructor and that's how he spends his days. Here's rnrB donning an interesting hat that belongs to the hutong owner.

Hutong courtyard

Here's a view of an inner courtyard of a hutong. Many of these courtyards were 'empty' but this particular one had a giant birdcage within it as it seemed one of the residents was a major bird enthusiast. rnrB & trkr loved it! There were even eggs in the pigeon nests--which was neat to see. One of the birds was even trained so speak--and every so often would say "Ni hao!" It first caught us by surprise but then the kids started a conversation with the bird. Funny to watch!