May Break Adventures

As some of you may have known we had a week long break at the beginning of May. During this week, my parents came up from Thailand, and the four of us spent the week in Beijing. We had a few days in TEDA with some highlights being a meal at the Korean BBQ, a day exploring Tanggu and some FANTASTIC mango chutney made by Christina!! Monday morning we hopped on the High-speed train to Beijing and at 325km/h top speed, we arrived in no time at all!! This is when the fun began. Me, Ben, being tight fisted with taxi fares, decided that we should take the subway to our hotel. It would only be two transfers and we didn't have that much luggage, only a large rolling suitcase and some smaller ones, but this is Beijing we're talking about. The subway in Beijing is ALWAYS packed. We made our first train, had some standing room, but as we began our walk to transfer to the next line, the density of people increased exponentially. Not only did we have to push ourselves into the train, but we had to assure that the luggage made it to. Picture Calvin sizing up the situation, six foot four frame and all and with one mighty burst and lunge, he and the suitcase plunged into a gasping and moaning sea of black heads. At one point on this train, trying to hold onto the luggage, Calvin began to shrink in size. Usually towering over short statured asians, Calvin's head level was getting progressively lower, until he had to drop a bag and right himself before he fell over!! It was at this point that I realized perhaps a second transfer, onto an even busier line, might be out of the question. We made the walk over to the next transfer point with the density of people increasing to levels unheard of for us 'personal space' loving Canadians. As the subway pulled up to the gate, the patriach of the Farnell family took one look at the packed sardine can we were supposed to squeeze our way into and with that our subway adventures were over. We proceeded, with my keen sense of direction, to walk the rest of our way to the hotel, arriving a bit tired and hungry.

We stayed at a very nice hotel quite close to the center of Beijing (Forbidden City Area). It was walking distance from all the major attractions and boasts a subway station quite close-by, which is extremely convenient when not transporting much luggage!!

Tuesday we shopped and had the privilege of seeing the matriach of the Farnell family actually have to take a break from the vendors at the market. Yes, the vendors were too much for Clair to handle, and at one point, she excused herself from the market and went and sat outside for a breather to regain her composure and shopping spirit. We have it on good authority, from someone with close to 30 years of experience with Clair, that he had never experienced shopping getting the best of her, concluding that May 2nd would go down in history as a day he never thought possible.

Wednesday we had the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit the GREAT WALL OF CHINA. We had a few stops along the way, much like a 'cheap' tuk-tuk ride in Thailand conveniently buzzing to 5 surprise shopping opps, but upon arriving and stepping foot on the wall a deep sigh of completion was breathed... well up until we realized that we would NOT be unable to ride the 'tobaggan' (read luge) track down the side of the hill because it was too wet!!! Wet, too WET, it wasn't even raining for crying out loud, but it just gives Christina and I another reason to go back!!

Thursday we toured the Forbidden City. Clair reveled in the magnificent history entombed in the old Chinese style architecture, she clicked and snapped and blipped her way through the whole expanse. This City was the highlight of the trip for Calvin, being able to see a place steeped in so much history and significance, he was barely able to contain himself. The look on his face from the picture in front of one of the great halls sums it all up... if only you could have seen the look on his face as we exited the North end of the Forbidden City after three hours of walking amongst hoards of people, and stopping every 10 paces for yet another thrilling photo opportunity which simply could NOT be passed up!!!

Friday we had to head back to the airport so flights to Thailand could be caught, as well as a bus back to TEDA.

All in all it was a GREAT time, even if no one did eat a scorpion or seahorse on a stick for the exotic food market!!

Now we're back in TEDA, five weeks of teaching left, two weeks of exams, one set of report cards and then a 12+ hour flight back to CANADA!! We can't wait to see the ocean, the mountains and those of you who we get to see.



Transformers car. Seriously, you can't see it well in the picture, but whatever was loaded on top of this car's roof added an extra 4 feet.


A credit to Tara and Karin:)


Seahorses, starfish, scorpions, the whole lot.....and the scorpions were still alive and KICKIN!






Chinese "In and Out". This is not an uncommon sight at all in China. Adults dressed to the nines, like they are clubbing 24/7, squatting down with a little tyke as they pee, and giving them a feed at the same time, hey WHY NOT?! Yet, I still scrunch my nose and chuckle when I see it being done.





THIS is also something that is completely normal in China, protects from dust (supposedly), and sun (apparently) and bugs (evidently:)