Wonders of China — Beijing, the Great Wall, Xi'an & Shanghai

By Michael

Lisa and I left Grand Rapids in the afternoon on the first flight of the trip to China. On the plane to Denver we took a selfie, Lisa signing I love you, and later I dozed off on her shoulder.

In Denver we sat down at a terminal restaurant, a drink for Lisa and a bowl of soup, before the second flight on to San Francisco. We landed there late in the evening with the city lights spread out under the wing.

By Michael

We boarded ANA's flight to Tokyo just after one in the morning, the big jet waiting outside the gate window, and found our business class seats. Before we settled in I signed I love you for a selfie, with Lisa peeking over the seat behind me. She photographed the seat controls, then curled up with Bob, her stuffed husky, to sleep.

Somewhere over the ocean we crossed the international date line, so April 16 disappeared into the flight. We woke to a meal eaten with chopsticks, then watched the sun come up over the wing as we came down into Tokyo.

We had hours to fill at Haneda before our flight to Beijing, so we wandered the terminal as the day came up over the tarmac. We had breakfast in the ANA lounge, rice balls and hot dishes, and poked through the gift shops at the Tokyo Banana boxes and the matcha sweets.

We flew on to Beijing on ANA 961. Before we pushed back we took a selfie together, both of us signing I love you, with Bob between us. Mount Fuji passed below the wing soon after takeoff, then the snowy peaks of the Japanese Alps. Lunch came with rice shaped like a bear's face.

By Michael

We drove out from Beijing to Gubeikou, past hours of green hills, terraced fields and small towns. At Gubeikou we walked through an old gate arch and up onto the wall, where a table of drinks and a snack was set out for the group. From there the wall climbs right onto a rock crag. We ducked into a painted hall and found an old iron cannon still mounted on the wall. We had lunch nearby before driving on.

By mid-afternoon we checked into the Jinshanling Great Wall Hotel, its courtyard lined with blossoming peach trees. Then we walked up to the Jinshanling entrance and started the hike with a local expert. The wall climbed and dropped along the ridge, tower after tower, with the hills falling away on both sides. Partway along, Lisa signed "I love you" with the wall stretching out behind her. We stayed out for the sunset, the whole ridge turning gold before the sun dropped behind the hills.

Back at the hotel, the group learned to fold dumplings before sitting down together for a big dinner around a round table.

By Michael

We left the Jinshanling Great Wall Hotel after breakfast, where Lisa drew a page of cartoon characters, and started the drive back toward Beijing. The road wound through the hills for a couple of hours before the city buildings started again.

At Beijing West Railway Station we worked through the crowds and had lunch at McDonald's before boarding the bullet train to Xi'an North Railway Station, Bob riding along. The train ran west for hours, past fields, cooling towers and city after city, the land turning to terraced hills before we reached Xi'an in the late afternoon, the old city wall visible as we drove into town.

We checked into the Manxin Hotel, near the Bell Tower, and went back out that evening with the group for an orientation walk. The Bell Tower stood lit gold against the sky, and Lisa and I stopped there for a photo before we walked into the Muslim Quarter. The street was strung with lanterns and packed with food stalls, dumplings shaped like octopuses, frogs and flowers in one shop window, skewers of grilled squid at the next stall. We had dinner with the group at a round table, then kept walking the market until it was nearly ten. Back at the hotel Lisa put on a qipao dress for a photo.

By Michael

We rode the bullet train from Xi'an to Shanghai. Lisa's thank-you card was shared with the group that morning: a cartoon face and a first name for everyone on the tour, Lisa and me among them, with Evan, our expedition leader, drawn large in the middle. We had boxed lunches at our seats and watched the country go by the window, farm fields and hills and at one point a pagoda on a hilltop, before the fields gave way to high-rises as we got close to the city.

By Michael

We started the day with the breakfast buffet at the hotel, then walked out past an old bell and along a shopping street before taking the subway toward the former French Concession.

Wukang Road brought us to the curved Wukang Mansion, and we stopped for ice cream under the plane trees. Then we wandered on into Xintiandi, where Lisa and I signed I love you to each other, past a shop window full of odd robotic mannequin heads and into a teddy bear cafe for hot cocoa.

We walked on toward the Bund, reaching the riverfront a little before noon, with the Pudong skyline across the Huangpu. The whole tour group gathered there for a photo, and Lisa and I made a heart with our hands against the skyline.

Lunch was the tour's xiao long bao lunch, with mapo tofu, braised pork and rice among the dishes shared at the table. The afternoon was free, and we spent most of it working through toy stores nearby, MINISO Land and Trendy Toy among them, with me clowning around outside one of the entrances.

We were back at the hotel by late afternoon and stayed in for the rest of the night. From our window I photographed Shanghai's skyline lit up.